BarleyNY

JFC. You can’t be serious

With Rousseau I don’t see the flexibility to bend the edge or the change of direction that’ll allow him to get to a QB in the pocket. He tested poorly with regards to COD and even his highlight roll doesn’t show either. He should be fine at DE for contain, but if he’s going after the QB from there it’ll be by looping inside like Clowney does. Might as well just start him there on obvious passing downs and not have to worry about him leaving a void on the edge.

I’m going to wait and see on Sanders. He’s 34 and only started 5 games for NO last season. I think he’ll be a guy we can go to for first downs but not one who is going to stretch the field. It’ll probably be one of the younger WRs you mentioned lining up outside opposite Diggs.

I’m not saying we don’t need a better pass rush, we do. But Sanders at this stage in his career is a redundant piece to Cole. He’s not going to be a deep threat. A quality WR draft pick, especially a speedy outside one, would start. The problem with Moore is that he’s probably a slot only WR and we need an X. And those were available well into the 3rd round. But it does bring up an interesting question: Do the Bills really need someone to take the top off of the defense? Conventional wisdom says, yes, that it always helps the short and intermediate passing games as well as the run game. The Bills didn’t have a very good run game last season, but they did very well in the short and intermediate passing games. So maybe they’re focused solely on receivers who can separate (ie our current top 4 WRs) and aren’t that concerned with taking the top off the defense. Something to think about.

I don’t think most people are expecting much from late round picks and UDFAs, well, really ever, but especially in their rookie seasons. It happens, but not often and not predictably. Nor do we expect much of a contribution (hopefully) from a backup tackle. Literally a player who, if he does see the field for an extended period of time, it’s because Dawkins or Williams got injured. There certainly can be contributions from Rousseau and Basham, especially by later in the season. But they’ll be starting as backup/rotational players and going from there. They are looked at much more as long term (next season and beyond) contributors. Free agency really didn’t help the team beyond maintaining continuity, which is often the right move, but doesn’t really move the needle forward. Sanders and Brieda are good depth but I’d rather have had a player like Brown to stretch the defense. We missed him when he went out last season. We get Star back so at least Oliver gets to play more 3T, but who knows what we’re going to get from him after a year off? And it’s not like he was doing all that well before then. I was hoping for a few pieces that could help the Bills get over the top this season, especially with keeping up with KC’s speed. It’s unlikely that we got that unless our new DEs create enough pressure quickly enough to be that difference. That’s a tough sell for me.

Probably because he’s a Stanford grad. He’s probably too snooty for us in Buffalo.

Well, you’re not wrong. I understand why they overpaid a few of their FAs early on. They needed to get things turned around and no one was coming here without a premium. I get the Morse contract in that context, but there have been some awful ones given too - like Star’s $50M/5 and Kroft’s 3/$19M for example - that are indefensible.

The PFF guys said the best comp for JOK was that he was like a “faster Milano” and then he said “and I like Milano”. I was surprised JOK made it past the Bills too. Maybe if they wouldn’t have resigned Milano they would’ve taken him.

Cap hits can be manipulated to a degree, but every dollar paid gets accounted for eventually. And some ways of doing so can bite a team.

According to Spotrac they already did White’s, but they aren’t showing Dawkins’ as done. Sometimes those sites are behind getting info, so it is very possible that it already happened with Dawkins.

I mentioned Dawkins who is the best candidate for a restructuring. Poyer only had one more season on his deal so that would require an extension even if it’s a fake/voidable one. I don’t think Diggs is a guy I’d approach for a restructure as I think he’d require a bump to do anything. We easily could move a little of Williams’ cap hit down the road, but not much. There really aren’t a lot of great candidates.

Close

That’s great, but he’s gotta go find some cap space. We are pretty tapped out otherwise. The Bills are sitting on $3.7M in space now per Spotrac. Rookies will drop that to $2.5M. Then after cut downs when full rosters and practice squad players have to be included, that number would go to $0 or less. Plus then there is space for replacements for IRed players that has to be cleared. I think a restructure of Dawkins gets us through this season with no additional spending of note, but anything else is going to require clearing some space.

Kuiper was never a film guy. It was all connections and getting info from team. Now maybe that’s changed. Or you’re thinking of Mike Mayock who always did his own study. Not that Mayock looks good doing an actual GM job. Yeesh

Thanks. Just saw. I’m surprised.

That’s a nice face-saving thing to say for Edmunds, but realistically if he was all that was hoped for the option would already have been picked up. The reality is that they paid the guy that plays next to him and doled out contracts knowing what his option looked like. If the cupboard is too bare to pay him, then that was a decision that was made to prioritize other players. It wad not something that crept up on them. I do think that the Bills would like to keep him, but at a market rate. That’s tough to do with the team that drafted a player who has underperformed his 16th overall draft status. The right move is to decline the option and let his play dictate what comes next. If he balls out then try to extend him this season. If not then let him test the FA market like Milano did and see if it makes sense for both sides to get a deal done. Mistake IMO. But let’s see how it plays out.

Kuiper graded the draft like an lazy college English prof. 3 As, 3 Cs and everyone else gets a B. Hilarious he’s still stealing money from ESPN. He used to be the only guy dialed in to front offices and did a great job of monetizing that info. But now he’s just living off of that very old legacy. He brings nothing to the table anymore.

Chart shows a compilation of draft grades. We all know that there’s limited value in immediate draft grades, but they’re something to discuss now that we are entering the post draft NFL void. Flame away

I don’t think the Bills can afford to do much of anything at this point due to their cap situation. They sure could use some upgrades though because beyond Tre all they have are 2 or 3 serviceable players. It looks like they think that will do the job with their scheme. That wouldn’t have been my plan, but it looks like it’s theirs and we’re going to see how it works out. I’d think the Bills would have run that card up if Newsome somehow made it to 30. I know the Browns were very surprised he made it to 26. They were very much hoping one of the top 4 CBs would make it to them, but weren’t expecting it. I was a little surprised the Bills didn’t make a move up for him or even another player. 30 was a bad spot to be picking in this draft.

Damn that’s a good point. That’s a lot of DL. Last season the Bills opened with 9 DL on the 53 man roster: Defensive line (9) Ed Oliver, Vernon Butler, Harrison Phillips, Quinton Jefferson, Jerry Hughes, Trent Murphy, Mario Addison, A.J. Epenesa, Darryl Johnson Link Even if we keep 10 this year that gets eaten up quickly. Here’s my first 9: Hughes, Addison, Epenesa, Rousseau, Basham, Star, Oliver, Phillips and Butler. Then maybe they go with one more of the rest? Time for Beane to work the phones for some late round picks for some of them.

Yup. That is what I was driving at.

While I agree with the OP that the Browns have taken huge strides this offseason and have probably passed the Bills on a talent level, Hap makes an excellent point - and it’s one that I harp on regularly: SHOW ME. You gotta prove it. How it looks on paper is not how it always shows in real life.

Actually it has to be executed by tomorrow, 5/3. Not sure if it’s by 4 pm or midnight Eastern time. I can’t find the time anywhere.

I thought the same thing. Kuechly is the FLOOR for his expectations?! That is all correct

Honestly, that’s a pretty fair assessment. Star will be here this season and there’s a good chance that he will be here next due to the structure of his reworked contract. New money in it is really not that bad, but this season’s salary is fully guaranteed and $2M of next season’s is as well. The frustration many feel is due to the massive initial contract he got (that we are still seeing cap hits from) and his below average performance since he’s been here. The two ways I see that this could play out are: 1) he’s good enough this season that he’s here in 2022 or 2) he’s poor enough that the Bills suck it up move on after this season.