Beck Water

Well, I think some would argue that by drafting LB in the 3rd round in back to back drafts, by re-signing AJ Klein as a FA, and by re-signing Tyrel Dodson this spring, Beane did take a shot at filling a perceived hole at LB. You can toss in Baylon Spector as a late round flyer and Travin Howard as a talented, but oft-injured free agent as part of his "taking a shot at filling a perceived hole". That seems to be 4-6 "shots on goal", not nothing. It's actually the same type of shots Beane took with regard to filling the hole at slot receiver last season IMO - he had a guy on the team who had shown flashes but also shown need for improvement (McKenzie), he drafted a receiver they liked in the later rounds (Shakir), he signed a free agent who had shown the ability to play decently from the slot at times (Jameison Crowder). How do you see Beane's need-filling efforts at LB as substantively different from last season's need-filling efforts at slot WR? If Beane felt slot receiver wasn't a priority position, why had he signed Beasley in 2020? If Beane felt MLB isn't an important position, why did he throw a 1st round pick at Edmunds in 2018?

why do people engage with this Air dude? Leaving out David Edwards started every game for the Rams in 2021 (superbowl year). He had concussion issues last season, but he seems to be OK now. First year started 10 games at RG, since then 35 starts at LG. Leaving out Bates, who has played LG but is competing at RG ATM Leaving out Boettger, who started 7 games on what I thought was a better OL in 2020 and 10 on what turned out OK as an OL in 2021 - but has looked like a shell of the former Stallion so far - but the Bills didn't know that going into preseason But other than those guys and a couple PS holdovers like Alec Anderson, McGovern has had no competition. Naturally, every other team brings in a couple of all-pros as backups to compete at every position on the line. 😆 I think maybe more. Strip sacks and stuff.

I could be wrong, but it's my understanding that the journalists put in requests for which players they'd like to interview They don't always get who they ask for, the player has to agree and the Bills can turn it down, point is it's not just the Bills deciding who to put out there. Source for this is someone high in TBN sports media

Plausible take overall. I don't think we can keep 7 WR. When we did that before, we did it at the expense of a 3 TE. If we want a TE to be a significant part of the gameplan, we'd best have at least 3, and Morris has been doing a good camp. I don't see what Shorter has done to fight for a spot. We'll see on Saturday I guess. And because Shakir has shown flashes on actual Sundays, I don't think we give up on him yet. It's not impossible that all the Isabella talk from McD is tactical, and there in part to put a fear-o'-whupass into Shakir and get him to elevate, just as some speculate the MLB talk from McD is there to send a messsage to Dodson. I think Shorter is going to wind up on IR and we'll keep 2 out of Shavers, Ateman, Patmon on PS if we can - trying to read the tea leaves Ateman and Patmon may have the edge over Shavers.

OK, so the Bills posted these highlights on their web page now. https://www.buffalobills.com/video/camp-highlight-taylor-rapp-diving-interception They also have some stills of this. #37 38 39 if the links don't work https://www.buffalobills.com/photos/photos-2023-buffalo-bills-training-camp-day-16#4d7d51f1-2c1c-4a0a-b730-381769b81e7a https://www.buffalobills.com/photos/photos-2023-buffalo-bills-training-camp-day-16#b15e2b6b-3d8f-4b64-86e6-5fba9a7b42cf https://www.buffalobills.com/photos/photos-2023-buffalo-bills-training-camp-day-16#10395155-a36b-47bc-b5d3-e88f1da32c0c Gilliam just walks away, but you can see where the D is rocking the party and another offensive player might throw a little opinion in there. https://www.buffalobills.com/video/camp-highlight-josh-allen-connects-with-deonte-harty-for-the-long-touchdown bonus Gabe Davis TD https://www.buffalobills.com/video/camp-highlight-josh-allen-connects-with-gabe-davis-for-a-touchdown Twas. It's on the Bills website now.

I'd like to re-frame this for you slightly - and maybe I should say up front that while I'm the one who entered the tweets about McDermott's comments into today's thread, it was in the spirit of helping my fellow Bills fans find coverage, not because I'm in MLB panic mode. Beane does attempt to fill needs, true. But he knows, with cap limitations and a limited number of picks, he can't fill every need with the same quality of players. He's talked about he and the coaches "valuing" positions and players after the season - that means adjusting, based upon experience, what priority they put on each position as far as draft resources and cap $$. And sometimes he makes mistakes. He acknowledged after the fact that he could have and should have done more for the OL in 2018. I think if you gave him a few whiskeys, he might admit that the OL and WR we took into last season were not as good as he expected pre-season. On OL, we were counting on Brown to take a 2nd season step and on Saffold to return a bit closer to the form he had with Kromer in 2018 or so. Did Not Happen. At WR, he was counting on one of McKenzie, Crowder, and Shakir to seize the day and take over in the slot (or give capable slot play by committee); he was counting on Davis to build on his 2021 season. Did Not Happen. So there Beane sits, with a pile of needs and a pile of resources that's too small to fill them all at a high level, and a need to prioritize and make decisions. I think it's pretty clear that Beane and the rest of the Bills Brain Trust decided that the priority this off-season would go to upgrading receiver and OL, and after that DL. Now we may disagree with what he did - we may think that a rookie TE taken in the 1st isn't likely to be as immediately impactful as we hope, that Hardy was a risky high-ceiling low floor move because of his injury history, and that O'Cyrus Torrence in the draft and McGovern and Edwards in FA aren't enough on the OL. We may side-eye the age at safety. Maybe the moves he made to fill his priorities weren't the right ones. Time will tell. But at MLB, I don't think Beane thought he "had the position covered" any more than he thought he had a good OL in 2018. But he hoped he had enough to get by. I think, like last year at WR, he hoped that between 2 3rd round picks, a backup yearning to start, and a canny vet, he'd have enough. And I do agree with - was it you, Shaw? I forget - the viewpoint that perhaps the Bills were hoping for Bernard to take a step he hasn't shown yet, physically and mentally. But just as in 2022 with WR, I don't think Beane doesn't see a need at MLB. I just think he couldn't do everything, and he hopes he's done enough.

How did this lady get that video? It's like from field level at practice.

Dude, that's simply not a reasonable summary of what I wrote. You Do You, but you can do it without further attention from me. ToodaLoo!

This article uses a flagrant mis-quote. It wasn't "speculation about his relationship" which Josh said gave him "a gross feeling", it was photographers in a boat offshore with telephoto lenses snapping pictures of them in a private pool and on a private balcony. Basically, being stalked by paparazzi, despite having booked space at what was probably a pretty exclusive resort. The article isn't wrong, in that Josh will have to raise his "privacy game" or get used to it, but that will pretty much apply with any woman he dates now. There were apparently paparazzi stalking Josh and Brit when they went to Miami during bye week, and he said in an interview he didn't like that. Well, they weren't there for Britt, the attraction was Josh.

the "prototypical 245 lb MLB", no. But it's a long step over a steep fall to go from that to "MLB is the least important defender" or "just about any other position is more important"

No, it doesn't, any more than it matters why Zay Jones squibbed with the Bills and took 3 years to "wake up and smell the coffee" with the Raiders, after he had a strong year with Jax. But his 4 previous seasons of disappearing ink ARE reason to question whether what we're seeing from Isabella is pre-season heroism which will fade under the faster, more focused defensive play and film study of the regular season. And sometimes "why?" is helpful to predict what's going to happen. For example, Stevie Johnson had three 1000+ yard seasons with Chan Gailey's Bills and Ryan Fitzpatrick as his QB, then fell off to half the yardage and had his catch % drop under Marrone/EJ Manuel. Why, because Gailey's "beat your man, get to the spot" version of an EP offense played to Stevie's strong release and unconventional route running. When placed in an offense that demanded precise routes with good timing, he couldn't deliver. So San Diego could have understood that and passed on bringing him in. Reminder that the general consensus of last summer was that Isaiah McKenzie looked GREAT and was ready to walk on the field and take over for Beasley. Regular season, results were far more mixed. Why, teams were game planning for us, they were watching film, and McKenzie couldn't decode the zone defense and get on the same page about it with Allen. So I think in predicting how Isabella may do here, it's relevant and even important to understand why he didn't work out with his 3 previous offensive coordinators (with a bit more depth than "Arizona's offense and Kyler Murray sucked" or "Greg Roman's passing offense sucked") Spotrac

Aaaaaaaahhhhhhhh..... Generally respect you, Shaw, but....Lawdy

I want Triple T - Terrible Terry Tate.

Well, to be fair.....linebackers can't always take on run blockers and make plays tackling running backs. One reason Edmunds and Milano looked so much better against the run last season was that the DL played the run better and kept the LBs clean to tackle the RB.

Sherfield is a proven STer who played 611 snaps on offense last year, excels at downfield blocking, and had 30 receptions for 411 yds. That's as proven as you're gonna get on the low-budget side of the FA market. He was intended as Kumerow's replacement with an upgrade at playing receiver. I think he hits that mark. When you look at Harty, the Bills offered him a 2 year, $9.5M contract with $5.25M guaranteed. When a team pays a guy that much guaranteed money, they typically consider him a "lock" for a spot. I agree with your point that his one year of decent production and his injury history make him far from a sure bet as an available contributor, but yeah. Shakir is interesting. We have him for cheap for the next 2 years, and he showed some abilities to play in the NFL last season. To push aside a guy like that, you have to either have this year's 5th rounder be lighting up practice (by all reports, he's not) OR bring in a FA who is lighting up practice, Well, in Isabella, maybe they have - but he's had 4 years of "not much" in the league so one has to wonder if he's a training camp phenom.

I believe that responsibility usually fell to Milano?

Mind sharing where you heard that? Because I have literally never heard that. What I have heard, is that Taron Johnson is able to play the run like a LB, Milano was able to provide pass coverage like a dime CB, and Edmunds as a LB was good at clogging up passing lanes in the middle of the field - which is one reason the Bills evolved to stay in a 4-2-5 as their base D. I also heard Frazier say that Milano, Edmunds, and Taron Johnson had some interchangeable responsibilities, and that when one of them was out (at the time it was Milano) they had to rework some defensive responsibility Last, I heard that at times last season teams were keying off Taron Johnson to decode the coverage, and that one reason we may have changed safeties coach was to alter the defensive scheme in that regard (which might mean interchanging some safety and nickle or even LB responsibilities in coverage But I have never heard that the safety and LB spots are interchangeable in this defense.

Just watched Latavius Murry interview. Noticed he's wearing sleeves. Are we concerned about elbow injuries?

https://www.profootballnetwork.com/terron-armstead-injury-update-what-we-know-about-the-miami-dolphins-ot/ Isn't he the guy who just came back to Dolphins practice after knee surgery? Update: On the other hand, isn't that what we heard from Von Miller? I wish no ill on any player so I hope he's correct

I'll just drop this here: I'm gonna go with "no" Clearly off the turf

I could just be a Nattering Nabob of Negativity here, but I didn't think Bernard looked like he could tackle a RB with a full head of steam last season, and he looked just the same arriving for OTAs. So unsure why they thought Bernard would be It at MLB

I think you're right. I think they were concerned about Dodson's ability to cover the run and not get sucked in by PA, and how to handle the coverage responsibilities he couldn't manage the way Pteredactyl Arms could. Dodson has been a leader on a top ST unit - I think he has the green dot on ST - so I don't think they anticipated any leadership and communication issues there. You're correct, but on the other hand we've seen it before that a guy is a Preseason Hero and Squibbs on Sunday in the regular season. The Bills have a draft pick and an UDFA invested in 6'4" WR who can play ST. Then they have Ateman and Dezmon Patman, who are also 6'4". That suggests that the Bills see a need for a tall strong WR and are quadrupling down to try and find a guy who can play. Do they cut them all, and keep Isabella? Do they move on from last year's 5th rounder, Shakir, who has already demonstrated similar numbers to Isabella's rookie season (but with less WR talent in front of him as a roadblock and in 6% more snaps), and who shows both great promise and inconsistency? Or do they keep 7 WR? But how do they do that, and maintain depth at TE and keep all the guys they want to keep on D?

The fact is, McKenzie managed to stay in the league and on the field for 6 seasons, now going into his 7th and still fighting for a roster spot. He's a popular whipping boy here on TBD, but 5th round picks don't do that unless show something. What are the options here? Either McKenzie, in fact, doesn't suck - he didn't succeed when asked to take on a broader role as Beasley's replacement in the slot, but when he was used in ways that exploited his speed, he stayed on the team and on the field. Or, our FO/pro player personnel and offensive coaches are just stupid because they failed to agree with you that he sucked. (And built a top-5 offense the last 3 years while being so stupid) "Don't hassle me with the Facts, Son" My point wasn't about McKenzie succeeding or not in his role as a Beasley slot replacement (he didn't), my point was that the Bills offensive coaches last season had Hines for half the season and McKenzie all season (two fast guys), and did not manage to use them in a way that leveraged their best attribute - their speed. Isabella was drafted in the 2nd round. High draft picks usually get more leeway, yet he was dumped off his first team before the end of his contract. They tried to trade him and no one was interested. It's always possible that "3rd team's the charm", sure Who do you feel they could have signed at MLB but didn't? Don't tell me Lavonte David or Bobby Wagner. The first wanted to keep his family in Tampa where they've lived for 11 years. The second wanted to "go home" to Seattle.

Well, with one possibility still sidelined with a hammy, the third guy coming back from being sidelined (or maybe not, according to Sal), and the lead horse swinging his helmet around and getting a new one torn by Josh for it on Weds then needing to be addressed by both the LB coach and McDermott yesterday (and fetched off the field by the head trainer and director of player personnel afterwards), ===>would any of us find him credible in the least if he didn't express concern?