SoTier

Miami doesn't need a relatively expensive, possibly washed up veteran WR to make them a better team. They need big time help on their defense since two of their best defenders are coming off serious injuries, one an Achilles and one a MCL plus they lost at least one DLer and a LBer in FA. They could also use some OL improvement. Claypool is a cheap veteran who could significantly upgrade the Bills WR room if he can recover the form he displayed in his first two seasons. If he doesn't work out, he's gone.

I'm with you, eball. The Bills have actually given Allen at least as many reasonable targets, especially if you include rookie RB Ray Davis, as he's ever had. Allen won't have an elite WR but he will have a variety of decent or better receiving options. IMO, a diverse offense is better than a one dimensional offense that can be planned for. SF can afford to have lots of skilled players because they aren't paying Purdy like a franchise QB. BTW, Miami still hasn't extended Tua, so they can still afford Hill, Waddle and now Odell.

ROTLMAO! Yes the Bills went on a tear at the end of the season, but Miami lost 4 or 5 out of their last 6 games, including a loss to the Titans as well as another loss to the Bills.

Tua is what he is, a decent but not great QB. He wasn't the reason the Fish lost the AFCE and got abused by KC (with their second-rate WR room) in the playoffs. The fact is that Miami is a one-trick pony on offense, and when tough defenses shut them down, they have no Plan B on their offense. Their D couldn't handle good offenses very well, either. IOW, they're good at beating up on cellar-dwellers but can't beat decent teams with good defenses as evidenced that they only beat 1 or 2 teams with winning records. (Faux Super Bowl Contenders). Their D suffered serious losses in the off-season, and unlike the Bills' defensive losses, these were of players who were major contributors. They also have a new DC. Signing OBJ does nothing about their real problems.

Thanks for an excellent post, especially bringing up your big concerns going into 2023, which were probably most fans' concerns, too. That Beane and McDermott dealt with those personnel issues as well as they did last season -- as well as replacing their OC in season -- suggests that they are not nearly the incompetents that some here think they are and that the season isn't over before it even starts.

I don't think that the bolded sentence is true at all. White didn't play the last 12 games of the regular season or the playoffs and had already been replaced by Douglas last season. Hyde and Poyer had some injuries, and both had significantly slowed down. If one or both were starters this season, they would be targeted by every DC. Floyd's 10.5 sacks will be missed. At best, Miller comes back better in 2024 than he was last season, and that hole at least closes if it doesn't disappear. Dodson backed up Bernard, but Bernard should be healthy and Matt Milano should be returning, too. I think that Morse might be missed at center and/or McGovern at guard but the OTs and the other OG are solid. McGovern's replacement at G was on the team last season. Both Diggs and G.Davis weren't big contributors in the second half of the season or in the playoffs. Both seemed to have lost the ability to make clutch plays in 2023. The Bills will miss Diggs' 1000+ yards, but not necessarily him. Davis was certainly not worth the $13 million the Jags are paying him. I don't think that the Bills were looking to replace Diggs and G Davis spot for spot. I think they want a WR corp that is sure handed and can catch passes in the middle of the field and in the red zone. R Davis is a nice addition to the RB group behind Cook and Johnson as both a runner and pass catcher.

This was my take, too. Moreover, "transition" means changing or morphing into something else. The Bills didn't tear down the team they had from last year but shed mostly players who underperformed compared to their past play, especially in the playoffs. My guess is that without cap issues, it still would be unlikely that White, Hyde, Poyer, and even Davis would be starters on the 2024 team. Diggs would definitely not be a Bill in 2024. Only Floyd and Morse would be starters. I agree. As a retiree, I can attest to how actually making the decision to retire impacts your attitude even if that retirement date is a year or two in the future. If you've got all your retirement ducks in a row, especially financially and the date set, the urge to just say "take this job and shove it" and walk out the door when things go south is like a siren-song ... even if you've loved your career and job and have always been a "team player". Personally, I don't think Rodgers has been a "team player" for a long time if ever. His flirtation with politics this past winter demonstrates that he's already planning his next chapter.

Romanowski sounds like a sociopath, right down to insinuating that "roid rage" may have played a role in his bad behavior. Lots of players from that era used steroids but, even under the less restrict rules in effect then, his on-field behavior was egregious and his off-field behavior reprehensible. That he spent the last 20 years using his company as a tax dodge just underscores Romanowski's belief that the rules don't apply to him.

Take it from me, being retired and doing exactly what you want to when you want to is priceless. I was a farm kid. I started working for pay at 11 picking strawberries for 6 cents a quart, and I worked continuously for the next 55 years until I retired 8 years ago. You realize that almost all fortunes, not just in the US currently but all over the world throughout history, were created by someone screwing over other people. It's just the way it is and has always been.

Andy Reid wore that "he can't win the big one" label for years in Philadelphia. Then he went to KC, found his future HOF QB, and went on from there. Tony Dungy wore that label for years, too, until he and Peyton finally won the Lombardi. There's a lot of luck involved in any SB win. Consider that in NE's greatest season, 2007, when they won 18 games in a row, a pass that David Tyree caught on his helmet, cost them the Super Bowl --- and an historic perfect 19-0 season. Manure happens. The law of averages says that the Bills are due some good luck at the end of the season and in the playoffs, especially when it comes to injuries on defense. Maybe this is the year they get some.

Exactly this. If the Bills can stay relatively healthy this season, I don't see any reason for them to not be able to win the AFCE and go on from there. Hopefully, they can have better luck in the playoffs in 2024 than the 2021 and 2023 teams had, especially with late season/playoff injuries. The team will look different on both sides of the ball and play a more diverse style of offense, but that's not a step backwards. It's an adaptation to what DCs have and are doing in response to the rule changes that favored passers and pass receivers. IMO, making defenses worry about both the run and the pass coming from formations that feature the same personnel is the Bills' aim with their new offensive pieces.

A lot of Appalachia (western PA, eastern KY and TN, western VA, NC and SC) were originally settled by Scotch Irish (Ulster Scots) immigrants in the late 18th and early 19th century who brought their version of English with them. Conditions in Ireland were never good for either Catholic or Protestant lower classes, so there was a lot of emigration, which probably explains how "criks" are also found in the UK and Australia. Industrialization in the late 19th and early 20th century lured a lot of migrants out of Appalachia to the more prosperous large and small manufacturing towns in the Midwest and the Great Lakes. The "Hillbilly Highway" refers to some of this out-migration to cities like Cincinnati, Detroit, Pittsburgh, and yes, Buffalo, after WW II for well paying jobs in the steel and automobile industries. A lot of people in the Jamestown area have their roots in West Virginia because their grandparents or great grandparents came to work in the furniture factories that once dominated Jamestown's economy.

Starting QB Jack Kemp was injured during training camp IIRC. Shaw was coming back from a knee-injury suffered the previous year, and the rest of the OL was trash. The Bills ended up going through 4 other QBs in 14 games: Dan Darragh (rookie), Ed Rutkowski (eventually became Erie County Executive), Kay Stephenson, and Tom Flores. They finished 1-12-1 and used their #1 pick on OJ Simpson.

Sadly, I think you might be right. The Diggs we saw on the field and along the sidelines in the second half of last season wasn't the Stefon Diggs whom Bills fans cheered for the previous three seasons. Maybe he was hampered by some nagging injury that was never revealed or maybe he just slowed down enough that he couldn't be what he was before. In either case, his frustration showed, and maybe in a new situation, he can regain some of his previous form.

Totally agree. To end up with the #3 pick when you have a desperate need of a franchise QB is great. To have the #3 pick and have a really good prospect available is priceless. From everything I've read about Maye, he has the most upside of the 2024 QBs as he's only 21 and was only a starter for 2 seasons.