LSHMEAB

I was thinking of a play on words there, but Star bashing is never well received!

Star should definitely step up and pay.

Yep. It's naturally gonna be a hyped game being the opener, but it's especially interesting. It's going to be a terrific barometer of where this team/QB/HC are really at. This one is definitely more critical than your average opener.

No way in HE@@. The only backs in the league MAYBE worth that investment are Gurley and Barkely. And I'm not personally giving up a first for either. Zeke is relatively young, but he's already got some tread on the tires. As good as he is, I want a game breaker for that type of investment. The position just isn't as valuable as it once was and the best years you're likely to get are the first 5. No chance.

Oh, I'm ALL about generating pressure, wreaking havoc, aggressive defense, and creating turnovers. That's the formula for defensive success in an era where it's unrealistic to expect to hold a quality offense to >24 PPG. My issue is that I don't know that Murphy is a good enough pass rusher to mitigate the liabilities. I haven't looked at the particulars; maybe his pressure rate is great in limited action and I just haven't seen it. I do trust the numbers. But I look at a guy like Aaron Schobel for instance; he was constantly berated for not setting the edge, but he made enough plays to mitigate that deficiency. Each player has a particular skill set and you want to see the good outweigh the bad(no blank). I'm just not sure that's the case with Murphy. It would be great if he could stay on the field so we could get a better sample size. Shaq is gonna be Shaq. He's not a gamechanger, but I suppose you'd have to consider him "solid." We're just gonna have to hope TM can avoid the injury bug and make some plays in obvious passing down/distance situations. My strong preference would have been to address this issue aggressively in the offseason, but if this is how they're gonna roll....we shall see.

I don't disagree with this, which is what gives him some value. My main gripe is that he does NOTHING for the pass rusher on the other side of the LOS. That matters. It's one thing to lose contain against the run, etc. That's not what he's here to do. It's another to run yourself entirely out of a play to the point where the opponent is essentially playing 11 on 10. If you watch film, which I know YOU do, you'll notice that he's often completely out of the picture after his initial move.

Murphy MAY be a process guy, but he certainly isn't out there playing McD's brand of "complimentary" football.

This. He can generate some some pressure on occasion and get home, but FAR too often he's out of position both against the run and more importantly(in his case), against the pass. There's an art to an unofficial assisted sack and I don't think I've ever seen Murphy rack one up. Ideally, there are multiple guys forcing the QB to make a decision. If Murphy doesn't win his initial matchup, he's pretty much invisible. When healthy, he's not a worthless player, but he leaves alot to be desired. Shaq never gets home, but he's better WRT being in position to collapse the pocket when Hughes is closing in. I'm beating a dead horse, but I really don't like our DE unit as a whole.

I don't listen to Schoop, but he's a guy you love to hate. Both the same thing if you choose to listen. If you really want him off the airwaves, don't listen or pay him any mind.

You're actually a bright guy, but this is a really weird flex. It's a message board. It's not that serious.

Totally agree. Franchise QB=national attention=players wanting to come here. Kansas City is not a glamour team nor is Cleveland, yet they're suddenly "interesting" because they have "franchise" QB's (we'll see with Mayfield, zero questions WRT Mahomes). I tend to lump Buffalo in with Jacksonville, KC, and Cleveland in terms of "nobody cares unless you have a franchise QB." So Allen actually being that guy would change the entire perception of the Bills(for as long as he's playing at a high level.) Also must add that I'm not CONVINCED he's going to be that guy. I was just noting that the performance against Carolina definitely moved the needle in a positive direction. I hadn't seen him make those throws in live action. We shall see. My point exactly. We'll see what happens next week and more importantly during the regular season, but it was certainly a good look for him.

I feel like this whole thing is based on one awkward play where Short disengaged and took a perfect angle at Allen. Spain was fine IMO. Allen had a CLEAN pocket on the overwhelming majority of his dropbacks, so I'm not exactly sure how the OP surmised that Spain was consistently getting beat.

I don't personally see any reason to keep Ray Ray. There's not really even a Ray Ray/McKenzie competition in my mind. Everything Ray Ray does, McKenzie does better. I'm not a Williams guy myself, but wouldn't have a problem if they found a way to keep him and see what happens. The one thing they could do to make me angry is to keep Ray Ray and dump McKenzie.

I know I need to slow my roll, but I saw Allen make quick, decisive, accurate throws throughout his entire run in the Carolina game. I hadn't seen that before. I still don't fully believe he's gonna ever master this, but I have more hope than I did before that display. He could very easily lay an egg and that demonstration of proficiency could be a mirage, but it's something. I don't care that Carolina was playing vanilla defense, etc. I didn't see any of that in preseason/regular season last year and that includes the finale where he successfully demonstrated the big plays I know he can make, largely because the Fish had quit. Even in that game, I didn't see what I saw on Thursday. He just MIGHT be the ultimate anomaly.

Shouldn't Singletary be ready to play a major role? We took a RB in the 3rd round. What's the deal with him?

Hughes may be our most irreplaceable player this season. I don't even want to think about this issue if...... My take is that you really NEED two guys you can count on off coming off the edge. I'm an edge pressure guy. Always have been. Always will be. When I think of an effective defense circa 2019, I think of guys flying out of nowhere to disrupt plays. I love Lorax, but I just can't expect much out of him at his age. It's somewhat odd that he had 6.5 sacks in 2018 and only 3 in 2017. The eye test says he regressed despite the numbers. I generally go with the numbers, so I'll have to give him the benefit of the doubt. Let's hope the optimists are right and the groans are warranted. The alternative and something that has more import than it used to with modern offenses is an interior stud. Would have liked to see them pick up McCoy because as much as I love Oliver, alot is being asked of a rookie.

VERY, VERY different issues, but not wholly unlike Tebow. Kaep is a much better QB than Tebow and the distraction they represent couldn't be more different, but I believe after his stint in Denver, no team wanted to have someone that popular who wasn't good enough to start.

I love Sweeney. Think he will go down as an absolute steal. Didn't like the Knox pick and I think we could end up looking back wishing we'd not have made the move and drafted a WR/OL. We shall see. That's a virtual given. Sweeney has proven too much to be PS'd and Knox was a third round pick.

Maybe a 7th round pick and a player to be named later.

That's actually the correct spelling, but there are probably horrible ways to misspell that particular name.

Yeah. That's why I wouldn't mind giving up a FIRST for Clowney. You've got to pay a premium for young, elite talent. If we had Clowney, do you think we'd be expecting a 3rd round pick in return? No. We'd be expecting 3 firsts and a starting WR. The deal for me is this. IF we have the right coach and IF we have the right QB, the time to win is now. If both of those statements are true, there's no reason to believe we're giving away a top 15 pick in this scenario. And if we ARE giving up a top 15 pick even after adding what could be the missing piece to an already "solid" defense, we've got bigger problems than no first round pick in 2020. The only issue is that next year's WR class appears to be stacked. Again, if things go according to plan, we'd theoretically have missed out on the top guys regardless as the pick sacrificed should not be in the top half of the draft. PLENTY of talent is available at WR in the second and third round every year.

Bills ML is trending down. Wise to bet it now. Probably be close to 130 by gameday.

I like the detail here regarding the actual scheme McDermott employs. My counterpoint would be that Mack is less of a unicorn than Aaron Donald. When you look around the league, the guys getting sacks are still by and large coming off the edge. There's certainly an added emphasis on interior pressure with the 3 step drops; I'll give you that. It would be awesome if Oliver is that unicorn or even close to Donald despite his humble(probably dishonest) opinion.

EXACTLY. Beane is not an idiot nor is McDermott, especially defensively. They're fully aware that this is a potential problem. The price wasn't right for either Clark or Clowney, but there's a reason they were linked to both. Whether you believe the reporting to be true or not is your decision. I tend to think when there's smoke, there's fire. There's been some solid responses as to how this can work without addition personnel. Again, we shall see.

Not concerned about how the defense looked against Carolina in a preseason game. I'm looking at the complete construction of the team.