Luxy312

Dolphins only had $9.5 million in cap space to start the offseason. Patriots conversely are $4.7 million over the cap, and only 1 of 3 teams in the red. Barring some huge cuts, the Jets would be the only team in the AFC with enough juice to sign Suh right now. Only 4 teams have more cap space than the Jets.

Saints viewed as a team smart with the cap? LMAO. They start this offseason at $17 million OVER the cap due to the way some of their players contracts are structured. It's been written in multiple articles that they're going to have to drop some serious contracts and talent to get under as well. To boot, they have a huge amount of "dead" money tied up in players. Jahri Evans cap number is $11 million this year, but $5 million counts against their cap no matter what. In total, they have over $50 million in dead money that will count towards the cap no matter what. I get that you're saying teams invest in the position, but I wouldn't call the Saints smart by any stretch.

His $15.5 million this year and $16.0 million next year are both guaranteed, so absolutely not. As others have pointed out as well, he's toxic to team chemistry. If not for the reason of money, the latter would make me shy away from him just the same.

That is straight up OUTSTANDING!

I don't disagree with either of you guys. The simple fact here is that NFL revenue hasn't declined year over year in a long long time. As long as it grows, the salary cap will grow with it, whether by $10 million as billsfan89 says or by a smaller amount.

Wouldn't that simply be common sense? McCoy's contract will pay him about $9.75 million for this season. Left as is, that would be the cap hit for this year. I think his salary for next year is $6.7 million and about $7.5 million or so in 2017. If anyone could say with a straight face that the Bills are going to both pay him more than that AND have a bigger impact to their cap space, I got a bridge to sell them. Right now, only $1 million of his contract is guaranteed. The highest likely scenario is that the Bills give him more guaranteed money, that's spread out over more years such that their cap hit comes down. Heck, I would bet anyone right now that it will be less than $9.75 million.

The salary cap is formulaic and tied to total NFL revenue. NFL revenue rose in 2014 from the prior year, so the cap for 2015 will rise with it.

I'm very much against acquiring VD. Anything that requires a visit to the doctors office is a bad thing.

Has to be put in context to really say. Last year, they lost arguably their best defensive player of 2013 and the defense was actually better than the year before. Top-3 in the NFL. There's not much room to improve from there IMO, so Kiko's value goes down for me for that reason. Now tell me we are getting one of the top-3 running backs in the NFL after likely having to part with CJ Spiller AND Fred Jackson is getting older (34) and I take McCoy all day.

Putting aside the players? How the hell do you think that the players acquired can simply be ignored? They got a top-5 running back in the NFL. They got a veteran quarterback to compete with EJ Manuel, and a nasty starting guard in Incognito. ALL were positions of need. There isn't a ton left at this point. They could still improve on the offensive line and could finally get a tight end better than Scott Chandler, but neither of those are desperate situations. If McCoy doesn't get a contract extension, he'll get paid $9.75 million this year. That's what is eroding some of that cap. That figure will likely go down with a new contract, giving him more guaranteed money. That's an almost certainty. Kiko doesn't need replacing. They had a top-3 defense in the NFL without Kiko last year. At this point, the Bills can almost address their remaining issues in the draft. OK, almost.

The "why me" was not a reaction to Buffalo. McCoy has played his entire high school, college and professional career in Pennsylvania. He expected to finish his career with Philadelphia. His response would have been the same had he been traded to San Francisco, Minnesota, or Indianapolis. His response was because he didn't see it coming. Chip Kelly, nor anyone else from Philadelphia, had a conversation with him. As for CJ Spiller, why feel bad for him? They didn't tag him or otherwise force him to do anything. He'll be a free agent and be able to get the best deal out there for him. It would be incredible if the Bills could still keep him, but unlikely.

I'm not terribly surprised. Stevie has always focused more attention on what he's going to do for the camera than what he's going to do for his team. He's a good receiver, but not a great one.

Ooh, look. Another thread about signing a middling journeyman quarterback that was rejected already by multiple teams. Why seriously is there already 2 pages for this garbage topic? Buffalo has been doing this dance for 20 years. Allow me to make the list. Kyle Orton, Thaddeus Lewis, Ryan Fitzpatrick, Tyler Thigpen, Brian Brohm, Kevin Kolb, Vince Young, Kelly Holcomb, Drew Bledsoe, Doug Flutie, Alex Van Pelt, Rob Johnson, and Billy Joe Hobert. When will the stupidity stop? We see these threads over and over again about guys that weren't good enough to keep a job with the team that they're on, and yet they somehow are going to be the magic answer that brings the Lombardi. Josh McCown, Matt Moore, Nick Foles, Matt Cassell, Jake Locker, Mark Sanchez, Jimmy Clausen, etc. News flash: All of these guys were not fit to remain starters in the NFL. They're NOT going to get the Bills to the Superbowl. They might be a short term solution to get us into the playoffs, but are not a long term solution for the team. Just stop already.

Based on what? Right now scouts have him as a 2nd-3rd round pick. I like David Johnson, but would be concerned with the level of competition that he's faced. I would consider him in the 3rd round, but would prefer a Jeremy Langford. He's played against better competition and has still looked like a stud. I don't see that Ayayi kid making it out of the 2nd round. Most scouts have him as the 3rd or 4th best running back in the draft. Definitely behind Gurley and Gordon. At the end of the day, there's a decent pool of good running backs out there in the draft this year. However, when you start talking about the 4th round and later, the level of talent really tails off. We'll start talking about guys like Terrance Magee and Dominique Brown. These guys are projected to be nothing more than rotational switch up players rather than every down backs.

My vote would be no and that goes for anyone like Fasano. He's old and over the course of his career hasn't been as good as what the Bills already have in Scott Chandler. I don't really see the point of replacing an old TE that averages 3 for 30 per game, for another old TE that averages 2 for 20 per game. I would rather see this team go with youth in the draft. Go get me a Ben Koyack or Jeff Heuerman in the 4th round. I guess I just fail to understand the continuous fascination with other teams mediocre throw aways as being some brilliant idea to replace our mediocre players at the same position. Go new!

Have you as a Bills fan learned nothing from history? Rob Johnson ring a bell? Looks like Dan Marino for one game and we sign him for YEARS of misery. Austin Davis is a backup for a reason. If he isn't talented enough to shine past a mediocre Sam Bradford, then he's not talented enough to worry about wasting a roster spot for. NO, NO, NO!

Another veteran journeyman reject from a long line of veteran journeyman rejects to keep this team squarely in mediocrity. You don't like EJ's 58.6% completion percentage? Let's have McCown instead at 58.8%. Huge improvement. What about EJ's 16/12 TD/INT ratio. I'll raise you McCowns 61/59. Awesome. Now add the fact that McCown fumbles about 1X per game to EJ's 0.5X per game. McCown gets sacked more than EJ. The list goes on and on of what's wrong with this move if McCown is penciled in as the started. Provided McCown is a backup and training camp competition, I'm OK with the move. Jeff Tuel is....well, he's Jeff Tuel. He's not even a viable backup. McCown is a viable backup as well, but nothing more.

I don't disagree and it was just an analogy. In baseball though the data is far more consistently gathered and maintained and there's techniques to adjust for small changes to strike zones, size of ball parks, etc. They've been doing it a lot longer to boot. Give the NFL another 4-5 years and they'll be much better at it than they are now.

I am more and more baffled every single year at some of these star athletes and how completely stupid they are at managing their own brand. It's borderline short bus material. He's probably already screwed himself out of at least $10 million. I just cannot fathom how you throw that type of coin away.

The talk is interesting. I don't think I would mind him being in Buffalo, but think that the odds of that happening are pretty slim. He said a number of years ago that he would love to finish his career in Dallas. Heck, the guy has a house in Texas to boot. So the way I see AP is pretty simple. I don't see ANY team trading for him with the contract he currently has. It's insane money and at his age he's just not worth it. If the Bills agreed to pay him that contract, they are pretty much saying goodbye to Dareus next year. So the alternative is for the Vikings to simply cut him or arrange a sign and trade with a new team with a new deal. The Vikings can't reinstate him until April 15th and no teams can talk to him before then, so that's going to be awhile. But the moment that happens, I would bet money that Dallas is on the phone to start having those discussions. That's unless of course they re-sign Murray before then. If the latter happens, who knows?

I think a lot of you guys got it wrong on a number of fronts. There's nothing random about analytics. There are more variables and interaction between the variables to explain than there are in baseball and other sports. To make a simple analogy, you can make macaroni & cheese with noodles, a little milk and the cheese. Pretty simple to figure out what you're going to get based on the ratio of those three things. Making the perfect pasta sauce from scratch is a lot more precise of an exercise. Considering the pasta sauce the allegory for the NFL, there isn't a "recipe" out there that tells you how to get to perfect. Then comes the issue in the NFL with the data itself. It changes year to year based on changes in rules year to year. So continuing the analogy, a tomato isn't "just" a tomato. One year it's a roma and the next a beefsteak. The raw data in the NFL is looked at as being the same, when it really is not. At the end of the day, these analytics guys are mining for the factors that matter and the one's that don't matter in predicting success at the individual player level. It's incredibly complicated and involves lots of moving parts. I love the stats to be honest, so I find this incredibly interesting.

My only concern at $6 million a year is his health. One complete season out of his first 4 isn't very good. If he can't stay healthy and on the field, he's not going to be any good to the team and they'll have to live with Smith, Gragg, and Gray anyway. At the end of the day, it comes down to how much Roman likes him and whether he feels like he can use him like he used Vernon Davis in San Francisco. That's kind of how I view Clay anyway. Poor man's Vernon Davis but on the right side of 30 years old.

At this point, I don't really see Goodwin having any significant role on the Bills offense. Chris Hogan has had a much bigger role to play and then if you figure that Watkins and Woods are pretty much 1/2, there's not a lot of passes going Goodwin's way. As others have said too, small speedsters don't often have a ton of success in the pros. Goodwin is all of 5-9 and 175 pounds soaking wet and can't stay healthy. Add now the fact that Roman is more of a possession receiver type of O.C., and it doesn't look good for Goodwin. His career disappearance warning light is blinking.

Just saying "Brady Quinn" made me throw up in my mouth a little bit. No thanks!

I'm with the OP here. It's not that I believe that EJ is the "best" option at quarterback, or that he's just suddenly going to be a superstar. It comes down to the alternatives. This years draft was projected to be pretty low in terms of quarterback talent, and that's exactly what it looks like right now. Even if the Bills could in some way move up to get Winston, he looked a lot like EJ Manuel to me when Ohio State was rattling his cage. Low and behold, he's the starter in the same Florida State system that EJ played in with lots of very similar measurables. When you look after that, there's a lot of guys that look the same to me. Petty, Sims, Fajardo, Grayson, etc. It's a wasted pick because the talent really isn't there. Go get us a running back that can learn from and replace Freddy Jackson before he retires. Jeremy Langford looked incredible at the combine, or a Jay Ajayi. He catches the ball as good as any wide receiver. If EJ fails, next year we could have a shot at Miller, Boykin or even Cook, and just part ways with him. I guess the simple point here is the question of what drafting a QB in the 2nd round really gets this team for the future. So a couple of points from my perspective. The Bills do not appear to intend to move up in the draft. They met with every QB at the combine except Mariota and Winston. Clearly, they don't intend to try to draft the top QB talent this year. Their free agency efforts so far have started with journeyman Josh McCown, who has played for 6 teams in his 12 year career and been nothing but average. In fact, his 58.8% completion percentage and 76.1 rating are basically the same as Manuel in his grand total of 14 total starts. IMO, if they're entertaining the idea of Josh McCown, they're not looking at signal caller in the 2nd round, even if Hundley by some chance is available. Petty and Grayson are projected 3rd-4th round value, clearly not worthy of reaching in the 2nd. Some have Fajardo and Sims going very very late or even undrafted. Clearly also not 2nd round value.