appoo

So this is the downside of McDerott's system, which uses 2 Backers on he field almost all the time. You gotta PAY 2 backers who can be 3 down backers in any situation, AND be able to have them blitz. Those dudes are rare, and you usually find them in the first round (it's why Micah Parsons is gonna go in the first). There is an excellent argument to be made to let one of Edmunds or Milano go, and then switch to a tradtional 4-3. have a traditional Mike, and traditional Sam/Will backers, who you ask to be more run stuff + flat + blitz off the edge. Those guys are cheaper, and then when you have pure pass downs, fields 6 DBs, and on hybrid situations, you can still run a nickel to be able play both run and pass. AJ Klein can be your 2nd backer on 3rd and 5, if the opposition is in 11 personnel. You can let Edmunds cover the middle and Klein run the flats. What you can't ask him to do is play a huge zone on 3rd and 10. Right now the Bills basically split the field between Edmunds and Milano, and that works against the non-elite TE teams. Milano should be an Alpha dog MLB on a defense. The Bills D requires 2. Let him go and get paid elsewhere, adjust your base system so you don't need 2 super talented backers.

That's a great point. I think my basic point is that Moore's speed is going to be an asset, even if it's not elite. But the other parts of his game is what really makes him a legit weapon. A small part of me wishes the Bills took KJ Hamler in the last draft. Probably more valuable to the Bills than AJE in the next few years.

Another here. With Moore it's the combo of excellent speed, shiftiness and pure strength. He's an incredibly powerful runner.

Moore hit a 4.33 40 at the Opening, which is laser timed. His speed isn't a question here.

He's got plenty of speed. He's kind of a complete package. Just watch his feet move. He doesn't have Tyreke Hill speed (no one does) but he's plenty fast

elite speed, runs like a RB after the catch. Undersized....these are usually boom/bust prospects. I'm not sure he'd be available in the 3rd when the Bills pick, but if he's there mid-3rd, I would support a move up to get him

Wish the Bills were in a position to draft Micah Parsons. He's basically tailor made for McDermott's system. A true plug and play backer.

Milano's value to Buffalo is probably higher than what it would be to most defenses, because of the system McDermott runs. Buffalo runs a 5-2 system, and we almost ALWAYS have 2 LBs on the field every play. So those 2 LBs have to be able to run sideline-to-sideline, drop in coverage, tackle efficiently, and be an effective blitzer. Losing Milano means you'll probably have to move to a true base 4-3, and figure if you're going to use a dime rather than nickel in passing situations. It might be easier to find a 4th corner or safety who can cover and play the run, than a 2nd backer who can cover and do all the things Milano can

So, cutting Mitch Morse, Mario Addison, John Brown, Jerry Hughes and Vernon Butler saves the Bills 33M, and has them at 35M of cap space. If you assume 178M (we carry over 3M from 2020) that leaves you with 36 players. Add 8 draft picks, assume 2 of them goto the practice squad/cut, and you have 42 players, so need to add 12 more. Of the Bills F/As, they'll likely want to bring back Feliciano, Daryll Williams, Milano, Andre Roberts and Isiah McKenzie. Feliciano might get moved to Center, but he'll get guard money. And perhaps James Carpenter as a reasonable analog? So that's 5.5M in a cap hit Williams won't get Mitchell Schwartz money, so we'll give him a 7M cap hit Milano is your big hitter here, he won't get Mosley money, and perhaps not close to it...but I'd put hi, between 7-10M cap hir range, but lets be generous to the Bills and say 7 We'll give Andre Roberts a 2M cap hit, and Boettger might get you a 2M hit as well. So now, we're upto 40 rostered players + 6 draft picks = 46. Of our 35M in space we've used up 25M, which the Bills need to sign 8 players. First, elevate Dane Jackson (CB), Kenny Stills (WR), Trey Adams (OT), and Antonio Williams (RB/ST) to first team contracts. These are all depth players. adding about 4M total to the cap. Down to 19. From here, the Bills need - either from draft or F/A Guard EDGE CB RB And then backups from several other positions. Without some serious magic it's going to be tough for the Bills to sign anyone signifcant in F/A, assuming the Cap stays at 175M.

I think "physicality" is overrated for the KC Game. The Bills hit those dudes. Rarely missed tackles except when facing those elite speed WRs in the open field, which is honestly expected. Rather, I would concentrate on the speed. KC's speed really is what allows Mahomes to be Mahomes. It opens up the field for him, keeps teams from heavily blitzing him.

comparing to Hopkins is misleading, as he signed just a 2 year contract, so it's yearly value is a lot higher. In terms of total contact value, Diggs is the 8th highest, behind the likes Keenan Allen and Jarvis Landry, ahead of Julio and Devante Adams. AAV, he is 16th. Of guys on a 5 year contract, he is 7th. Amari Cooper, OBJ, Michael Thomas, OBJ, Mike Evans, Brandin Cooks, and JArvis Landry are ahead of him. Finally, keep in mind that Diggs is almost purely a Z WR. Traditionally thought of as a #2. But when looking at Flankers, Tyreke Hill (3 year contract ,who plays a lot of X), Robert Woods, Adam Thielen (4 year contract), and Jarvis Landry (5 years) have a higher AAV. In terms of total contract value, he is the 2nd highest paid Z in the NFL, he is 3M behind Jarvis Landry, who signed extensions in the same year (2018). His agent might be able to argue for about 2-3M a year more, but not much more than that. Not when Diggs is 28. I love Diggs and think he's an elite Z. But an elite Z is certainly not as impactful as an elite X

Not enough speed, too injured at WR Run game sucks No game wrecking pass rusher Chiefs too much elite versatility Back 7 never had a chance because of underwhelming front 7 in rushing the passer Josh Allen Good Tackles Good Linebackers Good Safeties good Acquire elite pass rusher, good pass rusher, RB, run blocking guard, healthy Beasley, develop Gabe Davis, Beat Chiefs, win Super Bowl

The issue I'm having with your proposal is that if there's list of 10 problems with the Bills in that game, then Josh Allen is 9 the lowest ranked, just ahead of our kicking game, which was superb. And to be honest, the problems he did have - which was basically holding the ball too long, trying to find plays that just weren't there deep - were partly caused by problems #1 - 8. The had no chance of slowing down the Chiefs, his WRs were badly struggling, and his running game mostly non-existent. That in turn put more pressure on Allen to make plays.

The Bills didn't have a problem sustaining drives, which is evidence that check downs weren't a problem. You don't score in the RZ with checkdowns, and the RZ was where the problem. There, it's about route running to create holes and running the football. Neither of which the Bills were very successful, neither of which are on Josh Allen.

Yea, I should have edited that out. You're right. Edmunds, if he continues to get better, has that potential though.

Sorry, but Allen had maybe 3 bad throws that entire game. Even that INT, that was a WR getting dominated in single coverage. Nerves wasn't an issue. Allen was ready, he was fairly accurate as well and in general made good decision. He got criticized for holding the ball and took bad sacks, but he took those sacks knowing he HAD to make plays, with his defense overmatched, and his injured WRs overwhelmed, and no Running game. He was in a position where he needed to extra risks Nah, we were grinding yards. The checkdowns weren't the problem. He didn't have the big play available, and he couldn't get dudes open in the RZ.

Josh Allen doesn't need to work on *****. It's the rest of the squad that needs to get better

Star is going to be on the roster next year (costs too much money to cut), so there's some help at the 1T to Oliver's 3T. Letting Ed just be a pass rusher would at least allow the Bills to truly assess him. Definitely understand the hesitation around Edmunds, even if I disagree with it, but there's not much you can do about it this offseason.

After settling down, I think this is where the Bills need to improve, and some other thoughts on what's going well Speed on the Perimeter. Without Brown healthy, the Bills struggled to force defenses to respect the deep threat. KC basically threw coverage at Diggs, and just bodied the rest of the Bills WRs. That worked because the Bills did not have a single 4.4 40 guy on the roster at WR or RB. Quickness at WR, This has to do with injury and age. Ignoring Gabe Davis, who's purely an X, the Chiefs defense were extraordinarily physical with the Bills WRs. Yes it was annoying in that a lot more defensive holdings could have been called, but quite honestly I would have done the same. These are average defenders outside of the honey badger. Why was it successful? Because neither John Brown nor Cole Beasley were healthy enough to have the quickness they needed to punish physical play from DBs. Prior to his late season injury, Beasley had that quickness, and the Bills punished defenses for it. When he's fully healthy, there's not a lot of DBs who are quick enough to body Beasley. I don't thikn Brown ever gets back to that quickness, unfortunately. Pass rushing fear creation. I don't remember a single moment from yesterday where a Bills defender blew up his blocker and created havoc. Whether from a DE, DT or LB. Watch that Bucs - Pack game, and you saw JPP and Shaq Barrett be complete menaces, and you saw it hugely impact the Pack offense. The Bills simply don't hve the horses to do this to better teams. KC had above average OLine talent across the board, and that's all it took to keep Mahomes, in general clean. That OLine protection is also what allows the Chiefs offense to put the Bills' back 7 in such a precarious position. Because they couldn't get to the passer, the Bills had to choose between getting killed in man by KC's elite perimeter talent while blitzing, or getting killed by KC's elite speed and TE play while sitting back in zone/man combos. Endmunds and Milano and Tre and Wallace didn't actually have bad games all things considered. They were put in horrible spots by their DLine, and I guess game plan. Kelce is a TE who has the footwork and agility of a small WR, which is just unfair. Tyreke Hill is perhaps the fastest player in NFL history while Mecole Hardman isn't exactly slow. And then add in a versatile RBs? Without a pass rush, that's an impossible ask of your back 7 in coverage. For where I think the Bills ARE ready? Josh effing Allen. Man. I'm sorry but that kid brought it yesterday, and 95% of the other QBs in the NFL would have been FAR FAR worse. This would have been a complete blowout by halftime without Allen. Instead, he was a John Brown caused turnover away from getting it to one possession sometime in the 4th quarter. I mean, Allen had RBs who wouldn't start for Alabama right now, much less any other NFL team, WRs who were so injured that it was a miracle they ever got open, and the one elite WR actually played well, but had coverage just directed at him for the entire game. And then facing an offense he knew was going to score everytime they got it? The amount of pressure - physical and mental - he faced was just flat out insane. And I thought he did well in those circumstances The Z. I have no idea how Diggs even got the production he did, and that long catch was a tremendous play. For at least 4 years, the Bills might have the best technician in the game at that position. The tackles. IF they get Williams back, I think the Bills are set there. Linebackers. In this system, you need two elite LBs, and I think the Bills have that in Edmunds and Milano. They almost never missed a tackle, and were basically left on an island against the run game, which they proceeded to stuff for the most part. Not going to blame them for not being able to contain Kelce, when he had all the freedom and time in the world to get open. That dude is just a problem Safeties. Again, I thought they did a reasonable job out there, but were left out to dry by the lack of pressure. They mostly put a cap on the passing game. All of the big plays by the Chiefs are short gains turned into big plays. Can't recall Mahomes straight up beating them. So where do the Bills go from here? I'm not sure what comes first. I'm inclined to think tou fix the pass rush first. They have a good enough pass rush against either flawed protections (much of the NFL) or against one dimensional offensive schemes (the Ravens, the Steelers), but when they go up against multi-dimensional offenses that also bring above average protection, they're going to run into a lot of problems, and those are the teams you're gonna play in the Divisional, Championship and Super Bowl Sundays. My feeling is that they can scheme around not having a 2nd high end WR to pair with Diggs, and think a Beasley provides the quickness you need to offer a second weapon when Diggs gets coverage thrown at him, and finally think Gabe Davis (healthy), is an off-season away from being a decent weapon in his own right. So wouldn't put too many resources here. Perhaps if you're sitting in the 4th round and you see a 4.3 40 kid sitting there, you snag him You absolutely need to do something with the run game. Again, this is about bridging the gap to elite. You can let Allen carry you to greatness, but to take the next step, you gotta have a legit run game that defenses need to game plan around. That might start with drafting a true #1 RB, or maybe it's cutting Morse, move Feliciano to center, and signing at least one guard and hope Ford turns into a legit power blocking guard. This team is a bit closer than the Chiefs made them look, just that where they do need to improve is exploitable

or the lesson should be to never trust a dude named Wink

Just so many dynamic playmakers in the NFL today

I still don't understand how this is even a considered possibility, due to the dead cap implications

You gotta understand that 80% of what the Bills OLine does is pass block, which basically hides Boettger. I don't believe this is a sustainable way of playing offense. Right now the Bills have an elite Z and an elite slot. That's why the Bills can drop back 75% of the time and pass and still win. You actually saw the consequences of that against the Ravens, when Beasley wasn't himself, the Bills offense had just a single TD against a defense with above average but not great secondary talent, and brought almost no extra pressure. Going forward, the Bills are going to require a functioning run game, and you're not going to get that with Ike Boetger as your starting guard IMO. I actually think the play would be to keep Mongo over Williams to help facilitate that, and maybe use a 2nd round pick on a RT or a veteran FA who's ok with a cheap deal on a winning team. Ford and Feliciano are plus run guards.

Topics like this is why I wish the NFL had Bird Rights