Hapless Bills Fan

Except that by the end of last season, he did. McDermott said Zimmer just had a "ding" that you get from football, or words to that effect. Nothing to keep him off the field.

So you're the BeaneBandit because if you could, you'd steal Beane's mojo and replace it with a pungent sock? The question isn't who spells Oliver, it's who spells Lotulelei, and the answer isn't "some dude off the street that no other team wants" We saw last year that it took Butler some time to figure out his role as a 1T in this defense . By the end of last season he was filling it capably, so we want to throw him out and bring in some other guy who may take time to figure it out - if he can do it at all? (remember Peko tried and got cut pretty quickly) If there's someone they have reason to believe is better available, they will sign him - but they won't pre-emptively cut someone who has shown they can play in this system, even if they do nothing for you. I listened to McDermott's presser and I don't think he intended to give the impression IR was coming. He said he didn't know as much as he'd like, doctors were still reviewing films. He said nothing "long term" as far as he knew as yet, maybe a couple of weeks. I think his intent was to say Phillips might be on the long end and others on the short end of that. But of course, with these injuries there is often swelling and the trainers have to get that down before there can be a good quality MRI to tell what's really going on in there.

Oh yeah Hyde made it clear the team loves and respects " 'lil Dirty" but also that "we hate it when he makes a play" (because he tells them ALL about it) I just have the impression McKenzie doesn't give Diggs what Diggs sees as "his propers", and Diggs maybe isn't as generously helpful as he is to some of the other young players. But hopefully @Motorin' and @Bangarang and others are right and it's more of a "lil bro/big bro" thing where they'll talk trash to each other and compete but underneath it they help each other and nobody else better mess with either of 'em

Does anyone else think from the little exchange captured there, maybe Diggs and McKenzie don't like each other too much?

Yeah, Wood missed 6 games of his rookie season and 7 games of his 3rd year on IR. Then, depending on who you listen to, he either had better luck or he learned how to play "within himself" better to avoid injury.

So here's the problem with that last: this is Phillips' contract year, 4th year. If we IR him this year, he's a FA next year, with a track record of 1 OK season + 3 games, remainder of 1 season on IR, and a "return year" where he was a healthy scratch 1/4 of the season. That's not gonna get him much of a new contract. If the Bills IR him for the season, he's gonna ask for an injury settlement/release and, if unclaimed, try to catch on somewhere else once he's healthy and can work out, so he can show he's worth a decent 2nd contract. As to "what other team?" it would be a team with a relatively weak DL that thinks he's an improvement on their other players based on his film this preseason and at the end of last season.

Good point - as a player with 3 seasons, Phillips is subject to waivers, so an injury settlement would have him "waived, injured" meaning another team could claim him.

again, not quite - there is a 6 week "signing moratorium" but the player can be re-signed (and the NFL doesn't control the terms of the new contract). Let's use Phillips as an example. Suppose Phillips accepts a 5 week injury settlement starting now. He gets 3 weeks of preseason plus 2 weeks of his $51,000 per game salary, then the Bills can't re-sign him for 6 weeks (costing him $306,000 in salary). Suppose the offers he gets to sign are from teams he really doesn't want to play for - the Lions, Jets, and Bengals, say. The Bills could re-sign him in Week 9 at a salary of $85,000/week, which would cover his missing 6 weeks of salary. This is all theoretical of course.

This last is not quite correct. The team can re-sign the player, but not until the end of his injury settlement + 6 weeks. So, using the example of a 5 week injury settlement with 3 weeks left in the pre-season, the Bills could re-sign Phillips after week 8.

It depends upon how many years the player has in the league as well as their contract. Many veterans have a contract where their salary is fully guaranteed for injury. As a 3rd round pick, I don't think Phillips has that nor, entering his 4th season, does the "vested veteran salary benefit" where he gets his full season salary even if cut, apply if he's on the roster Day 1. If a young player who does not have injury guarantees or a vested veteran benefit after 4 years in the league is injured, the team can place him on IR (in which case he gets paid, but can't play). For a player like Phillips in a contract year, he may want to return and show he can play so as to earn a better contract next season. Or, he may want to rehab and rehabilitate away from the team facility, at a place of his own choosing. In that case, the player asks for an injury settlement. The team and the player's representatives first agree on the normal course of rehabilitating the injury. Say Phillips has a sprained (but not torn) ACL, which is a 4-6 week rehab. The parties agree on a 5 week settlement. There's 3 weeks until Opening Day. Phillips would be released with 2 weeks salary (5 weeks - 3 weeks of preseason), which for him would be about $102,000. The team also pays the cost of his medical treatment and rehabilitation, as well as for a 2nd medical opinion if he wants one. This is an old article but I don't believe it's changed substantially. https://www.nationalfootballpost.com/columns/off-the-field/what-is-an-injury-settlement/

Right. So what we did last year with (I believe it was) Tommy Sweeney could work. Sweeney, who had a foot injury, was on the initial 53. To accomodate him, we actually cut a player we truly wanted to keep, Andre Roberts, whom other teams immediately tried to sign. Roberts had a "gentleman's agreement" with Beane, which he honored. As soon as the season began, Sweeney was placed on IR and Roberts was re-signed at his original contract, but with his season's salary fully guaranteed as it would have been if he'd been on the 53 man roster opening day.

Yeah, especially with a glut at DT and DE, I think Phillips is on the IR.

Fair to bump this one, I guess. OK, Sal Capaccio's roster list, current as far as I know. Take a look. Also helpful to look at the snap counts for the Bears game. Guys at the top of the depth chart who got no or few snaps may be "close to lock" status, but guys at the bottom of the depth chart who got few or no snaps, and those in the 4th Q, are potential cuts.

Except...clearly the Bills want to work Epenesa into the rotation and hasn't he been exclusively on the R? I agree that we need to keep or IR Stevenson. The Bills drafted him knowing he was a developmental receiver who had that uncoachable "speed" trait, you can't expect to achieve that if you cut such players. My hope is that the Bills have been trying Kumerow at gunner and see enough there they'll be willing to part with Taiwan Jones, then go with 3 RB to open another WR spot as well as go with 2 TE and PS Sweeney or whichever of the developmental TE looks best.

He was a fumbling machine in Denver, no question, but he was also a rookie, and sometimes that's a problem that can be coached. From some stuff here and there, I don't think he got sound coaching on the fundamentals in Mile High Town. He had a good chance in B'lo IMO in 2018 - but after 16 punts, a muff, and a fumble, the Bills pulled the plug, put Hyde back there, and signed Roberts in the offseason. But it's worth noting that they did put McKenzie back in to return punts the last 3 games of 2018 with no muffs or other excitement. He did. I said elsewhere his Miami game scared me. But again, practice, coaching. The Miami move that concerned me more wasn't the bobble, it was a punt he correctly waved off, but remained in a position where the ball damn near hit him, while he was surrounded by defenders and would have had no chance at the ball. I don't know if that's situational awareness that can be coached or not. I don't follow this calculation. I think what you did is to say he had 8 fumbles his first 2 years in the league, during which time he returned punts in 16 games. But that would be nonsensical, because we all know there's an "aging curve" in Football as there is in Baseball, where a player's overall performance can not be predicted with any accuracy by extrapolating from their first year. And the fact that he had 6 fumbles in 21 punt returns his first season, then 2 fumbles in 16 punt returns his second season, supports that general principle. They aren't all muffs, either - one of the two in B'lo was ball security during a return that he's clearly been working on. It's not looking great, I grant that. But there's no need for exaggeration either.

The hesitation in getting the ball off is my concern for Haack. He can't boom them like Bojo could, but Bojo kicked into the EZ a lot, while Haack (I think) did a better job of putting the punts inside the 20.

I think you're thinking like Brandon Beane. https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/buffalo-bills/daryl-williams-16828/ If the Bills part way with Williams in the off-season next year, they have $3.6M dead cap (signing bonus) - his 2022 salary doesn't guarantee until the 5th day of 2022. So basically, Williams has a 3 year, #9 RT deal that could be seen as a 1 yr, $9.4M (#4 for RT) deal. If the Bills like Brown as their RT next season, they could move on from Williams for a savings of $5.3M. If Williams plays well this season, he would easily gain a better deal somewhere else with 2 years of top RT play after comeback, so it's kind of a win-win for him too.

I'm not so sure about that offense or ST skillset "another younger player doesn't already offer". Kumerow was "lights out" on ST last season. From reports, he's been playing lights out on ST this camp. Kumerow is also a capable downfield blocker (at least 1 plays I saw from PS game 1) can block in the backfield - I have a film clip of him somewhere just sweeping a premier pass rusher along the LOS and out of the picture to spring a big run play. So those are things Stevenson doesn't offer. As far as wanting a "backup plan" to McKenzie, keep in mind the reason McKenzie is in the lead for the KR/PR race is that Stevenson and Powell have not looked as good or as consistent in practice. So if you're trying to "hedge" your McKenzie bets, Stevenson might not be the guy you do it with - you want to count on the guy who has looked worse in practice? Powell has at least done it on Sunday in the league for Atlanta. I do agree that Kumerow could have locked his spot with a more consistent performance yesterday, and he didn't clinch it.

I understand that viewpoint, but IMHO both are "not good enough". That's been the story of Knox, too - amazing high degree of difficulty toe-tapping contested catches, and a number of drops in situations which would have converted 3rd down. To make it to the next level, we Need those plays. I don't know. I think Devey is a decent guard. They've been looking for positional flexibility from him, and I think the answer to "can he play tackle?" "can he play guard?" is No. How many do we cut this Tues? That was amazingly beautiful. "Rookie! Welcome to the NF....DAMN!" Am I the only one who thinks Brown looks more comfortable at RT? I was thinking they were focusing him at LT on the "do one thing well" principle, but I'm now wondering if they think he has RT down, and were challenging him for positional flexibility

I know Soldier Field is grass, but in general the belief seems to be that Astroturf is actually harder on knees and that playing/practicing on turf all the time causes more knee stress that results in more injuries. And no I don't have data to back that up, it was in an article I read that OLmen hate turf.

OK, who on the list I posted from NFL.com for the game are the starting WR? Open Q, I have no idea how the Bears pre-season depthchart is pencilled in.

I can't argue with that for either player. McKenzie made me nervous in the Miami game. Knox has me singing Cranberries ("What's in your Head? In your Head?") but I try to have faith in the reports he has had a much better camp as far as route running and release and I have to remember that improvement at a physical/mental is not linear - there will be steps forward and steps back. On the other hand, Roberts last year was not the "worry free ST ace" we needed him to be, either (IMO).

I'm not sure the staff sees TE as a competition either, but I think they should. But as I said elsewhere for Kumerow, hopefully the "growth mindset" kicks in and Knox realizes he has more work to do. Wallace did not show up on the snap counts Sal Capaccio posted. I think this game showed if the Q is "who is our backup outside corner?" the A is not "Neal". I think Jackson is more of a work in progress than the Bills thought going into preseason. If there is one roster move I would like the Bills to make, it would be at CB. I feel the Bills were methodically looking at depth - last week, Fromm got later snaps and Webb earlier with better players around him, and Webb looked better. This week, Webb got the snaps with the "dregs" at OL while Fromm had better OL and WR, and Webb still looked better.

Kumerow may be a mismatch, but he needs to get open and catch 'em. That was his problem in the regular season in GB - he would disappear, and when he was targeted most (21 targets in 2019) his catch % was low (57%). Still the Bills have good WR coaching so I expect they will work with him and he seems to have that "growth mindset" Thought Stevenson was a foot/ankle? He was seen wearing a walking boot later? His toe tap on the sideline was great, and so was that TD reception, but the 2 drops were bad. I guess it's a matter of perception whether the good outweighs the bad.

Total regardless of which team recovered. McKenzie has not had 2 fumbles in one game with the Bills or in 2018.