billsfan89

Poyer was banged up all last year and is a year older while Hyde is a year older coming off a serious injury so while I like the corner play to be better due to the factors you mentioned, I am concerned about decreasing play from an aging safety tandem.

Glad the issue was seemingly squashed glad to get this stuff done and over with in June

I think the over investment on defense was a true concern in 2021 and 2022. But this past offseason the Bills spent their top 2 draft picks on what we’re largely regarded to be the best TE and Guard in the draft. They also spend their biggest free agent contract (McGovern) at guard. McBeane also kept Hines, added Hardy and signed a pair of power RB’s. While the cap space was more limited what little they could do was shifted more towards the offense this offseason. Outside of Floyd who doesn’t cost much I haven’t seen too much added to the defense. The Bills are also still in on Dhop at the very least attempting to address the WR core.

To be clear I think McD will be here through 2025 at least and no sane person would dump him after this season. My personal view is that if this season results in another playoff choke then McD should be on the hot seat for 2024 somewhat at least. But It would take back to back playoff failures and a great coach on the market for me to even consider moving off the coach that completely turned around the organization from one of the worst eras in modern NFL history.

Pessimistic view is he just wants the cash, optimistic view is he is doing his due diligence and wants/should know all of his options. If he is going to take less money to play for KC or Buffalo he should know exactly what the difference in the offers are. I do not think the Bills can present the most money but if they can close the gap they will have a shot.

I wouldn’t suddenly be worried about the Pats if they got Dhop, nice addition but not exactly like the Pats are just one WR away from making noise

Doug Collins is not the best comparison, I would say that Marty Schottenheimer is the better analogy. Marty ball turned around three organizations. The Browns were pretty bad before he got there and he turned them into a contender but always came up short in the playoffs. KC had only made the playoffs once in 17 seasons prior to Marty getting there and they made the playoffs fairly consistently with Marty having a great run in Montana’s last couple of years. But once again falling short. Then Marty completed a solid rebuild of the Chargers turning them into a contender before playoff failures. McD will at least have two more seasons to get It done in Buffalo but if he falls short then he will be this teams Marty

I am more optimistic that the better offensive line and talent along with less pressure (Bills no longer the Super Bowl favorite) will help them stay under the radar a bit. The rosters are similarly talented just a little more balanced with better offensive talent and maybe a step down on defense. The Bills are still legitimate contenders who may actually be better built to win in the playoffs

I wouldn't put it as a "make of break" season for the Bills. Make or break to me means if you fall short of expectations you will be fired. However, barring catastrophic injury a disappointment in the playoffs would be enough to cause put McD and company on the hot seat for 2024. But to fire, McD after 2023 would be far too premature for a man who completely turned around the organization from top to bottom.

A little over a month away from camp how are you feeling about the Bills 2023 roster compared to how you were feeling as a fan about the 2022 roster going into the season? Do you feel better, worse, or about the same? Breaking it down position by position group I will leave my thoughts below. Special Teams - Better in 2023 The Bills in 2022 had Bass as a kicker and Ariza as the punter and a strong overall group of ST specialists like Tyler Matakevich and T.Jones. The only hole on Special Teams was the returning game was not really all that great. Going into 2023 the Bills still have Bass and instead of Ariza they have Martin who is a vet punter still fairly young coming off a good season with the Bills replacing Ariza. The Bills no longer have T. Jones but they still have a ton of other specialists on the roster including Matakevich. The Bills also going into 2023 have Hines and Hardy as returners which represents a massive upgrade over the options they had going into 2022. Secondary - Even The Bills were really shaky at CB going into 2022. Tre was coming off a serious injury and likely to miss time and not come back to form. Elam was drafted in round 1 but still a rookie. Outside of T.Johnson there wasn't much stability. But the back end at safety induced more confidence going into 2022. Not only were Hyde and Poyer a year younger but they weren't coming off major injuries. Going into 2023 I like Tre to have a return to form and Elam, Benford, and Dane Jackson are all more experienced this season. But I am also less confident in Po and Hyde both a year older and Hyde coming off a serious injury and Po coming off a year where he was really banged up. The Bills do have better depth at safety with Hamlin getting some snaps and Rapp a solid vet backup. Overall even money for me. Linebacker - Worse in 2023 The Bills entered into 2022 with Milano and Edumonds two high-quality young LB's and Edumonds was entering into a contract year so extra motivation on him, the depth at LB was not really all that great. Going into 2023 Milano is still there but Edumonds is going being replaced by Klein a decent vet and a third-round pick in Dorian Williams. I know a lot of people on here weren't Edumonds fans and I agree with the decision not to resign him. But the Bills will likely see a decline in LB play unless Williams or another player on the roster overachieves. Defensive line - Even If it weren't for Von's injury I would rate 2023 as having an edge with the Poona Ford and Floyd additions. But despite getting a second quality NT and a nice vet pass rusher in Floyd Von coming off a serious injury causes a lot of concern. Feeling about equal, I think the Bills should have a top-quality D-line going into both 2022 and 2023. The defense overall - Slightly worse going into 2023 I liked the defense in 2022 to be the best defense if not at least a top 3 unit going into 2023. But with the likely decline of LB play I think the Bills defense may regress a bit but should still be a top 7-10 unit in the league and could easily be a top 5 unit. But I do think that the defense will feel the absence of Edumonds and there are some more holes going into 2023. Still, the defense should be a good unit. QB - Even Josh is still the franchise QB and the backups are of even quality. Not much to say here. RB - Better in 2023 I thought the Bills had a decent RB trio going into 2022. Cook as a second-round rookie, Singletary and Moss not super inspiring but not tragic either. 2023 the Bills have Cook with a year under his belt and swapped out Moss for Hines who is a much better more dynamic role player. The Bills then swap out Singletary and T.Jones for true power back in Harris and Murray. I think the Bills are much better situated at RB. WR- Even The Bills in 2022 had Diggs and not a lot else proven otherwise. Going into 2023 the Bills are in a similar spot. Davis disappointed in 2022 but going into 2023 the hope is that on a contract year with a full season under his belt as the WR2 maybe he can perform better. Hardy and Sheffield are nice adds to replace Mac and Kumerow but aren't major upgrades either. Shakir has a year under his belt but overall the feeling about the WR group is about the same as last season. TE - Better in 2023 Knox is still there and hopefully won't suffer personal tragedy which would impact anyone and then there is the addition on Kincaid who is far better than OJ Howard who entered into the mix at TE going into 2022. Just overall a lot more talent in the group with the addition of Kincaid. O-line - Better in 2023 The Bills in 2022 were heading into the season with their thinnest O-line group since 2018 and hoping to get a decent season out of Saffold at guard. 2023 they majorly upgraded the guard position getting a younger better-starting guard in Connor McGovern and the best guard in the draft in Torrence. In addition they brought in Edwards as more guard depth and Bates hopefully kicks back onto the bench. Queese is back again along with Snell who should provide some competition for Brown. Overall the O-line is just vastly better going into 2023. Offense overall- Better in 2023 With the addition of Kincaid, McGovern, Torrence and other smaller parts like Hines and Hardy the Bills have better offensive pieces around Josh by a significant margin. 2022 I had massive concerns about the O-line and O-line depth whereas in 2023 my only major concern about the O-line is who is Dawkins backup and whether could they find a better player to compete with Brown (Both of which were concerns entering into 2022). Kincaid adds what hopefully will be a quality weapon and the RB group looks better as well. Team overall - Even Even though component by component, I feel as though the 2023 Bills may be better than the 2022 Bills I had Super Bowl expectations going into 2022 and I have the same Super Bowl expectations in 2023. I do think that the Bills are in a position in 2023 to compete better as I think the offense has the tools to be more consistent and while I think the defense may not be as strong it will still be a very good unit overall. TLDR: Bills have a better ST and offense going into 2023 but the defense is not as good going into 2023 as it was in 2022.

The Bills had a poorly constructed offensive line that also lacked depth and the team didn’t have a consistent second option in the passing game so the offense at times struggled in the redzone. Dorsey being a rookie play caller took a lot of the heat for that right or wrong. Hopefully with better guard play and depth along with Kincaid the offense is more consistent

I think Diggs while temperamental has his heart in the right place and the Bills have also taken care of him in the way that he should be taken care of. I think Diggs knows It is better to sort these things out in June rather than let them linger on in training camp and beyond. Diggs gets to be heard and the coaches let him say his thoughts and they can adjust well before training camp starts

Cowherd is very very clickbait driven he says all sorts of things just to be controversial. He got fired for racial comments in 2015 and while you can chalk that incident up to over sensitivity it wasn’t the only time he stirred up controversy You can like Cowherd but to say he is not a sensational driven media type is just not accurate

The Bills were more willing to pony up the adjustable rate mortgage for Von who had finished the previous season healthy and was Dominant in a Super Bowl run. Whereas Dhop is coming off injuries back to back seasons. I think the Bills are also looking at not having too many bad contracts on the roster to have to avoid dead money. Von’s deal is possibly going to cost the Bills eight figures in dead money by 2025 or 2026. I think you can stomach one of those deals to try to “win now” but you can’t stomach two or more. I think in the end the Bills will try to get Dhop on a suped up Floyd type deal. Get the man a good chunk of money by adding some void years. But I doubt they want a huge multi year commitment like Von. To make such a deal happen probably would need 10 million in space

Glad they are going through this in June, Diggs probably was concerned about Dorsey and the offense and maybe some other smaller issues. Get this stuff sorted out now because this team needs to limit the controllable distractions as they saw last year there is already enough that can go wrong in a season that is out of your control.

From my understanding and fellow OBD cap scientists the Bills have four moves they could make to free up cap space. 1- Restructure Dawkins 2- Restructure Tre 3- Extend D Jones 4- Extend Hyde Given Hyde’s age and the injury he is coming off of I don’t think they want to do that. Tre is another one I don’t think they would do but they would consider it if they really needed the space. Restructuring Tre would push his dead cap hits up the next two seasons and considering the injury he is not too far removed from I think they would prefer to have some flexibility with him. Dawkins I think they will and can do and that would free up 6 million in cap space. A D Jones extension would free up 4 million in space and considering they only have one DT under contract next season It would make sense they would want to get a extension done for him. So the Bills have options for space but how much can they maneuver to make that play for Dhop?

It is also up to his agent to get him all the best contract offers he can and then let the client Dhop decide what he wants. Basically the agent wants to get Dhop the best deals and let him decide on how much of a discount if any he wants to take or if he just wants the last cash grab? All is fair and even if I were Dhop and I was very interested in joining the Bills I would still want to know how much I am leaving on the table.

I think It is a legitimate concern to think the Bills need more firepower at pass catcher. Now It isn’t like the Bills did not do anything to address this issue. Kincaid was the teams first round pick and the best TE in the draft according to most and the Bills spent a 5th rounder on shorter although he is more a developmental player. The Bills also replaced Mac and Kumerow with Hardy and Sheffield while not earth shattering Is a minor upgrade at the back end of WR. I also think having Hines the entire season will add some pass catching value. But if Kincaid is not having a major impact, Davis struggles to be a consistent WR2, Shakir doesn’t develop and they can’t find production elsewhere then a lot of the same issues from 2022 can rear their ugly heads. I think the team knows they might need another weapon out there which is why they are reportedly in on Hopkins and likely could also add a player at the trade deadline in season too.

That seems like a fair prediction, rookie TE’s rarely have huge stats

Fair points, my issue with your characterization is that the Bills didn't build their roster like there wasn't a role for Hines to be a component on the offense. Cook is a decent receiver but not great and Murray/Harris aren't good receivers. Hines should easily be a third-down gadget player with the roster as currently constructed. It isn't like they have another pass-catching back to take those snaps. Did the Bills fail to integrate Hines into the offense in 2022? Yes, but that doesn't mean the coaching staff doesn't like him. They have no one else to fill his role and could have cut him and moved on. There has to be some even begrudging interest in having him as a backfield pass catcher.

I just don't see Beane spending that much money/cap space on a pure returner. For what they are paying him they probably see Hines on offense as being a gadget player and a returner. I get what you are saying that Beane may love him and McD may be sour. But the role that could easily be crafted for Hines is not that demanding (gadget player and platooning as a third-down back) and is something that any OC would easily be able and want to do. Hines in Indy was never really anything more than a gadget third-down back type player anyway. I also think that given how the other two RB's they added behind Cook are pure power backs with little receiving upside/ability it makes Hines's role as a backfield receiver more important as he is the only receiving RB they have behind Cook.

Von has said a lot of things that have been more optimistic than reality. I know Von's tear was different than Tre's ACL injury (Tre's was non-contact while Von's was a fairly clean tear that didn't even get noticed until surgery) but I still think starting the season coming off a late November ACL is really not likely to happen esp for a 33-year-old. I think that the most likely scenario is going to be Von starts on the PUP list to start the season and comes back against the Pats in late October, that would have given him just under 11 months to come back from injury. Could it happen that Von comes back to start the season fine? Yeah, Von's tear wasn't as awful as it could have been, and Von has shown to be a freak of nature. But it is still a major injury that could require some time on the PUP list to start the season.

Last season and the two previous seasons fans were talking about how brutal the schedules were. Yet the Bills still managed to have good regular season finishes despite “brutal schedules”. I just don’t buy the hype about the difficult schedule.

If they don’t like Hines why did they rework his deal and not just cut him?

It’s all going to come down to the circumstances of the season but another playoff failure wouldn’t be enough for me to can the coaches but it would put them on the hot seat for 2024. You can be a great coach and not the right coach to take a team over the top