BADOLBILZ

DK Metcalf or AJ Brown would be a lot better. Great, much younger and not on a gigantic contract like Evans. Instead the Bills have.......Cody Ford.

No....c'mon bro......McCaffrey did not account for "an astounding 66 TD's" in 2 years. 😆 He put up 32 over his first 3 seasons.............which you should expect from a RB taken in the top 10 of a draft. He's the exception though...........not just in production but because he was a first round prospect as a WR as well. But in spite of all of that production the Panthers haven't been any good. If you can't pass the ball downfield and pressure the QB you aren't likely to be a SB contender...........and if you use a top 10 pick on a RB or sign one to a huge contract you are limiting your ability to acquire the players that do those more important things. Mostert, on the other hand, fits the profile of a lot of #1 RB's on SB winners.........a scheme specific player who little is invested in. The fact that he's been SO exceptional when he has the ball the last two seasons is more of a bonus than a prerequisite.

I agree that the pay seems light for Ertz and it's definitely a lot of gymnastics for the Eagles to get a 7th round pick.

Barnwell also had the Bills signing Kawann Short for $3M in those predictions. The way he structured the trade..........the Bills working out a huge salary deduction prior to the swap...........is what makes it seem plausible. That's a bigger pay cut than I'd expect Ertz to take.........they might have to add a dummy year to his one year deal and so he gets more like $5M out of it at least. I thought he was a bit generous with the money offered to the other players available.........including Short who I couldn't see ANY team paying above league veteran minimum at this point. Most of those free agents he has signing new deals have been marinating on the market for a LONNNNNGGGG time now.

I'm not ignoring details.........I'm the one providing them against your vague and unsupported argument that Etienne is the missing piece that the Bills need to get thru the AFC and win the Super Bowl. And you are making a straw man out of the Dorsett point...........I'm not the one expecting a rookie at ANY position to elevate the team immediately..........that's simply not a realistic expectation. The only "details" of your argument are: 1. He'd be great right away........another Kamara or McCaffrey. 2. Giving him the ball a lot like those guys would only improve the offense.......regardless of any opportunities that takes away elsewhere. 3. Use him up for 5 years and then draft another in round 1. None of those things are reasonable expectations based on anything close to "recent" history of the league.

Of course the offense should be trying to get better.........but RB isn't a position that warrants big invesement..........and first round picks are prime chips........it's the equivalent of a $15M-$20M per year chip in free agency...........you gotta' use that chip wisely. Using one on a RB is just bad business. And for the people like you and @DrDawkinstein...........get your heads out of the sand...........if the best case scenario played out and somehow Travis Etienne were to put up seasons like Alvin Kamara or Christian McCaffrey then they are NOT playing 5 years on that rookie deal. You will get 3 years......and then you will have to give them a big 4-5 year extension or they will withhold services............so there goes your "draft one in the first every 5 years" plan.

Bad example? McCaffrey makes $16M per year. Mostert makes $3M. Mostert is actually better than CMC on his 150 touches and then is fresh for the playoffs. I will take the latter and have a RB by committee approach......which you need anyway because RB's get hurt.........as evidenced by CMC missing most of last season after getting that 4 year $64M deal. Then spend that $13M in cap space elsewhere. Like maybe on the OT or at WR or at pass rusher or CB. Edge/island positions where individual talent can have a greater impact on winning and losing. And rather than throw the ball to a RB for 8 yards per grab I will use the modern approach and just throw it to my $7M slot guy Cole Beasley and have him put up nearly 1,000 yards at a much higher clip per reception.

I get that the drought made some of you very out of touch with how the league works now. But even if you go back to the last Bills SB run adding a first round RB has NEVER raised any already championship-game-level team to a SB winning team. You gotta' go back to Tony Dorsett in 1977 to find a 1st round RB that put a team over the top. Things have changed a bit since then. Stay willful, say ignorant, Doc. 😘

I assume you are talking about McCaffrey but have no idea why you are calling him "MCM". McCaffrey was a first round receiving prospect........let alone his RB skills. He is unique in that regard but that's why he went top 10. Nobody is getting that guy at pick #30. Thinking so is asinine. But that said.........handing the ball off more is not good business. It's not a "run and stop the run" league anymore and that goes for checking it down to RB's like "MCM" and Kamara for 8 yard gains as well. Slot receivers more or less replaced the 3 down RB's in the passing game almost 20 years ago now.

1) Etienne's per carry average dropped over 2 yards last year. Even though he's had well over 800 touches in college, the OL was blamed..........so if a dominant team like Clemson with several NFL prospects on the OL can be "not good enough" at the college level then maybe he's not a cure-all for blocking insufficiencies at the NEXT level. 2) Teams have been winning SB's without exceptional RB's for decades now.........there is no "acting" involved in realizing that they aren't proving to be the difference in teams winning SB's and not. There is a combination of out-of-touch older fans and fantasy football players on this site that want to make having an elite RB a priority when it's clearly not important in winning a championship.

And the $15M per year Kamara has never even rushed for 1,000 yards in any of his 4 season career despite being deified by some here as an organization-changing RB. Mostert has only been getting regular carries for the last 2 seasons so his "career" totals being low is not that important in the "now" discussion. He split carries with Matt Breida(5.1 ypc) on a SB team that ran the ball and played defense. Mostert produced ridiculous per carry/reception numbers......5.6 yards per rush and 12.9 per reception. It's no fluke......they were likely the two fastest RB's in the league......and both undrafted. Mostert missed half of last season on a really banged up Niners team.....but still put up elite per touch production. In 2019 Breida and Mostert totaled about 300 touches. That's plenty. You don't want to wear out speed and quickness guys. By contrast, Alvin Kamara usually gets 270+ touches in the regular season........too much work. Then he farts and dies in the playoffs.......just when people like @DrDawkinsteinassume that the likes of Alvin Kamara-Etienne is going to be the difference in a SB win and an earlier exit. 😚 In 7 career playoff games the great Kamara has rushed for 356 yards......a feeble 3.8 yards per carry. Mostert put up 336 in his 3 games......to the tune of 6.3 yards per carry.

By that logic, who would complain if the Bills ended up with Quenton Nelson instead of Josh Allen? Nelson looked like a HOF'er the moment he took the field. If positional value doesn't matter then that would have been a win. But, positional value is important. RB's are still a relative dime a dozen. The most explosive RB in the league is not Kamara or CMC........it's Raheem Mostert........who was a UDFA that kicked around with 4 teams before making it in SF. Mostert is the kinda' guy you want when you have a QB like Josh Allen who can utilize the whole field with his great arm and athleticism. A true burner, not a 4.5 guy like Etienne, and a guy you don't have to give 200+ touches to in order to justify the investment........... because taking the ball out of Allen and his WR's hands is not recommended. If you have a noodle armed check down pocket passer like Drew Brees or Teddy Bridgewater maybe you want to get your RB the ball a lot more.........in Buffalo the goal should be stretching the field more.

There is zero frame of reference for that take. Who are these organization changing RB's? How many times did we have to watch the Saints face-plant in the playoffs to realize that the impact of an Alvin Kamara doesn't really make much of a difference? Teams without great regular season RB play have been consistently winning SB's for decades now. It's not important to have an exceptional RB. As for the notion that whatever RB you pick in round 1 will be good.............and therefore you can just pick one every 5 years.............I think you should look at the list of RB's drafted in round 1 over the decade previous to this season. Basically, if they were drafted from 10-32 they were mostly underwhelming or outright busts.........and if they were picked in the top 10 they were about 50/50 to succeed.

You didn't answer my question. There ISN'T a first round RB that the Bills have passed on in the past 25 years that was in the least bit regrettable. As for the mythical "putting the offense over the top".........the Bills offense was literally second in the NFL in scoring last season. The reason was because they threw the ball downfield a lot.......and effectively. Etienne isn't very likely to be like Alvin Kamara..........in fact the beating he took in college makes it more likely that he'll be JAG with the Jags. But even if Etienne met any unreasonable expectation and did become a great RB.......feeling compelled to hand it off......or even dump it off........to an Alvin Kamara instead of throwing it downfield is a recipe for less than what the Bills did offensively in 2020. As good as Kamara and McCaffrey are for RB's.........they average around 8 yards per reception for their careers............that juice is hardly worth the squeeze of putting it in the air when you have receivers that average 12-17 yards per reception. The position is devalued because there is only so much difference a RB can make in today's game. And no, there is NEVER a good time to use round 1 for a "luxury pick". Free agency changes rosters in a heartbeat now.

I agree. We have seen Beane trade up for a guard with RT flexibility in the second round and draft RB's in the 3rd round two years in a row. It's in his nature. Like his mentor Dave Gettleman.......big uglies and RB's are probably too high on Beane's personal list. Sometimes you gotta' be lucky and have fate intervene to prevent stupid mistakes like drafting a RB in round 1. The Bills haven't "regrettably" passed on one RB that went in round 1 in at least 25 years. Thinking that would change with one of these high mileage Etienne/Harris models would have been the epitome of impulse buying irrationality. Pass rushers are second only to QB's in value in today's NFL........they are also high risk but the potential return is very high. So having the draft fall that way was a stroke of good fortune for the organization, IMO........dodged a bullet this time........but the reality is that CB and WR need to be higher priorities in today's NFL.................I trust that Beane will grow out of his remaining Gettlenutz tendencies as he gains further perspective on what works and what does not. Returns on investments like Tre White and Stefon Diggs have been second only to Josh Allen.........it's best to value those positions far above RB in todays NFL.

Name a RB that the Bills passed over in round 1 in the past 25 years that was a regrettable decision. It's simple math...........but every year somebody thinks this time is different.

I think you are mistaking the lack of demand with the lack of potential supply. Teams don't want to put non-athletes on the field in a passing league.........the demand for dedicated 0's and 1's is low. There is no guarantee that there will be even 1 job on every team for a traffic cone DT now..........and it certainly isn't the way to get paid.

Get used to it. Belichick made Easterby his right hand man for a reason. You can't build culture thru plain old hard work way anymore.......players and their union are too sensitive to perceived abuse. Religion is a great tool for coaches to create things like peer pressure and discipline in a touchless environment.

That perception that he's just a decoy when he's out there isn't reality though. His production in the 9 games last year was on course for nearly 1400 yards. That's elite per game production......not decoy work. His catch rate was the highest of his career at 75%. And he would have likely lead the NFL in yards per touch for the second straight season if he had enough touches because he had the NFL leader(Tyreek Hill) beaten by a full yard per! Could he fall off like AJ Green? Maybe........but that speculation is not based on his play.......just his age. So calling him just "above average" is a massive understatement. And overrated is even more absurd. His career numbers are amazing. As a non-fan of the Falcons perhaps you expect him to put up 150 yards per game but the guy has literally lead the NFL in yards receiving per game 3 times. The bar might not be as high as you think it is. If anything, he doesn't get enough credit because he is quiet and plays for a franchise that makes a habit of hiring one bad HC after the next.

The moves they have made.......and haven't made..........seem to indicate that 1 tech DT was a bigger problem in the eyes of fans than to the organization. They even cut Vincent Taylor at the end of camp and haven't added a single 1 tech since. If they planned to feature rotating space eaters they'd treat it like they have so many other positions.........with veteran depth. Instead they bring in guys like Hester..........after already adding penetrating interior players like Zimmer and Rousseau and Basham and Obada. It's a passing league........it makes sense to feature more pass rushers.........the 3 teams with the best records in the NFL last year gave up 4.5-4.7 yards per carry.........it's not a run and stop the run league anymore..........and frankly, it's not like they were good against the run with a healthy $10M 1 tech either.

The evidence that they don't want non-pass rushers on the field seems pretty strong. The team views both Rousseau and Basham as guys who can be used to rush the passer inside..............and they signed Efe Obada.........who got most of his pressures from inside. Obada played on a Panthers front that used 4 DE looks extensively against the Chiefs.........a game Carolina almost won. I'm not saying McD is going to follow his mentor Jim Johnson and go all wide 9............but being able to bump the 1 tech player to the 2 or 3 alignments opens up the pass rushing opportunities without tipping your hand personnel wise the way putting a lump like Star on the field does.

He's had two seasons where he missed a lot of games......his 3rd season and his 10th season........18 total. In the other 8 seasons of his career he has missed a total of 7 games...........and he's put up enormous production..........his 1871 yard season is literally the second highest yardage figure a WR has ever had. So I would say your characterization that he is injured all the time and overrated is without merit.

1 tech is the only position on offense or defense where they haven't signed anyone..........even a depth player.........since last training camp. That would be unusual for a position where they TRUSTED the veteran(s) at the position...........let alone whatever they think Lotulelei can do heading into a season where he would turn 32 with 19 months between the last NFL game he played and this preseason. At some point people might want to consider the clues that they value the pass rush greater now that they are a high scoring team..........they literally played the entire season like that last year. Their statistical dropoff defensively was more about a brutal schedule, injuries to the LB position and the loss of the pressure that produced 16 sacks from walk-year Phillips and Shaq than it was who they had playing traffic cone at 1 tech.