Mark Long Beach

Obviously, we'll find out later what Williams will get, but I have little doubt that he'll get more than 8m per year. Tackle is still a premier position because it's highly visible and protects the QB. It's not just that Williams had one good year, he was a former All Pro player who struggled coming back from major injury. He clearly showed that he is back to being a highly productive player. I think someone will pay him a fistfull more than us.

Eh. It's only noteworthy because he's first. Once diversity isn't something new it's no longer a story.

I think people underestimate how good a coach Leslie is. He's a very, very good DC and similarly good human being. I really enjoy his listening to his interviews. While I agree that he's not likely to get another shot as HC though for the reasons listed by GunnerBill, It would hurt to lose him more than people think. He's a strong contributor to our locker room character. IIRC, didn't McDermitt get hired late enough that most of his staff hires was from the leftovers? I seem to recall reading articles that his first choices had all been hired elsewhere and he had to settle for assistants more than he wanted.

Last year he just felt "solid". This game he looked dynamic. I really enjoyed his runbacks today.

As a fan who moved away while still a child, my experiences of watching the Bills have been on TV. That's not going to change. I suspect that it'll be harder for the players to get into the same groove as when they have have fans in the stands, but I think they'll get used to it. I'm SUPER excited for the season though. But since I'm a long time Bills fan, I still have this fear that it'll all come crumbling down and that success is still not in reach. I would REALLY like to shake that feeling and go back to expecting to crush my foes everytime and claiming any loss is a fluke.

I really enjoyed her piece. Of course there's a bunch of PR in there. Why wouldn't there be? But I appreciate the open discussion with greater details of people and the ideas and some actions being done. It's not a series of marketing slogans. "Black Lives Matter" is a slogan, but it's only a shortcut for discussions around injustice. I don't just want a slogan, I want action. Creating awareness allows action to be understood, accepted and followed. I like what they've done and their explanations around it. Kim Pegula is an easy target. She's female. A minority. Married into money. In major power position. Replacing men before her that she's both hired and fired. Made multiple mistakes. AND she's in charge of our beloved sports team. Mistakes have made no doubt. Mistakes will always be made when doing new things. But if something isn't working, STOP doing it. You wouldn't believe how many people keep doing the things that don't work. I also want to see success. Constant change from lack of success is bad too. I've seen lots of good things from Kim and to a lesser extent Terry. Important admissions of failure and success with logical thoughts behind it. The goal is long term success and I believe we will have it with the Pegulas, with Kim in particular as an important reason for it.

"So, have you stopped beating your wife?" Simple yes or no question... So go ahead and answer it with only a one word "yes" or "no". There's a lot more carried along in the original question than a simple "yes" or "no" can answer. He answered the question conveying strong support of whatever his players do. That absolutely is an answer and not an avoidance.

Defense only counts for 43% of the grade. So definitely skews towards offensive minded teams.

I also have a subscription and I love it. I'm mostly on for my Bills & Lakers ( I AM in L.A.) but it covers so much else that I can go read about some interesting story in some other sport or team. It's absolutely worth it to me.

Well per the photo of the whiteboard, he was on the board, but it looks like he wasn't in the first round. They were willing to trade up to Den at #5 (for #12, 22 & 53) to get 1> Allen 2> Darnald 3> Mayfield But Rosen was their first runner-up at #4 but not on a tradup to #5. Which of course didn't happen since Denver got their player to fall to them and we had to trade at 7. LAMAR JACKSON was the one not on their board as we had just gotten rid of Tyrod Taylor. #4 Rosen #5 Okl. St. Lamotta? #6 Richmond

Jokes aside... Why let this guy go? After reading the article, I'm even more confused. It's hard to find good hands on people who are also good at running things... Is it conflicts regarding the new stadium?

Hard to know when the cliff hits for an older player. It hit Gore in the middle of the season. Granted our play calling didn't do him a lot of favors, but he's now done. But the first 6 or so games, he was plenty good. Last year, Olsen was more productive than our entire TE staff combined. If we don't go top shelf in FA, I don't mind looking at Olsen. We shouldn't rely only on Knox taking a step or two forward. I worry that he may not take fast enough steps this coming year. I don't have too much faith in Kroft. It's reassuring that McBean don't often rely on just one hope, and that multiple options are brought in.

As best I understand it, the hate is because he was overpaid and underproduced. He worked hard, but never seemed to produce any influential plays. Oh, and probably because we kept him around for a while because we never got anyone better to replace him. So I think that gets held against him.

Short, clear and plausible. Just enough info to mildly convince, which is no easy task. Good Job.

For sure! But spending top dollar on free agents isn't their style. I think they'll do it, but it's not their nature. We've got 5 Days if we want a new TE before making a decision on cutting Kroft. It gets much more expensive after that to release him.

Thanks for the link on Hooper. I am all for having two top end TE's! I want a great two-way TE though, not a slot receiver in disguise. I think that's what we need to make a great and versatile ground and pound game. But top $ free agency acquisitions are risky. Also, they are not inline with the best practices of McBean & Co. They've stated that they'd prefer to draft and resign the best of their own. Since they are still a young franchise, I think they would have to be REALLY sold on this guy (or any other top $ guy). They're still working on building and establishing a culture and set of best practices. That doesn't work if you're regularly breaking the rules.

Thanks for the clarification on Long's contract. I knew we had an out, but it's even better than I remember. But he's still not cheap to KEEP through the year. I'm all for keeping him through camp to see his value to the team. ?

I honestly don't really know how good Hooper is. He can catch, but can he block? I don't really want a slot receiver disguised as a TE. But I do know that I'd LOVE to have Knox my TE2 paired with a fantastic TE1. If we had two very good two way TEs? Man... That's one way to thrive. If one is available for only 3m more expensive than Kroft? SIGN ME UP!

Except Long ISN'T paid peanuts. His contract is ~$4.2 mil per year. He was definitely an overpay for insurance. We did a couple overpays this offseason to make sure that we could field a full and competent team. And it worked. We were desperately short of NFL talent in a few areas and "overpaid" a couple times to fix it. I don't mind some (minor) overpays here and there because it does work to get a guy. Money talks. Long was an early signee and offered us significant flexibility as an experienced C and G. Similarly we overpaid for Morse (largest C contract in NFL) who's good not not phenomenal. We had nothing at TE and Kroft showed potential with one very solid year. With a thin free agent pool we gave him an overpay. What I liked from Bean was that he attempted to fix weak areas with MORE than one guy. Yes an overpay, but also other alternatives if that overpay didn't work out. All to often in our past, we've paid big money for a player and hoped he was good enough. (spoiler alert: he often wasn't). Derrek Dockery anyone? We brought in 157 new Offensive Linemen. Okay maybe only 9. We brought in 3 new TE (Kroft, Lee, + high draft pick Knox) Heck even at WR, we brought in 2 major signings to go with our hopefuls (new guy Duke Williams, old el-busto Zay Jones, optimistic Robert Foster). Too bad none of the hopefuls worked out. To me it has felt like we've really have brought in insurance AND competition for spots. Not just assumed that the guy with the biggest contract was going to be the guy going forward. I like it.

Yeah, I agree. WE as fans haven't seen much from him. My statement really was: "if the coaches and personnel department" like him from what they've seen of him in meeting rooms and practices they get to make a decision. There was an article recently about him and how well he did with what he could do while being injured. But I don't think we keep him at his current salary.

I won't argue with that. There's no Guarantee that Knox keeps getting better and becomes a good TE1. I sure hope he does. I wouldn't complain at all if we brought in a top tier TE. We could end up with a monster 2 TE combination with Sweeney as a really nice backup. Really good two way TEs aren't cheap and not really plentiful. It would be nice to have an offensive position with real strength rather than being merely adequate. I just don't think that we will. We've already invested a "lot" into the position and have we still have many other needs.

Given his high cost and lack of production (mostly due to injury) Kroft is definitely in danger of being cut. But they liked him and felt he had solid TE capabilities. I view that he was overpaid early in free agency last year because we had NOBODY at TE. So he was an expensive insurance policy for a two way tight end. We think we now have a TE1 in Knox and a TE3 in Sweeney (future TE2?). I don't think we will keep Kroft at his current insurance level salary. But if we like him enough we may still keep him at a reduced rate. I don't think that he'll get too much on the open market with most of a year of injury and a partial year of minimal production. I suspect we'll only keep one of Kroft and Lee Smith. but if we like Kroft enough (presumably with a reduced salary) I could see us keeping 4 again. Kroft, Smith, Knox & Sweeney. Not too bad. Some insurance in case Knox's hands don't get better and more time for Sweeney to prove he can replace Smith.

I think it's more about how he handled being caught and the social interactions around it. But yes. Definitely not your standard way of ingratiating yourself into a group!

I hear that you don't value those 3 yards much as a roster spot. I disagree. Those yards are "free" yards. No down required. It's also better that almost every other team in the league! Many of those teams are net NEGATIVE yards, not to mention net negative in fumbles. Even a "small" contribution is a contribution and he is among the best in the league at it. I'll take it over some bottom of the roster long shot.

Often a teams best punt or kick returner is a starting CB. Since kick-offs and punts have the HIGHEST injury rate (per play) by far, I sure don't want my starting CB back there. And Leodis? ... oh god, I think I lost months of my life watching him return. Despite what we all want, the bottom of the roster is just that. Long shots and JAGs. Heck yeah he contributes more than that! He has no screw-ups, and has given us top 3 starting position for the whole league. As a receiver, he's a JAG. But so is the bottom of the roster. While he didn't break a long one, that's not all on him, and he's done it before. I'm more than satisfied with his performance.