MrEpsYtown

Christian Benford if he keeps it up for another year. For me it is Winfield, but as others have stated he was only here a short time.

Yeah I’m just commenting on it since so many people hated the Watts draft pick we made in the mock draft and insisted we are set at safety. It’s clear we are looking for upgrades so I totally agree with you guys. IMO Rapp is a replacement level starter. Bishop is interesting but a huge question mark. Forrest is interesting but a huge question mark as well and the other guys should be selling insurance. Upgrades are needed for sure. He checks a lot of boxes! Instant fit. The question is value etc, but who knows with this draft? It seems that maybe it’s going to be an unconditional draft in which people plug holes.

I thought we were set at safety...

Yes that makes sense. A nickel guy. He kinda plays like a poor man's Brian Branch.

This is Jeff Tuel erasure. How quickly we forget.

Wait? I thought we were set at safety!!!! Anyway: He looks fun. He's athletic, but he's also very small and lacks length so we shall see.

Did some preliminry digging, but it does appear that the relationship between Jones and Pellegrino was not good and seems to be one of the reasons the Patriots released him. Seems like they had some arguments etc and BB decided to cut him outright. So unless Pellegrino has some weird soft spot for the guy, and BB overulled him, it seems unlikely this will happen. Maybe the guy has matured. "After allowing troubled cornerbacks Jack Jones and J.C. Jackson to play against Washington on Nov. 5, a day they missed curfew at the team hotel, Belichick left Jackson home on the Patriots’ trip to Germany. But in Frankfurt, according to a team source, Jones blew up on position coach Mike Pellegrino at halftime for not starting. Belichick cut Jones a day later." https://www.bostonherald.com/2024/01/04/inside-the-patriots-fall-to-rock-bottom-in-the-bill-belichick-era/ https://985thesportshub.com/2024/01/08/jack-jones-patriots-coach-incident-mike-pellegrino/

Bills message board hero

Haven’t you heard? We should have drafted Creed Humphrey.

The next Justin Shorter perhaps? Some guy no one else was really interested in that we were clearly going to pick 🤷‍♂️

I will say this, and I know mock drafts don't matter, but when I try some out, all the top corners are gone by our 2nd round pick. So who starts at corner? Dane Jackson? A late round flyer? I just don't know what other answer there is. We just did this three years ago with the Elam selection.

It's going to be a corner. 100%

I don't hate Rapp, but honestly, I agree with your take here. He's like a replacement-level starter who I still think is a strange fit in this defense. To me, Hamlin should be bagging groceries. And that's why they should be looking for a safety. To me the position is not ok. You have a guy in Rapp who is replacement level, Bishop who has upside but looked mostly awful last year. Lewis who is jack of all trades on a very low level. Forrest who is a non factor and Hamlin who should not be on an NFL roster. We should 100% be looking for a safety in this pretty strong class of safeties.

See to me, Hamlin and the Cam Lewis should not be on the roster anymore. They are not good. So that leaves Rapp, Bishop, and Forrest (1 year min deal) as safeties. They should totally be adding competition here. Simply handing Bishop a job without real competition is how we have ended up with this high floor, low upside roster that can't win a super bowl.

Couple of interesting things about the corners Marino mentioned... He seems to like Amos a bunch. Amos seems like the high floor guy. He's plug and play with a strong zone acumen. He also appears to like Hairston. He mentioned Hairston's 2023 tape was better as he had a shoulder injury in 2024. Those two guys seem like the best fits for us, however, I don't think either will be there in round two. Shavon Revel is also a great fit. His issue is that ACL. At the very least you have to assume he will be slow to start in camp and that likely hurts his chances of stepping in right away. But the upside is really big honestly. I like this player, I just am not sure they go down this road. Thomas is a crazy physical freak. He's only 20, a bit raw and a man press corner who struggles in zone. Sounds familiar to me. But he certainly has the physical traits and length the Bills look for. Porter is a crazy athlete with length, but he doesn't have a ton of experience as a corner and he is also 24 years old, same age as Christian Benford. The age thing doesn't bother me as much, but it is an interesting thought to take a guy who is raw and inexperienced and older. Marino also really liked Parrish from Kansas State. He's just small.

Joe Marino’s DT, Corner and Edge breakdowns were pretty interesting and he kind of clearly points out which guys make sense from a Bills perspective. I highly recommend.

Not a knock on Bishop really. It’s that Watts is really good. If the team doesn’t want to improve the skill level and keep positions open for their draft picks the year before, then what’s the point of what they are doing? Thats a mediocre way of building a roster and probably why we have not gotten over the hump. Competition breeds success. Iron sharpens iron. They should be trying to bring in better players at every position except QB. He’s the only superstar on the team. Let’s get better everywhere.

Watts is already better than Bishop. He’d be the best safety on the team.

I feel like Amos is the plug and play guy who may be available to them. There are some interesting athletic upside with guys like Porter but he’s raw. So do you draft traits or you looking for an instant starter. I don’t really know what the answer is, but that’s why I wish they would do something a bit more than Dane Jackson opposite Benford. Also Hairston, he’s the other guy who is probably plug and play and maybe there at 30.

If released it’s a yes. I just like that he doesn’t like Patrick Mahomes.

100%. it’s a weak draft this year, 100% willing to sacrifice multiple 2025 picks to target specific guys. I would not be ok moving a 2026 pick unless I was getting Abdul Carter or something.

Watts can really ball.

I feel like the good teams who win super bowls tend to lend more towards BPA…but I will say that I think Beane really does it backwards. Top of the draft should always be BPA. You can use the rest of the draft to plug holes. He plugs holes early and drafts BPA later. I truly believe that is why he has done well later in the draft.

I totally agree with you, but Beane clearly doesn’t and he drafts for need early every year. It’s unfortunate, but it is how he operates. Thats why the roster has Josh and a bunch of ok players. It’s part of why we can’t get over the hump.

I feel like most try to predict what Beane will do. And this is what he would do. I voted for Amos, obviously not knowing if Porter would be here. I suppose my question is, if we took Nolen and Porter was gone here, then what do we do? Is Dane Jackson is your starting corner. Draft time is fun and it’s a crapshoot! It’s a fun exercise to go through! But I think the biggest thing is what the boards mindset is…are we predicting what we think will happen and what Beane will do? Are we taking BPA? Or we just taking the guy we like? I think all three of those mindsets would result in a very different experience.