HappyDays

They don't need another slot. Shakir, Harty, and Sherfield all work better in the slot. Davis played in the slot some as a rookie. They need a legit X receiver to compete with Davis and at the very least have someone to take over the WR2 role when he inevitably walks next offseason.

They're apparently meeting with every WR except for Quentin Johnston. Smokescreen? The one WR they actually want to trade up for they aren't meeting?

Yeah those would be my targets as well. Either get the best pure pass catching TE or the best pure blocking TE. Knox is already our jack of all trades TE. Get a specialist to round out the group.

Our very own @Astrobot ranked the TEs by the number of contacts the Bills have had with them: Based on this list, if I had to guess our possible targets: Round 1: Dalton Kincaid Round 2: Darnell Washington Round 3(or 4?): Luke Schoonmaker

I could care less.

Beane has said before they will sometimes meet with prospects that they believe to be targets of our division rivals, to learn about the type of player we may be facing off against for a few years. JSN is a common selection of the Jets or Patriots in mock drafts. That was my first thought.

Another TE. Lock that position in somewhere in your mock drafts.

I doubt he'll fall to us and I'm happy about that. I'd rather someone else take on that injury risk. Hamstring issues and wide receivers don't go well together.

Wasn't Kevin White's problem injuries? He never really had a chance to develop and get his career off the ground.

We're doing a lot of work on TEs. It feels like a guarantee that we'll be drafting a TE2 at some point.

I appreciate you posting these. I watched the first two. The first one is from the '21/'22 season. The second one is from this past season. I didn't realize this until after watching them both. What I noticed is that he looked much more comfortable in the second one. Block shedding isn't great like the scouting reports say but it was better than the first video from the previous season. Overall his instincts in zone coverage look outstanding. I didn't see a single pass completed in his direction. So I see great instincts and progress from one year to the next. Most years he probably is a 2nd round player but in a weak draft bottom of the 1st round is reasonable value for him IMO.

They just traded up for a MLB in the 1st round five years ago. Maybe their philosophy has changed, but however much they value MLB every team needs at least a starting caliber player at the position. We don't currently have one unless Bernard or Spector make a huge leap. It's crazy to think they're just going to ignore the position.

That leaves Hopkins and Jeudy as the available players to ensure we don't enter the season with Davis as the locked in #2. Let's hope Beane makes it happen. I'm going to be pretty disappointed if our only offensive improvements are moderate upgrades to McKenzie, Kumerow, and Saffold.

Yes which was perplexing to say the least. But he was one of the best players on the field for our defense in both playoff games. His interception against the Dolphins arguably won us the game. There's no comparison between that and Bernard getting zero snaps for the last several games and then being inactive in the final game. Also however the coaching staff feels about Elam, the CB room is loaded. You could take any two of White, Benford, Jackson, and Elam and field at bare minimum a starting caliber CB pair. That is not the case with MLB. There is no surefire starting caliber MLB on the roster. You can't possibly disagree with this.

Ah I just saw that. Still two WR2 options available. I hope we get one of them unless we're somehow able to draft Quentin Johnston.

The issue is that there may not be good value for an offensive player at pick 27. The more I look at the draft, the more I see a front 7 player as the most likely value pick. Ideally I would love Quentin Johnston or Dalton Kincaid or Broderick Jones at our pick, I just don't think it's likely those players make it to us. I guess next you're looking at Jalin Hyatt as the most realistic offensive player to still be on the board for us who wouldn't be a huge reach, but I'm not even 100% confident he'll make it that far, and he isn't going to be a game changing player for anyone in his rookie year anyways. Anyways the draft isn't the only avenue to improving our offense. I still want to end up with Hopkins, Jeudy, or OBJ. I'm going to be upset if we enter the season with Davis as our locked in #2. So I share your angst about adding offensive firepower, I'm just not going into the draft expecting a low 1st round rookie to take our offense to that next level.

Yeah, the same coaching and front office staff that talked glowingly about Edmunds, and talked about him as if he was sure to be here for the long term. I remember people using those words to prove that Edmunds would be extended this offseason. Me, I paid attention to their actions, not their words. Their actions said that when they really liked a player they drafted or signed, they extended them at least a year early. Allen, White, Dawkins, Hyde. Once the beginning of the 2023 season came and Edmunds still wasn't extended, I knew the chances were dwindling. When we reached this offseason with the same result, I knew the chances were zero. Yet there were still people trying to say that Beane's past comments made an extension imminent. Actions, not words. So you're telling me that a player who was a healthy scratch in the last game of the season is their plan at MLB? And you believe this just because Beane said that the starting MLB might be on the roster? I don't care what he says. Their treatment of Bernard last year is all that I need to see. It's of course still possible they will sign a MLB stopgap. I'm not saying a MLB in the 1st round is the only avenue to filling that hole. But it is a hole without a current solution on the roster.

The worst part about the pick is that everyone at the time said it was a huge reach. It wasn't like Cody Ford where some thought he was a 1st round talent and no one felt that he was a reach when we drafted him. Bernard was supposed to be a 5th rounder. Completely whiffing on a 3rd rounder is annoying, but doing it on a 5th round talent makes it a lot worse. I think McDermott trusted his buddy Dave Aranda (Baylor head coach) too much on this one. I think Aranda told him that Bernard is a hard worker and a team leader, which combined with the sideline to sideline range on his tape made McDermott salivate. No way Bernard was the BPA when they took him. They went into the draft specificaly targeting him and drafted him early to make sure they got him. It was a bad process and a bad pick.

It isn't my opinion. It's the coaching staff's opinion. The real issue here is that you are only going to be happy with an offensive player in the 1st round so you are stretching to find any reason that a 1st round defensive player is a bad pick. But we need a MLB. It's a glaring hole and no way they are going to rely on the likes of Bernard and Spector to fill it. If one of them develops into a good player, that's great. But that can't and won't be the plan.

Ignoring everything we saw from him on film in his limited snaps, we can still conclude how the coaching staff feels about him based on his usage last year. After playing 98% of defensive snaps against the Jets in week 9, he played just 9 defensive snaps total over the next two games, and zero defensive snaps the rest of the season after that. And he was a healthy scratch in the divisional round against the Bengals. Zero chance this regime plans on starting a player that they totally lost faith in during the back half of his rookie season. Whatever Beane says in front of the media, the Bills starting MLB for 2023 is not on the roster right now.

Both these players are seen as centers only. That's an uninspiring 1st round pick IMO. The likes of Ryan Bates have shown to be capable plug and play starters at center. 1st round picks are for more valuable positions that aren't so easy to fill.