BarleyNY

Hunt looked like he lost a step last season. He’ll be 28 this season. He was a stud RB who could catch out of the backfield, but I think he’s in flier territory now. He’d be good to bring in to camp on a cheap, incentive based contract. He might give us a year or two of good production or he might get cut this off-season.

It was not just the Cincy game for me. I had my concerns with how the team had played late in the season and then against Miami in the playoffs. The Bills would not have won that game if the Dolphins had a competent QB to line up that day. We beat Skyler Thompson by 3 points. At home. Since the Cincy game I’ve learned about Allen’s injury and its impact on his throwing. That explains why he couldn’t throw short or intermediate routes that well and why Dorsey moved away from calling plays for them. I still have concerns about the play calling - especially since the elbow greatly improved and Dorsey stuck with a ton of deep throws. There also seems to be a big problem with Allen checking down. I don’t know how much is on him versus Dorsey but it’s a problem. On defense the Bills fell off dramatically when they lost Von Miller. His ability to return to form will have a huge impact on this defense. As for coaching, let’s hope we see a step forward - especially in the playoffs. There are concerns on the personnel side too. The OL needs brought up from below average to above average, Allen needs another legit weapon and the coaches will need to find a way to develop their defensive linemen. The worst of it for the Bills the last few seasons has been the coaching in the playoffs. There is no sugar coating it. It’s been horribly flawed and if it doesn’t get fixed then those coaches are wasting years of a HOF QB’s career - not to mention the fans time, money and emotional investment.

Great question. I can only give a limited answer though as I don’t know all of the players on it. Wagner is obviously the best of the lot, probably by a wide margin. Walker is a good player and should be cheap. He is wanted back in Cleveland, but that’s not a done deal. I’d take him here. Myles Jack seems to be a solid LB who keeps getting overpaid and then cut. He’d be fine at the right price. The knee issues he had when drafted should be looked at as they were expected to end his career early. Jones is interesting. I honestly do not know what happened there. Second round pick in Atlanta who played very well early on, got paid after year 3 and then mid-season (his 6th) got traded to Cleveland for nothing. Atlanta even ate almost his whole salary. He was a very good LB, but I don’t know if he still is. And I don’t know why they dumped him. Perryman should be a solid starter too. That’s it for me. I don't know annything about the others.

A poster argued that they weren’t. I pointed out that they obviously were.

Teams are probably waiting for Wagner to chose his team and sign. His contract will show where the market is and then we will see some lower priced deals done. Still some good options out there. Walker will likely re-sign with the Browns. Doesn’t seem to be much happening with anyone else on the list right now: https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/free-agents/all/inside-linebacker/all/

How odd that you should pop in to this one.

There’s really not much left the Bills can do to create more cap space this season. Restructure of Tre White’s deal could net $6M. I don’t love that though. I expect him to return to form this season, but the Bills can move on from him next off-season if he doesn’t. A restructure makes that tougher. Dawkins has room, but they re-did his last season and he’d likely insist on an extension this off-season if Beane asked him to create some space. I love Dawkins, but there were real concerns about him being in proper shape the last couple seasons. I make him earn that extension first. Oliver could theoretically be traded, but we would not net much in return and then we would need to find a 3T to replace him. That would eat up some of the savings - if we could even find one at this point. So while the Bills could find ways to squeeze out some more space this year, none look like good options. I think they stand pat and look for a reasonably priced MLB and then some bargain FAs.

Both were first round picks and have 5th year options so, yes, both were controllable for 5 seasons. Oliver is on his 5th year option now. Jeudy has his next season.

WTF? Oliver’s $10.75M 5th year option became fully guaranteed the instant the Bills picked it up.

I agree that we could use a back with some power, but that back also needs to fit with our scheme. We don’t have bullies on the OL to run power football. We need runners who can hit the holes wherever they open up.

https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/free-agents/all/running-back/all/ RB market is bottoming out. Top of the FA market is $6.25M AAV (not including Saquon Barkley’s FT). Third highest AAV is $4M. Many RBs making big money are being shopped or cut. It’s already a buyer’s market so players like Singletary will be signing cheaply or not at all.

Singletary is solid. Happy to have him back at or near vet min. Very good at pass pro. Not great as a receiving back. Tough runner but smaller so workload with the Bills has always been light. Good production on limited carries. That seems like a nice fit except for the pass catching. Still, he’d have a role here.

still the best answer

https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/free-agents/all/available/ Sortable FA list. Accurate but sometimes lags a day or so after initial leaks of signings.

Brown has not played well overall. At best he’s been very inconsistent. He was physically gifted, but raw two seasons ago when we drafted him. And he looked physically gifted but raw at the end of last season. Coming into the league so raw and dealing with injuries that derailed his development are valid reasons for delay in his progress. But there is no guarantee that he ever develops. I hope that he does - and soon. But I’m also glad that Beane said he is bringing in competition and that his roster spot isn’t guaranteed. He let Brown know that he has to step up or he won’t be in the Bills plans moving forward.

Absolutely. I came back to edit my post to add Sweeney. At least he didn’t rob the Bills while doing nothing like Kroft did. I’d add him too.

Star

I am not saying that Beane wasn’t genuine in this case. But every time he doesn’t rip a rostered player to shreds (even when they deserve it) we get the idiotic “Beane has his back!” posts. GMs who have a clue don’t ever do that. About the worst you ever get is what we saw here: He’s a hard worker, great teammate, etc. He fell a bit short this year but he’s got plenty of room to improve and we expect to see that. The “meat on the bone” schtick is literally the lower bound for GM comments on players like Brown. I’m not saying that isn’t fair in this case, just that you wouldn’t hear worse regardless of circumstance.

When I was in high school I appreciated a clumsy HJ.

Guessing teams look at Parham as a cheap depth option with immediate impact in the RZ. We need depth at TE so adding a cheap FA and a draft pick heading into camp sounds like a good plan.

What else would you expect Beane to say?

An owner only focused on profit can always torpedo a team. GMs have to carry out the owners’ visions and they all aren’t out to win a championship if it means making less money. Check out the Bengals NFLPA report card: Link

Or heal a WR’s hamstring? (Maybe he’s a cleric.)

Semi-competence or better at GM usually gets the “magician” label here. Sigh. Probably 28-30 fan bases are convinced everything their GM just did was genius. That includes fans of the GMs who didn’t do anything in FA yet and are waiting for the prices to come down. SMH