BarleyNY

Agree on Hines. I didn’t go down the road of possible cuts, but Hines would be my first for that or salary reduction. We’d be left with just Cook at RB (plus a FB).

I do. It’s a real contest to decide who is worse, Greggg the coach or Greggg the human being

My down and dirty cap and position estimates for 2023, assuming a $220M cap are as follows: - 35 players under contract - approx $10M over the cap - restructures of top 7 or 8 would net approx $60M which would give Bills approx $50M in space - biggest needs would be QB2, SWR, RB depth/starter, LG, IOL depth, RT depth/starter, MLB, S (if not Hamlin), P So it’s doable, but it won’t be painless. $50M to cover 18 roster spots, a practice squad and injury relief is not that much. I can’t see the Bills burning a third of that on tagging Tre Edmunds. It would be better to ask him for last look after he tests the market if they don’t reach a deal before FA starts. I didn’t cover possible cuts or extensions as I don’t want to get that sidetracked. Doing all of the restructuring above would also put a lot of cap pressure on 2024, but most of it will be necessary. The restructures will impact large extensions though. Spotrac for reference

I remember the DC in NO during the Bountygate time telling his players to slap the helmet of the opposing RB. Something to the effect that when getting off the pile “everyone touches his head”. It’s dirty, but it’s been a part of the game forever. Still, I’d like to see a fine here.

Would it change your option if the Bills were on offense in your scenario?

One other thought: After a certain team achievement is reached* players often focus more on their contracts. One hopes the Bills have that issue after this season concludes. * Note the skillful jinx avoidance

This has been my point for the last few years. Edmunds is an ILB, he’s no hybrid of any kind. ILBs generally don’t get paid well, with notable exceptions for real difference makers at the position (and some busts expected to be). The premium for a difference maker and an average MLB is $10M-$15M per season. Edmunds has obviously taken a step forward this season, but is that enough to warrant the huge contract he will be asking for? And is that where we want to spend our cap space? For instance, it it means that we can’t keep Ed Oliver then does that impact Edmunds’ play? For me it really comes down to his contract demands and how badly he wants to be here versus how badly he wants the last dollar. I’d he wants top of the market, I let him walk. If he’ll take something in the $15M AAV range I’d give him more guarantees. I don’t blame any player for maximizing their earnings, but I don’t love having those guys as my cornerstones. I’d rather have guys that value being here. Milano certainly did that with his contract.

Knox has $12.5M guaranteed next season. He’s not getting cut before then. $10M of that is an option bonus that will be spread out over 4 seasons so there’s no way to significantly lower his cap hit for 2023 either.

Technically yes, but teams can work a trade while his agent works a new contract with the acquiring team (something they’d insist on anyway). Then he would sign the tag and the teams would execute the trade. There is an early deadline to trade tagged players to consider as well. FT for LBs was $18.7M this year. Projection is for it to drop to $17.5M next, though that will likely go up. OTC

Big jumps in cap space always help teams keep their players. Good to have a team that we want to largely keep intact

Chefs. Gotta go for the one seed. And if we can’t take care of the Phins on our own we do t deserve that anyway.

I agree. Many times when players say they’ll do “whatever it takes” to play somewhere, that does not include taking vet a minimum contract. He’s making $6M for this season. I don’t want him back at anywhere near that. I’d certainly take him back near vet min tho.

Releasing audio of every second of the fight that lasted less than a minute? That seems very easy to do and for people to digest. But your point that other things might be on the recording that the NFL wouldn’t want heard by the public is certainly possible. I’m also not excusing him swinging a helmet at Rudolph’s head. But criticizing him for that and calling him a liar for what he said about Rudolph’s actions are two different things.

No. It did not come out immediately so no one else was asked about it. Other than Garrett stating that Rudolph did call him a “stupid n-word” when asked about it in a subsequent interview and Rudolph denying it through his lawyer I don’t think anyone else weighed in. The NFL said they found no evidence of it happening, but they also didn’t share the recordings.

I agree that it’s not that big a deal at this point. But I didn’t see any post with a plausible explanation other than discipline or that he’s struggling. The former makes more sense and is lot less concerning than the latter IMO. It’s one thing to not start Elam, but it’s another to bring your other 6 CBs to the game and leave him inactive. Maybe he struggled with the game plan and in practices and they’re sending a message. That would be a lot less significant than him oversleeping and missing a meeting or something like that. People are coming up with some funny stuff to explain it away though. My favorites: - We were going to be playing a lot of zone and running a ton of Nickel. Lol. We always run a ton of Nickel and we’ve played a lot of zone so far this year. - Matchup. Lol again. Against Mac Jones and that group of receivers Elam is the 7th best option? SMH - Injury. Nope. Full participation in practices the last two weeks. Also McD would have just told the media he was injured when asked why he was inactive. - Just wanted to see what Rhodes could do. This is probably the funniest one. I think they have a good idea of what the former first round, 32 year old, 9 year vet can do. Also doing so wouldn’t push Elam down to the 7th CB spot and off the actives list.

Nah. Mysteriously the audio from that game disappeared. Both the recordings from the field microphones and Garrett’s as he was mic-ed up for the game. NFL protecting the shield. They don’t want it known a QB dropped the N-word. It’d have been easy to disprove Garrett’s claim with those recordings otherwise.

Agreed. He’s on pace for 950-1,000 yards. That’s pretty darn good for a #2 WR. I think there were a lot of fans with unrealistic expectations that were based on #1 WR numbers.

Current physical shape? Weird that he was so hurt he couldn't play but was not listed on the injury report the week of the game - or the one the week prior.

I remember thinking “I hope he’s just tired and didn’t just hurt himself.”

No need to be conspiratorial to understand that this was almost certainly a disciplinary measure, even with the face-saving comment from McDermott. The only other option is that the coaches thought that Elam was the Bills 7th best option at CB in a zone-heavy game plan run against a limited QB and pedestrian WR corps. That would be a considerably worse situation. There’s also no need to make any more out of it than that. A rookie messed up, the coaches held him accountable (without making what happened public), he hopefully has learned his lesson and we all move on. It’s not that big a deal unless it continues to happen.

Since it’s not illness or injury it has to be discipline or play - and I can’t see how his play could be the reason he’s made inactive. Someone else starting over him, sure. But not inactive. Has to be a disciplinary move.

https://www.si.com/nfl/browns/.amp/news/report-lawyer-tony-buzbee-10-of-deshaun-watsons-accusers-to-attend-his-debut-in-houston Buzbee and 10 or so of Watson’s accusers will be sitting in a luxury box for the game. That seems very odd to me.

He’s gotta be in the conversation at least

Props to Milano on this!

Don’t go blaming the dress again