Hapless Bills Fan

I completely agree with your take on BPA and also that Boogie and Epenesa are still "verdict out", especially Boogie going into his 2nd year. Epenesa, well, it seems as though the Bills asked him to undertake a body transformation that he's struggling with. It may be he simply can't be the player they want him to be. They may be misses - it happens. Overall, something greater than 50% of players drafted in the first 3 rounds don't make it - and by "make it" I don't mean "become stars" I mean "become solid NFL players". I think this branch of the discussion started with the contention that Basham and Epenesa were not BPA to the Bills at the time that they were drafted because they fell "for a reason" and therefore Beane "messed up that draft" For example this and this Not working in the FO of a professional sports franchise myself, my knowledge is anecdotal, but the point I think people are trying to make is: that isn't how the process of evaluating players and building a draft board works. The team doesn't (and shouldn't) look at the fact that a player is falling in the draft and say "oh, gee, what do those other FOs know that we don't, we better not take him". Naturally, different teams will rate different players somewhat differently because scouting isn't an exact science, and different teams assign different weights to athleticism vs. statistics vs. game observables vs. perceived character vs. medical concerns. That's why some teams draft first rounders who do nothing in the league while other teams draft guys in the third to fifth round who light it up, regularly, every year. There's always hindsight, where in retrospect a team is "yeah, we overlooked that" or "we thought we could coach up this aspect, we were wrong". But in the present, at the draft, a player's grade is set and the board is made up well before the draft, and when a player starts 'standing out' as having a grade well above anyone else that is left, he is "BPA" and likely to be drafted (subject, of course, to your well-taken caveat that yes, teams do fudge their choice according to the team's needs) So, yes, it can happen that a team mis-evaluates a player or that a player, due to injury or motivation or some other factor, doesn't live up to his billing. But that doesn't mean he wasn't the team's "BPA" when he was drafted or that the GM "blew the draft", because no one gets it right 100%. Do you mean Chandler Jones? 'Cuz we're discussing Daquon Jones (among other guys) here, and he's publicly stated he's taking a contract from the Bills.

TBH, I'm not sure the Bills are worried about signing draft choices at this moment. It was posted yesterday that they're working to restructure Milano to minimal salary as well, but Spotrac doesn't have that yet. Spotrac shows us as having $8.35 currently including the Hyde restructure Milano will give us another $4M if that's truly in the works (maybe more if they take it out as far as they took Hyde). So $12M cap No rumor about Saffold contract except that it's 1 year with a void. Prior to being released, his contract was $11M AAV. McKissic is reported as a 2 year, $7M deal but we don't have details yet and agents are all over the place in how deals are reported. Daquon Jones is reported as 2, $14 million contract, with $10.6 million guaranteed Depending upon how all these are structured and the details (many an inital report of AAV leads to much lower cap hit), it's entirely possible that the ~$12M we're freeing up to restructure, are just to cover our signings. If I were guessing, after FA and the draft, Beane will work to extend Stefon Diggs in a way that lowers his $18M cap hit this season, but Jacksonville is doing us no favors there. As always happy to be corrected if I'm wrong.

I'm glad to hear you prefer football discussion. That's the point here. If you have more football discussion to add, pray continue. There is not a lie here. Someone interpreted the man's comment as snarky. He said that was not his intent. You don't know him, you can't know his intent. Take the man at his word absent conclusive contrary evidence, and derive your entertainment without insulting people gratuitously. That's not football discussion. No one demanded "show me your board" when debating a topic/player. The exact quote was "Ryan, can you explain to me your definition of BPA as well as your process for putting together a draft board?" Explain the process. Not "show me your board". Since the claim @RyanC883 seems to be making (as I understand it, sorry guy don't mean to put words in your mouth!!) is that Beane didn't draft "BPA" because Epenesa and Basham fell, that question is entirely relevant to having a good football discussion about this. If we don't understand how he thinks BPA is defined, and how draft boards are put together, it can't be discussed because there doesn't seem to be a shared understanding of terms. We get that a lot around here with terms where people go back and forth for days and it turns out they define "Bust" or "Franchise QB" differently and that's the basis of the dispute.

Didn't I hear that they already restructured someone else? Tre' White maybe?

When I agree with Teddy, the OP should know he's wrong

Oh geesh Spotrac has this already. It will run his bonus out 3 void years to 2026 if they have it right https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/buffalo-bills/micah-hyde-12440/

Joe B article in The Athletic. https://theathletic.com/3185104/2022/03/15/how-rodger-saffold-tim-settle-and-daquan-jones-fit-the-bills-and-how-the-new-acquisitions-affect-the-nfl-draft/ Selected takes: On OL: He points out the much higher RAS on the line with this tid-bit I haven't seen elsewhere: Agree on the draft thing. He points out that Daquan Jones fills the "run stuffing 1TDT" niche and that with the contract details unknown: On Isaiah McKenzie, something I haven't seen before is that he actually has an incentive-laden contract with $3.6M more earnings possible: One thing where "the eye of the beholder" must be involved. Buscaglia says: That's actually not what I see. I see McKenzie's snap count as jumping to an average of 29% before and after but not counting the NE game (average of 29%), from an average of 20% in the preceding 5 games (not counting the inactive games and not going back 6 games to where he had an abherrently low 5%). In the same stretch, Beasley's average snap count (again not including the game he missed) went from 57% to 45% of the snaps. So while game to game variance makes it hard to be sure, it does look to me as though McKenzie's snaps were trending up, at the same time that Beasley's snaps were trending down overall.

I think that's a good assessment but it pukes me up a bit. When I think of the cap space spent on Uncle Vontae, Gaines, Norman etc sometimes it seems like the Bills are that gal who shops the sale racks endlessly and comes home with the trunk full of "bargains" which fill up the closet, but which never look or fit quite as well as she'd like them to. If she saved her money she could come home with that one "Killer Dress".

I'm afraid you're right. In preseason, I didn't see anything that persuaded me that the answer to "who can play outside CB?" is "Siran Neal". What do you make of the Saffold signing?

Didn't see a thread that seemed suitable. As you find new assessments, put them here: Good breakdown of the moves to date by our ESPN reporter, Alaina Getzenberg (@agetzenberg on twitter) https://www.espn.com/blog/buffalo-bills/post/_/id/37068/buffalo-bills-nfl-free-agent-signings-2022-isaiah-mckenzie-gives-josh-allen-another-weapon I had not realized he was coming off a neck injury. I hope our medical staff is doing better "due diligence" now than they did a while back. From Jay Skurski of TBN: https://buffalonews.com/sports/bills/jay-skurski-resetting-the-bills-needs-list-before-the-official-start-of-free-agency/article_ea5d1acc-a4c0-11ec-80c1-43c8f902be2b.html Goes on to discuss options available at QB ( ) and CB: Man, I hate that approach. Uncle Vontae retired at halftime; Gaines played OK but was injured; Josh Norman was injured and pwn'd. He points out that OT is a sneaky need because with Willams gone, we're one injury away from Tommy Doyle at T and is he ready? The Elephant in the Room is the need for a pass rush, though:

Given how the season ended. I would say Bates has certainly earned Plan A, unless he struggles on the right (he says he can play across the line).

There's a lot of how people behave that seems irrational to me, but there it is Ha, it hooked me Yeah, but that one is a hoot. "Steelers no longer interested after Watson WON'T face criminal charges" 😅😅

How is that a "bridge burning statement"? Did you read it? Well, I guess it's a "whatever is next" letter, formally speaking.... but is that why it's seen as "burning the bridge"?

Do you really think the rumors are true? Stefanski said they respect each other and Berry said he has no concerns. I guess, what would we expect them to say? https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2022/01/13/kevin-stefanski-on-baker-mayfield-we-push-each-other-and-theres-a-level-of-respect/?partner=MSN

Again, let's see what the details of McKissic's deal are. I doubt he's getting $3.5M this season. I could be wrong.

He's actually got a cap hit of $2.4M this year, I'm not saying that's exorbitant but it's the last year of his rookie deal, if Kromer makes something of him it'll be just in time to see him want to get paid.

I see no lies

So fwiw, there was this report a week ago: If it's true, apparently the Bills weren't able or willing to pony up whatever the Panthers wanted besides Beas

To show that it's formal and heartfelt or something? This made me laugh. Well, apparently Baker may have that with Emily soooooOooooooo.....

On the Twitters, he's taking it well. In private and in Berea? I doubt he's amused. Well if the choices are Falcons, Panthers, Saints, and Browns...One of these teams is Not Like the Other

Benjamin Allbright ( the Broncos insider - kind of their Chris Brown I think, only seemingly more astute and connected) is saying "no chance" for Watson to go to the Browns and putting his money where his mouth is on it: So......

I mean, sure? But here's the thing: His surgery was reported as mid-December, Dec. 15th (3 weeks post injury). That's standard practice to minimize scar tissue formation. Bangedup did an update March 3rd https://bangedupbills.com/2022/03/03/buffalo-bills-tredavious-white-rehab-update/ It's an interesting look at how athletes rehab an ACL, but a key point is buried near the bottom: "Athletes returning before nine months following an ACL tear are at a 7 times greater risk to suffer another ACL injury." 9 months from December 15th is September 15th, and he might well be on a "pitch count" or just come off IR at that time and need several weeks practice to work himself into full playing shape. Bottom line even if Tre is working super-hard and it's going as well as it can, if the Bills are conservative with him to avoid that 7x increased risk of reinjury, he's likely to miss September.

I think McDermott was trying to motivate him. As I pointed out above, Zay Jones actually caught more balls for more yards, first downs, and TDs from rookie Josh Allen than he has any other year since. Truth! https://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/J/JoneZa00.htm So it's not like he's caught more from anyone else...though he has raised his catch % If I were Beasley I'd be fuming right now. That guy gets $8M/yr. Beasley has caught more passes last year than Zay Jones had targets, and damned close to 3x more yards (2400 in 3 yrs vs 800 in 3 yrs). Beasley wants to be traded, and he can't even get someone to pony up a mere $6.1M for him?

This. I bet Beane is very happy he locked Allen down last summer. The way the Jags are throwing money at WR, I bet Beane wishes he pushed harder to re-sign Diggs

Well, I get it, but if you want a guy to become a franchise QB, is Zay Jones really The Way?