Einstein's Dog

I'm in the minority that expect Beane to do a move in early June. But to the OP, I believe almost all teams want multiple good WRs. Unlike RBs where some teams aren't going to pay the top level RBs (ie the Bills). With the rise of Josh the FO adopted the strategy of going cheap on RB and more investment in the WR room. Generally teams with good QBs will find it hard to pay 2 really good WRs, so they need at least one through the draft. Consistent with this strategy is the Bills trading for a top tier WR and developing K Coleman. I don't know what people are thinking this new strategy is exactly, in regards to the Bills. We're going to go cheap on WRs along with going cheap on RBs? That's not a strategy, that's just being miserly, that's rebuild stuff. Under this new strategy where does the money go (and many teams have the same QB pay)?

I think the problem is posters dealing with this tautology: 1. Beane is a great GM 2. A great GM will not have C Samuels as the teams top WR during Josh’s prime 3. The Bills will get a top tier WR. Now for some reason most posters don’t think #3 is happening (not me mind you), and they do not want to adjust #1, so all kinds of excuses come out to work around #2. It gets embarrassing at times, things like- the new trend is to have a collection of JAGs at WR, or since Diggs and Davis weren’t good the second half we should replace them with non-good players. And now the lets make Josh a dink and dunk specialist. It’s getting ridiculous.

And an added benefit of adding a top WR is it pushes Hollins/MVS/Claypool further down the depth chart.

I don't like the idea of converting Josh to a pg. In the NBA analogy you have the best PF and you are trying to make him a pg? Josh is missing a high quality outside WR, how is this difficult for people to see.

I hope so. I also hope Claypool is one of the early cuts.

But the risk is Claypool makes it and then slowly turns back to his old self. For instance Claypool makes it as the 4th or 5th WR but is upset because he feels he is better than Coleman. The unrest could be slow and start with confiding in one other player who thinks similar thoughts - maybe Davis thinks he is outplaying Cook. It may not be an easy thing to catch on to.

Great, found a deal on a carcinogen. Maybe next we can find some cheap asbestos. He's not going to show a poor attitude in camp, how stupid do you think he is? It's once the injustice of Coleman getting more game time than Claypool starts to materialize, then the locker room cancer starts to form. Various forms of this cancer have followed Claypool through his travels. We just had major surgery to clear the Diggs virus so forgive some of us for being a little jumpy when they introduce a toxin into the locker room

To the OP how can anyone put serious expectations on the season with this pathetic of a WR room? Getting to the playoffs would be fine. It could be that Pegula is setting up Beane/McD for failure by withholding funds and not letting Beane trade for his WR1 after June 1st (Beane's plan all along). It is following the J Jones model in Dallas where McCarthy is a dead man walking. Pegula could be doing this because of the affect of Kim and the new business arrangement. Then assuming a down year by the Bills, Pegula would then fire McBeane and hire B Belichick, who would relish the opportunity to have Josh and destroy the Patriots. We will know more by mid-June.

Yes, this move is extremely dangerous in bringing in his potentially cancerous attitude. They just got rid of the cancer cell Diggs, infused the team with highly motivated people K Coleman, C Sameul. And now you're going to let the likes of Claypool potentially invest this room when he whines about the unfair conditions that are keeping him on the bench? Way too risky for my blood, I hope they jettison him after the WR pickup in early June.

And this is on a team with one of the cheapest investments in the league in the RB room. Good value there, IMO, but incredibly cheap nonetheless.

I could see Claypool slotted in behind DK Metcalf on the depth chart. Similar builds and talent practicing for a similar role on the team. Seeing someone like Metcalf might help Claypool somewhat turn it around.

DK Metcalf or B Aiyuk. A young WR completes a young set of playmakers ,all younger than Josh, on contracts that go for at least a couple of years.

And we have so many people on this board okay with the Dean Smithing of our boy Josh. They applaud the idea that Beane/Brady restrain Josh and have him go toe to toe in dink and dunk fests. People are okay with not having one proven WR1 on a team with the strongest arm in the game. I'm not saying it can't work, Dean won the title playing that way, it's just not the route I want to see the Bills go.

My point was it looks like the Bills took what they think is the high ceiling player over what most thought was the more ready McConkey. This would seem to indicate the FO intended to have some developmental time. This makes more sense if your plan is to trade for a starting WR on the other side.

Well I think the Bills FO believes K Coleman has the higher ceiling because it looks like McConkey has the higher floor and they took Coleman over him.

True, and I was nervous last year over that spot. I consider that spot less vital though so I wasn't in panic mode. And who would our hidden gem be? Maybe Shorter? I'm not buying it.

An interesting aspect for me, is they chose someone with the low floor but high ceiling over McConkey -the higher floor, lower ceiling choice. it all makes sense in my world where a trade for a top WR takes place (then WR2 is Samuel/Coleman split where Coleman ascends throughout the year into a larger role)

But most people would then say that it with the explanation. And the part about how do I say it without being negative and then being negative For T Burks, oh god no, don't we have enough underperforming JAGs. Now, DHop as a backup plan if the others don't come through has possibilities.

I think how Logic took it (and me too) was that the interviewer was giving him one of those softball questions of "Are they sleeping on Trey" where you expect from answering 101 to be "Oh, yeah, Burks is going to light it up, he's learned the ropes, he's practiced hard all off-season. I think people will be surprised." Instead they get "I know I shouldn't say no, so I'll say nien" Implying what you've seen is what you're getting. The guy stinks and will continue to stink. It looks like one of the two are going somewhere. Even if the guy does stink, if he's your teammate you don't say that.

Of course it's possible to struggle with no WR1 or WR2. It perplexes me that people think it is okay to go into the season in this manner. Safe to say the FO knows how poorly this WR group is in comparison to the rest of the league, only the most die-hard of fans struggle to acknowledge it. What a poor strategy it would be to say we'll wait until we struggle to do anything - we know it's a weakness right now. I also feel confident that Beane has known what it would take to get a WR that totally changes the complexion of the WR group. I believe your cap analysis overestimates the potential cap hit of what they could do for a WR. Someone in another thread mentioned that Diggs cap hit with Houston is $6M. An article by a Pitt guy stated that to get Metcalf you would need $13M and then you could do an easy restructure to reduce his cap hit by about $6M.

Yes, you just need to get the money for the initial blast and then restructure. For instance I have included an excerpt from the Dave Bryan article above. His calculations show $13M to be able to get him in and then an easy restructure to have his cap hit be reduced by almost $6M: I disagree with your J Jefferson or nothing approach though. Any top WR that pushes Hollins/MVS/Claypool from any type of meaningful minutes is of value. But Higgins would be far down my list. Metcalf or Aiyuk for a $7M cap hit, on a 4 year contract is what I'm talking about.

Or both can be true - the plan is not to start a rookie day 1 and to have Coleman quickly gain more time on the outside. All makes sense when you factor in an additional good starting level WR on the other side. Then the C Samuel/K Coleman split quickly transitions over to mostly Coleman.

I could very well be disappointed. Judging from responses I'm in a very small minority (looking like just one at the moment). The WR picked up does not have to have a "give me the damn ball" attitude. They could get one of the younger ones that defer to Josh. Even if we have one WR step up to #1 level, you still need another to step up to #2 level - that level hasn't been met yet by the current crew. K Coleman is not supposed to replace either Stef or Gabe, Coleman is a rookie who shouldn't be starting at the beginning of the season. It seems like people are really stretching it to manufacture belief that this is an acceptable WR room. All sorts of excuses and hopes. I think Beane is one of the best GM's in the business. The moves he has made this off-season are all in line with what I wanted. But those moves only look genius level if they are accompanied with the trade for a good WR. Otherwise I would have to retroactively go back and downgrade prior moves. For instance - not double dipping at WR in the draft would look like a poor move, not getting a decent FA like OBJ would look like a mistake, even going back as far as not extending Gabe - mistake. And in retrospect it will look like Beane got played by Diggs if this is the product he is trying to roll with. Like I said I think Beane is a top GM. I don't think Beane made a series of mistakes. I think Beane had a plan. I'm not saying "There's literally 100% chance" of a trade. But I am saying my opinion of the job Beane is doing would be greatly affected by not doing this. I still believe Beane is a top GM, so I believe this is going to happen. I think I've narrowed it down to Aiyuk or Metcalf with the backup plan of D Adams or DHop.

It's hard to get a good WR who isn't a diva. I thought about my earlier comment and I don't think it is the route the Bills are trying to go ( the non-diva route). I just think they just want another good top tier WR to add to the mix. If they wanted non-divas they would have drafted two. There's risk in adding a WR but I hope they are going to take it. Aiyuk made the rumor mill by going the tweet circuit and threatening to hold out. Pretty clear he wants to be paid. It has a lot of the Diggs kind of back story feel to it. Metcalf can give off self centered vibes but I haven't heard of anything else. Adding either of these two would be huge IMO.

Now this is an ironic twist of fate. I think the new trend the Bills may be trying to incorporate is to avoid having a diva WR that demands x amount of targets a game and have all clutch plays designed for them (goodbye Diggs). They are trying to get multiple good WRs out there - sure handed, and YAC guys. Currently the Bills have 3-4 pass catchers that should be at the good category. Adding one that demands attention deep would make it all click. What Metcalf brings is the need for defensive attention. This man-child with speed cannot be (and isn't) left one on one. And while you may not want to rely on him when the chips are down (I don't know his game well enough to refute that) I do know I would want him in the game taking 2 defenders deep to ease the load to create space for Kincaid and/or Shakir. Whereas MVS/Hollins or whatever other dregs we currently have would have CB4 blanketing them. What I saw out of Metcalf was one of his signature plays. It went something like Seattle looked to be about to score and then did their stupidly patented pass the ball thing. it was intercepted and the DB had a clear unabated 99 yards the other way. Metcalf, from the other side of the field, ran him down. It was then that I gave my permission for him to be a Bill. And while I can understand you thinking he thinks he's the biggest fast receiver - well, he pretty much is. Not really a bad thing to add to the Bills.