BarleyNY

This is a very nice breakdown of the cap ramifications of trading Diggs. I posted effectively the same thing a couple times, including that the biggest issue would be finding a replacement at reasonable cap hits this year and next. It’s a good exercise to go through because it is effectively the same as if Diggs were to tear an ACL or have some other major injury in TC. The Bills would have to find a replacement and cap space somehow someway.

I believe that the extensions are a public vote of confidence for McDermott and Beane. It gives the impression that the Pegulas are strongly behind this regime (and they very well may be). It certainly can’t hurt. But without the contract details there is no way to tell how much of that is sincere versus PR. The important aspect is the guarantees. If the contracts are fully guaranteed through 2027, then that’s a huge vote of confidence. If there are no new guarantees, then it’s just PR. We don’t have any way of knowing which it is - and I don’t expect those details to come out. That usually only happens after a firing - and not always even then.

You’re so tired of it that you started yet another thread about it.

Spotrac - Diggs If the Bills traded Diggs today they’d gain $1.7M in cap space this season. (Current cap hit of $14.9M less $13.2M dead cap.) The 2024 dead cap would be an absolutely brutal $31.1M however. That may seem completely unmanageable - and it’s very bad - but Diggs currently is set to have a cap hit of $27.9M in 2024 - or only $3.2M more than if he got traded. So, while it would be painful, the Bills could make the numbers work. The other cap addition related to this would be part of the bigger problem. It is, of course, replacing Diggs on the field. Some player’s salary would be added to the cap in his place. That player would likely need to be a stellar WR. Those are usually not cheap. So that’s where this goes from unlikely to nearly impossible. Technically some team could trade a stud WR on their rookie deal or eat a bunch of a vet WR’s salary to acquire Diggs. But why would any team do that?

Yup. Best burger! Best wings. Etc. There’s a WNY place called Bill Gray’s that has “Best Burger” plastered everywhere. I have eaten there twice and the second time was not by choice. The burgers I had there were both disappointing.

AFC contender? I guess all 16 AFC teams are contenders at this point. It’s like referring to an actor, show or book as “award eligible”. I’m going to start reffering to all coaches, FO personnel and players this way, i.e. MVP candidate Zach Wilson. It’ll be a hoot. Don’t know what Zeke has left in the tank at this point, but he still should be serviceable rotational back for NE or another team.

Congratulations to Eric Washington.

By saying he has no knowledge of what the issue is, it ends the conversation. If he said he knew (or even thought he knew) the problem, then it would confirm that there is an issue, invite pestering for the answer and speculation about what it is. It is also probably true from the standpoint that Diggs has not discussed it directly with him. He has likely heard rumors, but those aren’t definitive knowledge. And you really don’t want to be discussing rumors about stuff like this with the press. Only bad things can come of that.

The Bills and Chefs were the only two teams to get far enough in the trade process with AZ that they sat down with DHop’s rep to try and work out a new contract/restructure. That is not just kicking the tires on an available player.

DVOA is a nice analytical tool, but it’s backward looking (as almost all are). So they’re just saying we were #1 last year so they expect us to be very good this year. It can’t have any data from this season until games are played.

Simply look at it this way: If Brandon Beane didn’t think that an upgrade at WR2 would significantly help this team, then why would be pursuing DHop? It probably will not work out, but it’s not like anyone thought he’d be cheap. I often (but not always) agree with Beane and certainly do in this case.

You missed reason #1: Loses the locker room. For the record I don’t think McDermott has lost this locker room, but I don’t think it’ll take much that more for it to happen. It already appears Diggs is there - or at least very close. Obviously McD has (at least) this season to turn the playoff ship around and here’s hoping that happens.

I saw a breakdown on him (linked on this board IIRC). The conclusion was that his hand usage isn’t good enough. That’s a must for consistent success because his arms are too short and he’s too light to win in other ways. He’s got to beat the OL with his initial quickness or he’s done on that rep. Thus the inconsistency we see from him.

Yeah. Looking at the playoff games under McDermott I don’t see a lot of impressive wins. 2017: Lost to Jags 10-3 with Tyrod 2018: Missed playoffs 2019: Blew 17 point lead in WC against the Texicans 2020: Narrowly beat the corpse of Phillip Rivers 27-24. Then IMO had their best PO win of the regime beating the Ravens 17-3. Notably Jackson missed a chunk of that game and and it took at 100+ yard INT return by Tauron Johnson to be the deciding factor. Then we lost to the Chefs 38-24 in the AFCC game. 2021: Stomped a Mac Jones led Cheatriots 47-17. Could also be considered this regime’s best PO game. It was against Mac Jones, but the team was just about perfect. Followed that up with the 13 seconds debacle. 2022: Unimpressively beat the Skylar Thompson led Phish 34-31. Crapped the bed against Cincy 27-10. Obviously this regimes as at least this season to improve. Maybe next as well. But there isn’t much to do now but root for it to happen. But I need to see more in the playoffs to be a believer again. There’s no shortage of coaches that could make it into the playoffs and beat up on the also-rans with Allen and this roster.

I loved the Oliver pick too.

In his rookie season I thought the Bills were going to ruin Allen by starting him behind a trash OL. Oh and I thought the Bills would draft Rosen when they were in the clock.

I agree that winning a SB is very difficult and that some luck is always involved. But that’s exactly why having a HC who is up to the task in the big moments is so important. He can’t choke them away. It’s too difficult and too much has to go your way to even have a chance. Coaches don’t get too many chances with that before they lose the confidence of their players. You have to be kidding me with the Marty S and Phillip Rivers comment. Rivers’ and Bernie Kosar’s careers were both wasted under Marty S. In San Diego his replacement, Norv Turner, was cut for the same mold and finished wasting Rivers’ useful years. I certainly believe we can do better than Turner. There’s no guarantee of hitting on any HC hire, but that doesn’t mean you keep one that you have to hope figures out how to win a big game.

I think it’s easy to love a 4th round pick that has produced at the level Davis has - while he’s on his rookie contract. But the Bills haven’t extended him yet. I think next offseason he’ll find a team willing to pay him $10M AAV but I doubt it’ll be the Bills. And that’s okay if it plays out like that. We tip our hat to him for what he’s done here and he gets paid.

This should go well for you……..

Yup. Fans buying PSLs need to consider what will happen during down years - especially if they are prolonged. That would naturally lead to a poor secondary PSL market. STHs wishing to stop buying their season tickets would have to sell their PSLs at a deep discount or even give them back to the team for nothing. The worst case is more likely for the worst seats, which are usually owned by fans the least able to afford them in the first place. If the PSLs revert to the team then they can be resold in better times. In the meantime the team could sell them as single game seats. People obviously can spend their money as they see fit, but to me this seems a bit underhanded. It is a sneaky way for teams cash in even when they don’t put a good product on the field for awhile. People can respect the humanity of someone and not respect their ability to do their job. To equivocate the two aspects of a person is ridiculous. I’ve known some really good people that are terrible at their jobs.

I’m sure the Pegulas want to win a SB, but they’re also businesspeople. They embraced the opportunity to make a SB run as well as use the associated fan fervor to get themselves a new stadium. It will be interesting to see how hard they go after a SB now that the stadium is in hand.

Agreed. Which is why a HC can’t be the one to squander legitimate opportunities when they present themselves. 13 seconds is on McDermott and is the poison that will eventually kill his tenure here. It will take another year or two to finish the job, but I believe that (and the immediate aftermath) was the point of no return for him here. His failures in the moment and afterward changed how he was viewed and trusted by the locker room. Now it is too late to undo that damage and it just has to play out.

I get very strong Marty Schottenheimer vibes from McDermott. Both are (or were) defensive minded HCs with the ability to turn around poor teams and mold them into excellent regular season squads. However neither could figure out how to win in the playoffs against the best teams and squandered the careers of excellent QBs.

Oh yeah. And always sunglasses either over his eyes or on his head.

@Reed83HOFshould have his own podcast.