BarleyNY

That's good news. No need to put too much on the kid too quickly. Bring him along right and it'll be better for everyone in the long run.

No need to jump the gun with uninformed opinions about the contract. We won't know enough about it to do that until the details come out - which will take days.

Well, I agree with you on Williams. The "he is obviously a drunk and a liar" is definitely too far. I'm pretty sure downplaying how much you drank to a cop testing you for a DUI is pretty common. Certainly it was a stupid and dangerous decision for him to drive while drunk, but he has never been in any other trouble like that before so I take this situation as something that bears watching. Seymour I'm going to agree with him on. Teams do find diamonds in the rough in late rounds and he's got as good a chance as most, but I read the scouting reports on him. Physically gifted, but has real trouble with the technical aspects of playing the position. USC should have been able to provide him good coaching on technique, but they've had a lot of turmoil there so maybe that didn't happen. I don't know. I am going to wait until I see him under real (regular season) game conditions before thinking he's anything more than a developmental player with a lot of upside. The Darby comment was dumb though. I don't see anything that leads me to believe he won't be the same player as last season. I'd have to see a decline in his play during real games before I believe that, too. Everything else was pretty spot on, though. And he didn't even mention that scouting reports had Washington as a player in need of a lot of refinement in his technique. He looked to be a guy that should have been rotational to start his career and work his way up to starting in season 2 or 3, but it looks like he may start right away. That's concerning because we may see some real growing pains this season.

Wow. You're going to get hammered for your negativity on this. Don't get me wrong - you're absolutely right. But few posters care for stuff like this until it's witch hunt time. Then it's all the rage.

Outstanding.

Dray flat out sucks. He sucks as a receiver and he's not much better as a blocker. I was shocked when the Bills signed him. It's worth noting that Hue Jackskn cut him loose right away even though the Browns had nothing else but Barnidge at TE. Even if Dray was a reliable blocker (which he's not), dedicating him to give Mills help would still remove one receiving threat from play whenever he's on the field. (And he's not much help run blocking either.) That's not something you want on a regular basis. It bears watching to see if Mills can handle the pass rush by himself on a regular basis. If he can, then it'll be a big help.

It would sure help to have solid play from the right side of the OL, particularly Mills. If Clay doesn't have to stay in on passing downs to block or chip it adds an important receiving weapon.

I feel this way, too. Them being unseated this season will would more to do with their decline than another team's rise. That said, the Bills have a shot. The Phish are some competent QB play away from having a shot. I just don't see it with the Jest though. I don't see how they win with Fitz behind that awful looking OL

Shaq will be eligible to come back to practice after week 6 and its jumping the gun to say that's a given. When he does get back he will not have had an NFL practice under his belt and he will be nowhere near game ready from either a physical or mental standpoint. That will take time. So don't expect much out of him this season. The best case scenario for him is to get him healthy and get him some experience by easing him into the lineup situationally. He may very well go on to have an excellent career here in Buffalo and if he does his selection will be hailed as a good pick. I'll be happy that it worked out, but I'll still disagree with selecting an injured Shaq Lawson at 19 overall (though I thought it was a very good pick when I thought he was healthy). I'm not knocking Lawson here, I like him a lot as a player. I'm knocking Whaley. If you're going to select an injured player, then you've got to get that player at a discount. He didn't do that, despite what some here are saying after the fact.

Agree on Ragland's injury being a fluke, but Lawson went about where expected. The highest I saw him mocked was 11th and that was with the notation that he'd be a reach at that pick. Most had him going a few picks ahead of the Bills.

I'm not describing anything and I've read Whaley's account. Again, what would you expect him to say? He was barely sticking around after the Pegulas bought the team. Of course Whaley is going to back with the HC they wanted and he's going to paint a rosy picture. Again, I'm not defending the job he's done. There's plenty to criticize, just not the Rex hire.

That means nothing. If he liked the Rex hire, he's just telling the truth. If he hated the Rex hire, then what's he supposed to say? "I think the Pegulas are idiots for hiring Rex and I can't believe I have to work with that tool." How do you think a less than glowing public endorsement of any HC would have played out? I'm not on the Whaley bandwagon by any stretch, but this is a ridiculous criticism. Oh, and for better or worse Whaley and Rex are tied together here. If one goes, the other goes with him - although I don't expect that to happen until after the 2017 season.

I kinda wonder if this is it. Nothing new here on that tweet except the word "expected" and that's nothing concrete. Just a hopeful sounding version of what we already knew coming directly on the heels of the Ragland news. Whether it's what the team honestly believes to be true or just hopeful thinking, the tweet seems like it's aim is good PR. Remind fans that we might get Shaq back to pick up their spirits and get some pressure off the front office. I really don't like seeing this out in the media. Putting expectations for a speedy recovery and immediate impact doesn't do Shaq any good. PUP rules allow him back to practice as early as after the 6th week of the season. Even if he makes it back that quickly there's no real chance to get much out of him in a hurry as he will have had zero career NFL practice time and be nowhere near game shape. It'd be better to keep expectations for him low this season and err on the side of caution with his injury. Get him healthy, get him acclimated to the NFL and get him a little experience this season - without unnecessary risk of reinjuring his shoulder. Long term that'd be better both for him and for the Bills.

Players get hurt. Draft picks get hurt. Sometimes you get unlucky. But it's not luck when you use your first round pick on a player who is already injured. Ragland was bad luck. Lawson was a bad decision.

It could be a deal that offers him some extra cash up front this season (either signing bonus or salary) and then has a large, but not guaranteed outlay next season. Essentially making it something like a one year deal with a 3 year team option. Tyrod gets some safe cash this season and the Bills get him at a decent price for three additional years if they want to keep him. But they can get out after this season if they don't.

Lotta ways $35M can be structured over two years, but we're starting to get to a bigger deal overall which means we might be looking at some creative structuring.

Way to jinx him.

Coming out of college there was disagreement about whether Ragland would be a 2 or 3 down LB in the NFL. I am still taking a wait-and-see approach to that, but I dug further into it recently. A lot could have to do with the defense he'd be playing in. He doesn't seem cut out to play much man and you certainly don't want to see him dragging a TE down the seam. He is a better fit in defenses where he'd be playing short zones. That essentially how you want to adjust for a player who's not strong in coverage. So now the defense is going to platoon the position with a run guy and a pass guy. Lots of teams do that. It's not optimal, but it could be worse. I feel for Ragland, but I wasn't sold on him as a 3 down LB yet anyway. Without him we will likely be worse off in obvious running downs, but even with him healthy we might be in the same or a better spot in pass defense.

Basically that's it. It breaks down specifically like this: Players on Preseason PUP can return anytime during training camp or preseason. Players on PUP when regular season starts must stay on PUP for at least 6 weeks. After week 6 the team has 5 weeks to allow the player to start practicing (player still does not count on active roster). If player doesn't start practicing by week 11 he stays on PUP for season. After player starts practicing the team has 3 weeks to decide whether to activate player, place him on IR or release him. Note: This applies to Lawson. Ragland is not eligible for PUP since he took part in a training camp practice.

The sports media guys out there should know this. When they talk about a "short term IR" they are confusing people. It's not like baseball with a separate 15-day and 60-day disabled lists along with full season IR.

There is no a short term IR in the NFL, they're referring to the DTR rule (designated to return). One player (and only one player per season) who was placed in IR with a major injury can be designated to return after week six of the season. That player isn't allowed to play in a game for two additional weeks. This season the rule was changed (thanks to the Bills) so that the player may be determined at the time of return rather than at the time he was put on IR (which makes a ton of sense). The gist of the situation is that if the Bills think Ragland will miss more than a few weeks, the can put him on IR and then worry about if/when he can come back later.

Crap. Should have read through the rest of the thread. I'm now more concerned with Ragland and Lawson getting healthy and On the field. Missing TC and preseason is a much bigger deal for rookies than vets so I'm no longer counting on help from them this season. 2016 should now be about getting them right physically and getting them some NFL experience, if possible. Then they can come into next season healthy and ready to hit the ground running. Lawson is on PUP, which is important. He must miss at least 6 weeks, but he can return without using our one IR designated-to-return allowance. That can be used for Ragland. Or he can be carried on the active roster if the team thinks he will only miss a few weeks of the regular season. Good luck to the kid this week.

Thanks. That makes sense.

Yeah, I agree. It'd be a tough trade to make, too. Teams wouldn't want to give up anything for him so the Iggles would be better off holding onto him rather than taking a late round pick. Even if you could acquire him, could you really depend on him? You could spend a lot of time and effort teaching him your system and getting him to gel with your OL only to have him get suspended for 2 more seasons. Then all you did was swap a late round pick for a problem.

Yes. Removal of offsets and payment of the full signing bonus in the first season of the contract are the issues. In the five seasons since slotting, every 3rd round pick got one or the other. From what I understand Bosa not looking for both, he is only looking for one or the other. Incidentally Goff and Wentz got both. Their contracts do not have offsets and pay the full signing bonus this season.