BADOLBILZ

I don't doubt for a minute that teams that haven't seen a lot of Edmunds are wary of throwing at him in the middle. But I think what we've seen the last two seasons is a number of teams realizing there isn't really a lot of risk throwing the ball Edmunds way............he is the antithesis of a "heady" player. He will run up and put a big hit on a defenseless receiver who is at a full stop 5 yards from the LOS in the middle of the field............but Darius Leonard comes in and peanut punches the ball at the ball while making the tackle on the same play. Edmunds also attacks passes in front of him.....even when it's clear that another defender is making the play............with seemingly no concept that the pass might get tipped to him. He is never mentally prepared to make plays. And yeah he can run down receivers and ball carriers going side to side at a high level................but it's negated by the fact that blocks stick to him in the screen game and that he is a woeful blitzer. In 2020 he somehow blitzed 72 times without generating a single pressure. Right now he's a middle of the league MLB..........which isn't a great distinction being a de-valued position..........but the more familiar people are getting with him.........the further he's been slipping down the list, IMO. I'm concerned that his slide isn't over. But as I mentioned.........guys like DeVondre Campbell and Demario Davis took big steps after their rookie deals were up(at much older ages than Edmunds is now)..........so it's not impossible that he improves significantly. Just seems unlikely at this point.

I haven't read the whole thread yet but my guess is @eball went from 6 to midnight when he opened this thread.

The Chiefs have won 2 Super Bowls. Dude's talkin' about "always" and doesn't know this. SMH

1) Edmunds doesn't just not make "a ton of plays" he rarely makes ANY. That statement falls in line with McDermott saying "would we like to score 50 points every game, sure" in response to having one of the worst offenses in NFL history thru half a season in 2018. The man with the 7' wingspan hasn't forced a fumble in a regular season game since mid-way thru his rookie season! 2) "Passes are completed against him for sure, but a lot of passes don't come his way because of his" Edmunds' passer rating is well over 100 the past two years so the Bills "65.3" rating is somewhat in spite of the action that comes his way. That's math. And here is the thing about all this range he supposedly has to prevent passes in his area..........if a LB is just a half step out of position he might as well be 5'4" instead of 6'4"..........Edmunds is not disciplined or instinctive in coverage. 3) The Chiefs are a problem. For sure. They are really familiar with Buffalo now and Edmunds is Mahomes toy. He works him like a yo-yo. That's not the case with all LB's though.......as noted, Logan Wilson played a masterful game in coverage against Mahomes attempts to manipulate him in the AFCCG. The Bills were fortunate to really only face two top QB's this year.........Mahomes and Brady. Both torched the Bills for the most part. It's more of a "good QB" issue in the passing game with Edmunds........will agree about that. But then there is the liability in run defense against strong running teams. So then we have Edmunds' sweet spot.......bad to average QB's in pass D..........and middling running teams. Then the problem is.........he doesn't make game changing plays. The Bills could really use a finishing pass rusher but the ACTUAL reason their passer rating is so good is because they get very good pressure from their front 4, force QB's to throw or tuck and scramble quicker than they want to. And they are experienced and make a lot of plays on the ball in the secondary. The reality is that Edmunds is just an average MLB right now.........who was drafted and expected to be a game changer and looks like an All Pro on the hoof.

I equate the Rams situation in LA to if the Bills moved away...........then the Dolphins moved into Buffalo 10 years later with the stated objective to be Canada's team on this side of the border. Illegitimate and the fanbase feels exploited/used. The Rams betrayed an already tepid NFL fan base not all that long ago...........they weren't as deeply ingrained as the Bills are here........they'd already moved to Anaheim before they left CA, a move that really pissed off a lot of long time Rams fans to start with............It's probably going to take 10-20 years.......the time to spawn a new fanbase......... for them to really earn the trust and respect of the fanbase back. When the Raiders won a SB in LA it was the same way as I recall............only in hindsight did LA really seem to care about the Raiders(as evidenced by all the wearing of Raiders gear by hip hop stars etc..)

Of course he gets a shot to keep the starting job. The point is that Cody Ford was also penciled in as the starter at RT going into 2020. The Bills signed Daryl Williams to a $2M one year deal coming off a bad season playing guard for Carolina.........and when Ford failed Williams stepped into the RT job and that was pretty much the end of Ford being considered even an option as swing tackle let alone a starter. To add insult to injury.......when Williams struggled at RT in 2021......Ford AGAIN got benched in favor of Williams......who was moved to guard and Brown was inserted at RT.

Mostly agree but I don't think the situation with Brown is any different than it was with Cody Ford going into 2020. Brown had some struggles and had back issues as well. He has great potential but still too much to prove to assume he's going to keep improving. Ford certainly did not.........he regressed.

Honestly I can't get pulled either way on the kick choice. I've lived thru a Bills team kicking the ball short and losing a playoff game on a kickoff return when they had a #1 ranked defense......a much more talented one than this 2021 version......... watching helplessly on the sideline. That team was also probably the best team left in the playoffs that year. Their defense was better than that of Tampa and the Bucs nearly took out TGSOT in St. Louis in the NFCCG with a scrub QB named Shawn King at the helm so Flutie or Johnson could have easily hoisted the Lombardi that year in the midst of an era where Trent Dilfer and Brad Johnson would win SB's. And as much as I feel the Bills were the best team left in the playoffs going into the divisional round this year............I think the Chiefs were clearly the NEXT best..........and I think the emotional drain from that Bills game put them in the dirt the next week. People neglect to mention that KC put up 40 the week before vs. Pitt. It was the first ever playoff meeting of two teams who both scored 40+ the week prior. And it's not like the Bills were in THEIR heads as much as KC was the Bills heads. Same let-down could have happened to Buffalo. Beating KC in the playoffs had been job #1 for 12 months. Presuming no let down is foolish. The ultimate lesson from both seasons is simple...........get the #1 seed and home field advantage. Both of those Bills teams had multiple inexplicable regular season losses Flutie at home to lousy NYG and Raiders teams..........the 2021 Bills to Jacksonville and Pittsburgh. That combined with the chips falling in a certain way elsewhere, lead to a long road to the SB for both teams.

First of all..........though the line improved late......Allen put a ton of hard miles on this season because of shoddy protection. The Bills OL gave up more combined pressues+sacks than the much maligned Bengals OL.....126 to 100. They were not good. Second.......we should learn about running it back with players who don't have enough history to justify it. So while I am excited about the potential of Spencer Brown, he really struggled at times and we graded him on a rookie scale. Remember that Cody Ford was the starting RT on the 2019 playoff team, Von Miller talked him up after their matchup, and it was assumed he was the RT of the future. Then he has been garbage since. Daryl Williams was an All Pro RT for one season in Carolina......then got injured and missed most of a year and came back the next season and played very poorly even at guard..........came to Buffalo and played excellent at RT.........got paid......and played poorly and appeared out of shape and had to be moved to guard. I think his commitment to the game might be in question at this point. Feliciano really dropped off last year after getting paid. Ryan Bates has only started a few games. Morse and Dawkins are the only two starting OL who have strung together 2 straight good season anytime recently........and there have been rumors that Morse may retire. They really can't afford to just run it back again..........that really failed miserably for 3/4 of the season.

Beane seems to know it........he put protecting Josh at the top of his priority list to the media. We the fans might be a lot higher on Bates than they are too. Not that they won't give him the high tender but I think it's clear they saw him more as a center long term and if Morse doesn't retire I don't think it's a given that he and Williams get their jobs handed back to them.

The question to me is whether Gordon is a potential CB1. If not.........then that's not the play...........and he probably isn't an immediate, quality CB2 for a SB team.........and not worth pick #25. If they don't trust Dane Jackson or believe that Tre White will be decent early season before returning to top form later.......then they should be looking to fill CB2 in UFA with a physical upgrade over Levi. That may prove impossible if the market is strong but when you are a primarily zone-based defense it's more likely that CB2's will be available than if you are heavy man-based.

Yeah my opinion of Burrow was actually much higher before the playoffs. The narrative that he was a great decision maker in the pocket with incredible accuracy and ball placement didn't really seem to be the case in the playoffs.............took implosions from Tannehill and Mahomes for him to get to the SB and right from the first drive of the SB Burrow was making bad decisions with the ball.

While Beane is generally pretty forthright...........I don't think that's the case when talking about free agent pursuit. Last year he said they weren't going to be able to do much and then he immediately got into JJ Watt bidding that was going to be over $10M either way and reportedly offered Gronk $8M on a 1 year deal. And of course re-signed a bunch of his own players. While Von Miller or Khalil Mack would cost more in aav, the first year hit could be similar. I tend to believe Schoen when he said the Bills plan to have $ to spend in UFA. His problem dates back to careless over-spending in UFA in 2018-2019 and some pay cuts and re-structures he shouldn't have done since. That's limited his buying power..........otherwise I do think he would have got those deals done. The Rams deal with Denver included adding extra draft pick value so Denver would eat some of his contract..........I don't think Beane wanted to do something like that. Might have cost them a SB run though, as you pointed out and I agree. My prediction is that they pursue 1-3 of the better free agents on the market.........an OL like Andrew Norwell or maybe Gronkowski on offense..........and a CB like Donte Jackson and an actual sack producing DE on defense. Three would eat up about $20M in immediate cap room on backloaded deals..........and leave them enough room to still re-sign Phillips and Bates. Then they try to get a bunch of Forest Lamp lottery tickets and see what happens.

It's been the case that his replacement has shown little if any drop-off every time Tremaine has been out with injury.

Nah.......RB's are pretty interchangeable........not sure why people don't get this. But Dobbins was also an 800 touch college RB........that's a lot of mileage nowadays.........and like Etienne(another favorite of runnin' back lovin' Bills fans) JK Dobbins subsequently blew out a knee and didn't play in 2021. Right now, Logan Wilson is probably the guy picked soonest after Epenesa who would have been the most useful.

So you thought that NYS was going to give tax money to NJ...........but then realized that made no sense and pivoted to this take? NYC area has an incredible amount of professional stadiums and arenas and the state has kicked in a fortune on those projects............and this was before the gambling tax revenue. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/11/nyregion/stadiums-arenas-funding-nyc.html

Yeah not really sure anyone said to sign the Draft Kings tax checks over to the cement company. The point being that the argument that the state or it's citizens don't significantly benefit financially from sports arena's kinda' goes out the window when legalized sports gambling starts bringing in billions per year for the state. And yeah, it will be billions annually within the next few. This is

It only takes one team but Campbell had 1.5 sacks and 12 QB hits in almost a full season of play last year..........he's a solid player but not a playmaker anymore........hard to envision him getting anything close to $10M. Much closer to league minimum if he wants to go to a team like Buffalo or KC who is a Vegas favorite.

Well you put a hat on that straw bale when you jumped to Milano being seen as elite............nobody had said THAT in their criticism of Edmunds. Yeah he's borderline top 15 Mike right now........league average...........that's down from top 10 last year and as you would say "can you pay $11(pipe dream) or $15M(likely with rising cap) aav for that when you have a franchise QB and a $17M CB and two $10M safeties etc..." If he's the foundation of this defense then it's a house of cards. I haven't seen that to be the case when he's been out but granted he hasn't missed a lot of games. It's all well and good to be excellent against bad and mediocre offenses............but when you can't adjust how you play your back 7 or 8 because your MLB is a robot designed for one system..........then you can't adjust to your high quality opponent the way KC did in the AFCCG against Buffalo last season.......or how Cinci did in the second half against KC this year.

LA fans are much more serious about the results of deep rooted teams like the Lakers and Dodgers than they are all the carpetbaggers.

Milano is not an elite LB. But talking up Edmunds like he is.........that is pure fiction. He showed some flashes of improvement this year in the games against much weaker opponents.............but that never materialized into improvement on the whole.........and really he hasn't shown nearly enough progress since his rookie season.............and this year a minor influx of young ILB's and some others improving pushed him down the ranks around the league. If they could deal away Edmunds and sign DeVondre Campbell for $6M-$7M aav I'd be all over that and the average football fan doesn't even know who that dude is.

Didn't Ralph once sell a horse that went on to win the Derby?

So just go out and get a Tony Siragusa and the Bills have another Ray Lewis on their hands? Edmunds simply doesn't make plays in any aspect of the game. As @GunnerBill noted in the AFCCG.........one of the big problems Patrick Mahomes had was that he didn't have Logan Wilson on a string in coverage like he did wrong-way Tremaine.

It does seem HIGHLY unlikely IMO that Edmunds will suddenly become a fast thinking, instinctive reacting LB and therefore become capable of making the big plays he to this point has not. But not impossible.........Demario Davis and DeVondre Campbell would be examples of guys that became much better all around LB's 4-5 years into their careers after being low quality starters on their rookie deals. The Bills made their mess with Edmunds and got themselves impaled on a $13M contract for 2022...........now they gotta' hope he corrects his issues..........I wouldn't touch his contract.........let him play it out and hope for the best.

My son had a Kyler on his little league team.......which was refreshing as every single other kid had a first name that ended in "en". I do wonder if there were parents in my youth who lamented every kid being named Mike, Jim, Joe, Dan, Don or Tony.