BarleyNY

Not unfounded though. The reduction in the team’s cash spend this season didn’t have to be this severe. The Bills still could have structured many of the contracts more aggressively and made more room than they did. Had they done more of that then I wouldn’t be worried.

Agreed. Plus they got their chunk of public funding for the new stadium. The recent spending and team success was certainly used to help the Pegulas that massive asset. None of that means that the Pegulas don’t care about winning a SB or that they won’t spend big on doing so. I’ll just be nervous until I see it happen.

FWIW I think the Bills had to pull back on spending this season and take some cap pain. The injuries to Von Millet and Tre White were brutal to this team. They were a big part of the issues with Diggs and led to the Bills trading him. That’s a really bad place to be for a team. So much cap space taken up by players who are no longer here or not performing close to their pay. Beane is navigating it as well as can be expected. I’ll be nervous until I see the team spend again though.

There are always choices to be made, but the playing field is not level either. The teams willing to spend more do have a big advantage over those that don’t. The Eagles have been at or near the top in cash spending for several seasons. They lead the way this season, spending $345.5M. The Bills had been spending at a high rate the last couple seasons, but pulled back in a major way this year. They sit at 25th with a cash spend of only $248.4M. The advantage to teams like the Eagles should be obvious. I expect the Bills to ramp their spending back up in the next couple seasons, but it bears watching to see if/when it happens. Ofc KC has managed to win on a budget so that’s possible too. https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/cash/_/year/2024/sort/cash_total

This has been disproven. The Eagles are paying a QB and 2 WR top tier contracts. The requirements are that the owner must been willing to outspend most other teams, the FO must be willing to aggressively structure contracts and the FO has to pay the right players. The Eagles aren’t the only team doing this. Also it’s worth noting that this season the Bills are paying a QB and WR (from a cap perspective) even if that WR is off the team. People here seem to think that’ll work.

Thanks. Missed that. It’s really the offseason if they’re doing a top 32 for a position where there’s 64 starters. Still, nice we had one make it. Some teams didn’t get any.

McGovern makes the list but Dawkins doesn’t?

The only supporting results are from two teams which had either Tom Brady or Patrick Mahomes at QB. (And not even when Brady was in TB.) Generalizing about what a team needs at WR to be championship caliber from that is just wishful thinking by Bills fans. And that’s only because of where we are at WR. So now winning with a pedestrian WR corps has become a popular narrative among many Bills fans, but I heard exactly none of them saying anything of the sort before things went sour with Diggs. Here’s hoping it works out with an ascension from Kincaid and others, but don’t tell me that the Bills wouldn’t be a better team with an elite WR.

And I’ve never seen an NFL cornerback anywhere near you. Talk about separation.

Every recent SB champion had a stud receiving option. The Patriots and Chiefs both had that at TE though. Heck, Brady had Evans in TB. Maybe that’ll be Kincaid for the Bills, but that’s TBD. The evidence that talent at WR is important in winning games and championships is overwhelming. Even KC, who just won the SB without a stud WR, revamped their WR corps. In any event, the Bills are going to give it a try this season w/o a #1 WR. Let’s see how that goes.

I never thought that. In fact the 2/$12M we are paying him is a substantial overpay IMO.

Agree that Rousseau is likely to get way overpaid in free agency. Yes, OTC has the Bills $17M over the cap in 2025. They can get healthy in a hurry with a few moves - cutting Von Miller and restructuring Oliver, Dawkins and others. The big question is what they do with Allen’s contract.

I think this was simply people seeing the need for the Bills to acquire an elite #1 WR to fill the void left by the Diggs trade. That’s why we’ve seen so many (mostly) unrealistic trade scenarios put forth. But unfortunately sometimes what you need and what you can pull off do not align. Prior to the draft, my take was that the two best options were to either make a big trade up for one of the top three wide receivers or to trade back from 28 to acquire more draft capital and still draft a similarly rated WR prospect as could have been had at 28. The former wasn’t feasible so Beane did the next best thing. That seemed like solid process to me. The decision to trade with KC (and then Carolina), positioning to select Coleman and the actual choice of Coleman can all be debated. I don’t really want to do that here. But I think the issue most fans had was not so much 40 times as wanting the Bills to acquire a true X WR and the prevailing opinion that Coleman is much better suited to being a Big Slot. So it’s more that some people believe that the bills passed on WR prospects that could have filled that X role for one that might not be well suited to it.

Yup. Here’s hoping that the positive impact of the removal of distraction and problems within the WR corps outweighs the loss of talent. That’s a lot to hope for, but it’s all I got. I believe that the moves made are to build for 2025 when one or two true playmakers can be added. 2024 is isn’t lost, but a lot would have to come together to bring home a championship. It’s the right strategy, but it’s not like Beane can come out and admit it - until next offseason at least.

I have heard others discuss using position players to kick off. It makes a lot of sense. No need to endanger your place kicker if a DB, LB, WR or other position player can reliably kick the ball from the 35 to between the opposite 20 and goal line. Hang time is no longer a factor so that’s a help. It is a good, new avenue for a player to make a living as a special teams player.

Kincaid averaged 4 receptions per game with Brady. Knox was just over 1. So 5 combined catches a game would be 85. 6 would be 102. I think 110+ is possible, but something closer to 100 is more likely. A lot will depend on how the WR corps performs and how often the different personnel packages are used. Obviously those are interrelated.

It’s not like his play is going to fall off in any substantial way this season, unless he were to get injured. And that wouldn’t hurt him on a contract unless it was an injury that impacted his play next season. That’s a risk, but a relatively low percentage one and there’s a lot of money to be made in FA.

The Bills did well to manufacture sacks with their scheme last season. Props to McDermott for that. But to beat the best teams with the best quarterbacks a team needs to be able to get pressure with their front four. The Bills will need to add at least one quality pass rushing DE to do that.

Agreed. GR does it well, but it’s a far more replaceable skill set than a DE who can get to the QB quickly. His skill set is also a lot less expensive. Just like with Edmunds my worry with GR is that the Bills will overpay to keep him. Beane did the right thing with Edmunds and I expect him to do the right thing with GR.

My first thought at seeing GR at $20M AAV was NFW! But markets are moving so I checked to see what his MV was on OTC and Spotrac. The latter doesn’t have one but OTC puts his MV for last season at $10.1M (regular) and $10.8M (injury adjusted). That tells me that something in the neighborhood of a 5 year, $62.5M deal would be about right. That’s $12.5M AAV. I’d be happy with that. There are a lot of very high and some very low opinions of GR. Both are well of the mark IMO. He’s a solid/good DE, but he’s limited to a complimentary role. That type of production has value, but that kind of player is replaceable. Anything close to $20M AAV would be malfeasance IMO. OTOH if he’s not re-signed/extended then we have a hole to fill - and probably a solid comp pick in our future since some team will overpay him. That last point may be what causes the Bills to move on from him. If he plays out his deal w/o and extension, then leaving via FA is his big payday. Beane would do well to let that happen - or try to extend him in the next few months if he wants to retain him. GR and his agent are probably not that interested in an extension though as they know which path is likely to get him much more money.

Less well.

They look like an USFL throwback uniform.

A franchise tagged player will get paid for the whole season if they sign their contract just prior to the first regular season game. It is between one and three days prior, but I don’t remember exactly which. If they sign it part way through the season, then they just get paid for the portion of games remaining. They have to do it with at least 6 games remaining in the season or they don’t get credit for the season and the contract tolls.

Not lack of evidence. Loophole in MN law. It stated that a person could not be charged with rape or sexual assault if the victim was “willingly intoxicated” at the time of the incident. Law was changed two years later, in 2021.

That’s as illogical an argument as I could imagine. Just because something hasn’t been done before certainly doesn’t mean it can’t be. We see firsts all the time. Hell, our elite franchise QB is a unicorn. No QB drafted anywhere close to top 10 ever made the leap he has. Also I don’t see a lot of details here. WRs and QBs who’ve both gotten paid large for their times and the salary cap’s at the time have won it all. But apparently that was too long ago to count. So since when? And while you are at it, how much is too much to pay those positions? I think this whole illogical rationale is based on two things: 1) The Chiefs have dominated the SB wins without paying a WR so people want the Bills to copy that. But the Chiefs are a cheap organization. They have had to be frugal compared to some other teams. That they could do so well with that disadvantage makes what they’ve done even more impressive. It’s worth pointing out that even though they won the Super Bowl last year with a wide receiving corps that was below par they went ahead and revamped it for this year. 2) The Bills traded away Diggs and have built their WR corps that way this season. I didn’t see anybody posting about this while we had Diggs on the team and were paying him. It’s reactionary and it’ll evaporate if the Bills pay a WR next offseason.