BillsFanForever19

No, it's not. Beane isn't going to say "He really likes us?! Well that changes everything, I don't care about the cost anymore!" It's nice to know Hopkins would like to be a Bill. But it changes absolutely nothing when it comes to whether or not Beane believes he can afford to do it. And I'm sure him wanting to be here isn't news to Beane. Well considering the tweet is about us trading for him, yes, him being cut would be a significant development. Probably our best bet to land him. But even then, he'd have to want to be here badly enough to accept less than what is out there on the market for him. And even then, less may still be too much for us given our cap situation this year and next year. Yes, it would be. But I still think making a contract work for him and us is the biggest hurdle. Even if they're willing to give him away, Beane may have determined that we can't afford the contract. And they'd not only have to drop their price, but drop it significantly. The current reported price is a "Christian McCaffrey type trade package". I'm sure our price is close to nothing because we have to take on the massive contract of a 31 Year Old WR. I'm not saying it's impossible that that's the case. But the idea that we've never been out and the tweet was posturing is best case scenario for hopeful fans wanting this to get done. Just as likely, if not more, is that it's just fact. We made a call, looked into it, found it untenable, and let the feverous fans know - unless major changes occur it just ain't happening and we are out. Juxtaposed with Beane's unnecessarily in depth downplay of how involved we were and the latest info on the situation from Adam Schefter - I tend to feel that the tweet was just fact and not posturing.

There's just no way. Even if Beane were as down on Davis as members of this board are (which he isn't), he wouldn't Draft someone in the 1st Round and then acquire DeAndre Hopkins. With Diggs and Hopkins under contract for at least 2 years - that 1st Round Pick would have a ceiling of 3rd WR for years to come (4th this season bc Davis won't be traded). With the holes and upgrades we need across multiple positions, he wouldn't spend a 1st Round pick on someone that would be behind 2-3 players. It's all the rage to say trade so and so before they become a FA (like Edmunds last year, Oliver and Davis this year, etc) and we lose them and get nothing in return. But that's what happens, league wide. It's not like every year you see a rash of teams trading away people with 1 year left on their deal. It's very rare and only really happens when it's a Superstar who they know they absolutely can't afford to pay their named price tag ahead of time. And even then, it generally requires being traded to somewhere that has been agreed upon with a long term contract extension worked out ahead of time (ie AJ Brown and Tyreek Hill). Teams aren't interested in trading picks for a guy who may or may not be there after a year. And Beane likes Davis. He's talked about wanting to extend him and at the very least, surely wants to get that last year of him on his super cheap Rookie deal. That's the whole point of Draft picks. At the very least, you have them for 4 full years cheap. You don't trade them away after 3 because you may not be able to re-sign them.

Von is expected to be back by the start of the season, if not soon after. We just re-signed Shaq Lawson. Still have Groot, Epenesa, Basham, and Kingsley. I don't expect another Edge signing. I think Lawson was it.

They WERE in contact. Since then Beane has downplayed their involvement, Tim Graham followed up with a report a few hours after that saying we wouldn't be trading for him "barring significant changes", and a couple days ago Adam Schefter outwardly said on NFL Live "No, the Bills are not trading for Hopkins". As for dropping his number, it is possible. But it includes adding 3 dummy years to his contract. Meaning we would be taking cap hits for 3 years after his contract ended with us. Which is not Beane's MO. And yes, we can come up with money. But we've already done a TON of that, freeing up 43.5 million. After starting at -18.5 over, that came to around 25 million dollars - of which we had to use all of it to fill our holes. Right now, we have enough to sign our Draft Picks and that's it. Coming up with enough to cover a massive Hopkins contract, which goes beyond this season (and we're over the cap next year as well) isn't as simple as you like to think it is.

Klein, Phillips, Rapp, Lawson, Dodson, Matakevitch, Jackson, and Lewis costs combined equate to significantly less than just Hopkins' contract. And you can't just have holes all over your Defense to add 1 player. We had 24 FA's going into this year while being 18.5 over the cap and having 6 Draft Picks. Those holes needed to be filled. You can't get Hopkins and then half a roster and be good. That's not how personnel works. Hopkins saying he'd like to be here changes nothing when it comes to Beane's stance on being able to fiscally do it. And again, if we were able to get Hopkins, we wouldn't be drafting any of those top WR's. Likewise, if we drafted one of those guys, we won't be trading for Hopkins. Diggs + Hopkins + a top Draft pick doesn't make sense. If we had Diggs, Hopkins, and Davis - the top picks would be used elsewhere.

What's done is done though. You can argue that they should have spent less on Defense. But you can't undo the situation we're in cap wise. Right now, his contract doesn't work. If it did, it would have been done by now. It's nice that Hopkins likes us and wants to be here. But it doesn't change the situation we're in and everything over the past few weeks pointing to or outwardly saying we can't do it. It lacks top 5 Calvin Johnson type prospects and isn't particularly deep. But to say there's no good WR prospects in this Draft is simply wrong.

That's good to know. But is Nuk willing to take less? Because his current contract is a problem in and of itself.

That's an oversimplification. We can get his cap hit significantly lower this season. But it would involve spreading out hits over 4 years, including 3 years of cap hits when he's no longer on the team while still paying him significantly next season as well.

I see no way Beane doesn't take a MLB in Rounds 1-3. Even if the value wasn't quite there at the time of our 2nd or 3rd Pick, I think he'd trade up, trade down, or possibly even reach a little to fill the need. Never has Beane gone into a Draft with a glaring need and then just completely ignored it.

The latest updates - Brandon Beane said this re: Hopkins at the League Meetings: “What I would say is social media is social media. Don’t take that too far. Our name gets thrown in the hat on a lot of things that sometimes we’ve done one percent. One person made one call, and they’ve looped us in that we’re all over him and we’ve offered him a contract. It's funny sometimes." Then a few hours later, Tim Graham reported: Then a few days ago, Adam Schefter flat out said "No, the Bills are not trading for DeAndre Hopkins" on NFL Live. And now DHop has been making Houston Texans teases instead of "Buffalo Soldier" ones. So, long story short, everything has said it's not happening anymore. My guess is they made a call to see if they could get him for nothing and get him to rework his contract and when it was clear either or neither were possible, that was that. Yet, people still hold out hope.

Absolutely love Budda Baker as a player. But we have Jordan Poyer and Micah Hyde with Taylor Rapp backing them up this year. And none of them are being moved. Wish he was requesting a trade next year when Micah's a FA (and Rapp as well) and Poyer has 1 year left on his deal. Then maybe we'd have been in on him. But not this year.

That's definitely your inner grinch talking. OTA's are just workout programs. Even if it were Training Camp in pads, guys have to have some sort of break. Who cares what they do so long as it isn't getting into trouble? But then again....

When it comes to next year's picks - we will have an extra 3rd. "Weak" class or not, if there is a position in need of addressing and a player that Beane values, I have no problem utilizing that extra 3rd now. Especially if it means getting the MLB he wants or missing out. But I'm not giving up anything more than one of our 3rds next season. Good analysis on the LB's! I tend to agree that Trenton Simpson is a good fit for our Defense and Jack Campbell, not so much. But I think Drew Sanders fits as well. His comp from NFL.com is literally Tremaine Edmunds. Edmunds, like Sanders coming out of College, was considered an athletic Pass Rusher. And he is who Beane targeted and selected. I don't think he'd pass on Sanders because he can also rush the passer.

Yeah, but in the cases of JOK and Nakobe Dean their falls were due to Medical Issues. Nick Bolton had mid-1st Talent, but fell due to being undersized.

We'll have an extra 3rd next season, which given the strength of this Draft, may be valuable enough with 59 to get us higher than normal.

The plus side is that when we were on the clock for that pick, I was thinking WR. And the highest rated WR on the board to me at that point was Khalil Shakir, who we were able to steal in the 5th. The downside is Dylan Parham should have been the pick and he was selected the very next pick and went on to start at Guard all season in his rookie year.

I think, especially if we don't trade up in Round 1, trading up in Round 2 is the way to go. One of Simpson, Sanders, and Campbell will be reachable from 59 without having to give up too much. Will probably be a lot easier to trade up in this Draft than it will be to trade down.

3rd Round for Drew Sanders? That's a crazy projection. 90% of prognosticators have him has the 1st LB off the board and often the only MLB in the 1st Round, if any are taken at all.

I'll give him credit for going down with the ship. Doubling down on a poor hand in hopes that something miraculous happens rather than backing off. That said, I'm sure when it doesn't happen, he'll say something like "They really were in it but (whoever trades for him) swooped in at the last second and made a better offer AZ couldn't refuse" to try and save face. Either way, whether or not it happens, this guy's a nobody who knows nothing. EDIT: Just noticed he doesn't mention Hopkins, just trades in general. So if they trade for a player, trade up, or trade down, ANY trade - he'll claim he was right. Genius 🤣

DHop be like "Damn, everyone knows Buffalo isn't happening. Time to shift my teases to facilitate my move to a different team"

Exactly. This post is for in the moment on Draft Day reactions. Anyone who says they wanted Cooper Kupp over Zay Jones on Draft Day is a liar.

That's true. And Murray could always fill that Duke Johnson Practice Squad vet RB role and I think he'd be a good fit there.

I think Harty could be. The cost Beane paid says to me he believes he could be too and other people around the league felt the same. I think we will take a WR and a TE in this Draft. But with the glaring hole at MLB, I don't think we wait until Round 3 to address it. Especially if we take a weapon with our 1st Pick.

2 marquee offensive playmakers is a big ask. Unless one of them succeeds expectation selected in the 3rd or 4th Rounds, we have to get a LB to replace Edmunds and at least get some depth on the OL in this Draft too. So we can't go back to back on Pass Catchers.

We simply couldn't/can't afford OBJ or Hopkins. Jerry Jeudy isn't available. I don't know where the idea came from. But logically - it doesn't make sense. Sean Payton came out of "Retirement" to team up with Russell Wilson and revitalize his career following last season. Why would he then trade away Russ' #1 WR? Never made sense to me to begin with and then he outwardly said Jeudy isn't going anywhere: https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/35961376/sean-payton-broncos-not-trading-jerry-jeudy-courtland-sutton But the fact that he did look into OBJ and Hopkins says to me that they will look to Draft one of those guys early. My hope is that the reports of teams not being as high on the 1st Round WR's is true and that they fall, JSN and Flowers are the first to go, and Johnston either falls right to us or comes close enough that we wouldn't have to spend too much to move up and get him. Or since we've done such work on JSN and Flowers, maybe he views Harty as more of an outside Deep Threat than a Slot. In which case, maybe he takes a JSN or a Flowers to put in the Slot and Harty and Davis split the 2 Spot on the Outside. With Diggs and either JSN or Flowers being his go to guys.