billsfan89

Josh’s time will come…

I loved the Hyde signing. He was so highly regarded by Green Bay fans. He played all over the secondary and had 33 starts under his belt. He was a fairly big signing at 5 years 30 million with 14 million guaranteed. It was one of the highest safety contracts that off season. I think if you check the board many fans were very high on that signing. It wasn’t a stretch that Hyde would be a top 5-10 safety. Po on the other hand was a complete unknown. The Bills seemingly gave a safety with 8 starts over 4 years and a player coming off an injury a 4 year deal with a modest guarantee. I didn’t understand that signing at all. It seemed like the Bills overpaid for a player that could have been had on a one year cheap deal. No one or almost no one though Po would be an All Pro caliber safety

The Bills fielded a very good defense (for the most part when they were reasonably healthy) last season despite Hyde and Po being past their primes. Don’t get me wrong Hyde and Po were still effective starting caliber safeties but they weren’t as dominant as they were from 2017-2021 when they were a top tandem in the league. So it isn’t like the team is going from elite safety play to what may be an average to below average tandem. I still hope they can bring in a mid round safety to take a spot from Rapp who is better as a “Big Nickel” and a backup than as a day one starter.

Sounds like he makes the plays he is “supposed” to make. The knock on him is that he’s just an average athlete so he doesn’t have dynamic range and he misses tackles a lot. The positives are that he is very smart and almost always puts himself in a good position to make a play. He’s also not a bad athlete so he’s not bad range wise either. I don’t think Po and Hyde were considered all that great athletes so I think the fit here makes sense. I am much higher on this signing than I was earlier in the day. I am still concerned with Rapp as a starter. Probably going to draft a safety to compete with Rapp but the Edwards signing is a nice one year “stop gap” solution

I am not sure it’s that much less talented. Poyer and Hyde while still effective safeties were past their primes. Edwards and Rapp aren’t going to be special but are they going to be that much worse? Leonard Floyd is a major loss but I think Von will bounce back and fill in that talent gap. The rest of the losses on defense were either depth (Dane Jackson and Dodson) or marginal rotation defensive linemen who didn’t have a major impact (Shaq, Settle, Ford and Phillips). Tre White has been effectively replaced by Douglas so there’s no net loss there. What’s going to be a challenge for McD in my opinion is hitting on the draft to add more to the defense both in terms of filling out depth (probably want to find a corner to replace Dane and a safety to develop) and finding good defensive linemen to add to the rotation.

As a rotational DT who will likely be the main one tech backup I honestly don’t mind the move. He’s had 55 starts in his career so he’s experienced. I think he will take the Poona Ford spot of being the main backup “run stuffer” in case Daquon goes out. Hopefully it plays out better than Ford did as Ford got off to a very slow start to the season to the point where he quickly fell out of the rotation. Then when given the chance to play when Daquon went out he was so bad that they had to go out and sign Lincal Joseph. Of course Ford did have some flashes towards the end of the season but overall the signing was mostly uneventful.

I don't know if the Bills would be thinking about Franklin at pick 28. Most pundits and scouts don't have him as a first round player more of a mid-second round talent. But if the Bills are looking to trade down from 28 and they pick in the late 30's early 40's or if Franklin slips down a bit in round 2 they could be looking at a trade up from pick 60. I like Franklin as a prospect, he can add some nice boundary WR play and long term develop into a quality WR. If the Bills can pick up a 3rd round pick (plus a mid-rounder in 2025) and trade down to the 36-42 range and get him that would really be good.

I wouldn't mind Shaq as the 5th/6th DE on the roster he's still a good run defender and not the worst pass rusher. You could do worse. However, I think the Bills are on a bit of a youth movement especially along the defensive line where they have thus far let Poona Ford, Leonard Floyd and Tim Settle sign with other teams while Jordan Phillips, Linval Joseph (whose probably going to retire or take a mid-season contract) and Shaq remain unsigned. The only vet they brought back was Daquon whose really the only one tech they had. Still a lot of options out there to round out the rotation and time/room for Shaq to get a camp spot.

He's been healthy back to back seasons removed from the achilles injury. He's proven his ability to come back and play at a pretty good level for an extended period of time. Blackmon would be a nice starting caliber young safety to plug in and then the Bills can draft in the mid-round depth and competition for Rapp and possibly in the late rounds double dip for depth and someone that can play special teams. Even if they miss out on Blackmon there are still other vet options on the market.

They only have 2 viable DT's on the roster in D.Jones and Ed Oliver, in past years they have had a lot of solid vet DT's plus Ed in the mix. This year Poona Ford and Tim Settle have signed elsewhere and Jordan Phillips is still a free agent. The Bills probably will enter the draft actually need to fill out the DT rotation by drafting at least one DT if not two.

I wouldn't hate a first round DL player. There could be other WR's like Troy Franklin that can be a nice add for both short term depth and long term development at WR. I just don't want to see a first round safety. The Bills can go WR, OL or DL at pick 28 and I am fine. Either make sure Josh always has a ton of good WR's and an heir apparent for Diggs or strengthen either side of the line which is always a good idea.

I am not sure this is preventing Shaq from coming into camp to compete for that back end of the rotation DE spot. Seems like this guy is more of a marginal DL addition.

Smart signing low risk high reward. But I am not too worried about it he’s a bit injury prone and never had a true breakthrough

I still wouldn't mind taking a WR at pick 28 or 60. I kind of look at Samuel as replacing Gabe (I think Samuel is a better fit but for a conservative estimate I will assume similar production) and while I think a top 6 passing target options for Josh being Diggs, Kincaid, Shakir, Samuel, Knox, and Cook is solid but I still think they may need more juice at WR both short and long term. It's not as pressing a short term need and they are no longer in a position where they have to take a WR fairly high up. I mainly see the need as adding some more pop and depth short term but also having a quality player there to hopefully take over for Diggs as he inevetiably declines. But certainly having more flexiblity in the draft is a positive.

I like the move, not a huge move but a positive consistent outside WR who is fairly young (will be 28 this upcoming season) and signed to a nice deal. Stats wise he's not that dissimilar from Gabe Davis factoring in that while Gabe had more yards and TD's the past two seasons Samuel was not having Josh Allen throwing to him. Samuel also has a much higher catch percentage with 68% and 69% catch percentages compared to Gabe's rather bad 51% and 55% catch percentages. It doesn't mean that I still don't think that the Bills shouldn't draft a WR up high as they have to think about adding both depth and someone to down the line take over for Diggs whose suddenly entering his age 31 season and WR's usually hit the wall around age 32/33. BUT this does at the very least give the Bills some flexibility in terms of where they can go with picks 28 and 60. They can trade down to pick up extra picks in this and the 2025 draft if a trade-down presents its self. They can overload the WR position and just take one at pick 28 or they can address another need (maybe take the best center in the draft and just build a wall on the O-line or take a defensive player). It can kind of look like a lateral move replacing Gabe with a player who puts up similar numbers (but given that Samuel is significantly cheaper a lateral move is still a positive move) but I like the fit better with Samuel being a more sure handed reciever. Drops can kill an offense and having a player with a much better catch percentage on similar volume makes a positive impact and opens up the draft board.

I too would rather go after a younger safety (maybe not Simmons who is 30) to fill that hole on the back end rather than go after Armstead. I think that McD has not proven he can find unheralded safety talent and plug them in for good production. McD has had the combo of Po and Hyde since 2017. Since McD got here he’s only had one year when he had to plug in for either long term and that was 2022 when Hyde was out for the year. That year they ended up going with Hamlin who was not that great (certainly not bad but played like a decent backup safety). Really the only unheralded guy McD has found at safety has been Po who was signed in 2017, Hyde was a fairly big FA acquisition. At corner McD has proven he can find players all over the draft and free agency. Dane Jackson and Benford were 6th rounders who played well, Levi Wallace looked competent as a UDFA and T Johnson one of the better slot corners in the league was a 4th round pick. So while I think McD is great in the secondary overall I still don’t like the idea of having to spend a higher draft choice to play next to Rapp or going with Rapp and a mid round pick there. I much rather would find a younger safety in the 26-27 age range that is more proven to anchor one spot for the next few years and then draft a safety in the mid rounds to compete with Rapp.

I don’t hate the idea of adding Armstead he’s a good player older but not too old to where you can’t see him having one more good season left. Don’t think the Bills have the cap to make it work without doing another rob Peter to pay Paul situation. They likely would have to do another void year pushing money out situation similar to Floyd. Not too thrilled about doing that but it’s a win now league and you can’t always be so conservative. The Bills have been bottom 10 in dead cap every year since 2020 and despite the big charges they are taking this year they still only are around 12th highest in dead cap. So if they can make it work without pushing too much dead cap off into the future why not?

Smart signing, keeps RB depth solid. Probably will add a RB in round 6 or 7 for depth and special teams and add a cheap vet power back in late stage free agency to round out the backfield. A solid complement to Cook retained.

I don’t understand this idea that the Bills spending prime draft resources on the offense like they did last year is not addressing offensive needs? The Bills brining back AJE and D Jones on two year deals at a modest rate is bad because hypothetically they could use that money on offense? I would much rather consistently spend the top draft picks on offense and try to cobble together a defense with back end draft picks and moderate free agency dollars.

Solid deal not a complete steal or anything but they are paying D Jones appropriately and now with the resigning of Jones and AJE the defensive line looks solid. Likely I suspect the Bills will round out the defensive line rotation by resigning Shaq Lawson to a one year cheap deal and then sign 1 or 2 of the vet DT’s (J Phillips, Settle and or Ford). Then I think the Bills add a pair of draft picks to the mix. I am thinking the starting lineup looks like the following Von-D Jones-Oliver-Groot The the rotation behind them will look like. At DE - AJE, Shaq Lawson, Kingsley Jonathan and a draft pick. At DT - Jordan Phillips, Poona Ford or Tim Settle and a draft pick. Basically running back the same defensive line rotation as last season but swapping out Floyd and one of the vet DT’s with draft picks and hopefully a better version on Von.

I don’t know how anyone can hate this deal, he’s paid like a high end situational pass rusher and is young and can exceed the value of his deal. The Bills DE rotation without AJE was Groot and Von. Now adding back AJE the Bills can resign Shaq and draft a developmental player in the draft to round out the rotation. I like the deal, hoping they can bring back D Jones and a couple of the older back end rotation players (Shaq at DE and then anyone of the following Poona Ford, Tim Settle or Jordan Phillips). That should then put them in a good position to just add 2 defensive linemen in the draft somewhere in rounds 2-5 to pad out the rotation and get younger. People kind of forget his rookie year was the off Covid year where there was pretty much no offseason and then he was also asked to play 20ish pounds lighter so his transition into the NFL was always going to be tough. After a rocky first two years he came on in year three and then improved again in year four. Getting him for two more seasons at a very reasonable rate is a positive move especially considering his room to continue to grow

I would think the Bills will likely bring in a lower level vet or two similar to Sherfield last year while also drafting a WR in round 1 and another in the mid rounds. I do think it is possible the Bills work the mid range market at WR if it comes to them Mooney from Chicago could be an interesting addition on a two year mid range deal while also still adding a WR early in the draft

Unless they feel that Bowers has the ability to play as an outside WR consistently then I would strongly have to think they would pass and more likely trade down to a team looking to snag him. I love the idea of adding an elite talent but you also have to have it make sense for your roster.

Reworking the two only “bad” contracts on the roster (Knox and Von) is a huge victory hopefully they can get Diggs to slightly rework his deal as well

Bates was Ok that was my feeling and the feeling of the majority on here from what I remember. I think most fans going into last years draft really wanted a RT as opposed to a guard in the first two rounds as Brown was coming off a super shaky season. But when they drafted Torrence it made Bates a pure depth player which was a fantastic luxury to have.