Hapless Bills Fan

Interesting RAS info, Thanks. My "link please" request was to Coach Tuesday regarding his comments on what type of guard Kromer likes and he obliged. So right off the bat, Bills have parted ways with the guys who had lowest RAS. IMHO Feliciano's weight loss was part of a try on his part to increase his athleticism - didn't work is my assessment. I'm a bit surprised by Dawkins. I would say he's hella athletic when he doesn't come into camp looking like he needs a man-Bra. Is that when the deadline for tenders is, Weds 1 pm?

Disagree, I think Getzenberg is better and breaks more than people think But I didn't find Marcel L-J to be a single "go to" tweetmeister myself (although I liked him as a writer), so YMMV

New contract up https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/buffalo-bills/mitch-morse-16773/ Looks like a $2.25M cap savings this season I like the move anyway. Morse had some struggles in 2020 and came back in 2021 to play really solid. He's not a big, physical bruiser of a center. I think he's an excellent player, including in run blocking, if he's used right.

You were saying? As I said: "most cap-savvy denizens wait to see what the contract actually is first", and "Spoiler: he's not getting $4M per year even if that's the AAV on the contract" As opposed to signing who? Dre Roberts rocked 3 fumbles last season, and 3 in 2020 with us. Marquez Stevenson had 2 fumbles (plus a muff) in 21 KR/PR.

Actually it appears that's wrong, too https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/buffalo-bills/isaiah-mckenzie-21914/ He signed for $4.4M total. $1.875 this year, $2.525 next year. I think the important point for McKenzie is that the Bills basically guaranteed half of this year's salary in addition to his signing bonus. My guess is that a couple teams indicated they would offer him something similar in $$ and the Bills sweetened the guarantees to bring him in.

Just a little note that McKenzie got 24% of the snaps on offense. Beasley got 62%.

I doubt the Bills offer McKenzie the deal he signed if he didn't have other suitors they had to outbid (note by outbid, I don't mean bigger number, I mean more favorable terms). He gets $1.275 guaranteed per Spotrac. As far as what McKenzie thinks about the situation, he seems like a fairly heart-on-his-sleeve guy so I'm assuming the stuff he said in his after season podcast with Ty Dunne is on point. He made it pretty clear he thinks he can start in the slot and he's looking for a bigger role. The assumption is just that he meant what he said

Previous contract before Spotrac changes it: Will be interesting to see what the new contract looks like

Dang, @YoloinOhio has competition. I was just coming here to post that IMHO Morse was the best OLman on the Bills most of the season. YMMV 🤷‍♂️ But I think letting go of Williams and extending Morse is a big clue as to what kind of OL Kromer envisions here - athletic guys, not big road graders or guys who are trying to be athletic and failing.

The local press gals and guys in alpha: Thad Brown @ThadBrown7 (W-ROC) Joe Buscaglia @JoeBuscaglia (The Athletic) Sal Capaccio @SalSports Katherine Fitzgerald @KFitz134 (TBN) Alaina Getzenberg @agetzenberg (ESPN, Marcel L-J's replacement) Matt Parrino @MattParrino [also a member here @Matt Parrino] Jay Skurski @JaySkurski (TBN) Not complete list but will get you started. Getzenberg in particular is an underappreciated gem, she is quietly very good, has built connections, and knows her stuff. National Mike Garafolo @Mike Garafolo Ian Rapoport @RapSheet Adam Schefter @AdamSchefter Beware fake accounts, those are the blue checkmark ones X's and O's Cover1 @Cover1 a bit homer at times but usually sound on football fundamentals. I usually scroll past the opening chats of their Film Room Go to Youtube, check Cover1, and subscribe Erik Turner @EricJTurner founder of Cover1, will often put film clips and assessments up on his personal twitter before they make it to Cover1. Won't tolerate disagreement, if you argue with him even from a position of knowledge, he'll block ya. Brian Baldinger @BaldyNFL love his breakdowns!!!! Yards per pass @Yardsperpass another film guy, disagree with his POV more often than above Sal Capaccio puts the little animated positions out of NFL Gamepass up on his twitter at times For draft coverage https://buffalofambase.com/author/deankindig/ (that's our AstroBot) Draftek does some interesting draft coverage www.buffalorumblings.com has some good articles - look for BruceExclusive and Skarekrow (especially interesting stuff on penalties)

I expect them to tender Bates. They may also re-sign Boettger - while I thought he did enough to get a contract, coming back from an injury as a lower-tier FA OL isn't the best look.

They need the money now. Post-June 1 cuts don't reduce the cap until....June 1

Not here, why would he? Barring injury, he knows he lost the gig as the starting RT to Spencer Brown. He thinks he can still play RT. It may be his last payday, why wouldn't he prefer to see what the market will bear? I can do it if you want me to. Enjoy your vacay

To be sure, but I do think it means Beasley is likely gone, because I don't think McKenzie would have come back to understudy behind Beasley another year. He made it clear he thinks he can start in the slot, and why wouldn't he look for that vs. re-signing here?

This is helpful, but I think it would be ore helpful to distinguish the FA from the guys still under contract. That's still Beasley, Ford, Lotulelei, and Matekavich. Color key them or something?

Depends on how well they thought Doyle came on, I guess I would also guess they plan to try to bring back both Bates and Boettger. TBH, I think Williams leaves them room to sign McKenzie and do just that (bring back Bates and Boettger) But they could have an upgrade in mind.

Link, please? And maybe quote a para or 2 for those without subscriptions?

Count on it.

Was. Not. Expecting. That. Wonder if Kromer feels he can make something of Ford; he must, to part with Williams at this point. But....I did say that I did not think he was a guy to take a pay cut, he would say "give me a cut cut" Bills save $6.3M and take on $3.6M dead cap

When you "know that Patterson wouldn't of costed (sic) $4M a year", is that because you know it would be higher? Spotrac, which works very hard at these things, has his value at $9.1M? 2 yr, $18.2M

I think it's Beane's SOP. He likes to go through FA, then the draft, then the extensions. I know we're all looking at the elephants in the corner and seeing that the Big Cap Change could come by an extension that reduces his cap hit this year, but I don't think that's how Beane works.

Seems to me I had a little look, and guards actually command higher salaries than RTs. Maybe the top 4 RTs make more than the top 4 guards, but Williams is actually the 10th highest paid RT but would be the 15th highest paid guard. I don't think he's a guy you ask to take a pay cut: I think he'd say "then give me a cut cut", and given the Bills current depth at tackle I think that would be a dingbat move.

Yeah, Milano has a $9.97M cap hit this year, that rises to $12.75 if he's cut. He will not be released, that would be Stupid. https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/buffalo-bills/matt-milano-21905/

If I were guessing, and this guess is based on McKenzie saying he had offers from 8 teams last off season, I think those teams offered McKenzie salary higher than what the Bills offered, but with very minimal guaranteed. The Bills gave him a signing bonus AND guaranteed part of his salary and I think McKenzie "gets it" that contractually guaranteed money can be more important than the lure of more money you may never see if you're cut.

So. Predictable. Do you know the specifics of the deal yet? No. You do not. So while you're sneering at math skills and declaiming about overpayment, most cap-savvy denizens wait to see what the contract actually is first. In another thread I deconstructed how Feliciano's "3 year $14.4M" contract was actually a 1 year, $4.4M contract split between last and this season. I expect when the numbers come out, we're going to see an analogous breakdown for McKenzie. Spoiler: he's not getting $4M per year even if that's the AAV on the contract. I would 100% be upset if we don't add, both at TE and WR Kumerow hasn't shown he can get open and catch the ball consistently against NFL-quality DBs. Ditto Gentry. Hodgins and Stevenson haven't shown they can play in the NFL yet. That WR room would have the properties of a creek in Missouri August, which is to say plenty rocky, and not much depth