Free Agency News and Updates - around the league

[Stank_Nasty]

Tom Pelissero is reporting the Ravens are going to promptly start looking for trade partners after they franchise Judon.

[thebandit27]

2 minutes ago, GG said:

 

I'll keep harping on this until March 23 (Murphy's bonus time).  If Bills somehow end up with a marquee DE in week 1 of FA, and can bring Shaq back at $10 mil or less, Murphy is as good as gone.  You don't waste $10 mill cap space on a declining DE who'll be in 30% of snaps.

That last sentence is altogether inaccurate.

 

Murphy is 29 years old, coming off of his 2nd best season in terms of sacks, and lead all Bills’ DEs in snap count last year.

 

It makes absolutely no sense to cut a productive DE, thereby making your team worse, for the sake of cap space that you do not need.

[Stank_Nasty]

1 minute ago, thebandit27 said:

That last sentence is altogether inaccurate.

 

Murphy is 29 years old, coming off of his 2nd best season in terms of sacks, and lead all Bills’ DEs in snap count last year.

 

It makes absolutely no sense to cut a productive DE, thereby making your team worse, for the sake of cap space that you do not need.

also he sorta ended on a heater didn't he? Didn't he have 4 sacks combined in the finale and the playoff game?.... maybe getting his groove back.

Edited March 4, 2020 by Stank_Nasty

[BuffaloRebound]

A hypothetical of Shaq at $10m per year, Hughes at $10m per year, Clowney at $20m per year, Star at $8m per year...it becomes hard to pay Murphy $8m per year as your 4th Defensive End.  But hey, if it works for 1 year go for it.  It’s not my money.  Murphy might also have trade value if all these pass rushers get tagged.  

[thebandit27]

1 minute ago, Stank_Nasty said:

Tom Pelissero is reporting the Ravens are going to promptly start looking for trade partners after they franchise Judon.

I guess that makes sense since they have Bowser and Ferguson waiting in the wings, and are in a good position to grab an EDGE like Murray, Lewis, or Baun at 28.

[GG]

1 minute ago, thebandit27 said:

That last sentence is altogether inaccurate.

 

Murphy is 29 years old, coming off of his 2nd best season in terms of sacks, and lead all Bills’ DEs in snap count last year.

 

It makes absolutely no sense to cut a productive DE, thereby making your team worse, for the sake of cap space that you do not need.

 

If the above scenario works out, Murphy will be the #4 DE on the roster.  You do not pay your #4 DE $10 million, especially when you are trying to figure out if Bam Johnson can rise to the next level.

[thebandit27]

12 minutes ago, Stank_Nasty said:

also he sorta ended on a heater didn't he? Didn't he have 4 sacks combined in the finale and the playoff game?.... maybe getting his groove back.

Correct. 4 sacks over the final 5 games plus 2 against Houston in the playoffs.

10 minutes ago, GG said:

 

If the above scenario works out, Murphy will be the #4 DE on the roster.  You do not pay your #4 DE $10 million, especially when you are trying to figure out if Bam Johnson can rise to the next level.

Why? The Eagles basically did exactly that with Graham, Barnett, Long, and Curry a few years ago and won a Super Bowl.

Edited March 4, 2020 by thebandit27

[GG]

14 minutes ago, thebandit27 said:

Correct. 4 sacks over the final 5 games plus 2 against Houston in the playoffs.

Why? The Eagles basically did exactly that with Graham, Barnett, Long, and Curry a few years ago and won a Super Bowl.

 

If you check the salaries & caps of the Eagles' 4 DEs in 2017, they are nowhere near +$50 million total that Bills would be facing this year if they land a marquee FA.  Chris Long is the closest comp to Murphy, and he signed a very team friendly FA deal in '17.

[thebandit27]

6 minutes ago, GG said:

 

If you check the salaries & caps of the Eagles' 4 DEs in 2017, they are nowhere near +$50 million total that Bills would be facing this year if they land a marquee FA.  Chris Long is the closest comp to Murphy, and he signed a very team friendly FA deal in '17.

Well, for one thing, Graham and Curry counted a combined $16.5M. So they were at a total of $21M for DEs. At the time, the cap was $167M, so that was about 13% of the cap.

 

If you want to assume that the Bills land a whale in FA, say a $15M/year guy, then they’ll be paying about $39.5M toward DEs. That’s about 20.5%. That’s not a big deal for one year when you have a QB on a rookie contract.

 

And again, why make your team worse for the sake of cap space that you don’t need? Nobody seems to answer that question with anything other than “cap space!!!1!-!1!!1”

[Hapless Bills Fan]

44 minutes ago, GG said:

 

I'll keep harping on this until March 23 (Murphy's bonus time).  If Bills somehow end up with a marquee DE in week 1 of FA, and can bring Shaq back at $10 mil or less, Murphy is as good as gone.  You don't waste $10 mill cap space on a declining DE who'll be in 30% of snaps.

 

Just a note that Murphy's roster bonus at that time is only $500k.  It's a lot of money to me personally, but in the NFL scheme of things it hardly seems to be decisive towards cutting a productive player who is under contract.

[GG]

3 minutes ago, thebandit27 said:

Well, for one thing, Graham and Curry counted a combined $16.5M. So they were at a total of $21M for DEs. At the time, the cap was $167M, so that was about 13% of the cap.

 

If you want to assume that the Bills land a whale in FA, say a $15M/year guy, then they’ll be paying about $39.5M toward DEs. That’s about 20.5%. That’s not a big deal for one year when you have a QB on a rookie contract.

 

And again, why make your team worse for the sake of cap space that you don’t need? Nobody seems to answer that question with anything other than “cap space!!!1!-!1!!1”

 

For starters, your math is a bit off, a whale FA (Clowney) will cost $20 mil.  But even if they land a $15 mill player, the total cap spend on DEs would be about $45 mil (assuming you bring Shaq back at $10 mil).   

 

Secondly, listen to the GM's words about the cap.   He goes out of his way to talk about long term roster and cap management, because the two go hand in hand.  Just because they have loads of space this year doesn't mean they will max out the cap.  He wants max cap flexibility for future years to extend or resign the youngsters.  You can see that logic working with Star.   They had plenty of cap space to keep his contract, but everyone realized that he's not playing up to his cap value. 

 

Same rationale will apply to Murphy if they add new DEs.  If Murphy is demoted to a rotational piece on the line, his contract sticks out like a sore thumb for a guy on the last year of his deal, and with Bam Johnson waiting in the wings.

2 minutes ago, Hapless Bills Fan said:

 

Just a note that Murphy's roster bonus at that time is only $500k.  It's a lot of money to me personally, but in the NFL scheme of things it hardly seems to be decisive towards cutting a productive player who is under contract.

 

I'm never cavalier about spending other people's money.  The decisive factor for Murphy will be what Beane can do in the first week of FA.

[Reed83HOF]

1 hour ago, GG said:

 

For starters, your math is a bit off, a whale FA (Clowney) will cost $20 mil.  But even if they land a $15 mill player, the total cap spend on DEs would be about $45 mil (assuming you bring Shaq back at $10 mil).   

 

Secondly, listen to the GM's words about the cap.   He goes out of his way to talk about long term roster and cap management, because the two go hand in hand.  Just because they have loads of space this year doesn't mean they will max out the cap.  He wants max cap flexibility for future years to extend or resign the youngsters.  You can see that logic working with Star.   They had plenty of cap space to keep his contract, but everyone realized that he's not playing up to his cap value. 

 

Same rationale will apply to Murphy if they add new DEs.  If Murphy is demoted to a rotational piece on the line, his contract sticks out like a sore thumb for a guy on the last year of his deal, and with Bam Johnson waiting in the wings.

 

I'm never cavalier about spending other people's money.  The decisive factor for Murphy will be what Beane can do in the first week of FA.

Murphy is signed through this year. The fun exercise is that the savings generated from LorAx no longer being here and dumping both Shaq and Murphy = what you would pay Yannick around $17M/year, which keeps the cap hit the same as (or very close to) last season.

 

You can even go after the top UFA TEs at $10M/season and cut Smith and Kroft and make no difference to the cap. 

 

You can sign all of the upcoming UFAs on our team and we still still have a lot of room.

 

You can sign Shaq to a long term deal to take over from Murphy next year and we still have a lot of cap room.

 

Unless the cap becomes so tight, there is no need to dump Murphy - he is a UFA next season and will be a reliable rotation player and valuable backup if Hughes or the UFA Edge gets dinged up. 

 

 

[thebandit27]

1 hour ago, GG said:

 

For starters, your math is a bit off, a whale FA (Clowney) will cost $20 mil.  But even if they land a $15 mill player, the total cap spend on DEs would be about $45 mil (assuming you bring Shaq back at $10 mil).   

 

Secondly, listen to the GM's words about the cap.   He goes out of his way to talk about long term roster and cap management, because the two go hand in hand.  Just because they have loads of space this year doesn't mean they will max out the cap.  He wants max cap flexibility for future years to extend or resign the youngsters.  You can see that logic working with Star.   They had plenty of cap space to keep his contract, but everyone realized that he's not playing up to his cap value. 

 

Same rationale will apply to Murphy if they add new DEs.  If Murphy is demoted to a rotational piece on the line, his contract sticks out like a sore thumb for a guy on the last year of his deal, and with Bam Johnson waiting in the wings.

 

I'm never cavalier about spending other people's money.  The decisive factor for Murphy will be what Beane can do in the first week of FA.

The Murphy decision has zero impact on cap flexibility for the future. It is purely 2020; the final year of his deal.

 

And again I ask: what good does it do to make your team worse for the sake of cap space that you don’t need?

[YoloinOhio]

 

[thebandit27]

Just now, YoloinOhio said:

 

They're going to let Blake Martinez walk and sign Schoebert? Interesting.

[GG]

2 minutes ago, thebandit27 said:

The Murphy decision has zero impact on cap flexibility for the future. It is purely 2020; the final year of his deal.

 

And again I ask: what good does it do to make your team worse for the sake of cap space that you don’t need?

 

His 2020 cap absolutely affects the future, because any savings in 2020 can be used to add to the future cap.   For now, Murphy is the 2nd highest cap hit at nearly $10 million, with a dead cap of only $1.75 mil.    If he's slated to be a 30% rotational player in '20, that $8 million cap saving is far more valuable for a future contract (never mind saving Pegula's checkbook)

[thebandit27]

Just now, GG said:

 

His 2020 cap absolutely affects the future, because any savings in 2020 can be used to add to the future cap.   For now, Murphy is the 2nd highest cap hit at nearly $10 million, with a dead cap of only $1.75 mil.    If he's slated to be a 30% rotational player in '20, that $8 million cap saving is far more valuable for a future contract (never mind saving Pegula's checkbook)

Actually, we can’t roll over cap room to 2021 unless that’s included as part of the new CBA. 
 

And this team has over $100M in cap space for 2021 as of now. 

[GG]

1 minute ago, thebandit27 said:

Actually, we can’t roll over cap room to 2021 unless that’s included as part of the new CBA. 
 

And this team has over $100M in cap space for 2021 as of now. 

 

Both players and owners would be dumb not to include the cap rollover conditions into the CBA extension (especially from the players' side)

[Reed83HOF]

13 minutes ago, thebandit27 said:

Actually, we can’t roll over cap room to 2021 unless that’s included as part of the new CBA. 
 

And this team has over $100M in cap space for 2021 as of now. 

Which is astounding and only what 26 players under contract and then only 13 under contract in 2022? It's bloody brilliant!

[Pete]

1 hour ago, thebandit27 said:

Actually, we can’t roll over cap room to 2021 unless that’s included as part of the new CBA. 
 

And this team has over $100M in cap space for 2021 as of now. 

sign Clowney then.  No sense hoarding cap space if we can't roll it over

if that's the case, let's extend and front load Tre'Davious and Dawkins