JohnNord

He’s an older player but I think they need him

My problem has never been the defensive rotation as much as it had been the players who play in that rotation, and what the Bills spent to get those players. You can find that kind of production from cheap FA’s - not 1st and second round draft picks

I remember when the season ended and he was “cleared” after the loss in Buffalo, McDaniels and Grier said that doctors told the team Tua no more prone to conductions than any other NFL player. OK, then why this training this off-season?

Agreed… I don’t think you can boil it all down to “WR’s are bad.” They certainly underperformed as evidenced by the drops. I also think that Josh’s elbow injury affected his ball placement on touch throws. Then you had some questionable route spacing on pass plays from Dorsey, and a lack of protections from the OL to let the routes develop. There were a number of factors but yes, the WR’s could have been better

I missed the majority of his career but Dan Marino was so freaking good for his time. The stats that he put up during his era - especially early in his career were insane. Don Shula did that man zero favors.

Does anyone see the problem with this training? I don’t think his concussion history is a result on not falling correctly as much as it is - he’s just prone to concussions

I think Benford would do well in this role but he has never played the position before in NFL so the jury is still out. Many of us (me included) thought that Gabe Davis and Isaiah McKenzie could easily pick up the slack left from Sanders and Beasley and it didn’t happen. So until we see Benford actually play safety I’ll be indifferent. I hope they don’t - but I could see the Bills still drafting a Safety in the draft, even with Benford in starting consideration because Hyde is a free agent in 2024 and will be in th same situation as Poyer at the end of next season.

You are really my underselling how teams consider need. IMO need is probably the single biggest factor that determines a selection. There are many teams that have rookies start at key positions on a football team - that is because they prioritized the need rather than BPA. There’s a few misnomers in this thread. #1 someone said that the draft is for BPA and free agency is for filling needs. In a perfect world this makes sense, it doesn’t work that way in reality. If you need a left tackle and are cash strapped, you probably have a better chance at success drafting an LT than you do signing a vet minimum player like Bobby Hart. Obviously, if all the tackles with a R1 are off the board when a team selects, teams will draft another position in R1, and draft the tackle in later rounds. This, again, is an example of drafting for need. Second, you claimed that the Bills drafting Rosseau and Basham was drafting for need. I completely disagree. While the Bills did need to get younger at Edge, they had Epinesa from the previous year along with vets like Jerry Hughes and Mario Addison. You could argue that DE wasn’t a pressing need in 2021. I think they Bills drafted Boogie Basham simply because he was rated highly on their board and was available. You can argue that Center was a bigger need, and yet the Bills went with DE. In my opinion, this is an example of drafting BPA and a key reason why a lot of teams don’t usually do it in round 1z. Almost every selection in Round 1 of the 2022 NFL Draft filled an IMMEDIATE need.

Here’s a great example of national sports guys who have no clue what the reality in Buffalo is truly like. McDermott and Beane are not under any pressure - look at the coaching moves this off-season. That tells you everything you need to know Take a look at the assistant coaching changes. That will tell you everything you need to know. There were like 2 minor moves this off-season

You’ve bought into GM speak. All teams always draft for need and based on those needs they go BPA. Maybe toward the end of the draft they go more BPA over needs but make no mistake about it - team needs are a factor with every premium pick in the draft

Every team drafts for need… It’s always BPA based on need. Anyone who tells you it’s strictly BPA has been hoodwinked by GM speak. If you have an All-Pro Center, you aren’t going to take another Center even if he is BPA.

2022

This is kind of making something out of nothing. Poyer just said he was friends with Tua and was looking forward to seeing MM at his birthday party. If Poyer wants to take a lesser deal to play a reserve role, he should just re-sign with Buffalo

This move would be a quick fix at MLB for about a season. But despite his age, he played well in 2002, and I’m guessing he’s going to want a multi-year deal. I also think with their needs the Bills won’t take a LB high enough to groom this season It makes sense on paper but is highly unlikely

What evidence do you have of this?

Ok…sure

So do the drafts from 2019-2022

No… based on his track record they should trade down. The Bills have had better success in later round than in early ones

IDK if that was a shot at McDermott. People read way too much into player comments, as though he has written this out ahead of time.

I’m not really blown away by any on Kansas City’s rookies. They are decent players though I though McDuffie and Watson got beat against Cincy and were the recipients of some good luck. I really am not not impressed with Bryan Cook. Karlaftis has shown flashes but not consistency. Skyy Moore’s numbers aren’t much better Shakir’s. But they all benefitted from playing throughout the year and not riding the bench and by the end of the season they were good enough to be trusted to not screw up. Beane and McDermott HAVE to change how they draft and play rookies

Part of the problem with evaluating a draft is that you need atleast 3 seasons to make a determinations. That’s why Elam and Cook are still hard to assess after just 1 season. I’d agree that Rosseau could end up being a solid pick but he has yet to see a 10-12 sack season. These might be examples of B grades which is solid but after 5 season of drafting. You need to find atleast one A with these premium picks in the draft and and Beane & co have not done that

This is a depth signing. He is a player that will play ST‘S and maybe could give them a few different looks on defense. It does not appear that he is any sort of contributor on the starting defense:

You are 100% correct Success. To win a Super Bowl you not only need to be good - the bounces have to go your way. If there’s anything that happened this year - it’s that the Bills did NOT get those bounces.

He needs more targets. Knox can be utilized more in the passing game

Here is the problem with Beane and the Bills front office and coaching. They haven’t done a good enough job finding stars in Round 1 and 2. Period. Outside of Allen and Edmunds (who they both gave up picks to trade up for), these are their selections: R1: Ed Oliver (2018) Greg Rosseau (2021) Kalir Elam (2022) R2: Cody Ford (2019) AJ Epinesa (2020) Boogie Basham (2021) James Cook (2022) We still don’t know about players like Elam and Cook. I think Rosseau still has the potential to be a good DE though I don’t think he will ever be elite. But the rest of the return from the past 4 years is really bad. You can’t draft JAG players high, which is what the Bills have done for the most part - especially on the DL.