BADOLBILZ

Don't mistake his Project Runway dropout style for weakness

Dickerson was a GREAT radio personality. I have fond memories of his very entertaining shows. That show couldn't exist in WNY today because you can't REALLY be critical of the Bills and keep a job in local radio or tv. One of those great memories is hearing @Bill from NYC regularly calling into his postgame and expressing his Bills pride as we drove home from games. Dickerson was not a particularly successful coach but Casper Milquetoast.......as Dickerson used to call Marv Levy........had mostly sh!tty coaches anyway. Those late 80's and 90's Bills were totally driven by an outstanding personnel department. Chuck Knox brought a really good group of scouts with him from the Rams and they beget guys like Polian, Butler, AJ Smith and the great Dwight Adams. Buddy Nix was a really good scout in his day too.

Yeah I remember when the Bills were $32M under the cap in 2017 and McDermott(and Beane from Carolina) decided not to franchise tag and trade Gilmore...........and he immediately became the best free agent on the market, signed a huge deal with a division rival and the Bills got nothing for him. Sneed is good but Gilmore became the DPOY. When I questioned the obvious stupidity of not maximizing such an asset when they needed those draft picks to re-tool their team and get a young QB...........we had our usual folks talking about how not using the franchise tag made the Bills look like a more player-friendly organization to play for and benefit the Bills in free agency.

Good on you for volunteering to keep us all up to the minute on all 4 days of the combine workouts.

We domesticated dogs for our defense and to help hunt and kill prey. Not for cuddling. They've become wonderful pets but people just need to understand the caliber of weapon they are exposing others too. Which is largely dependent on the breed. If you want to own more potentially dangerous dogs keep them under lock and key and if they get out and hurt someone understand that it's the same as you hurting that person and you should expect to be prosecuted accordingly.

Butler is speaking highly of himself in the 3rd person. 99% of Bills fans did not wonder at any time recently why John Butler left. 98% thought he left 24 years ago and the other 1% understood the dynamic. There is a touch of humor in that follow up paragraph as well as perhaps a stroke of Butler's ego.

I'm glad you like that I use common sense.........but what you should be taking away from Harty/Sherfield is that one modest outlier season out of 5 or 6 does not equate to "producing elsewhere" or indicate untapped talent. I made this point when we signed those two turds. I pointed to Andre Holmes as an example of Bills fans getting suckered into thinking that the ONE season in a long career where a player did something indicated there was so much more there to be had. Robert Foster is another good Bills example. People didn't want to hear it........but it was true and played out like I expected. Sherfield literally put up 87 yards in 2021.......had his 400 yard season with Miami.......and then had 86 yards the next season with Buffalo. That's what he is........a low production, special teams depth receiver. He's only had 2 seasons out of 7 where he's even gotten to 100 yards. And no, I didn't make your point. You were just wrong. Harty was a terrible signing. He hadn't done anything to warrant that pay. The players that Cover 1 are talking about as potential targets are all legitimate, proven productive NFL wide receivers. Not stars........but guys you can expect to be able to utilize regularly as a legit boundary option in a Diggs/Kincaid/Shakir lead pass game.

I don't suspect they will sign a $25M type free agent of course.........but yeah a big, long term contract is easy to put a small first year cap hit on so long as Beane is willing to guarantee base salaries and Terry Pegula keeps signing those checks. I wouldn't be astonished if they signed, say, Danielle Hunter to a Von Miller-esque contract to replace Von Miller. Because the biggest difference between the Bills roster and the Chiefs roster is that the Bills don't have a game wrecker like Chris Jones on defense. I don't know that Hunter is good enough to be that guy but 16 sacks and 80 tackles is absolutely elite edge production. The reason he might make it to the market and do so for significantly less than $30M aav is because there are concerns about his neck holding up long term.

It literally means exactly that. Obviously if they had drafted Patrick Mahomes they wouldn't have drafted Josh Allen. That's the only way it helped them get Josh Allen though. Obviously the problem is that they handed a conference rival with a stable coaching staff and roster a franchise QB just as the Bills were simultaneously turning over their own regime and roster in the name of "process". Even at the time those of us who believed in Mahomes as a prospect could see what was being set up. Who you trade with is extremely important. If Mahomes ends up in the NFC and the Bills still get Allen..........the Bills might be the one's winning the AFC every year.

Yeah it's ridiculous but apparently we have a lot of finish-line fans who want to win a SB immediately so they can hurry up and die. The Chiefs obsession is annoying but Chiefs fans have been there with the Broncos as Denver was reaching 8 SB's and winning 3 since KC had last been to one. I'll never forget when a half dead Peyton Manning beat KC in KC in the closing seconds(on the way to another SB) in his last season. Before that Elway was totally in Chiefs fans heads. The Bills all-timer is still the hate for the Dolphins from the 1970's thru the early 2000's. Because there was an actual rivalry there with divisional races and playoff matchups etc.. The New England domination was much greater but it's only second because there was no rivalry. Buffalo never even won a meaningful game in the regular season against NE with Brady there, let alone a playoff game. KC obsession is newer but gaining fast because there is an actual rivalry with lot's of regular season wins and narrow playoff losses. Most of the obsessing is just based in ignorance. They can't really understand why the team keeps losing so they think it's something bigger and means more than it does. After a nearly 50 year stretch of KC being the only team in the AFC West to not play in a Super Bowl they get Patrick Mahomes and all of a sudden all KC fans can see it maybe wasn't a curse or conspiracy or some inherent organizational flaw after all.

Incorrect. They got Tre White and Tremaine Edmunds for the only notable draft pick value that they acquired for the Patrick Mahomes pick trade. People have been mis-stating for years that the Bills were able to move up for Allen with draft pick capital acquired in the Mahomes pick trade...........surprised you are one of them.

Harty and Sherfield produced elsewhere? Uh, no they did not. You were clearly mistaken for thinking that. Some of you guys took the cheese that was put out there by the Bills about their "potential" instead of looking at the fact that their career receiving yardage averages were 198 and 169 per season! Now you are using that false premise to advance a philosophy about not signing players who produce because they may turn into Sharty or Sherfield?

Nah, man. Who said Beane was "spending big" on anything in free agency? Not me. Noah Brown is very much the type that I am talking about. But if you think Noah Brown is signing after the draft for $1.7M you are crazy. That's a $5M-$9M type contract and likely done in the 6 weeks prior to the draft most likely. Just because boundary WR should be the #1 priority in both UFA and the draft doesn't mean that they can't sign another $7M Emmanuel Sanders type to serve as the hedge against a very wide range of potentially unsatisfactory outcomes with only a rookie or a Sherfield type at on the boundary.

I never said they would get a "quality WR2". None of the guys Cover 1 mentioned are "quality WR2's". Those players all have a combination of potential to possibly produce 600-800 yards AND some actual solid past production to prove it. Hence "high ceiling". Those guys aren't all going to get $12M-$15M. Some are going to get $5M to $9M to "prove" they are worth more next year........figures which the Bills can dice up with void years like they did with the Leonard Floyd contract.

Yeah I am not nearly as panicked about the defensive vacancies as some. It's two-fold........I think they can still be coached up and young-player-developed to be top 10 again........and if it doesn't turn out that good I am also willing to fall back toward the middle for one season if it means turning the offense into a much more efficient machine. I wasn't worried about the MLB position last year and that turned out even better than I thought so I tend to lean more to the likelihood that they can still get to top 10 without spending much in FA. And I agree that "on paper" it makes sense to pass on veteran WR's. But that's all well and good until the 1st round rookie tears an ACL in minicamp and you got NOTHING outside but Justin Shorter. Not having insurance at that boundary WR position and then having to have Allen pound the rock 9-10 times again next year just to hopefully clinch a playoff spot in week 17(again) would be a grave injustice to Allen's career. The risk of that happening is not worth the cap savings. When they didn't address this boundary WR need in either of the prior 2 offseasons they left themselves with zero margin for error this offseason, IMO. I hate to even throw $5M-$6M gtd money at a Josh Reynolds type but that boundary WR position is not as easy to address as MLB or Safety. There probably ISN'T one of those waiting to emerge from spots 48-53 or the practice squad. Like I said when they signed Sharty and Sherfield last year........their relatively long histories said they were NOT going to produce........and sure enough, they did not. The Bills need someone with more than one season where they weren't otherwise trash.

Guys like Mooney, Samuel, Brown and Reynolds are the high ceiling veteran market the Bills could potentially shop in and use void years to fit that player in with a very low initial cap hit. Regarding "the holes on D"......... while I'd like to address DT in the first 6 weeks of free agency.......I can address those all after the draft if need be.

There is a long distance between not treating boundary WR like it's the clear #1 need and "ignoring" it. I know that some people look at the draft.........decide what the order they think the players will fall and which needs will be filled.........and THEN figure out how they want to address free agency based on that. That's not the order the system works in though. The reality is that the Bills could pass on signing one of the WR's that are available in FA...........and then get to the draft and 6 WR's go before their pick and the next boundary WR on their board has a late second round grade. That's kinda' like what happened last year. Kincaid was the pivot and he's nice but what they pivoted from is still what they need. I'd rather have a high ceiling veteran free agent in place and then have a top WR option end up at pick #28 than to risk not getting one at all because I wanted to try to patch holes on defense first.

It kinda' speaks to your thread about how people aren't fully appreciating having a Josh Allen. Some fans are so concerned with patching "on paper" holes that they don't really care if that means putting another ton of hard miles on Josh Allen. The main objective of an organization with a truly elite young QB should be to make sure you do everything you can to maximize his ability. They've tried the "other" approach for the last 3 seasons and it's only buried them in cap debt. Probably time to try to put an offense around Allen that can score 35 points per game and at the same time get cap healthier and much younger on defense. Maybe that means they are on a 2 year re-tool instead of running it back to a re-match with the Chiefs next season...........but then again maybe they do the right thing and STILL surprise and play better than expected on defense and finally break thru.

I think the Cover 1 people have given some fans the impression that re-structuring contracts doesn't ALWAYS come at the expense of the future cap by implying that the Bills cap situation is just naturally going to get better. The Bills will have to work and make some tough decisions to make it better. They weren't very forthright about that. Thompsett knows better but as anyone who saw that video knows, they are a very sentimental group. I'm not interested in guaranteeing Morse base salary by distributing it over void years and missing that opportunity to save $8M asap and move on.............Nor am I interested in doing extensions for Morse or Bates. Ideally neither is on the roster by 2025 so I don't want to have another $10M+ in dead cap tied up in them in 2025. I'm done with running it back with all of these guys that were 6-5 at midseason 2 of the past 3 seasons and looked tired in the playoffs in each of the past 3. Time for a re-tool. And a good draft year to have playing time opportunities available instead of all being blocked by over-priced vets.

Beane's tendency has been to try to retain EVERYONE. He once even offered and gave Star Lotulelei and Vernon Butler pay cuts after they'd screwed him with poor effort in prior seasons. He's been a sucker for pay cuts. Which I think mostly just disincentive players to buy-in. So that is the regard where I agree that I'm not certain he will move on from guys like Morse and White. But I don't think going from Morse to Ryan Bates is a "huge" change. Bates best position was long viewed as center and they paid him starting money in FA and he probably would have been the starting left guard last season had Torrence not fallen to their spot in round 2. Not like they don't have a promising solution in place to replace the pretty average Morse(who was probably their worst or second worst starting OL last season). And they need the cap space to address those other lesser stocked positions you mentioned. Which is the larger point.

Maybe at age 27 Bates will be a better option than Morse at age 32. That's often how it works. But for $8M difference if it's close, it's enough. I also like Anderson's potential(another OT kicked inside like Morse and Bates) and I even think maybe McGovern might be a better center option longer term if the Bills decide to go with a more physical left guard in 2025. They aren't bereft of options at center like they are at RT behind Brown, for instance. Again.........it's a strong OL draft. If they invested in a top 3 round center that guy is starting, IMO. They don't have the luxury of picking a non-primo position early and cultivating it given their cap circumstance. Lot of future starting centers in this draft though. Maybe as many as 8?

Yeah it's just an interesting detail considering how happy he seemed to be about moving closer to his central NY home/family/business interests when he came to the Bills. Not your typical Bills player that is originally from the south or CA. It's pretty common for players to have fully stocked homes in 2 places and his playing situation would surely be cleared up in 2-3 months so packing everything up and taking it back to TN is notable. Even if he and his wife just wanted to spend the winter in Nashville and then re-locate in Buffalo if he re-signs it wouldn't seem necessary to move twice. Maybe he just plans to come back without the wife and daughter(like when he played for Carolina) if he does re-sign? Could be a lot of things but it's notable under the circumstance.

Agree. I'd probably be more bullish on Burrow than Allen if I actually believed that Bengals ownership would extend themselves financially the way the Pegula's have. And even that is tempered some by Burrow's mounting injury history. His calf and wrist injuries last year are the kind of thing you usually see with old man QB's.

Why is it a guarantee that you weaken the line by subtracting Mitch Morse? He's a pretty average center IMO. Not a difference maker any longer. They have Bates and Alec Anderson under contract in reserve and it's a very deep center draft. Timing seems good, IMO.

1. Do nose tackles and 1 tech DT's really normally play well into their mid 30's? I think I've mostly heard to the contrary on that prior to this podcast. There are more obviously proven exceptions(see Marcell Dareus) but I look at generational prospects like Haloti Ngata and Dontari Poe who were pretty washed at 30-31. Interior DL seems to be more of a younger mans game, IMO. Edge rushers seem to have a better track record for aging well. In general these Cover 1 guys are WAY too sentimental about players. The Bills have largely avoided making tough decisions on vets in recent years..........and its lead to them having one of the oldest rosters year-in and year-out. IMO it's also contributed some to their tendency toward mid-season malaises. They really need to get younger and take advantage of their organizational stability by giving some more reps to younger players.