BarleyNY

It’s actually a good negotiation tactic if you want to maximize your earnings. Drive up your price among the lesser teams by getting them to really make it worth it to you to play for them. “I’d really rather play for the Bills or Bucs so if the contracts are close, then I’m going with one of them. Oh, how much more did you say?” Then put our some half truth or total BS about not taking the most money/best contract offer. Nicely played.

One thing I really like about Clowney is that he’s a great DE to have on the field when playing against Lamar. He can hold and collapse the edge which forces players like Lamar to stay in the pocket and get rid of the ball or run straight upfield. No rolling out to buy time for coverage to break down or running up the sideline.

He would not help us get better against the run either.

Beane did a great job quickly working out a deal for a much needed young, elite WR when Diggs he made it known he was unhappy in Minny. But those opportunities don’t come around often. I can’t think of a single young, elite edge defender that could be pried away from his team right now. Free agency might have some options though.

I suspect the $23M guaranteed on a 2-year deal was what drove his decision. Lots of details to consider when it comes to contracts - guarantees, length, structure/backloading. I heard the Browns offered $13.5M/yr earlier in the process. No idea if they increased that or not. Even at $13.5M AAV if it was for a a 3 year deal, then that’s $40.5M and they technically offered more in a way. Lots gets said about contract offers, but without details none of it really means much. I think Watt was a phenomenal player and that he’s still good. I’m glad we didn’t pay him what ‘Zona did though. That’s just too much for a rotational 32 year old pass rusher. Heck, I thought $13.5M would've too much unless it was a longer deal that was backloaded.

Mike Preston has been hated by Baltimore fans for as long as I can remember. This article is a good example of why. It was really nothing but bitching and whining on behalf of himself and NFL teams. The NFL is happy to take advantage of social media, the internet and other modern tech when it suits them so they aren’t getting any sympathy from me if there’s a downside too. Ditto Preston. He ***** about players trying to use social media to get better contracts, but ignores the fact that owners can make billions of dollars over the course of owning a team. So they have to manage some social media stuff from players in the process? Boo hoo. It’s part of the package these days. If they don’t want to deal with that stuff they can do something else in a less public industry.

Also had a Border Collie mix. This is all spot on. Wish we’d have gotten him a dog, as we used to say. He needed it. He was a great dog though. I miss him.

He developed a very raw QB. That is huge in today’s NFL. I am surprised he didn’t see more action. I wonder if he’s set on staying and it got around.

I agree with all of this. I hated the Star signing, but I really like what Beane has done overall. I do not consider a pay cut a true “restructure” so I’d agree with him thus far. Though it might simply be that Beane hasn’t really needed to do any true restructures yet. Agree on the Addison, Jefferson and Diggs comments. And I’ve been saying that Williams will be looking for a Conklin contract and should come fairly close to it. Conklin makes $14M per year for 3 years so $12M for Williams is definitely in the ballpark.

I had to look up what a fasciotomy is. That is rough

It wouldn’t surprise me at all if they got a deal done, but I disagree that it’s mandatory. With 5th year options available teams have another year if they really want it. It all comes down to how sold each team is on their first round quarterback and what the quarterbacks is asking for a a contract. with a one-year dip in the salary cap and the expectation that there will be a huge increase next year it’s very possible that these quarterbacks will want to wait to cash in on that. It could be as simple as agents understanding that the big expected cap increases should be factored into the contracts of the clients and teams countering that by waiting a year make sure those increases really happen as expected.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/30947884/tennessee-titans-2020-first-round-pick-isaiah-wilson-says-done-football-titan-deleted-tweet%3fplatform=amp TLDR: He’s was a first round rookie who got busted during his first training camp at a college party with weed during COVID, crashed his car on a DUI a couple months later, played four snaps for his team in one game that entire season, got put on the COVID list twice and finally got put on the non football injury list to end the season.

Apparently you haven’t been paying much attention to Von Miller lately. Missed last season with an injury, had surgery, turns 32 in March, is under criminal investigation in Denver and recently texted some very nasty stuff to his gf that he knocked up. I’m going to pass on him. Not the guy I want in Buffalo on or off the field.

I agree. This is how you do a contract for a QB with one year left on his rookie deal and a 5th year option available. He can get a chunk of cash up front, but the cap hits need to stay low this season and reasonably low next. That all said, I definitely exercise his 5th year option, but I want to see another season of him before signing him to a mega deal. Also I don’t know that QBs like him, Mayfield and Lamar will be in a hurry to sign extensions yet. There’s so much more money on the horizon they might want to wait for it.

I think that GB would be his first choice, but I don’t think they can afford him. It should be announced soon. FWIH his agent has squeezed all the money he can out of suitors. Now it is just up to Watt to take his pick of the honest offers. My best guess is Cleveland followed by Buffalo. But I don’t have any insight on that part of it. TB would be smart for a shot at a ring obviously. Watt is very private and has kept his cards very close to his vest on this so everything out there is just speculation.

Yup. Making a call as to what the Bills should do at 30 is tough the morning of the draft, but FA hasn’t even started yet. You do your work on the prospects, set the table for some possible trades up and down and see how it all unfolds.

This dude has screwed up over and over again. Now he’s trying to give the Titans a way out of the guaranteed money left on his contract - and maybe even some of that signing bonus he got. Wow.

Front loading cap hits is not a good idea. Rollover eliminates any benefit that could be gained. It’s better to have flexibility and push cap hits into future years with higher caps so that they take up a smaller percentage.

That is possible but I doubt it would go down that way. The Bills have other options to gain cap space so they don’t need Diggs to restructure. It’d be nice, but they don’t have to have that space. Also if and when Diggs wants his deal redone I am sure he would be letting the team know anyway. I don’t think it’ll be this year though. I would bet that it is a year away due to the cap decrease. It’s going to bounce back big time so I’d think he’d want in on that gravy train when there’s plenty on hand for the Bills to spend.

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.