GunnerBill

It isn't a morality or non-morality point. I am not holding Sapp up as an angel. I am well aware he isn't. But he has disputed the idea that there are no rules between teammates in a locker room and all is fair in the name of "motivation" etc. It is prefectly capable of getting after a guy whether banter or an attempt to light a fire without going after his family.

I think Marcel Dareus has retired.....

Yea I just honestly don't get it. And to the "you don't understand american football locker rooms, this ain't soccer" I always remember Warren Sapp when he used to be on NFL Gameday morning whenever any of these situations arose used to say "only three things were off limits in my locker room don't go after someone's faith, don't go after someone's family and don't go after someone's money."

It's 2025, it shouldn't be the norm. It is toxic. And we shouldn't just accept it will always exist because there is no reason why it should. EDIT: and for clarity, believe me I understand the hyper competitive professional athlete lockeroom vibe is not getting round a camp fire singing Kumbaya. There will be arguments, there will be disputes, there will be guys who don't like each other or whatever. But threatening to hit someone's mother? It's totally unnecessary. Go after Martin's weight, go after his heart, go after his lack of effort... whatever. But the idea that he is motivated to address these things by a teammate threatening to strike his mom? It's toxic nonsense and it doesn't need to exist.

I'm not higher on Collins. But I am lower on Williams. I don't have a big gap between them grade wise.

Agree with all this. My worry with both Coleman and Bishop is the things they have struggled with as rookies in the NFL are the things they struggled with in college. Coleman was a non-separator and Bishop was someone who had a tendency to get lost in coverage, especially in zone coverage. So while, of course, both can improve and get better (and they can help Bishop out a ton by playing him much more in the box) this is not a pace of the NFL thing. This isn't one year of issues that as the game slows down for them you expect them to turn around. This is who they were coming into the league. And don't take my word for it. Here is what NFL.com said about them: Keon Coleman - first four bullets under weaknesses: Press coverage can blanket his release and catch a ride. Below-average acceleration getting out of breaks and cuts. Could struggle finding separation to avoid excessive contested catches. Needs to play through downfield corners to secure catch space. Cole Bishop - first two bullets under weaknesses: Desire to make plays causes him to vacate coverage zones. Below-average eye balance between route and quarterback.

I'm not here to tell anyone that my grades are the be all and end all, of course not, but by my board Ed Oliver was BPA in 2019 and Groot was among a cluster of guys within a tiny margin of each other in 2021. None since then have been close to BPA on my board. My sense is that as the team has got close their urgency to find "that one piece" has increased and the quality of their early draft decisions has suffered a little.

Yea I think that is probably right. Unless they are seeing Aaron Rodgers or Russell Wilson as a legit option. Rodgers is particularly interesting because he can't sign until June anyway if a post June 1 cut, so it allows them to at least posture through the draft to see if the Giants (presume they'd be most likely) or the Raiders bite.

I think he was a good player in Houston. There is nothing there now though. And he isn't healthy. So they are already paying that money in 2025 and have no QB committing more money to someone who is at best bridge level makes no sense. I'd take whichever of Ward or Sanders is left, and if Tennessee pass (and there is increasing noise that they might) you get your pick of the two.

Why cut Edwards? He had a really good year. If I'm taking and anyone off the field and trading them it's Torrence.

And they have a QB costing $72.9m on the cap next year (and the same in 2026). Could they restructure again and kick some more of it down the road? Sure. But it's all guaranteed. My view is don't kick the can any further. You have a top 2 pick in this draft where there happen to be two Quarterbacks who have a chance to be NFL starters (not sure either has elite QB potential but for the Browns not sure that matters) so select one of them and you have a cheap option to start at QB on a controlled contract for the next 3 years while you are seeing off the Watson deal ($72.9m in 25, $72.9m in 26, $26.9m in 27). If you have decided after 3 years that guy is not a long term answer, fine, kick them to the curb and start afresh. I just don't see any other way of getting even serviceable Quarterback play in 2025. You won't have any money to sign a decent vet. Are you really paying Watson $72.9m and say Gardner Minshew $10m at the same time? That would be $83m on backup level Quarterback play. Surely better to pay a rookie $7m (about what Daniels as the 2nd overall pick cost on this year's cap) with a chance of at least serviceable starter play? If Watson was healthy I think I'd be more in favour of take the best player available, ride it out, you made your bed you gotta lie in it. But he is contracted for two more years and is gonna miss the entirety of one of them. The only logical alternative to taking a QB now that I see is an intentional two year tank.... and you just did that a decade ago.

Do you? Where? Keon started when healthy, Carter was on the field before his injury (the feeling seems to be they brought him back up off IR before he was ready and I wonder if that contributed to the Ciano firing) so the only guy who struggled to get on the field was Bishop and when he did get on the field we saw exactly why he struggled to get on the field. He didn't know his assignments and was a liability in coverage.

Too early to write the book on the early picks. I quite liked Bishop at the time (although would rather have had Bullock or Hicks), Coleman and Carter I thought were both reaches. The two guys I have most excitement about long term are Solomon and Grable. Not sure how Grable gets on the field given our current strength at tackle but even if he ends up a good serviceable swing tackle picked in round 6 that is still a win.

You are off. I would change "limited pass rush ability" for "zero pass rush ability" just joking, but yea, very little pass rush potential. He is a 2nd round pick all day to me. I think you can plug and play him as a 1 tech and he will be a good starting player at that spot for 8-10 years in the NFL who will play the run really well and anchor the line. The problem is that to me is also his ceiling. He is not on my list for #30 for that reason. If the Bills went a different position at that spot and he was still there come their second round pick, I can get on board. Kinda similar to where I was on O'Cyrus Torrence (obviously different position but similar floor / ceiling) a couple of years ago.

And Ridley only won one, in his final year there by which time he was basically a backup. He was never better than average in any case. I can't comment on New England's first dynasty - the 2001, 2003, 2004 team, but their second dynasty - the 2014, 2016, 2018 team - their three most important offensive skill players were Brady, Edelman and Gronk.

We do have the second best W-L in football the past half decade. The team that keeps ending our season has the best. Ultimate success is a Superbowl championship. There is no feasible argument to contrary. Where the nuance in the discussion exists is whether judgment should be so binary as to class everything else as failure. I'm not sure it should. The Bills have been successful but ultimate success has eluded them.

No I don't think he was. But in terms of the toxicity no I don't think it matters. I just think it is ridiculous. If you are coming at me, come at me. Don't go after my family it is not a motiviational tool, it's just offensive.

Yep been thinking the same. Keep Cooper and draft an outside guy with some speed in rounds 2 through 5.... and then make a more concerted effort at a long term #1 next year.

He had major health concerns though didn't he? I know Higgins has a tendency to get nicked up but Golladay it was more serious concerns and in truth he was never the same guy.

Ah okay. I agree with everything you said there. That is my exact thing on Egbuka too. Is there a special trait. I said to @Dr. Who yesterday I want to see the testing because he is so smooth maybe it hides the explosion a bit. Or maybe it is just not there. And we are actually pretty aligned on those other guys too. I have Higgins at WR6 (third round grade).

Honestly? I don't have an answer for you. For once I am stumped. I don't love the Higgins idea for the reasons stated, I don't see an obvious trade idea that is realistic, and I don't love the draft class. I probably lean towards you are not getting a #1 this offseason. So get an outside receiver you think can be a serviceable medium-term #2 but as a deep, vertical, speed guy. Then that frees you up to go for any type of #1 boundary guy next year (i.e. you could go for your route runner style #1 if your #2 is a take the top off deep theat). Best ways to get the medium-term #2: FA - Hollywood Brown is the obvious one or more of a punt one either Tutu Atwell or Dyami Brown? Draft - Golden possible if at #30m? Or Bond on day 2. Buf I don't love any of those options. Even though I think it majorly needs fixing, I think this might be the toughest of all the required fixes this offseason.

Haha. I am not sold on the Bills being all in on Higgins, so no ❌️ from me! I do think he is better than you think he is. But I don't think he is completely what this team lacks. And I don't think we are in a spot in our cycle where we can spend top of the WR market on a player who isn't the ideal fit for what we need.

The problem with Elam was never lack of splash plays. It was lack of consistent making of the routine plays.

I was the same on Egbuka but the more I watch the more I like him. He has definitely grown on me. I do have a conscious bias that route runners are kinda my thing for the most part at receiver but I think he can play outside at the next level (and I mean predominantly outside, not take a few snaps out there) and win. That said, if the option is any kind of big trade up, no I'm not about that. He isn't worth the sort of price I'd have been happy the Bills paying for BTJ or Addison in the past two drafts IMO. If he got to say #26 and they want to jump in front of Baltimore (who could be a WR team if they cut Bateman) or Washington (who definitely could be a WR team) at the cost of a 4th round pick? Sure I could live with that. But wouldn't pay up any greater cost. Golden I have kind of gone the other way a bit. 10 days ago if he was there I'd have had a hard time passing, but the hands and the sloppy route running do concern me a bit. He is still on my shortlist at #30 if he makes it there but would depend on what was there at DL and corner. Interesting you have Higgins in your batch with Bryant and Felton. I have him a tier above them, and a day 2 pick, but testing will be big for him. If he runs slow I expect him to fall more into that early day 3 territory.

Diggs created plays. 100%. He was the best separator in football his first 2 years (and still very good year 3) here. The Bills did force feed him the ball, sure, but his ability to just get open down in and down out created plays. And you saw that when the drop off happened. Because he was still getting targets, they were still force feeding him the ball, but the production dropped off because he could no longer create to anything like the same extent. So the balls would be going to him but the coverage would be tighter and as a result fewer completions and less YAC. I don't think Higgins will create plays in quite that way, but he will make plays a lot of guys can't make, because he can catch balls that to a lot of receivers would be uncatchable.