Richard Noggin

Contract (plus late-season/playoff production) says he almost certainly IS a lock. Need to roll with him at least one more year and hope he's healthy and dynamic.

Is he kind of an expensive #3 or #4 S though (2M guaranteed, ~1.3M cap hit)? Maybe his value as a trusted replacement-level depth player (27 starts and >50% STs) on the backend justifies the cost, but he hasn't made many impact plays on those 2,135 snaps (D and STs). Definition of Just A Guy at this point imho. Not the kind of guy who can keep up against playoff competition.

"Hey, you never know." That tidy little highlight package certainly shows what the Bills are looking for at 1T: aggressive/disruptive 1-gapping against run and pass. Which is basically the same thing they want at 3T, but with the robust physicality and mentality to consistently line up between the C and OG and fight those phone booth battles. Defensive position battles are really intriguing this off season; compelling depth battles at all 3 levels, plus CB and S have starting jobs up for grabs. Not likely that Casey Rogers climbs higher than PS (or maybe gameday inactive), but what do we really know before it happens? Just keep adding and developing. Move on from misses and keep swinging.

Strong is not a nickel on a McDermott defense. He's boundary all the way.

Agree generally that McD should be trusted when it comes to the secondary, and especially with the S position. Disagree specifically that signing Forrest amounts to "more or less nothing at safety." Forrest comes in with more pedigree and better traits than Jordan Poyer had when he signed. SUPER athletic prospect who was fairly productive and flashed when he got his chance to start.

Serious youth movement on the defense and in the secondary in particular. Hairston, Strong, and Hancock ALL make the team if healthy, imho. REALLY hope the Bills are actually willing to part with Jackson and/or White and/or Hamlin or whoever at DB, as necessary. Really hope the new additions outperform those retread vets. Ready to watch a defense that's truly aggressive and able to disrupt even top QBs...

Sorry for your loss

Wait...is Tyrod Taylor available?!?!

I was referring to being a season ticket holder, actually.

I've always thought of my weekly Sunday suffering with the Bills as a form of worship. Now that I've been back in the area for a while I'm actually attending the Orchard Park mega church gatherings on a subscription level.

Absolutely brutal. But then again, gotta overcome.

Trauma builds personality.

Wasn't Davis a STARTER while Sherfield was a backup?

Oof. Doesn't look good on either. Many murmurs of Dublin game. And Gramps gonna have to push through a bunch of 4 o'clock games this season, methinks

Watts and Bosas get old fast. Maybe something to do with "training" habits/intensity. Or just the way it goes.

Davis moving on to Jacksonville was addition by subtraction. He and Allen were so rarely on the same page. Which is a shame, because when they were on the same page, they created some explosive magic. No way should he come back. But alas, it's not impossible. They like to get the band back together.

Or he might be a golf enthusiast who trains like a QB rather than a TE. To be fair, Travis Kelce has never been a weight room guy either. But he's a little bigger and more athletic naturally, and obviously just better. So bad comparison except when you look at physique. Kelce is built like a Serbian basketball star.

Let he who has not sinned cast the first stone

I'll allow it. Fair enough metaphor. But that video! First three picks feel like absolute HOME RUNS when you absorb the positive reactions from the players and the org. Got some tingles watching the video. Darn near best case draft haul for first two days.

Understandable

Not to mention Dorian Strong, who just feels like a Benford-ish fit if he brings it. That's a serious infusion of high-end DB talent/traits/pedigree/production. Along with Forrest entering the S competition; hope he gets a fair shake at it. They identified DL and DB deficits and filled them in a draft nicely designed to do so. I wonder if a pure S pick was at any point tempting. CHECK THIS ANALOGY DAMN: drafting a true S in first half of 2025 draft could have been blocked by the presence of Bishop (2nd rounder year before) and Rapp (decent starter signed for 2 more years), the same way Coleman (2nd rounder year before) and Samuel (signed for 2 more years) could have blocked a more significant draft investment at WR, even though WR is a much more premium position than S, and Coleman and Samuel have not done a ton for the Bills to date. The Bills lean pretty heavily on player development. Pessimists will say that kind of hope isn't a strategy. Optimists will say that guys drafted on the first two days are just that certain set of circumstances away from outgrowing their ceilings.

Deone Walker's strength at this point in his development is not really run defense. To date, he's been much better rushing the passer. 2023 college tape, Senior Bowl tape, injury recovery with NFL strength and conditioning, plus the promise of intensive NFL coaching, projects a high ceiling overall for Walker. But he's not a plug-and-play run stuffer at all right now.

This is an awesome breakdown. Thank you! But this is also where the science leaves off and the art of football analysis picks up: how much of this was the ghost of Amari Cooper's previous threat influencing or revealing defensive coverages? And/or how much of this was Amari Cooper's actual performance and production? I think if the Bills don't have an obvious matchup nightmare "#1" WR going into 2025, which they don't, that's fine...but on one hand it obviously limits an offense's ability to dictate/predict coverages, and on the other hand it allows Brady and Allen and the Gang to continue to evolve their Everyone Eats/Total Futbol offensive approach of spreading it out. Kind of like the NBA's triangle offense, which has since proliferated. Do the Bills have a Scotty Pippen and a Steve Kerr and a Horace Grant to run the Triangle with Josh Allen? Still looking for Pippen to step up, I think.

5'2" 350 can't find it

I WISH I'd had the huevos to walk away from being a founding member of Steely effing Dan, only to go on to even more popular success/acclaim. I'd personally prefer being an elite 70s studio musician who worked with everyone, to being a leading 80s/90s comic actor. But come on. What lore.