Ethan in Cleveland

Then why was he starting over Epenesa at the end of the season? Who cares at this point. All three of there's guys are roster bottom feeders that will compete for DE4 spot vs PS. I'd try to move Epenesa like Beane did with Ford. Let's get back to the OP. Really like a top 3 DE of Miller, Floyd, and Rousseau!!!

Epenesa is not showing signs of improvement however. He was given a chance to start when Miller went down and played poorly. Lawson beat him out for the starting job and was the starting D end at the end of the season. Agree Lawson is an average player but Epenesa is just not any good. Basham is probably worse but at least he is a bigger body to help against the run. Pretty sure he did it for Denver vs Carolina as well

Ford and Settle will be the best two complements to Oliver he has had. No excuses for Ed now.

No we won't. Oliver extension was a mistake. It is the only real criticism I have for Beane this off season. Floyd signing is a nice move. Pass rush was the one area not addressed. This gives the option to put Miller on PUP for 6 weeks and give him more time to heal. Hopkins was probably never going to happen. Still massive question marks at MLB, but there are at least some bodies on the roster to work with. Prior to Floyd there were not enough DEs on the roster to be competitive. Floyd fills a hole for sure.

Those were garbage sacks last year. Lawson outplayed him. Like this signing Time for Beane to admit mistake and trade Epenesa for a 5th next year. Basham isn't much better but he has size to play in run down situations. Epenesa is useless against the run.

Nope. Go watch the highlight video someone posted today. Oliver faced a single blocker the majority of the time. Even then very few sacks. He's just not that good.

We may be fans but we aren't completely uniformed either. Remember this is the same management team that signed a guy that quit at half time and drafted and played the worst QB in NFL history. They are not geniuses. Oh yeah its the same guys that traded Teller. They make mistakes all the time. We've watched Oliver play for four years. We knew he was undersized coming out of college and shocking he has battled injuries(pectoral, calf, ankle). He has a total of 14.5 sacks in 4 years. I think most on here agreed with picking up the 5th year guarantee. That made sense. I think most were happy to see him play on the last year of his deal hoping he would really ball out. Now he is an overpaid injury prone undersized DT that we hope can live up to they hype coming out college.

I don't see it. Looks like an overspend just like Star. Could have easily been replaced with a day 2 draft pick next year. Hated the pick. He's done nothing to change my mind, and now I hate the extension. All we can do now is hope he stays healthy and puts up 8-10 sacks this year with McD calling the plays.

I'm guessing he was thinking of Daryl Williams, Star, and maybe Quinton Spain. All of these were guys that got big money contracts from Beane and then flamed out, but of course none of them were drafted by Beane.

Hated the pick then and still do. He's at best a solid starter. For a top 10 pick that is not good enough. I will give a caveat to my post. He did have a bad ankle injury last year after starting the year well. Truly hope he can offer some inside pass rush. If he could get 8-10 sacks with 20 or so QB hurries he can make a big difference.

What's odd is he was pretty good the first month of the year and then was absolute garbage the remainder of the year.

The home field weather advantage has not been an advantage for 20+ years. Probably only helped when playing LA Raiders and Dolphins in the playoffs during the SB years. We are an elite passing offense. Josh doesn't play well in the rain. Does any qb? Cold is not an issue. Its the rain and wind they have had to play in multiple times the last few years. Add the fact we get a ton of players from the SEC who never played in the cold. Its no advantage.

Good take. I meant to include guard and C with IOL(interior o-line). I think you are probably right about CB especially if they play mostly a zone type scheme. Did Mayfield have leadership issues? Honest question. I dont recall hearing about that. Otherwise I agree. In Cleveland here they are struggling to find a leader. Watson was suspended for 11 games and their best player is a DE that is quiet and only makes the news for speeding tickets and crashing his sportscar.

Cmon man. You know that was the contract not the talent. Do better.

I don’t assume the worst. I just don't beleive he was that hands off the defense over the last several years. And you know as well as I those regular season defenses the last few years have faced one bottom feeder QB after another allowing them to pad their stats. It just makes no sense that after losing to the Chiefs in back to back AFC playoff games that now he is going to get more involved and there will be a radical difference. Add the Houston collapse and it just doesn't jive. That said the D won the Ravens and Colts playoff games. Which is interesting. If anything the Bills run D is what gets gashed from time to time in the regular season and then they play well against running teams in the playoffs only for the vaunted secondary to get picked apart by the Chiefs. But who doesn't get picked apart by the Chiefs. Add the regular season success against the Chiefs and it is all the more frustrating and perplexing. All of this is of course magnified by 13 seconds where defensive timeouts were called before each play and still they allowed the Chiefs to get into FG range. Anyhow, all this talk doesn't matter. McD owns it and let's see how it plays out.

Let's assume it is more aggressive which I doubt. Why the wait? Why would the HC allow the DC to run a less passive scheme than what the HC wants? Again, I want McD calling the plays so there is no doubt who is in charge of the defense. If he truly is more aggressive then great. Keep in mind arguably the greatest play in Bills history was a pick six by Taron Johnson paying zone coverage in the red zone with a four man rush.

Until proven otherwise it's the same as it had been for three years Allen is our greatest hope Coaching is our biggest question mark

Yeah he can do a cone drill ! Too bad blocking isn’t part of the score. 12 out of 1143 over 34 years and he still was considered a reach in the fifth round. Must be a reason. Watching him play do you think he is elite In explosion or agility? Hey if he earns a roster spot that’s great. He is cheap labor. Can’t wait for training camp

It will be interesting to see how they construct the final 53. If Kincaid can block even a little, they might go with two TE's. But I'm guessing they go with three because Kincaid is just a tall slot WR in this offense. And you are correct Bates played the extra OT when Feliciano was the back-up C. Regardless I still don't see Doyle making the roster.

That's when they carried only two TEs and one of them was Sweeney. They probably carry three TE's this year. Assuming Bates doesn't start (Two of these three McGovern, Edwards, and Torrence will be the OG starters) he will be the extra OT in the heavy formation. He did that in the past as well. Bates is the ultimate utility guy who can play all 5 spots in a pinch and will dress every game. Doyle was a bad draft pick and he probably wouldn't even make the team this year even if he hadn't gotten hurt.

Except the pass rush. Beane has not done much to address the DE rotation. I like Lawson as a #4. If they signed a guy like Justin Houston they could get rid of Epenesa and possibly try to convert Basham to a 3 tech DT for 2024.

Good move. Just cut Doyle now. He was awful before the injury. He has no hope of making this roster.

You chose my picks too. Really like Ford up front making a lot of plays. Also like Harris. He's the most physical runner they have had since Lynch. I dont think he will get more than 700 yards as the carries will be split quite a bit. He will get a number of short yardage TDs and will pick up some critical 3rd and shorts for us.

What is your point? Did Harbaugh not go to the Super Bowl and almost win? Did he not go to three consecutive NFC Championship games? His NFL regular season record is 44-19-1 or 0.695 win percentage. McDermott’s is 0.639. He did this with Alex Smith and Kaepernick at QB. Did he not make Stanford a nationally relevant college football team? Did he not get Michigan to the college football playoff?

Curious why you feel that way? Beane has done a real nice job addressing the OL. Not RT but the interior OL should be much better. They are betting on Brown getting better. I wish an OT had fallen to them in round 1, but it didn’t work out that way. Beane has added good players at WR, TE, and RB. White looks better in OTAs The pass rush is still a massive question mark, but DT depth is improved. If they can go 4-2 while Miller is on PUP they should be fine. I was always an Edmunds skeptic so I just don’t see losing him having that big of an impact. I wish they had brought in someone better and bigger than they have on the roster. But the NFL seems to disagree with me. Now if they get throttled by the Jets week 1, this place will be in full meltdown.