Cash

Yes! Finally an area where I can weigh in as an expert. Here's my rankings: Jackson #94 - A+. Scorching. One of the best EDGE numbers, should look great on him, and I don't mind the connection to the Aaron Schobel legacy. Hancock #37 - A+. Oh my, yes. The Nate Odomes Classic is one of the best numbers for the secondary. It works great for boundary CBs, nickel CBs, and safeties. Which also fits well with Hancock, since he'll probably play a bit of everywhere early in his career. Prather #81 - A+. Great fit for a fairly tall deep threat WR who isn't super fast. Just looks right. Great choice, Kaden - no notes. Hawes #85 - A+. Excellent choice for a blocking TE. I would've also accepted 87 or 88. Hairston #31 - A. Solid number, although I wouldn't have minded a number in the 20s for such a fast guy. I'm somewhat of an old curmudgeon on numbers, but I think Hairston could also pull off single digits. Still, 31 should be a nice fit for his frame, and I like that we don't have a lot of prominent #31 already. Opportunity for Hairston to own that number. Walker #96 - A. I was worried he'd try for a single-digit number like in college, which would've been an absolute disaster on his giant frame. (Zero was salvageable because of roundness, but Keon has that locked down already.) A giant like Walker needs a number that won't make him look silly. This might have been the best options available - I think only 99 would be real competition. Lundt #77 - A-. Good fit for his frame; those 7s look good on a tall and lean guy. Very solid choice! I tend to prefer 77 as a defensive number, but it'll look good on a RT as well. Note that my rating will drop to a B+ if Lundt moves inside to G. Sanders #98 - B. I don't love 98 for a quick, penetrating DT, but it's not awful. Would've preferred most other options in the 90s, but at least it's not in the 70s or something gross like that. The 70s are for DEs, not for DTs. Strong #43 - C-. I'm sorry, but 43 is a safety's number. Unless he's planning to switch positions, I can't get behind this.

For the record, I never complained about the lack of prime time games. One of the few nice aspects of the drought was having nearly every game be Sunday 1pm Eastern.

Cook is a tough prospect for armchair GMs, because he's clearly a tier below the truly elite guys, which last year was Barkley & Henry, but he's also good enough that he's very hard to replace. Contrast that with Singletary, who was (and is) a good NFL RB, but ultimately doesn't give you much more than a guy off the street. A lot of those runs where Cook got into the secondary untouched weren't just due to the O-line. It was also Cook using his vision to pick the right hole, then using his elite acceleration to burst through before the defense could get there. We've seen a ton of outside runs the last couple years where Cook just turned on the jets and was able to turn the corner on the edge defender. They didn't all go for long runs, but every one of those was a significant swing for the Bills. Turning a potential -1 to 1 yard play into a 7 yard play makes a big difference, especially when it keeps going our way over and over. In summary, I would love to have Cook back beyond this year. I'm also weary of paying money to any RB, and extra weary of paying Cook elite money when he's been a step shy of elite. I'm hoping that he balls out this year, and either we re-sign him longterm, or we get some real compensation for him in like a tag-and-trade scenario. (By which I mean something better than a 3rd-round comp pick in 2027.)

I've heard some of the same speculation, and I'm with you on Carter. From the way Beane was talking in post-draft, it sounds like Carter is going to "move" to primarily 1tech instead of primarily 3tech. Sanders and Ogunjobi are primarily 3techs, per Beane. Walker is a little different in that he played more 3tech in college but it sounds like the Bills want him to play more 1tech for them, maybe. But in any case, they need at least 2 guys capable of adequately playing 1tech on early downs. If Carter just bombs out, then sure he might be cut. I don't see that as super likely, and frankly it's bad business to cut a 3rd-round pick in year 2 unless you're certain he can't play. Regarding Jones, any cap implications if he's cut in week 6? His salary would be guaranteed by then, so Pegula would have to eat that, but that aspect doesn't impact the cap.

Just for that, I'm starting another one.

And he *should* be better. Last year was his first year on the job and I expect him to have learned some things.

Interesting! Did he say why he thinks that?

Big if true.

My take is a little different: I think they're taking a swing at having a real superstar for once, and being relevant. No one cares about the Jags. No one's ever cared about the Jags. Trevor Lawrence is a good(?) QB, but not cool enough to be a major star without major wins. Hunter is potentially the coolest player in a long time. And as a bonus, he's from Georgia and appears happy to be playing close to home. A potential superstar who actually wants to be there? That could be a game changer for a franchise like Jacksonville. If Hunter makes it as a two-way player in any meaningful capacity, he will be the favorite player of a whole generation of young fans. And it could work on-field as well. I assume the plan is for Hunter to shore up the pass defense at CB and be functionally the WR2 to BTJ on offense. (I know the GM has said they're going to lead with WR and ease him into defense. In the interview I watched, that sounded like an onboarding plan with the goal of Hunter playing both ways this year and beyond.)

You seem a bit confused. Are you aware that all of your sternly-worded letters on here do not, in fact, go straight to the Buffalo Bills organization? Reading the last couple pages of this thread, I gotta tell ya: You come across as a really angry dude who is taking out his frustration on other posters. My impression is that you’re mad that other people are happy. Just FYI. Go Bills!

Too gritty, or not gritty enough?

When was the last time we cut a 5th-rounder in his rookie year? I can't think of one off the top of my head. Hardy was a 6th rounder last year and did clear waivers, which was a mild surprise to me. The year before, 7th rounders Alex Austin and Nick Broecker both got claimed when we cut them and are still rostered by those teams. In 2022, 6th rounder Luke Tenuta got claimed. In 2021, 6th rounder Rachad Wildgoose and 7th rounder Jack Anderson both cleared waivers, but then both were poached off our practice squad during the 2021 season. In 2020 & 2019, I don't think we waived any drafted rookies. The closest is 2020 5th rounder Jake Fromm, who made the team in 2020 but was cut the following year and signed to the PS. Of note, he was poached by the Giants later that season. So, going back through 6 years of drafts, we've cut 3 6th rounders and 3 7th rounders, and 5/6 were snapped up by other teams before end of the regular season. I think it's a pretty safe bet that Hancock either makes the team out of camp, gets put on IR, or is not a Buffalo Bill in 2026.

Thanks, Paul. Yeah, Moore clearly isn't "that good", and if he was, we wouldn't be able to afford him. And that's fine. What he is, is insurance against another Texans game from last year, where Allen completed 9 passes and it looked like our WRs were a freshman team playing against varsity DBs. Put another way: Before the Moore signing, we were guaranteed to have at least 1 WR make the team who was such a question mark that he might be totally worthless. Basically Shavers, Prather, or Shenault. But now, if one of those guys winds up making the team, I'll feel a lot better about it. Because it will mean he beat out a real NFL WR in training camp, and thus is hopefully a real NFL WR himself.

Only problem there is that 5th round picks usually don't clear waivers. If it does come down to Hancock vs Lewis and Lewis wins, that probably means bye-bye to Hancock.

Off the dome, didn't Spencer Brown move into the starting lineup around the middle of his rookie year? Maybe at the bye week or something? Matt Milano is another one, mid/late in his rookie year. In general, I think the team philosophy across the board is that guys compete for jobs, and once someone wins, it's "his" job... until it isn't. For example, Beane post-draft talking about what Hairston might do if he wins the starting job across from Benford. He wasn't pretending that Benford will have to win a starting job in camp the way I've seen some NFL coaches or GMs do. Honestly, I think the Bills' take is a good middle ground. I hate the performative nonsense of coaches pretending their guys with 8-figure contracts are on the same level as rookie UDFAs, even if I get the idea behind it. On the other end, I still remember Doug Whaley declaring Sammy Watkins and Cyrus Kouandjio "starters off the bus" in his post-draft presser. Too much overconfidence and entitlement there.

If you buy the idea that Jimmy Haslam mandated the Shedeur pick, it might actually wind up rigged in Sanders' favor.

Regular season, Ravens. Playoffs, Chiefs.

Wasn’t part of the issue how little practice time they were able to get that week? It looked like he hadn’t had a chance to practice at QB at all. I don’t think he was ever asked to take a snap under center, for example. I was watching with a Saints fan, and we enjoyed the easy win, but man that was ugly to watch. It was also during the “Taysom Hill as full-time QB” experiment. Hill was AWFUL in that game, but he was able to complete a few passes. That gave the Saints an insurmountable advantage at QB.

It was Gary Trent Jr on the Bucks. I saw it live as well. Absolutely brutal. I was half expecting something like that, because the Bucks’ current coach (Doc Rivers) is known for choke jobs in the playoffs. Usually in the form of blowing 3-1 leads in 7 game series. Like many here, I’m very interested in Forrest. I can’t say I’ve ever seen him play, so it’s mostly vibes-based. But I’d never seen Poyer or Hyde play when we signed them, and Poyer in particular was very unheralded at the time, and his first Bills contract reflected that. I’m also very high on Hancock, and again, it’s mostly vibes-based. A 3-year starter on a loaded national championship team, who moved around a ton and did whatever needed to be done? Sign me up. I don’t expect a lot this year, but I love him as a candidate to start at safety down the road. Or maybe nickel corner when Taron Johnson ages out of the role.

I think you meant Coleman at Z (and I agree). X = split end Y = slot Z = flanker It's odd how much better I feel about the WR room after the Moore signing, because Moore isn't anyone special. But he is a real NFL player, who has earned playing time and targets in all 4 years of being in the league, and he seems to be a good complementary fit to what we already have. I'll be surprised if Moore has a breakout year, but it's good to know we're not 1 injury away from big Tyrell Shavers snaps. No disrespect to Shavers, btw - I like him a lot. But guys like him are basically lotto tickets. It's good to have some lotto tickets in camp and on the practice squad, but having only 4 non-lotto-ticket WRs was really worrying to me. I'm more optimistic on the Moore signing than either MVS or Claypool last year. Claypool was already on his way to playing himself out of the league after a promising rookie year. When the 2023 Bears don't think you can play WR, it's gonna be really tough to turn that ship around. MVS was a different story, but not much better. We'd all seen him drop a ton of passes from Mahomes the year before - except in the playoffs. We all knew who MVS was, and that's a subpar player who can sometimes make a big play if given enough opportunities. That didn't work out at all for us, I think partially because he was only ever going to get a handful of opportunities in the regular season. Looking at our WR room compared to last year, I like it: Shakir vs Shakir - should be about a wash Coleman vs Coleman - no guarantees, but I'm expecting improvement Samuel vs Samuel - hope springs eternal, but I think Samuel will be no better than last year I expect Palmer to play a hybrid of Hollins & Cooper's roles from last year. Outside deep threat and plays blocking WR in run sets. Palmer isn't as good a blocker as Hollins, but hopefully is a better receiver. Palmer isn't as good a receiver as prime Cooper, but can he be an upgrade over what we actually got last year? Moore doesn't have an obvious comp to last year - maybe MVS pre-Cooper trade. I suspect he'll get limited snaps when everyone's healthy, and could even be a healthy scratch some weeks if he doesn't play any special teams. But I expect him to get some WR snaps in every game he's active, and play a mix of the Curtis Samuel role and the Amari Cooper role.

I wonder how much of his game is due to his dad basically trying to game the system in terms of QB rating, stats, etc. Sacks don't scare people off nearly the way INTs do, and completion % has been the #1 metric in draft projection for a while. I watched as little of Colorado as I could, but from all accounts the offense was geared around maximizing Shedeur's completion percentage. I imagine the coaching he's been getting from his HD (Head Dad) has been heavily slanted towards completing every pass he throws. Coaching a guy to avoid INTs and also not throw the ball away leaves him taking a lot of sacks when he's in trouble. Or running heavily, but Shedeur isn't the athlete to make that work.

This is pretty much my take as well. Beane definitely came in hot, and that's not a good look for an NFL GM. And it was very out of character for him, which is notable. I'm sure he regrets getting angry on the air, but ultimately if he'd stayed calm the core message wouldn't have changed. (Just the tone and phrasing.) On the DJ side, they were obviously very surpised that Beane came in hot - which makes sense because again, that's very out of character for Beane. I initially gave them somewhat of a pass on the "he chose violence" talk afterwards, because while it came across as whiny and thin-skinned, it was in the moment. But apparently they kept milking that angle for a couple days after? If so, that's bush league. I will say that all parties did a good job of defusing the situation and eventually getting to a place of productive conversation.

Interesting take. In this scenario, what do you see as the usual d-line rotation? Especially at 1-tech DT.

Sorry, I was in this thread early, then dropped off for a while. Can anyone catch me up on why there's a whole "trade for DJ Moore" sidebar? Is it just because they have the same last name? If so, I'd like to start an additional sidebar about the great Herman Moore, star WR for those 90s Barry Sanders Lions teams. His best season came in 1995, when he caught a league-leading 123 passes for 1686 yards and 14 touchdowns. Dude was like an early Megatron prototype - 6'4", 210 lbs, great hands and jumping ability. As for Elijah, thanks to @Normaliswear for the May 1st info. Hopefully that's accurate and we sign him May 2nd. I'm a little skeptical though, just because we're currently at a net -2 in the comp pick formula, so it's pretty unlikely we'd care about whether Moore counts or not. I'm still fully on board to sign Moore after looking at Spotrac's list of free agent WRs. He's young, potentially still getting better, would add speed to our offense, and can play inside and out. This thread has included some evidence that he's better on the outside than in the slot, so I hope the Bills would give him a chance at both and not just pigeonhole him as slot-only.

Yeah, I think this is a fair criticism. Both the depth and pipeline at WR are pretty shaky right now. I'm fine with the stated approach of, "we don't need a true #1 WR, and especially not at market price for a #1 WR". But we can't put scrubs out there, either. There's plenty of question marks with our top 4 WRs, but they are all legitimate NFL players, and depending on how well Palmer works out, they might be a really effective group in this offense. But what happens if any of them get hurt? Our current WR depth chart gets scary real quick. A lot of us would like Beane to get into the habit of taking a WR somewhere in the round 3-5 range, maybe not every year, but often. Most of those guys can play at least a little bit, and some of them develop into solid starters or even stars. Knowing that we won't be able to commit a ton of cap $ to the WR position makes it extra important to have a cost-controlled pipeline at the position. And again, we don't necessarily need major stars at WR, but we do need competent NFL players across the board. (And if one of those picks happens to turn into a star, well that's just fine.)