Florida Bills Fanatic

You may be right but I think most of the knowledgeable fans will look at the draft more strategically. They will evaluate the value of the player taken, the likelihood of the player being able to be a real contributor in their first season, and whether the player addresses a need of the team. Most people recognize the main needs of the team include WR, DE, LB, DT, o-line (RT), RB, and CB. There is not a broad consensus on the priority. Some of the needs are to provide good rotational players and depth. IMHO WR, DE, and LB positions require players to be starters or major contributors. Going into this draft, pass rushing DE is in the shortest supply in both the draft and free agency. Beane is not going to neglect DE. If he doesn't get one in free agency, we should expect Beane to make a move early in the draft. This draft class is deep in WR, LB, and DT. If he has to wait to day two to address these in the draft, the Bills will still get very good talent. Just like last year, Beane's moves in free agency (including letting Lawson walk) will tell us about his approach in the draft. We just need to chill and let "The Process" run its course.

I don't get the infatuation that people have for Rivers and Brady. They have been great in the past but I believe time has taken its toll. Neither of these guys showed me much this year and being another year older isn't going to make either of them any better. Neither of these two are going to play on a cheap contract or be okay being a backup. There are better options for teams to bridge the gap until they obtain a young guy to develop for the long term.

Teams typically don't. Coaches are under contract and it is probably written into contracts that they will be made available for promotional opportunities. I can't imagine an agent allowing a client to sign a contact that doesn't provide that latitude.

I know an NFL scout and he told me that there are at least 16 WR's in this year's draft that will grade as third round or better. If he's correct, the Bills should be able to find a good one, even if they wait until day two. Hopefully, we won't end up with another Zay Jones.

Teams are more sophisticated in their analysis of potential free agents than they used to be. PFF generates a lot of raw data but doesn't do a great job of analyzing the factors leading to a specific outcome. Teams study the players real role in specific plays and they understand the assignments and the actual execution by the player. In other posts, it was observed that some of Phillips' sacks were the result of the play being pushed into his lap by another player. I share some of that opinion. IMHO he is not one of the top DT's in the league and is nothing more than a good rotational role player. The only way he gets a big contract is if one of the traditionally bad teams (like the JESTS) gets overly enamored with him. I'm sure Beane knows what he is dealing with and he will let him walk before overpaying.

Okay, put down the bong and step away from the coffee table....lol

Excellent analysis. Thanks for taking the time to do such a thorough job. I agree with everything you have written.

IMHO if they cut him, the four guys going into training camp will be Smith, Knox, Sweeney, and Croom. We should all remember how Beane came to sign Kroft. Buffalo was a dumpster fire at tight end going into 2019. Kroft was about the best free agent out there. Beane paid a reasonably high price to insure that there was at least one capable TE on the roster. No one knew how Knox or Sweeney would work out going into the season. Knowing what they know now, Beane has the option to keep him, trade him or cut him. When Kroft was signed I would say it was more of a relief than love. Honestly, I don't see a huge difference between Sweeney, Knox and Kroft going into 2020, so why spend the money on him? People that think Beane is going to get into the bidding war for Hooper and Henry need to understand that he isn't going to walk away from two promising 2019 draft picks after one season. The team has more pressing needs that will require the expenditure of cap dollars.

Don't forget that there's no deposit on beer cans. That's the really big deal!

There is no doubt that Conklin would be a great addition. If Conklin hits the market, there will likely be a bidding war to sign him. The cost will be high. I can't see Beane throwing big money at a second offensive lineman (like Morse last year). IMHO Beane will target his free agent spending on a DE or a WR to play outside opposite John Brown. If he resigns Lawson, then WR may jump to the top of his list.

I could care less about who is playing for the Cheatriots when the Bills finally take them down. It's all just about winning. In some ways I do hope that Brady stays because his play has deteriorated to the point of becoming a walking joke.

Don't forget Perriman. Tampa will not be able to pay him and Godwin. Perriman fits the physical attributes (speed and length) that the Bills need to add to the WR group and he really performed when Evans was out with an injury. He will likely be available for a reasonable cost and could be a decent bridge while the team develops a player that they draft.

You are exactly right on point. None of this would be going on without the approval of Goodell. He continues to demonstrate that he has created a completely incompetent organization to run the league. I'm not sure what the owners see that leads them to keep this fool in his position. As another post indicated, fantasy football and gambling is propping up the interest in the league. Playoff games with unsold seats, unsold TV advertising slots, and widespread fan dissatisfaction with the stadium game day experience should be enough for the owners to put some heat on Roger's sorry a**. Cody Ford should file a grievance and fight this ridiculous fine.

With the last 5 or 6 games that Drake put together, he isn't going to sign a lower end vet contract. Cardinals will probably pay to keep him and send David Johnson down the road. Harris would be a great pick in the third round. I agree that Beane will not be signing any big dollar RB's in the future. If Beane is going to look for a lower cost power back, Jordan Howard might be a guy that gets some consideration. Philly may cut him loose with the emergence of Sanders.

This play had the look of a blown pre-snap line call which could cause the late reactions and missed blocks. This occasionally happens, even with some really good o-lines. I think this happened a couple of times during the game and there is no excuse for it.

Sometimes it's called "I've made so much money I don't need to put up with this BS anymore!" I don't think any of us need to feel sorry for him. In what other profession can you be incredibly bad and still walk away with millions of dollars and be set for life? Just sayin'

This draft is deep in receivers but not so much in pass rushing talent. If Beane picks up a decent WR in free agency, chances of getting a pass rush talent in round one increases significantly. Overall, speculating about the draft before the FA moves are complete is just a wild guessing game. There is a good idea of the positions that need to be improved but not so much about how, when and in what priority Beane will act. I don't plan to spend much energy worrying about it. Beane will do a good job, just has he has done for the last couple of off seasons.

I think you may be correct about Joseph. I was thinking that they may have been ready to move on from Lorenzo when they drafted Joseph but it now appears that they were selecting him to be the heir apparent going into 2020. I should have expected it to be that way. Beane seems to be playing chess when everyone else is playing checkers.

This is a very difficult issue for many people to discuss. I'm not sure that there is one single silver bullet answer that will deliver the kinds of results that many people want to have. IMHO the situation could be improved through better developmental assignments so that there is a significant high quality diverse candidate pool to fill openings. OC and DC positions have been the main stepping stones to become head coaches. Creating career paths to prepare future candidates to succeed should be an essential part of the league's human resources policies. Just guaranteeing that a minority gets interviewed for an opening is just insincere window dressing. As others have pointed out, owners are going to select the candidates that they believe will win the most games and championships. By the way, major university programs shouldn't get a pass on this subject either.

Miami has been consistently poor at drafting talent. They have turned over some of the front office people but many of the scouts are unchanged. It is also believed that the owner interjects his influence with a negative outcome. Granted, they have a lot of draft picks but they stripped the proven talent from the roster to get them. Fitz was the only guy keeping them in games. If they are going to compete, it will be more like 2022 or 2023 and that's if they hit on the vast majority of the draft picks.

Good overview, thanks for taking the time to share it with us.

What I gather from reading these posts is that we have all identified areas where the roster can be improved and I can't say that I disagree with any of them. Prioritizing them is a different story. We've all watched Beane in action. He'll go after available free agents and pay what the market dictates as long as he sees the value ( like Morse) to fill his list of needs. Thereafter for remaining needs, he'll go after the rest in the draft based on the value of the player at the round where he is available. He won't blindly pick any position just because he has some artificial priority in his head. If he doesn't have a first round grade on a receiver at pick 22, he'll select another position of need. If no other player in a position of need is graded as a value at pick 22, he will probably try to trade back. If a good player in a position of need slides in the draft where the value to move up is good, Beane won't hesitate to move up as he has done in the past. Identifying the needs is easy. Prioritizing them is a fool's errand.

Not really, because his time with the Vikings went poorly. I hope he stays in Buffalo because I believe that he has done a very nice job with the defense.

He has to be the most inconsistent play caller in the league. He was aggressive in the first half and crawled in a shell for the second half. His first down play calls in the second half were horrible and led to a lot of third and long situations. They had one outside screen call to Singletary that went for 38 yards and he never ran it again. He has been a problem all year. I hope Cleveland hires him.

There are some others that may become available also. Bridgewater, Winston, Mariota, Foles, or Alex Smith just to name a few.