HappyDays

His full contract details were published today: https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/tennessee-titans/deandre-hopkins-12307/ $3.6 million cap hit in 2023, $15.9 million cap hit in 2024 (which almost certainly will not actually come to fruition), 3 void years after that. Personally I think this was very doable for the Bills if they had been willing to let a few Tim Settles and Nyheim Hines go. There is a lot of flexibility in those contract figures. We conceivably could have given him more in year one than the Titans did to minimize the future cap impact. We would have had to tie ourselves to Hopkins for likely a minimum of three years when all was said and done, so yes there would have been some risk there. But it would have been doable. It is not a way out of line impossible to match structure like a lot of fans assumed it would be. This topic is dead for now. But if our offense struggles to find consistent efficient production from anyone behind Diggs throughout the season and into the playoffs there is going to be a lot of scrutiny over Beane failing to fit in this contract, especially if Hopkins continues to perform well.

At training camp they'll put players on the cart for any lower leg injury just for precaution.

Looks like just a bad cramp. I hope he's alright, I would hate to see him get badly injured on the cusp of being the highest paid player in NFL history.

I subscribe to a text update thing from Matt Parrino and Ryan Talbot. This is their update from camp today:

I have never been this excited about a Bills rookie.

This contradicts what Josh Harris said above, but they may be switching between Bates and Torrence. Good sign that Torrence is showing progress and is working his way towards winning the starting job.

I absolutely don't want to get rid of him. I am just worried about how he will act if we face adversity. It seems like a lot of fans saying "water under the bridge" also recognize that things can go south at any moment if the season takes a turn for the worse. To me that is not "water under the bridge." That is "to be determined." He was going on talk shows and radio shows expressing how unhappy he was with the state of the team. He did not go about it the right way. He threw the team under the bus and acted like he was above it all. Again none of this is a secret. It was a huge story all offseason and culminated in the mandatory minicamp debacle.

He also spent the next month after that loss going on the media circuit talking s*** about the team and generally making an a** of himself. I'm not afraid to call that behavior what it is. Unprofessional, selfish, counterproductive. I love Diggs the football player. Diggs the teammate has gotten on my nerves. He also has not been to any non-mandatory offseason events, not a one. Allen and many of his pass catchers were working out together in California last week to prepare for training camp. Guess who didn't make it? Diggs missed all of OTAs which normally I don't care about but in context of everything else going on it sticks out. He missed day one of mandatory minicamp, excused or otherwise. So after a highly tumultuous offseason, I see that most of the fanbase is saying "nothing to see here" because of one press conference where basically none of these issues were addressed. I just can't force myself to pretend I don't see cracks in the foundation. I'm highly confident that if our season goes well Diggs won't be a problem. Anything short of that I will be surprised if he doesn't make it a problem. It's who he is.

Trust me, he was unapologetic behind the scenes too. That's per my usual source. Not that anyone on the team asked him to apologize. But Diggs clearly does not believe his behavior over the past few months was wrong. In his mind it was justified because of his frustration. He said as much in his presser today, it's no big secret. So as far as I can tell the problem is still there under the surface. Diggs is not going to cause any issues right now, he's putting last year behind him. But if he still thinks losing like we did to end last season justifies the way he acted, why should we expect anything different if this season ends in similar fashion? It's not about apologizing. It's about his behavior in the face of adversity.

That's not what I said. I'm saying if our season ends the way the last two did I don't believe it will really be water under the bridge at that point. Diggs is unapologetic about the way he acted in the days and months after our divisional loss. That tells me in his mind his behavior and attitude were warranted. So what has changed?

I think it's water under the bridge if the season goes well. I am not however convinced Diggs will respond well to an extended period of adversity and especially not to another early playoff loss. Nothing he said today makes me feel differently about that worry.

This is encouraging. Not week to week. Day to day. Maybe the genetic freak will do it again.

1) I keep saying I think Kincaid is ready to take over Beasley's role in this offense from day one, but with much more upside and versatility. These (very) early camp reports are keeping that hope alive. 2) Dane Jackson gets first run at CB2. 3) Dodson gets first run at MLB.