HappyDays

Right. The Chiefs won a Super Bowl with their QB not playing at his best. The Bills with their QB playing at his best on two occasions have not made it past the divisional round. Thank you for pointing this out. Wait, sorry. Just to be clear - you're trying to use this as evidence that Mahomes vs Allen is the main difference between their respective teams? Allen has out-played Mahomes in every matchup they've had since 2021. Despite playing with a harder degree of difficulty in each of them.

LMAO

It's funny because Manning himself is a good example of what you're referring to. His 2nd Super Bowl win came in arguably the worst individual season of his career. Brady is a good example too. His career was declared over after his final clunker of a season in New England. Instead he migrated to the best roster in the NFL and immediately won another Super Bowl. But for some reason it all gets boiled down to just the QBs.

I don't know how anybody could watch Singletary and Cook play and conclude they are similar in any way. Their respective strengths and weaknesses are virtually inverses of each other. I guess I could list the reasons out just for your benefit, but you should know that exactly zero other Bills fans will share your comparison, even those that don't like Cook as much can still see that his playing style is completely different from Singletary. Yours is probably the weirdest single comparison I've ever seen to be honest, no offense.

Mahomes is a great QB, one of the best I've ever seen... I have no problem with anyone pointing that out. What bothers me is the ongoing narrative that he is the sole reason for the Chiefs success in recent years. QBs have less of an effect on their team than normal discussion would have you think. People act like QBs are responsible for like 80% of their team's success when in fact it's closer to 40%, probably even less than that to be honest.

What do you mean by this? They couldn't be more different as players.

The Chiefs defense gave up 41 points in 3 playoff games. The Bills defense gave up 44 points in 2 playoff games. That's why Mahomes is playing in the Super Bowl instead of Allen.

I can only speculate. I haven't heard from my source that he has any performance-related injuries but I also haven't heard definitively that he doesn't. I tend to think not because he participated in the Pro Bowl and there were no surgeries reported after the season like you see with some players. Truth be told most players are playing with some sort of injury by the last quarter of the season, I think most fans that pay attention know that by now. I worry that he simply hit the wall very suddenly. We'll see. On this, again, I can only speculate. I don't think he specifically wants out of Buffalo. Headcase is the right word. I mean this is a pattern of behavior going back to Minnesota. I don't know why anybody on here still tries to defend it or act like the media is making something out of nothing. They say where there's smoke there's fire; with Diggs I would say where there's fire there's fire. His behavior isn't subtle. Last year's training camp started with Diggs being absent on day one and the head coach publicly announcing that he was "very concerned." What else do people need to see to understand that drama follows Diggs everywhere? How many times do you try to come up with excuses before you just accept that this is who he is? And yes these bizarre answers he gives to basic interview questions are part of the same formula. I think he just has trouble controlling his emotions. Everyone has played a pickup basketball game with that one guy that takes it way too seriously and gets on his teammates for the littlest things. I think that is Diggs' personality to a tee.

Speaking for myself - There are times where I will hear something that I know will never be officially confirmed, and it just doesn't feel right to post those stories here since inflammatory unconfirmed stories don't breed good discussion. A couple other times I've heard something where the source of the report would be obvious so I won't post it. So I tend to report things like injury news or imminent signings I hear from my source where I know it will be confirmed before long and there's no direct link back to my source. For the record I am also aware of one stunt that Diggs pulled this season which was very immature and directly impacted the team, and I know for a fact it is a different instance from what @SectionC3 is referring to, but for the reasons I outlined above I don't feel comfortable giving out the full details. Suffice it to say Diggs has built a reputation of being a headache, and that reputation extends beyond what is publicly reported. A couple other posters on here have alluded to other instances as well. It's no big secret that Diggs has an attitude problem. My personal opinion is that the attitude is worth the player we got in 2020-2022 but not worth the player we got in the final 10 games of the 2023 season.

They will only regret it if some vet edge player signed after June 1 becomes a productive member of another team. If it was a matter of cutting him to save $6.7 million in cap space right away I might agree with you. Doing it to save $6.7 million in June makes no sense to me. I really hope they can get him to agree to a reworked contract, let him keep his money this year but reduce the cap hit of keeping him or cutting him in 2025 and tell him he'll be cut right away if he doesn't agree. If he doesn't agree then sure, cut him, otherwise the threat is toothless.

The ramification is that we don't get to use the freed up cap space this year for anything meaningful because it wouldn't become usable until June 2. I know we signed Leonard Floyd in June last year which worked out decently well but that was a rare outcome. A few other older edge rushers - Justin Houston, Melvin Ingram, a couple others - signed with teams late in the offseason and none of those signings turned into anything meaningful. You can't realistically count on finding a decent edge rusher in June... And the position group is already thin as can be, and we have very little cap space to work with to rebuild it. I just don't see any benefit to cutting him. It only makes our roster worse. It's probably not fair to say Tre has underperformed... But he has played in just 21 out of 51 games over the past three seasons. And now he is recovering from a 2nd consecutive serious lower leg injury. I have to take emotion out of the discussion and accept the player for who he is, not who I remember him as. And again a lot of this for me comes down to the strength of the positions. If Tre was a DE and Von a CB I would probably feel the exact opposite of what I've argued. This regime has never had an issue filling the CB room, except when ravaged by injuries. Rasul Douglas + Christian Benford + Taron Johnson is a great starting CB combo. Elam is great depth with upside. They have a history of finding capable players late on day three of the draft and even UDFA. Edge rushers on the other hand they have never quite gotten it right, and the room as it stands (without Von) is just Greg Rousseau + Kingsley Jonathan. If nothing else we need bodies on the roster and we aren't gonna find a capable edge rusher in the 6th round.

I still think the best way to handle Von is offer him a pay cut, and assuming he accepts set up the contract in a way that gives us an easy out in 2025. He has to know he isn't going to get an offer on the open market anywhere close to what he'd get with us, not with his recent performance and his legal troubles. With Tre for me it's not about how likely it is he'll get back to form. It's just a clear immediate savings if we cut him with no future ramifications and the CB room is already in great shape. There's just no need to keep him. In general I hate when Beane offers under performing players pay cuts, it's like he is scared to be a little ruthless. Usually I'm in favor of cutting a player like that and if they want to come back for super cheap after discovering free agency isn't kind to them, go for it. The only reason I differ with Von is there some pretty nasty future ramifications to unload him this offseason so I'm more willing to go the pay cut route and hope to get some kind of value out of him, even if the chance is low.

Correct me if I'm wrong - didn't Kyle Shanahan have the same reputation when he was going through interviews?

This came up in the Diggs thread too - Post-6/1 designations don't actually open up the cap space until 6/1. So if we cut Von with that designation we wouldn't be able to use the resulting cap space on his replacement until well after free agency dried up.

Tre - I think cutting him is a no-brainer, and the way McDermott and Beane talked about him in their final presser I expect it to happen. I wouldn't even offer a paycut as ruthless as that sounds. Our CB room without him is still as sound as any position group on the roster. I'd also not bring Dane back, not after his abysmal divisional round performance. Just draft another zone CB in the 6th/7th like we've done in recent years and I'm sure they'll be fine if called upon for spot duty. I would also extend Rasul Douglas in a way that lowers his $9 million cap hit this year. Ditto for Taron Johnson and his $12 million cap hit. When all is said and done we should be spending a total of maybe $20 million on the entire CB room (EDIT: $30 million with Tre's dead cap hit). This is the clearest spot on the roster to create cap space. Poyer - A few weeks ago I would have said cut him, but I agree having to replace him and Hyde in one offseason would be a real challenge. Cutting him only saves $5.4 million which would just go to signing his replacement anyways. Can't say I feel too strongly one way or the other though. Most importantly I just don't want them to pay more than $5.4 million for the position... No big game hunting for a safety in FA. We have way more important needs. If keeping Poyer helps them resist that temptation, I'm good with it. Morse - Morse at his season ending presser said "I would love to come back if they'll have me." This made me raise an eyebrow. Players still under contract don't usually talk like that unless they have some inkling that the team is preparing to move on. Bates is a capable center and we may be able to get him to agree to a paycut, plus we have Alec Anderson who seemed to perform well last year (albeit in training camp & preseason), and we still have the draft where you can find decent center prospects on day 3. So yeah I would definitely cut Morse, this is pretty close to a no-brainer for me as well. For a cap strapped team you have to start with the least important positions on the roster... Center fits that bill. Knox - There is no scenario where unloading Knox helps our cap situation, so however I feel about the player it's not even a conversation. Next offseason however I feel he is very likely to be cut unless he rebounds big time. Von - I am torn on Von. On one hand I thought I saw some flashes in the final 3 games (including playoffs). I can see the argument to just move on and eat our losses, but that glimmer of hope that he could rebound to something close to what he was in 2022 gives me pause... All things considered I would personally accept the risk of keeping him and hope for the best. As sad as it is to say he is probably our best possibility of having a top tier edge rusher next year and that role is too important to give up on.

Again, it is not negative cap space to move on from Diggs if done as a post-6/1 designation. Something happened to Diggs around the Jacksonville game. Before that he was excellent, I believe on pace for his best season ever. In that game he let a 5'9 CB rip the ball out of his hands, and then his season progressively got worse from there. Over the final 10 games he had 422 yards on 80 targets... So like I said it would not be a surprise for a 1st round rookie WR to exceed that performance, with Allen throwing the ball it would be the expectation really. Kincaid is the first pass catcher we drafted in the 1st round in the Josh Allen era and he immediately broke a couple franchise records. Any WR that isn't a total bust should be able to step in and produce right away.

Yeah I have come around on Coleman too. Maybe not for every team, but I like him as a fit with Josh Allen specifically because of how easily he boxes out defenders and highpoints the ball at every level of the field. I initially dismissed him because contested catch specialists are not my style of receiver at all, but he has more nuance to his game than I first gave him credit for. I highly value the ability to beat press coverage and as you said he erases press just with pure strength. He has more YAC ability than I would have expected too, he is a bully with the ball in his hands. As far as realistic options it is still Franklin #1 for me, by a wide margin, but I'm surprised to say Coleman has creeped up to #2.

Then we might as well say failing to even to attempt to upgrade the WR2 spot was "cause for termination level stupid." Failing to sign Hopkins, etc. If the team can get a good trade package back and they are sick of Diggs' antics I wouldn't blame Beane if he decided to move on. But like I said I would personally prefer to keep him and hope he can get back to the player he was before 2023. That depends. Are you talking about the Diggs from before 2023? Then no, almost certainly not. The Diggs we saw down the stretch? That isn't an unrealistic expectation for a 1st round rookie. Shakir out produced Diggs over the last 10 games... In fact Shakir's yards per target more than doubled Diggs'. If Shakir can do that, why not a much better prospect? We just have to hope it was an injury. But that's all it is, a hope. Diggs participated in the Pro Bowl and there's been no reports that he got any kind of surgery or medical treatment after the season ended. His lasting impression of the season was a dropped catch in a critical moment that had nothing to do with any perceived injury. So for me I'm already assuming we need a new #1 WR next year. I genuinely advocate for assuming the worst case scenario in these discussions, make roster decisions accordingly, and then if you get the best case scenario you're that much better off. The reason I want to keep Diggs is that I know he can be a good #2 even if it's just the player we got down the stretch. Still I would understand the decision to move on if it makes sense.

If Diggs' relationship with the team has totally broken down, or if some team offers a great trade package, or some combination of the two. I'm not advocating to trade Diggs. Financially and from a roster perspective it makes more sense to keep him and if anything unload him next offseason. I'm just saying the people who are crowing that it's "impossible" to get rid of Diggs are wrong. Doing it pre-6/1 is likely impossible unless they are just giving up on the 2024 season. Doing it post-6/1 is certainly feasible though and there would be benefits as soon as next year.

No, you can rollover any unused cap space the next year no matter what. By 4PM the day after the regular season finale, teams have to let the NFL know what unused cap space they are rolling over. So if we free up $19 million and don't use it we can roll that over to 2025 which would help to mitigate the $22 million dead cap hit we'd have for Diggs.

Yes you can always roll over unused cap space so in that sense it would help.

Two things to keep in mind with post-6/1 designations: 1) You can release a player before 6/1 and give them a post-6/1 designation, but you cannot trade a player prior to 6/1 with a post-6/1 designation. So if the plan is to trade Diggs, we'd have to wait until June. 2) Whether releasing or trading a player with a post-6/1 designation, the cap ramifications do not change until 6/1. So with Diggs we would free up $19 million in cap space this year, but it wouldn't be usable until well after free agency has dried up which means it is effectively useless. There's really no scenario where trading Diggs this offseason helps our roster this year unfortunately. The only reason to do it would be if he and the team's relationship has totally broken down, or some team offers us a great trade value that is impossible to ignore.

We talk about draft guys that are the best in the business. Chris Trapasso is one of the worst... His history is littered with bizarre and awful draft takes. One that sticks out in my mind is he had Marquez Stevenson and Dazz Newsome rated many spots higher than Greg Rousseau on his final big board. It's one thing to stick your neck out with bold takes, but stuff like that is less than amateurish.

FWIW my source told me there has been no substantial discussions with DQ for several months now. Last time the Bills and him talked about an extension it was before his injury. It appears that we will only get him back if he finds out he has a worse than expected market in free agency and we're able to get him on a cheap one year deal. I'm not sure it's sunk in for fans how bad the cap situation is this offseason... It's not like other years where we can just push salary down the road and come out with like $25 million in cap space to work with. The realistic moves I made using Over the Cap's simulator got me around $8M-$10M in available cap space, and that was with me executing every single move that I thought made sense. The long term plan probably relied on being able to restructure Von Miller's and Stefon Diggs' contracts again this year, but now that seems like a terrible idea given how those players performed. I would think Beane will leave those contracts alone so we have an option to get out of them next year, but that means we have to take our medicine this year. We really have to nail the draft this year and probably rely on late rounders and even a few UDFAs just to build out the roster. I expect rookies will get more playing time than usual under this regime out of necessity. All the wasteful defensive line spending has really caught up to them and they just don't have the resources to overpay old vets anymore.