Straight Hucklebuck

The book on Campbell is he will make the plays in front of him. But isn’t a force of nature on defense.

Defense in Round 1 or trade back odds just keep going up.

Allen needs to get into the weight room, get in better shape and take Gabe in there with him.

He’s older, but still a productive if not highly productive player.

Funny listening to Schopp and Bulldog now arguing they want this trade (even expect it now) after disagreeing with callers about it less than 2-weeks ago.

What are we arguing about here? What singular player rating applies to every player on a team? Of course people are looking at the numbers, watching the plays, and putting a grade on it. The Bills media are trumpeting average yards per route for Harty in 2021 as evidence that he can be a breakout player, the Bills thought Tim Settle on a larger snap percentage could extrapolate into more production, can we quantify how much Poyer lost with all the injuries? No, it's all parts of a picture. I have no problem with the premise, the approach, the execution or results of what Clay did here. It's not something you print out and laminate and have in your hands as you watch on Sundays, but just like grades handed out after the draft, it's a projection based on everything shown/known so far.

Thank you, there is no one fixed stat that will prove how good a player ultimately is or will be. Everything is always changing.

It's Friday a month before the Draft starts. The first wave of FA is over. I don't think there is any agenda brewing here. The media still loves Rodgers and his MVPs carry a lot of weight with the media. But overall, I don't see the problem here. The Bills are right where they should be. Their skill personnel are weak compared to the better teams in this league. They have one real weapon - Diggs. Otherwise there are no proven high-end talents. And if anything, given no Edmunds, their linebacker score is generous propped up by Milano.

Well you asked how he determined the numbers and that's how he did it. He wrote numbers down. The results aren't shocking. The Playoff teams from last year rank really high. The teams we all perceive as bad are really low.

He’s paid for his expertise on football. Using his judgement he set 4 as the best score and rated accordingly. There is nothing new to see here. The Bills lean on Josh Allen to prop up relatively weak skill position talent.

Get rid of means a trade. How do the Bills actually fit Hopkins under the cap?

I just don’t understand that. Even if you were just looking at his stats, why would a fan conclude that they need that guy? Why would a GM trade for, and then extend an average DT? If I’m the Cardinals, knowing the Bills hold a low-Round 2 pick, that’s what I’d be asking for. Oliver, Matakevich and a 5th aren’t really starters for me.

I just don’t understand why any team would see Ed Oliver as a real chip to be traded for. An average DT at $10.7M on the last year of his deal as the centerpiece for a #1 WR albeit in the later years of his prime? Given that the Bills only have $8M in cap space, there has to be a salary going out in the form of a trade? Do the Bills have to trade Dawson Knox or Tre’Davious White to make this work? How do they realistically open up enough cap space to fit him?

Well when the Coaches run around the whole week saying that nothing can be taken away from the Monday Night game I wasn’t surprised we came out with the same prevent defense and got shredded again.

That’s why it looks increasingly like Defense in Round 1.

Beane has shot-straight with Spencer Brown. He's their RT. This is on-brand for the Bills. Signing lower-end offensive players. I don't know that it rules out any more offensive lineman in the draft, especially OG and OT, but again at WR this off-season has been like the 2019 and 2021 and 2022 offseasons. Diggs was 2020. So it's not necessarily bad, just more of the how the Bills normally operate. To me, it does increasingly feel like the Bills are going defense in Round 1.

Your last point is so true. The Packers get so much credit from the media for being this smart, efficient organization. They’ve used 14 of 17 first picks in the draft during the Rodgers era on defense, and have taken a disengaged approach to free agency. They have gotten the least out a 15 years of Rodgers.

I don’t have anything bad to say about Singletary. He was always available, and was solid professional. He had some make you miss cuts and good vision. Definitely in 2019 Frank Gore should not have been getting the ball over him. But I’ve accepted that the Bills are going to be sporadic in their run game usage. And Cook showed more explosiveness right away. Now that Harris is here to take some of the pounding and pass protection reps, why would it have been smart for the Bills to pay to keep Singletary? I didn’t see anything with him that made me think he should be a long term offensive anchor of this team. Why get attached to a running back that even Bills coaches always kept in a committee and Houston is going to do the same thing with Pierce. Who do you want to have the ball in their hands? Motor or Allen?

The Sherfield, Harris, McGovern and Harty (even Boettger) signings are on-brand for the Bills. Modest, veteran players, and this time the Bills prioritized guys who were younger, not guys at the end Saffold, Sanders, Frank Gore, Star L, Addison. And Beane tends to sign someone to help the room on both sides of the ball, instead of loading up on one side.

Got their younger back with size. They’re going defense for sure now in Round 1.

He runs a 4.67 40. There was just no reason to re-sign him because the same model comes out every season on a rookie deal, and they're 22 years old.

We've all seen it. This obsession with smaller, pass catching running backs, that the Bills don't use in that capacity.

Rodgers. Not one 1st Round WR his entire tenure in Green Bay. A 2006 2nd on Greg Jennings, a 2008 2nd on Jordy Nelson, a 2011 2nd on Randell Cobb, a 2014 2nd on Davante Adams. That's it. Otherwise, Rodgers drafted in 2005, the first draft pick of the Packers draft went defense 14 times in 17 years.

Yup I think we’re there. Before FA I wanted Slayton and Zaccheaus and a 1st Round rookie to turn over the Bottom 3 spots in that room. But with $8.5M left in cap space, and holes at #4 DT and #4 DE (assuming no Von Week 1), the FA loss of Edmunds, and the same approach by this FO to WR and OLine in FA (low end starters), I think we’re going that way in April.

That was baked into the contract we traded for and part of the reason the Colts traded him away. He was scheduled to make $4.5M this season. It’s also why Beane pointed out unprompted how he thought he had given this Coaching Staff a weapon, only to turn around and see he got the ball 11 times total on offense after the trade.