HaldimandBills

https://www.buffalorumblings.com/2025/5/20/24434143/buffalo-bills-granted-international-marketing-rights-to-canada-by-nfl Not surprised by this. Surprised it took this long. The Bills are quite comfortably the 4th most popular sports team in Southern Ontario (excluding Ottawa) after the Leafs, Raptors, and Blue Jays. I'd also argue the NFL is the 2nd most followed league after the NHL.

https://www.thescore.com/nfl/news/3288796 USA walks away with Gold. Comfortably Canada walks away with Silver. Comfortably. Not sure what the point is? Is it to grow a sport? Or watch NFL players grind the other countries into dust as NBC laughs hysterically at the profits? The only reason to add NFL talent is so casual fans go, "ohhhhh I know those football players. Me watch." It certainly serves no purpose in actually growing the game to a wider audience. or maybe it does. Other countries basketball programs have exploded even though America destroys them on the court. Maybe China, Brazil, Japan, Nigeria, Mexico, and France will be OK losing by 100 points?

Homer Take and Long Take Offense - Josh Allen mental game is catching up to his physical traits. We have a few years of peak Josh Allen before physical traits slowly come down. So best QB we have had? - Top 5 OL - RB room is top 10 but can go south if Cook isn't invested. - TE room is top 10. - 2021 with peak Diggs was our best receiving group with Allen. This group is much deeper 2 through 5. Remember when Davis and Mckenzie were options 2 and 3? ugh. Defense. - DL on paper is easily the best group. People forget the years of aging Jerry Hughes, Trent Murphy, Mario Addison, burnt out Floyd, and injured Von Miller as our DE in the playoffs. Buffalo has always had horrible DT depth. At least this year you can see a clear path to a productive interior pass rushing group. Run stuffing DT remains a issue but I imagine this will be mostly left to Daquan Jones who will no longer be relied upon on 3rd downs. - LB avg Unit but no reason to believe that both Bernard and Williams don't continue to improve. Milano is no longer an all Pro but is still good. 3rd year Dorian Williams and Hoecht (Yes I know considered a DE but will be playing LB snaps particularly against the Ravens and other power offenses) are easily the best immediate LB depth we have had. - Corners a lot rides on Maxwell Hairston development but do people really think this years version is worse than Levi Wallace, Elam, Dane Jackson, and aging Douglas? Would be nice to see Benford actually play a full game in the playoffs against the Chiefs (T White and Benford in their primes seem to always be injured late in the playoffs. This needs to change) - Safety Easily our 2nd worst safety room the Bills have had in the Josh Allen era outside last season. A LOT rides on Cole Bishops development. Nickle players with Hancock and Forrest could absolutely upgrade that unit just by actually being much more physical and athletic. All depends how long McDermott gets this group up to speed. I can deal with Raap for another season if we have actual athletes around him. All that is to say. I've seen better Chiefs and Ravens teams than their 2025 versions. I have never seen the AFC this loaded with above avg. teams in the Texans, Chargers, Broncos, Bengals, and possibly Steelers if Rogers goes there. Patriots and Raiders will not make the playoffs but will make every game difficult for their opponents. Bills need to finish 1st in the AFC because the stage is set up for them to go to the Superbowl. All comes down to the Bills 3rd down defense. If it goes to top 10 from 29 than good luck rest of the NFL not named Ravens, Chiefs, Lions, Rams, or Eagles.

NFL is doing a bunch of early schedule release announcements Monday and Tuesday with special guests. Dion Dawkins is one of the special guests. My guess is it's related to the Bills playing at home on Christmas in the Ralph's Last regular season home game.

I doubt it. It doesn't really work like that. Dropping 15 pounds doesn't up your RAS score from a 4 to a 9. One is an elite athlete and one isn't. Watching their college tape it is no contest. Landon Jackson is much more fluid than Epenesa.

I push back on the narrative that the Bills actually had a legit top 10 defense. Sure the #s played that out and you can only play the teams in front of you but there were many seasons in a row the Bills faced a ridiculous amount of trash, rookie, and back up QBs. The Bills defense has always been the same. Makes rookie, and low tier QBs look horrible only to be smashed by good QBs. The answer is simple the back 7 can greatly disrupt bad and young qbs. They can't do that to good QBs. Only a good pass rush can. The Bills have never had one against good QBs. Chiefs might beat other teams in the playoffs but that hasn't changed the fact that the Bengals, Niners, Ravens, Eagles, and the freaking Texans have all had far superior defensive showings against the the Chiefs in the playoffs than any of Buffalo's four attempts. Not surprising either as all those teams have/had superior defensive line talent than what the Bills have been pumping out. Round 1 - 32 year old Jerry Hughes and Trent Murphy with Star Lotulelei as your best DT Round 2 - 33 year old Jerry Hughes and Mario Addison with rookie Ed Oliver and Vernon Butler as your DTs Round 3 - Bills were so badly injured on defense it didn't matter but our Dends were Rosseau and Floyd who fell off a Cliff Week 8. Round 4 - besides Rosseau and Oliver no one is even worth mentioning along the DL. If people actually went back and looked at the Bills DL depth it would come as no surprise why this team can't beat the Chiefs. Josh Allen is the only reason these games are competitive.

This is kind of a three horse race. Ravens would be but who knows when Henry falls off the RB cliff and Lamar is legit snake bitten in the playoffs. That defense is going to be scary good with their off season additions. Bengals might be more legend than reality at this point. Bills have completely overhauled their offensive structure and their defense seems to be leaning towards being better at stopping talented QBs. Too many variables have changed since their last meeting. Chiefs are the Chiefs. Would be nice to have one game against them in the playoffs where we were the healthier team. Their receivers will be much better this season. Their defense and OL will be worse. What does this mean? I don't know. Chargers, Raiders, and Broncos are all trending up and the days of them clinching their division in November might be over. If the Bills defense can return to a top 10 Unit and if they are relatively healthy I like Buffalos chances.

Just for context as I hate the AJ Epenesa comparisons. Jackson RAS score is 9.88. Epenesa RAS score is 4.07 What does this mean? No idea but Jackson is far more athletic.

I came in way too hot and obnoxious and I apologize. I just don't see a world where the Bills could do it all this off season and I firmly believe the correct choice was loading up the defense. Bills had two options. Bills trade away most of their premium draft capital to land the # 1 receiver you want at the expense of any defensive depth. or Bills do what they did and finally address defense early with multiple picks to fix that side of the ball which has been pathetically underwhelming. Bills couldn't do both this off season.

What off season have we seriously invested in defense outside applying a quick bandaid or two? From where I stand we are always rolling out 3rd wave budget DL and 6th and 7th round draft picks at db. Besides Von Miller what actual serious investment have we made in the defense? Our actual serious draft investments have been Oliver, Edmunds, Rosseau, Elam, Bernard, D. Williams, Epenesa, Harrison Philips, Bishop, Carter and Boogie Basham. Since Beane took over that is 11 defensive players taken in the first 3 rounds. 5 starters in the NFL currently. D. Williams on his way to starting. Bishop and Carter to early to tell. Elam and Basham are the only outright busts. That's a normal hit rate for NFL teams and even more impressive when you factor in the Bills usually pick 26 and higher. We can go one step further and break the DL investments down by off season which will prove just how unserious Beane has been in fixing the DL. This the area where we are being eaten alive consistently in the playoffs. FYI I'm furious with Beane that it's taken him this long to finally attempt to fix the DL instead of the pathetic attempts he had been making. 2018. Trent Murphy Star Lotulelei and Harrison Phillips 2019 Jordan Philips Ed Oliver 2020 Mario Addison Vernon Butler Quinton Jefferson? A.J. Epenesa 2021 Justin Zimmer Gregory Rousseau Boogie Basham 2022 Von Miller Daquan Jones Tim Settle 2023 Leonard Floyd Poona Ford 2024 Austin Johnson Dawuane Smoot Casey Toohill DeWayne Carter Look at that list. You call that trying to address the DL? Outside Ed Oliver, Rosseau, Von Miller I call that a lot of budget swings to fix the DL. Keep in mind the only defensive fixture on the Bills DL that Beane was adding to was Jerry Hughes. Bills have never in one off season come close to trying to address the DL or defense the way they are this off season. 2023 is the only one you could argue and adding two 30+ year old players isn't what I would call a serious off season defensive investment. Now 2025 Joey Bosa Michael Hoecht Larry Ogunjobi T.J. Sanders Landon Jackson Deone Walker that is an acutal serious investment. Not even going to bother addressing the dbs because T. White's injuries really sank that group and this organization latched onto Levi Wallace and Dane Jackson for too long. Bills have been a budget defense relying on Matt Milano, Jordan Poyer, Micah Hyde, and an injured T White to be their best players. No wonder the Bills have sucked in the playoffs. When your four best players are two safeties, a off ball linebacker and a injured corner. No team builds their defense this way. Except the Buffalo Bills in the Josh Allen era. Hopefully Ed Oliver, Greg Rosseau, Benford, Bernard, and T Johnson can be the nucleus with the new additions to launching a much better defensive roster. Maxwell Hairston and T.J. Sanders in particular should have Bills fans excited. We actually might have two legit corners and two legit pass rushing DT on 3rd down for the first time in the Josh Allen era. Add Bosa in there as well for two pass rushing DEnds if the Bills can keep his snap count down and avoid injuries. Bills are actually attempting to overhaul the defense instead of throwing a few darts at the board. It plainly obvious the Bills have never come close to being this aggressive on defense in any off season.

How can anyone say this with a straight face? At what point is the offense good enough? When they score 40/50 points? The offense has done more than enough to win a Superbowl. Watching our offense in the playoffs has been a high stakes affair. Not because it is the playoffs but because every Bills fan including yourself knows the defense is not going to get a stop. Doesn't matter if it's the 1st or 4th quarter. Between the Ravens and Chiefs the Bills didn't have a single 4 and out. Good defenses don't rely on turnover luck. Would be nice to be able to breath on offense knowing if they don't convert the defense can actually manage a stop. Any rational Bills fan has to be happy that Beane is finally throwing real weight at the secondary and DL. No more 4th wave budget free agency signings on the DL and no more slower unathletic 6th and 7th round dbs starting because they get the system and trusted the process. How can anyone who watched the Rams and Lions game come away thinking the offense is the issue? The Bills literally couldn't do anything more offensively and still lost one of those games and gave up 35 in the other. The Bills play offense like a team who has no faith in their defense, and they shouldn't. You gave Allen a top 5 OL, top 10 RB room, above avg TE room and a good mix of skills at receiver. On defense you have budget signing Free Agents and late round draft picks across the board. Pretty clear which group needed the attention this offseason.

Yeah.... Don't really care. Anyone with a brain sees that our defense was horrendous last year and couldn't get a 4 and out to save their lives and constantly gave up field positioning. So glad the defense was the main focal point of this draft and that they threw the entire kitchen sink at it. Casual fans will be whining all season about the 4.3 receiver threat. Fans who understand the sport of football will be thankful when our defense isn't a pathetic sieve come January. Apparently having a top oline, great rb group, strong TE group, with a lot of room for internal improvement does not matter. Plenty of reasons to believe that Coleman and Kincaid make significant leaps this year. My lasting memory wasn't the offense. It was Lamar and Mahomes having their way with our pathetic dline and slow secondary that stands out.

I want the Bills to add 3 things SPEED in the secondary. Stop settling for high IQ, low athletic dbs and safeties. We need to go after high IQ high athletic dbs. A DT who can create havoc with his pass rush. A Run stuffing 1 Tech. After that a EDGE with some juice and a take the top off receiver. If the Bills hit on corner and DT I think they comfortably take another step.

So the Niners, Bengals, and Ravens can't score like the Bills? I understand what you're saying, but it still comes down to the Bills defense being horrendous against good competition. The Ravens, Chiefs, Eagles, Niners, Bengals, Rams all play one another much better defensively than the Bills do. Even the Ravens last week could've scored 14 more points easily if they didn't hand the game away through turnovers. Offense scored 29 points. The offense by any metric played better than avg. The defense gave up 32 points. By every metric that is terrible. Especially when your offense didn't turn the ball over and give the opposing team a short field. Bills defense is the reason the Bills haven't broken through. I've seen the Ravens, Niners, and Bengals all slow down Mahomes. The Bills can't do it. This is a issue and it needs to be addressed.

We scored more points on the Chiefs than any other team this year but the offense was terrible. OK. We gave up more points to the Chiefs this year than any other team this season but the defense was good. Just so we are on the same page. Giving up 32 points is a good day for the defense? Sure they stepped up in the 2nd half but the damage was done. 32 points is not a good defensive outing against a Chiefs team who hadn't scored 30 all season. So the defense being atrocious is a flawed argument. I've heard everything now. So why do the Chiefs consistently score the most of the Bills defense vs. every other playoff team? They don't score this much on the Niners, Ravens, or Bengals. Just the Bills.