Ed_Formerly_of_Roch

Maybe Haack is a also a better holder than Bojo. There were about 1/2 dozen times on field goal attempts laces were in the wrong direction, some were still made, some were missed. I actually question if that factored into the Bills letting Bojo go? Missing field goals due to bad holds likely could cost losing a game more than a couple yards less net on punts.

So was the difference due to defense stopping the opposing team or our offense moved the ball consistently therefore limiting the opposing teams time with the ball? I'll guess the second one!

May as well take lessons from the best. It seems every year there's one player who was an active participant throughout training camp and pre-season, all of a sudden 2 days before roster cut down day are reported injured and on IR. Last year was Hodgins though think he did actually have surgery, in 2019 the mystery injury was to J Croom. Maybe Pegula's daughter hurt him too much.

By my calculation Hughes only took 60.5% of the snaps, the most of all the D-line players. Addison was slightly lower at 58% and Oliver at 56%. Hughes had a little higher number in 2019, 65%. But agree overall, you don't want Hughes playing too much. Do agree too that Epenesa will see a much higher snap count and think he'll look much better too. Seems the Bills overall thinking on the D-Line is we're not going to have a superstar, but will roll 8 or 9 deep of good dependable players that will wear your line down due to our players being fresher. That worked pretty well in 2019, not so well in 2020, though much of that issue may have been due to missing Star in the middle.

Agree, the biggest hole the team has right now is no kick returner, so drafting a guy who has a fair amount of experience as a return guy would fill that need. I'm sure many here are underwhelmed in our TE pickup, but considering we were the 2nd highest team that went with 4 WR, can see the logic in not investing huge $$'s in a TE when they still do have a guy who could develop into a good one in Knox. Knox has struggled, but he certainly has some traits that can't be taught like size, strength and speed. Likely want one more year to see what he can do as the #1 TE before ready to give up on him. Having said that, they do need a decent 5th WR so they can go 4 wide even in games when one of the top 4 is out injured.

The 2021 Bills roster is basically the same as the 2020 team, they haven't lost much at all in FA, but haven't added much either, maybe a small upgrade in Sanders. They just didn't have the $$ available to make the changes and improvements that many fans were hoping to see. They do have a year more experience under their belt and last years rookies now are a year older so that helps some too. The Bills are ready to complete for a Super Bowl now. What worries me though is replacing vets with rookies may actually make the team weaker in the short term for the 2021 season. O-line doesn't worry me much as the starters tend to play the entire game barring injury. I wouldn't worry about a rookie WR either if they take one as their starters are strong to begin with. They don't have a true big nickel so drafting a rookie would be an improvement there. But defensive line may be the weakest area of the roster and I don't see that adding a rookie drafting 30th or in lower rounds will help. You stated Johnson (ugghhh) I'd take Johnson over a rookie drafted at 30th in 2021. Maybe by the 2nd or 3rd year the rookie would be the better choice, but not so sure it helps for this coming season. Will see Beane may still pick up a mid level FA edge rusher to help.

Understand, but then who are you talking about? My response was just stating that unlikely you'll get anyone to the PS from last years D line. While not that good, they all were good enough to not pass thru.

Yeah but you're not going to slip a 2nd or 3rd rounder to the PS. Not sure either if Phillips, Zimmer, or Johnson would have any PS eligibility left assuming we are going back to the old PS rules which not sure I heard what the plans are around that? Even if they are eligible, not sure they could slip through either without getting claimed. The Bills have 7 draft picks this year, assuming 5 make the roster, not sure they have five slots for them that won't involve releasing a player who by week 1 is considerably better than a rookie. Can a spot on O-Line (maybe two) LB,CB, S, Other positions they have pretty strong backups.

The other thing that caused issues last year, going into training camp I was kind of happy that the Bills had very little turnover of their starting lineup from the year prior. For a season without mini camps and no pre-season, figured that would help them more than other teams. With a 13-3 record, maybe it did? The only new starters they had were Diggs and Klein. At the beginning of camp they still had the same O-line, (Spain was projected starter) DeMarco was back at fullback, same starters on the D-line and secondary. While overall 20 or 22 starters back was pretty good, but by the time week 1 rolled around, while all 4 starters were back on the D-line, it did have 3 new subs, plus Phillips missed most of 2019 and a rookie. Add to that as you stated Star opting out caused even more churn. Don't think they ever really found a true replacement for him and they ended up for the 1st half of the season playing musical chairs with the 1 technique. Eventually they settled on Butler, but he was far from perfect. Throw in that Murphy became a non-factor by the second half and you had a mess there. So do agree both with having Star back and pretty much no new faces will help. Will need an improvement from Addison though. Wonder if they will tweak the defense some to use Klein as 3rd LB more in passing down and let him just blitz from all over, but that means no 5th CB on the field or only 3 down lineman? Yeah agree with drafting Star's eventual replacement, but does worry me some to find a roster spot for him this year likely mean cutting either Phillips or Zimmer. While neither is a game changer, they still may be better than a 2nd/3rd round rookie. Maybe the answer is draft the guy, then someone step on his toe in the pre-season so they can hide him on IR all year or at least till late in the season if someone gets hurt.

I've often read that when looking at the draft pick point chart, picks one year out are worth one round less. i.e. points for 1st overall pick in 2022 = 1st pick in round 2 So based on that giving up the 30th pick for next years first would be the points equivalent of a 2nd round pick, plus as the OP suggested a 3rd this season. However normally when dealing with future picks, it involves multiple picks, like if Miami traded for Watson, they'd likely be giving up both their 1st's this season plus maybe next years 1st and 2nd which wouldn't be worth as many draft points as a team trading three 1st round picks this season plus this years 2nd. Plus it usually involves trading up close to the top of the draft. So as the OP suggested trading the 30th overall for a 1st next year and a 3rd this year; Can't see that happening either! Too much unknown in how the team will do next year, will it be a top 10 pick or the #25 overall. In multiple pick trades, teams willing to take that risk as they are getting lots of picks, but as this was proposed, highly doubtful.

I agree with everything you're saying, likely he will get offers, but question some reports that he'll get a big contract unless he does see the field a fair amount. Maybe $10 mil which for a starting QB is on the low side. But could see him taking a low deal maybe with incentives, just to prove he can still play.

I voted for CB, not necessarily the person, but more the position. IMO the easiest positions for a rookie to come in and start are RB, O-Line (assuming max of 2 rookies on line) and CB in that order. Of those three positions, I feel CB is the position in most need of an upgrade to the starter. They could certainly use an Edge rusher, but not sure you'll be getting a game changer type player at #30. The running game has struggled alot last season, but not sure the team is ready to give up on their last two 3rd round picks so not sure they feel they need a new starter. Same with the line, they have 5 their 5 starters back, plus Ike and Bates. I do think they will draft at least one if not two O-lineman, but not looking for them to be a major contributor this season.

The one things I'd question is what if Allen is as healthy in 2021 as he was in 2020? Barkley officially played in 4 games, but only contributed statistically a little bit in 2 games. If that happens again, other than pre-season what would teams have to go off to give him the big contract he's hoping to get. On the other hand likely the plan would be to go with Fromm in 2022 unless he looks very shaky in practice. If so then all bets are off and could be Darnold, Barkely returns, Fitz, or who knows.

That is the risk with him, but he'd also be asked to fill a much smaller more defined role so not counting on him as much either.

Yeah but every other team would also have had an extra $30 mil to spend too. Likely the players signed would have seen a bump in the contracts they got so that would have taken some of the $$ away and teams would have been able to more players and more teams competing for same players as all would have had more cap space.

How about bringing back a familiar face for speed Marquise Goodwin. Believe he's a FA??

Seemed like Bryce Paup had a much better than expected season with the Bills. Maybe even over a 2 year span was amazing. Think the Bills got more from him than they ever expected when they signed him.

He's shown too much to slip through and come back to the Bills on the cheap like last season.

I voted 0 to 25%, but after I voted, thought about it some more. With Roberts gone, maybe he makes it as the return man? They haven't yet signed anyone for that role, McKenzie not signed, so maybe that's the Bills plan. Then also let him play some as a RB too if one of the other two gets hurt during the game or even as a change of pace to the other two. My fear would be giving the job to a guy who's never returned kicks in an NFL. Don't know much of anything about Rugby, maybe that's something as a former rugby player, he's done that for years in some equivalent part of the game. Punts would be the dangerous part where you have guys bearing down on you from all directions and not lose concentration on making the catch first. But maybe that's a normal part of rugby? If that is the Bills plan at all, likely too they have had him return a boatload of kicks in practice too.

Would it really matter. Sure the Bills would have another $20 mil left to spent, but so would every other team too. Plus likely all the deals already made were based on a compressed cap so deals were a little bit less. Likely of the deals the Bills already made, under a normal cap may have cost them an extra 10 to 20% so maybe at this point they would have still had $15 mil left, but again so would every other team. A team $100 mil under the cap could have just as easily out bid them. The only group really hurt by not adjusting the cap to take into account the new deal coming would be the players. Other than ESPN, the deal doesn't take affect until the 2023 season, so not sure if the league will get the money up front and will raise next years cap or will only come into play for the 2023 season. Likely a small impact next season because of the ESPN part. If it is 2023 that's a two full seasons away so adjusting now would have been a stretch. Add on top they still have no idea how many fan will be allowed into games this coming season, so there very likely could still be loses this coming season. I'll be surprised if there will be 100% fans in Sept yet, maybe by November or so could see it. One thing I did see that likely is good news, it stated more Flexing of games including Monday night. That's not happened before as there have been many clunkers on Mondays as has Thursday night games.

Yeah except one of the problems is while the rule changes intended to eliminate returns, teams quickly figured out we can instead kick them short and deep and pin the team in on kickoffs. Well unless you have poor ST play then maybe you don't pin them in that well. Yup the 2 1/2 we signed are breaking the bank. Well I guess 3 1/2 if you count the punter. I suppose we could ask Bass to punt left footed to save his kicking leg. That would save some $$. From the responses so far sounds like it's only upsetting to you BTW!

Well yeah I'm making assumption, there will be an experienced TE brought in the next couple of days/weeks. Also feel TE and Edge aren't worth drafting at, at least not high as we could draft the next Bruce Smith, even more unlikely at #30, but even if we did, I think a guy like Johnson with two years NFL experience and two years in the Bills system, plus throw in his ST play would likely outplay a rookie edge drafted at #30 in 2021, and maybe even 2022. From what I recall even Bruce Smith took 3 to 4 years before he really became good, can remember him struggling against though much of that may have been due to him not caring alot about playing the run. He just wanted sacks early on it seemed.

Agree we have enough vets on De line that don't need anyone to be taught. Even the overall roster is old enough and experienced enough that don't see any positions that need the grisly ole vet any longer. Hyde, Proyer, Hughes, Star, Morse, Mongo, have been around long enough at this point. Plus at this point, the offense belongs to Allen and Diggs.

Could be Detroit or likely still Cincy. While they appear to have their QB, until they prove it on the field as was the case here in Buffalo, FA's will still be hesitant to go there. Bears may also be close, while a large city with lots to do, other than that not much to show. Bad weather, high taxes, and team for the most parts has been rowing in circles for years. A couple times they get back close to shore only to drift back to the middle of the lake by the following year or two. Could argue the Mario Williams signing is like their K Mack. (admittedly that one was a trade so a bit different)

That would be great, then we'd have three RB's all with about equal overall skills and talents. Then each week there can be multiple 10 page threads arguing and debating over whichever one of the three was inactive that week was a huge mistake and that was why our running game struggled in the game. Plus at least a third thread stating we should have activated Williams every week and all problems solved! IMO if they are going to sign/draft another RB, lets make it someone who is head and shoulders better than the ones currently on the roster, else stick with what you got.