BarleyNY

Fines do not apply to a player who is not under contract. Saquon is not under contract until he signs the tag or another deal. Also the Giants have the right to rescind the tag prior to him signing it. They (obviously) won’t do that and he will sign it and play - if a long term deal is not reached. They have until July 17th to get that done. Why should Saquon willingly lose leverage in those negotiations and sign the tag before then? He’s playing this correctly.

Sure, every player wants both - max most money plus a ring. We really don’t know what discount Hopkins is willing to give for a better chance at a championship, but @billsfan89 makes a good point - he will want to know what all of his options are and exactly how much he’d be leaving on the table for a realistic shot at a good playoff run and/or a ring. He’s made over $111M on his NFL contracts so he’s certainly given himself options. He also doesn’t have to be in a hurry. Injuries happen and a contending team could get very motivated if their best WR goes down. I don’t think he’s getting a true multi year deal next offseason though. He might get an effective two year deal this year, but he’s at the end. While I think he could play longer than that in a lesser role, it won’t be for big money.

I love that you referred to the division w/Cincy as the AFC Central. Once in awhile I still catch myself doing that too.

49ers. Have family that roots for them and I think Shanny is a phenomenal offensive coach.

Just wait til he says that they put ranch on their soggy wings.

That’d almost certainly put him in the top 10 players for yards per catch.

Um. Ok? What does that have to do with the assertion that Harty is faster than McKenzie? Or me posting their 40 times that seem to refute that?

Is he? McKenzie posted a 4.42 40. Harty had a 4.48. McKenzie also had better 3 cone and shuttle times.

Low risk? High upside? Come on. Hoe do you characterize him as either? The Bills signed him to a 2 year, $9.5M contract with $5.25M fully guaranteed. That’s not that low of risk. Considering that it’s about half of what it looks like DHop will end up signing for I think the opportunity cost is significant. Dunno how high of an upside he’s got either. He’s a 5’6” 170# WR with one decent season (2021) of 570 yards and three other garbage seasons with 223 yards combined. He is an excellent returner so we’ve got that going for us. He may and even have value as the Bills gadget WR, but that’s just speculation as his 4 year career rushing total is 123 yards. Last season 70 players had more receiving yards than Harty had in his one decent year. So it seems like a stretch to think the Bills couldn’t have found that production for a lot less. Or that he will significantly exceed his best year. Or that the cap space couldn’t have been better spent.

This reminded me of the old “wrap around draw” play. I hope this new rule doesn’t impact the RO & RPO plays. I can’t imagine that is the NFL’s intent.

Yup. I got a back channel tidbit that I’m sure just about everyone has already figured out themselves, but I’ll put it here for validation purposes. To date Hopkins is not happy with the contract offers he has received. However several teams are interested if he accepts the reality of his market. Two of those teams are the Ravens and Browns as Lamar and Watson have both my made it known that they’d like Hopkins added. I would think the Bills, KC, Dallas and the Giants are others, but that’s speculation. No word on the spread of current offers either. Just that all are significantly below what he was expecting. The trip to Nashville makes sense in this context. If he gets a better offer there, then his agent can shop it to his preferred destinations just like OBJ did.

Just want to address the OL piece. Last off-season the vast majority of this board talked up Saffold as a big improvement at OG last year. The handful of us that actually went and looked at his play knew he was done and the contract he got from the Bills was a joke. So I take the glowing expectations of much of this board with a boulder sized grain of salt. That said, I do expect McGovern to be serviceable - which would be an upgrade. He’s been good in pass pro but poor as a run blocker so that’s a concern. You mention Edwards, who I think is being overlooked. He’s one of the players I want training camp info on. I was happy to see an OG added in the draft, but the questions about Torrence’s fit are legitimate. He looks like a straight up Power/Gap OG while none of the rest of our OL looks well-suited to that. Also I think many posters here saw him get mocked to us at the end of round 1 and think we got a steal in round 2, but that wasn’t where he was mostly ranked by draft sites. I saw 2nd, 3rd and 4th round projections for him. Still, he’s got nice potential and I’m happy we addressed the OL in the draft. To me the much more concerning issue is OT. The lack of any move that would improve it could derail this season - just like it did last season when Quessenberry’s missed block against the Jets got Allen’s elbow injured. I think the IOL will be adequate and can withstand some injuries to any of the three spots, but I have no such confidence with the OTs. If Dawkins gets injured we’re looking at Brown and Quessenberry or Shell out there. I just don’t see how that works out well.

I tend to agree that Philly is the most complete team, but KC did beat them in the last SB. The Iggles won their last one, what, five years ago?

It’s effectively a 3 year, $48.4M deal with two optional years after that. The outs after this year and next would be expensive, but the offsets would help if we had to get out early. It’s an overpay, but I very much like the structure.

The heavy DL rotation is philosophical. Draft and cap investments as well as roster construction over this regime’s tenure shows that. Obviously they’ll want their best on the field at the most important times, but the rotation helps keeps those players fresh. Philadelphia heavily employs this strategy.

Intentionally misrepresenting opponents’ positions is called the Straw Man Fallacy. That and the Appeal to Authority Fallacy are super popular here. In this particular instance it is difficult to justify the size of extension Oliver got. It’s an obvious overpay even if it’s no worse than the Star contract. At least Oliver is a good player. There just aren’t a lot of sexy arguments for either side though. But if someone wants to pretend that some Bills fans hate Oliver, then that’s spicy. And it’s easy for someone to pretend to take the high ground.

Not a fan of Chefs! food. Crappy pasta and worse sauce. Inedibly sweet. However I believe that the owners do a lot of community work so props to them for that.

I am sure they’re using multiple void years. They could even structure the contract so he’s cut with a 6/1 designation on day one of the next league year.

Agreed. Not sure that it’s enough tho.

That is very misleading. Even with Oliver’s snap count increasing the last 8 games he still only played 50.18% of defensive snaps in 2022. His snap rates in 2019-2021 were 53.67%, 53.97% & 57.79%, respectively. His production, including his PRWR has to be viewed with this in mind. https://www.pro-football-reference.com/teams/buf/2022-snap-counts.htm

Seems to be a very good addition, depending on the contract ofc.

Yup. This is why I’m surprised that people are expecting a significant contribution from Harty - and why I was surprised to see how much the Bills paid him. He’s smaller than McKenzie.

I don’t think so unless they get a great deal from him. I think he’ll get paid decently by some team next offseason and that it’ll be more than the Bills want to (or reasonably can) pay him. The Bills were already top 3 in cash spending this season prior to the Oliver extension. They’ll likely move up to #2 with that included. Incidentally they only trail the Browns and Ravens now. That’s three of the teams that keep getting connected to Hopkins already spending the most cash now.

Bad teams pay players like that. Oliver has not nearly played to the level of this contract extension. Paying him with the hopes that he takes a big enough step forward to be worth makes me SMH.

The extension is 4 years, $68 million as his 5th year option in 2023 was already fully guaranteed. People are going to want to put this in the best possible light, but it is what it is. Judging by guarantees, yes, it’s likely that the earliest out is after 2025. Also the contract comparisons are for all DTs, not just 3Ts.