OldTimer1960

So much for being dominant. Embarrassing performance by the offense.

Losing Milano on top of White is a season changer. Dodson on the field is a big problem.

Thinking maybe the hype for Harty raised our expectations too high for him.

It’s gonna be a looong season.

Something is very definitely wrong with this team. There are personnel problems like MLB, WR, OT, and CB, but it is beyond that. They don’t seem very focused or together.

I liked the Elam pick at the time - not hiding from that, but Elam is clearly not performing remotely close to what they expected. I think they might have been better off keeping Alex Austin. Elam is clearly not in favor of this staff. Indeed, in preseason he was basically holding on almost every play involving him - and he is not a good tackler, either. I think Elam is trying, but I believe his confidence is shot. He is grabbing because he doesn't trust his coverage skills. By all reports I've seen, Elam is a dedicated worker and student of the game. I don't think any message needs to be sent to motivate him. He needs to stop holding/grabbing which, in part, is a confidence issue. It could also be that Elam doesn't have the quickness necessary to go with his speed and size.

Well, when the team isn't in contention. The league's rules are created to favor the weak teams and to create parity (draft order and salary cap) - those rules are doing exactly what the NFL wants. It is a concern that the Bills seem less than stellar at drafting in the early rounds. If you are an ultra-optimist, you can conclude that Beane is a wizard in the late rounds/UDFA. If you are a pessimist, you can conclude that their approach to the draft is a total disaster. I think the truth lies somewhere in the middle. With recognition that they've been drafting late in each round now for several seasons and that talent levels in drafts vary from year to year, they really need to evaluate what has gone wrong with their evaluations of players like Cody Ford (2nd), Basham (2nd), Epenesa (though serviceable - 2nd). It now looks a lot like neither Bernard (3rd) or more concerning Elam (1st) are going to become decent players. There is something awry in their draft evaluations in the early rounds. I am in the camp of giving them time to figure out and correct their issues in this regard as long as they are still contending. Every team has draft "misses" in the early rounds, but the Bills' rate of early misses is becoming a concern. They need to be evaluating how they've gone wrong and fix that - whether that be biases toward certain types or whether it means keeping some evaluators/decision makers out of the process.

Just recognition that there are several other stacked teams in the league, AFC and AFC East. I would not be surprised if 10-7 wins the AFC East.

CB5 behind White, Johnson, Jackson and Benford. There is something significant that the coaches don’t like about Elma’s play. If it was even close, Elam would get the nod over Jackson and Benford.

Yep. Even if Benford doesn’t start, you don’t trade a better player to clear the way for a disappointing high pick (Elam).

I think this might be overestimating Benford. He hasn’t beaten out Jackson who is OK, but they did want to replace him.

The schedule is very tough, the division is extremely strong. I would not be too surprised if 10-7 wins the division due to the competition level.

He might show up on the practice squad.

There is a lot of truth in what you said here and it absolutely matters that the Bills are contenders, so throwing a rookie in to learn on the job isn’t where this team is. Now, if they were coming off a 4-12 season looking to be good in a couple of years, the picture would be much different. However, regarding Elam - he is a 1st round pick running behind the guy they drafted him to replace (Dane Jackson) AND behind the 6th round pick from the same year (Benford). I got roasted a couple weeks ago for suggesting that they might consider trading Elam while he still has *some* value, but maybe now that the depth chart is pretty set they should revisit that. I absolutely don’t think they should play Elam ahead of Jackson or Benford if he doesn’t earn it, but it is becoming apparent that they don’t think he is a fit here, so see what they can get.

Dane Jackson and Benford will not look good playing man to man and Elam is no longer an option.

I’m not sure Elam would be on the field with the 2nd team.

Bernard is their only hope because Dodson/Klein/Spector aren’t the answer. It isn’t encouraging that Bernard could not convincingly step ahead of Dodson in camp before his hamstring injury.

Dawkins might be a nice guy and he used to be pretty good, but man have some pride as a pro athlete - his body looks like he retired 15 years ago.

Nice knowing you Darrynton Evans.

Allen won’t last 3 weeks behind this set of OTs

This is a total sh#t show.

I think we’ve seen enough of Barkley.

You can’t. All you can do is hope that Allen can carry them.

You should reconsider. He is bad.

The first team defense didn’t play that well against the Steelers 2nd teamers.