BillsFan4

Stacked lineup for sure. I can not imagine any team in the tourney who will have a better top 6 defense than us- Dahlin, Pilut, Guhle, Borgen, Hickey, Laaksonen/Stephens. And the forward group looks great too - Mittelstadt, Nylander (who usually dominates against his age group), Asplund, Thompson, Olofsson, Oglevie and even Glotov, Cornel, Pekar and Peterson (if for nothing else but his age(24)/experience) are worth mentioning. With Luukkonen in net... That is a ridiculous lineup for a prospect tournament. Very excited to watch.

“The Bengals would have done anything in their power to get rid of Russell Bodine.....”. Also disagree on his comment about how “trading for Kelvin Benjamin was always a head scratcher. The Bills were 5-2 at the time, absolutely desperate for WR help and traded a 3rd for a damn good WR who was instantly the best WR on the roster. They improved the position in the midst of a playoff push last season, and still have Benjamin under contract this season. What’s so hard to understand about making that trade? I agree with his general point about the WR group. Obviously the WR corps is still a huge work in progress (for many reasons including cap space and no established QB which makes it harder to sign FA’s), but that doesn’t make acquiring KB a bad move. Quite the opposite IMO. Until the Bills have a QB that will help entice WR’s to sign here, or the cap space to overpay a free agent (neither are the case yet), trading for a guy is probably their best bet. And I know I’d rather have KB for a 3rd than Martavis Bryant for the same price... Were there other trades available to the Bills? I don’t know. Kinda funny he was talking up Vontae Davis too, after the preseason he’s had. Overall though, I totally get his lack of confidence in this current Bills team.

Because there are only so many reps to go around, especially during the season. Your 1st team QB gets the majority of reps. Backup QB gets some, and then there’s the scout team reps. You cant develop a QB if you are not getting him any reps.

I understand the people who are skeptical about moves the Bills make, weaknesses on the roster, our starting QB, O line, D line, moves by the coaching staff etc etc., and I have zero issue with questioning it, or even taking a pessimistic outlook most of the time. Not everyone needs to be optimistic about everything, or “drinking the kook-aid” or whatever, and we’ve been through a lot as Buffalo fans. Pessimism about buffalo sports kind of comes naturally to us after so many years of abuse. But what I do not understand are the very small group of posters here who do absolutely nothing but constantly trash the Bills with pretty much every post. I don’t understand the point of posting here, or even following the Bills if you seem to hate every single thing they do... why torture yourself like that? There is a difference between questioning moves and being negative nearly 100% of the time.

I can’t believe people are freaking out over a potential QB #3. How much better do you think they can do for their 3rd QB? He probably has more talent/potential than the average practice squad caliber QB...

Hey @NewEra It sounds like the Bills very well may end up with 3 QBs eventually. Heres what Brandon Beane just said in an Athletic interview - https://theathletic.com/503339/2018/09/03/brandon-beane-qa-bills-gm-talks-qb-plans-o-line-state-aj-mccarron-trade-and-khalil-macks-price-tag/

Good interview by Josh. I like that you could see/tell that he was disappointed not to be starting, too. I think this kid looks to have the right personality and mindset to make it as an NFL starter.

I don’t know, I guess you and I just have different views on the level of play you would get from a practice squad QB. I think the chances are that it wouldn’t be that significantly better than the play you’d get from Thomas in an emergency situation. I would expect that if Peterman got knocked out for a month, or got any type of injury that was considered week-to-week (as opposed to a small day to day type injury), that the Bills would immediately try to go out and get someone with some experience, that way it wouldn’t ever get to the point of having to start their practice squad QB in a regular season game. I think if either QB is hurt for any length of time, the Bills will look for a vet. Plus, the Bills are not in a position where they have an established starter and an established backup and they can stick someone on the practice squad to develop. Their circumstance is different this season. They are trying to get their backup as many reps as possible, while also still having him active for game days so he can learn what the NFL is like.

McDermott already said that Logan Thomas would be QB#3 in an emergency situation. He knows the offense better than most, according to reports. They said many times when a guy has a question on Daboll’s offense, they go to Thomas. Id rather go with Thomas as the #3 in order to get Allen more reps, as opposed to sacrificing tons of reps for Josh Allen in favor of a different #3 QB who may not be any better than Logan Thomas in a pinch anyway. If they were going to keep 3 QBs, they should have just kept AJ, which is personally what I thought would happen. I thought AJ would be #2 and Allen #3 in order to give Allen all the practice squad reps. Instead they decided to only keep 2 QBs and use Thomas in an emergency, in order to still give Allen all the practice squad reps. I am good with that, too.

If the Bills end up starting their 3rd QB, the season is lost anyway. Having a a practice squad caliber QB who knows the offense isn’t going to save them if both Nate and Josh go down. Might as well prioritize Allen’s development and getting him as many reps as possible, over having a crappy QB on the practice squad.

I guess they are not adding a practice squad QB. I thought with Allen as the backup, they might want him preparing to step in for the starter, just in case. But they must want him getting all the scout team reps. I get their thinking. All the reps will definitely do him good. Where as if he were strictly the backup he wouldn’t get nearly as many practice reps.

I figured Peterman was the starter the minute they traded AJ. AJ and Nate are kind of redundant. Both are similar QBs. If Nate isn’t successful behind this o line, AJ wouldn’t be either. Plus, McDermott taking every chance possible to talk Nate up was another clue. As I said in another thread, it reminded me of Rex Ryan continually reminding everyone not to sleep on Tyrod Taylor back in 2015. I dont see how anyone can say that Nate didn’t earn it, though. He was our best QB all offseason. Congrats Nate!

http://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/24548815/oakland-raiders-cut-martavis-bryant-suspension-looms Sounds like it is possible that he misses the entire season, depending on what happens with his appeal. Thought that quote by Gruden was kind of funny. The migraine thing immediately brought back flashbacks of Percy Harvin though.

I, for one, would be happy for the kid if he caught on somewhere else and had success, even if it’s in New England (although I’d prefer if it were Minnesota).

Well... let’s see what happens. I thought we had a new punter when they signed Ryan, but that wasn’t the case. Plus, I’d like to actually see this kid punt first, and hold for Hauschka... Its clear they are not happy with CS though.

Guess John Ryan must not have done very well in his time here.

Not that this qualifies as a big name, and I definitely don’t have any interest in him. But it looks like Chad Kelly might be safe... for now. Edit - oops. Missed this. Maybe Chad Kelly’s spot isn’t quite as safe as I thought...

Somewhere, Noogie75/buffalobud420 is crying...

Good luck to him in Cleveland! Hope he does well there.

https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2018/09/02/plenty-of-quarterbacks-are-available/ lots of Qbs available (though none are any good). Does Bryce Petty have practice squad eligibility? I believe he only has 2 accrued seasons? (not sure though)

I don’t think Beane is just looking to trade players willy-nilly for draft picks. Instead, he was smart enough to get value for guys he knew were not a fit. Every trade was for a reason - whether it be scheme fit, performance on the field, attitude/culture fit etc. I would be shocked if they traded McCoy. Unless someone blew them away with a trade offer, I just don’t see it happening. Beane’s not dumb. He knows the Bills offense runs thru shady, ans he knows there is no reason to trade him. Shady is bought in, fits any scheme, has a good attitude, is a leader on the team and is still performing at a high level. However, I could see Beane trading Adolphus Washington and/or Shaw Lawson. Why? His cap hit was at its highest last year - $10.375M vs $8.9M this year + $9.05M next year - and also paid out more in actual dollars last year ($7.75M vs $6.35M). The Bills even added incentives to his deal last year. Plus with how high RB salaries are climbing for the top guys, Shady’s deal doesn’t look that bad IMO. Heres a very good article that goes over the theory that Beane is getting rid of Whaley guys. https://www.buffalorumblings.com/2018/6/5/17409612/brandon-beane-sean-mcdermott-doug-whaley-guys-tyrod-taylor-marell-dareus-general-manager-coach It may look like that, but that is not really the case when you break it all down. This article does an excellent job going over all of the details.

Bryant was already suspended 16 games for his last substance abuse violation, and now he has (supposedly) violated it again. It is absolutely a factor, regardless of his talent, because there is a chance he will miss a big chunk of games, and he may not even play a game this season, depending on what the violation was. What would even be the point in signing him if that’s the case? I don’t know that many teams will rush to sign him until they know what the NFL is going to do, aka, whether or not he gets the Josh Gordon treatment (indefinite suspension, since he was already suspended for 1 year (and to get to that point you have to violate the substance abuse policy many, many times)). It all really depends on what the violation was for. That is what I am wondering too. Will it it be another year long ban? Indefinite ban like Josh Gordon got? Or was it a less serious violation? I think teams will need to get some type of clarification from the league office, or wait to see how things play out, before signing Bryant. If it’s a failed drug test, he’s probably done for quite a while. If it’s something liked a missed exam/appointment that invoked the infraction, the punishment will likely be much less serious.

What whaley players have they moved on from that looks like a big mistake now? Most of the moves, in hindsight, look ok to me. You have to remember that that we don’t know what goes on behind the scenes either. We don’t know how guys are performing in practice, or picking up the offense/defense, or even blowing their assignments unless it is obvious or we know the play call. I don’t really see any moves that were just to spite Whaley. They all seemed centered around performance, scheme and culture fit to me. There are are also a number of Whaley guys left on the roster, too - Washington, Clay, Schmidt, Hughes, Miller, Mills, McCoy, Alexander, Humber, Groy, Lawson. There was actually a really good article on this exact subject (getting rid of whaley guys) on buffalo rumblings a little while back. Check it out. It may help put your mind at ease a bit - https://www.buffalorumblings.com/2018/6/5/17409612/brandon-beane-sean-mcdermott-doug-whaley-guys-tyrod-taylor-marell-dareus-general-manager-coach

When you are a depth or roster bubble player, it doesn’t really matter what you did last season, especially when it was with a totally different OC in a totally different offensive scheme. I liked O’leary and was rooting for him to make the team. But he did not have a very good preseason (or camp, from the reports iirc). For whatever reason, he just didn’t look as effective in this offense and he was outplayed by the other TE’s on the roster.