hondo in seattle

I like Blackmon because he's versatile. He can play free, strong, slot... McD loves versatile safeties (like Poyer and Hyde) because they help him disguise his defensive calls. Opposing QBs are uncertain who's doing what. The chart shows performance from 2019 to 2023 and actually rates Blackmon better than Poyer or Hyde at "Separation Prevented" which surprises me. In fact, Blackmon is rated among the best in the league.

I think Samuel may do well here. I think, in some ways, he's better than Gabe. But his production will depend on the mysterious rookie. If the Bills draft a wideout in the first or second rounds and make him the starter, Samuel's production will suffer. Brady is the other wildcard. I wasn't overly impressed with Brady's first half-season. But maybe with a full offseason to tweak the playbook and implement his own offense, he'll show us something good. It'll be interesting to see how he makes use of Samuel, Knox, and his other weapons.

Good news.

I don't think they're paying Samuel to be the 5th or 6th target though it depends a lot on the speculative rookie. We'll see.

I know zilch about college football so I just took GunnerBill's predictions and swapped a couple of teams... Marvin Harrison - New England Patriots Rome Odunze - New York Giants Ladd McConkey - Cincinnati Bengals Xavier Worthy - Dallas Cowboys Brian Thomas Jnr - Buffalo Bills

The Steelers needed a starting QB. They got one for $1.2 million and another for a 6th round pick. It seems they're spending their assets wisely.

Fergy, this is a fair point. But when you throw in Kelce, Mahomes had good targets to throw to. And even if KC's wideouts weren't all-stars, Reid knew how to scheme them open. The more important point is that you can't fill up a roster with jags and expect to win the Super Bowl. A GM ought to aim for SB quality in every position group. And then settle for what he can actually afford. But too much settling leads to mediocrity. To get your money's worth out of an expensive and supremely talented QB like Josh, I think you need to give him a couple of Pro Bowl level targets and a good bodyguard/OL and economize at RB.

I think back to when we had an elite secondary anchored by Tre, Poyer, and Hyde all in their primes. This secondary doesn't inspire the same confidence.

A nice room? Maybe. I don't hate it. I guess it depends on what your standard it. This might be an average group of targets. Maybe Diggs elevates it to above-average. Maybe it's even a playoff-caliber receiver room. To me, though, it doesn't look like an elite, Lombardi-hoisting group of receivers. Brady is the wild card. Maybe he can scheme guys open more than we've seen in the recent past.

There were three times in all my years of Bills fandom that I thought I witnessed a football career come to a premature end. When Kevin Everett got hurt. When Hamlin got hurt. And when Nathan Peterman threw 5 picks before halftime in his first start. I was wrong on two of the three. So happy for Hamlin. As for Peterman, I'm still kind of amazed that his career has lasted another 6 years and counting.

If anyone wants to know about my state of mind... I'm no longer bitter about trading away Lamonica.

When you shop at the dollar store...

I've got to say, I'm happy with this approach. I worry about short-term cap decisions that hurt us later on.

I'm very appreciative of Beane's work. He took a crap roster and built the franchise into a perennial contender. But this thread underscored my problem with his work thus far: not enough difference-makers. The best teams have more elite game-changing type players than we do. Some will rail against this opinion, but I think this is the main reason we haven't won a Lombardi. McD hasn't held us back. Beane just hasn't - yet - given him a SB-worthy roster.

I voted that we'd be out in the divisional round. It's hard for me to imagine the Bills being much better this season than last with all the roster holes Beane needs to fill. But who knows? Maybe he does. And maybe Brady, with an offseason to install his offense, turns out to be a lights-out OC.

Great start? We've lost a bunch of starters and contributors, signed a backup QB, and restructured some contracts to keep a couple of guys without emptying the bank. Objectively, not a great start. But I get the point. Given the circumstances that he himself created, Beane seems to be doing a good job managing the cap challenges.

We once boasted an elite secondary anchored by White, Poyer, and Hyde. Now only one of them is left. Sad.

We were blessed to have the Hyde-Poyer duo when they were in their prime. All good things must come to an end.

I expect the roster to be somewhat worse because of our cap situation. I'm hoping that Beane proves me wrong. I'm also hoping that Brady schemes up a better offense and that our D remains mostly healthy this year. Oh, and I'm hoping Von and Tre return to form.

There are analytic sites that chart separation, and some receivers are more 'open' (i.e. gain more separation) than others. And some schemes get guys 'open' more than others. I'd like for the Bills receivers to be on the good end of the spectrum rather than the poor end where we are now.

Every draft pick is a crapshoot and I hope Beane doesn't trade up and leaves us with more rolls of the dice.

Maybe. It'll be interesting to see who Beane gets to replace him (if he leaves).

I'd love to have a good run game. Kelly had Thurman. This offense would be hard to stop if it could both run and pass. But currently it can't do either with consistency. And with Josh as, by far, our best player, we need to build around him. We need a good group of bodyguards up front that keep him upright and give him time to throw. And we need receiving weapons. Too often we see Josh scrambling around either because (a) protection broke down, or (more commonly now) (b) no one's open.

I'm happy enough with Shakir and Diggs in their current places. But I want Eric Moulds in Gabe's place. If not Moulds, give me a Lee Evans - a speedster with hands who can stretch defenses. Josh's arm strength allows him to throw effectively both to the boundaries and deep. Cook is a decent running threat both inside and out. With the right receivers, defenses will have to defend the entire 53-yard width of the field from the LOS to 60+ yards downfield. So much real estate, they'll fail. The biggest piece we're missing is a legit deep threat. We need speed more than size.

In today's pass-happy NFL, it's good to have an elite secondary. And I remember when we had one with Hyde and Poyer on the backend and Tre as one of the corners. I'm afraid we're going into the 2024 season with a secondary that's much less than elite with the safeties and Tre (if we even keep them) now beyond their prime. Releasing Douglas doesn't help. Yikes, indeed.