Ayjent

I watched every game he played, and at first I couldn’t understand why Emory Jones was playing ahead of him and then he started to play more and you saw a guy that was easily rattled, inaccurate, and mistake prone. For all of his athletic pluses, there were things that were just incredibly bad about his play. He didn’t seem like the guy that stepped up in the moment and instead crumbled. And I will say I was thinking he was going to be a superstar after the Utah game to start last year, and then the shine wore of and all the warts came out the rest of the season.

Going with an Eagles fan friend of mine, but would be down to tailgate.

Who said he was a liability? He was fine, but he wasn’t worth what the Bears paid. It’s that simple. He did his job, but he wasn’t a superstar, nor a huge playmaker. Thus, the difference between Josh Allen and Tremaine Edmunds is one that speaks for itself.

Edmunds was definitely talented and has the size and speed to make him attractive to other teams who may want to use his attributes differently. However, you see this all the time in the NFL with measurables. It’s why the Bills drafted him so high and it’s why he’s getting paid so well by the Bears - it’s not about his body of work as much as his perceived potential. I didn’t think he was awful but I also didn’t think he was very consistent at being a vital part of the D. He was okay, and he didn’t have the instincts to be great. It’s debatable whether our coaching wanted him to do anything more than he was doing, but if that’s what they needed then he would never be worth what the Bears paid. You have to think they wanted more than that with where he was drafted and that if he was fulfilling their vision of what he would be he wouldn’t have made it to FA status.

This is exactly right. No one is declaring victory and problem solved, but given the history with this staff only playing rookies that are getting it, this very encouraging. I thought this was the best Bills draft in a while. I believe Torrence will come in and play well, but we’ll see for certain soon enough. I think the running game and a more physical approach to offense is coming this year, with play action setting up the a lot of TE receptions and that is going to open up everything else as teams are forced to choose. I think that is the philosophy as well. I think everyone in the Bills organization recognized they needed to add a different dimension to the team and address the physicality on the offensive line, and a mismatch beyond Diggs in the passing game. You could see them trying to establish a more physical identity last year but the talent wasn’t there on the line against better opponents. I thought they flubbed it last year. I was never a big Elam fan, but wanted to be wrong. I may still be, but magic 8 ball is saying “signs point to no”. I thought Tariq Woolen at CB and Damien Pierce at RB were two mid rounders that were undervalued and would have made the Bills a much better and more physical team - that’s not hindsight - it’s what I was hoping before the draft. FWIW I was hoping the Bills would draft Shorter. He had shaky QB play all but the year with Trask while at UF, and you could see the talent, just not the production. Both Emory Jones and Richardson were awful in the intermediate passing game and it seemed like that was where he would be most effective. Emory Jones read defenses way too slow, missing windows and Richardson rarely ever delivered passes on target on those types of throws.

I hope and think you are right about that being the reason Torrence is earning snaps. By all accounts he is a smart guy and a hard worker. He followed Napier to UF and UF immediately went from decent to pretty tough, especially running the ball with Torrence in the lineup. It was hard to assess the pass protection sometimes because Richardson was so erratic and lacked any kind of presence or trust in the pocket. (I’m still confused what teams saw in Richardson beyond promise - bc I saw a guy with talent of Josh Allen physically but lacked that fire to win and seemed to get rattled very easily and meltdown - he had a good game against Utah but was uneven and at times abysmal in his ability to process reads and deliver the ball on time). Torrence gave the line an edge and showed up against pro level talent many weeks playing in the SEC, being steady. The run game was a solid aspect of UF’s offense and Torrence was a big part of it.

Torrence provided a huge upgrade at UF last yr and unlike many players at UF on the OL and DL that i think have been overvalued in drafts, Torrence was probably right on target with his 1st round grade. I think if healthy he'll be a pretty solid player if not exceptional and i think that the right side of the OL for Allen is most important to the success of the offense. If they hold their own this offense will be unstoppable.

A total POS person. There is a part of me that can only hope he picks the wrong person to f with and gets the other end of it. I dont wish ill on people but man this pushes the limits of that philosophy. The dude probably has some deep seated issues, but it doesnt excuse the behavior. Almost a caricature of an a-hole athlete.

And that isnt getting called unless it is blatant and egregious. To my knowledge that rule hasn't ever been enforced in a game. Keeping it "sticky" worked for Chiefs the year before. You do what you can to make yards and time your friend in that situation. Letting them get off two easy completions is the absolutely what you dont want. I will never understand thinking a team is going to go to the house on you with :13 so play way off and let them move at will when all they need is a fg.

They gave up a fg at end of half vs chiefs regular season and it was deja vu

You hold like hell on D at the end of the :13 seconds and you kick off just like they did bc field position is most likely further back w/o squib which gets you 3-4 seconds at best with potentially much better field position for kc. A 5 yd penalty that wasted 7 seconds on 1st puts them at 1st and 10 at 30. Much more difficult situation and basically game over. Like many Bills playoff loses it was a series of incompatible strategies that sunk them. That was the inexcusable error - no awareness of how to just take advantage of the situation. Sometimes a penalty is your friend and they should know that. Yet they repeated the error in the regular season last year.

Both sides of the ball have responsibility for the playoff losses, as well as coaching to put those players in best position to succeed. The lack of investment/successful investment in the offensive line was the weakness of the team last year as well as them getting away from precision timing offense that was working early in the year. They played to their weakness when it mattered most as the season progressed. The offense began to resemble a madden player that got bored and wanted to run around looking for big plays every series and the offense lacked consitent rhythm because it was more sandlot than design. Im not sure who is to blame but the effect was the same and it is up to the team to identify and rectify and they didnt last season. To me its on everyone and there is no need to point fingers. However, if Im a player pushing for it to be rectified and no one else is listening i might loose my s#!t. If teams are taking something away you should be built to make them pay bc something else is available and the Bills offense wasnt able to answer. Theyve done things to address deficiencies with personnel but they also need to better in utilizing their personnel, which they did not do last year. If your line sucks in pass protection focus on timing and attacking where teams are overaggressive on defense. We had a front seat to how that was done with Brady and Pats. Is this coaching? Yes, but...its also based on players preferences and honestly they were good but extremely vulnerable because they lost focus on their ability to dominate. It was talent overcoming approach until they met other talented teams where you cant hide deficiencies as well. On defense they stubbornly kept a philosophy over situational matchups. Same issue - not maximizing effectiveness to create an advantage. There were coaching issues last year, plain and simple. Not beating the crap out of Burrow with a gum and paper clip OL in front of him bc we were trying to play it safe with injuries on D was just stupid. That approach just let the Bengals suck the life out of the Stadium and team from Go. If Hamlin hadnt been injured in the regular season game I wonder if that similar ass beating that was in progress doesnt change the complexion of how the Bills approached the playoffs. But that is most likely wishful thinking, bc we've seen that story before where they repeat a flawed strategy.

I never said he was the only one that cared, but he was the only one visibly frustrated by the effort. And there certainly seemed to be a lot of accepting the result rather than fighting to win way too early in that game. And if you didn’t feel that watching the game then I’d like to jump to that alternate reality, because it was pitiful and painful to watch as a fan. I’m not saying Diggs was right or wrong bc I have no idea of the true context of what happened nor do any of us, but I damn sure appreciate the passion bc it seemed to be lacking and it wasn’t like his teammates were rising to meet that passion. So Diggs showed up teammates that were accepting loss too easily - good - that is not being a good teammate, either.

I get his frustration and love his passion to win. That performance against the Bengals was poop on a stick and the only player it looked like it bothered was Diggs. Instead of having a killer instinct the team wilted and that isnt okay. We're all frustrated by that bc that is not the identity of Buffalo nor the Bills we've known at their best. I get the criticism of Diggs being too public about his views, but accountability doesnt come easily when its not exposed. It is not uncommon for an immensely talented team that doesnt have the success it should to have this happen. The Bickering Bills. Warren Sapp calling out teammates publicly in Tampa before they won it. Trading Diggs would be a mistake. Everyone holding each other more accountable top to bottom is what you want and what is necessary to get that title. While the publicity may seem negative the result may be positive if the organization embraces it. I appreciate the fire and determination Diggs brings and honestly I think it could be a net positive at the end of the season. Getting rid of a guy like that is stupid and sets the organization back.

Yeah the Florida QBs the last 2 years were completely inconsistent and there weren’t many opportunities for big receiving games unless passes turned into big plays. That’s why it is so headscratching that Richardson was drafted so high. I watched every game and he just had no rhythm as a passer and was easily rattled to the point that they needed to count on running if they were going to have a chance. So I think Shorter with good QB play and good coaching will have an opportunity to show why he was ab5 star recruit because the only year he played with a decent QB was Trask and Pitts and Toney were the two main options back then.

Yeah that is insanely high for a team that no defense is losing sleep over facing. Metcalf and Lockett are good but it’s not like they are all world tandem. Tyreke Hill by himself is way scarier. The list is meaningless though bc the QB, line and other factors can make all the WR top talent useless or mediocre talent extremely serviceable. Bills probably more like 15-16 bc of Diggs alone.

I dont see Bates being traded. Too much uncertainty with Torrence as a rookie and Morse with concussions. His versatility to fill positions on the line makes him far too valuable as a solid contingency plan for any issues on the line. I know people are down on Brown and i get it. I was disappointed with his play last season too. However, I do think his potential is there but if it doesnt show this year its likely not the answer at RT. I do think the Bills are putting too much faith in his ability to step up, but I hope im wrong bc they dont have another good option at the position. Every tesm has to roll yhe dice somewhere but its an important position bc Josh likes to roll out right.

He wasn’t a bust. He played with crappy QBs at UF that couldn’t hit an intermediate route with accuracy or timing. Speaking of, I can’t believe Richardson went 4th overall. This guy has the physical talent and is a solid blocking WR and hasn’t ever played with a decent QB.

Richardson has way better athleticism and a stronger arm but also was way worse as a college passer, which isn’t to say a Manuel was a good passer. Manuel had better talent around him and a higher completion percentage and td to int ratio but throws were off target to wide open players that still made the catches. Richardson didn’t even give guys a chance to make catches on off target throws and just looked uncomfortable as a passer often.

He would get rattled and fall apart with his accuracy and decision-making against almost any team. Although he was explosive if he ran in the open field he wasn’t exactly an escape artist with his feet to extend drives and plays. You would see it from time to time but it wasn’t a consistent theme. I watched every game he played in and was hoping Mullen would start him over Emory Jones during his freshman year (where AR-15 also had a hamstring injury) and last year I saw why they didn’t. He played well against Utah and that was really about it. He was pretty awful for long stretches of games often sailing intermediate throws too high and often recognizing the open man too late. I’m not surprised teams are in love with his physical traits but his body of work as a QB was not even close to impressive. He has UDFA performance with 1st round physical traits. I thought he could’ve used another year or two in college but when you are getting a 1st round grade why would you stay, when your stock can’t improve much and your risk of falling is much greater.

Until you put that first lump of coal in them

Miller is a smart playmaker and sure tackler, but he isn’t the fastest guy. Seems like an odd choice for Bills D style. They seem to value speed more than anything. Good player though.

Impressive. Can’t say I watched much of Purdue in the past several years.

Two players on the Gators that I do like are Ventrell Miller and Justin Shorter who are in this year’s draft. Miller just made plays and had the instincts to diagnose and be in position, especially against the run. When the Gator D played with any momentum he was typically at the heart of it. He did struggle with injuries, however. I think he is a day 3 pick but definitely a solid player. Shorter is most likely destined for UDFA but is low risk, high reward guy with a big body, good speed, and good hands. He can be a bit stiff in his routes but he is a very capable blocker. He really played with terrible passing QBs the last two years, especially on intermediate routes. I think with good QB play there might be a lot more there.

That matches what I’ve seen from him throughout his time as a Gator. He was part of a secondary that was inconsistent but he would flash some really good plays and then some really poor ones. I don’t think the coaching has been great at UF defensively the past several years, so it’s hard to know how much it is the player vs what they’re being taught. Last year’s staff was an upgrade from Mullen’s but still a bit underwhelming. I can’t see McD giving him much playing time unless forced and even then they’ve shown a desire to pickup street vets instead of starting a young guy.