Chuck Wagon

Plus Matthews / Pumphrey / Smallwood add in Jeffery and Torrey Smith and Carson Wentz is certainly getting some help this offseason.

Bingo. It's got nothing to do with her being a woman, she's just not very good. She did NCAA Tournament games this year, made it feel minor league.

Is there an exemption list he can be placed on so we retain his rights if he has to serve the two years?

I'm surprised he wasn't drafted, I have to wonder if the change in eligibility was a driver behind him not getting picked. If he's cleared, this could be a really nice move as he has a real shot at making the roster. If the first 3 picks are day 1 starters, Rehkow takes the punter job and runs with it and we get ~5 guys who make the roster and contribute out of our later picks (not counting Peterman) and UDFA this will be a really nice draft class.

Basically, people who can talk themselves into this team making the playoffs regardless of what's on the roster (and are willing to give the franchise the benefit of the doubt time and time again) and those who believe it's past the point of putting too much faith in this team unless they find and develop a franchise QB. At least that's how I see it, maybe that's a little too blunt or dismissive.

I think he would be a very nice get for us if he could return to close to his pre-suspension level, however it seems this regime has no interest in players with a history like his.

Through his first 3 seasons he's played 77% of his potential games. Through Julio Jones first 3 seasons he played 71% of his games. But we need CBs who can tackle better than cover and WRs who never get hurt according to some fans.

They should trade him, the well is already poisoned from not picking up the option and not throwing him the ball.

Two words: Albert Haynesworth A lot goes into NFL success and whether or not that success will translate to a new team. Draft picks are cost controlled risks, but usually motivation and hunger are not issues. With FAs you always have to weigh if a guy was a product of the system, if you can recreate the situations for his success, if he'll still have the fight in him when he's getting paid or if you take a chance on a guy it's usually a short term deal while a draft pick gives you 3-4 years of a very cheap contributor. Unless it's a QB you take high, a draft pick isn't going to put your franchise in a major hole in regards to the cap. There's a risk/reward with both scenarios, but the ratio tends to favor draft picks over FAs.

If Floyd has his head straight I think he could really help, I think he's much better than Andre Holmes / Dez Lewis and gives us a big body receiver who would fit nicely in 3 WRs sets with Sammy / Zay, but it doesn't seem that McD has any interest in borderline off the field players. I like the pursuit of Barnidge and Boston. I'm curious what the Bengals price on Jeremy Hill would be, they just took Mixon high and Hill is in his walk year, he's pretty out of favor with the coaching staff, if we could snag him for a 7th he could be an interesting compliment to Shady if he regains his form. Daryl Washington is another questionable character guy I doubt we'd look at and I'm not sure the situation in Arizona but I think he'd fit the scheme if he could be had for cheap. I know. I just think it's funny when people say "do GMs actually care about comp picks?" and the best run organizations usually try to maximize their comp picks. I think FA is a suckers game for the most part anyway. It's one thing if you have the cap space to sign a guy like Gilmore who you are certain can be a major player in your system, it's something else when you have to carpet bomb the available players to fill out your roster. Yes, you'll occasionally run into a Zach Brown, but since you are making minimal risk moves to protect yourself you get no benefits of finding the player outside of a year or two before they are back in the market for much more money.

I think Green Bay, Pittsburgh, Baltimore and New England usually care....

I could see the OLine being better with the addition of Dawkins at RT, though there may be rookie growing pains. I could see the defensive line being better with a full season from Lawson and a focused season from Dareus and a return to the better fit of a 4-3. Everywhere else I think got worse or at best stayed the same: CBs - Gilmore to White - downgrade, NRC gone, depth is a ???? WRs - Woods to Jones - ???? could go either way, depth is another ??? LBs - Zach Brown to Ragland - downgrade, can the linebackers play McD's scheme? S - Graham & Williams to Hyde & Poyer (I'd feel better if we get Boston) - ???? Could go either way RB - Gillislee to ???? Yes, the coaching staff is bringing a more disciplined approach, but it's also a first time head coach and they are implementing a new offensive and defensive scheme, there are likely going to be growing pains. I don't think we'll go 2-14 (we never do), but it's a tough schedule with a lot of changes and a lot of questions, I can't see a legitimate playoff push right now.

Hindsight is wishing we had taken Tom Brady when he fell to the 6th round. The Chiefs valuing Mahomes enough to move up to get him and us deciding the picks were worth more than him isn't hindsight if he's great, it's the Chiefs doing a better job in evaluation than us.

Peterman is semi-irrelevant to the Mahomes trade. The trade boils down to 1) if Mahomes is a franchise QB and 2) we don't find a QB soon, it's an awful deal. If Mahomes busts out or we find a QB, it's a win for us. One could argue White is irrelevant as well, we had the 10th pick in the draft, it's not fair to look at White as "the 10th pick", but White isn't the additional piece we gained out of the deal.

They aren't purposely tanking, but if you see 9-10 wins on this schedule you are certainly an optimist.

I don't think their moves are very short sighted though. Cooks is only 2 years older than Zay Jones and very proven at the NFL level, they know what they are getting from him, which isn't true about any other WR available at 32, especially given their draft history at the position. Gilmore is the same age as Logan Ryan, it was either pay Ryan a lot of money, pay the much better player in Gilmore even more or put an inexperienced player in a key spot. Kony Ealy is 25 and the price to acquire him was pretty small. Gillislee is 26, has plenty of tread on the tires and graded out very highly with advanced stats. I see the offseason as less of "all in" and more of just shrewd business moves. They had available cap space, instead of hoping some rookies could step up and fill spots, they opted for some proven commodities in their prime. It's less of a "we've gotta win 1 more with Brady" and more of a "we are the best team in the league right now, we have cap space, let's not hope a 21 year old 3rd round pick can fill a key spot".

This. Add in the fact Brady is being paid more like a very good WR, not one of the best QBs in the league and it's clear the cap is not going to drive this decision for a couple of years. Do you have a source? I know the Browns are stingy with their picks now, but I would be very surprised if their purported pursuit of Jimmy G. was real that pick #12 (and change) was never on the table.

You do realize his name is Dak, not Zak, right?

The only teams I could see trading for him are the Browns and the Texans. Cleveland values draft picks more than their first born children and the Texans gave all their picks to Cleveland. If someone gets hurt in camp or preseason (prime teams would be Baltimore / Jacksonville / Arizona / Atlanta / Oakland) I could see a possibility of a deal opening up, but it would basically need to be a "Russell Wilson - Matt Flynn" type of deal with Peterman or Cardale before I could imagine McD and staff even beginning to consider the possibility. They aren't tanking for Darnold, McD is a smart dude, he knows the quickest way to lose the control he's landed would be a 2-14 type season out of the gate.

Off the 2015 team we've lost Woods, Mario, Aaron Williams, Corey Graham, Gillislee, Karlos Williams, Lawson, Gillmore and Robey, those are the headliners. All played significant roles in 2015 and/or 2016. We've replaced them with Shaq Lawson and Micah Hyde (neither have shown they are Mario or Williams/Graham good) and a whole bunch of bargain free agents and rookies, aka guys who are far from proven at the NFL level. AT BEST (and this is the most optimistic view on guys who haven't played a down) we are at equal talent of where we stood 2 years ago. At best. We certainly aren't more talented. We've either let a lot of proven talent walk or they've aged out, we are largely replacing that talent base with very unproven players, I think it's pretty easy for someone to say our talent has been eroding.

If Peterman is the starter we should trade Tyrod for anything and ask the Pats very nicely if we can have Gilmore back.

We are putting a lot of faith in a braintrust from a franchise that was a bit middling outside of one fantastic year from Cam.

Merchants of Hope

While Russ Brandon is still in the building or we make the playoffs, I'm not buying this new regime talk. The Bills as an organization have earned zero leeway with the fans at this point. This looks headed down the same road as our other top talent and I believe we'll see him playing for someone else soon with little to no compensation coming back to us. You can have all your blind faith in a "new regime", there's no more "fully pregnant" in my book.

Exactly. Except for half the season at the end of 2015 we've never fed him like a #1 WR. He missed 3 games that year, then 8 last year, when he still made it back at the end of the year for a failed playoff push. If the foot injury is chronic, it's one thing, but given that we are Buffalo, we've rarely done him favors with play calling and he's done his best to be available more often that not, I don't see why he should have any good faith towards us. I expect he'll play great this year, refuse to sign long term, force us to franchise him, then walk after 2018.