BarleyNY

We’ve now touched on the four times I was most angry with the Bills during the draft. Thanks for rounding that out.

Here goes. I do not see a viable rush DE, X WR or CB2 on this team. (I also think we need better CB depth - especially with Benford’s two concussions.) Those are my top 3. Safety need depends on Bishop. DT has Oliver and Jones as starters, but at least needs depth. Obviously you grab a 1 tech that can get to the QB if you have the chance. They are rare and there is almost no circumstance that you don’t grab such a player if you can. Hopefully Carter can at least be a back up who can spell Oliver and/or line up with him on obvious passing downs. I’m not enthusiastic about him though. Decent DT depth is not difficult to find though.

Not that KC would not have had wrinkles worked out for us, but one week less for them and one more for us would’ve been helpful. In addition to the extra rest KC got - week 18, bye and one more day after the divisional round - the second seed had a more physical matchup against Baltimore. Not that Houston doesn’t have terrors at DE, but overall they are not nearly as physical as Baltimore. And they didn’t go down to the wire in their game. None of that is an excuse for not throwing in our own wrinkles (tush push), but it was just a much easier road for the 1 seed. That all said, go get that advantage. It’s huge. We could have, we just fell short.

at least they didn’t trade WITH us on that one.

Can you imagine playing in a consolation game and having your QB (or other elite, highly paid player) blow out their knee and be ruined for the following season? F that. A consolation game would just be a further penalty and pain for the losers of the conference championship games. I would have zero interest in watching it whether or not the Bills were in it.

- I am disgusted that we did not run a change up on our tush push play. KC had how to stop it - at least some of the time - figured out and we were too scared to run a change up. I can’t believe that we don’t have a change up so I don’t think it was that. But if we didn’t even have one in the bag, then that’s a fireable offense for Brady. - The blitz on our last offensive play is one of the change ups that KC hits us with every playoff game. As high a leverage play as you will ever have and we had no idea that they might have something different ready for us. We even had to two minute warning to talk that all over. Every playoff game. It’s gotten well beyond old. - The problem with Cook is that he is still poor in pass pro and not a great receiver, so I understand why they’d pull him. But I agree that we could have at least started the drive with him and some runs. 3 1/2 minutes +2 timeouts is enough time for that. - I saw Coleman lined up by himself on the right on that third and goal and my immediate thought was “please don’t throw him a jump ball here”. SMH - Dabs had the brass to take chances, let Josh cook and do things McDermott won’t allow. McD is just too conservative. That’s great if the Ravens give you 3 turnovers and drop some passes so you can squeak out a close win, but you won’t beat KC without taking some play calling risks. At least McD has dramatically improved his aggression on 4th downs. That’s a positive. But it needs to extend to play design and calls in games like that one.

- Agreed. Inexcusable for this to happen once, much less twice. - I didn’t care for the Benford blame. I hope this was very bad luck, but the situation looks and smells even worse with those comments. - Agreed. The lack of any awareness that Reid and his staff will have change ups ready for us in the playoffs is inexcusable. They do things like the 4th down blitz and defense against our tush push every playoff game. We didn’t have a change up to our tush push? Or were the coaches too afraid to try something like that? - Yep. Beane’s weighted batting average in the draft is looking worse and worse as time goes on. Every GM misses on high picks, but it can’t be the norm - and some of his have not even looked good when they were made. I truly believe that if the Browns or Jets had taken Allen in the draft then McD and Beane would have had only limited success - and would have been fired years ago.

Correct. The team physician first clears the player for full participation in practice, then the independent neurological consultant must clear the player to return to play in games.

For the life of me I don’t understand the Bills thinking on this. The vast majority of GMs and draft analysts had Coleman as a Big Slot WR. The team certainly needed (needs) speed on the outside. Maybe they didn’t like Worthy because of his slight frame - and that is defensible- but I do not see what Coleman really brings to this WR corps, except some size and decent ability after the catch. He’s not fast or agile so he can’t separate at all. And he is not even particularly good at contested catches. I still don’t get it.

I literally thought this was going to be a thread about the chokehold a Chief had on Allen on one of the sneaks.

That is odd. I wonder if he was driven to KC on his personal day.

Optimally, yes. But those players are very difficult to find. Oliver had his best run with pre-injury Von Miller next to him. That’s how you make it work with him.

Yes, if Rousseau agrees to it. That would kick some of his 2025 cap hit to 2026. The Browns added 4 void years to Jedrick Wills contract to do that this season. The only real difference to the player is that any games they are suspended will have less salary attached to them, which is obviously a good thing. The only negative is that giving their team cap relief hurts their negotiating position for an extension. There is usually no impact on when players get paid since teams usually structure the payments exactly the same as the salary would have been paid out. That’s negotiable, obviously.

The cap is very real. NFL player contracts are not though - except for signing bonuses and fully guaranteed dollars. The Eagles have led the way in aggressively manipulating cap dollars by continually converting salary to signing bonuses and utilizing void years. This allows them to outspend more traditional teams by about 15%. That’s a huge advantage for teams with owners who are willing to spend.

That’s Oliver’s role. He needs a quality rush DE next to him to really be effective tho. That’s need 1A for me. WR1 is 1B.

I agree that the Bills need a true WR1. Just not a problem child like Pickens. My point about Diggs is the Bills inability to manage him. Pickens would be 10x worse - especially considering he’s eligible for a new contract now. If you trade for him, then you either give him that huge, new contract this offseason or you risk losing him in a year.

Over the years the Steelers have been incredibly good at keeping crazy, productive wide receivers under control while in Pittsburgh. Then those players go elsewhere and implode. Pickens has been among the worst of them (probably the worst outside of AB) in the crazy regard. The Bills couldn’t keep Diggs in line and struggled to keep his distractions under wraps. No freaking way. Pickens would be a disaster in Buffalo.

@GunnerBill touched on that. Success later in the draft is more a testament to the quality of work the local scouts are doing rather than the GM. Not that Beane doesn’t deserve credit for building and maintaining that group of scouts. He does. He’s just not the one grinding tons of tape to find those gems.

We desperately need both.

I can’t argue with any of that. I did waffle between choices 2 and 3 so that’s more specifically where I am on Beane. I gave him the benefit of doubt because since Allen’s draft he’s been hamstrung in the first by picking so late. The luster is definitely gone. It’s not just WR. Rush DE, CB, DT (1 tech) and S are all big needs. We need to find difference makers at rush DE and WR too. That is not easy.

He’ll cost more than pick 30 if he gets traded - at least our 2026 1st. Next season is his age 28 season and his current contract is through 2026 so we’d also have to extend him.

Cut with a post 6/1 designation: 2025 Dead Cap: $6,374,000 2026 Dead Cap: $9,043,000 2025 Savings: $17,440,000 *The Bills will carry his full cap charge until 6/1. https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/player/_/id/7717/von-miller

I said it when we signed him, he is on a 3 year deal disguised as a 6 year deal. That had some flexibility to become a 4 year deal, but at his age it was highly unlikely. Getting out of the deal before year 3 was nearly impossible due to cap hit and structure. He’ll be cut on the first day of the league year with a post 6/1 designation. I’ll post the cap consequences below.

Totally agree. And let’s remember how much money is it stake here with the new stadium, PSL sales, etc. Josh Allen is making a lot of people a lot of money, most notably Pegula. Why rock that boat before he is forced to?