msw2112

We had 6 wins and picked 9th, our promising rookie QB now has a year of experience, our OC's system has been in place a full year, we have vastly improved our roster through FA and the draft and we have arguably upgraded the coaching staff by replacing some of the weaker links, and have an easier schedule. Slating us to pick 4th (which means somewhere between 2 and 5 wins, at best) makes no sense and clearly shows a complete lack of homework done by the person who wrote the piece. My personal opinion is somewhere between 8 and 10 wins.

I honestly have not seen enough of Barkley to compare him to the other two. The Barkley that played against the Jests last year looked pretty good. I guess I would go with the poster above who said that Taylor is the perfect backup. Makes very few mistakes and keeps the ship steady while others try to win the game for you (running game, defense, special teams, etc.) If Taylor was on a squad, designated as the backup and accepting of this role, I'd go with him. If Taylor is competing to be the starter and lost the competition, then I would go with Barkely, who is very much accepting of the backup role. I LOVE Fitz as a guy, but he's just too inconsistent as a player. He plays like an NFL MVP (literally) for a few weeks in a row and the fan base gets all riled up, and then he reverts to absolutely terrible play. He's also a virtual lock for a fumble or INT on a late game drive in a close game. Of the 3, Fitz is definitely the guy I would most like to have a beer with or play a round of golf with.

Nobody really has any idea on how draft picks will work out until they step on the field. Some franchises seem to have a better track record of success (Ravens & Steelers, for example), but that could be as much due to solid organizational continuity and good coaching as much as anything. Even though they may really mean much, I'd still rather be hearing positive comments about the Bills' draft than negative ones, so I am pleased with what the pundits are saying about the Bills right now.

I understand the concept of going with proven vs. potential. That said, the Bills just got out of salary cap jail, so taking on ODB's huge contract could have been an albatross. Plus, he's not a fit for the Bills' culture (and apparently not for the Giants' either). And how much success did the Giants have with him leading the way? I said this in another post, but having huge star WRs had not proven to be the path to success in today's NFL. Neither the Rams nor the Pats had a really big name WR leading the way. Who was the Eagles' #1 WR last year? How many Super Bowls have been won by teams featuring Calvin Johnson, Julio Jones, OBJ, Dez Bryant, DeAndre Hopkins, AJ Green, Larry Fitzgerald, Antonio Brown, etc. Julio Jones and the Falcons ALMOST got one, but have not been able to sustain that level of success. I'm not trying to cherry pick, but these are some of the biggest names at WR in the NFL in recent years. Let's hope that in a couple of years, looking back, you will say "Although I would have taken that deal 100/100 times in April of 2019, I wouldn't do it now!"

I'm a Michigan grad and watch all of their games closely and Bush is excellent. I'd love to see him in a Bills uni, but we have greater needs than LB. I'd also avoid Gary. Even though I graduated long before Devin arrived on campus, I readily admit to loving Bush back then and still do today. Back then, it was much more en vogue.?

I've been a Directv subscriber and advocate for about 7 years, with Sunday Ticket being the primary driver. I'm an out of market Bills fan and family commitments don't allow me to go the sports bar to watch the games like I used to. Plus, I moved out west, so games start fairly early and I often have to record them and watch them later in the day. Directv has always been willing, with a little effort on my part, to negotiate discounts to keep my pricing fair. I learned about it quite a bit from this board. Since last summer, their customer service has been non-existent. My discounts have all expired, the price has gone up and they are unwilling to provide any relief. I'm not a fan of streaming (poor quality picture, intermittent feed, inability to record and watch later, violating someone's intellectual property rights, etc.), but I'm getting close to saying screw it and cutting the cord. I hope the NFL opts out and I can get NFL package elsewhere in the near future.

Green is a really good player, but WR stars don't seem to be the ones to take a team to the next level. OBJ hasn't led the Giants to the promised land, Calvin Johnson never led the Lions there, Julio Jones and the Falcons got close one year, but that's about it. The top WRs on last year's Super Bowl teams were Woods and Edelman (both good players, but not top WRs in the league). Green never got the Bengals past the 1st round of the playoffs. Thus, if he ends up with the Jests, I think we can live with that. If Darnold progresses and Bell plays as well as he did in Pittsburgh (highly unlikely), Green would make for a nice trio, but I'm still not fearing the Jests.

If forced to declare a Yes or No, I would say Yes. He's a good football player who is young, has shown improvement and contributes to the team. While the cost of the option is expensive, it's only 1 more year and the team has cap space, so it won't handcuff the team long-term. As many have mentioned, a longer-term deal at a lower annual rate might be the better way to go, and I'm fine with that route too. The bottom line is that not every player (even if they were drafted in the 1st round) is going to be an All-Pro, but there are plenty of good players who are not All-Pros but are valuable to have on your roster and you find a way to keep those guys. I believe Lawson is one of those guys. I guess I am agreeing with everyone, as I also agree that waiting to see how the draft and related trades pan out before making this decision is sensible.

If he didn't play for UB, I probably wouldn't even know who he is. I don't spend much time watching MAC football or tracking MAC players. Because he DID play for UB and the UB team was relevant the last couple of years, I saw him play several times and was able to develop an opinion that he is a raw but talented player who could be groomed to be a solid NFL backup. He's seem to fit best in an offense designed for a tall, athletic QB with a strong arm who can run well, but might not have the greatest accuracy in the world.

Hogan is a good NFL WR3. Since the time he left the Bills, our WR core has been horrible and he is better than most of the guys we had. At the time, it weakened our roster to lose him, and it sucked to lose him to a division rival. He was a solid contributor in NE and will likely be one in Carolina too. Not much to be overly excited about. I'd wish him luck, but a few posters indicated that the guy is a douche off the field, so I hope he flames out.

Tyree would be a good QB3 for the Bills. He's a developmental guy, has a similar build and skill set to Allen, and could develop behind Allen and Barkley. It seems odd to have both Barkley and Anderson on the roster. Anderson seems to be beyond his playing years, but has a good influence in the room. Perhaps he makes it through most of training camp, collecting various bonuses, etc. to make it worth his while, then is "released" and becomes an assistant QB coach/analyst, working with Daboll and Dorsey. That would leave room for a younger developmental guy like Tyree to hold down the QB3 spot behind Allen and Barkley. The other angle would be to keep the 2 veterans and try to stash a developmental guy on the Practice Squad. Obviously, you run the risk of losing the player to another team's active roster if you go that route.

I think Rosen has value. Last year, he was a rookie thrown into the fire on a terrible team with no running game, no viable WRs under the age of 34 and an offensive line that was awful (way worse that the Bills' line). He's a talented kid whose situation didn't give him much of an opportunity to show what he can do. He may ultimately have a better NFL career than Kyler Murray. All this said, perhaps the NFL personnel people don't agree with me and they certainly have not called for my opinion. If the Bills didn't have Allen, I would want them to pursue Rosen.

My introduction to Schein was his role as host of Inside the NFL on Showtime. I admit that I couldn't stand him. After reading this article, as a Buffalo fan, I am starting to change my opinion of the guy. Perhaps he is better as a writer than as a TV personality (where is kind of whiny and annoying). Anyone else see him on TV and agree? Just curious.

I don't know what this guy's full profile is, but most of us did stupid things as a teen that we may or may not have gotten caught doing that have zero impact on our character as adults. If anything, getting caught and punished may result in a person being MORE responsible as an adult. If a fight as teenager, prior to his college career, is the only mark on his record, I wouldn't be too concerned about it. It's the guys with repeated offenses, or really egrigous offenses that teams need to be wary of.

I live in Arizona and realize that Hurley has led ASU to the NCAA Tourney a couple of times. That said, he was an 11 seed both times and didn't get past the round of 64, which UB has done both of the years that Hurley got ASU to the Tournament. ASU might reach greater heights under Hurley, or this may be as good as it gets. Herb Sendek, who preceded Hurley, also had a few good years before it went downhill. I stand by my original point that sometimes leaving a mid-major program for a major conference job works out and sometimes it doesn't. The one thing that worked out for both Hurley and Oats was that they got a lot more money than they were at UB. Sometimes a coach, the players and a program just fit and work, and coaches lose that chemistry when they move on. I hope that the brand recognition and success had at UB under Hurley and Oats helps land another good coach who can keep the trajectory going. We'll see. And Go Bills, since this is a Bills forum....

They were in the play in game the first two years, losing it last year and winning it this year, before bowing out in the round of 64. UB advanced to the round of 32 both years. I'm not a Hurley or ASU fan (although I admit I liked the momentum that Hurley started at UB), so I'd wouldn't be disappointed if this is as good as it gets for them. We'll see.

I hate to see him go. He did a great job with the program. This is almost always what happens when a mid-major coach has a run of success. It's inevitable. I was holding out hope that Oats would like the city and school enough to stick around and try to build a mid-major powerhouse like Gonzaga (or Cincinnati or even Butler). I think he even mentioned that at the time he signed his extension. A cautionary tale for Oats is Don Monson. He had great success at Gonzaga, but decided to move to the Big 10 and took the Minnesota job. Since then, he has never had the kind of success he had at Gonzaga. He's gone from Minnesota and now at another mid-major in Long Beach State and not even sniffing the NCAA Tournament. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Monson Meanwhile, after Monson left, Gonzaga continued its run of success, which continues today. Mark Few, their current coach, had decided to stay there and enjoy the success, rather than jump to a Power-5 conference job and it has worked out well. Who knows - possibly Bobby Hurley will have a Don Monson-like career since he left UB for the Pac-12 and Arizona State.

I have yet to see an incorrect post in this thread!

Great analysis of what's out there. Appreciate the time and effort to put this together.

This is exactly what I was thinking. We have a decent starting trio (actually pretty good), but zero depth. Plus, Lorax is old and Milano now has some injury history, making the need for depth even greater.

We've "won the offseason" a few times before only to be disappointed when the season came. Let's hope it's different this time around. I'm pretty optimistic.

Miller played OK and showed some potential in the Rex/Roman/Lynn offense, but never seemed to fit in the McD/Dennison/Daboll offenses. Perhaps a change of scenery was best for all parties involved. If he fits the scheme, he could go on to have a good career as a solid NFL starter. It seems like Cincy overpaid a bit, but, then again, there's a reason they call them the Bungles. I'm glad that we're no longer the team that bungles every transaction. Good luck big John!

So we have improved!

My only issue with this is that RB is a position where late round picks or UDFAs can emerge and become stars. Some examples are Phillip Lindsey in Denver (just last year), Aaron Jones in Green Bay, Alvin Kamara in New Orleans and Arian Foster in Houston. Giving one of our RB roster spots to a 36 year old Gore may prevent that spot from being filled by a young guy who could emerge. With our current roster configuration, they HAVE TO let Ivory go if they decide to keep Gore. To give away TWO of those RB spots to aging vets well beyond their prime would make no sense, particularly when our starting RB is an aging vet who is past his prime . The 1 year, $2M contract is a non-issue given the Bills cap situation.

Clark is a good player and would be a nice add. I assume they are comfortable that the bad domestic violence issue he had a couple of years ago is completely in the past.