Ethan in Cleveland

You should ban yourself from posting for a week for missing basic facts. Bills lost AFC Championship in 2020 and AFC Division round in 2021 to the Chiefs. And they lost the 2020 regular season game to them as well in Buffalo.

Good post. My bet is if they didn't sign Jones the Giants fan base would understand. But I agree with all your other points.

Giants screwed themselves paying Jones. He's just not very good. That said I would never sign a RB to a big deal again. The days of LT, Edgerrin James, Thurman, and Faulk are gone. It is RB by committee now. If the cap was unlimited sure. But its not. Even if you have a QB on a rookie deal it is still wasted money.

Can you explain this further? I really don't think you understand what #2 WRs do in the NFL now. Most potent offenses have a slot WR, a TE, or in McCaffrey case a RB as the number 2 target for passes after their #1. WR#2 on most offenses is going to be 3rd or 4th in targets. What the Bills lack is not Davis paying WR#2. He is an excellent WR with an elite YPC. He makes difficult catches often and he has consistency catching the ball issues. He's far from perfect but he is a near ideal WR#2. What the Bills lack is two things. A slot WR like Beasley in his prime. A guy that can catch 80 balls and move the chains. In 2023 I think the best we can hope for is slot by committee and hope that Kincaid, Shakir, and the others combine for 100-120 receptions. They also lack the determination to get the ball to Knox. Knox has the ability to be a top 5 TE. They need to scheme and design more routes for him to take the pressure of Diggs.

This team is SB or bust and has been for a couple years now. Anything less is a disappointment. Doesnt matter the coach. You can have a good season with lots of regular season wins but at this point anything less than playing in the SuperBowl is a failed season.

Yeah this just lazy and an unveiled listing by of players/roles. Taron Johnson is a starter. He plays nickel which is our base defense. Bills play two LBs almost exclusively. Floyd is not a WLB. He is the starting DE until Miller comes back. You could have a few different base offenses but it really doesn't matter. Kincaid is either the WR3 in the slot or the TE2. He will have far more snaps than Shakir or any other WR not named Diggs or Davis. As others said Matakevich will never see the field at MLB. If Klein is the starter next to Milano then my guess is Bernard and Williams are the backups with Dodson probably not dressing. As for OL, this may be how they start camp but by the end I think O'Cyrus starts at RG and Bates is backup. Brown probably wins the RT job and probably has four weeks to prove he can keep it. If he falters Shell will get a chance to start. Heck Shell might win the job in camp too.

Not a lock of course, but the OP point is well taken. That said this whole strength of schedule stuff is so overblown. There are just too many things that can happen during a season.

Excellent point. I think with the cap dollars allocated to star QB and several star players you are going to need to sign some key free agents to 1 and 2 year deals to fill out your starting squads. You can only draft so many guys.

Lol. Well actually Purdy had elbow surgery and its unknown if he will even return in 2023. Also the league history is ripe with guys that excel for a few games and then go back to being nobody. For ever Brady or Warner there are a hundred guys that play well for a few games and then flame out. But you are correct about their roster. It is very very good. Their division was terrible last year. Seattle should be a bit better and Rams should be more competitive. Still probably not enough to knock 49ers out of the division title but enough to make it harder.

Again it was about the culture that McD and Beane have built that allows these 1 yr guys to come in and contribute and not upset the culture either. Perhaps I'm making a bit too much of it but there have been some nice success stories.. Williams at Rt Spain at OG Remember both were good enough in year 1 to earn second contracts Lawson came back and started over two 2nd round picks Sanders contributed nicely Heck you can even throw in Sam Martin. Others like Gore came in played their role and did so without causing disruption.

Art Still was the #2 pick in the draft Smerlas and Hansen were second rounders

Half the league uses 3 man front? I see a lot of teams listed as 3-4 including the Steelers. But almost all these teams are in a 4 DL nickel the majority of the game. Doesn't change your math much. His salary is still about average and his play is about average. Underwhelming for a top 10 pick in my opinion. But cost wise is not that egregious.

Again. He wasn't the second most targeted when Beasley was catching 80 balls in back to back years. Its not Davis that is miscast. It is a lack of a quality slot WR - McKenzie failed, and Daboll/Dorsey's inability to get more targets for Knox.

Thats not accurate and not what a WR2 does. WR2 does not mean 2nd in targets. Its not Davis's fault that the slot WR production has fallen off greatly. Its also not his fault they don't target Knox enough. In a perfect world WR2 would be the fourth most targeted player but have a high YPC and score a decent number of TDs drawing single coverage. Thats exactly what he is.

If you don't think the OL signings Beane made are an upgrade then you really don't know what you are posting. Its fine to question Beane's faith in Brown. Many of us still do. But the investments in the interior OL are a clear upgrade and backup RT should be better as well. Actually Cowherd started out in Tampa covering the Bucs. Grew up in PNW following the Mariners and Seahawks. After Tampa he came to Portland where he got into NBA and college football more. My guess is he would say NFL, College Football, and NBA are his top three in that order.

Still don't understand the Davis hate on this board. Yes he was a bit inconsistent last year but his YPC is elite. He makes difficult catches look routine. He makes a ton of plays. I can forgive some miscues from time to time if he makes up for it with TDs and big catches. If the offense is to play better, it starts with the OL which should be better and then it falls on Allen. People don't want to admit it but he was careless with the ball last year and he missed open guys underneath. Kincaid and another year with Dorsey should help. Run game should be more consistent as well. I think Beane did enough to improve the offense even without Hopkins.

I agree. My point was the stability of the organization allows these guys to come in, contribute, and mostly do well.

A few. Williams and Spain on the o-line signed long term deals after 1 year. Feliciano signed a two year deal and then signed a second deal. More recently Lawson and Phillips.

Combination of age and being a DC for a HC that was a DC has done him in. Rightly or wrongly any success he has had will be attributed to McD and any failures will be assigned to him. It would take a very exceptional set of circumstances for him to get another HC job.

I don’t get the sense people hate him. It's mostly unrealized anticipation and disappointment and that has as much to do with his draft position as it does his performance. I hated Murphy. Edmunds was never in my hate category but I just refused to buy into the notion he was a difference maker in any way.

Good catch. I thought they had a year overlap! Dam I'm usually better than that.

I'd bet 95% of this board would trade three 7-10 seasons for a SB trophy. I watched since 1980. So I've seen the best and the worst the Bills have done after the merger. I'd do anything for the feeling of winning one trophy even if it meant 3 years of no playoffs. Already lived through 17.

Appreciate the comments. Im guilty as any fan of over reacting from time to time.

I agree. I was just praising McD for getting most of these guys to fit in really quickly. As you said it could be who they choose to bring in as well which may be as much or more about Beane. Either way it seems to be working and as others have said probably the only way to fill out the the roster once to you get a handful of high price vets.

I'm a McDermott skeptic but the Floyd signing made me think of how well the culture has been maintained year over year even with these one year rentals. McD has done a real solid job of building a culture that allows these guys to quickly acclimate to the club, produce, and for the most part not be a negative influence. With the notable exceptions of Benjamin and the CB that quit at halftime, I don’t think there is another guy that was brought in and caused any issues. Don't know the whole story on Spain year 2 but that was quickly handled. He has done it in a variety of ways too. He let Kyle Williams be the elder leader while Josh matured. He then let Josh lead, only to bring in Miller at a later time and let him take some of that burden too. The whole time he also has Morse as a reliable steady veteran influence in the background. No doubt Beane has some role in this as well selecting guys that should be a good fit, but this is where McDermott has been exceptional.