Straight Hucklebuck

I don't think that's insane. The Bills offensive line is not good. Their defense is aging, and has a lot of JAGs. 2023 schedule is difficult as well.

Agree, the bulk of the Bills defensive line is JAGs - Epenesa, Basham, Oliver, Phillips, Settle, Lawson. DaQuan and Rousseau are going to have carry the line. From my point of view I don't expect Von and Floyd to play a complete 17-games, they're reaching the point of their careers where whatever they give is a bonus. Pre-ACL Von was on-point. Bills are paper thin at linebacker behind Milano, a collection of subpar linebackers (Bernard, Dodson, Klein, Spector), with only Williams as an upside player. To me, depth is okay at corner, and Safety, but is Tre back to what he was? And age surely is starting to catch Hyde and Poyer. Hamlin is a JAG.

The Bills offensive line is not good. More and more is piling on Allen is what I see. The FO has strained every facet of the cap to keep as much of the 2020-2022 team together. But in the end, only Stefon and Von have been elite players added since the 2020 season, and age is creeping into every facet of the roster.

He fits our cheap model perfectly. An undrafted, developmental player from a small school, that got bounced from his first team. Now we'll spend 2 years trying to make him into something. We collect these guys like souvenirs: Ryan Groy, Ike Boettger, Ryan Bates, Greg Van Roten, Spencer Long, Garrett McGhin.

Connor McGovern is okay. PFF has his 2022 overall at 52.2. For us, that's great. The analysts from the Cowboys described him as a finesse lineman who was serviceable, but is not going to be a people mover. Better than Vlad Ducasse, Quinton Spain, Rodger Saffold, hopefully because he's younger and not at the twilight of his career. But do I think he's going to be good? No. I think Morse is in decline. He was a fringe Top 10 center, I think he's somewhere around 20th now. Better than a 1/3 of the league or so, but again, he's okay. I do agree that O'Cyrus Torrence will probably be our best OL before this season ends because of his youth, power and pedigree coming from SEC competition. I think we should just be hoping Dawkins can hold onto what he's been. It's been Beane's approach to bandaid the line (with older free agents largely), with the exception of the Morse splash early on. Feliciano, Quesenberry, Bobby Hart, Saffold, Daryl Williams, David Edwards, these guys are all older veterans by the time we get them. Or we pick up these project players and scab them in: Greg Van Roten, Ryan Groy, Ike Boettger, Ryan Bates, Van Demark now being the primary swing tackle. I think this year is going to look like last year, you're dealing with chronic protection issues up front, it's going to be multiple times a game where you notice RT getting beat, Dawkins getting run around, McGovern and Morse getting pushed backwards with power DL. I think you're going to see the same struggle to move the pile on 3rd-1's as we've seen for years. Right or wrong, Beane's approach has been do enough to get by on the line, but nothing more than that.

Yes, he was good for one year. Then his surgically repaired knee flared back up and effectively he never played again. Sandwiched around that one year was Jordan Mills, Cody Ford (briefly), Ty Nsekhe and now Spencer Brown as starters, with Connor McDermott and David Quesenberry as depth players. I think it's fair to say the approach on the offensive line is cheap free agents and mid to low round picks. Allen has not had a good offensive line.

But of course Taylor wants money, which means the team that is trading for him must hand over draft assets and the extension. To justify the extension, the offense must give him the ball 250+ times a year. That's 15 carries a game if he plays all 17. We've just seen this too many times with running backs where that path ends. But I do think there is merit to one aspect of this. And that is this franchise has never won a Super Bowl. So is some respects, just going for it demonstrates the understanding that this city, fanbase, and organization is desperate to win it all.

None of it makes any sense. Why these sports shows pretend its 1973 and the power run game is what wins Super Bowls I'll never know. Colts want a 1st for Taylor. They won't get that. But even if it's two 2nd Round picks. Now that kind of investment means that Taylor has to touch the ball 250+ times in your offense, when we know running the ball doesn't win Super Bowls - Nick Chubb, Derrick Henry, Dalvin Cook and so on.

Every ESPN Radio show is shouting from the mountain top that the Bills have to do this immediately.

1. Dodson 2. AJ Klein 3. Bernard is not even in the discussion. Did he grow 4" and put on 20 pounds this offseason? Nope, probably not.

I thought he was "excited" about it? 🤷‍♂️

Beane took the same approach as he has for years - low end FAs: Anderson, McGovern, Van Demark, brining back Quesenberry, and more mid-round picks: Torrence being the big splash, Broeker.

Maybe select Dewand Jones in the 3rd Round when you have little to no depth at either OT position? I mean who'd of thought that a 6'8" 375 pound OT with 36+" arms from Ohio State graded the day before the draft at 88 overall would be any good in the NFL? 111 snaps so far in preseason, 0 sacks allowed. 🤷‍♂️

Sampling WGR 550's reaction: basically nothing to worry about. 1. Bills don't game plan 2. Bills don't play a 3-4 defense 3. Bills are in the elite club, so they don't care much about preseason 4. If you go play by play it's not that bad 5. The starters only played two series so can't take anything from that (where have we heard that before, oh yeah, Bengals Monday Night, the Playoff game didn't look any different than that did it)

Always that cheap shot guy who hits someone from the back or the side.

I just want one time for the people of Buffalo to win a major championship. Sabres or Bills. Just once to stand on top of the mountain.

Okay, guess we’ll find out.

If you want to bank on him surviving all season then go for it. David Quesenberry is your backup. Allen is going to have to move off his spot all season. Sorry, he didn't get better like the Bills brass thought he was going to.

Pretty soon it will be 5'8" 198 pound DIII linebackers on this team.

Yup, this is correct. We have a franchise QB for the first time since Kelly, and the Bills plan has consistently been to go cheap on the line: mid-round OL, low-end free agents, a lot of developmental projects. LG has been a rotation of past their prime veterans: Vlad Ducasse, Quinton Spain, Ike Boettger, Rodger Saffold. RT has been approached the same way by this regime: Jordan Mills, Connor McDermott, Cody Ford (briefly), Daryl Williams, Spencer Brown, David Quesenberry, Bobby Hart. I'm listening to WGR from yesterday, and it's just shocking to me that they are puzzled after Saturday that RT is still a problem. Say it out loud, this team banked on a 3rd Rounder from Northern Iowa taking a big step, despite being a below average starter with a back injury on his resume now. Fans were pointing out after the 2nd Training Camp practice that Brown couldn't even bend down to pick up his helmet. So more of the same on the line: David Edwards, Van Demark, Connor McGovern, etc. It's cheap, low-end players.

Yeah this will be just a 1-game time jobber, but this MLB "battle" is absolutely laughable at this point. These 220 pounders can't even make it through a 3-week Training Camp without suffering weeks long injuries.

Regarding #2, I really love that the Bills still haven’t learned from 13-seconds, Justin Jefferson, the Bengals game.

1. Bills passed on Dewand Jones in the 3rd Round. He had an 88 grade on ESPN Draft. In 79 pass snaps, he’s allowed 1 pressure. 2. Our fans don’t miss things and pictures of how out of shape Dion was circulated right away on here. 1,000 wings. 3. A $7M contract for Poyer doesn’t upset me. He won us the Ravens game last season. He’s 32-33, not too old. He walks, and that’s yet another hole to try and fill on limited money. 4. Oliver is a JAG. He’s too small. Agree with the OP, that contract looks bad and not many fans were clamoring to sign him for money. 5. Doubt the light goes on for Elam. The coaching staff clearly had him behind Dane Jackson all last season. Happy to have another quality depth piece, but he’s obviously been a disappointment. Word is he works hard though.

2 days before a Playoff game and our starting LT is helping eat 1,000 wings. I get it, lineman aren’t peeled, but are we shocked Dion’s conditioning is subpar. This is why I was on Allen (who has since admitted he needs to workout more - K.Brant podcast) and why I question this notion that Gabe is the hardest worker ever when he has zero definition and a flabby gut in a photo taken one week after the season ends.

Glad we passed on Dewand Jones. Bills might have to play jumbo set all the time. No idea if there is a rule against that, but RT is laughably bad. Picking through cuts to find a RT might have to be the route the Bills take honestly.