BarleyNY

The cap is very real. NFL player contracts are not though - except for signing bonuses and fully guaranteed dollars. The Eagles have led the way in aggressively manipulating cap dollars by continually converting salary to signing bonuses and utilizing void years. This allows them to outspend more traditional teams by about 15%. That’s a huge advantage for teams with owners who are willing to spend.

That’s Oliver’s role. He needs a quality rush DE next to him to really be effective tho. That’s need 1A for me. WR1 is 1B.

I agree that the Bills need a true WR1. Just not a problem child like Pickens. My point about Diggs is the Bills inability to manage him. Pickens would be 10x worse - especially considering he’s eligible for a new contract now. If you trade for him, then you either give him that huge, new contract this offseason or you risk losing him in a year.

Over the years the Steelers have been incredibly good at keeping crazy, productive wide receivers under control while in Pittsburgh. Then those players go elsewhere and implode. Pickens has been among the worst of them (probably the worst outside of AB) in the crazy regard. The Bills couldn’t keep Diggs in line and struggled to keep his distractions under wraps. No freaking way. Pickens would be a disaster in Buffalo.

@GunnerBill touched on that. Success later in the draft is more a testament to the quality of work the local scouts are doing rather than the GM. Not that Beane doesn’t deserve credit for building and maintaining that group of scouts. He does. He’s just not the one grinding tons of tape to find those gems.

We desperately need both.

I can’t argue with any of that. I did waffle between choices 2 and 3 so that’s more specifically where I am on Beane. I gave him the benefit of doubt because since Allen’s draft he’s been hamstrung in the first by picking so late. The luster is definitely gone. It’s not just WR. Rush DE, CB, DT (1 tech) and S are all big needs. We need to find difference makers at rush DE and WR too. That is not easy.

He’ll cost more than pick 30 if he gets traded - at least our 2026 1st. Next season is his age 28 season and his current contract is through 2026 so we’d also have to extend him.

Cut with a post 6/1 designation: 2025 Dead Cap: $6,374,000 2026 Dead Cap: $9,043,000 2025 Savings: $17,440,000 *The Bills will carry his full cap charge until 6/1. https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/player/_/id/7717/von-miller

I said it when we signed him, he is on a 3 year deal disguised as a 6 year deal. That had some flexibility to become a 4 year deal, but at his age it was highly unlikely. Getting out of the deal before year 3 was nearly impossible due to cap hit and structure. He’ll be cut on the first day of the league year with a post 6/1 designation. I’ll post the cap consequences below.

Totally agree. And let’s remember how much money is it stake here with the new stadium, PSL sales, etc. Josh Allen is making a lot of people a lot of money, most notably Pegula. Why rock that boat before he is forced to?

Other. I don’t think that a change can be made now. The good head coach candidates are gone and so are the quality staff members they are bringing with them. McDermott is a good coach and Beane is a good GM, but they aren’t the only people that can do those jobs well. I think things have to run their course and that’ll take a few more years. At this point we don’t have any other choice but to run it back so we might as well get behind them as much as we are emotionally capable.

There’s no logic in this. I’ve seen it many times, but it makes no sense that you’d expect another fan to be able to tell you who the next outstanding NFL head coach is going to be. Owners have resources for that. I don’t have to be a professional chef to tell you something is wrong with a meal I got at a restaurant. Ditto when some of us see a problem with a coach or coaching staff member. I am not even advocating for firing anyone at this time. But there have been issues with our HC and staff that persist. If/when it comes time to make a change and we need to find a new HC, then I’d point to several successful HCs that have been hired in the last few seasons - Demeco Ryans, Dan Campbell, Dan Quinn, Kevin O’Connell immediately come to mind. They’re out there to be had if/when needed.

We do not have a top 3 OL. They’re a good squad, yes, but not top 3. Cook is an excellent runner, but he not a good pass catcher and he’s abysmal at pass protection. The rest of our backs complement him nicely, but none are complete RBs. Our TEs are good, but nothing special. Our WR corps is below average. What we have is a stud QB, who elevated the play of those around him.

Rousseau is a pure power end. He’s got no bend at all so he’s only going to be really effective if he has a rush edge opposite him. That way when the QB gets flushed to his side he can shed and sack. If we don’t have that rush edge, then this season is what we’re going to get. He’s turned into a good player for the role he has, but I question what that’s worth and where the market will be. I strongly suspect some team will overpay him if he makes it to FA after next season. I’m good with a properly valued extension now or letting him test FA next offseason. I will dig into numbers in the next few months. Not up for that today.

You can’t have soul crushing disappointment without hope. Hope is an invaluable part of any curse.

Part of it was the same fearful tactic we saw against Cincy in the playoffs. CBs way off the WRs while we blitz. Ridiculous, but we did bring the CBs up after they torched us for a bit. That bit was on the coaching. Elam spent his whole college career playing man coverage and grabbing receivers at the top of their routes. He still doesn’t have a good feel for zone and he can’t stick with agile receivers without grabbing them. I think he’s only still on the team because his whole contract is fully guaranteed. The only reason we drafted him is because Kansas City jumped us for McDuffie and we desperately needed a corner back. Thank goodness Beane was smart enough to double up and take Benford later in that draft.

He’s a good, competent GM. He really is. It’s a very tough job and the hit rates for the best GMs aren’t that high. He’s doing well in that regard. My only real complaints about him are that he hasn’t hit on any elite talent (other than obviously Allen) and that he has focused so much on the defensive side of the ball that it’s been detrimental to the offense.

your reading comprehension is terrible. I am by no means putting Allen at the top of the list of why the Bills lost.

Horse****. A garbage throw for an INT to start the game is a problem. I know they didn’t get picked, but both should have been. I think that overall Allen was an huge asset to the team today and that he’s an incredible player, but you asserted that nothing more can be expected of him. That’s not true. He could’ve had his head together for those two plays. And he could’ve had it together on the last offensive play too. KC showed an all out blitz and the Bills weren’t in a position of pick it up. He needed to call a TO if he couldn’t get them into the correct protection. That’s the difference between making it to the Divisional round or AFCC and winning championships. Sorry, even a player as good as Allen has room to improve.

I agree - except for his very shaky start. I expect better of him. In a game like this he can’t make one of those garbage throws, much less two.

been saying that for years

Sadly, that’s the case. Brown absolutely bent Cincy and the surrounding area over on their last deal. Even by NFL standards it was egregious. Ofc the Browns had just moved to Baltimore and they used the threat of moving to Cleveland (as did many other teams) to get that deal. I’m sure they want a similar deal this time and they’ll use the threat of moving again. Mike Brown is notoriously cheap too. It’s all about cashing in as much as possible. So the fans won’t get much for their money. He will always be at the bottom of the league in cash spending. The city should do what they can to try to force a sale and go as far as letting the team move away if they can’t do that.

I did get a survey about 10 years ago from the NFL. It was a phone survey that for some reason I took. They started by asking general questions about my watching habits and opinions on of different sports leagues. NFL was last and they started drilling down into deeper questions. Then they started asking about Goodell specifically and my opinions on him. It made me realize that I thought he was doing a pretty good job overall (from a making money for the owners standpoint), but was very unlikable, and I answered the questions that way. Fast forward a few months and we have the NFL draft. It was the one where Goodell joked around and hugged pretty much every first round pick. I guess he took my feedback to heart.