Hapless Bills Fan

We chose to prioritize it otherwise. Can't say the decisions were wrong.

Well, phooey. But, he was one of the few things in that offense that worked last season.

Well, Carrucci is solid, but stuff Ballard and Reich said post-season sounded like they weren't exactly sold on Wentz as their QB of the future - Ballard more so than Reich. I can't bring exactly what struck me that way to mind, it's just an impression. Edit: as I recall, Ballard said something about the trade for Wentz that sounded a lot like "it seemed like a good idea at the time but in hindsight I regret it" - not an actual quote

Signing Keenum and rumored intention to add Barkley is as close as you can get to Beane spelling out "Bills Will Not Draft a QB" in 10 foot high letters on a beach.

Where did I say that? Jeebus. I think I wrote what I meant in reasonably plain English: "While in theory, a smart QB should be able to map the new terminology onto his existing knowledge, in practice it's apparently a helluva lotta work, so veteran backups who bounce around the league tend to stay in one or the other system."

This is just an educated guess and I'm not Yolo, but my thinking is that Brissett may be closer to Watson in playing style (he has some wheels). It may also be a chemistry thing, maybe Brissett trains off season with some of the same guys as Watson and they've developed a rapore.

LOL he got an $18.5M signing bonus. He can buy the building, Hell, he can buy the damned block!

My only concern with Keenum as a backup is that I looked through his NFL history and he's been 100% a WCO type of QB. For those who don't know, there are two main lineages of NFL offenses West Coast and Erhardt-Perkins, and while they both run many of the same play concepts, the verbiage used to describe and call the plays is very different. While in theory, a smart QB should be able to map the new terminology onto his existing knowledge, in practice it's apparently a helluva lotta work, so veteran backups who bounce around the league tend to stay in one or the other system.

Keenum is a guy who can play and win some games, for reals. A 7th round pick is nothing. Good choice for a backup, good deal on the pick. However, he has a $8.43M cap hit, of which $7.1M is new cash that the Bills must cover. Unless part of his money is staying with Cleveland, I wonder how this is going to fit under the cap. (It's possible that Cleveland is covering the roster bonus, given the timing - or it's possible that it stays with Buffalo, not clear) https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/cleveland-browns/case-keenum-10079/ Of note for those who don't remember, Keenum was the throwing arm at the other end of the "Minnesota Miracle" that defeated NO and sent the Vikes to the NFCCG vs. the Eagles in 2017. So he's comfortable throwing to Diggs!

From what Beane said about Levi Wallace, I think a deal did fall off the table. I think Levi's agents may have asked the Bills if they wanted to match Pittsburgh's incredibly reasonable and matchable offer for Wallace while McKissic's money was ringfenced in the Cap spreadsheet, so the Bills said "wow, we'd love to but we can't", and that took him from "Ticked" to "Extra Salty"

I don't know who stated that or what their credibility might be, but it sounds very unlikely to me. Under Reich as OC in Philly, Wentz looked primed for a stellar career. Subsequently, Not So Much with a side-order of rumors about being a diva and unwilling to take hard coaching. It seemed logical, when Indy needed a QB, to see if Wentz could be "rescued" by reuniting with Reich. He improved in some regards (TDs to INTs) but overall, he did not return to playing at the kind of Franchise QB level that Indy needs to compete with Mahomes, Allen, Burrow, Herbert, now Watson. He wasn't the guy they thought he would be. He didn't play up to his $21M cap hit, or the $28M he was due this year. Move on. That is all. Again, I think that's extremely doubtful, especially given the NFL's announced move away from Covid protocols. One need look no further than the Bills tight cap situation and need to re-sign or replace several positions. If one scanned the Bills Salary Cap breakdown page on Spotrac and Overthecap, several guys stood out for the high Cap hit and low Dead Money on their contracts, including Beasley, Feliciano, Klein, Matakevich, and Morse. Morse was arguably our best OLman all season and was rewarded with an extension that raised his pay but lowered his cap hit. I expect to hear about a Matakevich renegotiation or cut Any Day, but with Klein gone his value as a backup LB increases. Klein and Feliciano were strictly backups the majority of the season, so the ROI on cap isn't there and the team should cut them and move on. Beasley has been a very valuable contributor, but while his # of catches and snap count were the same in 2020 and 2021, his YPC and his first downs declined and more to the point, at the end of the season he was losing snaps to McKenzie. People have commented that his separation wasn't there this season. In addition, we have a new OC and QB coach, and it seems very likely they want to move the team in a different direction. Therefore, Beasley's ROI for cap was lower this year and is likely to be yet lower next year. If we take what Beane said at face value, Beasley felt Buffalo was no longer a "good fit" for him and his family due to his views on Covid, but I personally think that's a bit of face-saving hooey. If Beasley had a 2020-like performance again this past season I think the Bills (nicely) tell him to suck it up, he's still under contract, and instruct the player engagement folks to make it a high priority to help Beas and his family work through whatever issues they had. I think the real issue is value relative to cap space (for the Bills) and likely role/playing time (for Beasley).

I'm pretty sure my personal beliefs on these issues are no secret to anyone here, but I'd like to point out that the decision to opt out due to Covid, and the decision to not get vaccinated, are separate and not necessarily contradictory FROM THE POV OF A PRO FOOTBALL PLAYER. The one decision was made in the summer of 2020 at a time when it was unclear how well the NFL's protocols were going to be able to contain Covid inside the clubhouses and on the playing field. The other was made in the summer of 2021 when it was clear the answer was "very well contained by the protocols" The fact is, the NFLPA negotiated for vaccination to be voluntary, and a personal choice for the players. There's a ***** ton of information and misinformation out there, and I personally can't judge people as "ignorant" or "selfish" who struggle to sort through it and come to a different decision than mine, even while I disagree.

I actually think it would be naive to think it played any particular role, other than possibly from a "best ability is Availability" assessment.

Oh, Gawd, I'd blocked Corey Coleman from my mind. That was SUCH an awful move by Beane.

$5.1M for 2022 - That's Some *****!!!!! Kyle Allen is under contract to the Houston Texans. He was someone I thought might be of interest to the Bills, but he's "taken" You can look up available free agents on Spotrac: https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/free-agents/ Just select the position of interest from the drop-down and click "update"

For those unfamiliar, this guy: https://www.tmz.com/2021/06/30/los-angeles-dodgers-mlb-star-trevor-bauer-disturbing-allegations-restraining-order-alleged-assault/ Because when you've got the support of a guy who's been accused of morphing a consensual sexual encounter into choking a woman unconscious, anally raping her, and punching her in the head and neck to produce those photos, that just really reassures everyone about your character. Must feel really good for a man accused of indecent conduct and sexual assault to have that guy's public support. I See No Lies.

Beane and others explained exactly why he is upset. This time of year works very much on verbal agreements and trust, because that's in everyone's interest. The money the Bills earmark to sign McKissic is money they can't earmark to sign someone else or to re-sign their own. The money they earmark to re-sign their own is money they can't offer to McKissic. It has to be that way because deals move much faster than guys can visit the teams and actually put ink to paper. The Commanders aren't "treating other teams and players as they would like to be treated". They won't be able to negotiate their own FA deals effectively if they shake on a deal and commit money to Player A while passing up resigning or signing Player B, then after the deal is considered "done" and they ringfence the cap dollars for Player A, Player A and/or his agents negotiate a new deal with a different team. They'd consider themselves screwed. That would be chaos. It's not how it works. There are understandable reasons to back out - if the player doesn't pass a physical, if the player and his agent review the contract and there are non-standard terms in there. But "reconsidering after fan regret" when the team already turned down their chance to match and the agents and players finalized another deal with another team is not how it's supposed to work. The problem isn't that the guy wanted to stay with Washington. The problem is that Washington was kept in the loop and aware that he was negotiating a contract with Buffalo and expressed no interest in countering or negotiating until AFTER the deal was finalized, Buffalo committed their cap dollars, and the publicized deal attracted negative attention in Washington.

I understand your viewpoint. I’m just explaining why the angst over an RFA - “what are the alternatives?”

Done! Epenesa is of Samoan descent, and is in a premiere position to become the new guy the fans love to hate, too.

Overall agree, especially with the first and last para One point of disagreement is that when Star came back in 2021, he appeared to be in GREAT football shape, and playing very well in the first part of the season. That's not just my take, McDermott and Beane have that take and his snap counts back it up. Then he caught Covid and both Beane and McDermott have said he wasn't the same afterwards, and that's what the eyeballs and the snap counts show. Another perspective on Star "stealing the Bills money" is that he could have gotten injured (as Zimmer and Boettger did), or had a different illness such as C. diff infection or E coli O157:H7 or even LIsteria, that hindered his performance the rest of the season. The thing that sticks in a lot of our craws is that there was a preventive action he could have taken and chose not to, but that choice was his right under the CBA. I agree that he screwed the Bills (from a contract/Cap POV) when he opted-out for Covid.

BILLieve Bates went into the season as a backup, and finished the season ahead of the starter, who stayed benched and just got cut. We have very little cap space, and most people here don't want to see Josh Allen behind a line consisting of Dawkins-Saffold-Morse-Ford-Brown, or have the only alternative be a rookie thrown into the lineup "ready or not".

No misunderstanding. I was giving reasons supporting your point

As someone else said, some people have never gotten over Vick. I understand your viewpoint and you're entitled to it. My point, for those comparing Watson and Vick, is that Vick did go through financial, criminal justice, and NFL consequences - whether or not you find them adequate or consider them to have "closed" the issue for you. Watson has just been rewarded. No consequences.

The women in question were massage therapists, some of them licensed massage therapists, not "masseuses" giving "happy endings". Here is a story from a woman who is NOT part of the lawsuit. I heard an interview Mina Kimes did with Jenny Vrentas and Vrentas explained that she had reached out to Houston-area massage therapists as information gathering, trying to learn about their business, how they found clients, what was typical for a massage session- and when she mentioned Deshaun Watson this story came out. https://www.si.com/nfl/2021/03/29/first-hand-story-of-deshaun-watson-inappropriate-behavior-not-in-lawsuit There's probably a lot of coverage online which would be more productive if interested than re-hashing here. My understanding is that most of the cases involved what in Texas law is called "Indecent Conduct", not Sexual Assault. None of us know what happened, but you seem to lack knowledge of the "facts of the case" that are publicly available, such as the actual accusations Watson is facing. Wouldn't it be more logical and open-minded to familiarize with them first, then form your "guess" or "take" afterwards?

Right and it happened right around the time the Juju Smith Schuster move to KC happened, the Beane reaction to the McKissic situation, not to mention it could be a reaction to something that happened earlier but he just heard about, or to a joke he heard, or to some family situation - you just never know with Diggs. He's very stream-of-consciousness