Florida Bills Fanatic

I did not miss the point. Edwards is an injury risk journeyman o-lineman that had to settle for a low end one year deal. He may be one concussion from retirement. He picked the Bills because it is a winning team and he thought he would have a chance to start. The drafting of Torrence ended his chance to start. Guys that sign one year deals hope to play their way into a longer term contract with the same or other teams. If Edwards has the chance to ride the pine in Buffalo or play somewhere else, I bet he would want to play and get some playing time on video. Players understand the transient nature of the league and are less sensitive to being waived or traded than fans may believe.

Desperate teams do unconventional things. A guy that may be caught up in a numbers game could be available in a trade rather than losing him through waivers. Edwards on a one year deal may be worth it to a team that has a disaster brewing on their o-line. From what I've seen from AJ and Dotson, knowledge of the defense isn't helping them. After McD watches the latest game video, the realization that they have no MLB on the roster will lead them to take some action. They have brought in multiple guys on one year deals in the past and used them when necessary.

I'm not sure that seven receivers make the 53. I wouldn't be surprised if one of the interior o-line guys gets traded. There are multiple teams that are in bad shape and/or have had injuries on the o-line. Edwards is position flexible and might be enough to get a workable LB from a team that is desperate for o-line help.

It was clear to me that these two teams approached the game much differently. Steelers were running d-line stunts, multiple blitzes, and combination pass coverages. Pretty much like you would game plan in the regular season. Bills ran vanilla offense and simple defense. The starters looked like they were just trying to avoid getting hurt (go back and watch Dane Jackson on the long touchdown run). The touchdown pass to Freiermuth was clearly a blown coverage. Dotson was lost in pass coverage on multiple occasions and generally looked bad. I thought Shakir played poorly also. On one of the interceptions, it appeared that Barkley was expecting an in cut and Shakir continued up the sideline into double coverage. Shorter and Isabella clearly outplayed him.

The knock on him is being slow to the point of attack and many of his tackles are 5+ yards down field. Some times the eye test is more important than a simple stat line. If he is cut, I'd give him a shot. I would not waste a draft pick to acquire him. The 2024 draft is going to be loaded and I expect Beane will want to retain and increase the number of picks available to him. I get the sense that it is only the fan base that is concerned about the MLB position.

I have felt that the Bills will play the best two linebackers regardless of position labels. At this point, those two guys are Milano and Williams. It could have been their plan all along, otherwise drafting Williams makes little sense. McD's comments may be intended to light a fire under the guys competing for the MLB position. I also don't rule out a trade with a team that is desperate for some o-line help (Bills have some expendable o-line guys).

Armstead has missed 13 games in the last two seasons. His legs are shot. The Saints knew that and replaced him. Fins really don't have good depth to replace him.

I'm not sure about this but I believe that Shell saw being cut in his future. If you've ever played football, you know that you can always tell the people that belong on the team and those that are in over their head. After seven training camps, Shell may have figured out that he really was in over his head. He could probably see that there were too many better options at his position and it wasn't worth putting in the hard work to end up at home anyway. One on one drills in practice are very telling not only for the coaches but for the players also. I bet Shell was getting his a-- handed to him in practice and he knew it. Some people will want to talk about the depth chart and say he was one of his best options at right tackle or swing tackle. I never believed Shell was going to land in one of those roles and apparently he didn't either. By most accounts, he is a good guy and I wish him well.

I agree with you. A friend of mine that works in the NFL told me that this guy had terrible position coaching in college. He also said that this happens more than fans realize but regional scouts are good at seeing the talent and they know who the poor position coaches are. He also said it may take this kid a year to catch up but he has the physical and mental ability to do it. I got the distinct impression that Shorter had been on the radar of my friend's team.

I saw him play one game in Gainsville. My first impression was that he plays a lot like Vince Young. He makes one read and then he runs. Every pass was a 90 MPH fastball with no touch. His best passes were to his right or in the middle of the field. Passes to the left third of the field were mostly poorly thrown. When he chooses to run, defenses better get him early because he's no joke when he gets rolling.

I don't think Beane is going to let any legit pass rush talent go. The fringe guys won't bring much in terms of trade value. There are several teams that are really short of o-line talent. The Bills will be showcasing some of their reserve o-line talent in preseason games. Since multiple teams need o-line help, they will be less inclined to take their chances on the waiver system. These teams will be willing to make trades. Knowing that the 2024 draft is loaded with talent, Beane will likely be looking to add draft picks so he can maneuver and load up on rookie talent.

I have wondered about some missed meaningless field goals and extra points at the end of games that correlate to betting lines. The frequency of garbage time scoring when the loser hadn't moved the ball all game seems pretty high as well. For people that don't gamble on games, it is almost invisible but it happens more than seems coincidental. Point shaving that doesn't effect the outcome of the game is the easiest form of cheating. It requires only one conspirator and can be written off as someone just screwed up. With the amount of money wagered on every NFL game, I find it hard to believe that it doesn't occur. I think the NFL works very hard to keep this out of the league.

What about Conrad Dobler's sportsmanship and clean play? just sayin'

Many people were not very high on the wide receivers coming out in this most recent draft. In fact, several sources said there were only about 19 players that had solid first round grades. Kincaid was one of those 19. Beane made the move to get what I believe was the last first round rated offensive skill player that was left on the board. He gives the Bills options to create mismatches to exploit. Even if he isn't getting the ball, he will be forcing coverages that allow others to be open. I think Kincaid was a great pick.

You are exactly correct. Kincaid does not really create a dilemma for the defense until he is a threat to throw a devastating run block on a slot corner that is on the field to cover him. If he can consistently do that, you will see teams try to cover him with LB's. Most LB's on Kincaid are over matched in pass coverage.

Until we hear an official report that details his injury, I'm not ready to panic over this. Something as simple as a pulled muscle would make it very painful to bend to pick up a helmet. The Bills do have some decent options as others have pointed out. I always find it humorous when the "sky is falling crowd" wants to shuffle two or three positions to fill an injury opening or find some yet to be identified free agent. The Bills brought in some new guys this year to improve the depth, flexibility, and talent. Flexibility will allow the team to play the best five linemen (hopefully making the best unit).

I agree with you about this HOF class. It appears to me that they really stretched to elect a couple of these guys. When a guy wasn't the kind of player that affected the opposition's game plan to account for them, the guy probably does not deserve to be in the HOF. Revis and Ware are no brainers. They were both dominating players.

Hacket was terrible in Buffalo and the passing of time will not change that. Payton's comments were spot on but they were not in good taste.

Regardless of what the pundits say, Hurts is not great at tight window throws. Philly management must also recognize this because of their effort to give him receivers that gain significant separation. Other than this average accuracy, he is very good. I think he is number 3 or 4 overall depending on how you view Burrow.

The excessively paid players end up taking money from other players potential earnings. Teams are committed to spend the cap with the unspent portion going over to the next season. When they overspend on a player, that over spent amount is no longer available to pay another guy. Some players end up being underpaid or released as a result. Teams model their economics to build the best overall roster possible with the cap money they have. Teams have also learned that a really good offense does not need to have a highly paid star running back. Saquon and Jacobs are not going to change the narrative no matter what they do or don't do.

Put down the bong and quietly step away from your computer.

Having lived in multiple NFL markets, I have to say that we have had it pretty good in Buffalo. Whether it was Van Miller for the Bills or Ted Darling with the Sabres, I had no complaints. A good PBP guy makes everything about the game and not about him. A lot of the guys really struggle with that.

ESPN and their parent company forgot what made them successful. For ESPN, it was good sports coverage and excellent sports news content. They provide little of that anymore. Somewhere along the line they felt it was their duty to instruct all of us on their view of social morality whether the viewers wanted it or not. People didn't fight them, they merely found a different source of their sports entertainment. As the cost of content from the professional/college sports leagues went up and viewership went down, advertising revenue and cable fees could not keep pace. Their economic model is increasingly unsustainable.

I generally disregard everything coming from ESPN anymore. I do pay attention to various sports book sources and almost all don't have the Bill's in crisis mode as most New York based media do. Many Bills fans read some of these opinion pieces and their hair immediately catches fire. There are really very few inside media sources that have a clue about talent levels of teams. We seem to go through this every summer and at least for the last four years, the sky hasn't fallen. We just need to chill until we actually see the team in some full speed action.

Exactly! When you watch the teams that change leadership frequently, they are an ongoing clown show. It is hard to consistently win in the NFL and these guys have shown the ability to build a good roster and win games to compete for a championship. New GM's and coaches most often want to purge a roster and get their guys which usually leads to a significant rebuild (losing season) There is no guarantee that a new coach and GM would do better than these guys. In fact when you look around the league, many new coaches have not been a significant improvement over the guys they replaced. At best it is a roll of the dice. For the people that want a change, I'd be interested to know who the sure fire improvement replacement candidates would be. When I look around the league at the last few coaching changes, most don't strike me as an improvement ( TB, Carolina, AZ, Chargers, Saints, Minnesota, Browns, Colts, Atlanta )