Buffalo Bills The Doldrums of the NFL Off-season have arrived

[Fezzy126]

WR Hot Take: Shakir would absolutely be regarded every bit as high as St Brown if he got the volume.

I don't think our WR room is bad or anywhere near as worrisome as most Bills fans. In fact, Shakir, Samuel, and Palmer are all highly graded by Matt Harmon of Reception Perception, and even Matt admits that Coleman has a nice complimentary skillset for the room.





I mentioned it during the draft, but those 5th (and 6th) WR spots need to be special teams contributors.

 

[Krieger Bot]

I've seen you say this twice about OT and just don't get it.

We have perhaps the best starting tackle tandem in the league. Then we have the most toolsy developmental swing tackle imaginable in Grable, who by all reports the organization is extremely high on. Then we have Van Demark, who everyone liked a lot before Grable started taking his gameday spot. Then we drafted Lundt, who was a 3rd-4th round guy on most lists and has plenty of X draftniks saying has a shot to become a starter.

I think we have a claim at the best tackle group in the league.

Fair point. But personally, I don't really see any of those guys as potential starters. Given Dion's age, and the difficulty of acquiring starting tackles, it would be nice to have someone in the mix who could possibly take over for him in a couple years. I'd happily spend, say, a third round pick on that.

 

[Der Jaeger]

Allen doesn’t have the benefit of Belichick/Reid or Gronk/Kelce.

It's hard to say less than stellar when both had two HOF TEs. What skill guy even remotely comes close to Gronk/Kelce on our roster?

Go take a look at Pro Football reference for any of those Super Bowls and see who the third leading receiver was. Or who started for those teams.

Yes, Allen doesn’t have Gronk or Kelce. But Chris Hogan started for Super Bowl winning teams. Brady’s third leading receiver most years was a running back because he checked down so much, and threw screens.

Mahomes best receivers after Hill left were all middling.

As a whole, Coleman, Samuel, Shakir, Kincaid, Knox, and Palmer are at least on par with those teams overall receiving groups.

Yes, Buffalo could use a speedy boundary receiver. But getting Matthew Golden wasn’t propelling this team to a championship.

29 points should be enough to win a game. The Bills needed to revamp their defense. The two Mahomes Super Bowl losses didn’t come because the Tampa or Philly offenses were ridiculous. They came because those teams got after Mahomes, and covered well.

If Beane went out this week and re-signed Cooper and signed Simmons, this roster is very Eagles-esque. It was a good rebuild design.

 

[WeDislikeEich]

They watched Kincaid, Coleman and Samuel bust all year and said…eh…they’ll figure it out

They watched Elam play one game and brought in FIVE NEW CORNERS.

They deserve the same ending they’re going to get this year. And when it happens I don’t want to hear one word about what the defense needs. Unless those words are “someone else’s system”.

Shakir
Coleman
Palmer
Samuel

What a f***ing joke

That’s very disingenuous. They watched Elam play for 3 years before they finally decided to move on. He played poorly all but a small stretch in his rookie year.

You act like they just ignore the offense. They just drafted Coleman with their first pick last year, and Kinkaid with their first pick the year before (they used all but 1 pick on offense in 2023). Neither have “busted”. Colman was playing very well before injury and Kinkaid had a decent rookie year then played through injury last season. The Bills had one of the top offense in the NFL last year.

I truly don’t understand why you even follow the Bills or Sabres anymore. You hate both regimes. Every post from you is negative. Why torture yourself constantly?

Edit - at least with the Sabres the hate makes sense. The Bills are perennial contenders ffs. If you can’t enjoy the Bills now, then what’s the point in being a Bills fan?

 

[Der Jaeger]

I still don’t see where Ivey signed. He must have something in his reports where teams don’t want to touch him. Kid was a day 2 talent.

 

[Der Jaeger]

Also, just your friendly neighborhood reminder that the Bills went to the AFC Championship game in their rebuild year, with rookies, young players, low end free agents, and undrafted players in the line up.

If you look at where the Bills had those players, and look at it compared to their draft, it makes sense what Beane did this weekend.

 

[WeDislikeEich]

https://www.reddit.com/r/nfl/s/wlWlbd5Lft

So much for self reflection… lol

(Shedeur sanders)

 

[Dirty Dog]

That’s very disingenuous. They watched Elam play for 3 years before they finally decided to move on. He played poorly all but a small stretch in his rookie year.

You act like they just ignore the offense. They just drafted Coleman with their first pick last year, and Kinkaid with their first pick the year before (they used all but 1 pick on offense in 2023). Neither have “busted”. Colman was playing very well before injury and Kinkaid had a decent rookie year then played through injury last season. The Bills had one of the top offense in the NFL last year.

I truly don’t understand why you even follow the Bills or Sabres anymore. You hate both regimes. Every post from you is negative. Why torture yourself constantly?

I’m unconvinced it’s not just re-postings of chat gpt posts 50 times a day!

 

[truthbluth]

Ok, I didn’t mean to set so many people off, and fwiw, I think the WR room is better than the safety room. The bills safeties had the worst coverage grades in the league last year. And the room is the same. Bishop was unimpressive in his brief time. Maybe they’re expecting a huge leap from Bishop, and maybe that’s warranted. But double dipping at DT, specifically on a straight up project, before addressing these two rooms seems, on the face of it, bad roster management.

 

[Krieger Bot]

Their biggest free agent signing was a WR. The first pick in the last two drafts were pass catchers. It’s arguably been their biggest investment for three straight years now

And that’s ignoring them completely retooling their OL and RB room the last few years. With great success

On the whole, I agree with you. But two things can be true at the same time.

Looking at the past couple offseasons, it's pretty clear what happened. Brandon Beane looked at a skill group that featured Gabe Davis, Dawson Knox, Devin Singletary, Zach Moss, and some combination of Isaiah McKenzie and the ghosts of Cole Beasley and Emmanuel Sanders, and thought to himself the same thing that I and many other people on the WR train did: This isn't very good.

He then went out and completely overhauled our skill group. As a result, we have new starters at every position with Josh Palmer, Khalil Shakir, Keon Coleman, Dalton Kincaid, and James Cook. We even have new rotational/depth guys in Curtis Samuel, Ray Davis, and Ty Johnson. The end result is a group that's much more diverse and can attack you in a bunch of different ways. Frankly, I think it's a pretty strong group that's much better than what we had before.

That said, it's hardly a perfect group. In particular, there's a pretty clear need for a speed WR. Both because it's an element we don't really have on the roster right now. And because it would be good to add another vertical threat as a hedge against a potential injury to Keon. And I just don't see anything wrong or controversial with arguing that the Bills probably should've used one of the seemingly endless assets they poured into the DL to add such a player. Particularly when you factor in that some of these DL will have to compete to even make the roster, much less actually see the field in any sort of meaningful way.

 

[26CornerBlitz]

AFC East Draft Grades FWIW

 

[Der Jaeger]

Ok, I didn’t mean to set so many people off, and fwiw, I think the WR room is better than the safety room. The bills safeties had the worst coverage grades in the league last year. And the room is the same. Bishop was unimpressive in his brief time. Maybe they’re expecting a huge leap from Bishop, and maybe that’s warranted. But double dipping at DT, specifically on a straight up project, before addressing these two rooms seems, on the face of it, bad roster management.

The draft isn’t about filling needs straight up. That’s what free agency is for. The draft is about taking BPA. If the need aligns with BPA, that’s great. That’s what Beane does.

Taking a potential 2024 1st rounder with a 2025 4th is great asset management.

Simmons and Blackmon are still out there.

 

[Dirty Dog]

On the whole, I agree with you. But two things can be true at the same time.

Looking at the past couple offseasons, it's pretty clear what happened. Brandon Beane looked at a skill group that featured Gabe Davis, Dawson Knox, Devin Singletary, Zach Moss, and some combination of Isaiah McKenzie and the ghosts of Cole Beasley and Emmanuel Sanders, and thought to himself the same thing that I and many other people on the WR train did: This isn't very good.

He then went out and completely overhauled our skill group. As a result, we have new starters at every position with Josh Palmer, Khalil Shakir, Keon Coleman, Dalton Kincaid, and James Cook. We even have new rotational/depth guys in Curtis Samuel, Ray Davis, and Ty Johnson. The end result is a group that's much more diverse and can attack you in a bunch of different ways. Frankly, I think it's a pretty strong group that's much better than what we had before.

That said, it's hardly a perfect group. In particular, there's a pretty clear need for a speed WR. Both because it's an element we don't really have on the roster right now. And because it would be good to add another vertical threat as a hedge against a potential injury to Keon. And I just don't see anything wrong or controversial with arguing that the Bills probably should've used one of the seemingly endless assets they poured into the DL to add such a player. Particularly when you factor in that some of these DL will have to compete to even make the roster, much less actually see the field in any sort of meaningful way.

Good post and I don’t disagree that those groups could use improvement. I’d like a speed wr too. But I dont think either group is nearly as bad as some fans so they are. I just agree with the bills approach of resetting the defensive line first, and then we can see how everything goes this year and go from there.

 

[Husko]

I decided to spend some time this morning make a spreadsheet of the roster, color coded by likelihood to make the team. Green is virtual locks; yellow is players with the inside track to a job due to incumbency, draft investment, or financial commitment; red is players who will be except from the 53; white is challenges.



The biggest thing that jumps out to me is that there are 48 spots "taken" by locks/inside track players. That means there's only 5 spots genuinely up for grabs, probably mostly for special teams guys. Otherwise, for the most part any challenge will have to unseat a guy in yellow to make the team.

 

[Dirty Dog]

I decided to spend some time this morning make a spreadsheet of the roster, color coded by likelihood to make the team. Green is virtual locks; yellow is players with the inside track to a job due to incumbency, draft investment, or financial commitment; red is players who will be except from the 53; white is challenges.



The biggest thing that jumps out to me is that there are 48 spots "taken" by locks/inside track players. That means there's only 5 spots genuinely up for grabs, probably mostly for special teams guys. Otherwise, for the most part any challenge will have to unseat a guy in yellow to make the team.

Excellent work, thanks

 

[Husko]

FWI the Bills currently have just over 3 million in cap space. That's probably just enough to sign their rookies + not quite enough for PS. So they might be done. But if there is an addition they want to make, they could save up to 10 million on a Dawkins restructure.

 

[ahmedou]

 

[Der Jaeger]

For the defensive line, Beane took a longer term view. After this season, the Bills will have:

DE: Rousseau, Jackson, Solomon
DT: Oliver, Carter, Sanders, Walker

That’s a good group with a lot of upside. Still will need a situational rusher. But that’s a next off-season thing.

 

[Dirty Dog]

For the defensive line, Beane took a longer term view. After this season, the Bills will have:

DE: Rousseau, Jackson, Solomon
DT: Oliver, Carter, Sanders, Walker

That’s a good group with a lot of upside. Still will need a situational rusher. But that’s a next off-season thing.

Agreed! And Hecht

 

[itwasaforwardpass]

Ok, I didn’t mean to set so many people off, and fwiw, I think the WR room is better than the safety room. The bills safeties had the worst coverage grades in the league last year. And the room is the same. Bishop was unimpressive in his brief time. Maybe they’re expecting a huge leap from Bishop, and maybe that’s warranted. But double dipping at DT, specifically on a straight up project, before addressing these two rooms seems, on the face of it, bad roster management.

Yeah it's a bit concerning that they havent seemed to view safety as an area they very much need to upgrade. Much more concerning than WR. Not sure if people realize how good Shakir is.

 

[tsujimoto74]

Of course it was the Browns that ended up picking Shadeur lmao. What a toxic organization.

 

[Dirty Dog]

Yeah it's a bit concerning that they havent seemed to view safety as an area they very much need to upgrade. Much more concerning than WR. Not sure if people realize how good Shakir is.

I think they like Rapp and they took Bishop high last year, which is a significant investment. I think they are happy to see how those two do, for better or worse! We’ll see how that goes

 

[itwasaforwardpass]

I think they like Rapp and they took Bishop high last year, which is a significant investment. I think they are happy to see how those two do, for better or worse! We’ll see how that goes

I guess Bishop was taken higher than I remembered. Was just disappointed with the whole groups performance last season, more so than other positions. Hoping Bishop takes some steps forward next season.

 

[HOOats]

Yeah it's a bit concerning that they havent seemed to view safety as an area they very much need to upgrade. Much more concerning than WR. Not sure if people realize how good Shakir is.

I'd consider Hancock a drafted safety since Taron is entrenched as the Nickel for a couple more years at minimum. He has some major athletic juice and Ohio State fans loved his attitude and consistency. McD could turn him into something.

The same way McD can turn random DBs into starters, Josh can turn WRs into stars. Shakir ofc had to have had the potential to turn into what he is now, but if he got drafted to a team with a bad QB and bad offense, he wouldn't be what he is today.

It's that abiding logic that the "WR Train" folks just don't accept. We have a superstar QB who elevates guys a level or two higher, but there are diminishing returns with better players imo so it makes less sense to invest there. Similar to what was said higher in this thread, if we traded Shakir for Amon-Ra I don't think we'd see a big difference. It's all about Josh and guys fitting the roles he requires. Any WR stats are pretty much just Josh's stats distributed where he wants. Now when he exits his rushing prime in a few years, then it will be time to invest in a "WR1" for the next phase of his evolution.

 

[HOOats]

Texans took a Jayden, a Jaylin, another Jaylin, and a Jaylen within their first five picks.

Eat your heart out WHL Entry Draft name critics.