Florida Bills Fanatic

You've accurately described the Beane playbook. There will be some decent FA's available that we don't know about right now. Coaching changes, cap clearing, and skill fit issues will make players available that can help the team. We just need to watch what Beane does in free agency and look at the remaining needs to get a good idea of his targets in the draft. The "chase a WR with the first round pick crowd" may need to keep a box of Kleenex handy for all of their crying. I expect him to get another good FA WR and draft a good prospect on day two because it is a very deep draft and rookie WR's usually take a year to be big contributors. I say this because of the way Beane approached the TE need this year. Kroft was the solid veteran to fill the hole and Knox and Sweeney are the value picks from a fairly deep draft class. With all of that said, can't we just wait until the off-season so that we can enjoy our second trip to the playoffs in three years?

I agree. He's pretty good on the inside trap plays because he hits the hole without hesitation. When he is forced to turn his shoulders, he lacks the speed to get to the outside.

I agree with you. Bills were in a single high safety look with Hyde playing center field. In that alignment, his job was to keep everything in front of him. That obviously didn't happen as Hurst got behind everyone.

I agree that he disappoints more often than not. He compiles a lot of stats in garbage time when throwing against prevent defenses. As some posts have already pointed out, for a guy that seems to be held in relatively high regard, he does not have a track record of winning big games. A good front office would have brought in someone to compete with Rivers to either improve him or replace him. They haven't done that at least up to this point. I expect that to change in order to shake things up and create some fan interest as they move into their new stadium. Only the owner and Rivers have remained the same over the last several unsuccessful seasons. I expect that to change in 2020.

I agree with you. Adding more real play makers to the wide receiver group will facilitate his further development as well.

That's basically what the Bills have when they are in their base defense with Zo at strong side LB. The teams that have contained Jackson have kept outside containment, collapsed the pocket up the middle, played a match up zone with a spy positioned in the low center zone. The Ravens use a double team block at the point of attack on almost every running play. It's important for the d-line to play low with leverage so as not to be pushed out of their gap by the double team and split the double team, if possible. This forces the runner to go to either side of the double team where the pursuit can make the stop. Ingram isn't as effective when he is forced to make a move at the line of scrimmage. Bills probably hope to force Jackson to throw to beat them, especially if the weather isn't great.

What a total douche move on Freddie's part. You can fix a lot of things but stupidity isn't one of them. This will ensure that his team will receive maximum crap from the crowd in Pittsburgh. It was already going to be a tough environment. He just guaranteed that it will be as bad as it can be.

I don't really care about Cleveland. The only preparation that they will be doing for week 18 is to clean out their lockers and get their end of season physicals.

At the time, the Bills had nothing at TE. Croft was the best available FA and was being sought by multiple teams. Beane did what was necessary to fill the hole. Later, the draft of Knox and Sweeney has made him expendable to save money.

I agree with you. I also think that there is tremendous variation between officiating crews. Some call certain types of fouls very tightly and some let the guys play. This creates uncertainty among the players and often causes a rash of penalties. I also believe that there is significant variation in talent between officiating crews. If you watch a lot of games, you begin to associate certain crews with their approach and performance in officiating a game. Some officials are just plain terrible and I don't think that it always has anything to do with who the teams or players are. As to questions about the fix ever being in, I don't have any knowledge or data to support my beliefs. I don't think it is impossible that some level of fixing games could exist. With so much sports gambling going on, the temptation for players and officials must be significant.

I agree with you. There will be some really good receivers available in rounds two and three. I believe defensive end will be Bills top priority in the first round. There will also be some good FA receivers available which could help shape the draft priorities.

I'm guessing that it may be part of the settlement of the grievance/ lawsuit that was filed. The fact that the NFL is not openly discussing what prompted this, leads me to believe this.

An old phrase that drew on the analogy of kicking the tires when shopping for a car to check out the tires. Over the years it evolved to apply more broadly to checking out the quality or value of almost anything. I don't see Davis as an improvement over any backs on the Bills. I wouldn't be surprised to see Miami claim him. They are in serious need of some depth to get through the last six games. Detroit could also be a possible destination.

I know that fans get upset when guys get paid a lot of money and they don't deliver stats that fans expect. In Star's case, the Bills paid what the market was driving. They paid what they needed to pay to sign him. He hasn't been perfect but he hasn't been bad either. The inconvenient truth for all of the critics is that there isn't a better option currently available to do what Star does. He faces double teams on a high percentage of interior running plays which is what the Bills need him to take on. If he was not being effective at the point of attack, opponents would be handling him with a single man up block. He sees a lot of single blocks on running plays away from him, which is what we should expect. He isn't going to chase many running backs down from the backside. I do like the fact that Star is available for a high percentage of games in his career and he isn't out getting into trouble or being a distraction for the team. I would like him to be a more visibly disruptive force but I don't see that changing. As I watch the run defense, I am more concerned with Murphy and Hughes being out of position because their first moves are intended to attack the QB on most plays. In addition, the Bills seem to play a lot of nickel and big nickel. Opponents have run at that extra DB with a fair amount of success. Lastly, tackling has not been consistent. Even if Star steps it up, other things need to happen as well.

You're right on. I'm still trying to thaw out the beers that I smuggled into that game in my pockets. That game was over before it started. Raiders freaked out when they saw Bruce out for pregame warm up in a sleeveless T-shirt. If people are measuring every game against that one, they should stop watching any games. It's easy to see the areas needing improvement without trashing all of the coaches and players.

Like most of you, I am completely frustrated by the play of all of our wide receivers not named John Brown. When I watch recordings of our games and can rewind and replay certain plays, two things stand out to me. It appears that there is very little variation in the combination of routes run by our receivers which allows DB's to sit on these routes. It also explains why almost all of our big passing plays occur when the original timing of the play breaks down and the receivers deviate from the original routes. The second obvious problem has to do with the receivers inability to recognize a blitz and adjust to a "hot read" pattern. On most offenses, this responsibility falls to the slot receiver or the tight end. Sometimes it is the wide out on the side from which the blitz is coming. Brady, Edelman, and Gronk made a career making these adjustments. When you watch the Bills, you will hardly ever see a receiver make the adjustment. This results in a sack, a throw away, or Allen running with the ball. I don't know if Daboll is being forced to run a high school offense because that's all the players can handle or if that is the limit of his coaching capability. The problem is deeper than whether the game day actives should be Foster or McKenzie. Until the Bills address these two obvious problems, we can expect more of the same and we can read more whining about the symptoms rather than the causes.

I'm not either. As long as the old man is tuned into the headsets, nobody outside of the Patriots knows for sure who is actually making the calls. He may be riding with training wheels but I can't believe that the Master Cheater is giving that kind of complete control to a novice.

You are exactly correct. You need to match the availability of free agents and prospects available to you in the draft with the needs of the team. It is crazy to think that a GM would blindly follow some arbitrary strategy to fill out a roster. Every time I read some "gem" like this from a sports writer, it just reinforces for me that the vast majority of these writers are just journalism majors that are really clueless about their subject. Augie, your post also reinforces for me the fact that I receive more relevant and useful information from the posters on this forum than from any other source. Thanks

I suppose it depends on the criteria. Some people really emphasize statistical achievements while others include the intangible impact on the game. I really like his intangibles. When he is not double covered, he wrecks the game. When his team faces a critical passing situation, they seem to look to him and he delivers. He has played hurt trying not to miss playing time. He is a willing blocker and is an asset in their run game. He has stats that place him among the league leaders in various categories. I also consider the joke that was the Dallas passing game before they acquired him from Oakland and how good they quickly became. If he becomes a FA, he will be the best option out there and will be extremely expensive. If Beane wanted to dump a boatload of cash on a guy, I'd be okay with it being Cooper. I also believe that Cooper will be highly selective in choosing a team. He had problems in Oakland because he didn't like all of the losing. IMHO he will only consider playoff caliber organizations and may not want to play in a cold weather city.

We aren't all that nice. Case in point, my former neighbor dropped one of those a--holes in the parking lot after the game. The guy was an idiot and one of his friends admitted as much. Unfortunately this parking lot action was better than the game. Hope we are ready to play this week. Go Bills!

I was just thinking the same thing when I read your post. It seems highly unusual. At first I thought maybe it just seemed that way because we are seeing it so vividly in the AFC East. Then Cincinnati and Washington pop up with Baker and Cleveland close behind. I think the Bears are headed to a meltdown as well. In addition, a number of players have gone off the rails also. I just saw that Trent Williams has taken a page out of the AB "How to Destroy Your Career Playbook" and the sequel "Helmets Make Me Crazy". We also have Michael Bennett believing he knows how he should be used better than Bill Bellicheat. I'm just glad the Bills are not in the middle of all this drama.

The coaches see all of these guys at practice in a competitive setting a lot more than any of us. We may not like the way Peko has played but I would venture a guess that Taylor hasn't shown enough in practice to jump ahead of Peko. That may change if the team continues to struggle against the run and Taylor gives some indication that he would improve the d-line rotation. As we fret about our run defense, we should also consider the amount of time the Bills spend in their nickel defense. The Eagles hit several nice runs against the Bills when they were in their nickel. I also thought the tackling was pretty terrible on Sunday and it wasn't just one guy.

I think you're correct about the QB play. He has pretty good stats given that they have no o-line and bad defense. Problem in Cincinnati is the ownership. Brown is a knuckle dragger and should have sold the team years ago. Dalton will be around the league for a while yet. He would be an immediate upgrade for Denver, Washington, Tampa Bay, Titans, and Chicago. He could be an effective bridge guy for any of those teams if they are developing young players.

This basically equates to buying a draft pick (aka Brockweiller to Browns a couple of years ago) in exchange for giving LA some much needed cap room. Just reinforces the journey into full tank mode.

I can't believe that there will be much of a market for Bell, unless the JESTS eat almost all of the cap charge. He has a very large cap number and is not a young guy. I thought at the time that the reckless signing of Bell and Mosley, would end up poorly for them. They would have been better served to sign more lower cost guys to fill more of their roster holes. I also remember the national media gushing praise over the JESTS for these signings and speculating that they would be playoff contenders again. I can't see Beane spending money and draft picks on Bell or Gordon. It just seems inconsistent with his approach to things so far. I'm glad that it's the JESTS and Miami that are floundering in roster purgatory and not our Bills.