Dibs

I understand people getting disappointed about this but I don't understand why so many feel that what the Bills did was a tremendous mistake. If the guy did indeed have 1st round potential......and no team in the NFL decided to risk a virtually worthless 7th round pick on him(in order to secure his talent, and then be patient and try to get him to mature)......his character flaws(immaturity) must have been of extremely high concern. The Bills then get him as an UDFA, he exhibits the aforementioned character flaws by not learning the playbook(and who knows what else), and the Bills decide it isn't worth the effort to try and get him to see the light(they can't beat it into him) and let him go. Perhaps this then gave him the kick up the bum he needed to understand that things won't naturally fall into place unless you work hard for them......and when the Colts pick him up, he works hard to try and become an NFL player. I see it as just unfortunate for us......and certainly not the horrid mismanagement that many here are gnashing their teeth over.

His cash hit if we keep him will be(as best I can figure).... 3.65M in salary, plus 1.75M in roster bonus, plus 0.275M in workout bonus.....total = 5.675M I don't think you understood. The 2014 cap room that we would have if we put the Fitz money into the 2013 year would be exactly the same as how we have done it by putting it in the 2014 year. As the team wouldn't have had extra money in the 2014 cap, there is no extra room for improvement via FA splash next year. In regards to the rollover rules, it seems to me that there is no benefits to not move the dead money to the next year if you can. It provides extra cap room in the first year for potential FA or re-signing moves......and on a cynical view, pushes your following years numbers up to achieve the minimum amount needed. With that said, I would think that if we do cut SJ it could well be after the 2014 year starts(June)......unless there are some non-guaranteed monies due the instant the new NFL year clicks over. This would then enable the team to spread the cap hit over 2014/2015 similarly to Fitz(but again wouldn't effect the final cap numbers of the 2015 year).

To my knowledge, any pre-paid monies paid to a to a player from their original team have to be tallied and accounted for under the original teams cap. Any other monies, including guaranteed(but not yet paid) monies are taken up by the trading team. In regards to SJ being traded....as best I can figure it.....we will need to pick up the remainder of his Signing Bonus(1.7M x 3 = 5.1M). He has scheduled 0.275M guaranteed bonuses each year which we won't have to pick up. He also is due 1.75M in 2014 and 0.25M in 2015 which I am assuming are guaranteed as well. The short of it is that if he gets traded, it looks like his dead cap hit will be only 5.1M rather than 8.475M.......meaning we would be better off by 3.4M rather than just 25K.

No offense to Mark Vader(though I don't know how I can avoid it)..... Amazing Spider-Man was absolutely horrendously awful. It was in the same realm IMO as Spider-Man 3, X-Men 3: Last Stand, or Dark Knight Rises. If you care anything about plots or character actions making logical sense then don't see it. On the other hand, if you care little for that sort of thing.......see it.....you'll likely have a great time.

I've seen you make this point a few times now and each time I wonder "What exactly are you meaning & to whom?". Though there may be a minority of people who just want to see passing yardage.......generally, most people understand that you need top tier QB play to win the SB, not large passing yardage numbers.

We could be looking at locking up Glenn, Dareus, Kiko, Spiller, A.Williams and Hughes.....and hopefully will want to re-sign Gilmore, Woods and EJ. The 9M/year cap savings in 2015 & 2016 could come in extremely handy. .....and setting us up nicely for when we need to spend the money on very-good/star players(not just overspend it on decent/good players). Due to the rollover rules for the cap, it made absolutely no difference. Our 2014 cap would have been exactly the same figure had we put all of the Fitz dead cap hit in the 2013 year rather than the 2014 year.

That's not how it works. (I think you are mistaking actual dollars paid in a year with the dollar amount counted against the cap). If he gets cut then the guaranteed monies from future years that were spread over each years cap, all come to count in the year of being cut. For instance, his 8.5M signing bonus was paid up front. It counts evenly towards each years cap under the contract(1.7M). When cut early, the money that hasn't been accounted for yet(under the cap) gets tallied and gets accounted for in the year of being cut. Though there seems to be quite a few hidden complexities to SJ's contract, the basic numbers are here: http://www.spotrac.c...stevie-johnson/ http://www.overtheca...n=WR&Team=Bills Edit: The actual dollar amounts saved become rather irrelevant as it is the cap dollars that effect whether a team is able to sign or re-sign players. SJ actual dollar savings: 2014: 5.675M 2015: 6.025M 2016: 6.125M To summarize, SJ is due to take home 5.67M in extra money in 2014. If he is cut, the Bills save that money......but due to how the cap is calculated, we will only be better off under the cap by 25K. We would however save an additional 12.15M of cash and clear 17.8M of cap room under the 2015/2016 combined caps if SJ was cut.

I think you should have added SJ's cap numbers(and dead cap hits) for the future seasons as IMO that likely would effect how some people might come to a conclusion on the matter(one way or the other). 2014: 8.5M (8.475M dead if cut) 2015: 8.85M (5.65M dead if cut) 2016: 8.95M (2.825M dead if cut) Cutting him after the season would effectively save no money(costing 8.5M either way).....but would free up the 2015 & 2016 caps by nearly 9M/year. I personally don't believe that SJ is worth that level of money to this team.

1. Win the Super Bowl. 2.

You know the guy went undrafted, yes?

Having hardly ever read any of his articles, I thought I might have a look and see if I agree/disagree.....and make my own assessment of Mr. Sullivan. My conclusions: You are 100% correct. If Sullivan had written the article with honour and integrity, rather than written it to get an emotional(negative) response from his readers.....he could have easily worded things slightly differently and still maintained his main editorial point(on SJ ability/character). He could have said something like...... "Though not so long ago it seemed like SJ was a very good WR and a wise investment by the Bills, he has since shown himself to be an expensive liability. With hindsight it was an unfortunate mistake to extend SJ to the contract they did." Instead he made specific points reflecting negatively on the Bills by saying.... "He’s a No. 1 receiver in name only. The Bills treated him like one – and overpaid him – because they had no one else to play the part. On most NFL teams, he would be a No. 2 or worse." ....and.... "They should have let him go after the outrageous 2011 season. Instead, they gave him a five-year, $36.25 million extension. It was a mistake." Mr. Sullivan didn't throw Stevie under the bus as there are good reasons to suggest that he has placed himself there. He did however throw the Bills under the bus as his initial assessment was that they made wise and prudent move to extend SJ......and is now throwing blame at them rather than establishing them as the victim of SJ's self inflicted decline.

Nickell Robey says "Hi" too......and Stefan Charles is trying his best to communicate his greetings.

I had to look at the date the article of when the article was written. I figure this article must have been held back for a week as the comment of..... "...and while Smith and Glennon had decent games on Sunday..." ......is incongruous with Glennon's 9-25-90-2-2 performance against Buffalo. It's the little things like this early in an article that leave me disinterested in the rest.

Why does everybody keep talking about the strength of the QB draft class as though it somehow elevates or diminishes the talent of all QBs in the class? As if all QBs will be poorer in a weak class and all QBs will be better in a strong class. A strong class might have 3 super prospects who all get selected in the top 5......this does not mean that the guy selected at #16(or #75) is going to be any better a prospect than had he been in a different class. A weak class might have no super prospects......and only one guy who is graded as a 1st rounder......this does not mean that that one guy is going to be a worst prospect than had there been 3 QBs selected ahead of him in the top 10. Though many people are incensed over Wilson......the facts are that no team selects a QB in the 3rd round and has any real expectations or even many hopes that he will turn into a star QB(let alone quickly do so).

There are no stats for OTs. In regards to fan voting......no stats means no votes unless you are a known quantity(previous probowls/hype).

Not that anyone can read my mind....but.... Is Kaufman the WR who had a great draft combine catching everything in sight(all hands catches)? If he's the guy I'm thinking of, I'm pretty happy.

Very good point, I'm surprised nobody has made comment on this. Perhaps he just might play a lot better when he is confident and comfortable......and maybe....if we're really lucky.....he'll develop into a confident QB who is comfortable playing on the road and have similar stats across the board. 3-1 at RWS btw......with the loss being week one with the Brady comeback(21-23).

I'm sure that there is another thread about this. I think it has "accountability" in the title.

I guess that would depend on whether the premise of the thread was still relevant.

Though I agree that it should have been called a fumle, the fact that it was called an INT means that the WR couldn't have met the criteria needed to be not considered defenseless(under the new girly rules).

26, 33, 32, 52 starts respectively......Holcomb had 8 About 2 seasons of starts for the young guys each.

Awesome......just what I wanted. Thanks greatly. My take from that is......in the system we use, Byrd would be well worth the money to re-sign as replacing such an important cog would be very difficult to achieve.

That O line had been doing a pretty good job prior to last week. I don't think it reasonable to base all future expectations upon their worst performance(since inserting Legursky).

You are right with Schaub......I neglected to factor his age into things(Yes, 33 next season). He doesn't fully fit in with the assertion I made. His contract however is exorbitant for a backup but would be very manageable for the next two seasons if he was starting(or mainly starting)......and with a trade, cutting him would see no dead cap hit for us either. The fear would be though, that after 2 seasons he plays well for us(and we have no legit QB to step in and take his place)......thus at the age of 34(2015 season) we make the error of giving him an extension(till he plays at age 37[2018]). I'm pretty much right there with you on that. I think all Bills fans would be desperate for a playoff appearance. I just don't want us to exchange long term mediocrity for long term good(but not great) performances. Though I desperately want the Bills to make the playoffs and break the drought, I also desperately want to see us back at the top of the league.