BADOLBILZ

I suppose that it could be said that at least THIS TIME you didn't start an entirely new thread to specifically talk about your imaginary sports team........under the guise of your interest in others teams, of course. Of course, it is the REAL gameday thread so you probably figured it would get more looks this way.

It was because he is friends with former Padre Trevor Hoffman, so he was supporting his friend in a game he had no real rooting interest otherwise. LeBron is a Yankees fan. It wasn't a good look wearing that in Cleveland though. Tom Brady is also(hilariously) a Yankees fan but learned to not show it in Boston area.

That is one of the worst, whiny sore-loser takes I've ever read. Harrison tried to catch the ball and steal a TD on an intended throw away.........he subsequently got hit hard and entirely legally. I'm for taking all unnecessarily violent hits out of the game........but the hit Damar Hamlin laid in the end zone a couple weeks back was dirtier than that..........and accurately ruled a foul..........and it also prevented a TD. Were you screaming bloody murder about that legitimate targeting foul? Fock no because it benefited your cause. Don't be ridiculous. What a bunch of sore losers you Ohio people are...........your adopted team choked the game away and the kicker would have missed the final kick from extra point distance.........you got nothing to complain about.

Yep.......what a hack job at the end...........tough night for you and a lot of Bengals fans...........hopefully it's the beginning of a bad year for Ohio college and pro football teams.

From a box score scouting perspective? Yes. But different style receiver than Jameson Williams though. JW has the goods to do everything and showed that last season for Alabama. Hyatt might......but all he put on tape was a ton of vertical stuff.

Stefon Diggs would be that high end slot WR. Think Cooper Kupp. There aren't the obvious high end do-it-all, have-it-all types at the top of this draft like the last couple drafts...........but there are some big play outside guys and some promising slot receivers. At this point I expect the big play guys Quentin Johnston of TCU and Jalin Hyatt of Tennessee to go 1&2 unless JSN tests great. Hyatt is kinda' like a younger, more quality competition tested version of what Christian Watson was last year.

Josh is a lifelong SF Giants fan, of course........though he wore Padres gear to their playoff game on the bye week this fall. I give Canadians a lot of credit.........there are lot's of Bills fans in Ontario and basically no Jays or Raptors fans in WNY. Not that Toronto needs any fan support to be a mid-market in MLB and NBA........but the support is not reciprocated. I try to do my part by being a Ticats fan. More WNY sports fans support the Canadian Ballet than all Ontario based sports teams combined though. Ted Rogers trying to pinch the Bills didn't help matters.

He's not anywhere near the level of performer that Cornelius Bennett was. Bennett was an AFC DPOY........and though he failed to live up the Lawrence Taylor-esque expectations........he made big plays. Not as good as Antoine Winfield at this point either.

Sorry Jays and Boston sports fans............Buffalo is a Yankee town.

He used to be much more prone to missing tackles...........but not being a sure tackler has never been among his bigger issues. Poor instincts/awareness and ball skills are why he's a good player and not a great one. The ability to anticipate what is going to happen and acting quickly on it is what we perceive as instinct.........it's just processing power..........and over time he continues to get incrementally better at being where he should be in some regards.........but just due to experience. "The light" has never come on. He still struggles to find the football and make heady decisions in the heat of the moment. He's gotta' be close to a record for consecutive regular season games started by an NFL LB without forcing a fumble...........66 games and around 4,000 snaps I believe...........it's incredible. All that said..........I think that the Bills have seen enough this season that they are going to want to extend him and hope he keeps improving and the switch comes on late in his career. The edge he has over Ed Oliver as an extension candidate is that he has the prototypical frame. Oliver does not. I wouldn't be surprised if the Bills traded Oliver and his $10M cap figure this offseason to create space for Edmunds and to try to get bigger at the DT position. Would be great if one or both of these guys took their game to the higher levels they are both capable of in the remaining games and playoffs.

Anyone seen @eball lately?

That was like a 10 minute long, 75% rpm, banjo version of Yakkity Sax. Brutal.

It's actually not impossible.......or even that complicated. Every team can afford to have a QB1 and WR1 on big second contracts...........and then you need one WR1A on a rookie contract. It's literally where the Bills should be right now..........and hopefully will be next season.

The way the game was being called there was shaping up to be an abundance of players capable of being very productive WR in the NFL. That should serve to lower costs.........but given the success of what the Bills did in 2020........it did not. So I believe that the NFL owners decided last offseason to legislatively reign in the passing game to create financial separation between the WR1 and the pack of other receivers to stop the Gabe Davis types of the world from getting $20M Mike Williams deals. It's turned into an absolute mugging in the secondary all game this season. It's been the year of the handsy CB........as evidenced by rookie mugger Sauce Gardner being the highest rated CB in the NFL by some metrics. Meanwhile, the amount of RB's with 1500 scrimmage yards or more will likely double this season.

The mistake Beane has been making is drafting increasingly more for need because the roster has few holes, IMO. That's a recipe for disappointment. But I will say that......in general.........it's much easier to nail a draft when you have needs everywhere. Joe Douglas had a great draft but it might look a lot different if he didn't need everything and therefore have no conflict between need and BPA.

I thought their former starting guard from last season Hakeem Adeniji was starting at RT for Collins? He was pretty bad at guard but he's been active all season, not a PS player. Did he get injured too?

Charging up the WR room in 2020 was arguably the key step in the Bills rise from Bills being a scrappy WC contender to a legit SB contender. Sometimes it seems like Beane is the only one who doesn't understand what they'd actually done by building what at the time was a top 3 WR corps in the NFL around their young QB. Teams have been trying to build top 5 WR corps to elevate their young or underperforming QB's ever since and it's working. They need to get back there but they are chasing it now.........demand is up league-wide, UFA market is thin and there are less sure-thing types in the upcoming draft.........it won't be as easy to put it back together as it would have been to simply maintain it.

No, DE is a more premium position than C in the NFL..........this is reality. Good centers play a vital role but it's about supply and demand. A lot of OL can be good centers..........and just being good is plenty for that position. HOW good your edge and island players are is really how games are broken open so that's why they get paid the big bucks. Basham just wasn't a very good edge rushing prospect though, IMO. He was more of a mid-round base DE type prospect to me........and at that point I'd almost rather wait and take a late round flyer on a more athletic type.

Yeah he was exceptionally bad in that Miami game a couple weeks ago. Then he suddenly wasn't practicing..........which seems to imply he was hurt and maybe that was why he was so atrocious. The other day McD said he wasn't going to practice........and then he did practice.........I really don't know what the deal is but the last time he was on the field he was the Bills worst player on D and he was replaced by a practice squad player and the defense then dominated the best rushing team in the league.

I definitely agree in principle that an edge rusher is a premium position that is harder to fill than center............and that early picks should be expended on high ceiling players at premium positions. But I didn't think Basham qualified as one. Seemed like an over-aged JAG of a prospect to me. Humphrey was a generational type C prospect IMO..........I've seen lesser ones go in round 1 in certain years(like Eric Wood, for instance). Not sure if he will pan out but Humphrey was A LOT more likely to succeed than Basham. Even though I had reverence for Humphrey I wasn't broken up about not taking him because, as you said, centers are pretty easy to find and having a good one might actually be better for your cap situation long term than having the highest paid one. My focus as the Bills pick approached was LSU WR Terrace Marshall.........he almost made it to the Bills pick. I would have loved that pick. I loved the Spencer Brown pick too. Neither has been as good as I would have hoped thru 2 seasons but they both have more promise than Boogie, IMO. Hopefully he proves me wrong and finds some intangible way of improving because I just don't think he has the physical talent to live up to the hope.

He signed during UFA but it's fair to call him a street free agent..........he was released on January 8 and despite being able to negotiate with teams for 2+ months before UFA he was unable to secure a contract of any sort in that time. I tend to see street free agents as more of an in-season pickup but Nord is right............he was on the street for months and anyone could have signed him and they chose not to.........so the Bills picked him up for vet league minimum.

There is a part of you that misses the drought, isn't there? On SB Sunday nobody cares if a team won road playoff games to get there. Always best to be able to celebrate a SB march in your home stadium.