Hapless Bills Fan

So the source of all this is a Boston sports journalist, Dale Arnold, who covers hockey for NE sports network. His claim to fame is that he was one of the first to report that Brady to Tampa was a "done deal". And even he caveats this one as "they are working on it, but they might not get it done" Meanwhile another journalist (this one a "National NFL Insider" for the Athletic) says "nothing doing" So at this point, the rumor is a bit above "just a dude on the Twitters" but not much

Ha! I think he signed it, it just took a long time for the NFL to process it. I could be wrong but at a hunch, all the reported/visualized signings that took a long time to make it to Spotrac may have incentives that had to be reviewed by the NFL to confirm if they were correctly classed as "unlikely to be earned" and therefore don't count against the cap. As for the contract size, when a guy has been traded for a pick/player swap (6th for 7th) after 1 year of big contract, then traded again for a 6th to his 3rd team in 3 years, then released from that team before the end of the season, he has to know that his value is falling fast. The contract is consistent with his current value. He may not make the team.

I thought Beane said "we might sign a few guys at for minimum contracts" or something of the sort. We just had no idea all these reported signings fell into that bucket, including Shaq

Actually a riff on this since I wouldn't want our guys breaking their nutrition plans before the season. "Truth or Dare" wing eating contest with about 5 players, like the clip with Gabe Davis and 'lil Dirty. -Fans submit questions and 15 questions get selected, maybe by a different group of players hee hee (have a Bills PR person vet the Q to be sure they're not "too much". -Each player gets asked 3 questions and has a choice between answering, or eating a Hot Wing. -Prize for fans whose questions are selected and bonus prize if the player ducks answering!

So WOW. Barkley did get a VSB contract, but for only a $25k bonus and $100k guaranteed of his salary. Total compensation to Barkley $1.145M, total cap charge to the Bills $0.920M I am looking at this and Shaq Lawson's contract (also a VSB deal) and going WHAT DID I JUST READ? We had $2.56M in cap, we just signed two vets, now we have $2.3M cap SMDH Wonder what the Bares offered Bates.

9 months from the end of November would be end of August, not July Jost a note that per SOP in athletic treatment these days, his surgery occurred 3 weeks later, Dec. 15 or 16. So add 3 weeks - mid-September earliest Even if Tre is 'ahead of schedule', Tre White, Dane Jackson, and a draft pick is not enough depth at CB

Someone on the Twitters with your same theme: Also this: Apparently they extinguished it: https://sports.yahoo.com/firefighters-needed-extinguish-flames-empower-212652110.html

ICWYDT Niiiice.

https://www.newyorkupstate.com/buffalo-bills/2022/03/dolphins-arent-losing-to-bills-this-year-following-tyreek-hill-trade-says-former-nfl-wr.html Mecole Hardman weighs in on the move:

So....who's the journalist who can get those details, hmmmmmmm?

Good Gravy what a list from Cover1. NOT Greg Tompsett's best work! Billy Price, Trey Hopkins, and JC Tretter played most of their career at C. There's usually a reason for that, and it doesn't mean they'll be good RGs Duvernay-Tardiff was seen as "needs upgrade" by KC. Why is a guy not good enough to protect Mahomes, "fine" with us? What do we think will change? Quinton Spain was a malcontent here and started on a horrid OL in Cincy. Why is that "fine"? Williams was OK here at RG, so while I'd like an upgrade, I'll grant him that Williams would be a "starting point" if we draft a rookie. Trai (spell his name correctly Greg!) Turner was a good OG in his time, would be his 9th season, might be fine Will Hernandez - has he played RG? The Giants whole OL sucked, and he seems like another 2nd round bust from that POV, but maybe he's a reclamation project Ereck (again, spell his name right, Greg!) Flowers a 1st round bust at OT for the Giants, has bounced around at LG - can he play RG? didn't stick at LG Tyrell Crosby - has played RT for the Lions, why do we think he can play RG? Maybe one or more names on that list besides Williams would be OK, but we'd all like an upgrade from Williams. See above - disagree. Especially there are three guys on that list who are C. C get help on both sides. They don't necessarily make good guards.

Can you name 5 things that you think the Bills FO does well or right? Because you seem to find nothing but constant criticism. And yet here we are, playoffs for the last 3 seasons and 4 out of 5 seasons, contending at the top of the AFC, so those "well or right" aspects must exist.

Crass to follow up my own post but I will. One of the things that I think fans don't appreciate is the grind of the 18 week season and how that plays into player performance. As the season wears on, every single OLman is nursing dings and dents. When Spencer Brown returns from "back injury" it doesn't mean his back injury is healed, it just means it's healed enough that he can get shot up with Toradol and function. Calf strains, knee sprains, ankles.... a lot of small injuries never make the injury report. One article I read reported that by mid-season, most of the OL is getting their knees drained and injected - weekly. [I hope that's an exaggeration, but...] I would be surprised if there isn't a similar dynamic on the DL The point is, when we see a guy who has not played come in to start Week 16, playing alongside and across from guys who have been slogging in the trenches for 15 weeks, that doesn't necessarily reflect the performance we'd see if he'd been slogging all season. Maybe it does, maybe it doesn't.

Who knows? There are reports linking him to the Giants, but hard to tell if they're press speculation based on coach associations, or substantial

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There are two things: 1) based on the end of the season, he appears to be a better JAG than 3 other guys we had playing in front of Josh last season 2) fans are still traumatized by the Wyatt Teller trade 3) because of the above, Ford being a 2nd round bust, and some other moves, we lack faith in the ability of this FO to evaluate OL talent But with whom is the question? I'm pretty sure Josh didn't like seeing Harrison Phillips, Beasley, and Feliciano go out the door. By report, they may have been 3 of his closest friends on the team. But all the players have to recognize it's a business.

Oh, absolutely! But it's a long step from saying "you know, if I had an extra .25 seconds to throw on these plays, it would allow me to find other options..." vs "SIGN THIS GUY FOR THIS CONTRACT!" I don't and have not seen that info, no. Whether it's out there and we've missed it, don't know.

Respectfully, it's a different place to lobby for a guy he has been working with and point out the expertise and interactions he would bring to the table as OC vs. to enter the world of OL scouting and OL player contract ROI by calling up Beane and telling him to match a specific contract for a specific OLman that has general cap implications for other moves Beane would make for the team. If you can't see the difference, don't know what to say.

Correct that the $2.43M goes back on our available cap, less the salary of a guy who would move back into the top 51 (about $0.87M) So about $1.56 goes back on Beane wishes he had $8M of cap! Currently Spotrac shows us as having $2.56M , with two signed players not yet "on the books" (Barkley and Shaq Lawson). When they are "on the books", they will bump two guys out of the top 51, providing an extra $1.72M of cap

I'd like to respectfully suggest that Josh should recognize that it's not his area of expertise to evaluate OL play - both on the Bills and around the league - or to value the contracts due players.

Not so fast. In addition to missing 2 games, Saffold missed almost 20% of the snaps last season. He needs at a minimum, quality backup. Second, who is playing RG? If it's not Bates, it might be Williams - but would Williams be a happy and motivated guy to sign for $2M or less?

If they want to keep him, Beane will have a plan

I would PPV to see McDermott dance a jig

Good question @RyanTalbotBills: What options is Ryan Bates got to weigh?

I've even wondered if Barkley would get a VSB contract with part of his salary guaranteed and the max bonus. Similar to Greg Mancz - salary of $1.12M with $0.2M guaranteed; $152,500 signing bonus for a total compensation of $1.273M which I estimate as roughly twice what I guesstimate Barkley made between practice squads and weeks on the 53 man roster last year, and roughly half what he made last year guaranteed. Cap charge to the Bills of $1,047,500, which is vet minimum plus the bonus - while that's not a lot of savings per contract, over 6 players it frees up money to sign more guys.