PBF81

Agree, and that's why IMO the move reeks of desperation. We obviously couldn't afford to pay every player that plays at that level comparably at his position. This season is going to be incredibly revealing of many things. First time that McD will be facing a non-easy schedule and a Division in which any of three teams can legitimately win it, and with NE refusing to go away. I have a hunch that if we either don't advance to the AFC CG or if we blow it via coaching again, that there's going to be a significant cascade of criticism to come.

You've seen his Playoff stats that I've posted a couple of times now, I think a few posts above too. They're far from impressive. But thanks, and yeah, we'll see. Hopefully we're all talking about what a great deal we got come January.

8 Playoff Games 2 Sacks, 4 TFLs, 5 QB Hits Of those, 1 Sack, 1 TFL, and 3 QB Hits were against Skylar Thompson In the other 7 playoff games he's given us 1 Sack, 3 TFLs, and 2 QB Hits. Which is poor no matter how it's addressed. Our problem is the Playoffs, not the regular season. I'm pretty sure that they had most of this worked out prior to the end of the week. Wouldn't you say?

Then factor in what Coach Washington said about him this week. Some of the things that we do are mindboggling. If we paid everyone at his level that money comparatively ... He also only plays 60% of the snaps on D, pretty regularly, and as a high this past season. I expect more from someone getting $45M guaranteed. That's gonna hamstring Beane or the new GM significantly if it doesn't work out. His biggest knock is his lack of size. Did this extension make him bigger or faster.

Well, we all hope that Ed pops off. LOL We've all been hoping for that for four seasons now. Odds that the fifth time's the charm? Here's the thing, if not, then there's one helluva huge cap hit down the road or we simply get average for that money. I'll send you the piece.

Perhaps, in some respects. I will say, we're quickly becoming America's team however, I suspect that lasts while Allen is here, but not so much after that. It's interesting, because I don't see how our fanbase can support the projected forthcoming ticket prices. But someone here explained that ticket sales are now more national and less regional, with companies specializing in putting together packages (tix, travel, hotel, etc.) that cater to the wealthier cross-section of sports fandom. IDK, maybe it was you, I wish I could remember. But that makes sense. If true, in that sense the rinky dink only applies to some things. Not sure whether that has to do with The Stadium. LOL But rinky-dink or not, they either know what they're building in detail or they don't. I don't understand the lack of detailed visuals other than showing a bar from within the bar for example.

I just read that it's the 6th most guaranteed money for a DT. The opinions in that piece are primarily negative and mirror mine. Here's a quote from someone in another Bills forum: I generally agree with that. I don't know what the cap implications are for this year, a lot of times when they make a signing like this it alleviates the cap for this particular season. The tradeoff is often in guaranteed money. Not sure how or whether it did that, but that's an awful lot of guaranteed money for Oliver. If he doesn't improve then it will have proven to have been a bad signing. Here's the thing, his biggest knock is that he's undersized, unless this signing makes him get bigger it doesn't alter a glaring weakness. My first thought was that this was done for future cap reasons combined with a lack of DT talent in our pipeline, really none to speak of, nothing that warrants re-signing in the next couple of years. If that's the reason why it was done, while acquiescing to seemingly average play at the position, IMO it was a very unwise decision that merely kicks the can of future team-building issues down the road a season or two. If that's the way it plays out we really don't need that and it creates issues for whomever the next GM would be. We will see, time will tell. Not a thing that anyone here says will change anything. That much we know.

Presumably you saw my subsequent post. I misspoke, again, sorry about that and the confusion it caused. As to the national media, I'm sure that the articles will be out tomorrow, we'll see. I'll be reading most of them as no doubt you will be too. We can reconvene after that. In the varying forums however, this move is taking more of a beating than getting support.

I'd say a little bit more than middle of the road money. I'm hardly in the camp thinking that Oliver sucks, but he's not better than average or so, maybe slightly better. I simply think that there were better ways to spend that money. Edmunds got about the same, we no doubt could have had him for the same as Oliver or even less, and right now we have a huge void at LB that IMO is going to cost us something fierce this season.

I don't think that he would have made that kind of jump. Do you really see some other team paying him more than we just did with only a marginal improvement in his play? What if he doesn't improve, or he regresses because of the slate of far better offenses we play? There's that risk too. Just playing devil's advocate here.

I have to apologize, I mispoke, I meant in the national forums and the like. Even on other Bills' forums the move isn't exactly being viewed optimistically. Even here from what I've read only a minority seem to think the signing was a great one. Seems like the majority opinion here is of the "meh" variety, "wait and see."

I'm not planning anything, that's the coach's and GM's job. How can I plan to lose? And to insinuate that any single poster here wouldn't be ecstatic to win it all, I'm not even sure what to say. If we were to win a Super Bowl everyone on this board would be somewhere high-fiving and screaming their brains out regardless of what some posters think of them. We have absolutely no control over anything, even if we attend every game home and away. We'll see, but so far we've underachieved the preseason narratives, largely due to poor coaching in the playoffs. If that changes and if Oliver in this particular case becomes Quinnen Williams too, great. Bet what you want, but we won't know 'til it happens. To me, the single biggest tragedy that could happen to this team is another 6+ years of Marvin Lewis type coaching and team performance while Allen's the QB. Given our track record, if we don't win one with Allen I'd be the last one to suggest that Allen-like lightning strikes us twice.

Well, OK, tough to argue with any of that, but in the grand scheme, for $68M, $45M of which is guaranteed, there's a minimal level of performance that's expected. We, anyone, can argue whether he'll achieve that, but IMO we haven't seen it yet. IMO the money could have been used much better elsewhere. But again, at the end of the day, and given the speculation that we don't have any DTs signed for next season, or so it's been said here although that's news to me, I would chalk it all up to poor planning no matter how it's sliced. If some of Beane's other DL from the drafts had worked out, or even FAs, then perhaps he wouldn't have been what I consider to have been desperate to make this signing. Good GMs simply dont' put themselves in situations where they're forced to do things that aren't optimal. Beane seems to do it on a semi-regular basis. Why? Again, look at his drafts.

Well, now that we don't have a cakewalk season and not one of the easiest schedules in the league for the first time under McD, this season will certainly be a great case study for evaluating where we actually stand. If we're 13-3 again, then we can talk more. Otherwise, convenient that you failed to point out our troubles in getting past the Divisisonal round of the playoffs. I realize that's of lesser concern than the regular season record, just sayin'.

I hear ya, but at some point it's settling. As I've said, everyone here supporting the move complains about every other aspect of our team, that those units fall short, but for some reason Beane's doing a great job. It makes zero sense and does not logically align, thinking like that.

I as well. That's why I don't do it. I much prefer an intelligent back-n-forth even in disagreement. Almost no one is going to ever agree with anyone else here all the time. I align with several posters, but that doesn't mean we agree on everything. Some people simply have emotional trouble with opinions that aren't in their team view. Who knows, perhaps they're young, or perhaps they have bad things going on at home or something, you never know. I would think that trying to get along here would help though. Ahh well, that's the way forums are. LOL SMH ... I feel sorry for you. Not sure what I did to you personally, I dont' think anything. Have a great evening.

We're wasting Allen and while many can't see it for having blinders on, this team is patently mediocre w/o Allen. It's funny, our RBs are mediocre they say. Our WRs aren't good besides Diggs. Knox is overrated. Our OL isn't good they say. Same for our DL. LBs, .... LMAO, what to say there. And last year we didn't have an average CB on the field. BUT, Beane's done a fantastic job. LOL Honestly ...

It's also not like he's been good. He's been pretty average, it seems to me that we could easily have drafted his equal in round 1 next season if we wanted to. As well, it's also not like the Bills are going to reach the Super Bowl because of this signing. Have you taken a peek at Oliver's playoff performances? In 8 playoff games, he's got 2 sacks, 4 TFL, and 5 QB Hits. 1 of the sacks, 1 of the TFL, and 3 of the QB Hits were on Skylar Thompson and the Fins. In 7 other playoff games he's got 1 sack, 3 TFL, and 2 QB Hits. That's hardly the mark of a 4-year $68M contract.

LOL Says the one that relies exclusively on ad hominem. I don't mind having an intelligent discussion, but then have at it, you've not said one intelligent thing to me thus far, purely ad hominem. Nothin' better to do on a Saturday evening? LOL Otherwise, we'll see how this plays out. I seem to recall the entire forum talking about how he'd be the next Aaron Donald when we drafted him. If your hopes are like that then I won't have to say a word and will have been validated.

Especially given the hole at LB now. The difference in the LB unit w/o Edmunds is a bigger drop than the DL would have been without Oliver. Some comments talking about how Oliver's only 25, Edmunds is only 24. This makes no sense. I'll get laughed at on this comment, but if Oliver doesn't work out and we finish 10-7 and lose the division to say the Jets, and barring Kincaid really making a difference, I don't see how Beane doesn't take a mountain of criticism following this season. We'll see, perhaps Oliver's going to play lights out ball and become that "next Aaron Donald" that all of the experts here supporting this decision said he'd be when they drafted him, I don't see why that would happen however.

Then perhaps Beane should have planned a little bit better over the six years that he's been GM, that's a logical way of looking at it as well.

I'm all eyes if you want to demonstrate his impact in most other games last season. I'm sure it's all in the ever important "eye test," because statistically he doesn't rank very well. Otherwise, you appear to be in the minority, which is saying something on this topic here.

Detroit, yeah, LOL. And in just about every other game you couldn't tell the difference between him and any mediocre DT in the league.

4 Years, $45M guaranteed, about $11M this season. Beane's nuts. It's the sign of a desperate GM if we're going to be honest.

Nearly $11M for this season, $45M guaranteed. I'm shocked. We couldn't sign Edmunds and have mystery meat at LB, but for a LB that shows up two or three times a season he gets that kinda of money.