BarleyNY

Overall, the Jets. Better DL (though both are quite good), better OL (by a wide margin), better corners. Bills are much better at TE and marginally better at RB. WR corps goes to,Jets. At QB the Jets have Fitz, who is a vet who limited physically but understands the game. He's the guy that gets brought in to bridge the gap while a long term starter is found and brought up to speed. I have no idea if Petty is that guy or not, but Geno is horrible so it's Petty or the search continues. The Bills have Taylor, EJ and Johnson - so effectively they have Taylor. He's shown he can be effective in a system that limits his role as a passer, but he's not a complete QB (yet?) and hasn't fared nearly as well when asked to do more. So the Jets have a journeyman who they they can't win it all with and an unknown commodity at developmental QB (which usually don't work out). The Bills have a QB who currently isn't good enough to win it all with, but still has a chance to develop into a better QB who can (although that's rare). I give the QB edge to the Bills, but not by any wide margin as neither likely has their franchise QB.

Watching an undefeated Panthers team beat the Patriots in the Super Bowl has a lot of appeal from a rubbing-it-in-their-face way.

Agreed. Right or wrong, it's incredibly stupid for a head coach to say something like that to the media.

I don't think there's any way Williams agrees to renegotiate a 5 year deal at $8M-$10M per year. His current deal is set to pay him $14.5M ($19.9M cap hit) in 2016 and $14.9M ($16.5M cap hit) in 2017. That's a hell of a pay cut for him. I'm sure he'd rather test the market. There's a big gap in his value in the Bills' scheme versus in a scheme where he's pass rushing more. That disparity might be what leads to him and the Bills parting ways.Contract details: http://overthecap.com/player/mario-williams/246

Yeah. I'd love to see Carson Palmer win it all. He got jobbed (as did the whole Bengals team) when von Oelhoffen kneecapped him in the playoffs during his best previous shot at winning it all. In fact, I think I'd be great to see him go up against the Bengals in the Super Bowl. That's obviously very unlikely with Dalton injured, but I'd still like Palmer and Arizona to make it.

Another poster mentioned the doubles in the KC game in another thread so I rewatched it. It's actually a big part of how my opinion formed. On all but one of Watkins' big first half plays the safety was late. Again, Watkins' speed was a big part of why. On the other play the safety was shielded by the CB and couldn't get around him. In the second half KC adjusted by shifting the safety over Watkins and playing the CB tight. That was when Watkins was done for the night. As for extrapolating Watkins's numbers, it might be simple and make you feel good about him but it isn't realistic. A lot would change if his targets doubled. Wear and tear over a game and the season are much different - and he's had issues at the current level. Defensive game planning would key on him more too, which is huge. But, as I said previously, I do think the Bills should get him more involved and target him more to see what he can do. Maybe he continues to improve; he's only in his second year. But maybe he doesn't so until he proves he can carry more of the offensive load with similar averages, he's not nearly in the same class as WRs like Beckham.

Seems like a lot of posters are sold on the assumption that the only things holding Watkins back are out of his control. QB play, play calling, coaching, targets, etc. I'm not sold. The picture of who he is is coming into focus and it's very good, but not as great as some here are espousing. He is excellent when against one on one coverage as few CBs can handle him alone. He has great body control and speed. But he does not have the elite ability to beat double coverage if he's the focus of it. I've seen him beat double coverage when the safety is late - and that's a nod to his speed - but if the safety is there in time, Watkins isn't making a play. That is my concern with him getting more targets. More targets equals more attention from defenses and that takes him out of the game with double coverages. What I'd like to see the Bills do is find another WR who is a deep threat and also requires double coverage.* Watkins' stats would explode. Then they need to find a shifty slot receiver to open the middle of the field for Clay, too. Those two additions along with the OL are my offensive priorities if I'm Whaley. *I know Harvin was supposed to be that guy this season. The fact that Whaley and Rex took such a big risk with a problem player like him points to the importance they place on having another deep threat.

Never mind. I figured it out. It was under MY profile, not his.

Just wondering how one might put a poster on "ignore". Can someone tell me where to find that feature?

Mario only has two years left on his deal. Pushing cap space from his salary and roster bonus from 2016 into 2017 hardly makes sense as his hit in 2017 would be gigantic. He could be extended so that could be spread out, but creating some substantial space in that way will make it very tough to cut ties anytime soon. That nixes that option. Or he could be asked to take a cut in pay, but I think he'd rather move on than do that. Realistic options are very limited and a restructure isn't one of them. Traded before his roster bonus is due, released by not paying that bonus or kept at his current contract are about all there is to chose from. I see what the trade market bears and go from there (and that assumes that his contract doesn't have a no trade clause).

I've grown to hate seeing the word "restructure". People mostly seem to use it for "This guy makes too much money and I don't know what to do about it, but I kinda want to keep him."

There are two reasons (other than injury) that would explain why Watkins and Beckham have similar percentages, but much different chances:1. Coaching/use - If he could be more productive with more opportunities and better scheme then it is all on the coaching staff. The compounding issue with underutilizing a player like Watkins is that his real potential value is higher than his value to the team. That can be trouble not only from a draft cost, but from a contract cost. What happens when his agent negotiates his first big contract if he's not fully utilized? His agent could reasonably estimate Watkins' market value assuming full utilization of his skills and the Bills could (also very reasonably) estimate his future value based on his actual past performance with the team. There'd be quite a gap to navigate and the result would be that Watkins would get a contract a lot closer to his agent's estimate than the Bills'. That contract might be from the Bills, who would be overpaying, or from another team. 2. Ability - It's definitely possible that Watkins isn't capable of carrying much more of the load than he already is due several factors - wearing down over the course of a game or a season, increased susceptibility to injury, inability to continue to make plays when drawing more focus from the defense, etc. Sometimes less is more with certain players. There's no way to know if Watkins can carry more of the load without asking him to do it. So what should be done is obvious. Beckham is a much more valuable WR than Watkins because he's proven what he can do and how much of an offensive load he can carry. With Watkins it is a projection based on him being a much smaller part of his offense. The Bills need to find out what they have in Watkins before they have to negotiate his next contract and there's less time for that than one might think. I'd want to see two years of high production and he's already two years into his 4 (5 if option is picked up) year deal. Push him. See what he can (and can't) do. Go from there with an informed opinion.

During the game (2nd half) I remember thinking "Looks like the Eagles figured out the snap count. We're going to have to change that up." because of how well they were timing their blitzes. Seemed like every time they nailed it and never got tripped up. The reasons buffalo rumblings is giving make a lot of sense.

As for Clay, it's better to convert the $10M roster bonus to a signing bonus because unused cap space can be carried forward. It just creates flexibility.

In related news, the Playboy Playmate of the Year says she likes guys with a good sense of humor - and I'm hilarious. I'm totally in.

Yup. I wonder how much having Incognito helped his play this year. He looked terrible with two bad guards next to him, now he looks good with one good guard. Maybe he'd be even better if he had two good ones lining up nex to him.

That'd be optimal with Pets and Tabor. I didn't address Eric Wood specifically because his cap situation is so tough. You nailed it though. Cutting or trading him only saves $2.5M in space and we probably couldn't find a comparable replacement for that. He played better this season too. I'd keep him for at least another year. That OL has bigger problems than him.

Hooray.

I agree with the OP's list except I let Woods play out his contract which is up after next season. Cutting him probably costs money since it results in a cap savings of $1M less the hit of his replacement, which would likely be more. If he gets beat out in camp by another cheap player for a roster spot then so be it. I don't expect him to be the #2 next season unless the team is bringing along a rookie gradually or there's an injury. He's fine for 2016. The problem with the OL is that the two set to leave are Glenn and Incognito. I'd rather them stay and look to upgrade the other tackle and guard spots. The OL could get scary. If Crossman is canned I'd look at Chris Tabor from the Browns. He's been through the meat grinder there and has been the only point of stability through several head coaches and constant roster change. I hear he's not looking to go through another change.

Yeah. NT should be waaaay down the list of priorities in the offseason. Quality WR who is a deep threat and OL head the list. QB is also on it. Replacements for anyone we part ways with on the DL would be high, too. What happens with Glenn and Incognito is huge here. Even with them the OL needs help, but without them that OL is a trainwreck. Realistically we won't be able to fill all of the holes, but if we need to get quality players to fill some of them.

It does seem like he cares more about having been an Eagle than he does being a Bill. I could forgive the emotional stuff with the Chip Kelly interview, but this was thought out in advance. He's a heckuva back, but the Bills are strictly business to him.

The Bills can sure use that cap room so I can totally see them parting ways with Mario. Restructuring is pretty pointless unless he is extended and I don't know why they'd do that. I can't count the number of people who just blurt out "restructure him" like its a solution. Please be specific about it. If you try, you'll quickly see there isn't much to be done. Why not trade him? There are certainly teams out there with plenty of cap space that could use him in a scheme that's a better fit for him.

Taylor is valuable. The Bills don't have their backs against the wall at QB next season because of him. He's better than serviceable and you can win with him. There's a chance he hasn't hit his ceiling so he might get better. That's the good. Then there's the bad. His style (he needs to run to be a successful QB) and size mean he is always going to be an injury risk. He doesn't read the field nearly as well as I'd like. And his accuracy is inconsistent. The good news is that he's under contract next season and we can see if he progresses before investing further. With the almost certain end of the EJ Manuel era coming fast there's also plenty of room for another young QB prospect - and maybe even a veteran - so the door is wide open for competition.

Agreed. I hope we haven't seen Taylor's ceiling, but I'm afraid we have.

Yup.