BADOLBILZ

- Taking the ball out of Allen's hands more often is ill advised. For perspective........Allen averages about 8 yards per pass attempt. If Etienne were to become the league's premier RB he'd average 20-25% less production than that in those extra touches. It's a recipe for less points and more punts. - More balance does not equal better.........they were second in the league in scoring playing a very tough schedule. They could regress but the area where they should be focused on improving is big passing plays. Their short-intermediate passing dominant game actually aids defenses in defending their run game. -Singletary has 4.8 ypc on over 300 career carries........that's A LOT.........Moss was perhaps the best pass blocking RB in the league as just a rookie and averaged more ypc than Leonard Fournette last season...........sure they could use a water bug option but the guys they have have been very good at what they do well. Etienne has flaws too. Contrary to popular belief, the bar to cross to be more useful than Moss and Singletary is not actually "meh". -Nick Chubb would probably be a good example of a bell cow back......big and runs the ball for 5 yards per carry. Etienne is not that. He does come with big mileage though........over 800 career touches at Clemson though. -Protecting Josh Allen is job #1 for the organization.......and you aren't a great weapon in the pass game if you can't pass block and everyone knows it. -Not sure how adding Etienne means that Josh Allen doesn't get tackled in the open field.

In fairness to who you are responding too.......nobody loved picking RB's early more than Promo.........he and Ralph were on the same page about most things and that was one of them. He was literally talking up a potential 2,000 yard season and HOF for Spiller after his lone 1,000 yard season..............my infamous "CJ Spiller and the march to 2000 yards" thread was greatly inspired by his exuberance for the RB.

So they spent the money on a helicopter but didn't get a radar gun to measure the velocity of the ball when it got near the ground?

Making it even less justifiable now. That was a big part of the grossly flawed rationale for the Bills selecting them when they did. This first round pick shouldn't be treated as a luxury.........Beane paid a TON of cap dollars to build the roster depth the past few seasons.........it was a good decision, slow builds like you used to promote usually fail and GM's and coaches get fired..............but the reality is that they need these drafts to replenish one of the oldest rosters in the league.........the edge and island players.......the lines...........RB is probably the last place they should be looking.

Two years too late for the Bills.

If they go against all of the overwhelming data that tells them why to not select a RB in round 1...........not sure how then not giving him at least 200-250 touches doesn't just make it an even bigger L. To answer your question though........I don't think you can necessarily hit the refresh button on RB's by resting them either. Good example is LeVeon Bell.......he got 330 touches at age 24 and then his per play production dropped off 20% at age 25. Sitting out age 26 altogether didn't even refresh his legs.

Yeah he is high mileage........as I've said.......you add the kick returns and he's well over 800 touches. I think what @Straight Hucklebuck is saying is that those 12 yard catches in college will likely AT BEST turn out to be 8 yard dumpoffs. Case in point.......Christian McCaffrey had a higher yards per catch average in college than Etienne.........and McCaffrey would be a legit stud slot WR..........and he only averages 8.4 yards per reception in the NFL. Kamara is only at 8.7.

Yeah I really hope they don't mistake their lack of hitting a "home run" on their RB picks with the fact that they didn't spend a higher pick on one. Hopefully the "growth mindset" is above that kind of rationale. Their opportunities to add real impact players........guys who aren't necessarily reliant on outstanding production from their teammates like a RB is with his OL.....island and edge players.......are going to be limited in coming seasons because of the salary cap situation they are in. Knowing the overwhelming data against it.........wasting a first round pick on a RB would be embarrassing..........but successful teams still occasionally make excuses to do such a stupid thing, like the Chiefs did last year. So you can't rule it out.

In order: 1. Who cares? 2. Singletary 3. Moss 4. Harris 5. Michel

Etienne isn't even that fast. He's just faster than Moss and Singletary. He's not a 4.3 guy he is a 4.5 guy. The back 7 of NFL defenses are full of guys faster than him so the expectation that he's going to tear up NFL defenses with his speed is likely unfounded. He's a nice rotational RB prospect.......but also high mileage........and certainly history has proven that players like him are not worthy of first round picks. The Bills haven't "regrettably" passed on a RB in round 1 even once in the past 25 years. The only one's that provide even a 50% hit rate are the generational backs who always go top 10.......the Fournette/Barkley/McCaffrey types. And those were still bad picks that high because there is a veritable "impact cap" on how much difference any RB can make in an offense.....because it's a passing league.

The next time ANY fanbase is in total agreement with the player the team picks in round 1 will be the first time. Yes, even Manning and Luck had detractors. For some reason there are still a few painfully ignorant Bills fans out there who think this is just a Bills-fan phenomena.

Yolo's take is mostly based off the trust of the Ravens history as a team that handles the draft well. The overall body of work is good but many of their high profile individual moves have been bad. The last 4 times they were picking late in round one they selected Breshad Perriman, Hayden Hurst, Hollywood Brown and Patrick Queen. Hurst surely didn't play like a first round TE but trading him was often cited as a reason why their offensive production dropped almost a TD per game. Brown and Queen are still with the team but Brown has underwhelmed and Queen was probably the worst MLB in the league last year.

I would call this wishful thinking. The odds of getting a very good player at #45 are maybe 35%-40% at that point. Orlando Brown is AT LEAST a very good player. Maybe they get lucky and draft another Ray Lewis with that pick........or maybe Brown gets injured or loses his mind or whatever.........but it's definitely an L in real time........they aren't likely to replace that talent and they've aided a conference rival. For comparison, I think if the Bills could get a Danielle Hunter in this kind of value exchange I think the board would be delighted. As for the Chiefs replacing Fisher.........I've said it before.......not all solid LT's give you 10 years. They got 8 from him. The Bills will be lucky to get that many seasons of Dion Dawkins, which is a good reason why LT should be in their sights.

The NFL's TV numbers in Canada are already very high and the entire population of the country is about the same as the state of California.......where the tv numbers are good and coincidentally most natives follow teams from other states. I don't think there is nearly as much left on the table as you might think.

I will believe that a LB/S hybrid can consistently shut down top pass catching TE's when I see it. IMO........when the Bills play KC........Tre White should be matched up with Kelce. (he's too slow to impact Tyreek Hill much anyway) For that to be the case they need two other capable boundary CB's more than they need a big nickel. I'm not terribly uncomfortable with Levi or Dane Jackson being one of them, but they need to interject another more talented CB into that group.

Oh they definitely have the capital to move up........I would really like to see them use all those picks though. I know there is this notion out there that 7 draft picks can't make the team.........and Beane has at times fed this narrative in past offseason.........but I think you want those swings. One of the reasons Beane has had to spend so much on depth in free agency the past few offseason is because he has traded up a lot. The batting average is higher filling gaps with vets but cap space is tight and the market might not be as flooded in coming offseasons........ that's when it's nice to have depth on sub $1M contracts for the back end of the roster.

The answer all along was that they should bolster the offense. They struggled offensively in the playoffs. Some of their success last season was due to the newness of it. I think they believe they have been improving their offense with the OL signings and re-signings and Sanders and Breida. But it's not time to stop. I completely agree that averaging 35 points per game should be a serious objective. That's do-able in todays game.

Yeah I wouldn't advocate drafting an interior lineman in round 1........I think you gotta' use those picks on players at big money, key positions you would struggle to address in free agency (QB/pass rush/LT/CB1/WR1). The fact that we can envision Lamp being a very good guard illustrates why. You aren't getting any kind of potential LT for minimum wage in free agency. But I think there is a good chance they can address a big money position like LT and put him at guard and excel while he develops as a potential replacement for Dawkins when his deal expires or if he is lost to injury. Or as you suggest, get a WR. I like Terrace Marshall who I think can play all 3 WR spots and be a potential deep threat, seam stretcher and red zone option.......all also sneaky needs for a Bills WR corps with a lot of duplicate skill sets. Some people like the slot WR types there.......I'm not as high on that type that early. If the best player at #30 is a guy they think can become a great pass rusher or a potential #1 CB....then I am fine with that....individual talent can change games at those positions even if they aren't receiving a lot of help around them. But, even though it's less gratifying to address a strength, all things being equal they would be wise to keep surrounding the franchise player with talent.

Yeah how many times have we found out that strengths can become weaknesses very quick? Trying to balance out the roster usually just leaves you watered down. Not first addressing perceived needs doesn't provide the instant gratification that fans want from a draft.........but that's why filling needs is really a free agency thing. The draft has to be about what's in the best interest of the team long term. The organization's #1 job is to make Josh Allen as effective as he can be. Everything else is secondary to their success.

You are right that bolstering the offense should be the Bills priority. You can't force it when trying to add a more dynamic RB or TE. If they aren't there......they aren't there. It wasn't there when KC drafted CEHelaire and they ended up using a premium pick on a modest talent. This offseason the Chiefs are doing what you are talking about, but doing it the right way. They are putting the money in the OL. That's where the Bills can find the most value as well. The more time that Josh Allen has to throw the ball the more dangerous all of his current weapons become. With better run blocking and scheme specific RB's you can be dynamic on the ground without a 1st round RB.

The Chiefs want to be great where their strength lies........Bills fans shouldn't be so worried about balancing out the talent on both sides of the ball either. That kind of balance isn't sustainable.

Yeah he is Mr. Nice Guy on camera but Tony Dungy promoted dirty football with the Vikings and Bucs. His long time DL coach John Teerlinck........whose son would later coach for the Bills..........was especially notorious. Never forget their LB Jack Del Rio taking out Kelly's knee late in that 1994 season..........and Reich coming in and sh*tting himself over the next several games. When he got Peyton Manning then he became worried about player safety.

Not true, he ran both odd and even fronts with great success in his 35 years as a DC and HC. He's had a lot of HOF'ers on D but none of them were NT's. Washington was by far the best of his NT's. Traditionally not an expensive or very difficult position to fill. It's harder to find a good 1 tech.......it's a tweener position......if your 1 tech isn't not only absorbing his share of double teams but also making tackles and aiding with the pass rush then you aren't getting enough from that position.

If the Bills follow my draft advice and only use their top picks on players at premium positions.........then maybe their next Vegas game will be before that......in a February.

Phillips has been less successful in later years? His Denver defense that beat McD's Panthers 11 months before he took the Bills job was great. The 2018 Rams defense played well enough to win that SB versus NE as well. Yes.......he's been around........his first #1 defense was with the Saints in 1983 and he had 5 more top 5 defenses between 86'-91' in addition to the time most of us remember him from in the 90's thru today.......but he was still outstanding in recent years. In traditional defensive rankings he's been great. And thru 2017 in the more "modern" measure of DVOA he was still the best DC of the past 25 years(and that didn't count his defenses when he was a HC so not even the best Bills defenses). Schwartz and McD have fielded a lot of bad to mediocre defenses between the two of them. Schwartz first 6 seasons as DC in Tennessee were bad to mediocre, his Detroit D's were bad. McD has had his ups and downs and even got fired for poor performance as DC in Philly.......and replaced by Juan Castillo. McD and Schwartz are good DC's but nowhere near Wade's class and even now I wouldn't take either of their defensive minds or systems over Wade.