Many Bills Starters Still FAs

[BuffaloBillyG]

4 hours ago, DapperCam said:

Joey Bosa, Tre White, Matt Milano, Shaq Thompson, DaQuan Jones, Poyer, Von Miller (one year removed)…

 

Kind of an indictment of our personnel on defense recently.

I'm really surprised some team didn't take a chance on Milano or Thompson. They are capable of some really good snaps. 

3 minutes ago, Miyagi-Do Karate said:

Bosa was a great signing. He played great. The problem is the staff misused him. He’s the one guy that needed to be on a pitch count the entire season. They absolutely wore him out. 

They had to play him more due to injury to others. Unfortunate, but that's life. My biggest problem with Boss was if he put 20 good plays on film, he had 20 bad ones. He was terrible helping against the run. And so many of the long QB runs we saw last you were due to him flying upfield and taking himself out of a play. All a QB had to do was step up and run through the gaping hole he left behind. 

[Snappysnackcakes]

5 hours ago, DapperCam said:

Joey Bosa, Tre White, Matt Milano, Shaq Thompson, DaQuan Jones, Poyer, Von Miller (one year removed)…

 

Kind of an indictment of our personnel on defense recently.

Bingo. It really shows how stale McD and his defense became. We’re getting ready to see if Brady et al are as scared of outsiders as he was, albeit favoring offense now. Coach was shown too much grace, in my opinion. Should’ve moved on at least one year prior, and maybe 2-3. 

[BillsVet]

Former HC is a free agent as well.  Best news of the entire off-season.  

 

[Ethan in Cleveland]

I'd take Shaq, Tre, or Von back on a vet minimum salary.  All three would make the final 53.  Shaq could still start. Von could get decent number of rotational snaps.  And Tre would be a massive upgrade over anyone on the team now that will be CB#4.

[folz]

9 hours ago, DapperCam said:

Joey Bosa, Tre White, Matt Milano, Shaq Thompson, DaQuan Jones, Poyer, Von Miller (one year removed)…

 

Kind of an indictment of our personnel on defense recently.

 

9 hours ago, Augie said:

How many guys like that are sitting out league wide right now? There are tiers of players, and they each play different roles in the offseason. I don’t think this is cause to draw conclusions or point fingers at some other side. It’s what happens every year. We had some old guys, some scheme specific guys, and that stuff happens. Sitting at home tonight watching World Cup does not mean you won’t be playing in the NFL next year. There is hope! 

 

I don’t think it’s that big of a deal. 

 

.

 

a couple of notes in this vain;

 

1. Teams who are changing coaches probably released more FAs total, and therefore may still have more available out there.

2. Each team is in a different cycle of roster growth and development. Some teams have aging vets that need to be let go, while others did that a season or two ago, and therefore have younger teams (fewer FAs released, and/or younger FAs released---who are cheaper and not aging out of the league).

 

According to Spotrac, there are still 150 Free agents available with a market value of at least $1,000,000 (and going up to $21,000,000). 

 

The Bills have 13 FAs (played with the team last year) still available: Bosa, Samuel, Milano, Rapp, White, Jones, Davis, Phillips, Prater, Poyer, Thompson, Cooks, and Ogunjobi. [3 offense, 1 ST, 9 defense---obviously our defense is changing more than the offense with our coaching change]

 

And as another poster (NoSaint) alluded to, Bosa has retired, and Cooks, Poyer, Davis, and Prater were all in-season additions due to injuries. Also, of the 13 players, 10 of them are 31 years old or more. So, it's not quite as bad as it seems, though we are still near the top of FAs available when including all 13 guys. But we are not alone in that by any means---22 teams (68.75% of the league) have at least 6 FAs still available. Of the top 8 teams (most FAs still available), 7 of them made a head coaching change this year (and all 10 teams that changed their HC this year made the following list---top 22). Some of it is just the nature of the business/beast.

 

NFL teams FAs still available (# of)

WAS 18

MIA 15

LV  13

BUF 13

ARZ 12

CLE 11

PIT 10

NYG 10

DET 10

DAL 9

HOU 9

IND 9

SF 8

TB 8

NE 8

KC 8

LAC 8

TEN 7

MIN 7

CAR 7

ATL 6

BAL 6

 

Edited July 7 by folz

[machine gun kelly]

10 hours ago, Buffalo716 said:

 

It's because they're old 

 

Those guys at 27 would all be picked up on the free agent market.. old veterans who command higher salaries are never signed fast 

 

Joey bosa already retired.. I mean Tre white was literally by advanced metrics a top 15 corner in the NFL last year 

 

He wasn't bad

As always 716, you’re on track.  These guys for the most part are on the wrong side of 30 and aged out.  That’s also why they are in a holding pattern to see if there are injuries in TC or in the season.  They’ve all entered the one year contract rentals if that and has been like this for decades.

[blacklabel]

12 hours ago, Captain Hindsight said:

I thought Bosa was great at times, but he was on the way out for sure

 

Ogunjobi, I forgot he was even here. I was watching the Denver game and he had one stat, an Offside on a turnover 

 

Bosa had some good plays. He led the league in forced fumbles so that was good. But as the season went on you could see he was struggling with that wrist injury and then he had some instances where he kinda went off script a little and would lose contain on the edge and give up huge runs. 

[Bill from NYC]

13 hours ago, DapperCam said:

Joey Bosa, Tre White, Matt Milano, Shaq Thompson, DaQuan Jones, Poyer, Von Miller (one year removed)…

 

Kind of an indictment of our personnel on defense recently.

Which really shouldn't be, whereas Coach McCorner focused on defense more than he did offense.

[BeyondTheProcess]

Leonhard's D doesn't seem to require sophisticated 'read and react' skills, so "anyone" can play it (sort of: "just shoot the gap the call tells you to shoot and don't woory about anything else") .  I like it bc brainless rookies and other young athletic guys are just "tools" in the scheme, it seems.   It'll probably get gashed a bunch but will create big splash plays that will be fun to watch.  

[Lost]

4 hours ago, folz said:

 

 

a couple of notes in this vain;

 

1. Teams who are changing coaches probably released more FAs total, and therefore may still have more available out there.

2. Each team is in a different cycle of roster growth and development. Some teams have aging vets that need to be let go, while others did that a season or two ago, and therefore have younger teams (fewer FAs released, and/or younger FAs released---who are cheaper and not aging out of the league).

 

According to Spotrac, there are still 150 Free agents available with a market value of at least $1,000,000 (and going up to $21,000,000). 

 

The Bills have 13 FAs (played with the team last year) still available: Bosa, Samuel, Milano, Rapp, White, Jones, Davis, Phillips, Prater, Poyer, Thompson, Cooks, and Ogunjobi. [3 offense, 1 ST, 9 defense---obviously our defense is changing more than the offense with our coaching change]

 

And as another poster (NoSaint) alluded to, Bosa has retired, and Cooks, Poyer, Davis, and Prater were all in-season additions due to injuries. Also, of the 13 players, 10 of them are 31 years old or more. So, it's not quite as bad as it seems, though we are still near the top of FAs available when including all 13 guys. But we are not alone in that by any means---22 teams (68.75% of the league) have at least 6 FAs still available. Of the top 8 teams (most FAs still available), 7 of them made a head coaching change this year (and all 10 teams that changed their HC this year made the following list---top 22). Some of it is just the nature of the business/beast.

 

NFL teams FAs still available (# of)

WAS 18

MIA 15

LV  13

BUF 13

ARZ 12

CLE 11

PIT 10

NYG 10

DET 10

DAL 9

HOU 9

IND 9

SF 8

TB 8

NE 8

KC 8

LAC 8

TEN 7

MIN 7

CAR 7

ATL 6

BAL 6

 

 

 

Being nestled up to Arizona, LV, Miami and Cleveland in any stat category makes me want to 🤮.   I don't care what the circumstances are

[T master]

15 hours ago, Buffalo716 said:

 

It's because they're old 

 

Those guys at 27 would all be picked up on the free agent market.. old veterans who command higher salaries are never signed fast 

 

Joey bosa already retired.. I mean Tre white was literally by advanced metrics a top 15 corner in the NFL last year 

 

He wasn't bad

Not to mention Von had 2 more sacks last season 9 as our best player did in Rouseau which only had 7 & it was more than Bosa had last season for the Bills, (who ws brought in as Von's replacement) but it was decided to let him go to save money I guess but the production would have been worth it to keep him around ,,,

Edited July 7 by T master

[DapperCam]

13 hours ago, NoSaint said:

In a list of 7…

 

2 were street free agents due to injury mid season 

 

1 retired 

 

1 didn’t pay here last year 

 

so it’s Tre, Milano and Daquan that you are calling out? Not the strong call out you thought 

6 of those players started during our playoff games. That’s over half the defense. You can call Poyer a street FA, but he replaced Rapp who is ALSO still a FA (forgot to mention him). I’m not sure who the other street FA you were referring to. The rest of those guys were in training camp (other than Miller obviously).

[uticaclub]

The old Belichick mantra was, “better to get rid of a guy a year early than keep him a year too long.” While, Brady was the exception; it was a good rule of thumb.

Edited July 7 by uticaclub

[D. L. Hot-Flamethrower]

10 hours ago, BillsVet said:

Former HC is a free agent as well.  Best news of the entire off-season.  

 

The McDermott group (which is pretty small really) is going to be insufferable this year.

[Dillenger4]

Just shows us how good our D will be this season! New blood, tougher, faster, younger, smarter, meaner. Gonna be a fun ride to the superbowl baby!

[DrDawkinstein]

18 hours ago, DapperCam said:

Joey Bosa, Tre White, Matt Milano, Shaq Thompson, DaQuan Jones, Poyer, Von Miller (one year removed)…

 

Kind of an indictment of our personnel on defense recently.

 

All those guys are old. That's it.

 

Not an indictment on our recent personnel. Father time is just undefeated.

 

Plus, you'll likely see a couple of them back on some team as we get closer to the end of camps. All of the guys listed there (and Brandin Cooks) are experienced vets who have carried themselves and consummate professionals, and have earned the ability to chill at home while the teams work out the young guys.

45 minutes ago, D. L. Hot-Flamethrower said:

The McDermott group (which is pretty small really) is going to be insufferable this year.

 

They already are.

[Sierra Foothills]

55 minutes ago, uticaclub said:

The old Belichick mantra was, “better to get rid of a guy a year early than keep him a year too long.” 

 

Yes.

 

It's not so much that the McDermott 13 are free agents now... it's that they were on the Bills roster last year.

 

Matt Milano (9 seasons)

Tre’Davious White (8 seasons)

Taron Johnson (8 seasons)

Jordan Poyer (8 seasons)

AJ Epenesa (6 seasons)

Cam Lewis (6 seasons)

Jordan Phillips (6 seasons)

DaQuan Jones (4 seasons)

Baylon Spector (4 seasons)

Dane Jackson (5 seasons)

Shaq Lawson (5 seasons)

Taylor Rapp (3 seasons)

Shaq Thompson (3 seasons: 2 years in Carolina, 1 in Buffalo)

 

McDermott over-relied on guys who knew the system.

 

[DrDawkinstein]

 

 

17 hours ago, Augie said:

How many guys like that are sitting out league wide right now? There are tiers of players, and they each play different roles in the offseason. I don’t think this is cause to draw conclusions or point fingers at some other side. It’s what happens every year. We had some old guys, some scheme specific guys, and that stuff happens. Sitting at home tonight watching World Cup does not mean you won’t be playing in the NFL next year. There is hope! 

 

I don’t think it’s that big of a deal. 

 

.

 

This too. We're able to list these 5-7 players because we're hyper focused on the Bills. I'd bet the Chiefs have similar lists. I'm not going to re-do the work to look up names, but I remember the Chiefs had similar "vet system" players on their practice squad the same way we called back Jordan Phillips and others. I know the Eagles had similar lists as well.

 

Good teams bring their guys back because... well, theyre good. Bad teams dont do this as much because the players they had were not that good to begin with.

 

It might surprise some Bills fans here to hear this, but we are a very good team.

[PoundingDog]

I found it funny that some here mentioned "based on advanced metrics", that Tre and other vets are still good.

 

What "advanced metrics" should the Bills personnel department look into? Those guys played for the Bills last year. We know EXACTLY what they were supposed to do and what they actually did on every single play! We even know exactly how they did Monday to Saturday. Why would we need to look any outside "advanced metrics" to judge if they are good or not?

[Augie]

58 minutes ago, D. L. Hot-Flamethrower said:

The McDermott group (which is pretty small really) is going to be insufferable this year.

 

Honest question - why do you say that? I think that (oddly) there are still more people here hating on McD than sticking up for him. Let it go already!  It was never personal! It’s not a healthy obsession. Let’s all move on.

 

I think once the games starts it’s going to be all about football….unless Brady is underwhelming.  We were told the expectations are higher than our previous success, so all eyes should be on Brady with McD now out of the picture. The pressure is on Brady is not a McD fanboy thing. The only way the McD fans get loud is if Brady only gets 9-10 wins and an early out in the playoffs. Then it could get noisy.