Rubes

I honestly think the Bills sat down and decided what they thought he is worth to them, not to the league as a whole, and made the decision not to go above that. If he leaves and gets more than what they offered, then they're justified because they didn't want to pay that much. If he goes elsewhere for the same or less than what they offered, then they're justified because he obviously didn't want to be here. I think Whaley is being straightforward when he says they "place a value on a person or player." Not exactly the same, but kind of like buying a car: you decide the most you'd be willing to pay before you go to the dealer, and if they won't come down to that price, you stick to your guns and walk, because otherwise you're going against your plan.

This is pretty spot on, I'd say. You can get good, experienced G and LB in free agency for not a huge amount of money. If we can target just these two positions and get good upgrades, we'd be in a pretty nice position overall. Not in FA. Not worth the money. This is what the 4th or 5th rounds in the draft are for.

Not exactly. What's the benefit? So that if another team offers him a big deal, we can match it? We already offered him what we believe to be the best we could, and wanted, to offer -- and he rejected it. There is no advantage here to using the transition tag. C.Biscuit said it well above -- this is just disappointing, that's all. I wanted to see Byrd stay in the defense. But, as they say, "you can't always get what you want." Well, unless you're Byrd. I'm coming around to seeing why it didn't make a ton of sense to use the franchise tag. The Bills probably made their best offer, and Byrd refused. Finding a trade partner would be very difficult, because unless Byrd really wanted that trade partner, that team is looking at getting a player on the franchise tag who will probably sit out training camp and the first part of the season just like he did last year. Something the Bills don't want to go through again, with a new defensive coordinator and potentially a new system. F it, time to move on.

Great horny toads. Shame. I actually really liked the last pewter redesign.

I think this is pretty much spot-on. While I'd like to see Carpenter back, I think the regime would prefer to sign Byrd and Chandler and save a little money by going with Hopkins. I don't think that would be a horrible idea, but I'd certainly like to see a guy like Carpenter be rewarded for having such a great year.

Well played, sir. Well played.

Did the Harbaugh thing happen after Pettine was hired, or before? I thought it was before, but I haven't been paying close attention.

Good work, there. I agree that 0.71 is not a very strong correlation, but the fact that the previous season was only 0.46 gives it a bit more impact.

Is that implying something?

KevinMassare We have been told Jeffrey Littmann will never be replaced. He is Wilson's finance guy for ALL his endeavors. He will leave when Ralph does. 2/24/14, 3:43 PM

benjaminkota @ByTimGraham who in the org has the final say to fire the old guard? 2/23/14, 10:22 PM ByTimGraham @benjaminkota Ralph, technically. But probably Jeff Littmann. 2/23/14, 10:22 PM benjaminkota @mrdeadlier @ByTimGraham tweeted me that Ralph or littman have final say to fire old guard. No mention Of Brandon. Does he have any power? 2/23/14, 10:36 PM ByTimGraham @benjaminkota Russ has a lot of power, but "final say" was my response. @mrdeadlier 2/23/14, 10:40 PM Kind of interesting in light of Brandon's claim that he was given "full authority to run the franchise with zero restrictions and zero limitations."

Say what? Edit: Ah, you meant to say "So many". Nevermind.

Kind of a fascinating situation, really. Now that this is out there, it really needs to be addressed by someone in the FO. Otherwise, the fans are going to believe that Whaley and Marrone are working with one hand tied behind their backs, and who's going to support that? Especially after last year's pronouncement that Brandon's the one overseeing everything. Will he just ignore this and hope it goes away? Will he try to spin it differently? Will he take action? All avenues have some sort of repercussion, it would seem.

The potential advantage to Ebron over Evans is that we currently have three decent WR (Stevie, Woods, Goodwin), so Evans would usually be pushing one of them to the bench. With Ebron, all three stay on the field along with him for four good targets.

I hope you're right, but I wouldn't be surprised to see a few of them fall...

I wouldn't be so sure about the QBs all going so high. There are needy teams, but I'm not sure teams are necessarily sold on the guys available.

Wha...seriously? That's insane for a guy with that size.

I'm on board with Evans. Get a TE or LB in the 2nd, and a LG in the 3rd, and I'm happy.

If the draft is so deep, who in their right mind would give up picks to move up?

For those of you who don't think a safety is worth $10 million a year... When will a safety be worth that? Remember that the salary cap goes up every year, so individual position value goes up with it. Even for those of you who think $10 million is way too much for a safety...well, eventually, one day, it won't be, assuming the salary cap continues to rise as it has. When will that day be for you? Is it a percent thing? It seems like most of you are happy to pay Byrd $8.5 million per year. Last years salary cap was $123 million. That means you'd be happy spending 6.9% of the cap on him. But the cap is just about to go up by 5% to about $130 million. A $10 million per year contract will now be 7.6% of the cap. Does that really get everyone's panties in a bunch? Salaries and values go up every year. What sounds ridiculous one year will soon be the norm. Many would argue the norm has already changed.

So if the Bills used the transition tag on Byrd, he and his agent would shop around for the best deal. Let's say Cleveland comes along and offers $9.5 million per year, then Chicago comes along and offers $10 million per year. Then Philly chimes in and offers him a gaudy $10.5 million per year. The Bills look at that and say, "holy crap, we can't afford that," and then Byrd goes to Philly and the Bills get nothing. How does that help the Bills? Why would they do that?

Yes, we know. You've beaten that drum to death.

Sounds like the Bills will be meeting with Byrd's agent tomorrow. Stay tuned.

I suppose Cleveland has the picks for a tag and trade, but I don't like the idea of creating another hole to be filled by someone unproven.

Truly heartbreaking. I cannot know what you're going through, but you have a friend and an ear if you need one.