Logic

Benjamin Albright believes the Bills are thinking running back at 30. Thought that was interesting. He’s usually pretty plugged in. He was the most insistent national voice saying that the Bills were all in on Josh Allen, for instance.

Back in Marv Levy’s day, they’d sing a song for such an occasion: Hooray for Sean! Hooray at last! Hooray for Sean, He’s a horse’s ass! Its kind of mean, right? But that was the song! Truly. I’m not making this up. Today, in Sean’s honor, I will sharpen iron with more iron, practice a growth mindset, trust the process, watch the tape, and clap gratuitously. In all seriousness...coach is a great leader and a great man, and I’m thankful he is the head coach of my favorite team. Happy Birthday, coach.

Jackson seems like he's gonna sign a deal that's waaaay out of the Bills price range. I'm so irritated that the cap shrunk this year. I really feel that some of the edge rushers and corners on the market could have really helped the Bills, and we would have had roughly $30M instead of $5M when free agency started. Grrrrrr.

Agreed. Just not sure bills can afford it unless those players are willing to take very cheap deals.

Not sure if anyone has posted this yet. If not, I thought some might enjoy seeing it. It shows that Hollister is an incredible athlete for the position, but undersized. Good post. Serious question: why are there so many spaces and dot dot dots between your sentences?

I’m late to this thread, but: Draft. The Bills already have two elder statesmen and a bunch of money tied up in the d line. What they need is youth and juice. the future going forward needs to be Oliver, Epenesa, 2021 early EDGE draftee. And then in 2022, when the cap normalizes, cut Addison and draft ANOTHER youngster at edge.

Exactly right. The book on stopping Allen used to be one page long: play press-man coverage and blitz the hell out of him. Last year, Josh pretty quickly showed that he would dice that approach up easily. Crossers, comebacks, drags, scrambling. Diggs, Beasley being uncoverable 1-on-1. You wanna play man? Go right ahead. Good luck! Then everyone started putting two safeties deep and playing zone, and it took the Bills offense a while to adjust. They still did fairly well, as evidenced by their year-end point production and record. But you could tell it was more of a slog for them. They had to work much harder. Now they’ve added a third zone-beater, as you said. Further, Daboll’s Ehrhardt Perkins offense incorporates many option routes (which Beasley and Sanders also ran in June Jones’ SMU offense in college), which become nearly unstoppable so long as your WRs are making the right decisions. Sanders is apparently quite the smarty. All of this adds up to one simple conclusion: defenses are going to run out of ways to stop Josh Allen and the Bills offense. The theme for 2021 will be “pick your poison”. I have a feeling that no matter which poison defenses choose, they’re going to get stung no matter what.

He does indeed play special teams. Greg Tompsett of Cover 1 posted a chart of his snap counts on Twitter. I watched his highlights from the past two years, and the Seahawks sure seemed to use him similarly to how we used Gilliam.

I really liked this one. Got a dynamic EDGE, a mauling guard who can compete with Mongo, a CB2 candidate, a returner/gadget guy, developmental 1T, change of pace at running back, and a big nickel/ST ace. This would be the perfect draft, IMO.

Sounds like a trade for Evan Engram is the new speculation. The thought is that Rudolph’s addition to a crowded NYG TE room would’ve made Engram available. Beane and Giants GM Dave Gettelman have a good relationship. Alas, Frelund’s implication that said player is no longer available likely means a trade for Engram is off the table . And thus likely ends Tight End Watch 2021, at least for now.

Thanks for the reply. One point I think you’re overlooking is that they DID sign two free agents at key positions: right tackle and WLB. Had they let those players walk and instead signed an edge player or dynamic offensive player, then sure, they would improve in those areas, but they would then also need a starting tackle and a starting linebacker. Keeping Josh Allen upright and supplying him with weapons is priority one. You and I agree we’d like to see speed added, but no one can say with a straight face that they haven’t given Josh protection and weaponry. If they “only” bring back last year’s offense and add Sanders, well: last year’s offense scored the most points in team history! They scored more PPG than the vaunted Chiefs! So “just” returning that offense? Not so bad. If your position is that you wish they had let Milano and Williams walk and used the money elsewhere, that’s understandable. But in that case, you must at least acknowledge the possibility that losses in talent at right tackle and WLB might not have been easy to replace, and thus might have cancelled out any gains made elsewhere.

As Joe Marino pointed out in Twitter, the best chance the Bills have at significantly improving is for their young, highly drafted players to take a leap. We need more D-line production? Ed Oliver and AJ Epenesa could solve that. We need better run game production? Cody Ford and Moss and Singletary improving could sure give us a boost. More passing game production? Gabriel Davis and Dawson Knox progressing will certainly add to the arsenal. I’d like to see some more moves made, too. But at the end of the day, the Bills were 13-3 against a very tough schedule last year, and they have young players at key positions whose progression could significantly improve the team as a whole. With the money they had to spend this year, I’m just not sure what huge difference makers they realistically could’ve afforded that would push them ahead of the Chiefs. We need our young, premium draft pick players to progress. Oliver, Epenesa, and Edmunds having breakout years alone could be the difference.

I hope you’re right. I’m a Knox believer. I’m a big fan of his. The only problem is that hope is not a strategy. If Knox DOESN’T take a third year leap (or, say, gets injured), then the cupboard is pretty bare at tight end at a time when the Bills championship window is wide open. I just want more talent added to the room. I also think that adding an effective in-line TE would free Knox up to be more of a move TE/matchup nightmare chess piece. Knox can break out AND the Bills can add talent at the position. It’s not “either/or”, it’s “Yes, and...”.

I totally forgot about Zimmer! Dude was balling out at times last year. Watching him chase Tyreek Hill 50 yards downfield was an out of body experience.

Allen, Gentry, Hollister. It’s official: We’re re-creating the 2016 Wyoming Cowboys. I’m guessing our old BBMB friend WYO is a big fan of the move!

I suggest everyone read this: https://www.si.com/nfl/seahawks/.amp/gm-report/seahawks-2021-free-agent-primer-jacob-hollister?__twitter_impression=true *Edit: I see Hapless already quoted this article. I still suggest giving the whole thing a read. Hollister is a move tight end/H-back type. Can play all over the formation. He could be Kroft’s replacement, but he also very well may be GILLIAM’S replacement.

Why? Bills like to go to camp 4-5 deep at TE. Hopefully they still plan to add one or two more players there.

6’4”, 245 LBs. 27 years old. Played with Allen at Wyoming. As long as this isn’t the only move at tight end, I support it. He looks like a younger, cheaper Kroft replacement. Knox, Hollister, Sweeney isn’t enough. I hope they still try to acquire Ertz or draft a guy.

I also think Diggs will put up less catches and yardage than last year, because Sanders and Davis (and hopefully a tight end or two) will eat into his target share. Not a bad thing. Just means the Bills offense will be more balanced and have more mouths worth feeding!

I agree. I think he winds up with a higher QB rating, but less yards and TDs. Still a great year, but less statistically impressive because the Bills run the ball with more success. 4,400 yards passing 33 TDs 9 INTs 370 yards rushing 7 TDs

Bills scouts have met with several such players already, apparently. Dazz Newsome, Jaelon Darden, and D’wayne Eskridge are some that I know of that the Bills have shown interest in. They may well be looking to fill the returner/gadget role via cheap draft labor.

I’ll grant you the former, but you’re only guessing at the latter.

I hope the Bills sign Cordarelle Patterson. KR, PR, RB, Gadget WR. Roster spot efficiency.

I feel bad for Josh Rosen. If Allen is the prime example of “being drafted into the right situation”, Rosen has to be the exact opposite. I wonder what would’ve happened with Rosen if he had been drafted by a good team into a stable structure, and had actually been given protection and weapons and had a coach that believed in him. And to think, I was actually disappointed on draft night when the Bills took Allen instead of Rosen. 😳