Logic

I always dug this tune. I don't even have kids. It just makes me laugh...It's so very "of the era" in which it was written and recorded.

Yeah I remember that being quite evident in Beane's post draft presser that night. It was just obvious in the way they spoke about him that they were really fired up about getting him. I believe Beane mentioned they tried but failed to move up for him, and were getting worried he wouldn't be there. As I recall, they also turned in the draft card in record time. Someone in those scouting meetings was clearly pounding the table for Cole Bishop.

My thinking is similar to this, but for the Ray Davis pick. I feel that historically, the dropoff in career production from 4th round running backs to, say, 6th round through UDFA level running backs is likely minimal. I wish they had spent the 4th on a wide receiver instead -- it's a more valuable position and we had a greater need for it, and this draft class was better at that position. I would've been fine with using one or two of the later round picks to move up higher in the 4th for said receiver, too. Then, they could've used one of the later picks on a running back or signed a few UDFAs. Alternately, I wish they had taken the combined money they've spent on the Cephuses, Claypools, and Hollinses of the world and used it on a lower tier veteran running back instead, freeing up their draft resources from the need for a running back completely. Receiver was simply more of a need and at a more premium position.

Yep. He's a Kansas City Chief, alright. Fitting right in.

Man... If it was financially feasible for the Bills to trade for Hopkins after June 1st (I don't know that it is, unless the Titans agreed to take on some of his salary), I'd be over the moon. Hopkins playing X would allow Coleman to be the move/big slot player that his skillset indicates would be his best chance at immediate success, would lessen the pressure on him to produce right away, and would give him an amazing on-field presence to learn from. Unfortunately, the Bills' actions seem to indicate that they, too, view this as a re-tool/transition year, and thus I suspect they're unlikely to want to take on a big salary for a veteran WR. Hopkins or any other vet that could be acquired via trade just doesn't feel like a move that has a realistic chance of happening. It feels like a move that a team trying to push their chips in for a title run this season would make, and the Bills -- contrary to whatever they may say -- don't seem to feel that way about their 2024 season. Whatever they say publicly, this has all the markings of a "get cheaper/younger"/soft reset year. Alas...a boy can wish.

This is great. I'm loving people adding their own thoughts on our draft class, especially having had a week to digest it and dig into the players more. Lots of value added by you and Rocky Landing. Thanks to you both. I'll add that I'm kind of "over" drafting raw, toolsy offensive tackles in the late rounds that have next to no chance of being rosterable. Luke Tenuta, Grable and Clayton...heck, even Tommy Doyle in round five. I understand the IDEA of gambling on upside that late in the draft, but...these just feel like wasted picks to me. You're telling me that with Dawkins, Brown, La'el Collins, and Ryan VanDemark on the roster, that these two guys have any shot of making the 53? No way. If they were dead set on taking swings on physical upside this late in the draft, I'd rather they at least do it at a position where the prospect has a better shot at making the roster, like corner or WR.

Yep. Fully agree with that. I think there's a good chance Hamlin fails to make the roster this year. I was more so just pointing out the callousness and flippancy of the posts I quoted. You'd think the guy was the worst player to ever suit up in a Bills jersey the way people talk about him. I agree that he's a replacement level guy and may well be cut, but reading some of the comments about him...yikes.

Thanks for the kind words, and for contributing your own thoughts on the class. I particularly think what you say about Bishop and Carter being pushed down the board (to the Bills' benefit) is true. I also think the drafting of Ulofoshio and signing of Deion Jones portends that maybe Matt Milano's road to being the player he once was isn't as clear cut as fans might like to hope. You bring up an interesting point about Hardy: I viewed him only as a kick returner, which is still where I think his primary value lies. Particularly with the new kickoff rules, I think having a good returner will be valuable once again. HOWEVER...if this guy can make the roster for his return role, but then learn to be a viable pro level nickel corner in the background...that would be huge. "Depth at nickel" isn't something I think about much, but it's true that Taron Johnson is one awkward landing or collision away from unavailability, just like any other player, so having a decent backup in place (particularly for a defense that plays as much nickel as the Bills) would be a great thing. And lastly, the Travis Clayton as Happy Gilmore line made me laugh. Thanks for that.

The players that are listed are gross. There are only two ways for the Bills to materially improve the WR position at this point. The first would be to acquire someone via trade, which -- unless things change, and they may -- Beane has indicated is not something that's forthcoming. The second would be to hope that someone of worth gets cut from another roster in the weeks to come. This is why I consider it roster malpractice not to have double-dipped in such a deep WR draft. But if Beane, for whatever bizarre reason, was dead set on not doing that, then the only guys remaining after the draft that would've presented any kind of value to the roster have already been signed by other teams in recent days. So now, barring scenario one or scenario two taking place, we're stuck hoping that Mack Hollins or Quintez Cephus or special teams guys Justin Shorter or Tyrell Shavers somehow become viable NFL wide receivers -- which is an objectively gross sentence to have to type in the middle of Josh Allen's prime.

All of that is fine, and I generally agree with it. My quote was specifically about the speed around Josh Allen compared to that around Mahomes, and it remains true that the latter has more than the former. As I said, that doesn't necessarily mean the Chiefs offense will be better, it just means that it is unequivocally faster. The Bills are not faster than your average NFL offense. They have pretty average team speed on offense. And that's all I was talking about -- the Bills' speed on offense. It's average.

Well...for one thing, you only listed two fast players: Shakir and Samuel. Kincaid you listed as "a mismatch", Cook as "explosive", and Coleman "may not be home run fast". All of those sound like words other than "fast". And 4.43 is good speed for the NFL, no doubt, but it's not elite speed. The statement you quoted and replied to -- "there is now a big difference in the amount of speed around Mahomes and the amount of speed around Josh Allen" -- seems true to me. Hollywood Brown is a 4.27 guy. Worthy ran a 4.21. Isiah Pacheco ran a 4.37. The Chiefs are faster on offense than the Bills. It doesn't necessarily mean they'll be better -- though I'd bet they will, at least in 2024 -- but they're faster.

Yeesh. Tough crowd.

One interesting thing I read today is that, because of the way compensatory picks are calculated, the Bills may want to limit the snaps of Mike Edwards and Mack Hollins this year, because if they exceed a certain amount, it jeopardizes the two picks the Bills are scheduled to receive. Similarly, to ensure the best chance at receiving the picks they think they'll be getting, the Bills have to hope that Tim Settle plays a lot of snaps for Houston -- but Houston is surely aware of this, too, and may limit Settle's snaps for their own compensatory pick reasons. Just a fascinating aspect of the minutiae that goes into calculating compensatory picks. I have no idea whether or not the Bills care enough to actually limit Edwards and Hollin's snaps. To be honest, I bet they do.

Fairly certain the army of doctors that examined and cleared Hamlin are in a better place to look out for his best interest than fans are. Hamlin's also an adult capable of making his own decisions. People's hearts may be in the right place, but they shouldn't mistake what makes them personally feel more comfortable -- not having to see a player on the field who reminds them of the danger of the game of football -- with what's best for the player.

I think the "Bills only keep Hamlin on the roster for PR reasons" notion is the dumbest thing in forever. Hamlin is, was, and has always been a bottom-of-the-roster, depth and special teams guy. He has remained on the Bills roster because no one more worthy of a roster spot has yet taken one from him. If and when it happens -- and it may very well be this year -- then he'll be cut. Every team in the NFL has players like this. Unfortunately, because of Hamlin's traumatic medical event, the weekly "will he be active on game day or won't he?" Tweet would get posted on Twitter, it would be treated as some sort of big deal when he wasn't active, and then everyone would jump in and talk about crazy conspiracy theories, how Hamlin was only on the Bills roster because it would look bad if he was cut, blah blah blah. To add to all of that, you have the Bills fans who are like "Gosh I wish he'd just stop playing for his own good", as if the man can't make his own decisions, and as if he didn't consult with numerous medical professionals. I wish nothing but the best for Hamlin for the rest of his career and his life, be it here or elsewhere. But all of the discourse surrounding him from Bills fans and NFL fans in general is beyond ridiculous and eyeroll-inducing.

The whole thing was a hoot. Jeff Ross, Nikki Glazer, and Tony Hinchcliffe were the best among the comedians. As for the football people, I thought Belichick did a good job, and it was cool of him to show up and do some roasting. Julian Edelman was particularly funny. Whoever wrote his jokes did a great job. Gronk was...not great. All in all, I enjoyed it quite a lot. For those saying they didn't watch the roast because they don't like Brady: Ummm...I think you might wanna look up what a "roast" is. It was literally two and a half hours of people ripping Tom Brady apart and talking about what weirdo and an ####### he is. Yeah, it's held in his honor, but so what? The whole point of the whole thing was to rip the dude apart, and everyone obliged. It was entertaining.

I would not get ANYONE'S autograph, because I'm an adult. I think it's cool to meet athletes and celebrities. To shake their hand, have a quick chat with them, thank them for their work, whatever. But...their signature on a piece of paper? Does nothing for me. What am I even supposed to do with it? Put it on a shelf? Walk by it and look at it admiringly and say "Burt Reynolds actually wrote on this. That's his actual hand writing!" ? To each their own. If autographs make people happy, then God bless 'em. I'm team "let people like things". But for me personally... I just don't get the appeal.

The comment that Bills fans are "sleeping on" 7th year receiver Mack Hollins -- whose career high in single season receiving yards was 690 but who has had 250 yards or less in every other season of his career -- is kind of this debate in a nutshell. There's objective reality: Mack Hollins has been a very average, replacement level receiver his whole career, and has exceeded 300 yards in a season just once. Then there's hopium: Y'all are sleeping on him! Watch what he does with a real QB! It's the same with Hamler, with Claypool, Cephus, etc, etc. After two straight years of "we need to get Josh more weapons", the Bills have gotten WORSE at WR. It's telling that any time someone wants to argue that the Bills offense is in good shape personnel wise, they immediately start talking about tight ends and running backs. Why? Because the wide receiver room isn't good enough. The strategy at WR beyond "hope Coleman gets up to speed quickly", "hope Shakir breaks out", "Hope Curtis Samuel posts a career high in receiving yards" -- you'll notice the common denominator with the top three receivers is "hope", already not a promising start -- seems to be "hope that one of the average JAGs we sign exceeds expectations and suddenly plays good football". There again, a big dose of "let's hope". Hope is not a strategy. And all of this is even assuming that the top three guys stay healthy. If Coleman or Samuel suffers any kind of long term injury, God help us. Hope you're ready to see Mack Hollins or Quintez Cephus be our WR2 in a pivotal divisional matchup. Look...some of the most consistently optimistic, kool-aid drinking members on this forum -- myself included -- feel super down about the WR room right now. Why do you think that is? Did we all suddenly turn into negative Nellie curmudgeons over night? Or could it be that we're reading the tea leaves and recognizing that our front. office seems to be in Groundhog Day mode, YET AGAIN failing to give our franchise QB adequate help?

@BADOLBILZ I can send probably like $36 or so to One Bills Drive for Beane to put towards signing a legitimate receiver. Might you consider matching my donation? Or like...can YOU play receiver? Do you KNOW anyone that can play receiver? I've heard we're pivoting to big guys who are a load in the run game, so...Is your refrigerator fast when it's running? This is getting dire. We signed QUINTEZ CEPHUS. I had to look that up to make sure it was a real human person. Then we signed a receiver from Canada. CANADA, Badol. I feel like I'm being pranked and the reveal just hasn't happened yet.

What's weird to me is that the Chiefs continue to roll out turbo-boosted smurfs at WR, and yet they somehow continue to produce at a high level in the playoffs. They doubled down on the strategy this offseason, signing Hollywood Brown and drafting Xavier Worthy. Why is it that all they have to do is press our guys and play really physical with them, and it makes us change our whole team philosophy at WR, but we -- with our defense-minded head coach and frequent top five regular season defensive rankings -- somehow haven't figured out after four years of playoff battles how to slow THEIR small fast guys down?

1. Get bigger and slower at WR 2. Take the ball out of Josh Allen's hands more Perfect offseason so far.

OBJ off the board now, too. Beane emphatically stating that no trade for a WR is forthcoming. Bills further adding to their depth chart with Quintez Cephus and Chase Claypool. With each passing day, Mack Hollins grows closer to the starting lineup. Do margaritas still taste good if you put four shots in them? I'm gonna try it.

That's kind of the problem in a nutshell. You ran out of receivers to list after the first three, and had to start bringing up tight ends and running backs. Unfortunately, good NFL offenses require more than three capable receivers -- if for no other reason than depth in case of injury -- and the Bills currently don't have any. They're throwing a bunch of a vet minimum and special teams guys at the wall to see what sticks, hence my camp battle comments. I disagree that "we fine". I think we lack any capable receivers past the first three you listed (one of whom is a rookie and hasn't even proven to be capable yet), and Beane's strategy for solving that issue is to scrape the bottom of the barrel and to cross fingers and hope. But as I've said before: Hope is not a strategy.