BillsVet

They are 15-17 after 2 rebuilding seasons and at one point in year 2 of rebuilding they had one of the worst offenses since the late 70s. Jeremy White noted this morning that in 2018 the Bills had the lowest amount of money committed to the OL, WR, and TE positions. They were behind SF at running back by 200k. It may be a plan, but does anyone look at the Buffalo Bills a week or 2 from now and say they're a team contending for a division championship? I don't. I like Josh Allen, but apart from him they've done practically nothing on offense and that's still where most games are won and lost. McBeane's plan set back the rebuild process by at least a year.

Two off-seasons of rebuilding and "the cupboard is really mostly bare on offense at the moment?" The more I see of McBeane is they are conventional thinkers who now realize they need to start taking risks. Fine. They realize, through looking at trading for AB, that might need to deviate from "the process."

I think going through what they did in 2018 and then being "judicious" in UFA is not what most fans want to hear. I sense that many people are re-setting the goalposts and acknowledging that even with all that cap room they won't be a championship contender in 2019. I see Free Agency going the way it did last year. One big contract (Star) a medium sized deal (Murphy) and plenty of short term deals (McCarron, Vontae, Ivory, Bodine, Newhouse, Stanford, Rafael Bush). They have Jordan Phillips and Spencer Long in the third category already.

Acquisitions in the off-season tend to affect the outcome of games, particularly when it could mean 2-3 new starters on the OL and 3-4 new position players at WR and TE. But sure, those things don't really matter. Some people are living in the clouds this time of year. This year has taken the proverbial cake.

All this before free agency, the draft, and, well, the actual schedule release.

Some already believe he's starting material, if not a future All-Pro. Others see him as a former late round developmental prospect. We'll know where the Bills think he fits after the draft.

Unless you're ownership or a team executive, what difference does it make how much the team pays him? All of this is preliminary anyway, but it makes zero sense to draft a big armed QB who's throwing short passes to slot guys. Just because NE does that doesn't mean Buffalo has to. Besides, this draft doesn't feature an elite WR at the top. I wouldn't bank on someone drafted there to come in and play outstanding football right away. We're getting there.

Oakland had a little better QB play last year than Buffalo, don't you think? And, Jason Croom caught a TD versus Minnesota.

No one said Barr isn't a solid player. The point is from a cost effectiveness perspective, he's not worth the contract he'll get based on how often he'd get on the field. SAMs get on the field less and less every year as passing offenses continue to dominate. It's why nickel CBs, much like baseball relief pitchers, are being prioritized and causing a shift in personnel requirements.

To put things into perspective, Buffalo hasn't drafted a TE in the top 3 rounds since Kevin Everett in 2005. They've attempted to fill that position with UDFAs and UFAs for far too long, largely because there are apparently other positions more important. And that happens when you draft for need and/or don't draft well. It's been well-proven a solid pass catcher is a need for the modern NFL offense. Across multiple GMs and HCs, this fact has been largely ignored. Clay had bad knees to begin with and Chandler was nice, but not a guy to stretch the field. He had early success catching passes from Andrew Luck, but is clearly isn't the same player he was almost 7 seasons ago. He's also missed 29 games since 2013.

Would you give Anthony Barr 8M per to play 50% of their snaps? And in free agency, it's likely a 4 time Pro-Bowl player will command much more. I can't fathom using valuable cap space to sign another front 7 defender. They've already spent on Star, Hyde, Murphy, Poyer, and used 2 1st round picks on that side of the ball. The reason this team continues to remain mediocre is their offense is less than pedestrian. Barr doesn't move this team ahead from a resource allocation perspective to more wins.

Allen strikes me as the latest version of Alge Crumpler. A formerly productive pass catching TE who has become a blocking type that NE has discarded. Sure, Buffalo needs TE's and he'd be their blocking guy. Still, opponents know what's more than likely going to happen when he's on the field. McBeane are continuing to build a roster inconsistent with the modern game. Signing ancient RBs, having interest in blocking TEs, signing UFA FBs, more defensive players.

SAM LBs are going the way of the FB. Team's don't need to hand out a large contract to one of them. This loading up on defense mentality has been disproved for years now. Every time Buffalo signs a defensive UFA or drafts another defender high it takes away from the resources to build a competent NFL offense.

It's a one year audition for him hitting UFA next season. And, his agent wisely understood this was the best situation to get a chance to prove it (little DT depth) and be in position to hit UFA next off-season.

If their offense wasn't complete mess, sure.

Would not be surprised to see Buffalo still take another DT. McCoach gotta get his Dlinemen.

I have a hard time believing that someone like Zimmer would waste someone on his defense.

Carolina has been one of the most inconsistent teams in the NFL the past 8 years. 3 10 win seasons and 5 mediocre years mixed in is not the model I'd follow, but they're doing just that. I don't understand why McBeane are convinced being Carolina north is the way to go after those results. I wanted to believe these two were fairly innovative, but have seen that it's a replication here, extending to the guys they bring in from that roster (Tolbert, Benjamin, Lotulelei, Kaelin Clay, Dean Marlowe). They are going with what they know and don't seem open to new things.

This thread can be summed up as: "Fans enamored with player physiques confuse that with actual football skills." If performance in the combine was the deciding factor, Mike Mamula and Bruce Campbell would be HOFers. Pass on Metcalf.

The people talking about Zay's college coaching having "messed up his head" are dense human beings. If you don't know there's more to what happened to him last off-season by now, I don't know what to tell you.

The UFA signings on the OL have been meh at best. Newhouse, Ducasse, Bodine, not to mention Dawkins perhaps playing a position he's not as suited for. The drafting of Allen took a lot of resources to move up from 22 to 12 to 7. It may well work out in the long run, but right now their offense (as a result of the aforementioned decisions) is not encouraging.

No doubt McCoach sees the league trending toward offensive coaches and knows he'll come under some fire for that. And in his first public comments since the season, he tries to get out front of that concern that he's a square peg in a round hole. Still, he's also the guy who talked after one game this season about sure they'd love to score 50 points per but it wasn't realistic. And now he's gone the opposite way by saying they don't want to win games 9-7, another criticism leveled after last season. It puts him right there at this 21 points per discussion. I'm still not seeing any innovation or departure from his background. He and the GM didn't spend big on defensive free agents or use 2 1st round picks on that side of the ball their first 2 off-seasons to try and run and gun.

Is Jordan Matthews not available then?

Zay was phenomenal when games were out of reach. His big day at NYJ with 8 catches for 93 yards and 2 TDs largely occurred when Buffalo was up 2 scores. When it matters, ZJ's targets aren't high. Blame it on the QB, OL, whatever...he's not a factor when it matters. At least not yet.

Duke is a possession guy and not elusive enough to play from the slot. No one hates him. It's a matter that as a 2nd round pick he's not exactly performing in a pass-heavy league the way many fans expected. Especially when compared to other recent 2nd round picks. Eric Moulds' best days were 15-20 years ago and the league's dramatically changed since then. The PI and RTP calls, among other things, make this even more a passing league than it was in the late 90s/early 00s. These comparisons are moot and not representative of the opportunity that WR's have presented now to succeed at the start of their career. And, one player's career has absolutely nothing to do with another's. Besides, Moulds and Jones are completely different players. Before he got older, Moulds could run by people but Jones is not a burner (cue the person citing his 40 time).