BarleyNY

Wow. Actual Rapistberger quote: "I just think the approach, the denial of everything. Looking me in my eye and denying everything, it's tough," Tough to imagine something like that, huh Ben?

Did somebody get cut to make room? Edit: Found it. Released Cedric Reed, DE.

That's where I am on TT. KC just screwed the pooch with Fisher. They just paid a serviceable LT elite LT money. No need to try to emulate them. Heck, I don't even know if that's possible at this point. The Bills would have to watch Taylor suck out loud this season and then give him $25M a year with $60M guaranteed for that to be the case.

That's all fair, 1st&10. My normal caveat in cases like this is that all players play injured by midseason, but I think some extra weight can be given in this case due to him needing surgery to correct it. It was obviously bad. But here's the weird thing - his yards per game average the first 7 games is the same as his last 6. So I don't know what to think without looking more closely at which games he started, number of targets he got, etc. I do know this, however: His best year was 2014 when he had 699 yards and we are going to need him to stay healthy and get at least that this season.

Yup. And let's face it, if he sees his choices as A) being physically done now or B) cheating in order to hang on a couple more years, then why wouldn't he go the PED route? If he gets caught, he fights it through the season and retires after a la Peyton Manning. The league won't pursue anything against a retired player. I don't see this as a Brady-specific situation.

No, no. This is Abuse.

All for a lot more money.

All correct. As for Woods not mentioning the tear last season, it shows he's not an idiot. Attributing it to him quietly and bravely toughing out an injury (as some have done) is hilarious. He was protecting himself, which was the smart and professional thing to do. That's because defenders will target injured areas of players if they know about them. Many coaches make a point of hiding, misreporting and vaguely reporting injuries for this reason. Belichick is one of them. I've mentioned many times that I'm very worried about the WR corps. After Watkins there's a huge fall off to Woods and then only hope for late round picks and players who've failed elsewhere. An injury to Watkins and it's a dumpster fire.

To be fair, every single one of the coaches Haslam fired deserved it. Sure, he hired most of them, but still. This is just a rehash of a topic that's been beaten to death on this board. The Cliff's Notes is that: Rex and Whaley probably won't be fired after this season even if the team misses the playoffs. There are valid reasons for firing a coach or GM after a year or two (or 3 in Whaley's case), but it's unlikely any of those happens. Their seats will be very, very hot however.

They're not in the same league with 5 Guys and a few other places, but they're way better than most fast food alternatives - especially Panera.

He probably lives in WNY. I'm not a Fuddruckers fan and I've already posted about how much I like Chick-fil-A and 5 Guys. WNY does have a bunch of 5 Guys. Also Chipotle and Qdoba are good for fast food. Plenty of Chipotles around and Qdoba is opening at least two locations. If we're going to include Fudruckers, then a lot of other places like Panera and Corner Bakery should be included. They've got good fast casual food, too.

U Did you mean "Hockey player LW Danny Lansanah"?

I'm sure he does want $15M a year. I don't see him getting that much though. It's what is known as a "starting point" in negotiations. Gilmore will also want other things, like a bunch of guaranteed money. He'll get that, but he'll have to give up some of that yearly average to get it. (He's not accepting a 5 year, $75M contract that pays $15M/season with no guarantees or signing bonus.). He wants cash or full guarantees far in excess of his guaranteed $11M salary this season. He's going to have to give to get that. Ignoring the possibility that a tag might be needed for Tyrod Taylor or another player, the Bills could franchise Gilmore for 2017 and 2018 and he would not hit $15M per year on average from 2016-2018. Each side must gain something for a deal to get done. The Bills will pay a little less than what Gilmore would get as a FA (probably about $14M per season), they'll get a 5 season contract length and Gilmore will get guaranteed/paid a whole lot of money.

Bridge deal thoughts: - If Taylor played this season and was franchised next he would get about $3M and $21M, respectively. A franchise in 2018 would be about $25M. (Using rounded numbers for now.) - There's pretty much no risk for the Bills in that situation. All of that is on Taylor. - There's no way Taylor plays under a tag in 2017. He's on a very cheap "show me" year which implies that he'll get paid market value based on his performance in 2016. - A bridge deal would keep Taylor around through the 2017 season for sure and with no tag or renegotiation until after that season. - The franchise tag in 2017 would be about his average per season market value if he plays about as well as last season. That's not an opinion of whether or not his performance last season is worth that, only that it would be market value. So how about a 3 year deal like this?: $12M signing bonus 2016: salary of $1M fully guaranteed, cap hit of $5M (actually $5.133M due to previous SB) 2017: salary of $11M fully guaranteed, cap hit of $15M 2018: salary $25M + $5M roster bonus, cap hit of $34M ($4M of which would be dead cap if Taylor was not paid his roster bonus and became a free agent) Obviously this is a 2 year deal. Taylor would get the same 2 year payout of $24M, but he'd get cash now and the security of $24M guaranteed. The Bills wouldn't have to use their tag on him next season or deal with him refusing to sign it - and they'd get the same 2 year payout. Taylor's agent would get to crow about a 3 year, $54M deal with $51M in new money. The Bills would have two seasons to watch Taylor grow and determine his value, probably the same time Rex has to produce. After 2017 a new deal could be reached or ties could be severed with no real consequences. Thoughts?

Was excited until I saw the word "figuratively". Thought maybe some arrangements had been made.

Seems like it is certainly the case. That part is too bad. The name thing could get very complicated when he gets married and has kids - especially if his wife has strong feelings about her family name.

I've made the same point in other threads. It's a big reason why I don't think a deal gets done - except MAYBE a bridge deal. If Taylor plays as well as he did last season, then he's in line for a deal better than Osweiler - whether that's from the Bills or some other team. The Bills could tag him, but thats a tough road after a "prove it" season. They can't reasonably expect him to play under a tag. I see that scenario playing out with him not signing it and getting a long term deal or traded. The Bills would be paying market value at that point. Once you drop a contract value to reflect what Taylor is making this season, things get so out of whack I think it gets unrealistic. A bridge deal would be better for both sides at that point. 3 years with an effective length of 2. The Bills would be tied to Taylor for 2 years rather than 1 as it is now, Taylor would get cash and some guarantees to protect him financially from anything catastrophic. Then, in 2 seasons there'd be a new, big contract or a parting of ways. I'll think about what I'd do for a bridge deal and post it later.

True. They have made some bad signings the last several seasons. It shows when you look at their cap situation. They've tied themselves to some players that aren't worth their contracts. http://www.spotrac.com/nfl/new-york-jets/cap/

Heres PFF's outlook on the Jest: https://www.profootballfocus.com/pro-offseason-grades-new-york-jets/ It's from 2 months ago so it doesn't have Fitz's grade, but it does show a lot of problem areas for them. Clady and McLendon replacing Ferguson and Harrison are huge downgrades. Still a lot of talent on that defense and at WR, but the OL is looking brutal. The Bills success against them last season was due in large part to our defensive front abusing their OL. That looks to be an even bigger advantage for the Bills this season.

I don't blame Elway for not retaining Osweiler. That was the right decision. But every other thing he has done regarding the QB position this offseason has dumbfounded me.

Totally agree. At $1.6M you'd have to think there'd be some interest. Anything. Conditional pick, player about to be cut, a team's next 7th round comp pick, whatever. Signing Foles would make EJ more attractive too as there is not much out there on the QB market after him. Dallas would make some real sense.

Oh! That's right! He was on Green Bay and lit up the Lions for some insane yardage, then got a huge deal from Seattle and got beat out by Russell Wilson in preseason. Never did anything after that. Good call.

Yup. He did. Derek Anderson had a statistically stellar 9 games for the Browns too. He was Baltimore's backup QB prior to that season and had been brought in for depth. Charlie Frye blew chunks week 1, got released and Anderson took over and rolled from weeks 2-10 throwing to Braylon Edwards and Kellen Winslow Jr. Cleveland was winning and fans were talking playoffs. Then defenses adjusted and it all came crashing down. Anderson has sucked ever since.

Exactly. The Rams are still going to pay Foles $6M in guaranteed salary this season. It's a sunk cost. Ditto EJ's $1.6M guaranteed salary. It would depend on what Foles costs (obviously), but it sure makes sense from a personnel standpoint. My only concern would be his contract as paying a backup more than Taylor might create some turmoil there. As little as Tyrod is making this season ($3M), he's still the highest paid QB on the team. I'd be careful on my contract offer to Foles, but I'd take him.

Josh Gordon 2013: 14 games played, 87 receptions, 1,646 yards, including (30) 20+yard catches and (9) 40+ yard catches and 9 TDs. He was the NFL's #1 WR that year. All that on the Browns with hot garbage at QB.