hondo in seattle

None of the guys listed are inspiring. Either Beane makes a trade (which I don't like because of the costs involved) or he goes with what we what we have now (which I don't like because it's just not good enough). It seems I'm fated to be unhappy.

It helps that Torrence is on a rookie contract but the fact that Bills are 29th in OL spending is concerning to me. The Bills invest heavily in the body of Josh Allen but they don't invest in a bodyguard.

Some GMs, I'm told, have cap allocation charts. They examine the value of each position group and allocate each group a different percentage of the cap. It's not a hard budget - more of an ideal that's very situationally dependent. For example, if your QB is on a rookie contract, you can temporarily allocate more to other position groups. If Beane has an allocation chart, it would be interesting to see how much he allocates to each position.

I don't collect autographs. Football is great to watch but players are just people. Their autographs would mean nothing to me. Then again, if a Brady autograph is worth selling, I'd be happy to have one.

My position is more emotional than logical. Moulds played a lot of good ball for us during the drought. He may be the best player of the Early Drought Period. I want to give him credit. Similarly, even though Kyle Williams did finally experience a playoff game, I give him credit for being a drought veteran.

I am continually surprised by how many North Face, etc., jackets you see in sunny southern places. When it's warm most of the year, 40 or 50 degrees can seem cold.

I'm not sure Washington would be my second choice, but Moulds would be my first. I once went to war as a soldier where folks tried to kill me, but I've spent most of my life in peaceful places. Do I not count as a combat veteran? Moulds spent six good years of his career in the drought. As far as I'm concerned, he's a drought veteran. By the same logic, sort of, I eliminated TO from consideration. Moulds fought against the drought with something like 500 receptions in drought years. TO was more like a war correspondent just passing through with something like 50 receptions.

Yeah, this is great. It's a small charity. They were thrilled when the mafia had initially donated only $3,500. They've tweeted out their appreciation...

Claypool had a nice sideline grab in this game. Unfortunately. Desperate times call for desperate measures. Beane is looking for the good in people and trying to fill up the WR room with inexpensive guys who will compete, hoping one (or more) of them will surprise.

The CBS article reporting the trade said, "there is a talented player somewhere inside Claypool."

Back when men were men...

I once listened to an interview with a scout. He attributed the high miss rate during the draft to the fact that scouting is a predictive science/art. He explained that very, very few college players are good enough to play in the NFL. He did mention some difference among positions groups but, generally speaking, nearly all college players have to get better before they'll be good pros. A scout has to predict who's going to get stronger, bigger, and faster. Who's going to devote themselves to the weight room and playbook. Who's going to have the maturity and discipline to sign a huge contract, stay hungry, and work every day. These predictions include physical, emotional, and psychological factors. There's a lot of (informed) guesswork going on. None of us can know how much Coleman will grow as a player (there are some natural/genetic limits involved) nor how fast his growth will happen. That's why I take the guesswork of fans and media pundits with a grain of salt. He seems like the kind of guy who will put in the work so that's a plus. And Beane and his staff, with all their due diligence, thought him worthy of our first pick so that's encouraging to me, too. But there's no certainty here. All we can do know is hope.

Interesting highlights. I think his college tape is more impressive than Groot's. However, when you look at the size differential (Solomon vs. OT), he kind of looks like a blitzing CB up against an offensive lineman. Yet he gets by those guys with a variety of moves. I wonder how well his skills will translate to the NFL at his size. (Yeah, I know he's only a few pounds lighter than Von. But, to me, he looks small for an edge. Maybe I'm wrong?)

I'm an old far and not up on current lingo so let me ask... What does going "banco" mean? Banco can mean bank or bench in Spanish. Not sure if either meaning fits here.

96 starts in his career. Brings a lot of experience. Ran a 4.38 40 at the combine 8 years ago. Wonder how much of that speed he still possesses? PFF rated him as the 7th best LB in the league back in 2021 but only graded him a 66.3 last season in limited action as a backup.

Thoughts about wideout speed. Samuel has speed. While not routinely used as a deep threat, his speed combined with Josh's arm will force defenses to respect the deep ball. Shakir isn't slow. Gabe was considered a deep threat despite having an average-ish 40 time. Sometimes 40 times don't tell the whole story. While a bit slower than Gabe (according to GPS tracking), Coleman might find ways to get open deep occasionally. With so many teams playing two-high shells and otherwise trying to neuter Josh's arm advantage, we need to get proficient at the short and midrange game. Kincaid is helping there. Coleman will too. If Brady's a good OC, he should be able to scheme up a diverse and productive aerial attack. Though, I admit, it would be fun to have a young Lee Evans on this roster too to make teams truly afraid of the long ball.

Augie, I'm with you 100%. I've called it out in other threads and am happy to see you call it out here. IMHO, the Bills Mafia should be a Band of Brothers who support each other and support the team. Of course, that doesn't mean we respond to everything with Pollyanna happy talk. We're going to be upset when players, coaches, personnel guys, and refs make mistakes. And we'll argue with other fans with different opinions. But - hopefully - all this remains respectful. There's enough sh*t coming our way as it is (e.g. old age, disease, IRS notices, reality tv, death). We don't need to sh*t on each other, too.

It's not a full rebuild but it is a heavy reset year. But I don't think it'll be a bad one when I think about the key players we've lost. For example, Diggs wasn't very productive in the 2nd half of the season. While Davis gave us a couple of very memorable games during his time here, in most games he was just ordinary. Tre hardly played the past two years. Hyde and Poyer, a fantastic duo in their prime, were starting to become injury prone and aging out. We made our run last season without major contributions from these guys. So why not another run this year? There are three things I'll be watching closely: (1) The rookie class. Can they - especially Coleman - contribute this year? (2) Brady. Can he scheme a high-powered offense? (3) Injuries. Can we enter the playoffs reasonably healthy for once? If we have positive answers for these three questions, I think we'll be able to challenge in the playoffs this season. And we should be even better in 2025 with more cap space to play with if Beane plays his cards right.

Teams are afraid of Josh's cannon arm and often use a two-high shell against us, or otherwise try to take away the long ball. We must be able to dink and dunk and, so far, we haven't demonstrated a consistent ability to march down the field that way. Despite some of the analytics on his route tree, I think that's why Coleman was drafted. I admit, though, I'd still love a legit Lee Evans type deep threat on this team. Or better yet, an all-purpose stud receiver like Moulds or Reed. I want the Bills to have the ability to threaten every inch of the gridiron and force opponents to try to defend everything.

Our OL stepped up last year but I still wish it was better. And I wish we had added a stud wideout to the WR room. But if Brady is smart and creative, he's got a diverse group of runners and receivers, each with their own unique skillset, with Josh Allen as the centerpiece. The toolbox isn't empty. This offense can potentially score a lot of points. Though, I don't know yet if Brady is smart and creative.

That's probably true. But is this a Super Bowl roster?

I think Malazan already decisively demonstrated that 40 times don't correlate with NFL success. So why are we still arguing if Coleman is fast or not? It doesn't seem a particularly vital question. Guys with his speed and slower have succeeded in the NFL. But will Coleman? That's the question that matters. Personally, I have no idea. But I like his attitude. He said the right things in his first interview as a Bill and has already reached out to Andre Reed for advice. Seems like he's got his head on straight and is ready to work. I'm rooting for him.

I don't think Beane is looking at it as a punt year. But I also think the cap is mostly spent and the draft is over. Realistically, what can he do?

The best laid schemes of mice and men are often thwarted. I don't think the offense we've seen from the Bills is exactly what Beane intended when he put the roster together. I think some of his player acquisitions have been disappointments to him. And Beane is the GM, not the OC. I believe that there have been times when Beane has thought Dorsey or Brady has underutilized the tools provided. While the OL was better last year, I do wonder why Beane hasn't made the OL a bigger priority. When you have a highly talented - and compensated - QB, you would think acquiring a skilled bodyguard would be critically important.

Well, we needed talent almost everywhere. And Beane found players he liked for a variety of position groups. So far, so good. I have an open mind about each new player. But I also know, historically, that most draft picks do not become valuable starters. So, there's that. I'm intrigued but I'll wait before judging Beane's work a success or failure.