BarleyNY

They’re buying speed, which is smart. I’m sure they’re doing a great job developing their fast players too. Since they play in Texas and the SEC they may never see snow in their careers so players with speed but not size fit in particularly well.

Money mostly. Highest NIL payroll of all teams in 2024.

Workload is a big concern for Cook. I got flamed last offseason for saying that he broke down at the end of the season and that if we wanted to get the best out of him - and wanted him to be productive in the post season - we should reduce his snap count. That is exactly what the Bills did and it worked extremely well. His regular season snap count went from 634 to 485. His carries went from 237 to 207. Targets went from 54 to 38 and receptions from 44 to 32. It seems clear that 2024 showed us how much to use him. The Bills also figured out HOW to use him by taking him off the field on third downs, in short yardage situations and on obvious passing downs. That is a big issue when looking at his value as those are the most important times for a RB to be on the field. I also see what he brings to the team. He has fantastic vision and is very valuable on first and second downs. He's an excellent runner and he kept Allen from having to throw (and scramble and take hits) so often on early downs. That’s valuable so I hope we come to a reasonable agreement with him. But that means taking into account the fact that we need RBs in our corps that can excel at what he doesn’t - pass pro, receiving and short yardage. Those situations are almost always the most important snaps for an offense. So this situation may come down to whether or not he has a realistic view of his value.

Could not agree more.

It is not about mortgaging the future. The Eagles aren’t doing that. It’s about how much the owner is willing to spend.

Agreed. Wish we had access to average depth of tackle stats.

The two biggest examples are McDermott not owning his mistakes publicly or privately and players like Diggs who seem(ed) exempt from being held accountable. You can’t have a tiered system. FWIW I don’t think McDermott even realizes that most of the mistakes he’s made in big moments of the biggest games were mistakes.

Very true. But that only works long term if people take accountability for their own mistakes. Realizing that they’ve made mistakes is step one. Owning them is step 2.

Some real accountability would be a good step. “It starts with me.” doesn’t cut it.

True. The crazy thing is - Andy Reid blew the SB this year. His game plan against Philly’s quarters coverage was absolute trash. It was what Philly primarily ran all season so it shouldn’t have been a surprise to see it. Yet it took him a whole 30 minutes of getting destroyed to adjust. Game was over by then.

I’d be comfortable with that $16M-$18M range. I think he’s worth that. The $23M-$25M range I’ve seen thrown around, no thank you. He can play out his deal and get it somewhere else.

That’s a pretty good comp for what he could become. Both are small, but fast. That’s the type of LB he could develop into.

Upon further medical evaluation surgery is not recommended. I still expect jim to go top 2 along with Ward.

I understand that is what you meant. The Browns won’t be interested in taking back an older player back in trade - especially an older one with a large salary and recent injury issues. It would only undermine their rebuild.

I’m with you on Rousseau testing the market. It’s the most likely scenario. If he wants the bag, that’s what he’ll do. There’s always some team willing to overpay a good, but not great DE.

Zero chance. While I think it’s highly unlikely that the Browns trade Garrett this offseason, there is no chance that they would take an over 30 player back in trade. They’d be in rebuild mode and would be looking for picks and young players. Still basically a rookie.

As I already said, not the part about it being worth trading him for 63. The part where you said we used a higher pick on him. That part that isn’t true.

Why do people keep saying this? We used 63 on him. KC’s pick would be 63. I get why people wouldn’t want to do it, but it’s the same pick.

In this scenario we’d be getting pick 63 in the 2025 draft. We used pick 63 in the 2022 draft on him.

It depends on his contract extension demands. If KC is going to give him a 4/$60M extension then I’ll gladly take pick 63 for him.

What stats indicate Rousseau is a top 15% DE? That would put him in the top 10 Edge players unless you’re including depth players. (64x.15=9.6) What qualifier? You said they could leave the cap hits from his 4 void years in place. That’s incorrect. Once he is no longer on the team, they accelerate to the current year (or next if after 6/1).

I disagree on Rousseau’s value and ranking. As for Spotrac & OTC’s valuations of players, they are very hit and miss. I do my own work. So why spend so much time on structure of a potential Rousseau deal? The only way we see aggressive structures of deals like that is if Pegula agrees to spend more. Otherwise it does us no real good. Incorrect on Brown. All remaining void years accelerate into the first year a player is not on the team. That is subject to post 6/1 designation or release. If he plays out his deal they may extend him a year so they can use that designation and split the cap hit between two seasons. That’s their only option.

I understand the cap and void years very well. What you wrote in this post is largely correct. I’d note that void years after year 5 of a contract are not included at year 1. Common practice is to add them when salary and/or roster bonuses are converted to signing bonuses in year two and beyond. I’ve advocated for the Bills to adopt an aggressive cap management strategy like the Eagles and Browns employ. But that would require Pegula to open the purse strings and spend at a higher level overall. It’s not about timing of payments to the players. Salary conversions to signing bonuses are ow almost always paid on the same schedule as they would have been as salary. But the payments do become guaranteed. Just as a point of clarity, the inclusion of 4 void years to AJ Brown’s one year contract only pushes 80% of his signing bonuses amount out one season (unless he is re-signed before the new league year starts). There also seems to be a misunderstanding about the purpose of such an aggressive cap management style. It is not so that teams can overpay players. That would defeat the advantage it can create - accumulating more talent and more elite players. That only happens if a team pays market value to the right players.