BillsFanForever19

And it doesn't matter how much you write about wanting someone else with more experience. Beane chose 3 WR's between FA and the Draft who will all be on the 53 and a "TE" in the first, who's actually a Big Slot WR. The position has been covered en masse. You can agree with his moves or disagree. But that's not going to unmake the moves he's made. We're done there. Now we focus on spots we need to fill that weren't addressed in the Draft like another OT, a 4th RB (which we did), DT, and DE - if anything. As far as Davis not being "cut out" for the #2 spot, that's why we brought in help with Kincaid and Harty so it's not all falling on his shoulders. Davis may technically be the #2, but that doesn't mean he's really the 2nd option on the field. Kincaid split out wide will become Josh's 2nd option. And Harty will take Davis off the field at times in packages.

Murray replaces Duke Johnson. His ceiling is that Matt Breida, TJ Yeldon role. 4th RB on the 53 who is inactive on Game Day unless there's an injury to Cook, Harris, or Hines. His floor is he's on the Practice Squad. Which was what he was doing last season. But make no mistake about it, he's inactive unless there's an injury. McDermott doesn't dress 4 RB's. And he won't dress over Cook, Harris, or Hines.

Zach Ertz, Odell Beckham Jr, DeAndre Hopkins. If I've learned anything from the 3 it's that hanging on long term massive page threads is fruitless. If Beane is going to strike, he does it fast. Often without warning. If we're waiting, we're waiting on teams or a player to come back around to his offer in defeat. Not impossible, but also not likely. He sets his price, doesn't budge, and doesn't sit on his hands waiting and hoping the player or team will come around to address the position.

Like I said earlier - just because he was interested in being traded to a contender and was playing around with the rumors doesn't mean he'd become a public malcontent and force his way off the team when he and the world were told it wasn't going to happen. It's one thing to have fun with rumors and be open to being traded to the top teams in the league. It's another entirely to go full meltdown and force your way off the team. I'm sure he's more than happy taking the full amount of his massive deal in Arizona. This one's been over for a long time. This is the final nail.

I don't think we're desperate for another Outside WR. Given Beane's comments after signing Harty and then Drafting Dalton Kincaid, who's really a big slot - it appears to me Harty is the #3 X WR. Between Diggs and Davis on the Outside with Kincaid in the Slot and Dawson Knox at TE. The starting lineup is solid. Behind Diggs and Davis on the outside will be Deonte Harty as WR3, Trent Sherfield (playing as the 4th or 5th Outside WR following a solid year as Miami's WR3), and Justin Shorter behind him. Khalil Shakir will play in the Slot in some packages and behind Kincaid. And as you mentioned, Cook can also split out wide. I think when it comes to Pass Catchers as a whole - we're very solid. WR is in good shape. Desperate is a strong word.

Kincaid will get more than a lot of snaps as the "big slot". I expect pretty much all of his snaps to be there. He's a Travis Kelce type - TE in name only. Even Beane said he's not expecting to line him up on the Edge all that much. Will probably be our primary option out of the Slot. I agree with this. I think Hopkins people heard the rumors and tried to make the rumors reality. I think Arizona was never interested in moving him. Now that the Draft is over, pretty much everyone who would be interested in him have gotten pass catchers, and Arizona has made it clear they aren't moving him - he and his people are probably of the mind "get your bag this year and we'll see what happens next year".

Except we're not though. Dalton Kincaid is a TE in name only. He's going to be spread out wide in the vast majority, if not all of snaps. He was considered the best pass catcher in the entire Draft by many. Deonte Harty proved to be a very intriguing deep threat in 2021. Enough for us to have to compete with other teams and pay him a substantial contract. He has elite speed and playmaking ability. Sherfield put up solid numbers holding down Miami's WR3 spot last year and is expected to be our 5th or 6th pass catching option. Justin Shorter has prototypical measurables for an X WR and you never know how quickly he will be developed. All of this with Stefon Diggs, Gabe Davis, and Khalil Shakir at WR and Dawson Knox at TE already in the fold. Saying we're going into this season just like last season is just factually wrong. We are in a much better position. Just because you personally feel our additions "haven't proven anything on Sunday's" doesn't mean the moves haven't been made and the roles haven't been filled. Beane's not going to say "BananaB's not impressed, I have to keep adding and forget what I've already done". Arizona from the word go never seemed interested in moving him, unless there were an offer they absolutely couldn't refuse. They appear to be more than comfortable keeping him. They more than have the money to do so. Hopkins seemed open to being moved to a contender and embraced the rumors. But that doesn't mean he's going to become a malcontent and force his way off the team. He could very well just be like "it's not happening? Okay, I'll just take the giant bag Arizona has me under contract for". Even if he were to, at this point with what we did in the Draft and what we already had in place, our financial situation, the positions we didn't address in the Draft that we now have to address with cap space we have to come up with, and Beane consistently saying he's not interested - this idea is as dead as a doornail.

I expect us to sign Latavius Murray and then between him and Mims - one will be the 4th RB on the 53, who's inactive on Game Days unless there's an injury and one will be on the Practice Squad. But yes, I fully expect him to be this year's Raheem Blackshear and for people to lose their minds if he gets poached from the Practice Squad. As if these guys aren't a dime a dozen and come along every year.

Ed Oliver being traded was only ever a thing amongst the same type of fans who wanted Edmunds traded last year. He was never going anywhere. Now that the Draft's over, he's even more so not going to be Traded. There's some decent depth options and fringe starters out there. A lot of them pretty long in the tooth. But nothing the caliber of Ed Oliver to replace him with. I almost expect him to be extended at this point. Beane has talked up wanting to keep him every time his name has been brought up. And I know he hasn't lived up to his lofty expectations following his College career and being a Top 10 Pick - but he's at times dominant (especially when Miller was in the lineup) and we could do a lot worse.

Shell would be solid. As for a big name DE and them commanding bigger contracts, there's so many of them and if they could all command bigger contracts - they'd have gotten them by now. 1 or 2 of them are going to have to settle for what they can get. Frank Clark is a no go though. He's great on the field but an absolute trash human being. Leonard Floyd would be my ideal choice.

DJ Fluker hasn't played a game since 2020. I don't care how good he looks lifting weights. 3 years removed from NFL ball and being a marginal talent when he was playing then (including being suspended 6 games in 2021 when he was last in the league not on an active roster), he's a bring them into camp to see if there's anything there, bottom of the roster with no expectations type of pickup at this point. I'd be looking at George Fant at OT. You can bring Fluker into camp, but he's not something you rely on and we need a sure thing to go along with Dawkins, Brown, and Quessenberry. I'd expect an extension to Jones and/or Oliver to come in the near future to give us some more space. I see no way Beane goes into this season with his entire depth chart of DT's on the last year of their deals.

There's a 266 page thread for Hopkins talk.

Just like the guy who posted he's been dying for Beane to Draft a "big tub of goo" DT for years - positions like these are a thing of the past. The game has gotten much more complex and the players are much more athletic.

I mean, maybe. Or maybe he was just seeing the rumors and hoping he'd go to a winning team and now that the GM has made it clear it's not going to happen, he's fine getting the full amount of his massive contract. It's one thing to go along with rumors and embrace them. It's another to become a public malcontent, hold out, and try and force yourself off the team. That may not be in his DNA.

With the addition of Dalton Kincaid, a TE in name only, in conjunction with Harty, Sherfield, and Shorter - I get the feeling he's feeling pretty good about his pass catchers. I understand, to an extent, the idea that GM's are always lying. But Beane doesn't usually just flat out say he's not in on something that he is. He'd say something like "we're always looking at improving, but it has to be the right price" or something like that. He's time and again said it's not happening and he's not in. People like to point to him saying that "we probably aren't going to be big players in Free Agency" and then signing Von Miler and him saying that he's "more likely to trade down than trade up" and then trading up as proof that you can't believe him. But those were vague statements. They weren't him saying "i'm not trading for (insert players name here)". Combined with the Cardinals GM flat out saying "DeAndre's a Cardinal and we're moving on", his not being moved this weekend, their ridiculous asking price, and their cap situation being good even with his contract - I get the feeling the Cards were never interested in moving him in the first place. Unless it was an offer they simply couldn't refuse. Which we were never going to do. Long story short, this one's over. Hopkins is not coming this season.

Yes, he is 1 of 1. But he's the prototype. Size, strength, athleticism. DT's can be over 300 lbs. But the days of the 350+ Vince Wilfork "big tub of goo" types the OP is yearning for has past. Players are too athletic these days for the Sam Adams' of the worlds to succeed. They're a dinosaur like the sit in the middle of the field exclusively and stuff the run MLB's.

I've seen it before with UDFA's. I'm sure there's no guarantees on any of the years and the other years are funny money to give him a better signing bonus.

A- The values we got on Kincaid and Torrence were out of this world. Kincaid shouldn't have been on the board and was NFL Network's 9th ranked prospect overall. Torrence was someone who was widely mocked to us at 27. To get him at 59 was incredible. But when the 3rd Round arrived, I said to myself "alright, this is where Beane likes to just throw a headscratcher of a curve ball and deviates from the consensus boards". Sure enough, that's what he did. I've come around to Williams after remembering the dropoff we had in coverage from the LB position when Milano would go down. We can't assume Milano is always going to be available. So it's good to have someone with the athletic skills of Dorian. Day 3 as far as selections go was a bit of a wash. Shorter is intriguing to me. A #1 HS recruit at WR with prototypical size for the outside and decent play speed for someone his size. Could be a project that pays off. Then the 2 picks in Round 7, eh whatever. Practice Squad developmental players who may or may not even make the PS. But getting two teams to give us 7th Rounders plus 6th Round picks in a better Draft next year in exchange for 6th Rounders this year in a lesser class was amazing. Beane having 10 picks in next year's class, giving us the ability to move around the board or move picks for players was a masterclass. The only thing keeping it from being an A+ to me was that the ability to go Kincaid, Torrence, Simpson in the first 3 Rounds was right there for the taking. Should have moved up. Getting 3 players that were mocked at 27 to us would have been absolutely insane.

Yes, but even they wouldn't be considered "a big tub of goo".

That much is certain - Diggs and Davis are 1 and 2 on the outside (barring any unlikely Hopkins trade) and Sherfield and Shorter fill out the bottom of the 53 as Outside X's and Shakir as the 3rd Slot. Harty has the versatility to play Outside and Inside. I get the feeling he'll be cycled in and out between Diggs and Davis on the Outside and Kincaid on the Inside depending on the package. And be the first to start if there's injuries on either side.

Unless you're running a 3-4, a "big tub of goo" is a thing of the past. And even in a 3-4, they're just a space eater. You need to be powerful and athletic in today's NFL. Especially in the type of Defense we run. Gone are the Ted Washington's, now is the time of the Aaron Donald's.

https://dknation.draftkings.com/2023/4/29/23674250/undrafted-free-agents-2023-best-players-available-from-nfl-draft-udfa-addname-addname

With Oliver, Jones, Phillips, and Settle - we're set there this season. 1 or 2 of those guys will re-sign in the near future. It wasn't a need this season. Might be next season - but that's what next year's FA and Draft are for.

McDermott be like "C'mon Beane, it's Pick 252 - it's a throwaway pick. Give daddy a DB. Daddy needs a DB"

We're in Practice Squad territory, especially in this Draft.