John Clayton: Bills "Regressed" in the Offseason

[26CornerBlitz]

@mikerodak

John Clayton ranks the Bills fifth among teams that "regressed" this offseason: http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/15519788/nfl-teams-regress-2016-denver-broncos-carolina-panthers-got-worse-offseason

 

[eball]

lol -- I won't bother reading, but that's funny. How many true experts would say the Bills had the 5th worst offseason? Clayton should go back to listening to metal in his mother's basement.

[26CornerBlitz]

lol -- I won't bother reading, but that's funny. How many true experts would say the Bills had the 5th worst offseason? Clayton should go back to listening to metal in his mother's basement.

 

[Fadingpain]

I listen to John Clayton every week on GR-55. As I've said before, he doesn't offer much expert insight and his comments about the Bills are often wrong.

 

I hope he's wrong about this off-season too!

[Maddog69]

Meh. His argument is that the Bills had a bad season on defense and then let go or lost Mario, Bradham and McKelvin and only added minimum wage free agents. Those points are valid. But he failed to mention that they were able to get long term contract in place to keep 2 quality players (Incognito and Glenn) and keep their O-line together. They also tagged Gilmore so he can't leave and are working to keep him. They have Taylor going into his second season as starter and they will hopefully have their RBs and WRs healthy this year. They also added some quality prospects in the draft. I don't agree with him that they Bills are one of the teams that regressed the most this offseason. I think it was another lazy shot at the Bills from Clayton.

[26CornerBlitz]

Meh. His argument is that the Bills had a bad season on defense and then let go or lost Mario, Bradham and McKelvin and only added minimum wage free agents. Those points are valid. But he failed to mention that they were able to get long term contract in place to keep 2 quality players (Incognito and Glenn) and keep their O-line together. They also tagged Gilmore so he can't leave and are working to keep him. They have Taylor going into his second season as starter and they will hopefully have their RBs and WRs healthy this year. They also added some quality prospects in the draft. I don't agree with him that they Bills are one of the teams that regressed the most this offseason. I think it was another lazy shot at the Bills from Clayton.

 

Good points, but they actually tagged Glenn and have since signed him to an extension.

[BringBackFergy]

But he's an insider.

[Buftex]

I hope he is wrong...but it seems like we often "pooh-pooh" the national guys when they say anything negative about the Bills...and then, at the end of every season, it turns out they were mostly right...unless they were high on the Bills in the off-season! Wait and see...

[YoloinOhio]

IMO they have a lot more depth on D going into this season though that may have less "proven" talent with the losses mentioned. They also fit the schemes better in terms of personnel and will benefit from consistent in their systems on both sides of the ball. Most of all, they have stability at QB. If one defines "regression" in terms of FA activity (gains/losses) then I can see his point. But, that's a relatively small part of the big picture in terms of progress overall. Especially considering those they lost may be addition by subtraction depending on how well their more scheme-fit replacements perform.

[BillsVet]

Not a huge fan of Clayton, but there isn't anything he's said which isn't true. The schedule will be tougher and they'll be starting at least 2 rookies in their defensive front 7. Not to mention, Tyrod and Roman won't have the luxury of being unknown entities.

 

That's not a recipe for a playoff team in most cases.

[Andrew Son]

Not a huge fan of Clayton, but there isn't anything he's said which isn't true. The schedule will be tougher and they'll be starting at least 2 rookies in their defensive front 7. Not to mention, Tyrod and Roman won't have the luxury of being unknown entities.

 

That's not a recipe for a playoff team in most cases.

Is it usually the unknown entities at QB that make playoff runs?

[Kirby Jackson]

Not a huge fan of Clayton, but there isn't anything he's said which isn't true. The schedule will be tougher and they'll be starting at least 2 rookies in their defensive front 7. Not to mention, Tyrod and Roman won't have the luxury of being unknown entities.

 

That's not a recipe for a playoff team in most cases.

The flipside is that Mario didn't play well, Ragland is an upgrade over Bradham and the QB is growing in the 2nd year in the offense.

[Jauronimo]

IMO they have a lot more depth on D going into this season though that may have less "proven" talent with the losses mentioned. They also fit the schemes better in terms of personnel and will benefit from consistent in their systems on both sides of the ball. Most of all, they have stability at QB. If one defines "regression" in terms of FA activity (gains/losses) then I can see his point. But, that's a relatively small part of the big picture in terms of progress overall. Especially considering those they lost may be addition by subtraction depending on how well their more scheme-fit replacements perform.

Perfectly stated.

[YoloinOhio]

The flipside is that Mario didn't play well, Ragland is an upgrade over Bradham and the QB is growing in the 2nd year in the offense.

yeah, I think if you look at the production they lost from 2015, vs the "names" - it's not a lot.

[eball]

Not a huge fan of Clayton, but there isn't anything he's said which isn't true. The schedule will be tougher and they'll be starting at least 2 rookies in their defensive front 7. Not to mention, Tyrod and Roman won't have the luxury of being unknown entities.

 

That's not a recipe for a playoff team in most cases.

 

Ok, after seeing this I had to read Clayton's take. It's laughable. So the defense regressed and then got rid of players who didn't perform well, and that's regression?

 

Hilarious. Also, the flip side of Tyrod no longer being an unknown entity is that he also has gained a ton of experience, Roman is now comfortable with him, and he gets the whole summer as the undisputed #1 to work with his receivers. Certainly you would concede that has the potential to outweigh how much other teams "know" him.

[Maddog69]

Good points, but they actually tagged Glenn and have since signed him to an extension.

oh, right. I mixed that up. It was the 5th year option on Gilmore. I'm just happy that they are working hard to keep their own good players. They certainly did not go out and add any big name players but I still would not say they regressed. At worst, they stayed the same. With some development from key players who were here last year, some key players staying healthy this year and rookies contributing, they should be better than they were last year.

[iinii]

you know what they say about opinions

[qwksilver]

Mario played well when he wanted to. The last game of the year against the Jets he had a very good game.

 

I think he will be missed more then a lot of Bills fans think.

Not the Mario version we saw last year. Sure he played well against the Jests. Maybe he just wanted to show some good tape to other teams because he knew he was all but gone?

[Never NEVER Give-up]

IMO they have a lot more depth on D going into this season though that may have less "proven" talent with the losses mentioned. They also fit the schemes better in terms of personnel and will benefit from consistent in their systems on both sides of the ball. Most of all, they have stability at QB. If one defines "regression" in terms of FA activity (gains/losses) then I can see his point. But, that's a relatively small part of the big picture in terms of progress overall. Especially considering those they lost may be addition by subtraction depending on how well their more scheme-fit replacements perform.

 

True enough. The real improvement from this team has to come from the guys who are already here.

• The Defense has to play like we know it can. If it doesn't improve, it'll slip further due to the losses of Mario, Nigel & McKelvin.
• Darby cannot have a sophomore slump.
• If the 1st 3 draft picks contribute, that'll offset the other personnel losses.
• TT must progress as a QB
• Shady, Karlos, Robert Woods and Sammy need to stay healthy.
• The right side of the line must improve.
• Charles Clay must play a bigger role in the offense.
• Rex needs to improve his game and clock management.

 

Again bottom-line: the guys who are here need to step-up this year. We look good on paper, but didn't play to that level last year.

[YoloinOhio]

I for one am really going to miss Mario playing well in the meaningless games and giving the old FU to the meaningful games. guys like that lead to more meaningless games.

Edited May 13, 2016 by YoloinOhio