GASabresIUFan

Snap count is a much more important. I find all this hand ringing about the defense a little amusing. The Bills are bringing back 8 of 11 starters and have upgraded the depth on the D line. Last season with Milano played only the first 5 games, while played only the 1st 4 games, D Jones missing games 6-15, Miller played sparingly in 12 games and he admitted he wasn’t healthy, Poyer and Hyde missed some games and played injured much of the season, the Bills finished 9th in total yards, 7th in passing yards, 4th in sacks, 4th in Ints, and most importantly 4th in scoring defense. Their worst stat was 15th against the run, the Beane brought back DaQuan Jones and Epenesa (who is now a starter), brought in Austin Johnson and Smoot and drafted Carter to help improve the rush defense. Rapp was as effective last season as Poyer and Hyde in his 4 starts. Benford and Bernard should take another step forward in year 2 as starters. The biggest open questions are how will Williams do replacing Milano and how will Hamlin/Edwards do replacing Hyde? Truthfully I’m not all that worried about Williams. Look at the strides Benford and Benard made in their 2nd years on the team (and first as starters). Williams got a fair amount of PT last year including 2 starts and looked like he learned from his mistakes in camp this year. As to Edwards and Hamlin, this is the only spot I don’t have good confidence in, but I have confidence in McD’s ability to get the most out of his DBs. All in all, we should have another top 10 defense this year.

https://www.democratandchronicle.com/story/sports/football/nfl/bills/2024/09/03/buffalo-bills-predictions-2024-nfl-season/75049591007/ Some predictions from the Rochester paper. 1. Josh has a big year. Complete 70% of his passes. No longer force feeding Diggs and dumping Dsvis should help with that prediction 2. Cook doesn’t reach 1000 yards rushing. They think more of the rushing load will be spread out to Johnson and Davis to keep Cook fresher. 3. Rousseau gets 10+ sacks. I tend to agree. He’s back at his natural position this season. 4. Benard will play at a pro-bowl level. I think we all agree with this. 5. Spencer Brown won’t be re-signed. Unless he plays at an extremely high level, I can easily him being replaced by Grable or Van Denmark next season to save $ 6. Bills win the East with 11 Wins.

I’m a little surprised by how many people are playing IDP.

Our lineups are QB, 2 RB, 2WR, TE and a Flex I agree on Dobbins, but like Benson, Watson and McConkey. That said, they are depth options. My hope is Watson emerges as Love’s no 1 option and McConkey for Herbert. They are lottery tickets that if one hits it could help win the league. As to Dell and Collins, Dell fell in our league to where he was too big a bargain to not draft him. Given my draft he’ll be on the bench most weeks as White is my flex player.

Yep. The Jets have 50+ and the Fish 40+.

I think Walker is a very strong breakout candidate. Wilson and Hill are great players, but I hate drafting Jets and Fish. If it's close between a player from the Jets or Miami, I'll draft someone else. Kincaid and Shakir are going to be great bargains.

I play in two leagues. The first is a 10 team keeper league (2 players but you forfeit a draft pick) with IDP. The 2nd is a 12 team half PPR league. So far I'm pretty happy with both drafts. Team 1: ( I drafted 10th as defending champ - Keepers Williams & Purdy) - 3 Bills, 3 Dawgs, 1 Falcon QB - Allen, Purdy RB - Eitenne, K Williams, Stevenson, Edwards and Dowdle WR - Olave, De Smith, Pickens, Watson & Shakir TE - Musgrove, Njoku K - Koo DL - Parsons (LB), LB - Bernard, Q Walker DB - J Love Team 2: (I drafted 4th) - Sadly no Bills, but 3 Dawgs, 2 Falcons QB - Stroud, Purdy RB - Bij Robinson, Etienne, Z White, Benson & Dobbins WR - Collins, Pickens, Dell, Watson & McConkey TE - Bowers K - Koo D - Chicago On both teams Purdy, Etienne, Pickens, Watson, and Koo. In the second draft, I kept getting scooped on the Bills players I was trying to get. I was also trying to avoid getting to many players with the same bye weeks. I screwed up in the 2nd draft because Robinson and Etienne have the same bye week, but not until week 12. How have your drafts gone?

The best way to protect the secondary is to take away the QBs time in the pocket. I good pass rush will help immeasurably. The second best way is to have the offense control the time of possession and keeping the defense off the field.

If we learned anything this off-season it's that Beane is going to work the system to get where he needs to go. Milano, Miller and Knox are definitely on the chopping block, but we'll see what happens. If Knox has a great year and stays healthy and makes a great combo with Kincaid, he could easily return.

The good news is that we only have 4.5 million in dead cap in 2025. The bad news is we only have 2.3 Million is actual cap space. https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/buffalo-bills/overview/_/year/2025/sort/cap_total I expect both numbers to grow.

I'm not sure they have a choice if the player is injured during training camp. It's either that or an injury settlement like they did with Claypool. One other note is that by keeping them on season long IR they control the player if they have an interest in the player beyond this season.

Based on their draft positions that would certainly the most talented duo we could end up with.

I don't think that any of the receiver positions are written in stone. We'll see Samuel in the slot, backfield and boundary. Shakir will also move around. Remember his physical stats are nearly the same as Diggs except Shakir is faster. If Diggs can succeed on the boundary, I don't see why Shakir can't. He played both slot and outside at Boise St. Also Kincaid and Coleman can play inside. Brady promised "position less" football. I think we are going to see Brady try to confuse the D with formations with Kincaid, Shakir, Coleman, and Samuel lining up everywhere in the formation. The biggest surprises on this depth chart for me was Johnson as the No. 2 back and Hollins ahead of Coleman. Starting is one thing, but Coleman will out snap Hollins on offense sooner than later.

https://www.buffalobills.com/team/depth-chart Looks like Hamlin is penciled in as the starter for week 1. Does that make things better or worse? I know @FireChans isn't happy, but how does everyone else feel? Don't forget Jackson is on the PS. The guy has 15 years of NFL experience, playing in over 203 games including 193 starts. I wouldn't be surprised if he is the first callup if we suffer more injuries at Safety. I'm really rooting for Hamlin to stay healthy and play well.

I don't think Hamlin was "terrible" in 2022. In fact, I think he did a decent job when be forced into the lineup. This is from Cover1.com https://www.cover1.net/buffalo-bills-damar-hamlin-2022-impact/#:~:text=Pro Football Focus graded Hamlin,%%2C tied with Tyrann Mathieu.

With the 1st Bills game a few days away, the safety position is still unsettled. The 3 candidates to start along with Rapp have all been hurt. Hamlin looked good in camp until his injury, while Bishop (R) and Edwards were hurt early in camp and are now getting healthy. I'm sure we'll know before game time who is starting, but that uncertainty coupled with moving on from Poyer and Hyde does raise questions about the viability of the position short and long-term. Personally, I'm not overly concerned. Rapp has been a starter most of his career (52 of 73 games) and acquitted himself well he started for the Bills at the end of the season. At worst he'll give us what Poyer did the last few years. Now the candidates to replace Hyde. Bishop is a rookie 2nd rd pick from Utah and looks like the very long-term solution at one of the safety positions, but his injury makes him a backup early in the year as he learns the defense and speed of the NFL. The leaves Hamlin and Edwards. The heathier of the two is probably the starter against the Cards. Hamlin, who already knows the defense and has started at safety before is probably McD's preferred choice. Edwards does have more NFL experience (73 games 28 starts), and was solid when he filled in as an injury starter for KC last year. By the way Rapp is 26 (former 2nd rd pick), Edwards 27 (former 3rd rd pick) and Hamlin 26 (former 6th rd pick). The transition of the safeties this season is very similar to what we went through in 2017. Hyde, then 27, a former 5th rd pick, had played 63 games for GB including 33 starts. Poyer, then 26, a former 7th rd pick, had played 48 games (10 starts) mostly with Cleveland. Neither was a big time acquisition. Neither were considering full time starting material on the teams they left. Playing in McD's defense helped turn them into All-pros.

The Keaton Bills

Attempted felony murder should never be sent to Juvenile court.

I hope Ricky recovers quickly and can get his career back on track. Too soon!

This is definitely a transition year for the Bills. They are getting younger and cheaper and they have the 60+ million dead cap to prove it. However, just because they are getting younger and cheaper doesn't mean an end of their contending window and it also doesn't mean the roster is less talented, just less experienced. Despite the transition, the vast majority of the starters on offense and defense that lead the Bills to their 7-2 record down the stretch return. That team had 6 new starters with 2 years or less of NFL experience (Cook, Kincaid, Shakir, Torrence, Benford and Bernard). All 6 were good to great last season. This year we again have 6 new starters, except only 2 (D. Williams and Keon Coleman) have 2 years or less of NFL experience. The new starters on offense are WR Curtis Samuel, G David Edwards and WR Keon Coleman (R). Samuel has played in 91 NFL games with 58 starts over 7 NFL seasons. Edwards has 70 games of NFL experience with 45 starts over 5 seasons. In fact, while with the Rams, Edwards started 45 of his 53. The new starters on defense are DE AJ Epenesa, LB Dorian Williams, and as of yet un-determined FS. Epenesa has 58 games of experience all with Buffalo with 4 starts and will likely rotate with a finally healthy Von Miller and his 173 games (161 starts) of experience. The FS battle is coming down to Hamlin and probably veteran Mike Edwards depending on who is healthy. Edwards has 75 games of experience (28 starts) over 5 seasons and Hamlin has 34 games of experience including 13 games as a starter before his injury all with the Bills. Hamlin had 91 tackles including 63 solos in 2022 when he started 13 games. The real youth on this team is the depth behind the starters. 10 2024 draftees or UDFAs made the roster. However most of the those kids will be earning their stripes playing special teams. The Bills have solid vets at RB (Johnson), WR (Hollins, MVS), TE (Knox), DE (Miller, Smoot, Toohill), DT (Johnson), S (Edwards, Hamlin, Lewis), and LB (Morrow). The depth areas populated with kids are OL and CB. Ultimately, I see no reason this team can't duplicate last years 11-6 record and again win the AFC East. This is not some over the hill gang or a rebuild with kids starting everywhere. This is a team with a MVP caliber QB and good to excellent and experienced players at nearly every position. For those lamenting all the lost vets, I ask you which vet that left town remained a player in their prime? White, Hyde, and Poyer were all shadows of their former selves. Diggs play slipped significantly mid-season. Davis was often injured, and like Diggs, his effectiveness suffered. Floyd has a great first half and then was mostly ineffective in the 2nd half. That leaves Morse. He was solid as always last season, but at 32 is it really surprising that Beane moved on.

Don't forget the lack of portal acquisitions.

How do we define weapons? I assume we are talking offense weapons. Just wide receivers? Just TE/WR/RB? or QB/TE/WR/RB? Isn't Josh the most dangerous weapon in the NFL?

A solid opening victory over 14 Clemson. The 5th string Freshman RB came in and dominated and Beck was his normal solid self and Georgia cruised to a easy victory. Defense was again suffocating, but still can use a better pass rush. Malaki Starks is flat out a great DB and had the play of the day.

A lack of accountability for bad behavior.

I like this, but what if Hamlin becomes and remains the starter at S?