Not News - This roster just isn't good enough.

[freddyjj]

18 minutes ago, hondo in seattle said:

Back in March, I started a topic: "I'm Not Sure We Will Repeat as AFCE Champs"

 

I was concerned about a few things including our poor OL and lack of a running attack.  And while a few brave souls agreed with me, I was assaulted by the mob.  My football wisdom was doubted.  My intellect insulted.  My manhood questioned.  Worst of all, I even had my Bills Mafia membership card revoked!

 

https://www.twobillsdrive.com/community/topic/231992-not-sure-we-will-repeat-as-afce-champs/

 

Yet today I read that the suicide hotline in Buffalo is experiencing a spike in calls while fans want McDermott, Daboll, and every other Bills coach drawn and quartered - and then fired.   

 

I hated watching the Pats beat us last night but I'm not pulling my hair out.  I never shared the Super Bowl expectations of my Mafia brothers and sisters (if I can still claim a familial relationship after being expelled from the club).  I just never believed this roster was good enough.

 

And, look, I'm not knocking Beane.  Today's roster is better than the one he inherited.  But he - clearly - has more work to do before the Bills can make a Super Bowl run.

 

 

 

So went to bed last night and did a roster going forward listing for 2022 and, man, will there be changes in offseason.  The following reflects the need for better talent and some Cap Savings opportunity

Offense 10 new roster players needed

QB - Allen - Need 1 more

RB - Singletary, Taiwan, Gilliam - need 2 more

TE - Knox, Sweeney - need 1 more

WR - Diggs, Davis, Stevenson, Hodgson, need 2 more - Sanders, lil Dirty and Beasley gone

Oline - Dawkins, Morse, Brown, Williams, Bates, need 4 more - Ford, Boettger and Feliciano released.  Feliciano for Morse swap at C possible  if the Bills decide they need cap $$

 

ST's - no change to K, P, LS

 

Defense - need 8-9 new players.

DL - Groot, Basham, Epenesa, Oliver, Star - need 3-4 more.  Addison, Hughes, Butler, Philips, Obada gone

LB - Milano, Edmunds, Dotson, Smith, - 2 needed.  Klein and Matakevic gone

DBs- Hyde, Poyer, Johnson S, T Johnson, Wallace, Jackson, Treday - need 3 more 

 

So 18-19 new players is a 34-36% roster turnover - pretty typical these days with NFL teams balancing cap demands and need for better talent.  

 

[Evian]

I think the Bills and the Rams have the best rosters in the NFL. Both remind me of the Bucs from last year. One of these teams is going to get hot and win the Super Bowl. My money is on the Bills. I like the schedule down the road.  I can see them beating the Bucs and Panthers and going into New England and taking command of the AFC. 

[Success]

I'm not going to say we can't still make a SB run w/ this roster - because we can.

 

But it feels like we're still a year away.  The flaws are obvious, and I'm sure they'll get addressed - but we may fall short this year because of them.

 

[hondo in seattle]

31 minutes ago, Gugny said:

 

I've always been a Beane fan, but he absolutely deserves criticism for not addressing the trenches properly.

 

Okay... maybe I should knock Beane.  Many of us were concerned about the trenches during the offseason.  He should have been concerned, too.  Or maybe it's more precise to say he should have been more concerned - concerned enough to address it. 

 

I get that cap and draft resources are limited.  But it's very easy to see this as a Super Bowl team if we were more stout on the lines.   So why aren't we?

[stinky finger]

3 minutes ago, Evian said:

I think the Bills and the Rams have the best rosters in the NFL. Both remind me of the Bucs from last year. One of these teams is going to get hot and win the Super Bowl. My money is on the Bills. I like the schedule down the road.  I can see them beating the Bucs and Panthers and going into New England and taking command of the AFC. 

 

Buffalo does NOT have a better roster than Tampa.

6 minutes ago, freddyjj said:

So went to bed last night and did a roster going forward listing for 2022 and, man, will there be changes in offseason.  The following reflects the need for better talent and some Cap Savings opportunity

Offense 10 new roster players needed

QB - Allen - Need 1 more

RB - Singletary, Taiwan, Gilliam - need 2 more

TE - Knox, Sweeney - need 1 more

WR - Diggs, Davis, Stevenson, Hodgson, need 2 more - Sanders, lil Dirty and Beasley gone

Oline - Dawkins, Morse, Brown, Williams, Bates, need 4 more - Ford, Boettger and Feliciano released.  Feliciano for Morse swap at C possible  if the Bills decide they need cap $$

 

ST's - no change to K, P, LS

 

Defense - need 8-9 new players.

DL - Groot, Basham, Epenesa, Oliver, Star - need 3-4 more.  Addison, Hughes, Butler, Philips, Obada gone

LB - Milano, Edmunds, Dotson, Smith, - 2 needed.  Klein and Matakevic gone

DBs- Hyde, Poyer, Johnson S, T Johnson, Wallace, Jackson, Treday - need 3 more 

 

So 18-19 new players is a 34-36% roster turnover - pretty typical these days with NFL teams balancing cap demands and need for better talent.  

 

 

I agree with most of this.

 

Edmunds is where might differ.

[Sisyphean Bills]

Roster needs some variety.

 

• All the RB are tiny by NFL standards. Bug meet windshield sort of running game. We typically don't even try to use a running game, but the Patriots just showed the Bills how to win in the elements in Buffalo with jumbo sets, a fullback, ends that can seal, and a rotation of different backs with different dimensions to their games.
• Outside Kumerow, the WR group looks like clones to me.
• Also the DL is undersized and wasn't able to stand up against a power running game. Some of those big plays the Patriots got were about lack of execution by Frazier's group though. That was a much different game if the long TD run in the 1st quarter had been stopped.

 

PS: The Patriots rebound and return to anointed status is bad for the NFL. Not everyone wants to see the Patriots win the next 10 Lombardi trophies.

 

[Evian]

1 minute ago, inaugural balls said:

 

Buffalo does NOT have a better roster than Tampa.

 

The Bucs have a huge weakness. Their secondary is terrible. The Bills will put up 40 on them. 

[Pete]

40 minutes ago, Coach Tuesday said:

Disagree.  Roster is top 5 in the league.  They are losing games to inferior rosters.

I agree.  But our OLine is not championship quality- nowhere close.  If you can't block, you can't run or pass.  We must protect Josh!

[78thealltimegreat]

Been advocating since the last day of last year that I don’t like the RBs and TEs. So I hear ya and these things have come back to bite us time and time again. Beane just decided to throw more darts at the pass rush…when you have a QB like Josh you keep getting him weapons they didn’t 

[freddyjj]

4 minutes ago, inaugural balls said:

 

Buffalo does NOT have a better roster than Tampa.

 

I agree with most of this.

 

Edmunds is where might differ.

$12.5mm already committed via 5th year option and would be dead cap so assume we keep.  

[Pete]

we have this young stud at QB, and we never had a plan to protect Josh.  Very myopic IMO.  It reminds me a little of Archie Manning- all the talent in the world, but he ran for his life most every play.

[stinky finger]

Just now, Evian said:

 

The Bucs have a huge weakness. Their secondary is terrible. The Bills will put up 40 on them. 

 

Their front 7 will give JA fits. Our OL stands to get embarrassed this weekend. 

 

 

1 minute ago, freddyjj said:

$12.5mm already committed via 5th year option and would be dead cap so assume we keep.  

 

Right - gotcha.

 

I'm looking further down the road.

[HamptonBillsfan]

The roster is definitely good enough, but the reason we lose games is that we think Josh can do it all. Good NFL defenses can neutralize QB driven offenses if they are predictable. There was no reason not to score on one of the 2 long 4th qtr drives. If you have a good red zone play caller, you could at least get two chip shot FGs. It didn't take a genius to know they were taking away the run and Josh's RPOs. This is a bottom line league. Either you can score TDs from the red zone or you need a new OC.

[freddyjj]

1 minute ago, Pete said:

we have this young stud at QB, and we never had a plan to protect Josh.  Very myopic IMO.  It reminds me a little of Archie Manning- all the talent in the world, but he ran for his life most every play.

Not sure it's that bad.  Loved Archie but surprised he only won 35 of 140 starts in his career and only made 2 Pro Bowls.  Never made the playoffs either as was only bright light on some bad teams in NOLA, HOU and MInny.

[AlCowlingsTaxiService]

In a salary cap world, having the perfect roster is darn near impossible, but being imperfect on both lines of scrimmage is more often than not a fatal flaw. 

[JoshAllin]

This roster is worlds better than the chargers, bengals, raiders, kc and ravens. The other top teams they match up well with. Just a lot of typical whinning after a loss

[No_Matter_What]

1 hour ago, hondo in seattle said:

Back in March, I started a topic: "I'm Not Sure We Will Repeat as AFCE Champs"

Well why don't we at least wait until regular season to find out who actually won AFCE?

[dorquemada]

26 minutes ago, AlCowlingsTaxiService said:

In a salary cap world, having the perfect roster is darn near impossible, but being imperfect on both lines of scrimmage is more often than not a fatal flaw. 

 

To that point, we're incredibly over-invested on our DL, for just bad results.  With 10 guys in the box we couldnt stop the run.  That's just bad, and embarrassing.  it's the GM falling in love with an idea even as it's proven wrong over and over in practice.  Similar to what was said about Communism, "DL rotation cannot fail, it can only be failed"

[Gisele]

35 minutes ago, freddyjj said:

$12.5mm already committed via 5th year option and would be dead cap so assume we keep.  

He's tradeable but I'd be fine keeping him just to use on passing downs to rush the passer.  His days as our middle need to be over.

[FilthyBeast]

I've asked this question many times and have been flamed for it, but outside of Allen and Diggs, who exactly has Beane drafted or signed that is a true impact player? Guys who can single handedly make game changing plays to win massive high stakes games like last night?

 

When you comb through his drafts and poor FA deals (mostly former Carolina Panthers) you just seem a bunch of role players and solid back up types. Yes guys like Oliver and Knox have shown flashes but they continue to come up small in the biggest games.

 

Yes some will argue that finding Allen is all that matters (assuming he truly is a franchise QB) but for a guy that seems to value his draft picks so much you'd think he was churning out all pros and that's simply not the reality no matter how many fans insist he's some sort of stud GM in this league.