Buffalo's new "core" and future outlook

[Cray51]

Coming into this season, the Bills were looked to be in a transitional year.  Most media suggested we were the third best team in our division, and a wild card bubble playoff team.  Last season our average age as a team was 27.4 years old, with our starters averaging an age closer to 30.

 

"Core" players out:

Diggs

Davis

Morse

Hyde

Poyer

White

Neal (ST ace gunner)

Taiwan Jones (ST)

 

You dont remove 6-8 pieces of a team, and essentially 3-4 PB caliber players during their tenure here, and expect success.  Which is why what Beane and McD have done to be so incredible.  The Bills have IMPROVED their team with a new core of young and determined talent, unfazed by past losses.

 

The Bills new core is as follows:

Allen - Drafted - First round

Shakir - Drafted - Fifth round

Kincaid - Drafted - First round

Brown - Drafted - Third round

Torrence - Drafted - Second round

Dawkins - Drafted - Second round

Bernard - Drafted - Third round

Williams - Drafted - Third round

Oliver - Drafted - First round

Taron Johnson - Drafted - Fifth round

Coleman - Drafted - Second round

Rousseau - Drafted - First round

Benford - Drafted - Sixth round

 

Current total roster age? 26.7.  Average age of our new core listed above? 25 years old.  These guys are the immediate future of this team (expecting all of them to be around for at least another 3 years).  Beane and co have implemented a retool of this roster while competing for a Super Bowl and taking on a large deap cap hit to set us up for prolonged success.  In addition, we have a first and two seconds in this upcoming draft, ready to pick more starter quality, young, cost controlled talent to add.

 

So where does this leave our team?  We still have pieces to fill.  We need another WR (Maybe a shock short term deal for Cooper keeps him here).  We need a CB2 (Elam?  Draft pick this year?).  We need a space eating DT.  Fortunately, Beane and Sean have set us up to leverage aging talent for this year and next (Daquan Jones, Von), and will continue to turn scrap heap FAs into quality depth.

 

This new core will take the Bills through 2027/28, when they will STILL average under 30 years old and we can hopefully leverage our draft picks from the next few years to continue our train of success.

 

Big big credit to Beane.  Huge credit to Sean (who continues to field hate that will baffle me.  He is as good of a coach as there is in this league).  I knew Beane was a top 5 drafting GM from 2018-2021, but his recent drafts may have shown an elevation in the ability to find star players in the later rounds, the last step he needed.

 

Go Bills, and I'm looking forward to watching this group take us forward

 

[Buffalo716]

We lost some good players who are old and declining and replace them with faster younger people 

 

Everything  the media said was overblown, I never doubted the bills were going to run the afc east again

[Cray51]

1 minute ago, Buffalo716 said:

We lost some good players who are old and declining and replace them with faster younger people 

 

Everything  the media said was overblown, I never doubted the bills were going to run the afc east again

I agree, I said the Bills were a 13-4/12-5 team and that the Jets and Miami were super overrated.  With that said, this quick roster turnover without skipping a beat is something to be praised.

[MJS]

There are significant asterisks next to each of the departing core players you mentioned, though. That is what the national media missed.

 

Diggs: character and locker room issues, demanded a trade, and was significantly ineffective for a large portion of the season last year.

Davis: Josh Allen made him seem like a better receiver than he is. He is a 3rd receiver who got paid like a #2. He also faded badly in games last year.

Morse: Still a good player, but getting older. He also got pushed around sometimes. Losing him was probably the riskiest move, but it worked out with McGovern.

Hyde: Tons of scary injuries and he clearly lost a step. Good to move on from aging players like this.

Poyer: Injured a lot and lost a step. He is no longer what he used to be.

White: Tons of significant injuries impacted his ability to play. Very sad, but he isn't what he used to be.

Neal (ST ace gunner): Who cares?

Taiwan Jones (ST): Who cares?

 

The media (and some fans) focused too much on the names and not on the situation with each of them. These moves were all unquestionably the right moves to make to compete now and in the future, not just to reset the roster and get younger.

[WotAGuy]

Often people misuse “core” when they really mean “corps”. Props to the OP for correct usage of “core”. 
There’s hope for us all. 

[strive_for_five_guy]

8 minutes ago, WotAGuy said:

Often people misuse “core” when they really mean “corps”. Props to the OP for correct usage of “core”. 
There’s hope for us all. 

That’s very complimentary of you.  In addition to what the OP noted, this team is working in a real complementary way this season too.

[Ray Stonada]

There's also a benefit to Josh being fully in charge now, without any older veterans who have a different approach.

 

I trust Josh's emotional compass for leadership and winning more than any of the departed players. 

 

Even though Diggs made a big show about wanting to win, you get the feeling the reason was ego, an inability to not be considered the best, rather than wanting to win for a team, a community and a city that has wished for it for so long. 

 

 

[Sweats]

Big Baller Beane for the win