BarleyNY

Yup. He had a year left on his contract so they have to pay him out as long as he doesn’t take another coaching job in the meantime. Thus the year off. Pretty simple really.

I saw a program that did experiments with wolves and dogs. Each was put in a room with a cage. There was a stick sticking out of the cage. It had a piece of meat on the end in the cage. Both the wolves and dogs pawed at the stick until they got the meat. Next the stick was fastened so it could not move. Both the wolves and dogs tried to paw it out with no success and both got agitated. The wolves looked only to their pack for help. The dogs also looked to the people observing for help. We are part of their pack.

I’m very sorry for your loss. Pets are part of the family. My corgis turned 2 today. Not looking forward to that day 10 or 15 years from now.

Eli Manning kept Tom Brady from winning two more Super Bowls. He can go in a second time AFAIC.

To sum up: - Cards want to dump Hopkins salary but still get something in trade for him. - Hopkins wants to go to a contender, but not so much that he’s willing to take a pay cut to do so. - Now the Cards have to decide if they’re going to pay him $20M for a lost season, keep him in hopes of trading him at the deadline (praying the whole time that he doesn’t get injured) or simply cut him post 6/1. I think this thread will go well beyond 300 pages. The ride’s not over yet.

Spotrac multi year Bills That link is useful when looking at future seasons. There are some obvious restructures and some players that probably won’t be worth what they’re going to make. One huge issue is that the only good DL on the roster next season are Miller and Rousseau. Basham too if you want to count him. No DTs. Quality ones aren’t cheap and rookies usually don’t make a big impact. Here is what I see for 2024: QB: Allen-restructure, need to sign a back up. RB: Hines-probable cut or pay cut, will need to add to the room. WR: Diggs-possible restructure, need to replace Davis and add another. TE: Looks set. OL: Dawkins-possible extension. Morse possible cut. Need to add OT. DL: Miller-possible restructure. Need to add full DT roster of 3-4 players. Need DE depth. LB: Possible need of MLB depending on how players on the roster do this year. CB: Johnson is probable for an extension. Nothing likely to happen with White. S: Will need to replace Hyde and add depth. We could extend Rapp for one spot. Specials: Looks set. We could get a little cap space by restructuring Bass if we want. There you have it.

ILB - I didn’t want to see the Bills pay Edmunds $18M a year, but I thought the answer would be to snag a good vet for a lot less. RB - Difficult to see this as a big need. DT - It would have been better to have found another DT in the draft or signed to a long term deal. Still, DT doesn’t look like a problem this season. OL - OT is an issue, but not so much the interior. Real competition for Brown was in order and we didn’t get that. Bringing in that competition would have improved our swing tackle as well.

The Browns season will likely go as Watson goes. He has to return to form and gel with Stefanski’s play calling for them to be serious contenders. Even if that happens it might take time. In the AFC and AFCN that would be a problem. They open hosting Burrow and the Bengals so they start with a big challenge.

The Vikings are not in cap trouble, but Smith has been unhappy in Minnesota and asked to be released so a parting of the ways seemed necessary. The Browns capitalized on that. He’s 30 (31 this year) and is still playing at an elite level (10 sacks, 15 TFL, Pro Bowl).

Berry and the Browns stole Smith. Fifth round picks in 2024 & 2025, but they get back a sixth and seventh in 2025. Wow. That is it for a top 10-15 Edge. Just one year at $11.25M though. Ofc they could get a decent comp pick in 2025 if he walks (which is likely). Still, this was a robbery. Edit: No comp pick possible for the Browns since Smith’s contract was shortened to one year as part of the trade.

Exactly. I cannot believe how many people care about stuff like this - and get so worked up over it.

I agree. If cut he’d be a FA, no waivers (unless after the trade deadline). So if he’s cheap I’m absolutely in. He’d be very nice depth and the familiarity he has with our system and the coaches have with him is important.

Reinstate? We released him. He’s been free to sign wherever he can. Also we have a very good punter signed for the next three seasons.

Your guess is as good as mine. I don’t buy that it just didn’t work out though. RT is too important. It should’ve been addressed with something better than running back it back with Brown and Quess. Maybe Beane was just sending a message to Brown. If that was the case, then nothing changes. I’m still very disappointed that his message didn’t have any teeth behind it.

Agreed. Beane gave me hope this off-season when he said that Brown would have competition and that he would have to “earn his roster spot”. Turns out that was BS. Huge disappointment.

Of the four you mention I’d take the Commanders WR corps. I have the Bills comfortably second ahead of Denver and then Chicago. Diggs is the best WR on any of the four teams, but McLaurin is the second. And he’s very good. Washington has the advantage at WR2 and WR3. Dotson and Samuel are both better receivers than Davis and Harty is far behind all of them. Washington’s problem hasn't been their WRs, it’s been their QBs.

FWIW I listened to the PFF podcast on 5th year options and Simmons was discussed. They thought that AZ made a mistake by trying to make him an off-the-ball LBer. They said that it often takes 4-6 years for college players who were already playing that position to adapt to the NFL. That is largely due to the massive amount of information that met have to process very, very quickly to be effective. So moving Simmons there was not something that was likely to succeed. They think he’s best as the SS in a C-3 or as a Big Nickel Slot. That obviously would take him out of consideration for the Bills. On a side note, Edmunds was not mentioned, but he certainly fits their analysis. It took him until year 5 for him to take the step up we were hoping for. It also indicates that a good team strategy with off-the-ball LBers is to look for vets in FA that are 5 or 6 seasons in and look ready to make that step forward. It also points toward Edmunds sustaining his step forward last season and maybe even growing further.

I was not down for trading Oliver durning FA. We’d never have gotten value. However now that we’ve got Ford and a deep enough DT roster to withstand losing him, it’s a different story. If, after the DT FA pool finishes drying up, a team that fancies itself a contender finds itself in serious need of a 3T, well, it’d be rude not to listen to their offer.

A team trading for Simmons would only assume a $3.4M cap hit. Spotrac I remember him as a prospect and thought I heard that he was doing well for AZ. I don’t know why they’d be looking to move on from him if that’s the case though. I haven’t watched him play so I don’t have any opinion on whether I’d want the Bills to acquire him.

Barry Sanders would be incredible in today’s game.

Absolutely. But in a situation like what was discussed - Allen agreed to protect himself as a condition of getting cleared to play, but didn’t do so. Watching a couple series from the sideline could’ve reinforced the importance of protecting himself, especially in those circumstances.

I agree. It’s also on the coaching staff to rein him in. They should’ve pulled him from that Vikings game, at least long enough to get the message through.

More contract details coming out. Lamar negotiated the inclusion of no trade and no tag clauses.

https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/2023-nfl-qb-power-rankings-lamar-jackson-aaron-rodgers-both-crack-top-10-in-first-rundown-of-all-32-starters/ I can certainly quibble with some of the rankings, but that isn’t what was so surprising. What really shocks me is not how bad that list gets, but how quickly it gets so bad. Analytics sites often stress the importance of having a top 8 QB in the league - or even a QB capable of being in the top 8 some years. That list very vividly illustrates why that is. I’m not sure there are more than 8 QBs in this league I’d want. It also shows you why Baltimore paid what they did for Lamar and why even the Geno Smiths and Daniel Joneses of the league get paid so well. Yikes. Note: Yes, I’m ecstatic that we are lucky enough to have one of those top QBs.

It would be very nice to have a good base 4-3 personnel group for when teams employ 2 TE sets or 21 personnel. I don’t know that we even have a LB other than Milano that I really want on the field right now though. Maybe Williams can be one of those guys and maybe Bernard develops. Klein and Dodson know their responsibilities but are otherwise limited. One further thought on Williams: He’s light and is likely to have issues in the run game - especially taking on blocks - but we just added Poona Ford. If you’re going to have light LBers, then you want to put them behind big DTs - like Ford and Jones - to keep the OL busy. That is actually a pretty nice combo they put together. I hope it works out.