HappyDays

Oh I don't want to move on from Davis this year. No need to do that, I would rather have as much talent as possible even though I expect him to walk in free agency next year. But I also don't think he is truly good enough to be a full time #2 WR in this offense. His skill set makes him a perfect WR4 like he was in 2020. Beane gave him his shot after his divisional round performance in 2022, but now he is seemingly looking to upgrade him. We need a #2 weapon similar to what the Eagles, the Chiefs, the Bengals, the 49ers had last year. Davis is a fine #2 for the middle tier of the NFL. We're competing with the top tier. For what it's worth I don't think the Chiefs this year have a #2 worthy of competing with the top tier either, at least not yet, not since JuJu signed elsewhere. But they still have a great OL. The Bills don't even have that so we are desperate for one more piece of top talent if we hope to compete with the upper echelon.

His actions say otherwise. He spent much of the end of last season trying to sign OBJ, and he said just a couple days ago they still aren't out on him. They've been heavily connected to DeAndre Hopkins. So Beane clearly is trying to find an upgrade to Davis, regardless of what he says. This is similar to how he's been talking glowingly about Edmunds for a year now and made it sound like he was a definite extension priority. But his actions said otherwise. He always signs his cornerstone players early but let Edmunds make it to free agency. Don't listen to Beane's words. Watch what he does. That will tell you his true opinion on the matter.

Phillips is quite a bit better than Settle when healthy. Problem is he wasn't healthy most of the season. PFF doesn't factor that into their grades.

They have offered Lawson a vet minimum deal. He's waiting to see if he gets offered something better.

I'm good with a defense heavy draft IF we have Hopkins, Jeudy, or OBJ on the roster. If that comes to fruition our WR room will suddenly be crowded and one of the most dangerous groups in the league. We could certainly use more OL depth but otherwise we would have no major needs on offense. So, rebuilding the front 7 in that context makes sense.

I'm starting to think the Hopkins trade, and maybe a trade for Jerry Jeudy, will go through on draft weekend. There's no good reason for any team to rush it so might as well see what's on the board before trading the pick. I'm sure the parameters will already be worked out ahead of time, it just won't be official until the last second.

Per a source, the Bills have offered a vet minimum deal to Shaq Lawson. He's waiting to see if he can get a better offer.

I heard Mike Florio and Chris Simms make this point. The people in the media egging him on are much worse than the people telling him to stop being stupid. It's like a bystander at a high roller table cheering on as some idiot makes big stupid bet after big stupid bet. It's fun watching someone bet it all on red when it isn't your money to lose. When the high roller inevitably loses and ends up broke, the bystander will just sheepishly walk on over to the next table.

Last I heard from a source, their original plan was to hire from within and Bobby Babich was the leading candidate. Not sure what changed. My guess is McDermott does plan on modifying the scheme and wants to be the one in control while it gets implemented.

Rams content creator:

Maybe this isn't fair of me, but I'm done with small front 7 players. Every year in the playoffs our defense gets pushed around by physical offenses. We need more size and physicality in the middle of our defense.

You know what picture you see when you look up tranquility in the dictionary?

That's a bad estimate on their part. The cap this year is $16.6 million more than it was in 2022. Next year's increase is going to be even greater because of all the network and streaming deals kicking in.

Here's the problem - every year you're competing with teams that went all in for that year. If we had drafted one or two more true difference makers we wouldn't be having this conversation. But since we didn't, we're in danger of falling further behind in the AFC arms race. I don't want to constantly be stuck in divisional round hell just to proudly say "my team was in the mix."

That's a great point. We didn't pull off all those restructures just so we could sign Connor McGovern and Deonte Harty.

Have we? According to Over the Cap the expected salary cap in 2024 is $256 million. We currently have $252.5 million in cap hits that year. That's without accounting for any potential restructures and cuts. Just as one example I quickly explored, we could cut Morse and Poyer next offseason to save $14 million against the cap in 2024. I don't know, I don't see even a hint of cap trouble and that's before diving into every possible restructure and other possible cuts. Partly because we haven't drafted that well we don't have any looming major extensions. Maybe Rousseau in 2025 if he continues on his current trajectory but that's it.

How is trading for Hopkins going to stop us from building through the draft? We're talking about at most one 2nd round pick. The cap space issue I at least understand the concern there. As far as the trade compensation itself that's not even a consideration for me. Who really cares? KC spent an offseason trading a 1st round pick for Orlando Brown and giving Joe Thuney a $16 million AAV contract. I agree they have drafted better than us but that's a different conversation. Cincy in a way got lucky because of Burrow's injury. They got Burrow 1st overall then Chase 5th overall and absolutely nailed both picks. They also just gave Orlando Brown a big contract. What does any of this have to do with us possibly trading for Hopkins? Every team that's contended for a championship over the past several years made a few swings to get there. Your thinking is drought era thinking. We don't have to think like that anymore. The real key to long term success is having an elite QB combined with top tier coaching and scouting. I'm not convinced our coaching and scouting are at the same level as the Chiefs and Bengals. That doesn't mean we shouldn't take swings to try and overtake them.

Actually I know for a fact that we are in better future cap shape than the Bengals because we have owners that are willing to spend. Beane has a blank check to use Pegula's money for signing bonuses that push salary into the future. I doubt the Bengals front office has anywhere near that same latitude for spending. I'm not too familiar with Chiefs ownership and their spending habits. I will say they've had a very light offseason all things considered. They were apparently unwilling to cave to Orlando Brown's demands and in the process they ended up paying more for what most analysts consider to be a worse player. If their cap was in great shape they presumably would already have Hopkins given their need at the position, contrary to recent reports that they dropped out of the process entirely. Chiefs fans on Twitter have expressed quite a bit of consternation about the front office's inaction with the WR room this offseason. Yes even after a Super Bowl win they still want more from their front office and are concerned about the state of their salary cap.