BarleyNY

Miami’s DBs are middle of the pack or slightly above that IMO. Again, Howard is a stud, top 5 CB, but you’ve got little else of significance. The fact that you didn’t even mention the Rams and Packers shows how little you know. They were easily at the top of secondary play last season. Quite frankly, the Bills were better too due to similar play at CB and better players at safety.

Oh sorry. Saw the previous post about a Phins fan in the thread. Assumed it was you since you were sticking up for the guy. I should’ve read back further. Still, my point stands: Looking at Miami’s secondary they don’t exactly have much back there. If this guy is any good, why cut him?

Well, your Phins aren’t exactly stacked at DB. You’ve got Howard at CB1 and you drafted Holland for a S spot but I don’t see much else back there. Seems like you wouldn’t want to part with anyone decent so why’d you cut him loose?

This is true. All I got on the guy is that I don’t remember noticing him when I watched Miami play, his pff scores (meh) and what I’ve read in this thread. Based on that - and the Bills need as you point out - he’d be worth a look as a backup.

He wasn’t even a corner for them the last couple seasons.

Well, he’s not good, but he’d be cheap

Naw. All Rodgers has to do is hold out and then report to the Pack with six games left in the season so he gets his accrued year. He won’t get paid his salary for the other 11 games but that’ll clear him of any real chance of having to repay his signing bonus - which is very difficult for teams to reclaim anyway. Or he could go the hurt, not hurt route. Lotta ways around paying back the SB.

I’ll probably watch the rookies play a few snaps before deciding

That’s probably why I mentioned that

Nope. Dane Jackson has played a whopping 231 NFL snaps in 5 games - including 193 on defense. He’s very far from proven. Only 2021 first round rookie Newsome and 2020 second rounder Delpit fall below that, neither having taken a snap. With the veterans the Browns have at CB and S neither of them even has to start anyway.

Dunno, maybe select a CB, speed WR, 1 Tech or even a TE that could contribute this season - even if it meant maneuvering in the draft a bit (nothing extravagant). Or they could’ve selected some other needed depth position like center so we have someone in the pipeline that can take over for Morse this season if/when Morse has another concussion or (more hopefully) next season. Instead we probably will be shuffling the line and/or looking for a center next offseason. We don’t have much in the way of CBs on contract after this season either. We could use more help there this season and in the immediate future. I expected more from the draft than a couple DEs who will be developing for next season and two longer term projects at OT. That’s what I feel like we got.

We can agree to disagree on the DBs, - and there’s no doubt the Browns had a lot to do to make up ground - but exactly how did the Bills improve their OL? The interior is the same and on the outside they swapped out swing tackle Nseke for 3rd and 5th round rookies. At best that’s a wash. As for DL I don’t see how you can discount FAs and draft picks for the Browns, but count on the Bills draft picks being significant contributors. That’s not a fair way to look at it.

DBs should go to the Browns. White is the best on either team and Wallace is solid, but it really drops off at CB after that. Taron is serviceable and Jackson is a still very unproven late round pick - though he did show some promise. Poyer and Hyde are very good safeties but all that we have behind them is Neal. The Browns are looking like they could be stacked there. Ward and Harrison are very good DBs, first round pick Greg Newsome II is an excellent (if unproven) CB prospect, they picked up two FAs in Hill and Johnson III from the Rams (which had the best secondary in the NFL last season) and they’ll be getting back injured players Delpit and Williams.

I think the BPA angle gets simplified and thrown around too much without context. There are many different ways to define BPA wrt drafting. Ability, upside, floor, positional value, scarcity, risk, FA replacement cost, need, scheme fit, etc., etc. There is almost never a clear cut winner across the criteria. I’m sure that at 30 Beane could’ve justified a number of players as the “best available”. Or a trade up or down the board for that matter. The Bills strategy seems pretty clear. DEs have drawn the largest free agent contracts recently. Premium position and expensive to get one as a FA so they have loaded up on them in the last two drafts in order to shore up that position and save cap space next season and beyond. Ditto OT with 3rd & 5th round picks. The Rousseau pick wasn’t just a matter of “we’re picking 30th and he’s the BPA there, so nothing to do but take him”. It was definitely more strategy driven. Like a lot of people here I’d have rather had them focus at least somewhat on short term improvement and spread their capital around to other important areas of the team. I get the plan, but I’m just disappointed by it because I don’t see how it get the Bills over the hump to a championship.

They got nailed by COVID contract tracing right before that game. They literally had zero WRs and lost by 7 points.

Nice post. I definitely see Sanders and Beasley in the field together too. I didn’t mean to imply that ALL he would do is back up Cole, but I do think that Beasley getting injured and not having anyone to do his job played into it.

I appreciate the enthusiasm, but come on. This has gotten ridiculous. What are you basing the JJ Watt comparison on?

Okay. So then it makes sense to compare him to Mario Williams? And to support that outlandish statement with nothing? Sorry. That is freaking ridiculous.

It’s going to be a very different Browns defense this season too.

JFC. You can’t be serious

With Rousseau I don’t see the flexibility to bend the edge or the change of direction that’ll allow him to get to a QB in the pocket. He tested poorly with regards to COD and even his highlight roll doesn’t show either. He should be fine at DE for contain, but if he’s going after the QB from there it’ll be by looping inside like Clowney does. Might as well just start him there on obvious passing downs and not have to worry about him leaving a void on the edge.

I’m going to wait and see on Sanders. He’s 34 and only started 5 games for NO last season. I think he’ll be a guy we can go to for first downs but not one who is going to stretch the field. It’ll probably be one of the younger WRs you mentioned lining up outside opposite Diggs.

I’m not saying we don’t need a better pass rush, we do. But Sanders at this stage in his career is a redundant piece to Cole. He’s not going to be a deep threat. A quality WR draft pick, especially a speedy outside one, would start. The problem with Moore is that he’s probably a slot only WR and we need an X. And those were available well into the 3rd round. But it does bring up an interesting question: Do the Bills really need someone to take the top off of the defense? Conventional wisdom says, yes, that it always helps the short and intermediate passing games as well as the run game. The Bills didn’t have a very good run game last season, but they did very well in the short and intermediate passing games. So maybe they’re focused solely on receivers who can separate (ie our current top 4 WRs) and aren’t that concerned with taking the top off the defense. Something to think about.

I don’t think most people are expecting much from late round picks and UDFAs, well, really ever, but especially in their rookie seasons. It happens, but not often and not predictably. Nor do we expect much of a contribution (hopefully) from a backup tackle. Literally a player who, if he does see the field for an extended period of time, it’s because Dawkins or Williams got injured. There certainly can be contributions from Rousseau and Basham, especially by later in the season. But they’ll be starting as backup/rotational players and going from there. They are looked at much more as long term (next season and beyond) contributors. Free agency really didn’t help the team beyond maintaining continuity, which is often the right move, but doesn’t really move the needle forward. Sanders and Brieda are good depth but I’d rather have had a player like Brown to stretch the defense. We missed him when he went out last season. We get Star back so at least Oliver gets to play more 3T, but who knows what we’re going to get from him after a year off? And it’s not like he was doing all that well before then. I was hoping for a few pieces that could help the Bills get over the top this season, especially with keeping up with KC’s speed. It’s unlikely that we got that unless our new DEs create enough pressure quickly enough to be that difference. That’s a tough sell for me.

Probably because he’s a Stanford grad. He’s probably too snooty for us in Buffalo.