WideNine

Yep - my money is on DL or Edge early. I do think there are some intriguing depth WR prospects later this draft, they don't have to reach for anyone.

I thought that too, when he talked about WRs need to catch the ball first, but WRs also have to be football players - that means sometimes you knock a ball away from a defender, or tackle someone on a turnover, or block. Remembering that KB body language if there was a contested pass...back off let the defenders have a shot at it, avoid any contact, then nonchalantly stroll back to the huddle.

I saw more touch on those shorter swing and wheel routes as the season progressed, unless he was avoiding a sack and had to rush the throw just to get it near the receiver. Those 30 yard posts and digs in tighter coverage were often on a rope, so our guys should think about wearing good gloves:) With Foster and Brown on the outside teams are just going to have to pick their poison, should see our share of cover 2 and 3 with plenty of underneath options for good yardage...throw in Beasley who is great at exploiting those matchups, a running game that demands some respect...Daboll has got to be chomping at the bit with all these new toys.

Teller flashed moments, but could use more time and coaching up so I think you are on to something and he may well sit. Hard to tell what we had in Teller with the jail breaks going on all around him, but on another thread we discussed this in depth. General consensus was he needs to work on recognizing stunts, his lower body stregth, lateral speed\movement\staying square, hand placement and leverage, and toss in his kick slides. So....it was a bit early to throw him to the wolves and he needs a lot of work, but I think the raw talent is there, drive, and upper body strength. If uncovered he had a tendency to turn his shoulders to help on double-teams giving up a soft edge for delayed blitzes, twists, or stunts. This was not limited to Teller - seemed like a problem across the line whenever defenses attacked the gaps to try to create those opportunities. Just not fully baked yet, but solid coaching, NFL level strength training, and having proven vets around him will speed the development along, if the Bills decide to give him some more time.

Gotta love these Cover 1 breakdowns. Very well done.

I just think there are a lot of maturity issues with Polite, although I will not deny his productivity and hustle. I read an article where he was given advice at Florida to stay another year. They wanted him to consider the defensive depth in this year's draft, and they felt another year could help him better develop his game. He would not listen. They also tried to prep him for what he would face in the combine, but that did not seem to stick either. He just did not do himself any favors and came off as a bit of a slow-blinker. Some team will pick him up as he has flashed the raw potential, but he is a project in regards to his coachability and poor habits. https://ftw.usatoday.com/2019/03/jachai-polite-combine-40-time-interviews

Allen was pressured on nearly 40% of his drop backs. That was close to, if not the worst in the league. It's a bit of a waste of time to talk accuracy at this stage. There is a reason why the staff at OBD retooled both the line and coaching there. QBs forced to throw while under pressure generally do pretty poorly - we all know this right? Rookies and castoffs at WR did not help, although Foster worked to get better. KB went to KC and did what he did best - drop catchable balls from Mahomes. Beans stressed in his presser when talking about Beasley and Brown that they wanted to get some veteran WRs this off-season so that they would have guys that will run the right route to the right depth. He could be shifting blame, or Josh could have legit been throwing to where his receivers were supposed to be on enough occasions to warrant the upgrades. It's fine to argue these points...made me look up things I would not otherwise, but did not change my perception when watching games that the kid is trending in the right direction.

Oh man....had kind of blocked that out of my memory. Buzz kill much?

And not to make excuses, but even last year I thought there were games where Allen put the team in position to win just to have our "D" go limp, or Special Teams crap the bed and pave the way for another loss. This line of thinking seems a bit myopic. There is more to a winning season than Allen playing lights out.

Can't dismiss the 2 game handicap. We play Belichick twice each year. The guy who regularly makes "great" offenses look pedestrian and outclassed. Going to be tough for the young guns in our division. Trial by fire.

https://www.usatoday.com/sports/nfl/arrests/ Build a draft out of this list and weed out the "weed" guys and just focus on the assault and domestic violence guys. The player with the "insider trading" rap sheet has Mr Irrelevant written all over him.

Totally agree. Almost, if not as important as the infusion of veteran talent on the o-line, was OBD's quick grab of Bobby Johnson, who was working under Dave Deguglielmo in Indy, and under D'Alessandris for the Bills during the Gailey era. He has been a part of some really successful programs and worked under solid o-line coaches. Those lines could pass protect and open holes in the run game. I am hopeful that the apple does not fall very far from the tree as he drops the assistant title. We will see how these guys gel, but they could become dominant. A lot of new parts that will need some time to come together, but there is reason to be optimistic.

There seemed to be quite a lot of critique of Allen not settling in the pocket and taking the easy throws underneath. The Bills took a QB who mostly had to run for his life and carry his team in Wyoming, to our Bills squad where he mostly had to run for his life and carry the offense. Get that protection fixed, then the kid can maybe approach the game a different way than he is used to. With better protection and a supportive run game, he can grow into the QB we all want to see him become.

Dunno. Could be nothing, or that they floated a similar deal and were rejected and were just P.O'd that they could not secure that spot ahead of the Jets. Does not really play into who was selected, rather ensuring they were in position to get their guy. Rumors galore...someday the record will be set straight.

Was wondering the same thing...was tilting my head looking at his picture, he and Ryan Miller have got to hang out together some time and take a selfie.

I would have to go with Stupidity. As far as staying a fan....liberal amounts of stubbornness, masochism, unrequited optimism, and foolish pride.

Honestly don't care that much as I would have been happy with Darnold or Allen. Both can win games, but Allen is just so much more entertaining to watch play. You can never say a play is dead with that kid either scrambling or throwing a strike 40 yards downfield. Been a long time since our offense was actually fun for me to watch. Ran into a Vikings fan on my flight with the Fam to Costa Rica. The dreaded "what's your team question came up", not like folks are jerks, but I hate the pity. Told him I was a Bills fan and he went on and on about how he thought Allen was a rare talent and would develop into a great QB. Said he was an NDSU alumni had been following Wyoming football for a while, particularly since they hired some former NDSU coaches to run that program. He was not surprised with what Allen did against the Vikings, and he thought Allen was going to surprise a lot of folks. Was a pleasant surprise to have that kind of conversation about my Bills. Also said it sucked we were in the same division with Belichick, made the Rams offense look silly in the SB.

Quoting Bill again Kelly.

I was thinking the same thing the other day, that some folks treat the 9th pick like it is a lock to succeed. Up to recently I felt the Bills were incapable of making a 1st round selection that could be productive in the league, let alone a game-changer (unless it was a corner). As an organization we seemed to be more "money" on those middle picks 3-5 round selections. Even with the concession above, I still see Beane going defense - simply because they have not gone after a DE or a DL in free agency, but they did get a veteran TE in Kroft. The Bills could use some push on the DL against the run, and could use someone to groom on the Edge behind Hughes, and the draft is deep at the top with this talent. Does not mean they do not grab a TE later for depth, as I could see them carrying 3 on the roster.

It feels like they are positioning themselves away from this as a reach move early in the draft. Still see RT or G depth later in the draft.

I see a lot of posts from our more objective TBD vets that Hock at 9 is not where he should be. I agree, and feel like he should be in that 15-26 range of the 1st. That being said his stock keeps rising and many "experts" or just folks that rank these guys for a living have him off the board before 15. Several and old Mel have him going to Detroit at 8. We all know that draft value is not always BPA, but also demand. If enough teams like a player and doubt he will fall, his chances of being drafted sooner rises. I like Hock, but don't think he will be in the cards for our Bills. The consolation is the draft is deep with TEs, and we could still nab a good one (Oliver, or Warring), just please no 6'2" Irv Smith. Concede the guy was productive in college and should find some success as a flex receiving option at the next level, but I just prefer bigger TEs less likely to get steamrolled if asked to block an NFL calibre DE.

I think the best way to describe GM-speak in regards to BPA is "prescriptive BPA". The BPA that fits team needs - usually there are enough of them (needs) to have a potential game-changer where you are drafting sans reaching. Needs also are are not always obvious as they could be picking a player that they feel can backfill a current solid player that will hit FA in a year or two. But just blindly picking the best NFL athlete sans a host of team need considerations - I don't believe that exists or if it does, not for long as that FO wont last.

Not sure how I feel about these. Obviously we have to acknowledge that Beane and McD are pretty good at evaluating FO talent and bringing those guys in. That feeling competes with my less enthusiastic feeling of teams poaching our talent aka: Phins grabbing Marvin Allen as their Assistant GM and now teams eying up Dan Morgan. Selfishly I want the Bills to get the most we can out of these guys before they advance their careers elsewhere and help other teams especially rival orgs. Which competes with the idea that we attract more personnel and FO talent when there is a reputation that the Bills organization is great at grooming FO talent and building attractive resumes. So - sort of happy I guess.

Quality depth guy that struggled a bit with all the complexity in the NE scheme, plus they have pretty good depth that they tested by sitting him later last year so I think they were already thinking they could save some $ with the move. He had success, and may be a better fit for the Bills - good signing if true.

We need a Defensive Linemen who can penetrate and play on the other side of the line of scrimmage with excellent run-stopping ability, and our Special Teams is still a big "?" although the missing returner element has been addressed. O-line I cannot say as OBD added a coach who has a solid resume, and pulled in some key vets. Our "D" lacked push and teams could run on us. Now before folks pull the #2 overall defense blanket over their heads to hide from the truth consider: We have a pedestrian run "D" (16th rank), then consider how poor we were stopping teams from scoring in the red zone (30th rank), I would add that I think we were also pretty poor in defending short yardage runs that converted down and distance, but I will admit I could not find the stats to back that up (just my eyes). Then add poor ST play which too often placed our D (with the weaknesses above) in close to the worst field position situations (30th in opponent drive starts). Mix these all together and you find your team has needs on the defensive side of the ball and on ST (the latter most of us agree on). I know what our overall defensive ranking was, but over the years teams are using more spread offense and passing more, and our D is solid there. Our D struggled defending against the run in the usual short down and distance situations and in red zone situations. Teams were very successful against the Bills in those limited situations, but only Belichick and a few others decided to see how far they could push that advantage of porous run "D". That is why I feel our defensive ranking is deceptively skewed. It is a copy-cat league, teams will take notice and test the Bills more in this area this season. I realize there are other factors that can help mitigate the above - improved ST kickoffs, punting, and coverage to tilt the field a bit and get us out of the 30th ranking hole, and getting Josh to better embrace the time of possession concept when our defense has been on the field too long.