HappyDays

Re-signing your own never gets you closer. But Shakir is the only pass catcher we have that is clearly part of the core of the team. If we were dealing with a Ja'Marr Chase situation then it's an easy decision to let him walk, but in an offense where very little money is being spent on skill positions it's a luxury we can afford IMO.

Benford doesn't have a "history of scary concussions." He has two concussions in his entire career, both of which happened in successive weeks. I don't see that as evidence that he is concussion prone. I see it as evidence that the Bills medical staff (with the blessing of the NFL) rushed a player through the concussion protocol for an important game. In retrospect I feel guilty for hoping he would clear it and play. No way he should have been back on the field so soon, but he'll be fine for the long term.

A lot of fans are taking the wrong message away from our loss and the Eagles Super Bowl win. My concern is that Beane is one of those fans.

So you feel good entering the season with Worthy as your presumed #1?

This is what boggles my mind. Last offseaon there were a bunch of videos like this. And already early in the offseason he is working with a private WR coach taking no time off. And like I said I had heard he has a good work ethic which is part of why I liked him as a prospect. So what happened after his injury? The comments from Beane and McDermott indicate that he didn't put enough effort into his rehab. He went from being a player that had a video clip of his physical dominance in Seattle go viral, to a player that was getting pushed around by small Trent McDuffie. I really just don't understand it but hopefully he'll get his upwards trajectory back on track after a focused offseason.

They haven't made made a concerted effort to really invest at the position. Last year's draft and FA class was a prime year to really rebuild the room and they blew it. The last time they made a real effort was the 2019 and 2020 offseasons, and unsurprisingly that resulted in the best passing offense of Allen's career. But since 2020 they have neglected the position more than any team in the NFL and now here we are with just three WRs on the roster and zero that can definitely start outside. I keep waiting for Beane to learn his lesson but he hasn't. He let the pipeline run dry after 2020, handed Gabe Davis a role he wasn't worthy of, then took just one WR in a historically good class despite losing the top 2 from the year prior. One of these offseasons he is going to have to sacrifice the DeWayne Carters and Austin Johnsons of the NFL world and just over-invest in the WR position to get it right. And after it's in a great spot, keep investing. And then invest some more.

It finished a few minutes ago.

Major takeaways - Cook and the Bills are not close in their discussions. Beane saying directly they "aren't on the same page" is telling. Von is 100% going to be cut as expected.

It's unheard of for Beane to come out and say directly to the media "we aren't on the same page" with a player's contract expectations. This quote is telling.

At least with Coleman there was a two game stretch before his injury where he flashed his potential. Bishop never flashed at all.

You know what I'm happy with this. I had been leaning towards not re-signing him because of positional value. But that is a very fair AAV and I can't complain about investing in the passing offense. He's only 25 years old too so there is still some upside there, and he's got established chemistry with Allen. Good work Beane.

I would bet Coleman was the biggest catalyst to firing Eric Ciano. Maybe they felt he had gotten too comfortable in the position and the conditioning had gotten too lax. Or if nothing else send a message to the players that people lose their jobs when you don't put in the work.

I liked Coleman as a prospect not for the player he is, but for the player I thought he could be. Part of my evaluation was that I had heard he had a strong work ethic and a desire to cash in to help his family (which I consider a positive trait). With his physical tools that was a very appealing package for me. This comment from McDermott makes me more nervous than anything about his performance: I'll criticize McDermott when warranted but I can't criticize him for these comments. Ultimately it IS on Coleman to take the next step. We have this conversation a lot about Josh Allen. Many on here give McDermott and Daboll credit for developing him. I don't. They laid the foundation of culture but Allen himself had to put in the countless hours of work to transform himself as a player. With Coleman I take the same view. Nobody on the Bills can force him to put in the hours. It's a neverending grind and many extremely talented players have failed to reach their potential because they didn't fully commit to it. I hope all of these comments from McDermott and Beane this offseason are because they know Coleman has that fire inside of him and they are trying to kindle it. If they had no hope for him at all they probably wouldn't be so direct.

That's exactly right. Cooper's production ended up being disappointing for what we gave up for him, but it was still a trade that HAD to be made and had a measureable effect on the passing offense. Any other take is revisionist history. We had zero legit boundary threats until he walked in the door. And we have zero legit boundary threats on the roster right now. Hopefully Coleman can become one but you don't count on that. This time around let's get that WR on the roster in March instead of waiting for a forced desperation trade in October.

We are much closer to fulfilling the first strategy. Probably two legit pass catchers away. The second strategy we are a legit pass rusher, a legit 1-tech, and two legit secondary players away, not to mention better coaching. I've laid out my thoughts elsewhere but I'm still not convinced we are one elite pass rusher away from getting over the hump.

In the game that Davis didn't play in?

He would be an average QB (and that's without accounting for the likelihood of him missing games) on a slightly below average roster with zero stars. I don't think it's disrespectful to say we aren't a playoff team with him. Competing for a top 5 draft pick? Probably not if he actually plays every game.

Right and that's missing the playoffs if one of those losses is to Miami. Miami who had to a play joke QBs for a quarter of their season would have gotten in over us. That's how important Allen was this year. On the Colts game - it's hard to quantify this stuff sometimes. The one TD drive we had from backed up against our own goalline was all because of Allen. Punting from that spot on the field very well may have lost us that game. And there are other games too where the final score is lopsided but the entire complexion of the game changes early on because of plays he makes.

Games we lose with Tua at QB: Cardinals Away Jets Home Dolphins Chiefs Lions I think good chance we lose the Colts game too, but we probably would win the away Pats game if we needed it so I'll call that a wash. At a minimum that's 5 extra losses putting us at 8-9 and Miami at 9-8 because of their extra win over us. So no I think we definitely miss the playoffs with Tua this year.

Wow I would hate that. I have no clue what Joe Buscaglia was thinking. Douglas fell off big time this year and isn't getting any younger.

We're probably going to pay Benford this offseason or next so we can't be breaking the bank for our CB2. I would treat CB like WR - ideally you want your #1 on a big contract that he's earned and your #2 on a rookie deal. We've made just one significant draft investment there since 2017 and obviously Elam turned out to be a massive bust so we have to try again. Best case scenario is a cheap vet competing with a rookie drafted relatively high. Save the big cap investments for WR, DL, and safety.

I've been saying a cheap vet like Jonathan Jones makes sense but Dane Jackson makes even more sense given his familiarity with the scheme. And then ideally one of our first 3 picks will be a CB who would compete with him for the job.

This is looking more and more like a holdout situation.

Better but still not good enough. Which is telling. Just about every Super Bowl participant of the last 7 years or so has had a clear #1 pass catcher. Most of them had a very strong #2 option as well. KC of the past two years is really the only exception with Kelce on the decline. No matter the cost Beane has to find that answer.

I've said I would like Beane to be willing to take more risks in the 1st round. Medical concerns, character concerns, anything that causes an elite talent to fall down the board unless it's completely beyond the pale. We need more elite talent and that probably means taking some risks on players that don't check every single box we look for.