Dont Stop Billeiving

Patience young grasshopper. The same thing happened last year and we wound up with a great free agency group. Outside of Hopkins, is there anyone we really would have wanted at the years.money they signed for? None of my favorite targets have come off the board yet. As for Shaq, I didn't want to lose him but the Phins overpaid. Just my opinion, but generally the teams making the huge signings in the first wave of free agency tend to regret it. We're hopefully taking the smarter approach again.

I'm ok with letting Lawson go for $10 million per. I just wish he wasn't going to Miami...

Huge upgrade...Reader is an elite run defender and is younger than Phillips.

Might not be a popular take, but I'm happy that we've sat out this first wave of FA deals so far. Some wild overpays (the Flowers and Hooper deals in particular) and no one I really wanted has been taken off the market yet. Trusting the process...my targets would be Reader, Harris Jr., Quinn, Higgins/Sharpe, Haeg, Addison, and Brieda...all still on the board to the best of my knowledge

Hopkins trade seems destined to go down as one of the worst of all-time. Terrible return for one of the league's elite playmakers. If you were a player on the Texans, you'd be calling your agent asking to be traded Dolphins Week 1 2019-style right now. As a bright side for us, happy Hopkins went to the NFC instead of our division/conference.

Flowers is terrible...not worried about the Dolphins if they're going to spend their cap space that way. Glasgow on the other hand is the best IOL on the market with Thuney tagged...hoping that he goes to any team not in our division.

Wow that's a bold take by Garafolo if true. If Ereck Flowers gets a deal for $10+ million, the world's actually gone crazy. That dude is awful.

Very interesting...I had slowly come around to liking the idea of signing Buluga...just in time for us to resign Spain. Do you think we should still be interested in him and where would that leave Ford?

Good shout, I like Freeman a lot as well. How much money do you think he'll get and can we be confident that his injury issues are behind him?

Agree 100%. Was definitely interested in Kirksey's potential in our defense on a one year prove-it type contract, but his injury history makes that term/dollar amount the Packers just gave him unwise IMO. Happy that Beane didn't sign that type of deal, plenty of other fish in the sea. Get me a few of Reader, Quinn, Higgins/Sharpe, Haeg, and Brieda and I'll be a very happy man.

Love Jerome Bettis...great player and always a class act. Had a funny cameo in The Office as well.

The best IOL in free agency after Joe Thuney IMO. Still in his prime and had a great 2019...we should at least inquire about him. I'm a Quenton Spain fan but Glasgow would immediately become our best OG regardless of whether Spain stays or leaves.

Think he would take the deal we just gave to Norman? 1 year prove it deal, $6 million base with a potential $2 million more in incentives. Could be a win-win for Kirksey and the Bills. A replacement for Lorax for us and a chance to stay healthy and play among one of the league's best defenses for him. Get it done Beane!

The way I see it, Norman can be this year's more durable version of EJ Gaines. An established veteran who slumped with their previous team and can provide competition for the CB2 spot. As long as the guaranteed money is low, I'm happy enough. I trust McBeane and their apparent assessment that a return to our zone-heavy scheme will revive Norman's career.

Agreed, like your idea but don't forget to include Robert Quinn as well. A bit younger than the two you mentioned and still has a lot of speed left. If we get one of these three and then draft one in the first 3 rounds, I'd be excited about that group.

Good post, makes sense to me. I think the comparison to Spain is a good one and I like that Peat is younger than most FA options. Cheers.

Vaitai has been mentioned by some others in this thread already, but I think he represents much better value than Conklin. He is basically Feliciano 2.0...a talented player stuck behind Pro Bowl level starters who just needs an opportunity. I think it's a fair assumption that Conklin is a marginally better player, but Vaitai's only 26 and could be signed for a fraction of the cost.

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To be honest, maybe give him snaps at both positions? Maybe an 80-20 split towards WR, but could be a serious mismatch at TE and his run blocking is solid from what I've seen. That type of versatility could really allow us to disguise some things on offense.

As a big Notre Dame fan, I've been watching Claypool each game day for a few years now and I've been super impressed with his growth. He always had the physical tools as the combine has now shown, but his football IQ and technique has improved every year and so has his production despite poor QB play. I've been convinced he could be worth a 1st round (definitely a 2nd at worst) since the start of the 2019 season and I've been talking him up in any draft/WR threads that have come along. He has the perfect blend of size/speed that we need and while I'm not a believer that we desperately need a prototype #1 alpha WR, Claypool ticks that box too. In addition to all this, he's a great kid with a backstory to root for and he seems like a Process guy. Plus he likes the cold! Get it done, Go Bills!

Cheers man. I know what you mean, but I see Ross and Ruggs as two very different players. Ross was your typical track star playing football type of WR in my opinion feasting on weak PAC-12 defenses and I think Ruggs will actually beat his 40 time easily. From the production angle, Ruggs doesn't have the stats of a Tee Higgins for example, but Alabama like to run (they're usually winning big early in games) and Jeudy/Smith/Ruggs/Waddle are all potential Day 1 picks in 2020/2021. Therefore, Ruggs wasn't the focal point and one could argue he benefited from having those players around him, but I'd make the case that his elite speed opened up space for everyone else. His production in the SEC, speed, and route-running all make me confident that Ruggs will turn out to be a much better pro than Ross.

If Ruggs drops to picks #16-17, would you want Beane to trade up and get him? Getting Ruggs/his elite speed for our offense would be a dream for our offense, but I don't think I could justify giving up the resources it would take to trade up any higher than that. Question is if John Ross (a less productive and complete player) can get drafted in the top 10 based on his combine, Ruggs will probably go top 10 as well if he has the combine people expect. Anyways fingers crossed.

Keeping Lawson over Jordan Phillips is the smart move. It's been hard for a lot of fans (myself included) to get over that initial first impression of him being hurt in his rookie year and not producing initially, but he's been a sneaky good/underrated player for a while now. He's an excellent run defender and brings a lot of juice/hustle to the defense while posting reasonable sack numbers. Any contract at $8 million AAV or less as others have predicted is good with me. While I like the guy and his comeback story, Phillips on the other hand is not worth anywhere near the money he's about to get paid. All-22 analysis has shown that many of his sacks were the result of great coverage in the secondary and he's also pretty woeful against the run for someone his size. If he wants to come back for $5 million AAV or less, it's worth discussing, but I don't expect that to be the case. Some other team is going to see the double digit sack total at the DT position and back up the truck for him which I'd predict will look foolish in a couple years.

Fair enough man, yeah will be interesting to see how Higgins and others do at the combine. I agree that Young is definitely in a class of his own at EDGE, but I think I would sprint for the podium for either Chaisson and Epenesa if they fall to #22. Two very different players (Chaisson brings speed/bend but is raw whereas Epenesa uses power/run discipline and experience)...would be interested in getting your thoughts on both when you have a chance and why you seem to have them a bit lower on your board. Cheers!

Thanks @GunnerBill for all the work you put into these drafts. Your takes and trades for other teams make a lot of sense. Just my humble opinion, but I'd be happier with almost any of the other likely Round One targets instead of Tee Higgins. I worry that Higgins lacks speed and the ability to separate at the next level. I also think he has significantly benefited from having Trevor Lawrence and several elite skill players vs mostly inadequate ACC pass defenses. Higgins' one true strength in my mind is his deep ball ability, but we need to see some growth from Allen first before I can trust we'd take advantage of Higgins' skillset. Seems to me that due to the fact that this WR class is believed to be so deep, I'd rather go EDGE in the first round and then draft 2 WRs in Rounds 2-5. Names such as Brandon Aiyuk, Clase Claypool, Van Jefferson, KJ Hamler, and Michael Pittman would be among my targets. Go Bills! Yes please!