BarleyNY

Yikes. I would not be down for that.

Crap. Yes, Mitchell Schwartz on the Chiefs. I’m a big McGlinchey fan though.

That’s actually a good point. Mike McGlinchey in SF and probably Schwartz with the Falcons. I’m blanking on a fifth though. I think you missed my point.

That’s fair. But people here lauded the Bills moves last season - and still do. They made Morse the highest paid center in the league. While he is definitely an above average center, he is not the best. Conklin is set to be the third highest paid RT and he’s above average but not third best. Those moves feel an awful lot alike. At TE the Bills signed Kroft to a 3 year, $21M deal (admittedly far less lauded). Hooper is getting a 4 year, $44M deal from the Browns this season. I’d much rather have Hooper for $11M/yr than Kroft for $7M/yr. Yeah. The talent is there. The coaching looks a lot, lot, lot better. It’s tough to be optimistic with the Browns, but the table seems set for them.

The Browns have some real talent, not just named. They still have big holes at LB (2), S (2) and LT. They also need a quality nickel CB and depth along the DL. That seems very possible at this point. It’s no guarantee of success of course. Coaching has to be good, players have to buy in and mesh, etc. There is real potential there though.

They’ve been clearing cap space.

Damn. That’s serious money.

And cutting him would leave $1.75M in dead money. The delta for keeping him is $8.025M. Despite the excessive criticism of him by some here, he’s worth that versus opening up a huge hole there. The Bills need to add at least one other DE with starting capability this offseason. A rookie who could rotate and learn under Murphy and Hughes this season would be a very good solution. A high end free agent would work well too and make Murphy the rotational DE. If we can get both then we can talk about whether we move on from Murphy or Hughes.

46.6% of defensive snaps. Hughes played 63.6% and Murphy played 65.1%. Couple ways to look at that. Shaq played about 72% of the snaps the other two played. If you take a straight line increase if he played a similar amount of snaps he’d have had 9 sacks. Of course you can also argue that his sack rate would tail off with the increase in workload. Shaq is a good DE, but I don’t believe he’s ever going to be a double digit sack DE. https://www.pro-football-reference.com/teams/buf/2019-snap-counts.htm

I will lose it if the Bills trade more for Cook than what Houston gave up for Hopkins. Cooks is a quality player and he’d be the best WR on the Bills, but he is no Deandre Hopkins.

You’d have to think this was the case. I mean, we’re talking about BOB here, but still.

I agree with this. Basically gave up a second and took on the David Johnson boat anchor. We could’ve thrown in some late round picks.

Nope. TE was a huge hole on the Browns. Stefanski ran the most multiple TE sets in the league last season with the Vikings. The only viable TE on the Browns was Njoku. I expect them to also draft one.

I agree. A second and a boat anchor in David Johnson. BOB got hosed here.

Here’s hoping

Sarcasm? I believe that Dobbins is going to be a very productive NFL RB. I’d love for the Bills to snag him, but it would definitely require some draft manipulation. He’s not in the cards at 22 and he’ll be gone by 54.

One of the impacts of the CBA approval This morning is that team will not be able to use both tags. No other change has been made to the tags or their usage from what I’m reading.

Me too. I was really hoping for an upgrade.

Dunno about that in this case. You just made it very difficult to cut him this season if we do find an upgrade. This is both sides agreeing to give it one more season to see if it works out. My real issue is that it makes upgrading the position very difficult unless we move in from Lee Smith. In that case our new TE better be a good in line blocker. The initial contract they gave Kroft was terrible. If we’re going to keep him this season at least it’ll be for less money.

The Bills get to keep him for less money this season. His upside is that most of that lesser amount is guaranteed. It also shortens the contract to just this season so - if he performs - he can get paid. I’d have probably just cut him, but they like him I guess.

Clemson has a notoriously fast track. I’d have been surprised if he had run at the Combine and gotten those times. It’s still better than what I would’ve expected for him even on Clemson’s track. If anything it’s going to help his draft stock.

I agree with all of that. Honestly, my bigger issue is building the defense and throwing Allen out there with such a bad supporting cast in 2018. They did some real work to get the talent level to a fairly good place for 2019, but it obviously needs work including real playmakers. I’m just happy 2018 didn’t completely ruin Allen. Now we get to see them take their shots. I largely give them a pass on KB. They were trying to make the playoffs and end the drought and WR was a huge need. He was just way more checked out than they realized. Lots of times players like that get motivated by being in playoff contention. That obviously didn’t happen. Most recently they got two good WRs in FA so I’m encouraged.

That’s not accurate or even the real decision here. First off, the delta for Murphy is $8M to keep him for this season. The rest would be dead cap anyway. I definitely keep him for that cap hit unless we have a big influx of talent at the position as we need to be 3 deep at DE (at least). The real questions with Shaq are 1)What’s his role? And 2) How much will he cost? He’s an excellent rotational DE IMO. I love him in there on rushing downs, but he is at best adequate as a pass rusher. That’s more like an $8M AAV contract than it is $12M one. As I expect some team to overpay I’d bow out at that time. If that doesn’t happen then I’m certainly listening. We are looking at an overhaul of the DEs in the near future, however. Shaq is a FA, Murphy is in his last season and Hughes has two left but, honestly, he may not see both of them in a Bills uni. I’d definitely look to address the position in both FA and the draft and target more complete DEs than Shaq. One starting caliber and one developmental DE would be my goal.

Gross. Tagging Shaq would be a horrible move. He’s developed into what I thought he’d be. A very good, but limited DE who sets the edge well and can get some sacks through scheme and effort (coverage sacks). He’s not a guy that’s going to beat an OT off the ball and get to the QB fast though. He’s a good piece to have on your team, but he’s never going to be a big difference maker. I’d be happy to keep him at a reasonable price, but he seems to be looking for the last nickel on the open market (and I don’t blame him for that) so I expect some other team to overpay. I just don’t want it to be us.

Perhaps they’ve got a trade possibility to move Star. That would yield a cap savings of $300k. Upgrade to a better, younger player in a longer deal. It’s definitely a workable plan. The Bills might have to eat some of this season’s salary to make it happen, but it’d be worth it to upgrade. Star’s contract was not a good one for the Bills. They gotta pay the piper and deal with it at some point.