billsfan89

Your assessment would be more accurate if most of Beane's successful signings were in super strong free agent classes flushed with talent. But Beane hit on many middling and under-appreciated free agents. This O-line market was not flushed with players. Feliciano, Spain, and Ty were mid-market or lower market free agents who are available in any free agent market. The WR market was rather average. Tyrell Williams, Adam Humphries, and Randle Cobb were some of the best talents on the market outside of Brown and Beasley. John Brown was an often injured WR whose most productive season was barely above 1000 yards several years ago. Cole Beasley was a mid-level solid slot WR. Neither Brown nor Beasley were exactly slam dunk signings. Beane's only duh signing was Andre Roberts who was so cheap for a pro-bowl special teams player at a position of need (although how many times have the Bills not made those types of signings.) The overall free agent market this past off-season while not bad was nothing special (No NFL free agency class is really special thanks to the Franchise tag and the fact that players will often get taken care of before they hit free agency.) Some of Beane's biggest hits in this market were on Feliciano and Spain players who were signed to lower end deals. Beane also made these massive improvements without tying up their cap long term. Only Mitch is hard to get out of past 2020. So the team is going to be in a position to supplement an already good roster over the rest of the course of Josh's rookie deal the next 3 seasons as even when Tre, Dawkins, Milano, Poyer and others come up for extensions some other significant contracts like Star will be able to be dropped.

I like Baker but I hope the relative disappointment of this season (I still think they finish 8-8 which is technically an improvement on their season) humbles him a bit. He has always had that swagger and confidence that has propelled his underdog story but he has to have some semblance of humility to realize that he was never going to fake it until he made it in the NFL and that he needed room for a lot of growth. I hope he learns the difference between confidence and cockiness. I still think that Baker will be a successful QB (How successful remains to be seen) and that the Browns can take that next step next season (They still have plenty of cap space and a full assortment of draft picks to supplement a young core.) But only if Kithcens, Baker, and the rest of their primary players/leadership could learn from the season, or else they will struggle to get to even 10 wins despite their talent. Sure they could easily add a piece or two to both the O-line and defense and be ready to compete talent wise. But they will not get far if they don't learn from this season and if Kitchen can't be a real leader.

Pegula has a world class organization and seems willing to invest in the team and coaching staff. McD has an already good team, young QB locked into a rookie deal for the next 3 seasons, and a cap situation where he can add to a good team while retaining talent. I don't see any situation in the NFL that McD would rather be in esp since he has spent the last 3 seasons building what has just started to come to fruition.

I would agree if Watkins had no history with the team and the coaching staff. I think if Wakins is cut he would be a smart acquisition for a team on a one year 4-6 million dollar one year deal with a very low or no guarantee. But Sammy left here in a bad way and alienated himself from the coaching staff is something that would not work well in the locker room and limit the chances of Sammy being successful and makes him a higher possibility for being a net negative. If Sammy had zero experience with this team I wouldn't mind seeing him brought in as a WR2 to play in front of a rookie drafted early. And you would have Brown/Sammy/Rookie drafted in round 1 or 2 playing on the outside while Beasley plays in the slot. Sammy would essentially in that scenario take pressure off of a rookie to come in right away and work as a bridge player while in the short term helping Allan by adding some speed to the team. But you can't have Sammy in that locker room with McD as the coach.

Considering Spain has put in a good season through 12 games and the absolute lack of quality O-line play in the NFL means that it is going to get paid starting caliber guard money around 6.5-7.5 aav if I had to guess.

I think McCarthy's resume is significantly better than Rivera's (Although Rodgers is the better QB than Cam, Cam is pretty dam good) so I think he can have the confidence that he would have a job within a year or two. I think Rivera will get offers but they will be for less than ideal franchises/situations. IF Rivera wants to improve his chances at getting the right job he would better be served to go back to being a DC for a really good defense for a couple of years. Whereas McCarthy I think will get a lot of solid offers without having to take another job.

I would give the Bills a 40% chance of winning. At home with a quality defense you have a 40% chance no matter who you play. Baltimore is playing as good as anyone in the league and this is a big test for the Bills. Lamar Jackson is a tough matchup as DC's are still trying to find a way to slow him and this offense down. Hopefully McD comes up with something that slows him down and Josh get the offense going with consistency.

It is all speculative honestly, I think by getting this year under his belt he at least become a bit less raw going into the next off-season. He is going to likely need at least one more year on the PS before he has enough experience to actually make the 53. I think that it was very positive for him to basically have an exempt year to simply gain some experience and have a shot to improve enough to make a PS let alone a top 53. I hope eventually he does make it and the NFL uses his development process as a way to get international players from Rugby and other sports into the league by giving them exempted PS spots for 1-2 years so that teams could just incubate these athletes and improve the talent pool and get more eyes on the NFL.

I wonder how Wade is developing and what exactly he is working on. Just having a year to practice and get used to the game while not taking a PS spot is kind of a huge advantage in his development. I think the NFL made a good move allowing that exemption. As it gives these foreign guys a chance to stay on a roster for a full season and 2 off-seasons to try and develop into a quality enough player to at least make a PS spot and continue to develop. PS spots are developmental but if a guy is super raw and needs a lot of work then a PS spot is hard to justify as those spots aren't freebies.

I think Daboll won't be a HC candidate in 2020 either. I think he needs another season to sort of prove sustained success and continued development with Allen. I think there is a 90% chance he is the OC in 2020. If Josh is a top 10 QB and the offense rolls then he will get looks. But then again things in the NFL can be whacky. I would never have thought Lynn would have been picked up by the Chargers after his short and OK run here.

I don't think Rivera will have a HC opportunity in 2020. His run with the Panthers while not bad only totaled 4 playoff births in 9 seasons (with one of those playoff births coming in a 7-8-1 season) so only 3 winning seasons total. His playoff record was 3-4 which while not tragic was not very good either. I think it is possible some team retreads him but I would put that possibility at less than 50% significantly. I think if he wants to get back to a head coaching opportunity I think he would be best off taking on a DC opportunity with a good defense and reestablish some success in that realm and then have his pick of the opportunities in terms of coaching (right now even if he got an opportunity it wouldn't be a great chance.)

He can be stopped, the question is will the Bills be the team that finds that strategy? I think any QB can be stopped if the offense around him is exposed to their weaknesses and limited in their strengths.

Fair read on Josh, they mention a lot of what he does well and the areas where he still needs to improve. Allen "as is" is going to be an OK QB. But if he can make solid improvements to his game he can ascend to a consistent top 10 QB and possibly depending on how much he improves his deficiencies and build off of his strengths he can be a top 5 QB, but he has a long way to but is getting there.

I do think that the lack of a consistent outside option outside of Brown and Josh's still to come growing pains (I think Josh will have at least one more bad game as some team throws something at him that he won't respond well to) will stall out the offense once they start to play elite defenses. But the scheme and all these sort of non-sensical complaints are just kind of stupid and reek of someone being lazy and not actually watching the games or understanding the stats.

I thought Ford had been playing well since Ty went down. but what do I know.

Who knows if Shaq plays the same way if he has a guaranteed year locked in after this? Also, people need to keep in mind that Shaq's 5th year option was roughly 10 million, why is anyone so sure that his next deal is going to average as much or more than that? Shaq has 5.5 sacks with 4 games left in the season and he plays 2 QB's who don't take many sacks in the final 4 games (Brady and Lamar Jackson) so at best I think Shaq finishes with 8ish sacks on the season (about 2.5 in the final 4 games seems like a healthy total.) I am not so sure a player with 5.5-8 or so sacks is going to command more than 10 million aav deal esp if that number doesn't get past 7 sacks. I would much rather see a player and have to overpay him for doing well than lock him into an expensive year despite the fact that he showed no reason to warrant a large guaranteed salary.

Dareus will hang around for a couple of more years. I think he signs a one year deal next season and might fool another team after that. But considering he has collected on that massive contract a lot I think his motivation to play will either be more money or non-existent.

No, if he had no prior history with McD and he could be had on a 1 year modest guarantee 4-6 million dollar a year deal I wouldn't be opposed to brining him in to add some speed (I would still draft a WR in round 1 but having a speedy vet like Sammy takes some pressure off of a rookie.) BUT in 2017 his departure was bad and he has shown to not be a model citizen while here. I don't think he would want to come back nor do I think the Bills would want him back. I think he likely restructures his deal with KC to give them some cap space and hit the market in 2021 for one last big payday.

I would love Hooper, cut Kroft as his cap hit is minimal if cut. Hooper's contract could be structured to have an easy out after 3 years which will allow him to be cut or traded once Knox's contract is up. I think Knox has pro-bowl potential but he is still very very raw. I think he is more than likely 2 years away from being a consistent player. Hooper would bridge that gap with elite level play and open the possibility for elite level TE play from two players (along with having Sweeney for depth and hopefully taking over Smith's role after 2020.) But is TE a priority to the point where the Bills should sign the top guy on the market? No and while I wouldn't hate adding an elite weapon like Hooper I think the Bills have to do a cost benefit analysis of wither or not their cap dollars are better spent elsewhere. I think given the future contract extensions needed in the next two seasons along with some starters who are free agents this off-season (Shaq, J.Phillips, and Spain) you only really have maybe 20-30 million in cap space to to go after supplemental free agents which if you take those factors into consideration is a TE on the top of your list to tie up a lot of your free agency dollars in? I think you are better off spending that "discretionary" money on a pass rusher and a number two corner on defense or chasing a WR1 if one hits the market. As opposed to going after a more mid-level FA at TE to take Kroft's position and keep developing Knox.

With the Pat's loss tonight the division is very much in play. Beating the Ravens is tough but if the Bill's can pull it out then the number one seed is very much in play.

It was a hugely important game for both teams. I can't think of any other reason for it other than that.

I will never bet against Brady until I see him lose in the playoffs. But man does he look shot this year.

Honestly this is the best win of the season. Dallas is nothing special but they are a decent team and the Bill's got a pretty comfortable win on the road. All in all this gets them to 9 wins and setting themselves up for a nice litmus test against the Ravens at home. Great holiday.

The Bills on defense need to force the Cowboys offense to beat them with Dak's arm. The Bills need to hope that Tre can shut down Cooper one on one and force the rest of the Cowboys passing offense to beat them. On offense the team needs to avoid turnovers at all costs even if it means being a bit more conservative. I think the deciding factor will be if the Bills can shut down Zeke and make a big play or two on special teams. The Cowboys are pretty solid on both sides of the ball but they are below average on special teams. If they can get some turnovers and break some plays they have a good shot to win.

Stephen A has been better in his football analysis in recent years. He still isn't anything special when it comes to football analysis but he is at least decent.