BillsFanForever19

I disagree with that. Something like Hollywood Brown or Tyler Boyd may be more than we can afford. But if we can afford Armstead, we could afford a Josh Reynolds, DJ Chark, Marquez Valdes-Scantling, Mecole Hardman, K.J. Osborn type. I'm all in on WR at 28. But we've got Diggs and Shakir. Outside of that we've got Hollins, who shouldn't be more than a WR5/ST Gunner type, Shorter who is a complete question mark to make the roster, and Practice Squad level guys. We're not going to Draft 3 WR's. And we need some kind of insurance in the event that it takes the guy at 28 some time.

Warriorspikes51 - have you been Dan Fetes this whole time?

Essentially that's my concern. Armstead would be great. But with the money guys like Mooney and especially Ridley got, I question the ability to get a guy like Armstead and a decent vet WR.

Ah! Thanks, I knew I recognized it from something. Been a loooonnnngggg time since I've seen that one.

What movie is that from?

I think Wallace makes a lot of sense given we'd just be looking for an off the bench Boundary CB. He'd probably come at the price we'd be willing to pay for that and has experience in the system. I don't know if the IG post was a clue though. It was 1 of 10 photo's he posted that looked more to be saying 'hello' to his IG followers. Elam is going to be here. He really has no trade value and even with Wallace, we'd still need another CB to fill the roster. We'd have to give him away and I don't think that's something we want to do after our investment.

I mean, that was just me replying with someone else's quote in regards to what I was talking about. If questioning whether handing over another big DL contract is wise makes me a "party pooper", after Von and Oliver and already putting most of our money this offseason into Epenesa and Jones, so be it.

The crux of the discussion was based around @Warriorspikes51 citing @HappyDays' report on the situation which was such: "Alright here's what I just heard on Arik Armstead - we asked him to give us last dibs to match his best offer. But there are ~10 teams in on him."

If that's what Beane chooses to do, hey, it's his team. I wouldn't hate having him on the team. But if we've got the money to match the best offer in a 10 team market battle for a big star like Armstead - than that's money that should go to an Offensive piece, in my opinion. The board has been saying that for years. It's wild to me that everyone's now doing a 180.

Again, I find it very funny to me how quickly everyone is to once again pile all sorts of money into the Defensive Line after years of running Beane over the coals for it. Now it's just like - "big name FA?"

I see you dodged the second part 😆

That makes sense. Us in the shape we're at financially and with who we have starting at 3T, beating out 9 or so other suitors? That doesn't. Wait, wait, wait.... isn't you who's always saying "it doesn't matter who we line up on Defense - it isn't slowing down Mahomes"?

Over Oliver? No way.

And as I said to that, it could very well be a matter of him calling us saying he's interested in coming here. Knowing that he has a market, we told him "give us a call with what you get and then we'll see" - full well knowing that the answer's going to be "can't match that". Unless he's cool not Starting and not being paid full market price - it's not happening. He reportedly has an ~10 team market. I don't see any way ours is going to be remotely the best option. There's that too. I find it kind of funny that everyone has crucified Beane for spending big money and high Draft picks on the DL on the regular. Now everyone's like "ooh, shiny!".

He doesn't need to get the okay to re-structure Diggs. There's a rework of his deal that can be done that doesn't require his permission. It just seems to be something we don't want to do. As for a Miller type thing, fat chance. Especially after seeing Ridley's contract today.

He has a large market and is going to be paid to Start at 3T. We have Oliver there. It doesn't make much sense for us. I'd also say that 9.5 times out of 10 when we're "linked" to someone - it's exaggerated or just flat out fiction, leaked by agents.

Didn't he say that about today, yesterday? It baffles me how he has a job at Cover 1. I guess they feel that they also want to cover the "delusional fans that like to play Madden GM with the roster" was a market they wanted to cost too.

Dalton Kincaid is an important part of our Offense. But he's not "WR2". When we speak of WR2 - most of us are talking about the Starting Boundary WR opposite Stefon Diggs. Dalton Kincaid is not that, nor can he be. He's a Big Slot. Even if you're referring to WR2 as the second passing option outside of Diggs and taking Slot into account, his numbers were still under Gabe Davis and Khalil Shakir last season. Again, DK is very important to us. But he's definitely not WR2, any way you slice it.

They've actually done a lot. We had a LOT of things to take care of. So we couldn't spend too much in one place. There's just not much on the external front. Going into Free Agency - the plan in my mind was to take care of major holes that could leave us to address WR in the Draft. To that end we've filled: Starting Safety 1 - Re-Signed Taylor Rapp Starting Safety 2 - Starting 1T DT - Re-Signed Daquan Jones Starting OG Replacing McGovern switching to Center - Re-Signed David Edwards DE3/Possible DE2 in the event Miller is done - Re-Signed AJ Epenesa And we addressed some other depth things with inexpensive options like QB2 (Trubisky), LB3 replacing Dodson (Morrow), WR5/Special Teams Gunner (Hollins), Safety 3 (Lewis). There's still things like the other Starting Safety spot, rotational DT's behind Oliver and Jones, RB2/3, and a couple backup OL. But the idea that we haven't "maximized" what we could do, based on the amount of money we had and the major things we needed to get done isn't true in my mind. We covered a lot of the major holes. Even with the "backing off a lot more" as you put it, we're effectively at zero when it comes to space we have.

Yeah, no offense to your source or the media member reporting it, but I really don't buy it. Like you said, it doesn't make much sense. If what you've heard is true, my guess is it's a situation where he called us and said he has interest in coming here, based on his family connection. We'd be interested in a discounted price, incentive laden deal. But we know that's highly unlikely to be agreed upon and that he'll have better offers. So we're just sitting back saying "yeah, let us know what you're best offer is" - knowing full well he's going to have a market where when the time comes we just say "yeah, can't do that".

Yeah, it's kind of funny to me. The writing has been on the wall for months that big spending is out. We've never been in worse shape as far as how over we were and how many holes we have to fill. It felt like we all (well, most of us) kind of understood that FA was going to be about filling as many holes as we can and leaving WR2 to the Draft. And given where we were, we've actually done a pretty good job of that. We've signed a Starting Safety to replace one of Poyer or Hyde, a Starting 1T DT in Jones returning, a Starting Guard to take McGovern's place as he shifts over, and the DE3/DE2 insurance with the potential to start if Von doesn't return to form. Given where we were, that's massive. There's still things to do like the other Starting Safety spot and depth behind Oliver and Jones. But they've done things that allow us to focus on WR in the Draft. Which was always the plan. Yet, FA opens, and all of a sudden people think we're gonna go hog wild. Like... what? In "spending cash", you're still writing contracts that include cap space in the form of other years or void years beyond this season. That cuts into later caps and then before you know it, we're in the same spot we are this year and the year before. You do that every year and every year is like the last two. Like I said, if there's an effort to limit spending this year - it's with creating the ability to be bigger players in the following years in mind.

I could be wrong, but he feels like a Kaiir Elam to me. Not a great comparison as far as what Elam's done at the next level, but same concept. A guy who is in a cluster of guys considered high to mid 2nd Rounders who, when push comes to shove, goes higher than people thought based on measurables and athletic traits. Almost no one had Elam going above Andrew Booth and he was firmly entrenched in that next tier with Kyler Gordon and Roger McCreary - with many having him under one or both of them as well. When there's a group of similarly talented players at the same position, mocks are often wrong when Draft Day comes and it comes down to team preference. Of which they're simply guessing. We also haven't fully reached the apex of where they start altering Drafts based on things they've heard. That's not going to happen until we get much closer.

Why would he be starting when Dane Jackson wasn't a starter for us to begin with and both of our starters last season are returning, in Rasul Douglas and Christian Benford? Elam potentially moves from Outside CB4 off the bench (under Douglas, Benford, and Jackson) to Outside CB3 off the bench.

If there is a push to limit spending this season, I doubt it's an edict from Pegula. I'd imagine it's more a scenario of taking medicine this season so that in the coming years, we're not in the situation like we were in last year and this year and can operate more freely.