Alphadawg7

1 good play out of 20 does not equal a “good game” though.

I get where you are coming from...however...If a RB does nothing all game, but then has 1 run that makes his stats look good, did he really have a good game? This is why stats are such an unreliable way to analyze a players performance unless you are talking fantasy football where total stats are all that matter. The stats lack context. Even doing it the way you did it, it is misleading. 4.5 ypc is not only better than 2.9 ypc, but actually substantially better. So even using your mentality of lessening his big run to 25 yards, it still greatly skews the quality of his entire game with was substantially subpar outside that big run. Not only does it lack all that context, but there is other context too...was it a broken play? Did a defender fall down? Did the OL open a hole so big that my anyone could have ripped a long run?

Its been no DHop for a while now...but there are people who will run these threads up to 1000 pages before accepting that reality.

I hear ya, but honestly this is true for every team every year though when addressing a weak spot. Meaning you won't know until the games are played. KC didn't know either until they played the games when they bolstered their weak spots. And a major weak spot for us has been our DL in the postseason as well. We bolstered both units, so for Cowherd to act like we didn't is pretty silly. We added several new offensive lineman, including a 2nd round pick many thought would go in the top 20 of the draft. And while Ford was a miss, that is so long ago, people are way too hung up on that. All 32 GM's miss on players in every single draft, to hold this one miss over Beane's head as if it is an indicator he can't draft OL is kind of silly, yet this board just can't seem to let that go. And just about everyone loved that pick when it was made. In fact, I got flamed a lot in my mock drafts where I mocked us taking Ford in the 2nd because everyone said I was nuts because he would never make it out of the first round. It was a great pick at that time...sometimes those guys just don't work out. Last thing on Cowherd...its pretty silly to talk about Ed Oliver's extension vs spending on a big FA OL or something...they do not impact the cap in the same way at all. It is a lot easier to afford to extend Oliver than it is to spend big on a FA player cap wise. In fact, we gained cap space by extending Oliver. These two things are not comparing apples to apples. It's true and accurate to say we don't yet know how the OL will do...but it is false for him to claim it still is bad and we didn't address it. Biggest question mark is probably Brown, but we just also added some promising competition to the RT spot who could push him for minutes if he struggles. But, there is also still reason for optimism on him too with him healthy entering the season.

We had a rookie OC last year...that hurt as well. But he now has a year under his belt...and now we addressed OL this offseason. So not really sure why Colin thinks the OL is still a mess, we made upgrades there and added competition as well. Our defense has let this team down more in the playoffs than our offense has.

I will never understand why some people insist on making cases for players solely based on some stats they googled. Literally lacks all the context needed to evaluate a player and is totally an unreliable way to analyze a player. There are so many things Harty does better than McKenzie, but just checking a stat sheet without context isn't going to give anyone that information. Harty is a legit deep threat, a guy who can take the top off defenses. McKenzie stunk as a deep threat because he really didn't play up to his speed, tracks the long ball poorly, can't make a contested catch, and had unreliable hands.

You have this unreal level of denial of anything that suggests he might not sign here. I would love to see Hopkins here, but it’s just not gonna happen unless he plays for peanuts compared to what he was making and reportedly wants. Especially after signing Floyd and extending Ed.

I mean this is old news. Nothing new in there at all, they knew he spoke directly yo Hopkins a while ago. I don’t think they extended Oliver for Hopkins. They didn’t commit that much money to him just on the off chance Hopkins was to come here. There were plenty of other options to do that didn’t cost as much as extending Oliver did to make the cap room. So IMHO, Oliver extension has zero to do with Hopkins

Haha touche, nice one

It’s funny…400 pages between the two threads and the same people are still arguing the same info on both sides. Lol Hopkins discussion has to hold the record for dead horse beatings at this point lol

You’re a bit off the rails here, lmao. And I added the emoticon to make it more clear it was more tongue in cheek cuz you clearly went to some dark place with it and well over your head lmao. Although your responses since are right on brand I must say. And spare me your glowing yelp reviews about your own posts, nobody cares what you think of your own posts 😂 The fact you are on here in 2023 pissing and moaning about a FA class of a first year GM 5 years ago before he started the rebuild is already pointless. So I won’t even bother addressing your over the top take on it.

Huh? I don’t think there was anymore more vocal than me all off season last year about McKenzie not being a good slot WR and not a starter in the NFL. Read my post on it in the McKenzie thread I posted like an hour ago. And I was poking fun which is why I tagged you in my post about you being negative all the time, I think you took that too literally and less tongue in cheek as it was intended. But you are hyper negative plenty of times, but again, it was more tongue in cheek than anything.

That’s not a credible source, badobillz thinks everything is awful all the time 😜

Well guess this is one of those “I told you so” moments because I said all off-season last year McKenzie wasn’t good enough to start and wasn’t going to do a whole lot last year. I knew he was going to fail in the slot, yet everyone kept arguing with me all last offseason that he was some sort of “heir” to the Beasley throne. And the number 1 reason was this one game anomaly he had against NE as if that was somehow gonna be the norm for a guy who had never been anything more than a gadget guy who could barely crack the offense. There is nothing he does well outside run fast. He is a sloppy route runner, has inconsistent hands, can’t fight through press coverage, doesn’t catch well in traffic, doesn’t track the deep ball well with his speed, and doesn’t make contested catches. I even pointed out the staffs complete lack of confidence in him being the “heir” to Beasley by signing him to non starter money, signing Crowder who was a much more accomplished slot WR and better overall player, and also drafting Shakir. Literally nothing the staff did last offseason showed any faith he was their locked in slot starter. And the staff even continued to show lack of faith in him during the season going out and getting Cole Beasley too. Yet so many people argued he was gonna have this great Beasley like year because he had one anomaly game against NE. So…here it is: I told you so 😜

2023 vs 2022 Diggs is well Diggs, no change there. Davis is at worse the same, but with the injuries behind him has the potential to be better. Sherfield >>> Kumerow: This is without question an upgrade, where Kumerow was predominantly a ST player who offered little in the pass game. Harty >>> McKenzie: McKenzie was a gadget player where as Harty is a true deep threat who can take the tops off defenses and stretch the field. Shakir 2023 >>> Shakir 2022: By default, Shakir will have more to offer now with a year under his belt. Slot WR Position: Combo of Shakir & Kincaid >>> McKenzie/Beasley. I cant see any scenario where we don't have better slot play this year from Shakir and Kincaid over a gadget guy who struggled and an aging WR. RB's as Receivers: Having Hines here a whole offseason will get him involved, and Cook has a year under his belt now too. These guys will be more established receiving weapons compared to last season. TE: Knox is back and very good as it is, now we have Kincaid playing both TE and a big slot role, making this position even better for us. So IMHO, I think our group of pass catching weapons is very nicely rebuilt compared to last year and is the best set of weapons Allen has had in his career thus far.

Yeah, this is more or less what I was alluding to as well when I said the only way I can see him landing here is if he finds the market lower than he expects and what ever we have offered is competitive to any other offers he got. So yeah, I agree with this too

Hopkins >>> OBJ However, at this point in the offseason, with tighter cap space and teams already have filled their rosters with draft and free agency, I think he has less leverage and is either going to get about the same or lower with maybe more incentives. He should get more, I would take Hopkins 10 times over OBJ at this point, but not sure the teams he wants to play for can afford or are willing to pay him more than OBJ at this stage of the season.

Players don't realize anything near their contract...Taxes, Agents, Managers, etc. Shaquille O'Neal was talking about his first season where he had a $100M contract at $20M a season...he only saw $10.9M of that, and after he bought a house and stuff it was gone fast in 3 months. And then you factor in how much shorter an NFL players career is compared to other sports, how much less they make, and the contracts not being fully guaranteed and its not a surprise that a guy nearing his last significant earning opportunity in his career is going to look to get as much as he can. Buffalo was not the only team he wanted to play for...Allen was not the only QB he wanted to play with. He was always going to take the best contract he can get amongst the teams he is interested in playing for. And quite frankly, he should, I don't blame him.

I think you need to make peace with the idea DHop likey is not going to be a Buffalo Bill. You seem to think every vague reference, facial expression, hand signal, smoke signal, etc means we are getting Hopkins but then deny any credible person or report that suggests we are not in on him as much as you think or we may not be in on him at all anymore. If Beane was willing to do all things you think he could do, and wanted Hopkins bad enough, he would already be a Bill. What has most likely gone on is we have made a highest and best offer and left it at that. If DHop was good with that offer, he would already be a Bill because he stated he wants to play here with Allen multiple times. But he has also listed a number of other teams and QB's he would like to play with too, so no surprise he is looking for the best offer amongst those teams. And as of right now, we are not the best offer clearly. There is no way Beane feels like DHop is a "must" get player, or again, he would already be a Bill. We rebuilt the cupboard of weapons for Allen as it is, rebuilt the OL and refreshed the run game. At this point, it is pretty clear Beane has interest, but only to a certain extent and isn't going to go past that, or once again he would already be a Bill. I would love to add DHop, but won't panic if we don't get him either. And at this point, my expectations are that he won't be a Bill because there is zero reason for him not to already be a Bill if we were offering him enough, which we clearly are not. So I think the only way he comes here is if he finds the market for him to be lower than he expects and that our offer is competitive enough that he is willing to take it.

And her next tweet after this was this 👇👇👇 https://twitter.com/heyitsandreah/status/1664142491287732227?s=46&t=tdXmDQAmKLuxS59WLD047Q

Agree to disagree on this one. All good either way

No, this is again inaccurate. He has a 2 year contract for one. 2nd, teams didn’t just magically have cap space at the start of the offseason, in fact in many cases, especially the ones most interested in him, did not and were actually over the cap. Buffalo for example early in the off-season had to make moves and restructure deals just to get under the cap, let alone to sign other inexpensive free agents and our rookie class. Other teams did the same, even cut or let go of good players to get under. Sorry, that is not at all what I said. It is the narrative you’re trying create with the inaccurate statements above, but it’s not at all what I am saying nor is it an accurate reflection of the majority of the views on him across the NFL. Just because teams can’t afford his contract does not mean they view him as a low end WR1. That’s just a conclusion you want to get to, but that’s not reflective of how the business of the NFL is conducted. First, given his age and cost, he only makes sense for contending teams, that immediately crosses a majority of teams off as a landing spot. Of those teams, they need to have the cap space for the next 2 years (based on trading for his contract) to take him on and also have the need for him. Teams like Cincy and Miami for example are pretty loaded at top end WRs, and there isn’t a “need” to squeeze him in. Then you have teams who have huge QB contracts and they still need to keep guys on both sides of the ball. Teams have to weigh what taking on his contract will do towards retaining other players next year too or impacting what other holes they can fill this year. I could keep going with many reasons this cut and dry conclusion you are trying to get to him just isn’t reflective of reality, circumstances, and context of all that is in play when considering a trade for him or signing him to a multi year contract, but I think my point is clear enough as is. It’s totally cool to not be in favor of signing him, I am just saying I think you’re making some leaps in logic on how others view him to get to a conclusion that fits your personal opinion that he doesn’t have much left in the tank.

That is not true though...teams were willing to trade, they weren't willing to take his salary as is because of the cap. Big difference there.

I definitely understand your position on that, and ideally they would keep Davis. The issue is just the math of the situation...they are not going to keep 8 WR's and we don't know if they would even keep 7. Especially with Kincaid being essentially a big slot WR in their offensive plans, makes having to keep more WR's less a priority because they might want to keep an extra TE that is better suited for blocking. Diggs, Hopkins, Davis, Sherfield, Harty, Shakir is already 6 guys...plus they have UDFA they signed for 3 years and Shorter who they like. So I think if we sign Hopkins, then the staff could be looking at a Davis vs Sherfield battle to see who wins a roster spot. And between those 2, Davis has more trade value and they could move him for a trade asset potentially and let Sherfield run as the WR3. Personally, I think Sherfield has some pretty good potential and could be better than some realize. So far he has been getting rave reviews from the staff and especially Josh Allen who seems to have taken a big liking to him and referenced no one is putting more work in than him. He was the biggest beneficiary of Diggs absence and got a lot of time with Allen and they seem to have clicked. Harty and Shakir have different roles, and unless either of them struggle during camp and preseason, they have a pretty clear path to the roster. Harty is a deep threat like no other on the team who can take the top off and Shakir is set up to be our main slot WR (likely sharing time there with Kincaid). And Shorter and the other UDFA kid they signed for 3 years are special team guys too, so at least one of them should make the roster. So if we sign Hopkins, there is a numbers game and could be hard to keep both Davis and Sherfield, so it could come down to them battling it out for WR3 but also what value Beane could get for either of them in a trade. Injuries or other guys having bad camps could easily change that of course.

With Hopkins...I am more concerned about him signing with one of our top competitors, especially KC, than I am worried about missing out on him. Buffalo already has an elite WR in Diggs and has restocked the WR room, while still having a very good (albeit underused) TE in Knox and now adding Kincaid to the mix. Not to mention, a couple of RB's who are very good at catching passes as well. So if Buffalo adds Hopkins, yes we instantly get better still, but not by the same margin KC would if they added Hopkins. KC is already the reigning SB champs and did so with JuJu being their top WR last year who isn't nearly the player Hopkins is. Hopkins would just have a bigger role in KC and they just need him more than we do. I want Hopkins personally, but in terms of our own team, I don't fear not getting him either as I think we have a pretty good upgraded group of weapons for Allen, a new OL, and potentially a better RB attack this year both running and receiving out of the backfield. BUT...Hopkins is still a top 10 WR in the league and would not be thrilled to see him land on a top AFC contender either. So for me, the value in signing Hopkins is 2 fold...bolster our own offense while preventing a top threat to our pursuit of a SB birth from upgrading themselves with him.