BG82 Bills Mock Offseason

[BillsGuy82]

Trades

Buffalo Bills trade OT Cordy Glenn to Chicago Bears for 2018 5th round pick 

 

Re-Signings

CB EJ Gaines 

CB Leonard Johnson 

WR Deonte Thompson

DT Kyle Williams ( I believe he'll re-up for 1 more year after seeing Cousins, Star, Okafor and Wilkins come over )

 

Released

DE Jerry Hughes 

QB Tyrod Taylor

 

 

 

Free Signings 

QB Kirk Cousins 

DT Star Lotulelei

DE Alex Okafor

LB Kevin Minter

RB Jonathon Stewart ( Released by Carolina )

 

Draft

(1/21) DT Christian Wilkins, Clemson

(1/22) OT Orlando Brown, Oklahoma

(2/53) LB Tremaine Edmunds, Virginia Tech

(2/56) WR Christian Kirk, Texas A&M

(3/95) CB Jaire Alexander, Louisville 

(4/117) RB Bo Scarbrough, Alabama

 

QB - Kirk Cousins, Nathan Peterman 

RB - Shady McCoy, Jonathon Stewart, *Bo Scarbrough

FB - Patrick DiMarco

WR - Kelvin Benjamin, Brandon Tate

WR - Zay Jones, Andre Holmes

WR - *Christian Kirk, Deonte Thompson

TE - Charles Clay, Nick O'Leary

LT - Dion Dawkins

LG - Richie Incognito, Ryan Groy

C - Eric Wood

RG - Vlad Ducasse, John Miller

RT - *Orlando Brown, Jordan Mills

 

DE - Alex Okafor, Eddie Yarbrough

DT - Kyle Williams, *Christian Wilkins

DT - Star Lotulelei, Adolphus Washington

DE - Shaq Lawson, Ryan Davis

SLB - *Tremaine Edmunds, Lorenzo Alexander

MLB - Kevin Minter, Tanner Vallejo

WLB - Matt Milano

CB - Tre'Davious White, *Jaire Alexander

SS - Micah Hyde, Shamarko Thomas 

FS - Jordan Poyer

CB - EJ Gaines, Leonard Johnson

 

K - Stephen Hauschka

P - Colton Schmidt

KR - Brandon Tate

[Nick]

Talk about a dream offseason! Hard to be upset with getting Kirk, but my preference is still to draft a QB considering the contract Kirk will command. Definitely would be an exciting move for us! 

The draft is amazing, so much so that I'm not sure some of those guys will be there. Wilkins is a fantastic pick. If he's there we need to take him. Tremaine Edmunds in particular I love... I see him as a first round pick lock though. Don't find many guys at 6'5" that are athletic as he is. He's also versatile enough to play almost any LBer spot. Those things will elevate him I feel. I actually mocked him to us in the first round in my mock that I'll be posting in a couple days. If you haven't done digging on him, please do–he's IMPRESSIVE! My new crush at LBer considering getting Roquan Smith is a pipe dream for us. Slot him in for Orlando Brown, and grab a different OL in the second and you're looking good I think! That said, the Orlando Brown pick is fantastic value though, not a bad selection. 

Christian Kirk is slotted in a good spot, A+ on that one. Think he'd be a great fit for what we need at WR.

Jaire Alexander is better than the 3rd round in my opinion, but a lot can change between now and the draft. Need to watch more of him. I've seen him go as high as late 1st round though surprisingly! 

[Kmart128]

Don't think Bo will be drafted by us after his pregame antics during the Championship game. That is very selfish put the spot light on me type of thing he did. Distracts people from the game. Then he proceeded to lie about it afterwards... At least during Mayfield antics he owned up to his mistakes... Bo came out with an excuse and flat out lied. McDermott will not value that kind of thing 

Ducasse won't fit in our new Power run scheme... Gonna need a new RG with Daboll. John Miller may actually be used now. No more zone blocking for him. He may be the happiest man in Buffalo right now.

A name in free agency to watch is AP All Pro Andrew Norwell. He starts at LG for the Panthers and would be. Nice fit for our new blocking scheme.

I'd switch Holmes and Tate on the depth chart. Personally I'd let Tate go and use Cadet as a returner.

I get not having Brown on the team but I pray we could do better than Minter. Brown just had 144 tackles which led the NFL. Nothing to celebrate but when we replace him with a guy who just had 32... That's risky and a big down grade.

[Yibbyl]

With an expressed interest in getting younger as a team by Beane, I see the addition of Stewart to be very unlikely. I think we resign Cadet instead. He has proven his value and though he is only 2 years younger than Stewart, he has less mileage and would come cheaper. Also, the draft is deep at RB and I suspect we get a mid round addition that doesn't have Scarbrough's baggage. Cousins and Star would make for an incredible FA, still I'd be worried at what that would do to our Cap later. The contracts would have to be very creative and/or heavily front-loaded.

First 4 picks are sick! Truth is, with so many early picks, I can see us scoring some very impressive talent this year if we stay put. I also agree with Nick that Edmunds is too good and too versatile to last that late...doesn't mean I wouldn't want him though - just not realistic. I like that you addressed CB, but admittedly know nothing about Alexander. 

[Iamcanadian]

12 hours ago, Yibbyl said:

With an expressed interest in getting younger as a team by Beane, I see the addition of Stewart to be very unlikely. I think we resign Cadet instead. He has proven his value and though he is only 2 years younger than Stewart, he has less mileage and would come cheaper. Also, the draft is deep at RB and I suspect we get a mid round addition that doesn't have Scarbrough's baggage. Cousins and Star would make for an incredible FA, still I'd be worried at what that would do to our Cap later. The contracts would have to be very creative and/or heavily front-loaded.

First 4 picks are sick! Truth is, with so many early picks, I can see us scoring some very impressive talent this year if we stay put. I also agree with Nick that Edmunds is too good and too versatile to last that late...doesn't mean I wouldn't want him though - just not realistic. I like that you addressed CB, but admittedly know nothing about Alexander. 

Face it, FA QB's will not sign with Buffalo unless we way overpay them, they want to go to a dome or a warm climate team, where playing QB is way easier. We would have to pay Cousins close to 40 million a year to get him to come to Buffalo and his agent would get to write the contract. So I would give our chances at signing Cousins at about 5%.

Edwards isn't likely to get out of round 1 and both Alexander and Scarborough are both likely to go a round higher.

[BillsGuy82]

10 hours ago, Iamcanadian said:

Face it, FA QB's will not sign with Buffalo unless we way overpay them, they want to go to a dome or a warm climate team, where playing QB is way easier. We would have to pay Cousins close to 40 million a year to get him to come to Buffalo and his agent would get to write the contract. So I would give our chances at signing Cousins at about 5%.

Edwards isn't likely to get out of round 1 and both Alexander and Scarborough are both likely to go a round higher.

I don't get your rationale behind Cousins not wanting to play here ? I think it's a legit possibility and it's not like we're a 3-13 team in purgatory

[LeeEvans]

10 minutes ago, BillsGuy82 said:

I don't get your rationale behind Cousins not wanting to play here ? I think it's a legit possibility and it's not like we're a 3-13 team in purgatory

Yeah. I don't buy that at all either, it's just his opinion that he's putting forward as fact. He'll go to where he gets the most money and he could do a lot worse than a team like the Bills. I don't expect us to sign him but I certainly don't think he would scoff at the opportunity.

[Buffalo Fan]

I couldn't do a better offseason if I tried!!  I love us landing Cousins because we could use all our picks for needed talent at different positions.  I love Star too!!  He'd sure up our run D!!  I can see Kyle signing a 1 year deal to see if we could make a run next season and with your additions we will go farther than this season.  I don't think that Cousins will not come here I think if the money is right we are in the running.  I love going DT with our first pick in the first round.  Either LB or OL with the 22nd pick would be my dream come true.  The only problem I have is us bringing in Williams I'd rather sign Cadet he played well for us in brief action and would come cheaper.  With those additions we need to watch where we spend our money plus I think we add a back in the draft I'd love Bo but it's deep at RB so we will get a good one.  One thing you didn't do is resign Matthews I think he played injured all season and I think the Coaches know he tried to play and he could come cheap I think he would be better when healthy and could be our #2 WR with Jones in the slot?  Thank you for doing this I love Mock drafts and offseasons!!  

[Maxmw22]

It's a minor indiscretion, but I would make sure to have Tyrod under your releases.

 

I just can't see the money working. We will have a decent amount of free cap, but for Star + Cousins. I think you are looking at a Stafford contract for Cousins, 5 years $135 mil, and about $10mil+ a year for Star, plus resigning Kyle and EJ. I like your optimism, I just don't think it could work out financially.

[BillsGuy82]

Kyle might come back pretty cheap to ensure talent can be bought, I'd peg Cousins at 6/150, Star at 4/48, Gaines at 3/24 but he isn't a necessity

Taylor, Hughes released, Glenn (trade), I think we could afford it. I honestly cannot find a home for Cousins other than Washington, Buffalo, Arizona or Cincy. I'm gonna say 60% chance we get Cousins

[Yibbyl]

8 minutes ago, BillsGuy82 said:

Kyle might come back pretty cheap to ensure talent can be bought, I'd peg Cousins at 5/125, Star at 12, Gaines at 8 but he isn't a necessity

Taylor, Hughes released, Glenn (trade), I think we could afford it. I honestly cannot find a home for Cousins other than Washington, Buffalo, Arizona or Cincy. I'm gonna say 60% chance we get Cousins

Cincy?!? I hadn't heard of any interest/link. If that's the case. I'd take Dalton! It'd be a definite upgrade and a lot less money than Cousins.

[BillsGuy82]

2 minutes ago, Yibbyl said:

Cincy?!? I hadn't heard of any interest/link. If that's the case. I'd take Dalton! It'd be a definite upgrade and a lot less money than Cousins.

Cincy and Denver are darkhorses. Denver will have to deal Chris Harris + other moves or dump a combo of maybe Talib or Demaryius Thomas to afford Cousins.

I don't see him in Washington next year.

[BigMountainGoat]

I'd be sick if we released our best pass rusher and signed another washed up Carolina RB

[BigMountainGoat]

12 hours ago, BillsGuy82 said:

I don't get your rationale behind Cousins not wanting to play here ? I think it's a legit possibility and it's not like we're a 3-13 team in purgatory

We are a run first team in a small market playing outside with bad weather. That's about as undesirable as it gets

[LeeEvans]

5 hours ago, BigMountainGoat said:

We are a run first team in a small market playing outside with bad weather. That's about as undesirable as it gets

We're a run first team because we don't have a QB. Kirk played outside in the cold at Michigan State. I live in MD and he's a pretty low key guy, nothing I've ever heard about him makes me believe he cares about market size more than potential to win games. He strikes me as the type of guy who would rather join a team with potential than join a bad team in a bigger market.

Maybe I'm wrong but I've never seen anything that makes me think what you just said is fact. I still don't think we get him or maybe even go after him but I don't think our location or market size matters to him.