GunnerBill

I don't think Fields was atrocious last year. I think he is still a below average NFL Quarterback. And if you take his running away I'm not sure he has shown he can win consistently from the pocket. But I do think he flashed upside and I don't think he was atrocious. Think this is a big year for him. If he plateaus at 2022 levels then he isn't the guy. But there may still be more improvement in there.

Depends what people think bust means. I tend to have a much higher bar to call someone a bust.

I just don't believe the Bills are that unpredictable under this regime (not syaing that is a bad thing). In 2021 most thought it would be pass rusher. Was Rousseau. In 2022 most thought it would be corner. It was Elam. In 2023 most thought it would be receiver. It was Kincaid (a receiving tight end). Beane is bad at playing his cards close to his chest. He tells you straight (too straight sometimes). That isn't my critcism of him. It is part of why as a guy I really admire him. My criticism is his recent drafts - since we have been on the precipice - have been tactical not strategic.

Again what you are doing is saying "in isolation this made sense". I don't disagree with that. But you get yourself into the habit of justifying isolated decisions you can justify anything. Personally I think you have to take a more strategic view and I think Beane's aggression is mainly tactical and not strategic. I don't dislike the outcome. Doesn't mean I agree with the process.

He said it in the post pick presser.

That is how it SHOULD happen. Beane pretty much told us in 2022 he didn't think he could sleep if he didn't come out of day 1 without a corner. He didn't quite say "we had to have one" but it was pretty clear their primary objective in 2022 was to come out of round 1 with a corner. He wasn't quite as explicit in the run up to, or after, this past draft but the way they went about their draft season and the way the draft panned out I very strongly suspect they were dead set on a pass catcher and if there wasn't a pass catcher there for them they though was value (or achievable with a small trade up) they were going to move down. They were not willing to pick a non-pass catcher at their original spot. They had lasered in on it to my eye. I accept that is supposition and I don't know it for certain, but I don't think it is an unreasonable conclusion to come to based on everything that we do know - from visits, to the way the draft played out, to Beane's interviews and to the draft room videos.

It is Dodson's job to lose. As long as he shows out reasonably in the pre-season games he will start week 1.

But the problem when you start justifying decisions in isolation is you can make a case why each and every decision is sensible "at the time". That is why strategy matters. I am not displeased with the outcome, but when you start saying to yourself "we must have a pass catcher" or "we must have X guy" you set yourself up to make mistakes. My point was never to say that they were just going to take any old receiver... but the fact that they lasered in so much on a pass catcher means you start saying things like "it makes sense to give up a 4th." And again, I'm not displeased with this outcome. But strategically giving up your 4th rounder two years in a row to make small moves up because you have said positions are that vital to you isn't the way I'd try and run my personnel operation.

I don't think they were laser focussed in on Kincaid. I think they had 3 pass catchers they'd have taken. But he ended up the last one on the board and was within shooting distance. I do think it is two years in a row though when they have gone into the first round saying "we gotta have X." Was a receiver in 2023, a corner in 2022. I don't love it as a mindset. Though I do like Kincaid and think he has a chance to be a solid player here for a long time.

Sounds like it started to go badly and Aaron Rodgers started to sulk.... I mean, who'd have guessed?

No. I just listen to what Brandon Beane says.

I'm not sure Settle or Phillips should be a total lock. Oliver, Jones, Ford and one other... and those two should be fighting each other for the final spot. Neither was good enough last year.

That team playing that schedule against that conference. Don't get me wrong I think the Eagles have the best roster in the league, built by the best General Manager in the league, but the Eagles have other advantages that the Bills don't. The NFC sucks.

Correct. And Matakevich's job on special teams isn't really to tackle. His job is to maintain the integrity of return lanes when we are retuning and to disrupt the return lanes when opponents are returning forcing them into the path of our pursuit. And he does it very well. People say "oh anyone can do it" but when Rex was our Head Coach he didn't like carrying STs specialists and we led the league in STs penalties, blocking in the back and holds because people couldn't execute the techniques you need - especially those inside wedge players.

You might think that, the Bills I am certain don't.

You mean all those things he claimed to have seen didn't happen? Well knock me down with a feather!

Nope. I used to on an NFLUK forum but haven't for a few years. I share with some other people I know, one who is in the drsft industry and another who used to coach in the league to discuss and get different perspectives and then I post here. It's just for fun. It is my geeky hobby.

I mean in 2022 I didn't have a 1st round grade on the guy who went 1st overall.... so there is that. Depends year to year. Some years I am close to the "consensus" some years I am further from the pack. But there are equally guys like Emmanuel Forbes in this last draft who I was talking about as a top 20 pick before he started getting buzz off the media.

Yes.

Nope it is just a hobby. I enjoy it. Start around Xmas. Watch a lot on my commute and while running on the treadmill. Soon clock up the hours.

If you think that is what you saw watch closer

So I watch at least 3 full games of over 100 players each year in the run up to the draft. The last four years it hovers somewhere between 135 and 150 guys. I reckon somewhere between an hour and a half an 2 hours per player.... somewhere around 300 hours. When I say "quasi-MLB" I mean essentially you play Milano as the MIKE, you let him call the defensive signals and you give him the respective gap responsibilities in the run game but you don't use him in the way the Bills have traditionally used their mike in pass coverage and that is where you get creative and mix up personnel groupings in pass coverage and don't have two linebackers that pretty much play 100% of the snaps. Maybe you use Neal or Rapp in some dime packages. Why do you presume I disagree? I don't think the Bills have an obvious answer on the roster at MIKE. I think their choices are a career backup type in Dodson, a past his best player in Klein who you'd have to compensate for in other ways or doing something much more radical and situationally driven (see above) with their scheme. I don't disagree every time you say something critical of the Bills. I disagree when you say stuff that is demonstrably untrue or clearly a reach. I don't think your take on the MIKE position is either of those.

This is correct. How many of their 3 do they even get to? Maybe the first one...

I am pretty convinced Gilliam makes it.

We are talking Dantzler not Jonathan.