jahnyc

I expect that the Bills defense will be tested by the Jets with a combination of concentrated rushes up the middle and short passes in the middle of the field, both specifically targeting Bernard and his inexperience. I don't think it helps having Oliver as an undersized DT helps with defending the run if we are going to start Bernard at MLB.

Agree it will be interesting with Bernard at MLB. I expect that the Jets will try to exploit having Bernard as the starter, but, then again, Hackett is their OC, so maybe he won't be able to figure out how to do that.

Kirksey hasn't played in the preseason because of a hamstring issue. Wonder if he will be healthy to start the season.

I would be surprised if they extended Tre or Dawkins. I think there are reasons why they were not restructured this offseason, including to provide potential flexibility for compensation reductions or release next off season if they do not play well (or at least at their level of compensation).

RB could be a concern if the knee issue with Harris is chronic. I don't think you can go into the season with Cook and Murray and really nothing else. Losing Hynes is very unfortunate, both in terms of his play as a RB and as a KR/PR. May need two players to fill his roles, which hurts from a roster perspective.

McD has a lot on his plate this season. It will be challenging for him to call the defense and be the head coach in all other instances. Mix in a possible degree of lost confidence among players over the way last season and the season before ended and combine it with the potential Diggs volatility, and you may have a tough job ahead for McD this season.

I think McD is going to need to scheme around not having an adequate MLB. Not sure any of Dodson, Bernard or Klein are capable starters. What happened with Spector?

Did Spector play? Does not seem that he is in the mix for MLB. Will he even make the team this year?

At least we have players that can start at OT. Not sure if Dodson, Bernard or Klein are even quality back-ups at MLB.

OT play across the league is not good, so I would not be confident that we can pick-up a quality swing tackle (at least one better than Q) before the season begins.

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).