BillsFanForever19

They more than eyeballed talent in Round 1. They traded up to Draft Dalton Kincaid, a TE in name only who appeared to be their first choice.

Good point. I was reading it as Buffalo but Bull does make more sense. That said, I don't think him saying "bullsh-t" to a report that we're interested is a good thing either.

Unless he doesn't care because that suitor has offered something that he feels is a slap in the face to him. Which is what I think is going on here. To me, it's been obvious since Day 1 that given our cap situation, the way he operates, things that Beane has said, and the urgency (or lack thereof) in which he's operated - that his interest (if any) has been on a 1 year, incentive laden prove it deal. Much like Poona Ford and Leonard Floyd, the offer has been on the table for him to come back to or simply not. He's not going to all of a sudden up his offer to Hopkins demands and Hopkins knows that. So he simply doesn't care if he's slapping us in the face or not because the door is closed and in his mind we've slapped HIM in the face. If he was worried about what you're alleging, he'd simply say nothing at all.

That interest could have easily disappeared when he saw a meager offer and felt insulted by it.

I read it as him either saying the Buffalo offer is crap and/or Buffalo is crap and he isn't coming here (probably because they offered him crap). The fact that he put the Buffalo first wouldn't lead me to believe he's simply saying the report is dung. If he wanted to say that he would have just posted the poop emoji. Buffalo + poop means something different than that in "emoji". Especially when you consider it's in reply to an article basically saying we're interested only if he wants to come cheap. More wishful thinking on your part. This thing has been a non starter unless he came around to our team friendly offer and this is him saying that isn't going to happen.

https://www.musiccitymiracles.com/2023/7/10/23788871/report-titans-made-aggressive-contract-offer-to-wr-deandre-hopkins This doesn't surprise me. They have a 2022 1st Round Pick in Treylon Burks, who didn't set the league on fire in his rookie year, and literally nothing else at WR or TE. They have Ryan Tannehill at QB, with Will Levis and Malik Wilis behind him and they have their fingers crossed that one of them will amount to something. For him to have even taken that visit, it had to have been a quality offer. Then he posted an IG Story of the visit where he was picked up in a luxury vehicle that had a monitor in the car that was displaying "Welcome to Tennessee, DeAndre Hopkins!" with a custom image of Hopkins in a Titans helmet and uniform. I thought that looked a little cringy and desperate. I'd bet their offer is head and shoulders above anyone else's. I'm sure he really doesn't want to play there. But the problem is that where he does want to play isn't even going to get close to the offers he's getting from TEN (and maybe NE). He's hoping someone like us or KC will get close, but I don't think it's going to happen. My guess is unless there's an injury early in camp, he ends up waiting it out as long as that offers on the table and ends up signing with them because the differential in money is just too great. He'd take a discount for a contender, but that only goes so far.

Tyrod was better than most of the garbage QB's we had during the drought era. His ability to move was great. However, his title for the entirety of his career was "game manager". If the running game and the Defense was carrying the game, he could do enough and protect the ball enough to get us the win. But he couldn't take a game over like a true Franchise QB could. Every week, he'd be praised for not turning the football over. But that was mainly because he rarely threw the ball unless someone was WIDE open. If someone had an ounce of coverage on them, they weren't getting the ball. So many games we'd fall behind and I'd be screaming at the TV "Throw the ball! Make something happen!" and he'd play with the same urgency he played with to start the game. The guy just rarely took a chance. When Josh makes the occasional boneheaded play, I always think of the Tyrod years and say "I'd rather deal with this occasionally than deal with a game manager". Ultimately, Tyrod was the ideal Bridge or Backup QB in the NFL. Someone who won't lose you the game and be a steady hand. But he wasn't a Franchise guy. His career trajectory after we moved on from him kind of proved what he was. But I'll always appreciate that he was the guy steering the ship when we broke the drought.

Where did you hear they were going to release Parker? It doesn't make sense that they'd say "if we can sign Hopkins, we'll release Parker" and then shift to "okay, we couldn't sign Hopkins so we're going to give Parker a 3 year, 33 million dollar extension". Teams don't operate that way. They gave up a 3rd for Parker just last year, he was always in their plans when Hopkins came in to visit. Extending Parker likely frees up cap space this year, making it easier for them to sign Hopkins. I wouldn't read a thing into extending Parker. If anything, the Parker extension helps them get Hopkins.

I agree, to an extent. I believe Buffalo and KC are interested. But they're only in on a one year, incentive laden deal. Hopkins really doesn't want that. On the other hand, the Titans and Pats are probably offering closer to what he wants with a contract, but he'd prefer to sign with a contender and a team with a QB who has better arm strength and talent to get him deep balls. That's why I think we're in this holding pattern. Either he gets a team he wants, but doesn't get the contract he wants or he gets the contract he wants, but doesn't get the situation he wants. He was hoping in taking the visits to New England and Tennessee that a team like Kansas City or Buffalo would see it and up their offer. But obviously, that hasn't happened and it doesn't appear that it will. Ultimately, I think NE and/or TEN are going to tell Hopkins that they'll pull their offer(s) if he doesn't agree by a certain date and when push comes to shove - he'll end up signing with one of them.

I feel like if that were a move they were to make they'd have already done it by now. Not saying it's out of the realm of possibility that after Training Camp they take a look at things and decide they can part ways. But I don't see it happening before then and I'd be surprised if it happened at all. Either way, the point remains the same. Fans look at our situation and Hopkins and say "if we cut this player, extend this player, renegotiate this player - we can pay Hopkins (X amount)". That's not how Beane operates. If he's going to extend someone, it's not done specifically to sign someone else. It's done when he wants the player extended and the player and their agent agrees to their price tag. Anyone he wants to release to save cap space, he does early on in the Offseason or after a correlating move. Like if he felt this about Neal after signing Rapp, he'd have released him soon thereafter like he did with McKenzie following Harty. This late in the game, if he wanted to release Neal for cap space, he'd have done it already. Ultimately, if Hopkins comes here, it's going to be at the price he offered when they talked. Beane's not going to panic and do a bunch of stuff he hadn't planned on doing to get him here, like posters are suggesting. He's not going to get into a bidding war. Just like Leonard Floyd and Poona Ford, it's on Hopkins to come back to the offer, which is surely less than others are offering, or play somewhere else.

When it comes to another DT extension after Oliver's, I get the feeling Beane's going to want to see how Daquan Jones, Poona Ford, and Jordan Phillips play and hold up throughout the season before extending one of them. As for Neal, he's a favorite amongst posters to clear cap. But he's also a favorite of the coaching staff and the locker room. He's our only other Nickel CB besides Taron Johnson, our only Big Nickel, and a core Special Teams player. There's a reason they gave him the contract they did. He's not going anywhere. And Beane doesn't do extensions that aren't in his plans or release players at other positions simply to make a move on a Free Agent. That's not how he operates.

Well if Tennessee and New England weren't offering a decent amount of guaranteed money, that would probably mean we don't even have an offer to him at all or are offering straight up nothing guaranteed.

It should read "Come on Hopkins - choose Buffalo and Josh Allen over much more guaranteed money elsewhere!" That's what it really comes down to.

I'm dying at pointing to 6th and 7th Round picks not finding a spot on a stacked roster as justification that his Drafts suck.

I think they were the ones offering the most money. But he was hoping a better team would have saw him take those visits and up their offer. But that didn't happen and I don't think it's going to happen. Now he's in a holding pattern deciding what's more important - the money or playing on a winning team. I think he ultimately signs with one of them because one or both will pull their offer eventually knowing they're being leveraged and the teams like us are offering far less.

Ultimately, what I'm saying is you're laser focused on who you think is #2 and not looking at the core as a whole. KC had Kelce and JuJu, but what else? We have Diggs, Davis, Kincaid, and Knox. If Davis is faltering, his targets go to Kincaid in the Slot or Knox at TE. And/or Harty. And that's not even taking into account Shakir or the pass catching RB's like Cook and Hines. It's a very talented deep pass catching core and the idea that between Davis, Kincaid, Knox, and Harty there won't be a single viable option outside of Diggs is insane to me. He targeted Harty on Day 1 of FA and doubled down by spending a 1st and a 4th on Kincaid. You don't do that thinking "He's just a Rookie though, can't count on that at all". Also brought in Sherfield and bought a scratch off so to speak by Drafting Shorter in the 5th. All of this with Diggs, Davis, Knox, and Shakir already in house. There's no way he did all of that and is thinking "I didn't get enough insurance for Davis, who I still believe in, I NEED to bring in Hopkins too". NFL.com has us having the 3rd Ranked Offense in the Entire League and you're acting like we're in rough shape and have a "yeah, but" for any player not named Diggs just to justify your idea that Hopkins is 'need' and not a 'want'. https://www.nfl.com/news/nfl-s-top-10-offenses-in-2023-bills-chiefs-eagles-produce-highest-win-share-proj

They just gave 4 million in cash up front to Hines in a restructure to keep him. He also has a 2 million dead cap hit to release him. He's not going anywhere. Neal is not only one of our Special Teams core, he's the only other Nickel CB on the roster besides Taron Johnson. Murray was literally just signed a month ago. You don't sign a guy a veteran and then immediately release him. Dawkins hasn't lived up to his deal and had an average at best year last season. He looks out of shape this offseason. I don't think it's a coincidence that they didn't do a Dawkins restructure amongst the MANY they've done this offseason. They may want to get out from under it after this season if he underperforms again or simply move on after the 2024 season and restructuring his deal would make that more difficult. Fun to play Madden arm chair GM - but most of that stuff is unrealistic. And you're discrediting all of them because unless the team has two Superstar, All Pro, Household names, we apparently have nothing. I could understand your concerns if Beane had simply said "Davis will bounce back" and didn't do anything. But he spent a 1st and a 4th on Kincaid and targeted Harty on Day 1 of FA as insurance. And it's not like we were completely barren before then having Diggs, Davis, and Knox already in the fold. And also Shakir in his second season and wild cards like Shorter and Sherfield. You see "need" when it's really just a "want". Hopkins is a luxury to Beane or else he would have made the trade or gotten it done already.

You're operating as if there's no chance Davis can rebound after his first year as a starter dealing with injuries, Kincaid won't have a solid Rookie season, and Harty will underperform/won't stay healthy. Maybe 1 or 2 of those things will happen. But all of them? I wouldn't bet on it. And that's not taking into account already having Diggs and Knox, solid pass catching RB's in Cook and Hines, as well as Wild Cards like Justin Shorter and Trent Sherfield. This team has weapons.

I don't think he a.) Feels anything close to what you feel about Davis and the #2 position and b.) Feels that Harty alone was the answer. But that Kincaid AND Harty are, in conjunction with not only hoping, but expecting a better year out of Davis. I think Beane seems "exasperated" because he's tired of being asked about it. If he wanted Hopkins as badly as you think he does, he'd make it happen. And I'm not "doing my best to pretend like it isn't". I'm just not saying "yeah - but" like you are to not 1, not 2, but 3 different players in Davis, Kincaid, and Harty when it comes to options outside of Diggs. And that's not even talking about Dawson Knox, Khalil Shakir in his 2nd year, and pass catching backs like James Cook and Nyheim Hines. You're obsessed with the idea of who is the technical #2 instead of looking at the entirety of the pass catching weapons we have. If Davis is faltering, we have other options to go to that aren't Diggs.

The OBJ deal includes cap hits stretched out 3 years after his contract expires. May not be a concern to you, but if it wasn't to Beane, he'd have done it already. Probably would have thrown a 6th or 7th Arizona's way to simply Trade for him. And actually, Hopkins himself doesn't seem interested in that. According to Tom Pelissero on the Rich Eisen show some weeks ago - Hopkins wasn't open to reworking his deal to involve something that didn't pay him up front and that's why they couldn't get a deal done:

The Salary Cap implications are the main issue with getting the contract done. If it didn't exist, Oil Baron Pegula would have no problem coming up with that money.

I did not. To be fair though, I was given a heads up from someone in front of me who had attended the year before. I guess he did that every year. So I made sure to say "thank you" loud enough that I knew he'd hear me. I'd like to think I would have either way though.

All of those guys were single year deals. Rodger Saffold started every game for us in that year. Jamison Crowder was lost for the year in the middle of Game 4. OJ Howard was signed to a 1 year 3 million dollar deal. Not near the investment he put into Harty. And you like to constantly point to the release of Howard like it's a normal thing that happens all the time. It wasn't. That was a shock. I'm not saying Harty will or won't be a star for us. What I'm saying is the kind of investment Beane made wouldn't have been made if he had no intention of having a role for him. He didn't target him on Day 1 with all the options available to him thinking "this is just a depth signing and I need to Draft a guy in the 1st and sign a Top 10 WR like Hopkins too".

The fact that he paid him a 2 year, 9.5 million dollar deal with a 3 million bonus, 5.25 guaranteed and made him more expensive to cut than to keep in Year 1 says that. Beane doesn't bid against himself. If Harty didn't have a market, he would have been signed for the minimum peanuts like most of the veterans we signed this offseason and wouldn't have happened on Day 1.

That doesn't matter nor discount the fact that Beane targeted him on Day 1 of FA and gave him a multi year deal that was worth more than the 1 year, league minimum that he signed most others for. You might not think anything of the signing. But Beane made him a priority. He's not a break glass in case of emergency depth guy. He will be used.