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From what I've read, his play has been very inconsistent and he hasn't done well in picking up the Pats' defensive scheme. It's easy to connect the dots and say the Bills would be/should be interested but keep in mind, Beane was still on Carolina's staff when they pulled off the trade. So he knows what Ealy has to offer and if he was part of the group that helped complete the trade then I kinda doubt he'd be interested in bringing him to Buffalo. Also, the Patriots lone weak spot is pass rusher, their best guy retired, they drafted a kid they had planned on starting but he's injured and beyond that they don't have much. For them to say "no thanks" on a guy who, although inconsistent, can come up with a nice performance now and again, that says a lot.

I do feel for the guy but it's difficult to defend him. He seriously has no one to guide him and very little family. Most of his close friends were guys who were getting into trouble a lot and he's (as far as we know) closed himself off from that type of crowd. He says his teammates are his family but they can only do so much for him. And if they are his family, then you'd think he'd learn to stop disappointing them with senseless, selfish acts. When he's on, he's a really good player. I hope it's a minor setback and he can get past it. Kyle Williams has said on several occasions that this is the most focused, in-shape and ready to buy-in version of Dareus he's seen yet. I hope that continues. And for what it's worth, I heard the rule he violated was doing a number two on the team bus. Everyone knows you can only do number one on the bus. Bus plumbing just isn't equipped for two's. /s

He has a lot of value still. He's very instinctive, his read/react skills are great and he's quicker than people give him credit for. When they talk about him they always seem to find a way to mention the knee so perhaps it was quite the catastrophic injury and they're really just taking their time in acclimating him to the level of play in the NFL. At this time, he's playing in a scheme he has little experience with, however, Preston Brown is in a contract year. And as impressed as they have been with him, I do wonder if he'll want to test the waters in FA. So, I wonder if Ragland is their contingency plan. Keep him on as a depth player this year, coach him up, let him really learn the system, maybe have him work towards dropping a little bit of weight to get faster and then plug him in as their starting MLB next season should Brown leave. Just a theory. Lot of people say he's on the trading block but given how thin they are at any position I don't think they should trade him. He's an unknown commodity right now so what's his value? Maybe a 4th round pick at best? He doesn't have any real NFL experience yet. I'd hang onto him and keep developing him because there's definitely talent there and maybe they just wanna take their time with him.

Injury or no injury, if I'm them I've been thinking about replacing Yates for a while now. I understand it's nice to have a veteran in the QB room, especially one who is familiar with the offense but looking at how he's played, I don't think anyone would trust him to go in there and play a game or two if needed. There's probably not a lot out there but they should definitely be looking for someone else.

Of course anything can happen but I really can't see a team out there willing to take on Shady's contract at this stage in his career. He's 29 and he looks like he's in excellent shape but we all know the wall for running backs seems to be 30. Desperate teams do desperate things but again, I really don't see any team out there that'd be willing to pick up his contract right now. And I agree with the notion that trading out your best player overall would send a poor message to the team. Watkins and Darby were different situations. Bills weren't confident enough to pick up Watkins' 5th-year option and I believe he did say he was interested in seeing what was out there in free agency. So, knowing the chances of re-signing him were low and being less than 100% confident about his health, they decided to trade him. Darby is on his rookie deal and apparently wasn't buying in or adjusting well to the scheme changes, so those trades, as tough as they were, are probably a little easier to sell to the team. When you look at Shady you don't see the same circumstances so if he does get traded it'd send a pretty clear message to the current roster that the organization is much more focused on the future than the present.

Great post, OP. I'd say the Watkins/Darby trade was really what set off the resurgence of tank talk. Boldin's retirement amplified that by how it happened. He decided to part ways after a bummer of a pre-season game and many figured he left because he was dissatisfied with the trades and the team he thought he was joining. In truth, retirement had been on his mind for quite a while. I'm not sure if anyone else caught it but I saw a tweet around the time he signed here which stated that he originally agreed to terms with the team during his first visit in late July, but backed out on it only to decide to come here a week or so later. One of the things I always fall back on when the tank subject comes up is that there are no guarantees. No guarantees that all the prospects getting all the hype right now are going to be available in the 2018 Draft. Obviously, senior players will be around but nobody knows if junior players will elect to enter the draft after this season. It's been said already that Darnold is leaning toward staying at USC through 2018. Then there's injuries. At any point one of these prospects could get hurt, miss the year and their draft stock plummets, leading them to stay at school so they can hopefully play out a full season and work their way up the boards. On top of that, there are likely a few teams that are going to finish worse off than Buffalo and those teams will be at the top of the draft and will more than likely need QBs. Beane can collect all the draft picks he wants but if the Jets or 49ers end up with the number one overall pick and Darnold just so happens to ball out and declare for the draft, there's no way any team without their QB is going to opt-out of a chance to get a franchise guy. Also, you can't expect McDermott, a very competitive guy who is very much into changing the culture, to lead a team that's actively trying to lose. You can't expect a coach to go out there and get his team ready when the message is, "Hey, we need to lose for better draft picks. So go out there, risk your career every Sunday and do so in a LOSING effort so we can get younger, cheaper and hopefully better players to come in and replace you." The dude is trying to unite a locker room and create a brotherhood-type chemistry. A surefire way to make sure your team tunes you out is to lead them with tanking in mind.

Both QBs have their issues but Taylor is way ahead of Bortles in a lot of areas. They've been trying to correct Bortles' throwing motion for four seasons now and he still swings it way down by his hip when he winds up. Taylor might get a few passes batted back in his face each game but at least he can hit the deep ball whereas Bortles isn't even in the same area code most of the time.

Sucks for the rookie. If the Pats have any weak points this season it's on the DL where they really don't have any big-time pass rushers.

Miller started and was in there for the first two series', I believe. On Ducasse's first pass play he got walked right into Taylor's lap and then got steamrolled on the next play. From the practice notes I've read, it looks like Miller has been exclusively with the first-team with Ducasse taking less and less reps with the ones. They've moved Michael Ola to guard recently and he looked like he did better than Ducasse.

He's a doofus but it was inevitable that this type of stuff was going to start getting published with the news coming out that Ragland has been set with the third-team defense lately. IMO, it's a touch too early to really consider a trade scenario, if I'm the Bills, that is, simply because they haven't seen the kid play in any NFL games. The pre-season will give them a good idea of what they have with him. They've been saying all along that they're just slowly working him back in as they don't want any setbacks with his ACL. But it is obvious that he's more suited for a 3-4. However, I like his skill-set and his play recognition is excellent. You'd think a coach as creative as McDermott would find a way to get him involved somehow. Even if he has to be a depth player this season, they are too thin at linebacker to trade this dude away right now even if he isn't a perfect fit for the scheme.

Nope. Always actively rooting against them, but never surprised when they pull miracles out they bums like this last Super Bowl. I remember texting a friend after it was 28-3, he said, "Man, it's over now." I said, "Yeah but it's the Pats." He said, "Still, 25 points is nearly insurmountable for any team, even the Pats." I wanted to believe... we all know how that ended up.

Taylor, McCoy, Watkins on offense. I'd say maybe an OL like Richie but I think OL is one area where Whaley did actually find some quality depth players. Groy played well in place of Wood last season and Dawkins seems like he can play every spot except center, and they seem to be working on having Ducasse get some work in at tackle just in case. But yeah, the three guys I mentioned are the guys that put the most points up, they need to be healthy because the options behind them aren't great. I'm excited for Zay Jones but he's still coming in as a rookie so, you never know what you're going to get until he starts playing. Defensively, phew, mostly every starter, I hope, can stay healthy because they lack depth over there. I know McDermott has shown an ability to work with 2nd/3rd and rookie players but you definitely hope the front four can stay healthy. They don't do as well against the run without Dareus. Hughes should bounce back now that they're in the 4-3 and Lawson will hopefully make some noise this season. I don't doubt that Kyle will be consistent like he's pretty much always been. They have a few experienced depth guys in the secondary but not many of them have been consistent starters over their career. Hopefully the group of Darby, White, Hyde and Poyer can stay healthy. Wright will probably earn the nickel spot and be the first man up should Darby or White get hurt. Behind Poyer and Hyde it's what, Colt Anderson? So, yeah. And you can make the case for Ragland to stay healthy but again, going back to the 4-3, that plays to Brown's strength and he has 3 years in as a full-time starter so, MLB I think will be OK either way. The other two LB spots can be iffy with the depth. We shall see.

Um, I don't think so, but Hard Knocks focuses solely on training camp and All or Nothing is the entire season. They started with their move from St. Louis to LA, went through the 2016 draft, some minicamp/OTA stuff, training camp, pre-season, regular season and their post-season which consisted of replacing Fisher and his staff (a few coaches survived, including John Fassel, their special teams coordinator who served as their interim to finish out the season after Fisher was let go), introducing McVay, their 2017 draft as well as a small look at McVay coaching rookie camp practices and such. Overall it's just a really in-depth behind the scenes look at what goes down during an NFL season. I don't disagree that he's had some pretty good defenses over the years but the strength of the Rams defense last season was their DL. Once guys like Quinn and Hayes missed time, they became more exposed. I understand each coach has his own style but a smart coach looks for what works best from player to player. Some players respond to hard coaching, other players will tune that crap out. All players learn differently as well. If you're coming off as an intimidating, in your face type of coach, players might not be so quick to ask questions to make sure they have things right because they don't feel like having a guy screaming in their face or disrespecting him for not learning/doing something the way the coach wants. I didn't see Hard Knocks with the Rams and the All or Nothing series didn't even mention Waufle once. I don't even know if they actually showed the guy. I mean, he was probably in some shots here and there but he wasn't featured whatsoever. I think with the switch back to the 4-3 we should see a lot better production from the entire front four. Lawson missed almost all of the off-season work and then was put in a position he never played before. Dareus had the suspension and then the injury and never really got going, plus he didn't buy into Rex's system. Hughes did give effort but again, he was being played in a position that didn't benefit his skill set. He's at his best when he has his hand in the dirt and goes after the QB, same for Lawson. Kyle is a pure effort guy, probably did the best he could but I'm sure even he felt like the scheme did not suit the players very well.

There could be other humans alive with more knowledge than him, you never know. I don't doubt that he knows his stuff but obviously these lists are subjective. Like I said before, his DE list, rating Michael Bennett ahead of Jared Allen and Dwight Freeney? I think just about everyone would say that's some flawed thinking right there. Brandt also had Manziel as not only his top rated QB, but his best overall player in 2014. So, like any guy who makes evaluations, I take it with a grain of salt.

Don't know if anyone else has checked out the All or Nothing series on Amazon Prime but if you can, it's a good watch. I enjoyed the first season with the Cardinals last year and a lot of people have been like, "Why would I want to watch the trainwreck 4-12 Rams?" One of the producers of the show did a Reddit AMA and brought up a decent point. With season one they were able to show a successful team that reached the NFC Championship game, and with the Rams, they were able to show the complete other side of the spectrum. We also know it's no secret that the NFL wanted a lot of exposure with the Rams as they made their way from St. Louis to LA to drum up interest. The show provides excellent behind the scenes stuff at how an NFL season unfolds. It also shows that Gregg Williams is an insufferable prick. Good gravy, if I had that dude as a coach I wouldn't buy in to anything he had to say. All he does is scream and curse like an unhinged maniac. I didn't really sense that he had much of a relationship with any of his players. The Rams defense did play well in a number of games but their offense was abysmal and as the season went on there were some blowouts where it was apparent that most of the players just checked out mentally. And how Jeff Fisher had no sense that he was going to be let go is astounding. I mean, he may have had a sense, but he definitely didn't show it. He certainly appeared confident that he was going to go on being their HC for a while. Anywho, the Bills related part comes during the last episode as they follow Rob Boras to Buffalo. You also get a look at his coaching style here and there. He gets hyped up here and there but overall I sensed that he cared a lot more about his players than Williams and was truly doing his all to figure things out in an effort to get wins. They offer footage all the way up through post-draft rookie camps. You get to see Snead and McVay ponder and make the trade with Buffalo that allowed them to move up to 37th for Zay. In all, it's a pretty good series. It gives a great look at everything that goes on during an NFL season, especially the things we don't see. It shows how harsh the business can be and how uncertain the futures are for most players. Unless they were Aaron Donald (who I don't think wants to return to the Rams after he's put in his five years, that's just the vibe I got), Todd Gurley or Jared Goff, their future with the team was in doubt. Several of the players they profiled are now on different teams. So as we await camp, I'd suggest this series to fill that football void we have over the summer. Unfortunately they don't give us a look whatsoever at Mike Waufle, but I'm guessing that's maybe because he was more of a focal point on Hard Knocks? Just a guess.

I didn't disagree with that list as much as I disagreed with his list of top DE's of all time. Especially this: He has Michael Bennett ranked at 27th, ahead of Jared Allen (30), Dwight Freeney (29) and LC Greenwood (28). Allen had five Pro Bowls, four first-team All Pros, 2011 Defensive Player of the Year, Two-time NFL Sack Leader, 136 career sacks which is good for 11th on the all-time list. Also holds an NFL record for recording safeties with four. Freeney had seven Pro Bowls, three first team All Pros, 2005 AFC Defensive Player of the Year, Sack Leader for 2005, NFL 2000s All-Decade team, 122.5 career sacks. Greenwood had six Pro Bowls, two first team All Pros, four Super Bowl rings, voted to 1970s NFL All Decade team, 73.5 sacks in his career, led the Steelers in sacks for 6 straight seasons. And then there's Michael freaking Bennett: Two Pro Bowls (one Pro Bowl Defensive MVP, big whoop), one Super Bowl ring, 45.5 sacks over 8 seasons. That's an average of 6 sacks a season. I know Brandt has decades of experience but I don't think Bennett even belongs on this list.

He's played corner his entire career and with his recent decline it'd probably be a tough transition for him and who knows if he'd really wanna move to that position.

Obviously too early to tell but I can only see this defense going up when compared to the Rex era. McDermott has shown before that he can do a lot with a little or inexperienced players. And the holdover players from Rex's time here are definitely more excited to get back to the 4-3, "see ball, get ball" defense. It's going to involve a lot less thinking for these guys so they can just get their assignment from the break and be ready to go and not have to survey the offense and call out 37 different checks because the QB broke wind during his cadence.

Fair point here. If you're running all over a team and leading there's no reason to start slinging the ball all over the place. And as per the topic here, I am optimistic that Shady could have a big season. I believe this OL is better and more experienced in a ton of different blocking schemes than the OLs in Houston and especially the OLs in Denver he worked with over the last two seasons. Shady can be a very dynamic player in this offense. Bucky Brooks and another dude from NFL.com both predicted Shady to be the rushing champ for 2017.

Thanks all for the positive responses and adding to the conversation. I really didn't think people would be too interested, I was just bored, haha. I did not take into account how many plays were called by RD. I'm not sure exactly what his roles were when he was with either Shanahan or Kubiak, we know both of those coaches definitely had themselves mixed into playcalling, I'm just not sure how often the decisions were on those guys or on RD and I'm not sure info like that would be found unless you worked with those dudes. I think it bodes well that RD was able to get some solid seasons out of Matt Schaub. I won't discredit Kubiak's influence there but RD, being the OC, clearly had a hand in identifying what Schaub could and couldn't do. A few of the reasons I expect an uptick in the passing game would be, I think McDermott and Beane would like to see Tyrod in certain situations where they have to throw the ball to see if he can get it done. Another reason would simply be the switch from Roman's offense to Dennison's. While Roman has always been known as a wizard in the run game and with blocking schemes, his passing concepts have never been good. So while he flourished because of the unpredictability in his run schemes, he floundered because of the predictability in his passing schemes. Teams weren't afraid to leave 8 in the box not only because they knew the run was coming and not only because they didn't feel any pressure from Taylor as a passer, but also because on film the route concepts and such were just very basic.

For whatever reason I wanted to take a look at how often Dennison called for passes during his previous endeavors in Denver and Houston. Perhaps because I think most of us would like to see them throw the ball a little more than 25 times a game and utilize the pass-catching weapons they have more often. Anywho, these aren't super-analytic numbers, I understand QB's can audible out of a run into a pass but I don't think there'd be anywhere or anyway to track those kind of stats unless you were a part of the team and they kept track of how many audibles their QB called. So, here goes. 2006 Denver QBs: Jake Plummer/10 games, Jay Cutler/6 games Average Pass Attempts Per Game (APAPG): 28.4 NFL Rank: 26th 2007 Denver QB: Jay Cutler/16 games APAPG: 32.2 NFL Rank: 21st 2008 Denver QB: Jay Cutler/16 games APAPG: 38.8 NFL Rank: 2nd 2010 Houston QB: Matt Schaub/16 games APAPG: 35.9 NFL Rank: 9th Houston 2011 QBs: Matt Schaub/10 games, TJ Yates/6 games APAPG: 29.0 NFL Rank: 30th Houston 2012 QB: Matt Schaub/16 games APAPG: 35.7 NFL Rank: 13th Houston 2013 QBs: Matt Schaub/8 games, Case Keenum/8 games APAPG: 39.6 NFL Rank: 6th Denver 2015 QBs: Peyton Manning/9 games, Brock Osweiler/7 games APAPG: 36.7 NFL Rank: 17th Denver 2016 QBs: Trevor Siemian/14 games, Paxton Lynch/2 games APAPG: 35.6 NFL Rank: 18th Overall Averages: Average Pass Attempts Per Game Over 9 Seasons as an OC: 34.6 Average NFL Rank over those 9 seasons: 15th So, just by looking at the overall averages you'd imagine he believes in a well-balanced attack. Now, some of these numbers can also be misleading. In 2013 the Texans went 2-14 so their attempts were obviously up likely due to throwing it a lot more when playing from behind. By the same token, the numbers in 2012 were pretty well-balanced and Schaub had one of his best seasons. Schaub also had better seasons before Dennison so who knows. Anyway, if anyone finds this interesting, neato. If not, also neat, but not neato. Overall I'd imagine they dial up more than the 29.5 average pass attempts they've called over the last two seasons.

McDermott and Frazier have both recently said that Dareus has 100% bought-in and that his excitement level is as high as anyone's. Playing in that 3-4 really miffed a lot of dudes on defense. Yeah yeah yeah, I can hear some people now clamoring about "they're being paid, they have to execute" I get it, I agree. But the problems went beyond those guys not buying in. It really started with Rex who tried his "hybrid" scheme in 2015 and then brought in Rob last season. And as we know now, numerous players felt that there were far too many cooks in the kitchen with the defense. I've always felt like it's the smart move to keep schemes simple, coach up to your players natural skills and let them go out there and play fast. You hear it constantly when coaches are asked to evaluate young players: "Well, once he has his head wrapped around the playbook and can just go out and play fast and not think too much then he'll be fine." Rex had these dudes thinking too much which didn't allow them to play fast or play the style of defense they're capable of playing. Now that he's back in a system he's more comfortable with and much better at, and he still has Kyle here to help him out, I expect a good solid bounce back year for Dareus.

I think Vic is exaggerating a bit on how much of a learning curve this is going to be for these guys. The OL definitely seems to have a good chemistry and it helps that they're going into their third year with no major changes. Aside from the RT spot, Glenn, Incognito, Wood and Miller all have two seasons playing together. Another thing working in their favor was having Greg Roman as OC for a while. The man utilized just about every blocking style there is so these guys are experienced in a wide variety of schemes. Of course there's change with any new coaching staff as coaches need to learn what their players do best and how to implement their system with these guys. But clearly they've ran the ball very well over the last two seasons so I would hope Dennison and his crew are wise enough to not completely overhaul every single thing. And these guys have seen coaching changes many times before, whether it's been here or somewhere else so I wouldn't expect many of them to be overwhelmed by the changes.

I don't see this situation as a big deal. Teams in the past have cleaned house and filled their vacancies. It's a business and there are professionals running the show. McDermott and Beane have most definitely already constructed a list of candidates they'd like to contact. They just hired their Assistant GM who has more contacts. Combine that with the fact that year after year there are always plenty of young, eager scouts trying to get their foot in the door or perhaps trying to move to a different team. With each front office hire they're going to get someone who also has contacts and people they know that could be potential fits. It'll happen quickly and quietly and then within a week or so we'll get a news-bite saying that they've filled out their scouting/personnel department and are prepared to head off the National or BLESTO scouting meetings. (For those that aren't sure what either of those are, they are independent scouting organizations that affiliate with NFL teams to assist/provide them with preliminary info on draft-eligible NCAA players). The Bills have been affiliated with BLESTO for quite a while. No idea if they'll switch, stay with BLESTO or choose to go independent (only five NFL teams aren't affiliated with one of these organizations: the Ravens, the Colts, Washington, the Raiders, and surprise surprise, the Pats. It'll be fine. I get a sense that this FO with BB & SM at the helm will be very streamlined and collaborative with everyone on the same page. That's not to say I expect them to hire nothing but "yes men" but they will want individuals who can fall in line with the overall team building vision they have and provide valuable feedback when asked. I'd love to be a scout but the reality of the job is that it's a pretty intense grind that doesn't pay very well. You spend a ton of time on the road, half your job is acting like a private investigator when trying to find out what players are like when they're off the field. You could spend a month hammering out details and writing reports on a number of prospects that might not even wind up on the board. And teams typically shuffle things in their scouting departments every 2-3 years even if they're winning so you're kind of always on the hot seat in terms of job longevity. As our old buddy Chan would put it, "it's a tough game fer tough people!"

He wasn't with Miami for that long. He spent most of his career in Carolina. They'll have a good portion of the scouting department filled out within a week or two. I'm sure they already have a list of names they're calling and they're probably getting a truckload of emails/calls/resumes from other scouts looking for a spot.