Beane's Offseason - Should he turn the roster over or stay the course?

[The Jokeman]

I'm just free thinking so bear with me if disjointed. It's time to cut bait on guys like Neal, Gilliam and Matakevich as we saw this year how important depth was and these guys just don't make enough plays to justify keeping. Shaq and Phillips are good but bring in younger guys to fill their roles. I'd bring back Da'Quan but Settle can go. I love Hyde but him and Poyer need to get replaced. No easy task. Taron is a good nickel back but I want a true big nickel out there on 1st and 2nd down. I'd bring Rapp back with another young vet and draft pick to sort out Safeties. Cam Lewis just has no upside. Keep Morse but draft a kid to develop depth. Maybe add a offensive tackle to be a starter in a few years. DE needs a new guy to lead the charge. Gabe Davis can get paid elsewhere.  Day 1 or day 2 WR a must as Diggs could be getting old fast. I'm okay with Harty as a 4th/5th WR and return man. Ty Johnson can stay but he's a 3rd guy. Get a younger version of Murray. I know there were whispers on AJ Dillon this past off season, he had a bad year maybe get him cheap.

[Don Otreply]

It’s not a black or white decision, what we need on offense is two additional starting WRs from the draft and or FA to compliment Diggs, Shakir, and our TEs.  Likely letting Sherfield  go. The Defense needs to sign and re-sign the best young and older guys while dumping  over priced contracts as needed, certainly won’t be easy, but it should be cool to watch Beane maneuver through the off season. 
 

GO BILLS!!!

[Brianmoorman4jesus]

I don’t want to waste another year in Allen’s prime. There’s going to be a day where he can’t run anymore. We got to get one early. I’d rather completely rebuild the defense with young guys and a new voice in the Room and run it back. But I don’t want wholesale changes. You never know when you won’t get back again 

[Nextmanup]

5 hours ago, ColoradoBills said:

This is a question I've asked myself even before yesterday's loss.

 

Does Beane keep the older guys (and bad contracts) and tweak around the best he can?  Would he think that's enough to get the team

over the hump or does he make the move in 2024 to get younger and put an offense around Josh.

 

I'm not going to get into the weeds about exact numbers (my mind is numb from yesterday) but I think most of you guys (and gals) know what I mean.

 

Move on right now from guys like Von and Diggs (post June cuts) along with White, Morse, Dawkins, Poyer, Harty, Hines, Martin and who knows who else.

Other players have to be approached about their contracts too.  Knox, Neal, Bass

In essence, a big re-tool.  

 

Would Josh have to buy into a plan like this?  Would McDermott?  

If a new HC comes in, it will happen anyway.

 

You might sacrifice the 2024 season, but you structure yourself for the future Bills built around Josh Allen. 

As a fan, I would go along with it if that would be decided.

There are going to be some big questions/decisions for Beane this spring, one way or another!

 

 

You can't move on from Von unless he's in trouble in Texas, then we might be able to void the K.

 

We are going to be severely hampered by bad Ks which will limit our freedom to do things PROPERLY.

 

We will have to make do with what will work under the cap.

 

There will be some changes but not nearly enough to really re-do things correctly.

 

McBeane are likely not looking to do things properly anyway.

 

Look for us to establish a running game next year and move away from a wild pass attack.

 

I said at the end of last season that Dorsey would be fired at the end of this season, as he is horrific.

 

I was right, but off in my timing.

 

Now, I will say that this team will finish next year about as we did this year.  It will be obvious to everyone that it is then time to move on from McDermott....but it will still be doubtful that Pegula will do it.  Will be a more interesting "wait and see" next year, though, at least relative to this year.

 

Pegula will be late firing McDermott; that's already true.

 

 

[Chaos]

As far as the roster goes, step 1 is bringing in a defensive coordinator with a history of winning divisional playoff games.  Tell him he needs to figure out what he wants on defense, but he is not getting premium draft picks or big free agency dollars this year.  Piece together what we can, and it will have to do. 

 

Then build to the teams strength.  Try to trade spencer brown and use that plus the first round pick to get the best LT you can.  Then use the second round pick to draft the best center you can.  We could have a great oline if those selections are done correctly.   Diggs, Shakir, Kincaid give the team three solid pass catchers.  Bring in the best WR you can get with the rest of the draft.  Based on history, the defense is going to suck in the playoffs regardless of personnel. 

Edited January 22 by Chaos

[FilthyBeast]

How exactly can a team that is projected to be some $40 million over the salary cap going to stay the course or run it back even if they wanted to?

 

Yes the salary cap can be manipulated but it would be the absolute worse thing for Beane to not acknowledge the obvious in terms of much needed changes to this roster with what little money they are going to have anyway.

[Green Lightning]

5 hours ago, SCBills said:

No more tweaking.  Tear it down.

 

I don't think that means a wasted year either.  

 

Our defense will still have Oliver, Rousseau, Milano, Bernard, Douglas, Benford, Johnson.  Just need to add enough to make it a middle of the pack group.

 

On Offense, if we take this tear it down strategy, I'd rather keep Morse.  Bring back this Top 5 OL.  Know you have Shakir, Kincaid, Knox and Cook.  Draft WR's early and often.  Preferably doubling up on Day 1 and Day 2.  

Morse has to go. His head's a time bomb and cannot move a DT an inch or stop a bull rush.  I'd trade Knox. Too much coin for too little production. Kincaid and a good blocking TE will be just as effective.  Lose Knox's cap hit and pick up some draft picks or other assets.

[BillMafia716ix]

Don’t really see too many changes to be honest.

Offense:

Josh Allen-stays

Cook- stays

Kincaid, Knox - stays

Dawkins - stays

McGovern - stays

Morse - ?

Torrence - Stays

Spencer Brown- stays

Diggs- stays (his contract won’t allow him to be cut or moved)

Shakir- stays

There wil be changes in the WR room for sure. Need to find a dynamic player to play next to Diggs. More than likely that’s coming through the draft. 
 

Defense:

Oliver-stays

Daquon Jones- ??

Greg Rousseau- stays

Von Miller - stays (contract won’t allow him to be moved)

 

Floyd, AJ Epenesa ( Floyd is going to be expensive and he’s an older player I’d let him walk and try to work a deal with AJ.) One of them is definitely leaving for sure.

 

Bernard- stays

Milano- stays

Dodson/Spector - stays

 

Rasual Douglas -stays

Benfrod- stays

Taron Johnson - stays

Tre White -??? Tough decision here. I’d let him walk but I don’t think McDermott will cut ties with him. More than likely I think they’ll restructure his contract and see how he is coming off the injury. 
 

Poyer/Hyde - I think one of them is gone for sure. Hyde probably being the odd man out. Poyer still a productive player

 

As far as the defense goes I don’t really see many changes there either. They have a major need at defensive end and safety. I think they only significant changes will see is at safety.  This offseason will be more about adding depth and praying to the heavens that our core guys can stay healthy!! 

 

 

[Green Lightning]

1 minute ago, BillMafia716ix said:

Don’t really see too many changes to be honest.

Offense:

Josh Allen-stays

Cook- stays

Kincaid, Knox - stays

Dawkins - stays

McGovern - stays

Morse - ?

Torrence - Stays

Spencer Brown- stays

Diggs- stays (his contract won’t allow him to be cut or moved)

Shakir- stays

There wil be changes in the WR room for sure. Need to find a dynamic player to play next to Diggs. More than likely that’s coming through the draft. 
 

Defense:

Oliver-stays

Daquon Jones- ??

Greg Rousseau- stays

Von Miller - stays (contract won’t allow him to be moved)

 

Floyd, AJ Epenesa ( Floyd is going to be expensive and he’s an older player I’d let him walk and try to work a deal with AJ.) One of them is definitely leaving for sure.

 

Bernard- stays

Milano- stays

Dodson/Spector - stays

 

Rasual Douglas -stays

Benfrod- stays

Taron Johnson - stays

Tre White -??? Tough decision here. I’d let him walk but I don’t think McDermott will cut ties with him. More than likely I think they’ll restructure his contract and see how he is coming off the injury. 
 

Poyer/Hyde - I think one of them is gone for sure. Hyde probably being the odd man out. Poyer still a productive player

 

As far as the defense goes I don’t really see many changes there either. They have a major need at defensive end and safety. I think they only significant changes will see is at safety.  This offseason will be more about adding depth and praying to the heavens that our core guys can stay healthy!! 

 

 

A solid line up that could keep up our fine tradition of losing in the divisional round. 

[BillMafia716ix]

30 minutes ago, Green Lightning said:

A solid line up that could keep up our fine tradition of losing in the divisional round. 

Being down Benford, Milano, Bernard, Rasul Douglas not being 100% is a huge deal. Especially going against Mahomes. We are not beating him with 3rd and 4th stringers 

[BeastMaster]

If the plan is staying with McDermott, then I would let him know that we are having a re tool this upcoming season, and that he will have to make it work.

 

Take the hits you wanna take for one year to reset this team's spending number

[Donuts and Doritos]

Literally the only players that can't be touched are:

Allen

Kincaid

Shakir

Cook

Bernard

Milano

Oliver

Taron Johnson

O-line minus Mitch Morse

 

Literally anyone else can be traded or replaced & I'm fine with it (that includes Morse). Build around those players I mentioned. Get younger, healthier & cheaper. Rebuild, reload and open a new window.

 

Blow up & rebuild the WR Corp (except Shakir), Safeties, D-line and build the depth at LB, CB.

 

The goal should be to build a bully on offense. New philosophy, make them score to keep up w/ us. Lean in to Josh Allen. Give him all the weapons.

[GASabresIUFan]

He is going to stay the course because he has a good team and given the bad contract he gave Diggs, Knox, and Miller, we are kind of stuck.  

 

He should stay the course because the majority of his starting lineup is under contract and again, it's a good team.  He needs to get help at safety, along the D Line and at WR, and depth at corner, but other than that his roster is in good shape.

[BillsVet]

Ideal off-season:  Beane tells McDermott to pound sand on defense because they won't be short-changing Josh anymore with receiving talent.  That it's time to build a passing game around their franchise QB that can out-score teams when necessary.        

 

Real off-season: McD gets high-resource new safeties and interior DLinemen.  OBD uses some mid to late round picks and bargain bin UFA deals on receivers.       

 

Season:  Similar to the past 3.  Pegula is MIA and McD is back in 2025 to run it back another season.  

 

Good times.   

[Green Lightning]

13 hours ago, BillMafia716ix said:

Being down Benford, Milano, Bernard, Rasul Douglas not being 100% is a huge deal. Especially going against Mahomes. We are not beating him with 3rd and 4th stringers 

We had Douglas. Apparently we're not beating them with Diggs, Knox, Bass and our entire D line which never laid a glove on him.  This roster and coaching staff is not good enough. And the salary cap hole won't help things or make it possible to sign the players we already have that didn't get it done.

[Eastport bills]

Beane is restricted by bad contracts and Josh’s # exploding. If he can fortify the secondary and DL with draft and FA along with a #1 and a #2 or 3 receiver we could challenge for a championship. A Diggs trade is crucial because his 27 million can be replaced by more production. I think Shakir is a #2 and Kincaid can be Kelce. I don’t see Knox being here unless they think he can improve. His contract is too big for his small contribution. The O-line is fine and will be better next year.

 

 

[philholbroo]

Signed Von for basically a 3 year run with him. I say see how year three goes, can't be worse.

Also I haven't seen many people mention Taron contract but maybe needs to be extended or reworked. Then maybe could extend Rasul to pass on costs to future.

Also, draft a wr. 

[2003Contenders]

14 hours ago, BillMafia716ix said:

Don’t really see too many changes to be honest.

Offense:

Josh Allen-stays

Cook- stays

Kincaid, Knox - stays

Dawkins - stays

McGovern - stays

Morse - ?

Torrence - Stays

Spencer Brown- stays

Diggs- stays (his contract won’t allow him to be cut or moved)

Shakir- stays

There wil be changes in the WR room for sure. Need to find a dynamic player to play next to Diggs. More than likely that’s coming through the draft. 
 

Defense:

Oliver-stays

Daquon Jones- ??

Greg Rousseau- stays

Von Miller - stays (contract won’t allow him to be moved)

 

Floyd, AJ Epenesa ( Floyd is going to be expensive and he’s an older player I’d let him walk and try to work a deal with AJ.) One of them is definitely leaving for sure.

 

Bernard- stays

Milano- stays

Dodson/Spector - stays

 

Rasual Douglas -stays

Benfrod- stays

Taron Johnson - stays

Tre White -??? Tough decision here. I’d let him walk but I don’t think McDermott will cut ties with him. More than likely I think they’ll restructure his contract and see how he is coming off the injury. 
 

Poyer/Hyde - I think one of them is gone for sure. Hyde probably being the odd man out. Poyer still a productive player

 

As far as the defense goes I don’t really see many changes there either. They have a major need at defensive end and safety. I think they only significant changes will see is at safety.  This offseason will be more about adding depth and praying to the heavens that our core guys can stay healthy!! 

 

 

I agree with most of this -- just not that Diggs and Miller necessarily have to stay based on their contracts. There are ways to rework other contracts (Josh's, Dawkins, etc) that could put us in the position of ridding us of those other inflated contracts. In Von's case (unless he suddenly finds the fountain of youth and is 100% healthy) I think that is a necessity. In Diggs' case I am still on the fence. What caused the serious regression in the 2nd half of the season? Evolving role in Brady's offense? Diminished skills? Undisclosed injury? Off-field distraction?  Depending on what that root cause was, would determine what I would want to do with him heading into 2024.

 

With or without Diggs, in addition to investing at least one high draft pick on a WR, I would be inclined to bring in at least one mid-priced free agent WR (like Beane did back in 2019 with Beasley and Brown) rather than scrap-heap guys like Beane has thrown darts at the last few seasons. Obviously we can't afford a high-priced guy like Higgins or Evans. But what about someone like Marquise Brown, Darnell Mooney, Curtis Samuel, or Josh Reynolds? Mooney could be a real sleeper going from the garbage he has had in Chicago to #17, and he is just 2 seasons removed from a 1,000-yard season.

 

Bottom line, Beane needs to hit the jackpot on some of the draft picks come April, including some late-round gems.

[finn]

The Bills need to get younger and cheaper, which means draft picks, lots of them. It's not easy to unload expensive veterans, and you're still carrying part of the cap hit, but it might be the best option. Most controversially, I think it might be time to move on from Diggs while he still has trade value. So little production from so many targets, you don't want someone like that on your team, especially earning, what? $26 million? A second-round pick and what cap savings a trade will bring might be the best option. If you hit on the draft pick AND have say $9 million, that's a win win. Let some other team take the risk of having him on their roster. 

 

Same with Von Miller. Releasing him means taking a huge cap hit, but, like Diggs, he's taking up snaps out there that could go to someone more productive. Factor in what savings you can get by letting him go, it might be the best move. Maybe you can get a fourth-round pick for him. 

 

Same with White, sorry to say. No draft compensation, probably, but take the hit and what savings you can.

 

These three moves mean a lot of dead money. But none of these players is worth investing in any longer. The team has to move on and use the  savings on better players.

[Nihilarian]

15 hours ago, BillMafia716ix said:

Don’t really see too many changes to be honest.

Offense:

Josh Allen-stays

Cook- stays

Kincaid, Knox - stays

Dawkins - stays

McGovern - stays

Morse - ?

Torrence - Stays

Spencer Brown- stays

Diggs- stays (his contract won’t allow him to be cut or moved)

Shakir- stays

There wil be changes in the WR room for sure. Need to find a dynamic player to play next to Diggs. More than likely that’s coming through the draft. 
 

Defense:

Oliver-stays

Daquon Jones- ??

Greg Rousseau- stays

Von Miller - stays (contract won’t allow him to be moved)

 

Floyd, AJ Epenesa ( Floyd is going to be expensive and he’s an older player I’d let him walk and try to work a deal with AJ.) One of them is definitely leaving for sure.

 

Bernard- stays

Milano- stays

Dodson/Spector - stays

 

Rasual Douglas -stays

Benfrod- stays

Taron Johnson - stays

Tre White -??? Tough decision here. I’d let him walk but I don’t think McDermott will cut ties with him. More than likely I think they’ll restructure his contract and see how he is coming off the injury. 
 

Poyer/Hyde - I think one of them is gone for sure. Hyde probably being the odd man out. Poyer still a productive player

 

As far as the defense goes I don’t really see many changes there either. They have a major need at defensive end and safety. I think they only significant changes will see is at safety.  This offseason will be more about adding depth and praying to the heavens that our core guys can stay healthy!! 

Good post!

 

DEFENSE...wins championships...unless players are constantly injured like Buffalo in the last two seasons. OR bad coaching ...13 seconds. 

 

McD called some great games this season and was the backbone of the team when the offense couldn't get things going in the first half of many games. 

 

Leonard Floyd seemed to disappear in the last two games and Mahomes with bad tackles had little pressure on him.  0 sacks and only 2 QB hits all game. 4 pressures on 25 dropbacks.

Plus, the Chiefs targeted the 200lb defensive player to run at...The Chiefs killed the Buffalo defense this game. Would it have been worse to pull Klein and put in Williams and also Elam? Buffalo D line took the day off this Sunday (save Groot, and Von), or was that Chiefs interior line just that good?

 

T Bass turned into Scotty Norwood. the special team lost a game this season with 12 men on the field.

 

On offense, it seemed like few Buffalo receivers could get open against KC. Speaking of invisible...where was Diggs in this game? Sneed owned him.

 

I don't know how or why but I'm hoping the Bills find a way to sign Bucs WR Mike Evans!

 

Beane had better build a better defense. I'm sure he thought with Miller and Floyd that they might have a decent chance at having a Bruce Smith, and C Bennett duo...but noooo. Floyd played well up until the playoffs...dunno what happened there.

 

Buffalo QB Josh Allen continues to amaze me and it's a darn shame that Diggs 8 targets, 3 receptions for 21 yards played so poorly. Buffalo finally found an OC that can call run plays that work 39 rushes for 182 yards and 2 TDs. ToP for Buffalo 37:03. Cheers!