Rubes

We can hope...definitely didn't look up to the task last year...

* checks date * * not April 1 *

I'll just say that I stayed at one of those hotels in the Northtowns and the room I got was infested with bed bugs. Didn't discover it until it was too late. That. Sucked. I'm pretty picky about where I stay now.

There's a non-zero chance the Bills at Browns game is the international game...

Man, I vividly remember watching this game while at college in my apartment. The guys living right below us were Jets fans, and I remember cheering so loudly in this game that it had to seriously piss them off. Good times.

This is true, but it’s another example of a player traded to another team in exchange for draft picks. It wasn’t part of a package for the Cardinals to move up in the draft per se. Again, another example of a player just traded for picks, not as part of a package to move up in the draft.

Good call, but the Bills basically traded for the player. I was thinking of trades that involved a player so a team could move up in the draft. I don’t think that was the case here.

Another good catch. Maybe not quite as rare as it seems?

Not sure. That seems to make sense, yet it has still happened a handful of times. Wonder how that works, especially if the trade goes through and a player then gets picked.

Another good catch. Looks like it was on Day 2 of the draft. Accoding to ESPN, the Bills traded for Bledsoe after they missed out on drafting Patrick Ramsey. Yikes. However, this is an example of a team trading specifically for a player, not packaging a player to move up in the draft that day.

I think you may have one there. I think Chad Ochocinco may also have been traded on draft day, but that was like 13 years ago or something. Maybe a couple others before 2000, but it does seem very rare in the last 25 years.

I keep seeing people interested in maybe packaging a player along with a draft pick to move up in the draft. Someone like Cook, or a player who hasn’t worked out well here (Elam was another example in previous years). When was the last time this was done? I can’t find any recent examples of a player being part of a draft-day trade, though I’m no search expert on this. I can recall one involving Jerome Bettis, but that was decades ago, I believe. Anybody know of any recent examples? Not that it can’t happen, but it seems like it’s become so extremely rare that I wouldn’t even bother to consider the possibility, especially on Day 1.

You mean like punching him in the head repeatedly?

Only as CB3, but might be a little expensive for that. If he takes a deal, I'm all for him coming off the bench.

I'm sure most teams recognize that both are on the wrong side of 30 with declining skills, and are probably looking at those two as "break glass in case of emergency" players to sign mid-season if injuries become a problem for them. Any team trying to sign them now is probably offering well below what they're looking for, so they might as well wait until some team becomes desperate due to injuries.

Sure thing, whatever you say.

Ex-Browns WR Amari Cooper Gets Bad News on NFL Future Would seem to make sense that it's a Bills coach making that statement...

Gotta appreciate the honesty here.

Yep, kinda the whole point of the thread...

If that's the case, why are we so stinkin' bad at stopping the run??

Right…and most people, I would argue, were really interested to see how Poona and Settle would perform in this defense, given their promising careers before coming here.

Seems like it’s been a long time since the Bills had a difference-maker at DT. Not for a lack of trying, though—the Bills have drafted guys (not many) and brought a bunch in as free agents over the years, but almost entirely without substantial success. Oliver had a really good year in 2023, but that’s about it. DaQuon was looking pretty good that year too until the injury. Other than those two performances, the best we’ve had is really just average, with most performances ranking below average. We’ve brought guys in with varied backgrounds and skill sets, only to watch most of them disappoint or perform below expectations. Going back to 2020 that list includes guys like: Brandin Bryant Star Lotulelei Vernon Butler Poona Ford Tim Settle Austin Johnson Jordan Phillips Dewayne Carter Linval Joseph Granted, almost none of these guys were known to be, or were expected to develop into, difference-makers. I mean, for the most part we’ve gotten what we paid for—average, at best, though you could argue it’s even less than that. Then you look at what Poona and Settle did after leaving the Bills and having impact years, it starts to make you wonder… Is it the Bills defensive system more than the players? Is this a system that just doesn’t bring out the best in this position? If we drafted or brought in a true blue chipper at DT, would he just also underperform or disappoint? Or is it really just that we have underinvested in the position and it’s purely the lack of high-end talent that is the limitation?

In the world where you're trying to make an argument about a "trifecta"...😛

If only you had just left the Lions off of your list...