mjt328

What O-Line free agent additions would make us dominant? Our weak spot on the O-Line was easily Cody Ford. Who was a rookie. Now, I would be OK with sliding him inside and going after another Right Tackle to start. But there aren't really any RTs available that would make us a dominant unit. The best is probably Bryan Bulaga, who is the NFL's definition of average. Not exactly a guy that would give us a killer unit. If you slide Ford inside, then you probably want to give him a chance to develop there. Yes, there are some pretty good interior linemen available like Brandon Scherff and Joe Thuney. But they will probably demand Top 3-5 money at the position. Is it really great use of cap dollars to invest in one of those guys, when you have a 2nd Round Pick developing and a guy who played pretty good (Jon Feliciano) already on a bargain contract? I just can't see Beane make another move here, especially after landing Mitch Morse last season. The best LT available is probably Anthony Castonzo (who very likely won't be hitting free agency anyway). He is generally considered a pretty good player, but not a great one. Without considering his age (31) and contract, I would only consider him a marginal upgrade over Dion Dawkins. I think Dawkins improved quite a bit this year, and a smart team lets him play out his contract year before looking for a replacement. Also.... two playoff wins by the Tennessee Titans does not suddenly resurrect 20th century football. Just like the Rams-Chiefs game from last year didn't suddenly make defense irrelevant (like so many were claiming). The Bills need more than a dominant line and running back to take the next step.

It's hard to be great at everything. Our defense is a little bit undersized compared to many others around the league. Our primary focus is shutting down passing attacks, and we are quite possibly the #1 defense in that area. On the flip-side, that leaves us vulnerable (at times) to the more physical teams with big offensive linemen and strong running games. And yes, it also causes us to miss some tackles. The good news is, very few teams are built for this kind of power running game. And even fewer coaches are willing to stick with the running game for a full 4 quarters. Our defense is also usually pretty disciplines with gap control. That's why Philadelphia was pretty much their only "bad" performance all season. It was a perfect storm of the opponent staying dedicated to the power run game, and our defense having an off-day staying in position.

Good player. But I'm also worried about his attitude and whether he's a team-first guy. I had the same questions when he came out of college.

I haven't seen much Tyler Kroft love on this board. Most consider him very replaceable. People seem to be more excited about our younger guys with Dawson Knox and Tommy Sweeney. The problem with Tight End this year, is that replacement options look pretty weak. The highest ranked draft options are considered late Day 2 picks. The position is not strong or deep this year. Hunter Henry and Austin Hooper are the best Free Agent options on the market. Henry has been very good at times, but has even more injury questions than Kroft. The more I think about it, Hooper would be nice to pair with Knox. But there is a good chance Atlanta doesn't let him even hit the market.

No flaming for the Marcus Mariota idea. I think he would be a very good backup option for us. That's OK if you aren't sold on Josh Allen. He clearly needs improvement before we can be fully confident he's the answer. But if you think the coaching staff doesn't give him AT LEAST 3 full seasons (and probably 4) before looking elsewhere, then you are fooling yourself.

One of the primary goals of Free Agency should be to setup the draft, and allow us to go BPA instead of desperately filling holes. This year's draft is very strong at certain positions, and very weak at others. From my vantage point, the #22 spot is going to be a great position for any team in need of a Wide Receiver. There also seem to be some good Running Back and Cornerback options that slip to us the 2nd Round. So my main targets in Free Agency will focus on the spots we probably can't fill in the draft. On top of that list should be pass rusher. My plan would be to re-sign Shaq Lawson, add another DE and then cut Trent Murphy. Guys like Jadeveon Clowney, Yannick Ngakoue or Arik Armstead would be great additions. There are some other guys on the market who could help as well, such as Bud Dupree, Matthew Judon or Shaq Barrett. Someone versatile like Kyle Van Noy would be a great replacement for Lorenzo Alexander. My guess is that Jordan Phillips will not have a huge market, seeing the high number of interior defensive linemen on the market. I would like to get him back on a fair deal. But if the Bills can't get him back, there are lots of other options like Chris Jones, Leonard Williams or Javon Hargrave. The WR market is fools gold this year. Amari Cooper is easily the best option, and he runs very hot and cold. AJ Green and Larry Fitzgerald are pretty much done. Like I said earlier, this is the position to hit in the draft. On the TE side, I think Hunter Henry is the best option available, but is too injury prone and undependable. I think Dawson Knox has more potential that Austin Hooper. Offensive Line is a position I would (maybe) be comfortable keeping relatively the same as 2019. The coaching staff really needs to settle on a long-term position for Cody Ford. If they are confident he can be our Right Tackle, then bring back Quinton Spain and leave the O-Line intact. If they think he projects to guard, then slide him inside and go after Jack Conklin. As a luxury, I would like to make an offer to Byron Jones. Pairing him with Tre White could really make our defense unstoppable.

I prefer to look at the NFL in tiers. Teams generally play 50/50 ball against teams in the same tier, struggle against those above them, and take care of business against those below them. In my opinion, the only clear Tier 1 teams in the AFC were the Ravens and Chiefs. The Patriots started the season there, but regressed badly in the final month. The Titans have played extremely well the last two weeks, but I think they get destroyed in the Championship game. The Bills were clearly a Tier 2 team this year. They split wins-losses against the other similar teams, such as the Titans, Steelers, Texans, Cowboys and Eagles. They were almost perfect against the NFL's average/below average teams. But they couldn't quite get over the hump against the teams on the next level - Ravens, Patriots. So unfortunately, I don't think the Bills would have been able to pull off 3 straight wins in the postseason. To get to the next level, the Bills need their offense to step up. That starts with Josh Allen progressing from a bottom quarter QB into the top half of the NFL. It will require more weapons in the passing and running game, and more consistent play from the offensive line.

Thanks to this weekend's games, the running game has once again become popular. And it's probably going to make Derrick Henry a very rich man. But don't be fooled. It's still not a wise strategy to pay big bucks to a Free Agent running back. More than any other position, RBs tend to wear down early in their careers. Most guys peak before they hit 25. Very few are still effective by the time they reach 30 years old. Guys with heavy workloads also tend to drop-off the next season. The smartest GMs tend to regularly target RBs in the 2nd-3rd Round (which is where Henry was originally drafted), let their guys walk after that rookie contract expires, and then rinse-repeat.

We definitely need another RB. But I would prefer a dual threat guy, instead of a one-dimensional short yardage bruiser. Whenever Frank Gore was on the field, it told the defense that we were probably going to run between the tackles. He wasn't really a threat to get around the edge. And he wasn't really a threat in the passing game. Combine that with Josh Allen's struggles with downfield passes, and teams had no problem loading the box against us. I'm a big believer in going BPA in the draft. But from what I've seen, the Bills should have a very good WR prospect fall into their lap in the 1st Round. And a pretty good RB prospect could likely slip to us in the 2nd Round.

Right now (based on average salary on Spotrac), Star Lotulelei is the 14th highest paid DT in the NFL. Jordan Phillips played out this season at #29. Ed Oliver's rookie contract puts him at #24. If we hand over $10-11 million per year to Phillips, that puts him just outside the Top 10 for the entire league. If Phillips is pushing for that much, I do think our front office lets him test free agency and he comes back to the table a little bit disappointed. But if we hand over $8-9 million per year - which I think is much more realistic - that puts him in the #15-20 range for DTs. That's not really crazy high. At the end of the day, if we are investing for the 14th, (and let's say) the 17th and 24th highest paid DTs in the league, I don't really think that's a massively huge investment. Especially when we already know this unit works well together.

Don't care how it happens. Time for a changing of the guard. The New England Patriots never won a thing while Jim Kelly and Dan Marino owned the AFC East. And nobody thought less of them winning after Kelly/Marino retired.

It will be interesting to see how the market plays out. I was looking at a few Free Agent rankings online, and neither site had Phillips or Lawson in the Top 25 free agents at their positions. It was pretty pathetic, but it makes me wonder if these guys are truly flying under the radar.

Amazing how our Defense was Top 5 in virtually every category, yet according to PFF almost all of our defensive players are below average. A couple weeks ago, one of their guys was defending the ridiculously low grade on Tre White. It was hilarious during the Pittsburgh introductions. I don't think the Bills had one guy in the Top 30 at their position on the defensive side. Hopefully the other teams looking for D-Line help take PFF as gospel. It may help us retain Jordan Phillips and Shaq Lawson on some bargain deals.

Age catches up to everyone. Eventually. And even though it seemed like this day was never going to come, it appears to have finally reached Tom Brady. Don't get me wrong. He still has the ability to have good games occasionally. But I don't think he's good enough to carry an offense by himself anymore, which is something he's been able to do for 15-20 years now. Outside of Randy Moss (for two seasons) and Rob Gronkowski (who was always hurt), Brady hasn't ever been surrounded with Pro-Bowl talent. His running backs have always been average/below average. And I believe guys like Julian Edelman, Wes Welker, Deion Branch and Troy Brown were successful because of Brady. Not the other way around. I think Bill Belichick realizes this. Which is why he drafted a Wide Receiver in the first round for the first time ever, and went after Antonio Brown when he got cut. He knows that Brady needs help now, and can't do it alone anymore. They desperately need to surround Brady with more talent. The problem is, the Patriots have a ton of free agents (around 20 with several starters, including Brady himself). They also don't have a second round pick, and will need to make the tough decision whether to use their first rounder on a future QB. The smart decision for the Patriots would be to cut ties with Brady, and start rebuilding for the future. But I don't know if their pride will allow this. If they bring back Brady, they won't be able to afford to give him enough surrounding help. And they will set-back their ability to build for the future.

How many of the 70% of black NFL players have aspirations to coach, versus those of other races? You cannot determine whether the Rooney Rule is achieving its desired results without knowing the demographics of potential candidates.

If we want to eradicate racism in American society, then we need to stop separating and judging each other based on race/skin color. To me, this seems like common sense. This is the way I'm raising my children to see the world. But the push for "diversity" is doing the complete opposite. Especially when an employer is looking to hire someone. Race and skin color becomes the first thing considered. It becomes the primary way a potential candidate is classified. Not by qualifications or experience. Not work ethic. Not organizational fit. But the pigment of their skin.

Where was he conservative? The offense came out of the gate swinging, and immediately went down to score a touchdown on the first drive. Early second quarter, the Bills were up 7. We drive down and take a shot at the sideline. John Brown fails to tap his feet. We settle for a field goal. Next drive we are up 10-0 with time ticking down in the half. We take a shot at the end zone, but Duke Williams can't bring it in. Another field goal. Our second drive in the 3rd Quarter, we get into the red zone again. But JJ Watt gets a sack, and we are forced to take yet another field goal. The next time we get the ball, the score is 16-7. We start moving the ball again and Josh Allen fumbles it back to the Texans. From this point on, the Bills get ridiculously aggressive. To the point of going for it on 4th-27 when most coaches would have punted. And if anything, they didn't run the ball enough in OT. For some reason, blaming the coach is always the first reaction out of sports fans. And most of the time it's nonsense. The Bills coaching staff put out a very solid gameplan, which completely shut-down the Texans offense in the first half and put together four strong drives by midway through the 3rd Quarter. Each time the Bills failed to get into the end zone and settled for a field goal, it was due to an offensive player failing to execute. Brown not getting his feet in bounds. Williams not coming down with the catch. Cody Ford getting beat on a sack. Do you blame the coaching staff for Deshaun Watson dragging three defenders into the end zone on the Texans first touchdown? Do you blame the coaching staff for Allen fumbling the ball (yet again) when hit from behind on the next possession? Do you blame the coaching staff for All-Pro shutdown cornerback Tre White allowing a 41 yard bomb? Do you blame the coaching staff for two straight offensive line breakdowns, causing us to lose 33 yards with the game on the line? How about two blockers failing to touch a linebacker on Allen's run in overtime? Or Allen totally missing Williams on a swing pass that could have gotten us into field goal range? Or the defense getting too deep and reacting too slow, allowing a 3rd-18 conversion? Or two pass rushers hitting the quarterback and totally failing to get him down?

He improved his completion percentage from around 52% to about 58%. About six percentage points. Ultimately, we want him to settle between 60-65% as his career goes along. The closer he can get to 65 the better. So let's say he needs to go another seven points to reach his goal. On completion percentage, he's improved about 50% of his goal. In YPA, he took a marginal increase of 6.4 to 6.7. I would like to see this number over the 7.5 mark for sure. So in this area, I think he only jumped about 25-30 percent of where we want him. In scoring, he went from a 10-12 ratio on touchdowns/interceptions (0.83) to 20-9 (2.22). When you add in rushing touchdowns, he was 29-9 (3.22). Personally, I would like to see him jump his ratio to 3:1 in just passing. So he's probably about 60% of the way in this area. Exactly one season ago, Josh Allen's biggest critics were saying he: a) Could not be an efficient quarterback b) Made too many mistakes Twelve months later, his biggest strides were in efficiency (completion percentage) and in avoiding turnovers (TD/INT ratio). This tells me that Allen and our coaching staff can clearly see where he needs work, have focused on improving in those areas, and have taken some big steps in fixing those problems. He's a teachable player, who has the drive and work ethic to make himself better. I fully expect Allen to spend the offseason focusing on his footwork in the pocket, and cleaning up his deep ball accuracy. And there is a good reason to believe he will get better there too.

The Bills had SO many opportunities to win that game, and it had absolutely nothing to do with the refs. The touchback call was something I've never seen before in 30 years of watching the NFL. I think the refs were totally confused, and weren't sure what to do. At that point, we were still up 13-0 and in full control of the game. The refs had nothing to do with us allowing 19 unanswered points over the next 30 minutes. The Cody Ford block was crap. Totally agree there. But if Josh Allen throws an accurate swing pass to Duke Williams on 3rd Down, we make up all of that yardage. But he totally missed him. The refs just barely missed a Delay of Game on the 3rd-18. But it was still our defense that allowed him to get 19 yards on the play. You cannot blame the refs for them getting too deep and taking too long to react. We stop them there, we get the ball back and another chance to win.

It's a great debate. Is it better to run a simplified scheme that is easy for players to understand, but also easy for opponents to figure out? Or is it better to be complicated, and always have the defense on its toes? Very true on all points. Early on, Brady was very much a game-manager, and the Patriots were not very explosive. What increased over the years was their efficiency. So instead of putting together 3-4 lengthy scoring drives per game, they could put together 6-7. Probably a mix. I think some players like John Brown and Cole Beasley will benefit from another offseason with Allen/Daboll. A player like Knox drops passes because he wasn't a receiving threat in college, and needs to work on his hands. It's a mix of everything. I'm extremely excited about Allen's potential future, and his improvement over the season. But I can't pretend he's anywhere close where he needs to be. At this point, I still think he ranks in the mid-20s against other NFL quarterbacks. When an offense struggles, the quarterback is a great place to start. And Allen is still a below average starter. Not a finished product by any means. But a lot of our problems are absolutely on him. When it comes to Daboll, an argument can be made that he needs to adjust/simplify his scheme to better fit these players. But an argument can also be made that Allen (and the rest of the team) will be better in the long-run by NOT making it easy.

The average fan likes to blame coaching first. In reality, the primary cause is usually players and execution. Brian Daboll's offensive philosophy is the same that you have seen from Josh McDaniels/Bill Belichick and the New England Patriots for many years. Our players just haven't been efficient enough to score enough points. The pressure will be on Josh Allen to further improve and clean-up his mechanics in the offseason. We need him to get that completion percentage in the 62-63 range to execute this offense at a high level. It would also help if guys like Cody Ford (better pass blocking or slide inside to guard), Dawson Knox (less drops) make strides in their second seasons. Not to mention another RB with fresh legs, and a third WR to keep the pass defense honest.

The Patriots were a victim of their own ego on Sunday. They figured the Dolphins were pushovers, and wanted to roll into the playoffs with a dominating 30+ point win. So instead of doing what works for their offense, they came out throwing - which is literally the weakest part of their team. With that said, don't underestimate how dangerous the Patriots are going to be in the playoffs. Yes, they are seriously flawed. Yes, Tom Brady is now a shell of himself. But they won't be underestimating or looking past anyone in the postseason. They still have (way) more experience than anyone else, and know how to win playoff games. And their performance against us in Week 16 proves they can still put together some offense, especially when their backs are against the wall. Tennessee needs to be watching the film from Week 16 against us, and not from Week 17 against the Dolphins. Because that is how Josh McDaniels will be rolling on Saturday.

Do you bother to read the countless responses? To create a "buffer" at the cornerback position, you absolutely MUST take away depth at a different position. The NFL allows for 53 roster spots overall, and 46 active slots on game day. There are 11 starters on offense, 11 on defense, a kicker, a punter and long-snapper. If you deactivate 7 starters (which they did), that still leaves us only 28 backups available that can play. You cannot expect 28 guys to handle 100% of offensive, defensive and special teams snaps. The Bills were comfortable playing out the season with 4 cornerbacks, because they have a safety (Siran Neal) who plays both positions. It's the same idea behind carrying only 9 offensive linemen, because Spencer Long and Ryan Bates can handle multiple spots. If we add an extra CB or OL, then we can only carry five WRs during the season. Or we can only carry three RBs during the season. The NFL leaves virtually no room for error with roster spots. Brandon Beane/Sean McDermott went light at CB/OL because they were counting on versatility helping with depth. But when we hit Week 17, they didn't have the numbers at that position to sit the starters. They were left with no choice, and as (bad) luck has it - we suffered injuries during the game at CB and OL.

We only have 44 active players on the roster for game day. It's absolutely impossible to sit EVERY SINGLE STARTER. Even if you believe our entire bench could play 100% of snaps and special teams, that still leaves 3 starters that need to play. Every player you add, requires another to be released. So you are suggesting that we SHOULD have signed an extra CB (let's say EJ Gaines or Captain Munnerlyn) to ensure that we can sit Levi Wallace for the meaningless Week 17 game. Then who do you release? Release an offensive lineman on the back-end of the roster, and that means you need to push more starters at THAT POSITION into the starting lineup on Week 17. You are simply trading the risk with Wallace for the risk with Dawkins/Spaine/Morse/Feliciano/Ford. Release a linebacker, and you may be forced to play Matt Milano or Tremaine Edmunds the entire game. Etc., etc. I think you get the idea. In my opinion, the only questionable move was starting Josh Allen. He was in a no-win situation, playing with backup receivers. Agree 100%.

Our priority in the offseason should be re-signing Jordan Phillips and Shaq Lawson. After that, I agree that going after a top Free Agent edge rusher would be ideal. For everyone worried about salary cap space: 1. Trent Murphy can be released a year before his contract expires, with a dead cap of only $1.7 million. This would save us over $7 million. 2. Jerry Hughes can be released in 2021 (at 33 years old), with a dead cap of just over $2 million. This would save us about the same as Murphy, giving us another $7.3 million in cap space. So to summarize, by releasing Murphy this offseason and Hughes next year, we can probably cover a Lawson extension for two full seasons with little to no effect on the salary cap.