Could John Brown be Released Next Off-Season?

[loyal2dagame]

If Brown is gone next year,  it won't be from being released.  He has serious value and if the Bills deem him expendable (which i doubt) i would hope he'd be traded to get some return on that value. 

Edited December 10, 2020 by loyal2dagame

[QLBillsFan]

1 hour ago, Halloween Land said:

Looking at his 2021 salary from Spotrac.com, releasing Brown would save $8.15 million from the cap and only $1.6 million in dead cap. He is a great player to have but with Gabriel Davis playing well and Brown dealing with injuries this year, I can see him being released. What do you guys think? 

No! Why would smoke be remotely thought of as release candidate. I can think of 4-5 players way more in line for release. Smoke is home run hitter and must be accounted for. 

[BearNorth]

Assuming Smoke doesn't have serious injuries which reduce his top end speed, he is still one of the fastest WR's in the league and takes the top end off defenses, as he often ties up their fastest most athletic DB.  Diggs Beasley

and Davis feast as a result.

 

Edited December 10, 2020 by BearNorth

[The Firebaugh Kid]

Drugs are bad. 

[QLBillsFan]

21 minutes ago, BillsFan2313 said:

Why do people want to release good players all the time? Stop worrying about the cap. 

Agree! Bills created this team on purpose. We don’t need to add too many more cogs to remain contenders or get to the SB. Our depth is really solid across the board. I could see a slight trimming of this roster. But nothing drastic. I don’t expect the Bills to be very active in FA. I see us filling via draft and strategic FA signings. We focus on resigning our own and adding at DL, CB, OL, TE.

[Weatherman]

1 hour ago, Rock-A-Bye Beasley said:

Restructure.  I listened to a podcast where they described how that could look. The market is not going to look good for a 31 yo receiver coming off injuries if the cap is lowered. They could extend him a year and guarantee a little more money in exchange for a lower cap hit both seasons. This would be a take it or leave it situation. Same thing for Vernon Butler and Q Jefferson.

If I was a gambling man, Butler and Jefferson will not be on the roster next year.  Not impressed with either especially at their salary.  We need a pass rush desperately.  

[dpberr]

When John Brown is on the field, his presence makes the engine operate at its peak efficiency.  I'd dare to say he's Josh Allen's favorite receiver from a confidence standpoint.  I wouldn't want the Bills to let him go.  

 

I don't think there's any defense in the AFC that has the resources to shut both a 100% healthy John Brown and Stefon Diggs down, and it'll prove to be a catalyst in the playoffs.     

 

  

[nucci]

55 minutes ago, dollars 2 donuts said:

 

 

I don't want him gone, but the thumbs up I gave was for the always appreciated Nuch gift of brevity!

ha, thanks.....he also could not be released

[HOUSE]

No, his value is to high and he is now a tradable  commodity

[OrtonHearsaWho]

1 hour ago, Dkollidas said:

I tell anyone considering this... PLEASE listen to the Cover 1 podcast with Greg Tompsett from the bye week I believe, about the Bills 2021 cap situation.

 

While certain media types (WGR, Fairburn & Buscaglia on the Athletic) are bemoaning the Bills cap situation in 2021, they can do a lot, rather easily, to give themselves cap space.

With rollover from this year, we’re projected to have roughly $5M in cap space.

 

Easier cuts like Vernon Butler ($6.8M saved), Tyler Matakevich ($3.35M) and Lee Smith ($2.25M) can be made. That saves a total of $12.4M

 

John Brown, Jerry Hughes, and Micah Hyde can all be re-signed, lowering all of their 2021 cap hits, by an average of about $3M-$4M each. That saves another $10M-$12M.
Also, their 2022 years of their contracts (except maybe Hyde, would be relatively easy to get out of if Hughes/Brown regress further in 2021). 

So with those cuts and extensions, we’re at about $27M-$29M.

 

Lastly you can restructure contracts. This is usually reserved for players who you plan on keeping. You basically turn their salary for 2021 into a signing bonus which gets evenly divided throughout the length of the contract. Someone Ike Diggs is perfect for this, gives him more money up front, and gives us a year to hold off on totally redoing his contract. It also saves about $7.5M-$8M on his 2021 cap hit.

 

So right there, without anything very painful at all, I’ve built up the Bills 2021 cap space to roughly $35M-$37M. 
 

Then looking at a guy like Milano, maybe the injury allows him to take a deal that is more based on incentives, and has an overall value of maybe $11M/aav, but the cap hit for the first year is only say, $7M. Another $6M on Feliciano.

 

Our draft class should be cheaper since we pick later, maybe $3.5M, and then re-sign outstanding free agents (Dean Marlowe, Taiwan Jones etc etc) for veteran minimums of roughly $1M each (let’s say 6 guys make the roster at the end of the day, a cost of maybe $8M total).

 

We’ve filled a roster, re-signed two of our three top UFA’s, and added 6 draft picks, a complete roster, for about $25M of that $37M-$39M in cap space. 
 

That leaves us with about $12M-$14M to play with in the UFA market, or make trades, or keep in space and roll over into 2022 when Allen and Edmunds will likely be on their 5th year options and more space will be needed. 

 

That was entirely too informative...you have no business on a message board

[Mickey]

2 hours ago, Limeaid said:

Could yes.  Could means possibility.  An mini-asteroid COULD hit Fixborough stadium forcing P*ts to play one of their games in Buffalo.

 

Other than possibility it is just idle speculation.

 

Just another post inspired by Madden Franchise Mode.

[Mark Vader]

2 hours ago, Virgil said:

If Brown is healthy in the off-season, his contract is a bargain.  I don't see why he would re-structure for less. 

 

Whether we keep him depends on the cap.  If it goes down, we have tough decisions to make.  I don't think Brown is at the top of the cut list though.  That list starts with Star and Murphy

I think that the Bills will gladly welcome back Star.

 

This is the last year of Murphy's contract, so he's not an issue.

[Bob in STL]

Anything can happen .... I trust Beane and McD too make the best decisions for the team ... and not to make them until they have to.  

[KGun12TD]

I hope he heals and come back. Our offense is a whole lot of trouble for Defenses when he's on the field.

[Virgil]

20 minutes ago, Mark Vader said:

I think that the Bills will gladly welcome back Star.

 

 

If the defense continues to play like this for the rest of the season and they need to get cap space, I think he's gone.  Nothing against him, but they would prove he's not needed.

 

Happy to be wrong though

[LABILLBACKER]

1 hour ago, Weatherman said:

If I was a gambling man, Butler and Jefferson will not be on the roster next year.  Not impressed with either especially at their salary.  We need a pass rush desperately.  

Nor should they be. Star will be back and I can see Sean drafting another DT.  It's highly unlikely Smoke goes anywhere next year. There's plenty of other areas to trim the cap fat.

[Da webster guy]

Zero chance.  If you keep Trent Murphy at the same cap number this year, you definitely keep one of your top offensive players next year.   Restructuring his deal is likely though.

 

Diggs is playing smart as far as not taking hits, getting down, getting out of bounds etc. but if he goes down and we don't have Smoke either, that's a big hurt.  Gabe Davis is doing well, but he's mostly getting schemed open.  Not ready to take on #1 CB's from other teams.

 

Also too much chemistry between Josh and John Brown.   Right now Beane's job is to keep #17 as comfortable as possible with strong continuity into next year.  He's probably going to restructure Morse if they keep him at all, but other than maybe a stud center I don't see why this entire offense isn't back again next year.

 

 

[ColoradoBills]

3 hours ago, loyal2dagame said:

If Brown is gone next year,  it won't be from being released.  He has serious value and if the Bills deem him expendable (which i doubt) i would hope he'd be traded to get some return on that value. 

 

I read through the entire thread waiting for someone to mention this.

He will NOT BE CUT.  A trade, maybe.

$8 Million for a team to take on his contract would be very enticing to a lot of teams.

 

That being said he most likely stays and I am happy with that. 

[Saxum]

17 minutes ago, Da webster guy said:

Zero chance.  If you keep Trent Murphy at the same cap number this year, you definitely keep one of your top offensive players next year.   Restructuring his deal is likely though.

 

Trent Murphy is a UFA - no restructure.

 

 

YEAR		AGE	BASE SALARY	SIGNING	ROSTER	WORKOUT	MISC.	CAP HIT	DEAD CAP	YEARLY CASH
2018		27	$2,625,000	$1,750,000	$406,250	$100,000	-	$4,881,250	$7,975,000	$8,381,250($8,381,250)
2019		28	$5,800,000	$1,750,000	$1,000,000	$100,000	$150,000	$8,800,000	$6,600,000	$7,070,803($15,452,053)
2020		29	$6,425,000	$1,750,000	$1,000,000	$100,000	$500,000	$9,775,000	$8,775,000	$8,025,000($23,477,053)
2021		30	UFA

[In Summary]

I don't see Davis as a direct replacement for Brown.  Lose Brown and replace his speed with ...?