LEBills

It’s because even when the Bills have had a top defense, they still lost in the playoffs. In 2021, the Bills defense was #1 in total defense, yards per play, passing yards allowed, passing yards per play, first downs allowed per game, third down conversion rate, and points per game. We know how that season ended. So the people asking for more help for Josh still just think he can make better use of talent than the defensive coaches. And even still, most people are happy with how the first two days of the draft panned out and just wanted the Bills to try and add a weapon for Josh early on day 3 of the draft. To add someone to develop into a weapon for Josh in a year or two so we don’t have to keep signing mediocre FA at WR.

I’m going to be honest. I tried reading through and responding to stuff but it was so long I probably missed things so I apologize in advance. Yes Josh is great but last year he was special including the lowest percentage of plays with a sack, interception or fumble since the NFL merger. Which is why he won the MVP instead of being a runner up. On top of that we had the best turnover differential since 2013. Both of those will regress to the mean and giving the ball up more and getting it back less will reduce our scoring. So I really wanted the Bills to try to upgrade the WR room this year and in the future by drafting some WRs that may develop into good players for us to even things out. Josh averaged his highest scramble rate and time to throw since at least 2020. Those both are because he had to get more done with a cast of blah skill position players that were not getting separation well. I also think If anything we have had to overpay for WRs in trades for Cooper and in free agency for marginal players in Samuel and now Palmer because we have not added young WRs to the team. So to circle back to the topic of this thread. Start drafting WRs starting next year. It’s good business. I hope everything works out this year with the improved defense.

It is, but even the best QBs, which Josh is, need good skill position players. If our defense turns out that way that will be great. This type of argument goes round and round in circles tho. “More weapons will help more.” “No a better defense will help more” I fall more on the former argument because I trust Josh to get more out of talent than our coaches. But quite simply we needed improvement on both sides of the ball. The defense got overhauled this year, hopefully we have enough on offense too.

I hope so, hoping it doesn’t all fall on Josh to be Superman all year on offense.

Everyone know we had a great offense last year. No one is arguing that fact here. I’d say most posters are glad that we went defense heavy in the draft too because the defense certainly needed help. However, many of us are concerned that the offensive performance will not be sustainable with the current talent level. Josh performed at an MVP level last year to get those results. There have only been 4 QBs to win MVP in back to back seasons because sustaining that level is hard. We are concerned that the same receiving corp as last year with Josh Palmer and Elijah Moore swapped out for Cooper and Hollins is still very lackluster. Even Mahomes has always had Kelce and either Tyreek or Rice in the super bowls he has won. And a WR room with Rice and Worthy is not amazing but is pretty good especially if Rice returns to averaging 96 yards/game like he was prior to his injury. I hope Brady can scheme things around to get production out of our other offensive weapons like he did last year. I hope Josh isn’t going to have to be Superman each week to make plays happen in the passing game. We all just want the Bills to win.

He is a mini camp invite like Buffalo Joe was last year He threw at the UB pro day and met with the Bills there. I could see him competing with Buechele for the PS spot. He is attending Packers mini camp now and apparently doing quite well, so who knows if they sign him before our mini camp even begins.

Yea people were impressed with his coverage but he struggled with the returning job that he got drafted for which is why Coddrington took the spot and Hardy went to the PS

Coddrington needs to go, but will he? Hardy was drafted last year as a returner first and foremost. He struggled in preseason but maybe he has improved and can take over the duties while being a more functional CB. Probably the best option for the team would be if Elijah Moore returns punts like he did a bit of in college. We will keep at least 5 WRs no matter what, so if he can take that role that will free Coddrington’s spot for an OL or DL.

Taron is another likely cut next year. RVD is unlikely to get an RFA tender since the minimum is over $3 mil which would be a lot for an OT4. Anderson may get the minimum tender if they think he is the replacement for Edwards. Cook and McGovern are hopefully resigned soon.

My theory with Mack is that he is a hobo and the train he hopped on just happened to bring him to New England

yea Jeudy got traded to the Browns then extended

Im not even sure it’s a Bills pro scouting issue. If a WR in their prime is in free agency, they just aren’t that good. The only players I could find in the last 5 years who outproduced their best season on their first contract team(s) are Jakobi Myers, Christian Kirk, Kendrick Bourne and Robbie Anderson (Chosen). What a list. Draft and develop WRs instead of paying mid tier money to a free agent is the way to go in the future. I hope Palmer or even Moore can be a great WR but I don’t expect much out of either of them. Shakir, Coleman and Kincaid are our best hopes of improvement in the passing game. The others are simply to have enough bodies to throw out there and occasionally make a play like Mack did.

Yea it was Jerry O, thanks. We will see, Davis is a physical freak, and Walker is not that. Walker does have a better feel for pass rush tho, so maybe he can make it up there. Getting his body right and losing some weight in his middle is probably the #1 goal this year.

Yea one of the Bills podcasters mentioned that a few days ago. Hopefully they can work the same magic with Walker.

Good on you for the patience to keep going over this stuff. I had to tap out several pages ago.

I want to submit Steelers as the weirdest off-season. Pay big bucks for DK to pair with Pickens only to have Mason Rudolph, Will Howard or the ghost of Aaron Rodgers throw to them.

They may not value running backs that way, but he is still a really good player. Schoen in NJ is from Beane’s tree and he let Saquon walk bc he didn’t think running backs were worth that much. For me I would rather pay him because I know he is good, our running game was very important last year and I don’t want to spend a high draft pick to replace him next year. But this is probably getting a little off track from the original topic, so I hope you have a great day.

Yea I agree, that’s why I included other players that have not made the pro bowl. I was trying to be as charitable as I could to Beane and the other options for best player drafted since it’s a bit of a short list. Idk what Cook will make on the open market. But Michael Pittman, Deebo, and Calvin Ridley all make more than Saquon. Positions get valued differently in the NFL, but that is a different conversation than best player.

Yea I think Shakir is a higher end #2 since he was like 37th in ypg last year. Then Coleman and Palmer were like 54 and 65 respectively, then Moore was somewhere in the 70s so yea 1 WR2, then 3 WR3…maybe 4 if Samuel is back to where his career usually is. Deeper but no high end players. I love Shakir but he had 821 yards and 4 TDs in his best season last year. Cook had 1250 yards and 18 TDs last year and over 1500 yards in 2023. Shakir is one of the best values we have drafted but not close to the second best player imo. I only include Tremaine because he was a 2 time pro bowler with us and the number of pro bowlers drafted under Beane is not very long.

Honestly he may be the second best player drafted by Beane period, though at an undervalued position. The others in contention are Tremaine, Benford, Spencer Brown, and Rousseau. Maybe Im forgetting someone else. Our WR 1-5 probably stacks up well with several other teams WRs 2-5, just missing that top end talent. Glad they improved the WR5 spot over Shavers/Shenault. Really hoping Moore can take over the return duties so we can cut Coddrington.

I was talking about skill possession players but was not clear I suppose. Yes football is a balancing act. Having good skill position players is part of that balance. I hope what we have will be good enough and hope we are able to continue building it like we have other parts of the team. Pay James Cook.

Sanders wasn’t really a reach, and LJ was amazing value

The pick I am most excited for. He is going to be the DE we have been waiting for

Yes there is variance per game of course, but we did run 5 WRs deep. If you select each players name individually it gives you their season long snap percentage. You can do that with the defensive players as well and will see the same thing.

Our 5th WR played about 34% of offensive snaps last year (MVS+Coop, Shakir, Mack, Keon and Samuel were all over 34%). Only 2 DTs, 2 DEs, and 3 CBs took more snaps. Though Smoot did take slightly more than that percentage in the games he was healthy. https://www.pro-football-reference.com/teams/buf/2024-snap-counts.htm