billsfan89

The Bills in 2017 traded down for future capital and still got three high end starting caliber players including an All-Pro in Tre and good players in Dawkins and Milano, in 2018 they found a franchise QB and two defensive starters (Edumonds and T.Johnson) and Phillips still has a chance to pan out as he was looking good before his injury (Neal also has been solid depth.) And Teller and Ray Ray have caught on with other teams meaning that literally almost every pick in 2018 was a talented player. 2019 featured Ed who is a quality starter and possible starters/role players in Ford, Knox and Singletary. How much better could these drafts realistically be? Constantly getting 3+ starters and role players is nothing to sneeze at.

I think they run back Hyde and Poyer. I think they will draft a safety for depth and to get younger behind them but I think McD like those guys and wants them back for one more year so that he can prepare younger guys behind them. I see the following players as candidates for restructuring or cuts. 1- Vernon Butler 2- Quinton Jefferson 3- Mario Addision 4- Jerry Hughes 5- Mitch 6- John Brown 7- Lee Smith I think Smith and either Butler or Jefferson are outright cut, that should free up about 10 million in space. The rest will be asked to restructure or be cut which depending on how much they are willing to give will result in 10-20 million in space. I really hope they set the cap at 205 million. That would give the Bills 30 million to start with and then they could free up 20-25 million with these cuts and restructurings which would give the Bills a chance to retain all or most of their key free agents.

I doubt they clean house at D-line. I think they cut Jefferson or Butler (more likely Butler) and restructure multiple players along that line. Star comes back which should help them get Ed Oliver back to a more pure pass rushing role, I also am hoping that H. Phillips comes back to the form he flashed in 2019 which will help the interior rotation. The interior rotation will be Star, Ed, H.Phillips and either Jefferson or Butler to rotate in. I am comfortable with that. DE is another story. I think they have to ask Hughes and Addision to take paycuts, AJ will have to step up and fill a role as a rotational player they need to let Murphy walk and find a way to get another prime time DE. I likely see the defense spending the 30th pick on an edge rusher or trading that pick for a proven edge rusher. This team can't win with Hughes and Addision anchoring the edge rush. So the D-line needs a front line edge rusher and some reshuffling along the interior to make room for Star. But other than that the core of the D-line will be similar.

I think both are good above average starting caliber players. I think we are doing Oliver no favors this season because they had to play him at the nose tackle position where he isn't able to pass rush. I think in 2021 when Star gets back and hopefully H.Phillips comes back to form after a year removed from a major injury (he was a beast in the first 5 games in 2019 hoping he gets back to that) they won't need to play Ed at NT and he can be more of a pure pass rusher and really pull up the sack and pass rush numbers. Ed Oliver was in my opinion a big reason as to why the run defense improved, Milano returning helped but I certainly think Ed improving his play was a factor in that (Butler was also improved in that capacity too). So I am very high on Oliver being a foundational piece to this team. I think if he has a proper NT next to him and better DE play outside he can be an 8 sack a year type DT who is very disruptive. Edumonds is entering into year 4 and I think his option will be picked up. I don't think Edumonds will get much better than he is. This was year 3 for him but even if he doesn't get that much better he still is a quality LB. But overall he is a solid point on the defense even if his play is going to likely not improve dramatically. Still both guys are key parts of the defense going forward.

I don't know if nerves is an issue or was it just a bad set of circumstances against KC. KC's secondary was playing lights out against a banged up WR corps and KC was getting pressure consistently due to being able to blitz due to said secondary play. Then you add in KC's offense putting up 38 and forcing the Bills to be one dimensional it was a bad situation all around regardless of whatever his nerves were. Nerves to me were more of an issue in my opinion against the Colts, the Bills were playing tight against the Colts and it showed despite Josh playing a good game. But I felt like once they broke the seal and got that first playoff win as a group I don't think nerves were a big issue.

KC's D-line features Clark and Jones two prime time pass rushers and their secondary is anchored by the Honey Badger who is one of the best in the game among other quality players. They are far from the bums many here are portraying them to be.

Josh played great against the Colts, the defense couldn't shut the door. Josh played good enough against the Ravens, horrid wind against a great defense not sure what else I would expect in that situation. Against KC Josh was not very good, KC played great and the coaching didn't adjust to help him. I think simply the Bills and Josh needed this deep playoff run to set themselves up to get over that hump. They played 3 playoff games and won 2 of them. They know they can win and they know what it is like to play on a big stage. I think Josh and this team will grow from this experience. Nerves will be calmer next year because they have been there before.

I am torn on John Brown, he was so good in 2019 and he at times in 2020 was effective but in the playoffs he wasn't impactful in 2 out of 3 games. Before the Bills signed him health was always the issue with Brown. In 2019 he stayed healthy but in 2020 he was back to being banged up. Considering the Bills cap crunch saving 8 million in cutting Brown might make sense. But I think the more hopeful situation is to restructure Brown's deal to save 3ish million. That would keep him in the fold for one more season and get the Bills some cap relief.

Almost every team saw a limited impact from their 2020 draft class. These kids had no pre-season and no off-season training program due to Covid-19. That is going to stunt the development of a lot of players. Yes some rookies had good impact however more did not. Even given the nature of the 2020 off-season the Bills got some pop from their rookie class. Bass and Davis were significant contributors while Moss also was a good role player (Averaged 4.3 ypc and 4 TD's despite the short yardage use). That's 3 players who were contributors without a first round pick that's solid. AJ is a long term play, while he didn't have much of an impact in his limited snaps he did get into the rotation to end the season which is progress. AJ was and is a project. Hopefully he comes into the off-season with a full gameplan from the coaching staff as to how to improve. They need AJ to at least be a good DE in early down situations. I see him in the vein of Shaq Lawson in 2019, stout against the run but can pass rush effectively just not consistently. There is some potential with Jackson and Hodgins to develop into contributors too. Overall the 2020 draft class without a 1st round pick to me gets a B-, three players with solid to good impact and long term potential to turn out 4 or more starters. Not too much to complain about outside of AJ's limited impact.

The lack of what looked to me to be significant adjustments at halftime made Reid's job easier. How they continued to give Kelce a free release is insanely frustrating.

As bad as the defense was I blame the scheme and the KC offense just being too good. The offense needed to show up in this game. It quite frankly didn't. KC's secondary showed up and won the one on one matchups against the receiving core which allowed them to blitz and pressure Josh who had no time to throw to covered receivers. To beat KC you have to put up 30 when it counts. The Bills put up 15 when it counted. That's not good enough to beat most teams let alone the defending champs.

The key ones in my opinion are Milano, Ty, Mongo, Roberts, D.Williams, McKenzie and Levi Wallace. That's 4 starters and 3 impactful role players or depth players (Roberts, Ty and Mac). The odds of keeping all 7 are low even if the cap is set at 195 million or above. The Bills likely are going to be able to have a budget to retain some of these players but likely not all. If you can only retain 3 of the starters and 1-2 of the role players I would keep D.Williams above and beyond anyone else and then keep Mongo and hopefully either Milano or Wallace. I would let Milano or Wallace walk if their demands don't line up. As far as Ty, Roberts and Mac I would make a good effort to resign all three but I feel like any of them wanting more than they are worth you have to let them walk and look for cheaper options. Ideally I would love to see the cap set at 205 million and the Bills resign their players to the following deals. Daryl Williams - 3 years 30 million Mongo 3 years 15.5 million (similar structure to Spain) Milano 3 years 24 million Levi Wallace - 2 years 12 million Ty- 1 year 3.5 million Roberts - 1 year 3.4 million Mac - 1 year 2.3 million That would add up to 38.5 million which with a cap at 205 million would put the Bills in the need to cut about 30 million via other cuts and restructurings to fit the rookie pool and emergency money in. Butler is an easy cut that saves about 7 million and Q.Jefferson is either an easy cut that saves 7 million or a restructure that could save 3-4 million (I would more like to see him restructured.) Lee Smith is another cut that saves 2.25 million and then you have John Brown who saves another 8 million on the table or is a restructure candidate to save 2-3 million. You also have big contracts from Mitch, Addision and Hughes that are deals that you can restructure. It will be interesting to see just if the Bills can make the cuts to Smith and Butler (saving about 9.5 million on the cap) and then make the needed restructurings to Brown, Jefferson, Mitch, Addison, and Hughes to make the cap work. More than likely they are going to have to make a cut that will hurt or let a key player or two walk.

This is critical and hopefully three more playoff games worth of experience will get this team the ability to make that adjustment.

I don't think McD coaches scared (if you can call it that) against KC because of Andy Reid or a little brother mentality. I think he coaches conservative because Hill, Mahomes and Kelce are a deadly combination and the offense is dynamic enough to win a shootout. Those are three dynamic players and the Bills offense should be able to put up points. Hoping to not let up big plays and stiffen in the redzone is the strategy of someone who knows their opponent and has faith in their offense. It didn't work obviously and they should have adjusted at the half at the very least. Hopefully after two cracks at KC this year they find a strategy that works and KC maybe starts to lose some pieces.

Also Spotracs numbers are for the rock bottom 175 million cap. The cap is more than likely going to be set higher to avoid a "cap crunch" of they will do what the NBA did and leave the cap alone but have the players put 20-30% of their pay into escrow where then at the end of the season the league and the players will divvy up that money depending on the final revenue numbers. So I think the Bills are more than likely going to enter into an offseason where the cap is between 195-205 million which will mean that the Bills will likely enter free agency with between 22-32 million in cap space before any cuts or restructuring.

RB is fine, I like Moss and Singletary. Neither are elite backs but I think Moss can be an above average back and Singletary is solid. Considering that this team is going to have a lot of other pieces needed I doubt that the front office is going to invest heavily at RB when you have two young guys with 2-3 years left on their rookie deals there. Maybe they spend a 5th or a 6th to add a speed back to add a little more speed to the offense and depth. TE and DE are two possible spots identified for an upgrade. I like Knox but maybe this team does need that elite TE to compete when they face stronger secondaries like KC. A big time TE will allow Josh to eat teams up underneath when Diggs and the WR's are getting covered? But those don't come cheap and they aren't easy to find. Who could possibly be out there via trade? I don't think Kelce, Kittle or Waller are going to be available by trade and finding one in the draft?

When they brought down the safeties Hill burnt them. Going against Mahomes, Hill and Kelce is a tough task. The coaches in two attempts didn't come up with a good gameplan. I would have attempted what Romo suggested at half down. Go with 3 down players and use Milano to jam Kelce at the line and keep the coverage sustained. But even then that would have only given Mahomes more time to throw and Hill can still pick you apart underneath. The defense wasn't playing scared they just had no real recourse for a KC team that was playing well.

Division Title, 13 wins, two seed in the AFC, two playoff wins, and getting a within a game of the Super Bowl oh and this team has a legit franchise QB who happens to be still on his rookie deal and has the perfect personality for the fanbase. I will take that season. Going into the season I pegged this team as winning 12 games, winning the division by 2 or more games and winning a playoff game. Even with those lofty expectations this team surpassed them. They got 2 playoff wins in an insanely tough conference and have a runner up MVP at QB who has 2 years left on his rookie deal. The Bills will be highly competitive the next few years a loss hurts as you never know when things will come back again but in McBeane we trust. This season was truly amazing. I thought 2019 was great but this season really surpassed my expectations. In the darkest days of the drought in 2010 (When they hired Chan and went something like 3-13) I thought of simply making the playoffs as a wildcard as being nearly impossible. I never considered giving up on the Bills but I just resigned myself to them not being good ever. So to go from complete hopelessness and dreaming of a simple playoff appearance as the promise to now actually being within one game of the Super Bowl after making the playoffs 3 out of 4 seasons is truly wild. Hopefully McBeane can sustain success long term and get Josh and the defense the pieces needed to get over the hump. Cheers to a wonderful season!

The Bills lost in the conference finals against the defending champs who field a stacked team with a generational QB in his prime still on the tail end of his rookie deal. This is a massive disappointment as you never know in football when you will get another crack at things. However this isn't the end of the world. The Bills were not a Cinderella story. They were not a team that got hot at the right time and just hit the right matchups. This team isn't the Titans last year where "this was our shot." This Bills team is loaded for another run in 2021, however it is on the front office to keep the key pieces together and get those last key pieces needed to surpass the elite team and it is on the coaches to find a way to play against KC. KC is going to be the standard and the elephant in the room for a long time so you have to find a strategy that works against them. You will get another shot in the regular season and hopefully the post season next year.

Indy is in a tough spot, Stafford puts them right back into the 10+ win range but he won't get them past the divisional round either. But do the Colts want to waste a high quality roster on a young unproven QB? It is a tough spot to be in.

Jets should go all in give them pick 2, both Seattle firsts and the Jets 2022 pick along with whatever else you need to get the trade done. I hope that neither the Jets nor Fins get him but it would be the optimal move for either franchise.

The Colts might be a good fit, not sure where else he could go that would make sense for both parties. I think Campbell is selling the ownership on a 3 year full rebuild.

He was a Giant then a Cowboy and Lion. Mostly a blocking tight end for most of his career.

The sometimes lacking 3rd and long defense in my opinion is a direct result of not having an elite pass rusher on the D-line. When you watch a team that has that elite pass rusher I feel as though on third and long situations is where they dial up the pass rush and put pressure or absorb a double/triple team that allows someone else to blitz or beat a one on one situation.

Unless the weather is horrid it actually doesn't. Against Mahomes and KC you need to put up points. If you don't score 30 you aren't going to win.