OldTimer1960

I’d rather see them bolster the OL. At this point, it looks almost certain that BPA at their pick will be a DL, likely by a wide margin. So, I expect a DL in the 1st. After that, I’d love to see an OL player like Risner or Bradbury or McCoy or... Unless they sign two starting caliber OL in FA, I cannot see how they could take a WR or TE in the first 3 rounds. Now, if they trade down in round 1 and pick up an extra 2nd, then maybe they could grab a pass catcher in the first 3 rounds.

Maybe - depends on his health and what he runs. I’m thinking 3rd-4th round unless he runs a poor 40. I think if he runs 4.55 or better then he will go in 3rd or 4th. 4.6 or worse hurts him a lot.

I think the 2nd is too early for Anthony Johnson.

Yes

I was only referring to Rosen’ political leaning. Trump is an embarrassment.

He wasn’t even in the top 2 of his college team this year in terms of production. My respect for Rosen went up 100x.

Yes he is, but he is 15-20 pounds heavier than Marquis Brown.

I am right there with you being wary of his low production. He was the WR2 on his team behind AJ Brown who out-produced him considerably. For that matter so did Demarcus Lodge on his own team. AJ Brown averaged 7 receptions per game in comparison to Metcalf’s 3 and Lodge averaged 4 per game. Metcalf is clearly a tremendous athlete with incredible size and strength, but why was he not more productive?

Agreed - Wilkins has dominated at a high level of competition and has the character traits that the Bills are after.

I would not take him early in round 2. I’d rather see them get an OL or WR, especially if they take a DL in 1st, but even if they take a OL in first, I would not be against taking another in 2nd. I do expect the Bills to pursue OL in FA, but I’m not expecting a huge haul at that position that will address all of the OL needs.

That is a fine list that will yield at least one of them available at the Bills' pick. I think that Wilkins is underrated here and seems like an ideal Bean-McDermott profile fit.

I argue for patience with Zay and any young WR. Here are the first two year stats for one of the very best receivers in Bills’ history: 49 catches, 575 yards, 11.7 ypc, 2 TDS Here are Zay Jones’ stats for his first two seasons: 83 catches, 968 yards, 11.7 ypc, 9 TDS For sure, passing is more prevalent and easier today than it was when the all-time great played, but the point is that if the Bills had given up on that player because he didn’t burn up the league in his first two years, they would have missed out on a great player. That great player was Eric Moulds. To point to a more current example at a different position, Jerry Hughes was traded to the Bills because the Colts gave up on him early.

Marcell Dareus was a semi-proven top-end talent (when he bothered to try) and he was traded for a 5th round pick. Ross is younger and on a much cheaper contract, but has zero success so far. Maybe he is worth a 5th as well, but I wouldn't trade more than that for him.

I agree with most of this, but looking at the available FA, it is not an inspiring list to overspend on. i agree that if they can find a couple of good veteran anchors for the OL who can hold the fort until younger players can supplant them, then by all means sign them. If you can get role players to sign for "reasonable" contracts - great, but for example if the plan is to sign Jesse James and John Brown to upper third of the league starters contracts, then I'd shy away unless you can reasonably project them to top half of the league starters. If you have to pay top money for a stop-gap, you are in dangerous territory unless you can' argue that they will help Allen grow this year.

It was to clear the books to allow prudent spending on FA this year and to clear space to pay future contracts for young key players already on the roster and who will be drafted this year. Free Agency is by definition a very limited employee pool - those players whose contracts expire this year and who are not resigned or tagged by their current team. Obviously, that is not the deepest pool of potential acquisitions to be fishing in. Overpaying for "OK" starters and role players is not a recipe for long-term success. If player A is available in FA and is an upgrade over current players, is he worth what you will have to pay to sign him if it is 2-3x what a comparable player available in the draft can be had for? Further, I assume that of the available FAs, only maybe 2 of every 3, if that are "fits" for the culture/process/profile that they want here - and I'm completely on-board with that. That is the Patriot's model, with the exception that here the culture is not fully entrenched such that it will allow them to take a chance on misfits in the hope that the "locker room" will mold the misfit into a fit.

I'm not saying that there are no decent FAs available nor am I saying they should not sign any FAs. However, I don't think that they should go out and spend 80% of their available cap space - mostly because there aren't that many good FAs available. I hope that they can find one or two players to help the OL and maybe a few decent backup/rotational players - all of whom have to fit the McDermott/Beane culture.

Respectfully disagree. Overpaying for a year or two stop-gap sets up a bad scenario for the truly good young players on your roster at contract time.

True, but at what price? If you pay mildly competent players big money, you will end up right back in the hole they just dug themselves out of (IMHO).

Here is a summary of this year’s FAs. I don’t see much there to overspend on and get excited about. I trust this F.O. to spend judiciously and find a few contributors, but I don’t see it is as a good plan to spend $60mill in cap space for any group of these guys. These are gap fillers, not game changers. I see no attainable long-term starters that are real significant starters. I’d rather find a way to get more premium draft picks (top 64) than to spend heavily on any of these guys. Can they trade down in round one and nab another 2nd? Can they trade up from the 3rd for another 2nd? Can they trade 2 4ths for a late 3rd? Can they get a 2nd or 3rd in trade for a player currently on the roster? Money aside, what 2 or 3 FAs can you see in this class that are really top 1/3 of the league starters at their position? http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap3000001018706/article/top-101-nfl-free-agents-of-2019-demarcus-lawrence-at-no-1

Never in a million years would I trade a 1st or 2nd round pick for an extremely highly paid diva WR who is getting close to 30 y.o.

I really like what I’ve seen of Brown. If they can get him in the 2nd I think it would be a very good selection

He may be a good prospect, but success in the PAC-12 on offense needs to be scrutinized because they don’t play a lot of good defense in that conference. Again, he might be a tremendous prospect- just check the competition.

I haven’t read this whole thread, but would you not describe the Pats dynasty as “blue collar “?

Burns might be more experienced at 4-3 end, bu unless he can get to 250 lbs without losing much speed, flexibility, explosiveness he will have trouble in the NFL, in my opinion. 250 is even pretty light for an every down 4-3 end and I won’t be surprised if he is considerably lighter than that.

I think his draft position will be strongly affected by his combine measures and performance. I have seen his weight listed as light as 220 at 6’4” or 6’5”. If he comes in heavier, shows well in the strength and speed events, he could go pretty high. Questions include could he play 4-3 OLB or hold up as a 4-3 DE? If he shows up at under 240, he probably can’t play 4-3 DE, but might be a good candidate as a 3-4 OLB.