Thurman#1

The years they were healthy those safeties looked damn good at playoff time, damn good. Less so against Mahomes when he was getting four seconds and more to throw, but there really isn't much of a way to handle Mahomes with a ton of time. If we can get a bit of a pass rush, with Bosa and some others, more effective safety play could make a huge difference. Not that I expect a safety in the 2nd, I don't. But yeah, I do think it could help us make a big jump up down the line. DT or DE, please. That'd be my choice. Maybe even both.

Always worth checking in with Astro on this subject. He's on it as usual. Just as a for example, he says they guy they looked a lot at with our third pick, our second 2nd, is Josaiah Stewart. https://buffalofambase.com/2025/03/18/pick-six-for-2025-nfl-draft-march/

Trade up ... if the right guy is there moving towards you and you don't have to give up picks in day one or two. That's day one or two this year and every year going forward. Don't give away high-value picks in future years. Just don't do it unless you are desperate for a franchise QB, and we are very much not. Trade back ... especially if you can pick up the kind of pick you shouldn't trade away, day one or two picks this year or in the future. More picks means more chances to get a terrific bargain. There's a reason this is the standard wisdom. They've done academic studies on this and they all say the same thing, and that is that trading up with big assets lowers your overall chances of success, whereas trading down raises your chances. GMs, and armchair GMs as well, tend to think they know best which guys will turn out best. That's a mistake of perception. We can figure out guys who have higher odds and guys who have lower odds, but there's a reason that about half of all first rounders under-produce according to standards you'd expect from their draft slot. Predicting the draft is just a hell of a lot harder than it appears. That's why more picks is better.

I'm not sure about what a shutdown corner is, really. Does it mean only preventing completions at a high rate? Many INTs? Getting guys to throw elsewhere? Only in man coverage? Low passer ratings when thrown against? I honestly don't know anymore. So I'm not sure if Benford is one, but I think it's not really a hot take to list him as a top five CB these days. Here's one quick bit of support: https://www.si.com/nfl/bills/news/buffalo-bills-christian-benford-pff-all-pro-team-first-quarter "His early season excellence has been recognized by Pro Football Focus, with the outlet naming him to their first-quarter All-Pro team. 'Benford's 83.0 coverage grade ranks fourth at the position, but he has prevented separation on 75.68% of his opportunities in 2024— the highest rate in the NFL,' PFF writer Gordon McGuinness wrote. Benford has been outstanding this season, allowing a position-best 14.6 passer rating when targeted. His PFF defensive grade of 79.9 and coverage grade rank fourth among corners with a minimum of 100 snaps. He's also ranked No. 1 among all corners with a tackle grade of 85.4. (Interestingly, Elam has the highest overall grade of all corners, but he's only played on 23 snaps)." This came early in the season, but we've seen generally agreement in several places as the season went on. https://www.syracuse.com/buffalo-bills/2025/03/buffalo-bills-agree-to-four-year-extension-with-top-cornerback-christian-benford.html Apparently he got one first team all-pro vote last year and, "Although Benford lacks gaudy interception stats, he locked down the opposition last season allowing just 0.51 yards per coverage snap allowed. This was good for first among all cornerbacks." But yeah, he appeared to give up his chances of top three recognition -- by the market -- by signing a year early and getting immediate security for himself and his family in exchange. I would value the market's opinion a lot, but it's not the only one I value. Anyway, good talking to you, Shaw. Hope all's well.

Heh heh. Yup. The rule (backed up by research from such as the two seminal articles from Massey and Thaler, Bill Barnwell's here https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/40052203/should-teams-trade-nfl-draft-lessons-deals-2024-class-winners-losers, the Harvard Sports Collective and on and on and on, with nobody doing the statistical research disagreeing, is that you massively reduce your chances of draft success if you use big draft capital to make big trade-ups. With the caveat being that great QBs are so important that that's the one exception. Great QBs are available outside the top ten or so. But much much less often, so much so that trading up in an attempt to get a great QB is worth doing. May be a huge miss. Or not. Too early to be sure. DeJean really was pretty good this year. How good would he have been if their D hadn't been so good at rushing the passer? How good will Coleman be when healthy because before the injury the first half or so of the season he was looking pretty damn good for his draft position. Hard to know in both cases.

Sorry, you're right, Doc, I purely mis-stated. Nobody's paying him Barkley money, but I'd guess that if he doesn't sign here someone will pay him what he's asking for. That's what I was (poorly) trying to say. And if I'm right, $15M was the 12th highest APY for FA contracts last year. That could easily make it into the top five percent Davis got $13M and Floyd $10M. Cook may get more than they did. It'll depend on how much he actually gets but IMO a 4th rounder is likely at that level and a 3rd not totally out of the question.

While I agree about the other three, I think Benford is absolutely a star. I mean, not a top three guy yet, but pretty close to it, particularly after only three years. Interesting.

I'd offer that. My guess is they already have, and that he is not going to sign for anything close to that low. Recently? Who? And in particular, who who was in the neighborhood of 1009 yards rushing, 1248 yards from scrimmage and 485 snaps (48%)? I personally estimate his chances of holding out this offseason to be about 1% if we're talking about a holdout of more than a symbolic day or so.

Some team will pay him Barkley money and we'll get a high comp pick. I think they can live with that. And it's a smarter use of resources. And you're assuming he can be signed for that. It's certainly possible, but it's less than Cook wanted. He might not sign for that even if they offered. Which I wouldn't. Not for a guy who is going to get less than 50% of snaps probably, unless he steps up his blocking game quite a bit.

Worth the headache for having him on the team this year without signing a new contract? There'll be virtually no headache. Hell yeah, he'll be worth it. His saying this on social media is a big nothing. Worth actually signing him to a new contract for near what he's asking for? No, I don't think so. But I don't think fan disapproval for an un-extended Cook will go beyond about (maybe) one tepid boo at camp on the first day. Probably not even that.

Possible death? Lack of arm strength making a fumble when hit by a charging linebacker a likelihood and not just a possibility? If by "little person," Leach was referring to someone like Tyrion Lannister. If you're only talking about smaller NFL-sized guys like Codrington, it's still not all that easy to throw 185 pounds three yards high to get over the line and three yards forward to make the first down, all in about two seconds. And man that guy would be open to some absolutely vicious shots on the way down.

Haven't watched anywhere near enough tape but if Ezeiruaku falls, I'm hoping they think he's a game wrecker.

That last option shouldn't be "No trades," it should be "None of these trade-ups". Wouldn't mind trading up a bit but not giving away major pieces of draft capital.

Might've easily been able to play if he hadn't missed most of TC with an injury. We'll never know. Agreed that you don't take a 3rd round DB in round 2. But I don't think that's under consideration. Could be, though, that you think he's a round 3 guy and they think he's a 2.

No, that would be the fact that in the first two years we in no way were a good enough roster due to what they inherited and the smart decision in the situation to rebuild, and after those first couple of years, it was the responsibility of the whole team. McDermott gets his share of the blame, yeah, but so does everybody else.