Tanoros

I may have missed it from your earlier conversation upthread. But would you consider Linderbaum at 25? I see that you would only consider elite level talent on non premium positions in the first. Just curious. I trust Beane and the Bills to make the right call and I too hope it’s someone who can make an impact day 1. I’m hoping it’s Linderbaum, but I’d be fine with a handful to he honest.

Not saying your wrong, but Dawkins was hospitalized for Covid. He started slow for a legitimate reason. Him coming on strong down the stretch helps to show how well he could have been all season without Covid. I’m excited to see him play this year fully healthy and hopefully with better guard play around him.

It’s because Morse could retire anytime, Williams is in year 2 of a 3 year contract, that was for a tackle. Additionally the 3rd year only has a dead cap hit of $1.8 million, so there’s a good chance they move on after this year. Our second guard spot will be an open competition with Bates going against whoever they bring in through FA/draft. What I’m getting at is, we could use an upgrade at guard for this year alone (Bates is great depth if he gets beat out), but need more inside help in the coming years. Linderbaum can play both guard/center. Potentially coming in as a guard year 1, learning the system, and transitioning to center in the next year or more (depending on Morse). At the end of the season when we had success, it was with more use of heavy sets (most likely to help the line). If we can rely less on heavy sets, it will help open up our options for attacking. Not that we don’t use them, just not needing them to give Josh time to throw.

The Raiders had poor offensive line play this year, including tons of penalties on them. Also, competing Carrs record across his career, when just about everyone acknowledges that football is a team sport, doesn’t help a’lot. The Raiders as an organization haven’t exactly don’t Carr a’lot of favors. Imagine if they kept Cooper or Mack, I imagine Carr record would be better in the seasons post losing those two. Additionally, consider Carr on teams like the Colts, Broncos, Bucs, even Carolina. Those teams would be significant threats to just about any team. He isn’t a star by any means, but you can win with him. I honestly don’t see Carr being much different than Stafford.

This will lead to a new coach and possibly GM, meaning a good chance of changing the teams identity, so reshaping the roster. All in all, there’s tough choices to make when your QB isn’t one of the star qb’s, but there just isn’t any guarantee that young guys will pan out. The last handful of years have many feeling it’s easy to get a top young QB, because there has been so many. However, think about the QB’s drafted from the mid 2000’s to early 2010’s. There wasn’t a’lot of stars like we’ve seen recently. Personally, I think every situation has to be examined on its own, and blanket approaches don’t work in regards to paying good qb’s top qb money. Think about a team like the Broncos or Colts, Carr would help them SO much and have them competing for the playoffs and more. The other side of the coin is a team like Houston or Detroit, Carr would be an upgrade, but they need so much more as it is. I think it really comes to, “It Depends”. Back in our drought days, I would have LOVED to have a qb like Carr.

I agree with your point, but Russ has a had poor o-line play most of his career. Seattles line has gotten better the last two seasons, primarily because of young drafted players making an impact (there was one late round pick that stepped up). I live in the Seattle area, and much of the offseason talk during the Russ era is ALWAYS offensive line. One other thing, MacKenzie isn’t a guarantee to come back. He is a FA, and Beane has a lot of tough decisions to make in free agency this year. In my opinion, if we get a line that can consistently open holes in the run game, and also give Josh enough time in the pocket, Josh will light up the league. Not only can he do it all, but he is really starting to show he can attack any type of defensive game plan. What I’m trying to say is, Josh will be unleashed, as long as the line gives him the opportunity. Otherwise, he’ll be kinda of like the last two seasons, up and down until/if the line/scheme settle in and adapt to cover their weakness.

This is what confuses me the most. It seems more likely a squib was called, but didn’t happen (communication related to Heath), but then how do Frazier and McDermott not adjust the defense? There was two timeouts, 1 before each play, I mean what were they talking about? My hope is that this loss if even more fuel for Josh Allen and all the hurdles he’s overcome in his football career.

I agree, we need a star pass rusher who can get to the qb, or force the issue in key moments (thinking of Donald last night at the end of the game). My fingers are crossed either Rousseau, Oliver or both can be that person (or maybe close enough combined). One thing to take solace in, even with star pass rushers, teams will have their hands full with Josh Allen playing like he did in the playoffs. Not many, if any, can do what he does when he’s like that.

I don’t remember that, sounds like conjecture. I have to imagine there was some collaboration between minds and not just McDermott dictating to Frazier. Do you have anything specific to point towards to show your point?

Look what Allen did to the number 2 defense Super Wildcard weekend. Star QB’s on fire and with a good offense, can be hard to stop for any defense. Allen and Mahomes just made that quite clear at the end of the season.

It wasn’t the whole game, but Brady was shut down the second half of the Bucs game, and without Tre.

I wonder how he is playing against more zone looks. If he can play zone well enough, I think he might be worth bringing back for the right price.

This is what the team needs more than anything. Hopefully Beane shows us all again that he is the Wizard we believe him to be.

Agreed, I think Beane could benefit from finding a middle ground between his current approach vs the Rams approach. Like not trading away 5+ years of 1st round picks, but rather selectively picking up that one big piece to push us over the edge (in this case, most likely that piece would be someone who gets to the QB). Now that the Bills are approaching the point of having their previously drafted guys entering their prime (or close to) I’m curious if Beane’s strategy changes at all. Perhaps, the first step for Beane is a mid season acquisition, picking up someone who can bring something to the table we don’t have at that point. Note: I know we picked up K. Benjamin, mid season, but I’m referring to a mid season acquisition with the attempt to push the team over the top.

It would be effective, but it’s the cost to get one that’s the crux of this line of thought. There may be a time we see Beane push all the chips into the middle of the table and go all in for a championship, but I don’t see that happening this offseason, probably not even for the next couple. Beane strikes me (from his actions) as the type who prefers to build a sustainably good team (I know some disagree with that philosophy and think it may never lead to a Super Bowl, but that appears to be the way Beane is going at this time). All in all, our defense isn’t bad at all and our d line gets pressure. We have three young de’s who are still developing (especially the two rooks). With our D as it is, we should have best KC, and it’s the strategy more than the players that lost us that game. About the WR’s, I’m intrigued to see who Beane picks up. Whether that’s McKenzie or others, because there are some interesting potential FA’s, and I’m sure there will be some wanting to take a chance playing with Allen.

This would create its own issues. Consider, a fringe playoff team (however could be a weak division’s winner) going on a run from week 13-18 (without a bye, that’s 6 wins). This team would get a nice draft pick, while still being competitive in season, and possibly making the playoffs.

I’d rather take the chance of a team tanking, then trusting the, “randomness” of a lottery. With a lottery, there always will be the worry that lottery draw is manipulated in some way (even with a minimum spot guaranteed). At least the way it is now draft positions are transparent to all. And honestly, you can “tank” by fielding a less experienced team, while also asking them to go out there and do their best to win. Should that not be allowed? One could easily argue they want to develop their young guys by giving them more reps, with an eye towards the future. However, with Miami, we have an owner offering the coach $100k a loss. From the outside looking in, that appears to be a wholly different kind of tanking. Like possibly develop a ***** game plan with bad situational decisions type stuff. I feel like something like that would be so rare, it just needs to be firmly dealt with when it arises.

The team that chooses the spot, chooses the direction of travel (so either 1 yard for a td or 99 the other way). The second team picks offense or defense. So if the second team is faced with going 99 yards on offense or defending 99 yards, chances are good they choose defense. The rule isn’t horrible, but it’s not football and feels gimicky. Like something a competing football league might try. I hope this isn’t something that comes to stay.

It’s the Cowboys and Jerry Jones that give me pause towards widespread gambling abuse in the NFL, because he seems to be (from my perspective) someone who either would pay to win, or raise holy hell (in a non public way of ofcourse) if he caught wind of it happening against his teams interests. Although, it doesn’t mean there isn’t some from abuse as Flores has pointed out. It just seems that it would be a few here and there abusing things (like the Pats and spy gate).

The team that chooses the spot, also chooses the direction. So, say the ball is put on the 1 yard line, having to go 99 yards. The next team gets to choose offense or defense, and chances are good they pick defense in that situation.

We might just see that we have him in Greg R. Next season, my fingers are crossed this is the case. Beane mentioned in his presser he thought he hit the rookie wall a bit, but battled past it. With a full season and upcoming offseason under his belt, I’m excited to see him next season.

I didn’t watch Diggs as close then as I do Metcalf now. So I don’t know about the comparison, but I do know what I see in Metcalf. He gives up on plays in a way you don’t see very often, in any game, from any player and it’s usually when you need him most (after some struggles). Diggs doesn’t strike me as the kind of person to have ever been like that, and if so, he has grown tremendously.

Yep, your right. However, it still doesn’t change that the NFL is moving to more of a passing/offensive game. We just saw the leagues number 1 defense get smoked by a top offense, furthermore, since the playoff OT rule change (happened sometime around 2012 I believe), the coin flip winner is 9-1 (where as in the regular season the coin flip winner wins at just about 53% of the time). I will qualify this by saying, there is more data for the regular season, and thus perhaps the playoff coin flip winner’s win percentage will regress towards the mean. However, the playoffs also have the best of the best, and maybe, the best offenses are beginning to beat the best defenses. Either way, a full football team consists of offense, defense, and special teams. I believe in such a close game in the post season, we (the fans) want to see the best TEAM move on, and that would require both offense and defense getting a chance. But as you said, this issue wasn’t even brought up for a vote. So the NFL doesn’t appear to be keen on making the change.

I live in Seattle and see a fair amount of Hawks football. He isn’t a McDermott type of player. He gives up on plays, or puts in minimal effort. This year many of my local friends really soured on Metcalfs lack of effort at times. Personally I wanted him bad going into that draft, after watching his lack effort, I believe that to be big reason behind his slide.

I thought it would be a squib or something like your saying. Either way, force them to field the ball in bounds and kill some clock. I thought that would happen for sure, I called it as well.