BarleyNY

The NFLPA is the weakest of the players’ unions in major league sports. MLB has had the strongest. NFL owners have fought tooth and nail to limit contract guarantees, keep fifth year options for first round picks and keep franchise and transition tags in play.

Got a few morsels of info: - Watson pursuit was led by Haslam and Depodesta - League is looking to hammer him on recent accusation, expect another suspension - Browns were unaware of recent accusation when signing him - A suspension will give the Browns the ability to void his unpaid guaranteed money and cut him, but it’s still gonna hurt from a cap standpoint due to dead money

I used the cash paid out from the OTC link in my post. Bottom of page.

Sort of. He was already on the books at $2.55M for 2024. They added two seasons for $36.3M. 2027 and 2028 are basically team option years for $15.5M and $17.65M. Honestly, that’s not great value at all. I was hoping it was more backloaded. OTC took down their 2023 valuation of him, but it was about $10.3M. Using that and an 8% yearly increase we don’t get close to his extension’s value - especially considering what his 2024 salary was prior to the extension. https://overthecap.com/player/spencer-brown/9557

Was anyone thinking we’d be keeping Dawkins after his contract is up? He will be 34 in 2028.

Reasonable guarantees on a contract with pretty substantial overpay on AAV. That’s the only saving grace of this deal. The Bills can get out of it. I thought he was worth $12M AAV on a 4 year deal, but was braced for $15M. He got $18M AAV. Ouch.

You can’t have your soul crushed if you don’t have hope.

There were several PI flags they could’ve been thrown against us. We got at least our fair share of calls/non-calls yesterday. Nothing we can do about any of that though. The Bills did well enough with what they could control to get the W. That’s the most important thing.

I think that once the top few WRs came off the board, the Bills had a handful in the same “basket”. Then they positioned themselves for Allen’s preferred one of that group. Their trade back with KC was for almost nothing so they were highly motivated sellers. Dealing with KC tells me they wanted to stay in the range to get Coleman. I’d have preferred a bigger, more profitable trade back and WR selections other than Coleman. Or staying put and picking Worthy or McConkey. I think that keeping Allen happy is priority one for this staff so that’s what they went with. Also I agree that you do not trade with KC except for a complete fleecing. We obviously got the opposite of that.

DE WR CB S 1-tech IOL

Surtain is probably the best CB in the league. Easily top 5. That’s the kind of deal you give that player.

Will wait to see the contract details before judging this move.

That’s what a pass rush will do to most QBs. It’s ridiculous to overreact to a single game. Jackson didn’t do a great job passing the ball last night, but was under duress constantly. It was a far cry from how he looked most of last season though. The ravens’s big issue isn’t Jackson, it’s their OL.

Nah. He’s always needed touches to get going. This is usually how he looks early. He gets stronger and more productive as the games go on.

Just a reminder that Mahomes was 100% on McDermott. Beane wasn’t here yet.

That’s fair. If Miller shows he can be a good situational pass rusher and will rework his contract to reflect that, then it is possible. I think that it’s unlikely, but there is a slim chance.

Better yet, call a FC and then do that. The returner doesn’t have to be correct on whether it was a punt or throw. If it was a kick you get the ball with a 15 yard penalty. If it was a pass then you get the ball at their LOS.

Von is as good as gone next offseason. His contract was structured to effectively be a 3 year deal. Expect him to be cut with a 6/2 designation. Knox’s contract was reworked this offseason. He reduced it by $4.5M total to acquire additional guarantees of $17M. Included is a partial guarantee of his 2025 salary. So he almost certainly will be here in 2025. That gives the Bills some time to find his replacement if Kincaid can’t fill the inline role by then or if the team does not want him to do that.

I heard a former player (RG3?) discuss this. His OC told him he wanted him to install a play he liked from his time in college. He said he had never worked so hard on making a play successful. He later figured out that the OC was getting him to buy into the offense. It taught him about what could happen when you do that, so it bled over into his regular prep on other stuff too. It’s not a silver bullet, but it’s a good thing.

That’s a good list. I think next offseason was the original plan for a reset, but that injuries led to the Bills to move up the plan by a year. They just couldn’t get out of Miller’s contract that fast. He’ll have at least $15.4M in dead money if/when cut next offseason. That can be split over two seasons with a 6/2 designation. Also any incentives he hits this season will be adjusted on the cap. As for Milano, I agree that due to injuries there’s a good chance they’ll move on from him too. $17.3M dead cap so he’d be the other player I’d use the 6/2 designation on. Knox would have $17M dead cap too. His 2025 salary is partially guaranteed so I think he sticking around for at least that. Remember, he took a $4.5M haircut this offseason for added guarantees. Bass comes down to how he plays this season. His contract is going to keep him on the roster for 2024. If he fails apart then I see them signing another K and IRing Bass with some excuse. Next offseason it’s only $3M dead so the Bills can move on if they need to. The dead cap can add up fast. We already have $4.5M on the books for 2025 and with the numbers above, you are correct, it could balloon again.

So here’s how an injury settlement works in the NFL: - a player under contract who gets injured in practice, game, other organized team activity or in the team facility doing team related workout, etc. is entitled to be paid their salary while injured. they can’t be cut until they can pass a physical. if they go on IR for the season, then they get paid for the whole season. - an alternative to the above is that it the team and player/agent agrees to an injury settlement where the player is paid a portion of their year’s salary. the player immediately becomes a FA. - the player may then sign with any of the other 31 teams as soon as they can (usually this means passing a physical). the team they have the agreement with may not re-sign them until the number of games they have been paid for under the settlement plus three weeks has passed. So the injury settlement is just a way for a player who is trying to prove themselves in the NFL to not have to sit out a whole season because they get hurt in camp. This is why Claypool agreed to one. He’s trying to stick. The team gets to save a little money/cap in the process.

Teams can’t release an injured player unless they come to agreement on an injury settlement with that player. This is why roster bonuses are so important for high priced veterans.

List of NFL teams cap space and dead money Lots of teams have a substantial amount of dead money. It’s an obstacle, but the Bills aren’t alone with it. And they only have themselves to blame. Giving Diggs an extension and big pay bump with two seasons left on his contract was a big mistake (and I said so at the time). At that point it was already clear things weren’t good between him and the team. More money was not going to fix things.

I’ve said it dozens of times already: The Bills traded away the same guy they traded for. He’s never been any different.

OTC has better info that Spotrac, but it still takes time for them to get all of the info on contracts. Even then they are not always 100% accurate. In this case they still haven’t gotten all of the contract info because teams must be cap compliant. We can’t be over because the league would not approve a contract that put us over. So a move has already been made to keep us under the cap. Either it’s Von or they have to do a bunch of smaller ones, including Milano. People freak out about cap hits in future years, but it makes no difference whether a team does nothing versus kick $5M into next year and then carry $5M over. Except that it gives you more flexibility.