Luxy312

Not entirely true. A post-June 1 trade would free up $4.5m this year. None the less, they would still be eating the remaining $4.5m in dead money this year. Notwithstanding all of that, the OP is a special kind of stupid. Dallas could sign Julius Thomas, Martellus Bennett, Brent Celek, Antonio Gates, among a bunch of others without giving up anything. One aging TE is just as good as any other.

My observations for what they're worth: 1 - Effortless 40 yard bullets on the run. Forget all the combine tests, this kid's arm strength outclasses all the others. 2 - Not a whole lot of YAC for his receivers. Most of these TD's were thrown, not short passes where the receiver made the play. 3 - His offensive line was awful. On most of those passes, he was flushed from the pocket in 2 seconds. 4 - Related, he can scramble. Looks a lot more athletic as a runner than his numbers would suggest. Overall, I see why the Bills traded up for him.

It was 6.5 last year as well. The defense overachieved with turnovers last year, no doubt. I would also argue though that the offense underachieved. When the chips were on the line and they needed Tyrod to move the ball down the field, he couldn't. That's all I keep coming back to. I think whether you're talking about McCarron playing the whole year or part of a year that the offense has to improve. I don't know how you do worse than 200 YPG passing. That's just pathetic.

Your rationalization is just like every other fan. If they don't pick the guys you like, they must have picked the wrong guys. There were 9 WR's and 6 TE's on the roster before the draft even happened. For you to say that they need more options based on last year is assuming that our QB's will be just as inept as Tyrod in the passing game. I'm not buying it. As far as late round picks, I could care less whether they draft your guy or the guys they actually drafted. There's no fundamental difference to me.

The Jackson apologists are out in full force. "Nevermind his accuracy percentage. He's more accurate than what that says" "Nevermind his arm strength. That metric must have been measured wrong" "Nevermind that 1/3 of his college offensive contribution was on running plays. He can pass" "Nevermind that his intelligence test has him grading out borderline illiterate. He's smarter than what it says on paper" "INSERT ADDITIONAL APOLOGIES HERE" All of these quarterbacks have issues, but none stand out more than Jackson. He's a multiple wart toad being compared to frogs.

McCoy's open letter swayed me to his court. Google "Bills Mafia - We're Gonna Need More of This" if you haven't read it. Gave me chills and I can't wait for this year.

All of these "offseason programs" are what they are. Do we so quickly forget that E.J. Manuel was doing these things every year. It's going to help his "X" or improve his "Y", they said. Improvement was cited and then we ended up with much of the same. Will improving velocity help? Absolutely. Let's not pretend though while we're talking about it, that that was not the only issue. If the Bills draft a quarterback, Peterman could go the way of the dodo bird like Jeff Tuel. Great guy to root for and looked good in camp, but was not great in real games. Maybe one more year for him after this year and then out, barring an epic demonstration of improvement.

How? He's under contract for 2018. He becomes a free agent next year, when the Raiders free up about $75m in cap space. It's not about this year, but next that matters. He doesn't need to be tagged this year. People are just nuts on this subject. He's under contract with the Raiders this year under the 5th year option. He wouldn't hit free agency until 2019, when the Raiders will have about $75m in cap space available.

3 second round picks, plus the 6th overall pick where there will still be a blue chip franchise player available to draft. Let's at least be realistic that it's 4 picks, including a high first rounder that we're talking about.

I don't see the Raiders just letting him go. They're going to start next year with about $75m in available cap space, so i would presume that a deal gets done and he signs a new contract with them. Worst case scenario, they tag him. Talent like Mack is going nowhere.

Change your floor to Vince Young. LOL.

Exactly. No one batted an eye at Blackledge, Eason, or O'Brien. It's easy to remember the HOFers. There's no guarantee that even one of these kids coming out of school will turn out to be great, much less good.

It's going to cost both firsts. The Jets set the premium in the market and there's no way that teams don't take advantage and demand both picks.

If strategies were as clear as you represent, idle fans like us should be able to predict the draft. For the last 15 years (possibly longer), ESPN has done a "predict the draft" game where people guess what is going to happen in the first round. Mock drafts are collectively busted every year before 8 picks even happen. The moves made thus far do not show their hand or define a strategy at all. They could certainly use draft capital to trade up, but there's no guarantee that happens or how far. It's what makes the NFL draft so much fun every year. It has to be disclosed to the NFL, as it is limited to 30. I don't think it's public information none the less, other than what the media is able to see.

This, in a nutshell, is how I feel about the subject. People applaud the plan, when basically, the plan fits the narrative of what they would like to see happen (trade up to get a QB; use draft capital to fill holes in the starting lineup; etc.). The simple fact of the matter here is that we don't know what the plan is. We don't even know what the plan was before. We don't know if there was any more thought or effort put into this front office's "plan" versus Whaley's. It's all simply idle speculation.

I wouldn't be bothered by this at all. None the less, I don't think that the Bills will be in a position to nab Rosen without moving up, and that (IMO) would probably mean that they give up a bunch of picks to do so. Not sure in any Rosen scenario that there would be enough draft capital left to get a Ragnow.

By a lot of boards and scouting reports that I've read, Ragnow is the definitive #1 Center in the draft. I'm not sure that he lasts until the Bills first pick in the 2nd round at #53. There could be as many as the top 3 Centers gone before that pick. (Ragnow, Price, Daniels). I don't think you can pull the trigger at #22. Buffalo kind of left in no man's land for getting a top Center.

Good article and good read. The writer's correlations are pretty crappy, but it is still interesting. It's the age old question for NFL teams in terms of identifying who's most likely to succeed and at what level.

You are probably correct regarding Newton and Palmer, but both also came with question marks. Certainly not what we're currently characterizing as Andrew Luck type drafts where there's pretty much a #1 and then everyone else. Thx for the kudo none the less!

I haven't seen Antonio Callaway play, but he's projecting around pick 200 on a lot of the draft boards that I've seen and a UFA on others. Not even a top-40 prospect at his position. I would think about Auden Tate (Florida State) in the third round. I would even consider Dallas Goedert (TE S.D. State) as he's a huge matchup problem with his size and speed. I like Courtland Sutton (SMU). History has proven that you don't need to reach for WR's, so taking one with either first round pick seems like a waste. I'll also take the big possession receivers over the undersized speedsters all day. I've heard DJ Moore's name mentioned, but he's grading out third round. A Fine place to take a QB.

I think you mean Taylor-made. LOL.

If they don't get a DT in the first round, he might be an interesting pick at 53 or 56. I like his measurables and his size and I don't think that Kyle Williams plays beyond this year. I'm also uncertain if Adolphus Washington is good enough to be anything more than a spell player. Settle is huge physically; only a sophomore; and extremely explosive. He might have as much upside as any of the DT's coming out this year.

CFL is his best bet at this point. hitting rock bottom and trying to dig.

To a degree, I would argue that the Ravens is the model that you're looking for. Joe Flacco is getting paid a decent chunk of change, but is not the guy that's going to go in and win you games by throwing the ball all over the field. The Ravens since getting Joe Flacco have been spending almost 40% more of their available cap space on their defense than they have their offense. Going into 2018, that's about 38.5%, so pretty consistent. The problem that you have none the less with this model is that a good game manager that is not a turnover machine (like Joe Flacco) can't carry the team when the defense isn't all that good. The offense still has to have other playmakers that can help you score as well. For all of those playoff years, they had Boldin and Rice and some pretty darn good talent on defense. Now that their defense is getting older, the offense just isn't able to hold up when other teams are able to score. The single biggest problem with the idea of a "revolution" is that there's no equivalent QB anywhere else. The QB touches the ball on every single play and is the only one that can audible if he doesn't like what he sees from the defense. The closest thing to a QB on the defense is the MLB, but they can't make every play defensively. There's a great degree of imbalance when the QB can decide to attack your worst defenders by choice. That's my take. Ravens have basically done this with an average QB, but there will always be a premium even for that.

One thing that I would add to this as far as free agent moves are concerned. For the FAs that you "load up" on your team, you try to get productive veterans on short term contracts (1-2 year deals) and productive younger players on longer term contracts (4-5 year deals) that are friendly later on. This has the effect of freeing up capital as you move forward in years to keep doing the same thing while at the same time paying your draft picks. If you cycle it right, there will always be capital to invest in free agency. Beane right now, is cleaning up from bad contracts that Whaley entered into, facing $35m in dead cap just this year. None the less, he appears to be doing exactly what I'm saying. Veterans on shorter term deals and younger guys on longer.