TigerJ

The SI article relieves most of my on field concerns. He appears to be serious about wanting to succeed at football. I don't admire some of his character traits, but his character is better than it could be.

I expect Minnesota will make an effort to re-sign their first choice from among Keenum, Bradford and Bridgewater before free agency begins. If Minnesota actually did target Cousins, that would mean Buffalo could make a very competitive offer to their choice of the three QBs Minnesota would b parting with.

He has a party he expects to attend?

For me to be comfortable with any scenario where Rosen ends up as a Bill, I have to see a lot of evidence that my impressions of his attitude are all wrong. Those impressions are that he has a "me attitude" and a strong sense of entitlement. From my perspective, his presence in the locker room throws a real wrench into the team atmosphere that McDermott has tried hard to instill. I am just not convinced that his skill set is good enough to outweigh the attitude issues.

Obviously, the Bills are working to cover all their bases. They want to learn what it will take to move up. I take Beane at his word when he talks about valuing draft picks. I suspect that if all teams want from the Bills is draft picks, Beane will be less inclined to move up. If he can throw in a player like Glenn, he might be more interested in moving up because he'd have to sacrifice less in the way of draft picks. If the price is too high for Beane, can also see him passing on a trade and picking a QB wherever he thinks the value is right, be it at #21 or #22, or later on in the draft. Only one thing is certain. The Bills will have opinions and contingencies throughout the draft. No matter what happens, Beane wants to make the choices that are best for the Bills, and does not want to be caught off guard without knowing wt to do.

It certainly begs the question, what do the Bills do at running back, if they're seriously looking at trading him.

O'Leary is never going to be a great athlete or a deep threat at TE, but he's a decent blocker and catches most of the balls thrown his way. Because he is a backup, he doesn't get a lot of attention from DBs, and with the coverage he does get, he's often open. I'd keep him.

With Allen, it's all about perceived potential based on his physical makeup. He's big, athletic, and has a cannon arm. It doesnn't hurt that he came from a somewhat pro style offense, but the physical traits are the big thing.

Kalen Ballage

If a player has been released by his former team, he can sign any time. If a veteran has played his last season under his old contract, he still has to wait until the official start of free agency in mid - March.

It sure doesn't seem like Martavis Bryant would be a McBeane type of player characterwise.

Signing a player to a long contract with a big bonus is a risky proposition. If you cut him, you have to absorb the cap impact of that bonus in one or two years (one year if the player is cut before June 1st-two years if cut after June 1st) rather than the cap impact being prorated over the life of the contract.

Unless times have changed (and that is possible) 4 training camp QBs is the norm and 3 is the exception. Rex Ryan went with 3 when he had a couple young guys and he was trying to give EJ Manuel lots of reps. It is more typical to have three with a reasonable chance of sticking with the team and one camp arm. The 4 QBs are seen as a way to avoid your expected top two QBs from getting overly fatigued with all the passes needed to let all your WRs comfortable with their routes. Brogan would be a camp arm type.

The incentive to sign with a winner is pretty powerful. I think there are veteran free agents out there who are more than willing to put up with Belichick's military like discipline to get a few rings, and then if they are young enough to sign a big money deal elsewhere. Now, if Philly can win a few more Super Bowls over the next five years,other than the ones the Bills are going to win. They can say to potential free agent recruits, "Not only can you have a good chance or earning a Super Bowl ring, you can be a part of a team where we really care about each other, and we have fun too." I imagine they can land some top notch veterans and maybe not have to pay quite as much as a bottom dweller. Come to think of it, so can Buffalo LOL.

I would not expect any special considerations for the Bills when making a trade. When the Colts hired Frank, they would understand that he was to give his best effort for the team that is paying him. He's also not the general manager. I can just imagine what the GM would say if Reich approached him and said, "Let's give the Bills a sweetheart deal for that third overall pick we own. They're good folks and I once played for them." How do you think he'll respond to that? I don't think he'll be very agreeable.

I might in some circumstances. I would not anticipate doing so in the upcoming draft primarily because I have not written off Nate Peterman. I woud most certainly draft one QB and then plan for a competition in training camp with Peterman, the rookie and the veteran I plan on signing.

We've been through the discussion of Buffalo's receivers being open or not. One stat that may be relevant is the fact that Tyrod holds the ball longer than any other QB in the league. Ostensibly, he does this because he has trouble anticipating his receivers moves. Many times he seems reluctant to throw until he sees the receiver is open. The problem is with the quality of DBs in the league, receivers are rarely open for a long time. If you wait until they are open, then wind up to throw, you have wasted valuable time, and the window of openness for your receiver has come and gone. I wonder if this is what is happening to Tyrod. In other words, maybe the tig windows are of Tyrod's own making because he hesitates too long to throw the football.

A Brady-Belichick loss is a nice consolation prise for bowing out of the playoffs in wild card weekend. I didn't think the Bills were going to go very far in any case. Here's to a Bills Packers Super Bowl in February of 2019! We can be friends until then. LOL

OK. If you want to bump this thread after the draft and again in training camp to show us how your predictions stacked up, it could be fun.

Price and Wynn, a couple names that have been projected to the Bills can probably also play guard. Wynn might even be able to play some left tackle even though he's pretty short for the position. He did that for the Georgia Bulldogs. I'd be a bit surprised if the Bills go that route, however. f they draft a guard/center, it will be later in the draft. More people than not assume Groy is going to step in at starting center.

The more key parts of the team that cheating built that are ready to jump ship the better.

If the Bills want to have a competition at QB in training camp with Peterman as part of that competition, I'm OK with that, but that competition has to include a viable alternative. That would most likely be a veteran journeyman. If the journeyman is better, then you start him.

From what little I saw of him in college, I like him. As with most of the college QB prospects, opinions in the media are all over the place. As with all the prospects, there are areas where growth and development need to take place. I think Rosen, Darnold, and Allen are going to experience some growing pains too. I would be fine with Buffalo drafting him if the think he's the best guy they can get where they are picking to upgrade the Bills' quarterbacking.

Yeah, and the over under for Bills wins was somewhere around 4 or 5 at the start of the 2017 season. Vegas odds setters are generally pretty sharp, but the are not infallible.

If you want to make a serious attempt at playing in the Super Bowl, you don't want to neglect any phase of the game. It's true that in the just played Super Bowl all kinds of offensive records were broken, but don't forget that both New England and Philly had highly rated defenses too. I believe that McDermott wants an offense that is a whole lot more effective than the Bills fielded in 2017. One thing they need to be able to do is pass when the defense is focusing on taking away the run. That's one thing that happened in the Super Bowl. New England in particular was ineffective running the ball. Aside from the fact that Brady is an elite passer, that's one of the reasons the Patriots racked up so many passing yards. Philly was better at running the ball, but they too were able to use the pass effectively when the run game wasn't working.