BarleyNY

No. In what ways are they similar? Taylor was a 3rd round pick out of Akron.

I don’t see anything happening this season to rid us of DL other than bottom of the roster guys. It’s the last season under contract for Hughes, Addison, Phillips, Obada, Butler, Cox and Zimmer. Plus they are likely to part ways with Star too. Some of them might be brought back, but without that happening our 2022 DE rotation looks like it’ll be Epensa, Rousseau and Basham. Our DTs will be Oliver and maybe Star plus whomever else we sign and Rousseau dropping to DT on passing downs. Addison and Hughes are going to be here this year because the rookies aren’t going to be ready and we need their vet presence. Plus we know what we are going to get from them on the field, unlike with rookies. They aren’t going anywhere until next offseason.

I think that with the new rule implemented last season that requires teams to carry 8 OL on game day rosters I expect to see the true blocking TEs of the league disappear. Their replacements will be backup OTs like Spencer Brown who can do double duty.

I can understand why they would, but I would not. He was not good this season - and that’s putting it mildly. I just don’t like the idea rewarding that level of play even if other factors were at play. Nothing wrong with telling him that we want him to be here and that we want to pay him, but that he has to reach a certain level of play to earn that. Milano played out his deal and came back. Edmunds can do the same if he turns it around from last year.

Something I thought of that I Janet seen mentioned: Since Brown is a former TE I think that in addition to being an OT that he gets tried as our blocking TE. With the new rule last year that teams must carry eight active OL it makes sense that teams would use one of them to do double duty and save a gameday roster spot.

Me too. Board looked good for our choice of several.

The current analytics crowd supports your stance. Coverage > Pass Rush. Pass rush is more stable year to year, but coverage is a better predictor of defensive success.

I didn’t think that Deshaun Watson would translate well to the NFL. Oops

Agree. This is a speed arms race and we did nothing. It doesn’t help that I hate the Rousseau pick. And two swing tackles? WTF? I am horribly disappointed.

Helpful for this season, but that would just push some of the hit to next season. Not worth it IMO unless you could trade him

https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/buffalo-bills/mario-addison-8871/ https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/buffalo-bills/jerry-hughes-6540/ I do not think Addison or Hughes are going anywhere this season. Each already got a roster bonus: Addison got $1.5M and Hughes got $1M. Addison also has $2M of his salary guaranteed. They’re both worth keeping for their last season on their remaining salaries.

That will be tough unless they trade him. Even then it’s not great. He’s already gotten a $1.5M roster bonus and has $2M of his $4.1M salary guaranteed. Cap hits of $6.2M to play, $4.8M to cut or $2.8M if traded. There’s also a $2M cap hit next year that would accelerate to this year if cut or traded before 6/1. https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/buffalo-bills/mario-addison-8871/

I am absolutely not saying that they should draft solely for need. That’s ridiculous and would be stupid. I’ve explained my thoughts clearly on the matter and I’m starting to lose respect for you as you continue to try to frame my opinion that way. I’m just going to leave it there for now.

Fair on Samuel. He’s mostly played man so his fit in zone is more of a projection. I don’t see why he couldn’t develop those skills though. IMO his floor here would be a damn fine slot CB here. And it’s not like he'd have to development more than Rousseau. Or that his physical skill set is deficient in a way that would prohibit that development (unlike Rousseau). Quite the contrary on both counts. But I’m getting off track. This season’s 30th pick was not the only place to address CB over the last four seasons. Other than White it’s been overlooked at the expense of the DL (and to a lesser degree the LBs). I can’t imagine why Brown would have been sticking out on their board other than just his physical profile. Him and Rousseau seem like bad analytics picks. High level RAS/SPARQ guys that haven’t shown that they are good football players yet.

Yup. Really feeling that this draft is pretty much over for us. It’s a shallow pool due to so many players taking the extra season of eligibility and I always consider 6th and 7th round picks just priority FAs anyway. Maybe we get a guy that falls to us in the fifth but I think it’ll be pretty picked over by then. And there’s a real possibility that it would be a DT. That’ll act be funny even though we could use a 1T in the pipeline.

See above for my thoughts on CB, etc. I’m not advocating a purely need driven drafting strategy so please don’t frame it as such. My main points are simply: 1) that we’ve invested massively in the DL both in terms of cap space and premium draft picks - with not great ROI thus far - and 2) this has been at the expense of other important components of our team. That includes free agency. It doesn’t help that Basham is the only pick I’ve liked so far this year.

A slew of centers were sitting there for us in the third and center is definitely a big need IMO. It’s certainly a bigger one than a potential RT replacement in 2-3 years. I do not love the pick either. He’s a very raw but athletically gifted prospect, but was he really sticking out on their board? I agree on the CB situation. I just don’t get taking two DEs and no CBs. And not just this year. CB has been too much of an afterthought besides Tre for the last 4 seasons. We have no depth now and we’ve only got Wallace and Johnson under contract for this season. CBs get dinged and with three usually on the field I am ill at ease with our situation there.

I get what you’re saying, but life with a $40M QB has to include help at other positions beyond DL. An OT that’s going to be a swing tackle for at least 2 years here in the 3rd isn’t making me feel better either. I am sure that the plan for the future is to drop Rousseau inside on passing downs with Oliver and have Epenesa and Basham on the outside. But where’s the plan for the secondary? Or the WR corps? Or the interior OL? We need help there THIS year. The attention to the DL just seems excessive. So many resources are being poured into it with only limited success so far. Obviously we won’t know about the more recent additions for another year at least. But wow. The Bills DL really needs to be the strength of the defense in a way it hasn’t in order to justify everything.

Also would have been good

That’s be a great pick. Could also see Ty Gowan or Ifeatu Melinfonwu

Was fine with the Basham pick. Would’ve liked Asante Samuel Jr instead of Rousseau though. Two DEs to start this draft though? Ridiculous to see the draft capital and free agent contracts poured into the DL while other needs to unaddressed.

I like Basham at 61 a hell of a lot more than Rousseau at 30. Obviously another DE or DL was not what I wanted to see, but I like the value. The strategy OTOH........

https://youtu.be/mVp_B3k-RtE Above is a 3 minute clip of his workout. The concern is that he took the year off playing to focus on preparing for the draft and NFL, but did not seem to properly prepared for the drills and workout. He scored below the 50th percentile in all of the drills except for the 40 yard dash according to this article.

Thanks, Pat! It was very low key. Just had one neighbor over. Would love to hang out sometime soon though. I miss you!

Other than Allen I don’t think there’s a first round pick on the whole offense - unless you want to count Diggs since we traded one away for him. Still, he was a 5th rounder originally.