TC in St. Louis Posted March 11, 2023 Posted March 11, 2023 Just wondering. If everybody played with the passion of London Fletcher, this would be a different game. I loved watching him when he was here in St. Louis, and was thrilled he went to our team. But there's something about Edmunds. I hope he stays. I don't care what he gets paid. 1 3 1 Quote
TheyCallMeAndy Posted March 11, 2023 Posted March 11, 2023 London, dude was underrated and is a victim of fan “group think.” we should have never let him go. 5 10 Quote
Big Turk Posted March 11, 2023 Posted March 11, 2023 What rules are we playing by? Today's or 20 years ago? 1 2 Quote
julian Posted March 11, 2023 Posted March 11, 2023 Fletcher, I’m not sure there’s a realistic argument to be made for Edmunds in this scenario. 5 7 1 3 Quote
sven233 Posted March 11, 2023 Posted March 11, 2023 Most everyone on this board is going to say Fletcher for sure. The thing is, I don't think we have seen Edmunds in his prime yet. He had a good year last year, but it still seems like there is more there. Will he ever tap into that? I don't know. But I am not sure we can answer this question yet because I am not sure we have seen Edmunds' ceiling. 3 1 3 1 Quote
Brand J Posted March 11, 2023 Posted March 11, 2023 This should be a poll, but the answer is easily London Fletcher. 1 Quote
PBF81 Posted March 11, 2023 Posted March 11, 2023 (edited) That would have to depend upon the rest of the defensive roster and the role expected. Right now Edmunds is arguably the better fit here due to his pass-coverage skills and lack of LBs after Milano. I also think that Edmunds will play better elsewhere alongside two other LBs than in the 2 LB alignment we have here, largely due to neglect in keeping enough LBs on the roster, starting caliber ones anyway. Fletcher's the overall better LB though. If we wanted Fletcher, we should have drafted Nakobe Dean instead of Cook, he's going to thrive this season in Philly. Edited March 11, 2023 by PBF81 Quote
PBF81 Posted March 11, 2023 Posted March 11, 2023 16 minutes ago, sven233 said: Most everyone on this board is going to say Fletcher for sure. The thing is, I don't think we have seen Edmunds in his prime yet. He had a good year last year, but it still seems like there is more there. Will he ever tap into that? I don't know. But I am not sure we can answer this question yet because I am not sure we have seen Edmunds' ceiling. Good post, and I'd also l like to see him in a traditional alignment than in the monkey scheme that we have here because we can't get a third starting caliber LB on the roster after five years. This is going to be a very interesting offseason. 1 Quote
pennstate10 Posted March 11, 2023 Posted March 11, 2023 What people don’t realize is that in a version of Tampa 2 defense, a tall MLB is your best defense against skinny posts. That’s why Brian Urlacher was so good. London Fletcher would be a liability for this Bills team. 4 Quote
PBF81 Posted March 11, 2023 Posted March 11, 2023 (edited) 10 minutes ago, pennstate10 said: What people don’t realize is that in a version of Tampa 2 defense, a tall MLB is your best defense against skinny posts. That’s why Brian Urlacher was so good. London Fletcher would be a liability for this Bills team. Agreed, it's hardly an apples-to-apples comparison. Your post actually jars loose some thoughts. They initially tried to stock a 4-3, but Beane's approach to stocking the LBs is similar to his approach for stocking the OL. Dumpster-diving and 1-2 year signees. Having a third non-starting caliber LB in there was also a liability. I'm assuming that's why they stopped trying that and went with what they're now doing. What will get very interesting is if Edmunds leaves, a seeming certainty now, is who they bring on. If it's more dumpster-diving, good luck to us. Edited March 11, 2023 by PBF81 Quote
LABILLBACKER Posted March 11, 2023 Posted March 11, 2023 23 minutes ago, sven233 said: Most everyone on this board is going to say Fletcher for sure. The thing is, I don't think we have seen Edmunds in his prime yet. He had a good year last year, but it still seems like there is more there. Will he ever tap into that? I don't know. But I am not sure we can answer this question yet because I am not sure we have seen Edmunds' ceiling. He's played 5 full years. Whatever ceiling he has, we've seen it. Fletcher was a better all around LB with superior instincts. 4 1 1 Quote
BADOLBILZ Posted March 11, 2023 Posted March 11, 2023 Can we include John Holecek? When Ralph hired Whitey Donahoe the fan base was eating up every stupid move he made because he claimed to be doing it to fix the cap. In the midst of that he paid Holecek a $2M bonus and then cut him like 3 weeks later to save cap space. It went largely uncriticized because people were angry at John Butler and wanted to believe in Donahoe and "no fat chicks" Greggo. Very reminiscent of some of the dopey deals early in the the "Big Baller Beane is a Wizard" era that appears to have come and past. Will be interesting to see how Beane addresses the MLB hole in UFA. 2 1 Quote
PBF81 Posted March 11, 2023 Posted March 11, 2023 (edited) 24 minutes ago, LABILLBACKER said: He's played 5 full years. Whatever ceiling he has, we've seen it. Fletcher was a better all around LB with superior instincts. I think that if you compare the first five seasons of each you'll see a different picture. Fletcher's best seasons by a wide margin were his seasons 6-10, his prime years. It's not fair to compare those to Edmund's pre-prime seasons. But to say that we've seen his ceiling when he isn't even in his prime yet is a bit premature, don't ya think. I mean Edmunds will only be 25 this season. Fletcher's best seasons were when he was 28-32. If you ask me, after he leaves we'll be talking about him like we do Teller. The team also doesn't use him entirely to his strengths. Watching him at VA Tech he was prolific. If he's in a similar role in the NFL he'll shine like Fletcher. Possibly better. The one area where he's already better than Fletcher is in his pass-coverage skills. His height helps with that. Edited March 11, 2023 by PBF81 1 Quote
Alphadawg7 Posted March 11, 2023 Posted March 11, 2023 Ironically when Fletcher was here he was the whipping boy like Edmunds has been here. I loved Fletcher, but the irrational nonsense around here was almost the same as Edmunds. As the leader in tackles, all anyone here said over and over was that it didn’t matter, Fletcher made the tackles too far downfield because he sucks so he has to go. All he did was go on to KEEP being one of the best LBs in the game for a long time. Bills would go on to have crappier play at LB for a long time. Posters here were as wrong about Fletcher sucking as they are about Edmunds sucking. Im totally fine not resigning Edmunds for cap reasons, but he definitely doesn’t suck and he’s been better than the over exaggeration of his detractors around here claim. I wish him well in his next destination and I have a feeling he’s going to have continued and maybe even greater success elsewhere. 2 1 2 Quote
Kiva Posted March 11, 2023 Posted March 11, 2023 Fletcher. Edmunds is/was a terrible lb who as a leader couldn’t establish an aggressive culture for the D. Quote
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