DabillsDaBillsDaBills

When my car broke down while driving on the highway the tow company recommended leaving the vehicle with the keys inside. What's the worst that could happen? Someone tries to steal your vehicle that literally cannot move without a tow truck?

About 5 of those were legit bad throws that really should've been intercepted. Another 5 or so that were contested throws and our WR broke it up or the CB couldn't hold on to a lazer. The rest would've been circus catches or the DBs didn't even get a hand on the ball. "dropped interceptions" is pretty subjective, but I'd say whoever put that list together is pretty biased against JA.

The Ravens won 11 games this season, and 14 the year before that. Lamar Jackson is 30-7 as a starter. 11 wins is an appropriate line for them in a 17 game season. 10.5 for the Bills is on the low side. I'm taking the over all day. I can't see this team finishing worse than 11-6 unless there are serious injuries.

Stafford, Wentz, Hurts, and Newton are way too high. Rest of the list looks pretty reasonable

I don't see how any reasonable person could watch a replay of what Ford did and say that it was "forcible contact". What Ford did is just about the polar opposite of "forcible" on a football field. Do you have any examples of blind side block penalties that were called that had this level of contact?

That's wrong on every level. The rule was NOT properly enforced at the time, and it is NOT changing now. The "forcible contact" language was always included in the rule, and the ref/NFL ignored that part of the rule when they made the call on the field and decided to fine Ford after the fact. This video is the NFL clarifying that what Ford did should not be considered to be "forcible" and therefore is not a penalty.

The Bills and Ford need to make a huge stink about the fine. The ref making a bad call in real time is really unfortunate, but that's just part of sports. Someone at the NFL head office reviewed the play and determined not only that the correct call was made, but that it was an egregious foul that warranted a fine. Whoever made that decision was clearly retaliating against the Bills and Ford for complaining about the call after the game. That person needs to face consequences over the decision to fine Ford.

Jason Peters - loved him until he held out after playing 1 year of a 5 year contract. He sat out all of training camp/pre season and came back SLOW in the 2008 season. He was awful that year and I'm still mad he made the pro-bowl. Who remembers this play? Peters was good for at least 1-2 plays like that per game in 2008. Drives me crazy that he's one of the most respected LTs in the game and a sure fire HOFer after mailing it in for an entire season over a contract dispute. Kelvin Benjamin - don't need a write up to explain my dislike

I do think teams need to be careful about paying young QBs based solely on their teams performance while on rookie contracts. Look no further than Wentz and Goff. Both guys were wildly successful while their team had ~30mm in extra cap space to spend on the rest of the roster. Once they got their mega contracts Wentz was a disaster and Goff noticeably declined. Both teams traded those guys away after 1 year of their mega deals. I'd say the big difference is that Wentz and Goff are average-ish QBs that were propped up by elite rosters, whereas Allen was playing at an elite level with an average-ish roster. We'll see how it goes, but I'd say there's about a 0% chance we trade and/or don't extend Allen.

What a weird charge for a multi-millionaire. Have to imagine he can afford an attorney that'll get this tossed out.

This is one where I think the headline is worse than the actual video. Claypool took a kick at the guy, but it doesn't look like he really connected. The guy immediately got to his feet so it doesn't look like he was hurt. I think Claypool gets a talking to/warning from the Steelers/NFL. Not suspension worthy for a first time offender.

I'm more pessimistic than most on this board, but I think we're the overwhelming favorites to win the AFCE again this season. Miami would be worrisome if Tua takes a giant leap and progresses to being elite, but I've seen nothing from him yet to indicate that will happen. NE will be better, but Cam is a bottom tier QB at this point. I'd be more scared by NE if they had signed Fitz Jets will be better (how could they not?), but will still very likely be a bottom feeder. If I was going to assign odds of who wins the AFCE I'd say 80% Bills 10% Dolphins 9% Patriots 1% Jets

This one is the most serious allegation (forced oral), but I find it difficult to believe. June 2020 and Aug. 17, 2020, at a hotel and later a spa in Houston. The plaintiff, who offers bodywork and stretch therapy classes, markets her business through Instagram. She said she initially did not know who Watson was when he contacted her through the manager at a spa where she worked. She met him at a hotel where he was staying, the lawsuit says. She says Watson groped her buttocks and *****, and she slapped him. She says he later touched her hand with his penis. On Aug. 17, she says, Watson reached out on Instagram, and she didn't realize the connection to her earlier client until he arrived. The lawsuit says Watson apologized for his earlier behavior but during the appointment exposed himself, forced the woman's mouth onto his penis and masturbated in front of her. I suppose it's possible for her to not know who Watson was the first time in June. Not everyone is an NFL fan, although I'm sure Watson has lots of commercials/billboards/etc in the Houston area. The part I can't believe is she didn't recognize his name when he reached out for a second meeting in August.

Star signed a 5 year $50 million contract. For that sort of deal I expected more than just occasionally being double teamed and eating up space in the middle. There was so much turnover on our defense from 2019 to 2020 that I think it's impossible to pinpoint how much of an impact Star opting out had. I think he's overpaid, and Beane/Mcdermott seem to agree (given they restructured his contract after 2019 season). Star restructured his contract after year 2 of a 5 year deal to take a fairly hefty paycut. That's not something that a guy "living up to expectations" would be doing. Murphy signed for 3 years 22 mil. While he made some plays over the 3 years he was mostly a non-factor, and a healthy scratch for much of the 2020 season. He really was the worst contract on the team last year. Addison signed for 3 years 30 mil. Another guy that made some plays, but was mostly a non-factor. He's already restructured his contract.

On one hand the contracts you pointed out might be lower because they took a discount to play for a contender. On the other hand, with the COVID cap crunch maybe those are the best deals those players could've gotten in this specific off-season. I like the contracts we've given out, but I wonder how much of it was in Beane's control.

We had the highest paid D line in the league last season. Murphy, Star, and Addison were all pretty big contracts that haven't lived up to expectations.

55/650/5 in 12 games

While I'm perfectly fine with releasing Brown, I can't say I'm thrilled that we did it in order to bring in a 34 year old Sanders. Sanders has a 6mm cap hit + 1.6mm dead cap from Brown for 7.6mm total. Hard to believe that Brown would have refused a restructure to get him at less than 7.6mm cap hit. Browns 2020 season was an injury filled dud, but he was really good in 2019. Sanders hasn't had a comparable season close to that since 2016.

Having NINE women come forward, all through the same lawyer, and none of them going to the police makes me MORE skeptical of this story than if it was only 1 woman (or just a few).

The Saints are an interesting case study. You can point to the '14-'16 seasons and say they were bad because they mishandled the cap. You can also make the opposite point and look to the '17-'20 seasons to say that being in cap hell doesn't matter. They've had a minimum of 20mm dead cap in every season since 2017, BUT they've had the best regular season record over that time. Kicking the can down the road did not hurt them the last 4 years. Trading away Graham and Cooks didn't help with their cap situation. Trading players away results in dead cap (they incurred 9mm dead cap when they traded Graham). Those were still good trades and good decisions, but it did not help with cap hell. Has the cap really caught up to the Saints in 2021? Or, with Brees retiring, are they essentially punting on this season to position themselves for success in 2022? There's an accounting concept about this called taking a "big bath". Companies take as many losses as they can in 1 year so their future earnings look better. NFL teams use the same concept (like the Bills did in 2018).

The cap isn't completely meaningless, but I do think Bills fans assign way too much importance to it. You can look around the NFL and see many teams doing creative things to get around the cap. The Saints have been in cap hell for multiple years now. During that time they've been one of the best teams in the league, and a perennial super bowl contender (no SB appearances, but they've had brutal playoff losses). Have they really had to pay for manipulating the cap? If they have I'm not seeing it. Teams will sometimes go into a year realizing they won't be competitive and decide to bite the bullet on bad contracts (see: 2018 Buffalo Bills ). We didn't HAVE to eat 30mm in dead cap by trading away Dareus, Glenn, and Taylor, but we CHOSE to do that to give us more of an advantage in 2019. Teams are only punished by the cap when they chose to be.

I dislike Bojo more than the next guy (I made a thread in 2018 saying we should cut him), but I can't say I'm thrilled with this move. Bojo was pretty good last year. Why suffer through 2 years of bad/inconsistent punter play only to not re-sign the guy after he had a great 3rd season?

Star's dead cap exceeds his active cap so cutting him actually hurts our cap situation. We could ask Tre or Diggs to restructure, but I'm not sure how that would play out. Tre just signed his contract, and Diggs is already underpaid after his all pro season. We'd have to get very very creative with the cap to free up enough space to make an impact with FA. Beane hasn't shown that he's willing to do that. And that's OK. It's not the worst thing to "stay the course" with a team that went 13-3 with AFCCG appearance. Don't expect much of anything to happen in free agency though. 1 mid tier FA and a handful of depth guys seems likeliest.

I'm more worried about Thuney to Chiefs and Dupree to Titans. That's 2 of the top teams in the AFC signing 2 of the best FAs. Spotrac says the Bills have 10 mm in estimated cap space (although I don't see Feliciano on there). With available cap space we could barely afford a WR2 let alone the rest of what OP was hoping we'd sign. Beane's "splash" was keeping Milano, Williams, and Feliciano.

I'd be very interested in Barkley. It all comes down to the cost of acquiring him though. I'd be willing to trade a 3rd for him (toss in Singletary too while we're at it). 2nd or higher is a no from me. I'm not sure why a lot of people in here are concerned with how much Barkley will cost after this season. If he has a fantastic year and is going to cost a lot, then great, there's a decent chance we would win the Superbowl. Let him walk and we should get a 3rd rd comp pick back (provided Beane doesn't continue to thumb his nose at the comp pick formula). I'm more than willing to pay a 3rd for a rental year of Barkley. We're in a championship window with Allen on his rookie deal, and this is a low risk trade that could put us over the top.