Alphadawg7

0% chance that Huntley, coming off a pro bowl, is going to want to sign with a team with 0% chance to place outside of injury. Everyone can cross Huntley off any list for the Bills because he is not coming here. I am not saying Huntley is a high quality starter, because he is not, he was a pro bowler in the way Tyrod was in Buffalo. But...Huntley is going to believe he can be and at the very least want a place he can compete to start if he doesn't find someone who is willing to sign him outright as the starter. None of those things are happening in Buffalo behind Allen.

While agree Beane is a straight shooter on many things, he isn't on all things, nor should he be. When Farwell botched the call in the 13 second debacle, they story was Farwell left on his own to take a step backwards in his career making a lateral move to a lesser team. Neither Beane nor McD would directly detail the depths of this decision even though it was publicly known Farwell made a mistake during that sequence. But rather than be made a scape goat, he was able to step down and take another job. And this is all understandable, no credible or good GM is going to air the dirty laundry behind the scenes. Not to the public or to the rest of the organization, which is why its irrelevant another poster here supposedly heard the same thing about it being Fraziers choice. Head coordinators trying to get HC jobs don't just take a year off from SB contending rosters, especially coaches coming off #1 and #2 ranked seasons for their units. Nothing about this story appears to be the "full" story. Lets not forget, the defense has been atrocious in 3 straight playoff losses. This year, Jonw Wawrow reported that during the game McD was visibly upset and yelling presnap when he saw the defenders 10 yards off the LOS on 3rd and 4 and wanted them to move up. Beane directly references this play in the end of season presser too. And McD already has had to take away play calling duties before from Frazier which resulted in a significant and immediate improvement from the defense. Everything about this sounds like McD was going to be more involved in the defense again, which is essentially the same as another demotion to Frazier and would certainly hurt his HC chances further that were already ice cold. And I think its substantially more likely Frazier took exception to this and was facing accepting it, getting fired, or quitting. Both McD and Beane seem to have a great respect for Frazier as a person, they are always talking him up for HC opportunities. So this weird story seems more like Frazier electing to "take a year off" to mitigate potential damage to his HC aspirations rather than get demoted, fired, or have to outright quit and the team being supportive of that out of respect for him and his personal goals.

Wow this is awesome news!!!! I’m looking forward to seeing what some new thinking and energy can do with the defense.

Cant compare todays deals with the larger cap to deals other players signed already in the past, they are not equally comparable.

People realize there are more than 1 round per draft right? Why is everything always about the first round pick? Especially when drafting late. Most of the top 20 WR's in football were not taken in the first round, it is not the only place to find a WR. Let the board fall the way it falls, we have plenty of holes on this team to consider with our pick, take the BPA. If its a WR, great...but it could also be an OL, RB, or even a defensive player if we suddenly have some big holes to fill. But to just say it must be a WR and then have to reach to get a WR at our pick would be a mistake. Personally, I think it will more than likely be an offensive lineman the way I think the first round board falls that will be the BPA. However, if Bijan does last to our pick, I have a hard time seeing anyone else that would still be on the board and be ranked higher than him.

Anyone who thinks this is about anything other than money is clearly mistaken. He knows this is his last contract to get any more real money, and if Buffalo was to offer him what he would get somewhere else, he would absolutely stay in Buffalo. And honestly, all this talk by him sounds a lot like a guy angling to get the Bills to pony up and make him a proper offer. Don't try and drum up some lame conspiracy theory and all this other junk. You need more gears in your gear box other than negative gear. You try and paint the most negative situation with every story.

Lmao, I mean it’s happened many times. But ok lmao

Great post, and something I have been echoing for a while as well. You will also find they also only refer to first round picks as "premium" picks but in any other thread on any other topic will refer to 2nd and 3rd picks as premium or high value too. Especially in draft threads, trade threads, etc. But when they want to insist on the team only focused on defense, suddenly 2nd and 3rd round picks have no value and only the first round picks matter. They also will ignore that these same people wanted us to draft Oliver and also ignore the context of each draft on who was on the board, priorities for the team, etc. When we took Groot, DE and pass rush was our biggest achilles heal on the team and he was their BPA on their board. When we selected Elam, CB was the weakest position on the whole team. It is not like they are making luxury picks with these first rounders. And you don't have to leave the first page of this thread to find someone already doing that. Literally completely ignoring the heavy investment of 2nd and 3rd rounders into the offense compared to the defense and now focusing on comparing first round to 6th and 7th round picks instead to try and manipulate the info to support his opinion of its been defensive heavy approach.

Again, you are missing the point. Just because Buffalo, and now Cowboys and Ravens as you put it have done good jobs at avoiding cap jail does not in any way mean cap jail doesn't exist for teams who do not properly manage it. That is like someone saying that just they haven't fallen off a bicycle and gotten hurt that no one is it risk of falling off a bike and getting hurt. The logic of it not yet happening to someone specific therefore somehow means it doesn't happen at all is not correct. No one is arguing that cap maneuvers are not possible to free up more space. But to say that no team is at risk of creating cap problems down the road if they mishandle how they do those, player contracts, roster decisions, etc is incorrect.

Just because Buffalo is not in a severe cap situation to be labeled "cap jail" (thanks to intelligent moves by Beane during his tenure here) does not mean "cap jail" does not exist. Plenty of teams have experienced it and suffered consequences as a result over the years.

I dont think its that dire, but I do think this is a critical offseason. We still have a very good roster, but I am more concerned with 2 coordinators. They are not being improved upon, and I just lack confidence in both of them. Dorsey at least has potential to improve, Frazier I fear is just always going to have the wrong approach in the playoffs when we face teams like KC and Cincy. But thats just it...you are talking "extensions"...those don't affect the cap until after their current deals expire. So doesn't matter if they hand them a truck of money this year, Burrow still has a year left and a 5th year option left on his deal, and Chase has 2 years and a 5th year option left. They have the flexibility to push their cap hits out 2 and 3 years from now if they want.

And don't forget, this year Cincy has a ton of cap space too to try and improve further and potentially widen the gap they established by looking like the better team in partial game and playoff game we played them this year. It is why I have said this is IMHO the most important offseason for Beane during the Allen era. We are going to need him to make good decisions during free agency and also a strong draft if we want to stay ahead of all the teams in our own division and keep pace with KC and Cincy.

That is the only thing you took away from that post? Lol...I didn't say he was a focal point, but he was part of the DL rotation backing up Oliver. And honestly, what does it matter, you are complaining about a guy who was brought back on a 1 year deal as the #4 DT behind Oliver, Jones, and Settle whose primary role would be to backup Oliver specifically. It literally had no impact on the cap preventing us from signing or retaining any other players last year or this offseason.

I think you are being a bit overly harsh here. All teams sign guys like these. And many of these guys were the early days where Beane was both a new GM and in the midst of having to clean up a mess of a roster and cap use by his predecessor. And many of these were short term or 1 year deals with no future cap ramifications brought in to help field a competitive team without creating cap issues that would prevent the team from improving in the subsequent years. Not to mention, several played key roles in high ranked offenses and defenses that helped us win our division, reach the playoffs, and win playoff games. Guys like Morse, Sanders, Beas, Brown, Williams all started or played key roles in our offense that has been amongst the highest scoring in the league the past 3 seasons. Guys like Addision and Star were starters on a defense that was ranked #1 in the NFL their last year here, and Phillips was good contributor for us this year on a defense than ranked #2 in the NFL despite the crazy slew of injuries to the defense. Is every signing a home run, absolutely not, but no GM has a perfect record. But Beane has a better track record than most.

Yeah, this is essentially what I was saying. And Tennessee is a great example of poor cap management costing them where as I feel like Beane is among the better GM's in the league at being smart about it.

Totally get that, I also like to check out Sportrac. I do however feel like they are often too low on projected contract values, especially in regard to the higher regarded players in free agency or due expected extensions. I would be all over Meyers at $10M, just feels unrealistic based on what we saw the WR market do last year combined with the higher cap. I would love to be wrong and land him for $10M though

Honestly those saying the cap doesn't matter at all and those saying the cap is a major issue are both incorrect really. The reality is that it really lands somewhere in the middle and other factors lend to both. Yes, it is true that it is possible for some teams who are tight on cap space or even over the cap can make maneuvers to manipulate their cap space to free up enough to make the moves they want. However, that does not mean it universally works in every situation, it has no future potential ramifications, or that it is limitless in how much cap space they can magically free up in one offseason. It is absolutely possible that teams who make these kinds of maneuvers can later find themselves in an unsurmountable cap jail situation. Does not mean they always will, but cap jail is a real thing that teams and GM's can find themselves in through poor cap management, bad contracts, and poor roster decisions. This is why cap management is an important skill set of a GM despite people falsely believing the cap doesn't matter. If your GM doesn't manage and maneuver it properly, abuses it, etc..then down the road ramifications can be significant. Which is why I always laugh at people who think it doesn't matter, because it very much does and its honestly one of the most important parts of the GM's job. And a GM who is good at cap management can definitely minimize the restrictions of the cap and make it feel less rigid or constricting. That being said, I have no concerns about us as Beane has been very good at how he has managed the cap, contract structures, player retention, etc where the deals are both good for the players and provide Beane and the team the flexibility to keep a contending roster around Josh Allen. So if there is a move they want to make, I am confident in Beane's ability to put us in position to do it and also minimize future cap risk.

IMHO Meyers is this years Christian Kirk in terms of people around here underestimating his value in free agency. He is a young ascending WR, who is also already seen as one of the better slot WR's in the NFL right now who produced on a team with a weak passing game. I doubt he signs for less than $14M this offseason and his range is IMHO is probably $14M - $16M. The WR market is just more expensive now with the higher cap and after the slew of WR deals in both free agency and extensions significantly raising their prices. Furthermore, Pats signed Nelson Algholor for $11M per season, and Meyers out performed him, so hard to see him taking a deal that is less than what Nelson got in 2021.

This is not the answer we need.

Don't forget the ones who farm "likes" around here too lol

I voted even though its pointless that you didn't include defensive players. They are going to stick to their board and go BPA, so doesn't matter you refuse to accept defense is a possibility, it is a reality. And I am all for offense at 27, just saying this thread is pointless when you don't include realistic choices. But if these people are on the board, BPA is Bijan or maybe JSN. So I voted for Bijan solely on him being BPA.

I think the guys I bolded have a good shot of being back as starters, backups/depth, or ST specialists. My higher priority players would be Phillips and Lawson.

I think I am a bit more negative on his first year report card is the issue. I do get he will get more time, and I am not pissed or anything about it. Definitely not nearly as upset about Dorsey as I am that Frazier is back. But, I am concerned on the number of things he needs to improve on all coming together this year. I thought he struggled quite a bit with situational awareness, use of personnel, play calling (especially in the redzone), creativity, and overall scheme. Everything we did the last 2/3rds of the season felt like a struggle on offense, there was no cohesiveness. It felt more like the greatness of Allen willed this offense to make points, with a lot of improvisation being the key out there. So I just hope he surprises and makes a big leap forward this year. Hearing Lee Smith talk about it gives me some optimism, but still a big concern until we see it on the field.

I think that is more the issue...our system is the core problem is my personal opinion, and its why I have turned sour on Frazier. Our number 1 and number ranked defenses were inept in the postseason the past 2 seasons which were clearly our best shots since Kelly era at a SB. Meanwhile, the very offenses that dominated us were held in check the next week and both lost to teams with the 16th and 17th ranked defenses. Additionally, after putting up 2 sacks for the Bills last year, and 4.5 sacks the 2 years prior to that...Hughes was let go and put up 9 sacks on the leagues worst team this year. Despite the fact he was labeled washed by most everyone here at his age. At some point, when our defense is hemorrhaging points and yards every post season exit and you are still not getting pressure despite the investments in the front 7 to get pressure you have to start looking at the system. Not only did we give up a FG to Chiefs in 13 seconds last year, we did it again this year in just 12 seconds at end of first half in KC. I have lost all faith in our defensive system being the right fit. I know it also has McD's fingerprints on this defense, but I think this defense can use some new thoughts and concepts to incorporate into it. Not to mention, McD already had to strip Frazier of his play calling duties before in the past, and the D instantly improved. In the Cincy game, it was reported by Tim Graham that McD was screaming when he saw our DB's ten yards off the LOS on a key 3rd and 4 as well, but Frazier and the D didn't adjust and gave up the easiest conversion. Something has to change defensively IMHO. And while I don't expect any kind of complete over haul while McD is the HC, I would like to see some new thoughts, new play calling, and new blood inserted into it.

I deleted it already...already acknowledge it was exaggerative and over the top. I know that would never happen, and it was said more to simply highlight the degree of concern I have with gambling the prime of Allen and Diggs on an inexperienced OC whose very inexperience was a glaring weakness of the offense in year 1.