Cash

I think I'll be on this crusade for the rest of my life as a football fan. Agree with everything you said, and I'd like to add... how is anyone sure exactly who the "BPA" is at any given pick???? This isn't Madden, where every player has an overall rating distilled down to a single, easily-comparable number. Projecting college prospects involves massive amounts of guesswork. If it didn't, we wouldn't see 1st round busts or Day 3 stars. Even if it was Madden, how confident are you that an 81 overall is truly better than an 80 overall at a different position? (And side note, even in Madden the first guy might be an 81 in someone else's scheme but only a 77 in yours. And even at the same position, I'll take a fast 80 over a slow 81 all day, especially at the skill positions.) Even if you're sure the 81 is better than the 80 today, how will they compare in 2, 3, 4 years? It's the job of draftniks to grade and rank players, I get it. But so many fans get caught up in these highly subjective and highly inaccurate grades and ranks, as though they're scientifically proven to be 100% right all the time. I'll put it another way: I'm pretty sure I know the BPA between Travis Hunter and "anyone who'll be available at our pick", and it's Hunter. Feel good about that one. But that's not the decision that'll be on the table for Beane & the Bills. It'll be more like choosing between 2-5 guys, all of whom will have essentially the same draft grade. (Probably early 2nd round.) Maybe a guy with a higher grade will fall in the draft, and the Bills will either trade up for him or sprint their draft card in when they get on the clock. But I think that's pretty much the exception, not the norm.

Hopefully no guaranteed $$, because he sucks.

I have always been pro-Gilliam. Glad he’s coming back!

Poyer yes, but IIRC the mood was mostly positive about the Hyde signing. I had never heard of him at the time, but I remember a lot of posters in the FA thread loving the signing and saying he was always around the ball in GB regardless of where he lined up. For the record, I’ve never heard of this Darick Forrest guy either. But like @Logic, I’m very willing to give our FO the benefit of the doubt on pro safety prospects.

I doubt it. Palmer will likely never have as good an opportunity as he did last year, and he put up 580 yards and 1 TD. I think he can (will?) put up better numbers for us, but if he had #1 talent I think we would’ve seen it last year. I’m pretty whelmed by this signing, which is to say in the middle. Here’s what I like: -He’s 25 and could still have his career year ahead of him -He seems to mostly play X - this should let Coleman play Z and help 2 positions I’m still totally on board with drafting a receiver early if that’s the best value.

I agree with this, and I stand by my earlier post. There’s room for improvement on Allen’s end, but I still think we’d see a bigger statistical impact with different players being targeted on those deep shots.

He's a free agent. Personally I expect him to be back on a small raise.

My all time WR group of guys in my lifetime as a fan: Moss & Megatron outside, Jerry Rice in the slot. Megatron was the biggest WR in the league, almost the fastest, maybe the best route runner, and had incredible hands whether the catch was contested or not. He's basically the perfect WR you'd construct in a lab. If his career was longer and/or he played on better teams, there could've been a real argument for him as best ever. As is, he's still easily on the short list for guys you'd want for one game or one season. I agree with most of this. I liked our offense a lot last year, but pre-Cooper it showed it had a real weakness, and the addition of Cooper helped but didn't fully address it. And "everybody eats" can work just as well with more receiving talent, provided that receiving talent doesn't have a Diggs-type attitude. I would argue it works better: If the defense really has to account for a guy who'll otherwise feast on them, then that opens things up for everyone else. So hypothetically, DK would either be feasting on bad/dumb/cocky teams, or putting up low numbers but freeing up Shakir et al for big production. Until I'm proven wrong, I will maintain that Allen's deep ball numbers will look a lot better if/when we get him better deep ball targets. I'm of the opinion that the pass catcher has way more to do with deep ball success than he does with short or intermediate catches. Just think about it: On every deep ball, the QB releases the ball when the receiver is maybe 10-30 yards away from the catch point. And yeah, we've all seen some truly uncatchable balls from Allen and others, but a lot of the "bad passes" we've seen are IMO bad adjustments by the WR, or inability of the WR to leverage his body against the defender, etc.

Agree with both of these statements. I think Kincaid’s best football is ahead of him. But Knox getting more PT wouldn’t be a problem in and of itself, and Z. Richardson might benefit from a real opportunity. Given age and contract, I wouldn’t expect to throw much more into the trade if I was the Bills. Kincaid has to be worth about a 2nd rounder right now IMO. And I don’t think Metcalf is worth a 1st rounder.

One other thing to add on the Brees comparison front: Brees is probably the most accurate QB in NFL history. If he's not #1, he's at least close to it. Allen's accuracy is quite good at this point, but I don't think he'll ever get on the same level as Brees, and that's fine. We shouldn't need our reigning MVP to turn into the 1st or 2nd most accurate QB of all time. Personally, I think completion % is a decent but not great metric for QB play and offensive success. I certainly don't want Allen's to be on the low end. (Which, these days, is probably anything around 60% or lower.) If he threatens his career high next year, that's probably a good thing, but it's far from the only path to success. This past year, we had a ton of WR screens and a few designed RB swing passes that represented easy completions and helped Allen's completion %. But we also saw defenses get better at defending them as the year went on. If we kept hammering them all year, Allen's completion % might have been even higher, but with a TON of completions for 1-3 yards that didn't help the offense.

…in some, but not all, of the measurements. If you aced your exams in math and science, but didn’t take the exams in history or language, is that straight A’s?

I know it’s unofficial, but the point of RAS is to blend all of the athletic testing into 1 number. So how can he have an “unofficial 10.0 pending agility drills”? Isn’t that like saying, “I got a prefect score on the SAT, pending the math section”?

Assuming Cook plays for the Bills next year (with or without a new contract), I totally agree. I would say 5th round or higher is allowable, but no RBs in the 4th or earlier. I don’t care if the guy available in the late 4th has a high 3rd round grade and is sticking out on the board. Those guys come along every other year.

I see your point, but it doesn’t move the needle for me personally. 2 things: 1. We’ve all seen games where, down the stretch, one team’s defense is completely unable to stop the opposing offense. In those games, I think you’d see a conversion rate more like 40-50%, which I want no part of. 2. Again, I like watching special teams, and I think the game is more fun when special teams matter. I know some people disagree. But for me, even if doing 4th and long gets you to a good outcome from a game design perspective, it still makes the game less fun to watch for me.

Yikes. I don't watch the UFL, but at the NFL level at least, even 4th and 15 is terrible, and 4th and 12 would be outright untenable IMO. The pendulum is already too far swung towards offense. And while it seems to be swinging back just a tad, a rule change like this would push it even farther towards offense. I dunno, maybe I'm old and out of touch, but I LIKE special teams and I don't think minimizing/eliminating them makes the on-field product better or more entertaining.