Hamlin back on one-year deal

[billsfan89]

On 3/21/2025 at 10:02 PM, Aussie Joe said:

If he makes the team he will be playing real time (not mop up) at some stage of the season, given inevitable injuries that our guys on D regularly get and that there is only 4 guy at the position …and considering his salary is fully guaranteed it’s likely he will be making the team …

 

 

Hamlin is a quality backup who is a solid special teams player. I have no idea why people seem to think that teams have 5 safeties better than Hamlin or 4-5 high end starting caliber safeties on their rosters. 

[MJS]

2 hours ago, Einstein said:

I would like to see who you think is worse than Hamlin.

 

Bills constantly covered for him all year long.

I said mid season that Hamlin may be the worst full-season starter at S in Bills history.

I stand by it.

Based on what? Just your eye test?

[GunnerBill]

8 hours ago, Einstein said:

 

I would like to see who you think is worse than Hamlin.

 

Bills constantly covered for him all year long.

I said mid season that Hamlin may be the worst full-season starter at S in Bills history.

I stand by it.

 

Well Cole Bishop for one.....

[Einstein]

4 hours ago, GunnerBill said:

 

Well Cole Bishop for one.....

Cole isn’t a full year starter.

[GunnerBill]

19 minutes ago, Einstein said:

Cole isn’t a full year starter.

 

I know it tongue in cheek. I do think Cole struggling so badly is why Hamlin was a full year starter though. I don't think that was ever the plan.

[Einstein]

5 minutes ago, GunnerBill said:

 

I know it tongue in cheek. I do think Cole struggling so badly is why Hamlin was a full year starter though. I don't think that was ever the plan.

Ahh gotcha. Sometimes im bad at picking up sarcasm. 

Agreed with you. 

[Einstein]

 

9 hours ago, MJS said:

Based on what? Just your eye test?

Long explanation: I track player performance. And Hamlin's poor performance sort-of made me obsessed with him last season. Missed tackles, poor angles, slow speed, etc all hampered the defense. If you watch the All-22 the Bills spent most of the season covering for him by rolling coverage and keeping Hamlin as deep as humanly possible. If you go back and look at the big runs we gave up this year, nearly all of them can be traced back to Hamlin either screwing up an angle, missing a tackle, or being so deep that it took him a long time to get to the LOS and then by the time he got there, the RB had adjusted his angle which completely fooled Hamlin. I will say that his tackling improved from 2023-2024 and throughout 2024 - he made a few impressive open field tackles toward the end of last season. 

Short explanation: There is a reason why no-one else in the NFL wanted to sign him. We retained him on a 1 year, $2M contract.
 

[MJS]

19 minutes ago, Einstein said:

 

Long explanation: I track player performance. And Hamlin's poor performance sort-of made me obsessed with him last season. Missed tackles, poor angles, slow speed, etc all hampered the defense. If you watch the All-22 the Bills spent most of the season covering for him by rolling coverage and keeping Hamlin as deep as humanly possible. If you go back and look at the big runs we gave up this year, nearly all of them can be traced back to Hamlin either screwing up an angle, missing a tackle, or being so deep that it took him a long time to get to the LOS and then by the time he got there, the RB had adjusted his angle which completely fooled Hamlin. I will say that his tackling improved from 2023-2024 and throughout 2024 - he made a few impressive open field tackles toward the end of last season. 

Short explanation: There is a reason why no-one else in the NFL wanted to sign him. We retained him on a 1 year, $2M contract.
 

I do think he was an undesirable starter. But what evidence do you have that he was the worst starting safety of all 32 teams? I mean, I'm not denying that, but that is a pretty strong statement, so I wondered if you looked at all the starters for the other teams and compared them somehow.

[Kirby Jackson]

Hamlin isn’t very good. He knows the system though and is okay depth. If they brought him back to be the 4th or 5th safety, I’m fine with it. I hope that the guy from Washington passes him and they NEED Bishop to not be bad again. They used a 2nd round pick on him. They passed on some guys that are already ahead of him at the position. 

[FireChans]

42 minutes ago, MJS said:

I do think he was an undesirable starter. But what evidence do you have that he was the worst starting safety of all 32 teams? I mean, I'm not denying that, but that is a pretty strong statement, so I wondered if you looked at all the starters for the other teams and compared them somehow.

64 starting safeties in the NFL and Hamlin having the 66th highest contract probably serves as close enough to his market being "the worst starter you could have."

[Einstein]

3 hours ago, MJS said:

I do think he was an undesirable starter. But what evidence do you have that he was the worst starting safety of all 32 teams? I mean, I'm not denying that, but that is a pretty strong statement, so I wondered if you looked at all the starters for the other teams and compared them somehow.

 

All of the reasons I mentioned before.

 

But if you’re looking for quantitative data, he is the 70th-something paid safety. Which would put him at the very bottom of all starting safeties.

[Maine-iac]

I'll bite.  Tell me why Pola-Mao is a better safety?  Or maybe Jason Pinnock?  I'm certainly onboard that you shouldn't go into a season with Hamlin as your starter but I'd say the same thing about Rapp and if Bishop hasn't improved I'd say the same thing about him.  If you're starting Cam Lewis at safety you probably have problems also.  We have almost an entire roster of back up safeties and our best hope for legit starters are Bishop or maybe Forrest.  I'll never understand why so many hate Hamlin and are complete apologists for Rapp.  Bishop was a rookie who missed time early so he gets some slack but hopefully he's better this year.

Edited March 24 by Maine-iac