Cray51

So you can’t answer the question. lotta deflecting here

If early playoff exits are absolute failures, what do you call not making the playoffs 3 of the past 5 years? is there a word in the known universe that can explain that abomination? That’s surely worse than winning your division each of the past 5 years and at least making the playoffs

Have to win enough of them to have a chance to win the thing that matters. and they don’t win enough of them, we do

You can absolutely make fun of them, they have refused to address their Oline, and as a result it has ruined two of their prime Burrow seasons. now their lack of respect to their players has lost them Hendrickson, and their first round pick doesn’t want to play there unless they offer even just a normal contract. if you ask any NFL fan which team has been the best team of the past 5 years in the AFC behind the chiefs… lemme give you a hint, no one is saying the Bengals

Currently - people dont understand that Oliver is a hell of a player and some thing he is a replacement level starter. He isn't. From 2010-2020 - I always thought Robert Woods was someone who never really had the credit in Buffalo until he was gone. Sure hands, good blocker - I think some would look at him like they do Shakir now if he was with the Bills today in his prime

I’ll disagree on Watson. The defense held a team to 19 points in the 4 quarters. Your goal as a defense is to hold a team under 20. Offense completely sputtered in that second half, and the defense made a crucial 4th down stop to let them tie it up to force overtime. they also forced 3 turnovers against Lamar this year which helped the offense out a ton. burrow neither side of the team showed up, and rivers both sides played pretty even. chiefs games where Allen goes alien mode are the only real games where the defense has truly let the team down

TJ Sanders just seems like a guy who has that swagger about him. If he uses that to refine his game and stay confident, he could be a very good player.

This is the correct move. Watch one game from a nosebleed in November, or spend the same $2k and get a monster TV and soundbar plus the 30 case of Labatt? Easy choice

Agreed. They are below average at receiver, at their o line, on the d line and at backer. they are good at safety and corner, and their RB room looks good. They need Maye to take another step, and they need their team to handle Vrabel and his system, and that’s just to have a shot at wild card

Yea, expecting Fields to be anything close to a good enough starter to beat a Pitt D and outscore the Bucs O is not something I'd bet any money on. They will be 0-4 or 1-3 at best

If that's the case, I like how this plays out for Buffalo. Maybe 1 loss going into the bye with rookies learning the ropes. Come out of the bye week to an easy week followed up by KC with our PEP guys back. Miami week 10 isn't an issue, looking at 6-3 at worst as we get to the Bucs at home. My prediction? 12-5 or 13-4 and another division title

I expect them to be 0-4 after 4 weeks. Fields is 100% a downgrade from Rodgers, and I dont expect them to come in with some winning formula. Pitt tends to be good week1 (4-1 in the last 5 years), and if they bring Rodgers in, I could see there being a bit of a blowout for the Steelers. Buffalo is a loss Tampa in Tampa is a loss Miami in Miami is a loss Jets gonna Jet

I have no issues playing the Ravens week 1. They have new faces on their D, Allen is returning with almost the same offense. Team has been able to stop Lamar in the past, would expect that we have as good of a chance in Week 1 to win as opposed to later in the year when the Raven's rookies have had time to acclimate.

Ok that’s cool and all but what do they say about Jeezy when he is out in traffic?

I will say - I went back and watched a few games from last year - our defense was very fortunate and looked visibly slow and weak. In particular, Rasul Douglas looked BAD and was an issue consistently for our team. If Hairston can come in and anchor that second corner spot, along with Forrest/Hancock/Bishop/Hamlin taking another step, that alone will greatly help this defense if Hairston locks down CB2 and Jackson/Walker/Carter/Sanders become solid starters on the line? Watch out. This team will look visibly better this year

Safety is a weak group in general around the NFL. Very few teams have legit starting safeties in a tandem. Poyer and Hyde were considered a top 3 duo, and they were not really household names around the league Rapp is a perfectly find starting safety. He would start on half the teams in the league. Hamlin is not, but you do have Bishop as a young safety with potential. Maybe they are closer to 20-22nd, but I wouldn't put them further down. CB are absolutely top 15 - the only question was CB2, but we drafted one in the first round. They have a legit top 15 CB group when you include Taron is a top 5 slot corner and Benford is a top 10 boundary corner D-line is the deepest group in the league. From 1-8 we have legit starting talent in the rotation. It lacks top end talent, but there's plenty of talent there. It may actually be top 10.

Kyle is a rookie third round pick in a weak WR class. That's not a stud receiver. He may be, but he isn't a more appealing option than say Palmer/Coleman/Shakir/Samuel. He would be WR5 on this team with some work at boundary to see if he could make an impact. Gabe Davis had 17.2 yards per reception his draft year too... Saints don't have adams - their WR depth is Olave, Shaheed, Cooks, Kelvin Austin, Means, Cedrick Wilson. I'd take Shakir over everyone listed, and I'd take Palmer over everyone assuming Olave is out. Saints have a bad group, easily worse than the Bills Raiders have Bowers, but Bech is a decent rookie receiver. With that said, when we look at just the WR room, they are below the Bills. It's not really close either. Bowers and Jeanty elevate their room, but that's not the question - I was looking purely at receiver. When I look at the roster, you could make a case the Bills are top 15 in almost every single position group except WR. And it's not like their room is the worst in the league, it's just in the bottom third. QB - 1 RB - Top 5 TE - Top 10 WR - 23-28 O-line - Top 5 D-line - Top 15 LB - Top 10 CB - Top 12 Safety - 15-20ish So they are below average for WR and Safety. I think if you are building a team and you said pick two positions to not be good/great at, those along with LB would be my choice.

WR rooms who are worse than ours (or at least in the same ballpark) Patriots - Diggs is aged and coming off of an ACL issue. They have Hollins, Douglas who is a decent young receiver, and Polk who was a disappointment last year Steelers - they have DK and a bunch of guys who would struggle to make the roster here. It's not a good group Raiders - Meyers and a bunch of nothing afterwards Saints - Aged Cooks, Shaheed is ok, and Olave cannot stay healthy. That's not a good WR room unless everything goes right for them So that's 4 teams that I would say are clearly below the Bills in WR room talent. If you add in our TE's and RB's we are jumping a bunch of teams who have better WR groups but worse talent at the other positions. All in all, our "weapons" around Allen are slightly below league average, slightly above league average when you include our very solid offensive line, and straight up top 3 when Allen is part of the discussion.

I dont hate bringing him into camp and seeing what he can be. Similar to Dane Jackson, if you get 1 year of serviceable play, I'm not complaining

Teams that had bad offseasons: Atlanta - did very little in FA, overpaid for Floyd and Diablo. However, their draft was quite solid. Bengals - nothing to address 0-line, pay a ton to keep Higgins, and their defense is still poor. Drafted Stewart who had no production in college, and nothing else stood out from the draft. They are wasting Burrow's prime years with bad management Browns - bad FA signings, and draft was a cluster Dallas - very middling, expect another 5-7 win season Jets - Fields is your hope and you draft TE early second with other more important options on the board? Expect them to be bad again

You don’t guarantee anything publicly for the sake of some radio host

Who from 2024 was worth drafting starting with the Bishop pick? Jalen McMillan, who played third fiddle to Evans and Godwin? No one else after pick 35 has done anything at WR... Who from 2023? Puka, but everyone missed on him. The only other outside threat that was taken after pick 55 with any value is Michael Wilson. Anyone who was productive from the second round on in 23 is primary slot. That's Shakir's spot. That's kind of Beane's point. It's not really gold you are trying to hit. It's the rarest gems you can try to find. There has been 1 legit top 2 WR taken in 23 or 24 after pick 40 - Nacua. You want to risk 2 picks a year on having a 5% chance at landing a decent boundary WR? That's bad asset management. What Beane needs to do is prepare the roster so he can take a 2nd or 3rd and trade for a guy who needs a new deal soon. That opportunity should open up after this season.

I spend all day building AI tools lol - arguing with it is a daily task! 2023 was college, where there was reference to him lining up outside 70% of the time. Last year, his production came within the slot, and as @GunnerBill has mentioned in other threads in the past, LA continued to put him there even though they had terrible outside options; because he is the most effective in the slot and not a true boundary option

In the NFL, when you referenced to their production differences, Ladd is a slot guy. I mean engaged like willing to attack and be more forceful, not physically engaged. I agree, he is consistently engaged with defenders, just not the meaning of the word I intended. Coming back from his injury, he was not attacking the football like he was during the first 5-6 weeks of the year where he was semi-productive against draft position

Ladd is a slot receiver only. He is not and will not be an outside vertical threat. They believe Coleman will be that. Sam Laporta's year last year was just like Kincaid's rookie year (barring TDs, which are always too fluctuating to be relevant in trend discussions). I understand being disappointed - but that's not what you said. You said "miss" The players still had moments and can be contributing players. That's not a miss. If the goal for a pick is to be better than every single pick after you, every GM will fail almost every year. Compare Allen to Jackson - we traded up twice to take a guy who has less MVPs than the guy we could've selected at 23... There was one receiver drafted after Keon who outproduced him prior to injury - Ladd. Who is a slot guy There was one TE who outproduced Kincaid - Laporta, who was part of the best designed and staffed offense in the league That doesn't make both guys misses If he was where Bishop was selected last year I would've been fine with his rookie season. I think when engaged, he can go up and pluck the ball better than most. It's the other things that he needs to work on.