SCBills

Why is it weird? Healthy Allen over UCL Allen I like Harris and year 2 Cook/Hines over Singletary and rookie Cook/new addition Hines. Admittedly Im not a fan of Singletary’s wildly mediocre to slightly above average skill set. Our TE room is massively improved. Our OL is massively improved, both in starting talent (McGovern/Torrence) and depth (Bates/Edwards). *Even going by your standards we have more depth at TE and on the OL. So unless you loved Saffold and McKenzie, how exactly are we “worse on paper”?

Im just not going to base my opinions for this coming year on how we fared against the worst matchup team for us in the playoffs when we were mentally and physically beat up.

I couldn’t disagree more. I literally like every Offensive position group better this year over last.

Slightly Disagree Pre-season: 1. Chiefs 2. Bengals 3. Bills ……. 4. Ravens, Jets 5. Dolphins 6. Jags, Chargers

I’m certainly not ignoring that. This goes to personnel and philosophy .. and imo that game was the last straw for Frazier. We couldn’t get home without Von & Daquan. KC likely wouldn’t without Jones and Clark either. Frazier tried to have it both ways by sending pressure but playing off coverage. He couldn’t bring himself to take full risks … which led to long, sustained drives from Cincy. The name of the game in the playoffs is big plays and occasional stops by your defense. Bend, don’t break is impossible to execute unless you have an All-Star defense … and even then … See Philly second half Super Bowl. He didn’t trust White and Elam to hold up with Marlowe and 20% of Poyer. Probably justifiably so … but you’ve got to go for it … you can’t just get demoralized by constant long drives that end in scores anyway.

When healthy (Von back), I’m expecting the defense to be a top 10 unit that gives up more big plays than we’re used to, but also makes more big plays (sacks, tfl’s, turnovers). Some of that due to personnel & philosophy and some of it due to playing a lot of good QB’s. Im expecting the offense to be a juggernaut. We’ve consistently been a top offense and this will be the best OL Allen has ever had, along with the most talented group of weapons. We have a very talented team, but there are some legitimate question marks. -OC -RT -WR2 -DL (for now.. think we add a DT & DE)

Bills were a shell of themselves both mentally and physically in the playoffs. KC also relies on a 33/34 year old in Travis Kelce. Let’s not act like he isn’t the second most important player on your team. In the Bengals game, the Bills were essentially without the equivalent of Chris Jones & Frank Clark on their DL with Von and Jones out. I can’t give you any excuses for why the offense played so poorly in that game. They were checked out and the OL was constantly confused by Cincy’s pressure packages. It was bizarre to watch. Do you think the Chiefs could stop Burrow without your two best DL pieces and starting Safety? Pointing to us getting dog walked as correlation to this coming year is a bit much given the circumstances. Age is a concern. I’d agree with you. Bills defense is heavily reliant on aging players in Hyde, Poyer and Von. At the end of the day, gloat all you want … not much we can say about it … but KC stayed healthy while Buffalo and Cincinnati were held together by duct tape in the playoffs and y’all were handed the 1 seed.. a bye.. and Jacksonville.

Interesting that Marino says he has modest read and react skills, because the ESPN guys raved about those skills for Williams and Overshown on back to back picks. And it wasn’t just them fluffing every player, because those same ESPN guys ripped Simpson and Henley a few picks earlier for being slow to read and react.

Tim Settle was a complete non-factor, Phillips is unreliable and Ed Oliver’s lasting impression was getting WORKED by backup Bengals in the snow. I have no idea what point you’re making, but I would love to be wrong about Oliver … because we’re kinda dependent upon him right now.

Listened to Cover1’s podcast about Day 3 while working out and it was legit uncomfortable how hard they were lusting after this man.

Attending them in his time machine?

What on earth is a “pain tolerance test”? Just casually mentioned that like we’re all supposed to be oh, ok.. sure, makes sense.

We have some nice young/prime pieces in Rousseau, Elam, Johnson and Milano, but the Defense is likely going to be determined by elite talent coming off major injuries (Von, White, Hyde) and guys playing for a second contract (Oliver & Epenesa).

It’s honestly insane that he didn’t miss any time. He played with a major injury. That wasn’t minor.

I don’t like our DL, tbh. I like Von, Rousseau and Jones. That’s about it. Epenesa is fine as DE4. Settle is a JAG, Phillips can’t stay healthy… I absolutely despise spending 10M on Oliver - both financially and schematically, with him being undersized in front of our smaller linebackers. Lawson is a JAG and Basham has shown zero reason as to why he should be on this team. Beane references 2M but we’ll see what happens. Still … I’m glad we focused on Offense. The DL is good enough to be a Top 10 unit when Von comes back and hopefully we see a more aggressive, risk-taking approach from McDermott. I’ll just have to hope I’m wrong about Oliver, because him pulling an Edmunds contract year would be massive for the Defense.

Yea, but they signed Omenihu and drafted Wanya Morris … they, like us and CIN made moves to swap in guys to replace guys. Id be shocked if they don’t eventually extend Jones and he still has quite a few prime years left in him. The only concern I’d have if I’m them is when does Kelce slow down. Given our luck, he’s the Tom Brady of Tight Ends.

Torrence lacks mobility in the sense that you can’t really count on him to be a big time pulling Guard. He’s also ONLY a Guard. He’s not going to play Center and he’s not going to be a Tackle. What he is, is a guy who will dominate his man in the run game and will anchor and protect Josh Allen in the pass game. We have an Offensive Line full of RAS All-Stars who are mobile, with position flex. We can afford to finally make the investment on a pure Guard who can be an All-Pro at his position.

It’s actually quite energizing if one were to look at the premium “additions” to our team compared to KC and CIN. All three of us lost a big piece or piece(s), but nothing that should dramatically shake anything up. All three also swapped in/out players, but again.. nothing that should really shake anything up. Premium additions: CIN adds a stud LT, another good pass rusher in the draft (Murphy), a good CB prospect (Turner) and get back their top CB off a season ending injury last year. KC adds another good pass rusher (Uzomah) and another WR2 caliber player (Rice) in the draft. BUF adds an elite pass rusher and top tier safety off season ending injury. Also add an elite potential TE/WR hybrid and an elite potential Guard in the draft.

Sure, it takes luck .. I’ll certainly give you that. If Chris Jones tears his ACL instead of Von Miller, they aren’t the 1 seed and they certainly don’t rep the AFC in the Super Bowl. On the flip side… does it? The Pats dominated the AFC with Brady/Belichick and now KC is beginning to do the same with Mahomes/Reid. So, yea, it takes luck .. but luck doesn’t really explain it all when you keep flipping a coin and it constantly lands on the same side.

Maybe?.. If our QB wasn’t Josh Allen, do you still believe Diggs, Davis, Shakir, Harty, Sherfield & Shorter is a top 10 WR room?

Defensive philosophy was an issue in the playoffs. Yes, we had 13 seconds and then an exhausting mental/physical end of the season that left us drained last year, but at the heart of it, our defense was not up to the task in the playoffs. On offense, we look to be much improved. On defense, we’ll see, but a change in philosophy was absolutely necessary. Bend don’t break doesn’t work against a locked in Mahomes or Burrow led offense in the playoffs. KC takes risks and so does CIN. They beat the crap out of Allen by sending disguised pressure all game.

1) Defensive philosophy in the post-season needed to change. Frazier out / McDermott in. 2) Team needs more “dawg” in them. Watching them last year, it felt like the only dawgs we had were Josh, Diggs and Milano. Torrence and Williams are two draft picks, one on each side of the ball, that play with bad intentions. 3) Bills OL was a disaster down the stretch. Now.. Year 2 of Kromer, full off-season for Brown, upgrade in McGovern and a massive upgrade in Torrence. 4) Bills needed an answer other than Diggs and “chuck it down the field”. They drafted the most dominant middle of the field option in the draft .. and the only guy in recent memory to get the Kelce comp. Id say we could still use an upgrade at WR2. That could be a trade or simply Davis improving. We also need bigger/better bodies on the DL. Von coming back is obviously a complete game changer. It sounds like Beane is going to bring in a DT soon. Hopefully it’s a big body 1T, because we need someone besides Jones to keep OL off our slimmer/faster linebackers.

Agree. My only point of contention is that our WR room is still a lot of unknowns. Can Gabe be a high level WR2? Can Shakir be a reliable target? Can Harty stay healthy? We’re a Diggs sprained ankle away from playing 2-4 weeks with Harty and Davis as our starting outside WR’s.

But if they won’t eat any money, and we’re assuming that’s a prerequisite for Buffalo, then it’s also a prerequisite for KC.. who currently have a little bit less cap than we do. Not sure what Baltimores cap situation is and/or levers they could pull. Hopkins will not play nice and go somewhere he doesn’t want to. I know he doesn’t necessarily have a choice, but with his contract, unless someone can absorb 19M.. he kinda does.

Cam Lynch compares him to Edmunds. Honestly, looking at his tape a bit … I see it. Obviously doesn’t have the freak size Edmunds has, but he processes, reads and reacts much more instinctually. If he can win the MLB, I’m starting to think this guy might be a stud in our defense. Unlike Edmunds, he plays with bad intentions.