MJS

Yep. He'll have a tough time getting targets next year. He's Robert Foster 2.0.

Would love to have Shaq Lawson back if he will sign a reasonable deal. I've always been a Singletary supporter. Wouldn't mind seeing him back. I'm not interested in drafting a running back. Dean Marlowe is good safety depth. I'd stay away from Jordan Phillips unless we can sign him for cheap. He is pretty injury prone.

Hodgins getting pushed down the depth chart.

That's how he speaks about his players.

Brown isn't a lock.

Probably want to wait. We're like 3 hours into free agency.

I'm also so impressed that they spent a fortune on two TE's and then didn't use them, then traded one of them away for a 7th round pick. Such impressive GM skills.

There's always a negative spin for everything Bills related. Do not underestimate our doom and gloomers!

That's exactly what a kidnapper WOULD say! Are you sure it was him?

He had a rough couple of games, but played well to begin the year and well later on in the season as well.

I can say that many teams I looked at had a higher cost linebacker or defensive end in the 1.5 to 3 million range who I can only assume does the same or similar things as our guy. It seems like this is an in-demand role throughout the league.

It's a mixed bag. The Ravens play a lot of starters on special teams, I noticed. The Giants had more contributions, but that is because they were scraping the bottom of the barrel talent wise. If you play linebacker, running back, or defensive back in the NFL and are not a starter, you likely contribute on special teams in the NFL. The Bills are no different in that regard. Go look at the analysis. Most teams have 5 to 7 players that are almost exclusively special teams contributors. Why? Because your starters are better and you want them on the field as much as possible. A lot of good teams spend a lot on special teams. A lot of bad teams don't spend a lot. And vice versa. There was no correlation between spending and performance, or good vs bad teams overall, but I also did not include two of the biggest contributors to special teams (punters and kickers).

The Jags are getting pretty good. The Lions are getting better. Then the teams after that are all relatively good: Vikings, Seahawks, Dolphins, Bengals. To me it just seems like it comes down to team philosophy. Good and bad teams are all over the spectrum, some paying a lot, some paying a little.

If he got $2.5 million, that's actually a big pay cut from last year. I noticed most of the highest paid special teamers in the analysis were linebackers. They fill a specific role and there is measurable value all throughout the NFL for that role.

We'll have to wait till next season for that data. Or look at 2021 if you'd like. Again, if I can't compare the same for all teams, I won't do it. I'm not going to add those players for the Bills without doing the same for every other team, and I just don't have the time to carry out that research.

Sure, but if the team gets offensive or defensive contributions from their primary special teams contributors, they would literally be the only team in the NFL where that is the case. Every single team had at least 3 players (most with 5 to 7) who contributed almost nothing to offense and defense. If the Bills managed that, they would be in a class of their own. And it would mean that the offense and defense would be worse, because your bottom of the roster guys are worse players. You don't want those guys to play. You want your starters to play.

I was specifically looking at whether or not the Bills spend the most in the league on primary special teams contributors, which is the claim I see from time to time. Whether or not we spend too much is up for debate. The Bills don't spend the most, but they spend a lot. They have good results in ranking from that spending, but perhaps we don't need to be THE best special teams unit in the NFL. Maybe we can just settle for top 10 and reallocate some of those resources elsewhere. I'm all for that. But I do understand the approach to wanting dominant special teams. There is real value there. Nope. That is close to a minimum salary.

Most of the defense has double digit missed tackle rates. 6.8% is not that bad. Edmunds was like the only player on our defense with a decent missed tackle rate last year.

Sure will be harder positioning ourselves in the regular season to compete for the 1st seed without that #1 defense. People are acting like the regular season is nothing.

All this Hodgins talk is crazy, in my opinion. He is a late round pick who went to a team with no other option at receiver and got some targets. To his credit, he did a good job with those targets. This is Robert Foster 2.0. The Giants are going to look to upgrade at WR this year. Hodgins is not going to be featured.

I'm not going to consider nuances like that because I can't compare that for the entire league. I don't know all 32 teams well enough and it would take me too long to research specific cases like that. It has nothing to do with my own arguments one way or the other. All that stuff evens out. Other teams have situations like that as well.

We'll see. If they can get cheaper and still have good special teams, I'm all for that. But I'm not totally sure why some are so focused on how much some of these guys are getting paid. The Bills are spending like 2-3 million more per year than the average team. That's just a drop in the bucket, honestly. I guess it means the team is good. We used to be arguing about starting QB's and #1 WRs! It's gotten all the way down to bottom of the roster special teams contributors. There's always something to nitpick.

Nope. I used the data and only the data. Kumerow was hurt so he doesn't factor in with the overall snaps. Hines was only at 22% of special teams snaps, so he doesn't make the cut either. McKenzie was barely used on special teams with only 6.83% of special teams snaps. He played over 50% of offensive snaps. But every team has situations like that as well. Feel free to go do your own analysis where you specifically identify kick returners and injured special teamers for each team. I'd be interested in seeing that, but I'm not sure how you would do that.

This only one year of data, remember. Many superbowl winning teams the past decade have been top 5 in special teams DVOA.