hondo in seattle

Good post. But here's my issue. Beane made a franchise-transforming move when he traded up and nabbed Allen. But other than that, he's been rather mediocre in the draft. Can we find a good WR in the second round? Yes, we can. Will we? Sorry, I'm not feeling your optimism - I don't think the odds are great. That's why Hopkins is attractive - he's a proven commodity.

1st Super Bowl. I was in Saudi Arabia, near the border with Iraq, waiting for a war to begin. My guys and I had no access to any kind of tv, nor normal radio programming if you don't count Baghdad Betty. But one of my soldiers did have a shortwave radio and sometimes was able to pick up the BBC World Service. I asked him to tell me if he learned the Super Bowl score. He woke me up in the middle of the night, "Sir! Wake Up! The Bills won!" I jumped out of my sleeping bag, ecstatic. "You sure? I pressed him. And then he explained he heard something about a last-second field goal but his reception was full of static so he wasn't entirely sure. But he thought the announcer said the Bills had won. I frantically scanned the radio waves for the next two hours before being crushed by the awful truth.

I don't see RB as an overwhelming need. I like our RB room well enough. Harris can run powerfully inside but get outside too. Cook is a quick outside guy who can catch. And Hines was woefully underutilized as a pass-catcher last year. In space, he's dynamic. But to say drafting Bijan makes "zero sense," I think, is an exaggeration. The Bills want a better running game - he gives us that. But the Bills are a passing team - Bijan can line up as a receiver and perform well there. When the Bills huddled up with Bijan, defenses wouldn't know if he'd be lining up as an RB or WR. Bijan's versatility would be useful in the Bills offense. King has Bijan going in the top ten. Maybe. But if he falls to 27, I have to admit that I'd be tempted if I was the GM. It would depend on who else is available - maybe another player I like as much but fills a bigger need.

I voted yes but only if it's cap friendly. DHop is worth a 2nd round pick. It's his salary that worries me. I don't know if the 'yes' I registered is even realistic with our cap situation.

It's a good point. But all we need is one team to love a guy at 27. But I'm not entirely convinced Beane wants to trade back nor am I convinced that he'll find a dance partner even if he does. It'll be an interesting evening. I remember the year Buddy picked CJ Spiller. He practically announced his intentions to the world before the draft. The pick was no surprise. Beane hasn't been dropping meaningful hints and nothing he does this year will surprise me.

Not to be ethnocentric, but I'm embarrassed that a Brit knows 10,000 more about American college football than I do. Nice job, GB!

I was just thinking about this again yesterday when I read Bucky Brooks' article on NFL.com. He has 5 guys graded as ALL PROS and 10 guys graded as PRO BOWLERS. So what would we get at 27? An average starter? Probably not a 1st round talent. So why waste a 1st round pick on a 2nd round talent? I'm not entirely convinced but I think Beane may indeed trade down. www.nfl.com/news/2023-nfl-draft-all-pros-pro-bowlers-and-overachievers-in-this-class

I don't watch a lot of college football but when I was at Purdue, I attended most of the games and continued to watch them after graduation on tv. Back in the 1980's they had a QB named Scott Campbell. The team around him sucked and his stats as a three-year starter are hardly impressive. But his numbers didn't do him justice. I watched him sling the ball around the field with authority - making all the throws. And I started to tell people: this guy's gonna be an NFL quarterback. I didn't believe he'd be Joe Montana but I was convinced he'd be a competent starter. Well, he was chosen in the 7th round by the Steelers and made the squad as the third-stringer running the practice squad. One game, both the starter and backup got hurt, and Campbell has to come in despite not running any plays with the offense that week. He didn't light it up but he played decent. And, at that moment, I was feeling right about him. But poor Scott spent 6 years in the NFL, mostly as a backup, throwing more incompletions in his lackluster career than completions, and more picks than TDs. And, having watched his mediocrity unfold, made me realize that I know jack about scouting college QBs. Scott has done well in PA real estate, though.

Agree emphatically. Given we're in a passing era with a pass-first offense and have an All-Star QB, I'm reasonably happy with our diverse RB room. I'm not sure how much confidence I have in Dorsey scheming either run or pass plays for RBs. But the big issue is the OL. A better OL will bodyguard our QB better and open holes for the backs. Looking at value-added in the RB position, I don't know how much we can get in the draft. Seems like bigger upgrades are probably available elsewhere. Though I don't know how I'd feel if Bijon was available at 27 but I'm certainly not itching to trade up for him.

The devaluation of RBs is interesting. Go back to the 70s and most of the #1 overall draft picks, and most of the Heisman winners, were RBs as I recall. Because they were on the cover of magazines and signing big contracts, the best athletes wanted to be running backs. Now you often hear, "Running backs are a dime a dozen." These days the best athletes become WRs, CBs, and sometimes even QBs. And, yep, the stats about the comparative unimportance of RBs are impressive. Yet, imagine if there were an OJ or a Jim Brown available in the draft. A preternaturally talented RB would add wins to your season - if your scouts were smart enough to identify him. But, as others point out, a good running game does not necessarily require a good RB. I'm old enough to have witnessed unheralded Willie Ellison run for 247 yards - the NFL record at the time - through gaping holes back in '71. An offense that's multifaceted and can run inside or outside, throw short or deep, is extremely difficult to defend. That's what I want to see from the Bills. The passing game works better when the defenders respect the run.

AD, I didn't watch Josh's interview. I really hope you're right and Josh is truly in a good place with Diggs and not talking happy-talk, either for the media's sake or because he's trying to mend fences with a disgruntled partner. I'm not going to belabor my worries. There's no point in trying to convince anyone else to worry. But the Diggs-Allen relationship is something I will personally monitor. As I mentioned previously, decades of fandom have made me a bit cynical. Small warning signs I blew off have often become large real-world problems. My homer hopes for progress were often followed by Sundays of painful regression. I take the little warning signs seriously now. As cynics often say, if you expect the worse, you're less disappointed when and if it happens.

Funny response. There was obvious friction between Diggs and Allen just a few months ago. I started this thread with my worry that the tension may continue into this season. I don't think it's an unreasonable concern, but others do. Okay. But somehow folks who disagree think they need to make assumptions about my personal life. I actually enjoy my life quite a bit - thanks - and spend a good chunk of it outside hiking and trail-running with my husky in the mountains and forests of Northern California. I hope the Bills roll through the AFC, the grievances between Josh and Diggs are long forgiven & forgotten, and everything is kumbaya. And then someone will remember this thread and gloat and insult me for being wrong. But I'll just smile because I want to be wrong. I want kumbaya. Sometimes smoke indicates fire. Other times smoke is just smoke. But, because I'm a hardcore Bills fan, the Diggs-Allen relationship is something I'll be paying attention to this season. If you don't think it's worth watching, don't.

All things being equal - the chance of winning the SB in any year is 1-in-32. But things aren't equal - rosters, schedules, injuries, coaching, and so on. It used to be back in the years of drought and sorrow that the Bills had maybe one chance in a thousand in a given season. But under Beane and McD, it feels like our chances are maybe 1-in-8 or something like that. I really want to see the Bills lift a Lombardi before I croak and I'm generally pleased there's a realistic chance this may happen.

Josh is a 26-year-old kid. At times, I suspect he acts his age: childish, immature, and incomplete in his wisdom and understanding of people. At other times, I'm sure he works on being a good leader. He tries to be positive and lift people up. He's also smart enough to not say stupid things to the media. I've got to wonder if he was entirely authentic when he said Diggs is one of his favorite people. Maybe he was just trying to say the right thing. I don't see a raging fire but if you don't see smoke, you're not looking. I really hope I'm wrong and the bromance continues - as well as the production on the field. But my confidence level is not 100%. If yours is, great.

I am curious why Frazier left. It is an odd thing... He didn't retire. He didn't quit. He wasn't fired. And, as far as we know, it's not a medical leave of absence nor is he attending to a family issue. Your theory is an interesting possibility.

I feel like some fans, in an excess of hope & optimism, bury their heads in the sand. * Our OL will be fine this year with the FAs we signed. * Our running attack with be fine with Harris onboard - he's stronger, faster and better than Motor * Our receiving corps will be fine with the speed we added * Our secondary will be fine with Poyer, Hyde, and White all back and healthy * Our DL will be fine when Von gets healthy which is soon * Our LB corps will be fine without Edmunds - he wasn't a difference maker anyway * The Diggs-Allen relationship will be fine despite signs of strain - they're both professionals. Several of these assumptions may prove to be true. But I doubt if they all will. After enduring multiple two-win seasons, 4 SB losses, 17 years of drought, and countless other disappointments in 50+ years of fandom, maybe I've become a bit cynical. But when I see a cloud on the horizon, I don't ignore it.

Look, I agree I may be reading too much into it. But I find the people attacking me hilarious. I believe I bring up a legit point. There were lots of bromance stories last offseason. But the season ended with tension between the two and now - IMHO - Josh seemed to answer a question in a very politically correct way without any allusions to an ongoing bromance. Considering Diggs's blowup last year, and the diva stories from his time with the Vikings, it's reasonable to have a concern. I'm not condemning anyone. Not Diggs; not Josh. But as a Bills fan, I don't assume the world is sunshine and roses. I've been disabused of that years ago. There seem to be ugly surprises every season with my favorite team and I hope the Diggs-Allen story doesn't become one of them. We are after all talking about millionaire twenty-somethings who aren't always maxed out with EQ.

We all know that Allen and Diggs are/were best friends. We also all know what happened with Diggs at the end of the last season. Recently, Allen was asked if his relationship with Diggs was still solid. He responded, "Absolutely... Stef's gonng be Stef. I love the guy. He is one of my favorite people on this planet. He is so fiery, so competitive. He wants the ball in his hands 24/7, and I’m never going to not like a guy like that. He wants what’s best for the team.” To me, that sounds a lot like coach-speak. Allen keeps it positive, as he should. But he never actually says that he and Diggs are still talking, hanging out, playing games together, acting like brothers from different mothers... And his comment, "I'm never going to dislike a guy like that" came off as a little odd to me. Who said anything about disliking? Do you have reasons to dislike Stef that you're overcoming? I'm not going to churches, temples, synagogues, and mosques, bawling my eyes out, earnestly praying for divine intervention for them to patch things up. But I do have some concerns about their relationship this year. I hope those concerns are wrong.

Sportswriters need content. So when there is no news, they invent some: mock drafts, trade rumors, refuted trade rumors, speculation...

I agree with most of what you said. But, when evaluating Josh's 2022 season, I think you paint an incomplete picture if you don't mention the porous OL or the many drops.

Being a GM is a weird occupation. All draft picks are possibilities - none of them are sure hits. As a GM, you're rolling the die throughout draft weekend. You're hoping you've done your evaluations thoroughly enough that your probabilities of scoring a hit are greater than the other GMs. And maybe you succeed at that. But if you don't hit on your QB, you're screwed. Owners don't evaluate your process. And they don't care how many hits you get if one of them isn't a signal caller. Beane's got job security for a while because he hit on Allen. Had he missed that one pick - fair or not - he'd probably be gone by now.

I'm starting to wonder if we take a pick at #27. Beane has conceded, more or less, that there aren't a lot of 1st round grades this year. So why use a 1st round pick on a 2nd round talent? He could trade up to get an actual 1st round talent in the 1st round. But with what capital? So I'm starting to think he'll trade back.

How do you know who the other guys are or how fast they run? I personally think it would be interesting to see TO put on an NFL uni again. Can an NFL WR still compete at age 48? As an older guy myself, I'd love to see it.

Looking back, Steve Largent supposedly only ran a 4.8 forty in college and yet became one of the NFL's best-ever receivers.

Maybin?