racketmaster

I think it is very smart for the Bills to interview as many candidates as they can. They are a desirable destination and are going to have a lot of interested candidates. Who knows, maybe one of them blows Beane/Pegula away and makes it an easy decision. By interviewing many candidates it becomes easier to rank them and confirm that you had the right HC when it comes time to decide since they were the best from a field of 20 instead of 3-4 Also, each interview can provide valuable analysis as to what the Bills need to get over the hump from respected coaches around the league. Similar to draftee interviews, Beane can ask the coaches about other coaches on their list to get their opinions and work experiences with them. Finally, there will only be 1 HC selected but the interviews can lead to ideas/plans for coordinator roles on the staff. The interviews can help determine which candidates might be open to a coordinator role and which are not.

Daboll is no Mike Shanahan. I’d have more confidence in Brady than Daboll. His win percentage in NY was terrible after a hot start. I know QB play was not great but things fell apart there after his first year.

They are well coached and have a young qb that is playing at a higher level than our qb while also in a cheap rookie deal. They also made the wise decision to bring in some veterans with high energy and competitive fire in Hollins and Diggs. Our defense had Hoehct but he quickly got injured. Allen is not that guy like Brady or Mahomes to get on his teammates and we don’t have any other guys on offense that provide that fire and juice. Patriots have the division in the bag, Bills will need to find their way to a wild card spot.

Playing nearly error free on offense and getting so many turnovers on defense seemed to have given the HC and GM the false idea that they could just run it back and lean even more into the running game.

JA deserves a significant amount of blame for the lack of passing game as does the wrs and the OC. He seems to be struggling with his confidence and the OC needs to scheme up some easier completions to help our qb. The wrs are what they are and need to have some better schemes to get them open. Teams all around the league do this with bunch sets but we have been so te and rb focused we rarely see 3 wrs on the field unless it is desperation time.

Fans could not wait to see Gabe Davis gone when he left for the Jags and now I’m supposed to believe he is the savior coming off an ACL injury. We have better receiving options on the team but don’t use them properly and JA is not playing well. They have focused so much energy on the run game that the passing attack seems to exist only when we are desperate and playing from behind. The passing game looks like they don’t practice it very much because that is probably the case. Samuel, Moore, Palmer are all on pace to have career or near career lows. This is not a coincidence as our focus is almost entirely on the RBs and TEs

Unless Allen returns to playing like a top 3 qb, Bills have no chance at a SB. Even if he can return to form, I don’t think the defense is SB material.

I would cut Moore who has done almost nothing for us so far this season. Lockett is not the same player he was when he was having 1000 yards receiving last seasons but he might still have something left in the tank at 33. I would say he brings some veteran savvy to the wr room with solid route running. He does not have the same speed he once had but maybe he could be a John Brown like wr for us. Moore has been a 500-600 yard guy in 4 seasons and might not crack 300 with us this year. I also think he could push Samuel just by staying healthy and available. Mix Lockett in with Keon to give opposing defenses different looks. And I’ve seen little from Shavers as a receiver other than some solid blocking so I think Lockett would have the chance to give the Bills wr room a slight boost. He is obviously not a number 1 wr or even a number 2 anymore but sometimes having a veteran like a Hopkins, Kupp, Thielen etc on your team is not so bad as you just hope to count on them to come up big for you in a few clutch moments. Again, he has played so little this year with an erratic rookie qb that it is hard to say how much is left in the tank but I’d like to find out as our current wr room needs help.

Lockett has over 8600 yards and 61 tds in his career. Not sure how much tread is left on the tires but he had 600 yards receiving last year which is more than we normally get from our starting wrs. We don’t have to give up any draft picks so why not bring him in. He is likely to be better than holding out hope that Davis can give us something coming off an acl. Beane could still make other trades at wr or other positions to help upgrade the roster. I don’t see much of any downside.

Moore is still expected to play this week and he has missed just 2 games in 7+ seasons in the NFL. I would say he is much more durable than Olave who missed 9 games just last year with the concussions. He has also had previous concussions and ankle injuries that have caused him to miss games in previous seasons. The concussions make me nervous because the more a player has the longer the recovery time seems to be and the Bills have had poor luck in recent seasons with guys staying healthy as is.

I don’t like giving up any prime assets for another injury prone player like Chris Olave. He is a very good player but has a serious concussion history going back to college and he missed significant time last year as a result of having 2 concussions. We have enough brittle players on this team. I’d rather take a shot at someone like DJ Moore if it were for a 3rd round pick.

I’d like to get Landon Jackson. Very similar to Maxx Crosby, so find a way to draft that guy whether staying at 30 or move down a few spots.

Josh has 4 seasons left on his current (now team friendly) deal. Im not sure what the rush to extend him is as we have him under contract for the 25, 26, 27 and 28 season and he becomes an UFA in 2029. He will be 33 years old at the end of his current deal. I’m not sure his playing style warrants extending him until he is 40 years old. Allen is great but he needs help in order to win a championship. 4 years is a long time in the NFL as you never know with injuries and sudden physical decline (everyone is different and Brady is an outlier). Due to his playing style, Allen is more likely to finish his career like Kelly or Big Ben rather than a Brady or Brees. I know he is the franchise but it reeks of desperation trying to extend a contract that he has 4 years left on. Maybe add just 2-3 years if it is an issue but I would not want to extend him beyond 35 years old at this point and time.

I guess we can just agree to disagree. I don’t know if I can recall a situation where a wr has been that productive his first 2 years and then just completely disappeared. We are also talking about a high 2nd round pick that was traded for a 2nd round pick less than 2 years ago. So NFL personnel seem to agree Claypool is highly talented. I don’t think his ability and talent just vanished at the end of 21 when Big Ben’s arm was completely shot. It is possible that Claypool is a complete head case and the mental part does not allow for him to let his ability show on the field. I just think it is hard to ignore that there have been many hurdles since even the second half of his sophomore season with his qb lost the ability to throw over 10 yard past the line of scrimmage. Those things matter as well as being traded mid season twice and trying to learn a new system. The effort on the blocking in one of the games in Chicago seems to be slightly exaggerated and overplayed based on watching the replays and the route with Miami last year was not great but he was running into double coverage and Tua made a horrible decision and pass as well. If Claypool is as disinterested and bad as you indicate he would have never been able to be as productive as he was early in his career. I am not saying that Claypool is a Randy Moss like talent but if you go back to the time Moss was with the Raiders he was terrible and considered a cancer to the team. People thought he was shot and then he goes to a top notch organization with a HOF qb in NE and he instantly becomes a superstar again. Randy Moss was written off and considered done by many until he went to NE. I don’t thing it is unreasonable to believe that being in a solid organization and with a top qb can make Claypool be on his best behavior and be able to be a productive wr for the Bills this year.

It seems like from a mentality perspective (immaturity/ego) it would make sense to point out his issues beginning 3 years ago. But he continued to flash his talent albeit that the flashes were sporadic until he was traded from Pittsburgh midway thru 22 season. He has essentially had no statistical production on the field since. But I believe his physical ability has not disappeared. He had a highly productive 7 catches on 7 target game for 96 yds and a td against Tampa Bay just a few weeks before he was traded to the Bears. From a mentality perspective, he appears to have lost his way some time following his rookie year. I just think that the combination of his attitude, antics, being in a poor situation (whether bad coaching, being shifted inside from outside wr or poor qb play) have reduced his on field production to being almost zero. If Claypool fails to have any further success in the NFL it will be more because of his attitude rather than his talent. When production on field is high, teams can put up with some extra drama (like Diggs) but when the production declines to a certain point the team tends to want to remove the headache/distraction (like Diggs being minimized from offense second half of last year and viewed by the team as no longer essential). I don’t think Diggs lost his talent midway last season, the team just chose to emphasize the run game and spread the ball around. It is quite possible that Claypool never really learns and his attitude dooms his career because that is just who he is as a person. But I do believe there is a better than 50/50 chance that given the right environment, his attitude problem will be minimal and that could allow his physical talent to shine thru again and he could gain trust from his coaches and qb. Claypool is just 25 and we know having high production at the wr position is very dependent on variables outside of the ability of the player (scheme/coaching/qb play/line play etc). Claypool has shot himself in the foot with his own immaturity but if he can fit in with the “Bills dna” I see no reason he cannot be a solid contributor as a wr this year and possibly hit statistical measures of his first 2 years in terms of catches and yardage. But I would say the most likely scenario would be he is a rotational wr this year that can be part of a productive wr group. Even in this scenario, it could be beneficial to Claypool’s career and future in the league to just do his job when called upon, not be a distraction.