BarleyNY

Njoku actually performed pretty well last season, albeit in limited snaps. He really improved his blocking. I’m sure that any team trading for him would require signing him to an extension as part of the deal. Heard he might be heading to NE for Gilmore, but that might be dead now with NE signing a TE. Hunt is an elite back. He’d easily be worth a day 2 pick especially considering that he signed an extension and has very reasonable salaries.

Indeed. I’m happy to see the Ravens weakened too. Though I really don’t see Judon as low risk. He’s not the DE I’d have jumped at and either he made out really well for himself or the DE market is going to be insane this offseason.

First year cap hits can be minimized. If healthy, he’d be an excellent pick up. Whose turn is it to track the Pegula’s jet? And the only reason he might not be worth the 30th pick in this draft is the possible future effects of his neck injury.

He was the NFL rushing leader in 2017, which was his rookie season. He is an elite NFL back. He just happens to be on one of only a few teams where he isn’t easily the #1 RB.

Hunt is an exceptional RB. I’d be shocked if the Browns were shopping him - especially right after they extended his contract. The only exception being if there was an issue off the field or with a positive test. I have heard nothing like that though so I’m skeptical. That all said, the Bills should jump on a reasonable trade if he is being shopped and is clean.

Good synopsis. Unless NO can extend Williams or their OTs, then about all they have left is to release or trade Lattimore. I think they’re trying to work a trade to get some draft capital to help the rebuild. They should be able to get something for him, but it won’t be a lot. And teams might just wait out his release too. The Saints also have to give Brees a 6/1 designation. His contract was designed for that to happen so that was always the plan.

He actually got a (ridiculous IMO) 2 year deal last season. $21M total with around $17M of that guaranteed. OTC has a nice write up on that deal and this last one. I have no idea why they would’ve given him that last contract, but it made this rework necessary to spread out his cap hit. The Saints are really doing everything they can to hold onto their young talent. The more expensive older players are being released. They’re taking their cap punishment this season and next for extending their playoffs window with Brees. It will be interesting to see where they find their next QB. I’m sure they’ll take one in this year’s draft somewhere and go from there.

The available cap space number is not that important right now - for the Bills at least. They have several easy places to create space, which would be restructures of several large salaries this season. They’ll be doing that as they need the room. If we see 2 or 3 of those happen, then we are about out of space for significant moves. Legal tampering starts at noon Eastern today. Correct on official start of Free Agency at 4 pm on Wednesday the 17th.

Just to clarify, the number of voidable years is designed to spread MORE of the cap hit to the future, not spread it over four more years. All future hits will accelerate into next season once the years are voided.

Sure. Couldn’t hurt from a motivational standpoint either. But we all know what it really is. And it’s not a 4 year, $140M extension.

It’s a one year, $12.159M contract restructure. The rest is just pretend money. I think it was a joke by NO and Hill. https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/new-orleans-saints/taysom-hill-22021/

I think it was a joke

They are handy for something like this year where Covid has reduced the salary cap. Just like anything else teams can get into trouble with them if they overuse them.

Voidable years in contracts are used to delay cap hits. Let’s say you have a player on a 1 year, $12M deal. That’s a $12M cap hit that season. But if your team wants to delay some of that cap hit, they can make it a 5 year deal with 4 years that automatically void. One structure is 5 years with a $10M signing bonus and $2M salaries in every year. Now it’s a 5 year, $20M contract that automatically voids to 1 year, $12M. But the cap hits would be $4M in year one and $8M in year two.

McKinney is coming off a bad season. Might’ve been the Texans, might’ve been him. Shaq is a solid DE. He was overrated as a prospect and player by most fans when he was drafted and played here. As soon as he left those same people started underrating him. The winner of this trade will be determined by what version of McKinney Miami gets. We know what Houston is getting. No idea what Miami is.

Nice. That’s starter money so 4/5 of the line is set. Guessing Ford and Boettger will be battling for that last OG spot. Maybe throw in a draft pick too. We could still use a swing tackle but I expect that will come later in FA.

Honestly this is pretty spot on. Funny how those kinds of players and those kinds of teams consistently find each other.

Great value if it’s a 3 year deal at just over $28M as I’ve read. He clearly wants to be here. Awesome.

Thanks right back at you. Great catch.

@TPS I’ll give this my best shot. Good god, OTC and Spotrac don’t even have the same contract details which is making this even tougher. So I worked them out individually. OTC: Guaranteed salary of $4.5M this season and $1.15M next. SB proration of $2.6M for 2021-2023 each. That means a post 6/1/21 cut would cause cap hits of $7.1M (4.5+2.6) in 2021 and $6.35M (1.15+2.6+2.6) in 2022. Indeed that’s a $500k savings this season. $13.45M in total dead money is pretty brutal though. Spotrac: Guaranteed salary of $4.5M (same) this season and $2.5M next (different). SB proration of $2.6M for 2021-2023 each(same). So the numbers will work out the same except that there would be $1.35M more dead money in 2022 ($7.7M) and total dead money would be $14.8M. Spotrac’s calculations are off. I see why but I won’t bore you with it. Probably a spreadsheet mistake. OTC doesn’t do a good job of showing dead money beyond 2021 either. The future guaranteed salary is wonky too. It’s hit usually accelerates to the present season with a release, but post 6/1 it would be in the following season I believe. I think I worked this all through properly, but fire away any questions or if you spot a mistake. Guaranteed salary would be the new team’s responsibility. We’d have a $7.8M cap hit (dead money) if we traded him. That’s $200k more than what it would be if he’s on the roster this season. But that would close the book on him.

That’s odd. I’m going by Spotrac’s numbers, which look different. OTC doesn’t really break out the numbers for cuts quite as neatly but I don’t think they are the same anyway. I am going to do the math from scratch and post that. You can click the red X at the right under the 2021 financials to see what I’m seeing: https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/buffalo-bills/star-lotulelei-12294/

I do not think that is the case. There is DE money they can shed to help with the first year cap hit if they sign a young, quality FA DE. There are also some obvious restructures that can yield a lot of space this season. Dawkins, Diggs and White are the obvious candidates to convert salary into signing bonuses. The Bills are in very good cap shape as of now.

Wait. What!?

No need for anyone to be butthurt about it all. I don't blame Watt for taking the guaranteed money, but FA has a lot of Edge talent this season. For the kind of money Watt got I’d rather pay a DE that is younger and will be around for a lot longer. There’s obviously a changing of the guard in process for the Bills at DE and I’d rather acquire a player who is likely to be a cornerstone complete DE. Epenesa may turn out to be one as well, but the jury is still out on him. Watt was just going to be a 1 or 2 year player. He might be better than Addison or Hughes at this point, but they are all at the end of the highly productive part of their careers. For the kind of money Watt cost I want a long term impact player. JMO

That is my expectation too. In general we will see them create cap space as they need it or as they acquire better/cheaper replacements.