GunnerBill

Zane Anderson and Siran Neal do not play the same position on special teams. So, no.

He is our starting gunner opposite Taiwan Jones. They have been the best gunner tandem in football the past 3 seasons. I would be stunned if they cut him.

He is fantastic against zone. Struggles a bit when pressed at the line. I think you saw some of that in the match ups vs Slay and the Eagles. Don't get me wrong he is a good player and he will continue to ascend I'm sure. But the things I saw on tape that made him a high 2nd rather than a 1st on my board were still there in the NFL.

Fair. Although I have no interest in monetising my opinions with the NFL. It is a hobby. I don't want to do it for my career.

Yea I don't buy you either win it all or everything is failure. Of course the target should be winning it all. But it takes so much coming together to produce a Superbowl Champion. Including lady luck shining on you at key moments.

I think Simpson is more naturally talented and has the higher ceiling but he only really played off the ball his last year in college and to transition to an NFL MLB in a 4-3 is going to be a process and no sure bet. If I was a 3-4 team I'd take him and play him as a WILL and feel more comfortable. But he has the skillset that Beane and McDermott seem to want from their MLB. Campbell to me is a guy who go back 15 years would be a slam dunk first round pick. He tested a bit better than I expected at the combine and might still sneak into the 1st, but I worry about him in a scheme that asks him to do a lot of lateral stuff. I think if the Bills draft him to play MLB then what they are getting is really a younger, more athletic AJ Klein type who you need to use as they used Klein when he filled in - going vertically as much as possible and attacking the line of scrimmage.

Trade down definitely plausible. Makes sense to me to go down out of the 1st and then potentially up in some later rounds to focus on targets rather than just letting this mediocre class fall as it may. I think on Torrence the type of guard they have signed in FA makes me even more of the view he isn't a fit here. The Bills have flip flopped a bit on the style if linemen they like over the years but it makes little sense to me to sign McGovern and then draft Torrence because they are built for very different styles of offense.

Got a very, very small chance of that in this class.

They didn't think he was good enough. The second part was about roster makeup not money.

Is it? A guy who the evidence (both subjective and analytical) show gets open, who is 3rd in the league behind only the best two tight ends in football in touchdowns the past 2 seasons? I mean I think it is all but a certainty that throwing to that guy more might be a good idea.

Yea fully healthy isn't the issue. Does he play like he is scared to commit as he did last year? If so he is the worst value player on the roster. If we get the old Tre back he is one of the best 4 players on the roster. At the moment it feels 50/50 to me. We will still win the East as long as Josh is healthy. We are still the best team. I am very confident of that. But we are further away from a Superbowl than we felt a year ago. It sucks that 2022 was so injury affected because it really was the optimum year to do it. That said, a year ago lots were predicting a down year of sorts for KC but they nailed another draft their 2nd year players took another step and they ended up winning it all. So while I agree the offseason has been uninspiring thus far I am not pressing the panic button yet.

And it is actually one of the stronger position groups in this uninspiring class. I think they take a shot somewhere mid rounds... 3 through 5...

You think they are going to sign another free agent slot receiver and pay them more than $2m in 2023? I don't. They might sign an outside guy (I ***** hope they do) but that is irrelevant.

On para 1 - Beasley was washed. That wasn't about McKenzie over Beasley. It was Beasley being done. And everything we have seen since in Tampa and Buffalo confirms Beane got that right. Then they had to ask how do we fill the gap and they gave themselves 3 options, a guy they knew in Isaiah who they thought might step up, a cheap vet as a high floor option in Crowder and a draft pick - Shakir. McKenzie proved the best of the 3 because he won the job in camp, then Crowder broke down and Shakir really started slow and struggled to separate despite playing a 3rd of the offensive snaps. On para 2 - Oliver is one of the best players on the Bills defense and the games he was healthy for this year he jumped off the screen week after week if you know what you are watching. His play in that Minnesota, Cleveland, Detroit run was exceptional. Now he was beat up a lot last year and he hasn't been consistent enough for a top 10 pick but he is absolutely worth the money he is getting on the option this year. However, if they could trade him for an offensive piece I am for that as I am not sure he is worth the $$s that he will likely get in FA - similar to Edmunds. I wouldn't trade him for picks in this draft because this draft sucks and you won't be able to fill the hole with an equivalent player. Para 3 - I don't understand what you are saying? Is this players you think they have given too much time to or not enough? They didn't because they already have their 2nd slot on the roster a player they invested a draft pick on last April.

Believed he was not good enough to be on the roster - correct. That is my point. This is about is Isaiah McKenzie good enough to be our starting slot. And the answer was no, they wanted to upgrade. It wasn't about cost per production. It was about thst primary question - is he our guy.

No, he isn't Kelce or Andrews. Nor is he paid like he is. The top 4 tight ends in football are Kelce, Kittle, Andrews and (if he can get back post injury and trade) Waller. That is the elite tier. Dawson Knox is neither in that nor paid like he is in that. He is in the next tier though. The Dallas Goedert, Dalton Schultz, Hunter Henry tier. And the numbers don't lie... he is the least targeted of any of those guys despite the analytics and the tape showing very clearly he is getting open at a very high rate (top 5 separation in the NFL). The only reason you don't think Dawson Knox isn't worth that money is because Dorsey and/or Josh can't find a way to get him the ball or because you can't let go of 10 drops as a rookie. Or possibly because you haven't actually looked at the tight end market.

It might not have changed. Doesn't make it true.

I watch 8-10 games a week every week of the regular season. I watch the condensed game versions (about 45 minutes but show every play) on my commute. Each year there are a few teams I get to the end of the season and have barely watched but most teams in the NFL I have a pretty good feel for and could name like 17 or 18 of their starting lineup and tell you what I think of their play. So I feel like I have a pretty good base fron which to judge strength of rosters and players across the league.

They structured McKenzie's contract in a very specific way last spring for a reason. The two options were he did enough as the starting slot in 2022 to be here in 2023 and if that was the case his money went up. Or he didn't and they would have to upgrade and in that scenario the contract was escapable. The only scenarion in which he was back in 2023 was as the starting slot. Once it was clear that wasn't the case he was going to be gone. And they planned for that last spring. So, sure they didn't think he was worth his 2023 hit as a backup. But the question was always about starter status not value for money. The money was secondary.

I don't hate PFF or their gradings. I am not a "it's meaningless" merchant and have defended them on here before. They are not everything and sure you get some inconsistency game to game but over a season what they end up with in a lot of cases supports what my eyes tell me and so I tend to believe that there is something in that and it is at least worth consideration so long as you don't make it the basis for everything. And what I would say is re-order those centers by pass block grade only. Morse is 10th. Yea he sucks as a run blocker. He kinda always has. To be honest on this team I don't really care about that. I think Morse actually had a pretty decent season in 2022. He was better than 2021 for certain. His play only picked up in the playoffs in 2021. The Bills do need a succession plan though. He is one bad head knock away from being done.

The problem is you did that facts thing. This is a thread for feelings. And boy do we have a lot of feelings around here. No. They though they had upgraded. That is different.

Maybe it is medicals but I am also surprised he is out there. He was the #1 FA guard on the market to me. If his market isn't what he expected maybe he would take a 1 year prove it deal on a good team and try and double dip next year? Hope the Bills are at least checking in.

No. The NFL thinks that.

I didn't have a 1st on Dotson either. And his rookie year was a tape filled demonstration of why.

Thing is even a 1st or 2nd rounder in this class should be discounted by 1. If they pick a WR round 1, they got a round 2 talent. If they pick a WR round 2 they almost definitely got a round 3 talent.