BarleyNY

How can someone honestly not care if Dareus is retained or not? Or think that players like him are easy to come by? Unreal. I have no idea of how to respond to such stupidity. He'd be a huge, huge loss to the Bills in the near term and the long term. Also, I stand by my assertion that spending like the Bills have on Clay and Shady might come back to haunt them when trying to retain players like Dareus, Glenn, etc. I hope I'm wrong about that, but I think it's likely.

I'm guessing Golden Tate, Jr. does since he's Golden Tate III.

How is Bridgewater's arm strength? That was always the knock on him. I sure saw him float passes that required a strong arm last season, but if he's improved to where that isn't a problem anymore he could be a stellar QB.

That's right! WTF is PFF talking about then? Oh, that explains it. Sorry.

Well, yeah, but the bigger issue is that Mariota looked terrible. Zach might be starting the season for the Oiltans. I suspect he's not available at this time - unless a team gets stupid. I don't want to be that team.

https://www.profootballfocus.com/blog/2014/08/09/refo-bills-panthers-pre-wk-1/ Notes from PFF. Nothing earthshattering or deserving of its own thread. Sammie caught some balls, Dareus is a monster, Chris Williams sucks and IK abused the backup he played against.

Why not? It's not like the team doesn't already know what they have in Cassel (and EJ).

True. Gilbert looks horrible, what a wasted pick. Problem is that he will be at the end of the bench for Cleveland in the regular season - if he's lucky. Yes. You primarily make him play from the pocket and beat you that way. You have your defense play to contain the run and him and go from there. Punish him if he runs and only go after him on obvious passing situations. Is that oversimplified? Sure, but it is what I'd do until he made me pay regularly. And if his passes weren't on the mark and he led his receivers into some hits, all the better. True. I'm not getting overly excited yet, but he's worth a shot based on what I have seen and expect from Cassel and EJ. Tyrod is really our only hope, as unsettling as that is.

He should get a do over. (Ahem)

Might as well give Taylor his shot against the 1s. The Bills need someone to step up. The real test will be when a team game plans for him though.

If the Bills do decide to part ways with EJ, then a trade for anything would be preferable to a cut due to his contract being fully guaranteed (although it does have offsets). I don't think we are to that point yet, but we might be soon.

I agree. You want a good, likable guy like EJ to succeed and be the face of your franchise. He's easy to root for, but at the end of the day he doesn't seem to have what's needed to be a good QB. It's a shame.

http://www.tomahawknation.com/2013/4/25/4264734/nfl-draft-2013-ej-manuel-next-level-florida-state The above is a pre-draft article about EJ that I remember reading in the lead up to the 2013 draft. It's a good read and what's said seems spot on thus far in his NFL career.

I want to see a game that: - Is injury-free - Has competent Bills QB play - Has decent OL play

Yup. A reserve punching a starting QB (even a crappy one like Smith) is ridiculous. The FO and coaches have all watched EJ's tape and seen him play live. EJ has an uphill battle due to his past and present play, not some undeserved bias. He either steps it up or he won't be long for the team or the NFL.

True on Felton. Always nice to have a FB like him on the roster.

This actually brings up an interesting question I hadn't thought of: Are the Bills actually going to be tougher/meaner on the field than they were last season or 2013? Incognito might help in that regard. Kiko is missing, but he wasn't around last season anyway. When healthy he sure brings an intensity and a nastiness I will miss, though. The defense was nasty with him in 2013. I guess I'll have to wait and see how it plays out, but I can't think of anyone besides Incognito who is going to help the team in that regard.

Lol. Like Bradford won't already be on IR by December.

Wow. That kind of question screams "inferiority complex" but I'll go with it. Obviously we can only judge by what we've seen so far. So what I'm saying is that OBJ has been better than Watkins so far. If/when I see something that makes me think otherwise I'll change my opinion. Until then, it is what it is.

Agree on Watt. Best defensive player in the league right now. OBJ is an excellent WR and he's better than Watkins, who is very good. Still, OBJ is better. Some people are just bitter about how that draft went down and the relative levels of exposure. OBJ is overexposed because he plays for the New York Giants. Watkins is underexposed because he plays for the Bills. That's the way it is with big market vs. small market teams. The only equalizer for a small market team is winning.

You could throw Dareus and Shady into the knucklehead/character issue group as well. I don't have issue with the low risk guys like IK and Incognito as they can be removed with no real cap issue if needed (although having Incognito in the locker room isn't great). Dareus has done some stupid stuff, but he's sure worth the risk as a player. I'd very much like to keep him around. Harvin wasn't worth it at all IMO. I know it's a one year, $6M deal, but I'd pass on an absolute turbodouche like that. He can blame everyone else for his problems, pout and refuse to play somewhere else. I'd have passed on Shady too. Too much to give up in contract and trade for a RB whose fit in the Bills offense is unknown. I don't give up what they did for any RB. Still, no need to flip out. It is what it is. The FO is taking some minor and some bigger risks. I hope they still have the cap space to retain Dareus. We will see how it goes.

Fair point.

lmao

There's been some rumblings about interest in Rice recently. My bet is that he got some legit interest from one team and now his agent is leaking "interest" from other teams in an attempt to get that team moving on a deal. I doubt the Bills have real interest as Rice would be the #2 RB here. Are they really going to dump Fred for Rice after Kromer, Incognito, Shady, IK, Dareus, etc.? I can't image that happens. Right now those are collectively being forgotten, but adding Rice would dredge many of them back up. It'd be a bad PR move that might not even help the team much. IMO the Bills don't call on Rice unless Shady snaps a leg.

Lots of presupposition regarding success in this thread.