Straight Hucklebuck

The striking thing to me with Elam was a LATE season press conference where McDermott said something like - the Coaches are still figuring out who Elam is as a person and gauging what they have in him. I thought that was strange. The organization already made that decision Sean… Just get him out there. I don’t know that the Chiefs are amazing at drafting, they had to scab an entire WR group together, pieces of their line are FAs, and their secondary is ok. But I do agree that they’ve hit on both linebackers in the middle rounds, and Creed H is a big difference. How good is Karlaftis really? Skyy Moore? Their FO has shown they understand how to sustain a top level team.

Doug Whaley was the GM for Poyer and Hyde not Beane.

I knew this question would come up. I viewed each pick as, did this draft pick work out for the Bills? Teller barely played and then left the team, that’s a failure. Same with Hodgins. He didn’t do anything for the Bills, it’s a failed pick. Now, outside of these grades the Bills FO gets credit because they identified those players. But All-Pros for the Browns don’t help the Bills.

2018 Allen - A Edmunds - A Phillips - C Teller - F McCloud - F Taron Johnson - A Proel - F 2019 Oliver - C Ford - F Singletary - C Knox - B Joseph - F Johnson - F Johnson - F Sweeney - F 2020 Diggs - A Epenesa - C Moss - F Davis - B Fromm - F Bass - A Hodgins - F Jackson - B 2021 Rousseau - B Basham - F Brown - C Doyle - F Stevenson - F Hamlin - C Wildgoose - F Anderson - F 2022 Elam - C Cook - C Bernard - F Shakir - C Arazia - F Benford - C Tenuta - F Spector - F Bills have been average drafters, but the team has plateaued because they haven’t hit on an A talent since Diggs in 2020.

It will be a transition. The Bills have gone as far as they can on this iteration of the defense. Wish we all had more faith in Terrell Bernard to step in.

I have listened to WGR going back to Chuck Dickerson in the 1990's. I think outside of Bulldog when he does the show solo, all hosts on WGR cannot stay calm when a caller disagrees with them. Howard can't help himself, he must butt in immediately, Jeremy cannot handle it, Schopp runs you off the air, of course all the young guns want to talk over you. Now, the station takes 10 calls, about 6 of them are basic takes about the refs, old references to the league Dungy replaced by Gruden with the Bucs, Andre Reed was a 4th Rounder, Brady was a 6th Rounder, Marv quotes and references, etc. I don't know about you, but what irks me about Howard, is this constant, I'm fat, I'm out of shape, you should see me try and do a pushup haha, I don't eat any vegetables. I just don't see Howard or Bulldog really bring any preparation to the show. When Schopp or Jeremy set the topic, set-up the boundaries, they can respond when prompted. In summary, I generally defend hosts like Jeremy and Schopp because they are the brains for their respective shows. They set the table. They come with the topics. They come with some semblance of data. Now, when Mike talks about the draft. he makes it sound like he has all the answers, even though he doesn't do any actual investigation into the prospects. Jeremy has become a record player of don't punt, never run the ball, go for all 4th downs, relating everything to a golf analogy. I think Schopp and Bulldog has become formulaic (football season), with the same hosts in the same time slots every week. As others have mentioned, the constant betting, Schopp with the constant references to Vegas as the source of truth, of course the fantasy football. But I'd rather listen to local, because the national scene with Dan Patrick, Cowherd, Mike Greenberg are all guys who have been in the roles for 20+ years. ESPN is nothing but ranking players constantly. Cowherd is the same 4-topics every single day, and Dan Patrick just tries to bait every guest into saying something.

Right, and the only offensive lineman on the Bills that they drafted who isn't starting is Tommy Doyle, and where does he fit outside of swing tackle? With Van Roten, Boettger, Saffold all free agents, there is no young depth on this team.

I think we're seeing McKenzie doesn't have a repeatable skill. Occasionally his speed allows some broken plays to work, but I'd phrase it as most of the time he gets lost in this offense.

Yes, this is my thought. Coming out of the Dolphins game, our local media chided the Bills for not taking the underneath stuff, and pushing the ball down the field, leading to interceptions and mistakes. But I'm with you, I think it's fine if the Bills eschew a less efficient offense and tailor a big play offense, BUT, hopefully the Bills have realized that Diggs alone is not enough. He's a balanced WR that has a good blend of everything - route running, hands, downfield speed, contested catch. But for this kind of offense the Bills need more speed. Gabe Davis is too slow to be consistent, and he is stiff, can't snap and break off routes. This is where, a Zay Flowers, or Jalin Hyatt would be the pick over Jaxson Smith-Ngijba or Josh Downs. I also agree that the Bills worked themselves into this place with the roster, where they had no size, and a bunch of slot guys with no playmaking ability, and no ownership of the position. Which all leads us to the same place. Better weapons, and a better line so that Allen can get those throws off. And I would say, utilize the middle of the field more, because it felt strained trying to get everything outside of the numbers.

He’s just shown me that the Bills had it right from the beginning and I was wrong. He’s a sprinkle player and that’s it. I think instead of holding on the Bills could sign Zaccheaus and Slayton, and draft a WR so their bottom 3 could be changed over. The days of Brown and Beasley are over, McKenzie and Kumerow are done.

Fixed it, re-signing.

To me, the bottom end of the WR group are all expendable. That's McKenzie ($2.6M in savings), Kumerow (UFA), Crowder (UFA), Beasley (UFA) and Brown (UFA). I'm listening to Cover 1 right now and they're harping on the idea of re-signing Beasley. He looked like he had some juice left in 2022, but the idea of him manning the slot again in 2023/2024 is something I'm not interested in. He is too old to be counted on in the Playoffs. We've seen this over and over again. And McDermott standing in the way of a talented rookie playing because of his obsession with veterans. I would hope that McDermott doesn't have enough sway to get Kumerow back on the roster again. If the Bills intend to keep 6, they would have to add three in the offseason.

Seems like a good hire, been with the Raiders, Giants, 49ers, Browns, Cowboys in the WR Coach capacity.

You draft Robinson, and he should touch the ball 20 times a game. Cook is billed as this pass catching back, but he wasn't used that way last year. After the Dolphins game in Week 3, he was sporadic in his usage on designed pass plays, and you never got anything exotic out of him coming out of the slot, or jet sweeps, or flare/bubble screens. It makes much more sense to utilize the guy you drafted in the 2nd Round, and showed he was a productive RB, as your primary, then to draft another RB, and ask Cook to do something else. The only negative on Cook is size, and can he run with power in the Playoffs, or do you need more muscle there.

BPA is a myth man. It always has been.

Of course you're not. But starting RB on the Buffalo Bills is the 10th most important position on the starting offense and it renders the Cook pick useless.

I definitely would bring back the slant to this offense. We don't run that route anymore, outside of Diggs. But it's not unpopular to me, because you would be managing Diggs age and potential decline. Utilize route running and speed loss before it becomes a massive problem on the outside.

Yeah and that's something to wrestle with. Cover 1 has a good video out taking the Diggs comment about the offense changing after Week 9, where they compared his over the middle targets and Allen's stats, before and after that week, and how the Bills/Allen avoided throwing over the middle. It really highlights how bad McKenzie was in the slot. So it's a projection on how Hyatt will handle press man, and living on the outside in the NFL, so is the better answer to get someone to take firm ownership of the slot?

I just don't understand taking a RB in the first round on this team. Sure, assuming they keep Hines, the team has no size at running back, but with only 6 draft picks, your best shot at an elite skill talent is R1, and we're taking a RB? Why not just scour the Undrafted Free Agent pool and pick a RB in that 220 pound range?

Yeah PFF doesn't like Jalin Hyatt, so you never get a good grade on that simulator for taking him. But once he runs a 4.28 in one month, he won't be rated 61 best overall anymore.

Chark is the best option on that list because he is the best size/speed player. If the Bills sign him, then I think Tremaine Edmunds needs to go. Campbell? If you can get him for the Spotrac $2M - $3M, and release McKenzie. The Bills could ditch McKenzie this year for $2.6M in cap savings, he's become useless, because sure every once in awhile he gets a jet sweep call, but that's <10 times a year. Sportrac has Lazzard up around $12M a year.

Come on with this garbage. How many of the top WRs are left at 27 when the Bills pick?

Yes, you're right. It's why I never have believed in BPA. Rank the position(s) that matter the most and target them in that order.

My biggest fear is, if you wait until Round 2, at #59 your out of the elite trait WRs if Johnston, Addison, Smith-Ngijba, Flowers, Downs, Hyatt, Dell are all gone. Then you're into the Iowa State WRs, Marvin Mims, Cedrick Tillman, R. Rice.

Allen Robinson was awesome, until the torn ACL, now he's done. And Landry? He was a target-vacuum, but he's slow and that caught up to him as he was wasted in Cleveland.