Ethan in Cleveland

I don’t get the sense people hate him. It's mostly unrealized anticipation and disappointment and that has as much to do with his draft position as it does his performance. I hated Murphy. Edmunds was never in my hate category but I just refused to buy into the notion he was a difference maker in any way.

Good catch. I thought they had a year overlap! Dam I'm usually better than that.

I'd bet 95% of this board would trade three 7-10 seasons for a SB trophy. I watched since 1980. So I've seen the best and the worst the Bills have done after the merger. I'd do anything for the feeling of winning one trophy even if it meant 3 years of no playoffs. Already lived through 17.

Appreciate the comments. Im guilty as any fan of over reacting from time to time.

I agree. I was just praising McD for getting most of these guys to fit in really quickly. As you said it could be who they choose to bring in as well which may be as much or more about Beane. Either way it seems to be working and as others have said probably the only way to fill out the the roster once to you get a handful of high price vets.

I'm a McDermott skeptic but the Floyd signing made me think of how well the culture has been maintained year over year even with these one year rentals. McD has done a real solid job of building a culture that allows these guys to quickly acclimate to the club, produce, and for the most part not be a negative influence. With the notable exceptions of Benjamin and the CB that quit at halftime, I don’t think there is another guy that was brought in and caused any issues. Don't know the whole story on Spain year 2 but that was quickly handled. He has done it in a variety of ways too. He let Kyle Williams be the elder leader while Josh matured. He then let Josh lead, only to bring in Miller at a later time and let him take some of that burden too. The whole time he also has Morse as a reliable steady veteran influence in the background. No doubt Beane has some role in this as well selecting guys that should be a good fit, but this is where McDermott has been exceptional.

Then why was he starting over Epenesa at the end of the season? Who cares at this point. All three of there's guys are roster bottom feeders that will compete for DE4 spot vs PS. I'd try to move Epenesa like Beane did with Ford. Let's get back to the OP. Really like a top 3 DE of Miller, Floyd, and Rousseau!!!

Epenesa is not showing signs of improvement however. He was given a chance to start when Miller went down and played poorly. Lawson beat him out for the starting job and was the starting D end at the end of the season. Agree Lawson is an average player but Epenesa is just not any good. Basham is probably worse but at least he is a bigger body to help against the run. Pretty sure he did it for Denver vs Carolina as well

Ford and Settle will be the best two complements to Oliver he has had. No excuses for Ed now.

No we won't. Oliver extension was a mistake. It is the only real criticism I have for Beane this off season. Floyd signing is a nice move. Pass rush was the one area not addressed. This gives the option to put Miller on PUP for 6 weeks and give him more time to heal. Hopkins was probably never going to happen. Still massive question marks at MLB, but there are at least some bodies on the roster to work with. Prior to Floyd there were not enough DEs on the roster to be competitive. Floyd fills a hole for sure.

Those were garbage sacks last year. Lawson outplayed him. Like this signing Time for Beane to admit mistake and trade Epenesa for a 5th next year. Basham isn't much better but he has size to play in run down situations. Epenesa is useless against the run.

Nope. Go watch the highlight video someone posted today. Oliver faced a single blocker the majority of the time. Even then very few sacks. He's just not that good.

We may be fans but we aren't completely uniformed either. Remember this is the same management team that signed a guy that quit at half time and drafted and played the worst QB in NFL history. They are not geniuses. Oh yeah its the same guys that traded Teller. They make mistakes all the time. We've watched Oliver play for four years. We knew he was undersized coming out of college and shocking he has battled injuries(pectoral, calf, ankle). He has a total of 14.5 sacks in 4 years. I think most on here agreed with picking up the 5th year guarantee. That made sense. I think most were happy to see him play on the last year of his deal hoping he would really ball out. Now he is an overpaid injury prone undersized DT that we hope can live up to they hype coming out college.

I don't see it. Looks like an overspend just like Star. Could have easily been replaced with a day 2 draft pick next year. Hated the pick. He's done nothing to change my mind, and now I hate the extension. All we can do now is hope he stays healthy and puts up 8-10 sacks this year with McD calling the plays.

I'm guessing he was thinking of Daryl Williams, Star, and maybe Quinton Spain. All of these were guys that got big money contracts from Beane and then flamed out, but of course none of them were drafted by Beane.

Hated the pick then and still do. He's at best a solid starter. For a top 10 pick that is not good enough. I will give a caveat to my post. He did have a bad ankle injury last year after starting the year well. Truly hope he can offer some inside pass rush. If he could get 8-10 sacks with 20 or so QB hurries he can make a big difference.

What's odd is he was pretty good the first month of the year and then was absolute garbage the remainder of the year.

The home field weather advantage has not been an advantage for 20+ years. Probably only helped when playing LA Raiders and Dolphins in the playoffs during the SB years. We are an elite passing offense. Josh doesn't play well in the rain. Does any qb? Cold is not an issue. Its the rain and wind they have had to play in multiple times the last few years. Add the fact we get a ton of players from the SEC who never played in the cold. Its no advantage.

Good take. I meant to include guard and C with IOL(interior o-line). I think you are probably right about CB especially if they play mostly a zone type scheme. Did Mayfield have leadership issues? Honest question. I dont recall hearing about that. Otherwise I agree. In Cleveland here they are struggling to find a leader. Watson was suspended for 11 games and their best player is a DE that is quiet and only makes the news for speeding tickets and crashing his sportscar.

Cmon man. You know that was the contract not the talent. Do better.

I don’t assume the worst. I just don't beleive he was that hands off the defense over the last several years. And you know as well as I those regular season defenses the last few years have faced one bottom feeder QB after another allowing them to pad their stats. It just makes no sense that after losing to the Chiefs in back to back AFC playoff games that now he is going to get more involved and there will be a radical difference. Add the Houston collapse and it just doesn't jive. That said the D won the Ravens and Colts playoff games. Which is interesting. If anything the Bills run D is what gets gashed from time to time in the regular season and then they play well against running teams in the playoffs only for the vaunted secondary to get picked apart by the Chiefs. But who doesn't get picked apart by the Chiefs. Add the regular season success against the Chiefs and it is all the more frustrating and perplexing. All of this is of course magnified by 13 seconds where defensive timeouts were called before each play and still they allowed the Chiefs to get into FG range. Anyhow, all this talk doesn't matter. McD owns it and let's see how it plays out.

Let's assume it is more aggressive which I doubt. Why the wait? Why would the HC allow the DC to run a less passive scheme than what the HC wants? Again, I want McD calling the plays so there is no doubt who is in charge of the defense. If he truly is more aggressive then great. Keep in mind arguably the greatest play in Bills history was a pick six by Taron Johnson paying zone coverage in the red zone with a four man rush.

Until proven otherwise it's the same as it had been for three years Allen is our greatest hope Coaching is our biggest question mark

Yeah he can do a cone drill ! Too bad blocking isn’t part of the score. 12 out of 1143 over 34 years and he still was considered a reach in the fifth round. Must be a reason. Watching him play do you think he is elite In explosion or agility? Hey if he earns a roster spot that’s great. He is cheap labor. Can’t wait for training camp

It will be interesting to see how they construct the final 53. If Kincaid can block even a little, they might go with two TE's. But I'm guessing they go with three because Kincaid is just a tall slot WR in this offense. And you are correct Bates played the extra OT when Feliciano was the back-up C. Regardless I still don't see Doyle making the roster.