GASabresIUFan

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6097505/2025/01/29/bills-chiefs-offseason-roster-free-agents/ Really good article about the Bills roster needs this off-season 1) CB opposite of Benford - After reading the article, this seems like a place to invest both draft capital and finding a veteran FA to play immediately. 2) Safety behind Bishop and Rapp - let Hamlin walk. 3) DE - Low pressure rate against the Chiefs a critical issue. AJE's pressure rate was terrible all season and he was taken off the field on passing downs as the season progressed. Miller is going to be a cap casualty and Smoot is a FA. Groot was good all season except against the Chiefs in the playoffs and has only one year left on his deal. Sounds to me like a complete overhaul is necessary. 4) WR - The whole group lacked the ability to get consistent separation. Finding a boundary WR who gets separation should be a top priority this off-season. I agree with everything Buscaglia wrote in the article. IMHO Draft priorities - DE, WR and CB FA priorities - DE, DT, CB, depth S & WR

it's called being stupid.

Bishop can play either safety position. Here is what Chris Simms said on draft day.

This is definitely a topic worth discussing, but the truth is 4/5 of our starting CB/DB/S slots are already spoken for. 1) Taron Johnson is an all-pro and will be the starting slot corner next season 2) Christian Benford - Assuming he gets healthy, PFF graded him as the 5th best CB in the NFL last season. He is the starter if healthy 3) Rapp - Rapp had a solid year, is under contract and therefore will be one of the two starting safeties next season 4) Bishop - He was drafted to develop into a long-term starter at safety. He got better as the year went along and will almost certainly be Rapp running mate next season. That leaves Douglas' job open. Elam is clearly not the answer. Unfortunately he has a $4+ mill cap hit next season whether he plays or doesn't. He will be given a chance to compete for the starting job. With the Bills playing more man to man defense, maybe that helps his candidacy for the starting job. I believe the Bills need to draft 1 - 2 CBs in this draft and maybe even an additional safety. 3 names to watch in the draft are Quincy Riley (2nd rd), Maxwell Hairston (3rd rd) and Jahdae Barron (late 1st rd). I also expect the Bills to add depth in free agency to both CB and S. I agree that Ingram and Lewis are not good enough depth.

Don’t be surprised if Smoot returns. He can play most DL positions inside and out and I think Beane and McD like him. As to Phillips, he likes Buffalo and the Bills like him as well, but I’m not sure how much is left in the tank. He would be a great community outreach executive.

I am a little surprised he was re-signed so quickly. I thought Anderson and Grable had passed him on the depth chart.

You know that is incorrect. The Bills could have easily chosen Worthy at 28. After Worthy 5 WRs went off the board in the next 9 picks. The Bills could have drafted any of the those 6 players. Beane chose to trade down twice. FYI the next pick after Coleman was Ladd McConkey. All McConkey did was put up 1149 yards & 7 TDs as a rookie. For all our issues with Coleman, the kid actually had a perfectly reasonable rookie year with 29 catches for 556 yards and 4 Tds. For comparison purposes, Michael Pittman, who has similar size and speed to Coleman and was drafted 34th in 2020, had 40 catches for 503 yards & 1 TD as a rookie. There is still plenty of time for the Coleman pick to not only pan out, but truly improve the team.

Boundary WR is a huge priority. This team is desperate from someone who can get open down the field. Douglas’ departure coupled with Benford’s injuries and Elam’s mediocre play make drafting 2 CBs a priority. DE/DT needs to be better. However Groot, Oliver, Jones, and AJE are all under contract. (So is Miller) Depth players Carter and Solomon are also hanging around. Will Beane bank on internal growth or will he supplement with one of his premium draft picks? I’m taking a WR at 30 and then a CB and a DE with picks 57 & 62.

lol. Did you know Philly’s top picks the last 5 years were 21, 10, 13, 9 & 22. The Bills 54, 30, 23, 25 & 33. Not exactly an apple to apples comparison. Your augment loses all merit when you complain about a rookie 3rd rd draft pick not making a difference as a rookie or that a rookie 2nd pick isn’t an immediate starter. That’s not how drafting and developing works. Just look at the progress Brown, Shakir and Cook have made from being limited rookies to stardom. Furthermore, when you have one of the top 2-3 teams in football and it was built primarily through the draft, the GM has done his job. That is not to say there haven’t been bad choices. Of course there have. We can do the same exercise with Philly and come up with just as many poor picks, such as nearly all their picks in 2023 after the 1st rd. Nothing you complained about cost us a Super Bowl. Coaching decisions have hurt us, poor execution has hurt us, but sometimes the other team is just better. This last loss stings. I’m right there with you, but this team is setup for continued success because we have drafted very well in recent years.

Beane isn’t on the clock, the hot seat or anything else. The truth is there is plenty of elite talent on this team, mostly drafted by Beane, and this team is one of the 2 or 3 best teams in football. Allen, Brown, Cook, Dawkins, T Johnson, Benford, are all elite at their positions and all were drafted by Beane. Bernard, Torrence, and yes even Kincaid and Coleman are young good players still learning their crafts. Dumping on Beane for missing on Elam ignores the 4 other high end to elite starters from that draft class. I get why people are so sad and disappointed, but that doesn't change the fact that Beane is a great GM and has the Bills in a position to be just as good if not better next season.

I hate to say it, especially given our needs on defense, but OSU's Emeka Egbuka is the player the Bills need to draft in the 1st rd.

!!!!!! Go Dawgs!

While I agree that the D needs to get better and needs upgrades on the line and back-end, I’ve seen more change this year in McD and Babich than ever during McD’s tenure. We made adjustments to stop the run by going bigger and utilizing 3 LBs. We blitzed more than ever and ran more man to man coverage. This is a sign that McD is open to change and hopefully Beane responds by beefing up the DL, improving the pass rush and getting some DB help. Some help is going come from the draft, but some will be FAs. The FA question will be does he go all in again on a big name or does he continue to the short-term deals. The Bills head into the draft with pick 30 and probably picks 57 (Hou) and 62. At 30 I’d love for us to take WR Egbuka despite the D needs. At 57 DE Shemar Stewart and at 62 DB Quincy Riley seem like good fits. Riley is a press/zone DB with decent size and speed.

Home field means a bye and hosting the AFC Championship game.

Home field. The Bills need to have a completely dominate season, secure the 1st overall seed.

They moved on from the coach, the QB and most of the team. Reid’s final season was 2012. They won it all under Peterson in 2017 with a nearly completely different roster. So we should dismiss McD, trade Allen and hope in 5 years they can rebuild the team again?

The injury explains much, but he still should have caught that ball.

Here is the Bills current 2025 depth chart based on the contracts of spotrac.com Offense (19) QB (3) - Allen, Trubisky, White RB (2) - Cook & Davis - FAs Johnson and Gilliam WR (3) - Shakir, Samuel, Coleman - FAs Hollins & Cooper TE (3) - Kincaid, Knox, Amari Rogers(?) - FA - Morris (Not sure where Rogers came from) C (2) - McGovern & SVPG - FA Clapp G (2) - Edwards & Torrence T (4) - Dawkins, Brown, Grable, Clayton - FA - Anderson, Van Denmark Defense (21) DT (3) - Oliver, Jones & Carter DE/Edge (4) - Groot, Solomon, AJE & Miller - FA - Smoot LB (6) - Milano, Bernard, Williams, Andreessen, Ulofoshio & Spector CB (5) - T Johnson, Benford, Elam, Ingram, Codrington - FA Douglas S (3) - Rapp, Bishop, Lewis FA - Hamlin Specialists (3) - Bass (PK), Martin (P), Camarada (P) FA - Ferguson (LS) FAs of note; Hollins, Johnson, Gilliam, Anderson, Smoot, Hamlin & Ferguson\ Don't see Douglas, Cooper or Clapp returning.

That was really done to best utilize the 3rd QB rule during the playoffs. By having him on the active roster, they could make him inactive on gameday, but still utilize him as the emergency 3rd QB if the need arose.

While I generally agree that fixing the pass rush and DBs is a necessity this off-season, getting a WR or 2 who can spread the field and create separation would do this team a world of good. Being able to hit some passes downfield would make everything on offense easier and besides Shakir, none of the WRs did a very good job of gaining separation this season.

This is what everyone in Philly said about Andy Reid.

The Bills should have plenty of money to do what they need to do this off-season. Miller is the obvious first move. I'm curious what other moves you "made" to get to the 35 mill figure? This is a genuine question as I like to see others thoughts here.

Who are you going to get to replace McD? I may be in the minority, but I've seen some growth in McD this year. He was more aggressive overall during the season and he was much more flexible in how the Bills played defense. They blitzed more, played more 3 LBs and more man coverage. I look back at the game yesterday and honestly don't disagree with McD on the 2 pt conversation plays. My biggest coaching issue from the game was Brady's inept play calling at points and his unwillingness to try different things on the short yardage plays. Cook is dominating the game yet somehow he only got 16 touches. That's on Brady and Josh.

All I was saying is that last year was a transition year from the old core to the new core. The team way over achieved this season and this transition is going to continue as Miller and others move on. I never said that he was trying to add difference makers last year. This team has plenty of difference makers in Allen, Cook, Dawkins, Brown, Benford (when healthy), Milano, Taron Johnson among others. This team also has holes which I expect Beane to fill through the draft and select FAs. The holes are DL, WR and CB.

Very insightful.