dave mcbride

Hurts really transformed himself into a very good player. I was not a believer either when he was in college or in his first couple of seasons in Philly, but I am now.

Another comment about Addison: I think the Bills like the Pitt program, which does produce a lot of pros. In 2021, against the second ranked defense in college football that season (Clemson), Addison had 5 catches for 84 yards and a TD in a 27-17 win. I'm pretty sure he was matched up against Andre Booth, who was a second round pick. Point is, he produced vs a top-end defense with a top-shelf college corner. Booth is on the Vikings and missed the last 11 games because of a meniscus tear in week 6. And the Bills certainly aren't going to fault Addison for transferring to USC. It made a lot of sense.

He completely smoked Revis on that play, btw. That was discussed after the game and fed the narrative about how his very unorthodox route running (he was actually a unique player in that sense) often left Revis flummoxed. That was a real thing.

I think Addison is that player - a guy who can legit play inside and outside. He's a bit of a Diggs clone in his skill set (elite separator with top-of-the-route twitchiness along with a very large route tree for a college player).

I think Addison is that guy. He gets open and is good at creating the separation necessary to run Daboll's windows passing scheme. The Bills don't want contested catch guys -- they want guys who naturally get open (because they're great route runners with elite short-area quickness) and don't HAVE to contest the catch. I will not be shocked if they trade up for Addison. I'm not too concerned about his size either. He is the type of WR the Bills truly covet -- a natural separator: https://thedraftnetwork.com/sr-prospect/jordan-addison-f4990987-eb16-4e7d-85ae-2f8d36289bbd/. PS - it's why they really wanted Emmanuel Sanders. Sanders was historically one of the best separators of the past decade in terms of measured distance of separation on a per pass basis. Diggs is also elite in that category.

Regardless, McDuffie was the better player last season.

Awesome stuff, Bill! I think the corners may go earlier than you project and I don’t love the Bills’ pick, but all in all this is great. Incidentally, did you see this Athletic piece in which they do a re-draft of the 2022 first round? I thought it was good: https://theathletic.com/4408273/2023/04/14/nfl-redraft-2022-sauce-gardner/

Not the ridiculous PI on Roby-Coleman that kept the Jags alive?

Don't get too down on yourself - he got hurt with a major injury and has missed 25 out of 50 games. You can't predict that.

In 1991, that was without question a catch and fumble. They changed the rule to making a football move decades later. That was always called a fumble back then. The Bills didn't get away with one.

I edited my post above. He's missed 25 out of 50 games and they had to decide on the fifth year option by May 1. He's starting-caliber, though, and since CBs are hard to come by ... I dunno.

What happened to him? I thought he was going to be an absolute stud. Did he lose a step because of his injury? Edit: I now see that he's missed 25 out of a possible 50 games in his three-year career. Maybe they just felt the availability issue outweighed whatever upside he had. They also had to make a decision on the fifth year by May 1.

Good. He's a solid vet contributor.

Von Miller’s acl tear isn’t that bad and he’ll be both healthy and very productve relatively early on.

It seems to me that Allen was quite a bit different. He elevated a bad, low talent team into a winning one while Richardson is a .500 qb for a program that regularly pumps out NFL players. In the four years prior to Allen becoming the starter, they went 4-8, 5-7, 4-8, and 2-10 (the year immediately prior to him starting). With him as starter, they went 8-6 and 8-5. The talent on Wyoming is leagues worse than Florida's. Florida went 6-7 in both years that Richardson started. In the three years prior to Richardson starting, Florida went 10-3, 11-2, and 8-4. Lamar's team won when he was there. And largely because of him. Florida under Richardson? Not so much. They actually became much worse after he took over.

The new free agency structure appeared in early 1993 as I recall, and the first thing that new structure did was kick the Bills organization in the face and then follow that up with a curb-stomping. I'm talking about the Will Wolford contract shenanigans. That was ridiculous.

That would be an incredible draft!

I dunno - I think they could easily win that division. Their roster is now pretty good outside the QB, but all of those teams in that division are flawed. Sure, they went 7-10, but the division winner, which had Tom freaking Brady, went 8-9. They have as good a chance as any to win that division next season.

I'd add that the pick on the Beasley throw in the playoff game was perfectly defended (deflected at the point of reception too) and on the QB. As you'll recall, on the play before Allen missed Beasley badly in the middle of the field. I turned to my wife and son and said, "he's going to force the next pass to Beasley come hell or high water." It's a thing he does. I love the faith he has in his receivers and his desire to do right by them, but clearly, the Dolphins saw it coming too.

The year after Wolford left, Thomas went from being a guy who averaged nearly 5 ypc every season between 1988-1992 to a guy averaging 3.7 in 1993. And his yards per reception, which had always been between 10.2 an 11.6 up to that point, shrank to 8.1. It was the line. Wolford was a HOF quality LT who left after 1992, and in 1993 both Hull and Ritcher missed games too. Thomas went from being elite to a decent player. They made the SB that season not because of the offense but because the defense generated 47 turnovers. To be fair, the Bills' line steamrolled the Chiefs D in the championship game, but that's because the Chiefs' d-line was made up of pass rushers. As people may recall, Derrick Thomas was benched midway through that game. Anyway, Kelly is a HOF player, but I think the line is a lot more important than the RB (not that RB quality doesn't matter).

Newton's injuries occurred on pocket plays.

Nitty gritty breakdowns with lots of still shots of their strengths and weaknesses. Good stuff: https://theathletic.com/4340812/2023/03/24/bills-connor-mcgovern-deonte-harty/

I was responding to a comment about the defense’s performance,

Miami’s offensive production in the playoff game was horrible. They averaged 3 yards per play, the qb rating was under 40, and 15 of their 31 points were gifted to them by the Bills’ offense and ST. The Bills D dominated them.

Who fricking cares.