BarleyNY

If he’s your starter at DE, then you are desperately trying to upgrade. A career as a rotational/backup DE is respectable. The problem is taking a player like that in the second round. If he was a fifth round pick he’d be well liked and fans would want him kept around to be DE4. But alas…..

It all will come down to how Alan does though

A successful team will almost always lose some of their staff to promotions elsewhere, though promotions only account for half of the cases with the Bills. I have been concerned that they’ve only promoted from within and haven’t seemed to draw much talent in from the outside. All three coordinators (Daboll, Frazier and and Farwell) plus assistant GM Schein are all gone for one reason or another. Every position was filled from within. The only name of note brought in is Al Holcomb as an assistant on the defense. This isn’t a black and white situation. Sometimes promoting from within is the right move. And McDermott taking over as DC could certainly be the right move. It’s not like he isn’t very experienced. But it isn’t like we heard anything about anyone clamoring for the positions either. I’m not even sure the Bills looked. It might be nothing but something just feels odd about it to me.

Yeah. I definitely got the impression that the pressure ratcheted up on them too. As for the extension, I was a little surprised that Pegs didn’t wait another year. But the standard with him seems to be to do extensions with two seasons left. They got him the new stadium so he probably figured they earned it anyway.

Nada on which teams. Sorry.

Big signing and restructure bonuses will do that.

LOL! No. If traded both would have dead cap hits that would exceed their cap hit for 2023. (Tho some of the dead cap hits would be delayed to 2024.) Oh and we’d have to find and pay new starts at CB1 and 3-tech.

Not always. There are limits to that - and sometimes severe consequences of doing so. The Bills are in that territory.

Not possible. I heard two teams are left in the Taylor sweepstakes and both have agreed to a market value contract extension. The Bills don’t have the cap space for that.

That’s a good way to lose a lot of money. Owners have to stay involved. It makes a lot of sense to focus on the much, much larger organization and sell off the other.

Thanks for sharing that. I can say this for sure, Beane should be concerned about Kyle Allen as the backup QB. Barkley is no better.

I think they should keep Elam at this point. Unless they are sure he can’t “get it”. His contract is fully guaranteed so we’re paying him either way. That also makes it more difficult to trade him (unless we would reassume his contract if he’s cut by the new team). Otherwise I doubt any team gives up an asset for him at this point. Maybe if they were in a similar spot with a player and contract.

After KC jumped them for McDuffie.

4 years, $13.7M, fully guaranteed

Other than LOB with Marino I try to find podcasts that give outside perspectives on the Bills and other teams. I tend to focus on the other teams that matter most in the AFC or ones that I have an interest in. On that last note, I highly recommend The Playcallers 8 episode podcast series by The Athletic (no subscription needed). I am not through the whole thing, but it’s been fantastic so far.

Good point. I wondered if drafting Elam was a sign of changes in scheme or just a matter of taking the best CB on the board and hoping that he can learn to play zone. I suspected it was the latter since after drafting him they talked about being able to flip man coverage responsibilities between him and Tre White in some of their schemes.

IMO top to bottom the AFCN is the most difficult division in the NFL this season, though the AFCE is a close second. They don’t seem to have a weak team. Even without a quality QB Pittsburgh seems to still be able to go 9-8 at worst. The Browns are stacked. Everything there depends on how Watson plays and gels with Stefanski's play calling. Similarly the Ravens are Lamar dependent, but look like they are fielding quite a good roster. And there’s no need to pump up the Bengals after the last few seasons.

To answer your question at the end about how the team is doing at CB2, I’d say it’s serviceable. Let’s face it. If the Bills we’re happy with the guy who is starting now, then they wouldn’t have drafted Elam. But I also don’t look at CB2 in a vacuum. By itself it’s not so big a deal. But add in what we are looking at with our current MLB situation and the lack of pass rush I expect until Von Miller gets back to full health (if that ever happens) and I’m concerned with our defense. That doesn’t meant that I don’t really like much of the DL, Milano, Tre, Johnson and our safeties. I do. But I have concerns as to what’ll happen with little pass rush juice while Johnson and Klein (or whomever) are trying to cover.

The Bills put themselves into a position where they had to take a CB. No obvious answer at CB2 and Tre was injured. Then KC jumped us for McDuffie - and we took our shot on Elam.

And that’s the rub. The Bills have tried to improve on Jackson, but it hasn’t worked out yet.

Dawkins has been the best OL on the Bills for years. He’s been above average, which is sadly the best we’ve had. Morse has been a very average C, but he brought stability to the interior OL when we desperately needed it. That’s why the Bills overpaid for him at the time and why that was okay. He is not overpaid at today’s MV, but he has seen his best days. I’m not advocating for moving on from him now. We have no better option.

Nah. If Bates was up to Morse’s level of play at this time, they’d move on from Morse. Matching the Bears offer for Bates was a mistake. He isn’t worth the contract he’s on. As for Morse, he has slipped a bit and he is already 31. I think he sticks this year but that’s probably it. Remember, it is always better to move on from a a player a year early than a year late. But his contract was front loaded so he’s not getting all that much cash. Still, they need to make cap room and moving on from him would certainly help.

I have no issue with the Bills taking a flyer on a young, raw, physically gifted player. But that’s not the same thing as spending draft capital and cap dollars appropriately and wisely on the OL. The Bills have fallen short in those regards over the last 7 years.

Just a few comments: - You say that Van Demark is “high upside”. Wow. Please defend that. He was an UDFA last season and couldn’t get on the active roster for the Colts. Just because he looked good against scrubs in preseason this year doesn’t mean he can even play in this league, much less play at a high level. - Good OTs hit their peak well before 30. You can’t be serious. - Lotta teams spend first (or second) round picks on OTs. There just aren't that many people in the world that big who can move as required for the position. The scarcity is a big reason the Texans just dropped a ton of cash on an average RT. Because you know, if you put a poor one out there they could lose you a season of your HOF QB on any given play. And who needs that?

He could be an outstanding RT. Word is that the Browns are very happy with him overall, but he does have some mental lapses - false starts, occasional missed assignment. But he is so big (but not fat) and fast that when he’s gotten beat, he usually has been able to recover and still win the rep.