Shaw66

Yeah, and his diet sucks. He eats anything.

Cant see him claiming a spot on the roster. He's not replacing Diggs, Beasley, Sanders, McKenzie, or Davis.

You can argue about whether they're doing the right thing, but there's no arguing that McBeane do what they say they will do. They've said they want to keep their players and build through the draft. That's what they're doing.

I'm with you until you get to the contract part. I thought they both played hard, did their jobs. They seemed to be good teammates. Not signing them was a good decision in both cases. Byrd wanted too much money; Gilmore wasn't the right fit. McDermott's defense isn't predicated on having a shut-down corner; it's predicated on having a scheme corner, a guy with the high-end physical ability who understands the scheme well. White is a better scheme corner than Gilmore can cover the elite receiver better than White, but unlike Gilmore, you almost never see White looking around as if to say "I thought YOU had that guy." Gilmore gets beat by misplaying the defensive scheme; White doesn't. McDermott wasn't going to pay premium dollars to get a corner who doesn't play the scheme.

Good stuff. Morse is on notice too. Bates is getting prepped, and Feliciano played well there. Bottom line is that Lamp gives McDermott what he wants - competition.

Amazing how hard these guys work.

The Dolphins losing streak was as bad as the drought. It was horrible.

Raloh wanted Miami but league wanted Buffalo. It was the only franchise left, so he took it.

This made me laugh. I guess it's true that the picks helped in the Diggs trade, but it's not like the Diggs trade wouldn't have happened if the Bills hadn't made the Teller trade. I don't think the Teller trade was a disaster or to use your word, a "fail," but it IS amusing the extent to which people will go to defend Beane. I think Beane has been excellent, but nobody gets them all right. If Beane had a chance to undo that one, I'm sure he would. Mickey Mantle struck out once in a while, and so does Beane.

Thanks for this. I think many people don't see that this philosophy is at the core of the how the Bills operate. The Bills believe their players can learn to play better. They believe that they should have an offense and a defense that is continually evolving, becoming more complex and more nuanced, so it can perform in different ways. And they believe they can make that work because their players can learn to fit themselves into that scheme. So, the Bills look for players who believe in the Growth Mindset, and they ask those players to invest in themselves by committing to get better. They go looking for guys, in the draft and in free agency, who have shown the ability and interest in continual improvement. And this signing also relates to two related points. One is that Beane likes to sign guys who have underperformed coming off their rookie deals. A guy like Lamp, who went high in the second round of the draft, has the physical tools to play the game at a high level, but he underperformed for some reason, so his original team didn't lock him up. The Bills pursue guys like that, telling them to come to Buffalo on a short-term deal and prove to themselves and their coaches that they can learn and grow. And when a guy does show that, the Bills re-sign them, like Feliciano and Williams. The other point here is that offensive linemen in the draft are a crapshoot. I saw something here recently about how many first-round offensive tackles have underperformed. They're a crapshoot because college offenses don't require these guys to learn any offensive line techniques - just stick the guy across from you and stay with him for a one-count, and the play is gone. They aren't pass blocking for 3-4 seconds, and they aren't running complicated running schemes. So, a lot of the offensive linemen who make it in the NFL make it after having bounced around the league for a few years, on practice squads or on the bench, getting a few starts here and there, learning technique, building their bodies to the needs of the league. Then, around year three or four, they emerge as starters. Not everyone, of course, but many of them. Beane clearly would rather get three or four offensive line prospects in their third or fourth or fifth seasons and try them out than burn a number one or two pick on a guy they hope will work out. Clearly, they were high on Ford, but Ford is an example of the problem. Not only has he been hurt; when he has played, he hasn't shown that he is a solid NFL starter. HE simply didn't learn enough playing college football at a high level that translated immediately to the NFL. I think this signing is what we can expect from Beane, year after year. Will he chase a high-end offensive line free agent, and take a tackle in the first round? Yes, maybe, but he's going to have to be really sold on the guy. (It would be interesting to know what Beane thinks about the Morse signing, for example, now that he's a couple seasons into it.) In the meantime, he'll keep on signing five guys who've been around the league for several years, expecting that two of them will stick, and of the two, one will become a keeper. I agree. Players are seeing that Buffalo is a place where they can succeed, and when they succeed they are rewarded with a contract. Williams is one example. Milano is another. And they're seeing that guys like Feliciano, who might have made a few bucks more someplace else, also are staying, because this is a team they want to be with. I've said this before. At the end of his press conference at the end of the season, McDermott said the Bills are a team where players can come to play the best football of their lives. That quote is at the end of the Bills video about the Growth Mindset. McDermott is selling that point, and I think guys like Lamp are buying it.

Thanks for posting this. I learned a lot. These guys seem to think that the outside zone scheme is better suited to the passing game - checks at the line of scrimmage are easier, and the coordination of the line requires less practice time. Moss is, apparently, the better runner in that scheme, although Singletary could learn to be better. Moss is the better pass blocker, and Moss actually could be argued to be the better receiver. These guys point out what I noticed last year, which was that Allen and Singletary had trouble connecting - Allen sometimes was high, Motor wasn't ready, and Motor sometimes just dropped it. All of that points to the Bills leaning more on the outside zone scheme, Moss getting more touches, and perhaps Breida threatening to take snaps from Singletary. But, of course, McD likes to be multiple, and I think he'll be unwilling to give up the pulling-trapping style that Morse and others are suited to. We'll see.

Where do you get that guy? As I said, Fuller may have been the only one available. The Chiefs have one quality deep threat - Hill. The other guy has speed, but isn't a great receiver. McKenzie can do what he can do. There are two reasons the Chiefs offense is more effective than the Bills. One is Kelce. The other is that they have an effective running game. They force the defense to respect the run, especially the speed in their running game. They don't create downfield opportunities by having two great deep threats - they do it with one and with speed. Sanders will give the Bills what the Chiefs have - a great receiving corps that can get deep. What the Bills need is to come up with a better running game

Maybe you're right, but I don't think so. It wasn't like the Bills were attacking defenses with a bunch of 4.7 second 40 guys. Diggs is 4.42, Beasley, 4.49, John Brown 4.34, Isaiah McKenzie 4.42. The reason the Bills weren't getting deep is that teams weren't threatened by the run - that's what teams saw on film, so they could play a safety deep or play cover 2.

Three more completions would be nice, but they wouldn't be "huge." They would be worth 9 to 21 points, since each would either be a touchdown or put the Bills in scoring position. Of course, without those three completions, the Bills might score on those drives, anyway. But call it 9-21. That would be a nice addition. It would have moved the Bills from number 2 to number 1 in team scoring (which points out that scoring really wasn't the Bills' problem last season). The argument for a deep threat isn't about the season; it's about key games. How can the Bills best threaten the BEST defenses, like the Chiefs in the AFC Championship game? And, I agree, the Bills would like to have had a quality deep threat against the Chiefs. They had two - Diggs and Brown, but both were hobbled, and the defense handled them really well. So what is your solution? Get Tyreek Hill? Will Fuller is the only guy I could think of who would be a serious deep threat who was available. He was probably too pricey for the Bills, and I'm not sure I'd take Fuller over Sanders in any case; I've never been a big Fuller fan. But at least I'd get the argument. The thing about this is that we aren't talking about big differences to the offense. Will Fuller is not such a great deep threat that he's going to change the Bills offense all that much. Diggs already lead the league in receiving; how much more help does he need? How much more help does Beasley need? I think we're talking about marginal differences. And Sanders is a better mid-range threat than Fuller or Brown. When the Bills signed Sanders, I liked it because he's a quality receiver, but I was disappointed like you that he isn't a true burner, at least no longer. I just don't see that it makes that much difference. Diggs can get deep; McKenzie; Davis has shown he can; Knox can; Sanders can. We're not talking about great speed, speed like Hill, but it's speed that can get deep. Just like we always talk about the run game setting up the pass or the pass setting up the run, the Bills' short- and mid-range passing game can set up the deep game. The problem is much more about Allen hitting receivers deep that it is about having true deep threats.

Rodgers led league with 14 over 40. Allen had 8. So if Allen improved nicely he would have 11, only three more deep balls a season. No one throws many deep balls. That isn't where the game is played, because everyone wants to stop the bombs. The Bills are trying to improve from 10 to 30, and that's where Sanders helps.

I could have been Shaw16! I'd forgotten most of that history. Thanks.

I don't agree with all the knee-jerk conclusions that a guy like this is nothing more than camp fodder. I don't know anything about him at all, but I know this: There are about 150 offensive tackles in the NFL - 100 on the active rosters and another 50 on the practice squad. There is very little difference in the size or raw athletic talent of the last 100. That is, the top 50 offensive tackles deserve to be starters, the next 100 are all about the same, physically. The best coaches find a way to take some of the guys out of the bottom 100 and get them to play well. Sometimes they get them to play well by connecting with them somehow, getting them to focus better on their game, getting them more motivated. Sometimes they get them to play better by putting them on a team and in a system that allows them to succeed where they couldn't succeed in other systems. The point is that every year there are guys who change teams and who succeed in the new environment. So, I never complain about this kind of signing. Will the guy succeed? Probably not, but he might. I'm happy to wait and see.

But this is what I find so interesting: As I said earlier, we've now seen Beane go through two free agent seasons without looking for an upgrade on the offensive line, or at least looking aggressively. We've seen him upgrade the receiving corps two years in a row and do nothing about the offensive line. That tells me that McBeane don't agree with you - they don't think the fix to the running game is upgrading talent on the offensive line. Rookie olinemen typically don't make an impact, so they aren't looking to the draft to do it. That's why I say that they're relying on the Growth Mindset to make the offensive line better. They seem to think that the genetic ceilings of the current players are high enough. I agree with this completely. Beane said it after the season ended. There's no doubt in my mind that they are working actively to improve the running game. And McDermott told Daboll, and Daboll is working on it. I will be amazed if we don't see an improved running game in 2021.

I don't see anyone in the league doing what McD is doing so openly, and with such good results. McDermott's players are openly reciting the mantra. There are a lot of teams chasing free agents to get better - not the Bills. And I'll say what I say often - I don't know if what McD is doing will work, I'm just describing what he's doing and what the philosophy is. This is the second season in a row when McBeane have said to the offensive line "It's up to you - we aren't bringing in anyone to replace you." Last season Williams was the only addition, and he was late to the party. They didn't draft anyone. They said to the offensive line, "We got Diggs and we're expecting you to give time to Josh to find him." And the offensive line responded. They didn't bring in a fancy free agent offensive lineman or running back this year. They're saying, again, "You guys who are already here can do what needs to be done." So, whether everyone else in the league is into the growth mindset or not, McDermott is counting on that philosophy to make his team better. We'll see how it works out.

This post, and Hapless's post right after it, are the important points. Remember that the Bills are about continuous improvement. The Growth Mindset. McDermott and Beane expect the offensive line to be better in 2021, and perhaps more importantly, the offensive line itself expects to be better. They expect to run the same plays in 2021 that they ran in 2020 and create the running room they didn't create in 2020. That's the growth mindset. And McDermott has a knack for getting players to achieve the objectives they set for themselves. So, I'm expecting the running game to be better in 2021, first and foremost, because the offensive line is going to perform better. Either same the starting five, or a starting five that includes Ford, if he can win a spot, or a stud O lineman taken in the first round, or someone else who steps up. Assuming Moss is healthy, he will be a bigger factor, and maybe Breida will win more playing time than his season in Miami would suggest. Or maybe there's a rookie. But the the running game will be better primarily because the offensive line will be better. And I think Hapless is on the money, too. I don't think there's any reason that just because the Bills ran successfully with 12 personnel last season they will be able to have that same success if they double their usage of that scheme in 2021. Smith is gone. When he was the second tight end, it was more like they were running with an 8-man line than with what most teams do with two tight ends. He was an extra tackle on the field. There's no reason to assume that the Bills can have as much success running with 12 personnel when Knox and Hollister are the two tight ends on the field. On the other hand, Smith on the field meant the Bills probably were running - with Knox and Hollister on the field, the Bills will not be showing a power front, but they WILL be showing two guys the pass defense has to worry about AND who at least can get in someone's way in the running game. Bottom line, I don't think 12-personnel the way the Bills look to be able to run it will be the answer to the running game. It may help, but it won't be the answer. The answer, if the Bills have it, will be in the Growth Mindset.

I have no idea who their guy might be, but there will be a guy at 30 who the Bills believe should have gone at 15, and they'll be thrilled to get him.

After 60+ years, it's all begun to be a big blur. All I know is that it's been great! Going to games with my Dad. The 1963 playoff against the Pats - I was there. The 1964 AFL Championship game - I was there. The 1969 Championship game on TV. OJ. Joe Ferguson. The Dolphins losing streak. Wide right - I was there. The Super Bowls. The Music City Miracle. 6-3 - I was there. Road trips to Chicago - Freddie's stiff arm in overtime. To Green Bay - Trent's last game! To Atlanta - we made more noise than the Falcons fans. Kyle. Fitz. Josh. Taron Johnson - I was there. Just great.

Oh, boy. Me too. That qualifies for something.

Looks like a faster version os Singletary

Good one!