jahnyc

Since 2019 and excluding our most recent draft, we certainly have not been getting the expected or needed production from our early round draft picks. Elam, Bernard, Basham, Espensa, and Brown are not busts, but none are playing at a quality starter level. Groot and Knox seem to be the exceptions and I am not sure what to make of Oliver. Cody Ford was a bust, and Singletary and Moss are playing for other teams as back-ups.

Thank you, BritBill.

Which side of the stadium is the side for the Bills?

I have no idea if this report is true, but I would not find it shocking. Diggs clearly has issues about something relating to the Bills. His reporting to mandatory sessions with the team did not go smoothly, and I am sure McD was not pleased with the overall look for the team or needing to backtrack from his original comments about the situation. This has been a long simmering issue (since the playoff loss to the Bengals) and it bears watching.

Albright is not a hack reporter and I don't think he is making stuff up. Not sure this is something that could happen given the cap constraints and I doubt any team would offer significant value for Diggs given what has happened with him in Minnesota and Buffalo. Seems really unlikely to me, so we should all prepare for more drama in the future.

Any thoughts as to when the best time will be to purchase tickets on the secondary markets (such as StubHub) (i.e., now or closer to the date of the game)?

Clearly there are issues that none of us know the nature of and that have lingered for a long period of time. We don't even know if the issues are between Diggs and the coaching staff, Diggs and Allen, or Diggs and Beane (or all of the them). Not trying to be pessimistic, but given the amount of time that this has festered, I would be surprised if everything is now settled and relationships and attitudes will revert to how they previously appeared to be. I hope I am wrong.

Interesting that the new WR coach met with him as well. Seems that a combination of wanting more input on game planning, getting the ball more, and not having input on the hiring process for the new WR coach could be at least part of the reason for the current situation with Diggs.

Not suggesting we do it and unless I am reading Overthecap incorrectly, it looks like if we trade Diggs we would have $13 million plus in dead cap and approximately $1.67 million in cap savings this season (with additional future dead cap hits over the next four years). This would not be a good result for our Super Bowl aspirations, but if this is correct, it can be done.

Well, that is not very constructive or make it seem that things have been smoothed over.

What does "letting people cap" mean?

Would have been nice if this had been vetted and worked out in the months between the end of the season and the start of mini camp.

Really weird to be hearing substantive stuff from Diggs' trainer.

Crummy, but there is enough time to get things fixed before the start of the season if things can be resolved and the situation does not involve some type of unforeseen circumstance. Hopefully, it will not be one of those situations where Diggs does not report back to minicamp and goes silent, so no one knows what is going on and we are all subject to the wild speculation that will explode with this type of situation.

I was surprised about this as well, but the Bills likely could not afford the franchise tag amount next season for Oliver because of their salary cap situation. Given that, the choice was to sign him now or likely be faced with the reality of Oliver receiving offers in the open market for more than the Bills could pay and losing him. There are other pieces that we have no insight into, including the Bills' thoughts on the quality/depth of DT prospects in next year's draft, potentially available DT free agents, and their assessment of the market for Oliver (both as a free agent and to trade him now).

Some (if not many) of the WRs listed were #1 or #2 wide receivers in their respective offenses and may have faced better quality CBs as compared to Shakir who likely was being covered by the #3 or #4 CB on the defense that the Bills were playing against.

A majority of our d-line will be free agents after this season, so our d-line will look different next season, particularly at DT. I think it will be difficult to re-sign Gabe to a reasonable contract, so we could have a new #2 WR next season. Safety will be interesting. One has to think that Rapp signed with us because he believes he will be a starting safety in the near term, either with us or for another team. I think Hyde might get a new contract (short in term) if he can show that he is all the way back and healthy after last season's surgery.

Maybe defenses didn't feel the need to blitz since they were generating enough pressure against our o-line without blitzing?

Agreed. Interview should make us all feel that we are good hands with our GM. Glad that he is our GM.

I think Beane did a good job in free agency with very significant salary cap constraints. Losing Edmunds will hurt with no obvious long-term replacement. While I do understand that our interior o-line play last season was a weakness, I do find it odd that we devoted significant (and, again, limited) resources to the guard position in free agency and then in the draft. Unless one of Bates, Edwards or McGovern is traded, there is potential for two of these three to be back-ups at guard this season, which is a luxury I am not sure was the best use of our limited resources. Overall, I think we are about in the same spot as last year in terms of our roster with some upgrades and some losses. The real questions will be whether the Jets make a jump because of Rogers and whether the Dolphins free agent acquisitions and hiring of Vic Fangio as defensive coordinator will propel them to the division title over the Bills this season.

This may be their best opportunity to recoup the 4th round pick they traded away to move up to draft Kincaid. I would think trading out of this pick is a strong possibility.

Well, this detiorated quickly.

Definitely feeling like this is trending to not be happening. Too many mentions of the Ravens from too many sources.

At least DHop seems to want to play for the Bills. No idea if this happens, but the Bills have come a long way and are now a desired team to play for.

If the Bills are looking to fill immediate needs and imminent needs (i.e., 2024 needs), I think the top three picks will be some combination of ILB, DT and OT. We have a current hole at ILB, no DTs signed for 2024 (and I doubt we re-sign Oliver), and we need a swing OT (plus we need better overall play at OT and both Dawkins and Brown are free agents after 2024). We do need to upgrade at WR, so that of course may be a top three pick, but I believe the current needs are greater at these other positions.