BADOLBILZ

I'm not sure he has "no say" in a trade. He has been playing for teams on his own terms for a while so I think it's possible that there have been discussions about potential mid-season trades at his last few stops. And he has the option not to report. And being traded it wouldn't be like the Anquan Boldin situation where he changed his mind after signing and accepting money from the Bills. They were well within reason in not just cutting him free(even if they probably misrepresented themselves as bringing him in to mentor Sammy). The juice of trying to hold Campbell's rights and prevent him from continuing his journeyman travels in the offseason wouldn't be worth much of a squeeze with the NFLPA, IMO. I suspect any deal for him would basically require him to sign off. That said though.......he is KILLING it on the field. He has been good against the run and the pass. I've seen him lining up in the old Joe Green "stunt 4-3" from the 1 tech and just cutting thru blockers. He might be a better pass rusher now than he was 5 years ago.

The flip side of your praise is that while Cook has elevated his game the other RB's on the roster have probably looked equally WORSE than last year. Might be the biggest drop-off from a RB1 to his reserves in the league right now. Everyone is on Ray Davis for looking so bad but I don't know if Ty Johnson is hurt but he's the real disappointment. Allen calling Ty Johnson the best 3rd down RB in the league last year actually rang true. Brady is the one who had a good week and deserves praise from his critics. All the game script predictors were saying not to run the ball against all those run stuffing DT's they have accumulated. That they had to attack the Panthers with the pass, especially at the LB level. Well Brady drew up a plan that attacked a vulnerability in their run game and made them look like the team that game up 3,000 yards rushing last year. The Panthers threw a ton of resources into fixing their run defense and he totally exposed them. The reality is that because Beane has done such a terrible job at the WR position the only thing the Bills CAN do with any consistency is run the ball right now. It was a huge mistake trying to exploit perceived opponent weakness by playing to their own weakness in the prior 2 games.

Yeah to me, one of the things most Bills fans seem to misunderstand about Shakir is he is NOT an instinctive, reliable route runner like Beasley was. If he were, Allen would be feeding him non-stop. He doesn't have complete faith in Shakir that way and you can't throw the ball over the middle to a small target if you don't have complete faith that you will be on the same page. When Diggs and Davis were outside in 2023 it wasn't exactly Air Coryell but defense's couldn't just focus on one area of the field and were often doubling Diggs and putting CB1 on Davis. That left some huge holes in the middle of the field for Shakir back in 2023. It created this misconception that he was one of those "always open" types. Defense's are squatting in those areas where he was thriving back then. So they are forced to throw a lot of really short passes to get the ball in his hands so they can get that high end RAC out of him.

That is certainly a possibility. And it would be easy to look at the dominant 2024 Eagles team and think there is no way this flawed Bills roster can win a SB. But each year is different. The 1989 49ers are in the conversation of greatest, most talented and dominant teams ever. The 1990 Giants......unfortunately for us......are on the other end of that spectrum. Not a very impressive roster and.....in the current vernacular....very "game script" dependent. McDermott himself ended up on the losing end in a SB versus a team with a washed up QB who threw more INT's than TD's that year. If you have a punch sometimes that has proven to be enough. And with, at least statistically, the best run game in the NFL and JA that's probably enough punch if things fall VERY favorably.

Then give it a thumbs down. Why call poor innocent me out like that? 😉 Maybe you don't understand the difference between a thumbs down and a disagree. There is a reason they are different. The down is a less civil and subsequently elevating version of disagreeing. And you don't think that even involves you in the discussion? You're wrong. Obviously. Common sense. It was an awful take on your part hence the thumbs down.

Yeah I can't be totally out on Coleman yet despite his struggles to make an impact this year. I watched Davante Adams struggle to adapt to NFL coverage for several years while guys like OBJ and Sammy came out hot. Adams has had the last laugh on everybody in that WR draft. Even, arguably, Mike Evans......who while great has never been the NFL WR1 overall that Adams was for a several year stretch. On the hoof, Coleman has very similar physical traits to Adams. He might even have greater body control. What he didn't have was nearly as much receiving experience as Adams had coming out of Fresno State. And we just don't know how Keon is going to mature and if he is intelligent enough or is going to work at his craft enough to elevate above his limitations. It's not LIKELY that Coleman becomes an NFL WR1 but I haven't seen anything to say it surely can't happen yet. But the biggest problem anyone should have had with the Coleman selection was that he really didn't fit the Bills timeline. He didn't. They needed to do more. But it's not the first time they've done something like this though. Josh Allen looked like a LONG term project. Tremaine Edmunds the same. But physically they were the most imposing prospects at their position available at that pick. I'd say Coleman was also that. Allen got good fast. Edmunds is probably just now reaching his potential. Hopefully Coleman gets their by year 4 and hopefully Beane stops banking on his breakout like he seems to have done.

When you respond negatively to a take you have involved yourself in a discussion whether you like it or not. If you really don't want to discuss it.......then you don't have to respond to being called out. Fact. If it's going to hurt your feelings to be called out then don't involve yourself to begin with. This should be common sense. I know more people grow up without fathers nowadays but c'mon. You shouldn't need a slap in the head to figure this dynamic out.

Yep Wrong Way Gabe is inching his way back to the lineup. Can't keep his 3 routes straight, clap catches the football because his hands are too hard to do otherwise and now he has a bum knee to boot. I will say that he does kinda' know how to find open space in a scramble drill which is apparently a trait that eludes most of the more able bodied WR's they have.

I don't think the Bills tell Shill anything. He gets to lick boots and if he doesn't like it they will give Maddy his job. Next to Jakobi, Shaheed would seem the most likely WR to be available though.

I don't think Efe Obada had a RAS but he would have been #1 out of 1830 and with the least change of direction ability of any of them. That dude was the ultimate stiff bodied big man. Worst case scenario Jackson is like that and he can't set the edge and becomes a journeyman like Efe.

I saw Raekwon Davis was on the tryout circuit. He was very talented. Never entirely lived up to his measurables and the 4 star hype at Alabama but seemed to be carving out a nice career with the Dolphins. Colts cut him for a non-football illness issue last spring. If I recall correctly a board member here who had conversed with his family had told me years ago that Davis suffered from depression issues at Alabama.

I hadn't hear that........but I had thought about Mathieu as a potential band-aid solution earlier in the season. I think he retired in the summer but I knew he had retired. The Saints have a number of guys who would be great fits. DeMario Davis is still exceptional. Alontae Taylor could be an upgrade to Taron Johnson. Cam Jordan has been mentioned but I do believe I once heard he said he would never want to play for the Bills. And of course, Shaheed and Olave. I was watching the end of the Saints game the other day and Shaheed left the game with a minute left with what looked like a hip injury and did not return. Didn't look like he landed on it(pointer), more like he got his leg pulled causing the pain. Could have been nothing but it also occurred to me that he might have a vested interest in tanking his trade value. He figures to get A LOT of targets down the stretch with Tyler Shough in there. That's good for his FA value. Coming to a new team there is always a risk that he just doesn't get the ball and his value is tanked. If money is your #1 objective, you don't want to be traded mid-season.

If the alternative is playing Jordan Phillips 33% or more..........yeah. But replacing Ed Oliver with guys like Pennel or Harrison Phillips is meh. They are guys who could be out of the rotation come playoff time. Calais Campbell is the ideal fit. Still a very impactful player. I just wonder if he has had the Bills on a list he won't play for because he's been that guy for years. Always available, really productive and priced right but never ends up here.

Mathieu hasn't played in the NFL this year. He is lobbying for the LSU head coaching job.

Technically a bigger comeback, yes. But in the context of the way baseball is played now.......not as surprising. It's hard to stop losing streaks when you can't execute sound fundamental baseball. Teams are finishing where they were supposed to because of the sheer amount of games played........but the baseball played in between has been like watching a simulation that is out of the control of the teams themselves. It's been a terrible MLB season. MLB needs to make some changes.

I agree with @Coach Tuesdaythat I didn't hear the term "bust"........that's generally a term for 1st round picks and occasionally 2nd rounders. But there were a lot of downright HATERS on the big fella. Yes @NewEra was one. He owns it. But tread lightly within that thread, Simon is VERY sensitive about his old takes on Spencer Brown.

Banged up Bob says Ed looked his gif horse in the mouth and got a sole clap for his insolence.

It might take him that long to get into football shape. He looked like a bowl of mashed potatoes at his PC a couple weeks ago.

Yeah they were.....until the last few drives. And I agree the Bernard extension was dumb. Made no sense. This is not a guy who is likely to start in the NFL for the length of his extension even.......he is almost inevitably going to get hurt enough times from bouncing around in that traffic and then the nose for the ball won't matter because he will become physically limited, IMO. Even if he repeated his historic splash play season from a couple years ago not many teams were going to sign up for a MLB that size with a history of being too banged up late in the season. The Bills weren't going to have to pay him more than they did, IMO so Beane just took a bad risk there like he did when he foolishly extended Eric Wood for 2018 back in summer of 2017 when there was basically ZERO chance he would leave Buffalo for numerous reasons..........and then ended up eating $10M when he failed a physical in January.

Yeah, that was him. Fina was one of those guys who gave off the impression he really didn't like football and did not appreciate the fans one bit. Surprising how many of those guys get out of the league and then decide they want to become analysts and podcasters talking about the game they didn't enjoy for the people they didn't like.

It's crazy that they gave the disinterested Star Lotulelei a 5 year $50M contract to protect the DE-sized Edmunds but are trying to get by with smaller 1 techs with the narrow shouldered, safety-sized Bernard. I greatly prefer what he brings to what Edmunds brought because turnovers and splash plays are so important in the game now. With Poyer and Hyde gone he is really their only guy with a nose for the ball. And LONG gone are the days when the Steelers and Rams met in a SB while being 1-2 in turnovers lost. Those possessions are so critical now. And it's always going to be hard to get him thru a potential 20 game season intact if he isn't clean.

Yeah I was going to edit my post to include that. John Fina said it as well. That may be the case but John Fina in particular was one of the greatest "wasn't my fault" players in Bills history so I'm not inclined to trust his opinions on assignments.

They've been doing these for many years now.

In Houston. Coming off a season where he had more sacks, more tackles and more TFL than Ed Oliver.