JGMcD2

But it is. You’re outlining it yourself… Mike Brown spent his cash on Tee Higgins therefore cannot spend it on Trey Hendrickson.

This doesn’t counter my original point. Extending Higgins is clearly limiting their ability to extend Hendrickson. When you’re paying Burrow $46M and Chase $24M, you’d expect them to manage without giving Higgins $25M. It’s a backwards allocation of resources. Premier edge rushers with 17.5 sacks in consecutive seasons don’t grow on trees - they’re much harder to find than WR with Higgins production. Nobody else in the league is built this way - no team has one-third of their cap tied up in a QB and two WRs.

He's refusing to participate in team activities because the Bengals are trying to include language in his rookie contract that they've never used before. He has the option to sign a waiver and practice in the meantime, but he's choosing not to. How is that even remotely the same as what’s happening with the three players in Buffalo?

They can’t afford to pay him, Mike Brown can’t and won’t do it. If the season started today, Shemar Stewart wouldn’t be suiting up… contract problems even with the rookie wage scale lol

That’s not what happened - they paid two top-tier wide receivers, which means they’re struggling to afford to pay a premium defensive end. It’s terrible asset management, that is failing to upgrade their roster in any meaningful way, unless they’re playing 7-on-7.

Lol, it’s not the same thing. The Bengals are spending over 1/3 of their cap on three players. 2024 Eagles Jalen Hurts: $13.6M cap hit (16th among QBs) A.J. Brown: $12M (13th among WRs) DeVonta Smith: $8.2M (23rd among WRs) Total cap hit: $33.8M Percentage of $255.4M cap: 13.2% 2025 Bengals Joe Burrow: $46M cap hit (3rd among QBs) Tee Higgins: $24M (6th among WRs) Ja'Marr Chase: $23.5M (7th among WRs) Total cap hit: $93.5M Percentage of $279.2M cap: 33.5% If they decide to give Hendrickson a cap hit around $30M (reportedly what he’s asking for based on the EDGE market), they’re going to be allocating 45% of their cap to four players that were already on their 9-8 team that missed the playoffs last season…

This has me thinking the WGR blow up was a bit to advertise Hard Knocks.

"Can the Bills finally get over the hump?"

Sigh, it wasn’t the original argument. You made a blanket statement about finding elite talent in the draft. Was it Veach who negotiated the trade up from 27 to 10 too? Sounds a lot like the theories on here that Brandon Beane was running the Bills 2017 Draft from Charlotte!

Is it? Here is the first post that I replied to from you: Yep. I'm not the one arguing Beane has had more busts than others. I actually think he has had less. The issue I have with his drafting is at the other end of the scale. Here is your reply to me: I get it. It is harder drafting where the Bills do. And that is a legit excuse 2 years in. 3 years in. 4 years in. Beane is 8 drafts in. Other than 2018 - where drafting Allen trumps all else - he hasn't even had a draft that matched McDermott's 2017 haul of White, Dawkins, Milano. This isn't a Beane sucks or fire Beane post. But it is a legitmate criticsm at this stage. You're moving the goal posts, this is not something I expect out of you.

I'm not assuming anything - Rousseau's production has increased as his volume has increased since his rookie season (Age 21), and he's remained consistent with 80+ grades from PFF during that timeframe. Verse is already at the upper-limit of how many snaps a DE is going to play, and already wasn't as productive as Rousseau in the counting statistics like Sacks, TFL, PD, FF, Hits.

You care that McDermott/Whaley drafted White, Dawkins and Milano the year before but you don't give a flying ***** that Dorsey drafted Mahomes, Kelce and Jones? Gunner, that doesn't make any sense. You're grading them on a completely different scale then. This whole discourse is centered around Beane's ability to draft elite talent compared to his peers.

Clearly, you're just ignoring it because it disproves your statement.

We're talking about drafts since 2018. We agreed that Howie has drafted one elite player since 2018 (Mailata) and Veach has drafted two elite players since 2018 (McDuffie and Humphrey). I don't care that John Dorsey drafted Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce and Chris Jones for Brett Veach to inherit. I don't care that Howie Roseman drafted Lane Johnson 4th overall half a decade before Brandon Beane arrived in Buffalo.

Except for the fact that he has, and it was carefully curated for you.