BarleyNY

They were trying to be competitive in 2023. The Bills had (and still have) a large amount of cap tied up in unproductive defenders. This - and several other contracts - were their work around to mitigate some of that. In general, it is advantageous to kick the can down the road as long as the cap rises. Every cap dollar kicked into a future year is discounted by the percentage the cap has increased. If a team staggers parting ways with high contract players, then they can structure contracts like this indefinitely. Unfortunately the Bills have a logjam of such players.

I have posted about this since before we drafted him. He is not a DE that can bend the edge. Players that can do that are the high sack guys. He can set the edge against the run and play contain against QBs. He has excellent length to shed blocks for the above. He will also get some sacks every season. He must be paired with a “bend the edge” DE to be effective. A healthy Von Miller, for example, can flush QBs to his side where he can shed his block and tackle them. His skill set fits what McDermott wants in his LDE. It’s just that it isn’t a premium skill set and we took him at the end of the first round. That’s going to make re-signing him difficult unless he really wants to be here. The Bills will probably pick up his 5th year option but that’s likely it.

Yes, they would have to account for it. It was money paid so it must hit the cap.

1 year, $7M with 3 additional void years. Salary of $1.165M plus a signing bonus of $5.835M. 2023 cap hit of $2,623,750. That’s the salary plus 1/4 of the signing bonus. 2024 dead cap of $4,376,250, which is the remaining 3/4 of the signing bonus. His contract also had incentives. I believe that he earned an additional $1M which would bring his 2024 dead dead cap up to $5,376,250.

This is a common misconception. Teams regularly structure contracts in this way, often using void years. I understand the thinking behind it. It’s unpalatable to see a large dead cap hit for a player that won’t be on the team so it’s easy to think that such a player can’t be cut. But there at times doing it is helpful. This season I think two possibilities are Poyer and Morse. Both could be restructured with void years to move some of their cap hits out a season. That would help clear some room if the Bills need to take a big hit on Miller, Diggs or White this season. As for Von Miller, if the team keeps him this season then a restructure actually makes a lot of sense. I think the plan all along has been to make him a designated June 1 cut next off-season. As it stands, I can see them moving on from him this off-season, especially if a league suspension voids his guarantees.

last season McDermott blitzed a lot more than we did under Frazier. More M2M coverage is needed if we’re going to continue to do that.

Any team with a franchise level QB that got injured had worse injury luck than the Bills. At least in terms of impact on their team’s ability to win games. Would anyone here trade getting back every injured player we had for losing Allen? I sure wouldn’t. Just in the AFC, the Jets (Rodgers), Cincy (Burrow) and Browns (Watson, Chubb, top 4 OTs, etc) all had worse luck than the Bills.

This is incorrect. several of us have covered injury settlements already, so I won’t go into it again. It doesn’t apply in this situation. Tre White has a roster bonus of $1.5M due on 3/18/24. If the Bills choose not to pay that, then he’s a FA immediately. While teams can’t waive an injured player (at least w/o the player’s approval which usually comes in the form of an injury settlement), there is no such restriction on not paying a roster bonus. This situation is why teams insist on including them in contracts. Players insist on them being as early in the offseason as possible for obvious reasons.

Most highly successful, self-made people give up most of their endeavors quickly. Their common gift is quickly determining which endeavors will be fruitful and which will be a waste of their energy, time, money and other resources.

Just curious, what is the point of this?

An injury settlement makes zero sense. Tre is a vet with a non-guaranteed roster bonus due. If the Bills decline to pay that then he’s a FA. No settlement is needed. Injury settlements are used for young players who get put on IR and want to be released so they can sign with another team and get on the field. Teams do them so they don’t have to pay the player his whole salary for the year while he sits on IR.

I think that it’s been more callers on 550, but I’ve seen a few here as well. He still has value, but more as a higher end #2 or even lower end #1 for another season or two. His salaries the next couple seasons are reasonable for that. It’s the cap hit from signing and restructuring bonuses that’s killing the Bills. That all said, he’s not getting us back a 1 or probably even a 2. It’s easy to look at the Chase Claypool trade and salivate, but that’s an outlier and his salary was negligible. A couple seasons ago Amari Cooper netted a 5th and swap of 6ths - and he was playing a lot better than Diggs is now. That was a steal though. Diggs would net something in between. A third or 4th plus is my best guess.

Agreed. It’s to a point that it’s obvious he’s undermining the team. The plan was always to move on from him next off-season, but things have changed. It’s gonna hurt if it happens, but it’s time. Additional unpopular opinion: if the Bills trade Diggs this off-season, they won’t get nearly what most fans think they will.

https://overthecap.com/calculator/buffalo-bills OTC’s calculator is a good tool to look at options for getting under the cap. While it’s not going to be fun, the Bills are going to be able to get under. They also will be able to get out from under some big contracts if they feel they need to.

No, it does not work like that. When a player is cut or traded all paid signing bonus money that has not been accounted for accelerates to the current year if pre 6/1. Post 6/1 it goes to the following year except for what is already being accounted for in the current year.

Diggs has a CAP HIT that is about twice that of Aiyuk, but their salaries are much closer. Aiyuk is set to play on his 5th year option of $14.1M. Diggs has a salary (plus roster and w/o bonuses) of $19.0M. Those are the cap hits that would travel to a new team. Also if SF trades Aiyuk his new team will have already negotiated an extension.

The injuries excuse would carry a lot more weight with me if the results weren’t the same as when the Bills were the relatively healthy team in the playoffs. Also we all knew giving Von a huge contract with large guarantees was a big risk. Let’s not pretend that wasn’t the case. Glossing over it as simply unlucky without that context is ridiculous.

Well said. I’ve been studying the NFL cap for about 20 years now. I do not expect everyone to know the finer details, but the basics are pretty easy to understand, especially with Spotrac and OTC. If the Bills trade Diggs they can manage his cap hit with some other moves. I’ve worked through it on OTC and it’s doable. Beyond restructures, releases and pay cuts (White) they they can kick some cap hits from expiring contracts into next season with void years. Here’s a link if you want to mess around with OTC’s interactive cap calculator. Just click on the Cut (pre 6/1) buttons for options: https://overthecap.com/calculator/buffalo-bills

Agreed. Also the entire OL was aided by the scheme changes since Daboll left that have gotten the ball out of Allen’s hand more quickly.

That’s people in general. I tip my hat on the rare occasion I see someone admit they’re wrong on here. True. But if you don’t think the guy you’ve got is gonna get you there then it’s foolish to not take a shot on someone who might. I think a lot of ills fans are so afraid of backsliding that they won’t risk that.

A few reasons: - a decent backup QB can get a team into the playoffs (or a better seed) if their QB is out for a bit but comes back - can sometimes be traded if they develop and perform well if/when they play - in this draft the Bills have 10 picks, mostly in latter rounds so why not take a shot There is reasonable debate to be had about whether or not to spend real cap space on a backup QB. I get why we wouldn’t. But why not take a chance on one with one of our six day three picks?

I think this is what Kyle Shanahan intended when he took the ball in OT. If you get it then the best your opponent can do is tie you. If that happens then you just need a FG on your 2nd possession.

There is nothing definitive happening at this time, but my expectations of Diggs being on the team in 2024 went from almost 100% to under 25%. I’ll be working on some numbers to see how it could feasibly work out.

Another: Moving on from key pieces of the team this off-season and/or next builds in an excuse for subpar seasons and/or postseason failures.

Terry Pegula has made and will continue to make decisions aimed more at acquiring a new stadium and selling PSLs than on winning a championship. This would be a very good reason for my opinion.