Ethan in Cleveland

Watched SuperBowl XXXVIII -Patriots - Panthers with Drew Bledsoe at a mutual friend's house. He was super nice. We talked some football strategy and also cars and wine. This was before he started his Doubleback winery.

A sixth round pick played like a starter and Dane Jackson recovered from a nasty hit really quickly. Now Tre should be coming back soon. Like in the movie Miracle, coach Herb Brooks stresses the "options". Bills have plenty of ways to go and most guys are on the cheap too. I wouldn't trade any of them. I'd consider a move to safety for one of them. Obviously White is the controversial one, but as other astutely pointed out Benford has the right size to consider a switch to safety.

Agree it is a bit odd. Maybe McKenzie will be ok for this game.

The salary is an issue long term but not while Elam and Jackson are cheap. The total spend on the secondary wouldn't change that much. You are paying White regardless of where he plays. It really becomes a swap of Hyde's cap number for Dane Jackson's and any increase they would give Poyer. This is all speculation on how White comes back. If he comes back to being a top 10 CB then he will want and the Bills will want him back at CB. If his skills have diminished then playing safety may prolong his career. NFL contracts are not guaranteed and if he can't play at an elite level at CB neither the Bills nor anyone else will pay him top 5 CB money.

Those numbers are the same as their weights recorded before the draft. I double checked. They may still be playing at those weights but it's hard to tell.

That is a reasonable argument. Maybe he would be terrible at safety. Maybe he won't be good at CB coming off an ACL either. As this is just a message board and it is all speculation, I'm going to assume Jackson at CB, Elam and CB, and White/Poyer at safety is our best combination of players. We have only seen a very small sample of what Hamlin can do. Everyone on this board said we would be fine with Johnson at safety and he looked pretty bad. Hamlin seems to be holding his own right now. I don't think it is unreasonable to assume a player with the skill of White who plays a lot of zone coverage looking back into the backfield could transition to FS. Perhaps he can not but there are two guys on the team right now that did it at an All-Pro level. So I'm just saying moving him to safety may put the best group of players in the collective best positions.

Except you can make an argument Oweh gave them no chance to win the game. They were going to let him score or try to push him over the goaline. That was their only chance to get the ball back and try to tie or win the game with their offense.

Fins HC McDaniel looks and sounds annoying as hell. Hope he flames out and takes a hit for how the Dolphins handled Tua.

Injuries are real life. Poyer and Hyde were both corners before moving to safety. That is real life. Neither were anywhere near the class White was in, but you make it seem like players don't move postions. Von Miller was an OLB and now he plays 4-3 DE. Jackson was already on the team and playing last season. Yes it would be very likely with a healthy White they would still have drafted another CB with Levi gone. But it would have been less of a need and perhaps Beane would have considered WR or OL. Heck many on here still wanted WR in first round even with White coming off injury.

Please point out something inaccurate in my post

The knee injury may have sped up that timeline No way he moves if he is healthy. Of course if he is healthy they probably don't draft Elam in first round too.

Because Tre is coming off injury. Benford is not a bad idea too.

I believe Allen and Aaron Rodgers are the best intermediate, say 10 -25 yards, passers of all time. Marino and Fouts were excellent at this distance too.

Bills should seriously consider moving Tre to safety when he returns. Right now Elam and Jackson are playing well and Benford will be back soon. The weakest link on the defense is Johnson/Hamlin opposite Poyer. Rod Woodson did this and landed in the HOF after his knee surgery and this history indeed sways my thinking. Woodson probably makes the HOF as a CB regardless. Others have done it too - Aneas Williams was another. Tre is a great corner but it does appear to be true that McD's system allows CBs of all skill levels to do well. Akin to an OL playing your best 5 somewhat agnostic of position, perhaps the Bills should do the same thing in the secondary with their best 4 players plus Taron Johnson at nickel. My only hesitation for White to safety is that he has never been a great tackler in the open field. Hyde may never play for the Bills again given his injury and only 1 more year on his contract. Moving White to safety now and letting the rookies play CB gives them a long term plan for years to come in the secondary. Feel free to flame away, but I look forward to what others think.

Well Doyle was a fifth round pick so I'm not sure how to answer you. That said I get what you are implying. Late round picks are even more of a crap shoot than first or second day picks. That is fair. I guess I look to those spots to either fill a specific role - punter, PK, kick return, or special teams as Beane has done, or someone that has some skill to develop. Doyle's only attribute was his height. Other than that he is athletically limited to be kind.

He is playing better this year than at any point last year. Opinions and evaluations are allowed to change and evolve. That's why you pick up his 5th year option and see what happens. Right now he is trending towards a franchise tag or contract extension. Milano was a popular choice for parting ways to afford other players but he is playing at an elite level. Odd men out here are going to be Hyde, Singletary, Epenesa, and maybe Morse. Poyer probably gets a 2 year extension soon with how well he is playing. They will restructure White. Very unlikely but if he doesn't recover from his injury he could be a cap casualty with Dane, Elam, and Benford being cheaper options. Heresy I know but you can't pay everyone and inured guys like Hyde and White get released all the time. They then draft safety and OL next year.

Geno played decently in relief of Wilson last year but couldn't finish games and got worse the more he played. That was of course with a terrible o-line and no run game. He is playing much better and more consistently so far this year. Good for him.

1. Hurts and Eagles - Hurts is playing really well. MVP candidate well. 2. Wilson playing so poorly in Denver - many on this board said he was overrated. Looks like they were correct 3. Mayfield being really awful - thought last year the poor play was his injured shoulder. He is playing his way out of the NFL 4. Colts really being terrible - I had them running away with that division. Reich is going to lose his job 5. Doug Pederson - he is making Jacksonville respectable and Reich is getting worse.

As Vegas would say, unless it is the QB that is injured it doesn't matter. They only move the line if a QB goes down.

I can live with this being a no call. OT has arms on his body and then the DE dips. As long as it is called evenly for both teams, I am fine with letting them play.

No idea how this was not called. He is pulling him down.

Nice try OP. Allen is the best QB in NFL and the Bills win because of him. Harbaugh played for a TD because he knew a FG was not going to be enough to win. The defense looks very good but they got shredded in the first half. Fortunately they held for FGs otherwise the score could have been much worse. If Allen and the offense doesn't get that TD right before the half it is game over. Last year's D was a fraud. This year it looks legit. We will know more when White comes back and they play KC. Missing Hyde will hurt all year long but the CB play should get better soon.

Little Jimmy was just named interim HC at Wisconsin. Apparently he was the heir apparent and expected to be the permanent replacement.

I don't but the vitriol is about deferring. I don't disagree with many. I would defer in the hopes I could get two back to back possessions and also prevent the opponent from getting back to back possessions. But in the end, just like today it just doesn't matter. There are far too many variables during a game for the coin toss/defer decision to impact the outcome.

Give Davis and Shakir 3 more weeks. If they are still struggling go get Sanders out of retirement. He's cheap, knows the system, and can compliment Diggs/Davis right away.