billsfan89

Last year I thought the Bills entered in with really good offensive line depth especially along the interior. In the past I have thought the Bills really attempted good offensive line depth when they had guys like Ty Nesheke and Bates on the bench. Last year Bates and Edwards were quality backups. They also had attempted better veteran depth at tackle where Quessenberry and Snell both vets were competing with Brown at RT. Obviously Snell retired and Quess was waived in favor of picking up Ifedi and mainly going with Van Denmark as a swing tackle. This year I think Van Denmark is a solid backup and Alex Anderson has potential but there's really not a whole lot on the bench and Edwards starting at LG is OK but leaves a lot to be desired.

I agree fan input can be flawed but I think a good amount of hardcore fans (the types that post here or on Reddit about their teams) can have a good feel for offensive line play. They can tell where pressure is coming from and where the team struggles to run the ball. As a big fan who watches every game and obsesses over breakdowns I feel like you can at least have a reasonable take on how good or bad an offensive line player is if you watch them play consistently. Not 100% accurate but a reasonable data point to consider.

I think they are comfortable with Rapp and Edwards at the safety and will likely bring in a rookie for depth and competition while Hamlin and Lewis are primary backups and special teams players. But I do think this team needs rotational DT's. The Bills usually carry 5 DT's with 4 active on game day. Right now the Bills have 2 on the roster. Campbell would be a great add he will be 38 but is actually coming off a solid season with 7 sacks and good advanced metrics. I think DT is going to have some depth added as I can't see them going into the draft needing to grab 2-3 bodies there.

I actually think PFF isn't a terrible oline metric even if it is flawed. That being said I tend to go by what fans who watch their teams incessantly say about the players. Chargers fans said mixed things, seems like he was filling in decently as a backup for the most part. I don't hate the signing but I do hope the Bills view him as competition for a depth role and not a key reserve.

All of these make sense except Bo Nix? The Bills are not going to draft a QB high up and Nix is likely to go at least in the first 2-3 rounds. Maybe just kicking the tires on a player?

I hope this is more of a camp body pickup. He's not highly regarded by any fans of the teams he played on even as a backup they say he was pretty bad. While he is coming off of a injury Chargers fans did say he played decently for the most part last season so that's a positive. I really hope the Bills invest at least two draft picks into the offensive line. I don't like the depth and Edwards while not a bad starter is not someone I am confident in. Outside of Van Denmark as a capable swing tackle I don't really like what the team has depth wise along the offensive line.

I tend to agree with you. The Bills fan base myself included may not like Rapp and Edwards starting but the front office probably feels ok with that situation if the value in the draft is elsewhere. Beane has stated his goal is to not go into the draft with any glaring holes and I think in the regimes mind they have accomplished that. They will likely target WR, CB, S, RB, Oline and Dline in the draft with RB and CB being primarily depth needs. I don’t think the Bills goal is to trade from the late 4th up to the 3rd. Given the need for depth and development is higher this season due to the youth movement the Bills likely are going to roster 7-9 draft picks so while they have 11 picks I think the consolidation is going to be more so moving up to the middle or early part of round 4 or sliding a few spots up in round 2 or 1 if needed.

Looking at the Bills current roster and the trend of how many and what type of players the team carries on the roster I think you are looking at the Bills likely being able to roster 9 maybe 10 draft picks. Positions where they can likely roster a draft pick or two. This is in no order. 1- WR: Bills usually carry 5-6 WR’s they have 3 players who are locks in Diggs, Samuel and Shakir and they have another player who is strongly likely to make it in Hollins. Justin Shorter is also there and will likely be given a good chance to make the roster. The Bills could add a 6th WR both for added depth and to develop an heir apparent for Diggs. Also I don’t think Shorter is enough of a quality WR that they shouldn’t pass on taking additional depth there. 2- RB - Cook and Ty Johnson are a solid 1-2 combo but the Bills usually roster 3 RB’s and probably could use depth and special teams help by filling this RB3 role in the draft. 3 and 4 Offensive Line - The Bills usually carry about 9-10 offensive line players. Dawkins, Edwards, McGovern, Torrence and Brown are the starters while Van Denmark and Alex Anderson are the current depth. Right now they could easily roster two picks here and likely should try to find a starting center or guard to take Edwards out of the starting lineup and move him to the bench. 5 and 6 DT - I am assuming they will sign at least one rotational DT but given that the Bills carry 5 DT’s they probably will have room for at least one draft selection if not two if they don’t sign more than one DT. 7- DE - The Bills DE rotation is AJE, Von, Groot, Kingsley Jonathan and Toohill. They usually carry six DE’s and can likely add a pick to pad out the rotation and help add a long term piece. 8- Safety - Bills carry about 5 safeties. Right now they have 4 with the starting combo being Edwards and Rapp. Hamlin and Cam Lewis are on the bench. They likely will want to add a young player to add more depth and long term take over one of the spots. 9- Corner - Bills carry about 6 corners. Right now they have Douglas, Benford, Taron, Elam and Ingram. Easily can at least roster one more CB if not two depending on how they feel about Ingram. I could see them spending late round picks at LB or TE to add competition for Spector and Morris but I don’t think they want to risk what happened last season where they lose draft picks to waivers. I think they could also draft a kicker or punter late but for whatever reason I don’t think they will do that. That’s my feeling. The Bills finally last season properly invested in the offensive line adding the best guard in the draft and adding McGovern to anchor the other guard spot while adding Edwards for depth. They even brought in Snell and Quessenberry to compete with Brown. But I don’t like how they gutting the line depth by cutting Morse and trading Bates and now have inserted Edwards as a starter. Ideally I would love to see the Bills address offensive line twice in the draft. But I fear they are very comfortable with what they have and will only be drafting for depth.

I don’t foresee a Bills trade up into the top 10 or even the teens. I think if the Bills trade up in round 1 it’s going to be 2-3 spots similar to last draft. I think a trade up in round 2 of 4 will happen. The Bills currently have 11 draft picks. Looking at the current roster assuming they sign 1-2 more rotational defensive linemen the Bills based on past roster trends and the standing of the current roster will only likely be able to roster 9 draft picks maybe even less if they are more active in the later stages of free agency. So the Bills are going to have to consolidate the picks a bit or trade a pick away for future considerations. I do think that unlike the past draft the Bills do have more depth needs than they have had the past few seasons entering the draft. So I do think they are going to want to make at least 8-9 selections to further solidify the depth long and short term on the roster and a trade up massively in round 1 would heavily deplete the Bills picks or massively borrow from future selections which I don’t think they want to do.

Even if Harrison dropped to pick 5 (which is probably as far as he can fall) trading up with the Chargers would probably cost pick 28, 60, 128 and a 1st in 2025 and a 2nd in 2026 and maybe some additional draft considerations. I love Harrison as a prospect but unless it is for a QB I don’t think any non-QB prospect is worth such a massive trade up. Not that a stud dynamic receiver isn’t a great thing to have but in the NFL it’s almost always a bad idea to give up so much draft capital for a non-QB simply because injuries to one player can derail all that capital. Building rosters in the NFL is more about Quantity of solid talent than it is about hitting on one elite player that isn’t a QB. You need to try to hit on as many picks as possible to build a roster around a salary cap and build a deep roster. Give me more chances to hit on good players vs putting all my eggs in one basket.

The Bills recent draft history from rounds 4-7 since 2017 under the McD and then eventually McBeane has been pretty good. Milano, Taron Johnson, Gabe Davis, Dane Jackson and Benford all ended up being productive to great starters drafted in rounds 4-7. They also found Wyatt Teller and Ray Ray McCloud both of whole went on to have good careers elsewhere. In addition to those players the Bills also found solid role players in Siran Neal, Tyler Bass and Hamlin. That being said there were about 15 misses in those rounds in that same time period. So it’s a total crap shoot.

The need for WR is more long term to get an “heir apparent” for Diggs. But a fun troll job

PSL’s are a scam and given the anti trust exemption that many leagues get they shouldn’t exist.

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.