BarleyNY

Ah, the Tom Brady argument against trading away any pick. Every pick is precious! Every pick is going to be an All Pro! That’s as lazy and poor of an argument as anyone can make. I’m playing the odds here, which is way more realistic than cherry-picking the exceptions. Crunch the numbers and take a look at the real odds of finding a stud WR at 22 or in the 2nd round or the 5th, much less one that can contribute at that level immediately. You won’t find many players like Diggs and Thomas. Oh and the Bills don’t have Brees at QB either. I thought Michael Thomas would be a very good NFL WR, but not nearly what he has been. Of course he’s a perfect fit for Brees and wouldn’t be as good almost any other QBs. Look at the real odds and get back to me.

This is the kind of move I wanted them to make too. On the picks though, that package doesn’t even get you to 20. Maybe if the team trading back is really motivated and knows they can slide for the same player they were taking at 20 anyway, but that would be very rare. I’ve harped on this in my “trade up for Lamb” posts, but I’ll say it again. We need difference makers on offense and #1 WR is our biggest skill position hole. This move accomplished what pick 22 wasn’t going to: acquiring a difference making #1 WR who is ready to be that kind of player out of the gate. Finding an elite player at 22 is rare. Finding an elite WR at 22 in any given draft is pretty much impossible. And expecting that player to be elite from day 1 is the stuff of Disney films. Beane really did an excellent job here. I still graded it a B because I think we got close to exactly what we needed and paid a fair price for it. My nitpicks are that I’d have preferred a bigger WR with no locker room concerns. I reserve my A grades for near perfect fits and/or bargains. Still, this is damn close to that. I’ll take this every day.

I am surprised we got Jefferson for that too. He is a guy I wanted in FA. He can play DE and drop down to DT on passing downs to get pressure from the inside. Notably he led Seattle in interior pressure rate the last two seasons. He is an upgrade from Phillips in that regard IMO, though his overall job will be a bit different.

Really? Dude is a stud. $13.25M AAV for 4 seasons? Sign me up. I’d have done it in a heartbeat. DTs who excel as interior pass rushers and run stoppers are so rare. Him and Oliver would’ve been a great interior tandem.

He had 4 catches on 10 targets for 49 yards. And yeah, he failed to catch a TD pass that would’ve won us the game. Yes, he flashed at times, but was not good at others. A player can’t be inconsistent in the NFL.

It is not remotely the same. Whaley was sitting pretty in that draft to get a blue chip WR prospect. He gave up the 9th overall pick and the following year’s first and fourth round picks for Watkins. There are a ton of differences there. Some differences are that Whaley: - gave up a lot more draft capital than Beane did for Diggs - gave up a future 1st when the QB position was a need - acquired a blue chip WR prospect rather than a proven top 10 (or top 15 at worst) NFL WR Admittedly Diggs is being paid more than Watkins was, but that certainly seems minor in comparison. Especially when you consider that any rookie WR the Bills could reasonably acquire this season would not be able to hit the ground running like Diggs will be. They’re are never likely to be as good as him, but they will take time to develop regardless. That’s hugely important this season. Every game will matter if we want the division title. Also there’s the matter of determining if Allen is our guy moving forward or not. There won’t be questions about whether it’s the supporting cast that’s the problem. He’ll step up and we are off. Or he won’t and we will be an attractive team if a FA QB should happen to come available or we will have all of our picks (except our fourth) to package to find one.

Honestly, the Diggs to Buffalo trade feels an awful lot like the OBJ to Cleveland trade. Two similarly talented WRs who made waves with their teams because of football reasons. Easy for casual fans to see what they want to see without diving deeper. Similar trades too. The takeaway on both is that if the offense runs well, then no worries. But if there are similar problems in the future, then expect more of the same. That happened to a degree with OBJ last season. I am not criticizing Beane for this trade. Quite the opposite. Well done. The Bills needed a bona fide #1 WR and he got us one in a very reasonable trade. And let’s face it, if Allen takes a step forward then Diggs won’t have any reason to gripe. If Allen doesn’t, then Diggs unhappiness won’t really matter as much because it won’t be derailing anything.

A terrible trade? Oh yeah. It should be mentioned on worst ever trade lists. But the funniest thing is that it’s not even his personal worst with the Texans. BOB’s handling of Clowney was to franchise him, then trade him to Seattle for a late third round pick plus two backup LBs while picking up half of his salary. It’s going to be tough to top that.

WOW! ?

That’s crazy. I’m glad the Bills didn’t get into the middle of that nonsense.

Hope so. That would be a beautiful luxury.

The clock is ticking on Hughes. He gutted out last season with a significant injury and he should be commended for that - as well as everything he’s done here. I don’t expect the Bills to part ways with him before this season, but I don’t think he’ll see the last year of his deal either. The DE position is getting revamped big time this year and next.

Truth. He’s got the goods, but I’d like to be more comfortable with his attitude. The ONLY thing that scares me about him is that I don’t want off the field problems that seemed to be brewing in Minny.

Yikes. I would not be down for that.

Crap. Yes, Mitchell Schwartz on the Chiefs. I’m a big McGlinchey fan though.

That’s actually a good point. Mike McGlinchey in SF and probably Schwartz with the Falcons. I’m blanking on a fifth though. I think you missed my point.

That’s fair. But people here lauded the Bills moves last season - and still do. They made Morse the highest paid center in the league. While he is definitely an above average center, he is not the best. Conklin is set to be the third highest paid RT and he’s above average but not third best. Those moves feel an awful lot alike. At TE the Bills signed Kroft to a 3 year, $21M deal (admittedly far less lauded). Hooper is getting a 4 year, $44M deal from the Browns this season. I’d much rather have Hooper for $11M/yr than Kroft for $7M/yr. Yeah. The talent is there. The coaching looks a lot, lot, lot better. It’s tough to be optimistic with the Browns, but the table seems set for them.

The Browns have some real talent, not just named. They still have big holes at LB (2), S (2) and LT. They also need a quality nickel CB and depth along the DL. That seems very possible at this point. It’s no guarantee of success of course. Coaching has to be good, players have to buy in and mesh, etc. There is real potential there though.

They’ve been clearing cap space.

Damn. That’s serious money.

And cutting him would leave $1.75M in dead money. The delta for keeping him is $8.025M. Despite the excessive criticism of him by some here, he’s worth that versus opening up a huge hole there. The Bills need to add at least one other DE with starting capability this offseason. A rookie who could rotate and learn under Murphy and Hughes this season would be a very good solution. A high end free agent would work well too and make Murphy the rotational DE. If we can get both then we can talk about whether we move on from Murphy or Hughes.

46.6% of defensive snaps. Hughes played 63.6% and Murphy played 65.1%. Couple ways to look at that. Shaq played about 72% of the snaps the other two played. If you take a straight line increase if he played a similar amount of snaps he’d have had 9 sacks. Of course you can also argue that his sack rate would tail off with the increase in workload. Shaq is a good DE, but I don’t believe he’s ever going to be a double digit sack DE. https://www.pro-football-reference.com/teams/buf/2019-snap-counts.htm

I will lose it if the Bills trade more for Cook than what Houston gave up for Hopkins. Cooks is a quality player and he’d be the best WR on the Bills, but he is no Deandre Hopkins.

You’d have to think this was the case. I mean, we’re talking about BOB here, but still.

I agree with this. Basically gave up a second and took on the David Johnson boat anchor. We could’ve thrown in some late round picks.