GunnerBill

Agree with all this. Howard also sucked in camp. Harty might not have flashed as much as they hoped yet but he hasn't sucked from what I have heard?

I haven't quite yet turned 40

Haha nope. Just literally stepped off a curb, my foot didn't land flush and my ankle bent right under me. I spent Friday and Saturday just icing it and taking off the shelf painkillers before I actually thought "better get this looked at." Small tear in the deltoid ligament and significant bruising was the diagnosis. The doc was genuinely disbelieving when I told him how it happened. I have some prescription pain killers now.

Just looking at the roster, anyone heard a peep out of Kingsley Jonathan in camp? Thought he had some flashes last year and in PS, and even in the Bears game where he got some run. There is lots to improve of course but there were some flashes.....

I suffered a grade two ankle sprain stepping off a curb last Thursday evening. Think I'll give the MMA a wide berth....

And it was clear from his college tape he was going to struggle to. He had no moves, not great speed, not great get off, no bend to speak of, poor hand usage. He beat college kids because he was bigger and stronger staying in college to 24 or whatever he was. That was it.

He did, or at least he showed he is a good situational end. He also showed why he couldn't start. Because he remains a liability against the run and that is why Shaq started in base and they brough AJE in for obvious pass rush situations. And he was effective. He had 8 pressures and 4 sacks on circa 40% of the snaps in that stretch. As I said above his pressure rate was the best among Bills DL after Von went down. I don't see them trading AJE because he can rush the passer. I also don't see him starting because he can't play the run. They will always go with other players in base but there is a place in the NFL for one dimensional defensive ends if they can rush the passer on 3rd down. He is a cheap situational pass rusher and for that reason he will be on the roster.

Beane said 2 weeks ago with Brown and Tasker that if Hines was healthy that was exactly their plan. He wasn't even coy about it. He did leave room for them taking a different view without Hines but I don't see any prospect of this regime doing a 180 on the value of STs any time soon. They believe in it and at least for the time you share a division with Belichick I think that is absolutely the right choice. Because he always will.

On Williams I think it was just some fans who don't really pay attention to the draft putting 2 and 2 together. Beane said right after they drafted him "he is mainly an outside guy." Those of us who watched his college film already knew that. It is similar to last year when we had a need for depth at outside receiver and drafted Shakir and Beane said "we think he can do both but he is primarily an inside guy" and we had people on here swearing blind he would be the next guy up outside. Then he played zero outside snaps in pre-season and still people were fixed on it. We had to wait exactly 2 weeks for those of us who said "the next guy up outside is Kumerow" to be proven correct. I think on what Beane says about players I put much more stock in that than coachspeak. Partly because GMs generally are talking in a different context and because Beane is honest to a fault (and I do mean to a fault). He struggles to play things close to his chest even when he should. So for now I believe them that Milano playing a quasi-MIKE is off the table. But I don't completely rule out the prospect that they re-consider it at some point in the season if nothing else works. I wasn't one of the ones strongly disagreeing with you on Klein. I think it is possible they can fashion a type of MLB role that Klein could play and give you a kinda tick below average semi-decent floor in terms of production. If you do that he isn't a liability by any means. But it isn't the role Edmunds played. He definitely can't do that and would be a major problem if you asked him to. Personally I think the most likely outcome is Dodson gets first crack at the job in the regular season. I think he is the one who best allows them to run their defense. But he is a major downgrade from Tremaine Edmunds and you'd need him to play at a significantly higher level than he has demonstrated to this point of his career to feel like you are "good" at that position.

Huh. That makes sense. I remain concerned about our backup situation.

I did consider the "they will plug Williams in at WILL and slide Milano into the middle" option and go with two undersized guys right after the draft. That is on record. Because I thought throughout the draft process that Williams was a WILL not a MIKE. But Beane immediately dismissed it as an idea. It wouldn't be my ideal look but I do think it might be the best way of maximising the talent they have at some stage. Dodson is a backup level talent and I am not sure Bernard belongs in the league.

I'd still say that.

I don't get super wound up by what sports coaches say to the media. It's all a game. And I say that as a former member of said media. Media members ask questions we know the answer to to try and elicit a headline for our story. Coaches give us stock answers we all know are half truths to try and prevent what one great soccer coach once described to me as "the fires of chaos" descending. It's a game. We know both times he owned it to the team and accepted accountability for his error. That is all that really matters.

He isn't too small to be a WILL.

It doesn't. But it isn't fair to say he can't play in the NFL.

Ha. I agree. I watched his college film and thought he was undraftable. But the rumour in the Bills building was Daboll was all about making sure people realised quite quickly and there was no danger of him being asked to polish a turd for more than a half. Of course it was McDermott's final decision. And he never shirked it at all. Both times he chose to start Peterman over other options he owned it and accepted the mistake. The 2018 mistake I do partly blame Beane for. His "wait out the first couple of days of FA and take the scraps" strategy resulted in our "true vet" option being AJ McCarron. Once it was apparent he sucked (no surprise) they were on to start Josh vs start Nate and I think what happened is they were trying to protect Josh rather than ask "who is the better guy?" But it should have been apparent to everyone in that building that Nate Peterman sucked. I can't think of a worse NFL QB who has started for multiple teams in my 20 years of watching the league.

Well I am telling you for a fact that Dennison lobbied for the 2017 switch. I don't know for definite what happened in 2018. I was told Daboll wanted to start Josh and there were people in the building who felt he intentionally exposed Peterman (rather than giving him a babying gameplan to hide his flaws) but that was from a far less reputable source then the Dennison information which I would stake my reputation on being true.

Is this referring to the benching of Tyrod in San Diego or the decision to start him week 1 of 2018? If the former then that DEFINITELY isn't true. It was actually Rick Dennison who initiated it. He was frustrated with Tyrod not running the scheme as designed and convinced McDermott that the offense would be more productive with someone who just "runs it as I call it." I believe it is true that the general feeling on the staff even then was "this is a mistake" but the offense had fallen into a bit of a hole with Tyrod and they went with it. I think it probably contributed to Dennison's firing after one year. McDermott owned the mistake, but the initiating of that decision was Rico. Equally I was told in 2018 that starting Peterman was 100% not Brian Daboll's doing, so if you meant that occasion you may well be right. There were even some in the building who think he called plays he knew Peterman couldn't complete in that first half in Baltimore to get Josh Allen on the field.

So I got 10 DL and 10 DBs but otherwise agree.

No

Think it is early to call that on Williams. A more legit criticism of that pick is that they knew when they drafted him he was a WILL in their system... and their current WILL is one of their best players. I think Williams has a chance to be an NFL player. Bernard, however..... I agree with your analysis.

I always forget about Doyle!

I agree.

I've heard him pretty much tell Brown and Tasker he doesn't think that. The Bills value special teams. Much more than fans do. Neal will be on the roster.

Neal will be on this roster. 100%