transplantbillsfan

Shaw.... better than 2017???? C'mon. The answer to that question is an obvious and emphatic YES!!!! The Bills had, at best, an average roster in the NFL in 2017. What I'm glad I found within the last year are good, broader NFL podcasts with actual pundits who watch the film rather than "shock jocks" like Cowherd, Nick Wright, Stephen A, Skip Bayless, etc. In listening to these (and that would include Mina Kimes, Nate Tice, Robert Mayes, Brett Kollman, EJ Snyder and all the guests they have on their shows), you discover that these broader NFL experts have a lot of the same natural questions we do about the Bills because of the roster turnover and switch to Joe Brady, but they pretty universally agree that while Buffalo may take a step back from the "true contender" category, they're still a playoff team and the favorites to win the AFC East. (By the way, what's even more universal among them is that Josh Allen is the 2nd best QB in the NFL and is in a tier of his own) I think that assessment is pretty fair. Even the most optimistic among us at the very least are merely projecting how our WRs and Safeties especially will be. But what those varying experts also agree on and have talked about at various times is how bad Buffalo's roster was in Josh Allen’s rookie year. Yes, I realize that's 2018, not 2017... but there was a lot of carryover. I don't think 2017's roster is remotely comparable with 2024's roster, even discounting the QBs.

I think it's Allen and at this point I don't think it's close. Allen is bigger, stronger and more durable. His arm is stronger. He's INCREDIBLY competitive That's the ball of clay Andy Reid would have had to work with if he ended up in KC rather than Mahomes. I think everyone primarily argues Mahomes is so generational because of how clutch he is... except they're pretty dead even in terms of 4thQC and GWDs. And Allen has been absolutely lights out in the playoffs. When you consider rushing (and can we please stop discounting rushing??? Mobility has become essential to modern quarterbacking) he's been better than Mahomes in the postseason. KC just has much better infrastructure around Mahomes. That's primarily why Patrick Mahomes is a better QB than Allen.

They already started?

Chase Claypool

How can it NOT be WRs???? Anything to do with WRs, but WRs, obviously

Not gonna lie... as I read through the responses I wonder if most posters are really considering what Josh Allen has overwhelmingly preferred in his pass catchers thus far in his career.

As I said on page 2 in this thread, I completely agree with you on your Coleman take. My only issue is that Moulds and Coleman aren't the WR types Allen has thrived with so far in his career.

Never watched him. What were his strengths?

I did. Scroll up

I really want to be clear about something: I love Moulds! I just think a lot of people are looking at former Bills WRs and aren't really considering the Allen aspect of this equation. Thus far in his career, Allen is more of a "see WR open pass the ball" QB than an anticipation thrower. It's worked very well for him to this point because his GM has surrounded him primarily with WRs who could separate due to speed or route running: Smoke, Bease, Diggs, Sanders. Even Davis was a separator in the way he could stack CBs vertically and how he operated in the scramble drill. Moulds was not a separator. He was tough as nails, had great hands, ball tracking ability and great open field vision. But separation wasn't one of his strengths. Go watch all the highlights of his time in Buffalo if you don't believe me. That's the main reason I didn't go with him. Now... the good news for everyone who chose Moulds is that in a lot of ways I think Coleman is very similar to what Moulds was, so we may get to see this in action. And I'm very excited about Coleman. Other than @HappyDays if you go back early in the draft process I think you'll find I was a very early defender of him as a stong prospect. However, we are going to need to see either Allen throwing with a lot more anticipation/trusting his WR more or we're going to have to see Coleman really excel in his routes and gain more separation. I have confidence one or both could happen. But for what I've watched in my 35 years of fandom I don't think there's a #1 WR who has separated from defenders in the way Stevie has.

Gonna be honest... totally forgot about TO. I think I'd probably go TO in his prime over Stevie if I'm strictly thinking about skillset. Really hard for me to look past his diva attitude and the relationships he had with his QBs in SF and PHI though.

I just don't think Moulds is the type of WR Allen loves throwing to. Love Moulds though.

There's a pretty good argument against our WR corps being better if you strictly look at the production we lost in Diggs and Davis. However, I agree with you. I actually don't think there's any argument against our WR corps as a whole being better and deeper. It's just going to be a question of what we get from our top end guys.

Obviously in their prime. I mean the easy answer would seem to be to just go with Reed or Lofton since they're HOFers. Never saw any WRs before those 2 so don't know about guys like Jerry Butler. I would want to consider skillsets and how they fit with what Allen likes in his WRs. I don't really think Moulds would have been the ideal fit. Peerless Price was a flash in the pan but for the very brief stint he was at his peak he might have been that ideal deep threat with size and speed we've been looking for. I would go with Stevie Johnson. His unique ability to separate and get open is similar to what Beasley was in his prime and I think Stevie would have been even better and more versatile in that role with the ability to go inside or outside.

Way over

First of all... your AJE stats are factually correct, but the perfect example of how stats can be wildly misleading. 2020- 1 sack 2021- 1.5 sacks 2022- 6.5 sacks 2023- 6.5 sacks And yes... injuries have happened for both. Last season for AJE and the last couple for Groot. But consider how impactful both were pre-injury. And before we just waive both off as injury prone let's remember guys like Eric Wood who had consecutive years of weird freakish injuries to start his career and then played pretty healthy the rest of the way Are you an orthopedic doctor?

Okay can we all agree that something happened already that we think is only happening now? Von already came back from his ACL tear. That was last year. I don't think anyone with a brain would believe for a second that Buffalo’s highly trained doctors would give the medical go ahead for Von to play if he weren't healed. And what motivation is there really on the part of the coaching staff to put him back on the field to risk further injury? So this isn't a question of whether he has recovered. He has. Now the question probably has to do with a combination of Von regaining strength, flexibility and (maybe most importantly) confidence in that leg. He's reportedly not wearing a brace, so that's a good sign. That Von Miller is a freakish HOF athlete who has defied the odds throughout his entire career is what should probably give people more confidence he can come back and play at a high level. He looked like his HOF self at 33... the idea that he's a scrub at 35 after what will be nearly 2 years of rest and recovery is what seems ridiculous to me.

If you liked that you should also listen to this. Skip ahead to the 6th team they talk about... it's Buffalo. Only good things

I'll go over. I just think people have been ridiculous in their dismissal of Von. I believe he gets 6+ sacks. That leaves 14 for Groot and AJE to cover. If healthy, I think both have proven they're good for at least 6 sacks at this stage themselves. Over

I haven't listened to it yet but Patrick Moran's podcast Talking Buffalo yesterday interviewed Dunne about his interview with Beane. It's free for anyone

One of my favorite shows ever. Dark Matter is awesome! Sugar is pretty good... keeping my attention. And this is a really old show and probably doesn't belong here... but The League is ***** hilarious!!!

He's the best running QB in history. He's not the most dynamic, just the best. God I want him to get us a freaking Lombardi already so we don't have to keep the question "is he this generation's Dan Marino?" in the back of our minds.

Really stupid. Tweet has nothing to do with Buffalo. Him not being at ANY OTAs so far has something to do with Buffalo.

Haven't listened yet, but I would guess there are several backhanded compliments in his explanation for Allen at #2

First of all, if you don't watch The Athletic Football show, you should. Robert Mayes is an AWESOME host and that's my favorite podcast. Second, one little thing I thought that was really interesting in that interview was the fact that the first time Beane started talking about the WRs, he mentioned Chase Claypool and didn't even bring up MVS or KJ Hamler or Mack Hollins until the 2nd or 3rd time he was naming names.