BADOLBILZ

Oh the league will force it if he hits the market. There are about 20 starting RB's in UFA this year........including guys who had better years than Cook and are younger. Time is not on his side and he finished the year poorly with 3.5 ypc in last 7 games.........he should milk Minnesota for a re-structure and save what he can because it's a very fast drop from getting paid 8 figures to the veteran minimum for 28 year old RB's with his kind of mileage.

IMO it was just a title added to his DB's coach job to get him to stay in Buffalo..........like an assistant HC title. If Frazier gets fired John Butler is very likely the first in line for the DC job.

Broader analysis aside.......if they didn't nail the Josh Allen pick I think McDermott's 0-6 start against Belichick becomes 0-10 by 2021.......0-4 without Brady.......and I don't see McBeane surviving that indignity let alone getting to 0-12.

Dalvin should get REAL interested in a pay cut.

Not featured? Pacheco had about 600 touches at Rutgers..........about twice what James Cook had at Georgia.............that's PLENTY of usage...........you don't want or need to see anymore than that. The elite, durable athletes stopped playing RB about 15 years ago. That's when the "wall" for runners started retreating from age 30 down to age 26. It's been my opinion that once you start seeing 700-800 touches at the college level I expect the wear and tear to show pretty early at the pro level............and as it so happens that has been the case with Etienne and Hall blowing tires as rookies. Pacheco didn't produce more at Rutgers because he's not an instinctive runner and Rutgers wasn't winning at the LOS......so there were a lot of ineffective collisions and a paltry average of about 4 yards per carry. He's not a "stud". But when you can block like KC can.........you don't need all the tools of a great RB to produce like one. Which is all that matters at the position. Producing yardage and executing assignments. Doesn't matter who does it.........you can turn over your RB roster every year and still run the ball well. The same can't be said for the passing game athletes or the OL etc..........which is why RB is the least important individual position on the offense.

True. And fwiw Miller was having one of the best seasons of his career............on a per-play basis probably the best since his greatest season in 2012. Beane has been terrible at signing free agents from other teams but the Miller signing was looking great, IMO. The other DL signings and Saffold were all clear overpays even at the time...........which I can't understand.........they need to know that Rodger Saffold is a league minimum vet at that point in his career(not $6M) and the same with Jordan Phillips. Even Daquan Jones, who played well, was a $4M per year market kinda' player........his salary the season prior in Carolina..........and the Bills have a $9M cap hit on him for 2023. I'm constantly perplexed by the valuations he comes up with in UFA.

I'm shocked to hear that an athlete would use a charitable foundation for financial gain.........we need more athletes like Big Ern McCracken who have their priorities in order.

He's very handsy with the women.........there was a segment earlier this season with that goofy Browns fan woman that works for NFLN and after the segment he puts his arm around her and leans into her and gives her a big squeeze and you can see on her face the distress about it. I think he's losing his mind.

Neither the Jets or the Bills had good lines last year. Yet Breece Hall finished with about the same numbers as James Cook............5.8 ypr versus 5.7 for Cook.......and Cook had more carries and didn't blow his knee out doing it. So are you also suggesting the Jets should select Bijan Robinson or are they all set for the next 10 years with the knee braced Breece? Hall wasn't an option to the Bills outside of selecting him in round 1 and while I didn't care for the Cook selection either I am not too busted up about having a potential CB1 in Elam versus having Breece Hall. CB is an island position.......while RB is the position on offense that is most reliant on others. Hall and Cook had good numbers but over the course of a larger sample size they won't do that without better blocking. Pacheco wasn't a steal.........he was the right amount of investment in the right amount of talent. You can get winning production from late round or UDFA backs.

The Eagles have invested a bit more in their OL but a lot of their success is due to longevity they got from Jason Peters and later Jason Kelce and Lane Johnson.......that allowed them time to develop young OL. Their OL isn't all first rounders........their LT Mailata is a 7th......C Kelce was a 6th.......Seumalo was a 3rd rounder who is just breaking out now at age 29. They've had periods where their OL was seen as bad and that lead to Andre Dillard selection.......who has basically been a bust........though he's coming around and might even be a Bills guard target in UFA this offseason.

Where Beane has really failed is in free agency. In 5 offseason the only "value" free agent he's added and gotten production from is Daryl Williams. It's hard to be that inefficient. All the good external free agents he signed he paid top of the market for........even last season when money was tight............and the amount he grossly overpaid to some in those 5 offseasons is staggering. Not just the 2018 class where he dumped about $100M on dud starters..........it's all the $6M-$7M aav deals for backups like Nsekhe, Norman, Klein, Butler etc...........you can't pay backups that kind of money.

Yes. It was a bad look and aged terribly.......Ford didn't even make it thru camp as a tackle ....but it made for the kind of "fan-like" mindset that much of the fanbase loves to see from management. Since then I think they've kept things that might make them look stupid on the cutting floor when editing their Bills Imbedded stuff.

He's more than that.........and that's where the underlying data helps tell the real story. As a rookie, playing in a rotation, he tied for the NFL lead in run stops by a defensive lineman. This isn't Edmunds-mystery impact analysis.........Rousseau literally produces and that's why he stands out in the final analysis. The sacks that he gets that some see as "cheap" are often deep, in-pocket sacks that bendy, arch running DE's can't get because they are 5+ yards past the LOS before they get around their block. In that regard.......he and Miller make a great 1-2 punch. And yes, they lost that when Miller went down.......but people act like Von Miller's production wasn't Rousseau-aided. Von Miller was on pace for his best pass rush production per-snap since 2012.

1. Get a worthy #2 WR 2. Bolster the OL and pick a run blocking identity and stick to it(preferably not outside zone, IMO) At RB James Cook is your lead back........so I sift thru the free agents.........there are a ton of productive ones in UFA because reasonable teams don't invest picks or big dollars into RB's........and add one that fits and is very cheap and then get in the habit of finding your RB's late in the draft. Like KC did with Pacheco. They made an idiotic move by drafting a RB(CEH) in round 1 a couple years ago and have since adopted an almost zero investment policy and it's paid off......because they can block and because there are always capable RB's available all over the draft or in free agency and sometimes even off the street. If you can block your Raheem Blackshear's will produce on the ground.

They just re-structured his contract in early January to make a release easier. If he's cut and designated a June 1st casualty the Saints can actually save just over $1M in cap space in 2023. If they keep him he gets a massive $30M+ roster bonus..........coming off 3 injury plagued seasons. The odds are that he's cut prior to that roster bonus coming due.

His game was the deep ball and screens. His 2020 was injury marred but when healthy he gave the Bills explosiveness in those aspects that they no longer had in 2021. Really could have used a WR who could take a screen pass to the house in that Jax loss in 2021, for example. And yes, he did take screen passes for TD's in Buffalo. 3 I believe.......Baltimore, Jets and Seattle. By the end of the 2020 season the entire WR corps was banged up and the Bills went into the offseason saying they needed MORE explosiveness.........then their only move was to sign a washed, unexplosive vet in Emmanuel Sanders. They went into the 2022 offseason with a gaping hole at slot receiver and just threw a couple $2M contracts at it with McKenzie and Crowder. Their season ended with a QB lacking confidence in the teams short game. And for good reason. This is why they are where they are with their WR corps. It's deteriorated greatly.

Or he just didn't recover well enough after the high ankle sprain that sidelined him to have the same impact. Also he was much better early in his rookie year when he was getting more pressure and had the interception of Mahomes in KC than he was later. Next season he needs to put together a full season..........but even if he gets 14-15 sacks he will never impress some fans because his style isn't going to look dynamic........there won't be a lot of bending, leaping or lunging to get his sacks..........he will make lots of simple looking plays(that others don't have the ability to)........and they count the same as dynamic looking ones.

He's still a very solid possession receiver when healthy but I agree that he's about shot..........and I suspect he will go to KC on a value deal. The rebound guy I expect the Bills to have a shot at on a prove-it deal is Michael Thomas. Lower floor(availability) but higher ceiling. I was never a big fan of Thomas back when he was dominating because so much of his game is about physicality at the catch point and a few years ago there wasn't much contact allowed in the secondary so you just wanted guys who could get open. That's changed. Thomas is a big slot that runs good routes and catches EVERYTHING he gets a hand on...........part of the issue with Josh Allen this year IMO was a lack of trust in the slot garbage they were marching out there.........Thomas is a guy you just throw it to and if he's healthy he's elite. If he's not.........you got issues but ideally the risk aligns with the contract and they also get a WR early in the draft too. For some reason I think he had a connection to the Bills as well..........like he grew up a big Bills fan or something. Keenan Allen I just think stays out west.

I'm with you..........and you address needs in free agency and via trade where you can expect immediate results. The draft you gotta' let come to you for the most part...........you don't draft Cody Ford just because "we need a tackle" (as Brandon Beane famously said on Bills Embedded)........you pick the best available player at a premium position in round 1.........and try to do the same in round 2. If that's defense it's unfortunate timing........but so be it.

You like the way NBA teams just halfass it all season and how it's so easy to back into playoff spots at the end? I enjoy the NBA for what it is but their regular season setup sucks. I don't love the NFL divisions........I preferred the 3 division setup to the 4......but fairness dictates 8 four team divisions. And they ultimately do create late season drama that is fairly easy for the league to guesti-schedule into existence............see the Jax/TN and Balt/Cinci matchups at the end of the year.

Simple. The quality of their WR corps declined dramatically from 2020-2022. First they lost explosiveness in 2021 (losing prime Brown and Beasley losing a step from 2020). Then also their savvy in 2022 (losing the washed but technically still reliable versions Sanders and Beasley).

When is the last time adding a stud RB took the pressure off a top 3 passer and established MVP candidate and resulted in a SB win that would have been otherwise out of reach? Gotta' go back to the late 90's with Terrell Davis and then Marshall Faulk going to StL. Doesn't work that way anymore. By far the two most likely things that would come out of the Bills using a 1st round pick on a RB are ultimately MORE pressure on McBeane either way: 1. Either they give the ball to a RB more and start winning less because they are taking the ball out of the hands of an MVP candidate in Josh Allen and trading 8 yards per play for 5. 2. Or they don't give the ball to the 1st and 2nd round RB's 50% of the time and then every time they lose a game they have to explain why they didn't give the ball to those RB's they invested premium picks in consecutive years into. There are a lot of reasons to not over-invest in a RB but one of them definitely is that a 1st round RB needs 250-350 touches...........and those aren't there in this offense with an MVP level QB...........and even if they were a lot of them would have to come at the expense of James Cook who had ELITE numbers per play in both the rush and receiving part of the game.

They are just floating nonsense out there because the Bills cause a conundrum for them...........their job is to assign players to needs.........and they don't really have a good feel for what the Bills would do if they were drafting desperately for need. I will give Beane more credit than they..........thus far he's used his 1st rounders to address premium positions........CB's, Pass Rushers, QB, WR.......with the only exception being Edmunds but I do think they thought they were getting a lot better player in Edmunds than they have gotten. RB's are the bottom of the food chain.

Yeah I loved Reddick as well........he was often mentioned as a trade or cut candidate in Arizona and it always intrigued me because the guy can get to the QB..........when you have a player like that you put him in position to succeed and naturally, a smart organization did. The thing is.........if Epenesa breaks out he will get PAID.........there will be no "tweener" discount like Reddick had to take because AJE has ideal size/length for a 4-3 NFL DE........and I can't see the Bills affording that in 2024. The best scenario was for him to break out this season while the Bills still had some contract leverage and so that he figured into decision making ahead of spending on Edmunds/Poyer. I think they will try to find $30M to spend($50M in cap adjustments) this offseason on UFA's and draft picks and that they aren't budgeting in either Ed Oliver or Epenesa. Either way I think those 2 are gone. Their next big ticket home grown target is probably trying to get Rousseau locked up in the 2025 offseason.

Why not, though? Get Diggs open quick........get the ball out of Allen's hand a lot quicker.........solves a lot of the Bills offensive problems. They still have to add another receiver.........but I could see Diggs having an 1800 yard season and 15 TD's from the slot.........maybe the slot work takes a year off the back end of his career but it gives him a potential HOF-chance-boosting season...........and more importantly maybe it tacks a year or two onto Allen's career. Ideally the receiver you add can play both slot and outside as well..........I don't know if they can reach a SB without a good second WR........it seems to be a defining characteristic of SB winning teams in recent years.