billsfan89

Not going to pretend to know each free agent but I would like to see the following Bills players brought back while also seeing the Bills address the following positions via free agency (trades not included). Key Re-signings Mack Hollins - Dude is a great "vibe" but also on the field is a very good WR5 and ST ace. He's older at age 32 but I think he's got one more year in him and the team needs his vibe and productivity. Shouldn't be crazy expensive. Ty Johnson- Even if there was no instability around James Cook Ty is an elite third down back and at soon to be age 28 he's got another good year in him. Also shouldn't be crazy expensive. Demar Hamlin- I know fans may want an upgrade here. But I think having the trio of Rapp/Hamlin/Bishop is a solid place to start the safety room while adding in a draft pick in round 4ish range to supplement the development and depth seems like a good and not too costly move to solidify a unit. Hamlin also shouldn't cost a lot and he can play special teams if Bishop displaces him. Positions that could/should be addressed via free agency Corner- The top free agent corner in DJ Reed might be too far out the Bills price range and Douglas might be too old for the Bills to bring back. It might make more sense to go with a player a few years young. Run Stuffing DT- Bills got gashed up the middle consistently in the ground game at times. D. Jones is no longer the anchor he once was (although he could still be a positive but needs to be more of a role player). The Bills if they are insistent on playing Nickle heavily need to replace Austin Johnson with a massive run stuffing NT. Having D. Jones take the place of Austin Johnson as a rotational NT and then brining in a true elite run stuffer to play next to Oliver consistently. Veteran Depth LB- Bills always seem to need LB's. Milano is older and injury prone. Bernard and Williams are smaller players who play fast thus more vulnerable to injuries. Spector and Ulo aren't bad back of the depth chart players but the Bills should invest in a decent depth LB whose a bit more proven. Now the Bills will still have holes trying to find and elite pass rusher and a true boundary WR1. But I don't see the Bills having the cap capital or finding the fits to address those needs in free agency. If you looked at the pass rusher situation in free agency there's not that war daddy type pass rusher on the market (there rarely is). The top guys are Mack whose still good but no quite what he once was, Hasson Reddick who was once an elite pass rusher but is a bit older at age 31 and coming off a messy season, and Josh Sweat who while a good player is not a consistently dominant pass rusher and is likely to be overpaid esp after that Super Bowl performance. At WR the Bills may have the chance to bring back Cooper that's probably unlikely. The other top options are Tee Higgins who I think will likely get tagged and will be too costly and Chris Godwin who I think Tampa Bay will retain. So I don't see the Bills getting a massive difference maker at WR. Bills are likely going to have to dip into the draft/trade market to get the difference makers they need at those positions. But they can at the very least solidify the depth and 2-3 other starting caliber needs they have in free agency.

I don't mind a veteran around the age of 28-31 coming in on a "stop gap" basis if the team also drafts a WR in round 2 for depth/development. Wilson would be fantastic but I don't see the Jets trading him to a division rival. If it wasn't for the significant concussion issues I would love to see Chris Olave come in if the Saints desperate for cheap players while they possibly dig out of a cap hole would consider putting Olave on the market. But his injury issues are far too risky. I love Sutton but I think Denver who is no longer in a cap crunch after eating Wilson's dead money last season and having a QB on a rookie deal is going to want to trade a good WR whose going to be 30. Sutton was Bo Nix's most productive player at WR and Denver needs help there. Not sure they would want to open up a hole on their roster where they are already lacking talent. Basically I think Denver is adding to their WR core while having Sutton still being there. If he were somehow available I wouldn't hate the Bills targeting him.

Kirk would be interesting, the positives with Kirk as you mentioned is that if he's cut he's not gonna come super expensive (most likely) and won't count against the comp pick formula. He also will be 29 next season so there's a positive. I also think there is a positive aspect in that he's got some speed and has been fairly productive. The negatives with Kirk are that he's been banged up the last two seasons. After a really solid opening year with Jacksonville where he got his first 1k yard season he's missed 14 games. He also was never a consistently dynamic WR either although he's been very good at times. Certainly a name to keep an eye on.

The NFL off-season is starting just figured that I would post a breakout of the Bills top free agency options at WR. WR is a key need for the Bills, I will be mainly talking about the Bills critical need for a boundary WR opposite Keon and Shakir in the slot. I think Samuel is more of a WR4/gadget player. Hollins could be back and a draft pick. But this is more so about a front line WR . Top Free Agents Amari Cooper- The Bills could bring back Cooper. It's not a foregone conclusion the Bills won't bring back Cooper and draft a rookie behind him for depth/development. Pros: Knows the organization and the organization knows his fit and will not cost anything draft capital wise. Cons: Will be 31, was not the most productive last season, and might not add the speed that the Bills want. Cost could also be steep. Tee Higgins- The big free agent on the market at WR. Pros: Just turned 26, if Cincy doesn't franchise him he will not cost anything draft capital, and he's been consistently productive. Also doesn't hurt to take a weapon from Burrow. Cons: He's been a bit banged up and he's not exactly a burner either. He's a 4.59 40 time guy. He's also going to cost an insane amount cap wise. Chris Godwin- A high end "young vet" another top WR on the market. Pros: While he's been around the league for awhile he's only going to be 29. He's been fairly consistent and won a Super Bowl. Also a free agent no draft capital cost. Cons: Coming off a banged up season, has had some slight durability issues, also he is more comfortable in the slot, might not be a good fit with Shakir. Top Trade Candidates Devante Adams- A trade possibility. Of course the Jets trading to a division rival is unlikely but assuming the Jets are open to it this is a possibility. Pros: Consistently elite and durable WR, plays well on the boundary, draft capital cost would be moderate, and the Jets can absorb a good chunk of the contract. Cons: Will be 32/33 next season, will cost some draft capital, and not exactly a burner. Also not likely the Jets trade him in the division. DK Metcalf- Been in trade rumors for awhile certainly one of the leagues "freak" WR's and the trade from NFC to AFC is possible. Pros: Will be 27/28 right in his prime, elite freak athlete burner type who plays well on the boundary, and a consistently productive player. Cons: Draft and cap capital cost would be very high. Likely seeking a new contract. Jakobi Meyers- Not been in rumors but on the last year of his deal, Raiders could be looking to sell off some parts. Pros: Last year of his deal and a very manageable contract. Cap and Draft capital cost won't be too high. Will be 29 next season coming off a strong season. Cons: Not an elite athlete and elite producer. Might not have the strong impact desired. Deebo Samuel- Officially on the trading block. Has had some very strong seasons and a very unique weapon when healthy. Pros: Will be 29/30 next season and he's been very productive when healthy. Draft capital cost could be reasonable. He also is a boundary WR. Cons: He's played 15 games 3 out the last 4 seasons but he's been constantly battling nagging injuries. Cap capital cost is likely to be steep as Deebo is likely seeking a new contract. Cooper Kupp- Been in trade rumors for awhile certainly an elite WR for a large chunk of his career but while his production has dipped he's been very good. Pros: Former Super Bowl MVP whose still very productive when healthy. Cons: Hasn't been very healthy in recent years, he will be 32 this upcoming season, and he might also be better suited for a slot WR role. Cap cost will also be fairly high. Tyler Lockett- Vet WR who Seattle could get rid of for a fairly low cost. He's been in trade rumors for awhile now. Pros: Should come fairly affordably draft and cap capital wise. He's a reliable vet whose been fairly productive and durable. Cons: More of a slot WR, He will be 33, and He's had a dip in production the past two seasons (although one could argue that's more so a product of Metcalf and Smith-Nijgba taking up a lot of targets). Calvin Ridley- Titans could be a seller and a vet WR might not be in their plans. Much like Meyers not rumored to be on the block just yet but it adds up. Pros: Been a very productive WR eclipsed 1k years 3 out of the last 4 years he's played. Fills the boundary WR role. Draft capital cost could also be modest. Cons: Will be 30/31 next season and his contract could be hard to absorb cap wise. As the trade market opens up there certainly could be more options to look at. Personally I would love to see Metcalf but if the cost on pick/cap is too high to make sense then it I think Ridley or Meyers could be nicer "stop gap" options that could be cheaper. Who do you think would make the most sense for the Bills to go after either in free agency or the trade market at WR? Or is this just an avenue where the Bills can sink a high pick into and call it a day?

I think Price just got paid and went to a situation where as dynamic as Vick was with his legs in Atlanta he was not a great passer. So Price was just not in a system that was gonna produce numbers esp in the years Vick was hurt. I think Higgins is gonna be very good wherever he goes. I think if he gets signed by the Chargers, Broncos, or Commanders he’s gonna thrive. If the Bills added him he would do well here too. Not that he’s quite the fit here to be honest just that he’s still a good player I think the only way his production would dip massively is if he was just in a terrible situation

Assuming no Maxx Crosby or other big impact player is able to be acquired on a package centered around pick 30 I would like to see the Bills go D-line or WR. The Bills could have a need at corner but they can address that later in the draft. The Bills biggest needs are to add a better pass rush or a true boundary WR. My hope is they can address that via trade or free agency but let’s assume they make a trade or sign a good boundary WR and an elite pass rusher via trading other picks then I think adding D-Line short/long term is the move at pick 30 Edit: As far as prospects I like that massive DT from Michigan is a solid pick. He would plug in right next to Ed and alleviate the weaker run defense when playing heavy nickel.

You could have looked at the 2022 class and after their rookie years not seen much. Cook was a 2nd round pick and he looked a lot like Davis. Shakir/Elam/Bernard all non factors their rookie seasons. Only Benford came in and played well and he was a solid starter but not elite. You need 3 years to evaluate a draft. Certainly after year 2 you at least get a more fair picture of the draft class.

Early returns on a draft are tricky to evaluate. 2022 was a great draft class and only Benford was a productive starter his rookie year. The Bills had production from Keon and Davis at a good role player level both positive for rookies. Bishop played as a starter at times and towards the end of the season he looked effective esp in the playoffs. Solomon and Grabel also looked solid in limited reps. Carter got snaps too but didn’t make much of an impact despite a strong camp I loved the SVPG at the time but he never cracked the rotation which is a positive. Then Ulo also never filled the ST niche he was drafted to do. On early returns I will give this class a B. It’s way too early to tell. But Davis/Keon/Cole look like they can play while Solomon and Grable flashed. But early returns also can’t be much more than a B if they don’t produce as higher end starters either. It also helps the Bills secured an early 4th this year by trading out last season. Factoring into the return they got.

Seems like the film analysis indicated the Eagles played a lot of zone it was just that the Eagles pass rush was getting to Mahomes quickly and thus even if he did get the ball out it was hurried and there were defenders ready to make a tackle for modest gain. The Eagles basically just bet on their pass rush and said if the pass rush can't get there we are gonna just be in a 7 man zone so the big gains won't be there. IF KC was able to rush the ball and protect the Eagles defense would have looked a lot like the Bills defense.

You basically can borrow from future years by adding void years. But eventually the bill comes due. The Bills got a lot of their books clean this past season by taking a lot of dead cap (74 million) and not all of that was Diggs. The Bills without the massive Diggs hit still would have had 40+ million in dead cap which would have been 15th in the league. The Bills don't have much dead cap going into this season with just 5.5 million mostly Tre's money spread from last season. The Bills also don't have much in the way of void years either only having about 5.8 million in void years (Douglas at 4.1 million, Smoot at 1 million and Austin Johnson at 600k). The Bills also don't have much in the way of bad contracts. Von and Knox are the only bad contracts on the roster. And both players showed a willingness to rework deals so I suspect there will be some of that again this off-season at least from one of those players. And while I would classify Knox and Von as overpaid they aren't bad players either. So the Bills books are very clean so to speak. They have only about 12 million in dead money via dead cap and void years which is among the lowest in the league and they don't have much pushed out down the road via void years. The Bills will have flexibility they paid a big bill in 2024 to clean up the cap and now they are in position to take advantage of it. But for all the cap isn't real folks out there the bill does come due eventually. It takes at worst 2 years (and usually just 1) to reset your cap situation but you do eventually have to take it on the chin.

Kind of wild fake rumor, cap wise it seems hard to work but teams have in the past taken huge dead cap charges. Lawrence is a very professional person and a buy low candidate for a Steelers team needing a long term solution at QB. But I doubt the Jags are moving on from Lawrence and nor do they even have a GM.

2021 was not the year they added Von. 2021 they added Groot and Boogie to the Hughes/Addision combo. 2022 which would have been Groot and Boogie's second year in the league is when they added Von Miller. The person is a bit off on their time tables. Von was a big time win now move but it was done a year after the draft double dip. If you sign a vet corner to replace Douglas you can and need to invest a high pick at WR unless you can somehow find a vet WR. As good as the offense was it didn't start to really hum until they added Amari Cooper. If you can't find a capable veteran boundary WR then you need to invest a high pick there. Doesn't have to be pick 30 but one of the two second round picks should be a WR. The Bills can draft a DE and DT in the first two rounds and still have a pick left over to add a young WR.

Beane's drafting seems to be identify 3-4 needs or urgent depth areas and draft the best player from that area. I think that's the best way to balance need/BPA. You need a DT/WR/DE/CB take the highest ranked player on your board from one of those positions.

Seems like the issue isn't injuries but how the players drafted are developing their bodies from what I am reading.

It just reeks of a guy thinking it was enough to just show up. He honestly didn't look great in the AFCCG either. The Texans game was the only game this season where he looked like his old self I'm sure he popped in at least 2-3 good regular season games but his stats in total while not bad at all were far from elite. If you can't show consistent effort in a Super Bowl going for an unprecedented threepeat then you probably shouldn't sign up for another regular season plus an attempt at a playoff run.

You eventually run up against it because while you can push things off and borrow a little bit from future years by adding void years but you don't want to borrow from Peter to pay Paul too often. I think the argument for the Bills to take these next two years as a all or nothing proposition is legitimate. Especially since after the dead cap the Bills ate in 2024 their books are a lot cleaner and they have some runway to make it work if they really want to "go for it" short term. But the cap will always eventually come due.

Not that much of a connection. My entire argument about why fans calling for McD to be fired is foolish is largely due to how much McD has adapted his coaching. He was previously very conservative and now he is one of the most aggressive in game coaches. He was overly loyal to coaches he's made aggressive moves to move on from coaches when needed. His players thought he was too tight and ridged after that article came out in 2023 he adjusted his personality. He hired a lot of former Carolina staff and other coaches he worked with and now he has been expanding his coaching base. McD isn't doing the same thing and expecting different results which is a major reason why I think he deserves a couple more seasons here at a minimum.

He's lost a step the last two years. The 2023 playoff run was his last consistently elite stretch. 2022 he was still a very good dynamic weapon in KC and was their go to offensive weapon in a Super Bowl run both in the regular season and in the playoffs. In 2023 he was not nearly as good in the regular season but seemed to be able to "turn it on" so to speak in the playoffs and while in the 2023 playoffs he wasn't quite what he was in 2022 he was 90% there and still a very potent weapon for them. But in 2024 he was just not very good outside of the divisional round game against the Texans. His regular season stats were good but considerably down from what he did in from 2016-2022 when he was putting up consistently elite numbers. And outside of the Texans Divisional Round game Kelce had a dud playoff run. 2 catches 19 yards in the Conference Championship and 0 in the Super Bowl. And he looked noticeably different outside of the Texans game a game where he looked fresh coming off a 3.5 week layoff. I think Kelce at age 35 he could sort of pull a Kawhi Leonard and load manage his way into being an above average regular season player who just "turns it on" in the playoffs. But for one he's a year older coming off back to back 20 game NFL seasons (post season and regular season) and in 2023 he started the year banged up, it wasn't necessarily intentional that he coasted and just turned it on. He just got healthy after an early season injury. I think it is better he hangs it up and calls it a HOF career, he's among the best TE's to ever do it. He's unlike to at age 36 after having played 57 games in 3 straight seasons is going to turn around and get better after two down regular seasons and a bad playoff run.

LB this team is solid at, Milano, D. Williams, and Bernard are starting caliber players while Specter is a solid backup. They also drafted Ulo in round 5 last year seems like decent back end competition. I would like to see the Bills add some depth players there. I think adding a bigger LB to play in "heavy" packages is necessary. I think you can find a cheap vet to add that kind of specialist while then adding in some back end depth with a later round pick to compete with Spector and Ulo. I agree no major investments needed, just add some back end depth and maybe a run stuffing specialist which is a cheap add. The Bills have a good top 3 in Milano, Williams, and Bernard with Spector and Ulo some depth behind them.

From my understanding of these hires a lot of these new coaches aren't coaches McD has worked with before?

This hire plus the cornerbacks coach from NE that the Bills added to the staff seem like good hires. Have there been any other significant hires?

Not too high up on the individual prospects but seems like Joe B hit all the Bills major needs high up accurately assessing what positions need higher draft picks.

I think Daquan can still contribute in a rotational role, he's just not going to be the anchor that he once was which is fine he's older and a bit banged up but as a rotational one tech you are not doing poorly.

Gotta start high in negotiations. That being said it is not a realistic ask either. I suspect the Bills will be comfortable giving Cook a 2 year extension that tacks on a little bit more to his current remaining year. Probably be comfortable adding 2-3 million for Cook this season and then giving him a 16-17 million dollar two years after that.

With Carter and Oliver the Bills are set on quicker interior DT's. They kind of are stuck with D.Jones I'm fine with him a rotational DT at his age a bit past his prime but he can still be a decent backup/rotational 1-tech. But they need to bring in 2 big bodies at DT. Gotta keep from getting routinely gashed up the middle when the team plays tougher rushing attacks.