DapperCam

I’d be interested in those statistics, because I remember a few specific instances this season of Benford getting burned in man on third down. The most recent memory is vs the Broncos at the end of the first half he took a defensive holding and then gave up a 20 yard completion in the same drive. Pretty sure those were man, but I’m too lazy to check.

Am I the only one hesitant to throw big money at Benford? He had a good year, but it’s a small sample size of top play. He’s not a ball hawk. He’s been very injury prone (even not considering the concussions). And it seems he plays best in zone and gets burned sometimes in man. It actually reminds me a lot of Josh Norman who was elite in McDermott’s system in Carolina, signed a huge deal and busted for the Redskins. He could only play zone. Especially if the Bills want to start playing more aggressive and sprinkling in man coverage more often I would not throw a top-5 CB contract at Benford.

Seems like his contract is structured such that we’re stuck with him. Just have to hope he returns to 80% of old Milano.

Edmunds was probably worth his drafted spot (or at least he's paid like it). Rousseau is probably worth his drafted spot. Ed Oliver hasn't been a bust, but hasn't been worth a top-10 pick. Bills just haven't had a pick that isn't at the end of the draft since 2019. That will be 6 drafts ago after this April. Maybe we should have been more aggressive trading up, but usually the bottom of the first round isn't going to have elite talent. It will be either high risk raw prospect, or a lower ceiling "sure thing" guys. Just to compare to a team in a similar circumstance, here are the KC 1st round picks since Mahomes: - Clyde Edwards-Helaire - Trent McDuffie - George Karlaftis - Felix Anudike-Uzomah - Xavier Worthy CEH and Anudike-Uzomah are busts. McDuffie was a hit. Karlaftis is fine (probably equivalent to Rousseau). Worthy was fine, but more of a complementary piece. They've drafted a tick better than us, but not dramatically better IMO.

Didn’t Buddy Nix basically force that pick anyway?

Rousseau is a FA the same offseason, so you can add him to the pile. I don’t think there is any way Shakir gets that much. Benford and Bernard suffer from the same issue, they are always injured. Benford has missed our playoff elimination game 2 years in a row. Cook seems to have a much higher number than given in OP.

$15m is an outrageous number for the current RB market unless he thinks he will be the one to reset it. Only McCaffery and Jonathan Taylor have contracts like that and Cook isn’t on their level (and arguably those teams got burned by those contracts because of injuries).

Wrist curls are no match for a Rapp teammate-seeking missile.

I don’t think he’s a whipping boy. 99% of critical comments here just don’t want to allocate that much cap to him (or any RB for that matter).

There is no infinite cap glitch. The Eagles will have to account for these guys with void years on their cap even when they aren’t playing for them anymore. Just like we are doing with Von Miller after he gets cut this offseason. Rams and Saints are two teams that have recently played this cap game and now they are sort of in limbo. Bills and Chiefs have largely avoided it to keep their windows open. We’ll see what the Eagles can cook up, but they have big contributions right now on defense from players on rookie contracts (pretty much all their best players on D).

So if the Bills already have one bad deal on the books they should give out another bad deal? Sound logic.

Rapp and Benford out IMO.

Sorry, that is not as clear as it gets. I will rebut each point. - Raiders: The difference between these seasons was in 2022 the Raiders got the fired coach bump. They went 3-1 their last 4 games. Jacobs didn’t even play in those games. - Giants: They got very similar RB production this season as last season. I would actually say 2024 Tracy Jr outperformed 2023 Barkley. They lost more games because they were intentionally tanking and released the best QB on their roster to go through a carousel of backups. - Titans: This team just epically collapsed, and I don’t it would have been any different with Henry there. Rudolph got a lot of starts, Levis regressed majorly, and they had a new HC. Do you really think a top 5 RB adds 3-4 expected wins to a team? I doubt the Vegas line even moves when a RB is ruled out. Maybe a half a point. I hope you don’t gamble for your own sake.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/nfl/dianna-russini-reveals-why-she-voted-against-josh-allen-for-nfl-mvp/ar-AA1yCXrv Dianna Rossini said that the reason she voted for Lamar over Allen, was because the Bills had a better defense. That reasoning makes no sense to me, and their defenses were actually ranked about the same at the end of the season. There are arguments that the Bills actually had a much worse defense (last in the league on 3rd down).

The Eagles, Ravens and Texans all had very similar seasons to the prior season. Only the Eagles really improved, but last season was a weird one (they went from SB, to looking like an elite team and then going on a late season slide, then back to the SB). It isn’t clear to me at all that paying a play making RB is a good investment.

Too afraid to get beat deep with our weak safeties. We saw them get burned deep several times this year.

KC’s offense was middle of the pack all season. You don’t need an elite defense to contain it. You just need a not terrible defense. A bar we could not clear.

I don’t blame Cook for trying to lock in a big money extension now. He just had what will probably be the best season of his career. Gotta strike while the iron is hot.

He’s pretty poor in pass protection and blitz pickup. That’s why Ty Johnson is in on 3rd down and the 2 minute offense (where most of the plays will be passes).

Reasons to not pay Cook: - We might have the best o-line in football. That could have inflated his counting stats. - Can’t pass protect, plays less than 50% of snaps. Not on the field on passing downs tips our hand to the defense. Reasons to pay Cook: - Only player we have with home run ability (only RB since spiller or Fred Jackson). - No turnovers and great in the red zone this year. I’m kind of thinking you need to let him walk/hold out if he wants big money. Draft a speed RB. Ray Davis played decent for a rookie.

Nah, his roster was possibly the best in the NFL (along with the Ravens) and his DC was incredible this year. He gets some points for steering the ship, but I don’t think he’s a top 5 coach. McVay and Reid are the two best coaches in the league IMO.

Age and injuries really killed us. - Tre White tearing his ACL and the Achilles on a big cap deal. - Von Miller tearing his ACL on a big cap deal. - Milano breaking his leg and then tearing his bicep on a big cap deal (decent sized vet deal at least). - D Jones tearing his bicep and missing a year. - Hamlin dying - Poyer and Hyde kind of falling off a cliff. Hyde breaking his neck and missing a season. They were on decent vet deals. - Oliver being perpetually dinged up. Some really bad luck here

Hurts had pretty mid stats when the game was out of reach barring a miracle (27-0 late in the third). Both QBs benefited a lot from garbage time last night. Realistically the Eagles could have run every single play when it was 27-0 and still won.

Manning vs the Seahawks looked similarly bad (even similar stats, turnovers and a pick 6).

Not to mention the chilling effect of having defenders thinking twice before trying to make a sack/tackle. If they’ve already drawn 2 roughing the passer penalties they are probably thinking and slowing down before making contact. Maybe just enough for slippery Mahomes to scoot out of the pocket. I don’t think you can rough the passer when he’s no longer a passer. Ball was already on the turf when that guy made contact. Probably best they could do was illegal hands to the face, 15 yard penalty from the recovery.