From what I understand this years draft did not have any top tier talent at the WR position. Several Wr 2-4, but no ODB, Julio, Brown, etc... in this draft.
Next year has a plethora of top end WR talent. At first I had an issue with them not taking a WR as it was a glaring need but after bringing in a few WR in FA and drafting 2 TE I don't have too much of an issue. We really needed a better OL and we completely revamped that front. I'm excited to see Allen have some time to scan the field along with the new weapons he has.
How the Patriots cheat the NFL salary cap with Tom Brady's business connections. Incredible.
It is the one position I don't quite trust there evaluation on.
Trading a 3rd for Benjamin, trading for Corey Coleman, and picking Zay Jones over Cooper Kupp just being a few examples.
A 3rd for Benjamin was fine at the time
Why not trade a 7th for a former first rounder to see what happens? Bills should make more deals like this. Pat's took a shot on him too after the Bills cut him.
No one at draft time had Kupp ranked over Jones.
None of those moves were bad moves.
Report: Patriots pay a Brady-owned company run by suspect partner
Questions linger over Tom Brady’s relationship with ‘body coach’
It's not an under the table situation.
And if it was a cap loophole, I bet other teams would have called them out on it.
Right, but once again it’s yet another example of the Patriots operating in a grey area, as they’ve become masterful at doing in order to create a competitive advantage. Maybe some people don’t care about the “spirit of the rules”, but the Pats exploit these sort of situations a lot more than any other team, and given their successes, fans and staff of other teams are going to resent them for it.
If you've seen all the drama this has caused over the past year or so, fans of other teams should be happy about it.
And honestly, Brady's wife's money far outweighs whatever money that the Pats funnel to Brady via TB12.
She made over $30M in 2016 and "only" $17M in 2017.
One article I found estimates her net worth at $400M and Brady's at $180M.
Other teams fans shouldn't be happy with it. Look what happened to the Skins and Cowboys for salary cap evasion.
Also, money is money. High net worth, low net worth, you want to maximize any money you can get.
And even if the Bills sign Ansah a pass rushing DE is a huge need..Murphy is not good and injury prone, Hughes is 31 and may not be here much longer and Lawsons 5th year option was not picked up. For the post wondering why I would want to draft a DE early next year even after signing Ansah well here's your answer. We have a horrid pass rush and need talent at the end. We haven't had a top notch pass rusher besides Hughes since Mario, and Aaron Schobel before him. We need that pass rusher who can wreck havoc and rack up 12+ sacks a year.
So someone on Two Bills dr message board looked at that list. It's the list of team needs and ranked in importance .
Apparently for the Bills it is:
1. DT
2. DE
3. TE
4. RB
5. OLB
6. OC
7. OT
If what he is seeing is correct it tells us multiple things . We already know they wanted Oliver badly.
The fact OT was at 7 and we moved up for Ford? It means we had a high ranking on him and he was clear BPA.
DT at 2 this year and we didn't really solve that with a late pick means DE is probably #1 next year .
DB not listed shows we are very happy with our current group .
RB at 4? Even with knowing Shady, Gore and Yeldon already in the room? No question it means both Shady and Gore aren't here after this season likely.
TE at 3. Is Knox the answer? Clearly they don't view Kroft as the answer long term. Could mean we are in play for a TE high next yesr too. A couple of good ones are projected in round 1.
Most importantly WR isn't listed. It meana all the "insiders" who said we were targeting a WR were horribly wrong.
Looking at the depth chart I could see a reason why.
We just added Beasley and Brown. Maybe the organization wants to know more about if Zay Jones and Foster if they are legit or if we need to move on from them. There are only so many spots available .
Beasley , Brown, Foster and Zay look like they have the top 4 spots secured at the moment . Then add in our new KR taking a spot leaves one spot left from Duke, Ray , ray and all the rest of the fringe guys. So really a high pick at WR might have had trouble seeing regular snaps.
If Jones and Foster don't develop and or Beasley or Brown don't make the impact they should , maybe next year WR becomes one of the Bills top needs.
So, Eichel or Dahlin?
True, and I fear this too. Hell, Beane hasn't shown he can put a competant offense on the field, either. I was very worried about his ability to build an offense. That being said, this offseason has me a lot more optimistic. He filled a lot of holes with some solid players.It is the one position I don't quite trust there evaluation on.
Trading a 3rd for Benjamin, trading for Corey Coleman, and picking Zay Jones over Cooper Kupp just being a few examples.
Thanks for posting - that screen shot was still blurry....
That list worries me a bit tbh. I expect this D to be far better than the O moving forward.
They need to surround Allen with talent if he has any chance of succeeding IMO.
I hate how DE is #1 on that list & would hate another high pick being used on the DL when the O still needs obvious upgrades.. I don't think a even the best D in the league can win unless the O is up there as well...