VW82

Maybe I'm being naive here. Can you point me to a recent trade for a high profile guy in line for a big extension where the team traded significant capital to get him but didn't extend him? I assumed the extension is done almost as part of the trade. Player/agent are involved in the discussion to the point of having enough leverage to influence where he lands. Also, Olave makes 15M next year. Who's left to restructure? We're already up against it after the deals this year. Even in your scenario with no deal I'm not sure it works. Edit: I guess we could take a 1st for him as a rental and them trade him this off season, but again, I think player/agent wind up getting some say in this even if we think they shouldn't as most teams seem to operate that way when it comes to high profile trades.

This is a fair point. I didn't realize he was up to 5. Last year he had two those were the ones I knew about. But other top receivers (Lamb, Nacua, St. Brown) also had concussions early on and it hasn't seemed to effect their value. If Olave gets through 2025 healthy with no more concussions, you think someone isn't going to pay him? And yes, I'm arguing we can't afford the financial commitment to a true #1 receiver. Not anymore. If I'm wrong on that aspect, I'd love for someone to explain how/why.

Diggs went for a 1st, 4th, 5th, and 6th. Olave is only in year 4 still on his rookie deal. He was #11 overall pick. He's worth more in a trade than some of those other guys who were older and already on their second deal. And regardless of whether you think he's only the 20th best receiver, or maybe closer to top 10-15, he's still someone who will deservedly expect to get paid - we can't afford him - and someone the Saints won't want to trade unless they can do much better than a 2nd. Like, why would they? You spend real draft capital on guys you expect keep. I don't understand how we keep him.

People really think Saints are trading Olave for a 1st? That guy is about to get paid. If they can't get a deal done (cause he's worth A LOT), the price will be two 1sts or 1st and 2nd and..., and then give Olave 30M+ AAV contract. Meanwhile, we are projected to have under 8M in cap space next year, and we just gave out a bunch of extensions.

It feels like there are way more questions than answers re wr upgrades. For example… How are we supposed to fit any theoretical upgrade under the cap unless the player is expiring and we pay extra so the trading team eats basically the entire salary? I feel like the Amari Cooper trade was both a bit of an anomaly and also what we should expect assuming we found another anomaly (i.e. a washed up player that we had to overpay for). Cap issues aside, who are the available guys that we’re absolutely sure are better than Palmer? Are you guys ready to give up on Keon? What makes you think McBeane are ready to give up on him six games into year 2? And yes, benching him at this point in favour of a mid-season theoretical upgrade via trade is defacto giving up on him. As much as I’d agree that boundary receiver is proving to be a problem (despite ample resources being committed the last two years), I just don’t see obvious answers here, and wouldn’t be surprised in the least if McBeane maintained status quo and hoped for improved production from within.

Not surprised. It looked bad in the moment. I said as much in the GT and post game thread and got downvoted into oblivion for it, but Josh just wasn't at his best to the point where he was a big reason we lost. As an aside, it feels like Josh is having more problems than usual this year understanding what he's seeing from defenses. Some of these "bad play calls" are only thus because Josh isn't recognizing one side of the field is overloaded defensively, for example, and changing the play; or he is changing the play but it's into something that doesn't work because he just got fooled. Can't win them all but we have to do better at the LOS getting into the right stuff.

Guess Howard Simon doesn't watch much Bills. Cook isn't usually on the field for 3rd/4th down because he doesn't pass block.

McBeane are signed through 2027 so nothing will happen until after next season at the earliest.

I disagree that they're ignoring the problems. The issue is they don't seem able to fix them with the investments they have made. Keon - 33rd overall Samuel - 24M contract Palmer - 29M contract That's three pretty big investments for two spots. It's also clear from the way they've built out the offense that they're not trying to be a Brian Daboll spread pass heavy offense anymore. Instead it's strong running game with multiple TEs including guys (Kincaid) who can work from the slot which does fit Josh's game as a dual threat QB. McBeane absolutely deserve criticsm for the state of the WR room, but you can't be everything everywhere, especially when your QB is already on the hook for 60M cap hits into the forseeable future.

Or… 1. we just extended McD and Beane 2. McD and Beane just extended all their pet players so we’re already locked into their team

Not sure I agree with this thread. 2023 we hit on our top two. Dorian is about what you get with a 3rd rd pick. The rest were late picks. 2025 already has shown some keepers in Deone and Hawes, but anyone judging this draft six games into the first year when key contributors have been injured needs to give their head a shake. 2024 is the draft to hang on Beane. It’s still early but it’s not looking good. FA has been tough given our cap situation which I do pin on Beane but at the same time we signed Von and extended Diggs because they were stars and we were competing for a championship. Had they not done those deals everyone would’ve complained Beane wasn’t doing enough for Josh.

The collective freak out has more to do with the same themes showing up when we don’t play well. -McD being too conservative -middling play from boundary receivers -defense getting gashed by a good rushing attack -Beane not prioritizing xyz, etc. Everyone has their issue to complain about and more than enough proof because the guys in charge have been here a long time. The fact we’re a SB contender every year (and still are) is the last thing anyone wants to talk about after a bad loss.

Prove it

That's some of it for sure, but the truth is Josh has been mediocre this year. He's not recognizing blitzes. He's missing wide open receivers (when they do get open). He's forcing bad throws...some of this is on him. What does Daquan Jones have to do with Bills only scoring 14 points??

This kind of thread is poorly timed. Josh was just as much at fault for why we lost today.