Rocky Landing

He would need to have a soul.

This is very similar to the narrative on Gabe Davis at the beginning of last season. I guess you can be optimistic in watching his playoff games. But it was really only the Divisional, and AFCCG that he excelled. Beyond a nice TD, his numbers were paltry in the Super Bowl. Be that as it may, MVS played in 20 games last season. Not three. I really don't want to sound like such a downer on this guy. If he ends up on the 53-- which is likely, I suppose-- I'll be optimistic as hell. But, I don't see him all that high on the depth chart. And I really don't see him as a "difference maker" for the Bills. He wasn't a difference maker for the Chiefs. He was fourth in receiving yards for them-- just ahead of TE Noah Grey.

Bill has bigger t!ts.

I have a hard time accepting this narrative that MVS becomes a better player during the playoffs, so don't worry about his crappy numbers in the regular season. I have yet to read an acceptable justification for the fact that MVS has the worst completion percentage, and the worst drop rate of every WR on this team.

Just how much success does a 50% completion percentage, and a 7% drop rate bring? Based on what?

Simply untrue.

I think it's safe to say (early though it may be), that at this point in the process, Hollins is well above Hamler. I would go as far to say that the Bills' brass probably place Hollins fourth on their white board for WRs who will be on the 53. Hamler most likely resides on a level that has a number of names placed in a row. At the end of the day, it won't necessarily be the best six WRs who make the roster. Joe Brady has a playbook, and he needs guys who fill out that playbook. If there are three WRs who basically fill the same role, they're not all making the team. Hollins certainly has a leg up for his leadership, and ST acumen. But it currently seems like there's quite a bit of redundancy in the top six guys in the WR room. That includes MVS, and Claypool in terms of the playbook. IMO, that's what gives guys like Hamler, and Isabella, and perhaps even Thompson, or Shavers a shot. (Shorter... not so much...)

Do the Bills have an in-house psychotherapist?

Man, this thread concept hasn't aged well over the last couple days...

Last year, there were a lot more returning WRs, including the two starters. This year, we have Shakir. Regarding Shavers, when we took him as a UDFA last season, the biggest buzz on him was his special teams ability. There has been a lot of turnover on ST this year, most notable Neal, and Matekevich. But with the lack of depth on this team, I think it's likely the Bills are moving away from the ST-only roster spots. If Shavers can be an effective gunner, that's great. But, they'll likely want him to have value on offense, as well. He has an uphill battle, to be sure, but it's not unreasonable for him to be in drills with Josh Allen at a mini-camp.

My thoughts on minicamp: There’s been a lot of hand-wringing over who’s getting a lot of reps (especially from Allen). It’s weird to me that guys who are further down the depth chart getting passes from Allen, during a mini-camp, would be a concern to anybody, but here we are. I think there’s a few things at play here, that aren’t being discussed: With the departure of Siran Neal, and Matekevich, it’s possible the Bills are moving away from ST-only players. Players like Shavers, Isabella, Shorter, and Mack Hollins (and everyone down the depth chart) are going to be looked at for their ST roles, but they’re also going to be evaluated for offensive abilities. This WR room isn’t going to be made up entirely of 6’4” guys who aren’t particularly fast. That would be redundant. Isabella, and Hamler both have top-end speed, exceptional cutting ability, K/PR potential, and have traits that would be unique to the room. They need a gadget guy. IMO, one of these guys is going to make the roster. With so many new, and unproven faces on the roster, as well as Joe Brady installing a new offense that will be tailored to Josh Allen with Allen's input, it is every bit as important for Allen to get an evaluation of every available receiver, as it is for Brady. In my opinion, Allen should be throwing to every receiver on the current roster, if they’re going to have any chance to show up in training camp. Hell, I think Allen should throw a couple passes at Travis Clayton-- see if he can't be the sixth lineman in a Jumbo Package. If not now, then when? And in disagreement with @HappyDays, I will say there is no such thing as “practice squad fodder." Every player with a number should be ready to be called up.

These are the sorts of things that Fred Jackson heard his entire career. The Bills would bring someone in, everyone would crow about how they'd be the feature back, and FredX would end up with more snaps.

At the very least, I feel fairly confident that this year's JAGs are going to be better than last year's JAGs. And if we're real lucky, the sum total of this receiving corp may end up being better than the sum total of last year's receiving corp.

Hollins, Claypool, or MVS aren't exactly unknown commodities.

Considering how much Beane and Allen have spoken up about Mack Hollin’s leadership, it certainly wouldn’t surprise me if he got the “C,” assuming he makes the roster.

He has the lowest completion percentage, and the worst drop rate of any receiver on the team who has taken a regular season snap, RBs, and TEs included. And that was with the second best QB in the league.

He played 100% of the Chargers' offensive snaps from game four to his injury in game 14, last season. It was reported that his injury wasn't a long-term concern, but they IRed him, and let him walk at the end of the season. Their O-line far underperformed to expectations last season. It'd surprise me if they were willing to give anything up to bring back a player they dropped.

The NFL is littered with dead cats.

Can the Bills trade MVS, and avoid the dead cap hit?

I suspect that when the 53-man roster is finally built, that there is going to be a broad range of types of receivers. A lot of hay has been made about these big-bodied receivers that are all competing for spots, and for good reason. But, opposing defenses are going to have to defend the whole field. That's what I think they're really going for this season. I think you're wrong about Coleman. That designation of "eventually being an average starter" may even be true, but it's a vague, and useless talking point. And it doesn't negate his strengths, or what his usefulness might be in a Josh Allen led offense. He has exceptional ball tracking, and his 40-time notwithstanding, he had the fastest gauntlet speed in the combine. However he pans out as a WR, he will stretch the field. (So will MVS/Claypool/Shorter/Shavers-- whomever gets a roster spot, their deficiencies notwithstanding...) I actually think Allen's biggest strength in passing are the intermediate throws from 10 to 20 yards beyond the LOS, or 30-35 air yards. He consistently delivers those on a rope. That's ideal for the big guys we're going to have receiving the ball, as well. But, I'm expecting a much broader spread than that. Receiving ability is a requisite on this team. On any given play, there will be five legit receiving options on the field-- even in Jumbo packages. I also don't put much stock in Allen's (or Cook's) lower numbers after Brady took over. a) It's not a large enough sample size to be close to definitive. (And 96.6 to 85.5 really doesn't constitute a "plummet.") b) Those numbers are far less important than the win percentages. Dorsey= 0.500, Brady= 0.857. I know this all sounds overly optimistic, and I fully admit to being that type of fan. I'm a homer, to be sure. But, I try to be realistic, as well. Not having an elite receiver like Diggs on the field is going to matter. Even as his production fell off at the end of the season, he was still drawing coverage. DCs were still game-planning him. Where my optimism comes from for 2024 is the notion that even with the loss of an elite WR in Diggs, the sum total of all the parts in the WR room could very well exceed that of 2023. That's not an expectation, but I think it's a reasonable hope. GO BILLS!

No more depressing than living in Northern New Jersey in the first place...

I'm interested in a couple battles: WR depth: I've seen several posters on this site predict that the WR room will look something like: Coleman, Shakir, Samuel, MVS, Claypool, Hollins. I just don't see it happening like that. At the end of the day, they're not just going to take the best five, or six WRs. This will be the first time Joe Brady gets his offense installed, and the WRs who make it will be the ones who fill certain roles in that offense (plus special teams). In the above list, I would assume Coleman, and Shakir to be locks, and Samuel to be pretty close to a lock. After that it's a battle, and I very much doubt there will be so much redundancy on the roster. If they don't like one of the smaller, speedier guys, like KJ Hamler (my dark horse), or Isabella, they may only carry five. JMO. But looking at how they've been building the roster so far this offseason, it's evident they want size on this unit. So, look at MVS, Hollins, Claypool, Shorter, and Shavers, and pick two. O-Line: Losing Mitch Morse is still a head-shaker for me. He wasn't really costing us that much. That being said, I do not think the plan of McGovern at center, and Edwards at LG is written in stone. We know that Kromer is going to spend much of training camp looking at different configurations. Van Pran Granger could certainly compete for the center job, and I've been saying for weeks now not to sleep on Will Clapp. I think he's better than people suspect. Beyond that... I know that Brady was working with a system that Dorsey had installed at the end of the season, and this will be his system in '24. BUT... it seemed as though he loved those jumbo packages with a sixth lineman-- he certainly ran them enough! Edwards played that sixth lineman, and reported as an eligible receiver when he did. Of course, he never had the ball thrown his way. If Edwards does end up at LG, who would be that sixth guy? Could it be..... Travis Clayton? OK, I'm just dreamin' here... but come on! 6'7", 300+lb, super athletic, knows how to catch, and run with a ball, ran a 4.79 40... how much fun could that be???

I would put the Browns over the Jets. The Browns' fanbase has been dedicated throughout all of their crap, and are as loyal a fanbase as you will find. But then their team went and paid hundreds of million$ to a rapist, and a significant number of them have decided to basically hibernate until the Watson era eventually ends-- which could take quite some time... Watson's debut on the field in Cleveland, during a preseason game, was to loud chants of, "...YOU SICK *****... YOU SICK *****..." Pretty embarrassing. New Jersey Jets fans, on the other hand, by and large, don't really give a *****.

Part of Nick Wright's MO is that he'll say things like this-- predictive, plausible, but definitely a hot take-- and then if it comes to fruition, he'll crow about how brilliant he is. Of course, when such statements don't pan out, he'll ignore that he ever said it. His schtick is rife with such nonsense.

Near as I can tell, this thread seems to be about wishing a rookie sound financial advice?