ComradeKayAdams

I came to this thread for the potential Russ Brandon jokes, but I leave with only a deep disgust towards the sophomoric objectification of this innocent young reporter (for the record, though, I think Maddy Glab is a total cutie). All of the "2/10, would not bang, elbows too pointy" internet neckbeards should probably apologize and welcome her to the Buffalo sports family.

As others have mentioned, I think we're only an elite pass rushing DE and a backup MLB away from being a legitimate candidate (at least on paper) for #1 defense. Two stats that this defense badly needs to improve on are red zone scoring percentage and sacks. I believe we were near the absolute bottom of the league in each. But one thing that's very clear is that Sean McDermott knows how to build a defense. Notice how he has spent a first round pick each year for each level of the defense (DB, LB, DL). And the continuity of having Leslie Frazier for a third consecutive season as DC helps immensely. There are going to be a lot of options in free agency next spring to get that elite pass rushing DE, so I do believe that the Bills will end up with the #1 defense next year. I don't know if these guys can ever approach the standards that Frazier's Bears set in the 1980's, but there is certainly the possibility that McDermott is in the midst of building the best defense in franchise history (better than the '64/'74/'80/'88/'99/'03/'14 squads).

It should be, but I don't think it is right now. A decade's worth of playoff competitiveness under Beane, McDermott, and Allen should change that. Ideally what would constitute "geographic Bills territory" would be every county in NY state north of Rockland and Westchester, as well as the Golden Horseshoe of Canada. When I say "ideal" Bills territory, I'm referring as much to cultural and socioeconomic similarities with Buffalo as I am with geographic proximity (yes, I realize that many of you will take issue with the Hudson Valley ever being considered Bills territory). It's a bit of a tragedy that the utter incompetence of this organization during the 21st century has meant that the Patriots, Giants, and Steelers have taken over large swaths of what should have otherwise been our young coming-of-age fanbase. I call it a tragedy because it affects things like stadium funding and the long-term viability of the franchise in Buffalo post-Pegulas (which may very well be many decades away).

I don't know. Ask the Pegulas.

Trust the process.

Yes, I am familiar with QB pressures. I honestly don't recall Yarbrough doing much of that either during the past two seasons, though admittedly perhaps I wasn't watching him nearly as closely as you. All I know is that Yarbrough was recently practicing with the third stringers behind Love and the top three (Hughes, Murphy, Lawson). So I don't think he's doing a good enough job distinguishing himself from among his competitors for the 4th DE spot (Love, Harold, Johnson). If he's as talented as you suggest, then he needs to hurry up and show it.

Is that what they're calling 1 career sack after 31 NFL games played these days?

She skips right leg day, but not left leg day.

Is McDermott losing control of the team? Instead of mastering their playbooks and staying in shape this offseason, are the players more focused on quixotic careers as fighter pilots or astronauts?

I only disagree with the following: 1. Keeping Yeldon over Perry. For your RB#4 on the depth chart, you're going to want to keep a special teams ace over a mediocre third-down specialist who underachieved and was accused of having a bad attitude while in Jacksonville. 2. Keeping Love over Darryl Johnson. In a 4-way battle for the fourth DE spot between Love, Johnson, Yarbrough, and Harold, I'm going with the guy who has the most upside as a pass-rushing force. 3. Thompson over Stanford. You need a backup MLB on your roster. Without Stanford, we don't really have one. The preseason waiver wire is another option here. 4. Gaines over Pitts. This is my surprise cut right here. I have White and Kevin Johnson as the starters, Taron Johnson as the nickel, and Wallace as an excellent CB#4. For your fifth CB, I'm looking at special teams abilities as much as CB depth. Gaines has also been plagued with injuries for four straight seasons now, and McDermott is big on "availability," so he could be cut if he can't distinguish himself enough in preseason.

I think you nailed it (minus the fear of Ducasse staying). That's the safest, most veteran starting 5 to begin the season. Ford and Teller have the raw talent to become starters this season, but they'll have to earn it. Feliciano and Waddle are solid backups.

Two obvious reasons: 1. They weren't sure how the draft would play out and couldn't assume they would be able to draft Ford or any other decent RT. 2. Cap space isnt even remotely an issue this season or next.

Your user name is apt.

Or maybe Dawkins is everything they thought and more! I'd like to see Daboll experiment with a Dawkins - Long - Morse - Teller - Ford line for a sustained period of time and see what happens. I believe this is the most physically talented OL we can throw out there and also among the youngest with the most long-term potential. I'd also like to see the Bills try rolling with 10 OL on the roster. An entire backup line of Nsekhe - Spain - Bodine - Feliciano - Waddle would be the envy of the league! The utmost priority should be protecting Allen, even at the expense of a 7th WR or a 7th LB.

Don't underestimate the passion and loyalty of those tarps. They've been there since day 1, every Sunday, since 1995, enduring the harsh fall Florida weather, quietly biding their time.

True, and it wasn't just the OL that sucked. The WR's, TE's, and the QB rotation of Peterman/Anderson/off-the-street Barkley/rookie Allen also did the running game no favors. McCoy is among the 30 greatest RB's to have ever played the game of football. I'm betting on him having an excellent bounce-back season in a drastically improved offense. And I'd like to see Singletary play 1 full quarter of preseason NFL football first before we discuss dumping a future Hall of Fame RB for him. And keeping Yeldon over McCoy? LMAO...

I encourage everyone to read up on the historic '85 Bears defense. It was absurd at how dominant that group was in all statistical aspects of the game. They tore through the playoffs and had only one bad game all year: against Marino's offense. They remain the gold standard for professional defenses after 99 NFL seasons. I see nothing wrong with trying to compare our current defense to the 1985 Bears defense. Our current DC was the starting CB on that unit. Our DB's and overall depth might even be better than that of the '85 Bears. The difference lies with the front-7 and specifically the pass rush. There is clearly no Hampton, Dent, or Singletary currently on this roster. I can actually imagine Milano - Edmunds - Joseph emerging as a sort of modern version of Marshall - Singletary - Wilson, but not this season. The beauty of that Chicago LB corps, though, was that they contributed 20 or so sacks worth of pass rush in the 46 D system. I can't imagine our LB's doing that, even with Lorenzo Alexander's specialty Sam LB role. The Chicago DL was also good for about 40 easy sacks each year. Oliver will need to be the next Aaron Donald before this unit can begin to approach that level of pass-rushing ferocity. Hughes is very good at applying constant pressure, but he's over 30 and has never topped 10 sacks in a season. Murphy has never topped 9 sacks in a season. Lawson, Yarbrough, Harold, etc... are decent backups and nothing more. Find me 1 elite DE and another very good pass-rushing DE and we can talk about a historically great Buffalo Bills defense next year!

It's interesting to see how McDermott and Beane have been building this defense. Each level of it (DL, LB, DB) now has a recent first round draft pick with the talent and potential to become regular First-Team All-Pro candidates (Oliver, Edmunds, White). Then you have a bunch of under-the-radar free agent signings (Hyde, Poyer, Murphy, Kevin Johnson, etc.) and day 2/3 draft picks+UDFA's who fit the scheme perfectly (Milano, Joseph, Harrison Phillips, Wallace, Neal, the other 3 Johnsons, etc.). The only big splash in free agency was Star. Alexander, Lawson, and Hughes are the only players on defense remaining from the previous regime. I also like how Leslie Frazier (60 years old) is probably at the point in his career where he is no longer looking for another head coach position, meaning that we may have him as our DC for a very long time. At the moment, to me this defense is probably an elite DE and a backup MLB away from on-paper perfection. They also need to spend a lot of the summer focusing on their 3rd down and red-zone packages. Historically one of the best NFL defenses of all time? Not sure about that one. But best defense in franchise history? By next year, it could be a very real possibility!

That was some culture he built in Buffalo from 2001-2003. I was particularly impressed with how that talented 2003 roster proceeded to finish 4-10 after a dominating 2-0 start. Maybe they just needed to hear a few more air horn blows to stay motivated? ***** you, Gregg Williams, you disgusting piece of *****.

Will we have the roster space to carry both?

With the retirements of Kyle Williams, Lynch, Levitre, and now Moats, no Bills draft pick from before 2011 now still plays in the NFL. Also, Gilmore and Woods are probably the only former Bills draft picks whom we regret losing, but neither wanted to be here anyway so whatever.

I was clearly being flippant when I posted that. By "suck" I mean wasn't a "franchise QB" while in Buffalo. Flutie, Bledsoe, Fitzpatrick, Taylor...all of these guys were more mediocre than bad. By the way, I'm actually 37 years old and have been following this team religiously since the Bickering Bills of 1989. I'm well aware of Bledsoe's 2002 season, but I also remember him kind of sucking for the rest of that season after a post-Halloween game against the Patriots. To the Flutie apologists: I'm not going to delve into this tired topic, but those Wade Phillips defenses were outstanding and carried those teams in the late 90's...and you know it. Flutie's unpredictable scrambling ability was certainly preferable to Rob Johnson's inevitable sack/turnover/injury, but Flutie was always just a "meh" QB. Maybe not "suck," but just "meh." By the way, I still vividly remember names like Jerry Ostroski, Jamie Nails, Corbin Lacina, Billy Conaty, Victor Allotey, and Joe Panos. Neither QB was ever going to win a Super Bowl behind that garbage OL, so I'm completely over that era of Bills football. You should be too.

Josh Allen is the singular reason why we are currently feeling optimistic about the Bills. I can recall a variety of similar feel-good stories and general positivity with each previous regime post-Levy that the football media fed us. But none of that mattered because Todd Collins sucked, Rob Johnson sucked, Doug Flutie sucked, Drew Bledsoe sucked, JP Losman sucked, Trent Edwards sucked, Ryan Fitzpatrick sucked, EJ Manuel sucked, and Tyrod Taylor sucked. But Josh Allen feels different from all of the aforementioned. He has an impressive collection of QB skills and attributes (physical but also mental) that none of those guys ever had. And at the moment, he DOES NOT YET DEFINITIVELY SUCK.

This is an idea that Rex Ryan would have loved: make everything so complicated for the opposing team that even your own team probably won't be able to figure it out.

Great thread! Here are my thoughts: 1. The defense looks mostly settled to me. The only real roster battles I see are at DE behind the top 3 (my money is on the rookie Johnson who has the most upside) and big nickel (Bush, Neal, Maurice Alexander the LB). I only see a couple battles for starting positions at DE opposite Hughes (slight edge to Murphy) and CB opposite White (slight edge to Kevin Johnson). 2. I think the interesting battles at OL are more about who starts where and less about who makes the team. My best guess is that they plan to keep 9: 2 pure tackles (Nsekhe, Waddle) + 2 tackles who can play guard (Dawkins, Ford) + 3 interior guys who can play center (Morse, Long, Feliciano) + 2 pure guards (Spain, Teller). 3. At the skill positions on offense, most also seem to be settled in my opinion: 2 QB (Allen, Barkley), 3 RB (McCoy, Gore, Singletary), DiMarco, 4 WR (Jones, Foster, Beasley, Brown), 3 TE (Kroft, Smith, Knox). That means Jackson, Perry, Yeldon, Sills, Williams, McCloud, McKenzie, Roberts, Croom, Sweeney, etc. are all fighting for only 4-6 roster spots with a heavy emphasis on special teams ability and practice squad eligibility. 5. The punter job is definitely up for grabs between Bojorquez and Carter. I'm giving the slight edge to Bojorquez until I see Carter in action. 6. Looking over my current roster predictions, I have the defense mostly returning intact from last year but the offense only returning EIGHT players! Those 8 are Allen, Barkley, McCoy, DiMarco, Jones, Foster, Dawkins, and Teller.