JESSEFEFFER

I have no problem with Beane's stated reasons in favor of making the trade. He is doing his job well.

I'd be curious if Chinn was there too when he did the mock. Joe Marino called Chinn a better version of Dugger and 2 years younger.

This is a match to my thinking. Glaring as in obvious but easy to fill as in that there are many decent options to meet the need. I was making some mashed potatoes of the instant type (free tip : throw in some frozen fries to make it better.) I open the fridge and see there is no more milk. My kids were set on some potatoes with gravy as part of their lunch. Milk is a glaring kitchen need but options for getting some are plentiful. Many think a first round RB = buying a cow. A few think that a 2nd round RB = buying a dairy farm. Thus, my hope that an elite talent might be there at 54 or a little earlier. We know Beane likes to target guys they view as elite that are falling. An elite RB talent in round 2 might be a sensible solution that is bpa and adds another reliable playmaker to the offense for 4 years or more. I solved the milk problem by adding half a tub of Bison dip and some shredded cheese. Not ideal but in a pinch it did the job and the kids ate it up per usual. That is Yeldon, imo. Ok in a pinch until you can get to Wegman's.

At no point in the discussion did they bring up that a well rounded RB is a huge asset to a passing game, much as Thurman was and that should be a point that is considered. Yes, "running backs don't matter" is an extreme position. Yes, the passing game matters more than the running game. Yes, other positions are more correlated to winning and losing. Yes, rules changes have devalued runners. Yes, rbs tend to lose their effectiveness earlier in their careers. Bruce argues these points. But, he finished by saying that if a highly talented RB falls to 54 the Bills should consider making the pick because it might improve the roster more by replacing Yeldon than say a less highly rated CB would that forces EJ Gaines off the roster. I almost hope they get a RB they think is elite in the 2nd round and maybe even trade up a little to get him just to watch some heads explode around here. Hah! My position is that the next RB talent chosen to pair with Singletary is likely to play a bigger role on the team in 2020 and the 3 years follow than any other player they draft. There are no other obvious holes in the roster and most everyone else they drat will have to battle to make the 55. So, why not do what they can to make this an elite talent.

One way to use this comprehensive view of NFL rosters is to consider draft implications. I am among those who would see RB as an important need. He scored the Bills group as a .9 but there are 6 teams worse including the Rams at .1. They pick at 52 which is interesting. Phins, Chiefs, Lions, Bucs and Bears are the others. Steelers and Colts are scored low there too. Maybe these are the teams the Bills might need to trade in front of at some point to get a RB they covet.

If that is some sort of Rorschach test, one of us failed.

The probability is high that the next RB added to the roster will see more meaningful playing time than any other future player that is added either via the draft or free agency. Injuries can always mess with that but I would think that getting as dynamic a playmaker as possible for this role could have a big impact on 2020. If Singletary is nicked up and doesn't dress then this person will become even more important. A game at New Era has 30+ mph winds and Singletary and his new running mate are leaned on even more. Hopefully they could develop a screen game to use in such conditions much as the Eagles did. Whoever the Bills add should have a good short yardage between the tackles pedigree and be an asset in the passing game. Let the game situation and their production determine whether Singletary or the "New RB Guy" is in the game. The Bills may be willing to see who falls to them and if they do not like the values presented to them, look to add a vet after the draft. Since there likely will be no OTAs or minicamp, there is no reason to make such a decision until after the draft.

Green Bay didn't want him back. Hyde seemed shocked/hurt by that.

He must be blaming the Cowboy"s coaches and Steelers QB situations for their underwhelming 2019 performances. It's like he's saying their players had nothing to do with it.

This seems very righteous to me. Think back to that year. White was a low first round rookie, Hyde and Poyer were dumpster diving FA signings off Packers and Browns, I don't remember how EJ Gaines got here and Vontae Davis was a few quarters of football from retirement. I think his low opinion was justified and he acknowledges it was wrong because most every move they made ultimately worked out. I'd give him points for owning it.

I'd have to read more about the purpose of this, i.e. its intended use, but many of these units have little fantasy football implications. If you look at the weightings of each position group I think it has more to do with an actual power ranking of the roster.

I never heard of him either so here is what I found: Mike Clay is a writer and analyst for ESPN who contributes year-round NFL, fantasy football and NASCAR insight across the company’s multimedia platforms. He appears on a variety of shows, including SportsCenter, Fantasy Football Now, The Fantasy Show with Matthew Berry on ESPN+, NFL Live and the Fantasy Focus Football Podcast. Clay’s award-winning player projections help power the ESPN Fantasy Football game. His fantasy content and rankings cover all aspects of the game, including season-long, dynasty, IDP and auction formats. Clay is also the host of Next Level Fantasy Football on Sirius XM. He is a member of the Pro Football Writers of America (PFWA) and is on the Fantasy Sports Writers Association (FSWA) Board of Directors (Chairman) and Hall of Fame voting committee. Clay has been instrumental in bringing innovative statistics and data to the forefront of the fantasy industry, including player snap and route data. Now key elements of most fantasy football analysis, this information was all but non-existent prior to the 2010s. Clay also introduced Wide Receiver vs. Cornerback matchups in 2015 – now a mainstream industry concept. Clay has created several advanced football statistics, including average depth of target (aDOT), opportunity-adjusted touchdowns (OTD), opportunity-adjusted fantasy points (OFP) and fantasy points over replacement player (FORP). Clay is also known for his work with personnel packages, game-flow-adjusted play-calling, touchdown regression to the mean, yards after contact, and box defenders. Clay won the 2013 Fantasy Sports Trade Association (FSTA) award for most-accurate preseason player rankings. He won the FSWA award for the best online article in 2013 and the 2014 PFWA Dick Conner Writing Award in the Enterprise Features category. Prior to ESPN, Clay was Managing Editor and Director at Pro Football Focus Fantasy, which he launched in 2010. Clay also contributed at NBC’s Rotoworld.com, Athlon Sports and PhiladelphiaEagles.com. He was featured as a Virtual Analyst in EA Sports’ Madden 25 and 2015 video games. Originally from Pottsville, Pennsylvania, Clay is a 2007 graduate of Kutztown University where he was Sports Editor of The Keystone newspaper and a sports radio broadcaster for three years. He did a strength of schedule analysis for the 2020 season which is interesting. I would presume it's based off of these team unit ratings.

Ran across this on Twitter. I will link to it assuming that it can't be reprinted here in its entirety. Maybe since it's been Tweeted by the creator it's fair game. https://twitter.com/MikeClayNFL/status/1245069194007318528/photo/1 Lots of interesting discussion points. I think having Mayfield way ahead of Josh and the low o-line grade are two I'd start with. RBs the Bills lowest rated group at present makes sense. I don't think the Cowboys deserve to be so high. They failed against good competition way too often to justify that. I guess if you blame coaching for that, maybe. Patriots are near the bottom so there's that.

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Ok. I think this was a smart take and sort of shows that the opinion comes from someone paying attention. Here are some other reasons why a Londoner should find a rooting interest: 1) Christian Wade. He is a fun story and we Bills fans love our underdog, fun stories. 2) The British lady that fell into a chat group of Bills fans. We are a resilient, dedicated group that is mostly proud of our association. how-a-woman-ended-up-in-wrong-group-chat-and-became-a-buffalo-bills-fan-for-life 3) The British burned Buffalo to the ground in the War of 1812. That sort of connection should imply that a show of good will might be a dose of what the alliance could use in 2020. 4) When insulted we tend to donate to charities. Turning the other cheek is a tough and rare thing to do but we have turned it into a ritual of ultimate revenge. So, so clever we are.

Never happen imo. Reputations are at stake for the players they do draft enough as it is. No one wants to be on the hook for the evaluations of the players that they did not take as well.

A longtime coworker of mine lost her father recently. He was a Bills fan and draft maven of the sort we are talking about here. It was his hobby and the draft was a big event for him to the extent that he threw a big party for it every year and spent weeks preparing for it. I asked her if he had more passion for the draft or the actual games and she could not be sure, which is odd to me given how emotionally invested most of us are in the games. Due to business upheaval, there have been some years where she worked elsewhere for a few years but most years I would ask her to ask her dad for his prediction of the Bills #1 pick. Oliver and Allen recently, Gilmore , Dareus, Spiller were specific predictions I remember seeing. I don't think he ever got one wrong.

Taylor and Singletary would make a great tandem for the next 3 years and avoids the need to have one guy carry the load. Taylor does not get caught from behind. I think a few of Singletary's 20+ yard runs would have been 50+ from Taylor or some of these other RB candidates. Adding another explosive playmaker to the offense is a great idea, imo.

It does seem to help make more sense of the situation. The story is written by former WGR 550 staffer Matt Coller.

Deep shots at New Era in November and December with 20+ mph winds are a real low % play. It's not like their opponents were hitting them either. Some don't even try.

I do not have a clear understanding of why he was not happy with the Vikings. Because the offense became more run focused? Without knowing how well he fits within the team culture, I can't see it as a slam dunk A. He is what the offense needed and is more likely to deliver than any rookie would be. I just wonder why he'd be happier as a Bill than what he appeared to be as a Viking and that could make a big difference in how well the trade actually plays out.

I appreciate the question but running faster is not a main concern for me. Running smarter is. Primarily with when it's a good idea to take chances with regard to ball security and taking on tacklers. He might run over DBs but taking an illegal headshot ruins that thinking. Running tall exposes the ball, making it a focused effort of the defenders. He does slide when it makes sense but his idea of when to take risks needs an adjustment. As for the rest, he is way faster than most all the exhausted pass rushers whom he can easily avoid one on one. About the time the LBs start to track him, he kicks it into another gear and all of a sudden their persuit angle is wrong (Barr, Kiko, etc.) but he needs some distance between him and them to allow it to happen. I hope he never looks like a slow pitch softball first baseman ala Roethlisberger, but it's probably inevitable. Just hope that the rest of his game is topnotch to compensate.

I thought "my girl" meant daughter, also. I immediatley thought of what I would or would not do for my daughter. She's on a travel competitive cheerleading team. Events usually require an overnight stay, last 4 hrs. and cost $15 to attend. Her one event lasts about 3 minutes. She has about 8 more of these left. It's a time/irritation/misery continuum that one must consider. Now, I could just leave after her event but if you are out-of-town the options are not plentiful, would require some research and you'd be limited by needing to return to gather them up. A lame celebrity singing show that we'd watch at home and lasts an hour does not seem so bad.

Tough to blame him in anyway for the ankle injury. I thought there was no way he'd play again this year as the way it was rolled looked almost as bad as could be.

I think it's pretty much a part time, Friday to Sunday gig for 24 weeks or so. Compared to the health risks of playing and the time dedicated to OTA's, minicamp, training camp and then the regular season weekly grind, I'd bet he could sell that to Liza real easy. I think Fitz would slay that job.