BigAl2526

I would be surprised if Buffalo makes a major move at this point, and I don't think media pundits like Yahoo would regard anything less than a major move as fully addressing a need. Buffalo is going to rely on the more modest moves they have made in those areas, and hope that they will be sufficient to address the needs. To review, they added two offensive guards with starting experience and drafted arguably the best pure guard in the draft. Beyond that, they are counting on improvement from Spencer Brown, who should benefit from a full offseason in good health. They are also hoping for a contribution from Tommy Doyle who is coming back from injury. At running back, they signed two guys who can run with power, something they have lacked for several years. I think they are also counting on continued development from James Cook as a runner who can provide elusiveness and home run speed. The Bills signed a legitimate quality nose tackle in Poona Ford to pair with Daquan Jones. Admittedly, they did very little at middle linebacker. The guy they drafted, Dorian Williams, is set to be more of a weak side linebacker according to Brandon Bean, though that is certainly subject to change. Otherwise, Buffalo is mainly counting on guys who have been with the team stepping up and proving they can start. It will be necessary to tweak the scheme a bit, because none of the middle linebackers in house have the skill set to do what Tremaine Edmunds did.

This is the ongoing game of chess that is the NFL. When Josh came into the league, it was a tried and true practice to blitz young QBs as a way to force mistakes. Young QBs have to sink or swim. Josh learned to swim. Josh faced so much blitzing that I wonder if his development at dealing with other kinds of defenses could have been slowed a bit. We can be sure that Dorsey and Josh will take a close look at what defenses like the Jets were able to do against the Bills last season and work at ways to counter them. The offseason moves of the Bills on offense (upgrading the line, drafting a potentially elite TE, acquiring a couple of running backs that possess power and switching out some receivers who disappointed last season for some who may be more reliable) all point toward fixing the areas where Buffalo sometimes struggled last season.

I guess the rumor is (heard on the radio) that the Bills will face the Chiefs with both teams coming off a bye, negating the traditional post bye advantage. That is coupled with the league flipping the Bills extra home game this season by sending them to England to face the leagues most experienced overseas team in the Jaguars, and then giving the Jags another advantage by making it their second straight game in England. That, of course, allows the Jags to play a game against a team dealing with jet lag while they've had time to recover from their jet lag. I'm waiting to see if Buffalo ends up with multiple games against teams coming off their bye. That will signal a concerted effort to topple the Bills from their position atop the AFC East.

I expect that's the last we'll see of Spagtroll until early September. He'll show up then to troll a little more before the game. A sound beatdown by the Bills over the Jests should keep him quiet for another year.

way at Jersey.

No, Beane will not try to trade for Dalvin Cook.

For years it was believed around the league that Andy Reid, while he was a good head coach, didn't have what it took to lead a team to a Super Bowl win. They don't say that any more. I don't think the window has closed for Buffalo. Still, I expected that there would be observers around the country who would pick teams to finish ahead of the Bills that the Bills have owned in recent years. Thank you, Emmanuel Acho for proving me right.

No thank you. I'm pretty happy with Tre White and Kaiir Elam starting on the outside and Taron Johnson is a fixture at slot corner. That leaves Buffalo with Benford and Jackson as depth corners. Benford was a pleasant surprise at CB and both Jackson and Benford have enough starting experience to be comfortable. Both are faster and have better body mass than Wallace. Wallace is a good technician and makes good decisions in zone coverage, but his lack of speed and strength is always going to leave him at a disadvantage to big and strong or very fast receivers.

The league says the Bills are technically the home team in this game, but the Jags are the NFL team with the most experience in the league at playing in London. By keeping the Jags in London two straight weeks, the Jags will be over their Jet lag. Essentially, the league has flipped the game and given the Jags home field advantage despite the fact they are supposed to be visitors. Buffalo should be good enough to overcome this, but it sure looks like the league is trying to screw Buffalo.

I'm hopeful, but then I'm pretty much always hopeful. We can't say for certain that Spencer Brown will be better, but it is not hard to understand why he failed to have a good season in 2022. The other question at tackle is Tommy Doyle. Of course, he missed the entire last season, but he was regarded as a pretty athletic guy. We don't know that he will develop and be much better than he was two years ago as a rookie, but we don't know that he won't either. The disappointing performance of Roger Saffold is all too familiar to Bills fans. It would be hard for Buffalo to do worse in 2023. We all know that Buffalo did not sign any high priced free agent guards. They did, however, sign two veterans with starting experience. The also drafted arguably the best pure guard in the draft in O'Cyrus Torrence. I imagine that the Bills will have something like an open competition for both guard spots, but I think most would have a hard time thinking that Torrence doesn't end up with one starting post locked up, probably tight guard. That means Bates will be fighting to retain his starting spot with two other guys that are legitimate competition to start. I don't think Bates is the favorite in that competition, but Bates does have an ace up his sleeve. Bates can potentially back up four out of the five spots on the offensive line, and he might be the second best center on the team. If he doesn't win the starting left guard spot, he's not going anywhere. I think it would be almost impossible for the offensive line not to be better than in 2022. The question is how much better, whether it is only a little better or a lot better. That remains to be seen.

Is 2023 the year of the "Double K Gun?"

A couple of thoughts. I can't imagine why Buffalo wouldn't consider giving his agent a call and at least offering him a contract. Whether or not he is interested in signing again with the team that cut him is another issue. Second thought: If I were Araiza, I would be looking at what legal recourse I would have to hold the girl accountable. Not only did her lie cost him a possible year with an NFL salary, and maybe more, but her lie makes it harder on other young girls that do get raped. It's a small think but the more girls get caught in lies, the easier it is for the attorneys of future defendants to sow seeds of doubt in the minds of jurors. Next time the accused might be guilty.

At the very least, this is interesting. Simmons has good size combined with elite speed/athleticism.

I think it is obvious that Kincaid was drafted to be a receiving tight end. I can imagine, however, that there will be occasions where Josh will read that the defense is overplaying the pass when the Bills have Kincaid and know on the field at the same time, especially if Kincaid lines up in the slot a lot. I think there will be times when Josh audibles to a run and Kincaid will need to block.

Agreed. Observers around the league are going to give Rodgers the benefit of the doubt even though he was unimpressive last season at times. He's had a Hall of Fame career, and a fair number of people will assume he can return to his excellence of 2 years ago and earlier when he was a perennial MVP candidate. There's no way to know for certain if he still has "it."

One more negative with Foles is the fact that he is a statue. Dorsey would have to alter the play calling significantly if Foles had to play any length of time.

After all the lost time, I assume he can't command 10 million a year. What would it take to sign him?

Seems like a DE/DT tweener - not real fast or bendy as a DE and a bit small for a DT. Seems like a fringe guy.

I agree, Buffalo is not likely to get as much hype, before the season at least. There will probably be those who pick the Jets to win the AFC East with Aaron Rodgers as QB and some old pal receivers signed as free agents. The Jets could be much tougher this season. Buffalo may be gaining the image around the league of a team that is good in the regular season but lacks the toughness to go all the way in the playoffs. The onus is on the Bills to prove differently.

I think Beane will at least explore the possibility of trading one of the veterans they don't think will start. Boettger or Edwards come to mind. That would depend in part on how Spencer Brown develops in the current off season and whether or not Tommy Doyle is fully healthy and can develop into a reliable swing tackle in reserve.

Ford is a primarily a nose tackle and Oliver is a three technique, so signing Ford does not make Oliver available for trade. Maybe the Bills would part with Tim Settle in a trade, but Settle's disappointing 2022 season didn't do wonders for his trade value. The key question the Bills would have to answer is why Queen was disappointing last season. Would he perform that much better in McDermott's scheme?

So Buffalo's defensive linemen have been waiting for the team to hire stuntmen rather than doing their own?

Possible? Of course. Probable? I don't think so. It would mean the coaches completely lose confidence in Knox as a receiver early on in the season and Dorsey has to be inclined to incorporate tight end as a far more integral part of the offense than he did last season. It's likely that pass receptions by tight ends will increase quite a bit because of Kincaid, but I don't think that the Bills thought poorly of Knox in the past. I think they still like Knox. I think the modest contribution by Knox compared with some lofty expectations of Kincaid, have more to do with Dorsey's philosophy than any opinion in the organization about Knox. So it's Dorsey's philosophy that has to change for Kincaid to reach lofty levels.

I'm fine with what the Bills did. Now they just need to be intentional about incorporating Kincaid into the offense, and likely using two tight ends for a significant portion of offensive plays, if not most of them. Two tight ends won't necessarily be a running formation for them though.

A true bowling ball. Knock some offensive pins over!