Florida Bills Fanatic

He's had a nice career and is a high character guy. I'm a hard pass on him for the Bills but I believe someone will sign him.

Go back and look at where guys like Cook have gone in prior drafts. Bad o-line play and bad offensive coaches have doomed runners with equivalent skills. How good do think Cook would be with a bad o-line? Etienne in Jacksonville is a good recent example.

My point was that there is no need to pay Cook $15M when players with equivalent skills are not rare. He is not great in pass protection, average as a receiver, and above average (not elite) as a runner. He is also not the biggest guy that will stand up to the physical pounding of being a three down back. I can't see paying high dollars to a guy that spends half of the offensive snaps on the sideline.

There are James Cook equivalents in the draft almost every year. There are no equivalents for Barkley currently in the league nor in the draft this year. Paying Barkley money to lesser players is a fools errand. As much as I like James Cook, the Bills should either sign him to a reasonable contract or tag him for 2026 and draft his replacement.

If people are waiting for the Bills to select a WR in the first round, I'm afraid that they will be disappointed. The defense is in major need of talent. With holes at DT, DE, CB, and Safety; the first three picks will likely be used there. If Beane can fill a couple of these holes with a FA, then a day two value pick for a WR may happen.

Played well in stretches but overall was poor in coverage. Most of his tackles were well off the line of scrimmage. Too often, he is slow to get to the point of attack.

You are probably correct but I believe there is little chance that Beane spends the money necessary to make a big splash. He will use the limited cap dollars to extend key contributors on expiring contracts ( Shakir is the first of these) and get value FA's to fill holes. With three draft picks in the first 60, he should be able to land some impact contributors.

Unless he is cut and can be signed as a cheap FA, I am a hard pass. He is not the inside force that he used to be. There are a bunch of really good d-tackles in this draft. I think the FA activity for the Bills will be conservative and may be focused on corner, safety, and DE.

Great choices! I would add finally breaking the losing streak against the Fins. It would be even more impressive to be the first fan to have washed his hands after first peeing in the sink.

I think many people have accurately identified the pressing needs of the Bills and have accurately identified that the defense needs the most work. The source and the sequence of filling those needs should be driven by who/how many are available, the level of talent that they have, the cost of obtaining them, how they fit the playing scheme, and the overall value to the team. This year is a little different than prior years because the Bills will be looking for help at a greater number of positions. With the draft deeper at DT and DE, I will be surprised if Beane does much with free agents at these positions. I'm guessing the free agent effort will be focused on CB and Safety (assuming Hamlin and Douglas are gone). With a number of good Bills players looking for a second contract, I'm not expecting Beane to spend crazy FA money and put himself in a cap bind. As much as I would like to see Beane get a big time pass rusher, I don't expect it to happen. As it relates to the offense, obtaining a speedy outside receiver is probably on Beane's shopping list. He may go with a FA because this draft is not especially deep in WR talent and the good ones may be selected earlier than the Bills want to pick one. If a good one drops down the board, I won't be shocked if Beane makes a move to select him. Overall, Beane's free agent activity will give us a pretty good roadmap for the draft.

Reading all of these posts is quite the trip down memory lane (in a bad way). I would like to mention Curtis Brown. He had some pitiful plays at critical times. He almost turned it into an art form. How he hung around the league was always a mystery to me.

Seems like a move the Cowgirls would make. He's not the kind of player that would add to the Bills' receiver group. His recent injury history and contract will probably be a concern for most teams.

Garrett would change the defense significantly and is an obvious answer to this question. Unfortunately, the cap reality makes this a long shot. The Bills need to improve the defense at all three levels. They need another safety (to compete with Bishop or improve the depth) and a starting corner in the secondary. Injury histories tell me that they need another starting caliber linebacker. D-tackle and a pass rushing DE are also an obvious high priority. I only expect FA signings for average talent players at a value price. The rest of the additions will come through the draft. I would like to see a big splash transaction but I doubt that one is coming. I've read several opinions that the draft class talent is deep for O-line, D-tackles, DE, and linebackers. Corners, safety, and wide receivers are not as available. Some believe that there are only 17 real first round talents, excluding the QB's. Since we are picking near the end of round one, I'm hoping for teams reaching for QB's and positions of need so some talent drops within reach of the Bills. In the past, Beane has shown a willingness to use his draft capital to move up to get a talented guy that has dropped down the board. Let's hope he has a chance to snag an impactful rookie in a position of need. In any event, it will be hard for the Bills to not improve the defense. The defensive roster this last season was pretty poor. d-tackle

This is a well deserved award. Ironically, I thought he should have won last year, as did many others.

No plans to watch the game. I'll be playing golf instead.

McD gets the best results on defense when he has one corner that excels in man coverage. It allows him to squeeze the zones to the other side and mix coverages underneath. Benford isn't that kind of player. He is good but not good enough. Bills haven't had a player to be that guy since White's first leg injury. They thought Elam would be that kind of player but he has shown us that he is not. Given the cap situation, I won't hold my breath for a big free agent corner signing. I do expect them to make a decent free agent addition that will be an improvement over Douglas. I also expect them to add a press-man corner early in the draft to compete for a starting assignment. The defense overall needs better talent at all three levels. Corner, Safety, DE and LB are places that need help. They have enough draft picks to make an impact. They also need Solomon and Carter to get stronger and be better against the run.

Kelly is probably signing on for this to be another down year with the hopes of winning the Arch Manning sweepstakes.

Having watched several iterations of this defense throughout the season, I have concluded that McD has pieced this thing together with a bunch of marginal talent. It may be his best coaching job since coming to Buffalo. No matter how this season wraps up, Beane will need to reload the defense at all three levels. Having a first and two seconds should give him the ability to make a significant improvement.

Very good assessment. He needs to improve his upper body strength to get off blocks faster. It will also help with tackling.

Elmo's is a very popular downtown steakhouse that is within easy walking distance to the stadium. They are known for their shrimp cocktail with its spicy cocktail sauce. If you are ever in Indy and have the time, it's well worth going there. When the NFL combine is going on in the city, you can frequently see the who's who in the NFL.

Good points. I was able to watch the all 22 video of the game and I was even more surprised that either or both of those calls were made. The right side of the Miami o-line was clearly holding on multiple plays in a manner that was more egregious than the calls on Dawkins and Torrence. Penalties were not called on any of those plays. The holding was obvious on the outside runs to their right and the screens thrown to that side. To let that level of holding go on throughout the game and then to make the calls on the Bills at a critical juncture of the game, is what makes fans angry. Other obvious non calls were Miami blocking downfield on screens prior to the pass (one call was finally made later in the game). Lastly, the Miami right guard left before the snap on more than one play and was not called. Overall, I thought the non calls were more beneficial to Miami than they were to the Bills. I would be really upset, if the Bills had lost. For me now, it's on to Indy and shrimp cocktail at Elmo's.

They need to address Hamlin's performance. Bad play recognition, slow reaction, pitiful on run fits, and poor pursuit angles are the highlights of his play last night.

There are some opinions that there is too much emphasis on weight training and not enough attention paid to flexibility. Some blame the number of foot injuries on the light weight shoes that players prefer to play faster. People also attribute many of the shoulder injuries to the small light weight shoulder pads that players like. I also believe the artificial playing surfaces have a big impact on the rate of injury around the league.

"We wonder if Jacksonville will ever get a professional football team."

The game was almost like watching practice with all the receivers and running backs getting their reps. Jags looked like a team that has quit.