appoo

You raise a good point here, I forgot about COVID, and figured the CAP would be in the 210M range. If it's set at 175M, there's going to be a huge contractions of vets. We wouldn't be be able to replace most of those players.

Mario Addison (+6M) Vernon Butler (+6.8M) Lee Smith (2.3M) Give you the space to resign Milano to the 21 cap. You extend Allen to impact the 2022 cap, where they'll have about 80M in space assuming trading and then extending Ertz, re-signing Milano, with White, Diggs, and Morse all signed. You can structure Allen's extension in such a way where a HUGE chunk of it goes into the 2022 cap. The 21 Bills are going to be loaded. The 22 Bills should have a very solid base, with Allen, Moss, Singletary, Diggs, and Ertz as your offensive core, with White, Poyer, Edwards, Oliver, AJ, and Milano still aboard, and about 30M in space to fill the roster. 23 Allen's hit starts to fade, and you get your Oliver hit. In the meantime, you're drafting RTs, WRs, and Safeties to protect against the purges in those positions.

Cole Beasley + 2nd would likely land Ertz, in terms of balancing the cap. You would have him running those middle, possession and seam routes instead of Cole as well, and you can do more with Gabe Davis. You can extend him in such a way that you probably limit his cap hit to 8-12M, or put another way, 2 - 5M more of a cap hit than Cole Beasley the next 3 years. Basically, this is not a huge deal for the Bills. They can easily work around this. Especially considering Ertz is an absolute stud. The Bill haven't had a SB window since Jim Kelly retired. They have one now. They should do pretty much everything to maximize that opportunity. The CAP isn't a huge blockage, a low 2nd round pick shouldn't stop you. Upgrading your slot, seam and middle from Beasley to Ertz is absolutely not going to stop you.

I think they'd be interested in size, though not necessarily at WR.

Far better target, though I'm not sure we could make that work without making a serious cut

Looking at their cap I think the only way that would work would be if they sent back one of Devante Adams, David Bakhtiari, or Corey Linsley. They have a ton of Dead Cap space

We'd be about $6M short of cap space even if we included Brown

Also OBJ's contract is pretty friendly. You can cut him in the offseason without a dead cap hit.

Odell has a dead cap hit of 14M. That tells you how much the Browns are sick of him that they'd eat that much. His 14M cap hit means there's about 10 teams who have the space to take his contract. New York Jets - rebuilding wouldn't do it Jacksonville Jaguars - rebuilding wouldn't it New England Patriots - possible Dallas Cowboys - don't need Washington Football Team - hmmm Denver Broncos - just drafted a 1st/2nd round WR, have Cortland Sutton Philadelphia Eagles - hmmmm Detroit Lions - with Matt Patricia's job on the line, this might be a good spot for him Miami Dolphins - rebuilding, wouldn't do it. So of that list, I think the Lions are the most logical spot. A desperate HC/GM, a strong armed QB, a team that may or may not be ready to contend for a wold card

a 4th round pick isn't going to help them

The John Brown ~ Josh Allen Chemistry is too valuable to give that up right now (and you'd have to send Brown back the other way, or possibly Cole Beasley, but regardless that's a big change in the offense)

Besides, the real issue is going to be Josh Allen. His cap number is going to up by ~ 30M in 2022, and that is going to be basically a brand new team outside the core - and you very much want Ertz to be a part of that core, as he should continue to be elite for another 4 years.

Not really. Trade for Ertz and he'll fit almost perfectly into our current cap space thanks to dead money. We don't even need to trade anyone. We can get him for a 2nd and just eat his cap as is. You re-sign Ertz, sign him to a huge sign on (~20M, 4 years), and then backload the guaranteed money to years 3 and 4. That means next year you could lower his cap hit to ~7-9M.. Milano you can do the same, and his value is probably similar - so another 7-9M cap hit. So about 14- 18M you want to clear. Addison +6M Quentin Spain (+4M) Restructure Star (extend him 3 years, lower his cap hit to about 2-3M, save about 4M) Vernon Butler (+6.8M) Lee Smith (+2.2M) And there you go. We already have AJ to replace Addison, we can easily draft a new starting gaurd, a backup DT, TE- and keep the only FA of note, Milano, and keep someone like Ertz. This van ABSOLUTELY happen. Bills should go for this, because their window is NOW. How about a world cup winner?

I started this thread like a week before game 1 when word of Ertz's contract issues surfaced. Here's the thing - The Bills likely have a 2-3 year window at most. 1) Allen likely gets paid next year 2) Milano will get paid this off season 3) In 2 years, Oliver will get paid 4) John Brown and Cole Beasley probably will degrade next year 5) Quinton Spain is 29, Mitch Morse is 28, Daryl Williams is 28, Ty Neshke is 34. Outside of Ford, Dawkins and Bates the line is going to have to get overhauled in about 2 years . CURRENTLY, the Bills have a glaring hole at not only TE, but in terms of a large target in general. We don't have size outside of the rookie, other than a very aberage TE in Dawson Knox. Ertz is one of the 3 best TEs in the League, flat out, in his prime. His cap hit, if sign and extend for 3 years, would be about $12M. 5.3M in Cap Space now, about $4M next year, and we can easily free up more with off season cuts to folks like Mario Addison (+6M), Star (+4M), and Cole Beasley (+4M). Adding Ertz means you eat a bit of depth by replacing vets with rookies or cheap F/A NEXT year, but it also means you have an even better shot at winning this thing this year or next year. You do this every opportunity you get. Ertz turns a really good offense, to one of the 3 best in the NFL, with probably the best weapons of any team in the league.

Or Hooper money. https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/cleveland-browns/austin-hooper-19035/ 12M a year going to him, 9-11 in cap hit for the next 3 years. Think that's a good deal for the Bills given they're in win now mode.

https://twitter.com/RapSheet/status/1301599721761497091?s=20 Sorry, didn't see a thread where I could post this - but if you trade, sign and then extend him for 3 years, he's got a cap hit between 10-12M. At 29, he's one of the 5 best TEs in the game, and while Knox isn't a weakness, he's young and as of now an average TE. He'd be worth a 2nd round pick IMO, as he'd elevate this offense quite a bit. In terms of the passing game, the glaring hole the Bills have is size in the RZ. Knox is hoping to solve that. Ertz WOULD solve that, and could possibly elevate the weaponry to 2nd best in the NFL. This post is 100% me trying to make fetch happen.

The last thing I'll say, specifically to culture...wouldn't be asking Fournette to be a leader, which means he can be an ahole all he wants, but he's just a dude who's getting paid 2-3M on a 1 year contract.

I think if the opportunity cost was higher, then we'd have an issue. I feel like the biggest weakness on our offense right now is RT, as I simply don't trust Cody Ford there, and lack of a big RZ Threat. It's basically just Dawson Knox. If getting Fournette meant we weren't getting one of those 2 pieces, then I'd say no. But right now, there doesn't seem to to be an appreciable opportunity cost to signing Fournette to a 1 year deal.

That and I think our OLine is a bit overrated...having someone who can get you yards after contact is a nice hole to fill in our offense

IMO that's not a big transition for a RB, especially since nowa-adays almost all backs have familiarity with both Gap Blocking (which is what I think Daboll uses) and Zone Blocking (which I think the Jags used) You're probably right about not getting that high in yards because of the carries split

My thinking as well. Let Fournette have 50% of your first down carries, the majority of your < 5 situations with Moss spelling those, and Singletary continue to have down and distance carries along with 50% of the first down carries. That is a far more effective offense than letting Singletary and Moss have that split, considering Moss has spent the last 3 years playing against P12 defenses that aren't built to defend power offenses in general

Another stat btw - Singletary only faced an 8 man box on 5% of his rushes. https://nextgenstats.nfl.com/stats/rushing#percent-eight-defenders The lowest of any back in the NFL. His averages, his efficiency numbers, they are going to take a HUGE hit this upcoming season. For comparison sake, Fournette faced an 8 man box 30% of the time. Around 10th highest in the league. Consider that Singletary averaged 5 yards per carry, while Fournette averaged 4.3. Frank Gore faced an 8 man box 37% of the time, and averaged 3.6 YPC. If Fournette does become a Bill, you're looking at a 1500 yard back. He's not going to face nearly as many 8 man boxes with Diggs here, and Allen improving his deep ball, and our TEs getting better.

How is he overrated? Last season he was 4th in the NFL in Yards After Contact, while 43rd in Yards Before contact. Probably the one thing he's average at is breaking tackles. But he's a very good RB, that had to play with a terrible offense around him, and the stats show it.

I mean, why wouldn't you? Fournette with a putrid offense racked up 1600 yards last year. Love Singletary but I don't know how anyone can claim he's better than Fournette, and to suggest a rookie 3rd rounder is better than Fournette is an unlikely claim. The Bills have 17M in Cap Space so it's not like you have any financial restrictions here. If they have a chance to snag Fournette for a season, then by all means go all-in on that. There's almost no downside.

So far it's been investigated, and there's no evidence to corroborate the kids allegations. Also a lot of players are speaking out, including Ryan Bates: