BarleyNY

I expect that he will deserve to be extended when the time comes, but I also think that a lot of fans have gotten a little ahead of themselves. Flash plays? Yup. Talent and raw physical ability? Big time. Consistency with the mental side of the game? No, not yet. Edmunds is still very young so I expect that to clean up - and if/when it does then I expect him to be one of the top few LBs in the league. He has enough potential to even be the best of his era. But he just isn’t quite there yet and it’s a mistake to simply assume that it will happen, especially if that means tying up a lot of cap space for several years on him. All I’m saying is let him earn it before giving him credit for earning it (along with the contract). I think he will and he has time.

One additional point of concern is the OL moving forward. Take a look at the Spotrac link above and scroll to the OL section. We are not set up to have much of an OL in 2021 at this point. Morse (very good starter), Spain (okay starter) and then Ford (sketchy starter) is it except for developmental players. Signing Dawkins to an extension now makes putting together a quality OL next season very workable. I see real problems - or a franchise tag - if we don’t. Dawkins is a good player, but I don’t think he is worth a contract based off of a franchise number. I don’t want us to go down that road and have to decide between overpaying him by a fair bit or losing him. As bad as that would be, letting him play out his deal and hit FA would probably be worse. We’d be in a bad negotiating position and we’d have to contend with other teams bidding up his price. Quite possibly we’d lose him to one of them, especially if he feels slighted by not getting an extension from us. Just extend him now and focus on filling the OL out in the offseason.

Agree on Dawkins and Milano. Edmunds is a ways away though. My opinion is above. He can’t have his contract extended until after this season is over anyway. As @Gambit said, he was drafted the same year as Allen. Unless Allen flames out and we are parting ways, I‘m not extending my MLB before my QB. I’d really like to hold onto Milano, but I don’t see spending large on two LBs. I barely like the idea of spending big on one. Just like safeties, only do that for the very special ones - and only one at a time. Let Milano test the market after this season and set his price. If it’s not too bad, then maybe we can keep him. If he gets paid big, then good for him.

I can’t imagine why you think that. He’s shown flashes to be sure and his upside is huge, but he’s got to clean up a lot too. He’s missed run fits and coverage assignments too often to really commit to long term. He’s young and that can certainly all come together in the next season or two. Then he should get extended or a new deal. Oh, I haven’t even mentioned that he is not even eligible to have his deal extended until after this season is over. So there’s that.

https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/buffalo-bills/yearly/cap/ There’s a link to Spotrac’s yearly cap hits by positions and players. Scroll down for players. Dawkins should be priority #1 and it’s not really close. That’s because he will be a FA after this season and using a tag on him will inflate his price. The Bills should be working on an extension for Tre as well. He is even more important than Dawkins but his option year in 2021 gives us more time.

Cruel, but fair

I don’t want to blast those that are saying that McD has things he needs to improve upon - he absolutely does. But this point is salient. Does anyone here have him in the bottom half of the league? I don’t. Does anyone here think he won’t get a few more seasons under almost any circumstance? Save a total collapse and losing the team - which is highly unlikely anytime soon - I sure don’t. So if your measure is that our HC needs to be top 5 with an impeccable track record, then you’re almost always going to be disappointed. Belichick and Reid aren’t looking for a new HC job right now. Sorry. While I’ve been disappointed (sometimes very much so) in McD, IMO his overall performance warrants this vote of confidence. The extension was warranted at this time and he deserves the chance to take this team as far as he can.

Separate from the cap, yes. Fully guaranteed, not always. The longer ones often have outs or rolling guarantees. Details of coach’s contracts are usually kept secret so I’m going by leaked info. For example, Gruden’s 10-year, $100M contract is said to be heavily backloaded with those high dollar years not guaranteed.

No. Many were, but later years on longer contracts sometimes guarantee after certain dates or when other criteria are met. For example McD might have a three or four year rolling guarantee up through the end of the contract as opposed to a full six year guarantee at this moment. I doubt we will ever know for sure.

2 years left on a HC contract is a pretty standard time for an extension when the coach has been successful. McD has cleared that bar. No word on guarantees so all six years are unlikely to be fully guaranteed at this time for anyone worrying about risk. It was a new contract that (assuming a typical structure) was prudent by the team and well earned by the coach. Hooray for success and stability. Now let’s take the next step (or two) forward.

Yup. Protection calls at the line, etc., etc. can all be an issue. IMO the biggest impact of all of those offensive communications being disrupted is when an offense can’t get out of a play that is a poor call against a defensive look and into a good one though. That’s all I was saying. Didn’t mean to imply that was the only issue.

Really a moot point at this time. The main impact of crowd noise is making it difficult for visiting teams to call audibles. There is some evidence that home teams gets more calls too. But it’ll be an even playing field this season so no big deal. As for the argument that Bills fans are better/louder than most, it’s generally the bad teams that have less crowd noise and that even picks up if they are competitive in a game. We should beat those teams anyway. A lack of fans at games should have little to no overall impact on the games themselves.

It depends who you are as a team. If you are a well run team missing a top QB then a shot at an elite QB might be the bit of luck you need to get to a SB. If you are a well run team with a top QB then you’re taking the playoffs. If you’re a poorly run team then it probably doesn’t matter much either way. You might as well take the playoffs for a change.

They tend to ignore anything that refutes their beliefs. I saw a documentary where a Flat Earther conducted an experiment to prove that the Earth was flat. It involved lasers (which are not subject to the effects of gravity) and distances long enough to show the effect of any curvature. Thus, when the laser hit the exact same point above the ground (sea level) as from which it was fired at a trajectory level to the ground, the Earth would be shown to be flat. The results were, predictably, a bit different from what he expected. The laser hit well above the predicted point and calculations based on that showed that the Earth was pretty much exactly as round and big as we know it to be. But here’s the really interesting thing: He was scheduled to give the results of his experiment at the big annual Flat Earther convention. When asked if he’d still do that he said “No way, they’d kick me out!”

I heard about Roost shortly before COVID hit and I’ve been champing at the bit to go. Some Other good recommendations here. I’ll add Prescott’s Provisions in NT.

I doubt that it was strictly a matter of money. This looks more like it was about ego - or maybe because they thought they got cheated. There’s no logical rationale to do what they did, just an emotional one.

I disagree. It all would depend on what was to happen after that. If BB was to get his next FQB and win another SB the narratives would be overwhelmingly positive. The bad season would be written off as calculated (evil) genius or a necessary reboot. There are really only two paths for the narrative for BB’s legacy: 1) Great coach who helped make Tom Brady into one of the greatest QBs ever and who proved his greatness by winning without him. Great coach. or 2) Great coach (though not as revered as in the scenario above) who made a great team with one of the greatest QBs ever, but never saw the same success without him. Great duo more so than great coach.

Excellent five part series in USA Today on how the best DCs are finding new (and rediscovering old) ways to put pressure on QBs. Part 3 is on Belichick’s Cover 0 and man, is he an evil genius. Lots of good stuff. https://ftw.usatoday.com/2020/08/getting-home-blitzing-nfl

I agree with you. It seems like the deal has already been struck with the $175M floor, which seems like a better solution anyway. The biggest issue with taking on that kind of debt would’ve been if something like this happened again or, god forbid, were to continue through 2021. The current deal avoids that bigger issue.

The real problem is that the CBA already states how the cap is determined. The NFL (owners) can’t change that without approval from the NFLPA (players). While I agree that a cap decrease would hurt some teams and some players, it’ll be welcomed by some teams. The owners are going to have to agree on something before taking it to the players - and that might be easier said than done. There are real issues with some owners having the cash to do something like keeping the cap artificially high. A reasonable option to keep the cap flat would be for the NFL to issue debt like bonds and/or loans from large banks to make up the revenue difference for 2020. Then they’d pay that back over the remaining 9 seasons of the CBA. The payments would be deducted from the future revenue and thus lower the players’ cut (cap) in those future years. The NFL certainly has the fiscal strength to carry a couple billion in debt and the expected increase in revenues from new TV deals starting in 2022 would help smooth things out nicely. It could work if everyone wants it to.

We should sit pretty tight IMO. There are going to be some tremendous bargains next offseason due to a lowered cap and a bunch of teams having to create a lot of space. Free agency and the trade market for high priced players will both be buyer’s markets. I would still extend Tre in a way that deferred his big hits to 2022 and beyond though. That won’t hurt us. Things have a chance to get ugly between owners. Teams like Philly are going to ask for special rules to help them through their cap situation. Teams like the Bills who are flush with space will not be having any of that. I suspect that the latter group will win out.

I would hate it except in the event of one situation. There is a reason Belichick paid large for Gilmore - an elite CB is worth the money. Not all positions or players are, but CB Tre White is. Save money almost anywhere else, but not there, QB or pass rusher. The one hypothetical situation I’d pull the trigger on would be if Allen were to bust and we were to trade Tre to get a franchise QB or elite QB prospect. We aren’t in that position, but getting your QB is the only reason to trade a young, elite CB.

I see a lot of people make the same mistake Garofolo did there. Moving a little money forward in Diggs’ deal was doing him a solid. That’s all fine. But it doesn’t help the team at all. That’s because of carryover. $3M spent now or $3M carried over for two seasons and then spent is little different. In normal times moving cap hits to future years does have a benefit because the cap usually increases so the team gets a bit of a discount percentage wise. As for Diggs’ deal I suspect that he got a bunch of his 2020 salary as a signing bonus. That will actually create more cap space this season and next.

I know people here love to hate on PFF, but they had Wallace rated 41st among CBs. If accurate, that does place him comfortably in the top half of CB2s. I’ll sure take that going forward. As for Norman, I certainly think he was worth rolling the dice on for obvious reasons.

There’s a big difference here. Football under normal conditions has players taking health risks that have been accurately conveyed to them (recently with regards to CTE at least) and that they deem acceptable. Football under current conditions not only increased the risk to players, but also extended risks to the families - not to mention team staff members, their families, referees, production workers, etc. That needed a separate agreement - which they’ve reached - so I’m good with the NFL giving it a go.