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Is The Bills Defensive Line Better or Worse Since Free Agency?


Is The Bills Defensive Line Better or Worse Since Free Agency?  

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  1. 1. Is The Bills Defensive Line Better or Worse Since Free Agency?

    • Better
      139
    • Worse
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I think we’re pretty upgraded on the line, especially against the run. I can’t see anyone running on this group. 
That said the pass rush is still a little concerning but only if Addison falls off a cliff. If he’s a 7 sack or more guy at his advanced age we should be alright. 

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1 hour ago, Mickey said:

I am a little concerned that we have spent so much attention on the defense and, beyond Diggs, left the offense without badly needed reinforcements. The defense was solid last year, the offense, not so much. Where is the investment in the offense beyond Diggs? Yeah, we re-signed a guard and brought on a top notch deep threat and separation specialist at WR but the offense is still behind the defense talent-wise. I guess that will have to happen in the draft. 

 

Don't worry be happy they still have quite a few good picks in the draft that they can get good players to fill some needs on the offense !! 

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1 hour ago, Phil The Thrill said:

Since Free Agency started, the Bills lost 2 defensive lineman and signed three new defensive lineman.  Many here lamented the loss of Shaq Lawson and some wanted Jordan Phillips retained. Given these transactions do you believe the Bills D-Line is better or worse?


Pre-Free Agency

Shaq Lawson

Star Lotuleile

Eddie Oliver

Jerry Hughes

Jordan Phillips
Trent Murphy

Daryl Johnson

Harrison Phillips (IR)

Post Free Agency

*Mario Addison

Star Lotuleile

Eddie Oliver

Jerry Hughes

*Vernon Butler

*Quentin Jefferson

Harrison Phillips

Trent Murphy

Daryl Johnson 


As you can see they essentially traded Shaq and Jordan Phillips for Addison, Butler, and Jefferson.

 


 

 

 

To be fair - we were spending under $8M on Shaq and J Phil combined.

 

We are now spending more than that basically on each player...

11 minutes ago, T master said:

 

Don't worry be happy they still have quite a few good picks in the draft that they can get good players to fill some needs on the offense !! 

Would not bank too much on a later 2nd rounder and beyond being a big contributor to next seasons offense...

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4 minutes ago, ngbills said:

To be fair - we were spending under $8M on Shaq and J Phil combined.

 

We are now spending more than that basically on each player...

Would not bank too much on a later 2nd rounder and beyond being a big contributor to next seasons offense...

 

Well Singletary did pretty good last season so i wouldn't completely count out a second or 3rd round player not contributing in their first season !! 

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Its good but I think we can improve a great deal. Curtis Weaver, Kenny Willekes or Alton Robinson would be sick to bring along behind this rotation. I think we need a young oxen to bring along behind Addison and Hughes. Ideally you’d want someone to replace Murphy. Also Hughes has only 1 year left on his deal but he could get re-signed. I’d love Weaver in the second, Willekes in the third and Robinson in the fourth. In an ideal world we double up on EDGE. A great pass rush is everything.

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1 hour ago, BigBillsFan said:

 

It's not who we lost, it's who we don't have. We don't have a solid option at TE. Knox is not solid, maybe he will, maybe we won't. O-line is solid, and WRs are a top 5 bunch. We need a solid receiving RB and another strong RB.

 

I disagree with the tight end part in that while yes there's no certainly how good of a player he will become, you also don't want to do anything to reduce his playing time, so don't think we need anything there.  I think they likely will still draft a WR in the 2nd or 3rd, likely will push people like Foster Roberts or Williams potentially off the roster.

 

Will be interesting to see if they still draft a pass rushing type guy either LB or DE., there too if they do will probably knock D Johnson off the roster as I doubt they'd want to bank on him as a rookie rather than keeping Murphy.

 

Think a lineman will be drafted fairly high to become the starter next year either to take Feleciano's spot directly when he becomes a FA or you move Ford into his spot and the rookie is the starting RT in 2021

 

Running back, could still use improvement, but at most it's signing one more guy.

 

I think anyone else you sign, you're likely signing someone knowing that  likely someones signing bonus is going to become dead cap when they are cut, either a player signed this off-season or you cut someone like a Murphy or a Smith.

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The question you are asking is, are Jefferson, Butler, and Addison better than Phillips and Shaq? I think so, Addison is a better pass rusher than Shaq and the Butler/Jefferson combo is better than Phillips or at the very least a push. I also think that Ed Oliver improves dramatically even if it is possible Hughes has some regression. I would still like to see Edge drafted in round 2 or 3 just to get a bit younger along the D-line. 

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Better here is why?  They are a lot bigger and nastier Quinton Jefferson, is a steal  and fits what Mcdermot likes to do line someone up all over the defensive line and wreck havoc out there but is a nasty player i read somewhere he actually after a game almost went into the stands after a fan.  Vernon Butler, like I said a lot bigger and nastier he got ejected from a game for punching an opposing player in the face and than flipped off the fans he is the question mark because he never really lived up to the hype but has all the talent to be a good one.

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3 hours ago, Mickey said:

I am a little concerned that we have spent so much attention on the defense and, beyond Diggs, left the offense without badly needed reinforcements. The defense was solid last year, the offense, not so much. Where is the investment in the offense beyond Diggs? Yeah, we re-signed a guard and brought on a top notch deep threat and separation specialist at WR but the offense is still behind the defense talent-wise. I guess that will have to happen in the draft. 

 

I don't get this post, no disrespect and this reply isnt only directed at you, but I have seen others say this in some other threads too, so kind of an all encompassing response by me here.

 

But what players on offense need to be badly replaced so far in FA?  I mean we didn't lose anyone on offense and lost a large amount of our sack totals through Shaq, Zo, and Phillips.  Not to mention we are likely losing Kevin Johnson, so needed to add a CB too for more depth.

 

You cant look at stats last year and go D is fine and ignore we lost 4 solid to major contributors from it. 

 

Back to offense:  Because I have seen a couple others say this (complain number of D players vs O players added) lets look at the our guys and tell me who needs to go and more importantly, who did we need to bring in from FA to replace them:

  1. QB - Josh Allen
  2. RB - Devin Singletary
  3. WR - Diggs (NEW), John Brown, Cole Beasley
  4. TE - Knox, Kroft, Sweeney
  5. OT - Dawkins, Ford, Ty
  6. C - Morse
  7. G - Spain, Feliciano, Ford

What guys on that list need to be replaced as starters?  I have Ford double listed since he is not for sure a G or T yet.  

 

The only real argument is we could maybe use some competition at RT for Ford to determine where he will be full time.  We still have 7 picks in the upcoming draft too.  They traded up for Knox, so they aren't looking for a guy like Hooper at TE when they want to develop Knox.  So even if they looked at TE it would be more of a vet to help mentor him and develop him like how they showed interest in Olsen.  

 

By far the biggest area of need was a top end WR.  We got that.  Everything they will add on offense will be complimentary and rotational players to our young talent.  We can get a lot of that in the draft as well and at a lot cheaper cap hit with a lot more upside.  

 

Plus, early days of FA guys are always the most expensive.  So it doesnt make sense to try and sign a bunch of depth and rotational players early as it chews up more cap space.  

Edited by Alphadawg7
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2 hours ago, thebandit27 said:

I’ll say deeper for sure. Better or worse remains to be seen.

This is where I’m at. If we say Shaq & Phillips are cancelled out by Addison and Butler then you added Jefferson. You can rearrange those in any way that you see fit but however you slice it the Bills have one more quality DL vs. last year.

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2 hours ago, MrEpsYtown said:

Also remember that Eric Washington is a HUGE upgrade coach wise. The guy is going to make a huge difference for these guys. Hopefully, he can turn Oliver into the next big thing in the 3 tech world. He’s gotten production out of Addison in both 4-3 and 3-4 defenses and has been with Butler from day 1 of his development. To me, Washington might be the biggest addition to out D line.  

 

Interesting take. :thumbsup:

2 hours ago, Rc2catch said:

I think we’re pretty upgraded on the line, especially against the run. I can’t see anyone running on this group. 
That said the pass rush is still a little concerning but only if Addison falls off a cliff. If he’s a 7 sack or more guy at his advanced age we should be alright. 

 

To your point, If we become more stout vs the run, this D becomes elite. The D staff can get creative to pressure the opposition QB.

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3 hours ago, Mickey said:

I am a little concerned that we have spent so much attention on the defense and, beyond Diggs, left the offense without badly needed reinforcements. The defense was solid last year, the offense, not so much. Where is the investment in the offense beyond Diggs? Yeah, we re-signed a guard and brought on a top notch deep threat and separation specialist at WR but the offense is still behind the defense talent-wise. I guess that will have to happen in the draft. 

D-line had to be addressed because of the two defections. Remember that defense overcame offensive shortcomings with JA development. The O-line was fortified with resigning Spain, Lawaddle, Long etc. Keeping continuity is critical with offensive line play. The TE position was addressed with resigning Kroft. This guy has to better if healthy. The running back will be a draft need or maybe a big FA signing to come. 

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3 hours ago, Mickey said:

I am a little concerned that we have spent so much attention on the defense and, beyond Diggs, left the offense without badly needed reinforcements. The defense was solid last year, the offense, not so much. Where is the investment in the offense beyond Diggs? Yeah, we re-signed a guard and brought on a top notch deep threat and separation specialist at WR but the offense is still behind the defense talent-wise. I guess that will have to happen in the draft. 

The draft is still coming and who knows we might add a few more UFAs before then or after. 

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2 hours ago, T master said:

 

Well Singletary did pretty good last season so i wouldn't completely count out a second or 3rd round player not contributing in their first season !! 

 

This^

 

The right player, especially a RB, can be plug and play. As it stands with our WR stable, the chances of a very good WR prospect falls to us in round 2.

 

Sprinkle this player into the offense with the present, experienced threats and the attention a D gives them would allow a young WR to flourish.

1 hour ago, billsfan89 said:

The question you are asking is, are Jefferson, Butler, and Addison better than Phillips and Shaq? I think so, Addison is a better pass rusher than Shaq and the Butler/Jefferson combo is better than Phillips or at the very least a push. I also think that Ed Oliver improves dramatically even if it is possible Hughes has some regression. I would still like to see Edge drafted in round 2 or 3 just to get a bit younger along the D-line. 

 

I think Hughes might enjoy a spike in play because of the interior additions and another year under EOs belt.

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9 minutes ago, Hampton Josh fan said:

D-line had to be addressed because of the two defections. Remember that defense overcame offensive shortcomings with JA development. The O-line was fortified with resigning Spain, Lawaddle, Long etc. Keeping continuity is critical with offensive line play. The TE position was addressed with resigning Kroft. This guy has to better if healthy. The running back will be a draft need or maybe a big FA signing to come. 

Makes sense but resigning guys doesn't make you better, it keeps you from getting worse. It was the offense, not the defense that needed the most help and so far, Diggs is really the only change on offense. It will have to be a very good draft and our first pick isn't until late in the first round. There are some good backs that will be there and there are some very interesting WR's that will be around so hopefully, the offense will get what it needs.

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3 hours ago, Ed_Formerly_of_Roch said:

 

We also lost much more on the defensive side 3 major contributors, Phillips, Lawson, and Alexander.  Who'd we lose on offense? Frank Gore who I'm sure we could have back if we wanted.  The biggest hole we had on offense was at WR which we did address. You have nine offensive lineman from last year all under contract.  The only place where I could see a  FA helping would be a running back, but even there, maybe the plan is for Yeldon to be the #2, plus signed Jones though mainly for ST  and who knows about (can't think of his name) the rugby player.

 

Can't recall was S Perry a FA or is he signed?

Sounds good but I don't agree that a FA TE wouldn't help. And having guys under contract does not mean we don't need to improve the OL.  

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