BarleyNY

I'm hearing that teams, including the Browns, have been wary of Marrone due to how he left Buffalo and that he's been asked about that situation by the teams he's talked to about a HC job. It's definitely been an obstacle.

The cumulative effect of their moves and lack of success puts them in a difficult position. I'd put them in bottom 5 in the league. I didn't say they'll be okay. They might be, but they also might have a real problem staying even with this year. Then there's 2017. A lot of the contracts that we are discussing here are going to have much lower numbers in 2016 than they will in 2017 so the horizon isn't great either. Many of the fans were overexuberant to be sure, but I wasn't and neither were a lot of other people. I thought that the Bills would be good, but I thought their chances of winning a championship were negligible. The lack of a proven franchise QB was a big part of that. I thought that the defense would be better and that the Bills would squeak into the playoffs, then lose in the WC round. Their ceiling was one playoff win if they got a good draw. Their floor was 6 or 7 wins depending upon QB play and the time it took to adjust to the new schemes. That's not the time to push in free agency. They've got to draft their way out of this and I have little faith in their ability to do so (but it could happen). After all, that's what got them into the situation that they are in. They've had to try to make up for poor drafting by going the free agency route and that has to change or things will get worse, not better.

Wow, I don't see it like that at all. The standard model for a title run is to build through the draft with reasonable free agency spending, then to retain players at reasonable contracts (usually via extensions prior to their contracts expiring). During this time the cap is managed so that there is flexibility. Then when the team is ready to compete for the title they can spend up to the limit. If the window is short, then the team can overspend and suffer after the run when the rebuilding starts. It makes no sense to go on a spending spree and hurt your long term plans to get to mediocre or just above mediocre.

That's certainly a big part of it. You also have to take issue with them going all out spending without a realistic chance at a title. Not having a franchise QB is also part of that (obviously).

The base cap for 2015 was $143.28M. The 2016 cap hasn't been determined yet, but all of the quality sources for estimates are in the $150M-$154M range. The Bills will gain $7.5M in 2016 from converting Clay's roster bonus to a signing bonus. Cutting Mario yields another $12.9M. Gillmore's number would reduce if signed to a long term deal. They'll have $5M or so in carryover. It's not hopeless, but they've got some expensive players hitting FA and other needs - Glenn, Incognito, Bradham, a QB(s) besides Taylor, Mario's replacement, WR( Harvin won't be back), etc. They won't be cheap to keep or replace and only so much can be done with draft picks. I'd include the Bills on a list of worst cap management in the league right now. They aren't the Saints or the Dolphins, but they aren't in good shape and they've made some poor decisions with their space. When you're dumping guys like Mario for the space, but have signed guys like Clay to big deals you've got issues. The Bills already made some decisions about who stays and who goes when they inked the Clay, Shady, Harvin and Hughes deals. Now we see if they can navigate through some very rough waters.

Smart move by Cardale. You're exactly right. Tebow was a client too and look where he got over drafted.

Sexton is THE agent for coaches. His client list is unbelievable*. Gase switched to him a year ago and since then the media has portrayed every team looking for a coach as infatuated with him. Yet he didn't get hired last season. He's a good candidate and he might make a very good HC, but the hype is unreal. * Saban, Malzahn, Freeze, Jim Mora Jr., Schwartz, Rex Ryan, Gase, Marrone, Suh, Julio Jones, etc., etc.

Gase is also Sexton's client. And if the media is to be believed every team is about to offer him a bajillion dollar contract - just like Marrone! When I saw how similar the media reports of Marrone and Gase were I had a pretty good guess who his agent was. Yup. Sexton. Not sure about the Lovie Smith firing either. It did seem like he had that team headed in the right direction. I wonder if there was some major disagreement with the front office or some kind of power struggle?

I know there were some HGH rumors around Willis and some strong suspicions that he and some other players were allowed to retire rather than face suspensions and increased testing. I can't remember if Borland was on that list or not. I'm not saying that Megatron has the same issue, just explaining some other retirements. Still, maybe he is just done. It happens.

I despise the injury excuse/explanation because: 1) It is indicitive of a loser's mindset, one where excuses are made in lieu of attempts to overcome obstacles. 2) It is often used by people only looking at their team and they usually fail to notice the injuries on their opponents/competitors.

"I thought that it was legal." - Bill Belichick

That's the most responsible choice, but if an NFL owner can get the public to finance/heavily subsidize a shiny, new, moneymaking stadium I can't help but think that's the way it's gonna go.

Megatron has a $16M salary and a $24M cap hit in 2016. There's been a ton of talk about his deal being restructured to lower that which makes me wonder if this is about him wanting out of Detroit as a free agent. Or maybe he's just giving an early indication that he won't be taking a pay cut.

Torn on this issue. I prefer to see games outside, but a dome would be better for the city and a retractable roof is likely to be cost prohibitive.

IMO the top priorities would be to retain Glenn and Incognito and acquire a high quality X WR opposite Watkins. I extend Gillmore, then I replace Williams as best as I can (assuming he's gone in this scenario) and acquire a shifty slot WR. A developmental rookie QB and a vet QB are added. After that I'm looking upgrade wherever else I can.

http://overthecap.com/player/mario-williams/246/ It'll all be accounted for in 2016 (unless they designate him as a post June 1st cut, which is very doubtful). $7M in dead money, $12.9M cap savings in 2016, no charges after. He's got a roster bonus so I'd wager that he'll be on the trade block up until that day. You'd think there'd be some trepidation based on chances of a career ending injury happening. That might affect the contract structure in some way. It's also a good reason why the team would have held off on a new contract. They wanted to see how he came back and performed before investing a lot into him. That's hilarious!

I agree on the first point. A lot of teams had a lot of bad injuries and some of them made the playoffs. In fact, almost all of the teams in the playoffs had major injury issues. There seems to be an increase among all teams due to the shortened training camp and practice rules. As for Harvin, his give-a-crap has never worked very well and he's been such a malcontent his whole career I question the severity of an injury that he could have played through. The fact that the Bills seemed to have issue with the situation definitely points toward him not playing through his injury. When looking at what some of the other players on the team played through I see it as a slap in the face to them.

If they don't, then I don't see how the OL won't tank the team. It's close to a nightmare scenario. The right side is already marginal and Woods was good last season with Cogs next to him, but sucked the season before when lined up between two crappy guards. Slapping two new left side players that are either rookies or cheaper vets does not bode well.

SBNation did some good work there. I agree that the 5 year, $55M deal is a good approximation of what it'll take to re-sign Glenn at this point. I think it's a little more than what his value to the team is, but it's the deal you have to do at this point if you want to keep him. FA is looming and the market would definitely put his contract in that range - and maybe higher if some team got stupid.

Their contracts make your bad idea impossible.

Didn't Depodesta work for Shapiro?

Agree on EJ. Time to be done with him - a little late actually. I'm all for drafting a quarterback, but I also want to see a vet signed as an additional player. I'd expect a guy at the end of his career who can help the rookie and TT understand the game.

The big problem for the Chargers is that an LA team would dramatically reduce their market size. Right now they're the only team in So Cal and have it all to themselves (even though there are many fans of many teams in LA). Still, it is the Charger games getting broadcast in So Cal and they're the only close stadium. If a team moved into LA then all that would change. Suddenly they'd have a fraction of their old base and coverage. The 2010 Census has the LA area with just over 12M people and San Diego with just under 3M. Sharing the whole market (or, better yet, remaining the only So Cal team) is a far better option business-wise. I don't think they had a real choice barring some insane deal from the city. As someone born and raised in Cleveland I wholeheartedly agree.

The expectations of most Bills fans were overinflated, but they were more realistic - or pessimistic - everywhere else. Heck, most fans of other teams probably would say that they had no expectations of the Bills making it to the post season (why would they?) and that 8-8 was pretty decent for them. I had the Bills as a fringe playoff team (6th seed, loss in WC round) and they just missed the postseason by a game or two. A slight letdown? Sure, but still pretty close to expectations.

I've had the same gripe. It makes sense to do what he did if a team is poised to challenge for a title in the short term, but not the long. That clearly wasn't the case here. The lack of a proven QB alone should have precluded spending that way. Any GM can bring in talent that he significantly overpays for. Finding value consistently in the draft and free agency is another matter. Whaley has primarily done the former.