Rocky Landing

Come to think of it, I suppose one of the “competitions to watch” going into TC (at least from a fan perspective) might end up being Mack Hollins vs Tyrell Shavers?

Is there not a fair amount of context missing from that stat comparison? Josh Allen is far more accurate, with far better ball placement than anyone who ever threw a pass to Samuel. Not all contested passes are created equal. And, of course, Samuel gets much more separation than Davis.

I always liked Siran Neal. Solid depth piece who, while not spectacular at any one defensive position, had an enormous amount of versatility, and played with a fierceness. And he was an ace gunner. good for him getting a gig in Miami. I suspect the Fish aren’t going to do very well this coming season, and their games are likely to mean less and less as the season progresses. But the weather’s nice. This could be the NFL equivalent to becoming a Walmart greeter after retirement.

I think the notion of Hollins as Siran Neal’s’ replacement increases the likelihood of that (as well as Hollins’ chances at the 53).

Bet you feel a lot better now tho, eh?

This move makes me feel a lot more comfortable with the inevitability of Beane/McDermott drafting a defensive player in the first (and let’s face it… probably the second) round.

Hm. Starting to like the guy. I hope he can ball.

This is a frustrating part of the offseason when a certain number of fans will, once again, opine that depth players are a waste of money, and special teams don't matter. Every season proves both perspectives wrong, but here we go anyway. After watching some footage of Hollins playing (what little I could find), and looking at his stats, I think he could be a good hire for the money. He's tall and strong, and plays the ST position of gunner well (which is a need, now that Siran has retired to the Dolphins...). Offensively, it looks like his strengths are exceptional run blocking, a decent catch radius, reliable hands, and decent contested-catch ability. His negatives are that he looks slow, doesn't get separation, and has surprisingly little YAC. He could be a good situational player in the run game, and also as a red-zone target. Even if he doesn't get many targets, opposing teams will absolutely have to account for a 6'4" target with reliable hands in the end zone. If he manages to actually earn the max $3M on his contract, we should all be pretty happy with the result.

The Jags just signed Davis to a three-year, $39M contract. If the Bills had decided to retain him, and pay him anywhere near that, I can well imagine this board would hit the ceiling. But nobody should mistake Hollins for Davis's replacement. He's likely a situational WR, and STer. If he makes the 53, and actually gets his max payment of $3M, it means he worked out.

You’re saying we’re worse off at WR because we lost Gabe Davis, Sherfield, and Harty? I must respectfully disagree.

Your philosophy on building a team seems to be that a team should spend a lot of money on a handful of "impact players," and let the rest of the team be minimum-salary *****. So, you can count me as one of those that "doesn't get it." In my opinion, depth matters.

Reminds me of Kumerow. Tall, strong, and should play ST. Fairly reliable hands, Not a lot of separation, or YAC, though.

This makes me sad.

This is all mostly true, although I think you can only really point to the disastrous, ‘22 Matt Patricia experiment for bad coaching. There are actually fans in NE* who believe Jones bears some responsibility for Belichick*’s downfall. Be that as it may, I think Belichick* made his feelings pretty clear when he dropped Mac & Cheese off the active roster for the last game of the season.

I disagree entirely. With going behind Belichick*’s back to the owners, all the dirty hits, the sideline tantrums, and his utter lack of support when Zappe was getting his reps— literally pouting and crying on the sideline, I’d say he did them wrong.

Love what Beane has done so far this offseason— but this move I think is a mistake. it’s not just that he’s a good center, and team leader. I also hate to lose the continuity.

Interesting and fun!

But what a horrible backup he’ll be! Mitch Trubisky will come back to Buffalo, and be a solid backup, because he will support Josh, work with the team during practice to prepare for opponents, and do all the things required of a backup. Mac & Cheese, as has been his history, will be focused on himself, and how to advance his own agenda. When he was on the sideline in NE*, he was either pouting, or trying to get in the coaches ear. Backups can’t be as selfish as Jones has proven to be.

I hear Pittsburgh has comfortable benches.

A Mel Kiper mock draft is one of the very few things I would be interested in reading from ESPN. I would assume they consider it some of their more valuable NFL-related content, so it's certainly not a surprise they would keep it behind their paywall. I understand why you would like it to be free (which illustrates why it isn't), but why exactly should it be free?

In my (I assume) unpopular opinion: We have a decent roster that is deep with really good players, but other than Josh Allen, we do not have a single elite player on the team. Not one. Diggs has been elite, but he certainly wasn't this last season. Von Miller? Formerly elite. Even if he bounces back, only a fool would think that his best days aren't far behind him. Similarly, Tre White used to be elite. But it's hard to imagine him returning to anywhere near his top form after the last injury. Could Kincaid develop into an elite TE? He could. But he sure ain't there yet. James Cook is a damned good RB-- not elite. There's a bunch of players that we thought had the potential to be elite when we acquired them, and most of them have turned out to be pretty good. But we need one, or two real playmakers, other than our quarterback.

Yes, I've been thinking that the quarterback is the problem on this team...

Welp... he was a better OC than Krazy Ken, but not by much. I was at the Chargers game in LA, and after about the fifth time I heard, "number 76 declaring as eligible..." my 13yo son, and I would look at each other in exasperation. I feel like Brady ran that RB-up-the-middle play a dozen times or more, and it might have averaged about 1.5 ypc. They used it a fair amount in the last KC game also, although I think it actually worked in that game. I do believe that Brady got better as the season progressed, but I still think the Bills are lacking a true offensive mind on their staff. Tired of having an OC that's learning on the job.

You mean, "couldn't win the close games."

Every season, there are 31 teams that are failures.