BullBuchanan

Oof, not good that he's following this Saladino quack.

history says that a great season would look like 45 catches for 500 yards and 4-5 TDs. If I were pressed to take a specific line I'd say 42/450/4

Blast from the past! It wasn't Age of Empires, but it was a good one.

PAY ATTENTION TO MEEEEE!!!!!!!!

The point of trading for him (from McD's perspective) is that they acquired the best returner in the league for a 5th round pick. Now, we all know (as does Beane) that he's much more than that, but despite having a bare cupboard last year when it came to receiving options, McD/Dorsey refused to integrate him on offense. Now they have a RB room overflowing with mediocre talent. if Murray makes the roster and is active on game days (which I think is unlikely) Hines might be lucky to see 20 touches on the year. There's no room for him on offense anymore (barring injury), even if he has talents no one else has, and he won't be in enough packages to disguise his usage. They didn't even use Cook to his strengths as a receiver out of the backfield. I have absolutely 0 expectation they'll do so with Hines. Ford should backup Jones as the #1 1-tech. Jones was amazing last year, but when he got banged up down the stretch it exposed Settle and the rest of the D-line suffered.

That's pretty disingenuous to the role he had there. He filled a role that many change of pace backs do as a gadget player, receiver, returner, and outside rusher. In 2020 he had 1200 combined yards and 8 tds. In 2021 he had 825/3. In 2022 he destroyed his career best as a returner with over 700 yards and 2 tds, but had -3 yards rushing as a bill (career low) and 53 yards receiving (career low). He's one of the fastest players int he league and we waste him on special teams.

I think the Jets are this year's Broncos. A-Aron is washed.

Because Beane likes him and he's a great returner. This isn't the first time coach and GM have been on a different page. Did you not listen to Beane's presser on the topic? The reference to not liking him is giving him virtually no offensive opportunities when he played a critical offensive role for Indy and has been very good at that role thus far in his career. His stint as a Bill has been the worst stretch of his career production wise and it all comes down to extremely limited usage and poor plays when they do use him.

McD & Dorsey don't like Hines. If his career low usage last year wasn't a clue, not sure what is. He'll play out this year and then move on. Bates was probably our best lineman last year and he's on a cheap deal. I don't see it likely that a rookie takes his spot unless they plan to trade him. Not sure why it's interesting that Kincaid is slotted at TE2. Is that not his role? Klein at MLB is also not a surprise at this time. He's played the role and is the veteran int he room. Maybe he doesn't even make the team, but until someone takes the job, it's his to lose. Elam at #2 should also be a no-brainer.

You come off sounding jaded and a behind the times here. The bold backs it up. A top tier sound system absolutely can reproduce live music experiences. That's why people spend tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars on audio equipment. I love live music, but I can go to a concert or a movie theater in my living room any day of the week I prefer the best experience possible. So give all that "virtual crap" over watching the game 100 yards away through a set of binoculars any day. I get in a live game once every 5-10 years and that's more than plenty. I'll save the live sports for a minor league baseball game.

They'll be lucky to make a wild card. They won some impressive games, but they still gave up 27 unanswered to LA and got runover by some truly awful teams. A strong finish to the season is a guarantee of nothing. They're still very much the Jags.

That's not debatable though. You miss all of the details live - or the micro view. You don't get to see the details of a toe-tap, the intricacies of the trench battles, the placement of the football, whether or not a player was down before a turnover, etc on the opposite end of the field from where you're sitting. What you get in exchange is the macro view. You get to see how the safety was ballhawking the whole play before the sudden interception, how a receiver was wide open down the field, how a corner passes off responsibility of his man to the second level. You get to see more X's and O's and the expense of knowing more about what actually happened on the play. It's why it's not uncommon to hear fans reacting in a stadium in a way completely opposite to people at home. They're relying on limited information and a jumbotron to tell them what happened.

I think you mean to say you couldn't agree more, since I covered that usecase. You get to watch the plays develop, but you don't get to see any of the nuances of the individual plays.

Not sure either one of our posts were rants, unless that means anything with a paragraph. I don't disagree with any of the upside you mention on the OL. It's absolutely possible that they upgrade to a middle of the pack unit. I just don't see that closing the gap with the elite teams in the NFL. I really don't care what people want to call Kincaid. People want to call him a "big slot" as though that's better than TE2. I'm not sure it is. R4ealistically, we won't be your #3 option int he passing game this year as he'll be splitting opportunities with a regular slot. I also don't believe that they'll be using him exclusively as a pass catcher, so I expect he'll be learning some actual TE responsibilities and playing some of that TE2 role as well. Once a decade you get a rookie TE, regardless of whether or not they're a "big slot" type that has a substantial impact as a rookie. The 10th best season over the last decade in 500 yards for 3 TDs. Just like the o-line, I don't see that being the missing piece. I don't hate Knox, but he's a good not great guy as a receiver. Though I do love watching him stiff arm defenders. Your take on Harty is weird. He's been in the league 4 years and has done nothing as an offensive weapon. If you wan to treat that as untapped potential, fine but you probably wouldn't be saying that if he spent those 4 years on our roster. As for Beane fielding a less than optimal team, he came right out and said that was exactly what he was doing. It's not my opinion, it's his intention “There are some moves that we could do that would say we’re all in for this year and then have a tear down,” Beane said, via the Buffalo News. “We’ve been diligent with the cap to try to avoid that type of situation. It’s not easy, especially when you have a top 10 quarterback, great receiver, Tre White, Von [Miller] and some of these guys. Ultimately, we think we’ve got a plan to continue to go for it year after year and hopefully we can find a way to pull that title home for Buffalo sooner rather than later.” In the last 6 years, 3/6 teams or 50% of them have won by going all-in (Eagles, Bucs, Rams), the other 3 winners were the Mahomes-Reid led Chiefs and the Brady-Belichick led Patriots. If you can emulate the Chiefs and Pats, great, but I think that requires a hard conversation about our coaching staff. McD may be a great guy, but I don't think it's a radical statement to say that he's not a wizard as a coach. You were so close. All you had to do what make it to the next paragraph. Shame.

It does? I mentioned #2 to start with with #3 as a possibility. In all likelihood he's the #2, but he's a rookie. Have you watched this team at all under McDermott? What happened with Cook, Elam, Rousseau, Basham etc, their rookie years? It's entirely reasonable, if not probable that he sees a modest role this year. Thanks for contributing less than nothing to the conversation. It's like you didn't even read anything I wrote. Just block me if you can't be bothered to read.

With what players? The same ones that couldn't generate a pass rush last year are all coming back.

I guess I don't consider TE2 and DT 3/4, DE3 and RB2 starting positions. Harty is in no way an "upgrade" over mckenzie until he proves it. 4 TDs and under 800 yards over 4 years makes him effectively a 25 year old second year player if you add his whole career together. I'm also not ready to pencil in McGovern as an immediate upgrade either. He has severe flaws in his game that we've glazed over because of how poorly Saffold performed. I like the floyd signing, but again, it's depth. Kincaid will be fun to watch, but I'm not expecting a rookie TE starting the season at #2 or #3 to be much of a factor at all - certainly not more than a high end #2 WR would have been. Harris is a fine committee back, but nothing about him is special. He'll get some touches and TDs because somebody's gotta, but he's not going to take over football games. "Tanking" is a very strong word, and not one I agree with. I don't believe Beane is intentionally trying to lose. I do believe that he's not doing everything he can to win, because he's said as much, and I don't think the moves that he's made put us in any better position to win than last year or the year before. I don't see most of the guys he's brought in as difference makers, more like B/C-tier free agent role players. We don't have enough talent at RB1, TE1, WR2, MLB, or DL (despite our insane investments there). The only real threat we have either side of the ball to an opposing team is Allen to Diggs. You take any part of that away and we're toast. We've seen it in the playoffs for 3 years now. That connection evaporates in January when the real gameplans come out and we have no response. Milano is a beat and I love him, but he's not Ray Lewis or Brian Urlacher. He won't drag Rex Grossman or Trent Dilfer to a Super Bowl. Watching KC play last year with a one-legged Mahomes was illuminating. They have a seemingly endless parade of players who have no problem throwing the team on their back and stepping up to make big plays. Despite not being a team of all-pros, they play amazing situational football, and a lot of that is probably coaching. We already know that they run the worst play in football (the shovel pass) better than any other team in the league, so maybe like Belichick used to, Reid is just that good at getting the best out of guys that aren't perfect. McDermott and co seem to be much more of a "beat the man across from you" type of coach that will have to rely on his team having a significant enough talent and effort advantage to overcome his opponent. I may not be a GM, but I'd bet a lot of money against Beane that we'd save more cap by not having Oliver on the team than giving him a $17M/year contract.

Well, we're probably starting a Safety at MLB, so that'll be interesting.

I'm sure they won't have any problem selling out. It's not that many tickets, and now that they're good, it'll draw in plenty of more casual fans with disposable cash. In almost every case, I'd rather watch sports on TV rather than see them in person, especially football. You lose so much perspective by not being able to see the action as clearly as you can on TV and I feel like announcers and TV production in general can add a ton to the overall experience. It's cool to sit high at the 50 yard line to see all the strategy play out but you miss the details of the plays. The opposite is true for sideline and endzone seats, except in that case you end up watching msot of the game on a Jumbotron instead.

5 or those 6 positions are upgrading depth. It's my strongly held belief that depth has not been the thing preventing us from winning a Super Bowl. It's the lack of top end talent. We didn't improve at any of those spots. We have a middling journeyman and a rookie to try to solve our guard weakness. They may succeed at it, but again, guard play isn't why we haven't won a ring. Most people will know that I was a massive Edmunds detractor, but given the choice of Edmunds vs the drought-era scrubfest we're going into camp with, give me Edmunds all day. When it comes to players that will actually make an impact in January and February. I honestly don't think we've improved, unless 2-3 guys like Shakir, Basham, Rousseau, Cook, Elam, Oliver have all-pro type breakout years and guys like White, Poyer, Hyde, Miller return to previous all-pro level form. If I'm being honest, I don't see that happening for Basham, Rousseau, Cook, Oliver, White, Hyde, or Miller this year. I think we'll get good, not great production. I just don't see enough talent in the pipeline that's going to push us over Cinci and KC. Kincaid is a really cool prospect, but he was a luxury pick if you're trying to win this season. A veteran likely provides you with a bigger 2023 impact. I'm not against Beane' philosophy of "not going all in", because I too think the right way to win a super bowl is to make sure you've got a shot every year like the steelers, packers, patriots and others did for almost two decades, but there comes a time where you have to look at your team and wonder if it's good enough the way it's constructed. We took the NFL's most expensive defensive line and just threw even more money at without upgrading the talent at all - rewarding a guy who isn't good enough to get the job done with an even larger share of the team's minimal resources. I just don't see how the formula works. I'm watching what KC is doing and what Cinci is doing and I don't think our staff is even in the same league. Take away Allen, and this isn't even decent team imo.

lol, wut? I'm not sure you meant to reply to my post, because your take has nothing to do with mine.

Reason for optimism Allen is a top 5 QB Diggs is a top 5 WR Milano is a top 4-3 OLB Reason for pessimism We're mostly running it back with a talent deficient team. None of our skill position players outside of Diggs are difference makers - not even situationally Our staff has no idea what to do with the RB position despite continued investment Our staff has no idea what to do with the DL despite continued investment Adding a guard or two won't magically fix our o-line. Our team has always played terrible situational football under this regime and this kills them in the playoffs Our secondary is getting very old with 3/4 starters coming off injuries We're likely starting a safety at MLB

it was 6.5, but that doesn't really matter. What matters is it's A LOT less money and a lot more production. Oliver has never even lived up to his rookie contract, and then they give him an top level extension. Total clown move from Beane. It's starting to look like they're already writing off this season and planning for 2024 and beyond. We're going to be fielding a team this year that has equal or lesser talent at nearly every position. Unless you thought we were a guard and a 220lb mlb away from a championship, of course.

still not as cheap as reddit.

How ridiculous. I grew up around horse people and there are loads of idiots among them - maybe more than the general population as a whole. The first tell is that they took money and bought horses with it.