BarleyNY

Wilson went on to say that God often announces penalties and has an eclectic taste in music.

I'd pay the man what he's worth and what I had to, you're the one tossing an open checkbook to Wilson's agent. The parameters seem clear and obvious to anyone who looks. As for Mario - he's a great addition to the team, but the Bills overpaid for him substantially. It is what it is at this point. A team can't do that often or they'll create unmanageable issues with their roster.

I see a lot of this talk about Clay, but he has to take a big step forward to be worth his contract. I hope he does, but I'm in "show me" mode with him. Roman loves to utilize TEs in various ways so he should be able to maximuze Clay's usefulness. Just have to wait and see if he can work some magic with our QBs as well.

I wouldn't and there is no need to do so. It doesn't matter what team he's on, he should be compensated fairly - which is to say very well even as starting NFL QBs go - but in line with what his value is. Overpaying players is a ticket to mediocrity because there's only so much money (cap space) to go around.

Fair point.

You don't think Wilson has weaknesses? I won't reiterate my entire previous post about that (feel free to look at it for more explanation), but my main point was that Wilson appears to have topped out due to his physical stature/limitations. That's the way I pay him. Well, but not better than QBs that earned their big contracts - like Flacco did carrying his team through the playoffs and to a SuperBowl win.

The guy on the video gave me the impression that he thought this sort of thing was a cut above the norm. Just wanted to point out that it's something typical of a competent OC.

That doesn't matter. You don't pay Wilson based on a projection that he will have a similar career arc to Roethlisberger. You base it on what he has done and his expected career arc, which I'd argue is limited by his physical stature and lesser physical tools compared to Roethlisberger's. Wilson is younger and has a much better chance of finishing his contract than Roethlisberger. He will get another regular length contract, too. Roethlisberger won't. Those are reasons to bring his contract up near Roethlisberger's, but expected improvement isn't. Wilson is likely as good as he's going to get. He should be commended - and well compensated - for squeezing every bit possible out of his limited physical ability. That's impressive. But he's got no more room to grow. What you've seen thus far is what you're going to get from Wilson until his physical abilities deteriorate due to age or injury. That's what you pay him for.

That's a nice example of Roman setting up a defense, but isn't that what every OC does? Running multiple plays from one formation that require different reactions from defenders is ubiquitous in the NFL. If an OC can't do that, then he's in over their head and shouldn't be doing that job. Roman is a good OC, but this is pretty basic stuff.

Roethlisberger is a better QB than Wilson, but Wilson is very good and the market is scarce in terms of quality QBs. If I was Seattle. I'd stick to a ceiling of about that average. One notable difference is their ages. This contract is likely it for Roethlisberger, but Wilson will be setting himself up for another. That could mean a longer deal possibly with a balloon salary in the last year to force a new deal or release/trade. That would also inflate the average yearly salary and make the agent look better.

I agree on the 19-20 range being a done contract, assuming reasonable guaranteed money. When he puts a number like $25M per year out there, then you have to look at what franchise tagging him would cost. For 2015 that is $18.544 and he'd get a 20% bump every year. That'd equal $22.25M in 2016, $26.7M in 2017 and $32.0M in 2018. Those four years of tags average just under $25M per year. Then it gets really crazy at $38.45M in 2019. But here's the thing - they could get him his asking price of $25M per year for 4 years just using the franchise tag. There's a lot less risk for the team that way - and a lot more for him.

I think you mean that they're The Best Damn Band In The Land.

I agree.

i really loved the Ryan hire. He's a quality coach the Bills are lucky to have. Huge improvement over Marrone where my reaction was "Are you effing kidding me? He was a mediocre coach - at Syracuse." Big props to the Pegulas for the quick, huge upgrade at HC.

That, my friends, is how this topic is best summed up.

http://www.baltimorebeatdown.com/2013/7/23/4550368/training-camp-compensation Looks like vets get $1400 a week or thereabouts. The article is a couple years old.

I thought Marrone bailed because he asked for an extension from Pegula, but didn't get it. While that might be valid exoneration in some instances, I don't see any proof that he had come remotely close to earning an extension. I applaud Pegula for not buckling to that pressure and thus quickly ridding the team of a bad head coach. It sucks that the assistant coaches got caught up in it too, though.

Wow, that was brutal. There's only one valid excuse for that level of apparent vapidity and that's if Harbs was getting a hummer during that entire interview.

Yeah, that low guaranteed amount for McCoy is very surprising. I'd be fine with Dareus getting a similar total over the same length of contract, but with a much higher guarantee. My only caveat is that I would want any guaranteed salary to become non-guaranteed in the event of a suspension.

That's a huge gap. Only 7 players in the NFL have higher paying contracts than Suh - and all of them are QBs. Suh - 6 years, $114M, $60M guaranteed ($19M/yr) McCoy - 7 years, $95.2M, $14.8 guaranteed ($13.6M/yr) I'm sticking very close to McCoy's numbers if I'm Whaley.

The Suh contract is insane. Here is a link to 4-3 DT players and their contracts: http://overthecap.com/position/4-3-defensive-tackle The Suh contract is so far out of whack with the rest it's stunning. $114.375M over six years with $60M guaranteed. Damn. Just over $19M a year. It's going to be interesting. I give him a Geno Akins or Haloti Ngata deal today. Heck, I'd even give him a Gerald McCoy deal. But no way am I giving him a Suh deal. F that. I'm not even sure the Bills could do that big of a deal.

I went to OTC to see what Seattle had in available cap space for the coming years and found a nice write up on the likely Wilson contract. They should have sufficient space to pay Wilson and keep their team intact, by the way. It's worth a read: http://overthecap.com

And start who at QB? Teams with quality QBs are rarely go to let them slip away. Wilson's agent can posture all he wants about Wilson deserving to be the highest paid player in the league and the Seahawks can posture all they want about them making him play out his contract/tagging him/trading him, but the reality is that it is in the best interest of both sides to get a reasonably fair deal done. That's almost certainly what will happen. As for a bunch of big named QBs making it to free agency this offseason - I'll believe it when I see it. Maybe one makes it. Maybe.

I am not usually a big stats guy, but QBR does a pretty good (but certainly not perfect) job of comparing QBs. Here is the 2014 QBs ranked by QBR: http://espn.go.com/nfl/qbr/_/stats/expanded Wilson ranks 12th. Without looking at this I'd have ranked him in the 10-12 area. After looking at it, there's maybe one QB ranked ahead of him that I'd rank Wilson above and not a single one below him I'd take over him. I'm looking at the 2014 season and projecting to 2015 only, not looking ahead or considering age and longevity. What really was surprising was how meh the QBs below Wilson are. There's the top 12, some young QBs that teams hope reach that level but haven't yet (and most won't) and then everybody else. Even if Wilson is the 12th best QB in the NFL he's going to get paid because no team want to trade him in for what's below that.

The Bills are staying in town for the foreseeable future, they have an owner who is willing to spend to win and they have exceptional talent on the defense. If a quality QB emerges or is acquired they should contend for a title.