2022 Offseason Summary

[Sierra Foothills]

The one thing I'll add to this topic is that last year the Bills ended up returning 51 players from the 2020 season.

 

Clearly McBeane wasn't satisfied with the results of standing pat last year.

[Thurman#1]

7 hours ago, No_Matter_What said:

 

As for the last year, number you state is from the end of the season. At that time, most of PS players original cap hit is "converted" to dead money due to movement in PS/active roster.

 

Let's take Quintin Morris as an example. As a PS member, he has listed cap hit of $82,800, which is PS cap hit for 9 games after Jags game where he was on an active roster. All PS money he earned from the start of the season until he was promoted to active roster (for one or two games, I am not sure), as well as money earned as an active player, are accounted for as dead money ($139,266).

 

So, when the season starts, we will have 16 PS players with full cap hits.

 

I didn't know that minimum PS salary goes up this year, thanks for noting that. If that is the case, minimum PS total cap hit will be 3,3M ($207,000 * 16 players).

 

As for the next year, I agree that the cap situation will be worse than this year. I'll make a thread about next offseason later this week  

 

 

Interesting. I'll have to try to figure out at some point why things are converted to dead money.

 

And yes, practice squad salaries go up every year. In 2030, it'll be $16,750 a week.

[No_Matter_What]

2 hours ago, Thurman#1 said:

 

 

Interesting. I'll have to try to figure out at some point why things are converted to dead money.

 

And yes, practice squad salaries go up every year. In 2030, it'll be $16,750 a week.

I am no expert but the base logic is quite simple. A player starts at PS and 18 weeks PS salary is counted towards cap. Then after 5 weeks he gets promoted to regular roster. At that time his prorated minimum NFL salary counts towards cap - I think last year it was something like $700k, so 700/18*13 counts towards cap.

 

And since such player is not a PS member anymore, all money he earned for the first 5 weeks at PS (last year $9,200*5) is accounted for as dead cap.

 

If he gets demoted back to the PS couple weeks later, all money he earned on roster (e.g. for 2 games it is $700k/18*2) is added to the dead money and once again he is kept at PS and his cap hit is calculated for remaining weeks only.

[Ed_Formerly_of_Roch]

On 5/13/2022 at 5:04 PM, No_Matter_What said:

Didn't see this posted so I'd like to make a recap. Please let me know if I omitted something / someone. I am not listing players who we re-signed but who were mostly PS players so far.

 

FAs not re-signed:

QB Trubisky,  WR Sanders, RB Breida

DE Hughes, DE Addison, DE Obada, DT H. Phillips, DT Butler, DT Zimmer, CB Wallace

 

Cut:

OG Feliciano, OT Williams, WR Beasley

DT Lotulelei, LB Klein

 

Re-signed:

OG Bates - $17M/4y (matched RFA tender)

CB/S Neal - $9M/3y

WR McKenzie - $4,4M/2y

One year deals: OG Boettger, RB T.Jones, WR Kumerow, LB Dodson

 

FA acquisitions:

DE Von Miller - $120M/6y (potential out after 3 seasons with $7,4M dead cap)

DT D. Jones - $14/2y (+void year)

DT Settle - $9M/2y (+void year)

One year deals: QB Keenum, QB Barkley, OG Saffold, OT Quessenberry, OG Mancz, RB Johnson, TE Howard, WR Crowder

DE Lawson, DT J. Phillips, LB Lee

 

Draft:

CB Elam, RB Cook, LB Bernard, WR Shakir, P Araiza, CB Benford, OT Tenuta, LB Spector

 

UDFA:

TE Wydermyer, RB Blackshear, OT Anderson, OG Kerstetter, OG Owen, WR M.Williams, WR Pau'u, DE Jonathan, CB T.Fuller

 

Restructures:

WR Diggs - $96M/4y, under contract 6 seasons total

C Morse - $19,5M/2y, under contract 3 seasons total

LB Milano - conversion of $6,5M salary into signing bonus (3years under contract + added 2 void years)

S Hyde - conversion of $5,7M salary into signing bonus (2years under contract + added 3 void years)

P Haack - pay cut

 

Cap situation:

$5M cap space according to Sportrac. However, its only top51 right now and real season is 53 players, which means additional $1,8M. Practice squad players also count, so that's roughly $3M extra. All in all, we are about zero right now and need to make some space for in season moves.

Possible cut candidates: LB Matakevich ($2,5M), OG Ford ($1,5M) - actual cap savings will be less since we need to replace them on the roster (that is why cutting Haack does not save cap space).

Possible restructures: CB White, LT Dawkins

Possible extensions: S Poyer, LB Edmunds

 

My comments:

Great offseason on paper. With tight cap space Beane managed to upgrade the roster. On defense, we got better at DE, better at DT, better and faster at CB (Elam over Wallace), at least faster and hopefully better (?) with more upside (?) at LB (Bernard over Klein). On offense, we got better at RB (Cook over Breida), hopefully much better at TE (Howard) and if not better then younger at WR (Crowder and Shakir over Beasley and Sanders). We added competition to return game (Shakir) and potentially massively upgraded punting game. From core players we kept all but maybe 4 (Diggs, Morse, Hyde and Poyer) are young or relatively young and should be trending upwards.

 

My only gripe is OL. I don't feel competent to judge OL play, but from your comments guys it seems Saffold and Quesenberry are either a wash or maybe minor upgrade over Williams and Feliciano. I was hoping for more. Something like better FAs or drafting a guard in 2nd or 3rd round, or at least some project with huge upside in 5th. But you can't have everything I guess, and we upgraded other units much more than I hoped for. I am also sure that we wanted to draft OL, it just didn't go that way. There is also a solid chance that Brown gets better, Bates will be consistent upgrade and OL as whole will be better with new OL coach.

 

I am also not sure if Diggs contract isn't for one year too many, but it is also a minor thing. I love that we extended him.

 

Current roster:

 

 

Go Bills! 

 

 

Wow kind of amazing that 6 D-line FA not re-sgned plus Star was cut for total of 7.  I think they kind of rebuilt the line!!

 

WRT cap and currently only count top 51, there's a large number of players below the top 51 cutoff that highly likely most will be on the final roster so the only way that happens is if an equal number of players above the cutoff line are gone.

 

These are the players below the top 51 line who I think very likely will be on the team come September.  Maybe not everyone I list, but most will be there:

 

Doyle, Gilliam, Dodson, Jackson, Stevenson, Hamlin, Shakir, Araiza,

 

Also a good chance last CB will come down to either C Lewis who right now is the last guy above the cutoff line of C Benford.  Likely may also come down to choice between Dodson and  B Spector who's salary is lower.

 

Looking at the roster players likely to be gone would save around $4.2 mil and that doesn't include Ford or Matakevich

 

Granted you do still need to add practice squad in which will cost something.

[No_Matter_What]

10 hours ago, Ed_Formerly_of_Roch said:

 

Wow kind of amazing that 6 D-line FA not re-sgned plus Star was cut for total of 7.  I think they kind of rebuilt the line!!

 

WRT cap and currently only count top 51, there's a large number of players below the top 51 cutoff that highly likely most will be on the final roster so the only way that happens is if an equal number of players above the cutoff line are gone.

 

These are the players below the top 51 line who I think very likely will be on the team come September.  Maybe not everyone I list, but most will be there:

 

Doyle, Gilliam, Dodson, Jackson, Stevenson, Hamlin, Shakir, Araiza,

 

Also a good chance last CB will come down to either C Lewis who right now is the last guy above the cutoff line of C Benford.  Likely may also come down to choice between Dodson and  B Spector who's salary is lower.

 

Looking at the roster players likely to be gone would save around $4.2 mil and that doesn't include Ford or Matakevich

 

Granted you do still need to add practice squad in which will cost something.

I agree with most of what you say but am very confused with the bolded.

 

Putting 8 players you listed on the roster instead of other who are currently in top 51 doesn't save any money, it actually cost us more in cap space.

 

For the sake of simplicity I draw the line at 53. You list 7 players who you expect to be on the roster, and if you check my prelilimary roster in OP I fully agree. In my roster they are replacing Haack, Duke Johnson, Mancz, Lee, Sweeney, Hart and Barkley, but it doesn't matter much - you can choose other players and results will be very similar.

 

If you cut those 7 players I listed, it saves around $5,640,000. On the other hand, adding 7 players you listed adds around $6,000,000, so it gets even worse cap wise. This is caused by the fact that many of those cut players leave us with quite a lot dead money.

 

The only players who can be realistically cut and save some money are Matakevich, Ford and to a lesser extent Quessenberry, Andre Smith and Kumerow.

[Ed_Formerly_of_Roch]

13 hours ago, No_Matter_What said:

I agree with most of what you say but am very confused with the bolded.

 

Putting 8 players you listed on the roster instead of other who are currently in top 51 doesn't save any money, it actually cost us more in cap space.

 

For the sake of simplicity I draw the line at 53. You list 7 players who you expect to be on the roster, and if you check my prelilimary roster in OP I fully agree. In my roster they are replacing Haack, Duke Johnson, Mancz, Lee, Sweeney, Hart and Barkley, but it doesn't matter much - you can choose other players and results will be very similar.

 

If you cut those 7 players I listed, it saves around $5,640,000. On the other hand, adding 7 players you listed adds around $6,000,000, so it gets even worse cap wise. This is caused by the fact that many of those cut players leave us with quite a lot dead money.

 

The only players who can be realistically cut and save some money are Matakevich, Ford and to a lesser extent Quessenberry, Andre Smith and Kumerow.

 

Hmmmm.... So when I posted, didn't go through the numbers that closely, just based it on the concept of well if you're replacing someone below the 51 line with someone above the 51 who's salary is higher, there has to be a savings.  Going through the numbers more closely, agree can't argue with what you said.  But still just doesn't make sense as to why.

 

Either way, not all that worried about it as there certainly are 3 or 4 that can be extended or restructured.

[No_Matter_What]

I updated the chart after some roster moves and start of the training camp.

 

I didn't follow all camp notes so if you think I am substantially wrong let me know

 

There are 53 players over the grey line - my current random guess who makes the roster.

 

 

 

 

[Saxum]

Best way to get responses is to include a mistake.

I was taught that for presentations to check whether people are paying attention.

 

It is "Shaq Lawson" and "Prince Emili"

 

It was Shaq last time he was a Bill and still is.

Prince Emily sounds like a royal family's transgender nightmare.

 

I probably missed others.