BarleyNY

Excellent movie, but not one I’d watch too many times.

There’s been some activity and hole plugging - especially depth - but there’s yet to be a single move that improves the team from last season. The Dawkins extension and Jones re-signing are helpful, but those are just keeping status quo.

Sure. But again, there could be a middle ground of taking our medicine for past spending and competing now. I expected the Bills to be limited in free agency, but this is more severe than I was expecting. I thought they’d maximize what they could reasonably do, but it looks like they’re backing off a lot more than that. That all said, free agency only officially opened 3 hours ago so the book isn’t closed. Besides, there’s nothing to do now but see how it all plays out.

You can take your medicine and still spend some cash. I’m not saying we should be wasting cash and cap space at the start of FA. I’m not a proponent of that. It is just that this is a severe decrease. We went from one of the top cash spenders to 17th currently. To me that looks ownership driven. No GM wants to throw on the brakes like that if they don’t have to. They get paid to win and it’s tough to do that without spending. The other possibility is that Beane is paying back/saving up against his spending constraints. He has a budget from Pegula. It is possible that he’s saving toward another spending ramp up. I guess in either case I’m just disappointed because it will be difficult to really compete in the near term if spending is substantially cut.

That’s always nice to hear

That’s how it looks from the outside. And it’s the most likely explanation for not fully restructuring Allen’s contract.

FIFY

Bates was 2nd team All Pro in 2023. That’s why he moved up.

He might just want off a team going nowhere without a QB. You know, like Diggs. If that’s it, then I don’t think it would have been a problem here.

There are some teams that can take a chance on a 30 year old (this season) vet coming off an ACL injury, but I don’t think the Bills are one of them. He’s not likely to come here cheaply enough to take the chance.

No team can sign a player with an expiring contract from another team before 4 pm today. They can only agree to terms.

The problem is that there really aren’t any top level FA WRs. I’d rather the Bills sit this one out than pay Gabe Davis $13M a season.

If you read what I have posted you will see that my only issue has been with the assertion that Jones was playing at an All Pro level and that we could expect that level of play moving forward. Other than that, it’s just people reading what they want into what I wrote. I’m not at fault for that. Feel free to quote anything that I wrote that says otherwise.

Sacks are one component. We can start there. Jones has 14.5 in his 10 year career. That’s less than 1.5 per season on average. First, stop trying to reframe my position. I like Jones. He’s a good player and I’m happy he’s back. Stop trying to reframe that as me not liking the re-signing or player. Now, please defend your statement that he’s been playing at an “All Pro” level. I’m also interested in your expectations moving forward. Do you expect an All Pro level of pay out of him?

Except I didn't just focus on his contract. I also mentioned that all of the All Pro talk is based on 4 games against poor competition and centered around his high pressure rate, which is something he's never accomplished before. Then there is the incredibly high standard for All Pro players, which is also something he's never sniffed. I'm not sure why fans here have to take a good situation and try to turn it into something amazing. That's not living in reality.

No argument on the cap space (as I already mentioned). Again, he’s a good player and I’m happy to have him back. But the All Pro talk is insane - as evidenced by his contract.

Lotta room between a good player and an All Pro. The All Pro talk is ridiculous.

For four games he had a very high pressure rate. Games against the Jets, Commanders, Raiders and Dolphins. So rather than think that his success might be due to the competition he was playing because he’s never had that kind of success before, you just went with the opinion he was playing at an all pro level? Wow.

No. That’s insane. I mean, Daquan was playing well for us and I’m glad he’s back and all. He’s a good player. But he was never playing anywhere close to an “All Pro” level. If he was capable of playing like Aaron Donald, Frank Clark, Chris Jones or Justin Madibuke, then he’d be getting $25M-$30M a season like they are. He’s getting $8M (or up to $8M).

It looks like they left the extra as salary, so yes. If it was a roster bonus, then they could not once it was paid.

A few reasons: - Some don’t have the cash (literally). - Most teams simply don’t want to spend the maximum possible. - It’s used in negotiations. It’s difficult to tell a FA that you can’t pay him more when you’re sitting on a ton of cap space. - PR. It’s a bad look to the fans if you have cap space you’re not using, especially when your team isn’t performing as well as they’d like. - Fear of another Covid-style event where the cap decreases. That could potential be a huge issue. - Suspensions have less of an impact since game checks not paid to the player are not counted toward the cap. - Maximizing the use of signing bonuses can be done long term (see how the Browns are operating), but it can’t really be meshed with an “all in” play. Teams can stay the course or let their foot off the gas, but they can’t do much more in the way of ramping up spending. The Browns are spending at a rate of about 121% of the yearly cap IN CASH. That’s sustainable as long as the cap goes up at expected rates. Hope that helps.

Browns DT Maurice Hurst is re-signing with Cleveland, a one-year deal worth up to $3.2 million, per source. — Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) March 11, 2024 Yup. I do not want to see this happen.

Edge Za’Darius Smith is returning to the Browns. 2-year deal worth $23.5M base. Upside to $25M. $12M base in year 1.