mjt328

Despite the narrative around here, Brandon Beane and Sean McDermott aren't trying to build a team full of church-going boy scouts. They never have. The Bills have embraced players with strong, vocal and outgoing personalities (Tre White, Jordan Phillips, Dion Dawkins). The front office has also stood by players with both on-the-field and off-the-field incidents (such as Josh Allen, LeSean McCoy and Zay Jones). Most teams value character to a certain extent, and the ones who don't usually regret it. There is a reason Antonio Brown and Josh Gordon aren't on NFL teams. The teams who kept giving them chances ended up getting burned, and eventually everyone stopped believing they were worth the headache. Beane/McDermott believe that in addition to talent and skill, it's important for players to match: A) Their scheme/system and B) Fit into the locker room. They value players who put in the work, and desire to win games more than rack up stats. It's a stark contrast against Doug Whaley, who believed in just grabbing the most talented guys available, and worrying about how they actually fit later.

I would disagree with the general premise. In my opinion it's better to have a deep roster full of good players, rather than a team with several big holes and a couple so-called superstars. Outside of QB, one player RARELY puts you over the top. But even if your argument is true, what game-changing superstars are we missing out on? Jadeveon Clowney? Austin Hooper? Jack Conklin? These guys are nice players, but hardly superstars. True superstars rarely hit free agency. If you want superstars on the team, you usually need to draft them or trade heavily for them (Arizona and DeAndre Hopkins notwithstanding, ugh). Sometimes it's nice to make a big splash (see last year with Mitch Morse), but generally speaking the best value comes in the 2nd-3rd wave of free agency. This is where Beane generally makes his mark, and it's where most of us were expecting him to attack this year again. His best signings last year were arguably John Brown and Jon Feliciano, and both were guys not highly sought after on Day 1 of free agency. With the progress Beane has made so far on the roster, he's earned a little bit of trust.

I want to treat PFF like a legitimate thing. I really do. But these guys are really just becoming a waste of space on social media. We have a whopping three moves so far, and have somehow decreased by 3 percentage points... - We signed Josh Norman, who very likely could be a depth move and not even a starter on this team. - We re-signed Quinton Spain, which would be a total wash since he was on the Bills last year. - We lost Shaq Lawson, who according to PFF wasn't even a Top 100 free agent.

This is how you waste the career of a very talented young QB. Reminds me of the Colts with Andrew Luck... before he prematurely retired.

Yikes. Some really bad trades going on today. NFC West is cleaning up. AFC South is on crack. DeForest Buckner isn't anything special. Indy very likely could have kept that pick and gotten Derrick Brown or Javon Kinlaw, and not given out a massive contract.

They still should have gotten more for Hopkins. WAY MORE. It's almost like Bill O'Brien decided to shop him around, started down the list of 32 teams in alphabetical order, and then took the first deal Arizona threw at him. OK, DONE!

We are only 3-4 hours into the tampering period, and he wasn't among the hottest names. It may be awhile before we hear news on him.

The tweet suggests this would be a tagged player, or player close to the expiration of their current contract. Otherwise, the "paid" portion wouldn't make much sense.

Nobody knows what is happening behind the scenes. You have to wonder if the Bills even had an opportunity to make an offer, considering we are only 2 hours into the free agency tampering period. If Bill O'Brien had been actively shopping DeAndre Hopkins to all 32 teams, you would have to believe that multiple teams would have offered a better deal than Arizona.

Does the coronavirus affect people's brains? Because I think Bill O'Brien has it.

In another post I suggested it was foolish to pursue DeAndre Hopkins, because I believed the price was too high. I take it back.

Agreed. I'm sure this will be repeated a thousand times over the next 1-2 weeks, but the Bills still need to be wise about how dollars are spent. Cap can be rolled-over from year to year. So what we don't spend in 2020, will be extra to use in 2021. This is really our last offseason without key pieces of the roster hitting free agency. Starting next year, very important Buffalo Bills will have expiring contracts (Dion Dawkins and Matt Milano chief among that list). And it will pretty much continue each year from that point. Not to say Brandon Beane needs to be frugal (and I don't think he will be). But the stupid contract we avoid handing out today, could allow us to re-sign someone else we really need down the line.

As Americans, I wish we could show more unity and grace in times like these - instead of this condescending/you are dumb and stupid attitude towards people with different viewpoints and opinions. There are lots of people that are very concerned about this virus, and are worried about the death-toll it could take on the (especially elderly population) if steps aren't taken to slow-down the spread. Health officials are the ones making these shut-down recommendations across the country. Maybe they are looking at worse-case scenario. But maybe that's not the wrong approach to take when it comes to people's lives. At the same time, there are lots of people who are very concerned about how 8 weeks (maybe longer) of completely shutting down the country is going to devastate the economy/business owners/jobs/etc. It's not about the inconvenience of losing the NBA playoffs or being stuck inside their homes with nothing to do but binge Netflix. The long-term financial effects of this will likely be terrible on millions of families. Furthermore, I wish we could just stop the political attacks. For just a few weeks. Please. I believe one of the main reasons (some) conservatives are taking this virus less seriously, is because the Democrats couldn't even wait 5 minutes before using it as ammo to attack the President. It's absolutely pathetic and an absolute disgrace. This virus is not ANY politicians fault, and it's clear that government officials are trying their best to protect citizens. Even if we disagree on how quickly response times should be, or what methods are being used to keep people quarantined. This is a situation that nobody could have been prepared for. On the other side of the aisle, Trump himself needs to stop using every news conference as an opportunity to bash the Obama's response to H1N1. Or why some of the above problems were due to the last administration. The blame game needs to STOP NOW. It's time for us to unify and move forward.

It would probably take two 1st Rounders (bare minimum), plus his $14 million cap hit. So yes. When this draft is absolutely stocked full with WR talent, it's probably not the wisest time to make that kind of trade.

One thing to remember is that Jon Feliciano is a free agent in 2021. So the coaching staff may feel that Cody Ford just needs another season of development. If he struggles again, the opportunity will arise again next year to kick him inside. Sometimes you upgrade by just letting young players develop. That's what we are obviously doing at Quarterback. So why not other positions? Our Left Tackle play improved in 2019 without a player change. Same with Middle Linebacker. I think the team will be depending heavily on improvement from Ford, along with Ed Oliver (hence letting Jordan Phillips walk) and Dawson Knox.

It's interesting how this signing is sparking less discussion about Quinton Spain himself, and more talk about Cody Ford... but it's completely understandable. The Offensive Line last year was solid, with one clear weak spot. Right Tackle. The problem was not Dion Dawkins at LT. It was not Spain at LG. It was not Mitch Morse at C. It was not Jon Feliciano at RG. All of these guys played consistently well throughout the course of the season. And we also seemed to have good depth coming off the bench, particularly with Ryan Bates and Spencer Long. But we did admittedly have a lot of problems with RT - between Ford struggling as a rookie, him rotating with Ty Nsekhe every other series early in the season, and then with Nsekhe getting hurt. In my opinion, that one glaring weak spot on the right side was the difference between Buffalo fielding a Top 10 unit, and fielding a Top 15-20 unit. And I know many other fans had the same observation. I think many Bills fans expected (or even hoped) that we would let Spain walk... not because he isn't a good player himself... but because they wanted to see Ford slide inside to Guard. Then we could focus on upgrading the RT spot. But this move pretty much sets the O-Line for at least the 2021 season. It's pretty clear that our coaching staff/front office believes in Ford and expect him to improve greatly at the position. Hopefully they are correct.

OK. What part was debunked? Which part is misinformation? The part about Trump wanting to restrict travel to China/Iran back in January? This was all over the news at the time. Just Google Trump's travel ban to China, and you will find a ridiculous number of non-right wing news stories. He made the proposal on January 31, and predictably the Democrats didn't like it. Further more, I never said anything about Chuck Schumer. And I have no knowledge about a fake tweet spreading around. I'm talking about the very words of both JOE BIDEN and BERNIE SANDERS (the two Democrats running for the presidential nomination). They called Trump's travel restrictions "racist" and "xenophobic."

This is completely untrue. Trump has been talking about restricting travel with China and Iran since back in JANUARY. His critics (of course) accused him of being RACIST and trying to distract from the Impeachment hearings. As I mentioned in another post, there is a delicate balance between trying to contain this outbreak and completely crashing the U.S. economy. Are you suggesting that Trump should have called for a total shut-down of international travel a month ago? That would have been proactive, but it also would have been perceived by most people as extremely overblown.

There aren't exactly a lot of options here. Regardless of how serious the virus is (meaning life/death), the evidence clearly suggests it is highly contagious. So either you restrict travel - which has a disastrous effect on the economy - or you risk allowing the virus to spread quicker and get out of control. Italy did the latter, and they are suffering worse than anyone right now. The U.S. is taking the approach of temporarily restricting travel, which I think is smart. Meanwhile, the Democrats are too busy worrying about being "politically correct" than to use common sense in making these kind of tough decisions. They are out accusing President Trump of being RACIST for restricting travel, but then also accusing him of not doing enough and not taking the outbreak serious. You can't have it both ways. At the end of the day, they seem more concerned about using this to gain points in the upcoming election than actually helping American citizens. People have different political opinions, and that's fine. But if people are going to criticize our president for his actions, then at least suggest what he could/should be doing differently.

What would you have suggested he do differently?

Agreed. Until Phillips does something in the NFL, it's ridiculous to say we "missed" on anything. John Brown was a borderline Pro-Bowler this season. He was a fantastic pickup and one of the steals of free agency. Cole Beasley was a solid pickup. His salary matches up with his production. Zay Jones has definitely been a bust. But he was not drafted by Brandon Beane, and Sean McDermott is not a GM. Kelvin Benjamin was a successful receiver during his first 2+ years in the league, when Beane was able to land him for a 3rd Round Pick. Bills fans were understandably thrilled when we made this trade. I don't think anyone could have anticipated the drastic fall-off in play, whether it was due to injury or effort. Yep. All of these guys were signed for peanuts, and have been low-level contributors. At this point, Beane has yet to make a significant draft investment (Day 1 or 2 pick) in the WR position. Both of his significant free agent signings have been successful. His only significant trade was a bust, but it was something most couldn't have foreseen. So in my opinion, it's unfair for anyone to question his ability to evaluate the position.

Not really familiar with most of the Browns roster, but it sounds like he's got a similar skill-set as Lorenzo Alexander. In Nickel, we often used Alexander as an extra pass rusher. Kind of a hybrid DE-LB. So it's quite possible that Kirksey would still play 50% or more of the snaps, depending on the formation we come out in.

Define efficient. Just because an offense is more efficient, doesn't mean it's better.

Low risk. High reward. There was a time not very long ago that Josh Norman was among the league's best cornerbacks. But when he moved to Washington, it became clear that he was a scheme-dependent player. The guy was fantastic in zone. He was terrible in man. The good news is, we play mostly zone coverage and Sean McDermott was the defensive coordinator that got the most out of Norman. Hopefully this doesn't stop us from bringing back Kevin Johnson, because we could really use depth at the position. With Tre White, Levi Wallace, Norman and K.Johnson on the outside, then Taron Johnson at the nickel spot, we could completely wipe Cornerback off our needs list.

One of the traits that separates great GMs from the average/bad ones, is the ability to maximize draft position and find value. That means both moving up AND down. Through the NFL's history, fans seem to remember the times their team moved up in the draft and it didn't work out. For instance, the Bills with JP Losman or Sammy Watkins. Or the Saints with Ricky Williams. Or the Redskins with Robert Griffin III. But there is no evidence that "smart teams move down" as many like to insist. The Chiefs just won the Super Bowl on the back of Patrick Mahomes, who they moved up for. The Patriots are infamous for moving all over the board to get the players they want. In my opinion, Bill Belichick is only average at hitting on picks. But he's well above average at trading around to obtain value. Moving down is smart if you can get a player of equal value at the pick you drop to. But if you anticipate a drop in value before you are on the clock, then it can be valuable to make a trade up the board. Listening to Brandon Beane speak, I believe he understands this. It's hard to say whether a trade-down is smart at #22, without knowing what our needs are and who is available to us. As I mentioned in another thread, if we go into the draft just needing a WR, then it will probably be smart to move-down. Because the receivers likely available in the 40s, won't be much different than those in the 20s. But if we still need an edge rusher and someone like Epenesa or Chaisson is there, moving down may not be the prudent decision.