Flipnmi

I'm sorry you misunderstood the intent of my response. I was just saying that as a 6th round pick, Benford has greatly exceeded all expectations. While I agree it would be a lot for a rookie to take on, he's proven to be up for whatever has been asked of him to this point. When Tre is back, if he's no longer a starter at CB, I don't see any reason to not give him some cross-training to see how he picks it up. At 6-1, 205 he is bigger than any Safety on the roster, but only time will tell if the coaches agree.

It's also unrealistic to expect a 6th round draft pick to come to camp and beat out your 1st round pick and then hold his own as a starter. I never suggested that Benford should be a starting Safety, but we are getting pretty thin there and I don't feel better with Cam Lewis as the next man up!

I was counting Benford in the 4 starting caliber CB's. That's a great luxury to have, but when you are depleted at Safety, it may be better to spread out the talent between the 2 positions. Micah started as a CB before moving to Safety. A couple years ago Micah was considered as a backup CB when that position had a bunch of injuries, so there's no reason Benford wouldn't still be available for both roles.

With Tre about to be back, our depth at CB should be amongst the best in the league. In May, Beane talked about Benford having college experience at CB & Safety. “We’ve talked about both,” said Bills general manager Brandon Beane, referring to cornerback and safety. “I think we’ll start him out as a corner here and see how he does. He did play a little bit of both. It’s easier to move him back (to Safety).” With 4 starting caliber CB's on the roster, I had been thinking that moving Benford to Safety in 2023 was likely, especially if Poyer can't be resigned. Now with his injury and Micah already out, this may need to be moved up. I had not heard any reports of him working in the back in pre-season, but wouldn't be surprised if this has been happening a little in the closed portion of practice. If Tre gets back to form quickly, he and Dane are solid starters with Elam a very capable back up for both. The way we utilize our Safeties is pretty complex, but despite being a rookie, it seems Benford is just too talented to keep off the field. Hopefully, Poyer's elbow injury is not serious but if it is, I suspect he goes to IR for 4 weeks to open a roster spot for Tre and we start seeing Benford getting some reps at Safety. Thoughts?

I think this scenerio is one of the main reasons Hodgins has a very legit chance to make the 53. Shakir would probably be 1st in, but it would be wise to have another viable option available. I'm not sure if that means keeping 7 WR's or Kummerow get released, but I suspect it will weight heavily in Beane's final decisions.

I think Crowder is by far the best bet to be traded. The only way to get out of his fully guaranteed contract is to trade him and there are a bunch of teams that are pretty weak at WR. He's a proven vet that will work through his current struggles and would be valuable to keep. That said, he's clearly not required based on how McKenzie, Shakir & Hodgins have all delivered. It will come down to if Beane has a way to keep 7 WR's without losing another player he really covets (Spector). I think they'll want to keep 3 TE's and the numbers at the other offensive positions are pretty straight forward. That means if they keep 7 WR's, the extra spot will probably need to be taken from the defense. Going with only 5 LB's while Smith is suspended or cutting Shaq and going with 4 DE's are 2 possibilities, but my guess is they would rather stay with 6 WR's with Kumerow or Crowder being the odd man out. Crowder's contract is not huge, which could help the trade possibilities, but they're also not in a position to eat the $3m in cap space by cutting him.

Personally, I have not given up on him, but agree he is probably a long shot to make the 53. After Diggs & Davis, there isn't much size in the next 3-4 guys in line, so he brings something that's missing and could be very valuable. I understand that he has played mostly in the slot, but we don't have much depth outside. So if he can show anything there he has a chance, but staying healthy and finding a way to contribute on ST's will be required.

I realize we have little on-field evidence to support this, but I think they like Stevenson more than we may think. Here's my rational: -He has the deep speed that no one else currently on the roster can provide. -He was put on IR last year vs. the PS, indicating they did not want to expose him to being poached. -When healthy, they moved to the 53. This can be explained as a need for a return guy, but it also gave him some valuable game experience. I'm thinking they'll keep 7 WR's again. Diggs, Davis, McKenzie, Crowder, Shakir, Kumerow (ST) & Stevenson.

I'm with ya!! That will be a really fun day!

Before today I was not that high on him and really afraid he would eat himself out of the league. However, since he's gotten down to 330 and ran like he did today, I'm more open to the idea of him at 25. He's obviously an increible athlete and what he did at Georgia at 360 lbs may not be indicitive of what he can do in the NFL at 325-330. I think it will come down to the interviews and whether the Bills thinks they can keep his weight under control and keep him motivated, so he doesn't turn into another Marcell Dareus. If he makes it to 25, I'll trust Beane to make the right decision, but I'm still leaning towards a CB.

87.5% vs 63.6% is "not much difference"?? Let's just be happy Haack's bad game came against the Jets and not a game where it really influenced the outcome of the game. Hopefully he learned something that will avoid a recurrance.

No truer words have ever been posted here!!

I've really appreciated Harry for both his ability and his personality (on and off the field) since we drafted him. Unfortunately, injuries have held him back from playing to his full capabilities far to often. We've seen him start playing at a very high level a couple times, but then suffer a significant injury and have to restart his climb all over. If the medical staff thinks his past injuries are not really indicative of his future availability, then we clearly need to resign him to a mid-level contract. I also think he is one of those "glue guys" that McBeane loves and wants to reward. Perhaps a decent incentive based contract is a reasonable solution. That all said, I'm really happy that he is starting to play at that "high level" again now, as unless Star steps it up, he's the only big presence we have in the middle.

The Bills held a short minicamp at Gates Chili High School in 1986, when Mark was rookie. A 250 lb linebacker was unheard of in 1986, so I was very intrigued by this 7th rd draft pick. I went up to met him at the end of practice and since the uniforms didn't have names, I asked him if he was Mark Pike and his his answer was "Yes Sir, I am". I was only 31 at the time and not really used to being called "Sir", so this really took me back at bit. However this also told me all I needed to know about him and from that point on he was "my guy". It was very clear that he was a high character guy who was raised to understand the value of being polite and respectful, so his comment to this dad is not surprising.

Thank you for stating this! It seems that some on this board feel that if you're not a Travis Kelce clone by year 2, you should be kicked to the street or worse. Knox clearly has elements of his game that he must improve, but I trust this Staff to get him there. When this happens, the crickets will stop making noise and deny ever making the comments. I'm not opposed to bringing in Ertz or any other upgrade, but until that happens, Knox is the best TE on the roster and should be supported, not hated.

It's pretty telling that nobody has mentioned Mario Addison in this thread. Does he even make the 53?

I'm also puzzled why this has not been discussed more. Don't want to use it as an "excuse", but Beasley and Davis clearly were not the same players in the Champioship game as they were in December. Smoke also was not as effective in any game after he returned as he had been earlier in the year. I really don't think the KC DB's would have been able to play as tight as they did if our, guys were not limited.

As previously stated, you can listen on Radio.com, but only using the internet. Mobile devices are blocked. THere is also a station in Toronto (Sportsnet 590 The FAN) that streams the broadcast for times when Radio.com isn't working.

Tommy Sweeney will replace Lee Smith as the primary blocking TE but also provide more in the passing game (assuming he's healthy). I think Knox will take a big step next year and prove all the doubters wrong. He's very much like Josh in terms of his early development, so year 3 could be big. Reggie Gilliam will need to make it on his Special Teams contributions or show the ability to play the fullback role that is currently missing. That said, I would be all for adding a guy like Tremble to this mix to get more of a threat out of the position.

You have to add Terry Bradshaw to the list. He said in mid-Oct on a National broadcast that Josh would never be accurate!!!