Matt_In_NH

So he is still a Saint. Tampering?

Not if he is a great coach and wins Super Bowl's. The QB gives you the ability to compete consistently over time, agree there. It takes a great organization to get to 12 AFC championship games, 9 SB's and win 6 of them. A QB alone does not do that, I get the hate for him but to just say his success is all due to Brady is just not real. He may not be a good judge of collegiate talent but he is a master of getting the most out of a guys potential and finding roles for players that work for their skill level. That is how he was able to move on from guys who's turn it was to get paid...at most positions he is able to plug guys in and get them to perform.

I have respect for Bellicheck's coaching....even with the cheating, he is a great coach. Their roster (totally decimated) was awful last year and they won 7 games. They easily could have won in Buffalo. The get like 8 guys back from Covid opt outs and these free agents.....they will be much better than some in this thread seem to think. Their roster improvement will be among the best in the league. The big question is QB. Are they "overpaying in FA", yes everyone is....that is what free agency is. Did the Bills overpay for Jefferson, Butler and Addison last year? Yes they did.

Bills play them next year......

Good deal for him........

We dont disagree....I was not saying I think the Bills offensive design was awful, I am just saying they tried to throw the ball, not run. There were times they were effective running and times they were not, I think if they focused on it they could be better. Tweaks to game plans, not overhauling.....

There is a third option, personnel/play design! Its hard to run well in 10 and 11 personnel. Maybe they need to commit more to running...pound away a little more.

That all sounds reasonable. There are real life cap considerations and there are needs at TE, DE, OT depth, staring OG's....we dont know the current cap number but just the three RFA's and draft class could take all of it. There are more moves they can make but they will have to try and find guys who may not be on our radar in FA to plug in. I get it, the OL could be better than last year...but it also could be worse, they are very good at pass pro which is what the team would prefer. I think we all agree, they need better balance and some more output from the RB position. The strategy the coaching staff took on was pass first and it was very successful so the running game never got the focus. One time in the regular season they needed it against NE they did quite well.....very windy conditions. If they bring back Boettger and Ford, they are not as bad as some thing. Feliciano is an upgrade for those two in my opinion (with the three of them they would have some depth also) but he may not be someone they choose to spend their precious limited resources.

You are probably right but I think there is a chance this wont be the case. There seems to be a lot of optimism the spread will stop once we achieve herd immunity which would be in the summer.

Not sure if they can make it work, but other than Feliciano, who else on the FA list would fans want back? I like McKenzie, Roberts and Marlowe depending on price. Not sure what the interest will be for those guys.

Disagree, is he an All-Pro? No he's not but he is a lot better than "not that good", a lot. Ford is relegated to backup with Feliciano and Boettger on the team. But you are right, maybe they can use their cap space to sign a bunch of all pros in the upcoming free agency....they should be able to sign Thuney and Brandon Scherff should be doable, maybe get Mack (or battle it out with Morse) as a backup Center and then draft some good road graters (fresh meat) in the draft.

Question, did you get permission for the Rocky music somehow? I thought youtube would flag it if there is copyrighted music? I ask because I have gotten into videos a little bit and would like to know how to go about it.

Right, a restructure alone is not necesarily bad, typically for a top player with a big contract they may not benefit from a dollar stand point but they may get money sooner or get more guaranteed based on the details agreed upon. Restructures can or cannot include paycuts. None of those 4 are getting pay cuts.

I cant find the before condition but Morse contract is updated on Spotrac, he was around a 10 miil cap hit, now its 7.35mil with a 10.625 dead cap.....in round numbers it used to be 10 mil cap hit and 5 mil dead cap before the restructure. I dont think Butler or Addison numbers have been released.

You mean HAD? Totally agree, he was most important IMO.

The reason brown was released was his cost. JuJu would cost more. Makes little sense.

Actually you can. It may not make sense to but he can be cut.

Did not see this coming

I am disappointed he is gone.....he is a pro.

Agreed, but the question is how far to you go to mitigate. You could argue you just take your medicine this year and then future years are unaffected. Or you try and spread it out. I tend to be conservative with stuff like this so my nature would be to minimize contract restructures. But they may need to do some to just fill some of the holes that are created. Andre Roberts, Feliciano, D Williams, Milano just to get started. As it stands today, we maybe can get one of those guys with what they need to still fill in on the back end and the fact they will need 8-10M for the draft class. I think you might be best off letting the dust settle and get some bargains. Player development will be huge moving forward....its hard to say this team will not take a step back talent wise for 2021. I think that will have to be accepted.

No, this is just starters....depeinding on FA's they can sign there can be more for sure.

0.01%

He will need to fill a specific role, back to Beasley or Davis would be secondary. Somone needs to fill the McKenzie role, someone needs to return kick/punts if Roberts is not back. I don't think he is a fit for jet motion and whatnot, no idea about returner but I think he will need to be a special teams contributor somewhere as his main role if he is to make it.

Agree Feliciano will be cheaper but Williams makes a much larger hole than Feliciano. I would like both but if I had to pick one it would be Williams.

FA's get overpaid.....the numbers are always more than people think players are worth for the higher end guys.