FireChans

Honestly, I just had the thought the other day that if Dareus had put together a Fletcher Cox-type career, the whole trajectory of the McDermott era looks different. Hard to believe he could've been as good at 31 or 32 as he was at 24, but he could've been a plus starter for a LONG time, and helped solve a lot of defensive problems. That's really the goal of having one of those high draft picks. Getting a guy for 10+ years who is still a difference maker more often than not while the team shifts around them. Fletcher Cox played for 4 HC's and went to SB's with 2 of them in Philly land.

Dareus was already paid, he wasn't a "let walk" candidate IIRC. Plus, he was notorious for being a little bit of a locker room goofball. It wouldn't surprise me if he started rubbing McD/Beane the wrong way off the field and they just wanted him out. Honestly, yes, right? It may not be even particularly close.

Dallas had one of the best draft records for about 10 years running. From 2013 - 2023, of the players they drafted 13 AP seasons 44 Pro Bowl seasons And they had 2 losing records during that span. For comparison, the Bills over the same stretch had: 2 AP seasons 19 Pro Bowl seasons Dallas gets a lot of grief on here because they tend to get exposed in the playoffs and are talked about in media circles like they are in the Super Bowl every year. But they have been an objectively good team for quite a while.

He won't be there. Dalvin held out the offseason. https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/29283874/vikings-rb-dalvin-cook-hold-reasonable-deal-source-says

Do you think the Bills have faced the hardest playoff schedule out of all of those other teams? If that's the case, why is the offense the second best in offensive improvement in the postseason?

Yeah Morse was felt to be a loss because McGovern hadn't played C since college. Obviously, he played better than Morse, so it wasn't a big deal. The Eagles success on tush push would argue they did miss Kelce a bit, despite Jergens being quite good. Ultimately, I'm not very interested in parsing this further. I'm not arguing the loss of Frank Ragnow is the difference between the Lions winning the Super Bowl and finishing last in the division. They just lost another very good player in an offseason where they've lost a lot of other pieces. Maybe it won't matter and they'll go 20-0.

What conclusion do you draw from @Mikie2times graph?

an All-Pro is an All-Pro and his loss will be felt. Especially with skittish Jared coming out to play and how screen/misdirection heavy the Lions offense has historically been. Now, they may get away from that stuff without Ben Johnson. I don't think losing Ragnow is the same as losing Johnson, but it is more evidence that they are getting eroded piece by piece imo.

Nah, with hindsight, it was the chokejob vs the Niners in the NFCCG in 2023. Up 24-7 at half to lose 34-31. Last year they got riddled by injuries and lost their best defensive player for the season. They got blasted in the divisional round. Now, everyone is a year older, they lose all of their coordinators, their All-Pro C retires. Windows close fast in the NFL. Especially when you have a good QB instead of a great one. Look at the Niners, same deal. Talent erosion is impossible to stop over 2-3 seasons.

https://www.pff.com/news/nfl-tight-end-rankings-top-32-ahead-of-2025-nfl-season I love PFF (for now).

The Lions window is quickly snapping shut.

I hope you’re sitting down…. But he was traded for a second, just a few weeks ago. Lmao

He’s better enough that no one reasonable could even argue he ISN’T better. As for the consequences,, I would be 100% fine with not signing Josh Palmer and 2 more DL depth FAs who got popped for PEDS and are gonna miss 6 games and MAYBE missing out on Sander to have DK on the roster. Unequivocally. Right now, could we package Palmer, Hoecht and Ogunjobi for a 2nd round pick? Of course not, because they aren’t nearly as valuable. But guess what? Their cap hit combined is MORE than DK’s this season lmao.

Mooney is a far better player though? Tell me you don’t follow the league without telling me you don’t follow the league

Oh my god, no Josh Palmer. Perish the thought lol

Yes but more importantly, neither were FA’s.

KJ Hamler wasn’t good enough to break through last year or the previous 4. I was a big KJ Hamler fan coming out. And yeah, I think he sucks. We have guys with size on the PS. We have Eli Ankou. We have developmental CBs who make the roster, like Ingram and Cam Lewis. Why did we need to draft their replacements? Is it… because those guys suck?

Those guys suck. maybe a guy we draft doesn’t suck. isnt that the same logic for every player we draft?

Does this mean we should never draft anybody on Day 3? What is this take Of course he did. All QBs help all their WRs. But the Pats in all their dynastic glory still drafted more WRs than the Bills did. Clearly they thought the position was at least kind of important. The Chiefs draft more WRs than the Bills. Clearly they think the position is at least kind of important. So we have two teams that have won like 9 SB's between them drafting more WR's than us. Maybe we should emulate them? Maybe?

The Pats used to draft WR's. Often. Steelers with Big Ben a better example. A WR every year or every other year in rounds 2-4 kept a stable of talent around Big Ben for the second half of his career and imo prolonged his career.

What have the Bills?

You know how every is praying "maybe Coleman takes another step next year" We could have had two or 3 bites at that apple.

The passing offense in 2024 wasn't bad. The passing offense was hyper-efficient, with Josh playing at an MVP level. The WR's were kinda bad though. 2020 Diggs/Beasley/Davis/Brown had 277 catches and 3559 yards 2024 Shakir/Coleman/Mack/Cooper combined for 156 catches and 2052 yards Which WR group was better and contributed more to the offense being super good? It's pretty obvious. No one is arguing you can't have a good or even great offense with crappy WR's. We just did it last year. The Chiefs did in 2022. That doesn't make it not crappy. It just means you are making hay elsewhere. Its why even if the defense is good, a guy like Hamlin can still suck. Just because the defense is good doesn't mean everyone is good.

They played 1 more game than the 2020 team did. The 2020 team averaged more PPG. There's your explanation. If the 2020 team played 17 games, they would have had more points than the 2024 team.