Rubes

I was expecting some excellent responses in this thread and I haven't been disappointed!

Man, a lot of people are taking this a little too personally. I don't know Byrd, but from what I read it sounds like he's a pretty stand up guy, not a bull****ter, and probably not a greedy bastard. That's an assumption on my part, but I think it's a fair one. That said, put yourself in Byrd's shoes. The team you're with makes you what we can only guess is a very good offer. But this is, perhaps, a once in a lifetime chance to cash in, and to see what your worth is on the open market. By all accounts, Byrd will be a hot commodity, pursued by several teams. The opportunity for the bidding to skyrocket is fairly good. Is it really such a terrible thing to give it a shot and see how it goes? What if the bidding makes it north of $10-11 million per year? There's the chance of that, and it's reasonable to expect him to see if that happens. Perhaps the deal with the Bills is that he'd give them real consideration if it turns out the market doesn't play out like that, or perhaps if the highest bidders are crappy teams that he has no interest in, as long as they don't tag him. Fine, fair enough. If I'm Byrd, it's worth a look if the offer from the Bills stands. Most of us don't see it that way -- we see crazy numbers like $9 million a year, $10 million a year, $11 million a year, and we don't see a big difference. I mean, who really needs $11 million per year vs $9 million? It's crazy, but most players are interested in pushing things forward. Think about it another way. The reason Byrd is being offered somewhere around $10 million per year is because some guy before him tested the market and got it up to $8 million per year. And some guy before him drove the market up to $7 million per year, and the guy before him up to $5 million per year. Years ago, the league probably cringed when some safety started making $1 million per year. But Byrd, and the rest of the league, has all of those individuals to thank when the market is now set somewhere around $10 million per year. By going out and testing the market, he can help raise salaries even more, so that those who come after him can reap the benefits. He's playing his part. It seems greedy and shallow, but it's how things have evolved over many years now. I'm not saying that's exactly what he's doing, but I would strongly suspect it.

Me too. Not exactly the greatest quality T-shirts, though.

He injured himself on a mat. A !@#$ING MAT.

If it ain't broke...

Wow. Just wow.

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?