Bills had the best free agent class according to ESPN

[HappyDays]

6 hours ago, GASabresIUFan said:

If you have a homework assignment and it says complete the following tasks: Add boundary WR, add DE, upgrade depth at DL and DE, add depth at S and and a starting CB and you turn in your assignment with a WR, a S, a DE, DL depth that will miss 1/3 of the season and no CB, the teacher would give you either an incomplete or give you at best a 70 out of 100.  20 for the WR, 20 for the S, 20 for Bosa, only 10 for the DL depth, and a zero for the CB.  
 

The odds of a rookie CB drafted late in the 1st rd or late in the 2nd rd coming in and starting immediately are about 5-10%.  Last season we tried that with Cole Bishop and it failed miserably.   We also tried that with Elam a few years earlier and that failed spectacularly.  We needed to upgrade Douglas and that window has closed unless Beane can finagle a trade.  Possible, but unlikely until later in the season.  Remember Douglas was acquired after week 7 and Cooper after week 6.  Do you really want to go into the season with a camp battle between Jackson (PFF grade 33 last season), Ingram (PFF grade 58.6) and a rookie for the starting job?
 

I’m sorry, and I like Beane, but he needs to get lucky at CB for this off-season to get a good grade.  It’s really to bad.  I like the extensions, I like Palmer and Bosa.  I was excited about both Ogunjobi and Hoecht until I found out about the suspensions.  I believe both guys should have had their contracts voided or greatly reduced.  The Jackson signing is waste.  He was horrible last year in Carolina and hopefully was only signed to be the 4th outside CB.  Outside of Benford, outside CB is the Bills weakest position group and Jackson doesn’t move the needle. 
 

 

 

Every team enters the draft with a glaring need at at least one position. That's inevitable. Baltimore desperately needs a CB across from Wiggins (assuming Humphrey is staying in the slot). KC desperately needs OL help. Cincy desperately needs help pretty much everywhere except QB and WR. There's no way you are going to plug holes at every position in FA with teams making it a point to lock up their own good players.

 

I think people take the wrong lesson away from 2022. I know the common narrative is that we went in desperate at CB and that led to us forcing a bad pick. Me, I think we just misevaluated the player and nothing else needs to be said about it. I have no qualms about entering this draft with a need at CB. Beane needs to select a starting caliber player, that's his job.

[BillsFanForever19]

19 minutes ago, HappyDays said:

 

Every team enters the draft with a glaring need at at least one position. That's inevitable. Baltimore desperately needs a CB across from Wiggins (assuming Humphrey is staying in the slot). KC desperately needs OL help. Cincy desperately needs help pretty much everywhere except QB and WR. There's no way you are going to plug holes at every position in FA with teams making it a point to lock up their own good players.

 

I think people take the wrong lesson away from 2022. I know the common narrative is that we went in desperate at CB and that led to us forcing a bad pick. Me, I think we just misevaluated the player and nothing else needs to be said about it. I have no qualms about entering this draft with a need at CB. Beane needs to select a starting caliber player, that's his job.

 

Agreed. I think it was a combination of misevaluating Elam and also entering the Draft with CB being the only real need.

 

I guess if there's a silver lining to the situation we're in this year, it's that we have so many things that need to be addressed (especially after the suspensions to Hoecht and Ogunjobi) that it's unlikely we'll be in a scenario where need and value won't match up at any of the spots when we pick first.

Edited Thursday at 09:59 PM by BillsFanForever19

[machine gun kelly]

On 3/26/2025 at 10:08 AM, BILLS55 said:

https://www.espn.com/nfl/insider/story/_/id/44363563/2025-nfl-free-agency-class-rankings-teams-improved-better-worse-signings-deals

 

I think they did a good job of addressing some holes but not sure I'd put them #1

 

B55

1. Buffalo Bills
Key acquisitions and returning players: WR Khalil Shakir, Edge Joey Bosa, LB Terrel Bernard, LB Greg Rousseau, Edge Michael Hoecht, WR Joshua Palmer

I loved: How the Bills retained their own talent before markets got set. The Shakir extension is only $15 million per year. Rousseau got $20 million per year. Bernard is at $12.5 million per year. Those are three young cornerstones of a perennial contender, and they're staying in Buffalo for remarkably less than their open market number. The Bills were right to retain the players who helped get them to the AFC Championship Game, even if they haven't yet slayed the dragon that is the Chiefs.

I didn't love: How expensive Palmer was. Palmer is going to fill the Mack Hollins role, but I'm not sure he's going to elevate it much -- certainly not for double the price tag. He is a good dirty work receiver and should be considered a glue guy on a healthy offense, but if he was a truly dangerous pass catcher, he would have already broken out in Los Angeles. Still, this is a small complaint in an otherwise great class.

 

Thanks for the recap, and they will need to find at least one WR in the draft who can separate and provide real speed for Josh.

[Einstein's Dog]

4 hours ago, HappyDays said:

I think people take the wrong lesson away from 2022. I know the common narrative is that we went in desperate at CB and that led to us forcing a bad pick. Me, I think we just misevaluated the player and nothing else needs to be said about it. I have no qualms about entering this draft with a need at CB. Beane needs to select a starting caliber player, that's his job.

I disagree some.  You shouldn't have such a gaping hole that you disgard a top tier BPA at a premium position of need. 

 

In 2022 I think the FO was so intent on a CB that they weren't even considering the top WR tier.  C Watkins and G Pickens were still available - and since there were two of them they wouldn't have needed to trade up.  Those two seemed upper tier to me whereas the CBs did not.

[Richard Noggin]

5 minutes ago, Einstein's Dog said:

I disagree some.  You shouldn't have such a gaping hole that you disgard a top tier BPA at a premium position of need. 

 

 

I think it's possible the Bills see a competition or platoon of Jackson and Ingram as at least workable for CB2. They haven't always invested heavily there. They probably WANT better, though, and will draft 1 or even 2 CBs this year. But it definitely doesn't have to be their 1st pick, in their minds.  

[Mr. WEO]

Another off season lombardy

[Einstein's Dog]

5 minutes ago, Richard Noggin said:

 

I think it's possible the Bills see a competition or platoon of Jackson and Ingram as at least workable for CB2. They haven't always invested heavily there. They probably WANT better, though, and will draft 1 or even 2 CBs this year. But it definitely doesn't have to be their 1st pick, in their minds.  

Right, I hope they don't feel roped in.  And I'm not sure they did in 2022, it just felt that way to be me because of the way I had things ranked.

 

 

[Richard Noggin]

2 minutes ago, Einstein's Dog said:

Right, I hope they don't feel roped in.  And I'm not sure they did in 2022, it just felt that way to be me because of the way I had things ranked.

 

 

 

They behaved like a team that was desperate to draft either:

 

a) a CB in rd 1 (pigeon holing the draft)

 

or 

 

b) Elam (poor evaluation of player's fit in scheme)

 

And that's a bad look which led to a bad outcome. 

[Bookie Man]

Rex is somewhere smiling.

[BobbyC81]

7 hours ago, Bookie Man said:

Rex is somewhere smiling.

Is he looking at his wife’s feet?

[GASabresIUFan]

On 3/26/2025 at 10:08 AM, BILLS55 said:

I didn't love: How expensive Palmer was. Palmer is going to fill the Mack Hollins role, but I'm not sure he's going to elevate it much -- certainly not for double the price tag. He is a good dirty work receiver and should be considered a glue guy on a healthy offense, but if he was a truly dangerous pass catcher, he would have already broken out in Los Angeles. Still, this is a small complaint in an otherwise great class.

 

Maybe this has been mentioned already, but Palmer was signed to replace Cooper not Hollins.   My guess is the Bills will play more 12 personnel with Knox or Kincaid running Hollins’ pattern in the offense.  The question is who picks up Hollins’ gunner responsibility on special teams?  Shenault?  He played 181 special teams snaps last year, although I suspect most were as a returner.  Still with his size and speed he might be a good gunner.   Maybe Buffalo Joe takes the job?

[finn]

On 3/26/2025 at 10:44 AM, GASabresIUFan said:

Where is the consideration of signing two suspended players and not filling their most critical need at CB? 

To be fair, who was available and not too expensive? I guess Beane could have signed Gilmore or Douglas, but I wouldn't have been too happy with either, unless it's too give time for an early-round CB to develop or recover from injury. No, I'm guessing Beane is planning to draft two CBs, one early and one mid-round; plus, he might sign another Dane Jackson type for depth. The big CB question is Benford. Do you really want to make him the highest-paid player on the team outside of Allen? Maybe that's just the market, but Cook isn't going to be happy if that happens, especially if he doesn't get close to the $15 million he has his heart set on. (And that number might have gone up with the new Barkley contract.)

 

Best-case scenario: Beane does it all, with a stud CB and a (rich) Benford joining Bishop, Taron and Rapp, and several quality depth players to complement a pass rush revitalized by Bosa and a stud DE. And on offense, a big fast WR project making just enough of a contribution that, combined with improved play by Coleman, makes the offense still better.  

[GASabresIUFan]

21 minutes ago, finn said:

To be fair, who was available and not too expensive? I guess Beane could have signed Gilmore or Douglas, but I wouldn't have been too happy with either, unless it's too give time for an early-round CB to develop or recover from injury. No, I'm guessing Beane is planning to draft two CBs, one early and one mid-round; plus, he might sign another Dane Jackson type for depth. The big CB question is Benford. Do you really want to make him the highest-paid player on the team outside of Allen? Maybe that's just the market, but Cook isn't going to be happy if that happens, especially if he doesn't get close to the $15 million he has his heart set on. (And that number might have gone up with the new Barkley contract.)

 

Best-case scenario: Beane does it all, with a stud CB and a (rich) Benford joining Bishop, Taron and Rapp, and several quality depth players to complement a pass rush revitalized by Bosa and a stud DE. And on offense, a big fast WR project making just enough of a contribution that, combined with improved play by Coleman, makes the offense still better.  

As much as I love Cook (go Dawgs!) and think he is worth $15 mil for 3 years, Benford is the priority.  Great CBs don’t come around very often and you have to keep them when you have one.  As to FA CBs, Gilmore would be great insurance if the rookie draftee doesn’t immediately pan out.  

 

As to Cook, I think the Bills have way overpaid for Samuel, Palmer and Shakir.  The Samuel signing never made sense.  Paying Shakir potentially 15 mill a season for 800 yards of offense and Palmer potentially $12 per season for 600 yards doesn’t make much sense while not paying Cook for his 1400 yards of offense.  The NFL’s $ for WRs is out of whack giving how easily middle tier WRs are replaceable.  Better cap $ management here may have made it easier to retain Cook.  The NFL (except Cin) is beginning to realize the over payment to WRs as money is beginning to flow back to quality RBs.  My guess is the Bills might franchise Cook next season and possibly the year after depending on $.   

Edited Friday at 06:06 PM by GASabresIUFan