GunnerBill

Yea teams have worked out the format and manage themselves and it so carefully. I don't blame teams for that, it's just a reality. In the past even on the face of it not very interesting teams made for interesting Hard Knocks - I remember the Texans one where Hoyer and Mallet were battling for the job for example. Now I just think the teams all have their own in house mini-series - like the Bills have with Embedded - and they are used to how you put it together in a flattering way. I think it's hard for HBO to get to the interesting stuff.

Ha! Thanks. I thought that was it for some reason. Still the dullest one I've watched. And they have generally been getting duller in recent years.

Objectively the dullest season of Hard Knocks ever. And I knew they were not filming cuts, that was already out there per Beane but the ending was kind of abrupt as a result. That said I suspect this was just how the Bills wanted it. And for good reason.

Agree on Micah. Disagree on Love.

Yea then he got hurt in camp, spent his rookie year on IR during which time Dan Carpenter came in and had a great year so got extended. Hopkins got cut in his second camp.

Davidson had a torrid pre season. A punt in the final game makes no odds.

Suspect just oversight. Unless they named him to the PS yesterday and cut him today.

Hadn't spotted that, yea that's a shock to me. I liked him, I know @gonzo1105 liked him even more. I wonder what has happened there. Rare for a rebuilding team to cut a 5th rounder that same year without something going wrong.

Plodder. I kept telling people in the great Cook debate that the NFL is increasingly recognising plodding "bigger" or "physical" backs are basically useless in the modern NFL.

I called Latu over Davidson. Pleased with that. I know PS, sure, PS.... but I this is a strong looking group.

Meh. I think its a little disappointing given the hype. Doesn't mean it will look like that by the end of 2025. But for a class that hyped the rookie returns were underwhelming. Especially given we know WR is a position these days you can step in and have impact early.

Maybe. I certainly hope I'm wrong. I think Rapp is just about serviceable. I worry about Bishop's mental processing speed. Hamlin knows the playbook but is so athletically limited. I have hope for Hancock long term but he is a 5th round rookie.

I loved JoPo. I do think he is likely done. But I think our safety room is trash. Wouldn't shock me if he ended up on the field at some point.

As I said in the other thread though, even if Franklin is better than Lewis (and I know nothing at at all of Franklin so I have no view) Lewis was their best coverage teams player the entirety of last year. Losing one of your two best special teamers (it's Lewis and Gilliam) in order to bring in a better special teamer (if indeed Franklin is) might help, but it isn't going to help a ton if the aim here is strengthen special teams.

Can't disagree with your reasoning. I dunno I have always just got the sense McDermott loves him some Cam Lewis and he himself is also a core STer. So if the objective here is to make special teams better not sure losing Cam Lewis from the roster helps? Maybe they trade a receiver? But then can you really justify keeping TWELVE defensive backs?

Think this is absolutely fair. Nabers, BTJ and Ladd had great rookie years but given we were talking ten in the first two rounds it hasn't quite lived up. Interestingly Corley (who I thought at the time was way overdrafted, never a day two pick for me) was WR11 at the top of the third round. I know the regime has changed but to be on the outs by the end of your second camp....... wowzers.

Gotts be for one of the DBs. Hamlin, Lewis, maybe Ingram.

I still think SVPG is a possible cut when Grable is back as well. Anderson is safe. Any of the other backups could be the odd one out. Agree it is Carter and Solomon the likely Dline casualties though it DQ looks even more washed than last year then maybe... the other route they can is cutting a DB given how many they kept... if Bishop has nailed down the job might they feel more relaxed moving on from say a Damar Hamlin?

Been in the theatre.... I see Shavers made it. Do we think that means 6 receivers?

He earned it. Kudos

Yea I know it's a bad way to look at it in the big picture but that genuinely was one of the things I most liked about extending Cook.

Yea I defend AJ a bit as a player because he has been a kind of consistent rotational pass rusher the last 3 years and yet people still often talk about him like a bust which isn't fair. But the Bills drafted a guy and then asked him to completely change his body which wasted two years of his rookie deal and frankly even if he had been the player he has been the past three years for his full 5 year career it is still probably the absolute baseline for an acceptable 2nd round pick.

Carter is right on the bubble. It does still classify as a surprise give he is a 2nd year 3rd round pick.... but it could happen.

The Bill Belichick D was about size and run play at defensive tackle, big interior linebackers at the Will and the Mike, length at the outside backer positions (I mean by the end he was just drafting pretty much carbon copies of one another at that spot - Ronnie Perkins, Chase Winovich, Anfrenee Jennings - talk about physical prototype!) and then he liked really sticky aggressive corners and wasn't really bothered about size - he probably took as many smaller corners as big ones - and he liked safeties who were ball hawks, ideally who had played corner previously. He valued guys who played his way. Yes, he wanted smart football players, I don't dispute that at all. But he didn't draft coverage linebackers, he didn't draft 4-3 hand in the dirt defensive ends and he didn't big thumping safeties. They didn't suit his system he didn't draft them. You can choose not to believe it, that's your choice, but the Patriots had the smallest draft board in the league year after year after year. You had to be smart, you had to fit Bill's system and you had to love football. If you didn't tick all three boxes you were off the board - and that's before the normal injury and character red flags.

Some will. Some won't. For some there is that frustration borne of "just give me one" for others there is a more fundamental entitlement and a heavy dose of modern everything now culture.