BarleyNY

That's a great breakdown. The elite one-on-one guy's have the most value, but the new NFL rules have made them pretty much extinct. Gilmore is an excellent press-zone CB. I'm sure he'd have been great in McD's Cover 3. He isn't here because the Bills couldn't afford him. NE paid him well, but slightly under what he was worth. We will move forward and find new guys suited to our scheme. It sure looks like we already got one in round one of the draft.

Kind of off topic here, but I think Red Bull would be a great condom name.

It doesn't happen often and that's why someone with his physical ability was a day 3 pick. He did show that he was capable of excellent accuracy. The man made some spectacular throws. He couldn't do it with nearly the consistency needed, but he did show he could do it. He was a lottery ticket and it's smart to buy those in situations like we were (are) in.

https://www.profootballfocus.com/draft-pff-scouting-report-cardale-jones-qb-ohio-state/ Read that scouting report. I'm an OSU alum and I saw nearly every snap Cardale took there. It's as accurate appraisal of him in college as I've seen. His accuracy was highly inconsistent, but he certainly showed flashes of exceptional ability in that regard. Consistency is a must in the NFL and he was a long, long way from where he needs to be. Still, he was an excellent late round QB pick IMO. Physical skills galore and flashes of great ability, but he fell due to those severe accuracy issues. Fix those and you're looking at an elite level QB in the NFL. But if he doesn't dramatically improve then he can't even be a viable backup. His accuracy issues are that bad. So I'd expect our new coaching staff to evaluate him and try to correct his problems. I doubt they'll need more than this season to determine if they are correctable.

Yeah. Love how Rex blames the other guy for throwing his drink on him when it's the other way around. He and Rob are classless, clueless buffoons.

It truly is. Brandon Weeden is listed under "useful stand ins" at 5th overall. I doubt the person who made the list has ever watched a football game.

Damn. That's not good. Thanks for the insight.

I'd call bulls**t because the guy's drink is still full when the bouncer takes it out of his hand and puts it on the table..

Good grief, indeed. Wow.

Great call on that. What a joke.

A Ryan has to Ryan.

I do think that some free agents chose cities with the nightlife they want. Miami has had a lot of big free agent signings that wound up to be underperforming players for them. It can happen anywhere, but I think some places are a magnet for players who care a lot more about the lifestyle of a famous NFL player rather than working hard and winning.

Cost of living has to be a big one. That matters more to many of them than you'd think.

Ah. That makes sense.

It's possible, but unlikely. This is the 4th season for 5th options. In the previous 3 seasons only one player (Melvin Ingram) who had his option declined remained with his team in year 5. What I'm seeing is this: - The 5th year option was guaranteed for injury only until the first day of the 2018 league year (in March). - The Bills didn't pick it up either because they were worried about his injury history or didn't think he was worth paying a large contract to (the option year dollar amount would be a starting point in negotiations). - Taylor will be under center in a run oriented offense this season. To get that tag Watkins will have to stay healthy, get enough targets to be highly productive and perform. I think he'd do the last one of those if the first two happened, but I don't know that he stays healthy or gets enough targets. And then there's the long term contract issue. If this regime didn't think his option was worth picking up, I have a tough time believing that they'll shell out a huge contract with a bunch of guaranteed money. They're gun shy of him, probably because of his injuries, and I don't think they're planning on keeping him beyond 2017. It'd be nice if it all worked out and they did, but that doesn't appear to be happening.

Where'd you get your numbers? Spotrac has the Bills at $12.3M in space for the top 51 as of now. http://www.spotrac.com/nfl/buffalo-bills/cap/ True until cut down day. Then all 53 and practice squad players also count.

Hoping for a competitive team that is well coached, fundamentally sound and aggressive. I know we don't have all of the talent necessary from a championship, but I'll be happy if I see that everything else is in place and that some of the talent is in place. Then I'll know we have a chance in the not too distant future.

This makes a lot of sense. Tyrod has been prone to pulling the ball down and getting out of the pocket and/or running when he doesn't see an open WR. Where he's needed to improve is doing less of that by improving his anticipation and throwing receivers open. He has made strides avoiding big hits though. That's been welcome.

I like most of what I've seen so far so I'm optimistic. This group still has much to prove so I'll make that cautiously optimistic. I definitely like the more measured, analytics driven approach.

I'm not saying that Watkins wasn't held back by the QB situation and the offense we ran. He was. You're right about that. A lot of Bills were held back by Rex and Co. I just don't know if he holds up to the extra physical demands of more targets. That's a concern to me. Julio Jones proved himself before his big payday. Watkins hasn't. It sucks, but I think that's why the team didn't pick up his option. They're moving on from him barring something unprecedented*. I wish they'd have given him the extra year with the option to prove himself, but they didn't. *Almost unprecedented. I couldn't find any players that had their 5th year options declined and were on the same team in season 5. There is one. Mark Ingram. So I'll go with rare, not unprecedented.

Smart and aggressive.

Except that we actually saw proof with Gilmore. We saw him perform at a top 10 CB level for two seasons. With Watkins it's purely based on flashes. The qualifier with Gilmore is simply putting him in the proper defense. There are multiple qualifiers with Sammy: - needs to be in the right offense - needs to have a quality QB - needs to stay healthy The first two I won't argue as they're very reasonable. But the last one is a big problem. Watkins hasn't stayed healthy even with a lesser workload so I'm not banking on him staying healthy with more targets every game. I'm not saying that it's not possible - especially if his foot is finally fixed (I don't have that info) - and I'm not saying I wouldn't have picked up his option (I would have unless his foot is still in bad shape), but I am saying that his health in your scenario is a huge "if" and that any predictions about how good he can be are dependent on that. There have been some horrible misuses of players over the years. Mostly overpaying guys who don't fit an offense or defense or are underutilized. Mike Wallace in Miami. Great one trick pony - going deep - got paid large to be put in a timing offense with a short to intermediate range QB. Fail. Albert Haynesworth proves his worth as a penetrating 1-gap DL and gets paid a ton by Washington to eat up space as a 2-gap NT. WTF? Rex Ryan gets hired to improve an attacking top 5 defense that plays press zone and proceeds to make them a passive read and react squad with CBs on islands. The list goes on and on. Many situations have been worse than Sammy's, including Gilmore's. Heck, almost everyone on the defense the last two seasons had it worse than Sammy.

Jordan Johnson would certainly be a great story.

I don't think it is spiteful. It's a new regime making a hard decision about a player who is very talented, but has not had the production his talent and draft position implies he should. Think about this: What if Sammy got a second contract from the Bills in line with what you'd expect for the 4th overall pick of the draft and someone of his talent level? Do you think we'd get good value from him for that? Honestly, I doubt we would. Would he take less than that contract for the Bills? No, that's not how it happens in the NFL. Players who don't get their second contract at that level get that lesser deal with another team.

The reality of the situation is that Sammy's class is the 4th to have 5th year options for 1st rounders. Exactly zero players whose options weren't picked up (or weren't extended prior to needing to use the option) were with their team in their 5th season. Like it or not, agree with the team declining the option or not, this is Sammy's last season as a Bill. The new regime has made their decision. It doesn't matter if we're serious or not, the team is. It is what it is. Maximize his value to the team.