Hapless Bills Fan

I don't think we need multiple threads for every team that might try to poach the dude off his "right of first refusal" RFA tender by the Bills

He did say that he didn't love football, he wanted to play football in order to take care of his family (said in an article on him pre-draft) but I'm told that is being misinterpreted and quoted out of context.

Does Kelvin Benjamin count? He was a trade I guess. How about the Eric Wood extension? Extension of player under contract though. I'm torn between Trent Murphy and AJ McCarron. Murphy: signed for the pass-rush chops he demo'd before he tore his ACL, became a run defender who was a liability in pass pro, and had a huge cap hit in 2020 for being a healthy inactive 6 regular season and 2 of 3 playoff games. McCarron: signed to be our "bridge" QB and let Allen sit and learn. Apparently could not grasp the offense and wound up being traded right before the season, leaving us with a horrible QB room of Peterman and Allen. Must give Honorable Mention to Vontae Davis (we've come a Long Way)

That seems gratuitous. What about you not referencing a player correctly makes me "sparky"?

I'll own it. I thought he played very well at the start of the season before he caught Covid, that Jones is the only natural fit they've signed at 1TDT, and that McDermott's love of the DT rotation would lead him to hang on to Star at least through the draft because the cap savings aren't big

Huh? Why would we let Tre' walk in 365 days? Are you thinking he won't come back from his ACL in form? Most guys seem to these days (If you mean Tremaine Edmunds, I don't think he goes by Tre. He has a brother named Trey, so that would be confusing.)

Source? Do we know that for sure? Edit: I see that's been reported by Joe Buscaglia

I'll try. A player's cap hit consists of yearly cash (salary and per-year bonuses like roster and workout). The player also gets a signing bonus fully paid to him when he signs his contract, but amortized over the years of the contract. For example, a $10.4M signing bonus on a 4 year contract would be transferred to Star's bank account immediately when he signs. but for salary cap bookkeeping, it can be divided into 4 chunks to count against the salary cap at $2.6M/year. The player can also have all or part of his yearly cash (salary and roster and option bonuses) guaranteed. In Star's case, he had $2.5M of his 2022 salary guaranteed. When the player is cut, the guaranteed part of his yearly cash counts against the cap ($2.5M for Star), as does the chunk of his signing bonus that counts against this year's cap ($2.6M for Star). The team gets credit for any non-guaranteed salary or bonuses. So that's $5.1M guaranteed for this year against Star's yearly cap hit of $9.2M, resulting in $4.1M cap savings. BUT WAIT! Now we get to the decision point: when a player is cut, any guaranteed money or amortized signing bonus from future years ALSO get charged against the cap savings. So in Star's case, he has another chunk of $2.6M signing bonus on the books for next season. That counts against the savings - so $4.1M - $2.6M means we only save $1.5M this season UNLESS - the NFL allows the team to designate two players cut during FA as "post-June 1 cuts". What that does, is allow the team to defer next year's guaranteed money or remaining chunks of amortized signing bonus to count against NEXT year's cap. It's "good for the player" because it encourages teams to release players early when they have a better chance to be signed by other teams; it's "good for the team" because they can spread out the cap hit from cutting a player over two seasons. The drawback is, the team does not realize the cap savings until after June 1. So with Star: Cut pre-June 1, $9.2M cap - $2.5M guaranteed salary - $2.6Mx2 amortized signing bonus for this year and next = $1.5M cap savings applicable NOW Cut post-June 1, $9.2M cap - $2.5M guaranteed salary - $2.6M amortized signing bonus for this year and next = $4.1M cap savings applicable June 1 AND $2.6M amortized signing bonus charged against the 2023 cap.

Official from the Bills https://www.buffalobills.com/news/bills-release-defensive-tackle-star-lotulelei

yuk yuk "rise up" and "meat", I see what you did there

At the point where the paperwork for the cut is filed with the NFL, is my understanding.

I agree with that last completely. When you count on a guy and build a roster expecting him to be there, it's an impact when he bails.

I would expect "Pre". I think the Bills have been kicking enough cans down the road; bear in mind they roll $2.6M cap hit into next season with the post-June 1, and they don't get cap space to work with now if they designate him "Post". But we'll see.

Punter. Haack still here. Epenesa. Maybe Basham? I'm actually surprised by the timing of this. I thought they would likely hang onto him through the draft and see who they got before making a call. Either they feel very comfortable that Settle can play 1TDT (or that Phillips has changed and will now do it), or they feel very decided that Star isn't "all in" and his space in the locker room is more valuable than whatever he might contribute. Will be interesting to see if he's pre- or post-June 1. From the timing, I'm actually thinking "pre"

Interesting!

This is gonna sound potentially snarky. I don't mean it that way. A 'dignity point' is a luxury possessed by people who are financially independent and have a high probability to be able to maintain their desired lifestyle (whatever that is: $300k house and canoe; $3M house and yacht) without working for another day's paycheck. If you don't have one and don't know anyone who has one, that probably doesn't describe you and the people you know. That almost certainly does describe Fitz. Of course Fitz cares about compensation. His NFL continued NFL career comes at a cost of lost time with his wife and his kids, for example. The cost has to be offset by getting some combination of (what he probably sees as) needs and wants - like the cost of a relo covered, a starter job or the chance to compete to start, etc. I'm not saying we won't possibly see Fitz here, but if he wants to keep playing and we do see him, it won't be on a Vet Salary Benefit contract. It would be at least what the Bills gave Trubisky last season or the Texans gave Kyle Allen, which was $2.5M, almost all guaranteed.

Spent time in camp with the Bills and was cut from the final roster Some more background: -Former Raiders 2017 5th round pick. Injured in 2019 and 2020. -Spent the 2021 off-season with B'lo, cut at the end of August -Signed to the Raiders PS and spent the season on and off the roster

Williams we have $3.6M dead cap while freeing $6.3M in cap space. I'm not sure I understand the "half the cost of Darryl Williams" - I guess maybe he means in terms of this year's cap hit being $4.22M vs. $8.1M for Williams? Another way to think of it is that we signed Saffold for essentially the same cap we cleared by cutting Williams. I think that's a good deal Hopefully his expressed enthusiasm about the Bills training facilities will translate into using them to get right and stay right.

I will go further - based upon scouting reports, I would say that would be a Bad Plan. https://www.nfl.com/prospects/isaiah-hodgins/3200484f-4453-7222-c7f0-678f7be73ebc OP this is in response to:"Hodgins might be your new slot receiver. Davis #2, McKenzie the #4 motion, keep the D off balance guy. They’ll also go with ALOT of 12 personnel with OJ in the fold" In particular, the "Hodgins might be your new slot receiver" idea: Guys can 100% improve and develop. McKenzie can compensate for "issues against talented press-man...release mirrored and stalled" type stuff because he DOES have the speed and quickness to worry a QB and he's also improved his cuts and become pretty strong. But a guy who's neither fast nor quick is not on a development track that says "Good candidate as slot receiver". I also love Davis - but he's not a sure fire bet to develop as the #2 we need IMHO. He's shown flashes, but he's also shown crashes (dropped TD in Ravens playoff game and a couple other critical drops) It would be a very troubling pattern to me if we don't invest a couple reasonably high draft picks on offense. Right, so why would a guy who has made $82.1M and very likely invested it wisely want to play a vet minimum contract when he could be a fan, attend games shirtless and slam beers with his friends, and be present at his kids' football and soccer games? Like I said, there's a Dignity Point.

Yeah, No. Being a fan and having a blast with the former Buffalo neighbors he's kept in touch with and his son is one thing. A business decision is something else. Just like Harrison Phillips who may have shed tears about leaving Buffalo, or Jordan Phillips, contracts are business decisions and you don't risk life and limb for a contract that is not in your business interest. He might go for a somewhat smaller contract than he could get elsewhere, but going from $3M to $5.5M to $10M to $1.06M and very minimal signing bonus is a bridge too far. Here's the info on Veteran Salary Benefit contracts (which are not just for end of career - any player with 4 years or more can sign one) https://frontofficenfl.com/2020/05/25/2020-nfl-cba-explained-veteran-salary-benefit/ One feature is that bonuses in addition to the per-game minimum salary can not exceed $137k. They're not just intended for "end of career" but in general, to help older NFL players compete successfully as a ST or backup, with newer cheaper guys. (BTW, not necessarily you, but some people seem to think Shaq and Jordan Phillips must have signed minimum contracts. I doubt they were outrageous because neither lived up to the contracts they signed post-Bills so their market has dropped. But I doubt they were VSB or minimum contracts either)

They check. And they care. There have been cases where contracts have been filed with the league and held up because there was some dispute about a prior move that cleared cap. Like for example the team traded a player to clear the cap to sign another player, but there was a SNAFU in the trade terms so the signing didn't go through until that was straightened. At this time of the year, I think there's just a backlog and also sometimes a move that's agreed on (like restructuring the contracts that clear cap space for signings) isn't signed off because the player involved is vacationing and it's not their top priority, so the contracts contingent on that can't be filed.

This. Fitz last 4 contracts were 1 yr, $10M ($6M guaranteed); 2 year, $11M ($7M guaranteed); 2x 1 year, $3M ($1.3M guaranteed. People think that a guy who has made money should be willing to work real cheap, but unless he hasn't been taking care "y'all chicken" (which Fitz has), there's a 'dignity point' where a guy who does not have to work, would rather not work than work for the minimum. We also have seen since he left Buffalo that guaranteed $$ are a thing to Fitz. He's a businessman and a family man, and he isn't going to buy a house and relocate his family and lose money on his "operating expenses" if cut.

Long term you're right about LB and S. Near term, I think OG/C and OL in general is a much higher priority than WR. We have Saffold (coming off injury) on a 1 yr contract. Even if we do keep Bates, we're very thin at OG, we need a succession plan at C, and our current swing tackle backup is Doyle, who would need to take a huge step to believe that we aren't one injury away from A Very Bad Day for Josh Allen.

A lot of them got hired back. But it's easier to change the culture when you sweep everyone out of the room and then talk to folks 1:1 and get a picture on who the sieves were and whether they'd mend their ways. I was thinking of that. But I bet Schoen wants to follow in his mentor's footsteps so that might no longer be a safe assumption