Richard Noggin

You're both recognizing the need to add a CB early in the draft, AND celebrating Beane for not leaving a "GAPING hole" at CB heading into the draft. Let's not overthink this. CB is a HUGE need.

IF the Bills truly entered the 2022 draft with no glaring holes (which doesn't look likely), then drafting a high-end safety prospect could make long-term sense. The cap situation would be helped considerably by moving forward in 2023 with only ONE big veteran safety contract (the Bills must be near the top of the league in cap allocation for safeties). Couple factors that convincingly, for me, counter this approach (of drafting a replacement for either Poyer or Hyde): the Bills have already drafted and begun developing Jaquan Johnson and Damar Hamlin, who each have some promise. Also, if McD is at all guilty of sticking with "his" guys too long, then for sure he will not easily part with either of the two safeties (his own college position, of course) that he seemingly personally targeted and signed before he even had his own GM in place.

Same, unfortunately. Anyone else remember 2021 camp footage of a few one-on-ones where Neal was effective? Either way, I think he's best suited as an inside guy. I've seen a couple healthy plays out of Lewis that I didn't hate (mostly just remembering him being aggressive/impressive in run support, but also hurting himself). Otherwise, I got nothin.

My first inclination was to roll my eyes at the tone of this post, but as I kept reading...I realized you might be absolutely nailing it here. Two possible counters to your prescient frustration could be: 1) if they actually got the D-line right this time, finally. Imagine what a consistently disruptive D-line would do for this defense and for this team's ability to compete with the AFC. And 2) the O-line play in the final third of the season was better than average. The line play down the stretch was NOT in need of major overhaul. I hate the prospect of losing Bates, a LOT, but the Bills are then only one guard away from a solid starting unit (assuming Brown grinds and improves, which he should, especially under Kromer). Overall, I agree that the Bills should be investing heavily in surrounding Josh Allen with studs everywhere. Keep him happy and healthy above all else. Then again, defensive pass rush DOES seem to matter in big games.

And you could tell he's a pro, gathering info and getting his bearings, questions about practice field surfaces, and especially his willingness once or twice to deviate from his tour guide to check out a defensive meeting room, for example (an impactful space, internally, but very unspectacular, externally/on film). The whole time he's trying to get a sense of what his workdays will look like.

This is definitely NOT how most Bills fans are thinking about the CB depth chart with an injured Tre White. But thank you for listing the current stable of CBs...anyone see a guy or two here that COULD ascend as a temporary plug? I know Lewis is a tenacious tackler, but smallish. More of a fit inside? Griffon I've never watched. Harris and McCloud I got nothin. Love Siran Neal, but not necessarily outside for any length of time. Thoughts?

The OP is upsettingly incongruous. Terrifyingly incoherent. Fascinating.

Is there a site for those RAS spider graphs? Love those.

For sure. Sorry to be pedantic.

In the uncertain, Not For Long career of a professional football player, hitting free agency while healthy and coming off a promising season, it would be kind of crazy to choose currently perceived off-season TEAM power rankings over a rare chance at guaranteed money and contract term. The low RFA tender is still, of course, fine compensation for a year's work, but when compared to maybe twice the guaranteed money (or more...5+ million compared to 2.5) in such an unpredictable and brief career...well it's easy to understand the players who take the life-changing GUARANTEED payout. Guys who are later in their careers, after earning many millions, can more easily justify then leaving millions on the table to chase a ring. Of course to pleebs like many of us, any NFL salary for a year or more would be a life-altering haul.

Agree on play-action, but "power running scheme" implies a MAN or GAP blocking scheme, rather than the ZONE (and more specifically OUTSIDE ZONE) scheme the Bills will be featuring prominently under Dorsey and Kromer.

To be fair, though... the Bills STILL drafted defense in the first round even in Allen's year.

I'll never forget watching Whaley, upstairs at Tempo, physically mocking Trent Richardson's footwork to the delight of Shady McCoy and others. This was probably right after the Bills acquired McCoy (every big trade, signing, or impactful development resulted in a private function upstairs at Tempo during Russ Brandon's executive tenure). Whaley really hammed it up, pantomiming taking the handoff whilst stomping out like 5 or 6 heavy, unnecessary back-and-forth steps before moving forward at all. I mean, he wasn't wrong in his talent evaluation in this case. At all. But in such an interconnected league, where word of that kind of disrespect (albeit hilarious and accurate) from an NFL exec probably spiderwebs outward through player and agent backchannels like so much gossip...damages the credibility/professionalism of Whaley and the Bills in league circles.

That's gonna leave a mark.

I think it's pretty straightforward: Miller - Oliver - Jones (maybe Settle) - Rousseau Jones probably compliments Oliver more, whereas Settle is more supplementary. But I'm sure we'll see various combinations.

I did my undergrad in Broome County. Never found myself in the Susquehanna, somehow.

Crazy that people get worked up online. But they do.

Never heard it said that way, "the Erie." Usually how we'd mention a river, rather than a lake. The Niagara. Or Lake Erie. Or, for that matter, the 290. The 190. A highway is like a river, in a way...

Of course you can, if whatever you're doing here brings you joy. But don't act surprised or persecuted when more sincere, reasonable users of this shared space call you out for doing...whatever it is you're doing.

One could easily argue that the crimes the recently retired Pittsburgh QB was accused of are far more heinous and violent than the pattern of behavior (not sure what to label it as apparently it wasn't "criminal") Watson is accused of. Watson might be a huge creep. Roethlisberger might be a repeat rapist. And yet teams will be judged harshly for pursuing Watson, while I never really hear criticism of Pittsburgh for sticking with their alleged predator.

Sometimes it's wiser to simply do nothing...and then watch the bodies of your enemies float downstream. *paraphrasing Sun Tzu, or someone similarly revered

Roger that. Carry on

His demeanor to date suggests that he's NOT actually a great backup, if we expect a backup to be focused on helping the ACTUAL starters prepare to play each week. He might be an intriguing short-term replacement player, for the same reasons he might not be an ideal backup guy in the QB room (ego, desire to start, public statements to that effect, etc.).

Doubt they'd ship out BOTH starting EDGE guys, but...this is a smarter move than Mack, all things considered.

Your axe is sharp. Careful with that thing.