BarleyNY

Wow. You'd think Cam Newton would be better at talking to the media by now. His best move today is to quietly send that guy a cashier's check for $500. It's a cheap way for him to end this today and look reasonable in the process.

I'm not arguing that. Just stating where this is going. Whaley shouldn't be cast off. Give him his full chance and don't be surprised if he goes all out for a QB.

I agree. If the NFL is going to protect QBs and call PFs on defenders who rough them up then they have to blow those kinds of plays dead. The other one I've seen is a QB at the sideline jumping out of bounds and throwing the ball while in the air. If the defender hits him, it's 15. If he doesn't, the QB has an opportunity to complete a pass or throw the ball away when he should have been sacked.

Whaley's legacy in Buffalo will hinge on him finding a franchise QB to lead the Bills. It's not necessarily fair, but it's just the way it is. A team can only be so good without one and having one can really cover some major warts.

While I don't want to get into the Shady-Kiko debate (again), I do take issue with your comments on available cap space next season. If the 2016 cap is $150M (which seems to be the guesstimate everyone is running with), then the Bills currently sit with about $0 available. Clay's restructure and Harvin's voiding will put them at $15.5M. They should also have at least $5M in carryover from this season. $21M in space by that point is likely. A decision about McKelvin would also need made. I dealt with a Mario extension in a thread about it. Also Gilmore could have a long term contract done which should free up a little space. The Bills won't be up against the wall at that time, but they also have to worry about some FAs: Glenn, Incognito, Bradham, etc. - and they will need space for the rookie pool.

That's fair. And I'll add that even though some of us were critical about mistakes or issues we can also recognize when they get corrected or overcome. I criticized the Bills for not making adjustments like Miami did in the first half. That was the case at the time, but the Bills did correct that and also started to do some things that Miami couldn't figure out in time.

Does it matter who wins the Oakland - Pittsburgh game?

Yup. That did it. Bortles may someday develop into a franchise QB, but not until he can take care of the ball better.

Wow. The day just almost got better. Jax almost got a fumble recovery.

Nice win today! I was impressed by them slamming the door on the Fish. They absolutely had to have this one and they got it.

No. You have to extend him as part of - not prior to - the restructure. In general restructures just shift some of a player's current year cap charges to future years. The typical way to do this is to convert a portion of the player's salary and/or roster and workout bonuses to a signing bonus. The player is happy because he gets his money a little earlier than he would have. The team is happy because they delay their cap hit. Clay is a good example. He has a $10M roster bonus due in the offseason. That will all count toward the 2016 cap if left in place. But it won't be. It was just done that way to keep Miami from matching his deal. They will restructure it to a roster bonus, which is amortized over the rest of the contract (up to 5 years or the end of the CBA). He has 4 years after this one on his deal so the cap hits will be $2.5M in each year from 2016-2019 instead of $10M in 2016. That clears $7.5M in 2016 and adds $2.5M to seasons 2017-2019. To free up any worthwhile amount of cap space for any significant amount of time from Mario's contract he'd have to have some years added. How long he is expected to be a highly productive is of paramount importance because if he is released, retires, or is traded any unaccounted for signing bonus dollars get accelerated into the current year (or the following year if after June 15th). This offseason Mario and the Bills could, for example, agree to a 2 year extension (through 2019) and convert his whole $2.5M roster bonus and $9.5M of his salary ($12M total) to a signing bonus. That would spread out the $12M cap hit in 2016 to four $3M cap hits in each season from 2016-2019. His 2016 cap hit would be reduced by $9M, but his cap hit in 2017 would increase by $3M and hed also have additional $3M cap hits in 2018 and 2019. In short, there's no free lunch but you can defer the cap hit. An argument for deferring cap hits is that the cap almost always rises so taking a hit in future years will take up a proportionately lower percentage of the overall space. The big arguments against it are that sometimes players will lack motivation after they get one big payday and then a relatively small salary especially if the restructure makes it difficult for the team to cut or trade them. That's the second argument against it - it can really create issues if a player becomes a big off the field problem, gets suspended or retires unexpectedly due to injury. New Orleans is going through this now.

Wow!

That ought to slow down the Hughes criticism

The were making adjustments during the game. Their defense definitely has a better feel for the plays our offense is running than our defense has for their offensive plays.

Miami not taking a time out with 15 sec left in the half might be the difference in this game.

True

Brutal penalty for Miami.

Yeah. Not all the time, but way too much.

Maybe a catch. Bothers me that TT locked onto Watkins the whole play tho.

I assumed that's what we were talking about. Extending players you want to retain a year before their contract runs out is definitely the way to go whenever reasonable. If the Bills can get Woods at a reasonable price this offseason then I do it. If he thinks he can get starter money somewhere then I kick that can down the road.

Shady really looking not hurt there

It appears so. Edited to add: ....or maybe not.

Oh my!

Nice run by TT - especially since he didn't take a hit.

No he wasn't. He was very good, a top 25 WR in the NFL and promising, but he definitely was not dominant. I hope he becomes a dominant WR for the Bills, but he's not nearly there yet.