HappyDays

Cutting the fat was as much about bloated salaries as it was about age. I criticized the DQ signing for being too expensive for an older player. This signing however is probably vet minimum for a roster bubble player. Save your energy for moves that are worth thinking about. This one is a blip on the transaction wire. If it means Beane isn't reaching for a DT in the 1st round, all the better.

Beane is like a college kid who spent years overdrafting his credit card and now is finally forced to make smart spending decisions. Let's hope it's a long term lesson and not just a short term change out of necessity.

Sure but the goal isn't to have a passing offense that's described as "not struggling." The goal is to have the most productive passing offense in the league, one capable of simply blowing other teams out of the water and steamrolling its way to a #1 seed. Considering our annual abysmal defensive performance in the playoffs, that caliber of offense is the only way we're going to sniff a Super Bowl. And let's be honest. The offensive cast as it stands right now is not at that caliber. It's good enough to be a top 5 passing offense like it always is under Josh Allen, but it's still an entire tier short of where it needs to be to get over the hump.

No, I see him as more of a slot at the next level. His skill set is too redundant for what we already have on the roster for my liking. I want someone with physical traits, top end size/strength or speed or both.

Thomas, Franklin, Coleman, Legette, Mitchell, Worthy.

I don't think so. Beane called Samuel a "weapon" when asked about him and alluded to his early days in Carolina when he was a hybrid RB/WR. I think they see him as the much better version of McKenzie/Harty. Clearly they value that role, they just haven't been able to get it right yet. Throwing a lot of money at Samuel is a way of them finally getting that role figured out once and for all. It won't preclude them from drafting a true outside WR high in the draft.

All of us have our preferences for which WR we want. For me it's Franklin, Coleman, or Legette in no particular order. But if it helps, I'm not as tied to the specific player as I am to the position. I just want a projected X WR. If we take Mitchell for example he isn't my preference but I would still be happy that we followed the right process and wait to see how he develops as a player.

I'm at a point where I would still take the WR in this scenario, or at least trade down with someone that is eager to take the pass rusher or whatever position is sticking out as BPA, and then take a WR at the lower pick. I'm looking at it almost like a team that still needs a QB, not quite to the same level of course but the same idea - take a WR even if they're not quite the highest graded player on your board. The WR position is too important and we have invested less resources into it than probably every other team in the league over the past 5 years. In a draft class like this I really can't find any excuse to pass up on the opportunity.

What are you on about? I didn't respond because your post went all over the place and I decided we had each said our side and that was that. But sure I'll respond to your callout. Perhaps you don't realize that two things can be true at once? In this case, really three things: 1) 1st round WRs are much more likely to turn into 1,000 yard WRs. 2) WRs that play with elite QBs are much more likely to turn into 1,000 yards. 3) This WR draft class in particular is strong in the top 50 picks. That is my whole point. Because of these three statements all being (inarguably) true, the most likely valuable thing the Bills can do in this draft is pick a WR in the 1st round. I'll let you have the last word. Don't waste it.

Honestly really happy for him. I didn't think a team would give him this kind of money right now. I hope he makes us regret cutting him.

Adam Thielen got 1,000 yards last year, at the age of 33, playing in a hilariously awful passing offense. It really isn't that hard, especially when you have an elite QB throwing you the ball. The Bills just haven't made a serious effort to get a 1,000 yard caliber WR since 2020. By putting together that list of other WRs you're completely missing my point. In our offense with our QB a 1st round WR is most likely to end up being a high impact high value pick. If you draft them to a team led by Sam Howell or Mason Rudolph, probably not. @Kirby Jacksonsaid it best in another thread. If we are going to win a Super Bowl, it will be because of Josh Allen. Not because of our DL rotation. We have to start doing everything we can to maximize Allen's abilities on the field because his career will be gone before we know it. You do that by adding weapons when the opportunity is there. If this 1st round class doesn't represent that kind of opportunity, none of them ever will. FWIW I believe Beane knows this. He can go on McAfee and make a big show about how he's going to wait to take deeper position groups (like WR) later in the draft. His actions tell me otherwise. He called Curtis Samuel a "weapon," not a WR. He hasn't added a legitimate outside WR in FA. He didn't restructure Diggs' contract. They've met with all of the 2nd tier WR prospects. All of this evidence points to him drafting a WR high with the intention of them being our future #1.

My point pertains to this draft. Most drafts won't have this many high quality WR prospects available at the end of the 1st round. I'm not criticizing the Rousseau pick in that particular draft, I'm saying that if we took a Rousseau equivalent while passing on say a Kincaid equivalent we would ultimately be disappointed. And in this draft class specifically there are going to be WRs taken somewhere between 28 and 60 that become high impact starters. I know this almost with complete certainty. I am not nearly as certain that a pass rusher or any other position on defense is going to have a high impact starter taken in that range in the draft.

So to be clear, I'm not guaranteeing that any WR we draft in the 1st round will be a 1,000+ yard WR. There is obviously a chance they will be a complete and utter bust. That is the risk of any pick. My point is that if you assume you end up decently happy with the 1st round pick - not a bust, not a superstar, just a solid overall 1st round pick - if that player is a WR their impact is likely to be higher than any other position. Ideally a WR we take in the 1st round would get 1,500+ yards in a season at some point, but a good baseline for a decent value pick in that spot would be 1,000 yards by their sophomore season. I'll use Kincaid and Rousseau as examples. Kincaid had a solid rookie season. No one would say he set the league on fire. But that solid rookie season translated into franchise records, a clear measurable impact on the offense, and a TD in a playoff game. Rousseau on the other hand has been a solid player since entering the league. I haven't felt that kind of impact from him yet. His playoff highlight was grazing Mahomes' shoulder on a play that ended in a 1st down. To maximize the likelihood that the 1st round pick will have a measurably high impact on the team, it has to be a WR. Playing in an offense with Allen and a decent mix of supporting talent means their floor will be higher than any other position we can take.

Part of being a good GM is understanding your own weaknesses. I hope Beane understands that his board is not infallible. Which is no slight against him - nobody's draft board ends up being even close to right when all is said and done. If you're right even 50% of the time you're one of the best to have ever done it. All the talk about BPA assumes there is some kind of objective BPA. But of course there isn't one. So Beane should make the pick that is most likely to have a high impact ceiling on the team. Any WR he takes that turns out even just a decent 1st round pick will end up being a 1,000+ yard WR. Just like Kincaid ended up breaking franchise records. So drafting what he thinks is the best WR available is hitting the easy button on maximizing the 1st round pick. Drafting, say, Chop Robinson is hitting the hard button. That pick isn't likely to have the impact of a 1,000 yard WR. Do the easy thing. Get the franchise a likely win out of our 1st round pick.

Sure there is some luck involved, but when one defense is doubling the production of another there is almost certainly something else going on.

The only thing I hate about this is the NFL keeps bouncing back and forth between special teams barely mattering at all and special teams suddenly being very important. It's hard to construct a roster when you don't even know what will be important on a year to year basis.

Don't you think coaching plays into turnovers? In six playoff games against division winners we have forced just 4 turnovers since McDermott became the head coach (0.67 per game). Since Spagnuolo became their DC the Chiefs in ten playoff games against division winners have forced 14 in the same time frame (1.4 per game). No way that discrepancy is just because of talent, right? We have had talented defenses. The Chiefs only recently made it a point to invest in the defense and immediately it became the strength of the team, carrying them to a Super Bowl

But that was a team built through its defense. I mean Duke freaking Williams was our #1 pass catching target in that game. We had 3 below average starters on the line in Ford, Feliciano, and Spain. On defense the entire starting roster was on the field. White, Milano, Edmunds, Oliver, Lotulelei, Hyde, Poyer, Johnson. Many of those players in their prime. That was supposed to be the unit that led us to victory, not a still learning Josh Allen and his below average supporting cast. And you say teams can't win playoff games scoring 16 points and getting shut out in the 2nd half. The Chiefs just won the AFCCG scoring 17 points and getting shut out in the 2nd half. Against a better offense than what the Texans fielded in 2019. Their team like our 2019 Bills was built through the defense, with a deficit of talent on the offensive side (although still vastly superior to what we fielded in 2019). Why was Spagnuolo able to make that formula work and McDermott wasn't?

I was one that wanted McDermott gone this offseason but it's time to move on. He's our coach this year love it or hate it. I'll criticize him plenty in September and beyond, I just don't have it in me to care what he says in response to vapid questions at press conferences in March.

I'll have to see what the contract looks like. If they're giving him like $10M per year I'll say they overpaid him, but I doubt he'll get that much at this stage of his career. I see him being the WR version of Jadveon Clowney for the rest of his career, hopping from team to team on mid-tier 1 year deals. So if they're giving him say $8M this year what are they missing out on instead? Wilkins and Hunt were walking no matter what. The 2nd tier FA market was pretty light at their positions of need, while the WR market was flush with talent. So why not build strength on strength, if that's where the market value lies?

This is a positive, not a negative. I never understood this mindset. If OBJ is their 3rd best WR I hesitate to even call that a good problem to have because it isn't a problem. Loading up on offensive talent has been by far the most common way teams have made championship runs in recent years, so I'm never going to criticize a team that already has a lot of offensive talent for adding more talent on top. Not that this move makes me worried about the Dolphins. They have holes all over the defense. And they are still stuck with Tua. At this point I'm just wondering if they're actually going to commit to him long term... Fingers crossed that they do.

I know my opinion of him is in the minority. I just don't think his package of skills comes together to create a true #1 WR in the NFL. As an explosive role player I absolutely think he has a place in the league. But that projection isn't a 1st round caliber talent for me. However if he quickly develops his route tree I will be wrong about him.

I would even consider him a lesser prospect than Metcalf. I loved Metcalf and would have been equally happy with him or Oliver at #9. Metcalf had downfield traits AND alpha traits. That's what separates him from BTJ for me. BTJ seemingly just has an elite release and very good vertical speed. But if he can't win contested catches or highpoint the ball or bully through contact, how useful will such a limited route tree be? Metcalf had the same one-trick pony profile but I felt that his physical abilities complemented that one trick a lot better. BTJ has size but he doesn't really use it, and his hands and YAC ability are average at best.

Diggs is the only WR on the roster that can be a full time outside WR. Whether they are looking for his replacement or not, finding an outside WR is an absolute must early in this draft. Short term need, long term need, positional value, draft class positional strength. All of the ingredients are there. Beane just needs to do the easy thing and capitalize on it.

I don't know much about the player, but I'm glad they are waiting until the end of the second wave of FA to sign depth DL players like this, instead of their previous MO of agreeing to terms with players like Tim Settle on day one of the legal tampering period. This year Beane still made that mistake with a couple players that were on our roster in 2023, but finally stopped himself from making that mistake with other teams' UFAs. Baby steps.