BarleyNY

This reminded me of the old “wrap around draw” play. I hope this new rule doesn’t impact the RO & RPO plays. I can’t imagine that is the NFL’s intent.

Yup. I got a back channel tidbit that I’m sure just about everyone has already figured out themselves, but I’ll put it here for validation purposes. To date Hopkins is not happy with the contract offers he has received. However several teams are interested if he accepts the reality of his market. Two of those teams are the Ravens and Browns as Lamar and Watson have both my made it known that they’d like Hopkins added. I would think the Bills, KC, Dallas and the Giants are others, but that’s speculation. No word on the spread of current offers either. Just that all are significantly below what he was expecting. The trip to Nashville makes sense in this context. If he gets a better offer there, then his agent can shop it to his preferred destinations just like OBJ did.

Just want to address the OL piece. Last off-season the vast majority of this board talked up Saffold as a big improvement at OG last year. The handful of us that actually went and looked at his play knew he was done and the contract he got from the Bills was a joke. So I take the glowing expectations of much of this board with a boulder sized grain of salt. That said, I do expect McGovern to be serviceable - which would be an upgrade. He’s been good in pass pro but poor as a run blocker so that’s a concern. You mention Edwards, who I think is being overlooked. He’s one of the players I want training camp info on. I was happy to see an OG added in the draft, but the questions about Torrence’s fit are legitimate. He looks like a straight up Power/Gap OG while none of the rest of our OL looks well-suited to that. Also I think many posters here saw him get mocked to us at the end of round 1 and think we got a steal in round 2, but that wasn’t where he was mostly ranked by draft sites. I saw 2nd, 3rd and 4th round projections for him. Still, he’s got nice potential and I’m happy we addressed the OL in the draft. To me the much more concerning issue is OT. The lack of any move that would improve it could derail this season - just like it did last season when Quessenberry’s missed block against the Jets got Allen’s elbow injured. I think the IOL will be adequate and can withstand some injuries to any of the three spots, but I have no such confidence with the OTs. If Dawkins gets injured we’re looking at Brown and Quessenberry or Shell out there. I just don’t see how that works out well.

I tend to agree that Philly is the most complete team, but KC did beat them in the last SB. The Iggles won their last one, what, five years ago?

It’s effectively a 3 year, $48.4M deal with two optional years after that. The outs after this year and next would be expensive, but the offsets would help if we had to get out early. It’s an overpay, but I very much like the structure.

The heavy DL rotation is philosophical. Draft and cap investments as well as roster construction over this regime’s tenure shows that. Obviously they’ll want their best on the field at the most important times, but the rotation helps keeps those players fresh. Philadelphia heavily employs this strategy.

Intentionally misrepresenting opponents’ positions is called the Straw Man Fallacy. That and the Appeal to Authority Fallacy are super popular here. In this particular instance it is difficult to justify the size of extension Oliver got. It’s an obvious overpay even if it’s no worse than the Star contract. At least Oliver is a good player. There just aren’t a lot of sexy arguments for either side though. But if someone wants to pretend that some Bills fans hate Oliver, then that’s spicy. And it’s easy for someone to pretend to take the high ground.

Not a fan of Chefs! food. Crappy pasta and worse sauce. Inedibly sweet. However I believe that the owners do a lot of community work so props to them for that.

I am sure they’re using multiple void years. They could even structure the contract so he’s cut with a 6/1 designation on day one of the next league year.

Agreed. Not sure that it’s enough tho.

That is very misleading. Even with Oliver’s snap count increasing the last 8 games he still only played 50.18% of defensive snaps in 2022. His snap rates in 2019-2021 were 53.67%, 53.97% & 57.79%, respectively. His production, including his PRWR has to be viewed with this in mind. https://www.pro-football-reference.com/teams/buf/2022-snap-counts.htm

Seems to be a very good addition, depending on the contract ofc.

Yup. This is why I’m surprised that people are expecting a significant contribution from Harty - and why I was surprised to see how much the Bills paid him. He’s smaller than McKenzie.

I don’t think so unless they get a great deal from him. I think he’ll get paid decently by some team next offseason and that it’ll be more than the Bills want to (or reasonably can) pay him. The Bills were already top 3 in cash spending this season prior to the Oliver extension. They’ll likely move up to #2 with that included. Incidentally they only trail the Browns and Ravens now. That’s three of the teams that keep getting connected to Hopkins already spending the most cash now.

Bad teams pay players like that. Oliver has not nearly played to the level of this contract extension. Paying him with the hopes that he takes a big enough step forward to be worth makes me SMH.

The extension is 4 years, $68 million as his 5th year option in 2023 was already fully guaranteed. People are going to want to put this in the best possible light, but it is what it is. Judging by guarantees, yes, it’s likely that the earliest out is after 2025. Also the contract comparisons are for all DTs, not just 3Ts.

I understand that DTs, especially ones that can provide a decent pass rush, are scarce. Oliver is a good DT, but even with that said I don’t get $17M AAV on the extension. There’s no way to look at that and not see a substantial overpay.

Scarcity at play

There is a link provided in the first tweeted reply that shows the ranking info. It is not arbitrary, but PFF grades/rankings are used. The numbers used are strictly based on last season’s performances.

Assuming the knee is okay, I agree. The Bills definitely need to make some cap room for when they go to a 53 man roster plus practice squad. Even with restructuring Tre they might need to find a few more dollars for IR replacements.

That is really the issue. I do not like the idea of restructuring Dawkins. He might require an extension to do so as well and I would not want to add guarantees to his deal at this point. Tre White is a better option, but I understand why people would hesitate. But my view is that his salary this season is now guaranteed so we might as well make some room with it. The other possibility is cutting Morse. I’m not advocating for that, but I can see it happening - especially with the money and high draft pick spent on the IOL.

I chalk this up to it being a good sign. It’s not nearly enough to be certain of his future, but it’s a positive. I’d love to see how he did against zone too.

I checked but can’t find an associated article.

Shakir looking good in limited reps. It’ll be interesting to see how he does with more opportunities this season.

He obviously has played with Watson before too. Still, IDK that Cleveland makes the move. Seems pricey for them at this point. They are the only team with higher active spending this season than the Bills. Much like the Bills it may come down to how much pressure the brass is under.