BADOLBILZ

Cornerback is more wide open than Lewis vs Benford, IMO. If the rules continue to allow.......then the tiny Cam Lewis might just make a permanent practice squad guy who has value to the Bills but not so much other teams. One of Griffin or McCloud is just as likely to make the team as Benford.

Poyer didn't switch agents to get this kinda' news.

There is no reason to say it or agree to the suggestion.........but he's pretty determined to squash the notion to the fanbase. Beane is very good at not saying things that compromise his relationship/leverage with players or agents or other teams. But it is a different story with his public perception. The other day he started a thought with "I don't lie". That's hysterical..........every other time his lips move it's a form of manipulation of truth. Dude is a true shyster on the mic and as I've said many times..........that was exactly what the Pegula's needed in a GM.........his confidence man persona keeps their hands off the controls.

Yeah, sure........but what would you have done? "I don't have a problem with......" isn't really an answer to that......it's an evasive measure from someone who is so often perturbed by any perceived vagueness.

Didn't you ask me this question before and I gave you a very detailed, 1,000 word kinda' response so there was no confusion? Correct me if I'm wrong but these are the questions you always ask me and I wouldn't indulge just anyone..........so I think it was you. But while we are at it..........what would YOU have done?

Yeah I think a lot of us wanted them to go big..........the motto coming into this draft was that they didn't have many needs...........so it came down to whether they addressed the low hanging fruit like KC did a couple years ago when they took CEH........or if they went for the longer range, find a star at a premium position kinda' route. As it turned out, the trade-up for Williams option would have been much cheaper than imagined......but Beane didn't talk to any teams prior to pick #20.......they were laser focused on what they eventually did........drafting for immediate need, regardless of value. Those closing quotes in your post may have their place........but aren't necessarily applicable to a sport that punishes the undisciplined and inconsistent, IMO. Long before McDermott arrived I said it here..........the draft is a process of organization building...........not an annual event to fill needs. Beyond not setting yourself up for longer term success in a situation where you are going to be cap-tight for the foreseeable future..........the OTHER fallacy is just assuming that drafting for need at easier to fill positions will yield better results than taking players at more valued positions. You don't even know if that will be the case in their rookie year..........we saw it in 2016 with the 3 "off the bus starters" draft........ Shaq, Ragnuts and Adolphus. I heard the same arguments then when I described that draft as "uninspired". We all know what happened.......NO starters. But how soon we forget. That's the thing with the draft.........you really can't count on a lot from year one anyway. It's a trap to assume that you can. Last year they went with an extremely raw, but big traits Pass Rusher, an over-aged Pass Rusher, then a raw LT traits OT. On paper that shouldn't have yielded much of an early return. Instead, they got two rookie starters who played key roles for them and one can envision them both being Bills for a decade. Maybe Elam and Cook and Bernard all play key roles..........but history also shows that they very well could not. Look at that 2016 draft........Shaq ended up not playing half the season but Lorenzo Alexander more than filled any expectations for him..............Ragnuts missed the whole year but Zach Brown lead the NFL in tackles. I guess they should have won the Super Bowl. As it turned out the NEEDS that season were elsewhere. Needs are a always a moving target in the NFL.

Yep........want. When you put feels on the top of the chart it's always got the potential to look bad. I find it funny that Beane is actively selling the idea that they aren't just going "all-in" on this season when this draft couldn't say that any more than it did. And people need to remember........these dudes had a team like those 2021 Bills when they were in Carolina.........they went 14-2 and had the league MVP at QB........and BLEW IT in the SB against a team with a washed up QB who had thrown 9 TD's and 17 INT's on the season. And that was it. They fell back to earth the next season and the franchise quickly fell back into the pack. Their experience has to be colored by that.

You get that feeling because that's how you want to feel about it. First, remember, you are new here.......I am not. This isn't an extension of BBMB it's a different forum. Second, you don't want to consider that the Bills didn't make decisions that were in the best interest of the organization long term. That thought bothers you. This draft was used to patch perceived holes at positions they think are easy enough to do that right away. Beane knows that being honest about that would be stupid because nobody thinks that's how you handle a draft. But the heart wants what it wants. And on the subject of feels........nobody on here may fully understand how much immediate pressure McBeane feel after blowing a season where they should have had home field clinched on or before week 17 and instead ended up imploding in epic fashion in the final seconds in the same exact place where they got flogged the year before. They don't have 30 years to get this done like a fan their age. They lived thru being 14-2 and favored to win the SB over Denver........and losing........and then never getting close again. So it has to be maddening and possibly a cause for anxiety to them to blow that and then watch the rest of the AFC loading up for battle in 2022. Maybe the strategy works. But I have been here since the 90's.........my standards for what I want to see the Bills do in the draft are always the same..........I've repeated the philosophies hundreds of times at this point. A lot of the things I have been saying for 15+ years were scoffed at initially and now the league does them and it's openly discussed. Focus on premium positions in round 1. Don't draft RB's in round 1. Even "it's only wrong to take the best QB in round 1 if you are afraid to take another the next year if he's better".........see Kyler Murray a year after Josh Rosen. If you choose not to know or remember these things...........that's fine, they are just my opinion.........but it looks ridiculous when you try to make it out like my opinions of how the draft should be executed are a moving target when I've been re-iterating them for a long time...........and you've even weighed in on posts where I've expressed some of them. You have a very selective memory though.........as you illustrated last week when you implied that I criticized Beane for drafting Ed Oliver when I did quite the opposite. As I've said.........I really didn't like the kind of draft they just executed..........but I'm not grinding my teeth about it. It's all entertainment. Winning is always fun. Bad decisions, bonehead plays and even losing can also be entertaining if you have the pastime in perspective.

The Bills/Chiefs divisional game is one of the greatest games every played. But they didn't learn anything there that they shouldn't have been able to otherwise deduce.........and the issues in that game were not the same as the reasons why they were on the road in the first place........so fixating on just the issues in that game would be dumb. I agree about hoping it becomes like "the drop" game because that game was the most compelling AFC playoff game they played in.......aside from the Comeback Game.........during that run. The rest of the Kelly era playoff games were a combination of blowouts or snoozers.......a sleep walk win over Denver in the 1991 AFCCG and some disgusting losses at Pittsburgh and at home to Jax. That Cleveland game was a game where they needed pinball numbers from their stars........and they got it. Ideally they win a SB or many in the next 5 years and that they don't have to play a game that closely contested to do it.

The prank phone where the guy pretended to be the Tampa GM and Buddy bought it............and threw his $10M QB under the bus and then had to release him...........that was one of the Billsiest moments ever.

https://www.mlb.com/news/yankees-win-10th-in-a-row-behind-gleyber-torres

9.9 RAS Northern Iowa and 9.9 RAS Northwest Missouri State?

It was the kind of draft that I hate because it was alll about drafting for immediate needs at positions of lesser value to the league or the Bills specific systems. It was a 90's kinda' Bills draft, IMO. Doesn't mean it won't yield starters and get good grades from analysts who judge drafts by how many "needs" you tried to address..........whether you took a chance on a QB or a just took a punter..........the Bills drafts of the 90's were often graded highly at the moment. But those drafts were proof that you can go broke just taking a profit in the draft...........they only won 1 division title in the 7 years after their SB run before Donahoe tore them down............and the reason is because they aged out at the key positions of their day and had to make up for it by stretching the salary cap to it's then stricter limits to try to keep pace in the division. Where a draft like this hurts is 2-3 years down the line when they need a premium position player that's ready to play like one. A WR1 or a LT or a pass rusher. People can speculate that they won't......but you just don't know. What we do know is that they will be TIGHT to the cap then and it will be a challenge paying for one of those guys on the open market. And what we do know is that they can win without a high pedigree CB2..........or a 2nd round RB........or a 3rd round hybrid something or another. But hey, it is what it is. As I said last week, they could forfeit their 1st round pick and still be a SB favorite this year. It's not a catastrophe that they played needy on non-premium positions......... it's just not the "formula" for keeping a roster stocked where it matters most with a $50M/year QB in tow.

Yeah they don't really save anything cutting Matakevich or Smith Jr.. Maybe $300K if the player that replaces them is a rookie. Insignificant. If they are cut it will be because of their play and/or the trajectory the staff feels they are on versus one of the slightly cheaper options.

Yeah it's a sham of a system but if they weren't juicing the time missed to injury would be staggering compared to what it is now. The players only have a couple brief periods every year where they have to stay clean.............UNLESS they get caught. This is a really big deal for the last stage of Hopkins career. Hopefully Diggs doesn't get caught with a bunch of years and dead money left on his deal.

Yes but I meant Cam Lewis........not Lee. None of the reserve CB's or Safeties has played enough defensive snaps to be proven. I'd put Lewis and Hamlin on the same level.........Lewis has been the most notable of the backups in the secondary when he has played..........but Hamlin has better measurables for his position. Jaquan Johnson I just don't think has the ability to step in for several games and not be abused.........he's a 4.70 40 guy and has looked like it when he's played. He's a special teamer. McCloud's athletic profile is very much like Kaiir Elam. Similar 4.37 40.......a bit bigger wingspan and hands. He has nice potential for a zone CB. He played some defense(briefly) in his 2 games for the Bills last year. Griffin was a 4 star recruit with good size and 4.5 speed. Very adequate physical traits for the position. Josh Thomas has adequate size and good speed for a safety but like Griffin has not played.

Pretty sure that's @Limeaid's grandma's farm off California Road.

I like the idea..........but not the Sander's 2021 price. It's prove-it time for Will "he play" Fuller.

Yep, I missed it, free agency has been slow the past few weeks. He signed for 1 year $3.5M and the actual cap hit in 2021 is just over the league minimum. The rest is in 2 voidable years. That for a guy who put up numbers that a lot of Bills fans would think would be good production from Gabriel Davis in 2022. (I personally think Davis should put up over 1,000 without any real competition for snaps).

1) Yes he definitely lacked bulk. Didn't hurt him setting the edge though. He was just too long for most OT's and didn't give up ground. He tied for the NFL lead in run stops for a DL (34) even though he played only 49% of the snaps for his team. Turned out to be a great edge setting run defender right out of the box. 2) Yeah he was pretty much stalemated as a pass rusher as the season went on by a lack of diversity of moves.........and the rookie wall, IMO. He had only played one full season of football since HS though.......the 2019 season at Miami. The key to his pass rush is that long first step.......he is pretty unique in that regard and needs to build off that. Then he has elite GPS for finding the QB and the Wilt Chamberlain wingspan and hands for snagging them(or ball carriers). If he can pair some actual pass rush moves with his unique skillset he will be a beast.

Beane's lasting formula: Draft an elite QB and then do a bunch of other things that make varying degrees of sense. Presto. Not to show too much behind the draft curtain but here is the 3rd round concoction he came up with per Joe Marino:

Jason Peters........played well for near veteran minimum as a starting LT last year.........best reserve swing T on the market even at his age. AJ Green....(EDIT: GREEN SIGNED BACK WITH AZ FOR CHEAP).....people may assume he is washed but he put up 848 yards at 15.7 yards per reception last season playing with a QB who is usually shot and stuffed by Thanksgiving.

Yes I think they have offers out to unrestricted free agents and are keeping roster spots open. Hopefully one of them is an outside receiver...........not pursuing a full-sized boundary option in the draft, or in UDFA even, makes me think this. And that OT and OG are the others. Neither position is as good/deep as it was at this time last offseason.