HappyDays

Not sure how ready Keon will be to have a full time role in the offense from day one, but sounds like he'll immediately be a red zone weapon if nothing else.

Apparently Hamlin/Rapp is the #1 safety duo today, with Edwards/Bishop as the #2 duo.

He reportedly has strep throat, not an injury.

That's what we did in past years, I assume we'll be doing the same this year. I'll start a new thread each day if @Simon is good with that.

Including Milano. Great news.

Your argument is that they have added offensive players to the roster? That is damning with faint praise. This is the bare minimum that was needed to field even a starting caliber offense. Again it has been shown, in this thread even, that the Bills have invested as little draft capital in the WR position as any other team. That is an undeniable fact. You can be more optimistic about the group than others but you can't pretend the Bills have made an attempt to prioritize the position relative to the rest of the league.

Joe Marino's take for anyone who cares: He spends most of the episode talking about Josh Allen. For a large portion in the middle he specifically discusses the Bills' success with Allen compared to the Chiefs' success with Mahomes. I'm admittedly biased because he echoes everything I've ever said on this topic, but it's amazing how just straightforward and obvious some of his points are when you hear them out loud. Like you can't reasonably disagree with anything he says.

The complaint is not about any one specific factor. The complaint is that since 2021 the team has not made surrounding Josh Allen with as much offensive talent as possible the singular priority and focus of the organization. Quite the opposite in fact. It has been shown that they have invested in the position less than 30 teams. Even if you want to count Kincaid as a WR we still would rank much lower than just about every other franchise. They have not made a serious attempt to lead the franchise to glory by taking the easiest path which is giving their most important asset the most support possible. This is pretty much undeniable no matter how you want to look at it.

There is one position you conspicuously didn't mention here. Hint: it's mentioned in the subject title of the thread.

So just to be clear - you recognize that the team (and yourself) made a mistake assuming the best case scenario for each of their WRs, and assuming a perfectly linear uptick from their targets to their yards. Yet you are now extremely confident that players like Shakir and Samuel are in fact going to do that same thing you were wrong about before? Sounds like you already understand exactly why most of us are concerned. You're just deciding to believe in the best case scenario. Which is fine, clearly that is part of your definition of "being a fan" (as you've openly admitted). I just don't understand why you're pretending like your opinion is in any way convincing or supported by evidence to people that are trying to evaluate the room objectively. If you want to just say "I'm choosing to be optimistic and wait to see what happens before being concerned," by all means feel free to do that. It just makes for a poor discussion.

Thanks. We were talking about Daquan Jones and AJ Epenesa.

Good, now we're getting somewhere. Now you're understanding that it isn't a matter of affordability, it's a matter of choice. To answer your question - yes, unequivocally. I'm still waiting for a single defensive lineman to make a difference in a post-wildcard playoff game. Hopkins I know for a fact would be a difference maker. The Chiefs made a mistake not signing him, this was obvious by the midpoint of their season. We have an owner more willing to spend money than the Hunts so it is a bigger black mark on our FO than it is on theirs.

We have $10M in cap space right now. Daquan Jones + Epenesa + MVS is another $9M right there. Plenty of other moves that could be made too. Don't say it wasn't affordable. The Bills intentionally chose to prioritize other positions over Hopkins. That's the simple reality. They tried signing Arik Armstead to the same money Jacksonville gave him. The pattern is obvious and nobody is going to take you seriously if you don't even acknowledge it.

I don't blame Dawkins at all. Chris Jones lined up 1v1 in the 4Q against 95% of offensive linemen is an immediate advantage to the defense. I just have no clue how that 1v1 matchup was allowed to happen. I think all other 31 coaching staffs wouldn't let their opponent's best pass rusher end up 1v1 on the most critical play of the game. Ours did. So here we are having to pretend that turning down TDs is somehow an arguable decision.

Right so your response to that was extremely predictable and shows that you didn't ask that question in good faith. For the record, yes we obviously could have afforded Hopkins, at the expense of other players of course. But we chose to prioritize other positions instead. Which is the whole point of this conversation. We have repeatedly prioritized other positions over WR and it has repeatedly cost us. Imagine if Hopkins was in Sherfield's spot against the Chiefs. Think that might have made a difference? Ah but for you that example doesn't count. Because of reasons.

DeAndre Hopkins

You're right. He got a record breaking contract because of his target share. No other reason. If Shakir was in that offense he'd be a $100 million man right now. Contracts in the NFL mean basically nothing and it's all luck of the draw.

I predict that no WR on the Bills will get over 100 targets (Kincaid I predict will get right around 100 targets). ARSB has gotten 119, 146, and 164 targets in each year of his career. Respectfully you using him as a comparison was just plain dumb. Shakir and Samuel are not as good as him, I'm sorry they just aren't. There is no magic solution wherein we just funnel one of them 150 targets and watch them collect 1,500 yards like ARSB had last year. Players EARN that kind of target share by consistently getting open and/or showing they can consistently win contested catches. I expect our passing attempts overall to be lower than usual this year. I'll predict 515 attempts which is about 4 less attempts per game than recent years. I'm with @BADOLBILZ that we will probably have a more ball control offense that runs the ball more and intentionally prolongs drives. I expect we will have to play this style of offense for the same reason we did against the Chiefs in the divisional round - it's what our caliber of pass catchers will necessitate. Your whole argument is just bad statistics. You're assuming an equal number of pass attempts. You're assuming everyone's yards per target will scale up perfectly with increased targets. Overall you're assuming every single best case scenario, and when called out on this your response is that we're bad fans because we're not blindly optimistic. This response by the way tells on itself - you're admitting you don't actually believe any of the things you're saying, it's apparently just part of "being a fan" for you.

Every discussion of Shakir's targets and yards reminds me of this:

What's the number one predictor of targets in your view? Because he literally told the Commanders he didn't want the job.