Ed_Formerly_of_Roch

Am OK with it, so-so. I'd like to see another vet brought in bu likely Bradberry is out of our price point. Could be trickle down effect, whomever he signs with releases someone else and a lower cost Agree, if they could get him at a low cost, great. Also depends on when they really think White will be a go. If it's by Oct 1st then may be better looking for a lower cost option. Also want to let the rookie play a fair amount to get his feet wet

Why, they don't have another FB on the roster or a strong blocking TE Gilliam can play both those roles and Doyle can also be the blocking TE. While I agree the FB position is of low importance and was hardly used, a blocking TE is of fairly high value. So if Doyle is gone and Tenuta is on the PS, who is your 4th tackle. Just because Doyle didn't crack the starting lineup as a rookie you want to get rid of him? Typically teams keep 4 tackles and 5 IOL for a total of 9 on 53 roster. With the new rules last season, they need to have at least 8 active on Sundays or they lose a roster spot.

Agree about Jones, what I'd prefer is actually having three RB's they could actually use to run the ball. If say Johnson did play ST, he'd have both a ST role on game day, but could also let him touch the ball maybe 10 times a game. With Jones, we lose that and only have 2 real RB's active on Sunday. At least with Matakevitch they do sometimes, rarely, but do allow him to see the field as a LB where as Jones never is on the field even in a blow out. Agree too that the likelihood of letting both Jones AND Matakevitch go is very low.

Yeah forgot about that game LOL. Seems like from time to time you hear something about so and so being the emergency guy though, but maybe not as much as in years past??

Does Johnson play ST? If so could see them keeping Moss and Johnson and dumping Jones?? Personally that would be my vote to have 3actual RB's available Think it could be we see Crowder against zone and McKenzie more against man on Sundays. Think Shakir will line up in all three spots, but by late in season may be more slot. Didn't Gilliam also line up as TE sometimes? As did Doyle. Morris did look good. Think unless Sweeney has big camp he could be odd man out, and won't pass go or collect $200, or be on PS. Think Doyle stays as might be harder to sneak him to PS than Tenuta Unless they sign a vet IOL, Ford makes the team. The fact that they didn't draft anyone for inside makes me think Kromer feels he can make something out of Ford. Also possible they plan to move Tenuta inside? I'll give Basham the edge as 1st off bench, then Lawson. On LB's I think Matakevitch may be odd man out, particularly with his contract. Think at least one in total if not two will be gone, but not certain who. if it comes down to Cam Lewis or Christian Benford, Benford wins the tie breaker as he was drafted and drafted this year. 6th round picks can often be snuck onto PS and a fair amount of them manage to stick, but no way they could get away with that with Araiza. He'd be plucked away in a second. For that reason he will be on the 53, worst case if he starts as a total disaster, could see them keeping both he and Haack on roster to begin season and once they have some injuries somewhere else and need to make a roster move, then Haack is let go. But that's a long shot as more likely they'd start out with someone else holding if that's the issue, but get him up to speed as fast as possible. If the issue is hang time or directional, or too many touch backs, as they did with Bass they will have him just work through it and take some early hits. His lack of holding does worry me, but the fact that he also kicked, would make me think he'd be the first one to understand the importance of needing perfect consistent holds and will work hard at it.

By the time May 12th comes around and they announce the schedule, there will be about 2 games left that haven't already been announced in one form or another. Didn't they during the draft state something about who Chargers were playing in Week #3? Was it KC

Was listening yesterday on NFL Radio, supposedly McVay contacted BB on Sunday to smooth things over and maybe some sort of apology. Regardless of how right or wrong McVays is, it's very rare for one coach to criticize to the point of laughing at another coach.

Yeah I'm sure there's both an emergency holder and an emergency long snapper on the Bills and every other team. The one good thing about Araiza is he may be one of the top emergency kickers in the league as he's actually done it a fair amount. Was reading he actually started his college career as a place kicker, then moved to punting.

Overall good write up, have seen two 2023 mock drafts and both have the Bills picking #32. Kind of scary. Trying to recall in the early 90's were they ever the pre-season favorite to win the SB?? Only comment I will add is assuming Aariza wins the punting job which is highly likely, he will be holding for Bass. No one else will be trained to do it, very unlikely. We could be fine with him doing it, will see. Besides if you're going to train someone, then it may as well be Araiza. You'd think with him having kicked himself, he'd be very understanding of the need for precision WRT holding.

Wouldn't be at all surprised if this happens, at the least he's there for this season with $12 mil guaranteed and no one else to play MLB Overall think Ford will be back unless they sign another experiences IOL. He still may be their best and maybe only backup IOL Good chance either Moss or Johnson are gone Sweeney may be gone barring a strong camp. IMO Matakevich could be gone. A lot will depend on how they feel about some of these rookies taking their ST spots. Think if it comes down to him or Jones they keep Jones.

On the second question, I chose "Not Feared" but really think the answer would be somewhere between the two. They will be feared, but not like Steel Curtain or Purple People Eaters feared!

Yes but there's always what appears to be happily married couples suddenly getting divorced. My point being the honeymoon may be over in NE between Kraft and BB and he might be looking for an excuse to part ways. Stripping him of his GM role likely would make BB quit so Kraft doesn't look like the idiot who fired a SB winning coach. Think many of their fans would agree that BB's drafting has not been very good. Wasn't there a thread here recently about how Kraft is supposedly tiring of the poor rosters? Could also argue of all the teams with young developing QB's NE did the least to improve the offense around him going into this season. Allen can make an offense around him better, don't think Jones can do that.

I think Crowder stays only because you really don't yet know what you have in Shakir, will they use him at slot, outside, other. There's also been talk about him dropping passes, do they want to risk that in critical situation? Also not sure that Crowder isn't the starting slot guy and McKenzie is he backup, so would McKenzie be the one in danger. The one saving grace for him might be he's the return guy. Also think Stevenson would be the more likely cut as Kumerow is a big ST player. He also seems to have developed more of a connection with Allen than Stevenson has. Didn't I also read Shakir has return experience and also is very fast so if you have him as a backup return man plus McKenzie, do they need Stevenson? If McKenzie gets hurt, for remainder of game use Shakir or Hyde, then sign some FA who has return experience till McKenzie is back if needed, or maybe Stevenson is on PS and gets called up. As far as TE goes maybe Jaylen Wydermyer also goes to the PS as I kind of like Quintin Morris as the #3 TE as he's one of these Swiss army knife kind of guys. When L Smith came into the game, the defense knew 98% of the time it's for blocking purposes. When Morris comes in defense is less sure. He's also a very good ST player. Maybe Wydermyer spends the year on PS and in 2023 takes Howards spot.

Doubt Kraft would fire BB in NE. What could happen is Kraft tires of the lack of talent and tells BB that he wants to bring in a GM/president type to head up the draft, BB refuses and resigns.

For the most part agree as usually the info they are missing would just bring a players grade down never up. And that's likely why the player has dropped, but they doesn't know that. A team will either get ripped for taking a guy to high or prasied for getting a guy lower than they should have, but that's more dumb luck than being smart. It's like everyone still praises NE for drafting Brady. Really they should just be ripping the other 31 teams for passing. If NE had really been smart, they'd have drafted him earlier.

I somewhat share your concern and do agree that Haack stuck around because of holding and IMO feel the holding is just as important as the punting. You'll lose more games due to a missed field goal than 5 yards less on punting which is the difference between Haack and the #1 punter in the league. Haven't read anything specific about how much he has or hasn't been practicing holding in the past few months. Having said that I do think he is a lock (on way or another) to make the team as there's no way you could ever sneak him onto the PS. I think they would carry two punters until a roster spot is desperately needed due to injury rather than cut him. Overall agree with the post, was a bit surprised at no IOL drafted. But maybe some of these UDFA can slide inside to guard or even the guy they did draft. It also could be based on discussions they have had with Kromer, he feels Ford is serviceable that he was used incorrectly, etc. Or they will still sign both a FA IOL and another CB. Likely both the teams and the FA players had low intentions of signing anywhere till after the draft.

Was listening to Bill Polian yesterday on the radio. He was kind of ripping all these mock drafters which is still a large step up from most posters here. He talked about how these people don't have half the information NFL teams have such as; medical, psychological, and background check So his take was for them (and posters) to praise or rip a pick is useless as they likely have little idea what went into the selection. Interesting the Bar Stool Sports and NBC Sports Edge are the guys you hated as teachers when you were in school as they were the hard graders. For the most part they were the only ones giving out D's and F's. Coincidentally, the ones who gave out F's were the only ones who gave the Bills C's!

I even re read your post, to see if there was some criteria that made Wallace ineligible, missed the year range part.

Can't believe you left Levi Wallace off the list.

Got to be Malik Williams, Dukes long lost brother!

Where did you find this? This thing is got some crazy stuff, McKenzie the backup for Diggs, Jackson 2nd backup, etc.

Hmmmmmm. Guess that would make it more difficult.

Just curious, what are the rules regarding UDFA. Like can teams talk money with them prior to end of draft, contract is all agreed to and as soon as Roger says "This concludes the 2022 draft" they are hitting the send button on their fax machine so he has the contract?

From what I've read in college it's often the norm. The holder is often some redshirt freshman QB. Maybe high end college punters that feel they will get drafted request to hold by their junior or senior year so they have experience??

6'8", is he our shortest tackle??