Logic

Yeah. I've read for three rounds running now how Beane is a fool, first for passing on Melifonwu in the 1st round, then for passing on him again in the 2nd round, then for passing on him again in the 3rd. Lo and behold, he didn't go until the late compensatory section of the 3rd round. People's refusal to back down from their draft crushes is weird sometimes.

I just want to fast forward to the Rousseau vs Brown one-on-ones at training camp this summer.

Yeah. The Super Bowl showed us the value of good tackle depth.

I feel much better about our tackle depth now, I'll tell you that. We were one Dion Dawkins or Daryl Williams injury away from entrusting Josh Allen's health to Bobby Hart before this pick. That's all I'm gonna say.

It's fun to open toys on Christmas morning, but sometimes what you really NEED is a pair of socks and a sweater. This is a "pair of socks and a sweater" kind of year.

Holy *****. I've never seen someone with a "10" RAS before. He ranked NUMBER ONE out of 1143 OT prospects in RAS between 1987 and 2021 😯

I don't think he said it definitively like it would always happen. I believe the exact quote was "he'll start at end, but you'll see him reduce down to the interior on 3rd down". It IS where he got his most sack production at Miami. 🤷‍♂️ I don't care where guys line up on the DL, so long as they get to the QB. Sack is a sack.

I would just like to point out that our new EDGE tandem are called... Boogie and Groot. I'm not sure what else you want out of life.

Basham sure seems like it. Lots of boards have him between 30th and 36th overall. I'm not so sure they came into today saying "we're gonna take another edge". But then they saw Basham sticking out like a sore thumb, and that was that.

If you need to comfort yourself about back-to-back edge rushers, here's what I suggest: Go watch the AFC Championship Game and the Super Bowl back to back. Then crack a beer, smile, and get excited to see Groot and Boogie destroy Mahomes

Beane: "I'm telling you, we draft Best Player Available, we draft with the future in mind, and we don't draft for need" Fans: "Yeah, Beane, we know. It's all good. We trust you!" Beane: "We're taking edge rushers back to back in rounds 1 and 2" Fans: "WHAT? WHY?! This is ridiculous! It doesn't make any sense! We had bigger immediate needs! Rabble Rabble"

This dude ranked 2nd on Bruce Feldman's "Freaks List" https://theathletic.com/1938659/2020/07/21/bruce-feldmans-freaks-list-2019-college-football-top-athletic-performances-2/ 2. Carlos Basham Jr., Wake Forest, defensive end Freakiest attribute: Pick one One of the best-kept secrets in college football, Basham is a dominant player with 31 career TFLs and 15.5 sacks. He made first-team All-ACC in 2019 with 18 TFLs and 11 sacks. Basham’s measurables stack up well with any of the Freak D-linemen that Clemson or NC State have produced in recent years. The 6-3½, 280-pounder benches more than 400 pounds and squats more than 700. Even more impressive, he’s vertical jumped more than 36 inches and clocked a 4.21 in the short shuttle, which would eclipse any time by a guy his size at this year’s NFL combine. The dude runs so well that Wake even has him on its kickoff team.

The Bills didn't want to go into next year STILL needing more edge rush help. They wanted to be ready to roll on opening day 2022 with a quartet of young, ready pass rushers. They recognize that you have to harass Mahomes or you're never beating him. These youngsters get the tutelage under Hughes for a year and rotate in and learn on the job. And as others have said: You want to improve cornerback performance? HARASS THE QUARTERBACK!!! Also, the draft isn't over, and there are some veteran corners still on the market.

I was initially as confused as everyone else, HOWEVER.... In retrospect, it makes all too much sense. How could anyone watch the Bills completely fail to harass Mahomes in the AFCCG last year, followed by watching the Bucs pound him into the dirt again and again, and NOT think that Beane would view fixing the pass rush as the absolute most important issue? The Bills spend A TON on the defensive line and don't have the production to show for it. That's about to change. Addison will be a post June 1st cut, and as of next year, there will be a quartet of youngsters in Buffalo: Rousseau, Epenesa, Basham, Johnson/Obada. This will save the Bills a ton of money that they will direly need to extend Allen and whoever else.

Yeah. Amazingly, the coach of the team that DID draft him called him a "third down back", and didn't even list him among his starting 1-2 punch at RB, which he says is Robinson and Hyde. Pretty bizarre to spend a top 25 pick on a guy you consider a 3rd down back.

He did, indeed. I can't remember the last draft after which I DIDN'T hear a GM say some version of that. He's certainly not gonna say "he was our second or third choice. Our top choice was already off the board". I'm not saying they'd have taken Etienne (or Jaelan Phillips or Kwity Paye or Greg Newsome) over Rousseau. I have no idea. I'm just saying there's no way to know for sure, because those dudes were off the board.

.....or a team just drafted him before the Bills were on the board, so we'll never really know how the Bills felt about him?

I love the wide shot showing his massive wingspan... But man oh man do I hate 50 for an edge rusher. Not sure it'll ever grow on me. 🤢

Good morning. Welcome back.

As I went through the numbers in the 50s and the 90s that are already taken, I started to think that maybe going old school with a number in the 70s (which edge rushers don't do quite as much these days) might be the way to go. I mean, I believe 95 is open, but I'm sure Bills fans would be super sensitive about and not necessarily receptive to seeing a rookie take that number this soon after Kyle retired. Not sure it would look great on a guy like Rousseau anyway.

With all due respect, other than "raw edge rusher drafted by the Bills", I don't see any Aaron Maybin comparison AT ALL. They're completely different as players and completely different in size and athletic profile. Maybin was 240 soaking wet, but probably played at Penn State closer to 220-235. He looked like a defensive back. He had great get-off and not much else. Rousseau is a monster of a man, weighs 266 (and probably still isn't done growing), and looks like an oak tree. A lot of his sack production came when he rushed from the interior, which was decidedly not the case with Maybin. Again, other than the position they play and the team that drafted them, I see zero point zero similarities.

The only problem is Rousseau seems attached to the number 5 for some reason. His Twitter handle is Greg_R5 and his college number was 15. I'm not sure what the new rules allow with regard to DL flexibility, but I sort of thought he might try to get 15 here, as well, or maybe just 5, which obviously would have looked weird. Maybe not quite as weird as 50, though. Hmmm....

https://www.newyorkupstate.com/buffalo-bills/2021/04/greg-rousseau-a-top-10-talent-steal-for-buffalo-bills-says-manny-diaz.html “I think his upside is without limits,” said [Hurricanes coach Manny] Diaz. “I really do. There’s no telling what a 2020 Greg Rousseau would have looked like. All we saw was the 2019 version and that was really his first year playing defensive end... The relentless motor, the length, the ability to bend and move for that size... those are all things that are elite.”