Beck Water

If Milano still weighs only 223, I'll eat my hair - starting at the roots. I don't think that's what 6'0" 223 looks like. But I don't think a few dozen wings would effect the type of physique change in Williams (or Bernard) we'd like to see.

Couple guys not taking this serious (not wearing gloves) What IS that belt, anyway?

Yeah, I was thinking that, if screwing the Jets is his priority over making the best choices he can make for the Patriots, he really should move along.

I think Milano plays sideline to sideline in our D. I could be misinterpreting @Buffalo716, but I think he's saying that the role of the LB in McDermott's predominantly 3-2-5 D "maps", or is more equivalent to, the role of the middle backers in a 3-4 where the OLBs take on more of an "edge" role in pass rush and run defense - not that both our LB are playing equivalent roles or playing the inside of the field. If you mean Milano's role may change with changes to the D, that may be - I don't have any insight into how McDermott may adjust the D to compensate for losing Edmunds. I know when they had Klein playing for Milano for 4 games while Milano was on IR, they changed up the roles and responsibilities some. Frazier talked about it in a presser, and it's one of the reasons Klein went from "zero to hero" in about a month (horrible looking play to DPOW). If I were guessing, though, I'd guess that changes to Milano's role will be slight and there will be other changes such as playing more base D or "heavy nickel" or rotating one of the safeties (or all of the aforementioned) But if you mean he actually changes roles and takes on the MLB role for the Bills (which is what I understood you to say in the post to which I responded) and rotates off the field for Klein in running situations - Nah. You can mark my post and I'll take my receipts if it goes down like that.

Intriguing. I haven't followed him enough - has he played any position other than C? Do we know any details about how he broke his fibula and how he tore his MCL? Was he breathing fire and trying to do too much? Beane has been pretty adamant about positional flexibility from backup G. But, we are thin on the ground at C right now - we got into our 3rd string C in several games and it wasn't pretty.

See, I kind of heard the post-draft talk a bit differently, maybe because I was mentally filling in the gaps. Beane said something post draft like "he was the team captain in a simpler scheme, he'll have to adjust to the NFL and learn our scheme, we're going to start him out at OLB for now" and I heard "they expect him to take a minute to master our defense so they're worried about overloading him by plugging him in at MLB right away, but they expect him to play MLB eventually" I think a lot of people missed the "he'll have to adjust to the NFL and learn our scheme" and "for now" and just heard "start him out at OLB" or missed the Team Captain/MLB "QB of the defense" in college part.

This, combined with other things you've posted (that Milano was playing MLB because of where Edmunds lined up, for example) makes me feel you don't completely understand the role of MLB in McDermott's defense. Give the Rome show a listen. Beane actually spells out super-clearly what he implied in his interviews post-draft and what McDermott has said. The MLB is the "QB of the defense". His responsibilities go beyond what he's supposed to do after the snap. He has to understand the role of 10 other players in each defensive call and how they vary depending on what the offense does pre- and post- snap. He has to get all the other players lined up correctly and adjusted if the offense adjusts pre-snap. McDermott earlier and Beane in the Rome show explictly pointed this out. Beane said that Williams, in their view, has the physical tools to play MLB, but he needs to understand the defensive scheme, not only his role but the other players' roles, so that he can fulfill the mental responsibilities, and that they aren't going to put pressure on him to do that right off the bat. This isn't some kind of GM-speak, it's the reality of NFL football. The point of starting him at OLB and having him master that, is he'll need to understand that role intimately to play MLB successfully in McDermott's scheme and it might give him a path to the field in case of injury while he adjusts to a more complicated defense. I think, though, that McDermott must have been favorably impressed with what he already knew or how quickly he grasped stuff when he came through OBD because that's when talk started about him "learning both". That's exactly what I heard.

I'll riff on this take, and say that I believe the fact that the Bills doubled down on the position in back-to-back drafts, and that AFTER they brought the veterans into the building for physical benchmarks and initial OTAs, speaks that they're disappointed in what they've seen from Bernard so far and perhaps disappointed with his off-season. I think the Bills like the prospect of Williams more than Bernard Kind of when they drafted Epenesa and the following year doubled down by drafting Rousseau and Basham then tripled down signing Von Miller as their FA splash Sir, you are a Bad Man. Epenesa would have to put on some weight to suit some folks here

Good post, and fair point. No one could deny that Bobby Wagner has been one of the best in the game for the last decade, or that the Seahawks had one of the best defenses in the league. So if our comparison is top LB in the league and 1st ballot HOF MLB, gotta agree I don't see anyone like that on the roster. That said, I can't give you "best defenses in the last decade". I would say starting about 2017, the defense started to slide. Wagner was still a Beast of course. Did you maybe mean that some years, they had some of the best defenses in the last decade? That last is where I'm pinning my hopes. I point to myself that the Bills had a competent defense in 2017 - not an elite defense, but competent enough to put them in the playoffs - with Preston Brown as their MLB and Ramon Humber and Zo Alexander outside.

I'd just like to point out that there's a difference between where a player lines up/his role on a specific play vs. playing a different position. A DE is still playing DE if he rotates inside for a play. Sometimes that may seem like a distinction without a difference, but in the case of a player like MLB, the MLB still has the helmet speaker, calls the plays, and makes pre-snap adjustments regardless if he lines up outside the tackles to blitz on a specific play

Questions: 1) when did you see Bernard fail at playing MLB? (The only game he started last season, he played for Milano) 2) when did you see Dodson fail at playing MLB? Strengths/weaknesses? (spoiler: Dodson has played for Milano at times, and also played base D) 3) can you explain the apparent belief that how a player plays, in one game their rookie year or their first game with a team, is predictive of their entire career? (if it were, Josh Allen would not be Josh Allen) I disagree that Milano is the only one with the necessary processing skills. Klein has the processing skills - possibly better processing skills than Milano, from what the players say about him. Whether he has the physical abilities to match the processing skills, or whether they can design a D that will mask them, I can't tell you. Am I mis-remembering, or are you the one who pointed out that the first time you saw Klein on the field for the Bills, you thought he was the worst player in the league and then a month or so later he was FSU and won Defensive Player of the Week? Part of that was how he was used, but part of that was gaining understanding of the scheme so that he could put his processing skills to use to overcome his physical shortcomings. I'll help with Q2. Dodson has played the majority of the snaps at MLB 4 times. 2020 9/20 vs Miami, W 31-28. (next to AJ Klein playing for Milano) 2022 10/9 vs Pitt, W 38-3 (11 tackles, 1 QB hit, 1 sack) 11/13 vs Minn OT L 30-33 (3 tackles) 11/20 vs Browns W 31-23 (13 tackles)

It has to do with roles and responsibilities. The MLB has the responsibility of making defensive calls to react to offensive formation changes. He gets a speaker in his helmet and a green dot. He has those responsibilities (and is playing MLB) if he lines up outside to blitz. Also, one of the reasons the Bills have been a predominantly 4-2-5 team over the last years has been because Taron Johnson is really a "lite linebacker" on the field when needed, enabling them to keep him on the field (or occasionally subbing Siran Neal) on downs where other teams might go to base D. Except it's not "only his opinion". If the Bills coaches and FO thought that Milano could bring his level of play to the MLB spot, I think they shoot straight enough that they'd just say "we plan to move Milano to MLB and hold an open competition in camp between every other LB on the roster to fill Milano's current role" Instead, they've said the opposite, clearly and unambiguously and multiple times. When asked how they can go into the season without someone who has proven they can play MLB, they don't say "hey, in a pinch, Milano at MLB is our fall back option". They say "we have someone on the roster who has proven they can play MLB, AJ Klein can do it.".

I will go on record here saying your crystal ball is cracked in this instance. I can't tell you if Williams will play MLB for the Bills this year or ever. I can say that I don't think the Bills intend to take one of their best defensive players, an every-down player, and platoon him at a different position. Milano is one of our best defensive players. He plays 100% of the snaps unless the starters come off the field or he's hurt. McDermott and Beane have both been asked about moving Milano to the middle, and have both unambiguously said no. Beane also went on record before Milano's FA about Milano being injured more than they'd like. He changed up his playing style at OLB the last 2 years and has been injured less. So you're suggesting that they take a player who has made desired changes to minimize injury and who has been an every-down top defender at his current position, and move him to a position where his injuries are likely to rise and where he'll come off the field on run downs. I think that's a Plan where you Lose Your Hat. And a Plan where you Lose Your Hat is a Bad Plan. Now mind you, I don't think Beane and McDermott speak nothing but the truth or the whole truth, but I do think they shoot straight enough that when they say, repeatedly and straight up, that they do NOT plan to move Matt Milano from his current role, and that they DO plan to have a competition at MLB between Dodson, Bernard, Spector, Klein, and now (maybe) Williams - who did say McDermott told him to learn both the OLB and MLB role - they said what they meant and they meant what they said.

My reading of the coach speak tea leaves is that you can bank on it.

Several on this board have pointed out to you that if one looks at the top 10 ILBs in the NFL today by several criteria - AAV contract (efficient market theory), rankings by several sites etc. - the average weight of these top-35 inside linebackers is literally 235. So let's not write as though it's the coaching staff and "some on this board". It's the trend in the modern NFL where in general, the passing game and stopping it are key. Whether or not you're OK with what is, sounds like a "you" issue.

This was a question brought up to both McDermott and Beane after Edmunds signed elsewhere. Both very firmly answered "no", they would not consider moving Milano to MLB, he would retain his current role. And it really makes sense. You have a player who has honed his skill to be one of the best in the business at his current position, so why move him elsewhere? I think people are misunderstanding what Beane and McD have said about Dorian Williams. They've pointed out that he has a learning curve, going from Tulane to a higher level of competition, and Beane said that to START camp, he would be starting outside. They did not say "they THINK of him more like an OLB." And Williams stated that McDermott told him to learn both outside and inside LB positions. I think Williams is going to be given an opportunity to define for himself how they will think of him. I think they are managing fan expectations and saying that they don't expect him to come from Tulane and jump into the role of directing the offense right off of the bat.

Sometimes nicknames do come from the fans or the media, but they're invariably the result of play on the field. The "Electric Company" was after the OL powered OJ Simpson to multiple NFL rushing records. It would have been cringe AF (IMHO) if fans started making up nicknames before Simpson so much as set foot on the field or during his first 3 years, when he wasn't featured as an RB and was barely rushing for 600 yds a season. The "Bermuda Triangle" nickname was coined by a Buffalo News sportswriter after he started watching RB yards disappear at the hands of Smerlas Nelson and Haslett. Again, the point being - not who coined the nickname, but the fact that it emerged AFTER watching results on the field, not before these guys even laced up their cleats It's not a huge deal, but trying to create a catchy nickname sometimes fizzles, like when folks here were saying we had the best DL in the league (on paper) in 2012 before they played a snap, and Wannstache had them playing like wet tissue paper, pathetic. I expect I'm not the only fan who's a bit superstitious - "just a little stitious" as Josh has said - about jinxing the season by crafting a cool nickname in advance of the guy's play.

I've had exactly that same question. Edwards made a point a couple times of how Kromer gives "everyone but the C" a chance to try all 4 positions. In LA, Rob Havenstein was pretty solid at RT. At least last season, Spencer Brown was a lower bar to raise. Of course, with Edwards, the first question is "how is his concussion recovery, really?" and is he more susceptible to another? You do realize that if the Bills actually used a 2nd round pick on a OG they plan to sit for a year and a 3rd round pick on a LB who isn't ready to play defense, that would be a pretty crummy draft strategy?

Yeah, I don't see that either. WTH does "functionally guaranteed" even mean? Per Spotrac, his 2024 salary is not guaranteed except for injury until after the 2024 superbowl, when $1.1M guarantees. If a portion of it guarantees, then it's not guaranteed. https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/buffalo-bills/connor-mcgovern-29126/

LOL

LOL. The way he talked when he was here I sort of expected him to be driving a racecar by now. Maybe that didn't work out for him, Maybe his wifey talked him out of that, or maybe he just loves Ball and can't quit it.

AJ McCarron. I almost swerved into a guardrail first time I saw his face and name on a giant billboard advertising the team. They also had Austin Proehl at WR

XFL has really been doing well in St Louis, where a considerable fan following for football remains along with a sense of disgruntlement over how the departure was handled, which kept fans from following the Rams after their move to LA Fans show up to the games to tailgate and watch in person, and the TV viewship is also high Three guesses who the Battlehawks QB was.... (hint: Bills connection)

It was Neal. The thing is we didn't play dime that often - if at all. They also substituted Neal in as a "heavy nickel" instead of Johnson against some running teams, with some good success.

Question: Do you feel Edmunds had a significantly better 2022 season than previously? Some people who watch games closely seem to think so Others point out that his statistics for tackles etc were very similar to previous years, and attribute improvement to better line play keeping the LB clean