Utah John

Denver is crashing. They gave up a ton for Wilson and can't return to success for a year or two. I think the reason for the release is that Wilson was still good enough for them to steal a couple of wins, and ruin their draft position in the years ahead.

He didn't fall off. He was sitting on it, not moving, and some doofus crashed into him.

The Moss for Hines trade was a good one for both players and both teams. Moss is a good RB who never fit into Buffalo's schemes. The Colts use him in line with his skill set. So the trade isn't what was bad, it was drafting him in the first place without evaluating accurately whether he'd fit. Hines looked great as a kick returner and showed flashes of quickness and power as an RB. I don't think the Bills need him very badly as a backup but if Cook goes down, Hines' speed could be very important until Cook returns.

This is simply not the year to overspend on WRs. Some FAs will get big contracts but when it comes to FAs vs promising rookies, a lot of teams that need WR help will go with cheap rookies. There are too many good options in the draft.

Still could happen. Teams looking to upgrade at WR have to balance the cost of signing an experienced, productive, yet expensive FA, vs drafting one or two of this class's good-looking but cheap rookies. Considering the cap situation, I think the Bills have no choice but to go with the rookies, and maybe an overlooked and less-expensive veteran, and hope for the best. As for Davis, does it really help the Bills if he signs an expensive FA contract elsewhere compared to him signing a less-expensive FA contract elsewhere? I thought the comp pick formula was based on the original draft position of the player. Is that incorrect?

Well, the fact is that for decades there's only been a very weak pretense that most college players are students at all. Some rare exceptions are out there, guys who really do want an education and work hard to get it while still meeting the demanding schedule that players accept. Most coast through, assisted illegally but acceptably, by the institution that wants to make money from letting them play. Look at the schedule for fall semesters. When are the players even going to be in class to take final exams? Players who opt for the portal change schools before final exams, and no one thinks that's a problem. These men are semi-pro athletes, given room and board and now some NIL cash, and most will never play in the NFL. The NIL money they get won't last long once they're out of school and unprepared for a job.

The first time some excellent college player decides to remain in college to reap his NIL money, and is injured while playing an unnecessary year in college and loses his career, this nonsense will stop. The players all want the NIL money of course but they grew up dreaming of playing in the NFL. A player who never makes it to the pros in the first place, is quickly forgotten.

I think the Jets destroyed Zach Wilson with their ridiculously bad O line and their non-genius OC, can't hackett. Or maybe they just damaged him and he remains fixable. I think he has talent but is shell-shocked. A season as a backup here or elsewhere, with professional coaches and a good O line, might be what he needs to resurrect his career. I wouldn't give up a thing to trade for him, nor would I accept him with his current salary. But if he's cut and becomes a FA, and is willing to play for what a backup QB gets (around $1M), I think he'd be an upgrade over our current backup, who gets the same salary but is nowhere near as good.

What they have is a very strong defense, a top-tier RB, and one of the best WRs in the game. It's really their O line that's held them back. Also the QB although I still don't know if Zach Wilson could be a legitimate starter since he's been completely mis-handled his entire career.

Salary cap games are like a drug addiction. You get hooked and you can't get off the cycle. The only way for the Saints to meet the NFL's required numbers before the middle of March -- just two or three weeks away -- is to buy more drugs. They have to restructure some of their contracts to have them count less now, but they're not going to get clean. They can't even quit cold turkey because the existing obligations won't go away even if the player is cut. In fact cold turkey makes the immediate problem worse. The Bills are skirting this desperate situation, largely due to Beane breaking his own financial prudence rules and signing Von Miller to that silly contract. The Biils were prime drug candidates after the 13 second debacle, feeling depressed, and more to the point, letting McDermott blame the lack of a pass rush for the huge team and coaching failure. So Beane tried going all-in to fix it by popping a few cap pills. And now the Bills are on the edge of a total addiction collapse in the near future, Josh Allen or no Josh Allen. The Dawson Knox contract will also be a burden soon, with no good solution in sight. Joe Buscaglia had a good article in the Atlantic a couple of weeks ago about how the Bills could get by for the coming season. Part of the cure involved buying more drugs. But it would let the team attempt to continue its success by retaining just enough good players, hoping the draft yields 5 or more starters, or good reserves now who become starters when current players age out, and praying for no more significant injuries. If there's any good news, it's that Miami is in about the same situation, but debating whether to pay Tua with cap drugs, or try to replace him with a cheap rookie. Tough choice since Tua has never shown he's a championship QB, just a system guy who can beat up on weak teams. So the Bills and Dolphins are both vulnerable. You know who's not? The Jets. Watch out. If they get a QB (and can avoid cap death for the Rodgers contract) and can fix their O line, they could win the division.

Not drafting Mahomes when we (and nine other teams) had the chance to, was a logical choice. No one knew how good he'd be, except the Chiefs, and then they handled him absolutely perfectly. Kudos to them. And the Bills did well with their draft picks, getting White, Allen, and Edmunds. Where the Bills really dropped the ball was not hiring McDermott's former boss, Reid, when he was unemployed. McD is just not in Reid's league. He's a good coach but not good enough.

His decline is underway and is getting steeper the longer he's around. No shame in that. He's been an excellent player for several years, but everyone slows down as time passes. But restructuring means keeping a fading star on the roster, and who knows what kind of negative impact that would bring. It's the Jets that have me most concerned, possibly not in 2024 while the sort out the QB situation and rebuild their O line, but after that, they'll be really tough. I think the Bills tore the hearts out of the Dolphins in 2023. The fish had so much confidence in their "juggernaut" as the creamed weaker teams, but they realized as time went on they weren't competitive with the good teams. Predicting the AFCE in 2024: Bills, Jets, Dolphins, ......... , Patriots

Both teams won. The Chiefs and Bills both got better, and if the Chiefs didn't have Andy Reid the Bills would have been to the SB at least once so far.

Wow. That is NO way to manage a team in today's NFL. My kudos to the Bengals for succeeding under such a tremendous limitation, but it can't last forever. One or two bad drafts, an injury or two, and they'll be back to scraping by.

From Wikipedia: But I don't remember him either. 2017 was the first McBeane year, and the year they finally made the playoffs. Despite this meagre (but so welcome) success, the roster got overhauled, and I guess Wright wasn't part of their plans going forward. He had a 4.43 time in the 40 which is marginally acceptable but not really good enough for a top team.

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Looks like the Bengals are going to go all-in in 2024. They can manipulate the cap to allow more FAs to fill the holes in their roster, and hope everyone stays healthy all year. They're in a tough division with 2.5 good teams (the Steelers showed they can beat anyone, just not very often, but the Ravens and Browns are both top-notch). I don't blame the Bengals for being aggressive but with that competition, it's going to be a tough year to get a high playoff seed.

People are in love with Purdy but he choked enormously in the second half of the SB. Can't really blame him, a young guy with the pressure piling up. Mayfield would have handled it better. Don't sleep on the Jets. They have a very strong defense, although CJ Mosely is a FA and a lot rides on what happens there. What they MUST do is fix their terrible O line. If they don't do that, Rodgers won't last the first game of next season, either.

Oh my goodness it's the offseason. Now it's official.

If there's a really good safety available when they pick in R1, that's the guy. There are enough good WRs in this draft to meet the Bills needs in other rounds. The Bills are playing with fire, not getting Hyde/Poyer replacements in place and familiar with the system already. If the Bills really want another D lineman, I'm guessing Boogie Basham will be available. Oh, you say that's a bad idea? Well how about throwing another high draft pick D lineman out there and expecting something more than Boogie brought. That's what Beane would be doing. And that's a pretty lousy history. He'll be better off getting a FA or two.

The Bills organization has always been higher on Brown, and on Davis, than the fans were. I think them Bills saw Brown's potential and let him play through growing pains (and actual pains with his back) and now he's the player they were expecting to see. He's retainable if Beane jumps on the situation now. Most fans aren't sad about the prospect of Davis getting paid by somewhere else, but based on what the professional football team in town thinks, his loss will hurt. I think that's a bad move. There aren't a lot of really good RTs out there, and now that the Bills have developed one it makes better sense to put the ball in Brown's court about an extension. Brown knows as well as we all do that he's got an injury history which will make him less marketable next year. Beane should put a good solid offer on the table for a 4-5 year extension at a reasonable price, and let Brown try to decide whether to take the money and stay here long term, or to play out his rookie deal and hope for a bigger contract, risking not getting much at all if his back goes out or some other injury happens next year. The offer Beane will put down will make Brown a very rich man, and he might decide to take the bird in the hand, sign the offer, and put this position on solid ground for years.

The Chiefs do do some things that help them win, particularly in close, tense games. But yelling at each other is not part of the winning formula. What IS in the formula is applying pressure in key points at key locations, to get a critical edge when it matters. Against the Bills AND the 49ers, Chris Jones was freed up to attack Allen and Purdy at a critical point near the end of the game. Both times he prevented the QB from hitting an open receiver and probably winning the game. The Chiefs also put pressure on defenses through their attacking style, and that paralyzes the defenses from being able to attack the Chiefs' offense. It always turns into a lions vs gazelles situation, where the Chiefs' opponents always feel like they're going to get eaten, any moment now, and then it happens. The way to beat the Chiefs is to avoid getting into a tight game where a key play here or there makes the difference. The Bills and the 49ers both had chances to take big leads in the first half, but the Chiefs play an elastic game where even when their offense isn't doing much early in the game, and the other team is dominating, you look up at the scoreboard at the end of the half and you're only up by a few points. At that point, the lions are coming out, and all the gazelles know it.

If you want to know what kind of Jets this team is, I looked it up. It's a Boeing 737-9 Max. And we all know where the loose bolts are, Woody. Your Jets are grounded UFN.

The Bills were on national TV all season long, and fans got to see Josh play many times. Unfortunately while he did play very well WB (with Brady), it's the stinkers he had DD (during Dorsey) that people will remember. Josh really played below his standards against the Jets in the opener, against the Jags in London, against the Pats in that inexcusable loss, and against the Broncos in the 12-men game. The only time the Bills lost when he played well was the OT game against the Eagles. The four losses were not completely attributable to Josh's poor play, but it's natural to point to those four games. Almost a quarter of the season. I don't think Josh's great play in the other 13 games makes up for those four.

For the vet minimum, sure. Let's see what he's got left. But some team will offer him millions and the Bills won't compete for him.