Nihilarian

The Bills chose to re sign Croom, they have 2nd year players in Dawson Knox, Tommy Sweeny. Along with Tyler Croft who was hurt a lot last season and lastly Lee Smith who is a tackle in disguise. Obviously the Bills FO must feel like they already have a decent TE corps in place over going after Hooper who the Cleveland Browns made the highest paid TE in the league. From Atlanta, they thought that while Hooper was one of Matt Ryan's main targets in that offense, he wasn't a "game changer". The Falcons reportedly want to get back to running more with a blocking TE and already have WRs Julio Jones, Calvin Ridley. Plus, they traded a 2nd round pick to the Ravens for TE Hyden Hurst, who is a former 1st round pick. As for Eric Ebron... bleh. They guy was shut down last season due to surgery on both ankles. The Steelers signed him somewhat cheap, but with his injury history he is a big risk. Not to mention he isn't all that great a blocker. My thoughts are that this FO thinks Knox will develop into a top TE. JMO

Idle hands... or crack pipe?

As someone else mentioned the offensive line needs to really, really improve to do anything once in the playoffs. Last season the Bills played a lot of bad teams and had a pretty easy schedule. Then when you think that the Buffalo Bills offensive line only graded 21st which is still the bottom third of the league after all those upgrades. Four of five players replaced and the leagues highest paid center. What would it take to get this line into the top ten? This FO needs to make a real commitment to upgrading the entire line. The Colts went #1 pick OG and #2 pick OG in 2018 and that line went from 25th in 2018 to #3 in 2019. An OG with the #6th pick overall went against so many norms and yet Quinton Nelson graded as the best OG in the entire league last season. A pro bowler at LG in Richie Incognito helped the 2017 Buffalo Bills grade at #7 overall. Cordy Glenn only played in 6 games before Dawkins moved over from RT and that was with Jordan Mills moving to RT, Eric Wood at C, Vlad Ducasse at RG. Kinda crazy right? Two bums at RG, RT, an all pro at LG a should be all pro at C, and a rookie at LT in Dawkins that played like a top five tackle. Looking at this, the key might be to find an "all pro" for the left guard position which should help both the center and left tackle. Not an easy task though. While Spain graded as average it might have been a bad move to not resign crazy town Incognito who went on to have a very good season with the Raiders. The Raiders graded at 15th. "While Incognito allowed only nine pressures in 414 snaps. Out of those 12 combined pressures, only one was a sack and one was a quarterback hit — with the other 10 being hurries. " https://www.pff.com/news/pro-ranking-all-32-offensive-lines-from-the-2017-nfl-season

That was really only against some of the better defenses, teams. Eagles owned the Bills on both sides of the line and the Ravens D was even worse against the Bills O line. The Ravens accomplished that by 55%-65% blitzing and when they saw that Allen couldn't hit the deep ball to defeat that blitz, it intensified. The Patriots were another team that the Bills had trouble with in stopping their run and getting to Brady. The Browns game could have been a win had the Bills simply run the ball more often to counter the #2 pass rusher at that time in Miles Garrett who didn't get a ton of sacks but was able to pressure Allen with 4 pressures, 2 harries, 2 sacks. It could be that the Bills FO simply thinks that the line needed more continuity of playing together and while that could be true. There were times in many games in which the Bills failed to run effectively when most needed. While getting a major overhaul of talent to that line from 2018 to 2019 didn't actually improve their overall grade that much as that 2018 line graded at 26th. Which is being kind to a unit that looked like crap most of the season. Now take into account that the 2019 season saw a rather weak schedule. LT Dion Dawkins had the overall best grade which graded him as the 24th best LT. Morse, Feliciano graded average while Spain and Ford both graded below average. Ty Nsekhe only graded below Dawkins. Now, you would think that with all the upgrades to that line it would have graded better than 21st. Clearly the weak link was at RT with the rookie. I guess we will need to wait for the draft to see if the Bills make moves to upgrade the line again this year. I'm thinking RT, OG.

Exactly! This wasn't two first round picks and a fourth for an unknown college player... and once Sammy started playing in the NFL he has been like a glass toy, always injured and needing repair. Sammy Watkins was drafted 4th overall and a draft pick that high is considered a blue chip, can't miss player. Watkins had one 1000 yard season in his six seasons in the NFL, never an all pro, never been to a pro bowl. Just to put this into perspective, Julio Jones was the 6th overall player in the 2011 draft with 7, 1000 yard seasons, 7 time pro bowler, 2 time all pro. Diggs is coming off back to back 1000 yard seasons with a catch percentage 68.4%, 11% better than Watkins. Also better than Brown 62.6% and Beasley 63.2. Many have stated that they think Diggs is better than Amari Cooper. I tend to agree!

WR Antonio Brown was one that I didn't mention and that was another big loss that wasn't replaced. Think about how crafty Ole Bill has been to be able to keep that team in contention for a SB for nearly 20 years while building a #1 defense and paying for everyone. I think they both said enough of this... I agree.

It is quite odd that Brady waiting until the day after the Bills announce the trade for Diggs that Brady makes his announcement that he won't be back in New England. I think there is a direct relation to Brady not having enough weapons at receiver in New England. It was noted that Brady kept in touch with WR Antonio Brown until very recently. JMHO

I agree. Remember that Ole Bill used to look for those top WR's for Brady like Randy Moss, Wes Welker from the Dolphins, Troy Brown, Dion Branch, Chris Hogan, Brandon Cooks, Josh Gordon...and the Patriots did draft N'Keal Harry with their #1 pick in 2019 and he spent the season injured. Didn't even try for Greg Olsen. Brady recently lost Gronk with no real replacement and it was known the Patriots were after John Brown and Cole Beasley that ended up in Buffalo. I think Brady looked at the Patriots roster and said wtf do I throw to as a WR besides Edelman? Their other leading receiver was RB James White and Sanu did squat. I also think that seeing Diggs go to Buffalo was the very last straw and its almost like Belichick didn't do enough to secure some top WR talent on purpose to get Brady out by himself. He wanted Jimmy G and the teams owner said no, so they traded him. This might have been Belichicks way of moving on. It's also not like the Patriots don't have options, Cam Newton, Jameis Winston, Andy Dalton or draft a rookie.

https://www.buffalorumblings.com/2020/3/19/21187185/report-mutual-interest-between-buffalo-bills-melvin-gordon-2020-nfl-free-agency-news-rumors This might be more credible. The Bills have spoken with Gordon’s agency.

https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2020/03/19/report-melvin-gordon-has-no-offers-close-to-the-one-he-turned-down-in-2019/ Now he’s a free agent, and not only is he still not getting the offer he wants, but he’s not even getting an offer as good as what the Chargers offered last year.

In McD's first season as Bills HC he went defense, CB with that #1 pick in 2017. Even when he went QB, #7 overall with that 2018 first round draft pick he still went #16 overall on an ILBer. 2019 it was #9 overall a DT for the defense. Three years, three defensive first round picks. There is no question that the 2020 #22 overall went to the Vikings for WR Stefon Diggs. I don't see the Bills giving up the farm to move up into the first round this year...but hey, ya never know. What do they still need, Edge rusher, RB, RT, RG? You have to think that this scouting staff missed on a #2, #37 overall in WR Zay Jones. They missed on a #3, #7 for Kelvin Benjamin. Diggs is a sure fire home run this year and he is just coming into his prime. 17.9 yards per catch puts him at #4 with a 12.0 yards per target. Precise route runner that can out juke any DB out of his cleats and will get separation. Remember that Texans playoff game or the Ravens games where the Bills receivers were covered like blankets? Having to double Diggs will make the other Bills receivers better. I've read quite a lot that many consider Diggs better than Amari Cooper. The Bills got a receiver away from a team that really didn't want to trade him.

Why? If you have a player that can get the separation needed and can out juke any DB out of their cleats. Diggs will make the Bills entire receiver corps because they will be trying to double him to no avail.

Looking back at this scouting staff thinking that Zay Jones was worth a #2 pick, #37 overall. That Kelvin Benjamin was worth a #3 & 7th round picks in trade. I'm not saying that I'm not 100% certain that they could find a talent in this years draft like Diggs at #22 that could make the instant impact Diggs will make this season. Texans HC Bill O'Brian had better know receiver talent to replace DeAndre Hopkins in this draft. Beane doesn't need to find that rare, special WR talent in the draft as he just traded for him, as this kid is only 26 and is a proven talent.

17th best receiver in 2019, 63 receptions, 94 targets 1130 yards, 6 TD's. 67.0 catch percentage. Diggs averaged 17.9 yards per reception which was 4th best. Diggs was by far the Vikings best receiver in 2019 6.0, 191 lbs Gotta love it!

Its not fabricated at all. I was just pointing out one scenario, one game. By your standards the Bills should have gone pass happy all game against Dallas and lost it. They didn't, they won! By your accounts the only time the Bills should run is when they have the lead. In actuality that's about what the current lame brained Bills OC does most times. If the Bills have a lead he utilizes the run game and when behind in the score even by 3 points he goes pass happy with an inexperienced QB. I noticed you ignored the Texans game when the Bills had the lead and still kept passing. Perhaps it's time you went back to playing with your legos...

Your argument is laughable. Out of the ESPN list of 46 NFL teams rushers only Lamar Jackson, Kyler Murray, Josh Allen, Deshaun Watson are QB's. It makes no sense to take away a RBs yards when talking about the teams RB's yards for the season. You pointed out that Buffalo was 6th in rushing attempts and I pointed out that without those rushes from the QB the Bills were 31st in the NFL in rushing attempts. Meaning that the Bills OC didn't call for that many rushes by the RB's during the season. That's my point! I also pointed out that teams that go pass happy are usually down by more then a few points and more like down a few TDs. All those losses for the Bills were close games save the Eagles game and there was no need to give up on the run game at all in those games. Especially when Singletary was averaging 5.0 yards per carry or more. Made no sense! This Bills OC attempts to make Allen the focal point of the offense like he has an experienced veteran QB under center and Allen is simply not there yet. Even then, teams like the Falcons, Packers, Saints and so many others that have established franchise QB's need to have a dependable run game to lean on. Patriots loss, 6 pts Browns loss, 3 pts Ravens loss, 7 pts Patriots loss, 7 pts Texans playoff loss, 3 pts Against the Texans the Bills had a 3 score lead and still kept passing the ball when they clearly should have been running it. Lastly, go back and watch that Dallas Cowboys game on Thanksgiving to see the Cowboys drove right down the field on the opening series and scored a TD. By your account the Bills should have gone pass happy because they didn't have the lead. Instead the Bills ran the ball 34 times and passed it 25 times. With the support of a good run game QB Josh Allen had the best game of his NFL career going 19 of 24 for 231 yards with a Rate of 120.7. NOW, that's my point!

Really? The Bills were up 16 points against the Texans with 9:59 in the 3rd quarter and that drive ended up with a field goal. (Speaking of field goals the Bills were in the Texans red zone five times and ended up with four FGs and one TD.) Its up to the Bills OC to make the offensive run game work. Anyway, shouldn't the emphasis be on pounding the rock to eat the clock and play keep away from the Texans when you have the lead? Instead the OC kept calling for pass plays which caused sacks, fumbles. The Ravens game was a 17-24 loss and its not like the Bills were getting blown out and needed to throw to catch up. The problem in this game was that the Bills OC called for some deeps passes to negate that cover zero blitz by the Ravens and when those plays didn't connect it caused the Ravens to step up their pass rush on Allen. The Ravens went from their normal 50% blitzing to 65%-80%. This when the Bills run game with Singletary was working to the tune of 5.2 yards per carry. The Bills OC had no answer for that ferocious Ravens blitz and just kept asking Allen to throw. Utterly moronic and the result on a very mobile QB was six sacks on Allen. The Bills receivers weren't getting separation against that Ravens defense too. The first Patriots game was a 10-16 loss. Another game in which the Bills get down by one score and go pass happy like they were down by 20 points. The Bills run game was working with Gore 17 rushes for 109 yards and yet the Bills ran only 22 times while throwing it 44 times. In all those big games there was no reason why the Bills needed to throw that much when the run game was working. Daboll did the same thing against Cleveland a 16-19 loss. Over the coarse of the season when the Bills ran the ball more than they threw it they usually won. The only game that got out of hand was the Eagles game as all the rest were close. And my point doesn't fall on its face when you realize that the Bills QB had 109 attempts for 510 yards, 9 TDs. Take away those QB attempts and the Bills had 356 rush attempts which puts them tied for 31st in the NFL.

Yet, they are the result of mistakes. I believe the talent level on the current roster could have won more than 10 games with such an easy schedule in 2019. AND could have gone further in the playoffs too. The 2019 Buffalo Bills defense was of championship caliber and the offense let them down in many games. The buck stops with the Buffalo offensive coordinator to make things work! The Buffalo run game was often underutilized in most of the big games they played against strong opponents. First New England game, Buffalo offense, 22 rushes, 44 passes. Eagles, Bills offense 20 rushes, 34 passes. Ravens, Buffalo offense 23 rushes, 39 passes. Second Patriots game Buffalo offense 23 rushes, 26 passes. Texans playoff game, Buffalo offense 30 rushes, 48 passes. Go back and review each game. Patriots game, Frank Gore 17 carries for 109 yards a 6.4 YPC avg and yet asked that inexperienced QB to throw 44 times. Eagles game, Devin Singletary 3 rushes for 19 yards a 6.3 YPC avg. Gore 9 carries for 34 yards a 3.8 YPC avg. Allen 34 passing attempts. Ravens game, Singletary 17 rushes for 89 yards a 5.2 YPC avg. Gore 4 rushes for 6 yards a 1.5 YPC avg. Allen 39 passing attempts. Patriots game, Singletary 15 rushes for 46 yards a 3.1 YPC avg. Allen 7 rushes for 43 yards a 6.1 YPC avg. Allen 26 passing attempts. Texans game, Singletary 13 rushes for 58 yards a 4.5 YPC avg. Allen 9 carries for 92 yards a 10.2 YPC avg. Gore 8 rushes for 22 yards a 2.8 YPC avg. Allen, 46 passing attempts. It's evident to me that had the Bills worked that run game with Singletary more often against strong opponents with top defenses they would have fared much better over asking that young, inexperienced QB to throw so often into the teeth of pass rushes. The Bills worked that run game against other opponents with great success, against Dallas 34 rushes, Pittsburgh 38 rushes. The teams the Bills had more rushes vs passes they usually won all those games. Yes, Josh Allen's completion percentage improved from 52.8 in 2018 to 58.8 in 2019. Allen's completion percentage could have been much, much better had he not been thrown to the wolves in those four huge games. This was all on the offensive coaching in my view. Where was the ingenuity, discipline to make that offense work, run game, passing game, red zone offense besides the QB taking it on himself to score by running it in. The offense with far, far to many penalties. I don't expect a pigs ear will suddenly turn into a silk purse with some upgrades to the offense, WR, RB, O line. Another old adage, a leopard can't change their spots. Buffalo Bills OC Brian Daboll will continue to be the weak link in the offense. He has never fielded a passing offense better than 23rd and I doubt he ever will.

It wasn't just having Peterman and Allen as the ONLY Buffalo Bills QB's going into the 2018 season opener as that Buffalo Bills offensive line was literally godawful to ask two inexperienced QB's to start behind. That 2018 offensive line was graded at 26th and the only player who looked half way decent was Wyatt Teller who started in the last half of the 2018 season allowing the fewest pressures during that time. Teller was traded to the Browns because while he was decent at pass blocking he was a poor run blocker. Let's also recall McD hiring an ex-WR coach coach to be the new QB coach in 2018. He was then replaced by an actual QB coach in Ken Dorsey who is the current Buffalo QB coach. So, looking back at that 2018 season those two inexperienced QB's started the season with (1) no viable QB coach, (2) no veteran QB on the roster to teach them the ropes, (3) an absolutely horrid offensive line. (4) A WR corps who consisted of the top two targets in WR Zay Jones had 102 targets, caught 56 balls for a 54.9% catch percentage. WR Kelvin Benjamin who was traded for by giving up a 3rd round pick had 62 targets, caught 23 balls for a 37.1% catch percentage. In my view the ONLY reason the 2018 Buffalo Bills went 6-10 was because QB Josh Allen emerged as an unbelievable talent in running when the O line broke down...which was quite often! To put that talent into perspective, starting Bills RB LeSean McCoy had 161 rush attempts for 561 yards, 3 TD's. Josh Allen 89 rush attempts for 631 yards, 8 TD's. Allen was so good at running the ball that the new Bills OC decided to install designed QB run plays to help make his offense work...and the reality was the Buffalo Bills offense stunk, 30th in points, 30th in yards. As it was the 2018 Buffalo Bills passing offense was 31st in passing yards, 32nd in passing TDs. Bills OC Brian Daboll took credit for that rookie QB's incredible running/escape-ability! Fast forward to 2019 and the Buffalo offense was still ranked 23rd in points, 24th in yards, 26th in passing yards, 24th in passing TDs. This after replacing almost the entire starting offensive line save LT Dion Dawkins, the starting WR corps with new WR's Cole Beasley, John Brown. This season QB Josh Allen had even more rushing attempts 109, for 510 yards and 9 rushing TD's. Lastly, I would expect this regime to upgrade the Bills offensive line even more in the draft as they showed little improvement over that 2018 line against the better teams played, Eagles, Patriots, Ravens. Those Bills line players, line coach should have worn bags over their heads after that Ravens game in allowing 6 sacks on Allen and a Ravens defense that upped their normal 50% blitz package to over 65% against the Bills. That Ravens D allowed Buffalo a measly 3.1 yards per play. Josh Allen had 39 pass attempts in that Ravens game and 22 incompletions. Against those pass attempts the Ravens sent four or fewer pass rushers on just 5 of those 22 QB unsuccessful drop backs- a near 80% blitz rate. The Bills had no answer for it. The buck stops with the Bills OC it finding ways to make things work. Clearly the Bills should have worked the run game more often with Devin Singletary in which he was averaging 5.2 yards per carry. Gore had 4 carries for 6 yards a 1.5 YPC avg. (This game should have been a clue that Gore was done) Talking about needing improvement, that game also showed that the Bills need an upgrade at WR too. Because both Beasley and Brown were covered like blankets in that game and showed very little separation. (Same old routes, routine? The players or the coaches?) As others have pointed out, I had honestly hoped that Bills OC Brian Daboll would have been replaced by someone who has shown the ability to have success as an NFL offensive coordinator. In his six seasons as an NFL coordinator the man has never had an offense better 23rd in passing yards. Bills fans want to make the case for continuity and yet if something isn't working very well, why keep doing it? Like asking Allen to throw 39 times into a heavy blitz when the run game was working with Singletary. JMHO.

The reality is that if those run plays for TD's by the QB were designed that way, it might be somewhat fine. The thing is, you don't want the franchise QB running the ball unless there is no other option. Go back and re watch the games only to see that the Bills RB's were usually stuffed in the red zone. For the 2019 season Devin Singletary had 23 looks in the red zone and ended up with only two rushing TD's! Frank Gore had 26 red zone looks and ended up with two rushing TD's! This tells me that the Bills run game is not fine...and in fact was bad considering some of the crappy teams they played in 2019. The Bills O line needs upgrades. Apparently you missed my point about the Bills RB's perspective vs other teams RB's. In 2019 Green Bay went 13-3 mostly because instead of relying on Aaron Rodgers arm like they did in 2018 when they went 6-9-1, a season in which no GB RB had 1000 yards rushing. Last season the Packers doubled up on Aaron Jones carries to the tune of 236 attempts for 1084 yards, 16 rushing TD's. The GB stout run game took a lot of pressure off of Rodgers to carry the team on his arm and it helped immensely. From what I saw in 2019 for the Buffalo Bills is that Singletary wasn't used nearly enough as he averaged a 5.1 yard per carry a rush during the regular season. Frank Gore was over used in the first half of the season and he faded big time in the second half. That Texan's playoff game Gore had 8 carries for 22 yards, a 2.8 YPC avg, which is pathetic! He shouldn't have even been in the game IMO. In that same game Singletary had 13 rushes for a 4.5 YPC avg and he should have seen the ball far more than 13 rushes. Meanwhile, Josh Allen had 46 passing attempts when the Bills should have been pounding the rock to play keep away.

I'll bark that the Bills talent level was not above average in 2019. The O line graded slightly better over the 2018 mess and was still in the 20's. The receiver corps was smaller and yet other teams with smurfs did well because those receivers actually got separation. Against the Ravens, Patriots they just couldn't get separation. The 2019 Buffalo Bills played quite a few weak/bad teams. Jets 2x, Dolphins 2x, Bengals, Giants, Redskins, Broncos, Steelers with Duck Hodges at QB. That's nine bad teams and they only scored more than 20 points in six games. Against the better teams the Bills didn't do all that well, Ravens, Patriots 2x, Eagles and it was in these games that the Bills had no answer for the blitz and were literally dominated on both side of the ball against the 9-7 NFC EAST winning Eagles. The 2020 Buffalo Bills schedule looks to be much more difficult. This regime had better upgrade both lines, the pass rush, the receiver corps and make use of the RBs much more often. Last season Singletary was vastly underutilized quite often and when the Bills ran the ball more they usually won. The 2019 Buffalo run game was bolstered by the QB who had 510 yards rushing and 9 TDs. Both Gore and Singletary only had two rushing TDs each which is really kinda sad. To put this in perspective the better RBs had 8-16. Even LeSean McCoy with 101 rush attempts had 4 rushing TDs. The reality is that the Bills had better learn how to score with the run game in the red zone in 2020.

The Buffalo HC is a defensive minded guy and he tends to think that way. Last season the Bills lost DT Kyle Williams and replaced him with DT Ed Oliver. This season they lose LBer #57 and locker room leader Lorax. I can see them drafting a LBer in the first round. Lorax will be missed as both a LBer who saw 495 snaps, 47.78% and as a special teamer who saw 56.76 snaps. However, CPS sports lists the guy as the 38th best prospect and the 5th best edge player in the draft. If this is the case they might be better off selecting a WR with that #1 and trading up into the second to get this edge rusher. Kinda way to early to be thinking who the Bills are looking at right now though.

From what I can recall the Bills were ordered to pay Phillips by the NFL and yet Wilson still refused to pay him. Not long ago Wade was asked about it and stated he was never paid by the Buffalo Bills for the remainder of his contact. I do believe that Phillips threatened to sue, but never did.

I get that everyone wants to put the QB under a microscope to watch every bad play he made...Instead lets look at the offensive line. How about we go back and look at that Eagles game to see that the Bills offensive line play wasn't very good and almost every position on that Bills O line was dominated by an Eagle player. I can recall hearing that center Mitch Morse was getting owned in this game. I also see that this years Bills line while improved over that very bad 2018 line it was still graded in the 20's for 2019. This Bills offensive line still needs upgrades and Dion Dawkins had the best grade. There were far, far to many penalties this season as they were 26th worst in NFL penalties with 146 total flags For some reason in that Eagles game the Bills OC decided that Gore should get most of the initial carries and he played the entire first half while Singletary had no carries, Gore 7 carries 20 yards in the first half. Gore finished the game 9 rushes for 34 yards, 1 TD. 3.8 YPC Singletary finished the game 3 rushes for 19 yards, 1 TD 6.3 YPC. Allen had 12 passes, 7 runs in that first half. The Bills O line wasn't very good against the Patriots 2x, Ravens and Eagles. Only four rushing TD's for the Bills RB's all season. This needs to change for Allen to keep improving.