finn

Meanwhile, Allen ranks first of all quarterbacks in the past five years in playoff EPA. In short, when it counts the most, the best quarterback in the league is carrying the worst defense in the league. It's about time they addressed the problem.

Or maybe the Alec Anderson experiment is over? Maybe they want at least a small receiving threat in addition to the in-line blocking.

Backup to Taron and whoever plays free safety. Works for me.

Ah.

Is Isaiah Bond falling because of character issues? He's a top-100 player according to Bruegel. Might be a nice pick for the Bills with one of the fifth round picks. Maybe his teammates can improve his character if that's the problem.

I'm surprised all of them don't break down like Jackson. Think of the pressure on these young guys. National TV is watching as the picks go by, your family, friends, everyone you know in the world watching to see how worthy you are in the eyes of the professionals. How do you stay stoic? (And why should you?)

Right. Trying to define athleticism is like defining pornography (according to Lewis Powell): You know it when you see it.

Agree. The team obviously needed a CB, but in my view the need for a safety was/is more than DT and DE. The Bills defense was elite a few years ago, but when they lost Poyer and Hyde, the wheels fell off. I like the Sanders pick, but I think the Bills would have done better picking Malaki Starks as a true ball-hawking free safety, allowing Bishop to play his natural strong-safety position. The Bills had it right a few years ago with Poyer and Hyde, just as Baltimore has it right with Hamilton and now Starks, and the Eagles with DeJean and now Mukuba (both 2nd round picks, incidentally). Beane sees Mahomes crushed like a tin can in the Super Bowl and thinks "pass rush." But he should be thinking "safety."

I always wonder about that term. His RAS score is elite (speed, jumps, etc.), but he's universally described as "stiff," with little ability to bend or dip around the corner. To me, an athlete is someone who is fast and quick but also able to move effortlessly, like Bruce Smith or Von Miller. This guy reminds me more Phil Hansen. That's no insult, either. A nice player, but "athletic"? We need a term for "fast and quick but not particularly supple."

But he needs someone to throw it to besides JV players, castoffs, and Shakir.

It's one way to beat a perennially low draft position. Let's hope it blows up in their faces.

I did!😁

Where do you see DeWayne Carter fitting in? Is McBeane looking for all his interior players to be able to play both tackle positions?

Exactly. Hoping they'll be good isn't the same as they're being good. Rapp is merely adequate when he's healthy, and Bishop is a projection. He could be another Elam for all we know. Yes, he missed time in training camp, but he certainly didn't wow the coaches over the course of the season. I'm hopeful but not at all confident. If you have just one bad safety, like Hamlin, it screws up the whole defense. If he has a Kincaid-like sophomore year, they'll have two meh players and a rookies starting in the secondary.

He really liked George Pickens a few years ago, too, when others were not so keen on him (he dropped to the second round).

Don't overthink it, Beane. Take Amos and go get a beer.

No matter where they are in the draft, the perfect player falls to them--and they pick him. They make it seem so easy.

Damn. I know we need a CB and DT, but I secretly wanted Starks all along. The play of Hamlin has made me shell shocked.

Ravens always draft well. Maybe one of the safeties, although I don't know if it's a need for them.

It was easy to forget him last year.

Beane is going to trade down for that missing third-round pick, which is like a missing tooth to him.

Until there's a run on them just before the Bills pick.

Drafting Starks would show a lot of imagination on Beane's part, a quality he hasn't really shown. He'll think, "We already have two starting safeties, one a second-rounder last year. I'm not going to put another premium pick there when I have needs elsewhere." It's the same thinking that might have caused him to choose Boogie Basham over Creed Humphrey, who played a position Beane had covered. He didn't seem to grasp that Humphrey could have stepped in for Morse the following year, providing an instant (and cheap) upgrade, just as Starks could supplant Rapp this year or next, and allow Bishop to play his more natural strong safety position.

Beane moving up. He moved up for Allen, yes, but he also moved up for Tremaine Edmunds, Cody Ford, Kaiir Elam, and Dalton Kincaid, passing on, respectively, Jaire Alexander, AJ Brown, Tariq Woolen, and Sam LaPorta. When he gets an itchy trigger finger, bad things tend to happen. So if I see "TRADE! Bills send their fourth-round pick (56 overall) to the LA Rams for their first-round pick (26 overall)," I will turn off the computer and go to bed, knowing for sure that they a) just burned a 4th round pick for a player who would have been there at 30 or even later; or b) they did so and picked a lemon to boot.

Dane Bruegler compares him to Milano in his ability to recognize plays and fly to the ball. There's a good case for picking him with the first of the two second-round picks, with CB and DT right before and after (in either order). Would be a forward-looking pick. I loved Bernard in 2023, but he was a lesser player last year: small, slow, and injured. A Williams-Schwesinger pairing might be elite in 2026.