HappyDays

Joe Marino's text about him is that he's been a stand up EDGE in a 3-4 so kind of a weird fit for us. He projects him as the Dawuane Smoot role but that's a big raise for that role. From other things I'm reading he's been used in coverage more than the typical EDGE. So somewhat of a hybrid/positionless player that we can use as a chess piece. FWIW PFF graded him as the 104th best EDGE in 2024 with a 61.3 grade. As a pass rusher 60.3, as a run defender 73.5. My initial though is it seems like a substantial overpay but I don't have a strong opinion on it. Given how much they're paying they presumably have a plan so we'll see how they use him.

https://x.com/TomPelissero/status/1899235715369558493?s=19 I'll admit I know nothing about him. It's 3 years up to $24M.

I know there are still solid players available. I'm talking about difference makers. Teams by and large didn't let their difference makers hit the market. It basically ended up being Metcalf and Hendrickson. To your first post - normally I wouldn't support a major investment in safety, but I'm kind of getting there with Holland. Mainly because there just isn't any other big ticket item to spend our money on. He is coming off a down year but you know the talent is real. Plug him in at FS and let Bishop and Rapp duke it out for the SS. It's not the most exciting big fish but it's sensible. And FWIW I agree with you that secondary should be a big focus this offseason. Secondary talent was our vulnerability more than DL talent against the Chiefs. I'm hoping for Barron or Revel or Hairston with our 1st rounder. I personally wouldn't give a big contract to a FA CB unless they already know Benford isn't in the long term plans, but not opposed to it.

There was one big fish player at a position of need that we could have had, but I've had my say on that subject. Adams was somewhat of a big fish but he wanted to go to California so nothing we could do. Garrett and Crosby and Higgins weren't on the table. Hendrickson is the last big fish and I'll be surprised if Cincy sends him here. So yeah we are in kind of no man's land now. We spent last season taking our medicine so that we could afford more high end talent starting this season, but that talent just isn't available. I guess saving cap space for a hypothetical mid-season trade is one option. I can't imagine that's what Beane was planning on though. I'll keep my fingers crossed for a surprise trade.

https://x.com/AdamSchefter/status/1899225118854811715?s=19 Dalvin Tomlinson will be released from the Browns as of Wednesday. I would only be interested if it was really cheap. I've seen enough 30+ year old defensive linemen on this roster.

Well you look at the remaining FA list and it's not exactly exciting. I keep getting told we need to save all our money to rebuild the defense, but who are we spending that money on? Unless we trade for Hendrickson there's no big needle movers coming this year, just some baseline improvements across the board.

Hendrickson would be the best move we can make at this point, for sure. I remain skeptical that Cincy would trade him to us but I would like the move. The reason I bring up Holland is we have all this available money and nothing to spend it on. It feels like a waste not to use all of our resources in this championship window. He's the only big ticket item I see remaining that makes sense for our roster, although I'm not in love with the idea of spending big at the safety position. Ward I don't consider a splash move per se. I would be fine with it though. My preference is a cheap vet and then draft one high but there's a clear need there. Is Benford in their long term plans? If not then I would be more in favor of signing Ward, but if he is then I'd rather not have two expensive CBs under contract at the same time.

Feels like we have one splash move still to come. Albert Breer in an article this morning said we made an offer for Myles Garrett and that we planned on making a run at Tee Higgins if he wasn't franchised. Also FWIW I heard earlier today that we were in on Metcalf, just not willing to match or beat Pittsburgh's offer. So Beane had a splash move earmarked for this offseason. But the potential splash move options are dwindling. Right now we're down to trading for Trey Hendrickson or signing Jevon Holland. Unless I'm missing someone?

https://x.com/RapSheet/status/1899204867786465603?s=19 Bobby Brown to the Panthers.

I've said my piece on this. I'm not going to drag this thread down.

But I understand your sentiment too. We haven't had a stud since the first half of the 2022 season, before Diggs fell off a cliff. The offense has been tough sledding since then and Palmer is not a needle mover. Unfortunately there are no needle movers left to acquire unless a mystery player is available for trade. So it's going to have to be a highly drafted WR, and hope Coleman and Samuel give us more than they did last year.

I wouldn't say he's a bum. If he's your best outside WR it's very underwhelming and I've accepted that that is a real possibility for us this year. But he's better than say Mack Hollins in that role.

Josh Sweat ended up getting a slightly lower AAV: https://x.com/AdamSchefter/status/1899176064917873143?s=19 Tweets aren't embedding right now but he got 4 years $76.4M. In my mind they're approximately the same caliber of player, Sweat offers more pass rush Rousseau offers more edge setting.

It really isn't an overpay, unless all FA deals are overpays (which may be true). This is just the going rate for a quality WR3. Unfortunately it doesn't look like a WR1 is coming, the market just isn't there and we missed out on Metcalf. They'll have to look to the draft unless a surprise trade is coming.

Extending Spencer Brown last offseason ends up being a huge win for Beane. He could have gotten $100M this offseason, seriously.

I'm kind of meh on Sweat, but also I can't really pick anyone out in FA that I would feel great about. We opened up all this money and it happens to coincide with a particularly weak FA class. I'm still crossing my fingers for a trade for a difference maker. Hendrickson or some mystery player that hasn't been reported to be on the block.

That is crazy crazy money for someone that played 29% of snaps last year. A career backup that they're paying quality starter money to.

Right. So how does giving big extensions to two players that were part of that failure help us reach our goal? We're just maintaining the status quo which you admitted wasn't good enough. In my desired outcome we wouldn't be maintaining, we'd be adding in a big way. Honestly man I disagree with almost every sentence of your post, we are just very far apart in our thoughts on this subject. And that's fine. I appreciate you laying out your thoughts. We'll see if Beane made the right decisions. My prediction is that by mid-October we'll again be monitoring the market for a desperation WR trade and the defense will be underperforming.

I haven't said he is. But certainly he is a significantly better player than anyone we've extended this offseason. That's not debatable. Metcalf is a household name and someone you build your offense around. Rousseau is a piece. We're talking about a true #1 vs a #2. The $10M difference in their AAV reflects this. I'm just speaking for myself here. I wanted nothing to do with giving Edmunds a 2nd contract. If the insinuation is that I'm reactionary and/or critical of any move the Bills make, that's not the case at all. But I have been critical of Beane's resource management in two areas - overprioritizing solid players at the expense of great players, and underprioritizing pass catchers. This weekend's moves (and lack thereof) is right at the centerpoint of those criticisms. So yes I am very disappointed and concerned about this team's ability to go further in the playoffs. The worst part is I don't see any potential moves left. Adams is signed, Higgins is franchised. The fanbase is already talking themselves into Darius Slayton or Josh Palmer. Those are band-aid moves, not needle movers. Trading for Hendrickson is the one big needle mover still out there but even then the pass catching talent would still be severely lacking and there's not likely to be immediate solutions coming in the draft.

You have it backwards. We're taking two solid players over one great player. The respective contract AAVs speak for themselves. I have zero concerns about Beane's ability to find solid players. I have big concerns about his ability to find true game changers. So to me taking the one game changer over two solid players is a no brainer.

I would have been fine drafting DL with each of our first two picks in this draft. That's still a fairly likely outcome even after extending Rousseau and despite having gaping holes in the WR room. At MLB you figure it out as you go. Of course I could ask the same question to you about WR. Your solution is Josh Palmer and a random draft pick. That would mean we enter 2025 with a worse WR room than we ended 2024. We'd have arguably a worse version of the Chargers offense last year depending on how Coleman develops. I don't know man, that's not really a solution, it's a temporary bridge.

Neither will Metcalf's. That's how all these contracts are structured. Notice how we haven't even seen the guaranteed money for his new deal with Pittsburgh yet. Every time we give a big extension to our own players I'm told "ignore the reported number." But when we miss out on another player I'm told "wow the reported number is way too expensive." Personally I would trade Rousseau and Bernard in 2026 for Metcalf now. And yes I understand it's not exactly that simple but that is effectively what the numbers work out to be. Like I said I really hope I'm wrong. I'm not rooting against the team. I just see a consistent pattern of the same mistake made by this front office and to me this is the latest example of that mistake. If you disagree, that's fine. We'll see if the defensive players perform up to their contract values and if the WR room is good enough. I respect that. I very strongly disagree but at least you're accepting that the trade off is real.

It's just math. Beane has to be right about these decisions. Historically he has not been right about the contracts he's given out. I hope my opinion on this is wrong of course. I would love nothing more than for Rousseau to take a big step and for Beane to get the WR room right.

So there you go, Rousseau's contract officially hurt us from getting Metcalf. Rousseau + Bernard = $32.5M AAV. Metcalf got $30M AAV. These extensions don't happen in a vacuum. They have a measurable impact on our ability to add game changers.