billsfan89

The 49ers struggle offensively when Deebo, CMC, or Kittle are out with injuries, only last season were they pretty consistent when one of those three was out and that was due to Aiyuk giving them a 4th consistent pass catching option. If Aiyuk is gone the 49ers were going to be relying on a 3 semi-injury prone (I think those three always are prone to getting dinged up) players to carry their passing attack and hoping that a late 1st round WR can step in immediately. With Aiyuk they make Pearsall more of a depth/role player his rookie year and then he can take on more in 2025/26 once Kittle really declines and Deebo maybe hits a wall or is pushing past 30.

I think the truth is somewhere in between. I do think when Rodgers is healthy and playing Rodgers will give them above average QB play which is a huge upgrade for them but I also think the Jets are relying on a lot of injury prone players on bad turf. I have the Jets going 10-7 and being the wildcard 6th seed. I have the Bills going 11-6 and being the 4 seed.

I wouldn't be shocked to see the Jets get off to a fast 5-2ish start only to fade down the stretch due to age, injury, and bad coaching. Their roster is heavy on vets and injury prone players, those types of teams start fast and fade.

He's a good athlete, he works hard, and he's produced at the college level (led UB in tackles in 2023 and was a Division I-AA All-American in 2022). He also got in a fortunate (for him) situation where Milano getting hurt and Dion Jones not performing well opened up opportunities at the LB position both in the pre-season and to make the 53. If Andreesen can provide value on special teams he's got a chance in 2026 to possibly work/develop himself into a starting role. Milano's just turned 30 and coming off back to back injuries he's not likely to be on the roster past 2025. Bernard is also going to be a free agent after 2025 and while I think they will make every effort to retain him there's definitely a need for the Bills to develop LB's.

The Bills have been developing some linebackers lately. Since 2022 the Bills have been developing LB's. Bernard was a 3rd round pick he's developed into a quality starter, Dodson was undrafted and played well in spurts and got a decent contract in Seattle, Spector looked competent as a back up as a 7th round pick, and Dorian Williams is a recent 3rd round pick whose flashed potential and we will see what the Bills have in him. I don't see why Buffalo Joe can't be a role player in the NFL? Can he be a Milano like All-Pro? I doubt that's going to happen but can he be a special teams ace and a quality backup? I think that's very realistic. I also think if he can stick for a couple of years as a special teamer he's got a chance to develop into a starter possibly. He is probably going to need a couple of years to develop and he's not going to stick around if he's not providing value on the roster on special teams.

The Bills have 6 games in primetime. As for the other 11 games at about 400 dollars that's 36ish bucks a game and I can't swing that. For a few weeks I can just do piracy and then for some of the games I can go to my local sports bar have a few cheap beers and watch the games and probably spend 25-30 bucks watching the games and be on top about 200 bucks. Overall if you got the money to pony up to watch the games in the comfort of your own home easily and in high quality that's great. But it is a hard value proposition for a lot of fans especially with other options out there.

Last year there were two claimed on waivers, both were the teams 7th round picks in the 2023 NFL draft. I am sure in the McD era there maybe have been 1-2 others but I think it happening last season to two players made fans more paranoid about it. It can happen and I did think there was a chance it could happen with Hardy but it was unlikely.

No shockers outside of Hardy who by all accounts was playing well in camp and looked good to the amateur eye in pre-season. The Bills did sure up the kick returning game with Codrington via a trade with the Jets. Only other real notables were Shorter (man what a waste of a somewhat early 5th round pick, one year on IR then cut his second season), L.Collins (writing on the wall wasn't playing well but still a notable vet reclamation project cut), Gore Jr (team was just set at RB will be on the PS if unclaimed), Davidson (same situation as Gore Jr), and Kinglsey Jonathan (hung around a bit on the roster had a chance to make the 53). Not much else to be surprised by.

Dude has missed all of the past two seasons. He tore his ACL in a practice prior to the opening game and then in 2023 tore his Achilles prior to the start of the season. From 2020-2021 Patrick was a quality WR. He had 700 yards, on 50+ receptions, and 5+ TD's all with awful QB play. I wouldn't mind the Bills kicking the tires but I don't see this working out back to back massive injuries at age 30/31 just seems like he's going to have a hard time revitalizing his career.

If I had to project the roster Offense Total- 25 QB (2)- Josh/Mitch RB (3)- Cook/Davis/Ty FB (1)- Gilliam TE (4)- Kincaid/Knox/Morris/Davidson WR (5)- Shakir/Samuel/Keon/Hollins/MVS OL (10)- Dawkins/Edwards/McGovern/Torrence/Brown starting five with Van Denmark/Anderson/SVPG/Collins/Grabel as the bench Defense Total- 25 DT (4)- Ed Oliver/Carter/Johnson/D.Jones DE (5)- Groot/Von/AJE/Solomon/Smoot LB (5)- Bernard/D.Williams/Morrow/Ulo/Spector (Milano on IR and Morrow initially cut then resigned to his spot) CB (6)- Douglas/Benford/Taron/Elam/Hardy/Ingram S (5)- Edwards/Rapp/Hamlin/Lewis/Bishop Specialists Total 3 Bass/Martin/Ferguson The bubble spot is going to be a 4th TE or 6th LB or 6th WR . I do think they will also make a trade getting a late round pick for an offensive linemen either Collins or Gouraige I think could fetch something on the market which is starved for even marginal talent. The following notable players I think will be on the PS if they clear waivers - Gore Jr, Andresseen, Justin Shorter, Hamler, Anthony Brown, Will Clapp (who is a candidate to not clear waivers), Travis Clayton (17th PS spot international player), Kinglsey Jonathan (another candidate to not clear waivers possibly), and Te'Cory Couch. That's 9 players out of 17 so not sure how they fill out those last 8 spots. Probably add a TE, OT, G, DT, and S at a minimum and then 3 other players who they see potential in.

I know Mitch looked awful in pre-season (but I don't put much stock into that) but I really don't see White or any of the viable attainable vet backup QB's being better than Mitch. Mitch has a lot of experience under his belt and while his stats are better than his performance I don't think he's that bad as a backup. I would like to see the NFL allow a 54th protected roster spot for a 3rd string QB. I think the 53 man roster with 6 mandatory inactive players already stretches teams depth so thin that teams don't even carry a third string QB anymore. The third string QB was a spot where teams would actually be able to develop a young player but now because roster spots are so valuable teams just carry one backup and call it a day and instead of having 3 QB's plus a PS QB they just put the third string guy on the PS. It would be nice for the Bills to draft a player in rounds 5-7 and keep him for 2-3 years and actually have someone another team could trade for or hold down the backup spot for a couple of seasons. I think the lack of true third string QB's is hurting NFL QB quality. There's 20-25 less QB's on NFL rosters/Practice Squads. That's less players developing at the position and less of a pipeline into QB coaching and other aspects that improve QB play.

McD has course corrected with back to back years drafting offense with 3 out of 4 top picks (and the other pick being a pick of strong defensive need) I think he is not going to be afraid to draft a top offensive player again. The Bills have drafted pretty balanced since 2022 leaning slightly more towards the offense. What's going to be interesting to me is how do they spend their cap space in 2025? The Bills likely are going to have some space to play with. The Bills will enter the off-season with about 23 million in space but that doesn't factor in the money they can free up by cutting Von (8 million in savings or 15.8 if they did a June 1st cut but that would push 7.5 million into 2026) or reworking Von's deal (which if he has a solid season let's say 7 or more sacks and looks like a decent to good player I think they will work something out) along with restructuring Josh and a few other players deals. The Bills after addressing Von and doing some basic restructuring will probably give them roughly 40-60 million in space and the only major consequential free agents are Spencer Brown and Douglas. If they so choose they can easily take care of those players and sign the smaller vet depth players that will be free agents (Ty Johnson, Hamlin, Smoot, A.Johnson, Collins, Q.Morris, Hollins, etc) and still have some sizable space to actually "work with". Let's say you have 50 million in space and you spend 25 million taking care of Douglas, Brown, and some but not all of the smaller players. That's going to leave you with 25 million in space. Take out 12.5 million for rookie pool, practice squad, and in-season funds and you have about 12.5 million you can get aggressive with. If you have some actual space to play with where do you go with that? I think addressing a defensive need or two and then focusing the draft on offense makes more sense. If there's a big need at safety you can cheaply find a top safety in the market for 7ish million. If there's a need for some LB or D-line depth you can get that for 5ish million. Then in the draft go and be aggressive to get 2-3 really good impact "plug and play" players to keep the offense fully stocked around Josh.

WR - I think this is going to be a sore spot all season depth and impact is needed here so I think they are going to go with a WR with their first selection. RT- IF (and this is a big if) Spencer Brown walks in free agency I can also see a high pick invested to replace him. DE- AJE going into 2025 is going to be on his last year, Groot even if he's locked up (which I think they will take care of him) is only one player locked in long term, and Von is ancient by NFL standards so a premium pick is likely going to be invested into the DE position. If safety is an issue I think they address that via free agency. CB is somewhere I think they address later on for depth.

Gore maybe gets claimed, but Andreesen I don't think gets claimed. Lackluster third pre-season game and the fact that he is not a LB that fits too many systems makes me think he is not going to get claimed. The Bills haven't had too many guys get claimed, both guys last year were draft picks from that off-season.

I think with the difficult schedule the Bills are going to have to go 3-1 to start the season. And in order to do that the Bills are going to have to win week 1 and against the Jags in week 3 and split the Fins/Ravens games. Because after those first four games the Bills schedule does not have many softies in it. Pats twice but those games occur in the last 3 weeks of the season. The Titans are the only "soft" game from week 4 to 15. Of course the season always shakes out where some of the games you think are super tough are not that tough and some of the easier games are harder. My main point is that the Bills are going to have to get off to a good start in order to have some margin of error in the hard stretch.

I don't put much stock into needing to dominate pre-season games to showcase ability. I think looking good in camp is a better indicator of how a player is doing. Keon is doing well in camp by most reports I think that's a good sign. I don't think Keon is going to have a huge impact his rookie year but I think he will have some impact. I think he is going to have slightly more efficient Gabe Davis (Gabe had 35 receptions for 599 yards and 7 TD's his rookie year for reference on 62 targets) like rookie year. I think Keon can have 45-50 catches on 70-75 targets with 600-650 yards and 4-6 TD's.

With Milano out on IR it is possible they put Joe Andreessen on the 6th LB spot if they decide to carry 6 LB's which I think they will given the injuries they have had at the position. With Milano on IR I can see Bernard, Morrow, Deion Jones, Spector, D.Williams, and Joe Andreessen with Milano on IR and Ulo on the PUP. But if they don't PUP Ulo then I think Joe Andreessen is on waivers and put on the PS. I am not sure if they think Andreessen can be a decent to good special teams player which is what they will need from reserve linebackers. Overall I think for Andreessen it is going to come down to those factors.

Shakir is being drafted really late around rounds 10-12 and there's a very good chance he's a top 24 WR (which would be excellent fantasy value, heck being a top 36 WR where he is being drafted is excellent value for a WR3/Flex option. So I am pretty much drafting him in all leagues. I also love Kincaid in the late 4th to 5th round. I think Kincaid is going to be a top 3 TE if healthy. Kincaid is going as the 5-7 TE so he's a nice value. Josh and Cook are also fantasy relevant but they are going where they should so the "value" is not quite there but you can't go wrong drafted them around round 3 if they are there.

He's not been bad his first two seasons but he hasn't light it up either. Hard to say if I would pull the trigger on trading a 3rd plus two 7th rounders for Dotson and a 5th round pick or some sort of similar package because I don't know if Dotson really fits the Bills scheme or what the Bills internal evaluation on him is both in the draft and thus far in his NFL career if he's someone they think is good and hasn't reached his potential or if this is just who he is? Personally I don't think it is bad that the Bills didn't make a move. I know we all as fans think there is a big need at WR, but sometimes when teams don't make moves it is a sign that they like what they have.

Davis is the more ready to go all around back which the Bills needed. I liked Allen for being a big back but he doesn't play as big as his attributes.

Kind of hoping with Torrence it is similar to Dawkins last pre-season. Dawkins looked slow and "out of shape" in the pre-season and camp. But once the season started he turned in his best season in years and looked quicker. I am hoping with Torrence it is maybe just him working on things and rounding into form.

Bates was traded for an early 5th round pick and the Bills clearly viewed Bates as more of a high quality backup that wasn't worth the money he was being paid and the Bills were able to get a solid draft asset for him (which they flipped for an even better draft asset in 2025). I am always paranoid about offensive line depth so I wouldn't have traded Bates but knowing they were able to get SVPG where they did it turned out well. In the end I think they liked what they had better in slotting in a cheaper Edwards and getting a draft pick as opposed to holding onto Bates. Considering they got a good center prospect in at a great value it worked out.

Dawkins last pre-season looked "fat" and slow by the time the regular season hit he was very good. I hope the same for Torrence. A lot of times guys in pre-season are working on things so their performance may decline because they are trying to work out the kinks in their games as opposed to actually leaning into what they do well to produce as best as possible. Torrence has no reason to be lazy with his rookie contract being fairly small, he's not cashing in and then cashing out so to speak. I think given how respected/good Kromer is as a an offensive line coach they will hopefully have the situation under control but there's only so much you can do in some instances. As far as the moving McGovern to center I think the plan was to have that be the long term move and they likely were looking to draft a guard in round 5ish and have that guard develop behind Edwards. But then SVPG who was by some considered to be a top 3 center prospect fell into their laps in early round 5 and I think the pivot is to just let McGovern handle the spot until SVPG is in a good place where he can take over and then they can kick out McGovern to guard. I think we will see SVPG at center at some point mid-season. His trajectory is reminding me of Spencer Brown in 2021. Brown was firmly behind D.Williams as a RT and by all accounts Brown was solid in camp but not lighting it up either. Then as the early season wore on the "word on the street" was Brown was killing it in practice. About 6-7 games into the season they plugged in Brown and kicked D.Williams inside and that along with Bates entering the lineup really turned around the offensive line that year despite Brown being a bit up and down.

Samuel's injury is concerning turf toe can be a "simple" 2-4 week injury (and with just under 3 weeks to go until the opener that gives Samuel a chance to play week 1) or it could be a longer lingering injury. I really hope he is going to be fine by week 1 or 2 and not have lingering effects. Of the other injuries I think Hamlin and MVS are the ones of consequence. MVS injury looks like it could be longer term, I know fans weren't expecting much from MVS but he's a vet who can pop a big play here and there, I always looked at him as solid WR4 depth. Hamlin was acting as the starting safety in the face of the Bishop/Edwards injuries. I don't expect Hamlin to be the starting safety long term but he was in line to likely hold down that position for a couple of games while Edwards and Bishop get up to speed so to speak. While it is good Bishop and Edwards are coming back slowly this week it would be nice to have an option out there in case they don't progress in time.

2nd round pick I would consider it for a 3rd rounder I would rather hold onto him. Very slim margin there but that's how I see Cook's value.