It looks like we came out of this weekend without a true one tech

[thurst44]

5 minutes ago, GunnerBill said:

 

 

Agreed. They started the season with mainly him and Harrison rotating at the 1T, but when that wasn't working went to Jefferson and even for that strange run in the middle Ed taking more 1T work despite being the two smaller DTs (and Zimmer who is also a smaller guy) and then ended up back where they started with Harrison and Butler but with more success. I do think after losing Star having limited camp and pre-season probably meant they didn't really get chance to rep their alternatives as much as they would ordinarily in a normal year if, for instance, Star had got hurt at the start of camp. They felt like they were adjusting on the fly a lot early on. By the end of the year they had a workable formula though. 

Can't help but feel a lot of the D issues last year stemmed from a convergence of 2020 weirdness: having all these new players, a lack of Star, and less time to practice together. I'm truly excited to see what this defense does in 2021 b/c if the reversion to the mean is the top 5 defense of 2018 & 19, this is going to be one hell of a team.  

[BuffaloBillsGospel]

There are still guys in FA like McClendon who started for Pittsburgh for a few years plus there will be cuts coming, it's a great thing when you think about it that the thing we're most worried about is a 1T DT who will backup Star, we've come a long ways my friends but it looks like we've finally arrived.

[Logic]

3 hours ago, Brennan Huff said:

Beane stays painfully true to his board. And he has plenty of defenders here. He could have drafted 4 punters in a row and people would be saying “the game is all about field position!”

Put another way: Brennan wishes Beane would have reached for players at positions of need instead of taking players that were higher on his board.

[Brennan Huff]

4 minutes ago, Logic said:

Put another way: Brennan wishes Beane would have reached for players at positions of need instead of taking players that were higher on his board.

Let me give you a hypothetical: say every time we came up to pick next Beane had a Tackle at the top of his board. Would you be ok with drafting 7 Tackles? I’ll hang up and listen

[John from Riverside]

56 minutes ago, GunnerBill said:

 

Agree. As proven by Jordan Phillips who was a big man but much better at the 3T than the 1T. 

Well for that Matter butler is even bigger but didn’t impress as a one tech my point is they heavieryou’re you are the harder it is to move you

[BigAl2526]

Obviously, Beane is fully aware of the Bills' needs and who was available when the Bills were picking.  He must have felt that the value just wasn't there at NT when the Bills were picking.  He also knows where Harrison Phillips is.  My best guess is he believes that Harrison Phillips struggled because he was still not fully back from what was a pretty serious injury.  I think the Bills may try to move Butler from mostly 3 tech and have him compete with Harrison Phillips at 1 tech.  That will leave Ed Oliver and Justin Zimmer to rotate at 3 tech, with Rousseau and Basham getting reps on the interior in obvious passing downs.  Butler played some reps at 1 tech last season, and reportedly got better at lit late in the season.  He's certainly big enough for the job.  I'm not sure that either Phillips or Butler are guaranteed a roster spot at this point.

[Turbo44]

I think the sweet spot for one technique in this draft was rd 4 - the Sheltons of the world. Unfortunately we didn’t have a 4th rounder, courtesy of diggs. Fortunately we have Diggs.

[Thurman#1]

8 hours ago, Brennan Huff said:

Beane stays painfully true to his board. And he has plenty of defenders here. He could have drafted 4 punters in a row and people would be saying “the game is all about field position!”

 

 

Yeah, hard to understand why anyone would defend a guy who has them at 13-3.

 

Wacky. They need to start understanding how terrible a GM this guy is. You keep trying to convince them.

 

 

4 hours ago, Brennan Huff said:

Let me give you a hypothetical: say every time we came up to pick next Beane had a Tackle at the top of his board. Would you be ok with drafting 7 Tackles? I’ll hang up and listen

 

 

 

Listening?

 

That hypothetical is the stupidest thing I've ever seen.

 

The guys he drafted show will have a real chance to make the team stronger. The way to play the draft is to value BPA slightly modified by avoiding positions with zero need whatsoever. We have needs at Edge and Tackle. The way to target specific positions is to use FA, which there is a great deal of time to do.

 

Now, if he'd picked seven tackles you'd actually have a point, but until he does, you really don't.

Edited May 2, 2021 by Thurman#1

[BADOLBILZ]

6 hours ago, wppete said:

 

 

That was then.

 

He has shaved the beard.

 

5 hours ago, GunnerBill said:

 

 

Agreed. They started the season with mainly him and Harrison rotating at the 1T, but when that wasn't working went to Jefferson and even for that strange run in the middle Ed taking more 1T work despite being the two smaller DTs (and Zimmer who is also a smaller guy) and then ended up back where they started with Harrison and Butler but with more success. I do think after losing Star having limited camp and pre-season probably meant they didn't really get chance to rep their alternatives as much as they would ordinarily in a normal year if, for instance, Star had got hurt at the start of camp. They felt like they were adjusting on the fly a lot early on. By the end of the year they had a workable formula though. 

 

 

In fairness.......the Bills "want to" for bloated blocks of ***** at the 1T position has been questionable............they cut Vincent Taylor at the end of TC and when everyone assumed they would try to find a Snacks or even Cory Liuget type.........they signed the hustling Zimmer.    They could have made a net zero cap move for Danny Shelton.......who was excellent as recently as 2019 and better than you'd expect Star to be this year, last year.........but instead he was signed by the Giants for the vet minimum.  

[Locomark]

13 hours ago, John from Riverside said:

Either a better player at the time of pick or picked before us so Beane moved onto another player......and any chances of a UDFA  looks like it didnt happen

 

So the question no is.....did Beane consider it a top priority or not.

 

Star is back.....so there is a buffer here.....but past him there does not appear to be a true one tech on this team yet.

Agreed and personally I think Harry is below average and should not be Re-signed next year unless he improves this year. So they better find someone in next year’s draft. 

[Brennan Huff]

1 hour ago, Thurman#1 said:

 

 

Yeah, hard to understand why anyone would defend a guy who has them at 13-3.

 

Wacky. They need to start understanding how terrible a GM this guy is. You keep trying to convince them.

 

 

 

 

 

Listening?

 

That hypothetical is the stupidest thing I've ever seen.

 

The guys he drafted show will have a real chance to make the team stronger. The way to play the draft is to value BPA slightly modified by avoiding positions with zero need whatsoever. We have needs at Edge and Tackle. The way to target specific positions is to use FA, which there is a great deal of time to do.

 

Now, if he'd picked seven tackles you'd actually have a point, but until he does, you really don't.

Ok buddy. Appreciate your input 👍

[WideNine]

14 hours ago, CaptnCoke11 said:

Good thing season doesn’t start until September or we’d be doomed!!! Omg!!!

 

It's a legit question.

 

It will be interesting to see if they go more 1-gap front when they spell Star, or if they pickup another 1T at some point and continue to play a true NT role. If they line all our big DTs in gaps that may lend itself to more "wide nine" looks, that makes for a longer path to the QB, but have seen some brutal twist stunts out of that set.

 

I would not say folks are thinking the sky is falling, but it is fine to wonder why they have left this area with Star's diminishing impact (not a bad NT, just more average now than earlier in his career) and unknown conditioning as well as his maturing contract untouched this offseason. The other area that did not get addressed is an upgrade and eventual replacement at C.

 

I think most fans really like Morse and you can count me among those, but he is always one hit away from concussion protocol and those happen more easily and more often each year. Mongo and Bates have filled in when they have had to go to the bench, but I am not sure if they are the long-term plan or represent any significant upgrade at the position both are on short-term cheap deals that the Bills could extend and lock if they felt that they had their guy.

 

The kind of blocking that Daboll seems to scheme up for many of our running plays are more power-blocking that better support Allen's play-action and less pin and pull that would lend themselves to Morse's strengths. There is also the contract that is coming into maturity where I think it would have been best to be able to groom someone if they are not going to find a veteran to bring in. 

 

There is only so much you can address in one draft, but this one seemed to be pretty deep with quality interior OL that could play both G and C, so will be interesting to see what the OBD plan is going to be after riding out Morse's contract.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited May 2, 2021 by WideNine

[QLBillsFan]

This draft according to experts was light on DT’s. Essentially the worst position group. But agree we need another 1 tech to compete. I’m sure we will see a signing. 

[vincec]

I’m not too worried about it. The Bills went to the AFC championship game without a big giant space eater on the roster last season and did fine against Baltimore in the playoffs without one too.

 

To be honest I wouldn’t be shocked if Lotulelei is a surprise roster cut. They Bills have a logjam at DL, his play was mediocre two seasons ago and who knows what he’s going to look like after a season off.

[WideNine]

30 minutes ago, vincec said:

I’m not too worried about it. The Bills went to the AFC championship game without a big giant space eater on the roster last season and did fine against Baltimore in the playoffs without one too.

 

To be honest I wouldn’t be shocked if Lotulelei is a surprise roster cut. They Bills have a logjam at DL, his play was mediocre two seasons ago and who knows what he’s going to look like after a season off.

 

I hope you are right, but going to pencil you in for some razzing the first team we play that consistently blows through the middle of our line leaving Edmunds hugging air  

 

Feel free to return the favor if our concerns are over-blown.

 

You may be right on the Star cut take, we do currently have a log jam at the DL and if they are reluctant to move on from any of their project guys they could possibly go that route.

 

In fairness to Frazier we did do better against the run down the stretch, but largely because we played more guys in the box and gave up the middle to any TE or WR running a shallow crosser behind them. We did do a better job on stretch zone runs where we were giving up too many cutback opportunities.

 

Would rather see more ability from our front-4 (and Mike) to get it done both pass rush and run defense so we can dedicate our secondary towards better defending those short-intermediate passes that kept moving the chains and extending drives.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited May 2, 2021 by WideNine

[billsfan89]

9 hours ago, TheBeaneBandit said:

I believe once the draft madness has settled they will be hoping some veterans at 1T and CB shake loose. Hell, they may even sign Richard Sherman at CB they seem to like guys drivin down the street with a donut tire on lol.

I have to think at the very least a vet one tech will be added by camp for competition 

[CNYfan]

7 hours ago, ~Kostabi~ said:

am I the only person who had to google what 1Tech meant? I must be old school (OLD) I always refer to that position as nose tackle..Id have known what That was. This was the google definition of 1 tech in case anyone else didnt know

 

The 1-technique is also referred to as Nose Tackle, and is very similar to 0-technique in that they both play over the center. The defining difference between the two, is the 1-technique shades over one of the shoulders of the center and usually is responsible for just one gap.

Well, the Boards' collective thinking, I believe, is that if we had real true 1 tech it would make Ed Oliver and the others better.   The reasoning behind that is the 1 tech will often take up 1 1/2 to 2 blockers as he battles at the front of the shield wall.  The attention that requires from the offense makes everyone around that 1 technique better by being free of extra attention from the enemy.  

I may be wrong, but I think that is why we are having this discussion.    I was one of the TSW posters who was very much hoping that the FO would select a 0/1 technique defensive lineman this weekend.   

[MrEpsYtown]

A veteran street free agent may be the way to go here. 
 

The guy who really sticks out to me is Abry Jones formerly of Jacksonville. Good stout player who is a leader as well. 6-4, 318. He’s been doing this a long time, but I think he can help

in a rotational role. 
 

The other guy who is interesting, at least on paper, is Daniel McCullers, former Steeler and Bear. He is 6-7, 352 and has a ton of length (37 inch arms) to go with that size. Dude is massive. 
 

Both of those guys are sitting out there in free agency and I believe they would help add some bulk to the D line for a cheap price. 

[RyanC883]

10 hours ago, BigAl2526 said:

Obviously, Beane is fully aware of the Bills' needs and who was available when the Bills were picking.  He must have felt that the value just wasn't there at NT when the Bills were picking.  He also knows where Harrison Phillips is.  My best guess is he believes that Harrison Phillips struggled because he was still not fully back from what was a pretty serious injury.  I think the Bills may try to move Butler from mostly 3 tech and have him compete with Harrison Phillips at 1 tech.  That will leave Ed Oliver and Justin Zimmer to rotate at 3 tech, with Rousseau and Basham getting reps on the interior in obvious passing downs.  Butler played some reps at 1 tech last season, and reportedly got better at lit late in the season.  He's certainly big enough for the job.  I'm not sure that either Phillips or Butler are guaranteed a roster spot at this point.

 

just too much “hope” on Bean’s part here.  would be nice to have at least one guy that you hope is going to make a leap, isn’t rusty after a year, or finally figures the position out.  

[LABILLBACKER]

I have no doubt they will land a June 1st 1T that can backup Star. And Butler / Phillips can rotate too. Get used to it, we'll be drafting late for the next decade.