GASabresIUFan

He is the best slot receiver in football. Maybe the pro-bowl only looks at yards and TDs, but a guy who is the best at his position should be in the pro-bowl and on the all-pro teams. Taron Johnson made the All-pro 2nd team last year and is the best slot corner in the NFL. Maybe it's time slot receivers get the same respect.

All your guys are outside receivers. Shakir is 2nd in the NFL in YAC and Leads the NFL in YAC per reception for receivers with over 40 catches. He also leads NFL receivers in catch %. He is arguably the best slot receiver in football. AMcConkey has more receptions and yards than Thomas among AFC rookies. Sutton has outperformed Wilson and both have barely better number than Nico Collins who has played 4 less games.

Shakir?

If the cap is 270, that gives the Bills about 15 million to sign 13 players and some operating capital. The only key FAs are Cooper, Hollins and Douglas. There are 3 obvious guys with higher cap figure than dead cap in Miller, D Jones and Epenesa and 2 guys who should restructure to help the cap in Milano and Knox. I think the Bills need to get to 30 mill at least to have a decent summer. The biggest holes would be replacing Douglas and or Cooper. I do wonder if the Bills believe Elam, Lewis or Ingram can be an adequate replacement for Douglas to save the money instead of re-signing Douglas. Cooper is going to be an interesting follow for the rest of the season. Does he play well and force the Bills to find a away to keep him? It’s not like the Bills have someone waiting in the wings to replace him. They certainly can draft another WR early in the 2025 draft. As we have seen it can be a bit of a crap shoot, but with Coleman, Samuel and Shakir returning Beane could go back to the draft to save money in order to re-sign Shakir long-term. I’d like a draftee with higher end speed for a change even if we keep both Hollins and Cooper. I’m also interested to see how Beane re-tools the D-Line. Rousseau and Oliver will return as starters with Solomon and Carter as least key backups. Miller, D Jones and Epenesa are ripe for being cut or being restructured. Smooth, Johnson and Toohill are FAs. Williams from UGA and IU’s Kamara would be great fits early in the draft.

First things 1st. We only have 40 players under contract for next year. Douglas, Smoot and Austin Johnson are void year contract liabilities, but are UFAs. They'll add nearly 6.4 to our dead cap next season. Knox and Milano who you'd think might be cap casualties actually have higher dead cap hits than actual cap costs in 2025. I can see a restructuring of both their deals to keep both players, but reduce their 2025 cap cost. We have a similar discussion going from Monday. Here are the 40 players Offense (17) QB (2) - Allen, Trubisky RB (2) - Cook & Davis TE (2) - Kincaid & Knox WR (3) - Coleman, Shakir and Samuel OL (8) - Brown, Clayton, Dawkins, Grable, Edwards, Torrence, McGovern, SVPG Defense (21) DT (3) - Oliver, Jones, Carter Edge/DE (4) - Groot, Miller, Epenesa, Solomon LB (6) - Bernard, Spector, Milano, Andreessen, Ulofoshio & Williams CB (5) - Johnson, Benford, Elam, Ingram & Codrington DB (1) - Lewis S (2) - Bishop & Rapp Specialists (2) - Martin and Bass Dead cap (with 3 deals on void years - Smoot, Douglas & A Johnson) - 11.1 million approx So what do we need? On offense - 2 WRs, 1 depth TE, 1 depth RB, at least 2 OL (Anderson & Van Denmark?). Gore vs Johnson for 3rd RB? Re-sign Amari? On defense - At least 3 DE/DT, maybe a starting CB and depth at safety. Hamlin re-sign? I'm sure Ferguson will be back as the long snapper.

Hilarious day in college football. My Hoosiers get stomped in Columbus and Penn St escapes Minn barely. Then the SEC implodes as Aub beats A&M, Ole Miss choked against mediocre Florida, and Oklahoma demolishes Bama. Elsewhere Colorado and BYU piss away their playoff chances with bad losses. I honestly can’t stop laughing. So who is left Big 10 - Oregon, OSU and Penn St. Although my Hoosiers are still alive as everyone else choked. SEC - Texas, Tenn and Georgia. ACC - Miami, SMU and possible Clemson Big 12 - Iowa St and Arizona St fighting for one bid. Boise St is still the leader in Group of 5 bid and sadly ND is in.

Someone asked how well has Beane drafted around JA? I hope this helps. 1) pro-bowl running back - James Cook and an excellent complimentary back in Davis 2) NFL leader in catch % and 2nd in YAC - Shakir 3) 8th in yards by a TE to start a career - Kincaid (plus an very good but overpaid backup in Knox) 4) Pro Bowl+ tackles - Dawkins and Brown (Dawkins drafted the season Beane arrived but by Whatley) 5) 2nd starter at Guard - Torrence. 6) Top 10 rookie receiver in Coleman. By my count that’s 7 good to great starters and 2 extremely good backups all drafted by the Bills to support Allen. Beane then brought in 3 good players to fill the draft holes in Cooper, Edwards and McGovern. I’d say Josh has a great support mechanism ———> 9-2 The other side of ball is getting closer to being filled with draftees (starters only) DL - Rousseau, Oliver, Epenesa - (Carter in for Jones next season?) LB - Milano (Whatley). Williams and Bernard CB - Benford —->(Elam next year’s starter for Douglas?) S - Hamlin —->(Bishop in for Hamlin next year?

Big game today for the Hoosiers. It’s funny watching the GA fans lose their minds about an undefeated Big 10 team being ranked ahead of a bunch of 2 loss SEC teams. Those teams, including UGA, may be better teams, but they also may not be. I’m a UGA season ticket holder and this team just isn’t as good as years past. None of the top 6 SEC teams are truly elite this season, thus most have two losses. They need to relax and let it play out on the field.

I wrote last week in another thread before the Chiefs game that our magic number was 3, but really 2 Bills win combined with one loss by NE, the Jets and Miami and we clinch the division. The Bills Jets and NE all cooperated. So now the number is one Bills win eliminates the Jets and Pats from the division. We still need Miami to lose one. As to the playoffs otherwise, my guess is the playoff machines look at the games the other 9 playoff contenders play against each other to determine who will be eliminated with each result. Ultimately it comes down to if the Bills win against SF and Miami losses to either NE or GB. This way the Bills clinch the East and a playoff spot.

Ladd runs great route, he has excellent hands, is shifty as all get up, faster and tougher than DBs think. He is nearly impossible to tackle in the open field and can play both slot and outside. If he hadn't gotten hurt his last year at GA he'd have been an easy 1st rd pick. Love Ladd.

The 2023 guys are practice squad level depth. Not that there is anything wrong with that. That's still an NFL job, but it's not what I consider quality depth like a Dane Jackson or a Siren Neal. We were trying to see if there was any improvement in the Bills drafting during Gray's 2 years as Director of Player Personnel vs Schoen's time as AGM from 5/2017 to 1/2022. From what I can see in just reviewing the drafts, it's hard to see much difference. The decision to draft more skill players early came in the 2022 draft after Schoen left and before Gray was promoted. 2018 and 2024 might be Beane's best drafts. The 2024 draft did feature one major change in philosophy; drafting older college players many of which had leadership roles on their college teams. I think that's why so many were able to jump right in and contribute.

We have beaten the topic to death, but the idea of a CB in that slot made sense, just not the player. We are a zone team and drafted a man cover specialist.

Are there any franchise type QBs in this draft? Granted I thought Bo Nix was going to be awful in the NFL, but no one really looks the part. Here are probably the top 10 names - Sanders, Ward, Ewers, Milroe, Nussmeier, Beck, Gabriel, Rourke, Klubnik and Dart. Besides Sanders, and maybe Ward and Rourke, has any one really impressed? Klubnik and Ewers got destroyed by GA's defense. Beck has often looked pedestrian this season. Ward has been great for Miami, but who has he played? The same can be said for Rourke at Indiana, but I admit I've been impressed with his arm accuracy. Gabriel isn't the reason Oregon is winning and he's short and slow.

Gray was on staff, but he became Director of Player Personnel in June 2022, after the 2022 draft. As I outlined about 2022 even with the Elam miss is an incredible draft with 4 pro-bowl + level players in Cook, Shakir, Benford and Bernard. Truly an amazing result.

I also don’t think he’ll take a job unless they have a good GM in place and a QB he believes is or can be a franchise player.

I went and looked at Beane’s drafts and I need to revise my comment above. They have nearly every year drafted 3 or more starters and these guys have been very good to excellent as starters. 2018- was a surprising exceptional draft. Allen & Taron Johnson are the studs for the Bills. Edmunds has been pro-bowlers for the Bills, but moved on. Wyatt developed into an all-pro OL but sadly elsewhere. Phillips, depth in Buffalo, is now a quality NFL DL starter. Neal and McCloud are good depth players. 2019 - 3 Starters - Oliver, Singletary and Knox. Oliver is the only VG player. Knox is now high quality depth and Ford is a depth lineman 2020 - 2 Starters in Epenesa and Gabe Davis. Moss and Jackson are quality NFL depth plus PK Bass 2021 - 2 Excellent starters in Rousseau and Brown. Hamlin is good depth and now a starter. Maybe our weakest draft under Beane except the 2 stars. 2022 - 4 exceptional starters - Cook, Shakir, Benford and Bernard. Spector is decent depth and Elam may still become something, maybe. 2023 - 3 starters already in Kincaid, Torrence and Williams, but nothing behind them 2024 - 8 players already contributing with Coleman the only starter so far. Bishop and SVPG are likely future starters with Davis and Grable possible as well. Carter and Solomom are already good depth. UDFA Andressen and traded for UDFA Codrington already contributing as well.

This is a great question and one that I’d have to research and compare Grays 2 years vs Schoen’s time. I agree that Beane must take the advice of the scouts and senior staff. Overall I think the Bills have drafted well under Beane with an improved emphasis on skill players the last 3 drafts earlier in the draft. I don’t attribute that to Gray because it started before he became Director of Player Personnel and was a necessity given our aging core. (Edit: Gray joined the Bills in 2017 as Director of College Scouting and was a scout for 11 years, so he has had to be involved in the Bills drafting good and bad since then). When I think about a successful draft a team should develop at least 3 starters with one becoming a very good to elite player. Outside the franchise QB, succeeding in the draft as I described allows you to turnover your starters on average every 7 years and should keep a team competitive. The Bills are under the 3 per year goal, but the starters they have found have been excellent and they’ve done a great job at drafting quality depth. Overall they have drafted better lately I think, with 2022 being the best year with 4 great starters in Shakir, Cook, Benford and Bernard even with the Elam miss. That draft is between Gray and Scheon.

McD has done a great job this year, but he isn’t going to win the COTY. Here’s why. The roster turnover was mostly getting rid of diminished players except Morse. Even Diggs and Davis production fell considerably last season as the year progressed. This was a media mantra stemming from trading the diminished Diggs. 8 starters returned on offense and 9 on defense. Basically the depth got younger, but the core of the team that went 7-2 down the stretch last year returned nearly intact. Besides KC who have the Bills beaten? Only one other opponent so far except KC has a winning record and that’s AZ at 6-4. Of all the top teams our opponents win% is the worst. Our only remaining opponent with a winning record is Det. If we lose to them we’ll have lost all 3 road games against good teams this season.

I don’t know if Gray will be a good GM or not. I honestly don’t care. If he leaves best of luck to him. The Jets ownership is so bad the odds of him succeeding aren’t good. Just because someone is a good AGM or scout or player personnel director even from a good organization doesn’t mean they’ll be a good GM, just like most DCs and OCs don’t make good Head Coaches. Beane and McD are the exceptions not the rule. That’s fine. The Jets take Gray and Schoen returns. Sounds like a fair swap.

I always thought he was the model for the GEICO Caveman.

Don't let facts get in the way of a McD hater mantra.

The Giants took Daboll and Schoen. How has that worked out? It's so strange that the Bills are one of the best run organizations in the NFL and the Sabres one of the worst with the same owner.

There was much negativity around this pick to say the least. That’s why we don’t get paid to run NFL teams. The sad part is when the fans actually know than the GM. Thankfully the Bills aren’t one of those teams.

No MVP for Allen No Comeback player of the year for Hamlin No Coach of the year for McD ……because Buffalo!

Actually I think people tuned in for Hailee vs Taylor.