appoo

There’s just no value in cutting Star. See what kind of shape he’s in when he gets here, and leave him on the bench until he gets in better shape. You don’t really lose anything with that, the way his contract is.

the bills offensive system turned him into a complimentary piece. He averaged 12 YPC - 3rd lowest of his career, and about 65th in the NFL. but that’s not meant to denigrate him in the least. He is an ELITE route runner, the best weapon in the NFL at the Z. The Bills did exactly what they should have with him - turn him into a monster under 20 yards, and clowning #1 and #2 corners in the midrange game. For someone like Josh Allen who loves to hold the ball that’s a real threat. Basically Stefon Diggs is the best Z in the NFL. I only call it complementary because he enables offenses to grind first downs and convert 3rd downs, but they don’t necessarily enable explosive plays. When i looked it before, the Bills were around 10th when it came to explosive plays from the WR position. And again I’m not saying that’s a bad thing - if given the choice between being a feast or famine offense (reliant on explosive plays, poor 3rd down conversion, high TD/Drive rates) or a grinding offense (chews up 1st downs, converts 3rd downs, high RZ efficiency), Id choose a grinding offense. but someone like Julio, can be both focal point AND complementary, and unless we drastically change Diggs’ responsibility in this offense, you can’t say the same about him, because he’s not gonna get you those kind of explosive plays with his current role. so basically I’m not saying Diggs isn’t good enough to be the focal point of the WRs and offense, but rather the Bills offense doesn’t ask him to

To be clear, adding Julio would be a massive upgrade to this team. Diggs might be our #1, but the X WR - a traditional #1 is some combo of 33 year old Emmanuel Sanders and Gabe Davis. Diggs and Beasley are fantastic complementary pieces, but you add a legit star X or legit star at TE, that takes this group to entirely new frontier - and quite possibly unstoppable given Allen’s arm talent. Imagine his deep shots with someone with the arm radius of Julio or Ertz? But Julio still isn’t possible without cutting 1-2 players

This isn’t for Allen and Edmunds - those 22 hits and this actually makes it slightly harder. my guess? Flexibility for the trade deadline. Bills don’t necessarily NEED to add a player but we know Bean is an active in season shopper, and 8M in cap space empowers him quite a bit hes a bit underpaid but he probably did this knowing we’ll extend him after this season. Those 18M hits the next 2 years aren’t great. it’s always better to have money up front, I guess.

I mean I didn't start the thread. It's there, it's one of my prime irritants in life, so I participated. On topic here, the way Portnoy has attacked women NFL reporters in a wildly personal manner, I'd ban him from all things NFL as well. Credentialing him gives the message they are ok with him. They shouldn't be, and I'm glad they're not.

But does it get past his blatant mysogony and rape culture promotion? Sorry, I tend try to stay away from cultural issues, but Portnoy - as entertaining as he is - will always get my hackles up. “I’d like to reiterate that we don’t condone rape of any kind at our Blackout Parties in mid-January. However if a chick passes out that’s a grey area though” - Dave Portnoy. That's not a grey area. That's rape. And what he said about Samantha Ponder, is reprehensible. He can be as charitable as he wants, but IMO he shouldn't get a pass on his history.

Not often I find myself rooting for Roger Goodell

My belief is that you need to wait till players are able to be in their first extension to grade a draft, so that would be the 2017 draft. My grades, weighted to their round: 1. Tre White - 4 2. Zay Jones - 1.5 2. Dion Dawkins - 4 5. Matt Milano - 4 5. Nathan Peterman - 1.5 6. Tanner Vallejo - 3 Average: 3.0

Fair rebuttal, even though I might disagree with it here and there. I'm hoping to see better from him with an off-season of studying what teams threw at him, as that's a really good point of offenses actually game planning against him last year, for the first time - and coaches helping him out during the OTA camps in the spring/summer to adjust and get him brtter.

if you thought he was good in 2019, then why did you think he regressed in 2020, when you consider the 2nd half of 2020? That was probably his best period of play as a pro

I mean we're up against the cap NOW in 2021. Even with Allen and Edmunds 5th year taken into account the Bills are slightly under their 22 cap, with their most signifcant FA resinging decision to be Levi Wallace. They literally don't have to cut a single player to retain their squad next year, while they can still gain a lot of space by extending Diggs, and cutting/restructing vets like Star. The bills are in an excellent spot, cap wise

That's an interesting way to look at this as well. To be honest, As a football fan, I'm not entirely sold on retaining both Edmunds and Milano as high priced LBs. As a Bills fan, it's different. This is the consequence of who we have as a coach, who needs a pair of do it all LBs who can go sideline-to-sideline. I don't love it, but it's the world I operate in as a Bills fan. Though one quibble I'll have with your post is the expensive DLine. With two 2nds and now a 1st going to DEs this year and last year, that tells me you're not going to see either Hughes or Addison be retained past next year - so I think the plan is quite clear to run the DLine with youth as starters and cheap vets as depth. Perhaps one place they'll spend money is a front line 1T after Star goes. So I think the resources spent on DL will likely end up being the 2nd lowest in 2022, ahead of RB. Though that perhaps only lasts a year, as Ed Oliver will get paid I think in 2024. Bottom line though. Milano/Edmunds are worth more to McDermott, than they would be to most NFL teams, simply because of scheme. And if that's the scheme I gotta live with as a fan, then I'm happy with paying those two guys.

Keep in mind that the more important metric will be % of salary cap. There are going to be a couple of new TV deals that are going to hit when Edmunds and Allen's deal kick in, in 2023. They'll a really nice signing bonus in 2022, but the high salary years should start in 22

He was the Bills' 2nd best defender in the 2nd half of the season last year, after getting healthy. McDermott puts more pressure on his LBs than just about any other scheme in the NFL, a lot of which means the LB gets highlited when things don't go right. But at the same time, he probably doesn't get the credit he deserves when things go right, because the ball isn't near him - or he's doing something like taking up a blocker or setting an edge. My point here is Edmunds - at a very young age - is playing in the toughest scheme a LB can play in, is doing it well enough to earn a lot of recognition from his peers, and well enough so that his HC who's widely respected for his defensive chops, also thinks pretty highly of him as well. And finally, I watch him with my own eyes, and I see a sideline-to-sideline backer who can cover, play the run and blitz - a rare combination of talent. He also has elite potential as a coverage backer, plus potential as a run defender, while not as good as I'd like as a blitzer - though I don't think that's a huge value for his position here.

Sorry you don't get to simply dismiss the TWO pro-bowls with a "Big deal". Because what you're really saying is that you're opinion carries more weight than both the coaches and players who vote in that. 2/3rds of the vote for Pro-bowlers comes from those groups.

Edmunds is younger than half the Bills draft pick from this year. only Russeau, Stevenson and Jack Anderson are younger

My thinking is that the Browns actually have the best roster in the NFL. That secondary could be something special as well, with grant delpit coming in. Has to em the ingredients to be the best defense since the Hawks SB team. You put Allen or Mahomes on that roster and it’s capable of going 16-0. I think the Bills, if they get a nice leap from AJE and Cody Ford, have the 2nd best roster on the AFC

Fields tortured me when he was in HS when decomitted from Penn State He tortured me in college as he twice throttled the PSU defense May as well keep torturing me as a pro! (I'm a huge Fields fan though, love him as a prospect)

Broncos have too much talent on offense to waste away with Teddy bridgewater and Drew Lock. Sutton, Jeudy, KJ Hamler, Noah Fant and Melvin Gordon is legit potential. If Fields is there at 9, they'd be insane not to take him

You gotta separate your RBs - Change of pace backs/specialty (4th and lower) - Dudes who can get you 1100 - 1400 on a 17 game schedule, and operate in a 4 minute offense (2nd-3rd) - Dobbins, Cam, Taylor - legit 3 down backs (1st - 2nd) - Swift, CEH - game plan backs. Guys who are such weapons that they're either your first or 2nd choice (1st round) and force defenses to adjust their defenses to contain them - SaQuon, McCaffery, Dalvin Cook ETN is interesting because some might see him in that top echelon, and others the 2nd echelon

Trade or Cut Mario Addison - $4M Convert $10M of diggs salary to Bonus - 7.5M Convert $6M of Dawkins' salary to Bonus - 4.5M Salary Cap savings - 16M And so on and so forth. Also, Julio has an out year after 22 of a 7.75M Cap hit, if you're worried about Allen.

We'd have to send someone like Addison back the other way, and convert salary to signing bonus, but I think it could be done - if it's worth the player you're trading for

this move means the Bills wouldn’t need any offensive player in this draft other than a TE prospect and OL depth, and upgrade the Bills to the best offense in the league. Julio as your #2 weapon is absurd in this offense

Ike Boettger is a lot of things, but good Run Blocker ain't one of them and neither is Mitch Morse really. Getting a healty, and more experienced Cody Ford at RG is pretty big

When I think of game-planning, I think of the slot WR as a position to free up your weapons, or take advantage of when your weapons are getting over defended. The way I'd go about is: Given: A slot WR who hurts defenses when given space RBs who are good enough when defenses don't lock into the run #1 - Diggs #2 - TE or X WR #3 - Slot/RB I think Beasley gets so much work because the Bills don't have that viable #2 weapon, and because Diggs is so good he can open up space for Cole to exploit. I think if the Bills could fill that #2 slot with a legit 1st round weapon, it makes the offense a whole lot better. Whether that's because Safeties and backers have to a step more towards/into the box because they fear ETN could get loose into the 2nd level even against 7-8 man fronts, or it's because the opposing coverage can't safely slant coverage towards Diggs without fear of getting burnt on the weakside...that's what you're looking for. Creating space and potential for your #1 weapon, with a real #2 weapon.