Do the Bills have a Depth Problem?

mafia members podcast we we really need to pray for a healthy season after yesterday I don't have much faith in our backups I get it the bills got blown out much to much because the backups over seemed overly outmatched by the Bears backups now there were some mistakes in there as happens so I don't know that the Bears backups on any given day are necessarily 20 points better than the bills but it happens so we can talk about it I think it's interesting Luca I mean the bills are up against the cap this was kind of a cap cleanse kind of a year for the bills that they made some moves uh to get right really for next year and kind of get through this year while still putting the best team out they can compete with and when you get rid of a mitch Morse and you have to slide David Edwards into the starting lineup That is a depth piece that is no longer there and Ryan Bates is traded away for a draft pick that's a depth piece that's no longer there now it's guys like Alec Anderson and Cedric van Granger the first off the bench if something happens to an offensive line that was very healthy last year um at the wide receiver group we were just talking about now it Shakir was ready to come in anytime the bills needed you know Stefan Diggs or or Gabe Davis needed a blow Mt Hollins might be that guy this year and I know Mt Hollins is a guy that's getting a lot of love from bills Mafia but if you just look at his career he's never been that guy that you're really GNA get excited about M Hollands coming on the field I think Marquez Valdez scantling is capable of some Splash plays but if he has to play say like significant snaps for this team I don't think you feel great about that so I'm not going to go through the entire depth chart but I think this point here luuka is pretty valid that one of the the downstream effects of the roster reconstruction the bills had to do is they had to make room for more rookies on their rookie deals and that will that will eat away at your depth when you reconfigure the roster and you do it in such a I don't want to say drastic but in such a large swoop kind of way that the bills did I think the story that people wanted to pick up was how are they going to recover from all of this when it comes to their starting production and and things that are going to happen well the good news is at least offensively we'll say you have Josh Allen and Josh Allen should be able to hold hide a lot of holes that you've kind of exposed or maybe created or whatever you want to call it and done by that large swoop of moves what's not talked about is just like what you said you're creating a depth problem you're you're creating a reshuffle of the deck in the depth area where I kind of panic Less in this if you're really testing your depth at a certain point you're probably all of a sudden at least as a fan I'm no longer expecting to see win after win I I think there's kind of this it feels like there's kind of a misunderstanding of kind of okay the Kansas City Chiefs obviously they are the Pinnacle they are the standard right now in the NFL I don't think anyone's going to question that but if the Chiefs kind of have a little bit of an injury crisis I don't think anyone out there is going to be like well they're still okay because they have the best depth in the NFL too it's like on what based on what I I please tell me how you are evaluating their second and third stringers any different to anyone else in this league that their depth for a reason they're unknowns for the most part when when it truly matters and if you're really dipping deep into that pool of depth you're probably not having a large sustained success from that point on my my personal kind of recollection of this is I believe it was 2016 no 2014 Cardinals that one team that they went five QBs deep they still won 11 games but had the most miserable playoff game of all time against a losing record Carolina Panthers in Carolina and I I think they had a total of 67 yards on offense it's like it's because they started eight and one but then all of a sudden injuries just stacked up so much that you are really depending on depth and depth is not going to get you across the line much more any further and then as you see it in this biggest stage possible look that's a fourth string quarterback that's a third string linebacker that's your backup left tackle like when those things are happening people you're not going to be successful in this league even against a seven eight- one team that is hosting a playoff game that is how it they are still starters in the NFL they're probably better than those individuals you're across from that's that's the nature of the Beast so I understand where it's like hey we need everyone needs to hope for a healthy season to find success that's how this works so I'm not going to sit here and panic because the depth looked bad in a preseason game it's depth that's what happens I mean it's a little harsh the comment you made earlier in this in this exact episode but some of those guys might be driving a milk truck later on in this in this uh 2024 calendar year so that's that's the reality of the sport at this time of year and it is what it is you know one of the other positives I have right now that maybe my opinions changed speaking of depth is I feel like that uh one two three four five six seven eight I feel like there's a realistic chance all 10 of these draft picks make the make the roster and I don't think it's just a token Brandon Bean doesn't want to part with a draft pick thing I think all of these guys will have meaningful roles like Keon Coleman's gonna make the roster gonna be a starter or at least the top three receiver Cole Bishop going to make the roster even if he starts a season on short-term IR Dwayne Carter third round pick going to make the roster be in the dline rotation after that though Ray Davis projected to be the second running back on this team Cedric vanran Granger I think people saw Alec Anderson play center on Saturday and their first question was how quickly can Cedric van pran Granger be ready for second team Center um edaan Olaf fasio we haven't seen much of him he got hurt in Camp but Joe Balia said there is no shot the bills are going to subject him to waivers because he is an athletic freak and I think they eyeball him as somebody who is going to be one of their best weapons in this wild new kickoff rule that we are living in Javon Solomon this is a name I think we all start to need to start paying a little bit more attention to because of the players that I came away with on Saturday that I was most excited about Javon Solomon's at the top of the list and I don't think it's that close because we knew he had the pass rush ability but he showed well on the edges in the Run game like the only guy on the bills that really looked well on the edges uh that's not true I think Cameron Klein had a couple good Edge Edge holds but that's not the point I think Javon Solomon is a guy that really has a chance to grow into something am I saying he's gonna be the next Von Miller no I'm not um but I do I do think there is a ceiling there that's pretty exciting on a Bill's team that could really use a high ceiling on an edge player because I do think that a lot of these guys are low floor guys instead of high ceiling guys that they have in their Edge room as far as their pass rush ability he's going to be active on game days I believe or at least should be and could be that guy to come in to give them some juice on third down Tylan gyel another guy that I think is going to be that fourth tackle on the roster maybe not matter too too much this year but if injuries happen I think you could see him be in there and then dayquan Hardy a guy that played boundary on Saturday played slot on Saturday and he's right in the mix of the returner job you know he had the mistake of fair catching the ball on the two yard line it seemed like all the returners struggled with the win except for Isabella who got used to it last year mcder even said in his press conference that they need to get out to the stadium more often that's correctable Luca all these guys are gonna make the squad nine of them Travis Clayton's not making the squad the international exception he's going to be on the practice squad the bills don't even have to burn a practice squad on them the rest of the nine I think they're all gonna make it and if we're talking about depth Maybe This Year depth takes a hit there's a real shot Luca that next year we look at this roster and we look at the 2024 draft class as like a found foundational draft similar to the year that the bills got Taran Johnson Saran Neil who mattered for this team a lot on on day three and it's just like these are the kind of drafts where it doesn't seem like much right now but these could all be important players for the bills you know on a variety of levels you're you can't maintain a certain level forever people age people have injuries things like that and again being the this front office in general they made a big swoop they they they looked at it they evaluated the cap situation they evaluated the the future projection of this roster and ultimately they believed it was in their best interest to kind of on a one big swing really take a hit at the veteran presence that they had currently with the previous or not currently but with the previous regime and understanding what they had in draft Capital going into this season what they then used it for I I don't think that's a that's a stretch of kind of a call out there I think um you need those things organizations always need those things if you fail to kind of have drafts like that Josh you will never find success it just won't come because you always need to build Foundation through the draft you don't build F this isn't the you know this isn't the Yankees in the MLB where you can just buy whatever you feel like to create your roster and turn it over however you need to the NFL does not work in that way you need to eventually have it homegrown and work thanks for watching this clip from Bill's chat for the full episode you can find the link in the description while you're here we would love it if you took the time to like And subscribe that way you'll never miss when we upload new content to bills chat on YouTube a [Music]