Hermes

I think that's the worst part. It's not just on a run of the mill 2nd down, it's when the cards are on the table the refs control the flop. I mean, the big play doesn't reach home.. just look for the flag. Marquee team/players generally get the calls to keep the game alive. It would be nice to just watch the players play and not have to worry about a great defensive stop or offensive gain negated by a redundant penalty.

Seriously. How much do the Bills win by without numerous (2-3) drives extended by penalties for 1st downs, or non calls that would've obviously changed the outcome of a play. It's not just this game and not just against the the Bills. The Refs clearly show bias and it's getting more and more obvious to even the common fan. The Bills have been fortunate in this regard since Allen but the overall officiating is horrendous. There have been a handful of times where the bills should've gotten penalties or non calls against them and it worked in our favor. IMO the Bills have been on the "right side" of these calls this season but it still points to the inability of the NFL to have capable Refs. How ridiculous is it that a multi-billion organization can't at least be impartial when it comes to the rules that govern the game!? I don't care if the Bills get more calls against the weaker teams in the league, so long as the overall game is called consistently and fairly for every team. How many times have you seen a flag and then the network doesn't show a replay or there's a convoluted explanation why the call was right.. TL:DR, Refs suck, Bills didn't benefit tonight, but overall they have.

Exactly, The Bills might actually have to punt in this one

You haven't heard.. it's gonna be in Lancaster (or Batavia). There's been plenty of high-level business meetings about it!

Exactly. Its why Beane said how many times it's to give Matt space to work things out. I wouldn't rule out the Bills bringing him back after the dust settles if he's cleared of any wrongdoing.

Why?

The Bills had no choice to drop him regardless. Even if they knew with 100% certainty thay he was innocent. The media circus that would plague the team would be an absolute nightmare. Worst case scenario is that they keep him on and then he does get charged and arrested. How much does that derail the season, and what does that do to the reputation you've built?

I've had this thought for a while; that the Bills are holding him back "from football activities" intentionally. They have the confidence to roll with Elam, and/or Benford because of the talent/scheme around them. They're going to season the rookies until they want Tre White to come back and then ease him back into the fold. Then you have Tre, Jackson, and the rookies splitting time until the playoffs. Which is when you send Tre and Elam (or whoever shows the best) locking it down in crunch time.

Spicy!

Its easy to see the ways that the Pats or Dolphins make the playoffs but I don't think they both do. One of them sweeps the series between them and that's the difference The Jets are going to end up being a team that's always in contention for a wild card but never is a real threat to the top teams. Daboll is looking to right the ship and Dan Jones does just enough to get tagged in the off-season. Riverboat Ron gets Carson Wentz going in a short yard passing offense and relies on YAC and Mclaurin keeping the defense honest. Baker shows he isn't done in the league and (with a lot of help from McCaffrey) the Panthers turn out to be a surprisingly dangerous offense.

The Bengals prove they're here to stay and win the first seed in the AFC, beat the Chiefs after the bye, and host the AFC championship game. Chase and Higgins both go for 1500+ and 10+ tds. 2 of the following 3; Giants, Panthers, Commanders, make the playoffs Brady wins MVP and the Bucs get the first seed. Rodgers and Brady have an all time great battle in the NFC Championship game. Where Rodgers pulls out a miracle on the last drive to lead the Packers to the Super Bowl. Mahomes and the Chiefs struggle to stay atop the AFCW and are a wildcard team. The Jets push for a playoff spot all season. If they make it in, 3 teams from the AFCE are in the playoffs.

I get Pickens, but Moore projects more as a slot receiver if I'm not mistaken. So had we drafted him Kumerow still would've been the defacto WR3 (which is hilarious) Do you think Pickens will have more total yards and tds than Cook this year? That's the big question.

To your first point. I can't say he had anyone graded higher, although he probably had others in the same ranked grouping. He may very well have had a player 'graded' slightly higher but was in the same grouping and in a deeper position so he picked Cook. There's too many factors the we don't know to come to that conclusion. However, I think it's far to say that he could have. I do believe the Bills would've drafted a QB if one of them dropped far enough. They aren't going to reach for a QB but they would be stupid not to draft one because they have Allen. Having a highly touted backup to the most important position on the field, that in no way threatens his standing with the team, is cost controlled for 4 years, and you can potentially trade for picks if he fills in and balls out is not a bad thing. (This thread has diverged to the concern of of outside WR depth, why not have the same concern for QB) Although your point about how the board is built is interesting. I understand ranking players based off of cumulative input from everyone involved, however you're talking about absolute rankings (i.e. player A is ranked higher than player B, so we'll always draft player A regardless of position). Whereas I believe there's a spectrum (players A,B,C, and D are all grouped together, so even though they play different positions they're all viable options). I do understand where you're coming from in regards to player grades and evaluations, I just disagree that the absolute nature you're suggesting, is how things go when the team is on the clock. (Even drafting Rousseau in the first they knew Hughes, and Addison were likely on their last legs. Therefore a DE was still a need, hence Basham)

The way the Bills operate organizationally, unless a true first round talent was sitting there, that pick wasn't going to be a receiver. It undermines the faith they're putting in Davis. Sink or swim he's their guy. Plus grabbing Cook gives another dynamic to the offense that wasn't there before. Let's say this year nobody steps up and Davis is having a solid yet otherwise unspectacular season. I'm sure the Bills brass is going to be looking very hard for an upgrade to the WR core during the year. They've been willing to make mid season trades before so why not again. Ideally they are looking to see if it's going to be worth extending Davis this year and then drafting Diggs eventually replacement and WR3 in the early rounds in next year's draft. It gives you the potential to have the big contracts for these 3 WRs on a rotation and keep the cupboard stocked for Allen for the foreseeable future. Every decision this organization makes is looking multiple years down the road so they can compete every year. Not just this year Teams often have very similarly graded players available when it's their turn to pick. What he's suggesting is that the Bills take one of the similarly graded WRs instead of Cook. I personally was hoping they'd have drafted a receiver earlier than they did. Who's to say they even had Cook rated as highly as he was picked? To suggest it's ignoring the player evaluation would be incorrect .Ignoring player evaluation would be to draft solely based off of the grade you have and not how they can contribute to the team. Would you draft a punter who you graded as a second round talent over a DT who's rated as an early third? Unless there's truly an outlier sticking out on your board it's all subject to who's going to work best for your team.

So long as Josh is at the helm it's a non issue. We had a WR by the name of Robert Foster who went on a tear with Allen and has done nothing since. I personally thought he was the second coming of Moulds. Turns out QB play can make lesser talent appear better than they are

But.. but... Aaron Rodgers wanted him back in GB so he's super good, and don't forget about his efficiency, he's called TD Jesus for a reason. If either miss time I'd imagine the plan is to make up the difference by committee, rather than rely solely on one player for the job. So let's say they lose 15 looks to Davis over a game, they wouldn't expect Kumerow to probably take more than 1-3 of those. Knox gets more time outside and makes up another 2-3 maybe the other TEs 1-2, the RBs add 2-4 more, the rest of the WR room gets the rest of the targets. About 2 more looks each for Diggs, McKenzie, Crowder, and Shakir. Or they could 'feature' one of these guys and give more looks to them, think how McKenzie was used against NE last year. While running Davis and Diggs together will be the go to in the clutch. The offense as a whole will be varied enough to not precipitate a major shift in overall offensive philosophy based off of an injury to either starter. Losing both for an extended period would change a lot but they might look to make a trade if something like that happens or pickup a player like Julio Jones, if any are still available, who can come in for a few games and wants a ring.

He'll probably play around the same number of snaps as Rousseau and Ed. While Lawson, Phillips, AJE, Basham, and Settle all see around the same number. I'd imagine the coaches and players don't care who's on the field as long as they're winning games. They understand their roles on the team and signed on to do whatever it takes to win a Superbowl. It's not about some divas crying to get more targets or play more snaps to higher higher sack numbers. It's about putting all the other BS aside and putting your focus on a bigger prize. One that can only be obtained with the help of so many others.

Man, Rousseau looks massive! He's gonna be an absolute monster when he puts it all together

I just finished the first page of the thread and I'm asking myself why I didn't open this sooner

The Bills make a massive trade with the Giants and end up with picks 7, 36, and 112 They give up picks 25, 57, and next year's first. Also the Giants receive Tremaine Edmunds, Jordan Poyer, and Devin Singletary. The Bills would receive Saquon Barkley, Kadarious Toney, and James Bradberry. The Bills select Kyle Hamilton with pick 7

When the draft starts just cross out players that were selected and then when it gets to the Bills pick it will hopefully matchup with the boards pick. Otherwise you can matchup how the board falls in line with the perceived value of the players when they're taken. I.e. the 10th pick was our first pick so it's a wash but the 11th pick was our 15th so we're plus 4 on that one. Or something like that... You'd have to make a rudimentary formula but I have faith in you. lol

I personally think he would excel as a guard and probowl =/= all pro. He's a definitely a good player and a leader on the team. He can still be both of those things as a guard. It seems like the transition from tackle to guard isn't a hugely prohibitive factor. I.e. tackles can be guards, but guards can't be tackles, so to speak. Also if they draft him he could be the swing tackle and learn the ropes while Dion holds down the fort at LT until he's ready to take the reins

https://www.pff.com/news/draft-pff-scouting-report-dion-dawkins-g-temple https://www.nfl.com/prospects/dion-dawkins/32004441-5705-6236-cf99-fd4dcf52774c Maybe they already did?

What they just paid him is irrelevant if it makes the team better. Dawkins slides inside and finishes his career as the Bills franchise LG. His student Penning learns the ropes from a solid vet and develops into a better LT than Dawkins could ever be. Nothing against him either. To paraphrase Dawkins here, they're looking to make that mac n cheese just right. I think it would help Spencer Brown's development too having his old teammate to add to the chemistry. Morse in turn gets better guard play of both sides and has a late career surge and plays out his final downs as a Bill.

I really like the idea of sliding Dawkins over to LG and having Penning start on the left side. You then have a solid battle at RG with Saffold and Bates. So long as Brown gets better, that line is much improved from last season. Then every year add high ceiling prospects to fill out depth and push starters