Mark Long Beach

Our Rookie QB is nailing the off the field stuff. His coaches, teammates and fans all rave about how he handles everything. Coupled with his top end physical traits and significant improvement during the second half of his rookie season has many people more optimistic than usual. We've signed an entire new team of offensive lineman on team friendly deals. Only one star in our new center Morse, but many reasonably well regarded part time starters/high end backups or players bouncing back from injury. With lots of competition, it seems like we should be able to field a pretty decent OL. This is a massive improvement from last year where we lacked talent AND cohesion. Excited about OT Ty Nsekhe who has some fantastic tape, but is on the older side. We got two new CB's to compete with last year's surprise Levi Wallace. Former First round pick Kevin Johnson, who's career hasn't got off the injury train. Talented, but so far hasn't been able to stay on the field. Also, our old friend EJ Gains is now back with us. He did a fantastic job for us when he was on the field. Sadly he also has had a rough time with injuries. But I'm really happy to have him back. It means we sit on 5 excellent CBs. To me this is the best set of CBs we've ever had. Oh Yeah. We somehow managed to get OLDER in RB by replacing Chris Ivory with ageless Frank Gore, who had a surprisingly good season with Miami last year. But he's likely a solid all-around RB and friends with McCoy. Hopefully he'll push his ***. We're perceived to be a little light in OT, TE, DT and any position other than QB we can draft. As many people have mentioned. Stay on your meds. Really. No joke. Just don't it on your own. If you think you need to quit, do it with your doctor.

Thanks for the good laugh this morning! Yes this is an inside joke for the board members who've been around. Long time poster BillfromNYC LOATHES high defensive back draft picks. He went apoplectic when we drafted Whitner over Ngata. Which, to be fair, he was right on. But we've also drafted some very good secondary players such as Tre, Byrd, and Gilmore.

Seriously impressive! Although clearly someone's deranged for being a dolphin fan.

And a world class athlete in a reasonably similar sport. I agree his hands looked good. There's always a chance, and there's essentially no risk.

If the quote came from an NFL exec, I am not surprised that he has an strong opinion. You (usually) don't get to that position without convictions in yourself and your opinion. Misguided or not. Clearly this person has a wildly different view on how to build a team. Shrug. I hope he's wrong. From what I see and understand of the universe and football, I like what Bean is doing. Some of it does seem like it's adding by volume and hope to find some good or very good ones out of the mix. Kind of like lots of draft picks. Throw a lot against the wall to see what sticks. I will say, this year we've signed a whole lot higher quality of players. NFL level starters or near starters. Hopefully a lot of them stick to the wall well. I do wish a couple of the 1 year deals were 2 year deals, because I think we will want to hold on to some of these players, but it takes two to tango. I understand that they want to get paid.

Hmmmm.... That really doesn't match the reports that I read. Washington wanted to keep him but couldn't afford him with the free agency money he would get. He started 44 games for them! That's not somebody who was soured on real quickly. He got a pretty large contract from the Jets at FOUR(4) years $27 million deal, with $9m guaranteed. That's not chump change. According to reports the Jets still wanted him back, just not at that $ figure for this year (guaranteed $3.5m roster bonus plus salary). https://www.sny.tv/jets/news/jets-waited-too-long-to-re-sign-cg-spencer-long/303848474 His biggest problem has been injuries which makes him more of a risk to invest heavily in. Generally regarded better as a guard than a center.

Happy Day! It feels like we now can find a competent line out of what we've brought in and what little we had left over from last year. We might even have a GOOD OL! How delightful! Now to draft an OT day 2+ and see if he'll develop.

It was super hard watching the Jets. I had to turn it off. In what I watched, Long definitely got pushed back a few more times than I'd like. But Bodine sure did.

My favorite past sleeper was someone correctly predicting OL Mike Jasper from Bethel in the 7th round. FYI, he's now the Head Coach at Bethel.

If I were to hazard a guess, I don't think he's getting signed before the draft. My guess is that the reason he isn't signed yet is that he's asking for more money than anyone wants to pay him right now. But that could change a lot after the draft. If someone needs a guard and doesn't draft one high, they might be willing to pay his demands. Of course the risk for him is that enough of the desperate teams fill their slots with a newly drafted guard and therefore won't pony up the high end money for him. A game of chicken while gambling for contract money.

Yup. First post.

Good Business? Eh... Bean has to play the longer game which is not always the best thing for _right now_. But I agree, as will most, that the ultimate answer is a young stud RB. However, our offensive line is in the process of being completely rebuilt and we still have a young QB trying to take major steps forward. I'd argue that a young RB is a bigger risk than needed and that the very best thing to have in the short term is a very experienced set of RB to be alongside Josh Allen. Pass protection ability will be key and same for receiving ability. Both McCoy and Gore are very good at both. A young RB might not be. And honestly, this is a one year RENTAL at most. Without a doubt we'll end up with a young RB post draft next year. I'm okay with going in with old and heavily experienced RB with more than one talent for this year.

I don't often agree with BADOL as I'm strangely optimistic when it comes to the BILLS. But I will say, that I agree with him here in the sense that _maybe_ we got one good FA signing in Star. To me, everyone else was _at best_ a marginally better than replacement level player. I noticed it more, because in recent years we've actually done a pretty decent job of evaluating and bringing in some decent to very good players (our safeties, Lorax, etc) But not last year. A pretty sour bunch. We'll probably do better this year just because of volume, and not relying on any one player to make a difference. *fingers crossed*

I agree, although remember EJ & Kevin Johnson are on 1 year deals, so we have fantastic depth for this year, but no depth guarantees for longer. So we'll always need a pipeline of some kind.

Yep, assuming he didn't get hurt he would have earned it. But it's his body he's risking every time he goes out to play, so if he wants more guarantees... I find it a little hard to condemn him for it.

I LOVED watching EJ play! He worked so well in concert with our other secondary members. I was very disappointed we didn't get to keep him last year. Even if he's only on the field 2/3s of the time, we are very, very solid when he's back there. Not only that, but we have QUALITY CB depth and a lot of it! Why would we not like that?

Excellent point, and it is a little risky. But the QUALITY is fantastic. It may be very much worth the loss of one special teams player to have a high quality corner since the players AND the position is notoriously fragile. It may mean that our depth for LB or safety is a little worse as we backfill those spots edged towards special teams. Tre EJ Levi Kevin Johnson Taron Johnson But honestly, Our top 5 CB are CRAZY good. I'll take it, I'll take it, I'll take it!!

Yeah, definitely inflammatory title. Did it worry the Bills? Yeah, I'm sure that it did. I believe that they've even admitted that last years draft worried them until they had the QB in hand (They knew they needed a QB). Not only that, I think it's pretty clear (backed up by the picture) that they were planning on trading with Denver and that it would cost them AT LEAST the #22 pick. The picture claims 7-22-53 which sounds believable to move to 5. OF COURSE they were concerned. There were a lot of QB needy teams ahead of them and the Jets trade limited their options to get one of the top 3 QBs. Fortunately, the Giants passed on taking one, IMO an incredibly stupid move. Also Denver did too, and look how they've struggled. I did not want Josh Allen, he was off my board. He scared me that he would be a high draft pick solely because of a monster arm and that he looked the part. His raw stats scared the bejeesus out of me. His intangibles started to change my opinion, but it was on field play that convinced me. I'm all in for Allen. He makes plays that make me gasp in amazement. Does he need to improve? Oh heck yes. But I think that he can, and I think that he will. I have a QB that I believe can be great! #goBills!

Heck he's ALREADY lost his job to Peterman twice in a row on two different teams as Peterman is still standing.

My favorite review of the Preston resigning is from Walter Football: (I added the orange color)

Not a monster improvement, but does look to be one. Has the chance of being better with the scheme change (and possibly better OL coaching?) I had high hopes for him, I wish him well, and honestly the Bengals to beat up on the Steelers, Ravens, and Patriots.

man. I had to go back and look closer, but yeah, we had some good people back then. Not quite so clearly better though. QB is a significant downgrade, Goodwin hadn't turned the corner, and our linebackers were okay, but slow. (and too many were miscast in the defensive realignment) Aaron Williams sadly broke and depth behind him stunk. Miller, Mills and Adolphus Washington ranged between almost serviceable to dreadful. But I definitely agree, we should have gone a lot farther than we did, and the reason was the coaching staff.

No Browns the same, and only 3 Bills. LeSean McCoy, Jerry Hughes, Lorenzo Alexander. But then again, both of those teams stunk 3 years ago. So there SHOULD be a ton of turnover. The sum was definitely not as good as the parts and the Head Coach definitely has the biggest slice of the blame.

They should have plied the media with food and alcohol.

The introduce the new players press conference has been delayed for hours. Getting this signing done is what we're hoping is the cause.