BADOLBILZ

That's great........being able to beat KC early in the season the past two years should have been part of attaining the #1 seed( if not for the annual mid-season McMalaise). But playoff football is where they lag. The Bills defense hasn't been able to raise their level of play against good QB's when needed in the playoffs..........which appears to be an issue with the system......and the system is built around Tremaine...........and other contenders have been able to adapt better to their opponents.

As good as 2020? Definitely not. Lowest yards per target since 2016. Lower ypr and catch % than we are used to. Look at Julio Jones 2020..........he had a similar 9 game slate to what Hopkins had in 2022.........and he was far more explosive than Hopkins........his 15 ypr, 75% catch rate and 11.3 yards per target blew Hopkins 2022 numbers out of the water. The fall off happened fast for Julio. Remember that Hopkins was suspended for using PED's that he is now being tested much more regularly for. The system is an intentional sham designed to be beaten......if you aren't in the program you get tested a couple times a year and you know almost exactly when that will be and just have to mask it. He blew it. I don't care that he's juicing, lot's of players are. But if he can't take them any longer he could fall off significantly. Not JUST performance but also the ability to stay healthy. And you don't lose all the juice immediately so don't presume that looking good in the same calendar year that he was caught means that he's not impacted by not having them. Often times it's the year after when significant issues prop up. As A-Rod.

I didn't think they'd get more than a late 3rd for Oliver in trade due to his 8 figure base salary.........but Hargrave getting $20M+ per year is good for Ed Oliver's trade value. I don't think Denver would part with Jeudy for less than a late #1 value but maybe there is an exception.

Which is a very important component of Jeudy's value. He's inexpensive. And there is also the concern that Hopkins is in permanent decline and not just the victim of misfortune the past two seasons. We just witnessed AJ Green and Julio Jones fall down similarly around age 30......assumed they could bounce back because of how great they had been.......and yet they did not. Same concern with OBJ........but, of course, OBJ doesn't require draft pick compensation. Time is on Jeudy's side.

I call him the bond company stooge but I would never kidnap him. That would be a very Jeff Goldblum move, the height of rudeness. My guess is he might have gotten caught up in the rash of small bank closings. Full service branches being turned into person-less ATM only locations and loan officers being regionalized........and no longer has the type of desk job that allows him to stay on top of all Bills related info all day. And perhaps like a collector who can't keep his collection up to date........he's just lost interest in the process altogether. It's not a coincidence that(just like 26CB) NOBODY seems to know how to reach him. I collected sports cards and records avidly at different points as a kid and when I quit those hobbies I didn't go around to tell all the industry nerds I'd met along the way that I quit. They were really just acquaintances..........which is what you all were to Yoyo.

Yeah but what about the Texans and Jaguars? Gotta' keep up with them. It's funny how we have these myth busters who create these posts that only re-inforce the reality that they are trying to mythologize.

$11M (after roster bonus) for Dalvin Cook? Austin Ekeler is making $6M and put up 1600+ yards and close to 20 TD's. The Bills are going to be paying Nyheim Hines over $4M PLUS incentives that can take that deal over $5M to be RB3 and people want to add an $11M RB on top of that? Beane can't be that out of touch with RB value.

So you wanted to pay $20M for a RT? The Chiefs are rolling the dice that his game will elevate up to LT level........but he is a big step down from the 2020 Orlando Brown they acquired.........who was an actually dominant RT in Baltimore and who had also proven himself at LT that season. I think "grass is just greener on other side" types like you should recognize that the Bills have a RT with a very high ceiling as well.

Hopefully, if his game elevates like it did for Diggs.

Jeudy was injured his second season but his 1st and 3rd seasons were quite similar to the start of Diggs career. I think a lot of people misremember what kind of WR Diggs was at Minnesota.........Diggs wasn't considered a top 5 WR there........that happened in Buffalo. And Diggs value was tamped down by having a $15M aav contract............Jeudy has a sub $3M cap hit in 2023.

Did they contact Arizona to ask them if Dhop was a speed guy and they were like nah?

Yeah.......what some don't understand is that the only way to prevent tampering is to not allow agents to talk to GM's. They talk all the time. Deals have been getting negotiated since the end of the season. Since every team does it, there is an unwritten understanding. The only time that it's a problem is when a player is under contract. Stephen Ross obviously thought wining and dining DeShaun and Brady were covered by the code. They were not. Teams are ok with free agent discussions but not outright negotiating with their under contract players without their permission a year before they are even eligible for UFA.

Matakevich might as well just move right into Chuck Lester's old role as LB coach when he retires from the Bills in 2035. That f*cking guy just won't die whether he has a pulse on the roster or not.

Doesn't sound like much of a pay cut and incentives can take him OVER his $4.9M? WTF Beane? Hines is clearly going to be RB3.........that shouldn't cost anything in excess of $2M total.........and not $2M with future dead money. Hines should have been cut and allowed to test the market..........the kind of pay cut he should have required are the kind that don't work out unless the player is allowed to test his true worth on the market. Pay cuts in general are bad business. Every time Beane asks for one the player effort/buy-in shifts into double low. See Vernon Butler and opt-out year Star Lotulelei as the prior examples. The player needs to be able to see his value to appreciate their position..........case in point Beasley refusing a pay cut down from $7M and then being grateful to be accepted back onto the practice squad 6 months later. It's human nature for workers to check out when you cut their pay. Sign Jamaal Williams next for $4M-$5M and they can have a $10M backfield without even having a star RB in it. 😂

Yeah Volpe accomplished a rare feat hitting 20 HR and stealing 50 bases in the minors last year. It's kind of a cherry picked combo of stats.......but there hadn't been a player to do that at any level of the minor leagues in over a decade. He put on a bunch of muscle during the lost covid season, before that he had very little pop and was mainly a contact guy. He has a high effort, violent swing kinda' like Don Mattingly had when he came up. That's not a comp, just an observation. He's not as naturally talented a hitter as Gleyber Torres but he's a much smarter, focused player. Torres gives bats and plays away with his casual approach all the time.......Volpe never does. They both over-swing but Volpe works to stay closed and keep his bat "in the zone" longer(see the 4th post in thread of Volpe practicing staying in the zone) while Torres is constantly flying open and trying to pull everything. I don't think Volpe will stay at SS, Oswald Peraza and Oswaldo Cabrera both have a lot more range and a stronger throwing arm and with shifts banned those things are more important now. But he has a chance to be everything that we hoped Torres would be.........and the expectations on Torres were huge.

Nice weekend for prospects........Volpe and Dominguez continue to rake.

Syracuse seems to be f*cked in the NIL world of college sports.

The RB addition for this team shouldn't be a significant part of their offseason work. James Cook should be getting half the carries at least either way. I'm sure it's probably just Williams agent leaking info to drum up interest in him but if he's not a cheap signing he's a waste. Yeah, he's a good blocker and solid short yardage guy.........but the likelihood is you are getting the Green Bay version.........which will look a lot like a taller Zack Moss.

When you hire a culture guy instead of an innovator..........you've chosen the longer path. But it's a win-now league so criticism follows coaches like McDermott who are great during the week but a work-in-progress on Sundays. Don't get yourself exercised about it. The criticisms might be exaggerated but not unwarranted. McDermott(and Beane) have to get better at what they do if they expect to win a SB. I actually like that McD is probably taking over the defensive play calling. That represents an attempt at progress with disregard to the potential for added accountability.

Yeah the important optics are that it's something that ownership has to pay for though. NYSIF charges a figure based on per $100 paid to employee.......so essentially a tax rate. It's significant........it's in the millions in annual contributions that an NFL team has to make and I'd expect it to be more like 8 figures given the high risk nature of the job. You have to offer an alternative privately funded option if you are taking it away though. I've been perplexed how this notoriously frugal franchise has been able to steal some free agents that the Bills were also interested in. DJ Reader in particular. Why do players sign on with that team?

I'm bemused by the McDermott criticism. He's very predictably been too defense-oriented but that was a given when he was hired. He wasn't McVay or Shanahan and everyone should have known that at hiring. And he isn't great at game management. But he's getting better. But coaches like McDermott do win SB's. Cases in point Bill Cowher and Andy Reid. Yes, Reid. Philly was too defense oriented under him and his clock management was often horrific. He tried to win with less on offense.....in KC early on as well........and fell short over and over. Took him a couple decades and a lot of circumstance to turn into a genius. I knew McD wasn't a quick fix guy so I guess I'm not surprised that he hasn't won a SB in essentially just 3 legit chances to do so.

I haven't seen it reported that the Bills were interested in Derrick Henry. Just a "here's a cool idea" suggestion by a sports writer. Like the one in TBN about how the Bills should trade Elam and a 2nd rounder for Jalen Ramsey. They WERE at OBJ's workout and have been linked to him consistently though.

Having to leave your feet to catch the ball is a definite sign that you are a hack as a receiver......can't walk and chew gum.....so there is that. That was the reason Andre Holmes sucked.

They both suck in pass pro. 6 sacks isn't good by any means. After 11 games this season Saffold was crowing that he hadn't allowed a sack per PFF. He ended up only allowing 2 on 1058 snaps. You saw how terrible he was. Everyone thinks Spencer Brown was impossibly bad and he only allowed 4 sacks on 858 snaps per PFF. There aren't many good RT's because there doesn't need to be. The focus by fans on trying to improve RT position with a big name is misguided. You can have a good OL with a not good RT. The quality of blockers is most important at LT and the guard positions. RT's can be helped by TE and RB's chipping and the QB can see the rusher coming if he is right handed. Centers aren't tasked with a lot of single blocking on passing downs anymore either.

I agree......it's mostly accounting. One advantage the Bills currently have is that there is one ownership entity.......Kim and Terry. For the Chiefs, "they" is the important part. Decisions about putting many millions of dollars in escrow to push salary cap debt down the line are split up among all of the heirs of Lamar Hunt. The guy who most people think owns the team, Clark Hunt, only holds about 1/8 of the Hunt family wealth.