BarleyNY

I used to make time to watch a lot of film on prospects too. Too busy these days tho. Fun hobby.

True. It’s still not a huge savings though and would just be part of the cap space the Bills would save for moves during the season. If the Bills release Star it’ll be because they no longer want him here, not because they’re trying to save some cap space.

I can see keeping him here for his ST contributions. I am not a fan of him being on the field when the defense is out there though. The dollars aren’t big - and contract details aren’t even out yet - so I don’t see anything worth complaining about.

Only one way to find out. Um, you know what ghee is, right? It’s similar to clarified butter. The only difference is that with ghee the milk solids are browned before straining whereas clarified butter doesn’t have the browning process. Straight up? NFW.

1) I would love it 2) I’d much prefer a RB who is a better receiver 3) Not a good separator. Hard pass 4) Not a good fit unless we expect to run a ton of wide zone 5) I’m not sure what he’d bring to the table that we don’t already have. I would not spend our limited cap space on him. Go big or go home at DE 6) Would be an excellent signing. If we are going to spend money on someone in FA he’d be an excellent choice. CBs that can play man are expensive though and his price tag might really get up there.

Yeah. I see the Bills signing a vet CB to a 1 year deal at value time and then drafting one, probably day one or two.

I think we know that from the massage parlor price tag

Dodson is an ERFA. The Bills offered him so he will be here in 2022 (unless he quits the NFL). Phillips has not signed an extension (yet) and is on track to be a FA.

Teams have to be under the cap when the league year starts on 3/16 at 4 pm. Roster bonuses have dates set in contracts, usually between 3 and 10 days after the season starts.

Classic

His name is Harrison Phillips. But seriously, teams are putting through paperwork on ERFAs, RFAs and the like right now. Early March is when you’ll see teams extend some upcoming FAs, release players, etc. Lots of talks between agents and teams (over shrimp cocktails and steaks at St. Elmo’s) during the Combine. That’s the first week of March. First day of the new league year is March 16th.

I’d say no, but I’d want his replacement in house before cutting him. The Bills have some time there. I corrected my earlier comment about the roster bonus being due in March. He has had March roster bonuses in prior years and has one in 2023. In 2022 he just has per game roster bonuses for being on the active roster.

With Star what’s his downside for saying “no” to a pay cut? He’s already guaranteed $2.5M. If we cut him, then he could pocket that and sign elsewhere or just retire. His total (new money) compensation in 2022 is $6.15M salary + $350k in per game active roster bonuses + $250k work out bonus. $6.75M total with $2.5M of that guaranteed. The Bills might be able to whittle down the non guaranteed $4.25M, but I don’t think it would be by much. (Edit: To be fair, you were not suggesting that they’d get much of a reduction.) Correction to my earlier post: Spotrac shows his roster bonus as per game, with nothing due in March. Not sure if that’s an update or I just remembered it wrong. The Bills still would want to cut him early and designate him a 6/1 cut to avoid paying him his $250k work out bonus and, in the event he was injured in team activities, his whole salary. But they don’t have the time constraint I though they did.

I’ve discussed this at length. @First Round Bust I skimmed your post and it looks correct. I don’t see any kind of reworking of Star’s contract though. He has little reason to do so. The two realistic options are: 1) Keep him this year, cut him next. 2) Designate him a 6/1 release prior to his roster bonus that is due on 3/26. The first option is if the team really wants to move on now. The second is if they don’t think they can swing replacing him this off-season. The difference in spend and cap hit is $4.1M savings this season. That’s all this really boils down to. They probably keep him one more season on his current contract.

Von Miller. It might be a stretch to get him and it is unlikely because I know he prefers to be in LA and will probably remain there. But he is an Edge that can get to the QB in big games when the refs swallow their whistles - and we need that. I like Hughes, but Miller would be a big upgrade.

1) There’s nothing wrong with a player wanting to be fairly compensated for his value. The numbers might be large, but his MV is well above what he’s making now. Paying a player close to his value is not “bending over backwards” for them. In this instance it would just be smart business. 2) Again, the age to which players can maintain their level of performance continues to increase. 3) LOL! That isn’t even worth responding to. But please enlighten us. Where should the Bills ise their cap space when they go with lesser, cheap WRs?

I think that you have a lot wrong here. 1) Diggs isn’t going to play out the last two years on his deal without an extension or real problems. It would not be a good look for the team to not reward their best offensive player not named Allen. He’s performed while on a below market value contract and publicly kept his mouth shut about it. But that could change. He might play this year under it, but now way does he play out his last season. We’d be in for him holding out, causing issues in the media and locker room, etc. He’d get a lot of support from players because they would understand that he’d deserve the extension. 2) Players - especially WRs that don’t rely on track speed - can maintain their performance into their 30s. Rule changes that keep WRs healthier and advancements in nutrition and recovery are extending players’ careers. If Diggs got a 3 year extension his contract would be ending when he would be 32. That is about the age I would expect to see his performance decline. If he didn’t quite make it that far, the Bills would have options since there would be no guarantees left on his contract. 3) Teams that are paying their QB a lot of money still pay some other players. Their cap structure can support fewer upper and/or mid tier contracts, but every team that’s paying their QB still has some other large contracts on their books. 4) No argument that a huge QB contract necessitates drafting well. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves with Davis. I hope he earns a huge deal. He might, but he hasn’t yet. A Diggs extension would not preclude a huge deal for him though. It might be difficult but it is manageable if he’s a top player on our team. Decisions will have to be made though.

From PFN’s simulator. I wasn’t targeting a DE high, but sometimes you can’t pass up value. I think that there’s a good chance that we will see that kind of situation at 25. One or two prospects sticking out, but not at immediate need positions. 25. David Ojabo EDGE Michigan 57. Derion Kendrick CB Georgia 89. Alec Lindstrom OC Boston College 129. John Ridgeway DT Arkansas 168. Brian Robinson Jr. RB Alabama 184. Justin Shaffer OG Georgia 202. James Mitchell TE Virginia Tech 229. Jeremiah Gemmel LB North Carolina 244. Chris Oladokun QB South Dakota State

Here’s Spotrac’s list of WRs by AAV. They show Diggs at 20th. Reasonably he could use - deserves - a bump. With two seasons left on his contract there’s a win-win to be had here. Extend him now at a better rate than the Bills would get him at next offseason while Diggs gets some additional cash in hand now and a bump up in AAV that puts him more in line with his performance. The Bills would also benefit from lowering his 2022 cap hit.

Medicals and interviews.

I get that a lot.

That’s certainly what I thought happened. Rousseau has been better than I thought tho. He’s never going to be a bend the edge guy, which is what I thought we really needed. And I worried about his work ethic since he didn’t seem to train at all for the combine. But he had a solid rookie season doing what he does best - standing up OTs and using his length to shed their blocks to make tackles as the play came by him. I would still argue that it was too high for that kind of DE and that better options at other positions were on the board. He feels a lot like Shaq Lawson to me in that he’s going to be a very tough second contract. Maybe Beane and McDermott think that 4 or 5 cost controlled years at such a high dollar position are worth a late first. Still, I don’t think that you draft a guy in the first unless you think there’s a decent chance you keep him past 5 seasons.

While you can certainly find anecdotal evidence to the contrary, statistically having home field in games is an advantage.

Sometimes what a team needs just isn’t there in a draft. Bad and/or desperate GMs will fool themselves into believing otherwise.

And he’d have to agree to a new contract.