HappyDays

Would much rather do that than give the same type of money to players like Star Lotulelei, Vernon Butler, Jordan Phillips... Why is it never at WR that we're willing to dip into the lower middle class of free agents?

It's not about his replacement being better. It's about using his cap space to improve more important positions. Take a small step back at center to take a medium step forward at WR... No brainer IMO.

Maybe I just haven't seen it. Anything I've watched or read on him makes it seem like he struggles playing through contact at the catch point. I honestly don't care about contested catch stats because it doesn't seem to match up with the film. For example I see people say Keon Coleman has a low relative contested catch rate, but you turn on the film and that clearly isn't true. I don't know what the issue is with how that stat is calculated or tracked but it just doesn't match up with what I see. On Franklin - I agree contested catches are not his strong suit. And I'm not saying I need my WR to be a contested catch specialist. Quite the opposite, it's probably the last thing I care about. But if you're going to be just a straight line vertical WR you better have some kind of alpha catch skill set, or else you will never win reps unless you flat out leave your man in the dust. Thomas can probably do that a fair amount of the time but it's such a limited skill set and doesn't project to a true #1 role. Whereas with Franklin I think he offers more than just straight line vertical speed and has the ability to become a true #1. As far as Thomas's route running, you may be right that he can develop a larger tree. That is always hard to project. If he does, no doubt he is a 1st round talent. I would just prefer a better base starting point with his skill set to feel comfortable with him. I recognize I'm in the minority in my evaluation of him.

Not sure what Beane will do. But Morse during his end of season presser said something to the effect of "I would love to be back if they'll have me." That caught my attention. I can't imagine a player under contract would say that unless they had an inkling that a possible release was in their future.

I don't think Franklin is a one trick pony. His route running, specifically his footwork, is pretty advanced. I believe he will be able to run all of the routes and pull away from defenders after the catch. Thomas runs the Gabe Davis route tree, obviously at a much higher level but it is still too limited a skill set to invest a 1st round pick IMO.

He is almost 32 years old and plays arguably the 2nd least important/easiest to fill position on offense. It's time to get younger and cheaper at spots like that. Bates is a capable center, Alec Anderson looked good in preseason last year, and it's an easy position to fill on day 3 of the draft. I would keep Morse for $3 million this season and not a penny more, and with no ramifications in future years. That's equivalent to his dead cap hit. Anything more than that I'll take the $8.5 million in savings.

Metcalf was the definition of an alpha. My problem with Thomas is he basically just runs in a straight line and that's the extent of his skill set (with an elite release to match, to be fair). Metcalf did that and also made contested catches and was a beast to bring down. Thomas doesn't do well with any sort of contact at the catch point and he doesn't break tackles, and he is not going to avoid that in the NFL.

Brian Thomas is not my preferred pick. One trick pony with seemingly no alpha traits and mediocre hands. I get that he does that one trick really well but I want a versatile WR.

I actually don't want Beane thinking like this. We have an extra $12.9 million to work with which is huge. But DON'T use that money to keep older players that he otherwise would have cut. I would still make the exact same cuts/restructures we would have made with the cap being at $242M like expected, and then use the $12.9M to sign a real difference maker in FA (specifically at WR or EDGE). As an example I still want us to cut Morse. To me this a no brainer move. Ditto for White. I worry Beane will see the cap increase and think he can keep Morse/White, or hand out one of his never-a-good-idea paycuts. I hope he stays the course and uses the extra cap space wisely. Please don't use it as an excuse to just run it all back.

The game changing interceptions are extremely valuable though. In very limited playing time he has still made arguably game winning plays against the Chiefs, Dolphins, and Steelers, two of those in the playoffs. It goes back to the line of thinking a lot of us have had that the Bills need to allow for a little more high risk/high reward on defense. Maybe Elam gives up a couple more catches a game. But if he makes game changing plays does that really matter? Plus in the playoffs he is allowed to hold with reckless abandon. I think at this point it is in the team's best interests to get him on the field and let him develop even if it means we have to overcome a few mistakes along the way.

I get it but he was a gimp at the end of the season and now he will be 30 years old. We can save $10M off the cap if we release him by March 15. Personally I would still rather extend him to get cap relief and know that our CB situation is in good shape this year. But if we cut him I will take it as a good sign that Beane is prioritizing youth. In a long season culminating in playoffs that is not a bad thing.

Generally I agree that Douglas was very good for us last year and I have been a proponent of extending him for cap relief this year. That being said I won't be upset with any 30+ year old player Beane decides to move on from this offseason. We have to force young players onto the field one way or another. We've pushed the youth rebuild off for far too long.

I've heard rumblings that Butler and McDermott didn't see eye to eye on Elam's usage. Butler didn't get along with Elam. That may be one reason he left. And it makes me wonder if McDermott is going to force the issue with Elam this year which would make Douglas somewhat redundant.

Void years carry cap hits of 4.8M, 1.87M, and 935K in '26, '27, and '28 respectively. But if we extend his contract through any of those years we don't take any dead money hits. An Ed Oliver restructure is likely to be reported next.

I know that I speak for everyone here when I give a big THANK YOU to the individual most responsible for this increase.

Correct. But this news helps cap strapped teams more so it's still very good news for us. Of course it might mean free agency contracts are slightly higher than expected but still overall very good news.

This is massive news. The salary cap is $13 million higher than anticipated. This changes everything about our free agency possibilities.

In America it's because we have much more lax freedom of speech laws. There's no specific reason the accused's name is reported, but media has the right to report it so they do.

I'm okay telling it how it is - Araiza was easy to let go because he was a punter on a rookie deal. Von Miller is an edge rusher on a contract that is practically impossible to get out of. If their legal situations were reversed I have no doubt their current status with the team would still be exactly the same. And every single team in the league would have handled both situations the exact way we did. No team would have kept Araiza on the roster because he is just a punter. That may not be fair, but anyone complaining about how the Bills specifically handled the situation isn't being realistic.

I love watching Josh Allen and look forward to it every year. At the same time, I sometimes really hate watching the individuals around him continue to hold him back from hitting his ceiling. I for one am not taking these years for granted after so many years of being lost in QB purgatory. But I also feel the sands of his career slipping away, and I won't lie that is sometimes even more frustrating than watching the team look like crap during the drought years.

Where's the irony? In 6 years one team has 3 Super Bowl wins and 6 consecutive AFCCG appearances. One team has 1 AFCCG appearance. I don't have to stretch to criticize the Bills roster and coaching staff just because I'm so hyper sensitive about my QB. The results speak for themselves.

Slightly 🤣 My favorite part of the Chiefs fans on here is you have to demean every other part of your organization because any hint that Mahomes is not 100% responsible for their success is sacrilege. Any hint that Allen with the Chiefs could have had similar success is sacrilege. So it comes down to coming up with bizarre (and wrong) opinions about your own coach and surrounding talent.

Saying he was the "2nd overall pick" is the definition of bad faith argument. By that logic the Jets have done a better job investing in the QB position than the Bills or Chiefs over the past decade. It's a completely meaningless fact that you only threw out because you had nothing susbtantive to say. Like I said, every Chiefs fan on here seemingly started watching football in 2018. I get it. Dynasties bring a lot of bandwagon fans on board. Comparing Andy Reid's run in Philly with McDermott's run in Buffalo and expecting people to take you seriously. 🤣

My honest reaction to this news is just that I'm glad Araiza is getting his deserved 2nd chance.

At least this won't have any effect on our playoff matchups.