BarleyNY

There’s no reason to move on from Knox at this time, but the Bills have got to find a more consistent and dependable TE. Let him continue to develop and see what happens, but we can’t have him as the only guy capable of being TE1.

I agree completely. It’s unconscionable to have privatized prisons.

I agree. Fields has a lot to work with. He’s not a finished product but he is accurate and has the skills to be a quality NFL QB. Not that a team like the Jets couldn’t ruin him though. OTOH I never got the love for Haskins. I’m a lifelong Buckeye fan and watch pretty much every OSU game. I never saw it with Haskins. He wasn’t that good of a college QB and really didn’t fit the Read Option offense at all. I see it with Fields. He would be getting a lot more love if his WR hadn’t slipped at the end of the Clemson game last year.

This happens all the time. The Bengals are doing it with Burrow now. Someone mentioned Luck not winning a SB, but picking him was just about the only thing that front office did right. They got him no protection and no playmakers to speak of. It took some time for the previous regime’s players to be replaced but it just got progressively worse every year. By the time they righted the ship Luck was broken. That is just the kind of thing that happens with poorly run organizations. Even when they find quality players they find ways to ruin them. The Jest are a very poorly run org and they’ll find a way to mess this up. It doesn’t matter if they have the first pick and take Lawrence, it doesn’t matter if they take Fields with the second pick or if they trade back for a haul. They’re gonna mess this up somehow.

So realistically there’d be QBs playing for their team’s right to take their replacement? With a roster full of players that checked out weeks ago? That ought to work out great. It also might encourage more teams to tank since they’d only have to be second worst to have a shot at it. I don’t think the league wants the scrutiny of a weighted or straight up lottery, but that’s where this likely ends up. Not a perfect solution, but a way better one than the two worst teams in the league playing an extra game for the first overall pick.

That’s such a cop out by Tomlin. Total BS. Zero chance he didn’t know about it. He’s only doing something about it now because they’re losing and it looks bad. He was happy to let it go on as long as no one was making a big deal about it. And now that they’re losing he isn’t getting a pass anymore.

Agreed. We have one of the best WRs in the game today. So do the Cardinals. IMO both WRs are in the top 5 of the league today. I really don’t see the point in arguing about who number one is. I’m happy we’ve got one of them and that he fits so well here.

I totally agree. Hopkins leads the league in receiving yards. Who gives a crap if he gets Wednesdays off to stay fresh. If anything it seems like a strategy that’s working extremely well.

So the strip clubs are open in DC?

I’d love to play the Patriots......but.......oh........right

It was close. It happens. Nothing to see here.

To be fair, the Browns installed a completely new scheme during this shortened offseason. Also Mayfield is running his third offensive system in 3 years. It’s starting to click there, but it started badly. Interestingly Mayfield has done much better with OBJ out. Bleacher Report broke out his ratings on plays with and without OBJ on the field and Mayfield has been far better without him over the last two seasons. The people here who wanted Daboll canned were missing the impact that kind of change can have on a QB - especially a young one. Likewise the positive impact of a star WR your QB clicks with (Allen and Diggs) can be huge, but it doesn’t always work that way. The Bills have done a lot right and maybe even had some luck. Now they’re reaping the rewards.

Cutting him would’ve saved $8M less what his roster replacement cost. Incidentally $1M of that is in per game active roster bonuses. They’re saving a little bit by making him inactive since week 10 at least. That’s not enough to make a big dent in either contract, but it wouldn’t have hurt. I actually thought he’d be a solid, if unspectacular, early down contributor at DE this season. After seeing our DE corps crippled by injuries last season I wanted depth and I did not want to have to depend on a rookie for a lot of snaps. So keeping him made sense to me, but his time in B-lo looks very over now if he can’t even get on the active roster now.

I agree except it’s not about money, it’s about cap space. People want to see it used to better the team and not wasted. But there are worse examples of wasted space than Murphy - and some of those contracts will still have an impact next season. Murphy will be gone and off the books.

The Pats are not sticking with Newton so they’ll be a new starter there next season. If I got to chose one for them, Wentz would be very high on my list along with the likes of Mitch Trubisky.

It really would make a lot more sense for the Bills to be in the AFCN and the Ravens in the AFCE

If Brown were to be extended I see it similarly. He’s a speed WR who is 30 now so inking him to a new contract that - however long it is on paper - is really a 2 year deal makes a lot of sense. I could see that happening and it would be a good move if the money is right. I’d be good with that or having him play out his last season. Morse is not getting a real extension though. He’s got two years left on his contract after this one, he will be 30 at the end of it and he’s already had 5 known concussions. The only exception would be if the Bills restructured and/or extended his contract to lower his compensation and/or to move some of 2021’s cap hit out. But that would not be done with the intention of keeping him around longer. His current contract is so front loaded that his new money ($7.6M & $8.5M) is not has significant as his overall AAV numbers ($11.1M) are. That might keep him here another season or two. But his concussion risk is now high enough that I could see the Bills moving on as early as this offseason. If not, then next. If I’m Beane that’s what I’d do.

Shout out to UB’s football team. 24th in the AP poll, on their way to 5-0 (up 28-0 over Akron now) and off to the MAC Championship game next weekend. A very nice, if short, season. I hope they get to play in a good bowl game and bring home a win there too. Also Jaret Patterson just went over 1k rushing yards - in less than 5 games.

$5.5M dead cap, savings of $4.9M. Morse is definitely a candidate to be cut (or traded). The contract we signed him to was comfortably over market value at the time, but that happens in FA and I get why we did it. He has been good overall, but probably not up to that contract (which was expected). He hasn’t exactly had world beating OGs next to him and that makes it difficult on a C. His concussion issues - which were a known risk at signing - have continued and that very well might be what tips the scales against him. I think the Bills move on from him this offseason or next. They can fill his spot with a slightly lesser player with less injury/concussion concerns for substantially less.

You can’t really restructure the last year of a contract. You can extend it and lower the first year cap hit or you can ask a player to take a cut, but that’s about it except for cutting/trading the player. The only possibility - and I’ve never seen this done on a one year deal or know if the league would approve it - would be to add voidable years to the current one year deal and pay out most of the salary as a signing bonus. That would just kick some of the cap hit to next season while paying him the same. I’d think him playing out his deal or an extension would be more likely.

Troof. Someone needs to step up their bread game. I don’t care for the heels on a sandwich, but they are the best with butter, cheese, etc. - if it is good bread.

This is absolutely correct. It is a spoiled fan base with a lot of entitlement. That said Steelers fans have generally been very nice to me, my wife excepted.

Thanks. Those are the two teams I’ll be watching closely too. Typically the road to getting under the cap is pretty straightforward even if it’s painful - and the situation usually makes sense. New Orleans is in worse shape than Philly, but they’ve got a 41 year old HOF QB. It makes sense for them to make a last run and then deal with Armageddon. But Philly? I have no idea what they were thinking. If they thought Wentz was their guy, then why necessitate a tear down? If they thought they made a mistake with him, then why go all in on 2020 with the rest of the roster? I get that teams got caught a bit with the revenue/cap decrease, but the NO and Philly situations were going to be very bad anyway. Those two teams are going to have to use every method at their disposal to get under the cap. And don’t expect them to get a break from the league. 30 other teams will benefit from their situations so they won’t be having it.

No kidding. They were really going to an extreme in what I have to assume was an attempt at another Super Bowl run.

The Iggles cap situation is so bad going into 2021 that they won’t be able to rectify it in just that one season. It’ll take 2-3 seasons to clear the books. $260M in cap hits for 41 players going into 2021. They’ll likely have something around $175M plus $22M in carryover to work with. Some of their high cap hit players aren’t cut or trade candidates due to huge dead cap hits so they’ll have to keep them and convert salary into a signing bonus to kick some of the hit down the road. Others will be traded or cut. Replacements will be cheap. It is ugly now and it’s going to be ugly for awhile for them.