Be Active Early or Wait Market Out- Just Don't Repeat Recent FA Periods

[Midwest1981]

18 hours ago, Mark Vader said:

I don't concern myself too much with the 2018 group because the Bills only had so much money to spend and they were not going to make any splash signings.

 

2019 is when we had plenty of money to spend.

With the ability to roll cap over, though, it's still always imperative that you're being incredibly judicious with what you're spending.  Quite possibly, even likely, we'd be better positioned now if we had been a little smarter with our deals, if not who we actually signed then what we gave them.

[Midwest1981]

22 hours ago, Mc1320 said:

With what money?
 

Unless they announce a bunch of cuts and restructures today, we are less than $1 million under the cap.  You will need at least $5 million for the new draft class if we keep all of our picks so as of right now we have zero flexibility to get any high impact FAs.

 

If you cut Beasley, that gets you the cash for the draft class, but who else would you cut.?  Morse and Williams would be the only significant savings and cutting Morse would leave a huge whole when there isn’t much of anything available at the center position.

 

Get used to it - this is just the beginning of the lean years in FA agency since Josh’s cap hit goes to $39 million next year.

There is room for maneuverability without hamstringing or "mortgaging the future."  Buffalo hasn't renegotiated any of its long-term contracts in the last couple of years (I'm exempting guys we threatened to cut, like Addison or Star).  So we retain that prerogative, which nearly every other team has taken advantage of in the same period of time.  The Saints are the most flagrant abuser of this ability- they've entered the last two offseasons $75 million OVER the cap and not only have managed to stay under it but are even one of the finalists for Deshaun Watson and his cumbersome $40 million dollar 2022 cap hit.  New Orleans will have to let some FA's go, like Terron Armstead.  But for the most part the team has remained intact and their perennial "kicking the can down the road" has continued unabated as that road keeps expanding.

 

Many of us were also a little flummoxed to see the cap-strapped Chiefs sign Joe Thuney to a 5/80 ($46.9 mill guaranteed) contract on the first day of FA last year.  Mahomes has a larger deal than Allen (admittedly the cap hits are manageable for now, like Allen's) and Kansas City has more money committed long term than we do.  Nevertheless, the Chiefs did it.

 

I also mentioned early in this thread how, for the most part, we have our guys locked up, anyway, which WILL lead to future cap space.  From the 2019 Draft, we're not re-signing Cody Ford and likely not Devin Singletary; if if we do, it won't be a lot for a fungible position.  From the 2020 Draft, A.J. Epenesa looks like a one-contract player here and Zach Moss may be lucky just to see a third season here.  So in the next 2 years we may only re-sign a few of the guys from these drafts:  Dawson Knox, Gabriel Davis, and Ed Oliver, which actually wouldn't even kick in until 2024 because he's under the 5th-year option in 2023.

 

We can make cap space now because there will be (considerable) cap space later.  Yes, even as Allen's cap hits increase.  Post-pandemic, you also can't forget we're returning to significant cap increases every year ($10-15 million).

Edited March 14, 2022 by Midwest1981