Rigotz

Hey, remember when everyone wanted Matt Araiza kicked off the team because he's a rapist? It's crazy how quickly everyone panics and assumes that Josh Allen betrayed his girlfriend and got a random bartender pregnant and betrayed his team and betrayed diggs and THAT's why our favorite team lost a football game last year. Do you guys hear yourselves? Speculation is one thing, but smearing someone's name with zero evidence is something we should try not to do.

IN before 200 pages!

Yup. This is the first time I've actually thought he's a problem. The rest was just passion. No excuse for not showing up... ESPECIALLY after you sign a big extension and are named team captain.

I’m going to try to be as kind and objective as possible in this response. It’s ok to appreciate McDermott for getting us out of the drought and being a GOOD coach, while not bowing down to him like he’s an ELITE coach. Brandon Beane has proven that he is an elite GM. Josh Allen has proven that he is an elite QB. McDermott has had some questionable performances when it matters most. He’s a defensive coach and his defenses have failed when it matters most. I used to love McDermott and think he was on his way to be the greatest ever, but he’s shown some weakness. That’s just a fact. I’m rooting for him to evolve and turn it around and hopefully he will. If not, we need an elite coach to go with our elite QB and GM to get this thing done.

The best part about this strategy of "going for it all" is we're not mortgaging our future. No 2nd round draft pick given up for Hopkins. Sorry armchair GM's. We gained a 3rd round comp for losing Edmunds. No panicked movements, just flawless execution to set our team up for a Super Bowl and future success.

Beane and McDermott have come right out and said it. Edmunds was a good player, but he couldn’t change direction fast enough to keep up with slot WRs, so we’d get toasted by good offenses, while beating up on the predictable ones. The new pieces: - Terrel Bernard: while people don’t have high hopes for Bernard, he was a great disguised blitzer in college. The allows for more scheme multiplicity than the always 5 yards down the field Edmunds. - Poona Ford: a legit run stuffer to pair with DaQuon Jones against power run offenses. These two together might be the most formidable run stuffing pairing since Sam Adams and Pat Williams. - Dorian Williams: not sure what to expect, but I’m hoping he has better “read and react” skills than Edmunds. Getting back fully healthy: Tre White, Micah Hyde, Jordan Poyer, Von Miller (late season). Exciting. A big step could transform the defense: Kaiir Elam, Greg Rousseau, Christian Benford. Not expecting much from Epenesa and Basham, but who knows? As the others posted noted, we’ll likely show more multiple looks and matchup looks and McDermott had a history of being very aggressive with his defenses in Carolina and Philly. To answer your question, I’m expecting more, particularly against good offenses. Exciting to think about!

The interesting thing about this comment is it’s the opposite of the way the NFL is moving. Two 330lb DT’s and you don’t care if they get pressure? I pray that defenses try this against the Bills. It’s an automatic pocket for Josh and we pass 50+ times that game. The reason 3Techs are getting paid $20M+ now is it is a PASSING league and if you can get pressure from 3 or 4 D-Linemen, you can drop more into coverage and prevent the pass. There’s a reason 3-5 of the top 10 picks in seemingly every draft the last 5 years are penetration style DT’s.

I don’t know if this will make sense, but here’s the easiest way for me to summarize… For great players, the game slows down during plays. They think faster, react faster, and instincts set in. For Lil’ Dirty, that happened in exactly one game and the rest of the time, the game just seemed too fast for him. He was constantly tripping, dropping passes, and making huge mistakes when the pressure was highest. I wouldn’t want that on my team, as much as I love the guy and think he has raw tools.

The Dolphins traded DeVante Parker and a 5th last year to the Pats for their 3rd rounder. Gabe Davis is 24. DeVante Parker was 29 at the time of trade. Gabe Davis is set to make $2.9M this year. Devante Parker was set to make $12 Million at the time of trade. Gabe Davis put up 836 yards last year. Devante Parker did that once in his 5 years with the Dolphins. You don't think Davis would fetch a 3rd?

How would it be next year when he’s an unrestricted free agent after this season…

My goal is to be CEO of Tesla but Elon Musk is slightly more qualified. Its good to have goals.

I posted this in another thread with a longer explanation… but if Hopkins signs, there is absolutely no need for Gabe and we can get a premium pick for him NOW. We will run heavy 2TE sets this year, correct? If so, Hopkins and Diggs go on the outside, with Harty and Shakir competing in the slot (and Kincaid). That leaves Shorter and Sherfield as deep ball specialists… kinda like Gabe, but they also are great at Special Teams. You don’t keep 7WR in a 2TE system when you can get a premium asset for one who will see only a few snaps per game.

It's exciting to think about how many players we have where we're currently wondering "is there untapped upside?" Here's my quick ranking of guys who have shown us hints that they can potentially improve significantly within the offense/defense: Greg Rousseau James Cook Spencer Brown Poona Ford Kaiir Elam Christian Benford AJ Epenesa Boogie Basham Deonte Harty Khalil Shakir Tommy Doyle David Edwards Damar Hamlin Nyheim Hines Taylor Rapp Terrel Bernard I might even throw Gabe Davis in the mix and that doesn't include the rookies. The most impactful would easily be the 3 guys in bold. They have the raw talent and prominent roles. We need them to step up... the other guys are a bonus.

The primary reason I want Hopkins is it allows us to flip Gabe Davis for a draft pick. We simply wouldn’t need him and could get and extra 4th or perhaps even a 3rd. Get something now because we can’t afford him next year. If we sign Hopkins and Davis is NOT traded, your offense looks like this: WR1: Diggs Slot: Shakir and Harty TE1: Knox TE2: Kincaid WR2: Hopkins, Davis, Sherfield, Shorter In that scenario you’re carrying 7 capable WR and plan on running a lot of 2TE sets… so 4 of them rarely see the field… and Davis doesn’t help you on ST. Personally, I’d love to see what we have in Shorter and Sherfield on the rare instances we need a pure deep ball guy and then use our extra 3rd or 4th from Davis on a long term WR2 solution. In this scenario, next year we would potentially have 3 third round picks to load up at WR and an upgrade this year in Hopkins.

Remember when all the armchair GMs on this board were offering a 2nd round pick for him and chastising anyone who said that’s ridiculous given his contract? Where are you guys now?

Cut him

I’ll probably sign out of the thread after this last comment, because it’s clear you’re set on being negative about the 2023 roster. Why on earth are you adding Jameson Crowder into this comparison when he didn’t even play in 2022? Unless your assumption is that Harty, Shorter, and Sherfield will get injured they simply have to be an upgrade to a player who didn’t play. You’re also for some reason accounting for zero growth from Cook and Shakir and calling that a push as well. No problem if you think Gabe doesn’t benefit from another year, but you really think two rookies who got better as the season went on won’t continue to grow this year? Man… we really can’t have nice things around this place.

This seems pretty needlessly negative... You don't think WR was improved? It's the same players, but they added Deonte Harty and Trent Sherfield, with Shakir and Davis having more experience under their belt. How is that not better? Do you think Isaiah McKenzie is better than Deonte Harty? And that's expecting nothing from Justin Shorter. How is RB a push? Damien Harris is an actual short distance running back and 3rd down pass protector. We didn't even have that last year. It also shouldn't be understated that James Cook will have a significantly bigger role this year, which is a good thing, as he doesn't have the speed and pass catching limitations we experienced with Singletary. Totally fine if you don't think this is a better team overall compared to last year, but saying WR and RB are a push or haven't improved seems very negative.

This is kind of an odd thing to say. You really don’t believe front offices are doing deep diligence on late round picks? It’s well known at this point that “several” teams took Araiza off their board because of legal trouble rumors. He was a great prospect and someone will sign him, as long as he’s mentally ready for that and has his legal troubles settled first.

In related news, we don't get comp picks when Rex Ryan gets another shot as well. Any other lackluster head coaching candidates we should cover?

Very cool. -nobody

Breaking news: Guy with consistently horrible takes just to get attention has a horrible take just to get attention.

Word on the street is he's been going to various concerts, sporting events, and theater productions. All of those reps clapping at the end of performances are going to work wonders when the season begins and he is relied upon to use his patented clapping motion to clap touchdowns from Josh Allen. 100% true story from an insider who you don't know, so don't ask.

DaQuon Jones did a better job of this than any Bills DT the past 10 seasons.

This signing makes me more certain we’re gonna try Bernard at MLB. You need big DT’s if you’re gonna use small LBs who struggle to disengage blockers.