BarleyNY

Either way it’s still all income that falls within the same calendar year - except the last couple games and that’s still in a year where he’d be in the same tax bracket.

That is correct. But it means that Diggs won’t be getting a more lucrative contract this offseason. Some people thought he might be looking for a bump because of his production last season. Unless it’s part of the restructure that hasn’t leaked out yet, then that just got kicked until after this season at the earliest. Give the man credit for accepting his current pay - which is very good but not top WR money - and not demanding that he be paid commensurate with his production last season.

Ganesh’s point stands though. The way to remain competitive with a franchise QB on a fair market contract is to: - draft effectively - be fiscally responsible with veterans - find value with free agents Beane appears to be starting the cap responsibility process with the DE position. That makes sense because recently it has had the highest priced FAs (franchise QBs which rarely hit FA excepted). I’ll leave the debate on the prospects chosen for other times. There are certainly some bad contracts on the books, but realistically it’ll take until next offseason (at least) to clear them. Drafting well and finding some deals in the FA market would certainly go a long way toward keeping the Bills window open.

The OP is correct in his headline that one specific Vikings writer won’t let the Diggs thing go, but if you go to popular Vikings boards like this one you’ll see no one talking about him. So it’s not the fans, it’s that one dude. Also regarding Cousins, most know what they have in him though he has his fanbois that will defend him to the end. I think we’ve all seen that movie here so no surprise.

I never said it that the Bills traded away a guard that was already an All Pro. I said that there were varying opinions of how good Teller could be. One of the people with a very high opinion of him got him and helped him turn into that All Pro. It’s obvious in retrospect that Teller’s potential is that of an elite OG, one of the best in the game. It’s too bad that the Bills didn’t see it. It is not too different from the Bills seeing the potential in Jerry Hughes, getting him cheap and reaping the rewards of him blossoming here. Bills fans certainly never had a problem taking credit for that being such a great move. Edited to add: You wrote that he “later turned into an All Pro guard”. You make it sound like it took a long time to develop. One year. That’s what it took.

Opinions vary on that. Bill Callahan is the Browns OL coach and he’s likely the best in the game at that job. He was the main reason the Browns pursued Teller as he considered him to have been an exceptional OG prospect. In fact he said he thought he was the best OG prospect in the entire 2018 draft. As for the trade, it was a fifth and a sixth in 2020 to the Bills for Teller and a 2021 seventh. For that price the Browns got an All Pro OG. Meanwhile the Bills have had average to below average OG play. While I don’t see the need to keep bringing up the trade, there’s really no way to spin it positively for the Bills. It is what it is. Just move on already.

I have a line on some sweet Ohio State tickets. I’ll probably get to go back to the Shoe again for a game this year.

Originally it was a 5 year, $50M contract. The restructure of the last 3 years of it only lowered the total dollars by $5.4M but upped the guaranteed money. It was and continues to be an egregiously bad contract.

The first thing you have to understand is that the salary cap is very real and important, but most contracts aren’t. The cap for a team is just the league determined base cap for that year plus whatever was rolled over from the previous season. The important thing about contracts is simply what money is paid out and what future money is guaranteed. Sooner or later that all has to be accounted for with respect to the cap. Some teams with a lot of space can spend very freely, but the Bills are no longer one of those. They are spending at a level where decisions have to be made. In order to sign a player with a significant contract they have to offset that cap hit with a reduction somewhere else. It could be by cutting a higher priced player or restructuring players with large salaries to push some of their cap hit into future seasons. But restructuring like that too much or with the wrong player can cause issues for teams. This season the Bills will have to make a little room to get through, but restructuring Dawkins and/or Diggs should be plenty. Additional moves would require more work though.

Let me see that paper cut

Spotrac Bills Contracts This is a good way to look at yearly cap hits and shows when contracts end. It’s broken down by position and player so it’s easy to see what team needs will likely be next season.

Prolly a little early for this - except the part about having his replacement in place.

He was overstating people questioning whether or not Edmunds was deserving of having his $12.7M fifth year option picked up. Sorry to hear that you were ill. Hope all is well now.

That’s pretty much it. This year’s salary of $4.5M and a portion of his salary in 2022 ($2.5M of $6.15M) are guaranteed. The only way he gets cut this offseason is if he brings nothing at all to the table and they don’t want him around. In that case he would be a post June 1st cut (or designated as such). Much more likely is what you stated - he gets cut next offseason.

Star threw it in neutral and has coasted since he signed that big contract with the Bills in 2018. $27M for poor play and effort so far. He has another $4.5M in salary this season and $2.5M next - all fully guaranteed. He also could get up to $250k this season in active roster bonuses and would be getting an additional $250k if he’d bothered to show up to the voluntary workouts going on now. Similar bonuses are available next season but I doubt he’s here then. SMDH

That rugby player has an exemption so he is not taking up a roster spot like Tebow is. Also nothing feelings related in my post. Strictly a stupid decision as explained. Feel free to discuss that.

This is spot on. Tebow will be 34 in August. The guy has not played football for nine years and is changing positions. Incidentally that’s changing positions to TE, which he has never played. Then there’s the distraction factor, which Urban is inviting. For what? If he’s very lucky it’ll be for a guy who is an old player/buddy of his sitting at the end of the bench for a season or two. At worst, it’s a joke that’ll be a distraction to his team and hurt him in the locker room. I mean, how would a Jags player not look at this and think Meyer was in way over his head? It’s a joke. I am a lifelong Buckeyes fan and Urban was a great hire for tOSU. He was a great college coach for a long time, but he did not seem to be evolving with the game. Specifically I saw two big issues: 1) Haskins. When he was QB at tOSU Meyer did not change the offense to suit him even though he was as poor a fit as you could find for it. A great coach has to be better than that. 2) As the RO/RPO scheme ran into defenses built to combat it he did not evolve. The difference between his offense and Day’s are substantial. The Buckeyes got very lucky (were very smart?) with how things worked out. If Day had become another tOSU assistant coach who became HC of their rival to the North (like Bo Schembechler did) things could have been disastrous for them. Instead they have a great coach with a modern take on a highly effective offensive scheme.

That could not be further from the truth. He was very much a team first leader on the Browns. Most fans thought he’d be retained due to that more so than his play - which was good, just not in line with the $12.3M he was set to make.

I think he’s waiting for an injury on a competitive team. He can sign a multi year deal (even a true 1 year deal with voidable years) structured to pay him well this season and spread the hit. I don’t see him playing for $3M. Maybe around $5M for the correct team, but he’d have gotten more than that from the Browns. That might be a pride thing though and that ship looks to have sailed.

This illustrates exactly what most people hated about Tebow. It has nothing to do with him personally, it’s hearing this crap from the legion of religious fans that worship him every time his limitations as an NFL football player are brought up. He wasn’t nearly good enough nine years ago - and that absolutely was in an offense completely tailored to him despite what you claim - and he isn’t going to be good enough now at a new position after not playing since 2016. Is there another player that wouldn’t be roundly laughed at for something like that? Oh and the “Leadership” angle is crap too. Virtually no one on an NFL team is going to care what he says or does. They’re mostly grown men who are there to do a job. Rah rah college crap does not carry much weight. Also why the heck would anyone want a guy who - if he even makes the team - will be at the end of the roster on a vet minimum one year contract to be a team leader? That would be a distraction from players like Lawrence who should have that position. I’d actually lose respect for Tebow (who I don’t blame for the actions of his fans) if he hurt the team that way. I definitely will lose some respect for Urban if Tebow makes the 53.

Richardson is a 3T. He’s a very good locker room presence. As a player he is definitely starting caliber and I expect he eventually gets paid that way. While he might not have been worth the $12.3M he was due, there is a slim to no chance he plays for $3.3M. Also people make a good point about not screwing over a player that just reworked his deal.

If we added a solid to serviceable starting CB (or better) to the roster I would be a lot more at ease. Lattimore is out of our price range currently. The other part of this issue is we don’t have much help at S or LB to cover the slot. We have Hyde, Poyer, Edmunds and Milano plus Neal for S depth. If we get an injury (or more) to one of our top 2 safeties or 3 CBs things just look really, really thin to me.

The FO is clearly prioritizing pass rush over coverage - to a large degree, in fact. We can debate that strategy - the analytics people will tell you that coverage should be prioritized - but I think a good case can be made that prioritizing the pass rush is a good way to go too. That the Bills have gone that route is not really what concerns me. It is that the CB corps has really been neglected except for the Tre pick and extension. CB is generally considered the first or second most important position on the defense and we’ve seen more attention to LB and S than CB. The DL has had a ton of draft capital and cap dollars allocated to it - with limited returns so far. I don’t think any other position group is close (except QB). So we might be 5 deep at DE now, but we’re only 3 deep at CB. That is not nearly enough depth so it just doesn’t make sense to me.

Believe it or not, it’s possible to have questions about both our D line play and our cornerback play/depth.

Yup. 3 deep at CB is not nearly enough for 17 regular season games plus playoffs.