Beck Water

Could we draft a TE or a WR, please? Pretty please with sugar on it? It's St Paddy's day. Go for the Corned Beef and Cabbage. It's OK for Lent if you sprinkle it with Holy Water and chant "you were born a steer...you were raised a steer...and Now You're A Fish!"

Well, Miller is claiming he'll be back for the season, We'll See. IMO, the signing we may need is a 3TDT. The only one on the roster is Ed Oliver. If we get someone who can play both outside and in, that'd be good. If we're getting more pressure up the middle, it will give more chances to the DE we already have invested multiple #1 and #2 draft picks on. I know, I know. It comes from McDermott's rather fierce insistence in a rotation on DL. If the coaches take the view that the team must have 8 quality DLmen, it has the impact of requiring massive resources on DL in terms of draft picks and FA investment. It means we need to have 8 guys who are starting quality instead of 4 guys who are Beasts.

He can't reduce it too much. I guess it depends upon what you mean b y "much reduced salary". Of the $2.21M he saved on the cap, $450-475k was roster and workout bonuses. So his salary was $1.73 or $1.76M-ish (when you're a pro football player, what's $30k between friends?) Vet minimum for a player with 6 previous accrued seasons is $1.1M or $1.2M or something like that. Now, he could sign a vet salary benefit or vet cap benefit deal, where he gets paid $1.1 or $1.2M, whatever it is, but the Bills get charged for a 2nd year player, $940k My $0.02, that sounds rather ......... demotivational. "Hi, we're paying Stefon Diggs $14.875M this season, and we're paying the guy we signed to replace you $3.745M, but we know you bust your ass and bring a lot of energy to the team, so we cut you to save $1M - can we bring you back on a vet min deal?" Better to leave that one alone, I think, unless he retires and is asked to come back as an injury replacement.

Hmmm WR specifically, ie 2nd best WR on the team: Jaylen Waddle, DeVonta Smith, Tee Higgins, Chris Godwin, and Donovan Peoples-Jones. Broaden it a bit to receiver so you include TE, need to add Juju Smith Schuster (#2 behind TE Kelce); Kittle had more TD and Hockenson more yards. That would be about 8 teams with a better 1-2 punch. 2 of those 8 teams played in the AFCCG, so if it's an arms race (or maybe a hands race), Take Note. This is why people look at our offensive skill players and say "Not Good Enough". Releasing McKenzie? Yeah, $2.21M.

Pssst: SD doesn't have a team anymore I mean, there probably is something there in that the Bills have reached out to the agents of players they're interested in to ask what they have in mind as far as a contract, maybe toss around a counter offer or maybe say "thanks!" and hang up. Doesn't mean they were seriously pursuing the guys.

Hi. Rodgers did not win the MVP last season. In fact, he looked kinda bad. Now granted he was playing injured at times but so was Allen.

Exactly. If he had larger offers than we gave him, he wasn't that much "under the radar" 'cuz we paid him pretty well IMHO

I think that's actually what Spotrac reported. (rummage rummage) yeah, 3 years, $33M was their "market value" assessment. Pretty clear Poyer wanted to be paid like a top-10 or 12 safety and, well, that hasn't happened.

McKenzie killed Miami as well. If I were guessing, the Bills wanted to wait until Harty passed his physical with them and signed his contract before moving on from McKenzie, which I guess happened yesterday? I still think it's not the most courteous treatment for a guy who went hard for the Bills for 5 years, but Business is Business and Beane has to do what's best for the Bills. If Harty were that under the radar, we wouldn't have had to pay what we did for him.

I think they did expect the two of them to platoon in the role with McKenzie seeing more snaps against man and Crowder more snaps against zone. It was pretty clear that Josh did not trust McKenzie to be open vs. zone At All. (ditto for Shakir pretty much). The Bills paid McKenzie a little more but not significantly - $2M vs $2.25M I think, money that says "we aren't anointing either of you". Forgive me Father for I have Sinned What must I do to atone?

You left out the 2021 3 game suspension for drunk driving Look, obviously, the Bills aren't concerned about re-injury risk; they're paying him like a guy they expect to have available for 15-16 games. But, the fact is, he hasn't seen a very high workload to date. Let's leave out the turf toe season and just look at the season he was available. The Saints had 3107 offensive plays in those 3 seasons. Harty was on the field for 533 of them, 17%. In his career, he's also missed 40% of his possible games. Now maybe he'll be able to hold up and contribute if he's used more by the Bills (and his contract/incentives say they intend to give him a real shot at WR). Another perspective could look at Harty and say "he's had 4 years to make it through a full season, and for different reasons he hasn't managed yet". I hope that's wrong but I understand the logic. From what Beane was saying in his presser yesterday (2 days ago? losing track) it sounded as though they expected Shakir to be the #3 and Harty to be the #4 guy.

It’s not impossible, but I’m thinking Jacksonville is a possibility

I hope you’re right. It wouldnt entirely shock me if we used McK cap $$ to re-sign Kumerow or Taiwan Jones. Mind you I’m not suggesting this nor is it what I’d like to see

But fitting the observed sentiments.

Now you’re just making ***** up. That happened with Beasley, by the way. Josh improvised a pitch to McK that wasn’t in the play, and that’s never been one of the picks Josh was criticized for.

I can’t disagree but where is that “better” coming from, ask I

Harty? His contract drips “we intend to play you at WR” Will he be durable is my question

His contract about as low as it could go and not be vet minimum. His catch % 65% just fine for less gadget tosses and more use as WR. The reason he’s gone is that Bills are paying Harty 50% more to be an upgrade at the same position “durable fast Smurf”. The fast Smurf parts are for real, we’ll hope he hits the “durable upgrade”.

Why would he do that? And what would it really accomplish for Beane? He needs to know what he's spent, and like any other avenue of business, if it isn't in writing it doesn't count.

No word yet on contract. Just thought it was worth putting out there that Ford has been signed by one of the teams we keep extolling as a team we should emulate for their OL moves. https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/cincinnati-bengals/cody-ford-29074/

No. If they're earned, they count against next year's cap. In his presser, Beane said about $9M. He also made the point that they need space to sign the rookie class and to cover the PS once the regular season starts. But I think that's standard Beane poor-mouthing.

It's pretty clear when you look at his incentives, they intend Harty to be primarily a WR. Beane stated in his presser that they see Hardy fitting into their "#4 role" as a WR, meaning a guy who can flex and play all the roles. That was kind of McKenzie's role in 2021 and may have been intended to be part of his role in 2022 before Crowder went on IR and Shakir took a while to develop in the slot. To me, he looks like an oft-injured smurf but, either our FO knows their stuff and he'll be great, or they don't. They have crashed-and-burned before bringing in guys at that price point who they thought would contribute, but who didn't pan out - Corey Coleman and OJ Howard come to mind. Beane made it pretty clear they view him as more than that - as both a vertical threat, and a guy who can play inside (eg from the slot). I just worry that he's small enough to be neutralized by physical coverage. Some here worry about Shakir as an outside threat because of his 29" arms and 9.5" hands, what does it say about Hardy's chances to fend off press man and hold off a corner with 28 1/4" arms and 8 3/4" hands? John Brown struggled, and he had 30.5" arms. I'm just going to be very disappointed if the Bills don't make more of an effort to upgrade at WR.

Oh, Gosh, Setting yourself up for dissatisfaction there, aren't ya? What a successful FA looks like to me, is going into the draft with a roster of guys who can play OK at every position, so that there's some BPA flexibility and competition. I also want to see us make significant investment in our OL, through both FA or the draft. So to me, our FA to date has left several holes: 1. I'd like to see an investment in a FA RT who can push or challenge Spencer Brown for the starting role. I think a 2 year vet will almost always beat out a rookie in training camp these days, I want to see a canny vet giving Brown a real fight for the job. And yeah, I would love to see a top tier C/G drafted but I don't see us signing a big name at this point. 2. MLB. Beane tried to be persuasive that our next starting MLB is on the roster and is named Dodson, Bernard, or Spector. I'm unpersuaded. I think it's a big hole 3. DT. If McDermott is running the defensive show, he loves his DT rotation so we need a 3TDT. Unpersuaded the answer is on our roster. We need a WR. Greg Cosell, who I respect, made a point that the Bills need a true "3 level wide receiver" by which he means a guy who can be a true vertical threat to catch passes deep, run crisp routes over the middle, and run short option routes from the slot. Now maybe Deonte Hardy is that guy, but I am un-persuaded. I just hope he stays healthy and contributes. However at this point, I think we need to draft and develop a WR

I think people under-estimate how important run blocking is, even to a power back like Henry. I'm not saying I wouldn't love a power run game, but it requires commitment - building an OL that can sustain it, practicing etc. Henry would be a 1 year rental at this point and as a trade - who or what do you want to give up for him?

Negative. 1 year, $4.7M. Our midget has a lower cap hit at $3.745M this year.