Bleeding Bills Blue

Right... what did this affect our super bowl chances by? a percent? less?

I think its likely to be two rookies. If your QB has a huge cap hit, you really need a few rookie contracts in the room. I think we work the phones to try and get one of the "big 3" this year. I also think the possibility exists to move one of those 2nd's next year to try and grab a WR who they might have a higher grade on in something like the 3rd round this year if they sit in the 1st.

KC and the Rams seemed to get a lot of production out of picks 55 and 177. Dell in the 3rd round was contributing. Josh Downs. Jayden Reed. This draft is supposed to be better than that one.

And the other guy who everyone hated.

Cook was 4th in the league in rushing... and they spent a 1st round pick on a move TE. Josh allen is - im going to say... a little better than sam howell. The best WR in the 2023 rookie class was... a 5th round slot WR.

It was likely he'd be gone next year with von. Now you have that cap space in 2025. Void years, restructures, it all takes a toll to keep the band together. Now they are a bit more prepared to enter 2025 with the ability to acquire impact players through trade and free agency. They also look to acquire a couple of comp picks in 2025 as well.

They were 6-6.. if you lose any of the remaining 5 games they would have missed the playoffs. You do what you have to in that scenario.

If you planned to move a 2025 pick though, it helps fill out that draft potentially.

Yea with all the bad WRs coming out of LSU the last couple of years.

You can just move it again - or the first in 2025 - to get players in this draft.

Chiefs also traded the guy who always locks him down too 🙂

I think its 1 and 4 probably. Still needing to get some younger contributors on the defensive side of the ball with the 2nd pick. I think 2025's 1st is in play to try and get up and get your guy, and having 2 2nds in 2025 makes that easier to potentially stomach.

The only way to fix it is to draft well.

You cannot trade cap space. It would likely get negated as a violation of the CBA. You can trade the player and their contract, and i suppose u could include cash, but that isn't going to expand their cap pool.

I think the 1st in 2025 is also in play.

That was cleveland acquiring base salary guarantees though. They acquired his contract like any other trade. They just had a ton of cap space to eat it.

I assume they aren't going to trash an outgoing player. Thank him for his time, his contributions, his effort - and just indicate that you wanted to go a different direction. If he wants to chirp - let him.

Yup - plus you can't trade diggs to anyone. But there are teams in the top 10/15 that would absolutely value an extra 1st round pick in 2025. Doing this trade to acquire 2 2nd's in 2025 makes it a beat easier to stomach losing a 2nd 1st rounder.

Yeah - great player here. Never got over the top, but anything other than thank you for the contributions isn't really fair to the guy.

Cash doesn't affect the cap space taken out. It would just... pay for stuff. I believe they can still spread cap hit over 2 years though.

Alright... he's a rookie who was having a very promising season. I don't know that many would say he is better than diggs.

You can't trade cap space, and you can't trade dead cap. It is money that was already paid and using bonus models to spread it across multiple years.

Dead cap is dead cap. It's roster bonuses, restructure, and signing bonuses. You can't trade it - its basically compensation that was spread over several years. All base salary, workout bonuses and per game active bonuses are acquired by the new team.

There is no way to... trade the dead cap. It is money already paid to diggs. They acquire his base salary for 2024 - which we couldn't cut since it was at least partially guaranteed. You can still split the dead money across 2 years which i assume we do. This wasn't the worst contract on the books since we have von miller, but there is no trading von for much of anything at this point since his value is 0 and he's expensive as hell.

You can now more confidently move a 2025 1st round pick as you now have minnesota and our own #2s. Not every team can absorb Diggs cap hits (or wants to), but every team picking in the top half of the first round will have interest in a 1st or 2nd round pick in 2025 in a move-down scenario.