BarleyNY

If cut, they’d designate him as a 6/1 cut. (Teams get 2 per year.) That means Star would stay on our books until 6/1, but off-season bonuses would be void. It also eliminates any potential for obligation resulting from him being injured in team activities. And he’d be free to sign elsewhere immediately.

The Texans could do worse in their situation. Smith is a high character guy who has a ton of head coaching experience. He’s there to help stabilize the organization and get it on solid ground. That’s no easy feat after their severe BoBing. He’s 63 so this run is probably it for him.

I’d think there would be little to do with the NYG as far as player trades. With a new regime the two big drivers usually are: - Poor scheme fit of existing players. As I’d expect Daboll to require similar skill sets to those on our roster I’d expect him to be getting rid of players that don’t fit our system. He might want to acquire players from us, but we really don’t have anyone of high value to give up. Maybe just looking at a depth player with upside. - Shedding older, higher priced vets to purge cap. Really don’t see the fit here. We aren’t looking to take on many big contracts. I see pick for picks draft weekend trades as more likely.

No. I said after their first year and I also mentioned scheme changes. Hughes had been in Indy for three seasons when he was traded. Indy also had coaching changes and changed from a 4-3 to a 3-4 between the time he was drafted and traded.

The whole back seven was awful in that game and several of the others had good seasons too. They’ll be fine if they can adequately replace him. I was wondering if this was in the cards. We need depth there and that’s still a bargain for him.

They would have to designate him a June 1st cut before his $500k roster bonus on March 26th. Oliver is the only other DT currently under contract for next season so a lot will depend on who the Bills can (re-)sign before that date.

Unless it is for obvious schematic fit reasons (and Toney would not be), if a team is willing to trade last year’s first round pick then you don’t want that player.

Yes to Trattoria Aroma. An authentic Mexican place I really like is Taqueria los Mayas. It’s on Genessee and Union. It’s not much from an ambiance standpoint, but the tacos, tamales and burritos are the best I’ve had in Buffalo. My friend grew up in So Cal and said the tamales were the best she’s had since she lived there. Salsa, chips and queso are excellent as well.

Well, there are a bunch of old Pizza Hut buildings that are for sale……..

I’m good with Dane Jackson as inexpensive depth. I don’t want to go into a season depending on him to be a starter, not by a long shot. I’d like to see us both sign and draft a CB. Tre is by no means a lock to be ready at the start of the season or to be counted on to round back into form in 2022. In any event we won’t know whether or not that is the case until after FA and the draft. The Bills have to proceed as if he won’t be ready. Something like a one year deal for a vet towards the end of his career would be a good move. Agree on a safety. I think we should’ve been looking for one before now. Siran Neal was not that good of a player. I want to see him replaced by one or two developmental guys. Depth there has been poor.

That’s a good point about the cap decreasing last season. A lot of FAs did what Wallace did - took a cheap one year deal with an eye on getting paid this year. That’s a good reason to expect him to leave. He had to wait an extra year to finally get his payday, so I’m sure that will be of utmost importance to him this off-season. As for available FA money this year, a lot it teams kicked cap from last year to this year to smooth out their cap hit curve. I expect that to taper a bit, but there will be more of it this off-season. Plus soon teams will create a lot of space through cuts, restructures, etc.

I was surprised both that we got him for what we did last season and what Spotrac now has him valued at. It’s probably time to move on and draft a replacement. We should also look for a serviceable value CB in FA. Maybe Levi doesn’t get what he expects on the FA market. It’s best for all to tell him to go and see what he can get, but ask him to keep us in mind when he sees what teams are offering. Maybe it’ll be worth bringing him back. If not, congratulate him on his new contract, thank him for what he did here and wish him well going forward.

Do they? I mean SOME people obviously watch it, but the ratings aren’t great. 10M (ish) viewers nationally isn’t nothing. It is about a tenth of the viewership the SB and about half of a nationally televised regular season Sunday night game. I probably haven’t watched 30 total minutes of the Pro Bowl in the last 15 years. And they don’t even get to go to Hawaii anymore. At least it’s in Vegas this year after being in (shudder) Orlando the three previous.

On the other hand, does anyone know of a reason to like it?

Agreed. McKenzie has been in the league for 5 seasons and has 922 receiving yards over that span - and there hasn’t exactly been a recent upswing to indicate that he’s made a jump. The last 4 years have been flat and 2021 was actually the worst of that span. IMO what we have seen is all that he’s going to be in this league. He’s a depth WR who is not a good enough returner to warrant a roster spot on most teams. He will probably bounce around the league for a few more seasons on one year contracts at or near league minimum. He is the kind of player fans overvalue. They know his name, they’ve seen him make a few plays and most know something about him personally. But that’s more emotional than analytical. He is the kind of player good teams are constantly trying to turn over. He belongs on a poor team that is blowing up their roster or just looking to fill out their depth chart with a serviceable WR. At minimum Buffalo should replace him with a younger player who still has some upside possible.

I heard that due to his mom-ager (fantastic, by the way) situation, most NFL people expected his deal to get done after all of the others and basically be a cut and paste of the other contracts with some minor number changes. Other teams (such as the Bills and Browns) were hoping his deal would get done early and be screwed up. If he took too little, they’d try to use it as setting the market. On the off chance he wound up with a great deal, they’d insist on throwing it out. My guess is that the Ravens were not too pleased that Allen’s deal was the only one done. I’m sure Lamar wanted something close to that. Too bad the Ravens know better.

I agree that would help, but thinking about the NBA Draft I’m sure people would still think there was tampering regardless of how fair it actually was. With the kind of money that is at stake, it’s not like some owners wouldn’t be willing to throw some illicit money at getting their QB. As a rule these people are far from angels. The NBA has examples that look too good to be true: Ewing to NY, LeBron to Cleveland and the Magic getting Shaq and then winning the lottery again the following year despite almost no chance of doing so. I think Joe Burrow to Cincy would have raised some eyebrows if a lottery would have been involved. Ditto if Pittsburgh or NE were to win - or even just get a high pick - right when they needed it to replace their HOF QBs. The NFL cares about looking clean, fair and unbiased much more than they care about being those things. The league sweeps a lot of dirt under the rug. Why invite scrutiny in one more place and give billionaire owners another avenue where some might cheat the system?

Nice. You totally had me.

I think they’ve avoided using a lottery because of optics. Even if it’s run completely fairly there will be cases when it looks like it was fixed. Still, your point that it would be another event is a good one. I can see the NFL wanting that revenue - and after the Flores suit (with evidence of tanking) they might not have much of a choice anyway. It will have to be non-playoff teams only though. Can you imagine if a SB winner got the #1 pick and auctioned it off to a QB needy team? Think KC with Mahomes winning the SB, then getting the #1 overall pick that draft. That would have been Joe Burrow. They could’ve gotten 3 first round picks plus more. Miami offered that and Cincy didn’t even bother to counter. No way does the NFL want that. So if it’s just non-playoff teams it would open up some late season decisions by teams on the cusp of a playoff spot. If you can’t win it all, do you take a small chance in the lottery with a potentially huge payoff or a likely first round playoff exit? Most wouldn’t but some might. That’s what the league would have to live with. As for taking, teams would probably still do it. That’s the biggest strike against a lottery. By having a lottery you’re just telling teams that are tanking that they might not get paid off like they expect though. Putting one in place is probably the better move from an optics standpoint for the NFL though. Their other option is to hammer the Dolphins by taking away premium draft picks and fining/suspending the owner and others involved.

No. If Edmunds is traded, his contract goes with him. There would be zero cap hit (dead money) to the Bills. As his salary is all fully guaranteed, if we were to cut him, then we still would have to pay him his whole salary, which would count against the cap. Realistically he’s here for the 2022 season.

I was not assigning blame. The needlessly watching someone die part was rough. Lots of people - especially young people - do stupid stuff, though I didn’t realize he was fleeing authorities. The speed indicator made me think it was a traffic helicopter, but it makes more sense. And I’m also sad for the person in the car. It wasn’t their fault, but they still were in an accident where someone died horrifically right in front of their eyes.

This I sort of thing severely damaged traditional cable companies. ESPN had the largest cost of all the cable stations. Along with its sister stations and other sports networks their part of customers’ bills was very large. That was especially true after ESPN signed a bunch of exclusive contracts to broadcast games. But it turns out that many people who didn’t care enough about sports to pay for them started to cut the cable. Then those games lost casual viewers and couldn’t charge what they expected for advertising, so prices went up. A Death Spiral ensued.

That’s rough

I’m not a fan of his play, but I think there’s a fair chance Star will stay another year too. One is what you pointed out - only a $1.5M cap savings, though that includes $2.6M dead cap accelerated from 2023. They could designate him a July 1st cut and keep that $2.6M dead cap in 2023, which would create $4.1M in room in 2022. But the bigger issue to me is that Oliver is the only other DT currently under contract for 2022 (unless you want to count Basham, which I wouldn’t). Star is due a $500k roster bonus on 3/22. The league year starts on 3/16. So it might all come down to whether or not Beane can find a suitable replacement for him and at what price. Or maybe he does take a pay cut to stay. Heres hoping they can sign Phillips to a reasonable extension before 3/16 too. That might help them make the decision on Star.

I agree with that general strategy. Making the space we need is certainly doable without drastic measures. They’ll cut ties with a few players and restructure others. I’ve detailed what iI would do in other threads. No time to look that up now. I have to go snow blow the driveway.