dave mcbride

This is certainly suggestive, but of course who really knows. The Diggs trade came after the Hopkins trade, so the musical chairs were all filled. https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/patriots-were-reportedly-in-discussions-to-make-two-blockbuster-trades-but-came-up-empty-both-times/ In the 24 hours before Tom Brady officially announced he was leaving New England, it appears the Patriots may have made a last-ditch effort to get him some offensive weapons. Two of the biggest trades that went down this week involved DeAndre Hopkins (to the Cardinals) and Stefon Diggs (to the Bills), and both deals went down on Monday, just hours before Brady officially informed Patriots owner Robert Kraft that he would be leaving the team after 20 years in New England. ... After the Patriots came up short on the Hopkins trade, it appears they went to their Plan B: Diggs. According to MMQB.com, the Patriots had some discussions with the Vikings about acquiring Diggs, but Minnesota eventually decided to make a deal with Buffalo in a trade that went down just after 10:30 p.m. ET on Monday. With the Patriots out of the Diggs sweepstakes, that meant no new weapons for Brady, and in what may or may not be a coincidence, Brady announced that he was leaving on Tuesday morning.

In 2014, the Panthers defense had 57 sacks. It was all about the d-line for that unit. They went 12-4.

I have no problem with signing Clowney, but I think it's extremely unlikely to happen. Simply put, there are other good teams out there trying to get over the top and which are in desperate need of elite edge player -- Seattle, for one!! They are in far worse shape than the Bills when it comes to edge players, and consequently will be more desperate.

C.B., you're deep in that bunker right now. I have no great love for Murphy, but he was the best defensive player on the field in the most important game (the playoff game). Where are you getting this from? That one play vs. Houston where Watson scored? That wasn't my read on his overall play over the course of 17 games. The advanced stats certainly don't back up your evaluation.

you're misreading what he said. This simply isn't true (in the, you know, factual sense). The production was consistent over the course of the final six games.

Has he ever had an injury issue unrelated to the ACL? If they're going to spend more money, I'd spend it on an RB or RT. Those spots are the real question marks right now. Maybe you pick up the RB in the draft, of course.

It's more of a gut feel. He just strikes me as the sort of guy who wants to play with a "star" team (partly because he seems to want to win). I don't put Buffalo in that category, but I could be wrong. Regardless, I would be absolutely stunned if the Bills are pursuing him. They have something like 9 quality d-linemen now. Huh??? The mods have pushed for everyone here to provide headlines that are as descriptive as possible regarding the content.

I think the chances of that happening are basically zero. They have already brought in 3 d-linemen to what is already a good unit. I am confident that they are done on that front, and anyway Clowney doesn’t strike me as the sort of guy who is going to want to play in Buffalo. Seattle makes too much sense.

He was literally the best defensive player on the field vs. Houston.

I thought this deserved its own thread given all the talk about the various moving d-line pieces following all of these d-line signings. In the final six games of 2019 including the playoff game, Murphy had six sacks, six tackles for loss, and 8 qb hits. He averaged playing 67 percent of the snaps too. Obviously and inarguably, that is elite production. I don’t think he’s going anywhere. Many years ago, a wise man named @AKC talked about d-line equity, focusing in particular on the Giants SB teams that beat the Pats (particularly the 07 team). When you can rotate in good d-lineman after good d-lineman over the course of a game, it becomes very, very tough for an offense to produce. The Bills now have d-line equity in spades. It is going to be fun to watch. Here is Murphy’s 2019 game log: https://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/M/MurpTr00/gamelog/2019/.

I suspect Murphy is safe. He was Arguably the best defensive player on the field in the Houston playoff game, and played lights out in the finale vs the Jets too. And he is definitely a culture guy. As I say above, people criticizing Murphy are overlooking how he actually played late in the season. He was flat out good.

Casey has been phenomenal.

The Town is actually really good. Worth Watching.

I gave it a B. I fully approve of the trade because Diggs is elite but the Vikings got good value too. Basically, it was a normal trade between two well run teams that know how to assign value. It’s not like the Bills fleeced the Vikings.

Gerry: I think it’s fundamentally unfair to compare the two trades. One was a garden-variety trade between two well-run franchises who know to assign value, and the other was this: https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/28911663/deandre-hopkins-trade-grade-texans-flunked-cardinals-got-elite-receiver.

On paper this looks great, but why didn’t Seattle keep him and why did we get him for relative peanuts? Was it salary cap issues in Seattle?

You should answer his question. Take away the gender aspect of it, and it’s a clear-as-day case of nepotism. There are a lot of spouses and scions who have been given responsibilities they weren’t worthy of because of family connections. Indeed, Just about all of Napoleon’s relatives who were given regions to rule after his conquests did a poor job. I have no opinion one way or the other about her acumen because I don’t really care about hockey, but obviously on a Bills board there will be a lot of Sabres fans participating. Generally speaking, I like her (she’s a very good public ambassador, which is important), but that doesn’t mean she’s good at overseeing the Sabres specifically. On the flip side, I can’t think of one thing that she has done regarding the Bills that was an objectively bad decision.

Just looked it up. Winston set the NFL record last season for pick-sixes: an unbelievable seven. He also had two strip sacks returned for TDs. That is 63 points alone (!!!), and the team gave up 449 total. That doesn’t factor in effects of the other 23 picks, many of which put the opponent in excellent scoring position.

A ridiculous number of winston pick sixes (And near-pick sixes that placed the opponent in the red zone) added to that total. It totally skews the points allowed number.

Their pythagorean won-loss record last year was 8.2-7.8, and this was in spite of the fact that their qb had an incomprensible 30 picks and 12 fumbles.

They had the number two defense in the league last year by the DVOA metric, and they are loaded at receiver. Brady is a huge upgrade, and Arians is a good coach. They could be very good next year.

He was also a rare five-star recruit out of HS. He had terrible QBs at Maryland and some injuries while there, so he ended up being underdrafted.

Flores runs essentially the same defense as NE and has a lot more cap space.

He was injured and young under Rex, who ran a by-then ridiculous (because ridiculously complicated) scheme. I wouldn’t overinterpret those seasons. A system that exploits their advantages. Belichick has always been great at scheming to effectively set the edge and creating confusion from his mix of rushers, especially guys who are multiple (big but with decent pass rush ability) like Shaq.

I totally disagree. Last year, I said he looked like the perfect DE for the Belichick system based on how they exploit big DEs, and I thought the Pats would be very interested. Turns out I was sorta right. He is a fantastic fit for that system and actually a bad fit for McDermott’s, which makes stars out of quick twitch DEs like James Hardy. This just isn’t true. Anyway, the Pats system is a 3-4 in only the most loosest of senses.