No_Matter_What

This means that Bills won't pick 32 again. This franchise is cursed!

@NewEra

Why does Elam scare you? I am not following everything but I thought he was getting tested a lot by Diggs which is a great thing. He presumably loses more than he wins but that's fine for the time being against one of the very best, isn't it?

Lol I thought the same exact thing. Had to Google that it was Cam Lewis.

We don't know yet. But I guess he will since Sweeney looks like fringe NFL player.

This gets mentioned often but I don't get it at all. So Brady earning $20M+ (or whatever) doesn't need to chase every penny but any other QB has to since their wives do not make $40M? In what world isn't $100M+ or whatever these QBs made (or $300M+ these young guys will make) not enough for generations of their families?

Interesting thread. I am only a fan since 2016 so it forced me to read about some past Bills players I knew a little or nothing about. Takeo Spikes for example holds a record of playing in 219 regular season games without a playoff appearence. Not the best record to hold I guess Anyway, I took a time to count votes in this thread and this is what top 10 looks like: 1. Jason Peters - 26 votes 2. Fred Jackson - 21 3. Mario Williams - 20 4. Takeo Spikes - 16 5. Eric Moulds - 15 6. Marshawn Lynch - 13 7. Aaron Schobel - 12 8. Nate Clements - 10 9. Kyle Williams - 9 10. Antoine Winfield - 8 11. Ruben Brown - 8 There were couple of players whose eligibility was questioned. I guess it depends on exact question/definition. However, it is clear that Moulds and Brown would be slightly higher if more people found them eligible. Others with 5 or more votes: 7 - Moorman, McGee 6 - Fletcher, Pat Williams 5 - Dareus, Gilmore Sometimes it was not 100% clear how people are voting so there could be some minor deviations

Which Williams?

I think it was pretty clear from his own video that we overpaid to get him. His agent said something like Bills offered more than they even expected. Nothing wrong with that since we are talking about Von Miller. He just needs to produce next three years and help us win a Lombardi. And it's really not a surprise that other teams were interested and that he talked to other teams.

Not arguing with you but wasn't Hopkins suspended for 6 games for PEDs this season? And he is a top 3 WR.

The funniest thing about this is that it is not even a hype. If that is the best thing what both the coach and Hill can say about Tua, then they are actually saying that he sucks.

We can't and we are not. That is not a matter of opinion, those are league rules. Formally we have roughly $5M cap space available, which is effectively zero cap space - once 52nd and 53rd player ($1,7M - $1,8M) and whole practice squad ($3,2M - $3,5M) get accounted for. Where did you get that number? Sportrac has it at $10M right now - increase from $208M to $218M. There are articles around the internet stating that it might be $220M - $225M next year, but I didn't see higher number. So we are probably looking at $17M increase max.

Not sure where did you take those 41 players from. To me Sportrac shows 62 players with 2023 contracts (58 if you deduct 4 with void year who do not have actual contracts). But the way I see it is that you need to take out all players who will not be on 2022 roster and count only those who will be. We don't know for sure which players exactly, but we have quite a good idea and for this exercise you do not need to know exactly if we keep Stevenson or Hodgins. So when I keep only real NFL players on the list I think we have around 33-35 players under contract with with cap space being around zero. However, Sportrac counts with $218M cap space, and there are other speculations that it could be as high as $225M. That would be great and give us much more room.

We have about $5M right now, which means that effectively we are about zero. Actual cap space is top51, whereas final cap space will be for full 53 man roster, which means about $1,7M - 1,8M more ($800 - $900k for each player). Plus all PS players count towards the cap, which is slighly over $3M. Cutting player will not save any money unless we cut Ford or Matakevich, and even these two don't save too much. So my guess is that we make one more restructure to make about $5M savings for in season purposes (White or Dawkins). Or maybe we extend Poyer, but I doubt that since I don't think we can afford him next year. This is not accurate. This is what Sportrac shows for the 2023 season, but it counts many players who will not be on 2022 roster. Once the season starts and all these players are cut, we will have about 33-35 players under contract for 2023 season with about zero cap space. So we are not in the hole, but very close to it Where did you get this number? Players currently under the line have $920k and $903k cap hits, and I unless we keep any UDFA there won't be anyone on the roster with less than $750k cap hit.

Very well put. People often say that everything can be solved by a simple restructure. While true, it has consequences. That is why we have already about zero cap space next year with about 34 players signed.

Ok. But I think that even if everything you mention happens the obvious solution will be keeping 7 WRs. We kept 7 last year once Stevenson got back from IR - he basically took Zimmer's spot and we won't keep 11 DL like last year. Therefore I don't think that you scenario is an option. Like I said above, we are not keeping 6 WRs if it meant cutting Crowder. Agree to disagree I guess.

I am surprised by the credit given to Patriots in this thread. I think last year they were running over EV (much like we were running under EV) and they got even weaker this year. Roster-wise they are 6-11 team. Maybe Belichick can make 8-9 out of them but that is their ceiling. If Wilson takes a step this year Pats will finish last in the division. Bills 12-5 to 13-4 Dolphins 9-8 to 12-5 Jets 6-11 to 9-8 Pats 5-12 to 8-9

Sportrac says that he has $3,250,000 cap hit and $750,000 dead money. So savings would be $2,5M minus guy who replaces him. That's still a lot of money in our cap situation. Last year we kept 11 DL players. This year we have 9 with relevant NFL experience including Epenesa, Phillips and Lawson. Why do you think any of these guys are fighting for "last DL roster spot"? They are locks imo unless somebody else is signed before the season. All other guys on the roster are fighting for possible 10th spot. Agreed. He gets older every year so the odds of him not making the roster go up, but on the other hand he got $650k guaranteed so I doubt they will cut him. We'll see.

Can you guys elaborate these scenarios? Last year we started with 6 WRs with Stevenson on IR, in second half of the season we kept 7 on the roster. Crowder is a proven vet, who was very good with sub par QB play, has a very low cap hit (good reason to keep him) and almost the same dead money if cut (even better reason to keep him). If he doesn't make the roster then we are keeping only 6 WRs and including Kumerow (who was so far apparently kept for his ST play) and Stevenson/Hodgins ahead of him? Sorry, I don't buy it. Doesn't make any sense to me. If they want to keep either Stevenson or Hodgins, then we are either keeping 7 WRs (which I fully expect) or we find other ST solution and Kumerow is cut. EDIT: Same goes for McKenzie, but ok, with him I can imagine some weird scenario where he doesn't make it. But the chances are som slim that he is a lock in my eyes too.

I mostly agree but would make following changes: Crowder is black. I see no scenario in which he is cut with no savings at all. I'd also add McKenzie. You think that it is realistic that Hodgins and Stevenson both make team instead of him? Or that Kumerow + Hodgins/Stevenson make the team and we only keep 6 WRs? I think that it is extremely unlikely. Lawson should be blue. Last year we kept 6 DEs. This year he is 5th DE. I agree that he is not a lock, but he is definitely "probable". Hamlin also has to be blue. His only competition is Thomas (ok, maybe Benford) and he is not fighting for a spot; it is his spot to lose. Hence "probable" imo. As others said Araiza is also blue if not black. @Kirby Jackson said it best. I read all your responses from this thread regarding Araiza and I think he should be at least blue by your own words Cutting Matakevich saves almost §1,4M MORE than cutting Smith. Matakevich and Ford are actually only players who could be realistically cut and save some decent money. I'd love to cut him cap wise. But I doubt they will do it (and I obviously want them to keep him if it is necessary for ST play).

I agree with most of what you say but am very confused with the bolded. Putting 8 players you listed on the roster instead of other who are currently in top 51 doesn't save any money, it actually cost us more in cap space. For the sake of simplicity I draw the line at 53. You list 7 players who you expect to be on the roster, and if you check my prelilimary roster in OP I fully agree. In my roster they are replacing Haack, Duke Johnson, Mancz, Lee, Sweeney, Hart and Barkley, but it doesn't matter much - you can choose other players and results will be very similar. If you cut those 7 players I listed, it saves around $5,640,000. On the other hand, adding 7 players you listed adds around $6,000,000, so it gets even worse cap wise. This is caused by the fact that many of those cut players leave us with quite a lot dead money. The only players who can be realistically cut and save some money are Matakevich, Ford and to a lesser extent Quessenberry, Andre Smith and Kumerow.

I am no expert but the base logic is quite simple. A player starts at PS and 18 weeks PS salary is counted towards cap. Then after 5 weeks he gets promoted to regular roster. At that time his prorated minimum NFL salary counts towards cap - I think last year it was something like $700k, so 700/18*13 counts towards cap. And since such player is not a PS member anymore, all money he earned for the first 5 weeks at PS (last year $9,200*5) is accounted for as dead cap. If he gets demoted back to the PS couple weeks later, all money he earned on roster (e.g. for 2 games it is $700k/18*2) is added to the dead money and once again he is kept at PS and his cap hit is calculated for remaining weeks only.

I was joking, I guess it was quite obvious.

As for the last year, number you state is from the end of the season. At that time, most of PS players original cap hit is "converted" to dead money due to movement in PS/active roster. Let's take Quintin Morris as an example. As a PS member, he has listed cap hit of $82,800, which is PS cap hit for 9 games after Jags game where he was on an active roster. All PS money he earned from the start of the season until he was promoted to active roster (for one or two games, I am not sure), as well as money earned as an active player, are accounted for as dead money ($139,266). So, when the season starts, we will have 16 PS players with full cap hits. I didn't know that minimum PS salary goes up this year, thanks for noting that. If that is the case, minimum PS total cap hit will be 3,3M ($207,000 * 16 players). As for the next year, I agree that the cap situation will be worse than this year. I'll make a thread about next offseason later this week

Wow. Just wow. Super impressed. I love, love, love this guy. I think he is already my second favorite Bills player even before he stepped on the field. Very smart, well-spoken, humble, no cliches, motivated. I will root hard for him to pan out. I especially loved when he answered the question about being overlooked and chosen in the 5th round. No stupid talk about "the chip on the shoulder" which I really hate - just smart answer that he is grateful for the opportunity he got and that now it is up to him to show he's worth it. Also loved how he talked about meeting Diggs and other "big guys". He is very genuine and humble.