Logic

I'm sad to see Jake Fisher go, but I get it: In the absolute BEST CASE SCENARIO, Fisher would've become Lee Smith. Lee Smith is ALREADY Lee Smith. I also think this front office and coaching staff highly value the idea of having at least one veteran, lead-by-example guy in each position room. Not that Kroft couldn't have been that guy. But boy, having Lee Smith as a learning resource for the two rookie tight ends should sure speed up their learning arc when it comes to blocking.

Like others have said, you're adding leadership by example to the tight end room. You're also adding a guy who can show these youngsters (Knox, Sweeney, Moral) a thing or two about being an effective blocker. Blocking Tight Ends are obviously not most football fans' favorite players, but they are quite valuable to both the run and the pass game. Lee Smith is a top 3 blocking tight end in the NFL. He may be the BEST blocking tight end in the NFL. I see the final roster shaking out at that position thusly: Kroft Knox Smith Sweeney It's not out of the realm of possibilities that Croom makes the roster and Sweeney goes to the practice squad.

I wouldn't say "all", but then again, you're ScottLaw, so I'm not surprised that you would. If you're going to ding them for their failures (KB, Peterman, Vlad Ducasse, Anquan Boldin), its only fair to also give them props for their successes. That's called objectivity. And you know what ? Their offenses have been generally poor overall in season 1 and season 2. Let's just put that right out front. It still seems only fair/reasonable, though, to weigh the hits with the misses. Dion Dawkins is a pretty good tackle. Not elite, but pretty darn good. And after they saw that Andre Holmes and KB weren't working out at WR, and that Allen functioned better with WRs who got better separation, they quickly course corrected and brought up Robert Foster and brought in Ian McKenzie. Now they've also brought in John Brown and Cole Beasley, and while the jury is still out on those two, the odds of them being "flops" seems low, since they're already proven as worthy contributors in this league. Mitch Morse looks unlikely to be a flop, too. And as you stated, Josh Allen seems so far to have been a good decision. While this staff has made mistakes, they have also been quick to own those mistakes and fix them. Rick Dennison? Not so good, gone after one year. KB and Holmes? Not getting it done, gone and replaced with younger, speedier options. The o-line? Wasn't cutting it, so they signed 6,000 o-linemen (including the best center on the market) and drafted a 1st round caliber offensive tackle. Robert Foster's a big one that they should get credit for, too, by the way. They basically got #1 or, at worst, #2 WR production out of a rookie UDFA receiver. They found him, acquired him, coached him up on the practice squad, and brought him up to the main roster. He was a game changer down the stretch. That's big. The ability to find that type of game breaking talent in undrafted free agency should count for something. If you're going to bring up the bad, you should bring up the good, too. Otherwise you're just being a real ScottLaw.

I just disagree with pretty much everything you said, especially the bolded. McDermott has literally said that he realizes it's a passing league, and that you need to be able to pass the ball well to win consistently. He's also stated that he realizes that you need to be able to consistently score a lot of points to win. In my opinion, the only reason his Bills teams have had to "play it safe" and concentrate on field position and ball control is that they were vastly outmanned in terms of offensive personnel, and he knew it. When you have bad offensive personnel and great defensive personnel, the only logical thing to do is to play ball control offense, shorten the game, and hope to eke out close victories. McDermott stated specifically that he does NOT want to win games 10-7 every week. He acknowledged that that's not a sustainable way to win consistently. He knows this. Once Josh Allen returned from injury last year and showed that he could handle an increased volume of playcalls, the playbook and the passing game began to open up. By the end of the year, Daboll was calling multiple personnel groupings and passing concepts that were taken straight from the best passing offenses in the league, like the Chiefs, Rams, and Patriots. Motions, jet sweeps, orbit actions, mesh concepts, dagger concepts, you name it. He was also employing full-on 5 WR sets and Air Raid and spread passing concepts. Personally, I'll wait to see what the Bills offense does this year now that they have vastly improved talent at the WR and OL positions and a quarterback they believe in and who has a whole offseason and preseason of starting reps. I'm not ready to say what McDermott does or does not believe in (even though, as I said, he specifically SAID he knows you have to pass the ball well and that he DOESN'T want to win close games), because I know his gameplans have been limited by inferior personnel.

"You need to be able to run it when they know you're going to run it and throw it when they know you're going to throw it" - Sean McDermott Just look at who our offensive coordinator is and where he came from. I believe the Bills want to get to the point where their offense can be that multiple from week to week, just like the Patriots. Some weeks they'll be a run-first attack. Some weeks they'll go 5-wide all game and spread the defense out. Depends on the opponent. This is the best way to have consistent offensive success in the NFL, as the Patriots have shown.

Lee Smith is one of the top 3 or 4 blocking tight ends in the NFL. Seriously. I know he became sort of a running joke around here because of his one dimensional play and his complete inability to be a receiving threat, but if you need a blocking tight end, you can do a lot worse than Lee Smith. That said, I'm surprised they're still adding to the position. I know you need a certain number of guys for camp, but sheesh, they already have 5 TEs on the roster.

If I had been asked to bet $10,000 on which poster I thought would be most likely to come in and defend that guy, your name would have come out of my mouth faster than you can say "Debbie Downer".

I'm a big old optimistic homer, but I don't understand why the Bills would have any interest in this dude. Kroft, Knox, Croom, Sweeney, Fisher. That's plenty.

You must be a ball at parties.

Seems like that would have been a worthwhile investment for Buffalo, my feelings about Ansah notwithstanding. On the other hand, it's not always just about money. Maybe Ziggy felt the Seahawks offered a better path to playing time. Maybe he got along better with their coaching staff. Maybe he prefers fresh seafood to buffalo wings. Who knows.

It would have been nice, but I wasn't losing sleep over it. I think he's more a "name" than anything at this point. Pushing 30 and coming off surgery, I didn't see him producing much more for the Bills than Trent Murphy. Now can we send one of next year's draft picks to the Texans for Clowney, please?!

That IS bold!

- Raiders win 10+ games and make the playoffs - Chiefs cannot duplicate last year's success, barely sneak in as a wild card with 9 wins - Lamar Jackson has a terrible year, Ravens have a losing season - Le'Veon Bell has a career worst season behind bad Jets o-line - Joe Flacco does poorly in Denver, Drew Lock starts 7+ games - Jimmy Garappolo does NOT have a very good season. John Lynch gets fired. 49ers are left wondering if they still need to find a franchise QB - Seahawks win NFC West - Cam Newton has a bad year, causing a "should they start Will Grier?" debate - Bruce Arians gets the Bucs back on track with 9 wins and a wild card playoff berth - Buffalo mother*****in Bills win 11 games

Dude only ever caught touchdowns.

Makes sense. Seahawks have a greater need than Bills, and Ziggy will get more playing time there.

??? I already find it to be quite well worth the money, but maybe that's just me.

This is why I love Bills fans. A 38-page thread about a third year wide receiver. What could still be being discussed on page 38 that hasn't been covered already? Crikey!

Has anyone voted for "I have to watch the tape" yet?

People always overlook "rosterability" when talking about drafting players. You should draft players that you think will actually make the roster. As I mentioned above, with four WR spots probably already taken and with Andre Roberts likely to take the 6th spot as a return specialist, it leaves probably ONE spot open. The Bills ALREADY have Ian McKenzie (former 5th round pick, has gadget versatility, and who the staff clearly likes) and Duke Williams (CFL's leading WR last year) vying for that spot. What are the odds that a 4th or 5th round WR would have beaten out these two guys? Last year, the Bills drafted two WRs just because they needed them: Ray Ray McCloud and Austin Proehl. How did that work out? You have to draft roster-able guys.

How did this even get to be a way of describing a hard working player? What is it about consistently bringing lunch to work that equates to work ethic? Isn't it equally possible that an extremely lazy player would still bring food for himself to eat every day? I just don't get it.

I didn't read through this thread at all. I just saw the title and immediately hit "reply" to say THIS: For "cliches to retire", I cast one thousand votes for "Brings his lunch pail to work every day".

Foster Brown Beasley Jones With those 4 guys likely being locked in at WR and with the Bills set to carry no more than 6 WRs maximum, one of whom will likely be return man Andre Roberts, and with useful players like Ian McKenzie and Duke Williams also vying for playing time....it's crazy to me that people are so put out about the Bills not drafting a WR5. They did, however, go out and get two UDFA WRs in Easley and Sills who, had they been drafted in the 5th round, would have received universal praise from Bills fans. I get wanting the Bills to draft a WR. I also get why they DIDN'T draft a WR, and I think anyone that got too bent out of shape about it is/was being silly. You can't just take a guy at a position just because you need one, and say value be damned. If you go by the "Best player available" strategy, which Beane has told us again and again he does, you begin to see that the best player left on the board each time the Bills picked was NOT a wide receiver. Go back and look at the Singletary pick and the WRs available at that time. Who should they have picked? Ditto the Knox pick. You could argue that they should've taken a guy in the 5th or 6th round, but at that point the odds that said player would have a substantial impact are low any way. And again, they got what many believed to be 5th/6th round caliber talent at WR via undrafted free agency in Sills and Easley.

Is it too late to take DK Metcalf with the 9th overall pick?