inthebuff

https://twitter.com/i/status/1070083538765180935 He kicks a 50 yarder standing and a 60 yarder with one step.

I really like this pick. Again, not that my opinion matters. What really matters is what he will do on the field. It seems to me that he's already an accomplished player in the Big 10 against some of the more accomplished tackles of that particular league, including his own teammate. Those guys rated him as the toughest guy they'd ever faced. Looking at his past college performances, where he was drafted and where he was projected to be drafted, I'm even happier with this pick. I just read an article where SI had placed the over under on where they (and Vegas) felt at 29.5. The Bills got him at 54. 1st round value at 2nd round price. I think Beane and McDermott hit the nail on the head when they told him to use this as a chip on his shoulder. If anyone criticizes the lack of elation at being drafted by the Bills at #54, then they do not understand the competitive nature of most of these players.

Favre going from Atl to GB would be the biggest example of a backup QB going for a first rounder

Great read! Thanks so much. I'll be looking at this tonight. Not that my opinion matters all that much...but...living in Clemsonland, I haven't been impressed with Tee Higgins. Yes, he has a lot of numbers and the size and speed to be a solid NFL player, I've seen a few of his games and he seems to disappear in big games. Check out the stats against LSU and OSU versus UVA and South Carolina.

Not that I remember him...but according to Wikipedia....At 6'6", he is the tallest kicker in NFL history.

I'm not defending EJ. Just pointing out some things... The guys like EJ do not get the coaching that they need to even get to be good, much less great. EJ had such great QB whisperers as Doug Marrone and Rex Ryan as his HC. Marrone brought with him the wrong Hacket as OC. The guys who get drafted and are developed by legendary coaches will almost always turn out great. The system may fit their skill set or the coach sees something that others don't. Examples - Joe Montana was a 3rd round pick, drafted by Bill Walsh, one of the greatest of all time. We know all about Brady/Belichick. Brett Favre was a 2nd round pick of the Falcons who was traded to the Packers and then schooled by Mike Holmgren. Even Mahomes was not perceived to be great coming out of college as evidenced by being drafted overall #10. Would EJ have been much better under their tutelage? Or like some here say...he'd still be a bust. It's really difficult to say.

My thought that they both have something to prove and I can see one of them signing for a lower amount to prove he's still a starter in this league at QB, that he can play at a very high level, and have an opportunity to play with one of the greatest coaches of all time. Bellichick has taken players like Randy Moss, Corey Dillon, and even Antonio Brown, and worked with them to have them play his way. If he thinks he can win with them, he'll sign them. If he signs them, it will be for what he wants and he will cut them at the first sign of trouble, i.e. AB.

I really believe that Beane will sign a veteran RB to further mentor/push Singletary. McD likes to have a veteran in the room and that person is not TJ Yeldon. Great analysis.

I wouldn't want Clowney. He may be that kind of guy to blow up another team's offense...if he wants to. He seems to either not want to, or he gets hurt. For the money that he wants, I'd stay put with what we've built with the current crop of players - both FAs and roster guys.

This is what I was thinking. After Jimmy G was traded, it put BB on a slower time line to get rid of Tom Brady, and get rid of him he would have. He had his guy in place but Kraft and Brady put him in a bad spot by forcing the Jimmy G deal. I'm not saying that BB is vindictive...however...Brady has not had the weapons in place for a reason. Despite the fact that they tried with AB, but that didn't work. I've always wondered about that deal, too. Belichick probably has a QB in mind to run his system. Could it be Dalton? I don't think it would be anyone else out there, i.e. Cam Newton or Jamis Winston, neither of whom seem like a Belichich system type guy. I would have said Bridgewater, but he's already on the panthers.

On ESPN it's been All Brady All the Time, however, they posed an interesting question on one of those yelling shows (as the lady of the house calls them)... Now that Tommy Boy is in Tampa...which team wins more games in 2020? The Brady-less Pats or TB led TB?

It's God's waiting room.

Some folks have speculated that Andy Dalton will be the guy in New England.

This from Bill Barnwell on ESPN Minnesota Vikings get: 2020 first-, fifth- and sixth-round picks, 2021 fourth-round pick Buffalo Bills get: WR Stefon Diggs, 2020 seventh-round pick Vikings grade: B Bills grade: B Bills general manager Brandon Beane and coach Sean McDermott have rightfully been lauded for building a selfless, winning culture over the past three seasons. The two former Panthers executives deserve plenty of credit for what they've done, but those plaudits generally ignored that the Bills nearly stepped on the land mine of 2019 with their attempt to trade for Antonio Brown. After signing Josh Norman earlier this offseason, the Bills are testing their culture's ability to absorb talent by trading for a player who was live-tweeting his desire to leave the Vikings on Monday. In terms of the on-field fit, there are few players who make more sense for the Bills than Diggs. When you consider his toughness between the numbers and his ability to make plays downfield, he should be an ideal No. 1 wideout for Josh Allen, who had the highest off-target percentage of any quarterback in football last season and didn't do much throwing downfield. The only receivers who averaged more yards per route run in 2019 than Diggs were Michael Thomas and rookie Titans phenom A.J. Brown. The Bills did just fine with John Brown and Cole Beasley as their top two wideouts in 2019, but the acquisition of Diggs pushes those two into more accurate roles as the second and third receivers. Buffalo suddenly has one of the best wide receiver groups in the league. The Bills were the league's seventh-most run-heavy offense in 2019, but after adding Diggs, I would expect them to throw the ball more frequently in 2020. With a solid offensive line and deep positional groups at wide receiver and tight end, Allen has everything he could ask for. Diggs' contract is also team-friendly. The Bills will be acquiring the final four years of his extension, which have a total of $47.5 million remaining, none of which is presently guaranteed. I suspect he will start looking for a new deal as early as next offseason, especially if DeAndre Hopkins signs an extension with the Cardinals three years away from the end of his deal. The Bills should be able to get Diggs to play out the next two seasons for $23.5 million combined before looking at a new deal. At the same time, I wonder whether the Bills and Diggs will turn out to be an amicable relationship. He was publicly frustrated by Kirk Cousins and the Vikings organization as a whole at different times over the past two seasons. Rumors of a possible Diggs trade have been circulating for more than a year, at times inspired by his missing practice. Diggs isn't Antonio Brown, and plenty of teams have taken on mercurial wideouts and reached new heights after taking that risk, but this move seems at odds with what the Bills have built. This is a worthwhile, logical risk for the Bills, but if they struggle on offense, Diggs is going to take the blame. If the Vikings were going to move on from Diggs, this was probably the time to do so. This trade frees up $5.5 million in cap room for them to try to work on a long-term deal for safety Anthony Harris, who was unexpectedly retained with the franchise tag Monday morning. The Vikings now have two first-round picks (Nos. 22 and 25) and two third-round picks in what appears to be a deep class of wide receivers. They aren't going to pick somebody who will immediately be better than Diggs, but they are well-positioned to use one of their first-rounders or a second-rounder on a player who can step in as the No. 2 option behind Adam Thielen. Furthermore, with the Vikings going heavy on two-tight-end sets and re-signing fullback C.J. Ham to an extension, I expect they'll go with more two-tight-end personnel in 2020 and use a second wideout less frequently than they would have with Diggs in the fold. I would argue that having Diggs on the field is better than having Ham or Irv Smith Jr., but if Mike Zimmer wants the Vikings to be a ball-control, run-first offense, it doesn't make a lot of sense for them team to pay two wideouts top-15 money. Given the public and private frustration Diggs expressed over the past two years, a fresh start probably made sense for both sides. I can see the logic in this trade for both teams. The real losers of this trade, honestly, are the Texans. Diggs is an excellent player, and DeAndre Hopkins is a year older than his positional rival, but most onlookers would agree that Hopkins is a better player on the field and a less disruptive player off it. The Bills just sent the Vikings four picks, including a first-rounder, to acquire Diggs. Those picks are worth 21.9 points on Chase Stuart's draft value chart, which is something close to the eighth overall pick in a typical draft. Meanwhile, the Texans netted a second-round pick from the Cardinals and swapped fourth-round selections. Even if we don't consider any time value for the Cardinals getting their fourth-round pick a year early, Houston came away with a pick in the middle of the second round for a better player and absorbed a player in David Johnson whose contract was $10 million or so underwater as part of the deal. If you thought the Odell Beckham Jr. deal was an outlier and the Texans would get a more realistic return for Hopkins, this trade proved otherwise.

Beane got totally fleeced in the Stefon Diggs deal. Just look at what Houston got for Hopkins. We should have gotten Diggs for our 2nd rounder and Frank Gore.

This is the guy we got!

I'm glad we got him....with the Bills giving so much for Diggs, I wonder if the Houston fandom is going ballistic at what they got for Hopkins.

There's a drinking game....spot the draft cliche...based on this thread, come up with a list of cliches BEFORE the draft begins. When one of the talking heads on whichever draft coverage show you're watching mentions any of the words...be the first to yell, "Cliche." All of your buddies have to take a drink of an adult beverage of their choice.

Great review, Shaw. Thanks. I think statistically Allen was better than Watson because of the dominant halves that they each had. And you're right in that Watson just looked like the superior QB when the game was on the line. One thing that I hope that Allen works on next year is consistency.

Black carhartt legacy 47 cap with the standing buffalo.

Oh boogers....I've got a case of the flu and am not thinking so well today. I meant to say Warren Moon.

I'll go with Tre. My bold prediction is a pick six early in the game against Tannehill.

Wentz, Tannehill, Garropolo, Cousins, and Allen - the bottom of this list - are all unproven in the playoffs and you could put any of them from 8-12 and there wouldn't be much quibbling. I will admit that Jackson should be the number 1 rated QB after the season he's had, but if you're talking the playoffs, he had what arguably could be the worst playoff game ever. Rating Tom Brady at number 7 going into the playoffs is just plain ridiculous. Yes as a Bills fan, I do not like him at all, however, if you were to rank him based on playoff performance and expectations, you'd have to rank him higher.

I think the coaching staff on the D side of the ball saw something in the Ravens win over the 49ers. However, I don't know if knowledge is enough for the D to do as well as the 49ers Defense did. I'm predicting a 30-24 game with the Ravens winning.

Thanks for the offer! Please do!