SCBills

For the people who say it’s boring.. I just don’t know what anyone expected when doing this with a perennial contender. Would it look any different for KC or Baltimore? Probably not. Also, there’s only 3 preseason games and 1 cutdown day. Not exactly a ton of built in drama if the team doesn’t provide any of their own.

Who’s had better talent around them? Rank 1-4 Allen Mahomes Lamar Burrow And maybe you put Allen above Burrow, given the drop off after Chase/Higgins/Hendrickson, but the best player Allen has ever played with is Diggs.. who choked in the postseason. It’s not a meme. The lack of high end talent that step up in big moments has been a major issue for this team. Where would you rank Diggs amongst Kelce, Jones and Hill? Dead last? And that’s the best we’ve given Allen.. I’m shocked this team hasn’t gotten past KC.. shocked. I might be lukewarm on extending a RB, so I’m hoping he’s more Kamara and less pure RB, but at least Cook stepped up when it mattered. More than I can say for any supposed talent we’ve given Allen so far.

Dalvin co-signing on Brandt talking about how Allen hasn’t had remotely close to the help Peyton Manning has had and that it’s not apples to apples when comparing the two given the Brady/Manning, Allen/Mahomes discussion. For that reason, Brandt says Bills had to extend Cook because he’s the one guy who’s stepped up for him when it matters.

Dawkins and Brown are locked up long term. I think the plan is probably to do the same with Torrence if he progresses like how they think he will this year. Young, drafted player who they can extend 4 years, maybe with some void years. My guess is the Cook contract makes it tough, but not impossible, to extend McGovern and/or Edwards. Luckily we have, probably, the best OL Coach in the game right now and they seem to be as good as anyone in the league at identifying and drafting OL.

I do think we need to see Cook utilized more in the passing game now. Hes a way better runner than I ever though he would be, but he was drafted as a pass catcher and if we truly want to maximize this contract, he should be used like Alvin Kamara was in his prime.

4 years works for me. He hardly has any miles on the tires from UGA and we don’t exactly run him into the ground either.

Really not interested in Damar Hamlin starting for us, but it seems inevitable. So much potential with the new additions to the DL, healthy Milano/Bernard.. this Front 7 could be a strength. And then there’s ol’ Damar back there. Hes not horrible, but man.. not much of a ceiling for the safety room if this is what we’re looking at.

Id be shocked if they franchise tagged him. And I’m sorry, but this premise of saying the Bills just need to swallow whatever Cook wants and get it done is ridiculous. Maybe the Bills are only offering like 8M per, and ok, if that’s the case I get it. But with reports that the two sides are somewhat close, it sounds like we’re around the Kyren Williams deal, which is absolutely fair. If he wants more than that.. cool.. I don’t want to trade him for a pick that won’t help us this year, but if we could player for player trade him.. I’m all in on that right now.

I completely agree with you on Carter. Didn’t like the pick when it happened. Definitely don’t like it now. Joe Buscaglia even floated him as a potential trade candidate. Probably for a ham sandwich, but if they feel confident in Walker’s back, plus we get Ogunjobi back in Week 7, he might just be odd man out. Landon Jackson is a compression DE and likely serves a role as he gets acclimated to the NFL with his size and power, but he’s that typical rotational 4-8 sacks a year, run stopping DE. Not sure I see a ton more beyond that. I can’t get too upset about Carter though because I friggin loved what I saw in Sanders and Walker. So if Carter is a bust but we hit on those two, all is forgiven.

How concerned should we be though.. Rousseau and Oliver didn’t play much and we know what they are. Bosa dominated in his reps. Sanders & Walker also flashed strong in their reps. Solomon & Hoecht were solid, Hoecht especially at collapsing the pocket from his side. So that leaves DeWayne Carter, Landon Jackson and guys who won’t make the 53 as players who were out there for most of the game and looked pretty meh. It’s concerning how poor Carter looked last year and then didn’t impress at all on Saturday. Followed with his fellow 3rd Round Pick looking pretty bad too. But if we get what I saw from Bosa, Sanders, Walker, Hoecht and Solomon to go with Jones, Oliver, Epenesa and Rousseau.. this DL should be good.

Im not concerned based on one vanilla preseason game with limited reps for higher end guys. But this fanbase is far beyond giving McDermott a pass. His Defense has been THE biggest reason we haven’t gotten to the Super Bowl and it’s the same issues every year. Last year we got the bonus of a bad regular season defense plus the bad postseason defense.

Yea, I’m not thinking any of these guys are going to be Chris Jones or Micah Parsons this year, but I do think the addition of Sanders, Walker, Hoecht and Bosa drastically increases the talent & potential around Oliver and Rousseau. That increase in surrounding talent has me hoping Rousseau and Oliver can take another step when they’re not the only guys the other team is worried about on passing downs.

Yea, Tre gave up a few easy short ones, but the cushion to Robinson on the one chunk play he gave up probably clouds things. Im not out on him either, but was hoping to see him show a little better yesterday.

Surprised at how good TJ Sanders, Deone Walker and Jordan Hancock looked. Paired with hearing good things out of camp about those three and we could really have something there. Surpised at how meh Landon Jackson looked, along with DeWayne Carter seeming like the same mediocre player he was last year. Worried about our last two 3rd Round Picks with both having warning signs continue from when they were drafted (Carter undersized and washed out against the run easily & Jackson high cut, rigid and tight hips).

Hearing a TON of Jordan Hancock praise from film guys after the game yesterday. He’s a sneaky huge part of this Defense if the real deal because after Rapp/Bishop at Safety and Taron at NCB, the drop off in depth is steep. He would drastically raise the ceiling at one, or both of those positions, depending on how much they want to put on his plate this year.

Agree with a lot of this. And don’t worry a ton with vanilla preseason scheme because they specifically brought in coaches who play more aggressive man and bring more pressure/sims. Do worry about CB2 with Hairston out, because the cushions Tre was giving were straight out of the Bengals playoff game a few years ago… and we know Dane is probably a step below Tre. We’re not getting to anyone if the QB can look over to our CB2 on 3rd and 8 and see he’ll have an easy quick completion at the sticks all game.

There’s a lot of merit to coverage scheme being part of the reason our pass rush doesn’t show up in big games. We’ve also never really had two legit corners at the same time. Which is why it was really concerning to see the way Tre played opposite Benford. Constant cushions, with one of them being absurd… Tre giving Robinson like 20 yards. Bengals playoff vibes. So was it vanilla coverage by design, or is Tre not capable to playing tight on quick/fast receivers?

That’s not clear to me at all. I think we are going to be much more exotic with 5 man pressures and simulation pressure based on the coaches they brought in and comments from players, but I came out of that game thinking any Front 4 combination of Bosa, Rousseau, Hoecht, Oliver, Sanders and Walker is going to be tough for opponents to deal with on passing downs.

A lot of people seem down on the DL due to backups not doing much, but I was very encouraged. Landon Jackson was a letdown and DeWayne Carter didn’t flash at all, but…. Solomon looks like a legit rotational DE to pair with Epenesa. We get Hoecht come Week 7 and Bosa/Rousseau could be a menacing tandem. Bosa looked every bit like the guy we’ve been searching for opposite Groot. Jones/Oliver should be a strong DT tandem, Ogunjobi back Week 7, and we may have just found ourselves two stud interior pass rushers with Deone Walker and TJ Sanders. Sanders flashed quite a bit and Walker showed why he was a RD1 Pick before the back issues. Run Defense might still be boom or bust on any given play but the pass rush from our Top 8 (10 once everyone is back) could be very, very strong.

Ulofoshio with a hilarious angle there

This is kind of a good game for preseason…

I was ready to say competition over, Trubisky is QB2, but White has been really good since the almost pick six.

Not for nothing, but this is why RB’s typically don’t get the bag type contracts. None of these dudes are James Cook but I wouldn’t bat an eye if we had to go to war with Evans or Gore.. and these two are likely PS guys for us.

“This DL is stout.. I know I say it every year but I mean it this year” -Ed Oliver 😂

3rd down conversions are annoying because it was our issue last year, but without gameplanning, I can’t get too upset. DL showed me a ton of promise actually. Bosa looked like a gamewrecker in limited snaps and Sanders/Walker tandem were consistently getting pressure… and quick. My biggest concern after this game is CB2 with Hairston out a while and Safety depth.