BarleyNY

I do a bit. I don’t dive into the salary cap like I used to, but I understand it pretty well and try to answer questions and comment on things like contract and valuations when they come up.

A true restructure is simply converting salary into a signing bonus. That should be very easy with Diggs. Who wouldn’t want their money sooner? In fact, many contracts with large salaries have clauses that allow the team to do a restructure like this at their discretion. I don’t know if Diggs’ contract has that clause or not, but it should not be a problem regardless.

Thanks for the recommendations. We really do seem to have the same taste. I think I’ll start with The Fear Project. Don’t miss David and Goliath by Gladwell. I liked that as well as I did Outliers. Yes, Lila follows the same story line but starts later in his life after a lot has happened. It’s a different experience though. Zen was like an arduous journey of taking his first philosophical step while Lila flows a lot more freely in that regard. Let me know what you think of it.

I think Reich went with the player he knew. They’re comparable in overall potential IMO (though to be clear I don’t really like either) so that makes sense to me.

I worked through this scenario months ago. It makes some sense to smooth out the cap, but it has one serious flaw - the teams in position to capitalize on it. For every Philadelphia there’s a Washington. You think that after the Saints dominating the NFCS for 4 years that the other teams in that division don’t want to see them crippled for a few seasons? This is a selfish play by the teams way over the cap to help themselves out. There’s no real concern for the players or the league. The decrease should be manageable for the vast majority of teams so I do not see much happening with this.

I agree. We will see a lot of bargain 1 year deals for good free agents. They’ll want to hit FA next offseason when teams have money to spend. Top players won’t see much of a hit though. They will get their high dollar multi year deals with low first year cap hits just the same. I think we will see some teams get creative too. Three or four year deals that are really one year bargain deals with options for high dollar 2-3 extensions will probably happen too. No real harm for either side in going that route and that type of structure would reduce the first year cap hit.

Newton did not play well, but he made a lot more than $1M. That was just the base salary in a heavily incentivized contract. He hit incentives that brought his earnings up to $3.7M from what I’ve read. I don’t know if he’ll get $5M this season, but it wouldn’t be out of line and it wouldn’t surprise me if he did.

The real question is how much of the run game issues are due to the run blocking and how much is on the RBs. I don’t know for sure, but I’d wager it’s more of the former than the latter - and that the issues were mostly on the interior. At least that’s what my eyes told me (though I’ll admit that I wasn’t focusing on that). I wouldn’t say no to a stud RB, but I’m not using a ton of capital on one. I’d rather see the OL shored up, including retaining Williams. It’ll be interesting to see how Beane prioritizes things this offseason.

We have the same favorite book! Did you ever read Pirsig’s follow up, Lila? I loved that as well. I am reading a ton of food and cooking books now - Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat is quite good. It Was All a Lie by Stuart Stevens is up next in non fiction. I usually gravitate to behavioral economics and the like for stimulating fun. Levit and Dubner’s books like Freakonomics, just about any Malcolm Gladwell book, The Black Swan by Taleb, etc. are all great reads. Id be that you’ve already read these, but you can’t go wrong with The Life of Pi or Kite Runner if you haven’t gotten to those fantastic reads yet.

So close

Can’t believe no one has said Safety. I am very happy with Hyde and Poyer as starters and Neal as the #3.

I agree that it’s not. The AAV on that deal puts him 4th among kickers. Seems very reasonable to me.

I’d be good with a rework. That might be the better option. I guess it only depends on how worried they are about the concussion issue moving forward.

Yeah. Watson is the better QB today. Taking him over Allen is the safe bet. Taking Allen is looking at upside and banking on his continued development. The one factor that would make me take Watson over Allen is how they’ve fared in crunch time in their biggest games. I have no question that Watson will rise to the occasion in those situations. Allen hasn’t fully taken that step yet.

Allen has just this upcoming season left on his rookie deal. After that we are looking at those kinds of numbers. Even his 5th year option price tag will be up there.

Agree on Morse. I brought it up last offseason as a probability this season or next. He has had major concussion issues and is overpaid even when healthy. I get why the Bills paid him what they did when they did (it’s what they had to do), but cutting him before his deal is up would be the typical progression of that tactic. The concussion issue was a known risk and it has worsened, which is almost certainly accelerating the process. It’s a shame but it is what it is.

While that is true in general, it doesn’t apply here because you really can’t do much to restructure a one year contract. Brown is in the last season of his contract so that’s what we are dealing with. The only real option for a true restructure is to convert salary to a signing bonus and add voidable seasons to delay some of the cap hit. IMO the most likely option is to ask him to take a cut but add incentives so that he can make it back with availability and performance. That’s fair IMO. It’d be good for the team too because we could target his replacement in the draft and season him for a year. I prefer that to an extension because of his age and that he’s a speed guy. Those players fall off quick and I would rather move on a year early rather than a year late.

My old next door neighbor had a friend who was told by a coworker that they met a client who looked exactly like him. He brushed it off, but the sales rep kept on him about how they looked EXACTLY alike and that he really needed to meet this guy. Finally he calls him - and finds out he was adopted. He then goes to his mother and asks if he has a twin and she immediately lost it emotionally. The short story is that they were very poor and couldn’t afford to keep both twins so they gave one up for adoption. I know the brothers met after that but I don’t know where it went from there because we moved out of the area.

You beat me to it. Not only was it horrific in every way it also attempted to destroy the first movie.

Seriously. Zubas took him down early and didn’t capitalize. Lower level got up and went full Ralphie* on him. That gets you the KO in a fight with zero technique involved. Problem solved. * A Christmas Story reference

I finally got to Tempo just as the pandemic hit. I enjoyed it. Very good food, more than ample portions and options for drinkable but inexpensive wine. Wait staff was good. Excellent value overall. I was looking forward to going again and hope I still can at some point. Congrats on the wedding. Sorry your Tempo friends couldn’t be there.

Totally agree with your first paragraph, but no way would I want BOB here. He’s a mercenary who has angled for more power and money at every stop. He reminds me of coaches like Butch Davis and Doug Marrone. He’s the opposite of what the new Bills culture is about. It shouldn’t be a problem anyway because he’s still getting paid large by Houston and isn’t likely to take an OC job for free.

I will have a lot more respect for Pederson’s intellectual acuity if this is found to be the case. The Iggles are going to be a tire fire for at least a couple seasons. He had two seasons left on his contract and he’ll probably get paid to sit on a beach for those two seasons rather than go through the horror of coaching a team that’s trying to avoid 0-16.

I was so surprised by that too. It’s not the kind of mistake I’d think Tre would make, but he did and I also noted it at the time.

Make Lamar be a QB. He’s a dynamic runner but a backup level passer. Clog the middle to make him throw to the sidelines and put defenders in his way if he runs. Seal those edges on pass rush and run defense. The Titans did not contain the edges and it cost them the game. When Lamar does run the ball make him pay. Teams really haven’t been able to do that because he’s so elusive but it’s coming.