HappyDays

Major takeaways - Cook and the Bills are not close in their discussions. Beane saying directly they "aren't on the same page" is telling. Von is 100% going to be cut as expected.

It's unheard of for Beane to come out and say directly to the media "we aren't on the same page" with a player's contract expectations. This quote is telling.

At least with Coleman there was a two game stretch before his injury where he flashed his potential. Bishop never flashed at all.

You know what I'm happy with this. I had been leaning towards not re-signing him because of positional value. But that is a very fair AAV and I can't complain about investing in the passing offense. He's only 25 years old too so there is still some upside there, and he's got established chemistry with Allen. Good work Beane.

I would bet Coleman was the biggest catalyst to firing Eric Ciano. Maybe they felt he had gotten too comfortable in the position and the conditioning had gotten too lax. Or if nothing else send a message to the players that people lose their jobs when you don't put in the work.

I liked Coleman as a prospect not for the player he is, but for the player I thought he could be. Part of my evaluation was that I had heard he had a strong work ethic and a desire to cash in to help his family (which I consider a positive trait). With his physical tools that was a very appealing package for me. This comment from McDermott makes me more nervous than anything about his performance: I'll criticize McDermott when warranted but I can't criticize him for these comments. Ultimately it IS on Coleman to take the next step. We have this conversation a lot about Josh Allen. Many on here give McDermott and Daboll credit for developing him. I don't. They laid the foundation of culture but Allen himself had to put in the countless hours of work to transform himself as a player. With Coleman I take the same view. Nobody on the Bills can force him to put in the hours. It's a neverending grind and many extremely talented players have failed to reach their potential because they didn't fully commit to it. I hope all of these comments from McDermott and Beane this offseason are because they know Coleman has that fire inside of him and they are trying to kindle it. If they had no hope for him at all they probably wouldn't be so direct.

That's exactly right. Cooper's production ended up being disappointing for what we gave up for him, but it was still a trade that HAD to be made and had a measureable effect on the passing offense. Any other take is revisionist history. We had zero legit boundary threats until he walked in the door. And we have zero legit boundary threats on the roster right now. Hopefully Coleman can become one but you don't count on that. This time around let's get that WR on the roster in March instead of waiting for a forced desperation trade in October.

We are much closer to fulfilling the first strategy. Probably two legit pass catchers away. The second strategy we are a legit pass rusher, a legit 1-tech, and two legit secondary players away, not to mention better coaching. I've laid out my thoughts elsewhere but I'm still not convinced we are one elite pass rusher away from getting over the hump.

In the game that Davis didn't play in?

He would be an average QB (and that's without accounting for the likelihood of him missing games) on a slightly below average roster with zero stars. I don't think it's disrespectful to say we aren't a playoff team with him. Competing for a top 5 draft pick? Probably not if he actually plays every game.

Right and that's missing the playoffs if one of those losses is to Miami. Miami who had to a play joke QBs for a quarter of their season would have gotten in over us. That's how important Allen was this year. On the Colts game - it's hard to quantify this stuff sometimes. The one TD drive we had from backed up against our own goalline was all because of Allen. Punting from that spot on the field very well may have lost us that game. And there are other games too where the final score is lopsided but the entire complexion of the game changes early on because of plays he makes.

Games we lose with Tua at QB: Cardinals Away Jets Home Dolphins Chiefs Lions I think good chance we lose the Colts game too, but we probably would win the away Pats game if we needed it so I'll call that a wash. At a minimum that's 5 extra losses putting us at 8-9 and Miami at 9-8 because of their extra win over us. So no I think we definitely miss the playoffs with Tua this year.

Wow I would hate that. I have no clue what Joe Buscaglia was thinking. Douglas fell off big time this year and isn't getting any younger.

We're probably going to pay Benford this offseason or next so we can't be breaking the bank for our CB2. I would treat CB like WR - ideally you want your #1 on a big contract that he's earned and your #2 on a rookie deal. We've made just one significant draft investment there since 2017 and obviously Elam turned out to be a massive bust so we have to try again. Best case scenario is a cheap vet competing with a rookie drafted relatively high. Save the big cap investments for WR, DL, and safety.

I've been saying a cheap vet like Jonathan Jones makes sense but Dane Jackson makes even more sense given his familiarity with the scheme. And then ideally one of our first 3 picks will be a CB who would compete with him for the job.

This is looking more and more like a holdout situation.

Better but still not good enough. Which is telling. Just about every Super Bowl participant of the last 7 years or so has had a clear #1 pass catcher. Most of them had a very strong #2 option as well. KC of the past two years is really the only exception with Kelce on the decline. No matter the cost Beane has to find that answer.

I've said I would like Beane to be willing to take more risks in the 1st round. Medical concerns, character concerns, anything that causes an elite talent to fall down the board unless it's completely beyond the pale. We need more elite talent and that probably means taking some risks on players that don't check every single box we look for.

I'll start the draft rumors thread in April like I usually do. Here's what Charlie Campbell has to say about Nolen and Pearce: On Pearce - when Campbell's source is director of player personnel from an "AFC playoff team" that is a "strict team in terms of character" there is one team in particular that sticks out in my mind. So my take based on those blurbs is that Nolen would be a legit option for us if he does well in interviews, but Pearce probably would not be.

I'm guessing even Adams is sick of the Rodgers circus by now. He has one last chance at a big payday so I'm sure he'll follow the money.

I would love Adams after he is inevitably cut, seems like he gets forgotten about a lot in these discussions because he's not officially a FA yet. Jeremy Fowler reported he would prefer to return to the west coast though and listed both LA teams and San Fran as options. I suppose if we really want him we will just pay him whatever it takes. Adding him would make us much less desperate at the position heading into the draft. It feels like the most logical move honestly.

I thought he did look very promising in his rookie season. Notably he got better as the year went along and flashed tremendous upside. Of last year's top 3 draft picks I'd say Coleman is the only one that flashed for me, it's just unfortunate that it came halfway through the season and then he massively regressed after his injury. If he had built on that Tennesee-Seattle stretch everyone would feel much better about the pick right now. At least we saw a glimpse of his potential so I still have some hope he will develop nicely. Bishop and Carter for me never flashed. That's the concerning part. Carter had what one notable play against Houston for the whole season? Bishop didn't do anything notable, he was just a guy out there and at times a liability. But of course it's still early for both of them. I just would have liked to see some kind of flash that we could build on.

Beane has spent a fortune on DTs. Every year he's paying several FAs and he's used three rounds 1-3 picks on the position, including his highest draft pick ever not named Josh Allen. Quality of investment, not quantity, has been the issue at DT. WR is the exact opposite. The rare draft investments he's made have turned out pretty good. 1st rounder on Diggs was a big win. 4th rounder on Davis was a win. 5th rounder on Shakir was a big win. Coleman is TBD. I don't look at that group and say that Beane doesnt know how to scout WRs, he just for whatever reason doesn't invest a lot there.

Would have been a much better pick for KC too using your same logic. But it's much easier to find WRs that can win from the slot than WRs that can win vertically, so it's hard to blame them yeah? We paid Cole Beasley $7.2M AAV and got basically the same effect with a little less juice. So yeah I'm happy saving my 1st round picks for players that can't be replaced with low-mid-tier FA contracts. Let's not forget that there were other WRs we passed on in favor of Coleman - Pearsall, Legette, Polk, Mitchell. Not exactly the greatest show on turf as rookies. So our choice was a really good slot, or one of the outside WRs with upside that wasn't likely to contribute in year one. I'll take the outside WR with upside every time because the pay off if you hit is so much larger. Beane's sin was not a single decision made in last year's draft. His sin was waiting this long to make a major investment. KC is a great example - they threw away high picks on Hardman, Moore, and Toney before finally hitting on Rice (pending his ability to stop being a dumbass off the field). They didn't find a #1 WR through expert scouting, they found it by throwing a lot of darts. Beane needs to keep throwing darts in rounds 1-3. And after he gets a hit, keep throwing them.

Reading through this thread, on one hand I understand the current obsession with Cooper DeJean. He did after all just have one of the plays of the Super Bowl so it's fresh in everyone's minds. But let's be honest - the Bills absolutely needed to take a WR with their 1st pick last year. Most people on this board agreed with that sentiment last year too. That is of course Beane's fault for neglecting the position in previous years, but given the roster at that time and the strength of the WR class it was an absolute necessity and it would have been foolish to neglect the position yet again in favor of a DB that can't play on the boundary. Beane still needs to be right about the player, but the position was a no brainer. I can't imagine DeJean making any difference to how our season ended. I mean we at one point gave up 42 points to KC when Taron, Poyer, and Hyde were all in their primes. So why would a nickel CB have changed our fate? I don't expect rookies drafted late in their rounds to be key features of their team. I expect them to contribute and show progress over the course of the season. My concern with our first three picks last year is that none of them showed any meaningful upwards trajectory in the last quarter of the season. Coleman severely regressed after returning from injury, Bishop was basically the same player with maybe a slightly higher floor, Carter wasn't even active. Each of them was in some fashion affected by injury but that excuse grows very tired when it's used year after year. We'll hope that at least two of them take a major step forward which is the case for like 95% of drafted players after their rookie season.