If you are in the "pay Edmunds" camp, how much do you have in mind?

[TN Bills Fan]

Cant sign everyone.  Let him go and draft his replacement.

[LABILLBACKER]

3 hours ago, Victory Formation said:

$11M/AAV

 

Otherwise I think we should just draft someone or sign a FA. 

I agree. The idea of paying him 1M more than Milano does not sit well with me but chock it up to inflation. If he's looking for 15-20, bye bye.

[mrags]

47 minutes ago, Kwai San said:

 

I really really would like it if he took the Bills for $15....sadly I think that many other teams value him more than the poster here at TBD.  The dude is gonna get paid....here there somewhere.  UGH!

Anything more than $15m…..

 

 

[Trock]

Milanos range no higher. 

[Big Blitz]

He’s going to be one of the 3 highest paid LBs in the NFL.  

Edited December 5, 2022 by Big Blitz

[Chaos]

It is very hard to say.  Its pretty clear Edmunds is better than who ever backs him up on the Bills.  But if we don't keep him, we will replace him with someone not on the roster today.  Would we better off with a different starting quality mlb in the  for 8 or 10 million per year less than Edmunds and using the money to upgrade the oline.  Bills oline is not even NFL average at this point.  Protecting Josh Allen needs to be the priority in any long term plan. 

[Utah John]

Beane's plan all along was to retain as many of the very good to excellent, but not outstanding players as possible -- except for Allen and Diggs, who are both clearly outstanding.  The outstanding players at any position cost considerably more than the excellent players do, and far more than the very good players do.  

 

Through heavy investment in the D on drafting, the Bills have a long list of very good to excellent players on defense.  Hyde, Poyer, White, Edmunds, Milano, Oliver, probably Groot.  All have the ability when things break right for them to dominate in a particular game, but none of them can demand top dollar for players at their position.  The strength of this D is not individual star players but is the complete unit that Beane built and Frazier coaches.  This has been a tremendous success and it was Beane's plan to be able to pay them all.  It has looked clear that Beane is not trying to win just this year.  He wants to build a dynasty and keep it going year after year, disrupted only in the years when Allen or Diggs is injured.  

 

Then along comes the chance to sign Von Miller, and all that planning apparently went out the window.  It won't be Edmunds's contract that keeps the Bills from paying Poyer or improving the O line, it will be Miller's.  For this year, probably next year, and possibly more years to come, Miller is showing he's worth what he's getting now.  But he's the outstanding player, the one who does get nearly top dollar for his position, and that disrupts all of Beane's planning.  If we get OBJ, that's going to make it even harder to keep the D intact.  And the only reason I'd like to see Beane go ahead with signing OBJ, is that I don't think he's going to pay Poyer.  Which is a huge loss, since we've all seen the difference between Poyer and no Poyer.  But, age.  Beane can't pay Poyer enough to make him 26 years old again.  I really hope I'm wrong about this, and that it works out for Beane to pay Poyer and keep the gang together.  But go back to that list of defensive players above, and tell me which one you'd let go if you had to let one go.  I think it's the oldest guy.  

 

As for Edmunds, I think the rest of the league thinks far more highly of him than most Bills fans do.  And lots of teams will be willing to pay him.  I think he gets $18M per year from us, or $20M per year from somewhere else.

[Shaw66]

I'll pay him the market rate, wherever it falls.  I think that salaries will go up next season, so his contract is probably going to look like he's getting paid at the top.   It will quickly be surpassed by others and he'll be only around the top 10 in a year or two. 

[John from Riverside]

4 hours ago, TN Bills Fan said:

Cant sign everyone.  Let him go and draft his replacement.

It’s really easy to say whenever you’re in your championship window did you see how things were completing passes over the middle without him there

3 hours ago, Chaos said:

It is very hard to say.  Its pretty clear Edmunds is better than who ever backs him up on the Bills.  But if we don't keep him, we will replace him with someone not on the roster today.  Would we better off with a different starting quality mlb in the  for 8 or 10 million per year less than Edmunds and using the money to upgrade the oline.  Bills oline is not even NFL average at this point.  Protecting Josh Allen needs to be the priority in any long term plan. 

Who would that linebacker be?

[MJS]

I trust Beane. They'll resign him if what they value him aligns with what he can get on the open market, minus any team-friendly money Edmunds is willing to subtract.

 

If they let him walk, MLB becomes a big hole and we can expect Beane to address it in a big way.

[Locomark]

The Bills defense over the middle of the field is markedly better when he is there than when he is out. We looked worse in the games he didn’t play this year. He isn’t Ray Lewis, but that isn’t today’s NFL. His giant wing span and range is what allows us to play that 2 LB nickel scheme almost exclusively. I don’t think they want to alter their whole scheme while they’re find another perfect fit MLB. It’s more likely they let someone like Gabe walk because he will be overpaid and he just isn’t earning a $17 million paycheck he could be getting in ‘25. Personally I would sign him to a super long term deal, like 7 years with 3 team voidable, which makes his deal eventually cheap and easy to spread.  

[Chaos]

5 hours ago, John from Riverside said:

It’s really easy to say whenever you’re in your championship window did you see how things were completing passes over the middle without him there

Who would that linebacker be?

I am not a full time GM, nor do I have professional and college scouting staff.  But it seems like almost every team in the NFL is able to find starting inside linebackers for less than a 10 million cap hit.  Some will argue that that he is some sort of hybrid inside / outside linebacker. But all of the big money outside linebackers are profiecient pass rushers (Joey Bosa, Khalil Mack, etc.) 

https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/positional/inside-linebacker/

[colin]

i think he gets 15-17

 

id pay that

[BarleyNY]

16 hours ago, Dopey said:

Does he have to sign the franchise tender? If not, can’t trade a player not under contract. I could be wrong. 

Technically yes, but teams can work a trade while his agent works a new contract with the acquiring team (something they’d insist on anyway). Then he would sign the tag and the teams would execute the trade. There is an early deadline to trade tagged players to consider as well. FT for LBs was $18.7M this year. Projection is for it to drop to $17.5M next, though that will likely go up. OTC

[GunnerBill]

1 hour ago, Chaos said:

I am not a full time GM, nor do I have professional and college scouting staff.  But it seems like almost every team in the NFL is able to find starting inside linebackers for less than a 10 million cap hit.  Some will argue that that he is some sort of hybrid inside / outside linebacker. But all of the big money outside linebackers are profiecient pass rushers (Joey Bosa, Khalil Mack, etc.) 

https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/positional/inside-linebacker/

 

Cap hit is a slightly different question. They could have lowered his cap hit significantly this year, but that required paying him and they were clearly not comfortable that they had seen enough to do that. 

[K D]

I think he's worth 15M which probably means he will get 18

[Sharky7337]

I think you have to examine cutting Knox pay or possibly releasing him and keeping edmunds

[BarleyNY]

13 minutes ago, Sharky7337 said:

I think you have to examine cutting Knox pay or possibly releasing him and keeping edmunds

Knox has $12.5M guaranteed next season. He’s not getting cut before then. $10M of that is an option bonus that will be spread out over 4 seasons so there’s no way to significantly lower his cap hit for 2023 either. 

Edited December 5, 2022 by BarleyNY

[BarleyNY]

1 hour ago, Chaos said:

I am not a full time GM, nor do I have professional and college scouting staff.  But it seems like almost every team in the NFL is able to find starting inside linebackers for less than a 10 million cap hit.  Some will argue that that he is some sort of hybrid inside / outside linebacker. But all of the big money outside linebackers are profiecient pass rushers (Joey Bosa, Khalil Mack, etc.) 

https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/positional/inside-linebacker/

This has been my point for the last few years. Edmunds is an ILB, he’s no hybrid of any kind. ILBs generally don’t get paid well, with notable exceptions for real difference makers at the position (and some busts expected to be). The premium for a difference maker and an average MLB is $10M-$15M per season.

 

Edmunds has obviously taken a step forward this season, but is that enough to warrant the huge contract he will be asking for? And is that where we want to spend our cap space? For instance, it it means that we can’t keep Ed Oliver then does that impact Edmunds’ play? For me it really comes down to his contract demands and how badly he wants to be here versus how badly he wants the last dollar. I’d he wants top of the market, I let him walk. If he’ll take something in the $15M AAV range I’d give him more guarantees. I don’t blame any player for maximizing their earnings, but I don’t love having those guys as my cornerstones. I’d rather have guys that value being here. Milano certainly did that with his contract. 

[Nephilim17]

People have mentioned it but let me put this flat out there:

 

if we can only afford Edmunds OR Oliver, who do you pay? (Play the game and only pick one and don't say make both work; we're tight against the cap and need to upgrade the O-line too.)

 

I think I'm leaning Oliver...