dave mcbride

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.

Singletary is actually very good in pass pro. It improves his ypc stats because defenses don’t know what’s up when he’s on the field — which is a good thing.

I think zeke will be far too expensive and I want the money spent on o-line and receivers. But point taken.

Fair enough! (And I did think I was responding to two different posts — my bad!)

I love Cook, but he is small. He is legit 25 pounds less than his brother, and he was protected at georgia despite the obvious talent. The bills need another back, obviously, and my point is why not take the guy who knows the offense and who is above-average in productivity by every nfl measure assuming he’s affordable? You want a list of a the sixth-seventh round RB rookies in the last five years who didn’t pan out? Happy to provide it. This is akin to arguing that we should wait til the 6th round to draft qbs because, you know, tom brady.

What is your solution?

No offense, but Murray sucks now and hasn’t averaged 4.7 ypc since his rookie season, which was over a decade ago. https://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/M/MurrLa00.htm

Not true. Gore was at 3.6 in 2019 and Singletary was at 4.7.

Be more specific about your plan and try to avoid substanceless snark.

This doesn’t tell me much other than to keep the 4.7 ypc guy vs the 3.7 ypc folks. Singletary is still quite young and can block on third down. What is your alternative, specifically, with regard to the draft and FA (price/draft slot included)?

Meh. This is not an argument. Some players are better than others. What is your approach to the RB position, inclusive of both the draft and free agency? Be specific and with no snark (please).

I hear you, but if Motor ends up being cheap, why not re-sign him and focus the draft on more key positions? Singletary is legit above average by every measure, and we need to get better at passing and blocking. If he comes cheap and Josh is a fan (which he is), keep him.