BarleyNY

I did not know that. So there is some value there. I just couldn’t see paying for their opinions.

I think so lowly of ESPN that I’ve never looked at what it cost. Literally any amount of money is too much for their “Insider” content IMO. However I’m happy to support sites I deem of value. ESPN just isn’t one of them.

https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/buffalo-bills/yearly/cap/ This is another way to look at the roster. Scroll down to each position group and you can see where the needs are. I’m only including players on the roster that matter in some fashion. No Christian Wades. My synopsis and opinions: QB: Allen is the only one under contract so we will need a decent backup. RB: Singletary and Moss. An upgrade at RB1 would be preferable. A complete back who can run, catch and pass pro is worth spending on. FB: Gilliam. Fine. Whatever. WR: Diggs, Davis, Beasley, Stevenson. Hopefully we can find some help here. Beasley is firmly on the chopping block if we find two good options. He’s due $500k by 3/20 so we should know by then. The plus is that Allen is a great selling point. Diggs is touted as an option for creating space, but there’s an issue. He’s underpaid by going market rates. I don’t know that he will be on board with a restructure that doesn’t include a bump. He might come looking for that bump anyway. Also it wouldn’t hurt to bring back McKenzie for depth. TE: Knox and Sweeney. Please, please, please find a good TE to go with Knox. Please. I’d prefer someone to push Knox down to TE2, but I’d live with someone who could push him and come in when he has the dropsies. A FA and a draft pick to knock Sweeney off the roster is my preference. OL: Dawkins, Feliciano, Morse, Williams, Brown, Doyle, Ford. Bates is a RFA. Restructure Dawkins to push cap space down the road. Morse is probably a cap casualty, tho he could take a cut to stay. His replacement should be added this off-season regardless. Feliciano and Williams are possible cuts, though I don’t think we would gut the whole IOL in one off-season. There has to be at least one IOL player added who can help in the run game. Brown is obviously safe. I’d love a swing tackle added. Oh and please get rid of Ford. He has no guaranteed salary left. Defense on next post.

Every time I see an ESPN insider article linked I have the same thought: Someone paid for ESPN insider? I mean, show me someone who pays for ESPN insider and I’ll show you someone who puts ranch on their wings. 🤭

It’s just not worth talking about specific free agents until March. So many will be re-signed, especially the top ones. Nothing has shaken out yet. Now is the time to look at our roster and determine where our holes are, which FAs we should re-sign and which players aren’t living up to their contracts. The other places to look are on rosters with new coaches. There might be some opportunities there for trades and with high turnover due to rebuilds.

Lol. Even at the tail end of his career Gonk would be TE1 if Knox was his competition. And it’s really not that close.

Knowledge of your opponent can’t hurt, right? Especially when there isn’t a lot of change or growth. I’ll give Reid a lot of credit. When he was with the Iggles the joke was that he bought his tickets to Hawaii cheap because he got them early. For the youngsters here, that was because he seemed to always coach the NFC team in the Pro Bowl which used to be held every year in Hawaii. It was an honor that was given to the head coach of the losing teams in the AFC and NFC championship games. And he was there a lot. He was a very good coach, but he has grown into a great one. Sure, he’s got Mahomes instead of McNabb, but he’s so much better now. He'd get his team far, but you just knew that he blow it at some point. He’s grown from one who was at McDermott’s level (and that’s certainly better than most) into what we have seen in KC. We just have to hope that McDermott elevates his game - or finds coordinators that do. Incidentally I think Daboll did a fantastic job, but is gone to the Giants this year. Hopefully Dorsey is up to the challenge.

This is very weak sauce IMO. Firstly, it’s not like KC wasn’t missing some key pieces of their team Sunday night. In fact, they were missing more than the Bills were. Secondly, some people myself included, discussed how egregiously thin our CBs and secondary corps were during the off-season. IOL too. Meanwhile tremendous cap and draft capital was poured into the DL, but we have only seen average to good results out of that so far. It’s been a poor value for what’s been spent. While we weren’t going to find anyone who could fill Tre’s shoes, we could’ve gotten both another decent CB and S who could spell our starters without being total liabilities. That might’ve been nice to have against KC. McDermott went all in on the DL so they would have a very deep rotation and they could stay fresh. But the secondary was paper thin going into the season and that definitely cost us Sunday.

Andy Reid has his team fully prepared for situations like we saw Sunday night. We’ve seen that before. McDermott did not. And we’ve seen that before too. That was the difference between the Chiefs or Bills getting to the SB. And it was the difference last season too even though the Bills were not directly involved. The pivotal moment came in the Chiefs-Browns game, but KC moved on to the AFCC game against the Bills because they were fully prepared. Ultimately it’s up to the Pegulas to make sure that McDermott & Co address preparing for such situations moving forward.

Phenomenal

I think that while KC has better top end DL talent, they are very shallow there. The Bills have much, much better depth. Also Frank Clark is a great talent, but he didn’t have a great year.

When both are healthy* I’d say the Bills and Chefs are pretty much a push in talent in every category - except TE.

I’ve been an advocate of adding a good TE to pair with Knox. Add a better RB and some IOL help and we would have a lot more scheme flexibility on offense.

Hear me out - penalty kicks.

He’s here next season due to the Bills having picked up his fully guaranteed, $12.7M fifth year option. Not much to be done about that at this point. What we shouldn’t do is compound that mistake by extending him further. Drafting a mid round LB with good instincts this off-season would be smart. Then at least we would have that player in place and he’d have some knowledge of our scheme. We could still look for a bigger upgrade in 2023.

Daboll has done Allen immeasurable good. He’s helped him grow from one of the rawest rookie QBs I’ve ever seen to what he is now. And Daboll tailored an offense that emphasized Allen’s strengths and minimized his weaknesses. He did an incredible job with Allen.

I think McDermott is a good head coach too. The best answer might be to find a DC who can improve the defense. That would mean McDermott would have to cede control over it. It’s pretty much the same construct and scheme as he ran in Carolina. That’s what has to change. I don’t know what Frazier could bring to the table if he had more control, but based on his track record I don’t think he’s the answer. I would move on from him and find someone who would actually run their own defense. So I guess I’m on the same page with Frazier, but I don’t want to see him swapped out for another guy who is just there to run McDermott’s defense. McDermott also has to give up running the defense.

For what it’s worth, the refs were allowing holding by both OLs. Typical “it’s a playoff so swallow your whistles” game. Oliver did very well under the circumstances.

How do you gut Frazier for this, but not McDermott? It’s his defense in scheme and personnel. I’m not saying Frazier shouldn’t be accountable. He should and so should McDermott. It is both or neither.

I have been thinking about Elway. He came close early, but couldn’t win a SB until a little later in his career. Then he got a second one. Allen is going to be a very good QB in Buffalo for a very long time. Today’s outcome was (very) disappointing, but our window will be open for a long time.

That is not correct. Fifth year options are fully guaranteed at the time of execution now. That was a rule change that was already in effect when they picked up his option. So he’s on the books for $12.7M next season. The only other possibility is to trade him, but I don’t see that as realistic. We’d definitely have to eat some of his salary to get a trade done.

That was an insane performance by Davis. He just made himself a lot of money. It’s just unfortunate that it didn’t hold up. Still, hats off to him and Allen among others.

Broncos too

Poor attempt at a dodge there. They didn’t have a problem with taxation WITH representation. JFC. Don’t let reality get in the way of your agenda.

That would be ridiculous. Aaron Rodgers, AJ Brown and Derrick Henry