BillsFanForever19

It is a lot. But it's going to take a lot to get him on Year 2 of a potential 5 year Rookie deal. It's going to take a 1st or multiple 2nd's. You don't ignore a Pro Bowl, All Rookie Team 1st year completely for some metrics in the first third of their second year. As for them willing to trade him after Year 1, you have to keep in mind the RIDICULOUS move they made for Travis Hunter in April. Part of that deal may have been them knowing they'll recoup some of those assets by trading BTJ. With them Drafted one year apart, they'll eventually have to lose one or pay them both within a year of each other. I don't think it's crazy to assume that they saw Travis Hunter as Generational and made the move for him knowing part of that would be moving on from BTJ. Especially since their GM wasn't the one to Draft BTJ and was the one to go all in on Hunter. Olave isn't an option. Every day they proclaim he won't be traded. I'd say that could be posturing. But what seals the deal for me is that they've been talking extension and Olave is interested. My take was always that it would only happen if Olave was rebuffing their overtures. With it being reported that's not happening, he's not going anywhere. It's Shaheed or nothing from New Orleans. My concern is that our wins come against teams with a combined 8-28 record. The injuries are mounting on a Defense, that while looking great today, is incredibly suspect. We've struggled against teams we absolutely shouldn't be struggling against and lost to teams we absolutely shouldn't have lost to. The Patriots are essentially 1.5 games up on us in the Division right now (with the victory over us) and absolutely rolling. The Division may be out and there's no guarantee we get a Wild Card. I don't think we're one WR away from being a Contender. We could very easily be giving up our best pick since 2019. I'm not against doing it. But I would avoid giving up that 1st in 2026, if at all possible.

I'd offer a 2nd this coming Draft, a 2nd in 2027, Keon Coleman, and AJE as a rental. I worry about giving up a 1st and would avoid it if at all possible.

There seemed to be more man coverage than usual also, which is very encouraging. Cook O-Line Run Blocking Shakir Walker Epenesa Special game ball to all of our returning players in Hoecht, Hairston, and Ogunjobi for coming in cold and making some plays. Ogunjobi went from the couch to starting mid game and we're going to have to lean on him.

Take a breath there pal. Gonna pop a blood vessel. I didn't say he absolutely won't make a deal. Just worried he'll look at this beat down and think it's not as important as it is.

He's referring to the fact that Beane making a trade for a WR, after going nuclear on Jeremy White for saying that's something we need to do, would mean him eating some humble pie. Also that after a blowout win, he could fall back into thinking "our Offense is fine, we don't need to make a deal". And I too worry about both those things.

James Cook isn't a 3 Down Back though. We could replace him with Ray Davis and not miss a beat.

Beane gonna see that and say "oh, we're good at WR"

If that's the case, we'll have lost Ed Oliver (prob for the year), T.J. Sanders (prob for the year), Daquan Jones, and DeWayne Carter (def for the year) since assembling the 53. That's insane.

Jesus. We went from being kind of loaded at DT to now losing Oliver, Sanders, Jones, and Carter since the start of the year. That's madness.

Epenesa's made a few splash plays off the bench as a 3rd DE this year. But people around here talk about him like he doesn't deserve a roster spot.

Josh has been off the mark quite a bit more than usual the past few games. Idk if he's just out of rhythm from WR's not getting open. But it's getting so frustrating when something's there and we still can't get it.

Not wrong that we should make a trade. But Carolina isn't a bad team. They've got a winning record. And that Falcons team that slapped us around got shut out by them 30-0.

That's part of the equation though. It wasn't just Khalil Shakir. We also had Dalton Kincaid that we Drafted for the Slot the year before, not to mention just signed Curtis Samuel, who was also mainly a Slot. It was a loaded pass catcher core for the Slot. Did we know Samuel wouldn't produce in his 50/50 role and deal with injuries or that Kincaid would regress? No. Kincaid was coming off a fairly decent Rookie season and Samuel we just signed to a decent deal. All we had was Slots or mainly slots and Mack Hollins. That was it. Mack Hollins couldn't replace both Stefon Diggs and Gabe Davis on the Outside. He was never even signed for the role that he played. Even after Coleman, we still signed MVS (who we later swapped out for Coleman). We had Slot and even 50/50 tweener *completely* covered. We had two complete holes on the Outside. Now if we knew Coleman was going to be as bad as he is (which many did fear pre-Draft), obviously, Drafting a 4th Slot would be better in the long run. But we'd still be taking Shakir and Kincaid off the field to fit him on - with both taking less reps. And we'd have to roll with Hollins, MVS, and Cephus as our Outside guys.

As someone who looks and weighs all angles of everything, positive or negative, to any move - these are fair concerns. But one thing I think you have to keep in mind is the INSANE move they made for Travis Hunter this year. It would not in the least surprise me that they did that move knowing that they could recoup some of those assets from moving BTJ.

Chris Olave sounds like he's out. But you never know if that's posturing for better compensation. But with the news that they've been talking about an extension with him and he's been receptive of it, I tend to feel that's true. My take has always been that the only way it happens is if he's rebuffing their overtures. The interesting part of this to me is that they haven't said Rashid Shaheed is off the table. To me, I've been all in on the idea of making a deal with the Saints. If you can't pry Olave free, pivot to Shaheed. His speed, separation, and deep threat prowess would provide just what we need to get people from crowding the line and shutting us down. I'd be more in on Shaheed than a lot of the other options people are pivoting to in this post.

I'll happily eat crow for being wrong on this one. This is very uncharacteristic of cautious, conservative Sean McDermott. I saw no chance they'd activate him so quickly. But this is a very good thing. It moves up the timeline on him eventually taking over for White. I'd still expect an ease in, ramp up process with a limited number of snaps this week that will be increased the next week if he doesn't look overwhelmed. But, hey, who knows? If they felt comfortable enough from him with what they saw on the Practice field and the meeting rooms to do this, anything's possible.

Um.... yep! Pleasantly (very) surprised to be wrong and happy to eat crow on this one. This is very uncharacteristic of Sean McDermott. But this must mean they really liked what they saw from him, both physically and mentally in reps. I still believe it will be an ease in/ramp up process, with him getting a number of snaps this week and increasing next week. But I was wrong about how long they'd keep him there, so I'm definitely more open to be wrong there as well haha. If they feel he's ready, who knows? But this is a very good thing because it moves up the timeline of when we could see him take over for White.

Their hands are not tied. What you're saying is the exact reason McDermott says what he says about "needing to be patient" and "manage expectations* every time Hairston is brought up. They aren't going to change their development plans for a valuable long term piece bc fans are panicking. Dorian Strong had all of the Training Camp, all of the Pre-Season, and the week leading up to Week 1. Strong was a 1 week start of necessity before returning to the bench. Maxwell Hairston has had half of a Training Camp, a knee injury, rehabilitation, and 3 practices. He needs at least a couple weeks of Practice and an ease in, ramp up when he first sees the field. If you listen to McDermott, it's clear. That's what they're going to do. He's healthy. But he needs time before they just throw him in the fire. Had he not been hurt, Tre would have started as a bridge and they would have eased Hairston in. The same thing will happen here. The injury was just a pause. Again, fan impatience and panic over Tre is not going to change their development plan. They need to make sure he's ready physically and mentally for the load. Pushing him too hard too soon could ruin him.

Oh, it's absolutely a possibility. It sucks the injury happened, especially when it happened bc it paused his development - which was always going to be an ease in process with White being a bridge. That's what people aren't understanding when it comes to Hairston. Yes, his development was paused. But they aren't going to change their plans and push him beyond what they feel he's ready for bc he missed time or because White is struggling and fans are impatient. But he absolutely could become a stud. We just have to be patient.

Won't happen this week. The roster spots will go to Jordan Poyer (to fill in for the losses of Rapp and Hamlin at Safety) and either Zion Logue or Phidarian Mathis (most likely Logue, to fill in behind Walker at 1T with the loss of Daquan). I put it at a 0.5% chance that they'll stick him on the field after just 3 practices. And i'd say it's 50/50 that he sees the field next week.

Definitely agree that Thompson should be starting at OLB until Milano proves to be 105% If there's even a remote question as to whether Milano's a hundo - give him another week off. I think this is Taron's last year. He's been regressing since last season. Much like many guys on our Defense, he's a shadow of the guy we saw 2-3 years ago. That said, pulling him for Cam Lewis? Yeah, no way. That isn't upgrading us. Play to play he's got about the same floor as Taron, but Taron's for a much higher ceiling. Even now. I fear there's really no saving this Defense. There's some small personnel things you can do. But they feel like band aids on a gaping wound.

They've been with the team and the playbook since OTA's. More importantly, it's not like there's much better options on other teams Practice Squads either. Boundary CB is a premium position. We're far from the only team in need of a good CB. If there were starting quality CB's just sitting on other teams Squads, they'd have been poached long ago. If they feel Hairston can't be the answer this season or they want some insurance for him, maybe they make a Trade for a CB. Outside of that, I wouldn't expect any moves outside of the organization that would be rostered. As for Hairston, McDermott's message remains the same. "Manage expectations", "he's missed a lot of time", "one day at a time". It's gonna be a while before they think about giving him a heavy load:

"There are NOT 170 safeties in the Draft"? What kind of goal post moving is that? That's not the point. The point is a player taken at the Bottom of the 5th Round at Pick 170 is 9.9 times out of 10 not a starting quality prospect. Let alone expected to be a Starter in their Rookie year. This would be like complaining that Javon Solomon wasn't made ready to start last season. Or that Justin Shorter should have been expected to save us at WR the year before. You want to complain about us not addressing Safety more than we did this season? That's f ine. But being upset that the 170th pick in the Draft, at best our 4th Safety on the Depth Chart (possibly below that), wasn't being prepared to start from the jump is ridiculous.

This is what I mean when I talk about McDermott's "Week to Week" designation being a long term injury. He listed Milano, Bernard, and Kincaid as "Day to Day" injuries after the Falcons game. Weeks later and none of them have gotten a Full Practice and they're all Questionable for Sunday. Day to Day could be multiple weeks and Week to Week could be as many 4 (as we saw with Oliver) or more.

Not if the soft coverage scheme compounded by poor execution of it means the ball is out of the QB's hand and completed to a WR before they can get home. Pass rush metrics for Bosa are very good this season. But it's not resulting in Sacks bc of the coverage situation.