BarleyNY

Burns wants out of Carolina plus a big contract so they’re trading him. It’s that or force him to play on the tag this year and get a comp pick down the line. Trading is the smart move by the Panthers at this point. Better late than never on the “being smart” front, I guess.

I’d be absolutely livid if we paid him that much.

The NFL will not disclose their formula. Overthecap seemed to have it nailed down, but not on that pick. Edmunds missed some time this season and playing time factors into the formula. Total speculation on my part, but that may have been it. He was calculated as giving us the lowest 3rd round comp pick - other than the ones given to teams that have minority GMs and HCs hired away.

He’d be an upgrade for the Bengals, Dolphins, Colts, Chargers, Rams or Tampa.

Congratulations to Gabe on getting paid! But I am so happy that I don’t root for a team that did this.

Good teams need players too.

This is the last season with guarantees in his deal. He’s under contract for two more after that, but the Bills can easily move on at any time after this season. Now with the addition of Kincaid he may not get the passes or playing time that he used to get. That would not help his value. This is hypothetical because the contract move looks like a straight restructure. But if I were him and my choices were $5M and free agency today or a cut in pay, I would walk.

How happy Knox is here now - especially with the addition of Kincaid - is an open question. He’s overpaid at $13M so that probably helps a lot in that regard, but that might change if he were asked to take a pay cut. It looks to be a straight up restructure so that looks to be a moot point. You should be embarrassed by that comment. Knox is a good, starting quality TE that can play in line and flex out to the slot. He may have been a little overpaid by the Bills, but he’d be signed within days if he hit the market today. And he’d be a good starter for that team.

Certainly possible. I don’t think I’d do that if I were Knox though. I’d take my $5M and go play for another team where I’d make a lot more than $2M.

I’m not sure of Higgins’ value, but you’d have to think they could make something work, even if they had to sweeten the deal. One of the worst kept secrets in the NFL right now is the Chargers desire to move down from 5. Not sure they’d want to go all the way down to 19 or take Higgins rather than draft Nabors, but if they were interested then they could do a deal. Cincy might have to sweeten it a little, but you’d have to think they would be in striking distance.

I seriously doubt it. Two reasons: 1) No contract talks for a year. 2) Cincy tagged him the instant we entered the tag window. If they wanted to keep him, they’d have waited until the end of the window and worked on a deal. That was a clear signal they were going to try to trade him. Or just keep him one last season, but probably trade him. In any event, they don’t want to sign him to a big contract.

His co tract had a $5M roster bonus that guaranteed last year. I’m sure that got converted to a SB. Not sure what else they did tho. Some of his salary could’ve also been converted. Or maybe a pay cut offset by additional guarantees and/or incentives. Just have to wait and see.

That makes no sense. The exact same amount of money hits Wilson’s bank account whether the Steelers pay him $1.2M, $5M or $35M. Every dollar they save this year can go to Wilson next year if he balls out. Or not if he doesn’t.

Good for Mitch.

This is due to his Denver contract containing offset language. Whatever he gets paid this season by another team gets deducted from what Denver has to pay him. Also the Steelers play at Denver this year.

If things shake out that quickly, then sure. I guess things have gone more quickly since the legal tampering period was instituted. I just don’t expect the Bills to make any of the big ticket signing we will see on Wednesday.

Are you saying that you think they’ll sign someone during the first wave or that teams will get into the second wave this week?

I don’t think the Bills rush into signing this week. Maybe they bring back one or two of their own, but I think they wait for the second and third waves.

No. I posted this thought earlier today. Other than Allen, there’s no elite player on the Bills. They have some really good ones - Oliver, Milano, Cook, Dawkins, Kincaid and probably still Diggs for another season. But no one besides Allen is keeping HCs and coordinators up at night.

Not really. Actual player usage is what is important - and right now their usage is different. Which player someone labels TE1 is immaterial. That was my point, not that a specific player deserves that label. Edited to add: I think the long-term plan is for Kincaid to develop as a blocker and become a do-it-all TE. That will pave the way for the team to move on from Knox. But Kincaid is not there yet.

He’s certainly a better receiver than Knox, but he hasn’t learned to be an effective blocker yet. That limits his usefulness to the slot while Knox can play in-line. Until Kincaid develops as a blocker those two play different positions, even if they’re both labeled TEs.

Sure, if they don’t mind paying him $50M for that one season.

He still has value as a WR but the new team would take on a $19M salary. Maybe a 4th plus. A 3rd if we are lucky. I think it’s becoming more of a situation where we need to part ways because the relationship is deteriorating. That’s tough when you’re revamping a position group. You don’t want a disgruntled star player to negatively impact the youth. The cap hit is bad. But the other side of that coin is that keeping him adds $19M to his total cap liability. Trading him involves a difficult, but manageable short term cap hit. Long term it’s probably worth it, especially if we get the Diggs from the second half of the season. Or worse.

I think that this is reasonable and that it will be the general direction that the Bills take. But it highlights my concerns with the team. The roster looks solid, but other than Allen it lacks difference makers. Some quality players will be on the roster for sure. Oliver and Milano on defense. Cook, Dawkins, Kincaid and Diggs on offense. But none of them are keeping HCs and coordinators up at night. Allen is going to need a lot more help.

I think the injury reporting rule is that teams are required to report any injury that prevents a player from practicing or practicing fully - or is otherwise significant. He could’ve been dinged, but not so much so that it prevented him from practicing. That said, it’s been obvious that he hasn’t been happy here for years. It’s entirely plausible that his effort and desire to stay on the field aren’t what they should be. He could not have been happy with Brady’s focus on the run game. It’s probably best for the Bills to move on ASAP. My prediction is that either the Bills trade him or things get worse with him and the team. He’s been quiet, but that won’t last forever.