BarleyNY

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.

His contract is up in Philly. There’s definitely a connection with McDaniels through Belichick. I know some people in Cleveland who are close to the team and they think that this is what is happening (though they don’t have anything concrete). It also makes you wonder about Daboll as OC. While I’m sure he’d want to stay close to family, I’m not sure where he stands with the Bills and he definitely has ties to McDaniels.

I’d have been good with that. I won’t fault a GM for going with a well regarded big ugly at the top of the second though. I’d have taken Ford too. But as Metcalf fell to the bottom of the second round I’d have been happy to see them go get him. Heck, that’s a 3rd and 4th (or less). Not that I don’t like Singletary. I really do. Edit: When he fell so far I assumed it was due to his medicals (neck). Apparently that wasn’t the issue.

Yeah, everyone knows that. What kind of loser calls heads? You call tails, and you call it LOUDLY. If you bring that weak ass under the breath tails shite you just give the refs a chance to Jerome Bettis you. Be a pro.

Pick 22 fun fact: Most likely slot for Cleveland to overdraft a ***** QB prospect.

I agree. Maybe McCarthy has grown in the last year, but I can’t help but think he’ll have the same issues as in GB. Also it feels a little like it’ll be Back to the Future for Dallas as I’m not sure he’ll modernize his offense to today’s NFL.

Didn’t someone just post that she grew (up) from the last Twitter fiasco? Based on this I’d say that it sure doesn’t seem like it.

Ugh. Poyer is a good starting safety, but he’s no Micah Hyde. I’d have no problem with a fair contract extension, but I wouldn’t want to overpay him just because we have a lot of cap room and he demanded it. Let’s hope they can work out a fair deal without theatrics.

That’s pretty effed up.

I’d argue that he is a fine WR with potential to be a game changer, but that you’re overstating his impact to date. He wasn’t even the most productive receiver on his team (though he had a very good season for a rookie). And it doesn’t change the risk-reward factor. High upside WRs who have big questions about their games generally fall out of the first round. Sometimes you get Juju Smith Schuster and sometimes you get Zay Jones - and more often than not it’s the latter. That why you don’t take prospects like that 9th overall, you take them later. I’m just going to leave it there.

Oh, then I misunderstood. That’s my bad. Apologies.

His neck injuries were definitely a concern to those of us without access to his medicals as you note. Even if that checked out I can’t believe that you’d consider him a safe pick. Elite speed and ability to outmuscle corners, yes. In spades. But coupled with suspect hands, terrible lateral agility and inexperience as a route runner he definitely carried a fair bit of risk. If we’d have flipped 74 and 96 for a late 2nd round pick and taken him, I’d have applauded it. But at 9, hell no. Incidentally, if he would’ve been our pick at 9 I don’t think we’d be looking at him nearly as favorably. A top 10 pick at WR should be a lock to be a dominant, game changing player. A quality WR, sure, but I don’t see top 10 pick. Incidentally Oliver was the best prospect I thought we’d have a chance to get at 9. The Simmons injury really put getting a top DT in jeopardy. I was ecstatic we got Oliver at 9. I had a clump if players rated similarly if he’d have gone at 8 and we couldn’t move back.