OldTimer1960

I disagree. I don't think a decent (not great) RT and C in FA combined with AB would have made the Bills serious contenders. First, Allen is still very inexperienced, the OL really needs 3-4 new starters, there isn't a TE on the roster and the RBs are all old. Now, I am not saying that all needs to be fixed (or can be fixed) this offseason, but the cupboard is really mostly bare on offense at the moment. If they can sign a couple of OL that are competent starters in FA and add another in the 1st or 2nd in the draft, then that would be progress. They don't have enough high picks in this draft to really make the offense over - especially if they decide to take a DL in the 1st (because they may well be BPA). A few additions will help a lot because the offense was so devoid of talent last year, but there is a long way to go to get to a very good offense.

I'm not disappointed that a deal did not get done - actually, I would have wondered what they were doing? I think and hope that the plan is to build for sustainable success. I can't understand how trading assets for and then paying A LOT of money to a 30 year old WR to play on a team that is still a long way from having enough talent on offense to be serious contenders would be building towards that sustainable success goal. Now, it might make sense for a team like the Eagles or Chiefs who already are contenders.

I agree that rounds 2&3 are not certainties, but I think you are being generous with saying McCloud is jury out. I could agree that Neal *might* develop and I don’t expect Vallejo to be a starter for long - I could be wrong, of course.

Not dismissing those picks, but they are still long-shots to be big contributors. Yes, Milano looks like he could be a long term contributor, but beyond Milano they’ve selected Peterman, Tanner Vallejo, Taron Johnson, Siran Neal, Wyatt Teller, Ray Ray McCloud and Austin Prohel. Johnson could be helpful over the next few years and Teller might become a decent starter, but I don’t think anyone is missing Peterman, Vallejo, McCloud or Prohel

I would not hate Ford at 9, but am hoping for better than a good OG at that spot. i could really get behind Simmons in round 2, but get ready for many to complain that they wasted the pick on an injured player who won’t be all-pro in his rookie year. I think it would be a great future investment at a (relatively) low price.

10 draft picks is a bit deceiving. The Bills have 1 pick in each of the first three (money) rounds. They have an extra pick in round 4 and an extra pick in round 5 and an extra pick later. Really, unless they can parlay the extra 4th and 5th into an extra 3rd, they are not much more than lottery tickets.

I would not consider trading the Bills 2nd round pick for a $12M/year OG. There will be good OL prospects early in round 2 and they will be MUCH cheaper. Now, for sure, a draft pick won’t have the proven NFL track record that Zeitler has.

I would not rule out Christian Wilkins at 9. He is worth that pick, in my opinion. Of course, there are other players worthy of that pick as well, but Wilkins could be BPA on their board at 9.

They Pats win and they get contributions every year from "scrap" free agent that they sign and discard after they've gotten their use out of them. You can't have star players at every starting position and especially true of backups/role players.

Agreed and for the analytics crowd, looking for players with prototypical,height, weight, speed is using analytics

I am all for TEs with very good blocking ability, but if he is only an adequate blocker with an average of 6.5 receptions per year last 2 years, then I would hope that his blocking skills are top 10 in the league to warrant any offer.

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.