BarleyNY

Great job scouting our depth OL during preseason.

LOL. You can’t be serious. I’d be lying if I said I remembered him from last year’s preseason scrub time - or that I even paid attention. I’m not saying that he didn’t deserve a spot on the 53. Maybe he did. But in preseason scrub time he earned a PFF grade of 46 with a 33.6 in pass pro. PFF is far from perfect in their grading, but that’s abysmal - and he wasn’t exactly lining up against NFL starters. Oh, and if you don’t believe me, then believe Beane. He just signed another IOL who has starting experience. Edit: Those grades were from preseason 2022. He did better in 2023 preseason. 76.5 run blocking and 54.7 pass blocking.

So no one that ever fought their way out of an ordinary situation and obscurity to find fame, fortune and success ever took their foot off the gas and coasted? Good to know.

Agree on pass rusher being the top need. The Bills have no one that can get to the QB quickly. While I don’t have an issue with them taking a DE worthy of the selection, I fear that they will reach in the first to try to fill that need. As it stands they’re going to have to manufacture pressures with scheme and blitzing. That only goes so far though. I’m not comfortable with Rousseau and Epenesa as the starters. If we don’t get much from Von, the. that’s where we are. I just don’t see two starting DEs on this team today. WR is a close second. The Bills really need an X, but they have three WRs that can go in week one with Diggs, Samuel and Shakir. If they’re going with a rookie to fill that - and I’m 99.9% sure that’s the direction they’re going - then they have to get the player in this draft. That will also ease the transition away from Diggs.

I would not be surprised if IOL is a spot that the Bills throw a couple of Day 3 picks at. I hope they add a decent backup in FA at some point. As I see it they’ve got Van Demark backing up the OTs and pretty much no one backing up the OGs. Anderson has done nothing. It’s just speculation due to the Bates and Morse moves that he is a viable backup. I think it’s a hole on the roster. But one that should be fairly cheap to fill.

But seriously, no. Not since he got paid.

Looks to be the case. His $13M fifth year option was already guaranteed. $28M more is now guaranteed as part of 3 additional years. The new years are at about $17.5M each. An additional $1.75M/season in incentives is possible. Certainly a bit of a risk. https://brownswire.usatoday.com/2024/03/20/browns-jerry-jeudy-contract-details-clarity/

90% of the people here are going to be outraged because the Bills didn’t take a WR in the first round - or they’re going to be outraged by the WR the Bills took in the first round. Then within two weeks those same 90% will have talked themselves into believing that the player the Bills drafted was 100% the correct decision.

That’s a big question. I suspect so since the other info we got was the “up to $58M” figure, but we will have to wait and see.

Crazy thought: What if - and I’m just spitballing here - we leaned into our elite QB and gave him the help he needs to maximize his effectiveness?

The Browns had already restructured Jeudy’s contract and added void years so that this year’s cap hit was minimized. I’d wait until the details on the contract come out before judging. People wigged over the Winston contract because they saw that it was $8.7M for one year. Except it was actually “up to $8.7M” and really only a much more reasonable $4M.

It is a combination of everything. Diggs’ actions, rumors among NFL teams and chatter from OBD. It’s been obvious he hasn’t been happy here. He took the bag so he’s dealing with it, but he’s frustrated. And I think the team is with him too. Now we are at about the point in the player-team lifecycle that teams move on from highly talented and highly paid players - especially ones who are a PITA. Diggs’ performance is starting to wane and soon we will see his contributions drop below his cost. The team sees it coming - and so does the rest of the league. They might not part ways this off-season, but it’ll be soon.

Correct. Void years are just used to spread out the cap hit from signing bonus money. All cap hits from void years accelerate when a player is cut or traded. Into the current year if by 6/1 or the following year if post 6/1.

Here’s how I look at it: At one extreme it could be other teams looking at the situation here and Diggs’ history and making an educated guess. That does not necessarily mean anything is cooking. At the other extreme it could be that the feelers have been put out and the Bills are trying to find a trade partner. Either way - or somewhere in the middle - it isn’t difficult to believe that people who run in NFL circles - like Lombardi - got wind of the chatter. As for what I think. There’s too much smoke for it to be nothing. I think that the Bills would like to be able to move on from Diggs as soon as possible, but I don’t know if it’s feasible to do so at this time. I think that if a team made it worth their while, then they’d do it. I just don’t know that it’s in the cards though. I think he’s probably here until next off-season when he’s a post 6/1 designated cut. But if a team gets desperate and the Bills draft goes well, then that’s a different story.

Truck. Poyer is likely semi-retired now so he will probably try to avoid any real contact.

I heard this just after the SB from a reporter for an NFL team not in the AFCE and think I can share it now. The reporter said that the big rumor among NFL teams in Las Vegas during the week leading up to the SB was that the Bills would be trying to trade Diggs this off-season. The team he reports for would not be a logical trade destination. He wouldn’t give any additional info.

Why wouldn’t he just play for the Eagles? He’s only set to get $6.5M in cash this season. That seems doable for the Bills, but again, why?Why would he choose to change teams and learn a new system for one season rather than stay where he is beloved and knows the players and system? It really makes no sense. Also his retirement paperwork has not been processed yet. That tells me that they’ll do it post 6/1 to push some cap hit into next season. That’s possible because he has void years on his contract.

Yes, he is still under contract with Philly for one more season.

I don’t think Clowney is the right fit as his role is a lot like Rousseau’s. Neither wins quickly with bend, speed and agility. Clowney wins with power and Rousseau more with his length, but it amounts to a similar result. Both are better complimentary pieces to a speed rusher with bend. So I agree that DE is a huge need as we lack that edge that can get pressure quickly. I don’t see much pressure coming from the players currently on the roster. The good news is that a bunch of DEs signed after 6/1 last season. Hoping we can grab a good one this year even if he is just a quality pass rush specialist.

That’s the property of the Titans. The slap in the face was last season when they wore their Oiler throwback uniforms when they played the Texans. Even put the oil derrick on the 50.

https://overthecap.com/evaluation-of-the-2024-compensatory-picks-projection For anyone interested, linked is Over The Cap’s self-evaluation of their Compensatory Draft Pick projections.

I agree. I think that’s the smart play. However I can see the Bills going DE in round 1 and WR in round 2. Right now this team has virtually no pass rush juice. None of our DEs can pressure the QB with any reliability and at DT it’s pretty much just Oliver. Admittedly, there are a lot less quality DE prospects than quality WR prospects this draft so there is certainly a defensible logic to going DE first. But the risk of undermining the offense isn’t worth it IMO. That’s what I’m concerned about. I don’t know that McDermott will be able to help himself. He’s always prioritized his defense.

Cook isn’t a good pass blocker so he’s tough to put in on a lot of third downs. Presumably that would be within the skill set of a complimentary back. At this point I have no idea what your point is. You seem to be arguing against the assertion that it would be good to bring in some help for Cook. A RB who can take some of the load off of him - especially with the increased workload under Brady - as well as complement his skill set. If so, then I disagree and I’ll leave it there. If not, then what’s your point?

There is no possible way to trade away dead cap from money that has already been paid to a player. If a player with future guaranteed salary or bonuses is cut, then that amount becomes dead cap. So trading away a player with future guaranteed money is a way to avoid taking that as dead cap. Take the situation with Diggs and his now guaranteed salary as a good example. If we were to cut him, that adds to the dead cap. If we were to trade him, it would not As for the Amari Cooper trade, he didn't have any guaranteed money left on his deal when Dallas traded him to Cleveland.

I can’t take credit for that. It was from Joe Marino on his Locked On Bills podcast. I think it was his RB review one. I’ll try to re-create what he did. Under Dorsey in 10 games Cook had 120 carries and 24 receptions. Extrapolate those 144 touches to a full 17 game season and you get 245 regular season touches. Under Brady in 9 games (including 2 playoff games) Cook had 153 carries and 28 receptions. Extrapolate those 171 touches to a full 17 game season and you get 323 regular season touches. Marino went on to talk about the relatively light workload Cook had in college and that in his rookie season he only had 110 regular season touches. So his usage even under Dorsey would have been the heaviest of his career. Under Brady is an even bigger step up than that. So if we want him to be able to perform in the playoffs we should get him some help. Cook didn’t look the same to me (or Marino) at season’s end or in the playoffs. I think the workload was the main reason for the fall off of his play mainly because I can’t think of any other explanation (other than unreported injury).