BarleyNY

Sure. It’s easy to rip on the Browns, but offensive play calling hasn’t been their issue since Stefanski was hired. He’s actually done well all things considered. And then there’s the fact that both SB teams had HCs that call plays on one side of the ball. So….

Stefanski in Cleveland

That’s fair. I should’ve added that we don’t know much of what’s happening behind the scenes and that there certainly could be extension talks in earnest. Time will tell on this and acquiring DHop. It’s worth mentioning that I don’t see how both can happen with Diggs on the roster. It’d just be way too much cap space tied up in the receiving corps.

Do the Bills appreciate Gabe Davis? He’s eligible for a contract extension right now. I haven’t heard anything about that getting done, but I have heard a lot about them acquiring DHop.

No. If we plow more resources (mostly cap space) into assets that only offer returns for the next two years rather than long term ones of course it’ll be worse three to five years from now. I’m not sure how you’re even debating that. That doesn’t mean that the team shouldn’t go for it. It’s just an acknowledgment of the downside of doing so. The upside is (obviously) a better shot at a title in 2023 & 2024. As I’ve said before, it’s the right move for this regime to push their chips in. If the Bills don’t perform better in the next two playoffs than they have in the last few, then they won’t be here in 2025 anyway. Beyond that I think this team needs a move like DHop - an offensive playmaker who can be effective immediately. The team knows they need a player like that too. So I actually agree with you about acquiring DHop. I’m not going to pretend there’s not a price for it though.

I think everyone understands why the Bills would make a push for a player like DHop so that they’d have a better chance of winning a SB in the next two seasons. But someone would have to be pretty clueless to think that there was any certainty to that or that it wouldn’t set them back after that two year window.

It’s not about the money coming out of an owner’s pocket, it’s about maximizing the finite resource of cap space. And it’s ridiculous to say that the cap doesn’t matter. If that were true, then DHop wouldn’t be on the trading block and Tre Edmunds would still be a Bill.

Hopkins trade value is very low as he otherwise would be cut due to salary and AZ rebuild. Multiple teams (incl KC) interested in the highly talented, but aging vet so that’s what is establishing his market. Cards could assume some of his salary, but compensation would increase. Bills would have to make more than one salary cap move to fit Hopkins’ salary, which is $19.45M in 2023 and $14.915M in 2024. One of those salary cap moves would likely have to be trading Oliver. Another logical move would be to rework Hopkins’ contract. Owners meeting starts Monday and would be the logical time to work this all out since there are many moving parts to making this happen.

Mine is that Allen gets a SB win or two in his career and while in a Bills uniform, but none with the current coaching staff and FO.

They go by so fast….

it’s not as fancy as the international one

It’s almost like you’re suggesting that sometimes you have to give up something of value to get something of value.

I swear I heard on Locked on Bills that we were even on FAs and weren’t set to get any comp picks for this FA period. But you are correct, OTC has us getting a third for Edmunds right now. That is a consideration and explains why the Bills haven’t signed him yet. In that case my preferred option would be to see if Wagner would agree to a deal to be officially signed the week after the draft. If not, I’d still sign a non-qualifying FA MLB to preserve that comp pick but give some draft flexibility.

You should embed a tweet so people mostly looking for that (like me) don’t miss your question (like I almost did).

If the draft were today I’m pretty sure the Bills would be locked into taking a MLB in round 1. Just like they were locked into taking a CB last year and a DE the year before. So, yeah, Bobby Wagner would be an important signing.

The thing is - Lamar doesn’t need an agent. He negotiated a pretty freaking good offer from Baltimore - with $133M in full guarantees. He just needs someone to talk him into taking it.

When you think about this kind of move from the standpoint of Beane and McDermott, a two year push makes a ton of sense. Two more seasons with the same results as this one probably means the end of their tenure anyway. That would make it eight seasons for them in Buffalo.

While I have some concerns, the Bills really do need to make a bold offensive move. Hopkins sure fits that bill. Getting his contract under the cap will cause some pain, even if Oliver is part of the trade. We’d put ourselves into a two year window before a partial reset. That probably makes a lot of sense for this regime.

Crap. I think I was quoting the old policy. The current CBA lists a six game suspension for a first offense of testing positive for an anabolic agent. LINK

Jeudy would be preferable IMO. The Bills would have a guy in the pipeline to take over for Diggs. Hopkins is older than Diggs and puts more immediate cap pressure on the team. He’s probably just a one or two year player here. Obviously that’s worth it if we could win it all, but Jeudy is a better long term play IMO. I expect that right now Beane is working multiple WR avenues and that Hopkins and Jeudy are two of them (maybe all of them at this point). If I were the GM I’d be working it that way.

I see the potential upside - and I see the need for a bold move on the offensive side of the ball - but the downside is pretty rough.

The PED suspension is huge IMO. I love his talent and he still might have something left in the tank, but it’s a huge risk. The NFL’s policy is to put players in his situation on their enhanced (more frequent) testing program. Another positive test would result in another suspension. The big question his PED use raises is why did he feel he needed them? If it’s to stay on top of his game, then what’s going to happen to his level of play without them? Was it to recover from injury? That’s not AS concerning, but it’s still a potential issue. As good as he’s been, this is a non-starter for me. The risk is too high. Edit: It’s only Hopkins’ first positive test. CBA rules require a 6 game suspension for first positive test for anabolic agent. I was quoting the old CBA rules.

Could be part of the deal done in lieu of eating some of Hopkins’ salary.

Which tells you everything you need to know about whose decision it was for Frazier to exit the building. He’s likely getting a paid to take a year off because he had another guaranteed year on his contract. In that case the Bills would have to pay him unless he took another coaching job, which would explain why he’s not jumping back into coaching this year.

Theirs is something to this train of thought. Uninspired play can stem from knowing you can’t realistically compete. It doesn’t have to be one thing either - lack of talent on the field, poor game plan, mental or physical exhaustion, etc. In this case we had a defense missing the one player who could consistently get to the QB. That’s not just bad luck either because that’s how it was constructed, which was at best risky. No adjustments or amount of blitzing made much difference. The coaching decision to play off of the WRs so much was also a killer. It was made worse by blitzing while DBs played off. Every player on the defense had to know that we’d never stop Cincy’s offense like that. As for our offense - too many home run balls and not enough taking what was given underneath (like Cincy did), hot read failures, poor execution and lack of running game doomed that side of the ball. A lack of talent on that side of the ball compared to Cincy didn’t help either.