billsfan89

Its all about context but devoid of catastrophic injuries and other factors I think 9 wins is a must. Playoffs can often be driven by other factors (would you fire a coach that went 10-6 but missed the playoffs?) But I think given the assumed spending on players in free agency and another draft class you have to assume a 3 game improvement is a reasonable standard to have.

Lorax also has been mostly a special teams player for most of his career. Before coming to Buffalo he had logged 16 starts in 11 previous seasons. So I think its fair to think he could have 1-2 more good years left. He was the second best pass rusher on the team and considering he won't come super expensive (I can't see him commanding more than 6 million on a 1-2 year deal) it is worth it in my mind to bring him back.

You need at least an above average defense to win consistently in the playoffs. When the Colts won in 2006 they had a upper mid level defense and an offense that was great but not nearly as great as it had been in past record setting years. In the NFL once you get to the playoffs you will likely face multiple balanced teams that bring good defense and good offenses to the game. If you don't have a balanced team you will perish.

I wouldn't be opposed to signing him and cutting Clay, cutting Clay saves 4.5 million, even if CJ commands 7 million aav I think its worth spending the 2.5 million to upgrade the position. Too many holes to fill on offense with just draft picks.

The issue for the Bills primarily is that there isn't a great market at RT, TE, and WR in free agency. There are good interior O-line players, corners, and pass rushers which is where I think the primary focus of free agency dollars should go towards. Don't overpay just to get the best of a subpar market. Although I think WR might be worth overpaying for to get at least a solid vet since a 2nd round WR might not have a high end impact.

I would really not like Greedy Williams (I think the coaching staff is good at finding good CB's later in the draft as shown by T.Johnson and Levi Wallace, even EJ Gaines was a bit of a find as a throw in player in a trade.) But a young pass rusher with some impact would both fill a need and further lay a foundation for the defense. I think you can find a RT in round 2 and address WR via trade or free agency.

I think an RT is a premium position not that much less valuable than LT in the modern NFL. So if you have an elite RT prospect who might not be great on the left side I think its not a bad pick to secure the RT spot. But I think that the value at RT is not there at pick 9 and unless there is a trade down its probably a D-line player at pick 9.

The more I evaluate the draft the more I think pick 9 will be a D-line player, which while not a drastic need would be a need (I think the pass rush needs a shot in the arm and the D-line needs more younger players, besides Shaq and Phillips all the other D-line players are older players.) I wouldn't mind at all a RT as I think this philsophy that if you draft a RT at 9 its such a reach if they can't be swung back over to the left side is foolish. RT is a premium position in the modern NFL. A lot of the top pass rushers in the NFL rush against the right side. You need 5 top O-line players and they are all becoming harder to find. So while being able to shift over to the left side is a positive trait it isn't a make or break in my opinion.

She is the darling of alternative progressive media and makes headlines from right wingers who love to bash her. I think she has to be aware that she isn't going to get anything done legislatively (If not she really is a dumb dumb) but she doesn't have to get anything done legislatively to stay relevant and accomplish her aims. As long as she can make it seem like she is pushing a true progressive agenda she can continue to push that narrative in the alternative media and keep her platform. Its honestly a savvy strategy to sort of hit the brick wall hard and then B word about it. It taps into the anti-establishment fever that got Trump elected and is poison for establishment candidates on the left and right. If she wants to push the Democratic party towards a more populist agenda winning the battle in the media is the way to go because her impact as a freshman congresswoman isn't going to do anything.

I can't imagine Teller not being able to play on the right side. Guards are much more interchangeable from left to right and right to left in general than tackles.

You could move Teller to the right side and sign a veteran LG and C. That way Dawkins and Teller both have a veteran presence next to them.

Keep in mind that 2016 and 2017 were really down years so the NFL ratings might be up 5% from 2017 but they still haven't recovered from the dips of the previous two seasons. That being said the NFL gaining back 5% of their audience is a good thing no matter how you slice it. They stopped the bleeding their own terrible management caused and gained back some of their losses. I am not sure if they will ever get back to their peak of 2015 just due to the younger generation's interest in all sports fading. But the NFL still certainly is a ratings machine.

His 2018 wasn't that much of a decline when you adjust for the fact that he missed 4 games although he didn't take the leap a lot of people expected. I don't know about Oliver. It seems like he went from potential 1st overall pick and lock top 5 pick to being farther down due to concerns about his ability to be a 3 down player. People going into 2018 were thinking that he could be like Aaron Donald but now its seeming like he is a high risk high reward pick as the doubts are a serious concern. I actually wouldn't mind the Bills taking him at 9 because the pass rush and youth along the D-line is lacking (Outside of Shaq and Phillips who are far from great players there is mostly vets along the D-line.) With Star and Phillips being bigger players more effective against the run (and I think you can sign Jordan Phillips to bolster the rotation) I think you can afford to take a chance on a high end pass rush specialist. Oliver could be a passing down player along side J.Phillips and Henry and Star could do the early down dirty work.

Dawkins to me is a solid LT who as the ability to be a good LT. I don't think Dawkins would be as good on the right side for whatever reason (He didn't look that good at RT his rookie year once he switched to LT his rookie year he looked much better.) So I don't mind selecting a RT at pick 9. Both tackle positions are equally as important since so many top edge rushers rush off the right side. All O-line positions are becoming premium positions. So if a guy looks like a stud RT and there aren't elite pass rushers available at pick 9 then go with the RT (Assuming there is no trade down available.)

Yup and if an elite talent falls there has to be a reason why you wouldn't want to just draft that player instead? If there are QB's and you have a QB that tends to be the most likely reason to get a haul for a trade down. There are Julio Jones situations and the Bills even benefited from the Tavon Austin trade considerably. But rarely do teams make massive trade ups for non-QB players. So unless the Bills at pick 9 get extremely lucky with a team coveting a player more than the Bills I don't see a trade down as likely.

Dude was a beast the last half of the season. Outside of maybe Barkley he might have been the best back the last 8 games of the season.

Ducasse and Groy should be gone, neither have much value. I was very disappointed in Groy and Vlad has a solid cap hit and is a very replaceable backup. Miller will likely be gone, I think his career can still be salvaged to be a starting caliber player but I think his time here is gone. Mills should be resigned as a backup but I could see him going either way. Bodine should stay as depth and Ike should be given a shot to make the roster. Dawkins is the only starting caliber player you can lock in, Teller I think will be a starting guard because you can't replace everyone. There should be 3 new starters on the o-line and possibly a new backup or two. Ideally I think the O-line should be LT- Dawkins LG- Saffold (Or other high end free agent) C- Pradis (Or other high end free agent) RG- Teller RT- Mills/High draft pick Bench - Bodine, Mills/high draft pick, and Ike or a mid to late round rookie.

To be fair Ward played most of the season and Wallace only played part way. I think had T.Johnson not missed time he would have been in the top 25 too.

The only people who think Romney would make for a viable candidate are mostly moronic mainstream pundits who are heavily isolated from reality. Trump showed that anti-establishment populism is what the people want, Romney is the most establishment candidate ever who is quoted as saying "corporations are people my friend."

Cam Newton is similar in size and faster than Allen (esp in Newton's younger years) and Cam's best rushing season was 754 yards (although he did have 14 rush TD's in his rookie year and another season with 10.) So I doubt Allen is going to put together that massive of a rushing year and that massive of a passing year. If you are throwing for 4k yards you are likely rushing less. So I can't see Allen being both a prolific runner and a prolific passer.

I like the recent firings, it seems like unlike a lot of other administrations that McBeane knows what is wrong with the team from at least a coaching standpoint. Special teams was mediocre last year and outright horrid this year, its best to move on and build a new unit. Haush money is still a good kicker so you have the hardest piece in place, nab a good punter and a couple of specialists and the unit could easily turn around with proper coaching.

I mostly disagree, Obamacare was written by the Healthcare lobby for the most part. Why would the healthcare insurance industry influence the writing of a law to put themselves out of business? The approach was a poor emulation of the Swiss market (The Swiss have an individual mandate, non-profit plans/companies, and a lot of regulations of policies) but it failed due to trying to keep the private market the primary provider of insurance and other bad decisions when a single payer system would have worked best. So I fail to buy the pseudo conspiracy theory that the law crafted by the insurance industry (based off of a 1990's Republican proposal) was designed to put the insurance industry out of business.

One thing I know about the draft is that the board does shift around during the pre-draft process. Its not going to monumentally shift but guys will rise and fall when the combine, senior ball, individual/team work outs, and scouts analyze their full tape some more. So I wouldn't get too caught up on the draft board right now just because it will shift considerably over the next months. Free agency is the much more pressing matter as the Bills have to fill multiple holes and have a good draft.

He was outright horrific the first few games of the season, he looked lost. Then after a few games he looked much better, he was still up and down a bit (Which is to be expected of almost any rookie let alone a 20 year old) but he looked like he belonged on the field at least. He slowly started to look better and better as the season went (The last Pats game being his only outright bad game in my opinion) I think he hits the gym hard in the off-season, watches the tape, and simply benefits from growing more into his body and he has a big leap in year 2. I think the pick will be looked at as a great one and Edumonds will be a foundational piece for this team for years to come. White, Edumonds, Milano, T.Johnson, and possibly H.Phillips and Shaq could all be the core to a very good defense for the next 2-4 seasons.

Every study even ones done by conservative think tanks state that billing is a major cost saver in single payer systems. You have singular coding, lump sum payments, and less entities to deal with. The amount of money single payer nations and Medicare/Medicaid spend on administration/billing is 40-70% less, that's comparing all administrative costs in total so yes the government is paying those costs but its paying less overall costs on billing and administration due to those reasons stated. I will be honest and say that a single payer system is not perfect and some people will lose their current levels of care (Although I would be for any system that allows Medigap coverage to expand a basic government plan that can be provided by employers over the top or bought privately.) But I think the vast majority of people will see better care and lowered cost or not see much of a difference in care. Our privatized system is so broken and expensive. The only solution on here that I have seen is to loosen regulations on healthcare and treat it like a commodity. I don't think that would work as I think it doesn't address the core issues and it further allows insurance companies the incentive to make their coverage confusing and deny service. I also did not mean to imply that was your personal solution (although I would like to hear your ideas) but rather that in general people were advocating for less regulations and more of a market based approach. Single payer in my opinion is the best solution even if it isn't perfect. Obamacare was an attempt to emulate the Swiss model of healthcare but the law was so poorly written that it just became useless other than a few popular provisions.