billsfan89

Most WR's who become full ***** heads usually attempt to behave during their rookie contracts. Once they get paid their destructive behavior escalates. But Bond doesn't seem to be able to keep it together to even get drafted. He just won't make it because while he was a capable on field talent well worthy of getting drafted somewhere in the 3-5 round range if not a little higher if he was clean off the field and tested better he also isn't some sort of generational talent that teams would be very willing to give second, third, and fourth chances to. Simply put he's earned nothing at the NFL level and is imploding before he even gets a chance which means he's never gonna be able to handle it.

The Bills after letting Pat Williams foolishly walk and then Sam Adams getting washed the Bills had a massive need for a run stuffing DT and Ngata was right there. One of the top DT's in the draft who fit the mold of what the Bills needed. The Bills could have in 2006 stabilized the interior of both sides of the ball with Mangold and Ngata and instead wound up with a decent safety and a bust DT...

The drought era Bills were just depressing to watch. Say what you will about Beane but even if you don't like his moves they at least make sense. 2022 this team was coming off having massive interior offensive line issues. They go out in 2023 and they sign Connor McGovern a starting caliber guard, they take a chance on David Edwards as a veteran reclamation project to add depth, and they draft what many consider to be the best pure guard in the draft in Torrence. The Bills in drought era would have signed two low end guards and drafted a player in round 5 and called it a day spending a 2nd round pick on a safety or some other lesser area of need. The Spiller pick and trading away Lynch is the most incomprehensible move of the drought. The whole 2010 draft set the Bills back 3-4 years because they could have in round 1 drafted an offensive linemen they were so desperate (Mike Iupati or Pouncey even Anthony Davis was productive for several seasons) and then taken Gronk in round 2 while still having Lynch in the backfield. The only draft that was worse was possibly 2006 where they could have had Ngata and Mangold and instead came up with Whitner and McCargo.

Well thankfully Josh's career isn't over yet? Keep the faith Josh's time will come...

I do think Jackson was viewed likely as someone that might need a year to develop despite enormous physical tools and potential. I think many teams drafting in round 1-2 and early round 3 are probably looking at getting prospects they feel are more likely to contribute in year one while also having higher end potential. Also you get GM's drafting to keep their jobs wanting a guys that are more likely to contribute right away so they can win an extra couple of games to keep their jobs or at least have a chance to. When reading about Landon it seemed like the consensus was that while he needed development he had a very high ceiling. I think most reports prior to the draft had him going in the mid 2nd to mid 3rd round range which he fell to the lower end of that range being the 8th pick of round 3. I also think the Bills don't have a dramatic need to draft a DE that's gonna contribute right away. They have Groot and AJE as young vets and they signed Bosa and Hoecht that's 4 starting or high rotation caliber players at DE. So they could afford to take a chance on a guy in round 3 as they could see if he can take on a back end rotation role and develop longer term.

The Bills need to get 3 good years out of him for the contract to have good value which I think is very possible. After that you get to 2028 where you can rework his deal or let him play out his age 29 season and then figure out the rest on the backend.

Early returns on Landon is not so great, his camp has been fairly average not hearing much either way about him which is usually a sign a player is playing OK not standing out one way or the other. Pre-season game 1 he looked lost out there which is not a good sign, although I always wonder what guys are "working on" in pre-season and maybe just nerves? Hoping he shows out more in the pre-season but if he needs a year to develop while that's not ideal that's not exactly unheard of either.

Looking at Spotrc seems like this is a deal that will keep Cook locked in this and next season with a heavy penalty if they want to get out after 2026 (11.3 million dead cap on a 13 million dollar cap number) the contract becomes a more palatable out in 2028 when its an 8 million dollar dead cap hit against a 13.5 million dollar cap number and an easy out in 2029 when the dead cap is just 4.7 million. All in all it's a fair end for both sides and kind of what we thought it was (a 3-4 year commitment). Go Bills.

In front of a bad IOL and an OK but not as great as they were on paper set of skill position players he still showed a lot of talent in his rookie year. With the IOL immensely beefed up (traded for an All Pro vet guard, signed the best center on the free agency market, and traded for another long time IOL starter from the Rams) and a pair of pass catchers drafted up high they have the collection of talent for Williams to be successful. It is just more so can the coaching put in place a system for Williams that caters to his abilities or not?

I could see that being the case, the first two rounds were pretty good while outside of Puca I am not seeing too many great finds in round 3-7. Still harder to tell on mid-late round guys after just two seasons. Odds are if you are drafted outside the top 3 rounds you need some development that could take 3-4 years before those players are ready to take on starting roles. Of course I am not always familiar with each draft pick esp once you get deeper into the draft so it is possible that in their first two seasons a lot of these players are maybe starting or playing smaller roles well just not putting up big numbers or accolades? I also assumed that because in 2023 the roster was littered with veterans and not many open spots for draft picks that the Bills pretty much only had 3 major needs going into the draft (2nd pass catcher, Guard, and LB depth) so with 6 picks it was going to be hard to roster all 6 picks and while you could maybe "IR and stash" one player as they did with Shorter that isn't easy to do with 3 players. So it was smart for them to trade down and pick up selections in 2024 when they probably were projecting a lot of turnover on the roster to try to get younger and in a better cap situation. A pair of extra late round picks in the following draft was a smart piece of business.

Probably wanted too much money and then the cap space dried up. Probably gonna sign on with a team when injuries hit and a team gets desperate for some help at CB. Right now there's not a lot of teams with cap space and the ones that have it presumably don't think he's a fit or not worth his asking price. It's also gonna help him stay healthy to come in around mid-October and hopefully get a chance to come in around mid-November and help a team in a stretch run and see if he can up his value in free agency next year.

I didn't know the 2023 class had this reputation. Going down the draft class it seems like a mid-level NFL draft class. Not an all timer but not a stinker either. Richardson is a bust at QB but Stroud seems to be someone whose gonna start in the league for a long time with potential to be a top 10 guy consistently. Bryce Young seemed lost his rookie year but he came on stronger to end last season after being benched. I think he's got a chance to be a starter in the league for awhile if Carolina puts at least a capable offense around him. Jalen Carter and Will Anderson seem to be high end defensive players drafted up high, you have Zay Flowers and Njigba both Pro-Bowl WR's. Puca was a generational rookie and seems to be a solid WR1 thus far in his career. I also think the second round might be an all time generational interior O-line draft. Of course we got Torrence whose been a solid plug and play guard but Cody Mauch, Joe Tippman, Matthew Bergeron, and Steve Availa have all been very strong additions to their teams IOL. Just looking up and down the totality of the draft it seems like it ranks thus far on two year returns to be a average to above average class to me?

The Bills had 6 picks in 2023 two being in the 7th round. If Kincaid rebounds to his rookie year form the team will have gotten two plug and play starters on the offense in Torrence and Kincaid and a starter on defense in Williams possibly. That’s 3 starters out of a draft that didn’t have a ton of capital. I agree that if Kincaid is a bust then it’s a lackluster draft class but not a tragic one.

They extended Brown rather quietly last season about a week or so before the season started. I think given that Cook was in a holdout type situation they were probably more motivated on that front. I am hoping that they are quietly working on a 3-4 year extension for McGovern. I get that you can’t keep everyone but the Bills should be able to keep McGovern on a solid number to keep 4/5 offensive line spots intact. Let Edwards walk to save some money and cut Samuel and get Knox to take a cut if you need to find the money

Ty reminds me of a faster but less power driven Kevin Faulk back in the earlier Brady Pats dynasty days. Faulk was an elite pass blocking back who was a very good pass catcher. Faulk was the ultimate "third down back" who seemed to always comes up with 1-3 big first downs in key moments and each year would have 1-2 big games while mostly just putting in a few catches here or there. Ty's got more speed but less power than Faulk but he took over that Lions game and always had big moments or just a few helpful keep things on schedule first down catches along with some productive running here or there. Really like having this RB trio in play for another season or two.

Ed is a very good player, he has just yet to take that leap forward to becoming a dominant player. Hopefully this year he can take that last step up he needs to. I don't know if it will happen but there's ever a year he could do it why not now?

One of the reasons why I think this Bills team went heavy on defense in this past draft was largely because I think they know they won't be able to add a lot of defensive free agent talents if they hope to keep the offensive line together. So they are gonna need some cheap talent on defense to come in over the next 3-4 seasons. I think McGovern should be extended as should Torrence (although that won't kick in until 2027) and the Bills will need to likely let Edwards walk but should be able to plug in Anderson or SVPG into that interior offensive line slot. They have a lot of vets on defense who are gonna fall off AJE, D.Jones, Larry O, Bosa, Milano, Tre White, and Hamlin are all gonna be free agents on the defensive side of the ball after this season. While they could bring back a few of those guys I don't think they are gonna be able to restock on defense via free agency. So getting 6 picks on the defensive side maturing and developing a year ahead of time before a possible vet exodus is just good business.

That's the sign of a coach whose trying to sustain winning and building a culture. it was one of the more interesting parts of the episode.

I liked it, they started getting into more marginal players on the roster and telling their stories. I also liked seeing McD showing his personality more. The coaches is what I looked forward to seeing most. McD seems like someone whose in command and the players have bought in. The assistant coaches particularly the coordinators appear to be high energy guys.

Have the breakouts of the contract leaked? I would project that this is likely an out with some dead cap in year 3 of the extension and a low dead cap in year 4. So likely a 3 year commitment. Always risky with RB's but the Bills have the Super Bowl window to try to squeeze through and you can't let a talented player walk over dead cap 3 years from now.

Seems reasonable Cook is a top 10 RB being paid around 6-8 in terms of RB AAV. He is firmly below the elite RB contracts in CMC and Barkley and more in line with the "very good" RB's comparable to guys like Josh Jacobs.

With an offensive line that's vastly improved on paper (their OT's were solid last year and they completely remade the interior of the offensive line with three big additions there and they even added in a 2nd round OT for depth and longer term insurance) and a pair of pass catchers drafted high up in Loveland at TE and Burton at WR complementing DJ Moore a very good WR1, Kole Kemet a solid starting caliber TE, and last years top 10 pick in Odunze the Bears offense on paper is a very good "collection of talent". However, as we saw with the Jets last year a collection of talent is not always leading to team success. Much like the NBA you can have super star talents but if they don't fit together into a team concept well and don't have good coaching making sure everyone knows their roles things can get very dicey. The Bears offense will rest on their QB and their coaching. The pieces are in place with the draft and free agency additions they made around Williams the past two seasons. IF Williams is the real deal or at least a better than average starting QB in year two and Ben Johnson has a solid scheme for him I expect their offense to be pushing towards a top 10 offense.

I think it's because the Saints game is the last Sunday Afternoon game before November. The opener is a Sunday Night game, then it is on the road for the Jets, then the Dolphins game is a Thursday night game, then you have the Saints game which is a plain old afternoon game late September and the next week is a Sunday Night game against the Pats. The last two weeks of October are away games. The next time the Bills play is home against KC on November 2nd. So if you want a "normal" football experience in September/October on a Sunday afternoon it is kind of that Saints game or you gotta see a primetime game.

I do wonder how the Bears offense will look with Williams. Williams and Geoff who Ben Johnson most recently built an offense on are two different styles of QB's. Geoff is a pure pocket passer, he isn't immobile but much of his mobility comes from within the pocket as opposed to designed runs and scrambles. Williams flourished in College when he was moving around not a Lamar or Josh style runner but someone who worked well when plays collapsed or within designed rollouts and designed movements. So Ben Johnson simply can't import his offense with some minor tweaks and have it work well to Williams playstyle. So I do wonder if they will try to heavily modify the offense towards a moving QB? That's the type of analysis that I hope to hear not some bull#### about pre-season.

I kind of wish there was some "routine" way teams approached pre-season. When pre-season was 4 games there was kind of a nice flow to the pre-season. Game 1 was a quick "in and out" for the starters 1-2 drives max just guys getting their feet wet with live reps. Week 2 Starters would play about a quarter and a half 4-5 drives a true "warm-up" for the regular season. Week 3 was the big week that would be labeled the "dress rehearsal" for the regular season. Starters would play the first half and about half the third quarter (1-2 drives in the third quarter). Then week 4 the starters didn't play it was for backups to get live reps and see whose gonna make the final cuts and the Practice Squad. I'm not necessarily clamoring for more pre-season but I would like there to be some flow to it. I just liked it better when I knew what to expect from pre-season...