Hapless Bills Fan

C'mon man. You used the phrase "starting 53". Since we haven't established a 53-man roster yet for next season, much less a depth chart, the natural assumption is you were speaking of last season. I'm not trying to fillet you, honest, but when you write something that appears contradictory, just own your part in the confusion and do better! Well, we disagree. I don't see a driver at all to make Star an "early" cut, pre draft, ESPECIALLY if we want to designate him a post-June1 cut. As you know, post-June1 designation means the player continues to count against the cap at his current contract until...post-June1 So what exactly is your perceived driver for that early cut? They get 90 players on their roster, until the Bills finish FA or draft, is Star really so much less valuable than Joe Giles Harris or Brandin Bryant that the Bills need to scurry to send out the Turk for him? Be that as it may - Beane likes his "belt and suspenders" and McDermott loves his rotation, so even if they do re-sign Phillips and Zimmer, I think Beane is gonna want to protect his options at 1T. But we'll see. Personally, I'm kind of down with the idea that we really need to re-work our defensive strategy on DL and get some guys who can actually move people around and close gaps.

You said "guess what Bills don’t have 1Techs outside of Star on their starting 53" Harrison Phillips is a 1T He was on the 53 and starting last season You want him back I'm pointing out that's inconsistent with your statement "guess what Bills don’t have 1Techs outside of Star on their starting 53"

Well, someone must, hence this thread 😊

This kind of thing is exactly why I don't pay attention to GMFB and in particular Pete Schrager. They're all "hot air and hot takes". But Joe Burrows would agree with him: https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2022/02/11/joe-burrow-im-chasing-aaron-rodgers-to-be-the-best-quarterback-in-the-nfl/ Says he's chasing Aaron Rodgers to be the best QB in the NFL, with a shout-out to Pat Mahomes and Tom Brady. If Aaron Rodgers is the only guy ahead of him, then I guess he thinks he's the top QB in the AFC 🙄 I dunno, I may just be jaded, but I was under-impressed by what I saw from Burrows in the Superbowl. I don't go with the guys who claim he didn't make one elite throw - he made a number, he's very good - but IMO he was helped by uncalled OPI (beyond the obvious Higgins face mask) and I think a lot of his sacks are on him. We'll see next year after opposing coordinators spend all off season analyzing his film and the Bengals play-calling tendencies and cooking up a plan to stop 'em.

You may be right. I certainly wouldn't be opposed to bringing in a top pass rushing FA or a top guard or even a top TE. I dunno how seriously Beane actually got into the bidding on those, though. All sorts of stuff & fluff gets reported. So in the bottom line, I think it's always worth looking at what actually happened, and that was we distributed our FA $$ between one "medium large" deal (Sanders), a higher-end backup QB, then a bunch of bargain basement guys like Forrest Lamp, Jamil Douglas, Bobby Hart, Matt Breida, Efe Obada, Trevon Hester, Tim Harris, Marquel Lee, Joe Giles-Harris etc. Of course we need depth, and a couple of them did stick. "Lottery tickets" is an apt description. But I think that's Beane's pattern. Of course, one difference that could be an argument in favor of your POV is that last season, Beane was by his own account, cautious pending getting a new deal inked with Josh. Now that he's got that done and he can better predict his cap in the next few years, he may be more open to splurging. I dunno if you've been following it, but I'm a bit sold on some of Erik Turner's stuff that it's time to re-think the DL

That's actually been commented before in other threads with that guy. Suits him/her perfectly.

That's one perspective. Another perspective is that Frazier took over late-season for a firing and achieved a 3-3 record; the team tanked the next season after Favre left, and they drafted the wrong QB (Christian Ponder) - who Frazier managed a winning record with, in his 2nd season (10-6) only to fall back as teams got tape on him/he was injured the following season. A lot of coaches and coordinators don't do so well when they don't have a QB - by your logic no failed HC should ever get a 2nd chance (Belichick was 36-44 in 5 years with Cleveland), and God Forbid a HC take over midseason on a bad team and have a bad 1st year with that team as they get things together. Then on Bienemy, the other perspective is that his rap sheet as a young player/coach and even the DUI in his early 30s are a lot of baggage for a team to take on with the HC who will become one of the public-facing "faces of the franchise" I think they both deserve chances, myself, but Frazier will need to live down those 13 seconds first. I looked at my paycheck. It had no deduction for "NFL players and coaches" I think you must mean that revenue from TV (watched by fans, and driven by viewing audience) and gate revenues fund the NFL. And they ultimately do, just as consumer choices "fund" video games and streaming services and so-forth. But consumers aren't "owed" an explanation for the game development and streaming service choices. Our power is limited to the decision: purchase, or don't. Same with the NFL. It is a consumer product, not a (directly) publicly funded entity. Fan power is limited to watch/purchase tickets or don't watch.

Kids

What's Harrison Phillips? Chopped liver? He ain't a 3T I promise you that, and he for-reals started at 1T last season. I guess this comes down to, what perspective are you trying to take? If you're doing a "What Bobby Would Do with the Bills in His World" piece, that's fine If you're trying to see it how the Bills see it, and predict what they will do or should do (from the framework of how they see it), then Zimm is apparently a 1TDT So we've learned from several posters, but if I were a Betting Hap unless Beane gets a trade offer, I'd bet that he's on the roster when training camp opens.

The team was pretty mum about Zimmer's exact injury and it happened during practice so no film analysis, but I confirmed it was announced as a "season ending ACL" before week 10. So it's possible with the more aggressive 9 month recovery timeline, that he might be ready for training camp. But he makes his living as a fast DT, and if he's not back to what he was (as Harry wasn't), do they want him? The "good news" is a rotational/depth 29 year old is unlikely to have suitors waving FA $$ under his nose, so after looking that up, I think it's possible the Bills bring him back on a vet minimum deal, which I *think* would be as a 3rd year player. They could IR him to start the season and have him as depth down the stretch. HA! I think the BigJ9797 ship has sailed with the Bills. IIRC one reason they didn't pay him the big bucks is that he wasn't entirely "bought in" to McDermott's defense. He tended to pursue sacks at the expense of gap integrity in the run game. The good news is, when he guessed correctly on the pass, he got there. The bad news is, when he didn't guess correctly, the RB was into the 2nd level. The snarky response would be that's better than having a guy who doesn't get there and still lets the RB into the 2nd level. But we'll see. I wish Beane would do what it takes to buy us elite pass rush talent in FA, but I think when he says "I wouldn't see us being big spenders or anything like that", it's what he means. I'm unsure if it reflects Beane's philosophy or McDermott's core beliefs that "you dance with the ones that brought ya", but I "unwillingness to pursue that piece that could make a difference", especially in-season, as a potentially fatal flaw to McBeane. Chiffs go nowhere without bringing in Melvin Ingram. Rams don't make it without OBJ, Von Miller, and Weddle. etc.

Direct link to the Bills piece Florio is quoting from https://www.buffalobills.com/news/6-pressing-questions-as-the-bills-head-into-the-2022-nfl-offseason So if we're expecting Beane to go after Scherff or Norwell, I think we're gonna be disappointed. It'll be interesting to see what Beach Chairs thinks he can make of the guys we got on OL. Here's the full quote about the draft:

Carr is a strange dude. He can have games where he looks all-world and games where he looks pedestrian. I think it's possible he could shine under the right coach and system. It'll be interesting to see how much Josh McDaniel learned from his HC gig with the Broncos. He's the one that shipped Cutler to Chicago after a pro-bowl season where he passed for 4500 yds, in favor of Kyle Orton then drafting Tim Tebow And, as OC of the Lambs, he turned a QB who looked serviceable as a rookie under Pat Shurmur as OC, into an indecisive fright.

Mongo costs too much to be the backup player he was at the end of last season. It's notable that he didn't get his LG job back when Boettger went down, showing that he'd shifted on the depth chart. However, unless there's a trade, Beane has no holes at the moment - two of the OL are FA (Boettger) or RFA (Bates). I think it's pretty clear we turned to designed runs at the end of last season because Josh Allen was by far our best RB. In his end of season presser, Beane said that the run game was part of protecting Josh Allen. I think your point 2) is what he meant. I agree re: Williams. It's possible we renegotiate, but at a minimum, he enables our current backup OT strategy by being able to move out to OT and allow Brown to cross over to LT. Doyle was no way ready for the swing tackle gig last season. In his post-season, Beane said that the OL was "something to build on". IMHO, that means we will draft IOL. We'll see what the guys do under Kromer.

you can put a cursor in the box and hit return a few times and it would break the box into multiples so your text can go outside and quotes normally in a reply Dude, I just got through pointing out that the Bills had Zimmer playing 1T and have him on their depth chart as a 1T and you ignore that to tell us he’s a 3T. I understand why you say that - I think it’s his natural position - but look at how the Bills are apparently seeing him I also understand the fan desire to hustle Star out of the building but again, I’m trying to point out how I think Beane sees it. Unless he retires, there’s no driver for the Bills to do that until/unless his replacement is on board

So first off Thanks again for your writeup and all the work you put into it. Just a couple of perhaps nit-picky points: 1) you focus on statistics when evaluating some of our DL - example Zim "In 6 games this year Zimmer had 1 sack, 8 tackles (2 Solo, 6 Combined) and 2TFL with 4 QB hits. Those are not bad numbers for the playing time he had, but very replaceable and NOT worth anything more than Minimum this upcoming year. I personally would move on. " Then later on you identify Foley Fatukasi as a "prototypical 1 Tech space eater". It's a point that the Bills (surprisingly to me) had Zimmer playing 1TDT at the start of the season and that's how he's listed on their depth chart, in which case looking at his "stats" doesn't tell the picture of whether or not he was giving the Bills what they wanted there. I think last season, McDermott really really liked Zimmer. He is crazy fast for a big guy and apparently crazy strong too, and has the drive to watch film both of opponents and his own, trying to improve. What we don't know, is what his knee injury was and what the recovery timeline might be. Other than that he needed surgery, he must not have wanted the info out there. 2) You missed Brandon Bryant as also under a "futures contract". That said - I don't see the Bills going into the off-season with only Bryant, Ankou, Phillips, and Oliver under contract. I can't tell you what they'll do, but for $1.5M savings, I would think they'd wait to part ways with Star unless he retires (or someone comes over with a trade offer, but we have it on "authority" here no other team in the league would pay his current salary so....And No, Ankou did not play as well as Star because he had the same "numbers" (see point above about stats not giving the picture of whether the DT is giving the Bills what they want) 3) Beane conspicuously did NOT mention Mario Addison as someone they might try to bring back. He did mention being interested in Hughes "if it made sense for both sides", if Hughes wants to come back. Now Beane does play stuff close to the vest, but he's also usually pretty honest. 4) I don't think Groot inside is an option. Not in his skill set.

Apparently Andrew Whitworth's 7 year old daughter found the game a bit dull https://www.yahoo.com/now/rams-star-proud-dad-andrew-165016427.html I don't agree with the folks who claim Burrows didn't make one elite throw etc etc But I did come away less impressed with either QB than I expected to be Yes of course, they both made some beautiful throws at times, as @syhuang linked above

https://www.kmov.com/news/kroenke-sucks-local-pretzel-special-takes-a-jab-at-former-st-louis-rams-owner-ahead/article_06ff7650-23cf-11e9-bffe-47c145f390c0.html

The reports out there are that it's a sprain, he'll have to rehab, but he won't need surgery. https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/bengals-joe-burrow-wont-need-knee-surgery-after-suffering-injury-in-super-bowl-vs-rams-per-report/ Yep, that's the one. Bosa kept babbling to the Bills OL about how he wasn't trying to hurt him, I don't do that *****, what do you expect me to do, I was just trying to tackle him, he's huge. Meanwhile the Bills OL are all just standing there, looming over him, looking. Finally Feliciano said "you're OK" and Bosa stopped yapping like his vocal cords were unplugged. Except for the concern about Josh being injured, it was pretty funny. It seemed clear Bosa was less concerned for Josh and more concerned for his testicular integrity during the next pile-up, if the Bills thought he'd done Josh dirty.

I think Jalen Ramsey was getting some OPI assistance in that falling down bit. One was a flagrent face mask.

Ability to communicate, engage, and negotiate compromise might matter

I take your point about the spelling error, fair cop The Lombardy region of Italy, however, is a GDP powerhouse - 10 million residents, high industrialization, and high air pollution. So no, not just cheese wine and goats.

Huh. That is not something I had considered. It didn't sound as though that were the case from the Beane-meister's post-season. He sounded like they would have more FA money and would be looking outside this season vs. last season when he clearly stated it was a priority to re-sign our own. Now that said he did say "don't expect a splash" in FA Curious what about last season's performance makes you feel Calais Campbell is worth $7M? I think he was a great player but I also think he's toast. And I think over-paying for declining FA talent on DL has led us to where we are, which is a huge investment in draft picks and FA signings for poor overall ROI on DL

8 years ago The Bills traded up to draft Sammy Watkins with Khalil Mack and Aaron Donald both on the board

So was KC

C'mon man. We would still have had to defeat the Bengals - which the Chiefs didn't manage - and the Rams. Could we have done so, Certainly, but it's by no means the given you imply if those 13 seconds fell our way.