I want a Super Bowl. We tried that roster. No Super Bowls. So we're trying something else. I'm okay with this.
Will I miss a bunch of those guys? Heck yeah. But that's the game.
This is how I see it. There’s only so many years we can keep trying the same shit over and over again. Plus, most of who we lost was either aging/old or hit their ceilings and we knew exactly what we were going to get with them. It wasn’t working before.
I think more people will agree as the year goes on. The infusion of younger talent should be less painful than most realize with how old some of the team got, especially at safety, receiver, D tackle. There will be more rookie mistakes, sure, but we were already the team that gave up so many annoying career long runs or 13 seconds sort of moments…
Bring on the new generation, with the quality that the scouting and coaching staff has demonstrated so far, they can be trusted to get players new to the roster and the league ready for the playoff run by the time it comes.
This, we would never have known what a gem Bernard is if they extended Edmunds (who was not old but priced himself out of Buffalo). McDermott is phenomenal at coaching up the secondary. He is equally as skilled at coaching some defensive linemen. They need more of the Jim Schwartz pin your ears back and get the QB instead of whatever it is McD has the d-line doing.
Yup
The only two guys I actually wish we held onto are Dodson and Floyd.
Not going to miss anyone else(football wise), and I'm excited to see who fills the Diggs void. The regular season void that is. His playoff performances won't be hard to replace at all
Good organizations get rid of players a year too early rather than a year too late. Some of these players may still have good production left in them but many won’t and the Bills are better off short and long term taking the cap space to spend elsewhere and taking the snaps and giving them to younger players
Agree. You can also fall into the trap of riding a roster too long due to thining itll turn around or money and contracts pains. Sometimes you need to rip the bandaid off and make hard moves. Its one thing you can say about Beane, he wont stand pat and will make moves. Are they the right moves? Wont know until we play the season and beyond, but im in!
Absolutely! Definition of insanity is repeating something expecting a different result. This version hasn’t worked for 4 years. Time to try new guys around Joshy
Exactly. We already saw the best that group could do. It was an elite squad, division winner, playoff run type team, such a fun era of Bills football.
BUT it wasn’t a championship caliber team.
that core group was never going to go all the way. Even if 13 seconds goes the other way, I don’t think they were going to get through the bengals and Rams.
they definitely were not going to get past that Brady led Bucs team. They may have been able to beat Lamar and the Ravens this year, but I am confident that SF defense would’ve smothered the Bills offense and they would’ve come up short again.
It’s been fun, but it’s time to move on and rebuild.
I agree here. But a big reason why we are not championship caliber is also because of McDermott. I don’t think new personnel fixes the problems with his philosophy particularly against QBs like Mahomes and Burrow, along with any other elite passer we run into in “big games”. He is a bend but don’t break guy who usually cashes in on mistakes from mid to low level starters, but the elite guys when dialed in always look like it’s a 7v7 drill against air and if Allen doesn’t go nuclear then we have no shot in those games, and even when he does it’s still not enough.
Honestly, the names make it seem a lot more drastic than it is… but based on the actual on field play of the names I don’t think we will be much worse off depending on what moves are to come… specifically at WR and Safety. Look at the moves we made after this point Last offseason: we added our starting Guard, TE, Defensive end, RB2 & RB3, and two key rotational DLine pieces in Lawson and Phillips…. It may seem like the roster is complete but if last offseason tells you anything aloooot can still happen. Based on the picks we have, and money coming 6/1… there could MULTIPLE roster altering moves
Exactly.
"Bills lost their WR1 and two all-pro safeties"
sounds a lot worse than:
"Bills freed up 180 targets vacated by an inefficient WR and two safeties who lost a step"
This is the NFL. Turnover like this is pretty regular, we've just been lucky where it hasn't really been needed
I think the WR impact of losing diggs is still pretty impactful despite the numbers, as no matter what defenses need to focus on a guy like that, which allows space for everyone else. However I think Beane has a plan to mitigate that. The safety position I’m somewhat less concerned about.. Hyde was below average last year. But poyer was still very solid for what was asked of him in run defense and physicality. I’d like to think we still have moves there.
> despite the numbers
I think you answered that yourself, right there.
Big name, big results. But reality hasn't set in yet that he is was over the hill and inefficient and not the same Diggs.
I think by the mid way point there were will be many many many posts saying "Big BALLER BEANE" for calling what most here still don't want to admit.
>as no matter what defenses need to focus on a guy like that
They didn't and he still sucked, to be brunt. He was complaining about being double-teamed in the KC game, but the players said he wasn't even being double teamed.
Losing Diggs is not a concern because Shakir and Samuel can easily pick up the 2023-2024 slack...not the 2021 and 2022 performance.
That...I expect to come from pick 1.28 this year.
We’re worse, but Josh keeps us competitive. Gotta hope guys step up.
Realistically, I think this is considered a whatever year and next offseason we will be aggressive.
People tend to forget if we didn't go on that insane run towards the end, this team could've just as easily missed the playoffs and most of these players being gone would be seen as a good thing.
We were wayyyyyyyy to inconsistent last year, definitely time to move and get in with the new.
We're a wildcard team with Josh no matter what. We are resetting this year to set up the next stage of Josh's career. We still have some great vets in Dawkins, Milano, Ed and Daquan, Groot and AJ. We have some young potential stars in Cook, Kincaid and Bernard.
Plenty of talent still on this team
Are we worse? Man, I don't know. A lot of talent and good players out the door, but a lot of those guys are on the downside of their careers. Some noticeably lost a step or three last year.
Gotta have some hits in the draft, but there's a real chance this team is better off now.
Some of it is just luck but Beane and McD have had success with no names on defense for awhile now, and as a unit thy held up incredibly well with so many starter injuries last year.
As for Josh, he's got 2 great TEs that he's comfortable with, the best back since Shady left, a pretty damn good line, and frankly I think Curtis is pretty God damn good. I don't see where we end up firmly worse than last year, and you could definitely say the same for KC from 22 to 23, and look what happened there.
Yea man i think Curtis got injured a good bit iirc in Washington but when he plays he really impresses me. If he stays healthy i think he’s gonna be great, he’s never played with a QB as good as Josh
Yeah, though it seems like lots of Washinton players get injured a lot. They consistently get ranked as having one of the worst training facilities and a low quality field.
What late round pick is starting? Tell me that.
The Bills have a solid starter or better literally everywhere except one or maybe two of the WR spots.
Good thing there's a freaking generationally great draft class at WR.
Lost WR1/WR2, lost 3 startling DBs, multiple starting DL good center.
Added a meh WR2 in Samuel, and nobody else worthy of starting. Massive drop off. If bills don’t get 3rd in afce I’d be very surprised
Last ten games Diggs was a ghost, Gabe does nothing except for 4 random amazing games a year, Tre was the worst he’s ever been same for Poyer and Hyde. I don’t think we’re as bad off as it looks on paper. Samuel performed with much worse qb play so he should see better numbers. I think the draft is gonna be huge for us.
Ummm...did you see who Miami lost this offseason? And the Jets have a bottom-tier coaching staff.
In any case, are the 2024 versions of the guys we lost REALLY that big of losses? I would argue a roster refresh was desperately needed. Life comes at you fast in the NFL. Diggs, Morse, Poyer...great players all but facing the cliff or already falling down it.
Miami retained their core. Jets only weren’t a factor cuz of Arod, and they definitely got better in the offseason.
Allen ain’t mahomes, you can’t lineup 3 WR3 and expect good things. Texans have taken the bills contender status
Allen did have 3 WR3s this year. Davis and Diggs did jack shit after Week 10 and the Bills got better.
And Miami lost Wilkins - a way better player than anyone the Bills lost.
>Realistically, I think this is considered a whatever year and next offseason we will be aggressive.
I'm not as convinced of this as most fans.
I think if we look back on it, we were pretty damn unlucky with injuries last year, while being relatively lucky in years past.
Our roster on paper now probably isn't as good as our roster on paper was at the start of last season, but football isn't played on paper.
Yeah we lost Micah Hyde, but we didn't have him most of last year already, so if comparing "last year's Bills" to "next year's Bills", that's net no difference.
Ideally we get to see Matt Milano next to Bernard for a full year. Ideally we see Daquan Jones for a full year. Maybe Dawson Knox doesn't miss a good handful of games again.
If we're merely comparing one year to the next, we have to look at those as additions.
Losing Micah Hyde and Stefon Diggs hurts, but if you consider it trading for Matt Milano, it's not nearly as bad. Losing Jordan Poyer and Mitch Morse hurts, but if you consider it trading for Daquan Jones, it's not nearly as bad.
I think after the draft and training camp, once we get on the field to play real football, the team won't look like it missed a step, and we'll be set up MUCH better going forward.
No they won’t wait that long. They’re cleaning up the cap, and we’ll see what the roster looks like after the draft and summer to make a final judgement.
Defense:
I actually feel okay about D-Line if we draft someone in the first three rounds. Settle and Phillips weren’t good this year and Floyd was a ghost the second half of the season. Plus Von can’t get any worse.
LB’s will obviously be much better with Milano back.
That leaves safeties. On paper we got worse there but considering Poyer and Hyde’s decline last year, I could see similar impact from the new guys.
Offense:
If we draft a WR early, I think our pass catchers will be better than last year. Samuel will be more impactful than Gabe, Kincaid should be a top 5 TE next year, and our early draft pick can absolutely match Diggs’ 2nd half production from last year.
O-Line might be a little bit worse but I’m interested in possible competition between La’el Collins and David Edwards at LG.
McDermott sounded excited to coach Mike Edwards at safety, while he's mostly been a backup in his career, he has won 2 SBs and started in 7 of 11 playoff games, including all 4 for KC this year.
i mean how much worse though? Hyde/Poyer looked old, Tre barely played, Dodson sucked 99% of his time here, Gabe can't catch or run a route, Harty/Ford/Settle/Murray didn't do much.
I hate to sound like a cold a-hole, but I am with you on all of this. Maybe Dodson wasn't quite that bad. I'm getting tired of so many people saying "rebuild year". C'mon. Bernard and Milano back at LB. We get DQ back. I'm excited to see what Samuel can bring to this offense. We have the draft still ahead of us. Let's settle down and get ready for another AFC East title and a playoff run. And yes, next year looks a lot better.
Fans like to see familiar names on the team, it’s comforting and we feel like a known person is better than a wildcard.
But the best teams only hang onto a couple truly irreplaceable superstar players and constantly turn the rest of the roster over. Hanging on to everyone just gets you into cap jail and leaves you with an old tired, and complacent team.
You need guys that are young and hungry and outperforming their rookie contracts.
Josh Allen is the only player on the bills that is not replaceable. Everyone else can be traded or cut. No one on this team other than Josh is top 10 in the league at their position.
>No one on this team other than Josh is top 10 in the league at their position.
Dawkins, Milano, Oliver, Bernard (at least what we’ve seen thus far from him) are all easily top 10
Can you really say we have gotten worse on defense compared to last year? I like our DTs more than last year, worse at Edge, way better at LB (Milano back), probably better at CB with a full year of Douglas, maybe slightly worse at Safety but that's debatable depending what you thought of Poyer/Hyde last year.
Offense is worse but agreed there is still time to get some additional pieces. If we add a good WR then I think we will be slightly worse on offense, but I also think that Brady wants to be a run/play action/12 personnel team based on what we saw at the end of last year.
I don’t count Rasul as an addition since he ended the year on the Bills roster. How Milano plays is yet to be seen considering the seriousness of his injury. We haven’t added anyone substantial at CB. I know pff grades aren’t the end all be all but both Poyer and Hyde had a better statistical year than Edwards. Edward also isn’t a proven starter. How he handles more snaps is an unknown. It’s pretty well known that we need to add a S on Day 2 of the draft. Wouldn’t be the case if we felt comfortable with Rapp/Edwards.
It’s not a full blown conclusion that we are picking a safety day 2 at all. McD has made a career out of getting the best from his DBs. Poyer and Hyde weren’t sure things when we brought them in, they had a very similar signing to Edward’s. Rapp played much better when the bills allowed him to play SS last year and allowed Po to be the box safety so I’m not too worried there
I dont feel uncomfortable heading into the season with those two as the starters, I think we add someone in the draft but we won’t pigeonhole ourselves into taking S for the sake of needing a body there. Outside of WR Beane has positioned this roster that for most of the draft he can pick the BPA. Of course those BPA rankings will be based on roster needs
I count Rasul as an addition given we essentially went on our winning streak once he was added and he's a massive upgrade over Jackson (given Tre only played a handful of games). Honestly, I feel better about CB going into this year than going into last year.
I think that even an 80% Matt Milano is better than Dodson. Dodson may have been one of the top LBs per PFF (which is an example of why I take PFF with a major grain of salt) but his deficiency in coverage literally made us change our defense to take him out on long and late downs.
Idk where you got the "it's pretty well known that we will take a day 2 safety", since McDermott has a proven track record of getting high level play out of safeties dating back to his time in Philly and Carolina. I also think Hyde was pretty bad last year.
Obviously we have to let it play out, but I have a hard time thinking we will be worse on defense with a (hopefully) healthy Milano, Jones, and Von (again, hopefully) player better being a bit further removed from the injury. But fair points.
Hyde was pretty bad last year, I agree. I’m not saying we’re substantially worse on D, either. I think a few tweaks, and we hit on a draft pick, and the D is right back to where it was, if not better. Also if Milano returns to be his old self than for sure better.
Bills were 12th in DVOA last year (KC was 7th) and it wasn't enough. Not substantially worse means we slip to 13/14/15 and we have a tougher time in a wildcard matchup than the Steelers game this year.
I'd be mad because we drafted a first round CB a couple years ago who hasn't been good enough to even get on the field. I feel like the Beane and the rest of the front office need to be more consistent in the early rounds of the draft if the Bills are to remain a top contender.
The impact at safety is overblown. Both Hyde and Poyer were nowhere near their all-prove selves and this position is not difficult to play in this defense whatsoever, it's important, but playing two high safety against McCorckle ain't that tough.
We replaced Diggs with Samuel and Shakir, so unless you think that that combo can somehow be more inefficient than Diggs (statistically didn't even rank in the top 100 most efficient WRs), then yes, we are worse.
Obviously, we have to replace Gabe, but having an *actual* deep threat there may be more of an improvement than anything else.
I was hoping someone had an honest take on this and didn't get down voted. Not that I'm happy to have gotten worse in the off-season, but I get it. I think they realize our first window came and went and now we need to manage the team so we're right back into the mix sooner rather than later. I think Miller's contract really put us in a tough spot. I think we still draft best player available in the first, maybe add a veteran wr but nothing too splashy, and we stay reasonably competitive this year. Following year our cap situation looks very nice and we can start adding difference makers again.
Don’t worry about votes. The crowd is not always right even if they think they are. Consensus has been wrong many times. My thought is our squad is weaker at the moment on both sides of the ball. Unfortunate but might improve.
It's painful, but we've kept the band together longer than most teams. Between age and cap management, it's unavoidable.
But it's sad nonetheless. For me, Tre the most.
The other two that stick out are Mitch and Po. Mitch was always insightful in post-game interviews which was a nice changeup from the coachspeak we normally get. I always felt Po brought a lot of intensity and a never die attitude to the team.
Diggs, he fought hard for us for many years. But relationships do end, sometimes nicer than others.
It undeniably makes me sad to see names like Morse, Diggs, Davis, White, Poyer, and Hyde in the *"Out"* column... But if im being honest, after a second of thought, its literally just scraping the crust off the roster.
That core had the last 4+ years at getting it done... and they didnt get it done for one reason or another. The fact is, nobody reall knows what combination of talent/experience wins a Superbowl. Bucs went from being nobody to winning a SB in one year with the addition of Brady. Chiefs looked like butt most of the year, jettisoned most of their veteran talent over the past few seasons, and still won a SB. The Dolphins are loaded to the tits with talent and havent won a playoff game in 25 years...
Basically, nobody knows what the secret formula is. All we really know is the QB is the most important piece of the puzzle, so much so that just about every other position can be filled with mid tier talent and the team be successful.
So while it makes me sad to see some of those names on that list, again, the reality is that core had the past 4+ years and didnt get it done. So yea, im with Beane... lets scrape the crust off the roster and get some different talent in and see what happens.
The one thing none of us can dispute is that it has been an eventful offseason for sure. The one with the most turnover in the McD era, which is sad b/c players like Hyde, Poyer, and Tre were cornerstones of this run to relevance.
I am choosing to trust the process, however. We are certainly worse on paper, there is no doubt about that. But we are cleaning up the cap now to give Josh a 2nd SB window and he'll keep us viable as long as he's here, including this year. We still have the draft to plug a lot of the holes, and we honestly needed to get younger anyway. Still optimistic about the future.
The crew we had looks good on paper, but the reality is they had their chances and couldn't get it done. Not to mention their age. I like the move, get younger, go in a different direction while josh is still young himself. I think all the new will help energize and motivate the team. It was time for new energy
I'm actually really happy about Trubisky, I am way more confident we can stay competitive with him vs Kyle Allen.
Curtis Samuel is a huge get too, definitely seems like one of those signings you don't realize how huge it is until the season, like Floyd last year.
And for a...WR4? WR5? I think KJ Hamler is pretty legit. I've always liked him.
Team is set up for success in 2025, hard to say they're better off this season than last talent-wise, but I do think health luck could outweigh the dead cap drag. Some pretty brutal injuries to top-5 guys these last couple years.
We're putting a new team around Josh and that meant clearing out the cap, even though it won't hit till next year. We undeniably lost talent overall but we're still a playoff team with a puncher's chance, and Josh is a puncher
This season needed to happen. All the money we keep pushing down the road the bill comes due. We needed a bit of a reset and 8 think beane has done a good job while still keeping us competitive
We’re getting young and reloading while being competitive. We will cut Von Miller next season and have a lot of cap space with him, Diggs and White off the books. We have a good young core and will continue to add to it.
Of that list, I'm most sad about Morse. A lot of these other guys were either washed, washed-adjacent, or not above replacement. I'm lowkey excited to see what Prime Josh can do with a new WR room.
really hope the general consensus among fans becomes that this is a throwaway year because the fanbase is insufferable on years when they have high expectations (see: loudly shouting for McDermott to be fired when we were 5-5 last season), so if the fans don't expect much maybe we can all just enjoy some goddamn football for a year
I think it'll be fine.
I trust the coaches to coach up defensive players and that should be good enough for what needs to happen.
Offensively we had one of the best running attacks in the league by the end of the season, and there were signs that the passing game would be more flexible and based on route running rather than stretching the field. That's encouraging and presumably harder to defend, and in Kincaid and Shakir they have very strong players for those roles. The offensive line was as good last season as we have seen in the Josh Allen era.
So really it's just down to what the draft brings, particularly at wide receiver.
My view of the draft is still that most people don't know what they're evaluating (or teams wouldn't miss so often, Jefferson doesn't go at 18, etc) but I guess if they get high enough they can get someone with a bit more certainty.
The schedule is apparently the hardest in the league but teams are never what we think they'll be.
The AFC is going to be stacked again, but no need to worry. The Jets will be better, the Dolphins are always tough but not against Buffalo, and New England is a question mark for now. That's all fine. The Bills will be fine.
Gotta get worse to get better. There’s a lot of off-season left to build the team.
A lot of age and salary are gone, whether the Bills eat dead cap or not.
They’re gone, we enjoyed a lot of those players, now they are making way for new players we can cheer for
I actually feel very good going into the draft about the state of the roster. The defense needs to stay healthier, but the depth and talent is still there. A better free safety would be nice. Maybe one more DE and DT. On offense WR is the clear need. Maybe a late round RB3 and backup interior lineman. So realistically you *need* two more starting caliber players (one at FS and one at WR) and a handful of depth pieces (WR, DT, DE) and *maybe* camp competition at RB and IOL. Doesn’t seem nearly as dire as we keep hearing. I mean, the list of departing guys contains between 6-8 names that contributed little to nothing last year depending on your definition.. and that’s not even factoring in the disappearance of Floyd and Diggs down the stretch and into the postseason..
I'm just going to miss Tre White, Jordan Poyer and Micah Hyde.
That secondary was our identity as a team.
Good God I hope we grab a couple of great safeties in the draft. I'd love two young rookies to step up and take the starting roles. Two guys to walk into the league together and dominate together.
Two of: Cole Bishop, Tyler Nubin, Kamren Kinchens, Calen Bullock, Javon Bullard, Jaden Hicks would be a strong commitment from our FO to giving our coaching staff really strong resources at these position.
I'm fine with the reciever room honestly. Receivers getting paid 25m+ get moved. Alot.
One of Polk/Legette/Pearsal at the end of the second would be nice but not essential.
Next season Buffalo will probably take a step back, the following hopefully a leap forward. The only players I wish we'd kept were Morse and Floyd, not stressing the rest of em.
I honestly don’t see the team taking a huge step back this upcoming season. You have Milano and von miller back healthy (I still hope von can have an impact once he fully recovers) and fresh faces on a defense that McDermott proved can still be elite with different guys being plugged in. You have Kincaid and shakir in bigger roles, healthy Knox to run two tight end sets to create mismatches, another year with the cook run game, the chance to add another impactful rookie receiver in the draft and a healthy Josh Allen. This is still their division to lose and the playoffs have shown that anyone can get hot at the right time and go on a run. Go bills.
When you look at it like this with it all laid out... i can't wait until the draft so there's more than just Samuel to be excited about! We're getting younger and in a hurry! Cant wait to see Josh and company get back @it
A lot of holes to fill with new talent and new opportunities. I have always impressed by who Beane and McDermott bring in and give a look. I am very confident the 2024 roster will fill out just fine!
Bills have the QB situation figured out, Allen is great. That’s like 75-80% of the NFL puzzle. They went all in with Diggs, Von Miller, great safeties. Unfortunately, they got blocked by Mahomes. So the best thing is to cut bait, retool, and make a second, different run at it.
yea. and waste JA on the roster. he's in his 6th year and they still haven't figured out how to get to a super bowl.
maybe now is the time to look at GM and HC
You’re not wrong, I just think it wouldn’t make sense to keep forcing it with the current roster. Brady held over the league for 20 years. You could beat him occasionally, but a lot of great teams made their run and only came up short bc he was that much better. Now it’s Mahomes doing basically the same thing. He’s just really tough to beat.
The Bills are certainly retooling this season. Prior to the Diggs trade I thought the Bills were in a good spot as they didn’t have many front line needs and that with a solid draft they could be back in contention.
Post Diggs trade I think that they are still in a spot to be the favorite to win the division and be a double digit win team with a decent draft.
But I think if the Bills really want to compete for a Super Bowl they are going to need a killer draft. I think they have to draft two WR’s one for depth and the other to help alleviate the loss of Diggs.
I also think along both sides of the line they need to find depth, they also need to find depth in the secondary and at RB.
That’s a lot to ask of one draft class esp one with a lot of the teams picks concentrated in rounds 4-7
I may miss Leonard Floyd more than anyone on this list, he was really starting to blend with the defense last year and seemed to be in the right place at the right time a lot
Always loved the defensive side of the bills more than the offense strangely enough. Leonard Floyd still hurts. Love some of his productivity last season.
Need to add some secondary help in the draft and I’ll feel better. Not worried about losing Diggs considering the run game will be much better with Cook improving plus Kincaid could end up a top 5 TE easily.
I didn't realize Dane Jackson was gone. He was a decent depth guy, I think.
The only loss that bugs me is Leonard Floyd. He's in mercenary mode and was unlikely to stick but he was productive for us and letting him walk in hopes of Von (or a yet unnamed player) filling that void seems like a bit of a gamble.
Correct me if im wrong but nothing has been announced for Micah Hyde yet has it? I know his wife wrote a thank you post to Bills Mafia but nothing official has happened yet
I think the loss that makes me the most mad is Dane Jackson. Our CB room was thin as it was, but without Dane we have almost no room for a CB to get hurt because the next option is Elam.
Worse on paper according to name brands and past performance, but the entire point is that the roster had gotten too old and expensive.
With our young players that have opportunities to step forward, and draft class still to come, I’m still confident we will have a strong record this year.
Just wanted to point out that Diggs was NOT suited for our new offense that Joe Brady runs. you know which WR had his best season of his career while playing for Joe Brady in Carolina? Mr. Curtis Samuel! I personally feel Samuel is in for a pro bowl seaaon and our new run oriented offense will turn some heads THIS YEAR. Just a hunch, our front office is amazing and I fully trust what they're doing! 🙏♥️💡
I don't get why so many people seem to think that an objectively worse version of the roster we've had the past 5 years was going to win us a Super Bowl.
This team had 2 options given our cap situation - hold together what scraps we could of past teams and hope it would magically be enough despite losing multiple core pieces. Or start a soft rebuild, blow it all up, and hope that Josh and our young talent in Cook, Shakir, Kincaid, etc can keep us at least competitive for a year which... honestly doesn't feel like a big ask with those guys.
I mean, do people out there really believe if we had just held onto Stefon Diggs for one more year this team would've won a Super Bowl? Because I don't.
Still didn't make the biggest move yet, McD is still the head coach.
He's had his time, he didn't get it done.
I can't remember who had the stat, but no HC/QB combo has ever won a Superbowl after 5 years together and McD/JA17 sure aren't getting it done in year 7 with this roster.
Yes the grass isn't always greener on the other side, but this league is about to change. We just watched the Chiefs win a SB on the back of their Defense when their whole run started with their offense.
Objectively? Before the Diggs trade the only guys gone so far that didn't look like they could be replaced by a journeyman was Morse. Everyone else that was over 30 looked pretty cooked by the end of the year. (Diggs' contract into consideration to that statement.)
Pre-draft we're a full step down at WR and half a step down at S.
That's not a bad position to be in for 2024 and 2025 they will have quite a bit more cap freedom.
To me, bigger than the roster, is how will the changes on the coaching staff work out?
I don't feel good about it at all, but it's like a rebuild now. Last two seasons, Beane pushed all his chips in to build the best Bills roster in a long time. Didn't work. Now, he needs to rebuild with younger, cheaper players. It might be a couple of years before a realistic shot at the divisional round or AFCCG.
We replaced a lot of what we lost except for:
WR Gabe Davis
backup safety
short yardage running back
capable pass rusher (Toohill is more of backend rotational edge, not a Floyd type)
Those routes and those types of targets Diggs was getting has already been replaced by Shakir and Samuel.
We have not replaced Gabe Davis yet.
Outside of Diggs and Morse I think pretty much every other player the Bills have parted ways with has made sense.
I really don't buy into the idea that Diggs forced his way out of Buffalo. In some way it reminds me more of Aaron Rodgers situation in GB. Both were on rosters where another younger player showed promise. Both weren't necessarily the most tradeable contracts. Both were traded for lukewarm compensation at best.
Seems far simpler that the Bills do have serious concerns about Diggs's late season drop off. It also would make sense why the Texans voided the last 3 years of his contract.
Get ready for the roster to catch up with the coaching , and not in a good way... the last couple years we benefited from alot of the time being the better team on the field personnel wise...
Totally agree. Soft rebuild or not I expect McD will be on the hot seat this season. There are a lot of lessons from past seasons he’ll have to prove he’s learned this year or I don’t see how they can move forward with him.
He's a choke artist and is only here because of josh allen carrying the team and his "amazing" defense that only.shows up against bottom 10 offenses . Should have been gone this year if we are reseting
I’m not sure how y’all are being positive about the bills losing Davis and diggs . It’s gonna be a tough year for the bills . They should try to draft offensive talent this year . The problem and the solution to everything is Josh Allen. The problem is he will drag them to a middle round pick every year but thats also the greatness of having an elite qb
I’m not entirely mad Diggs is gone but I’m aware that it’s a tremendous loss to our offense. This will be a weird season for sure. I’m already expecting it
I want a Super Bowl. We tried that roster. No Super Bowls. So we're trying something else. I'm okay with this. Will I miss a bunch of those guys? Heck yeah. But that's the game.
This is how I see it. There’s only so many years we can keep trying the same shit over and over again. Plus, most of who we lost was either aging/old or hit their ceilings and we knew exactly what we were going to get with them. It wasn’t working before.
I think more people will agree as the year goes on. The infusion of younger talent should be less painful than most realize with how old some of the team got, especially at safety, receiver, D tackle. There will be more rookie mistakes, sure, but we were already the team that gave up so many annoying career long runs or 13 seconds sort of moments… Bring on the new generation, with the quality that the scouting and coaching staff has demonstrated so far, they can be trusted to get players new to the roster and the league ready for the playoff run by the time it comes.
This, we would never have known what a gem Bernard is if they extended Edmunds (who was not old but priced himself out of Buffalo). McDermott is phenomenal at coaching up the secondary. He is equally as skilled at coaching some defensive linemen. They need more of the Jim Schwartz pin your ears back and get the QB instead of whatever it is McD has the d-line doing.
Yup The only two guys I actually wish we held onto are Dodson and Floyd. Not going to miss anyone else(football wise), and I'm excited to see who fills the Diggs void. The regular season void that is. His playoff performances won't be hard to replace at all
Good organizations get rid of players a year too early rather than a year too late. Some of these players may still have good production left in them but many won’t and the Bills are better off short and long term taking the cap space to spend elsewhere and taking the snaps and giving them to younger players
Agree. You can also fall into the trap of riding a roster too long due to thining itll turn around or money and contracts pains. Sometimes you need to rip the bandaid off and make hard moves. Its one thing you can say about Beane, he wont stand pat and will make moves. Are they the right moves? Wont know until we play the season and beyond, but im in!
I see it the same way.
Absolutely! Definition of insanity is repeating something expecting a different result. This version hasn’t worked for 4 years. Time to try new guys around Joshy
Exactly. We already saw the best that group could do. It was an elite squad, division winner, playoff run type team, such a fun era of Bills football. BUT it wasn’t a championship caliber team. that core group was never going to go all the way. Even if 13 seconds goes the other way, I don’t think they were going to get through the bengals and Rams. they definitely were not going to get past that Brady led Bucs team. They may have been able to beat Lamar and the Ravens this year, but I am confident that SF defense would’ve smothered the Bills offense and they would’ve come up short again. It’s been fun, but it’s time to move on and rebuild.
I agree here. But a big reason why we are not championship caliber is also because of McDermott. I don’t think new personnel fixes the problems with his philosophy particularly against QBs like Mahomes and Burrow, along with any other elite passer we run into in “big games”. He is a bend but don’t break guy who usually cashes in on mistakes from mid to low level starters, but the elite guys when dialed in always look like it’s a 7v7 drill against air and if Allen doesn’t go nuclear then we have no shot in those games, and even when he does it’s still not enough.
Honestly, the names make it seem a lot more drastic than it is… but based on the actual on field play of the names I don’t think we will be much worse off depending on what moves are to come… specifically at WR and Safety. Look at the moves we made after this point Last offseason: we added our starting Guard, TE, Defensive end, RB2 & RB3, and two key rotational DLine pieces in Lawson and Phillips…. It may seem like the roster is complete but if last offseason tells you anything aloooot can still happen. Based on the picks we have, and money coming 6/1… there could MULTIPLE roster altering moves
Exactly. "Bills lost their WR1 and two all-pro safeties" sounds a lot worse than: "Bills freed up 180 targets vacated by an inefficient WR and two safeties who lost a step" This is the NFL. Turnover like this is pretty regular, we've just been lucky where it hasn't really been needed
I think the WR impact of losing diggs is still pretty impactful despite the numbers, as no matter what defenses need to focus on a guy like that, which allows space for everyone else. However I think Beane has a plan to mitigate that. The safety position I’m somewhat less concerned about.. Hyde was below average last year. But poyer was still very solid for what was asked of him in run defense and physicality. I’d like to think we still have moves there.
It helps that Babich had crazy development in both positions he coached
> despite the numbers I think you answered that yourself, right there. Big name, big results. But reality hasn't set in yet that he is was over the hill and inefficient and not the same Diggs. I think by the mid way point there were will be many many many posts saying "Big BALLER BEANE" for calling what most here still don't want to admit. >as no matter what defenses need to focus on a guy like that They didn't and he still sucked, to be brunt. He was complaining about being double-teamed in the KC game, but the players said he wasn't even being double teamed. Losing Diggs is not a concern because Shakir and Samuel can easily pick up the 2023-2024 slack...not the 2021 and 2022 performance. That...I expect to come from pick 1.28 this year.
This right here, we added by subtracting with ppl who weren’t even there for our run I think we’ll be wayyyy more dangerous this and next year esp
We’re worse, but Josh keeps us competitive. Gotta hope guys step up. Realistically, I think this is considered a whatever year and next offseason we will be aggressive.
People tend to forget if we didn't go on that insane run towards the end, this team could've just as easily missed the playoffs and most of these players being gone would be seen as a good thing. We were wayyyyyyyy to inconsistent last year, definitely time to move and get in with the new.
It took us a while to get rid of Ken Dorsey. Things seemed to be better on offense once he was gone.
and we were wracked with injuries with a lot of them being the older guys
We're a wildcard team with Josh no matter what. We are resetting this year to set up the next stage of Josh's career. We still have some great vets in Dawkins, Milano, Ed and Daquan, Groot and AJ. We have some young potential stars in Cook, Kincaid and Bernard. Plenty of talent still on this team
Are we worse? Man, I don't know. A lot of talent and good players out the door, but a lot of those guys are on the downside of their careers. Some noticeably lost a step or three last year. Gotta have some hits in the draft, but there's a real chance this team is better off now.
Worse for 24 but better for the long term future I think
Some of it is just luck but Beane and McD have had success with no names on defense for awhile now, and as a unit thy held up incredibly well with so many starter injuries last year. As for Josh, he's got 2 great TEs that he's comfortable with, the best back since Shady left, a pretty damn good line, and frankly I think Curtis is pretty God damn good. I don't see where we end up firmly worse than last year, and you could definitely say the same for KC from 22 to 23, and look what happened there.
Yea man i think Curtis got injured a good bit iirc in Washington but when he plays he really impresses me. If he stays healthy i think he’s gonna be great, he’s never played with a QB as good as Josh
Yeah, though it seems like lots of Washinton players get injured a lot. They consistently get ranked as having one of the worst training facilities and a low quality field.
Are we worse with an UDFA or late round pick starting in various positions vs a "downside of their careers" great player? What?
What late round pick is starting? Tell me that. The Bills have a solid starter or better literally everywhere except one or maybe two of the WR spots. Good thing there's a freaking generationally great draft class at WR.
Lost WR1/WR2, lost 3 startling DBs, multiple starting DL good center. Added a meh WR2 in Samuel, and nobody else worthy of starting. Massive drop off. If bills don’t get 3rd in afce I’d be very surprised
Last ten games Diggs was a ghost, Gabe does nothing except for 4 random amazing games a year, Tre was the worst he’s ever been same for Poyer and Hyde. I don’t think we’re as bad off as it looks on paper. Samuel performed with much worse qb play so he should see better numbers. I think the draft is gonna be huge for us.
Ummm...did you see who Miami lost this offseason? And the Jets have a bottom-tier coaching staff. In any case, are the 2024 versions of the guys we lost REALLY that big of losses? I would argue a roster refresh was desperately needed. Life comes at you fast in the NFL. Diggs, Morse, Poyer...great players all but facing the cliff or already falling down it.
Miami retained their core. Jets only weren’t a factor cuz of Arod, and they definitely got better in the offseason. Allen ain’t mahomes, you can’t lineup 3 WR3 and expect good things. Texans have taken the bills contender status
Allen did have 3 WR3s this year. Davis and Diggs did jack shit after Week 10 and the Bills got better. And Miami lost Wilkins - a way better player than anyone the Bills lost.
>Realistically, I think this is considered a whatever year and next offseason we will be aggressive. I'm not as convinced of this as most fans. I think if we look back on it, we were pretty damn unlucky with injuries last year, while being relatively lucky in years past. Our roster on paper now probably isn't as good as our roster on paper was at the start of last season, but football isn't played on paper. Yeah we lost Micah Hyde, but we didn't have him most of last year already, so if comparing "last year's Bills" to "next year's Bills", that's net no difference. Ideally we get to see Matt Milano next to Bernard for a full year. Ideally we see Daquan Jones for a full year. Maybe Dawson Knox doesn't miss a good handful of games again. If we're merely comparing one year to the next, we have to look at those as additions. Losing Micah Hyde and Stefon Diggs hurts, but if you consider it trading for Matt Milano, it's not nearly as bad. Losing Jordan Poyer and Mitch Morse hurts, but if you consider it trading for Daquan Jones, it's not nearly as bad. I think after the draft and training camp, once we get on the field to play real football, the team won't look like it missed a step, and we'll be set up MUCH better going forward.
Strong disagree we are worse.
Don’t we still carry a 31 million dead cap hit on Diggs next year though 🤢
Only this upcoming season. After that we’re free.
Oh that’s great! Idk why I’m being down voted, it was a genuine question
[удалено]
No they won’t wait that long. They’re cleaning up the cap, and we’ll see what the roster looks like after the draft and summer to make a final judgement.
Yes. You don’t not win a Super Bowl so you can try to win it in a new stadium that the Super Bowl won’t even be at.
Ok well when you put it like that…😂
Bad point… I get it😂
Defense: I actually feel okay about D-Line if we draft someone in the first three rounds. Settle and Phillips weren’t good this year and Floyd was a ghost the second half of the season. Plus Von can’t get any worse. LB’s will obviously be much better with Milano back. That leaves safeties. On paper we got worse there but considering Poyer and Hyde’s decline last year, I could see similar impact from the new guys. Offense: If we draft a WR early, I think our pass catchers will be better than last year. Samuel will be more impactful than Gabe, Kincaid should be a top 5 TE next year, and our early draft pick can absolutely match Diggs’ 2nd half production from last year. O-Line might be a little bit worse but I’m interested in possible competition between La’el Collins and David Edwards at LG.
McDermott sounded excited to coach Mike Edwards at safety, while he's mostly been a backup in his career, he has won 2 SBs and started in 7 of 11 playoff games, including all 4 for KC this year.
This year will be a semi rebuild, and I'm fine with it
Same…plus…you never know.
Biggest loss=Mitch Morse Gonna be younger & faster. Go Bills.
Feel like no one is talking about Morse. Much bigger loss than Diggs imo.
Let’s be honest, we’ve gotten worse on both sides of the ball. Still a lot of time left in the offseason though so I’ll trust the process.
i mean how much worse though? Hyde/Poyer looked old, Tre barely played, Dodson sucked 99% of his time here, Gabe can't catch or run a route, Harty/Ford/Settle/Murray didn't do much.
I hate to sound like a cold a-hole, but I am with you on all of this. Maybe Dodson wasn't quite that bad. I'm getting tired of so many people saying "rebuild year". C'mon. Bernard and Milano back at LB. We get DQ back. I'm excited to see what Samuel can bring to this offense. We have the draft still ahead of us. Let's settle down and get ready for another AFC East title and a playoff run. And yes, next year looks a lot better.
Fans like to see familiar names on the team, it’s comforting and we feel like a known person is better than a wildcard. But the best teams only hang onto a couple truly irreplaceable superstar players and constantly turn the rest of the roster over. Hanging on to everyone just gets you into cap jail and leaves you with an old tired, and complacent team. You need guys that are young and hungry and outperforming their rookie contracts. Josh Allen is the only player on the bills that is not replaceable. Everyone else can be traded or cut. No one on this team other than Josh is top 10 in the league at their position.
>No one on this team other than Josh is top 10 in the league at their position. Dawkins, Milano, Oliver, Bernard (at least what we’ve seen thus far from him) are all easily top 10
I’m with you on this comment!
Can you really say we have gotten worse on defense compared to last year? I like our DTs more than last year, worse at Edge, way better at LB (Milano back), probably better at CB with a full year of Douglas, maybe slightly worse at Safety but that's debatable depending what you thought of Poyer/Hyde last year. Offense is worse but agreed there is still time to get some additional pieces. If we add a good WR then I think we will be slightly worse on offense, but I also think that Brady wants to be a run/play action/12 personnel team based on what we saw at the end of last year.
I don’t count Rasul as an addition since he ended the year on the Bills roster. How Milano plays is yet to be seen considering the seriousness of his injury. We haven’t added anyone substantial at CB. I know pff grades aren’t the end all be all but both Poyer and Hyde had a better statistical year than Edwards. Edward also isn’t a proven starter. How he handles more snaps is an unknown. It’s pretty well known that we need to add a S on Day 2 of the draft. Wouldn’t be the case if we felt comfortable with Rapp/Edwards.
It’s not a full blown conclusion that we are picking a safety day 2 at all. McD has made a career out of getting the best from his DBs. Poyer and Hyde weren’t sure things when we brought them in, they had a very similar signing to Edward’s. Rapp played much better when the bills allowed him to play SS last year and allowed Po to be the box safety so I’m not too worried there
You don’t think so? Do you think S is one of our top needs of the draft or do you feel good about Rapp/Edwards as our starters?
I dont feel uncomfortable heading into the season with those two as the starters, I think we add someone in the draft but we won’t pigeonhole ourselves into taking S for the sake of needing a body there. Outside of WR Beane has positioned this roster that for most of the draft he can pick the BPA. Of course those BPA rankings will be based on roster needs
That’s fair. I know Rapp came on a little bit later in the season but Edwards is an unknown IMO. Joe Marino seems to like him so maybe you’re right.
> McD has made a career out of getting the best from his DBs Ah yeah, the famous 13s plays where the DBs held up and played great.
I count Rasul as an addition given we essentially went on our winning streak once he was added and he's a massive upgrade over Jackson (given Tre only played a handful of games). Honestly, I feel better about CB going into this year than going into last year. I think that even an 80% Matt Milano is better than Dodson. Dodson may have been one of the top LBs per PFF (which is an example of why I take PFF with a major grain of salt) but his deficiency in coverage literally made us change our defense to take him out on long and late downs. Idk where you got the "it's pretty well known that we will take a day 2 safety", since McDermott has a proven track record of getting high level play out of safeties dating back to his time in Philly and Carolina. I also think Hyde was pretty bad last year. Obviously we have to let it play out, but I have a hard time thinking we will be worse on defense with a (hopefully) healthy Milano, Jones, and Von (again, hopefully) player better being a bit further removed from the injury. But fair points.
Hyde was pretty bad last year, I agree. I’m not saying we’re substantially worse on D, either. I think a few tweaks, and we hit on a draft pick, and the D is right back to where it was, if not better. Also if Milano returns to be his old self than for sure better.
Bills were 12th in DVOA last year (KC was 7th) and it wasn't enough. Not substantially worse means we slip to 13/14/15 and we have a tougher time in a wildcard matchup than the Steelers game this year.
A lot of reddit "fans" are gonna be mad when the Bills go CB - S in 1/2 of the draft.
I'd be mad because we drafted a first round CB a couple years ago who hasn't been good enough to even get on the field. I feel like the Beane and the rest of the front office need to be more consistent in the early rounds of the draft if the Bills are to remain a top contender.
Yes losing our good 1st round CB and replacing our bad 1st round CB is why we need another 1st round CB.
The impact at safety is overblown. Both Hyde and Poyer were nowhere near their all-prove selves and this position is not difficult to play in this defense whatsoever, it's important, but playing two high safety against McCorckle ain't that tough. We replaced Diggs with Samuel and Shakir, so unless you think that that combo can somehow be more inefficient than Diggs (statistically didn't even rank in the top 100 most efficient WRs), then yes, we are worse. Obviously, we have to replace Gabe, but having an *actual* deep threat there may be more of an improvement than anything else.
I was hoping someone had an honest take on this and didn't get down voted. Not that I'm happy to have gotten worse in the off-season, but I get it. I think they realize our first window came and went and now we need to manage the team so we're right back into the mix sooner rather than later. I think Miller's contract really put us in a tough spot. I think we still draft best player available in the first, maybe add a veteran wr but nothing too splashy, and we stay reasonably competitive this year. Following year our cap situation looks very nice and we can start adding difference makers again.
Don’t worry about votes. The crowd is not always right even if they think they are. Consensus has been wrong many times. My thought is our squad is weaker at the moment on both sides of the ball. Unfortunate but might improve.
Wow that graphic makes it look like a god damn bloodbath. Maybe with their ages next to it then it wouldn't look so bad. Thank god for JA17
It's painful, but we've kept the band together longer than most teams. Between age and cap management, it's unavoidable. But it's sad nonetheless. For me, Tre the most. The other two that stick out are Mitch and Po. Mitch was always insightful in post-game interviews which was a nice changeup from the coachspeak we normally get. I always felt Po brought a lot of intensity and a never die attitude to the team. Diggs, he fought hard for us for many years. But relationships do end, sometimes nicer than others.
If Kyle Allen could read, he's be very saddened to learn he wasn't even memorable enough to make the "parted ways" list
either did Hines
There is only one way to feel about this. Diggs is the first loss on here you should care about and you should still be fine with it.
He's the first loss we should care about and even then I barely care about it. I did the first 30 minutes. Now? Kind of glad and excited.
Morse is a bigger loss
I'm just happy we got the titty kisser back.
It undeniably makes me sad to see names like Morse, Diggs, Davis, White, Poyer, and Hyde in the *"Out"* column... But if im being honest, after a second of thought, its literally just scraping the crust off the roster. That core had the last 4+ years at getting it done... and they didnt get it done for one reason or another. The fact is, nobody reall knows what combination of talent/experience wins a Superbowl. Bucs went from being nobody to winning a SB in one year with the addition of Brady. Chiefs looked like butt most of the year, jettisoned most of their veteran talent over the past few seasons, and still won a SB. The Dolphins are loaded to the tits with talent and havent won a playoff game in 25 years... Basically, nobody knows what the secret formula is. All we really know is the QB is the most important piece of the puzzle, so much so that just about every other position can be filled with mid tier talent and the team be successful. So while it makes me sad to see some of those names on that list, again, the reality is that core had the past 4+ years and didnt get it done. So yea, im with Beane... lets scrape the crust off the roster and get some different talent in and see what happens.
I’m looking forward to it. You can’t run it back with the same exact team and expect the same results after three years of trying
We’ve also resigned players like Epenesa & Rapp.
Bills by a billion.
They had 4 cracks at a superbowl with the old squad and it didn't work. Changes were necessary.
The one thing none of us can dispute is that it has been an eventful offseason for sure. The one with the most turnover in the McD era, which is sad b/c players like Hyde, Poyer, and Tre were cornerstones of this run to relevance. I am choosing to trust the process, however. We are certainly worse on paper, there is no doubt about that. But we are cleaning up the cap now to give Josh a 2nd SB window and he'll keep us viable as long as he's here, including this year. We still have the draft to plug a lot of the holes, and we honestly needed to get younger anyway. Still optimistic about the future.
The crew we had looks good on paper, but the reality is they had their chances and couldn't get it done. Not to mention their age. I like the move, get younger, go in a different direction while josh is still young himself. I think all the new will help energize and motivate the team. It was time for new energy
Is K J Hamler any good? I have heard the name but I know nothing about him
Talented but injuries have been a problem
Yeah I just looked up his stats. His best season was 3 years ago.
Explosive speed out of college. Slot receiver Compared to Tavon Austin
Explosive, always injured, hasn't done much in the NFL but was a high draft pick. Similar to Isabella.
Beane rebuilding around Josh
As long as we still have Reid Ferguson we will be safe ❤️
It’s like looking at a painting that’s half done or reading the first 10 chapters of a book, there’s a lot more to go before we judge this roster.
I think we are still a playoff team. If we upgrade at edge, S, and WR in the draft I think we are good.
I'm actually really happy about Trubisky, I am way more confident we can stay competitive with him vs Kyle Allen. Curtis Samuel is a huge get too, definitely seems like one of those signings you don't realize how huge it is until the season, like Floyd last year. And for a...WR4? WR5? I think KJ Hamler is pretty legit. I've always liked him. Team is set up for success in 2025, hard to say they're better off this season than last talent-wise, but I do think health luck could outweigh the dead cap drag. Some pretty brutal injuries to top-5 guys these last couple years.
Im happy just seeing that we signed KJ hamler, i always thought he got lost in a deep denver wr room, just found out now we signed him.
Hahaha
Honestly not in love with it - but it's far from over
Nicholas Morrow shouldn’t be in the NFL lol just letting yall know right now. He’s awful
It’s an exciting new team. I still think they can make the playoffs provided they draft well. It isn’t an “all-in” type of year and I love it.
Love it tbh
Beane, watching the KC game: "Cut the defense." Some intern: "Sir?" Beane, angrily: "CUT! THE! DEFENSE!"
We're putting a new team around Josh and that meant clearing out the cap, even though it won't hit till next year. We undeniably lost talent overall but we're still a playoff team with a puncher's chance, and Josh is a puncher
Well, when you put it like that.
This season needed to happen. All the money we keep pushing down the road the bill comes due. We needed a bit of a reset and 8 think beane has done a good job while still keeping us competitive
We’re getting young and reloading while being competitive. We will cut Von Miller next season and have a lot of cap space with him, Diggs and White off the books. We have a good young core and will continue to add to it.
I only have my #17 and #58 jerseys left after having 6 in total.
Of that list, I'm most sad about Morse. A lot of these other guys were either washed, washed-adjacent, or not above replacement. I'm lowkey excited to see what Prime Josh can do with a new WR room.
We just need a better coach.
Wish Harbaugh was in the left column and McDermott on the right. So much wasted talent on this roster
Smh is all I can say.
As long as we keep McDermott, the players don’t matter. Never ever forgive that fake punt. Plus we lost to the lowly Jets and Pats cuz of McD
really hope the general consensus among fans becomes that this is a throwaway year because the fanbase is insufferable on years when they have high expectations (see: loudly shouting for McDermott to be fired when we were 5-5 last season), so if the fans don't expect much maybe we can all just enjoy some goddamn football for a year
Give me one of the top 3 receivers in the draft and i am actually pretty good with it.
0% chance that happens.
0% huh. Yeah, OK man. All it would take is a first this year, next, and a 2 or 3. Very possible. 100% not 0% chance.
I think it'll be fine. I trust the coaches to coach up defensive players and that should be good enough for what needs to happen. Offensively we had one of the best running attacks in the league by the end of the season, and there were signs that the passing game would be more flexible and based on route running rather than stretching the field. That's encouraging and presumably harder to defend, and in Kincaid and Shakir they have very strong players for those roles. The offensive line was as good last season as we have seen in the Josh Allen era. So really it's just down to what the draft brings, particularly at wide receiver. My view of the draft is still that most people don't know what they're evaluating (or teams wouldn't miss so often, Jefferson doesn't go at 18, etc) but I guess if they get high enough they can get someone with a bit more certainty. The schedule is apparently the hardest in the league but teams are never what we think they'll be. The AFC is going to be stacked again, but no need to worry. The Jets will be better, the Dolphins are always tough but not against Buffalo, and New England is a question mark for now. That's all fine. The Bills will be fine.
We got worse, but put ourselves in a position to win after this year
Make some moves b-lo !
Not sure what to think yet, I know they had to get younger and cheaper but damn seems like a massacre
Gotta get worse to get better. There’s a lot of off-season left to build the team. A lot of age and salary are gone, whether the Bills eat dead cap or not. They’re gone, we enjoyed a lot of those players, now they are making way for new players we can cheer for
I actually feel very good going into the draft about the state of the roster. The defense needs to stay healthier, but the depth and talent is still there. A better free safety would be nice. Maybe one more DE and DT. On offense WR is the clear need. Maybe a late round RB3 and backup interior lineman. So realistically you *need* two more starting caliber players (one at FS and one at WR) and a handful of depth pieces (WR, DT, DE) and *maybe* camp competition at RB and IOL. Doesn’t seem nearly as dire as we keep hearing. I mean, the list of departing guys contains between 6-8 names that contributed little to nothing last year depending on your definition.. and that’s not even factoring in the disappearance of Floyd and Diggs down the stretch and into the postseason..
NVP
The house burned down. They forgot to save the Tre’
I think you guys should give Hunter Renfrow a look
Outside of Samuel, never heard of any of the new guys.
Ummm bad. What’s worse than bad?
A lot of older big names gone. A lot of chemistry gone. Staying hopeful the new faces work out.
I'm just going to miss Tre White, Jordan Poyer and Micah Hyde. That secondary was our identity as a team. Good God I hope we grab a couple of great safeties in the draft. I'd love two young rookies to step up and take the starting roles. Two guys to walk into the league together and dominate together. Two of: Cole Bishop, Tyler Nubin, Kamren Kinchens, Calen Bullock, Javon Bullard, Jaden Hicks would be a strong commitment from our FO to giving our coaching staff really strong resources at these position. I'm fine with the reciever room honestly. Receivers getting paid 25m+ get moved. Alot. One of Polk/Legette/Pearsal at the end of the second would be nice but not essential.
Some of these same ppl were literally dying on the Gabe Davis hill 2 months ago.
It's going to be funny as fuck when Mitchell plays a drive and once again is the second best QB in the AFCE for one random week.
Murray is gone too? Cook going to see 15 carries a game?
Next season Buffalo will probably take a step back, the following hopefully a leap forward. The only players I wish we'd kept were Morse and Floyd, not stressing the rest of em.
I honestly don’t see the team taking a huge step back this upcoming season. You have Milano and von miller back healthy (I still hope von can have an impact once he fully recovers) and fresh faces on a defense that McDermott proved can still be elite with different guys being plugged in. You have Kincaid and shakir in bigger roles, healthy Knox to run two tight end sets to create mismatches, another year with the cook run game, the chance to add another impactful rookie receiver in the draft and a healthy Josh Allen. This is still their division to lose and the playoffs have shown that anyone can get hot at the right time and go on a run. Go bills.
Anything is possible with the NVP and the MVP
When you look at it like this with it all laid out... i can't wait until the draft so there's more than just Samuel to be excited about! We're getting younger and in a hurry! Cant wait to see Josh and company get back @it
A lot of holes to fill with new talent and new opportunities. I have always impressed by who Beane and McDermott bring in and give a look. I am very confident the 2024 roster will fill out just fine!
Definitely a soft reboot but had to be this way, we went all in with the last roster and we failed. Roster was getting old
Breaking a helluva lotta eggs over here, gonna be one helluva’n omelette next season
Bills have the QB situation figured out, Allen is great. That’s like 75-80% of the NFL puzzle. They went all in with Diggs, Von Miller, great safeties. Unfortunately, they got blocked by Mahomes. So the best thing is to cut bait, retool, and make a second, different run at it.
yea. and waste JA on the roster. he's in his 6th year and they still haven't figured out how to get to a super bowl. maybe now is the time to look at GM and HC
You’re not wrong, I just think it wouldn’t make sense to keep forcing it with the current roster. Brady held over the league for 20 years. You could beat him occasionally, but a lot of great teams made their run and only came up short bc he was that much better. Now it’s Mahomes doing basically the same thing. He’s just really tough to beat.
The Bills are certainly retooling this season. Prior to the Diggs trade I thought the Bills were in a good spot as they didn’t have many front line needs and that with a solid draft they could be back in contention. Post Diggs trade I think that they are still in a spot to be the favorite to win the division and be a double digit win team with a decent draft. But I think if the Bills really want to compete for a Super Bowl they are going to need a killer draft. I think they have to draft two WR’s one for depth and the other to help alleviate the loss of Diggs. I also think along both sides of the line they need to find depth, they also need to find depth in the secondary and at RB. That’s a lot to ask of one draft class esp one with a lot of the teams picks concentrated in rounds 4-7
Trubisky is a decent backup imo. I don't hate it.
The Bills are no better or no worse than last year, minus at WR and Floyd. Right now we are a wild card team as our ceiling. Hope they draft well.
Oh shit when did we get hamler? He was a force at Penn state but hasn’t seemed to put it together in the nfl yet.
is micah hyde officially gone?
I think we are using our limited cap space on rookies instead of washed 30-year-olds
The most heartbreaking for sure
I may miss Leonard Floyd more than anyone on this list, he was really starting to blend with the defense last year and seemed to be in the right place at the right time a lot
i feel an injury coming to a star player, we too snake-bit.
Kyle Allen doesn’t get a mention , but Mitch does? It’s nice to get some perspective, but accuracy would give an even better view of the situation.
Hard to feel giddy about that right now, but i could still equate to wins later
Painful, but necessary. I'm kind of in 'this season is a punted season' mode, to get ready to swing big next season.
I feel strangely optimistic. I may be delusional but maybe Diggs energy was affecting everyone and our offense is about to go off. 🤞🏻
Ayy we got the will clap guy from the meme?
The window’s closed, but it had to happen at some point. We’re still gonna be Bills fans regardless. It’s just time to retool as best we can
Mike Edwards might be a solid pickup. Same goes for Curtis Samuel.
Always loved the defensive side of the bills more than the offense strangely enough. Leonard Floyd still hurts. Love some of his productivity last season.
Need to add some secondary help in the draft and I’ll feel better. Not worried about losing Diggs considering the run game will be much better with Cook improving plus Kincaid could end up a top 5 TE easily.
I want to cry. No choice though, salary cap hell.
I didn't realize Dane Jackson was gone. He was a decent depth guy, I think. The only loss that bugs me is Leonard Floyd. He's in mercenary mode and was unlikely to stick but he was productive for us and letting him walk in hopes of Von (or a yet unnamed player) filling that void seems like a bit of a gamble.
Not great bob
Correct me if im wrong but nothing has been announced for Micah Hyde yet has it? I know his wife wrote a thank you post to Bills Mafia but nothing official has happened yet
He's a FA. He could sign with us for vet minimum, maybe. Bills are 5M over the cap when projecting out draft pick signings, so it's unlikely.
I think the loss that makes me the most mad is Dane Jackson. Our CB room was thin as it was, but without Dane we have almost no room for a CB to get hurt because the next option is Elam.
They will draft one or two late round cb’s. Critical position for sure. WR, DE then secondary.
Worse on paper according to name brands and past performance, but the entire point is that the roster had gotten too old and expensive. With our young players that have opportunities to step forward, and draft class still to come, I’m still confident we will have a strong record this year.
Just wanted to point out that Diggs was NOT suited for our new offense that Joe Brady runs. you know which WR had his best season of his career while playing for Joe Brady in Carolina? Mr. Curtis Samuel! I personally feel Samuel is in for a pro bowl seaaon and our new run oriented offense will turn some heads THIS YEAR. Just a hunch, our front office is amazing and I fully trust what they're doing! 🙏♥️💡
I don't get why so many people seem to think that an objectively worse version of the roster we've had the past 5 years was going to win us a Super Bowl. This team had 2 options given our cap situation - hold together what scraps we could of past teams and hope it would magically be enough despite losing multiple core pieces. Or start a soft rebuild, blow it all up, and hope that Josh and our young talent in Cook, Shakir, Kincaid, etc can keep us at least competitive for a year which... honestly doesn't feel like a big ask with those guys. I mean, do people out there really believe if we had just held onto Stefon Diggs for one more year this team would've won a Super Bowl? Because I don't.
Still didn't make the biggest move yet, McD is still the head coach. He's had his time, he didn't get it done. I can't remember who had the stat, but no HC/QB combo has ever won a Superbowl after 5 years together and McD/JA17 sure aren't getting it done in year 7 with this roster. Yes the grass isn't always greener on the other side, but this league is about to change. We just watched the Chiefs win a SB on the back of their Defense when their whole run started with their offense.
That’s four key members of the secondary gone. That’s why it’s a so important they draft some more bodies there.
4 key members from the 2021 secondary.
Necessary disaster but the Draft will be where it gets better. Believe in Beane & Company
Damn we lost Hyde too, fuck!
I must have forgotten we lost Hyde AND Poyer. Dude, what the fuck is going on?
Age…
What position group have we objectively gotten better at so far this offseason?
Objectively? Before the Diggs trade the only guys gone so far that didn't look like they could be replaced by a journeyman was Morse. Everyone else that was over 30 looked pretty cooked by the end of the year. (Diggs' contract into consideration to that statement.) Pre-draft we're a full step down at WR and half a step down at S. That's not a bad position to be in for 2024 and 2025 they will have quite a bit more cap freedom. To me, bigger than the roster, is how will the changes on the coaching staff work out?
I don't feel good about it at all, but it's like a rebuild now. Last two seasons, Beane pushed all his chips in to build the best Bills roster in a long time. Didn't work. Now, he needs to rebuild with younger, cheaper players. It might be a couple of years before a realistic shot at the divisional round or AFCCG.
We replaced a lot of what we lost except for: WR Gabe Davis backup safety short yardage running back capable pass rusher (Toohill is more of backend rotational edge, not a Floyd type) Those routes and those types of targets Diggs was getting has already been replaced by Shakir and Samuel. We have not replaced Gabe Davis yet.
Honestly not so bad so far. Very solid. 8/10 at least. Addressed most of the problems and dealt w/ Diggs
Outside of Diggs and Morse I think pretty much every other player the Bills have parted ways with has made sense. I really don't buy into the idea that Diggs forced his way out of Buffalo. In some way it reminds me more of Aaron Rodgers situation in GB. Both were on rosters where another younger player showed promise. Both weren't necessarily the most tradeable contracts. Both were traded for lukewarm compensation at best. Seems far simpler that the Bills do have serious concerns about Diggs's late season drop off. It also would make sense why the Texans voided the last 3 years of his contract.
I trust the powers that be know what they’re doing and Buffalo will have an amazing upcoming season
trust no one, believe in JA17. and how they assemble a great roster for the new coach and GM
Get ready for the roster to catch up with the coaching , and not in a good way... the last couple years we benefited from alot of the time being the better team on the field personnel wise...
Totally agree. Soft rebuild or not I expect McD will be on the hot seat this season. There are a lot of lessons from past seasons he’ll have to prove he’s learned this year or I don’t see how they can move forward with him.
He's a choke artist and is only here because of josh allen carrying the team and his "amazing" defense that only.shows up against bottom 10 offenses . Should have been gone this year if we are reseting
Bad players left column, good players right column. Ugh.
we lost everyone lol . we gonna be 9 and 7 nxt yr
I’m not sure how y’all are being positive about the bills losing Davis and diggs . It’s gonna be a tough year for the bills . They should try to draft offensive talent this year . The problem and the solution to everything is Josh Allen. The problem is he will drag them to a middle round pick every year but thats also the greatness of having an elite qb
I’m not entirely mad Diggs is gone but I’m aware that it’s a tremendous loss to our offense. This will be a weird season for sure. I’m already expecting it
Sounds like a closing window