Shaq is back! A one-year deal

[John from Riverside]

1 hour ago, SCBills said:

A smart owner who wants to win Super Bowls… which we have. 
 

We’ll see who’s right.  I guarantee we don’t play him anywhere close to the percentage of snaps he’s used to in the regular season.  
 

With the AFCW becoming a nuclear war, AFCN tough as well, there is zero reason this team (even without Von) shouldn’t be a 1 seed favorite. 
 

I think this is right and playing him in a rotation can extend his potential window 

[BuffaloBillsGospel]

I was not a fan of the Philips and Lawson signings at first, they may not even make the team with this deep group but it says something that these guys have all stayed close and don't mind coming here for less money to give it another go and both probably never wanted to leave in the first place. People say culture doesn't matter and I say to hell with that, dudes have been coming in here with their kids talking about raising families and being a tight knit group, this team has come a hell of a long way!

[Don Otreply]

2 hours ago, John from Riverside said:

Would it shock people to see a trade in this DE stable?

Not really, or at least it shouldn’t, Beane might turn a couple of them into a CB, he is a Wizard after all…

[3rdand12]

8 minutes ago, BuffaloBillsGospel said:

I was not a fan of the Philips and Lawson signings at first, they may not even make the team with this deep group but it says something that these guys have all stayed close and don't mind coming here for less money to give it another go and both probably never wanted to leave in the first place. People say culture doesn't matter and I say to hell with that, dudes have been coming in here with their kids talking about raising families and being a tight knit group, this team has come a hell of a long way!

this really interests me that.. Lawson and Phillips wanted to come back after being let free to make the bigger coin

 

And that McBeanes actually wanted them back.
 still pondering these two moves

 but for now ? Hell yes.

lets Go Buffalo !! 

[mannc]

1 hour ago, Mr. WEO said:

it’s unfortunately necessary.  
 

with Epinesa, I think they realize what they got…

Probably, but it’s not unusual for edge rushers to take a while to develop…especially a tweener like AJ

[RocCityRoller]

12 minutes ago, BuffaloBillsGospel said:

I was not a fan of the Philips and Lawson signings at first, they may not even make the team with this deep group but it says something that these guys have all stayed close and don't mind coming here for less money to give it another go and both probably never wanted to leave in the first place. People say culture doesn't matter and I say to hell with that, dudes have been coming in here with their kids talking about raising families and being a tight knit group, this team has come a hell of a long way!

 

Let's be honest. Lawson and Phillips signed silly contracts elsewhere when due. Good for them getting the $$$. It wasn't here.

 

If I recall correctly that year Buffalo signed Addison, Butler, Jefferson to replace them. This board was so happy.

I can't recall if Star and/or Murphy was the same year or not, but honestly, how much better was Buffalo with those signings and all that tied up FA money than with Lawson and Phillips?

 

Addison was a success by sack numbers, but how many times did we see QBs and RBs run through his tackles?

Jefferson was a non-positional bust

Butler showed flashes here and there but never held down any position

Star is a solid 1TDT when healthy and motivated (almost never), and we are still stuck with that contract

Murphy was not an answer to any question.

 

That is a lot of money spent to not improve off of Lawson and Phillips.

 

With Lawson you have a run stopping DE who can generate 4 sacks (Time in Buffalo - Mean 4.1, median 4, mode 4), that is handy vs TN/ INDY/ SF

With Phillips you have a definitive 3T guy. When motivated he is a mess to deal with. He was never more motivated than in Buffalo.

Both guys love the team and have defined roles, something Jefferson and Butler never had.

 

Happy to have both back TBH.

 

Just wish other positions were addressed. Signing Miller, Jones, Settle, Lawson, Phillips is a hell of an indictment of prior DL FA spending, and 4 premium draft picks in the last 3 drafts on DL. Buffalo lacks in identifying and developing DL play. It should be obvious now. I hope Miller can point out a few things. The DC was a Safety on the 85 Bears, and McDermott was a S in college. Frazier and McDermott can make chicken salad out of chicken sh!t in the secondary. (Wallace UDFA and 7th round Dane Jackson being CB#1 and #2). They suck at the front 6/7. This is why IMO Buffalo plays a Nickel base. It is what our coaches are good at.

 

The continued attention to DL is coming at the deficit of OL, WR and other positions. I hope this is the right mix and that the draft is spent fixing OL, DB and WR.

[Mrbojanglezs]

How about some offense....

[costrovs]

3 hours ago, gordong said:

Let me guess your one of the guy that want 50 probowlers on a team...right.   he's not a great pass rusher everyone knows that... he is good however at stopping the run.... maybe just maybe, the team as a plan how to use the guy....   all these guy are not being signed to start... take a breathe... enjoy the ride. 

 

Of course I want 50 pro bowlers on the team.... who doesn't!!

I'm not posting on here about how much I dislike the signing(even though I don't like it)... it's the love-fest for the guy..

My main issue is the $$$ people on this board wanted to fork out for him 2 years ago... And I decided to bring it back up. The stupidity of $12M+ to a player that was worth maybe $6M at the time. And based on the past 2 years, he's worth less than that!

Here's my post below. 

 

5 hours ago, costrovs said:

LOL

I can't believe the love-fest for this guy.

Do any of you remember 2 years ago when it seemed like half this board thought that it'd be a great idea to give this guy 12M+ a year?

Then he went to MIAMI AND THE JETS for 2 years!

This guy is average at best. 

 

I think half this board is confusing Shaq Lawson with Shaquille O'neal.

Just because they have the same first name, doesn't mean they'll have the same results.

 

 

[Thurman#1]

2 hours ago, Mr. WEO said:

it’s unfortunately necessary.  
 

with Epinesa, I think they realize what they got…

 

 

I don't think there's any way they can realize what they have with Epenesa. It's been two years. That's not enough.

 

And the second he'd been asked to lose weight but apparently had trouble holding the lower weight they'd asked him to maintain. 

 

Does he need to eat differently? Be five pounds heavier than he was last year? Just learn an extra pass rush move or two? It's too early to know. 

 

Not too early for fans to have strong suspicions, but it really is too early to know.

Edited March 18, 2022 by Thurman#1

[Locomark]

7 hours ago, Tenhigh said:

Trade to whom, and for what value?

Epenesa plus a 3rd or 4th rounder to Giants for Bradberry.  

Edited March 18, 2022 by Locomark

[buffaloboyinATL]

8 hours ago, TheyCallMeAndy said:

I swear I can hear this, even though there is no sound. 

[GoBills!]

If we rush 7 DL, we don’t need anyone but tre Hyde and poyer 😂 . Brandon is a wizard! 

[NewEra]

7 hours ago, SCBills said:

Star is getting cut and we likely carry 9 DL. 
 

For once, I love the deep rotation, because if I’m McDermott - my sole focus for Von Miller these next 2-3 years is too simply make sure he’s rested & healthy for the playoffs. 

Yup.  Keep his snap count from 55-62% during the regular season and amp it up for the playoffs 

[Hapless Bills Fan]

3 hours ago, RocCityRoller said:

Let's be honest.

 

Starting a post with "let's be honest" seems to imply that you doubt the honesty of the people on this board, or at least the person to whom you're responding.  Is that your intent?

 

3 hours ago, RocCityRoller said:

Lawson and Phillips signed silly contracts elsewhere when due. Good for them getting the $$$. It wasn't here.

 

If I recall correctly that year Buffalo signed Addison, Butler, Jefferson to replace them. This board was so happy.

I can't recall if Star and/or Murphy was the same year or not, but honestly, how much better was Buffalo with those signings and all that tied up FA money than with Lawson and Phillips?

 

Lotulelei and Murphy were both signed here in 2018, Beane's first off-season.  Murphy had been a promising young pass rusher with 9 sacks the year before his ACL injury.  We had him the first year he was back, and he never returned to form. 

 

Phillips and Lawson both left in FA after 2019, so Murphy, Lotulelei, Phillips, and Lawson played together for 2 years.  It takes a couple seconds to look this up. 

 

I'm not quite sure what your point is here?  You seem to have the sequence of arrivals and departures and the roles players were intended to fill/actually asked to fill  a bit blurred, and your intended point is blurred with it. 

 

Is it that the guys who arguably were signed to replace Lawson and Phillips (Addison and Butler) cost the same as Lawson and Phillips?  Can you back that up?  (I don't have energy in researching it for you, but I think it was less)

 

Are you trying to say that McDermott should philosophically "step away from the DL rotation" so he doesn't keep 10 or 11 DLmen on the roster every year?  It's a point, but it would require a fundamental change in philosophy.

 

McDermott believes in a DL rotation, so it's not like Murphy was signed to replace Lawson (even if the dates lined up, which they don't) and a 1T DT role differs from a 3T DT role, so it's not like Star was signed to replace Phillips (even if those dates lined up, which they don't) or vice versa.

 

 

3 hours ago, RocCityRoller said:

Addison was a success by sack numbers, but how many times did we see QBs and RBs run through his tackles?

 

Actually, Addison did not achieve as expected by sack numbers.  He had 11, 9, and 9.5 in the 3 years before he was signed along with 15,12, and 14 QB hits.

 

In his 2 seasons here, he averaged 6 sacks and 7.5 QB hits.  By his previous numbers, he was expected to  be an improvement on Shaq, and he wasn't.

 

3 hours ago, RocCityRoller said:

Jefferson was a non-positional bust

 

I'm not sure what "non-positional bust" means.  Pretty sure Q Jefferson was signed as a partial replacement for Zo Alexander, a guy who could be a bit of a "joker" and play either inside or outside. Once Lotulelei opted out in 2020 no one on the inside of the line was used as they were intended; Jefferson was asked to eat a steady diet of 3TDT snaps and he didn't do well.

 

3 hours ago, RocCityRoller said:

Butler showed flashes here and there but never held down any position

 

Butler was signed as a 3TDT and played better in 2021 when he was allowed to be a 3TDT.  In 2020, he was asked to play 1TDT when Lotulelei opted out and we were left with just Harrison Phillips coming back from ACL surgery on the roster.  It wasn't his gig and he struggled.  He got better towards the end of the season, which helped us down the stretch.

 

3 hours ago, RocCityRoller said:

Star is a solid 1TDT when healthy and motivated (almost never), and we are still stuck with that contract

Murphy was not an answer to any question.

 

That is a lot of money spent to not improve off of Lawson and Phillips.

 

Again, you seem to be implying that Murphy and Star were signed to replace Lawson and Phillips.  They were not.  They were signed in 2018, and played alongside Lawson and Phillips for 2 seasons. 

 

There are a bunch of sites on the Interwebs where this kind of thing can be looked up very quickly.  Pro-football-reference.com is one such.

 

3 hours ago, RocCityRoller said:

Both guys love the team and have defined roles, something Jefferson and Butler never had.

 

See above regarding roles.

 

Everyone is entitled to an opinion.  An opinion is stronger when it's supported by correct info.

[Hapless Bills Fan]

5 hours ago, BuffaloBillsGospel said:

I was not a fan of the Philips and Lawson signings at first, they may not even make the team with this deep group but it says something that these guys have all stayed close and don't mind coming here for less money

 

Do we know what their money is yet?

 

Shaq Lawson struggled in Miami and with the Jets.  There may be other factors there, but it's not like he likely had other suitors beating down his agents door to pay him the big bucks.

 

Jordan Phillips was a big disappointment in Arizona, in part due to several injuries.  Again, it's not likely he had other suitors beating down his agents door

 

Depending on the money spent and the energy/attitude they bring, it may be great moves for us, but it's not like it's out of the great love and goodness of their hearts.

 

It will come at a cost of not being able to keep younger developmental players on the roster, even if we pick a couple up in the draft or as UDFA.  Wyatt Teller would be an example of that pitfall; we traded him away just before the start of his 2nd season because Morse was out all preseason with a concussion, and we wanted to ensure we had an OLman who was proven to be able to play C on the roster in the 6 year veteran Spencer Long.  I can't argue the move in the short run, but in the long run it wasn't to our roster development benefit.

 

PS that will prolly be taken as a "Debbie Downer" thing but I don't say it to poop on the signings, just pragmatically.   Because of the cap and roster limits, there are some zero-sum games here: while the Steelers are sticking with Big Ben, they can't invest a high draft pick in a young QB and develop him etc.

[BobbyC81]

8 hours ago, costrovs said:

O'Neal at 50 years old would probably play better than Lawson did last season. So I'm all for it!

I don’t care how big an OT is, they would not be able to stop him.   As an OL, he’d also be impossible to get past.

[Hapless Bills Fan]

 

[freddyjj]

13 hours ago, RobbRiddicksTDLeap said:

Now we can use less nickel against the run. This might help that look get fresh again for opposing OC’s. 

I am at a loss here.  Does this mean we play a 4-3 as our base now because our front 4 is better?

 

Wouldn't we be inclined to stay with our base nickel even more so?  

[Mr. WEO]

4 hours ago, Hapless Bills Fan said:

 

 

Beane read that, put down his phone and checkbook.

[RobbRiddicksTDLeap]

1 hour ago, freddyjj said:

I am at a loss here.  Does this mean we play a 4-3 as our base now because our front 4 is better?

 

Wouldn't we be inclined to stay with our base nickel even more so?  

I don’t know? To me, adding Lawson, allows you to put Miller in sort of a stand up spot, and still keep Edmunds and Milano on the field. You may lose something in pass protection, but you are better suited against the runs. 
 

I don’t know…