BarleyNY

That’s all fair. Usually that’s what I would’ve said too. My reservation is what happened with Allen in the playoff game. He really panicked after his fumble. It’s not something that can continue to happen. The whole regular season he had a lot of pressure situations at the end of games and he never panicked like that. Obviously it was the most important game of his life and he didn’t play on a big stage in college. (Let’s face it, the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl probably didn’t fully battle test him.). That’s not to say that he can’t step it up regardless, but maybe now isn’t the time to add onto the pressure by inviting a QB controversy. In general, yeah, I’m with you and I wouldn’t blame the Bills if they did pick up someone like Mariota, but I can see why they would want to show that they’re fully behind Allen and not push it right now.

Or sexual assault. Tomāto, tomáto.

Give them 20 years or so.......

Did you read the specific allegations? Here’s hoping that isn’t standard hazing. I’d lose my **** if anyone pulled that on my kids. Also Franklin is a defendant. It’s in the first paragraph of the story. The suit was filed against Penn State University, coach James Franklin and former player Damion Barber.

If a QB is working out with a private coach like Palmer you can bet that coach and the QB’s team are on the same page with the training. If not, there’s real problems somewhere.

I don’t want us to sit on our pick for a WR unless there are a bunch of similarly rated ones. If we have one that we like a lot better than others and he’s in range, then go get him. There’s almost nothing the Bills can do in FA to fill that need adequately (though we will do something) and the other 31 teams know we will be taking one early. I don’t want another team to jump us for him.

You’d make a guy who wasn’t even a starter last year - and barring injury wouldn’t be in 2020 - a captain? WOW! I don’t understand why you’d want to do that.

Yup. A #1 WR is a bigger overall need of the team, but DE should be more pressing in FA. Just not a lot of options to improve at starting DE where we are sitting in the draft. We can probably find a rotational guy somewhere, but that’s a crap shoot. Finding a WR in this draft is the way to go. So much depth in this class. We might want to sneak up a little in the first or a lot in the second round to make sure we get our guy, but there’s a lot to chose from. No need to pay big money to get a FA that isn’t elite since there aren’t any. RB to back up Singletary shouldn’t be tough to find in FA or the draft. I’d probably draft one in the middle rounds unless a stud fell to me in the second and WR and OL were in good shape or not good values. OL is trickier. We are going to need to do some real work in both FA and the draft as we have a lot of guys coming off of their contracts. I’d have no problem going with a big ugly in the first or second and then again later in the draft. CB doesn’t get mentioned a lot but I’d love to see us bring in another one who is starting caliber. I’d pony up in FA a bit for that too. Additionally DT, LB and S could use some depth. That 3rd DE is really important. I don’t think Phillips is going to be worth what he’s going to get paid, but there will be other guys out there. Oh yeah, I forgot. I’m always looking for TEs too. Load up where there’s value.

You could trade him, but you’re not going to get much for him since he would be on the last season of his deal. He is due a $6.1M salary and $100k w/o bonus on top of the $1M roster bonus. (The Bills are taking the $1.75M cap hit from the signing bonus regardless). I don’t see why people are so ready to dump him though. He’s underperformed his contract, sure. But he’s improved lately and he’s worth keeping around for $7.2M unless we find someone better. Even then a case could easily be made to keep him around for one more season to be part of a 3 DE rotation - and then yield a comp pick. I’m just not a fan of thinning out our Edge position. It’s too important, and we saw what having a gimpy Hughes did to our rush from the edge. Kudos to him for gutting it out. Seriously. What he did all season was impressive, but he wasn’t himself. I don’t want to be one play away from something like that again.

If we pay Murphy the $1M roster bonus, then cut him, his dead money would rise to $2.75M (that $1M has to be accounted for in the cap). Keeping him would be $6.1M more. Barring some crazy incident (i.e. AB, Chung, Garrett) there’s no way we cut him after paying the bonus.

The only issue there is players with roster bonuses. Notably Murphy and Hughes each have one due on 3/22/20 plus Spotrac shows Hughes salary in 2020 guaranteed. So Hughes isn’t going anywhere and neither is Murphy unless a replacement can be found right away in FA. Heck, we need 3 quality DEs so I’m good if we bring in a high end DE and keep both for a season.

Yeah. That’s pretty standard operating procedure for teams. Get at least serviceable starters under contract at all positions and then the draft becomes more about long term gains, not just filling needs. It also helps keep other teams from easily discerning your targets in the draft. I agree with the OP that Edge should be the #1 FA priority. It’s not a great draft for the position so finding an upgrade to what we have there is not likely - at least not in the near term. It’s going to cost big, but it’s our only real way to upgrade at Edge this offseason unless a trade option comes into play.

Our offense wasn’t ready.

Asking prices for players were insane at last season’s deadline. Glad we passed on that nonsense.

There’s little love for him now, but some were excited when he signed here (benefit of doubt to org, I get that). I was not a fan. It was baffling why the Bills (or anyone else) would overpay him that much. He’s done so little in his career. I know we were in a tight spot at TE, but WOW. We massively overpaid for a backup level TE. Here’s hoping we move on by the time his roster bonus is due in March.

You're really reaching for the stars there.

I’d sure take Clowney. I like him better as a DE than I do Cooper as a WR. Plus DE will be difficult to fill in the draft. WR should not be a problem.

Aww, so sorry about your feelings. You should go find a safe place until you get yourself together. Anyone who says that Allen is “the second coming of Elway” (that’s Super Bowl MVP, 2 time SB champ, 9 time Pro Bowler and first ballot HOF QB John Elway) should be called out for it. If you can’t back that up (which you can’t) and can’t take the heat for posting it, then please stop posting here. I called you out for an indefensibly ridiculous post - and I did it without resorting to name calling. Please grow up or leave. I will leave it there.

I think that sounds a lot like picking and choosing data in order to confirm a bias. If you think Josh Allen is the second coming of John Elway, then you should probably stop talking football with other people.

Allen over Trubisky due mainly to his potential. Trubisky has been pretty much what I expected him to be over 3 seasons - a serviceable QB, but not a franchise guy. Allen was definitely a raw, high risk prospect with a pretty high ceiling and a big bust probability. I wouldn’t have drafted either since I didn’t see it with Trubisky and I didn’t think Allen was worth the risk. But Allen has exceeded my expectations thus far. He has been a serviceable starting QB overall. He has flashed at times and faltered badly at others. His progress has earned him the opportunity to continue to grow and he should get a lot of help in that regard. If he does, then that’s great news. If not, it’ll be a strong indication that he has topped out at a level that isn’t good enough. You seem to think Allen rates much better than his metrics. Why?

Still a lotta ways for them to eff this up........

Between Trubisky and Allen? Or in general?

Like for instance when someone has a biased view of a player. It’s easy for someone to see what they want to see. But when what they see consistently differs from the metrics - in the direction of their preference - then the culprit is usually bias.

Lots of specific differences between the teams, but the points that: - defenses that did well in a year where they stayed unusually healthy could drop off a bit if they have a typical amount of injuries the following season and - QBs who haven’t stepped completely up yet might hold their team back if they don’t progress seem pretty valid. The article doesn’t even say that they necessarily expect the Bills to follow the Bears, just that the trajectories are similar to a point and that it’s something that bears watching. Heck, I see the keys to success next season being: - Allen’s development - additions to fill holes on team - ability to manage a more difficult schedule - health of team The article hits two of those points If anything I’d say that it was a bit obvious and could’ve gotten into more factors and details, but it’s not wrong on its main points.

That’s fair. I just don’t want the Bills to depend on him for anything. If he stays out of trouble and steps up his game, then that’ll be a nice bonus. If not, then we will be covered.