BarleyNY

I got that

I'll take the Browns and their two third round picks unless there is someone who takes them every year.

That’s interesting. That is one area I know little about.

Some good fun there! The artist spent some real time on those.

I think BB is toast. Without Brady and a real chance at a championship players won’t put up with his coaching style. But you’re right that tanking is their best chance at getting there. I also don’t need his successor set up with a FQB.

It didn’t look right when I typed it. I should’ve double checked it.

The cap consequences of releasing versus trading Hopkins is exactly nothing for the Cards. So unless they overplay their hand or Hopkins won’t work out a reasonable restructure/new contract with a team that is willing to trade for him, they’ll get something for him. Hopkins refusing to play ball with his contract could cause them to have to cut him.

Yes, I meant Veteran Signing Benefit, not Veteran Signing Bonus. So sorry for the confusion that caused you.

Dawkins was a 2nd round pick, but your point largely stands. Paying Saffold $6M was sheer stupidity - and I said so at the time. Matching the Bates offer wasn’t as bad of a move, but overpaying him was still pretty bad. Morse was an overpay too, but they kinda had to do that at the time. Putting themselves in a position where they had to count on a player as raw as Brown was dumb too. He was the 3rd OT his rookie year. Last season his competition for RT was Quessenberry. The we-didn’t-expect-him-to-have-to-play garbage from Beane is ridiculous. There’s a good chance that any 3rd OT will have to play a lot of meaningful snaps. Having poor competition (Q) pretty much seals it. I don’t know how McGovern will work out, but OT needs some real help. Dawkins is above average, Brown is below, Q is well below and Doyle shouldn’t be in the NFL. That means that at present we are a Dawkins injury away from hot garbage at OT and Allen getting pummeled by DEs. Beane has to do better than that. If you need some quick cash I have an acquaintance in Youngstown that needs a package hand delivered to New Jersey. I hear the job pays pretty well.

This is such a poor excuse. Beane and McD decided where they wanted to spend on this team. They chose to address positions other than OT and roll with Brown and Quessenberry. The same holds true for the positions they’ve addressed in the draft. It is what it is.

That’s fair. I do think they should re-sign Shaq if he’ll take vet min with a VSB kicker. (Veteran Signing Benefit, which does not count against the salary cap.) The Bills typically roster 5 DEs for the season. Right now they have Miller, Rousseau, Basham, Epenesa and some guys who probably won’t make the 53. With Miller unlikely (or at least uncertain) to play at the start of the season we need depth that can get on the field week 1. I am happy to see a draft pick and/or another vet added. Even with both there’d be room for Lawson early in the season. Upon Miller’s return - and if there hasn’t been an injury to the unit - we can cut the weakest depth player.

This boggles my mind. NFL teams have shoes on hand for every possible circumstance. I do not know how it’s possible that a team would not have been properly outfitted. And even if a mistake was made or conditions changed, shoes or spikes can be changed easily - even if tape has to be redone. I can’t believe that such a rudimentary mistake could’ve been made and then not rectified. If by some chance that is what happened, then the Pegulas should’ve cleaned house. Somehow that would be worse than the 13 seconds debacle (which was also a fireable offense).

This is an excellent observation. The Bills were 23rd in the league in blitz percentage last year. 19.4%. It doesn’t help your defense to show blitz so much if you are going to so rarely send them.

Thanks for the link. I disagree that the defense will be a lot different than what we’ve seen though. Those Carolina defenses were what he ran 7+ years ago. Offenses have changed since then and defenses have changed accordingly. I think what we’ve seen is a natural evolution of what’s in that article. One example of that is McDermott talking about how important getting to the QB with 4 is. That doesn’t mean he won’t ever blitz, but he’s not looking to use that as much as before. Time will tell. I’m hoping for improvement much more than I’m expecting it.

Thats certainly possible. I think it has to get resolved before OTAs in May though. They can’t let him come in for those. If he got injured at those they could be on the hook for his whole salary.

AZ is just posturing. They aren’t keeping Hopkins this season. It makes no sense to do so with Murray out, new coaches and a rebuild started. Also it’s the same cap charge whether he’s cut or traded so they’ll get something for him unless they screw it up by holding out too long. My prediction is a deal gets done the week before the draft.

Those people should go root for Minnesota and Kirk Cousins. They’re just doing enough to be semi-competitive and give their fans a little hope.

True, but the issue is that there aren’t many teams with the cap space to fit his current salary. And paying Hopkins that big salary for two years doesn’t really make much sense for those teams because they are rebuilding. For example, Chicago has the cap space, but what’s he going to do for them this year and next? AZ is rebuilding and that’s why they’re dumping him and his contract.

Maybe, but I think it’s more about AZ maximizing his trade value. Hopkins voided his no trade clause with the PED infraction so he doesn’t have final say in where he goes. He does have some leverage with respect to teams that need to rework his deal however. So AZ either has to send him to a team that will take on his current contract or one he comes to an agreement with on a new one. That’s another possibility here - that his contract demands are too high and are causing teams to back off. Edited to add: So which teams that have a big need for a high end WR for the next two seasons AND have sufficient cap space to add his $19.45M cap hit this season? I see none. Spotrac

Agree that this is just gamesmanship. AZ is just trying to get the most possible in trade for DHop. No shame in that. Cap consequences are exactly the same whether they trade or cut him. So they’ll eventually trade him for something. AZ jacked up the price and the interested teams all said they weren’t interested any longer. My prediction is he gets traded to some team a week or so before the draft.

No. Cap space and the Bills don’t want to overpay for a player who turns 37 this September. Campbell was an outstanding player and still has enough in the tank to be a good rotational player this season, but there’s a reason the Ravens didn’t try harder to hold onto him. Let the man go get the last dollar from another team. There is no other reason for him to sign in Atlanta. Bring in players looking for a title.

The elbow was against the Jets on a hit in the pocket. The RT gave up the hit. IIRC Quessenberry was in for Brown.

Completely agree. Allen was in the pocket when he got hurt. And the OTs are exactly the same as last season.

The question at hand was whether having a HC call plays is generally a problem. It’s obviously not. Whether it matters whether Frazier, McDermott or someone else calls plays for McDermott’s defense is another issue entirely.

Low risk signing with some real upside. Nice.