Bills could clear a lot more salary cap space beginning Tuesday

[Don Otreply]

6 hours ago, 1ManRaid said:

 

And as I keep saying, "windows" are for teams without the foundation for continued success.  We can afford to invest for the future, rather than having to gamble and go "all in" spending our life savings on a stack of lottery tickets in one shot.

 

Give me a decade of solid success over a year or two of "dream team" any day of the week.  This mindset of having to desperately grasp at temporary success will apparently take some time to wean off of after decades of mediocrity. 

Some folk just have a hard time wrapping their minds around this new way of doing business, these aren’t your drought era Bills anymore, we are being built for continued success, none of this year or two window BS.  
 

Go Bills!!!

[NewEra]

9 hours ago, HOUSE said:

 

 

When the post-June 1 designations kick in across the league, look for some noteworthy trades, releases and contract adjustments.

 

Wide receiver Julio Jones may not make sense for the Buffalo Bills this year. But cornerback Steven Nelson might.

Whatever happens with these players and a whole lot more probably won't go down until at least Tuesday, when the NFL allows teams to spread a certain amount of salary cap hits of released or traded players over two years instead of accelerating everything onto the current season.

The post-June 1 designation also applies to contract extensions and adjustments.

 

https://www.si.com/nfl/bills/news/bills-could-clear-a-lot-more-salary-cap-space-beginning-tuesday

 

9 hours ago, mattynh said:

"Could" is one thing....but is it responsible, does it actually make sense is something else?  All that money they could free up can also be used next off season.  I would not be surprised if they free up some cash but with the roster where it is they dont need to go hog wild.  I mean if you could get someone of the quality of a Bosa sure but that wont be possible.  I definitively see them adding a corner, not sure about Ertz, I guess if the price is right.

Prior to a super bowl victory window season....adding a solid upgrade at CB2 while having to go through KC, the team that toyed with our current cb2, at the cost of a couple million in future cap hits.... is responsible.  Beane is responsible for giving up the best chance to win now and in the future.  We can easily create enough room to add Nelson and not hurt our cap integrity going forward.  
 

I fully expect us to add another player that will pay dividends in the 2021 season.  

[Slippery Rubber Mats]

3 hours ago, machine gun kelly said:

Tom, doesn’t even this story seem like an SNL skit.  If he was more popular, it probably would’ve made it there.

 

Remember all the Gerry Ford slip and falls.  Before my time, but saw all the funny footage (no pun intended, well a little).

Machine Gun, I completely agree. It’s absurd in the most Billsy way.

[3rdand12]

2 hours ago, ColoradoBills said:

 

Exactly.  KC is all in this year for a repeat SB win.  I think that it's the wrong time for the Beane and the Bills to get into an "arms race" with

them this year.  However next year seems to me the proper time to add a few pieces to make the push.

IMO (and I hope Beane's too). 

Next year you take another look at what FA can shake free.
Every team is hoping the cap moves up enough to help them out  Stay Frosty McBeanes 😉

  Long term please 

[NewEra]

2 hours ago, ColoradoBills said:

 

For sure and Brandon has said those exact words.  Once again, let's see how KC handles all of this AFTER they start paying for their

Franchise QB.

 

KC has had a huge advantage over the league paying (in cap hits) $24M for 5 full years of QB play for Mahomes.

Bills on the other hand have had $21.3M in cap hit with only 4 years of Allen.

 

I say all of this only to explain to myself ( and other if they want to see it this way ) that the Chiefs are ahead of the game currently.

They had a Division winning team when Mahomes got drafted (the Bills didn't).

Next year the Bills can really close the gap or hopefully jump over them.

 

Totally agree with the caveat that I think a 10 year contract is way too long and carries too much risk.

I'm hoping for a 6 year contract with Allen.  Nothing more than 7.

A 4 year contract takes away what we are talking about and 5 is just "meh" with me.

Having a longer deal can ONLY help us.  The only thing that matters is guaranteed money.  Signing a 20 year deal with 200M gtd is the same as a 6 year deal with 200M gtd.  Guaranteed money being the same, the longer the deal, the better it is for the team.

[machine gun kelly]

52 minutes ago, Tom Donahoe, GM said:

Machine Gun, I completely agree. It’s absurd in the most Billsy way.

We’re friends.  Everybody else out of convenience just says MGK.  I haven’t called hapless more than Hap, or Chand in years.

 

they put up with me.  Enjoy the rest of the well deserved holiday for our guys who’ve given that ultimate sacrifice.

[ColdFront_USAF]

10 hours ago, HOUSE said:

 

LOL, EJ Gaines is still out there, unsigned

 

I heard he's been training with Kevin Kolb this off-season. Could be some great pickups if we get rid of all our doormats. 

[machine gun kelly]

3 minutes ago, ColdFront_USAF said:

 

I heard he's been training with Kevin Kolb this off-season. Could be some great pickups if we get rid of all our doormats. 

Cold front, I’m assuming you’re handle is you so thanks for keeping us safe.  This is a day you honor people.  Seriously thanks.  Instead of mats, just know when to duck as we want you back here my friend.

 

and for the record, NO MORE DOORMATS and be home my friend!

[ColdFront_USAF]

1 minute ago, machine gun kelly said:

Cold front, I’m assuming you’re handle is you so thanks for keeping us safe.  This is a day you honor people.  Seriously thanks.  Instead of mats, just know when to duck as we want you back here my friend.

 

and for the record, NO MORE DOORMATS and be home my friend!

 

I appreciate it brother. I have about a year left so I should be back in Buffalo in time for the 22 season, hopefully a Superbowl run!

[machine gun kelly]

13 minutes ago, ColdFront_USAF said:

 

I appreciate it brother. I have about a year left so I should be back in Buffalo in time for the 22 season, hopefully a Superbowl run!

if I can find you brother, and I don’t drink hardly ever anymore is on me.  If helps my dad, one uncle, another uncle as a resident doctor, and a third child in Korea, never were hurt, but they served.  That doesn’t include all of my dads best friends including my dads best bud jimmy griffin who served together.  I,m proud of my other uncles in in Vietnam.

 

 I just care about who is ok.  I think that’s ok..

[The_Ripster]

4 hours ago, ColoradoBills said:

 

Exactly.  KC is all in this year for a repeat SB win.  I think that it's the wrong time for the Beane and the Bills to get into an "arms race" with

them this year.  However next year seems to me the proper time to add a few pieces to make the push.

IMO (and I hope Beane's too). 

KC lost tho ... ?

[ganesh]

7 hours ago, ColoradoBills said:

 

That is not the prime reason for their cap space.  Mahomes has a $7.4M cap hit this year.  That was due to him restructuring his contract

already in March of this year to clear $17.3M in cap in 2021.  He has a $35.8M cap hit next year followed by $40M+ for years after that.

 

The KC Chiefs have not had a true hit to his contract yet!  So any talk about them doing what they have done has nothing to do with

"Franchise Deal".

The point was not  about Mahome's salary impacting the cap...but that they have HIT on their 2nd and 3rd rounders consistently whereas we haven't.

[Rochesterfan]

On 5/31/2021 at 1:37 PM, ganesh said:

The super bowl window with your franchise QB on his rookie deal is a UNIQUE window of opportunity.  This is a place where you can gamble and get the difference maker if he is out there and it will still not hurt the team long term.  Winning championships becomes harder when you pay for your franchise QB and your draft picks are not hitting it. 

 

In a recent Locked ON Bills show,  one of the points raised eyebrows is that the chiefs with a franchise QB deal are still about 10M lower in net salary cap space than the buffalo bills; this is for both 2021 and 2022 season...   Peeling the envelope, he provided the primary reason for the chiefs being in this comfortable situtaion is their draft picks  from Rd 2 through 4 being very successful in the past few years. 

 

We are still waiting for Ford, Singletary and Knox to come through; we have hope for Epenesa and  Moss...But that is a key difference....These players not developing fast enough means we are covering them with veterans such as Addision,  paying for Feliciano etc while waiting for home grown talent to grow.   We need our 2nd and 3rd rounders to come through this yeara.

 

18 hours ago, ganesh said:

The point was not  about Mahome's salary impacting the cap...but that they have HIT on their 2nd and 3rd rounders consistently whereas we haven't.

 

I guess I do not see what Locked on sees as I look at the KC drafts since Mahomes and they are basically failures and the real reason they are good is that they (like NE before them) got great players to sign for less.

 

For example in the draft debate:

2017:

1st rd - Mahomes - Star

2nd rd - Kpassagnon - out of the league

3rd rd - Hunt - released and in Cleveland 

 

2018:

2nd rd - Speaks - out of league

3rd rd - Nnadi - nice pick split time at DT

3rd rd - O’Daniel - 3rd string

 

2019:

2nd rd - Hardman - Special teamed and back-up WR never broke 600 yards receiving.

2nd rd - Thornhill - Back-up safety

3rd rd - Saunders - 3 string DL

 

2020:

1st rd - CEH - starting RB - average

2nd rd - Gay - back-up LB

3rd rd - Niang - opted out

 

Basically since drafting Mahomes in 2017 - the Chiefs 1st 3 rounds have netted them 2 starters (neither one a star), a special teams ace, 4 back-up players, and 4 guys that are out of the league or never played.  That is out of 11 picks - they have 2 starters.  
 

In contrast during that same time the Bills have drafted 7 starters in White, Dawkins, Allen, Edmunds, Oliver, Ford, and Singletary/Moss.  They have also drafted rotational back-up in Moss/Singletary, Phillips, Knox, Epenesa.  The Bills have had 1 player in the 1st 3 rounds no longer on the team in Zay Jones versus 4 for the Chiefs.

 

It is not even close in drafting since 2017 - the Bills blow the Chiefs out of the water.  The difference is the Chiefs were a playoff/championship team when they drafted Mahomes and did not need to rebuild the entire roster.  They already had a significant number of starters and they were able to get several new additions on team friendly contracts.

 

The Bills started from further back and had to overpay for several players early on - now that they are good and have a QB - they are starting to get signings on more team friendly deals - like multiple starters this off season.

 

Basically Locked on is totally wrong with the draft point for recent years - unless they want to look at 2012-2017 - in which case the Bills blew and the Chiefs put much of their offensive team together.

[ColoradoBills]

On 5/31/2021 at 11:37 AM, ganesh said:

In a recent Locked ON Bills show,  one of the points raised eyebrows is that the chiefs with a franchise QB deal are still about 10M lower in net salary cap space than the buffalo bills; this is for both 2021 and 2022 season...   Peeling the envelope, he provided the primary reason for the chiefs being in this comfortable situtaion is their draft picks  from Rd 2 through 4 being very successful in the past few years.

 

My point once again is about this statement.  It is false.

[BigAl2526]

On 5/31/2021 at 8:37 AM, HOUSE said:

 

Well, he took the op out for 2020 so he should be well healed by now

Not oonly that, but the Bills have gotten rid of their rubber mats so as not to present an undue risk to injury prone players.

[Putin]

3 hours ago, BigAl2526 said:

Not oonly that, but the Bills have gotten rid of their rubber mats so as not to present an undue risk to injury prone players.

If our medical staff / facility couldn’t keep him healthy and available for playing , then he probably just needs to retire .... 

And put the rubber mats back so normal people can use them 

Edited June 2, 2021 by Putin

[ganesh]

On 6/1/2021 at 2:15 AM, NewEra said:

 

Prior to a super bowl victory window season....adding a solid upgrade at CB2 while having to go through KC, the team that toyed with our current cb2, at the cost of a couple million in future cap hits.... is responsible.  Beane is responsible for giving up the best chance to win now and in the future.  We can easily create enough room to add Nelson and not hurt our cap integrity going forward.  
 

I fully expect us to add another player that will pay dividends in the 2021 season.  

We drafted pass rushers at the top of the draft;  that should help with the pressure on Mahomes.   Hopefully. next year they will go CB in the top of the draft.   They also may need to draft for safeties...Hyde and Poyer are getting older and also have huge salary cap hits in 2022 making them big candidates for being let go.

[mjt328]

16 hours ago, Rochesterfan said:

 

 

I guess I do not see what Locked on sees as I look at the KC drafts since Mahomes and they are basically failures and the real reason they are good is that they (like NE before them) got great players to sign for less.

 

For example in the draft debate:

2017:

1st rd - Mahomes - Star

2nd rd - Kpassagnon - out of the league

3rd rd - Hunt - released and in Cleveland 

 

2018:

2nd rd - Speaks - out of league

3rd rd - Nnadi - nice pick split time at DT

3rd rd - O’Daniel - 3rd string

 

2019:

2nd rd - Hardman - Special teamed and back-up WR never broke 600 yards receiving.

2nd rd - Thornhill - Back-up safety

3rd rd - Saunders - 3 string DL

 

2020:

1st rd - CEH - starting RB - average

2nd rd - Gay - back-up LB

3rd rd - Niang - opted out

 

Basically since drafting Mahomes in 2017 - the Chiefs 1st 3 rounds have netted them 2 starters (neither one a star), a special teams ace, 4 back-up players, and 4 guys that are out of the league or never played.  That is out of 11 picks - they have 2 starters.  
 

In contrast during that same time the Bills have drafted 7 starters in White, Dawkins, Allen, Edmunds, Oliver, Ford, and Singletary/Moss.  They have also drafted rotational back-up in Moss/Singletary, Phillips, Knox, Epenesa.  The Bills have had 1 player in the 1st 3 rounds no longer on the team in Zay Jones versus 4 for the Chiefs.

 

It is not even close in drafting since 2017 - the Bills blow the Chiefs out of the water.  The difference is the Chiefs were a playoff/championship team when they drafted Mahomes and did not need to rebuild the entire roster.  They already had a significant number of starters and they were able to get several new additions on team friendly contracts.

 

The Bills started from further back and had to overpay for several players early on - now that they are good and have a QB - they are starting to get signings on more team friendly deals - like multiple starters this off season.

 

Basically Locked on is totally wrong with the draft point for recent years - unless they want to look at 2012-2017 - in which case the Bills blew and the Chiefs put much of their offensive team together.

 

This is a fantastic breakdown, and should give Bills fans optimism for the future.

It usually takes 2-3 seasons before poor/subpar drafting starts hurting on the field.

 

After this season, the contract for Patrick Mahomes is going to hit Kansas City hard in the salary cap.  They will likely be forced to make some decisions on many of the core veterans.  And they haven't really drafted well enough to replace the guys going out the door.  I could easily see the Chiefs eventually turning into a Seattle-like situation, where the QB is forced to carry a mostly subpar roster.

 

The Bills had great drafts in 2017-2018, which setup the foundation for a championship team.  To keep it rolling, we need to see highly drafted players like AJ Epenesa, Cody Ford, Ed Oliver, Zack Moss, Devin Singletary, etc., step up and fulfill their potential.

 

 

[Rochesterfan]

7 minutes ago, mjt328 said:

 

This is a fantastic breakdown, and should give Bills fans optimism for the future.

It usually takes 2-3 seasons before poor/subpar drafting starts hurting on the field.

 

After this season, the contract for Patrick Mahomes is going to hit Kansas City hard in the salary cap.  They will likely be forced to make some decisions on many of the core veterans.  And they haven't really drafted well enough to replace the guys going out the door.  I could easily see the Chiefs eventually turning into a Seattle-like situation, where the QB is forced to carry a mostly subpar roster.

 

The Bills had great drafts in 2017-2018, which setup the foundation for a championship team.  To keep it rolling, we need to see highly drafted players like AJ Epenesa, Cody Ford, Ed Oliver, Zack Moss, Devin Singletary, etc., step up and fulfill their potential.

 

 

 

I totally agree with this.  
 

The caveats are that the Mahomes deal is set up such that each year KC has the ability to convert salary to signing bonus on it - so they have the ability to create huge amounts of cap space as needed at the expense of adding to his future CAP hits.  It is brilliant in how they can adjust it year after year to free space - especially as we approach the new TV deals in 2023.

 

The other piece is a great team finds it easier to get cheap veterans to sign or agree to great deals after trades.  Therefore the emphasis on drafting is lessened as we saw with NE that became a very mediocre drafting team later in Belichek’s career.  
 

A great QB and a team willing to trade and sign lots of FAs on the cheap means they will have lots of turnover, but lots of opportunity to remain very good.

 

[mjt328]

On 6/2/2021 at 7:13 AM, Rochesterfan said:

The caveats are that the Mahomes deal is set up such that each year KC has the ability to convert salary to signing bonus on it - so they have the ability to create huge amounts of cap space as needed at the expense of adding to his future CAP hits.  It is brilliant in how they can adjust it year after year to free space - especially as we approach the new TV deals in 2023.

 

 

It's a very interesting contract.  Time will tell if it's really brilliant, or whether is totally mortgages the Chiefs in the future.

 

Mahomes basically signed a 10-year, $450 million contract.  But only about 15 percent of that was guaranteed.

This allows them to basically restructure each offseason, guarantee him a couple more seasons and push his overall cap hit down.

 

Starting next year, the cap hit on Mahomes goes from $7.4 million to $35.7 million.  The year after, it goes to $46.7 million.  As his contract currently stands, the Chiefs are setup with $40+ million in cap hits until he reaches age 36.  Now technically, all of that money is not guaranteed and he could be released after 2023 without a big dead cap number.  But it's highly unlikely that happens, so I guess the plan is to just keep kicking the guarantees into future contracts. 

 

The problem is.... how many times can they adjust and push money into future years, before they are putting themselves on the hook for a $60 million cap hit when the guy is 40 years old?  How long will he be OK without a long-term guaranteed contract?  Even with the new TV deals raising the cap, they are eventually going to be forced into making tough decisions.