GunnerBill

On the investment thing there is no doubt they could have done more but at the same time I think they have started to move that dial a tad. Brown, Torrence, Kincaid and Shakir all being starters on rookie deals plays in a bit. The one area that they have clearly failed is prioritising WR in the draft. But I said it when he arrived that Beane came from a place where they had not prioritised big assets on receiver and that thinking that he was exposed to under Hurney and Gettleman has manifested itself in Buffalo.

I feel good that the gap to Miami has grown and so we remain the team to beat in the AFCE and will win the division again and make the playoffs so long as Josh is healthy. I don't feel great that the Championship window is very wide for us in 2024. I don't want to rehash arguments about the extent to which one AFCCG appearance from 2020-2023 represents underachievement but I think an AFCCG in 2024 would probably be a bit of overachievement.

But we have signed guys off them as UDFAs over the years. Cam Lewis, obviously, is one that stands out.

He is my WR4 so I'd happily just stand pat and pick him at #28.

Yea he'd be more his type. I haven't seen him round here for a while. He is welcome to Pearsall though.

I actually have seen a couple of credible guys mock him in round 1 in the last week. Which there hasn't been much of since very early in the process. I think he could squeak into the back of day 1 - but most likely he goes the first 15 picks on day 2.

He only fancies white guys.

Yea was going to say defensively they run a pretty unique scheme as a rule which allows them to value guys somewhat differently. The Ravens have the best personnel operation in the league IMO. I'm not saying DaCosta is the best GM necessarily, but the overall operation is super impressive and buttoned up. You know every team has this gimmicky "play like a Bill" type slogans... but Baltimore is one place where it really means something. I know a Ravens player when I see one. I know what that franchise is, what it values and how it tries to build.

I will say this about him...... he isn't quite Jordan Poyer, but he doesn't exactly hurt the overall attractiveness of the safety room. 😍

Ladd has actually explicitly said we didn't.

I liked Rapp out of college too. He has not been good in the pros.

No, not at all. I liked both of those guys and Hyde in particular had excellent tape. I don't accept the "these signings are on a par with Hyde and Poyer." There is a germ of truth with it in respect of Poyer, in that he was not and never had been an established starter before he arrived in Buffalo - but even he got basically the same AAV - $3.5m on his deal in 2017 that Rapp got now after 7 years of salary inflation. Micah Hyde was an established NFL player with a ton of great tape who got over $6m AAV.

One Superbowl starting safety. Edwards did start the Superbowl last year, but wasn't good in it. He didn't start the Superbowl when he was with Tampa, thought he played in some dime packages. Rapp did not start the Superbowl for the Rams, he was coming back from a concussion and played less than half the defensive snaps. My problem with them is they are both replacement level starters. I think Edwards is a bit better than Rapp but I wouldn't mind either so much if they were playing with a better player. But two players of that level together is a concern for me. It's like having Vlad Ducasse and Jordan Mills together on the right hand side of your offensive line.

I'd say safety is a bigger starting need than DE. AJE is higher quality player than anyone we have on the roster at safety - we have three backups (Edwards, Rapp and Lewis) and a bottom of the roster player (Hamlin). I think FS and SS are both "starter needed" positions and DE is an improve position. Now I take the point totally that defensive end is just a higher value position than safety. That is definitely true. So maybe turning a 6/10 starter at defensive end into a 7/10 starter gives you overall a bigger bump that turning a 4/10 starter at safety into a 7/10 starter. But then you have to look at the strength of the draft too and if you say our two biggest needs are WR and DE and you take the view that they must be addressed with the first two picks then you need to pick defensive end at #28. Because there is not a lot of depth to the class. I basically have it as: Tier 1: Turner; Latu; Verse - immediate year 1 impact starters Tier 2: Chop Robinson - boom and bust but impact player ceiling Tier 3: Braswell, Trice, Isaac - potential starters but not impact players early Tier 4: Elliss, Darius Robinson - developmental players (Elliss because he is raw and Robinson because he hasn't really been a proper edge rusher) They are the only guys I'd consider drafting on the first two days and there are only a couple of others - Kneeland and Booker I'd take before the end of round 5. Every other EDGE in this class that I have watched is a 6/7/UDFA to me. Point being it isn't a great class. Only those tier 1 guys and possibly the question mark on Chop would be upgrades on AJE as a rookie IMO. Turner and Verse will be long gone. Latu could slide because of injury history and Chop probably will be there. But if they don't address it at #28 they should pass at #60 IMO. I just don't think the value is there in this class. Get by with Groot, Von, AJE, Toohill and Jonathan in 2024 and hope the opportunity to upgrade is there in 2025. To be clear I am not arguing for a defensive end at #28. I am firmly on the WR train (though if Latu falls I'd be tempted). I'm just making the point that I don't necessarily think it is as easy as WR and DE in any order with the first two picks just because those are the two premium positions where we most need help.

There are stories that in the early days of the draft in the 50s and 60s when it was an actual selection meeting with all the teams there sitting at tables in a room occasionally a player would fall because they would get two or three picks past the spot they were expected and everyone would just assume they'd gone and forget they hadn't been picked. In these days of super hit-tech draft rooms and draft boards I can't see it though 😂

And Elam's meeting at the Combine leaked in the last 48 hours before the draft.

I think him at #60 is a realistic prospect.

He didn't make Damar Hamlin and Jaquan Johnson legit. He has had two great safeties here his entire time.

I didn't notice him that I can say. But I support day 3 shots at DL.

For sure he isn't Nick Mangold

Can he not? In which case he is Efe Obada take II

Ha I knew you were being arcastic I was just making clear that I both agree with neither "no other coach could make the playoffs" and "any other coach would make a superbowl." Neither are true.

Sounds like he is probably the Shaq replacement, right?

I know very little about him, not a guy I have ever really noticed on film. Not that I watched a ton of the Commanders last year. Interestingly his production (5 sacks, 8 pressures, 6 TFLs) seems to have been disproportionately in the games where he was rotating in as a backup rather than his 8 starts after the Young / Sweat trade. 4 sacks, 5 pressures and 3 TFLs as a rotational end; 1 sack, 3 pressures, 3 TFL as a starter.

Safey Safety And Safety