WhitewalkerInPhilly

Very much. Also, the Bills were never going to be legal tampering and Day 1 bidders. More to the point, that's not how I personally view as the path to long term success. Our biggest free agent signing that wasn't a retention contract is Von Miller, and ask around here to see how popular that is. Let's not forget how the Bills slowly dragged themselves to playoff contention before Josh got here: journeymen FA to fill positions of need, draft BPA and do your best to retain your successes. Sure, we still needed a QB but that was the core that took the Bills as far as the did in 2020 and 2021.

I mean, I won't say "everything". But that amount is the difference of renegotiating Diggs or not I am quoting myself, quoting @DrDawkinstein quoting an early Cover 1 installment but here are some very basic moves that I would say 99% of this board would agree with: That puts the Bills at $9-12 million over the cap without doing the classic "convert base salary to signing bonus" outside of Josh Allen (who is worth the money and we want here a long time). I honestly will be surprised if anyone here objects to these moves. After that...it gets harder, but I am no longer worried about having to gut the roster or make extreme long term restructures to field a competitive team. With that money, I can very much see the Bills swapping Poyer for a new pair of journeyman safeties and picking up 1-2 free agents on defense and then backfilling BPA defense and WR2 in the draft.

It's sad to see the direction of the league has moved away from Best Wiliams Available

No, but there are a few signs he wouldn't be coming back. For one, his contract is over. With our cap situation, throwing money at a skill position player in his mid-30s is typically not a great investment. Two, there are legitimate reasons to think that he's going to retire. His wife put out a message on social media thanking Bills mafia right around the end of the season. He took a bad injury that might seriously affect his long term health back in 2022, and he took a neck stinger at the end of the year that had a lot of fans holding his breath. I would not blame him in the slightest for setting a hard line in the sand on what he thinks is worth playing for and retiring for his health if he doesn't see it.

same Spotrac has it at $11.5 M AAV, but again that's not impossible to swing if backloaded to 2026

2025 it's possible. I am not sure what you'd get for him that would make it worthwhile

Well thanks for reminding us how much we loved it at the time. I guess? I'm not going to pretend that the last two years were not disappointing but I find it useful to look at when and where the dropoff happened. Even in his best year Knox didn't put up crazy yards but was a massive RedZone threat I don't think it's a coincidence that along with the personal stuff and injuries going from 9 TDs to massive dropoff conincided with Daboll leaving and an uptick in RedZone a few weeks after he returned with Brady calling plays.

Exactly my plan. I think we can possibly get Daquan before he hits the market and then pick up a rotational DE and at least one S. I am also not against cutting Poyer and picking up two S's (and then drafting one in 3rd or 4th round)

OK, I thought I saw something that his contract with us would be $7M? Spotrac has his base salary as $15M. One Beane can *maybe* afford, the other we just cannot.

I do find Grossi legitimately clever in his writing. He definitely understands fanhood well. Though if you want to see suffering that matches ours, the Brandon Perna experience with the Broncos is worth a watch.

I disagree with the idea of "Diggs is out the door" but seriously, if the plan for free agency is "I want to have zero slot where we'd have to force a rookie into so we take BPA" I don't hate it. My issue is what we'd have to give up. I wouldn't shell out anything higher than a 4th.

For me part of it was that it was so dang hard to watch. Even when Philly had an arena football it was relegated to local broadcast. One advantage this time around is that it's on major networks on national broadcast.

I honestly think that last year showed that we need an upgrade from Gabe (and stat!) and with the Brinks truck that most WR2s on the market are projected at I really think the Draft is the only place to look at the moment.

It would heavily depend on the lay of the board, but I can absolutely see Carolina getting desperate. If not, at this point I am confident that the Bills can pick up an immediate starting #2 in the back end of the 1st, start of the 2nd. The question is whether they can get someone to groom as a Diggs successor or if they want someone to pair.

Personally, I would not rule out trading back to 33 if we can fleece the panthers and there are 3-4 guys Beane still likes. But if Franklin is there I would have a hard time saying no.

yeah pretty much every Bills fan I saw in the comments was going "Yes, this is what it's like to be a Bills fan" Though my favorite line is a Chiefs fan coming in at the Bills fan going "Oh, this isn't even going to take 13 seconds"

Hey, if that means he's there at 28 or the top of the 2nd, I will not complain *nods* I guess he's down with the thicness ooohahahah

He had made a nice leap in 2021. If not a massive yard gainer, he racked up 9 TD in the regular season and 2 more vs the Patriots in the playoffs which put him in a logjam of T-9th in touchdowns that year (would have been solo 8th this year). If he'd continued the trend, the money he was signed to would have been a bargain, and it would have been a successful case of retaining drafted talent. However, between his brother's deaths and injuries it hasn't worked out. He still might bounce back and have his contract worth renegotiating next year. So, not Von bad.

Bye buddy. I don't hate Gabe. I wish he had been active vs the Chiefs this January. The problem is that he's just been too danged inconsistent. We badly needed more from him this year and he delivered once a month. Even if the Bills had the money to retain him (we don't) and chose to (I wouldn't) the Bills would still need to invest in another outside WR. Even if we thought he could hang on as a #2, there is no way in hell he competes for Diggs, and the Bills need a succession plan in the works.

That's the thing though. Would you be upset if there was something in place to keep the claim of a late round pick and then let them spend the spring playing in another league? Worst case, they wash out and it's a sunk cost you've already paid, and you might get a contributing player.

You hit on two things for me: 1) I have abundantly fond memories of going to Bisons games. My dad would sometimes let us play hooky from school to sneak out and go to the home opener. Now I have a major league team in my backyard, and while the play is undoubtably superior, when I am physically at a game I am there for the experience. I want a few beers and hot dogs, and to break open some peanuts and arguably those parks are a more intimate setting. 2) I do not like that NCAA DI has become effectively a minor league. Apart from the whole "they should be student athletes" and "how are football coaches the best paid state employees" part, not everyone hits their peak at 18-20, and everything gets filtered through the lens of high powered offenses that have not worked at the NFL level. Minor leagues would answer both.

This was cropping up in the Stadium thread, and it seemed like a reasonable idea to make its own topic if people want to talk about it. I'm going to come out and say it: the play I saw from the XFL and USFL was inferior to what is in the NFL. The thing is, that's not a game breaker for me for a few reasons. I don't know about you guys, but the season has been over for maybe two weeks and I am already feeling the offseason doldrums. It's a week before Combine, three weeks until free agency, two months until the draft and five months before training camp opens. As you can see, I've been counting. Even inferior play scratches the itch for me in its run up to June. Let's be honest here: of all the big 4 sports the NFL is the only one that doesn't have an official minor league. The NBA has the G league and less officially the Euro Leagues. The NHL has prospect leagues and the AHL. With the NFL? You have the draft coming out of college and if you are not one of the top picks the players have an incredibly tenuous future. The average NFL career is 3.3 years, which means a lot of players are drafted, have a few months to try to make a mark, get cut and never see the field. It happens every year. While it's not the norm, you get guys like Kurt Warner and Romo and Jason Peters and Fred Jackson. Not everyone is in peak body shape at 21. If you want a league where you might develop a guy so he can crack a roster? How am I going to complain about that? I'm not saying I am going to sit down and breathlessly watch every game. But I'm going to try to catch a few and I hope it does well.

I'll be honest, I *want* a spring league. If Buffalo picked one up, I would try to watch. I followed the Destroyers for chrissake! It's not as good, but when I am in football withdrawal in March-June I take what I can get

The only thing I can think of it that he's entering the final year of his contract. But...I mean, that's actually not a bad thing for the Bills. In fact, that his contract will expire next year and that he has most of his salary non-guaranteed means that he's one of our prime choices to negotiate with to get our cap down.

I disagree with a couple. Milano as "injury concerns?" Dawkins is nowhere near my level of concern as Morse. I am NOT calling Spencer Brown a proven commodity after one decent season.