Utah John

Who cares?

Sometimes an average talent gets into a situation where other players make him look better than he is. Sometimes a good talent gets into a situation where the scheme or the coaches or the other players are a bad fit. (Ref: Rosen, Josh, over and over) Fortunately for these guys, they have a lot of money in the bank. McMahon was very good, but not elite. The 85 Bears defense was the best in history.

Dareus was a great physical talent but completely lacked self-discipline. He was a very young person, not chronological age but wrt maturity, when he arrived. He got to a Bills team with losing culture, and figured, OK then, that's how it is. He didn't push himself and no one really pushed him. No one, no matter how talented, makes it without hard work. It's all just a shame. A waste of a potentially great career, and a waste of a great draft opportunity.

The Bills pulled out some very close, tough wins last year, against teams that didn't win a lot of games. Yes, they won those games, which is a lot better than what they used to do. But they got killed by Philly and lost to Cleveland when the defense couldn't hold a late lead. There's a fine line between success and failure. The Bills still don't look as loaded as Cleveland did last year, and the Browns fell apart. That seems unimaginable under McBeane but imagine how last year would go if the Jets MLB didn't get hurt before halftime, and the Jets held on to win the first game of the year. The next week the pitiful Giants were ahead of the Bills. Last year could have gone a lot differently. This year is NOT a guaranteed walk to the division. Keep an eye on Miami, which seems ready to challenge the Bills for the AFCE championship, and the only playoff slot to any team in the division, due to the terrible travel schedule all four teams will have.

If I'm not mistaken, Epenesa is heavier and taller than Oliver. Usually D tackles are the biggest players on defense. Epenesa's size might help with run defense if there's a strong push against Oliver.

I think the reason Brady left was that the team is clearly Tanking for Trevor this year. Brady wanted no part of that.

I've been worried about Miami since the last month of last season, when they really pulled it together. They started last year as the worst team in the league, and finished it beating NE in NE, in a game NE needed to win. Their coach, Brian Flores, is doing what McD is doing in Buffalo -- creating a professional, tough, team-first attitude. The Fish loaded up on draft picks and have addressed their deficiencies in the draft. I think Miami's timing is going to be good. 2020 will be a tough year for the AFCE which has to play the AFCW and NFCW, with all that travel. Probably, only the division champ makes the playoffs, and will not get a first round bye. Miami will do well this year but probably won't win the division. In 2021, though, all the new pieces come back, and Miami is going to be very strong, possibly better than Buffalo. I think the AFCE will be a two-team race, Buffalo and Miami, for at least five years to come. They have a lot of rookies and probably want veteran leadership.

Two thoughts. We didn't call him Glass Goodwin while he was a Bill, for nothing. He can't stay healthy. Second, who knows when the Summer Olympics will be held again. Goodwin is doing the rights thing financially, focusing on football for the time being.

Is this like asking if it means the same thing to win the AFCE after Tom Brady has left? The answer is, either way, we won and that's that.

I became a Utah fan when I lived in Salt Lake City, and I saw Moss play a lot. The guy Moss reminds me of is Freddie Jackson, not from a skills standpoint (Moss measures out better), but from a heart standpoint. He consistently refused to go down and would fight hard for every inch, just like Freddie did. Moss and two of his Utah teammates came from the same high school in Florida, and they all decided to stick around for their senior year at Utah to try to win the Pac 12 and go to the Rose Bowl. It just didn't work out, but you can't blame Moss. Bills fans will LOVE this guy if we draft him.

I think the reduction from the old drafts when there were many rounds of picks (I remember 17) to 7 was done at the request of the players through the CBA. Letting players negotiate with the teams that really want them is good for them.

Williams was excellent in his rookie year, and it was a major disappointment when he showed up the next year unable to compete. Not having him available as expected hurt the team. If he's really making a comeback, I'll be shocked. RBs don't sit out a couple of years and make it back.

Money is a consideration for players, of course, but their organization also is. The Bills go out of their way to show respect to their players, and that contributes to the good morale and close-knit bonding that the Bills have. Who knows, White might leave some day, I hope not, but someone could offer him a ridiculous amount of money, and how could Tre turn that down? But I think it's likely that he'll be happy staying in Buffalo and getting paid hugely for doing so.

Khalil Mack made the list, of course, but how is Von Miller unanimous while Mack isn't?

This is just schoolyard stuff. If Hopkins joined the Bills, he and White would find ways to work together. Probably, going against each other in practice every day would make each of them even better than they are already, which is at the top of the league.

Well it's certainly the offseason, that's for sure, if we're worried about the relative rankings of some of these guys.

Future performance is not guaranteed by past results. But, what else do writers have to go on, who have to write SOMETHING during the offseason? Some of the players who got the lowest grade (have a lot to prove) were injured for most or all of their rookie years. The writeups still said they were expected to be great, and yet they got that low grade. So, the writeups are a good evaluation of each player's situation, but the grades are silly. As for Oliver, I have always wondered if he's heavy enough to play DT in the NFL. It looks like he's going to do well despite being a little on the light side. It might help him to get even better when he has Harrison back next to him.

Incarcerated prisoners do have rights. They are sentenced to a certain term in prison but that does not mean they have to endure unsafe conditions. Paying their penalty to society does not mean being locked up without the means to avoid communicable diseases, or not having access to testing (and millions of us outside of prison shouldn't be deprived of the chance to get tested due to the administration's incompetence, either). To respond to njbuff, prisoners are still citizens. Of course they are. Felons lose some rights, some permanently and others temporarily, but they do not lose their citizenship.

This is not a new situation, but the Skins will likely want to move on before long. It sounds like this is a pissing contest between player and team, and they're both willing to absorb pain in order to give pain to the other. Williams had a cancerous growth on his head, which led to the confrontation with the team. If that's all cleared up, he should be a great addition to the Bills. Move Dawkins to RT, make Ford a swing reserve. Next year, Ford starts at guard.

The Bills built the defense first, but even that was not always good in 2018. The Bills started 2018 as one of the worst teams in the league. They were getting blown out over and over because the offense couldn't hold on to the ball. Also remember the opening part of the 2018 schedule was brutal. The Vikings upset was a feel-good moment but the fact that it was so shocking shows how most of the league felt about the Bills. By the end of the season, the team was much more solid, and I agree McD deserves a lot of credit for keeping the players moving ahead in the right direction. I keep pointing this out, but the Dolphins' 2019 season was a lot like the Bills' 2018 season. Started out really bad, and got better with a strong coach. Miami is going to be really tough this year if they get a QB.

What a team, what a defense, what a great player. And what great uniforms. Seriously, I think those mid-60s unis were the best the Bills ever had.

They spelled Rutkowski wrong. I thought they got Paul Costa's initial wrong (D Costa) but then I realized the Bills had two players named Costa. I don't remember the tackle, D Costa, but I do remember Paul Costa.

As a Utah fan, I saw a lot of Zach Moss. He's an inventive, powerful runner who I think would be a good complement to Singletary. He is not really fast but he gets through gaps with quickness and power. I think he'll be a very good NFL back.

We had a LT who was better than Dawkins, Cordy Glenn, and he's available again.