BarleyNY

Parting ways with those three players wouldn't make a dent in what Wilkerson will cost. You'd have to find a way to squeeze his first year hit under the 2016 cap then not extend either Glenn or Gilmore. Plus you'd have to give up some real compensation to the Jest. Why give up draft picks and put yourself in position where you must lose a very good or elite player you already have to acquire another elite player? I guess you could just offer up Gilmore for him, but that's kind of a push talent-wise even if they'd take it. And if they did, the Bills would need another starting CB and the Jest would have Revis and Gilmore. There's just no way to make Wilkerson's acquisition feasible and improve the team at the same time. The ONLY way I'd even consider something like this is if Gilmore was intending to get out of Buffalo and was going to make it a big fight to keep him here. But I doubt that is the case.

There's the matter of paying the man. Spotrac estimates a 5 year deal worth between $60M and $65M. The Bills can't reasonably do that.

I suspect that this is what will happen. I think the owner will want to give Mariota a rock at LT. Tunsil is probably the best LT prospect since Joe Thomas. Still, I'd probably trade out if I could get good value.

To your point about having 2 or 3 speed guys, isn't that what this offense is designed for? The offense is primarily predicated on running and throwing deep. Obviously throws of all depths are part of the scheme, but it's the deep ball that takes pressure off of the run and the run that makes teams load the box only to get beat deep. The Bills aren't going to have two or three WRs who are the complete packages, but they have to have speed across the board at WR to pressure secondaries so the offense can run properly.

Yeah. Everyone does stupid stuff when they're young (and many when they're older), but it always sad to see a kid pay the ultimate price for it. Condolences to his family, friends and teammates.

Experience in a system and an offensive line playing together are good things. You expect growth. But retaining a player who is mid-career is definitely a push from a talent perspective.

So you've just been chumming the water this whole time? You got me. Nicely played.

And anyone who would want him on the Bills at all, much less at a salary of $9.5M, is only going by name recognition and need. I wouldn't touch him at half that. Fair point.

Thank God you aren't the Bills GM. Clady hasn't played well - or much at all - of late. There are good reasons the Broncos decided to replace him.

My calculations were a little bit different from 550's, but I got about the same figure. I got $7.5M currently, $5.5M after accounting for rookies. Then a little space has to be set aside for the change from Rule of 51 to full roster accounting when the full 53 plus practice squad players will count toward cap calls. That happens just prior to the start of the regular season. Then the team also has to carry some space into the regular season for things like signing players to replace guys going on IR. $2M-$3M is probably the minimum amount a team would want to carry. Long story short, considering offsets the Bills probably have about $3-4M to play with. The Bills might want to look at some players on vet minimum deals as stopgaps. The league gives a cap space break on those contracts and the time is about right for those deals to start happening.

I'd be pretty happy with something like this (CBS board): WR LAQUON TREADWELL OLE MISS 49: R2P18 OLB JAYLON SMITH NOTRE DAME 80: R3P17 ILB DOMINIQUE ALEXANDER OKLAHOMA 118: R4P19 RB JORDAN HOWARD INDIANA 140: R4P41 OT FAHN COOPER OLE MISS 157: R5P17 DE RONALD BLAIR APPALACHIAN STATE 193: R6P17 CB DONTE DEAYON BOISE STATE 219: R6P43 DT NILE LAWRENCE-STAMPLE FLORIDA STATE

To put this in perspective, trading for Clady and moving him to RT would make him the second highest paid RT in the NFL after Lane Johnson. The third highest paid RT averages $6.75M/year. Clady is set to make $9.5M in 2016.

Exactly. And I'll bet Denver sure is trying to trade him. Salaries of $9.5M this season and $10M next. I'm thinking they'll not be getting a ton of action.

Ooof.

"He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lamp posts—for support rather than illumination." - Andrew Lang I think the point is that statistics can be easily be manipulated if there is a preconceived endgame. People can always go mining for something that supports the stance they are already entrenched in. For instance, this sort of thing goes on with economic statistical models quite a bit - particularly around election time. The assumptions they make for their models are usually far more telling than their results. But people who are actually looking for usable information and have some skill can generally find value in statistics and statistical modeling. Someone who truly wanted to know how good a QB was would compare that player to his peers and consider all pertinent statistics. They probably would even account for the relative talent around the player. That's how QBs from different eras could be compared. But no reasonable person would consider a single stat from two players from different eras as meaningful in any way.

Free agency grades are pointless. So next offseason the Bills would get credit for re-signing a player like Gilmore, but if they sign him to a long term deal this season while his in his option year, they wouldn't? It makes no sense.

Thanks! I'll try to do that. Yeah, Naples is nice. Had a few really good meals on that downtown strip.

Hey, my dad lives in Bonita Springs. Hope to take the fam down there this summer or for Turkey Day.

Just the Buffalo News, so no. I kid, I kid, it's a fine 19th century circular. Here's the link: http://bills.buffalonews.com/2016/03/16/bills-restructure-dt-kyle-williams-contract-vet-sticks-around-in-2016/

Kudos to Kyle. Most restructures are just matters of converting salary or roster bonus money into a signing bonus to spread the hit, but Kyle appears to have taken a pay cut of $1.75M. Dooooo they now? Hopefully they are connected. Nice observation. Absolutely not. As mentioned in the thread already, cap space can be rolled forward so there's no real reason to use space early. The exception would be if it would be to help meet the cap floor and those calculations use cash outlays, not cap allocation. The other reason is that the cap has been rising an average of about 8% per year, so a team effectively gets an 8% discount on every year every dollar's allocation gets pushed out.

The Bills' rookie pool is about $6M for their 8 picks. Under the Rule of 51 they'll see 8 players roll out of the 51 counted cap hits at about $500k each. Thus they'll need about $2M in cap space to sign their picks. There is reason to need a bit more room than that, however. Before the regular season starts they'll have to have their entire 53 man roster, their practice squad and any IRed players under their cap. In addition, they'll need a minimum of $2M-$3M in space (a bit more would be better) for any in-season moves including replacements for IRed players, any trades, waiver pick ups, etc. They look to be able to make some bargain moves or even one midlevel move now if they wanted to. They could clear a little space this season with long term deals for Gilmore and Glenn, too. Right now they've done what they needed to do with their cap.

Totally agree on Wallace being a good fit in Baltimore. I can't imagine why any GM would pair him with a weak armed QB like Tanny or Bridgewater - or a scheme that relies on short and intermediate timing routes. Flacco certainly has plenty of arm to get Wallace the ball deep and Baltimore's vertical offense is exactly what Wallace should be in. He'd have been a nice addition to the Bills, but it would have been tough to find the cap space for him. Maybe if he'd lingered on the market long enough for the Bills to get some extensions done it could have been feasible.

Returner and slot WR replaceing Butterfingers and Hogan, respectively, I'd wager.

Simply outstanding. If a team called asking about TT, I'd ask them what their offer is. Doesn't hurt to hear a team out. If someone like The Chipper is calling the shots you could get a ridiculously great deal. But, honestly, odds of Taylor getting traded are near zero.

Cruel, but fair.