Bleeding Bills Blue

I mean we tried to improve the punting situation, haack was just really bad. Bass improved a lot though. FG kicking was a strength this year for the first time in a while. For punts buffalo had the 3rd fewest returns allowed with 17, and yards per return was 5.6 which was last in the league. Function of fewer punts most likely. But Haack was also a shank machine, awful at touchbacks, and was never a big leg punter either. 37.6 net average, 1 blocked, 7 touchbacks. I honestly don't remember even 1 single "wow" punt. The kickoff piece is hard to fully quantify since the stats are relatively vague - 99 kickoffs and 54 touchbacks with only an average return of 18 yards on the returns (3rd in the NFL). Basically to me - it rarely did harm to buffalo to kick it short and high, and occasionally they made plays to cost other teams some starting field position. Return wise - buffalo returned 37 punts which was 3rd in the NFL, and were 14th in PR yardage (8.5 yards per return). Likely a function of forcing a fair amount of punts. Buffalo was 8th in yards per return on kickoffs, and returned 33 which was good for 18th. They only gave up 52 total scores + 17 game kickoffs so that's only on 69 attempts. Outside of Haack's punting its not something that another team can point to as a weakness.

Drafting is terrible? Even if you hate Edmunds - Allen, Phillips, Johnson, Neal, Oliver, Singletary, Knox, Davis, Bass, Rousseau, Brown. And the Big athlete dudes on that list are Allen, Oliver, Rousseau, and Brown.

1 - Agree, it makes everyone better including the outside pass rushers. 2 - I can see this, but how much will they see the field with white/poyer/hyde/johnson starting in 4/5 spots. 3 - I probably get a complimentary back in free agency. Even a chase edmonds isn't particularly expensive. Rookies usually can't block so they tend to see fewer snaps 4 - 3 young guys - lot of power and lot of length - need a bendy or twitchy guy in there 5 - Open to this in most cases, i think WR 3/4 is open for business with a free agent. Blocker wise i think everythings probably up for grabs except LT and probably RT. Morse makes too much, and the guard play wasn't particularly inspiring. Bates will stick for cheap, feliciano and williams weren't overly impressive. I'd like to see some real talent brought in here in hte 1st or 2nd round.

My issue is Wilson didn't look anywhere near good - worse than burrows rookie year, worse than lawrence, worse than fields even. Trash line. Trash WRs. Trash TE's. Trash RB's. As for defense there's what - mosley and williams? And they aren't exactly all-world type players either. 4 picks in the first 40, and tons of cap space can address a lot of that. Maybe you get a CB1 in FA, a pass rusher and WR in the 1st, and some oline help in the 2nd. But they are still likely very far off. And i don't trust wilson to elevate them. There's a good chance they're right back here in a year.

So its 26.6M in dead cap if they cut him. But trading him drops off the 8.4 in base salary so its just the signing bonus of 12.9 and 5.638M (money they already paid CMC) - so a little over 18.5. They can split that over 2 years and lower the dead cap to say - 10M. It isn't a ton of savings (his cap hit is 14.3 in 2022), but if you can get a couple solid picks it helps you in building your team or maneuvering the draft to select the players you covet. It's more cutting your losses on a bad contract than anything else. So the summary would be: 18.5M in total dead cap for carolina to either split or eat in 1yr. Acquiring team gets a 4 year deal - 44M deal with 8.1 guaranteed, and 800K in workout bonuses (200 per year). 1M of 2023 is guaranteed for injury only. So realistically its a 1yr deal for 8.6M, with 3 team options of 12M per year with 0 cap ramifications. Very easily restructured if you need cap space as well (and he'd likely sign anything that gave him guaranteed cash).

its 4 year like 45 if you wanted to keep him, the last 2 years are salary/workout bonuses only and nonguaranteed. Basically option years and you can tack on void years if you want to lower the cap burden in year 3.

It's basically a 2yr 20ish mil contract if you acquire him. Years 3 and 4 have a total 1m in injury guarantees.

Honestly the XFL was the best of the leagues - but until there's some kind of agreement around PS/Futures players being able to play you're severely limiting the talent pool. Draft eligible players won't play, not an alternative to NCAAF for under 21 players. A lot of talent is unavailable and it will always harm the end product.

I just read it as he's young and handsome.

He had the one shoulder injury in 2020 but everything else is hamstring, glute, and high ankle sprains. Those are all non-contact injuries and likely related to the original high ankle sprain in 2020 that he resprained in 2021. I think its worth a shot if the price is low, but to me its a time bomb of when not if he will get injured. https://www.draftsharks.com/fantasy/injury-history/christian-mccaffrey/7750 Make sure you have a backup plan for slot WR, and RB/WR.

Agreed. He has home run potential, but he isn't nearly as shifty as he thinks and doesn't use his size or power.

And if Beane has any trends - he tends to go to people with athletic upside. Of the players listed there - if linderbaum is there i think you pick him. I don't think he will be though so its probably moot.

Color rush red with red helmets. So much freaking red. Can they wear red sleeves and shoes too?

I could also see them finishing out of the playoffs. Steelers are legit never bad. The Ravens probably won't lose 3 RBs, LT, CB1 and CB2, DE, WR1/2/3 all missed time, TE2 missed half the year, Rest of oline was a mash unit, and then jackson missed time. They're a playoff team when they're healthy. And the Browns have a better defense than the bengals, and if baker can play better without being hurt they're right back in it. I got them at like 8-9 or 9-8. I put them at 3-3 in division and 2-2 vs the AFCE. The NFC south will be weaker without brady so they probably get 3 wins there- but they get KC, Tenn, and Dallas as 1st place opponents in 2022. They beat 2 of them in the playoffs but I can't put them as a big favorite in any of those 3 games.

Lots of coaches bench fumblers. The Mckenzie week inactive was really... he took a ball out he shouldn't have, then fumbled it untouched. There's fumbles, and there's mistakes that essentially cost the team their ability to compete. Stevenson was coming back from IR the same week, so it was really bad timing to screw up that badly.

19 sacks... 2 of the games he had rob johnson level sack rates. I know the offensive line isn't good there, and they played especially poorly in those 2 games, but there has to be some awareness that his clock isn't fast enough and that he needs to get the ball out quicker. Whatever they tried to do with Boyd mixon and the other short targets resulted in 17 targets for 63 yards. Poor playcalling, poor execution by burrow, poor execution by other players - in any case when he got the ball out quick there was like nothing gained. Usually to me - when you aren't getting yards on short passes its because you held the ball too long. This was the area that Allen showed the most improvement as the season wore on. Learning when to take shots and when not. Is there a pressure look? Who's rushing from where? Recognizing coverage. Knowing where the outlets are going to be.

Ah Rob Johnson..... was sack rate not a stat coaches looked at back then?

They traded so much to get that guy. I didn't even realize he barely played in 2020 either. So he was sort of in a rousseau situation, at QB though.

Tre white was the same way - got it done before Humphrey and Ramsey. Closer in AAV to Byron Jones and Darius Slay FA contracts. If you waited there you might have a contract closer to Humphreys. Not a crazy amount of cap space - 2.3M in AAV. But over 4 years we're talking like 10M dollars. The Dawkins deal was a great move as well. 14.5 M for 4 years signed in 2020 (keeping him through 2025). Brian O'neill 1 year later got 18.5, and that's largely due to the new ceiling set by Williams and Bakhtiari (to a lesser extent Tunsil because O'briens gonna O'brien).

Free agency occurs before the draft, and you can't leave a gaping hole or teams will know to jump you. If Davis is there in Rnd 1 and you picture him as an impact player to develop into a Vita Vea, Chris Jones, or Kenny Clark type because of plus traits then maybe you pull the trigger. Worst case scenario the guy is a monster plug and play 1T on early downs, but there's potential there for more. In a passing league you might think this doesn't have tremendous value, but with tons of teams adopting the mcvay/shanahan offense - being able to have a guy there who is a monster in the run game could be an element the defense is missing.

Everyone hating on Perine on that 3rd down stuff... What was he supposed to do there? What would mixon have done? The criticism should be the blocking execution or the play call (why run it out of shotgun?)- but who cares who the back is when he's hit a yard behind the LOS.?

Oh well... They covered up spygate to protect Kraft and Belichick. Call it even.

Just seems to be a hair late on his pocket movement. If you want to drive the ball down the field consistently you need to effectively create time and space behind the LOS. 8.9% sack rate isn't crazy Rob Johnson high, but its high. Higher than either of Allen's first 2 years, or Tyrod's first 2 years with Buffalo. Higher than a lot of Russell Wilsons seasons, and higher than 3 out of 4 seasons that Watson had. Wilson/Watson also had some pretty trash lines at times too.

It's not like it was man coverage on the boundary though. It's probably cover 4 or something like that when facing an empty set. If he doesn't hold there the safety is already coming up to hit kupp before the end zone. If its lead too far that safety can challenge the catch point, pick it off, or hit him hard to force an incompletion. The hold was unnecessary in that zone look. The underneath defender took the RB check down. The outside leverage guy took the over the top route knowing the safety is there inside, and the safety bolted for kupp as soon as the checkdown gets covered. I'm not sure its a completion even without the hold.

If Kupp goes behind him he's in the passing lane. Kupp went in front and is therefore short of the end zone. No penalty and its 4th and goal from like the 2 and a half yard line.