Beck Water

LOL I'm glad you did, his post wasn't granular enough for me (meaning no critique, different wording makes sense to different folks). Yours is. Pay decrease on restructure was Settle, perhaps? So, yes, that's a big part of it. Those 9 guys pushed off about $6.6M of cap adding from Spotrac. $6.6M plus $6.9M is $13.5M, add in restructure you brought up gets us to $14.1M. That's still off from what Spotrac is reporting ($16.4M), but it's enough closer that I feel like I understand what's going on, which is helpful to me.

I think the general fan consensus was that our OL was Not Good Enough last season, especially the right side. So far the only OL signing is to replace aging vet G Saffold, who played poorly last year, with former Cowboys backup G Conner McGovern. I don't think that's good enough, so I call Big Hole, at least 1 maybe 2. Right now we got one RB with 500 yds on 90 carries, 25% of the snaps which is fine for as far as it goes, but will his pass protection improve enough and will he manage to sustain a higher workload? Our other RB had -3 yds on 6 carries. Yet we've drafted RBs in the 2nd or 3rd round for 3 of the last 4 drafts with nothing much to show for it; it sets my teeth on edge that people claim there's RB talent in the late rounds but we don't seem to find it there. Anyway, I kind of feel as though there's a hole at RB. Greg Cosell did a podcast at the combine with Brown and Tasker where they discussed his belief that the Bills badly need a "3 level WR" https://www.buffalobills.com/video/one-bills-live (pretty good podcast, give it a listen). If you feel signing a 5'6" 4-year vet is enough in that regard, I don't. So that's another hole. Last hole that comes to mind, is that right now we only have one starting-quality 3TDT on the roster in Ed Oliver, whom many want to trade. Since McDermott is determined upon a rotation, we need at least another quality DT there. So that's 5 holes at least.

Just a note that one of the stats folks are touting on this signing is Hardy's great YAC. Typically, players don't get great YAC by getting out of bounds and just generally giving themselves up. So if you want Hardy to start doing that to protect himself, you're wanting him to give up on one of the factors that folks are pointing to saying "better than what we've got" As for the contention that 6" and 8" are pretty much the exact same size ...."that's what she said" 😇 That's a very fair take. He has indeed had games and sometimes series of games where he made good decisions and had the quick game flowing. What I meant was, this wasn't a newly observed tendency after the departure of Beasley. It was a tendency at times while Beasley was on the field.

Don't hassle him with your logic.

Isn't Gesicki really more like a big WR than a TE, eg not a good blocker?

OK, I'll play. If they can bring Singletary back at a reasonable contract, I think they should. Of the rest list above, I think the Bills may offer Klein and Lawson vet cap benefit contracts (or may already have vet cap benefit offers out there to them), but they'll take their time about signing because they'll want to see if any better offers emerge as FA goes on. They might do the same for Quessenbury, but Damn! I'd like to see them try for an upgrade at backup tackle. Kumerow and Phillips are still rehabbing from surgery and I expect the Bills would wait to sign them to see how their rehab progresses, if they're interested. For those unfamiliar, a veteran cap benefit or veteran salary benefit contract is one where the vet is offered a 1 year contract at vet minimum for their years of experience and no more than ~$152k of signing bonus, but they count against the cap as a player with 2 years of experience plus bonus. It's a way to encourage teams to keep lower-tier players with more than 2 years of experience on their roster.

Wasn't Dean Marlowe leading the league in missed tackles when he played?

I thought it was pretty telling that the team started Dodson in place of Edmunds earlier in the season vs. Pitts, brought him in when Edmunds got hurt vs Minn and 100% vs Cleveland, and liked that so much they promptly went out and signed the aging AJ Klein when he became available, then had him play after 1 week to re-acclimate to the system when Edmunds was still out vs. Detroit. In other words, if "who will replace Edmunds?" is the question, I don't think the Bills actions in 2022 say that they view Dodson as the answer. Terrel Bernard, OTOH, was not asked to replace Edmunds. He replaced Milano when he was out vs. the Jets, and lets just say ...it did NOT go well. That's not to say an off-season of NFL type strength training and conditioning won't help, or that maybe?? it would go better if he were trying to replace Edmunds and not Milano but let me just say - from what we saw when he tried to replace Milano against the Jets - If "Plan B" (for Bernard) is the Bills plan to replace Edmunds, then I think it's a Bad Plan and they'd better quickly develop Plan A and plan C.

As of mid-February, the Bills were $18.13M over the cap. The Bills addressed this with: -converting salary to amortizable bonus for Allen, Miller, and Diggs, said to free up $21.1M, $10.6M, and $5.4M respectively (total: $37.1M) -extending Matt Milano for 2 years, said to free up $6M in current year cap -negotiating a salary reduction/conversion to roster bonus/incentives for Nyheem Hines, per Spotrac this seems to free up $1.2M This sums to $44.3M in cap savings, leaving the Bills with $26M in cap space after clearing the overage. The Bills have new signings: Connor McGovern $4M this season Deonte Harty $3.75M this season Zane Anderson $0.95 this season Total $8.69M in new signings, leaves us $17.48M Tendered Dane Jackson right of first refusal, $2.74M Total $2.74M tenders, leaving us $14.74M Re-signed Ike Boettger for 1.18M, Sam Martin for $1.67M, Matakevich and Dodson for $1.8 and $2M, and Cam Lewis for $1.19M Total $7.83M for reported re-signings, leaving us $6.9M of cap space by my calculation Out of this, we must subtract whatever Poyer's 2023 cap and Kyle Allen's 1 yr contract may be. Here's where I need the help: Spotrac, which seems to have everyone's contract or renegotiation captured as above EXCEPT Poyer and Kyle Allen, shows the Bills as having $16.36M of cap. What or who am I missing? I would love to believe we have $16.4M cap before the Poyer and Kallen signings get taken off

Bobby, California state income tax rates max out at 12.3%of the amount over $677k vs NYS 9.65% of the amount over $1M rising to 10.9% of the amount over $25M. If Poyer was looking for lower taxes, California is Not That Place. I think Poyer is too smart to want to play for Josh McDaniels, but maybe that's just me.

Like I said, "all's fair in love and FA". But Poyer was making it seem as though it was all on the press to interpret it that way, when he clearly pointed them in that direction with his stuff about Tua and his birthday party.

That would all be nice. Yeah, the Bills are not a power-blocking run team. FWIW though Sal Capaccio quoted him as saying the plan is for him to play LG: Same. I just have the sinking feeling Beane will be drafting LB, DL and safety. His mouth says "we've got to protect the QB" and "we've got to have a run game besides Josh Allen" but his draft board doesn't seem to line up with that.

You might be surprised...

Poyer is being a bit coy about Miami. He had an interview where he talked about what good friends he is with Tua and how he was invited to some party where the Miami coaches were going to be and he'd put on his best coat for the occasion to make a good impression or some such, prompting Mike McDaniel to be questioned and respond "we aren't in the business of tampering". So if there was an assumption that Miami was a priority destination for him, he helped to create that assumption. It's All Good - All's fair in love and free agency. Edit: it was Poyer's podcast, and the party was Tua's Birthday party Yeah, no, it wasn't just something the press and fans made up out of "Phin Air" so to speak.

Beane does seem overenthralled by smurfs who can be neutralized with physical corner play in the big games where the refs allow holding.

So who that is still available in FA do you want at WR and on OL? I was intrigued by Parris Campbell, but I see the Giants just signed him, damn their eyes (I think we're putting our faith in the Pocket Rocket, Harty, anyway)

If we trade Oliver, we need to sign 2 3TDT. He's our only starting-caliber 3TDT under contract currently, Jordan Phillips being a FA with a battered wing.

6'2" 253 Hasn't he scarcely played though?

It might be worth pointing out that "Stallion" Ike Boettger was playing ahead of Bates before he got injured.

I don't think this is worth a thread, but Great story. I'm glad to know this guy is still in the league getting paid - on a team with a good DL too.

Keenum signed with the Texans for 2 years, $6.25M, $4M guaranteed. Cap hit this season $2.8M. Unclear if we offered him that, and he preferred to go south. Brissett signed with the Commanders for 1 year, $8M. Too rich for a backup QB with the Bills current cap situation. I was kinda thinking he might be an elephant

see above, reportedly in B'lo hammering it out

Sure, but Lavonte re-upped with the Bucs

Fundamentally, I'll put it up front - I don't disagree. I thought so last season, and so far this season I still think so. It does have to be said that the Bills OL is probably better than what KC went into the 2020 Superbowl with and what the Bengals had in 2021. And, the Bills thought they did an OL reboot in 2019 after they sucked big gobs in 2018. The problem is that their efforts/expenditures haven't borne the desired results. Cody Ford in the 2nd to play RT - Bzzzzt. Signed Quinton Spain in 2019 - played LG well enough that they gave him a good contract, and he turned into a mouthy turnstile in 2020. Moved Cody Ford to G and signed Daryl Williams to play RT in 2020, Williams looked good so they gave him a good contract and he showed up in 2021 sufficiently "lost in space" that they moved him to G and threw 3rd round pick Spencer Brown into the fire where he promptly injured his back, requiring off season surgery. So it's not so much that they haven't tried to make investments, both in draft picks (2019 2nd and 2021 3rd) and in FA signed (Morse, Williams) but that they haven't gotten enough ROI. Overall though, the bottom line is that they aren't doing enough. Also, I haven't sat down and done the grind of draft pick values and FA signing values, but my impression is that the OL is still the "red headed stepchild" relative to the DL and defense. It seems as though on DL, when they haven't gotten the desired ROI, they simply throw more resources at it.