Thats a good point - people we sign/existing players can get injured in camp and we bring 90 anyway. These are the only notable things, and i have no idea when or what triggers it.
Bodine - 200k workout bonus
Ivory - 250k workout bonus
Dimarco - 50k workout bonus
They were actually pretty good last year too - lost 2 games in OT and another was a tie. They also played their first 2 games with Tyrod, and were 5-2 after they fired Todd Haley.
Only major regression to the mean that i could see would be turnover diff - they were 2nd in the league in takeaways and that is a pretty volatile statistic. Teams aren't usually top 5 in the league in both fumble recoveries and INTs. The ball tends to bounce one way or the other. From a yardage perspective their defense was actually kind of bad - 25th in passing yards and 28th in rushing yards allowed.
The improvements on offense should help offset this though - they should get more yards which = more plays which = more points.
They got 2 3rd round comp picks this year too. Nate Solder and Malcolm Butler.
6 picks in the first 101 in the 2019 draft. Plus likely a couple extra 3rds in 2020.
2 firsts and a brutal contract. We also could've had Mack instead of watkins - or just stood pat and got watkins/beckham/evans without giving up the first.
In any case - they missed on the QB. And we know how that worked out. Also - going 2014 solid defense into 2015 rex kinda crumbled everything that was built there.
Yeah - look at NE's constantly evolving offensive line, lot of flex on that crew. Crazy that they lose solder - draft his replacement (and netted a pick in the 3rd round in the 2019 draft) and then some random guy steps up and they win the super bowl. Now the random guy cashes in and now they probably get a 2021 3rd rounder. And still have the 1st round pick from 2018 ready to step in.
I didn't see the deets on his - but if so thats smart. That'd leave the big ones as Hughes, Shady (probably not that much if anything in a comp pick game), Lawson, and maybe Jordan Phillips if he continues to produce.
So far they have added players that they see staying for 2-4 years. I'm waiting for a 1yr contract for someone trying to reestablish value. Ansah or daryl williams fit this profile.
If they flame out - not on the hook. If they don't - then we're in the comp pick game in 2020 free agenyc.
So i just did a little math - Brown secured 8/30 targets once they went with Jackson. He also had a really lousy game against Cleveland where he only caught 4/14 targets. Either way - clearly he wasn't on the same page as jackson.
I try to look at it like - a % of your cap is delegated to position groups - our current WR group had probably the lowest in the league, meaning there's room to spend there. There also isn't really anyone in line for a major extension in the next 2-3 years - so again, 2-4 year contracts don't hurt us here.
I assume you could look at avg. depth of target and create a correlation that deep balls are probably dropped more often than non-deep balls. Still has to be mildly concerning.
This reminds me a lot of what the bears did last year to help trubiskey. Brought in Allen robinson, Taylor gabriel, and trey burton. Buffalo brought in an outside WR, a slot WR, and a TE.
Hope he's bringing his lunch pail and is ready to work. His odds just got a lot worse. But hey - being in an NFL camp will help him maybe catch on somewhere else. He also has PS eligibility.
Mckenzie has fumbled 8 times in 3 years. I like his versatility especially on his across the formation motion runs/decoys but that's kind of a problem.
He's not - but hes going to either have to play special teams or push hard for playing time.
People get banged up and his contract is fully guaranteed minus likely offsets. He just has to be able to play everywhere.