BADOLBILZ

Article is part of ESPN+ https://www.espn.com/nfl/insider/story/_/id/37892244/2023-season-roster-rankings-starting-lineups-all-32-nfl-teams 1. Chiefs 2. Eagles 3. Buffalo Bills Strongest unit: Safety. Micah Hyde and Jordan Poyer have been nothing short of elite since teaming up in Buffalo in 2017. Both are 32 years old and missed substantial time in 2022, so perhaps a slip in play could be in store. But Buffalo will have a healthy Damar Hamlin and newcomer Taylor Rapp (who played 90% of the Rams' defensive snaps in 2022) as quality depth. -- Clay Weakest unit: Wide receiver depth. Stefon Diggs is elite, but No. 2 WR Gabe Davis was limited to a situational deep-threat role for most of 2022. Davis is back, but Cole Beasley, Isaiah McKenzie and Jamison Crowder are gone and will be "replaced" by journeymen Deonte Harty and Trent Sherfield and Day 3 fliers Khalil Shakir and Justin Shorter. Buffalo will need a big rookie season from versatile tight end Dalton Kincaid. -- Clay X factor for 2023: Safeties Jordan Poyer and Micah Hyde. Two years ago they fueled the league's best defense, but in 2022 they combined for just 14 games played. Both are up in there in age, but do they have one more strong season left in them? -- Walder Nonstarter to know: WR Deonte Harty. In 2021, Harty was efficient with a 30% target rate and a 2.9 yards per route run that trailed only those of Cooper Kupp, Deebo Samuel and Davante Adams. Injuries limited him in 2022, but those numbers still have me intrigued. -- Walder 4. Dolphins

Yeah he's 30 and MVS was 28 when he got his deal.........but he's also been better than MVS had been in his career and in the last few years. Or Gabe for that matter. When healthy. That's the biggest key with him. They all track as 600 yard per season type of average type guys........Parker just does it in less games because he misses more time injured and catches a lot more of the passes thrown to him. The other two separate better on deep routes and get more yards per catch. I don't think it's a good deal........nor is the MVS deal and nor will the Gabe deal for whoever signs him. But that does appear to be the going rate.

That's the market for guys like Gabe and MVS. Big boundary WR who you hope will be your WR3 if all goes right.

That's what guys "you hope end up as your veteran boundary WR3 in a dynamic offense" money looks like. He's in the MVS and Gabe category. I don't think it puts them out on Hopkins at all.

He could buy into Daryl Williams offensive line camp business.........Trench Mob Academy........and make it "The Mob That Beane Built". https://www.facebook.com/people/Trench_Mobb_academy/100087945522389/

Star Lotulelei.........playing with his $350K covid pay on the couch during the 2020 season. Bills are fined a 3rd round comp pick in 2024 draft since he can't be suspended.

Who said the Bills offense is "in trouble or going to be bad next year"? I've literally never seen someone say anything like that here or anywhere in print (edit: THIS offseason). Unfortunately, the further we get into the offseason some people just forget that the games aren't played on paper. At this time last year people were assuming Rodger Saffold was going to be a solid veteran addition and dreaming on what OJ Howard and Jamison Crowder were going to do in the Bills offense. Some even thought Tavon Austin was about to come into his own. Seriously, they were. Maybe you were one of them?

1. The premise of tweet the thread is "according to PFF". So why are you taking it up with me instead of the OP? 2. Since the premise of the thread is "according to PFF".........McGovern was terrible per pff. Not bad as a pass blocker but totally unplayable bad in the run game.......and ya' know.........there isn't such a thing as a 3rd down guard now is there? 3. Yep Harty and Sherfield = McKenzie and Kumerow.........in enough ways that it wouldn't even be a surprise if they weren't an upgrade. I do think that since he's a name changer it would be a show of solidarity for Deonte to change his last name to "Sharty" since he's part of Sherfield, Shakir and Shorter WR's 3-6 unit. And it's not about being optimistic or pessimistic..........you can dream on James Cook rushing for 2,000 yards and not be proven wrong until January. It's about what is realistic to expect. After guys are 4-5 years into the league they very rarely change from a nobody to a star out of nowhere. It's pretty rare.

They *might* but it's definitely not "likely". Way too many other factors could make that not the case. No different than saying adding a player will make us win X amount more games. Can't quantify it like that. Or like Aaron Rodgers *might* return to being the league MVP now that he's away from the toxic relationship he had with Green Bay management.......and the Jets *might* then be a SB contender with Rodgers opposite last years #1 defense. I'm not just trying to point out the negative...........I mean, if Von Miller is back healthy or AJ Epenesa has a breakout year or Rousseau and Oliver make big improvements the Bills *might* have the best pass rush in football. Could happen too.

According to PFF they addressed their interior OL problem with 2 OL that were bad in 2022 and two rookies. I get that fans want to imagine that guys like McGovern, Edwards, Harty and Sherfield will all play SO MUCH better than they were last year because Beane's crystal ball has foretold it...........but they are just shots in the dark not an indication that they've surely made strides in those areas of weakness.

I don't think Beane is really a puppet to that level..........but no question that McDermott is the most powerful man in the organization so it stands to reason that things that he has a strong conviction on will take precedent over whatever personal vision Beane might have. If Beane is getting lead around more than it seems though.........then it only moves Beane further into the pack of NFL GM's.

That's super retro. Definitely a lot better than the grazer alone. The Buffalo actual has some action but the one on the guys helmet looks like a prawn. That style of carrying the football harkens back to a day when RB's fumbling was tolerated a lot more. How about this one?

These jerseys are excellent but the grazer logo on the helmet always kills it. That small period in time that they wore that target on their helmet holds a special place with old timers but the charging Buffalo has been around 50 years now. Sometimes with throwbacks it's important to remember they were thrown AWAY for a good reason. Just like the Detroit Lions ripoffs they wore at their inception.

Jefferson is the best WR in the NFL by a significant margin. Hockenson is a 900+ yard TE so way ahead of Dawson Knox as a weapon. Osborn is a proven 650 yard type slot. Addison is projected to be a WR1 level of player in short order himself. Perhaps they are a little highly ranked overall but compare them to the Bills and the Vikings look better on paper at all those positions. The unknown is Dalton Kincaid........but it's hard to blame people if they aren't as sold that he will be able to become a good slot receiver right off the bat as they are that a guy like Addison will transition more easily to his position in the NFL. I think Osborn-like production would be considered a success for the Bills by those outside of Buffalo. I think most Bills fans expect more than the Vegas over/under on all these receivers would be but the other guys they have in the slot are low pedigree guys who have proven a lot less than Osborn so if the Kincaid experiment unfortunately proves to be something more like Mike Gesicki in Miami last year........that position could be a huge weakness again.

Nah Barnwell isn't clickbait.........he's very thorough and one of the best minds in the media covering the NFL. But like everyone else he is hit and miss with predictions like this doozy: Bill Barnwell, ESPN AFC Championship Game: Bills 35, Chiefs 27 NFC Championship Game: 49ers 17, Buccaneers 13 Super Bowl LVII: Bills 27, 49ers 17

I think part of your confusion is that you think the Bills and Chiefs have had equal amounts of capital to invest in their teams since McDermott arrived. That's simply not the case...........the Bills have had much more capital to use..........they've always finished behind the Chiefs so always had earlier original picks. (Except in 2018 when they OWNED the Chiefs pick after trading them an all-time great kinda' QB in exchange for picks they used on a CB and MLB. See a pattern there? ) And the Bills spent $100M in UFA in 2018(grossly overpaying bad defensive players) and then went into 2019 with the better part of $100M to spend and yet have since spent much farther into the future than a KC team who had been to the playoffs year after year and had just won a SB and subsequently had a lesser budget to make changes with. It's pretty impressive that you can look at what the Bills have invested in money and first round picks etc. on defense in McDermott's tenure and not see the significant disparity. The entire starting defense last season was either a 1st round pick or on an expensive veteran contract(or both in Edmunds case). By comparison, the Chiefs have had a much more balanced approach despite having less assets at their disposal they've been well ahead of the Bills in addressing their offense with quality. They haven't clung to every defensive player of note and extended their contracts like the Bills have. They haven't given middling players inexplicable contracts for unrealistic roles on their offensive line like the Bills have. They haven't just assumed 4th-5th round picks or cheap flyers will be adequate as WR2 and WR3 like the Bills did last season. Now this is not to say that the Chiefs are the gold standard for offensive talent.........they've probably gotten a bit arrogant and I agree with Bill Barnwell at ESPN that they are back half of the league in terms of weapons available on offense. But part of their tradeoff is that they have a top 3 kinda' OL as well. And until proven otherwise the Bills are worse at both playmakers and OL than the Chiefs.

Yeah but Bar Bill isn't an exception. What local place has been like a Bills Backers bar? People have a misunderstanding about these local places and the area's connection to the Bills. It was much more of a love/hate relationship with the team when these places created their identities. I can remember sitting in those stands in the late 80's and early 90's and wondering how these 30-50 year olds could hate Ralph so much when they had assembled the deepest roster in the AFC and were going to SB's. It was very much an us against him mentality. Didn't change until the kids who had known nothing but winning started buying tickets in the early 2000's that it began to change. And then Ralph rewarded those suckers with a drought and cash to the cap.

It's not about what I like. The Chiefs have paid TOP DOLLAR for 3 OL from other teams the past 3 offseasons. Top of the market players, not "the other" Conor McGovern. They've drafted a WR in the second round in 3 of the past 5 drafts....each of the last 2.........and traded 3rd round value to acquire the talented Kadarius Toney........and paid MVS $10M aav to be WR3 for a 3 year run(not a 1 year flyer)...........so they subsequently have a WR corps with higher pedigree overall than the Bills despite the Bills having an elite WR1. Instead the Bills have kept 6 of their veteran back 7 together with second contracts and paid a bunch of DL.........and taken a lot more half measures to try to "patch" holes on offense. Example? Where the Chiefs have 2 rookie contract starters on the best interior OL in the league..........the Bills interior OL is considered very suspect but has 3 projected starters on second contracts. You can try to reverse engineer it all you want but the Chiefs have kept investing bigger chips into their offense right along........the Bills allowed their offensive talent to deteriorate in 2021-2022 and are now playing catch up without much cap flexibility left.

Agree.........but I'd also add that the concept of local satisfaction with Bills ownership is a very new thing. Ralph was not well liked.......and really distrusted at best.......by the age demographic that frequented local town bars in the 80's and 90's. So they certainly weren't going to paper the walls at these places with advertisements for his product. Big Tree and Danny's aren't wall-to-wall Bills either. By the time the kids of the SB generation came of age and delivered the first unconditional love for the team since the 1960's.......the team was in the drought. I think you can still see the remnants of that Ralph resentment in the neighborhoods around the stadium as well. Bills fans finally wised up and created their own identity as Bills Mafia to give us some leverage in this relationship......and the Pegula's taking over came a few years later and you can see the area around the stadium gradually becoming more Bills "themed" every year.

Yeah the Bills have thrown a bunch of 3rd rounders into the offense in recent years so if you want to draw the line THERE it looks closer.........but the Chiefs have used a 1st or 2nd round pick.....the real big chips......on offense every year since 2019. The Chiefs have clearly invested a lot more big chips into the OL. Making Joe Thuney highest paid G in the NFL in 2021. First rounder and franchise money for Orlando Brown in 2021. $20M aav for Jawaan Taylor in 2023. They have 3 WR on their roster that are 1st or 2nd rounders in the past 3 drafts. Also worth noting that the Bills have made the mistake of using 3 picks in the first 3 rounds on RB's........the Chiefs have only done so once........and those picks depreciate rapidly once driven off the lot. Cook is the only 1 of the 4 who figures prominently in the plans for their team. So I think the gap wider than your analysis leads you to believe. Beane has admittedly been careless with money though........but it's been death by 1,000 cuts by comparison........things like throwing washouts like Rodg Saffold $6M. And the Bills did invest first and second rounders in this past draft but because they had invested so little into OL and receiving positions in recent offseason they are really playing catch up at this point.

It's always been the same quality to me at both places but there is a lot more elbow room at the one near you. You can have a long lunch meeting at that Williamsville/Clarence one.......the East Aurora one the seating is so sparse that the feeling that you are costing the wait staff money by not getting in-and-out quick is palpable.

I'd flip those, if anything. Talent evaluation is a big weakness for Beane. He's not a scout, he's a suit and he's good at the executive duties. But wrt personnel his strength has just been that he's been given an unlimited checkbook. His track record in free agency is just brutal. McDermott is nowhere near as bad at anything as Beane has been wrt pro personnel. In the draft he's been better but has some clear strategic flaws......like drafting RB's early three times now and/or reaching for perceived needs in round 2. I'm hoping he gets better as a talent evaluator. Howie Roseman got better, hopefully Beane does the same.

KC is a good organization with a great QB. So is Buffalo. The notable differences between the two are how they allocate their assets first and the combination of Reid and Spagnuolo's experience second. First, they surround Mahomes with better talent than the Bills do, by investing more into that side of the ball. Indisputably so. And Reid was the NFL's biggest playoff choker of the 2000's for the first 20 years of his HC career. In fact, his teams have still been upset in the playoffs 3 times in the last 6 years. But with the talent at his disposal on offense and Spags SB winning coordinator experience coaching up their relatively modest investments on D, Reid has been able to focus on fiddling with his play sheet a lot more instead of the game management that he has always struggled with when playing with closer or inferior talent margins on offense. Winning a SB finally has made him look like a genius and makes people forget him blowing so many playoff games in his career.......including AFC title games at home to NE and Cinci in the last 5 years. And forget that he was 2 games under .500 in the playoffs after his first 20 years. I'm not going to argue that the Chiefs aren't going to become a dynasty because winning SB's is how you judge that and they are 1 win away from that distinction.........but they haven't manhandled the competition so let's not get carried away with the praise either. They won 2 closely contested SB games and got blown out as a prohibitive favorite in that span. Impressive but hardly the Steel Curtain of the 70's or the Cowboys of the 90's. As far as Allen running the ball 7-8 times per game..........Cam Newton had a 5 year sample too. He used to bounce back up and laugh after every hit like nothing hurt him. His career got cut short. QB's don't take the level of punishment over the long haul that Allen has endured the past couple of seasons and not have it shorten their careers. It's gotta' revert to 2020 level at least........where he can run but can get down and not have to get 6 yards per rush attempt. I'm not saying I am looking forward to a lot less athleticism from Allen because watching guys like Tom Brady or Joe Burrow play the position is as to watch paint dry. Boring AF by comparison. But there needs to be a medium. Mahomes is right there. About half as many rush attempts as Josh.

Yeah if Josh Allen doesn't have to run 7-8x per game for upwards of 40-50 yards to keep the offense on schedule and remain top 2-3 in the league.........then they will have likely solved the problem of not-good-enough weapons around him. The organization says they want him to take less hits but they don't say let's just punt the ball once or twice more per game instead. The last two seasons he's had to run more......and extend those runs......in order to keep the chains moving and maintain the kind of offensive pace that they established in 2020. By comparison, Patrick Mahomes has had better weapons and/or a better OL and runs about half as often.