BarleyNY

I don’t know if running the ball - and extending plays behind the LOS - like he does is sustainable or not, but I think you have to let him do it. The ball does not come out of his hand when his foot hits on his drops. Maybe that improves, but you can’t count on it. He holds the ball like Roethlisberger does and he’s going to take hits like he does. The good news his that Allen is much more mobile. The bad news is that he’s not as accurate. The rushing yards will have to make up for the lost passing yards. It is a risk, but it’s his only path to success.

We have enough needs that I’d be happy to sign a player like Ansah and then use our high picks to shore up other areas. I’d be excited to see him and Olivier added to this line. That’d make for a formidable pass rush.

Agree totally on passing on WRs with suspect hands in the first round. I love Hock, but any TE is a tough sell at 9 (to me anyway). I’d love a stud DE or DT. Most will. Those of us rooting for him, but tempering early expectations of greatness with reminders that it hasn’t happened yet will be blasted.

Santora’s, Amherst Ale House, Brennan’s or Brick House are your best bets in that area. Those are good to okay depending on what you like. I can’t stand the Irishman, but I know people who really like it. I’ve just never had a good experience there.

Correct. Flipping a QB for a pick usually only happens when you draft that QB and can showcase some quality play from him. Teams are probably a lot more wary of that than they used to be. Other than Garappolo who was the last backup QB that was a big success for the team that acquired him? Favre?

I would hate that draft. I’m not a fan of Gary or Whiteside.

Yeah, he’s going to be a pass rush specialist in the not too distant future - and that’s sure still worth something. The real danger would be having him under a contract that pays him like he’s a full time player when he gets to that point though. If he does walk in FA after this season then we’re probably looking at a 3rd or 4th round comp pick. That has to be weighed against his contract demands. It’d be something at least.

That is generally how that works, yes. I am not arguing that. I just don’t think he will be worth the franchise tag amount at 32. He’s still very good now, but I do see the drop off already. If we’re going to keep him beyond this season then a deal that takes that into account should be worked out. Get him some more guaranteed money now and let him taper off into a rotational player. The bigger point I was trying to make was the critical need at pass rusher. Hughes is pretty much it right now. I don’t care how good he is, that’s not enough. He’s still going to be 31 and on the last season of his contract. Even if he holds up physically and re-signs it isn’t enough. You need two or three pass rushers in this league and we’ve really only got him now.

I would like to see Hughes retained too. He’s likely to see fewer and fewer snaps soon due to his age. A future contract should reflect that. People talking about franchising him are going to be disappointed. I can’t see him being paid that highly at that age and there’s be nowhere to go with an extension with that kind of money already on the table. Boy howdy doesn’t it really highlight the need for more pass rushers on this team. We already need two more even with him.

I couldn’t agree more. I’ve been very surprised that nothing has been done with him yet.

Something that should be noted here is that there can be a difference between a player that is viewed as a 1st round prospect and a player that is viewed as a first round prospect for a particular team. Some players just don’t fit certain schemes well.

There is so much wrong with that I’m going to have to break it down in pieces. Also you might want to dial back on being so condescending. Not a great look. Let’s start with what block eating DTs who are only valuable against the run are getting paid. Poe, who replaced Star in Carolina. 3/$28M and not nearly as front loaded as Star’s contract. So what other similar players in that ballpark? https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/contracts/defensive-tackle/ The above link is to the contracts of all DTs. I see Star with the 9th biggest DT contract. I see Poe on there. Other than that it seems like the well paid DTs are more complete players. I wouldn’t mind it if the Bills had paid more for such a player. But to burn that kind of cap space for that long on any player with those limitations is foolish. Lastly, you have no idea what kind of assessments I’m qualified to make and to make those kinds of arguments is as stupid as anything I’ve ever seen on these boards. If you don’t think people who aren’t GMs an NFL coaches should make assessments of football transactions, then why did you weigh in? There wouldn’t be much point in these boards, huh?

The Star signing was terrible. He’s useless on passing downs so you’re looking at run defender who eats up double teams. Yip. If you think that’s a $10M per year job, then you’re pretty out of touch with the value of players yourself. And we haven’t even gotten into how front loaded the deal is. We’d be on the hook for $26M if we cut him after 2 seasons and $33.5M if we cut him after 3. We have to keep him for all 5 seasons to get the $10M per season rate. How is that a defensible contract?

Difference makers are rarely available in free agency - and they’re usually extremely expensive when they do. That’s why most are acquired via the draft. Trading for them can be a good avenue as well. So, yeah, the Bills will probably try to draft most of their difference makers. If they think they can score one in a trade - Antonio Brown for example - then they’ll probably try to do that. If a team can be built that way then it might make sense to overpay a difference maker in free agency, but no way do you try to build a team that way.

Glad you clarified that you’re drinking. Must be a helluva night

He didn’t perform against quality OTs. He did very, very well against even good college OTs. He even smoked the smaller school OTs at the Senior Bowl practices. But against the big boys he didn’t do squat. He doesn’t have the flexibility to be a premier DE. He’ll be solid in the pros, but he won’t live up to his draft status. It won’t be close. One of the pro comparisons I saw was to Ogbah. That’s pretty much what I see. He should be better than Ogbah, but he will be limited in the same ways. I see his floor as a rotational DE and his ceiling as a solid starting LDE. I’m not even considering him anywhere close to 9.

Duke doesn’t seem to be able to take that kind of punishment. He would be in the 3rd down RB/passing down RB/weapon roles. He can be very productive if he touches are limited. He’s cheap this year but his compensation ratchets up significantly over the next two seasons. Cleveland is looking for a contributing player in return. They’d throw in draft compensation as well. I just don’t know who the Bills could trade them that they’d want for a player that might be a 1 year rental. The way around that is if his agent would renegotiate his deal. Cleveland won’t cut him though. As it stands they can use him up while Hunt is suspended and then part with him.

Big issue that often gets lost is “IF it’s possible to extend New Era Field’s life by 25 years.” If the underlying infrastructure isn’t likely to last that long, then that’s it. It has to be a new stadium. The question just becomes where.

Surprised that it took this long for things to fall apart.

Well, on Gregg’s defense one of them gets to line up in Albany so.......

Metcalf for reasons mentioned as well as drops. Sweat for production not matching athleticism. Gary for reasons mentioned.

Gotta take someone with a future. Only RB on our roster signed past this year is Ford from our PS last year*. That said, I don’t want a premium pick spent on one. *Oh, right. He played late in the season when McCoy got hurt.

Heres the thing. He got paid and will be living where he wants. That’s what he really valued and he got it. He won. But that was his focus. Championships don’t matter nearly as much. He certainly would have written off the Raiders if they did. So the Bills also won - or at least didn’t lose - here. We didn’t blow a bunch of cap space and draft capital on a gifted player who would rather go to one of the worst teams in the league so he can live in Vegas and get paid than go to a team on the upswing that can compete for (and in) the playoffs. Why? Because he’d only be getting paid ALMOST as much? Or because he’d have to live in Buffalo for half the year? Please. I am still pissed we even considered acquiring a player that quit on his team like that.

Doubtful the Browns just cut him. The alternative is using him in the DE rotation and netting a comp pick when he’s signed by another team the following year. The Browns want to use him to acquire a player at a position of need or move up in the draft. What about a flip of 2nds? 49 and Ogbah for 40?

It would absolutely widen the gap between Haves and Have Nots. Cheap teams like the Bengals would use it to spend even less than they do now and wealthy owners would use it to gain a competitive advantage. No way would owners allow this (but the NFLPA would love it). Exemptions wont happen for the same reasons. We are looking at the very real possibility of another lockout in two seasons. With the owners looking to squeeze the players for more money the likelihood of any rule changes that would put more money in players’ pockets is almost nil. The only exception is if it was offset by other money and I don’t see that happening.