wilcoam

If Hyde will be used as a nickel back, and we will be in nickel and dime 65% of the time Yes I concur, and I am 100% convinced it will be a nice upgrade on NRC, and a turn into a solid but signing Problem is Hyde was a very expensive FA signing and is getting serious S/C starting money, not nickel money Even though he is not a proven NFL ready starting safety or cornerback More a nickel slot CB who subbed in as starting C when there were injuries GB had two much better starting safeties and preferred other corners to Hyde starting So I cringe a bit when folks insist he will be one of our starting safeties He's unproven So I'm not yet convinced he is an upgrade over Graham and or a healthy Williams Willing to be proved wrong but it'll have to be by play on the field not on a message board or off season hype And it does not preclude using a hight draft pick next month on a starting safety jc

Ja Crispy, I'm going one step further I'm calling for both a #2WR and a #3WR in the first 4 rounds of the draft Gimme another Sammy and a sure handed young slot guy I know its unlikely to happen But its what the Texans did last year and they look to be set at WR for the next 4-5 years Call me crazy but this would be extremely exciting for us fans It would be a tremendous upgrade on offense for 2017 and beyond It would match what the Phins are doing, have done, and what DW tired to do by bringing in Harvin It makes the opposing OC have to game plan for us in addition to Shady and Clay We could put out a starting offensive lineup that would be potentially explosive.... It would really help our QB One can dream.... jc

Call me silly, but I'm attracted to a guy who can't swat down more balls than he gives up in completions, lol I'm not worried if he can also play safety Or if he fits better in the slot or on the outside I think that's the code word when you bring in marginal talent, he fits our scheme When you are a friggin first or second draft picks, you should have immense talent to do it all That's my future cornerback jc

I'm not high on him per see I just will say he got the 5th most snaps at WR last year I suspect Philly and Holmes will move by him on the depth chart but that's not assured Because its not like they had more snaps, targets, or catches than him last season, lol What I am saying is I don't think Tate blew by Powell And all the posts on the Tate thread forgot about Powell And most of the other WR threads completely ignore Powell Case of folks thinking the shiny new dumpster dive WR FA signings are better than the existing dumpster dive WR depth LOL Us fans really deserve some higher level young talent to watch in a Bills uni, cross your fingers for min #10 or 2nd round jc

No, there are a number of great reasons to go crusing, though I just got off my first musical cruise, and we all took the prepaid drink package Nothing like seeing The Mavericks, Steve Earle, Lucinda, and the Old 97's play 3 sets each Back to our #1 draft pick What's the difference between taking a CB, WR, ILB, S or QB? Gilmore is gone, its old news, we made an offer, he wanted more money, he's no longer a bIll Now this draft is NOT about replacing him Its only about taking the best possible player in the first round at #10 who will be around for a min 4 years, maybe a 5th, maybe longer If that's a CB, great, if it's a QB, great, it doesn't make difference You just hope to get a potential game changing player Re-cycling isn't in the thought process, hitting the best right player is the only focus jc

I think neither make the 2017 team Or if one does a number of the players we just signed will be cut, like Tate, Butler, Washington, maybe Powell Do the math We usually only carry 6, maybe 7 WR's Sammy, draft pick, Holmes, Philly are likely assured The other 6 are battling for 2-3 spots And if we draft 2 WR's It'll be everyone else battling for 1-2 spots minus who is eligible for the practice squad jc

Great returner, despite his age, and I'm happy too see him back as a Bill, nice re-signing However let's honest He caught 8 balls last year He is NOT a #3, a #4, or even a #5 WR The fact is Walter Powell had twice as many snaps as Tate did last year Tate is a body in case of multiple WR injuries or might still have to win a job in camp The signing, as well as Philly and Holmes, who caught 24 and 16 passes last year Does not alleviate badly needing a serious NFL starting #2WR or even a starting #3WR That is if you are serious about upgrading at starting WR for 2017 Otherwise I like the depth acquired and that we are going into camp with more known historically durable players, Listenbee aside It does look like Butler, Washington, and Lewis will all have a hard time surviving the cuts Assuming Tate, Philly, Holmes, Powell, and Listenbee all make the team which is not assured jc

I don't think our Bills will select any player with regard to any specific position, be it WR, C, S, or whatever I think they will take a player they think is a potential game changing addition over the next 5 years That's because none of the backup FA's we signed this off season that folks here 'predict' will have breakout transformational seasons Are likely to even be playing in the NFL let alone a Bill by the time our first round pick's contract is up That might be the case with our second round pick as well jc

You don't draft a first round pick for a need in the year you are drafting You are looking to draft a player for the next 5 years and perhaps beyond If Howard is still available at #10 and you see him as a future potential game changing player then I think he merits strong consideration However the same could be said for Adams, Hooker, Lattimore, Foster, and Williams/Davis, and others And or a QB they think could be our starter in 2 years jc

I disagree IMO one of the reasons we have not made the playoffs over the last couple of years is because Mgmt keeps trading away draft picks Instead of acquiring more In fact acquiring more draft picks gives us so much more flexibility with regard to burning em on more QB's Same for acquiring comp picks when you lose FA talent jc

And if our Buffalo Bills desire a better passing attack, and want to surround TT with better talent, they should view signings like Holmes and Brown the same way, it's depth, WR's 4 and WR's 5, solid depth, looking at them as anything else is putting our team at a talent disadvantage to all the opposing teams we play Like Raiders and Texans fans, and their management, two teams which we are potentially looking at competing with for a WC spoilt in 2017, I really hope we are seriously looking at WR#2 and WR#3 in this draft, because right Sammy is our only real NFL WR starter That is if you think Bills Mgmt should be doing something tangible to improve the 2017 starting offense jc

Unfort Estro with the Davis and Johnson signing we are currently negative 2 on the comp pick situation Looking more and more like we will not get any in 2018 jc

Someone forgot to tell the Cowboys braintrust in 2016 that with a dominant rushing attack they didn't really need a WR #2, lol jc

Only in Buffalo would a career #4 WR be talked of as a #2 WR. Buffalo fans are used to a very low bar. A nice depth signing, bit not a real #2. Certainly not anyway close to an equal replacement for Woods. I agree 100%, I think fans who think signing a guy who caught 16 passes last year, and the year b4, is a candidate to be our starting WR opposite Sammy is somewhat delusional. Its part of that notion that competing AFC playoff teams are playing chess while we are celebrating checkers jc

I'm hoping that's why we signed Hyde, to be the nickel DB, he's a good one But I think he's a potentially weak starting safety so we badly need a young one with a higher talent ceiling If not I agree 100% we need a #1 corner and also a starting nickel corner I disagree about ILB being a need We have both Ragland and Brown I also agree TE and DE is not a need And I still think we need a starting WR#3 on top of a starting WR#2 Lots of starting holes and only 3 high draft picks... jc

Balt's Mike Wallace had the 15th most receptions in the AFC last year and over 1,000 yards Steve Smith 16th To me that qualifies as a #1 WR however if you disagree and want to remove one from a list of quality #1 WR's so be it You can likely replace Balt with Jacksonville and Robinson The point is 75% of the AFC has #1 WR's some with way better statistical stats than Sammy Watkins To claim our AFC opponents don't have #1 WR's is off base jc

You make a decent argument Plunge and you are correct about the additions However depending upon what we do in the draft right now I still have major concerns about starting positions WR #2 and WR #3 And the secondary is in a huge transition I too love that we moved on from Rex's D But I ams still not convinced this new D we can stop the run, until we, stop it Do that and maybe we can survive through a transition secondary I'm just not sure it gets us to 10 wins jc

IMO the biggest starting needs are, in no particular order On offense RT, WR2, and WR3 On defense C2, S1 To a lessor degree Nickel Corner if Hyde is our starting safety, and if not, S2, and OLB For the future a DT to eventually replace Kyle jc

The OP stated, we have a #1 WR, that other teams don't have? Sorry, I disagree 10 of the 15 AFC teams, namely Pitt, NE, Mia, Indy, Den, Balt, KC, Hou, Cinn, and Oak, all have quality #1 WR's jc

My hope is the Bills braintrust realizes we don't have either a WR#2 or a WR#3 presently on the roster and pulls a Texans and drafts WR's with 2 of our 3 top picks because it would not only address the lack of talent at the position for 2017, but perhaps solves the issue for the next 4 years While Wiliams or Davis would be great at #10 and provide us fans with excitement going into the 2017 season the next level of WR talent in this draft could still yield a solid NFL starter for years too come Though IMO just grabbing one starting WR with a high pick is a bandaid for losing Woods, I still think us fans deserve an offensive upgrade, if anything something to be more excited about as we approach the 2017 season jc

I don't think we should be comparing our off season moves to that of the Pats, as they are the reigning Super Bowl champs, and almost assured of winning our division and being in the 2017 playoffs, I think a comparison to our competitors for all the other WC spots would be more fitting, for example how we stack up against the Dolphins, Ravens, and Broncos, etc Unfort the reality is, I do not see the upgrades folks keep talking about, sure I see a potential upgrade in coaching, or at least a change, I see another D scheme change, but I do not see any obvious talent upgrade, or rather I see our team improving depth and durability, but not amongst 22 starting players For example, we might have slightly upgraded the K and FB positions but IMO they don't impact the game as much as the 22 starters plus the number of 1 pt conversions the guy has missed is disconcerning but no question Dimarco is a top tier NFL blocking FB I don't see how our offense is in any way improved, we lost both our #2 and #3 WR's one year removed from having lost our #4 WR, in return we added a large number of dumpster dive depth WR's, none of which are defacto starting players in the NFL - I guess the enthusiasm is all based on Sammy being healthy all year, sure that has the potential to make a difference, but a real upgrade would have been adding more competent NFL starters at WR #2 and WR#3 that opposing D co-orindators have to game plan for Then our D back is in complete rebuild mode, we lost 4/7 starters, and so far have not replaced them with defacto NFL starters, granted we get 2 free draft picks in Ragland, and hopefully a full year of Shaq up front, but we are weaker at both the LB position and corner, and hoping two career backups are gonna replace much more talented safeties Yes, there is the draft, and many more months of potential signings in the off season, but I think fans forget that all the competing teams get an equal number of draft picks, so most teams improve in tandem, because the reality is only 2-3 players per year per team actually make an impact, if any at all, as on could argue with the exception of Adolphus, nobody did for our Bills last year Look I'm elated Rex was let go and I like the future direction of our Bills, maybe coaching is the difference and 1-2 of these depth signings rises above, but the reality is we enter the 2017 draft with less assured starting talent than we had end of last year, right now I feel that 2017 is nothing more than a transitional year jc

Don't bring logic into the thread ajmac Of course more draft picks, especially 3rd and 4th rounders are good, lol In fact they are 'great' Especially since they are salaried at approx $575,000 and $500,000 for 4 years Our Bills would be in a fantastic position having 9 draft picks in 2018 including 6 in the first 4 rounds jc

So the Raiders, a playoff team last year, potentially lost their #4 WR, who caught 16 passes last year, but he will compete for the #2 position on our Bills, and folks in the same breath want to know why we are likely not to be picked to make the playoffs in 2017? Maybe we should re-sign Mario, hoping he can play at this 2014 level too, he's available....lol jc

Since fans claim comp picks of no importance why even bother drafting players at all period? Why should just ask the NFL to take em all back I mean why would fans of any team actually want free extra 3rd and 4th round picks? We can compete well enough with signing dumpster dive FA's.... Lol jc

The NFL compensates teams for losing high profile FA if you sign less FA's than you lose For some reason Bills fans don't want this picks That is a head scratcher Yes, we are currently negative one To get that potential 3rd 2 of our FA's must sign with other teams before the draft To get that potential 3rd and a 4th 3 of our FA's must sign with other teams before the draft And we have to stop signing marginal backup depth players Though I agree if we sign a substantial player that is worth losing a 3rd I can't name one we have signed this off season worth losing a 3rd round pick over jc