Dibs

That is only if he plays out the entire 5 years. If he plays for only another 3 years that new contract extension will see him take 23.53m/year. (17.65m/year if 4 years).

I have.....it was amusing.

Yet that was considered his breakout year where he made the pro-bowl etc. I'm guessing this is more reflective of modern day pro-bowl voting than KW's ability as a NT.

I personally am not a Kelsay hater. I have backed his abilities before(in comparison to other #2 DEs in the league).....and even supported his contract numbers(some years back). I personally assumed that he would be cut for several reasons. He was getting old. His durability had become a question(particularly considering his age). His cap number was extraordinarily high for a #2 DE in today's league......he was the 23rd highest paid DE in the league. The logic was to at least ask him to take a pay cut.

I'm pretty sure he has publicly stated that he wishes to test the FA market.

I assume I'm wrong with this question......but didn't KW have his best year in 2010 as the NT in the 3-4?

"The problem @3 overall you expect a guy to be ready to go...." This was the only thing that I was discussing. That expectation you voiced is simply illogical. We all want our #3 pick to be ready to go.....but only a small percent of them actually are ready to go.

The Fitzinator!

The sad thing is that I haven't even given an actual opinion on Darius.....just an opinion on Joe's ill-conceived expectations of drafted players.

Something that has been annoying me lately is the sound effects in TV/Movies. Every time a hand is moved when there is a gun in it....."Klick, clak, klick." Every arm movement (usually for a punch attempt)....."Whoosh"....as if they are moving so fast that they nearly break the sound barrier. Padded based chess pieces "clicking" on the chess board. Car tyres "screeeeaaaching" as it accelerates straight ahead. .....and my all time longest running hated ridiculous sound effect.....the "sching" of a sword being drawn from a wooden or cloth scabbard.

Again...NO!!!! I am not saying anything of the sort. I am saying that your expectation that the #3 pick should be ready to start straight away is unrealistic. What you are saying is that because there are players like Ngata & Wilfork who hit the league and play at a high level straight away......we should expect all players to perform at the same level upon entering the league.....regardless of how unusual it is to happen. Your argument is akin to saying that Brady was a 6th round pick.....therefore we should expect all sixth round picks to perform at his level. Surely one would need something to occur at least 50% of the time for one to formulate a reasonable/rational expectation for it to occur generally? (Though personally I wouldn't "expect" something to happen unless it occurs at least 80% of the time). Ngata was the 12th pick....Wilfork a 21st. Do I really need to list every DT selected down to the 12th/21st pick......highlight the instant successes.....calculate what percent were instant successes......to prove to you that an expectation that ones 1st round DT draft pick should be as good as Ngata upon entering the league is total bollocks?

Didn't he watch 1000s of hours of game footage from his apartment? He was the only media analyst that I have ever trusted in their opinion......so, yes, I miss him.

No..... You said... "The problem @3 overall you expect a guy to be ready to go...." You stated an expectation that a #3 overall pick is expected to perform straight away. I replied that the expectation you had is unrealistic. I then backed up my statement by showing all of the DTs that have been drafted between the #1 & #5 slots. There was only one(picked #2) out of the six players selected who showed that he was "ready to go" when he hit the NFL. When faced with facts, it is wiser to readjust ones assumptions rather than attempting to belittle & insult the person presenting those facts.

Usually the 1st year of any large deal has a lesser cap hit than the average year of the deal. This is due to both the SB coming through(leading to a lesser 1st year base salary)....and the latter years often having an inflationary type effect pushing them higher. It wouldn't surprise me if Byrd & Levitre could both be signed for less than 10m of 2013 cap dollars.

That's an unrealistic expectation. DT picked #1 - #5 from 2000 - 2012: 2011(3): Marcell Dareus....5.5 sacks/year(11 sacks total)....82 tackles in 2 years 2010(2): Ndamukong Suh....pro-bowler rookie 2010(3): Gerald McCoy....3 sacks rookie year...on pace for 3 sacks 2nd year(played 6 games)....5 sacks & pro bowl 3rd year....68 tackles in 3 years 2008(5): Glenn Dorsey....2 sacks & 100 tackles in first 2 years 2003(4): Dewayne Robertson....4.5 sacks in 1st 2 years....gone by 2009. 2001(3): Gerard Warren....7 sacks & 101 tackles in first 2 years(no pro bowl career). Usually DTs take 3 years to develop. See above.

Bob Johnson looked good after 1 start.

Does anybody actually buy into all of that phoney hype?

On a team that was devoid of LB talent, this to me is perhaps a very telling point.

+1

Just quibbling first.....technically a pay cut is a form of contract restructure. I only point this out as many(including myself) include the concept of pay cut when talking about a Fitz restructure. That being said, I agree with you totally. The only way Fitz can help this team is by taking a pay cut.....and even then it won't do too much for us. The logic I'm following is that he will likely expect a deal of around 3.5m from another team as a backup if we cut him. Therefore we will likely need to at most cut his income to around 3.5m/year to keep him. Looking at his 2013.....he is due a 3m bonus and has a 4.25m salary....and another 0.2m bonus......7.45m total. Reducing that to 3.5m total(saving 3.95m) is fine.....but it will still leave us with a 6.5m cap number for him......and a 7m dead money cap number in 2014 if we cut him after the season(regardless of pay cut). We would then be lumbered with him in the 2014 season.....again assuming the same pay cut.....we would be saving 4.05m....but would still be subject to another 6.5m cap number for him.....and a 4m dead money cap number in 2015 if we cut him after the 2014 season. This all assumes that his worth is 3.5m/year. If it is higher our situation is worse....lower our situation gets a bit better. The end result is that even with a pay cut, he will likely be on the roster for 2 seasons....costing the cap 6.5m/season. IMO the Fitz contract was one of the worst decisions made by the Bills in the last decade.

Furthering to your excellent points.... Kelsay only had a 1.6m signing bonus making it very easy in cap terms to cut him at any point throughout his contract. He certainly didn't hamstring the team as some have suggested......and I'm sure that if we had a better replacement, he & his high contract would have been out the door.

Sweet irony, I know you well.

Yeah.....but it was really 1 in the last 5....and 2 in the preceding 3. That means we are learning from history and won't be drafting a DB in the 1st this year as that would make 2 in 2 years.....which would be going backwards......and that isn't going to happen. It's not I tell you....it can't....please don't let that happen.

LOl...it's not a competition Until you just mentioned it, I wasn't aware of how much information spotrac gave. Both are extremely good.....over the cap seems to me to be more user friendly......and has a couple of things like overall team cap room. Personally, I have them both bookmarked & will use them both regularly.

WTF was that???