BarleyNY

I don’t have a subscription to The Athletic, but what I’m reading from the article in this thread is spot on.

Of course some can and do change. Let’s hope he has.

Amen. Big, but not very athletic WR with a history of major character problems including a me-first attitude. The sooner we can part ways with him, the better. This is worth reading: http://www.nfl.com/combine/profiles/d'haquille-williams?id=2555210

Some people (like me) will watch pretty much any football game, but it takes more to entice casual fans to watch teams that aren’t “theirs”. One is talent - especially talent that is exciting. Big passes, big catches, big runs, turnovers, sacks, etc. get viewers. If the Bills played most games like the first half of the Texans game then people would want to watch the Bills. We’d get big games against other quality teams on national TV. Hating a team - or at least rooting for a team’s failure - gets big ratings too. The Patriots have been far more methodical than exciting as the years have gone by. But most people watch to root against them. So the recipe is simple - win enough and sooner or later the demand will be there. That’s going to take some improvement on the offensive side of the ball and the Bills will be working on that.

I really appreciate the work you put into your post. Just wanted to touch on the DE specifically. I’d hate this to be our group going into the draft. Shaq has been good enough that I like him in the 3 man rotation, but I don’t think he’s full time starter material. That group needs another quality starter and then I’d be happy with it. I don’t see them cutting Murphy until they had an upgrade in place and I don’t see them getting that thin in the group.

Spotrac estimates market value for some FAs. They have not done it yet for Phillips, but they have for Shelby Harris who’s not a bad comparison. Their estimate is 3 years at an AAV of $11.7M. That’s sobering. Both had their breakout season in 2019: Harris: 638 defensive snaps, 28 solo tackles, 21 assisted tackles, 6 sacks, 1 forced fumble Phillips: 543-25-6-9.5-1 If Spotrac is correct about Harris, then that $7M-$8M range actually looks a little low for Phillips. https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/denver-broncos/shelby-harris-14646/market-value/

There’s no certainty that he will accept the Cleveland job. That’s for obvious reasons. But I do hear that he had legitimate reasons for bailing on Indy and that they are known by many in the NFL. I don’t know the specifics on that as the person who told me wouldn’t divulge. The Browns have two big things going for them with McDaniels though. 1) Haslam is willing to give him pretty much whatever he wants. 2) He is Northeast Ohio born and raised. He’d love to return the team he grew up rooting for to glory. We should all know what’s up by Saturday.

Funny that she said that she’d get the extra sauce “by any means necessary” but to her that didn’t include paying the 25 cents they were charging for extra sauce.

I agree with this. Blame it on the damn corporate office cracking down.

AJ Green was a great WR, but he has missed a lot of games recently (missed all of 2019 and played in 9 games in 2018) and will be 32 before the season starts. I’d be good with acquiring him in free agency for a reasonable contract, but not trading for him. That’s because the only way Cincy trades him is if they tag him. No way am I paying him tag money or starting contract negotiations from there. Spotrac estimates his market value at $18.2M total for 2 years. Even at that price I probably pass unless the good, younger FA WRs are all off the market. We have vets like Beasley to show the yoots the way so we don’t need him for that. Also where’s his head at? Is he looking for a last, big payday or a ring? I’d pass on him if it’s the former unless he’d take a heavily incentivized deal. If it’s the latter we might be able to sell him, but we’re probably not his best option. I just don’t think this one comes together for us.

$1.75M is the cap hit for him if he’s no longer on the team (aka dead cap). The cap hit for him is $8.95M if he is here.

You know, I’ve got no problem with it. The delta in cash/cap for him playing for us in 2020 is $7.2M. I’m good with that. I love a quality 3 DE rotation and the protection it gives us from the injury bug. Plus it would give us the option of having Hughes, Murphy, Oliver and Yannick on the field in obvious passing downs. Then Murphy moves on after 2020 and we get a comp pick.

The chart is 2019 plus 3 different options for 2020. The $1.75M is dead money for Murphy in the options where he is cut or traded away.

The important question with Hughes is whether or not he’ll return to form next season. He had a down season, but played injured the whole time. He’ll need replaced soon, but probably not before next season. The DE position is really in need of overhaul. (Nice work here by Reed83HOF, by the way.) Murphy hasn’t played up to his contract, but he’s been a solid DE. I don’t move on from either Hughes or Murphy until they get beat out in camp unless a player like Yannick gets added. Even then I might wait until cut down day. Shaq is a free agent. He has been good at setting the edge and has gotten some effort and scheme sacks, but he’s not a guy that’s going to get off the ball fast, beat a DE and get to the QB before the WR routes develop. I like him as our 3rd DE in the rotation and I’d pay him accordingly. That said, I expect him to take the best deal he can get and for that to be elsewhere. So to answer the OP’s question, I’ll take option 1 and start the transition. Yannick’s 1st year cap hit will be lower than his AAV and it would start the transition to a new DE corps without forcing our hand in the draft. The plan can be to build around Yannick (or a similar player) and Murphy can move on after 2020 and Hughes after 2021. The rest of that build preferably will be through the draft, but FA is an option if that fails.

My first thought was a player like Mariota, but we might not want to do that. I wouldn’t want the Bills to give anyone (especially Allen) the impression that Allen was on the hot seat. A solid career backup would be fine, but that’s it.

IIRC the Rooney Rule was put into place to get minority candidates exposure. That makes sense. Many business opportunities - especially those at the top - are predicated on who you know. If all the top people were white and they mostly knew other white people, then that’s pretty much how stuff would stay. So every team has to take a look at one minority candidate just to get some exposure to some minorities that would not otherwise get a shot. I got no problem with that in the environment it was instituted in. To me it does appear as though progress on that front has been made. I don’t know how much, if any, of it is due to the Rooney Rule but things seem to be getting more racially diverse. I am not sure exactly what some like Stephen A. are looking for though. A few years back I remember seeing a clip of him complaining about the lack of black coaches and GMs in the NFL. I did the math and the number of black coaches and GMs was right in line with the general US population. (Note: I don’t know where it stands today.) I wondered what the problem was. I don’t know for sure, but I think it might have to do with the high percentage of players being black. I think there’s something inherently distasteful about a bunch of mostly white guys being at the top and in charge (owners, coaches, GMs and, and until recently, QBs) and a bunch of mostly black guys working under them. That’s an entirely understandable gut reaction, but I think that some (consciously or not) would like to see the racial make up at the top to look like that of the players. That should not be the goal. Just because the racial make up of the players is out of proportion with the general population is no reason to force that onto another group. The racial make up at the top is changing and I think that people have to understand that the final result might look a lot more like the racial make up of the general population. Once it does for a reasonable period of time we shouldn’t really need the Rooney Rule anymore.

Yeah. Never say never - especially when the Browns are involved. Or when Josh McDaniels is involved.

I’d bet that McDaniels is the guy and that he gets paid. Haslam is a crook, but he’s loaded.

I’d have liked to see Brown make better plays. The first pass was just a little late and while that made it more difficult, it was still a pass that could’ve been caught in bounds. I have no idea why Brown jumped. It wasn’t necessary and it pretty well eliminated his chance to stay in bounds. The throw wasn’t perfect, but it certainly was good enough so that one was on Brown IMO. On the second one Josh was way late. Brown was expecting the ball as he came across and neared the sideline. He tried to stop and stay in bounds, but couldn’t. I’ve seen broken plays where WRs come across and catch the ball right before they go OOB and I’ve seen them stop near the sideline to catch the ball. Either way, if the ball had gotten to Brown on the cross it almost certainly would have been a catch. I think that one was probably more on Josh.

Anyone hear the guaranteed amount of the contract? The Raiders were hush hush about Chuckie’s guarantees. He got some, but not nearly the whole 10 year deal - which was also rumored to be back loaded somewhat.

I rewatched the game and I agree. Allen seemed to lose it after he lost the fumble. Up until then he’d played very well overall, but after he was a mess. He was in the biggest game of his life and at then at the end things ramped up and he had real issues. He reverted to hero ball and hesitated on throws rather than get through his progressions. Some missed blocks and JJ Watt being JJ Watt certainly exacerbated the situation, but Josh made a mistake of some kind on most of the plays from the fumble on. Meanwhile Watson had ice in his veins. I’m sure that this wouldn’t be news to him and that he knows that he needs to grow from this. Let’s hope he does because he’s our QB moving forward.

Exactly. When a good (or great) player has a down year I always wonder if it’s because they’re significantly dinged up. This makes a lot of sense.

You play to win the game

Just to clarify my above comments: I think that Cleveland really wants McDaniels and that he’d love to go home and return the team he grew up rooting for to glory, but that it’s far from certain that he’ll take the job. There’s obviously a lot of concerns walking into an organization that’s been such a crap show. His contract runs out after the season ends.

Tre will get a top corner contract from Buffalo - as he should. The only question is timing. Normally I’d say pick his 5th year option up and start negotiating after his fourth year. But there’s a new CBA on the horizon and we might see a nice jump up. I wouldn’t be opposed to getting it done early. Tre would see big money sooner and the Bills could save a few bucks. Either way he’s gonna get paid.