Bleeding Bills Blue

I try not to confuse usage of a running back with ability. He has good hands, has experience, and is probably a solid fit in their offense. A good #1 running back in an era where most teams don't really leverage a single player in a role like that. At the same time, how much better is he going to be than the trio of Wilson/Mostert/Achane? Is that a good use of money/cap space? Does it help you win any more games than you did before? Or just put another name on paper for the media to love on?

I expect his snaps to cut knoxs a bit from the 75% down a bit in some of the more spread looks. I also expect him, Shakir, Sherfield, and harty to split the Mckenzie (555)/Shakir (275)/morris (281) snaps. Sherfield is the best blocker and a core special teamer, Kincaid is probably the best for catching in traffic and soft spots in zone, Shakir probably has the best man coverage chops, and then harty is a burner with some shiftiness. They all have attributes that should get them on the field in different roles. I don't expect much to change from the davis and diggs snap counts barring injury.

You can add multiple void years, but it all hits the cap the same year the guy leaves the roster. You're basically paying them a bonus, and spreading it over 3 years (I don't know all the rules but there are limits to how much of a deal can be bonus, and how much can be spread across multiple years). But the second the player is not on the roster? The cap hits for all the bonus money that was paid out in the initial signing. Multiple "years" is just to allow you to pay them a higher bonus, while lowering the initial cap impact.

He also has 1 sack in 3 career playoff games. As though perhaps... he might be a bit more banged up at the end of the year and thus less effective.

I just want a player to get drafted and come walking out of the red carpet inn to a crowd of tailgaters.

Be more effective in how and when you blitz. Let Poyer roam a bit more with Hyde able to play that single high safety. Continue to mix the cover 3 and cover 4 palms looks they use on 3rd and longs. I'd like to see our corners be a bit more aggressive attacking the catch point. I expect we get beat deep more often this year, but also create more negative plays. I don't really care about being #2 in yards allowed on defense if its a defense that gets shredded in the playoffs. The big key is peaking at the right time - and not in september/october like we did last year.

Tend to agree - to me it was oliver or davis and we picked oliver.

They're putting pressure on the kids, and I love it. Miller - Maybe PUP but a stud Rousseau - Starter, good run defender, tall, but not twitchy or quick Floyd - Rotational pass rusher - but he can get after it 2 of: Lawson Basham Ray Epenesa 3 are on expiring deals, basham has an extra year. Cap savings if you cut any of them, might be able to find trade partners to get a little extra in 2024. I know they like Lawson as a run defender, Epenesa seems to have plateaued, and basham has never really emerged. Will be a big camp for all 3. Ray is a total wildcard coming off injuries, i expect him to be cut - probably a practice squad guy at this point.

Ideally u have options to bench him

I like that we have a variety of weapons at our disposal. Between the 20s last year buffalo mostly moved the ball pretty well, even towards the end of the year when the offense wasn't executing as well. Now i look at it like we have a lot of ways to attack a team in the red zone. If the opponent is lacking juice in the middle we can hammer them with harris or murray. Play action looks out of these run attacks in the red zone can occaisionally create wide open targets, Allen walk in opportunities, or at least mismatches to exploit. You can also use harty and hines on the field at the same time to add a lot of speed and quickness in the run/pass game. Cook can be an effective target on swing targets to create an outside 1 on 1. They aren't WRs but using a lineup with cook and hines in spread formations could create some unique matchups. Then you have the standards: Knox is a big target. Kincaid is a big target. 1 on 1 with Diggs is always a challenge with his sudden movement.

Good offensive linemen are either on rookie deals, or are paid well. We had no cap room to acquire anyone mid-season last year, and barely had enough just for practice squad elevations.

I'm hopeful of a benford switch to safety. He's usually a sound tackler and has some ball skills, and the size for the position. The challenge will be run fits and angles.

Like... the culture shift from loser to winner has been drastic. Playoffs in 5/6 years. 3 straight division titles. Andy Reid went 8-8 and then 4-12 before he was let go by Philadelphia. I would think it'd take 2 non-playoff years, and even then it needs to be like... non-allen injury related. If we had to tear down to the studs in a year or two (obviously building around allen), i would probably want a culture type coach like this in the building to rebuild.

I think the pass and run splits cause a lot of that too. Pass blocking is just constantly getting pushed back, punched, chopped, etc instead of driving forward. Hopefully getting a bit stouter with bigger backs, adding a power guard can help some of that. I'd like to see us be able to grind a lead out in some of these midseason games.

I expect us to blitz a bit more, and show more double a gap pressures and actually bring some heat.

Honestly he looks bigger arm wise too. He'll drop some weight doing conditioning with the team, but I think he's learned that after the covid year that you don't want to slim down at the position. He's what... 21 in AAV at tackle?

Just need to clean up the massive amount of turnovers - without turning into the end season offense where we seemed to be a bit too tentative.

My favorite part of the NE game was that the talking heads all week said "allen doesn't play well in the cold" and then he proceeded to put up one of the greatest stat lines in playoff history.

I mean... Elam was picked at 23 not 4. Either way, the book isn't even close to written on this guy for us to say that. Rousseau was picked at 30, and is 4th in his draft class in overall sacks behind parsons, phillips, and Ojulari - and generally would be probably a starter on an "all-2021" draft rookie team. I'd agree Oliver is a miss considering the 3 DTs drafted after him all outperformed him. In the Group of 6 DTs in 2019 - Q. Williams, Oliver, Wilkins, Lawrence, Simmons, Tillery - he would probably have to be considered #5.

Just gotta punch a ticket to playoffs this year - don't worry about things like homefield, division, etc. The big thing is actually playing their best ball in January and February. We played our best in september and october a year ago.

Last year we had the highest odds to be super bowl champion. This year i think right now we have the 3rd best odds. What i mean when saying this is - the media hype is not very high. The recency bias is extreme there because they have to talk about football every day of the offseason. So lets talk about the cincy game, and rodgers, and ramsey etc. But most football people would say... last years super bowl favorites didn't really lose much from the previous year, so why should i expect miami and the jets to surpass them?

Duane Brown is 37. CJ Mosely is 30. Rodgers is like 40.

No shot unless Diggs misses a considerable amount of time. He was the head coach of one of the most dominant teams in history and won a super bowl. I wouldn't put him on mount rushmore, but 7 10 win seasons in 11 years in chicago is pretty good.

Here's the thing - he will be a contributor. As much as any 1st round WR probably would have seen on a prior year playoff team.

Looking at the season on it's entirety. 13-3. We were 2nd to last in the league in turning the ball over, and we are 2nd in points. On defense, we were 6th in yards per play, and 2nd in points per game allowed. With all of the injuries, struggles etc. They have to figure out how to attack the cincy defense better, and i think getting a bit stouter up the middle would help - their DT's abused our interior line. They tend to line their LBs up close to the LOS and create confusion - and a big hands target in the middle of the field could do wonders on forcing them to adjust. As for how to stop their offense? Need to kill their run and screen game, and get them behind the sticks. You want Burrow to hold the ball.