BarleyNY

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.

The Browns are sending 42 to the Jets who are sending 74 back with Moore.

Interesting to see the difference in draft pick value that the analytics and old schools crowds have on trades like this.

Agree on drafting at least one DT this year. I really like Ioannidis as a player but he is really more of an odd front DE. He’d be perfect if we were looking to widen the DTs, but I don’t see that happening. I wouldn't mind seeing Ford or Robinson added.

Thanks for posting, but I’d love to see updated research like this. This is from 2015 and there have been some changes in the college game over the last decade that changed the landscape. OL is a big one. OLmen are much more of a projection since the read option offenses have taken over. Not a lot of true pass sets anymore.

https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/free-agents/all/tackle/available/ The pool of OTs is drying up, but there are still a few decent options out there. I wasn’t looking for a world beater, just a guy who could push Brown and be a quality swing tackle at minimum. A solid vet or a developing player with upside would’ve been what I was looking for. Again, this speaks more to me wanting legit competition for Brown. Ques is a good backup option.

I think Q’s signing means no OT in FA to challenge Brown. That’s the disappointing thing because I think Q is a good depth piece. Maybe we get an OT in the draft somewhere.

Difficult to not see Harris as at least a mild upgrade over Motor. Tough runner who hasn’t really done much as a receiver. Also good in pass pro FWIH. Biggest questions involve contract details and whether or not he can be as successful behind the Bills OL and in their offense as he was in NE.

I was trying to be optimistic on Allen’s career length. I think it’s very reasonable to knock 2 or 3 seasons off of my estimate, especially since I said “prime” years. Roethlisberger lasted that long but was toast the last 2 or 3 seasons.

Agree with this. I don’t look at any single season in a vacuum as far as championships. What I see is an elite QB’s limited career passing by season by season. Allen will be 27 for this season so let’s say he’s got 12 prime seasons left with three prime seasons behind him. That’s 3 of 15 opportunities for a championship lost to bad luck or squandered by bad decisions. Lotta time left, but 20% is gone - and that’s not nothing.

I think just about everyone understands all of that. Your exact quote was “None of his salary is guaranteed.” That was obviously incorrect.