1 - Beane and McDermott committed to McCoy for 2018 campaign
On Wednesday at the NFL Scouting Combine, Bills head coach Sean McDermott and General Manager Brandon Beane mentioned that running back LeSean McCoy will be a critical part of the team's 2018 campaign. After all McCoy's accomplished in Buffalo, how can you blame them?
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In this past season alone, McCoy chalked up 287 carries for 1,138 yards and six touchdowns. He had the fourth-most rushing yards in the league.
McCoy was also a major threat through the air in 2017. He had 59 receptions for 448 yards and two TDs. McCoy led the team in receptions with his nearly 60 catches.
After a season where Shady sparked a majority of the Bills offense, Beane's confident his six-time Pro Bowl RB will be in Buffalo for 2018.
"Yeah. I'm planning on that," Beane said. "He obviously had the little injury at the end of the year. I give him a lot of credit to play in that Jacksonville game with the injury. That shows how competitive he is. He's healthy and ready to go. I expect him back. He'll be a big part of what we're doing in 2018."
McCoy has been as good as advertised since becoming a member of the Bills in 2015. In those three seasons, he leads the entire league in rushing yards with 3,350.
Still, there has been some speculation that the soon-to-be 30-year-old RB with a hefty contract could be moved off the roster. In 2018, McCoy will earn a base salary of $6,075,000 and will carry a cap hit of $8,950,000, according to spotrac.
Considering all McCoy's done in his three years in Buffalo, McDermott's content with the current state of the team's premier RB.
"Salary aside, I don't look at that. Right now I look at production. He has not slowed down," said McDermott. "He played all 16 games plus a playoff game for us and really gutted it out through that playoff game. The toughness element was there and the leadership. It's been fun to be around LeSean, having been around him early in his career, early in my career, now once again for both of us in Buffalo. He's a big part of the culture that we've begun to build in Buffalo."
2 - Where Beane sees depth on defensive side of ball in this draft classThere's clearly a bunch of depth at the quarterback position in the 2018 NFL Draft, but how about on the defensive side of the ball? That was among the many questions that the Bills general manager answered at the NFL Combine.
Brandon Beane, had this to say when asked what the two deepest positions are on defense in this draft class.
"I think the secondary as a whole there's some pretty good depth," said Beane. "I don't have it exactly in my head if it's more corners or safeties, but we just finished our meeting and we went through a lot of guys that we have some decent grades on in the secondary. I think that's an area at hopefully some point we can continue to add some depth there."
Regarding the safeties, the top-five in this year's draft include: Minkah Fitzpatrick (1), Derwin James (2), Ronnie Harrison (3), Jessie Bates III (4), and Justin Reid (5). That's according to Mike Mayock’s 2018 NFL Draft position rankings.
Mayock, an NFL Network draft analyst, could see a lot of teams addressing the cornerback position early in the draft. However, he feels a former Ohio State corner is the clear frontrunner at the position.
"I think we're still trying to get through the corners and figure out after Denzel Ward where everybody goes," said Mayock. "Josh Jackson, Mike Hughes, Isaiah Oliver, Jaire Alexander, Davis from Auburn. I mean, there are six guys there. I think at least four of them are going to go in the first round."
3 - Where things stand on Eric Wood's roster designationThe Bills are going to be busy preparing for the 2018 NFL Draft and the upcoming free agency period. However, there's still a situation to tend to regarding Eric Wood and his career-ending neck injury.
Buffalo Bills General Manager, Brandon Beane, shed some light on reaching a resolution with respect to his roster designation while at the NFL Combine.
"We've kind of put that on the back burner to be honest with all that's going on with free agency and the draft," said Beane. "It will get answered at the right time. We've got time. It's more about how his contract will hit the cap and we can't do anything until the new league year begins. Until that happens we'll see. Right now I'm focused on free agency and the draft."
Like Beane, Bills head coach Sean McDermott is confident the two sides will work something out. Once the new league year kicks off on Mar. 14, some proper steps can be taken.
"That process continues to unfold as we stand here today. We're still going through it and the league year hasn't begun yet," said McDermott. "Eric's a player that spent his entire career in Buffalo. That thing will take care of itself." SOCIAL MEDIA POST OF THE DAY
