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Kevin White. Same draft class as Perriman, except he went 7th overall (Perriman went 26th) in 2015. Out of a possible 48 games over three seasons, White has been on the field for exactly five games. Missed entire rookie year with injuries. Played in four games in 2016 and caught a whopping 19 passes. Injured in the 2017 season opener and missed all of that year as well. Perriman also missed all of 2015. Caught 33 balls for 499 yards and three TD's in 2016 but was an absolute non-factor for all of 2017. Only 10 catches for 77 yards. Yeesh. And, it's still early for him, but Corey Davis might soon find himself lumped in this group. Held out last year, missed a lot of camp and pre-season. Did play in 11 games, 35 receptions for 375 yards, no touchdowns. Caught his first two touchdowns against the Pats in the Divisional Round of last season's playoffs. In a new offense, could be trending upwards if they decide to move away from Mike Mularkey's run-first mentality. The other two receivers taken in the first round in 2017 also didn't fare very well. Mike Williams (7th overall, Chargers) had 11 receptions for 95 yards for the whole season. I believe he also held out or had a lot of rehab to do that lasted through the pre-season and maybe partially into the regular season, can't remember for sure. And then there's John Ross (9th overall, Bengals), numerous injuries and some off-field stuff kept him out of games. Zero catches. They used him on a reverse that went for 12 yards and that's his entire stat sheet for 2017. Again, it's still really early for these guys. Things would point towards Cincinnati expecting a lot more from Ross this season given that they just cut LaFell. Williams, I'm sure, will be expected to be the #2 behind Keenan Allen. And I'm pretty sure Tennessee wants Davis to take a hold of the #1 WR spot for them. But so far... not a great start for the first round receivers last year.

I think another thing to remember too is Rex didn't put Washington in a position to succeed and last season I think the kid had trouble picking up the scheme so he wasn't much of a factor. Hearing Kyle say that AW has "figured it out" would kinda confirm that notion so hopefully this season he can be a big part of the DT rotation. I think when camp is all said and done, their DT group this season is gonna be Kyle, Lotulelei, Phillips, Washington with maybe Hatley or Hughes? Heard on Shredd & Ragan this morning about how yesterday's camp practice they focused on blitzes. I think all three QBs said they were really impressed with the DL. The secondary has regularly been called the top defensive group with the linebacker group now getting praise with Edmunds in there. If the DL gets right, watch out. Definitely could have a top five defense this year.

Know who else is still available to sign? Dez Bryant. Team McBeane are a buncha friggin' jerks for not signing him. Man, if I ever cross paths with Brandon Beane, I got a few questions for him, like: How dare you? What gives you the right? And my personal favorite, Why are you the way that you are? Maybe that'll give him the boost he needs to sign top talent at every single position. The OL concern is a bit overblown IMO. Ducasse isn't great but he's better on the left side than the right. John Miller played great in 2016 but last season was a bust for him because he wasn't suited for the blocking schemes they ran. That's different this season so I think he'll be OK. Mills is Mills, they have Marshall Newhouse if they wanna make the switch, though, I'm not sure that's exactly an upgrade. Bodine has been a day one starter since his rookie year and is capable, as is Groy. The organization really really likes Dawkins, in fact, they valued him enough to trade Cordy Glenn. And in these, "worst WR group evuuurrrrr!!!!11111" posts, I rarely see the mention of Charles Clay and LeSean McCoy. While they aren't WRs by job title, they are both capable pass catchers and will be utilized in passing situations quite often this season. Camp reports have said Clay has been lining up all over the place, traditional TE spots, the slot, out wide and even in the backfield. I'm pretty sure they're still going to be a run-heavy team as they have three unproven QBs on the roster. It's not rocket science that any team with inexperienced QBs is going to rely heavily on the run game in order to take pressure off the QB. Until the team is in a position where they have real stability at the QB position, they're going to continue to maintain a "not too flashy" WR group. If Allen takes the reins and shows that he is finally *THE GUY* after all these years, then I'd expect the organization to draft high on a WR or go out and sign a top name, if one is available.

I think this team is too well-coached and has too many "prove it" type players to fall down the ladder to a 3-13 or 4-12 record, so when I see those predictions I gotta laugh a bit. While I think a return trip to the playoffs is in doubt, I don't see double digit losses. Middle of the road, probably 8-8 at best. But yeah, as a few others have pointed out, this defense has a chance to be pretty special and there's a chance they keep them in games and allow them to steal a few they otherwise probably wouldn't win.

Joe has never been real high on Washington. I think he had him on his "surprise cuts" list last season a few times.

Yeah, this is where I'm at. I just think this team has too many "out to prove it" type players and is too well-coached to dip into double digit losses this year. While I feel like the post-season will be out of their grasp this year, I don't think they'll be too far away. I can see 8-8 which would be a pretty solid way to head into 2019 where, if we're buying into the rumors, they plan to beef up the roster with some splashy free agent signings.

I'm glad to see Miller back in the lineup. He played very well in 2016 but the system didn't suit him last season. From what I've read, Ducasse is better on the left side than the right so I guess that's a positive. The Groy/Bodine battle will be interesting. I know they've held onto Groy because he can play all three interior OL spots so he has a lot of value in that respect. But, if he beats out Bodine then I can see them designating Bodine to that spot. And if a guard gets injured, I can see them shifting Groy to G and bringing Bodine in at C. Newhouse will be the swing tackle, I think. I've read that Wyatt Teller is impressive in a physical sense but right now he's having some difficulty grasping the different schemes and protections.

Despite the thoughts of some, I don't see many scenarios where this team cuts Zay Jones. Maybe they trade him if a really good offer comes across the table but I don't see that happening. They're already thin at the position and Zay knows he needs to step up which I think he'll do once he's ready to go. I think Reilly has a solid chance to make the 53. They took him off the practice squad late last season and added him to the active roster. I don't think he ever saw the field but to get bumped from the PS to the active roster that late in the season shows that McBeane can see him playing a bigger role this season, granted, if he continues to develop the way he has. Other than that, I think Robert Foster is a near-lock for the practice squad and *maybe* the active roster if he has a super impressive pre-season. I also like Dupre and hope he can step up as he was viewed as a top WR prospect for a hot minute back in late 2016. LSU didn't have a QB in 2017 so on paper his stats aren't great but there's talent there and sometimes it takes a season or two before a guy reaches his full potential. Jeremy Kerley probably makes it for his veteran presence. Andre Holmes is on the bubble, despite his special teams play. They've got younger, less expensive options to take over for him if they want. McCloud is destined for a special teams role and I think Proehl is also practice squad material.

I'm just psyched to see that they've finally brought in an OC who understands how to play to the strengths of his players. More and more over the last few years, teams have adopted that method over the ol' "Here's my offense, learn it and that's that" type of coordinators. Far too often teams are hamstrung by a coordinator who *has* to run his system (i.e. Rex) despite not having the best personnel for it. I've always felt like it shouldn't be as difficult as some coordinators make it. Some of them put scheme over talent. I've always thought that any decent coach thoroughly evaluates his personnel, discovers what they have a natural knack for and designs a system based around those things. That's a big reason why Wentz has had success out in Philly. They've placed him in schemes that he's familiar with and they play to his strengths. Gotta be the same with Allen here. And, it's gonna take a while, but once they get things down, it'll be interesting to see how well they adjust from week to week as Daboll plans on having a "multiple" type of offense that does the Pats thing where they change it up based on who they play.

Dang. Stupid Jets.

Jets should be a good read. Darnold isn't even in camp yet. Hasn't signed his contract. Evidently because there's language in it that would nix guaranteed money in the event of a fine, which is kind of anal on the Jets part. The language in most rookie deals states that guaranteed money can be removed/altered in the case of a suspension, not a fine. So I can totally see why Darnold is holding out. He could incur a fine on a fluke play and then zap, there go his guarantees. That's kinda crap.

Those are questions I absolutely take into account. I was just commenting that it's encouraging to see that he hasn't tried to change what he already does well. I think, at best, Allen can be a hell of a QB but also a guy that's going to throw some picks and frustrate you a little bit. I know that after the first camp practice, a lot of people wanted to point out how poorly he missed on a dump off on his last throw of the day. He was on One Bills Live the next day and said that it was a play he had never run before and he got caught thinking too much. He said since the back was so close to him he wasn't sure if he should just kinda underhand pitch it to him or actually try to throw it. His arm didn't really get the message, hence the ball floated on him and it looked bad, but stuff like that's gonna happen. And yes, it was easy to become frustrated with Taylor. He certainly could hit the deep ball, but his issue was that he simply couldn't see the field well (partially because of his height) and that he's a "see it, throw it" passer as opposed to an anticipatory passer. Doesn't throw guys open, has to see them come open before he throws it. I saw a Browns camp highlight of him on Saturday. Landry ran a hell of a deep route, completely burned his guy, but had to slow up to catch the pass from Taylor because Taylor waits too long to throw it and then when he does, he doesn't always put it out in front. As for Fitz, ah, bless ol' Fitz, great dude, smart as hell... not the best arm, and that's his main drawback. He can make all the reads and adjustments you need but when it comes down to it he just doesn't have the juice to hit a 15-yard out to the opposite side of the field or hit a man in stride on a deep ball. A lot of his picks happen because he just doesn't have a lot of speed and velocity on his throws, that gives DBs more time/chances to break on his throws. And yes, he would toss picks at the worst possible time. I always felt like that was happening because he was simply trying to do too much. I think he has a bit of the gunslinger mentality and when it's late and his team is down, he's gonna try to take shots with the hopes that something good happens.

Nah, as a kid I wanted to see them at least win one, didn't care how many they went to and lost, I felt like, as long as they win one, it's worth it. vs. the Giants they never adjusted and took advantage of the fact that the Giants D was putting only three, sometimes two, DL on the line which was an invitation to run and Thurman was on that game. Had they kept handing him the ball he would've chewed them up and then when they went to adjust to stop the run, that's when Kelly could've shifted it into overdrive with the no-huddle and start slinging it. Instead, they stuck to their guns and it just didn't fall their way. And while Norwood had a good season, the Bills special teams coach at that time said that Scott had two other FG attempts (just under 40 yards) on grass during the regular season that he missed. His 47-yard attempt was his longest try on grass for that season. vs. Washington they came in unfocused and unprepared and got outplayed in the first half. They got things rolling in the second half but ran out of time. vs. Dallas they actually led early on after a great opening drive but then they gave up a fumble return for a TD, Michael Irvin went ham in the 2nd quarter and Kelly got knocked clear out of the game. They gave up another fumble return for a TD later in the game but even though it was 31-17 at the start of the fourth, they still were only down by two scores and had a chance. They just completely imploded in the fourth. vs. Dallas again they led at halftime and then came out and Thurman had that fumble and after that they were shot. It's like as soon as one bad play and a little adversity hit them, they all collectively felt like, "Here we go again" and just couldn't get their heads straight. For whatever reason, it just didn't happen for them. I've always joked that the four-straight run in the 90s was the good karma we got as fans and the 17-year drought was the payback kind of karma.

I think the confusion around the new rule is what's going to be detrimental to the game. I've seen a number of reports stating that teams are very unclear on how the rule will be imposed and how coaches can teach players how to adjust with the new rule in mind. And I think it's going to be difficult for officials to get right during games. Plays happen so fast, we see it all the time, a penalty is called but after seeing the replay, it's clear that it wasn't a penalty and the official had a bad angle to view it from and made a bad call. I can see that happening a lot here. A ball-carrier hits the seam and gets hit by a linebacker who drops his head past the ball-carrier's right hip and drives his shoulder into his midsection for a typical form tackle. The official on the right side sees that the helmet avoided contact but the official on the left side just sees a player who dropped his helmet to make a tackle, so does he throw a flag because he's uncertain if the helmet was involved or not? And then the zebras convene for a 3-hour conference (seems like it, anyway) to try and get the call right and still get it wrong. I think early on it's going to be rough and they're going to get it wrong quite a bit. As the season goes on, the hope would be that they get better at recognizing it and don't need to hold up the game with their little meetings and whatnot. It works both ways too, an offensive player can't drop their helmet and drive into another player, but, as someone already pointed out, when a ball-carrier has defenders closing in on him, what's he going to do? He's going to (usually) wrap both arms around the ball and get low, and there's going to be incidental contact with his helmet. That's the thing with this rule. How can they define when it's just part of the play or when it's intentional? That's why this rule sucks and that's why it's not going to go well, at least early on.

Wouldn't be surprised if he wound up winning the job. The fact that I see multiple reporters tweeting things like, "Allen is out here throwing passes the other two QBs wouldn't even think of trying" is pretty encouraging. If he does end up the starter, just be prepared for some bumps in the road. And unless he gets hurt, I wouldn't bench him for anything. I don't care if he has a game where he goes 7 for 25 for 84 yards and two picks, just let him take his lumps and come back the next week refocused and ready to go. Don't give him the Losman treatment where they tell him he's the undisputed starter but every time he had a rough series he was benched for Holcomb and eventually Edwards. Allen doesn't need to be looking over his shoulder every time he throws a pick or has a bad series or two, that doesn't help his development at all.

Maybe I'm one of the few but I think Lawson is firmly in their plans for this season. He missed important practice time in his rookie season due to the shoulder surgery and when he came back he was playing out of position in a scheme that didn't fit him or most of the defensive players. Last season there was plenty of turnover on defense and another whole new scheme to learn plus he missed five games with injury. He still had the same sack total as Hughes (4.0) despite Hughes starting all 16 games. The entire DL last season had a hard time finding their footing. They started great against the rush but that slowly deteriorated and overall they couldn't get enough pressure on the QB. Lawson is said to have followed the off-season diet/training program very well and has come in more focused than ever and probably as healthy as he's ever been during his time in the league. I think they'll want to see how he does with those things factoring in before giving up on him. I don't think mid-late round guys added a week into camp are a threat to his roster spot. Hughes, Murphy and Lawson are the top pass rushers they have, unless some kind of "too good to pass up" trade offer comes along, Lawson is a Bill for 2018.

He didn't start playing football until his sophomore or junior year of high school so he wasn't on any major college recruiter's radar. UB and maybe one or two other schools were the only ones to offer him coming out of high school. I believe he chose UB because they were Division I.

I read some of those "anonymous scout" quotes that fly around during draft time and the one knock on him that seemed to pop up fairly consistently was the fact that a lot of scouts weren't sure what they'd do with him as they feel he has limitations along the DL. They weren't sure what spot on the line would suit him best and some felt he looked more like a guard than a DT, one quote even said they'd consider flipping him to OL. With that in mind, I assume most teams viewed him as a prospect full of potential but not one that would be able to contribute from an early standpoint. Guys with potential that need fine-tuning and some moderate development usually end up as mid-round picks.

B-b-b-b-bingo!

I'mma call him Darkwa Duck if he gets signed. Let's get dangerous.

Whoops! Good catch. I'll fix that.

Heading into 2018 training camp, I decided to take a look at the Bills roster to see how the current group came together. Total Overall Players as of 7/26: 89 Total Overall Draft Picks: 44 Total Bills Draft Picks: 19 Players Acquired Via Trade: 3 -J. Hughes (2013), L. McCoy (2015), K. Benjamin (2017) Total Overall Undrafted Players: 45 (This includes players added via waivers or signed from practice squads) Total Undrafted Players Originally Signed by Bills: 19 Total Players Who Began Career w/Bills (i.e. "Homegrown Talent"): 38 Total Players Who Began Career w/Different Team: 51 Total 1st Round Picks: 8 (* = drafted by Bills) -K. Benjamin, J. Allen*, V. Davis, T. White*, T. Edmunds*, J. Hughes, S. Lawson*, S. Lotulelei Total 2nd Round Picks: 5 -Z. Jones*, L. McCoy, V. Ducasse, D. Dawkins*, T. Murphy Total 3rd Round Picks: 5 -P. Gaines, O. Odighizuwa, J. Miller*, A. Washington*, H. Phillips* Total 4th Round Picks: 5 -T. Johnson*, T. Jones, R. Bodine, L. Thomas, K. Robinson Total 5th Round Picks: 10 -N. Peterman*, A. McCarron, J. Kerley, M. Hyde, S. Neal*, M. Milano*, M. Newhouse, W. Teller*, J. Mills, K. Williams* Total 6th Round Picks: 6 -R. McCloud*, K. Clay, T. Vallejo*, C. McDermott, N. O'Leary*, C. Clay Total 7th Round Picks: 4 -M. Dupre, J. Poyer, M. Murphy, A. Proehl* Total Undrafted Players: 45 -S. Hauschka, C. Phillips*, C. Schmidt, C. Carter, R. Foster*, T. Davis*, A. Holmes, Q. Bray, R. Bush, L. Pitts, D. Marlowe, C. Ivory, K. Ford*, K. McCray, L. McCray, T. Cadet, B. Borders*, P. DiMarco, M. Boesen*, D. Lacey, R. Carter*, Z. Olstead*, R. Humber, J. Stanford, C. Thompson*, X. Woodson-Luster, E. Yarbrough, M. Love*, L. Alexander, A. Redmond, J. James, I. Boettger*, G. de Beer*, R. Ferguson*, R. Groy, D. Wesley, M. Porter*, J. Croom*, R. Streater, K. Towbridge*, K. Lee, B. Reilly*, R. Hatley, T. Fede, M. Lewis*

Man, good stuff as usual, sir. The article in the OP feels like a hot take for the sake of a hot take. I'll admit, I was weary about Allen. But out of all the QBs that came out this year, he's the one with the best set of natural skills. Anyone see that Sport Science show on him? Here's the link for those that haven't seen it, it provides some more empirical evidence. The dude has a lightning-fast release to go with the rocket attached to his right shoulder. Watching him at Wyoming I got the feeling that the kid was doing everything he possibly could to win games. If that meant he had to sacrifice sound mechanics/footwork or deviate from the play-call and improvise, then so be it, that's what he was going to do in order to win. And we know he wasn't surrounded by a whole lot of talent there. What gives me hope is what Beane recently said about seeing him at the Senior Bowl. Beane had seen him live a couple of times at Wyoming and noted that his footwork wasn't great and that affected his accuracy. But then, when he saw him at the Senior Bowl, Beane saw improved footwork, which remained consistent throughout the practices and the game. That's a huge plus for Allen. It's difficult to retrain your body to do things a certain way that's different from what's already committed to muscle memory for all the years he'd been playing QB. To see that Allen was able to rearrange parts of his mechanics and not revert back to his previous methods is a positive sign. It shows that he has the ability to not only make corrections, but to make those corrections stick. If they can continue to build him up in such a way, I feel like he has a pretty good shot to be a quality starter.

You bite your tongue, sir!! I will NOT tolerate any negativity toward the masterpiece that is Norbit. Good day!

To your point of the Bills possibly calling around to smear the name of Good Saint Doug... yeah, I can see that. Probably more like leaking stuff out "anonymously" and whatnot. He was a rookie HC in 2013, BTW, went 6-10 that year. And it was amusing to me that Jacksonville hired him as their OL coach because his OL in Buffalo had issues during his time here. He ran zone stuff with mammoth lineman (and he can't always whine that Whaley didn't provide him with the kinds of players he wanted because in 2014 Whaley drafted Kouandjio, Richardson and Henderson, all monster-sized OL, and none of them really worked out in Buffalo. I felt like Henderson had a chance to become a full-time starter had he not been sidelined with his illness and subsequent suspension. He's currently in Houston where he's penciled in as their starting RT right now, Kouandjio is a backup in Denver and Richardson is out of the league) and when certain OL (Richardson) weren't performing up to par, he wouldn't budge on changing the line-up. He let Richardson take his lumps for four or five straight weeks until finally putting Kraig Urbik back in at LG, where he was the starter for the previous few seasons and had outplayed Richardson all during pre-season but Marrone wanted to roll with Richardson because it was one of "his guys." As for Lynch, dude was straight up never really happy with playing in Buffalo. When he was drafted, he admitted he had no idea where Buffalo was and just the type of cat he is, he was going to struggle off the field no matter where he was drafted unless he was drafted by a west coast or California team. He's a bit of an odd duck, as we've seen, doesn't trust many people, doesn't like speaking to the media, etc. etc. I remember one of his first post-game interviews here and the dude just looked so uncomfortable, and that was a game they won where he had like a 60 yard TD run. Aside from the hit-and-run and the gun charges, I also remember him causing some kinda ruckus at an Applebee's, where he grabbed some lady's purse or grabbed money out of it. He would also come into bars/restaurants in the area with his own liquor and just order plain soda so he could mix. Just knucklehead stuff. I ran into him at the Hamburg Walmart in 2009, the week after Dick Jauron was let go and I asked him what he felt about the coaching change, he said hopefully it's for the best and that I should be a Raiders fan anyway, lol. He then told me that Poz (Paul Posluszny) and Kyle were also somewhere in the store but I didn't see them. At the time I was working for a group home and he gave an autograph to one of my guys which was cool because we didn't ask for one, he actually offered it, saying something, "Yo man, if you got a pen or something, I'd be happy to sign somethin' for your guy here." Made that guys whole year, haha, that's all we heard at the group home for the next few weeks was, "Have you guys seen my Marshawn Lynch autograph?" and then he'd go into his room, strap on his full-size replica Bills helmet and proudly show off the autograph. He'd keep the helmet on all during Bills games too. Bah, I'm rambling, either way, I think Lynch just had a rough go while he was here. Did he do himself any favors? Not really. But after all the incidents that went down, it was inevitable that he was going to be traded or cut to provide the ol' "fresh start somewhere else" for him. My bad on the wall of text.