BuffaL0L0k0 Posted February 26 Posted February 26 20 hours ago, Warriorspikes51 said: If Michael Thomas is cut, I wonder what his market value is? Could be an intriguing option Man is not going to get healthier every year tha goes by... as the past 3-4 seasons have shown, maybe with exception of late 2023, but again, father time will knock the door... Quote
Roundybout Posted February 26 Posted February 26 (edited) 20 hours ago, Warriorspikes51 said: If Michael Thomas is cut, I wonder what his market value is? Could be an intriguing option Nah, the guy is made of paper maché at this point of his career. Hasn’t played a full season since 2019. Edited February 26 by Roundybout Quote
Alphadawg7 Posted February 26 Posted February 26 But the cap isn't real...as so I have read on this board lol 1 Quote
NoSaint Posted February 26 Posted February 26 3 hours ago, billsfan89 said: Brees last few years they really floored it to try and win with him and then they just kept going with it never really bottoming out the approach to the post Payton era has been just nonsensical. The only explanation is trying to preserve pride and avoid “it was just Sean and drew” comments I’ll echo, they have 40m on the books in the running back room if that’s where you map taysom. Plus they’ve locked themselves to carr for 2 more years and doubled down on Dennis Allen. It’s like they are praying all the bad choices just kind of work out and somehow they look good in the end Quote
stuvian Posted February 27 Posted February 27 Dennis Allen's command of this team looks shaky. Their offense was unwatchable. I expect the likes of BB or Vrabel to be brought on as "special advisor". Quote
mjt328 Posted February 27 Posted February 27 21 hours ago, Bleeding Bills Blue said: We're probably a year away from medicine. Von, and Knox are fairly obvious candidates for next year. You could also potentially make several moves this year, but then it probably shifts your draft strategy. If you trade douglas, and cut white - you save a bunch, but now depth is absolutely barren - so you likely have to sign one and draft another 1 or 2. We need at least 1 safety for sure, cutting poyer just opens up another spot for a safety. Same for Morse, you may feel comfortable plugging in bates, but you're actively downgrading at that point. To me its more of being very careful and methodical on extensions, term of extensions, age of players, etc. Avoid tacking on tons of void years this year to any free agent contracts, and realistically look for players you want on the roster for multiple seasons. And this is a draft that needs to have some day 1 contributors at potentially WR, S, and DT/DE. The best way to avoid salary cap hell is by drafting well. The Saints were headed into a very bad financial situation several years back. But then the 2017 draft class netted them 5 very good starters (Lattimore, Ramczyk, Williams, Kamara and Hendrickson). That allowed them to extend their window significantly. Brandon Beane has been a solid/good drafter during his tenure here, regardless of what some fans say. He consistently gets 2-3 starting caliber players every single year, allowing the team to replace outgoing veterans (such as Tremaine Edmunds with Terrell Bernard) and get little to no drop-off. I'm confident the same thing will happen this season. What the Bills could REALLY use is a homerun draft. Something closer to what 2017-2018 netted us. Instead of getting 2-3 solid guys, if we could end up with 4-5. Instead of just being solid starters, maybe we could get an All-Pro or two in the mix. It would also be nice for rookies to make a more immediate impact. It seems like the majority of Beane's picks are slow-burners. They do little to nothing as rookies and then take 3-4 years to really get going. The most recent examples are Ed Oliver and AJ Epenesa. 2 Quote
GunnerBill Posted February 27 Posted February 27 12 minutes ago, mjt328 said: The best way to avoid salary cap hell is by drafting well. The Saints were headed into a very bad financial situation several years back. But then the 2017 draft class netted them 5 very good starters (Lattimore, Ramczyk, Williams, Kamara and Hendrickson). That allowed them to extend their window significantly. Brandon Beane has been a solid/good drafter during his tenure here, regardless of what some fans say. He consistently gets 2-3 starting caliber players every single year, allowing the team to replace outgoing veterans (such as Tremaine Edmunds with Terrell Bernard) and get little to no drop-off. I'm confident the same thing will happen this season. What the Bills could REALLY use is a homerun draft. Something closer to what 2017-2018 netted us. Instead of getting 2-3 solid guys, if we could end up with 4-5. Instead of just being solid starters, maybe we could get an All-Pro or two in the mix. It would also be nice for rookies to make a more immediate impact. It seems like the majority of Beane's picks are slow-burners. They do little to nothing as rookies and then take 3-4 years to really get going. The most recent examples are Ed Oliver and AJ Epenesa. I largely agree but Ed Oliver was good every year except year 2. He didn't get the gaudy sack numbers until this year but his underlying analytics pressures and pass rush win rate show he was still affecting the pocket plenty. Quote
Bleeding Bills Blue Posted February 27 Posted February 27 37 minutes ago, mjt328 said: The best way to avoid salary cap hell is by drafting well. The Saints were headed into a very bad financial situation several years back. But then the 2017 draft class netted them 5 very good starters (Lattimore, Ramczyk, Williams, Kamara and Hendrickson). That allowed them to extend their window significantly. Brandon Beane has been a solid/good drafter during his tenure here, regardless of what some fans say. He consistently gets 2-3 starting caliber players every single year, allowing the team to replace outgoing veterans (such as Tremaine Edmunds with Terrell Bernard) and get little to no drop-off. I'm confident the same thing will happen this season. What the Bills could REALLY use is a homerun draft. Something closer to what 2017-2018 netted us. Instead of getting 2-3 solid guys, if we could end up with 4-5. Instead of just being solid starters, maybe we could get an All-Pro or two in the mix. It would also be nice for rookies to make a more immediate impact. It seems like the majority of Beane's picks are slow-burners. They do little to nothing as rookies and then take 3-4 years to really get going. The most recent examples are Ed Oliver and AJ Epenesa. They definitely need some starters on rookie deals. Right now they have - Offense: Shakir, Torrence, Brown, Kincaid, and Cook Defense: Rousseau, Bernard, Benford So they definitely need to add some players on the defensive side of the ball - especially on the defensive line. Offensively I think they need to add a younger pass catcher, and i think it'd be nice to add a mid-round lineman. Quote
Saxum Posted February 27 Author Posted February 27 36 minutes ago, mjt328 said: The best way to avoid salary cap hell is by drafting well. The Saints were headed into a very bad financial situation several years back. But then the 2017 draft class netted them 5 very good starters (Lattimore, Ramczyk, Williams, Kamara and Hendrickson). That allowed them to extend their window significantly. Brandon Beane has been a solid/good drafter during his tenure here, regardless of what some fans say. He consistently gets 2-3 starting caliber players every single year, allowing the team to replace outgoing veterans (such as Tremaine Edmunds with Terrell Bernard) and get little to no drop-off. I'm confident the same thing will happen this season. What the Bills could REALLY use is a homerun draft. Something closer to what 2017-2018 netted us. Instead of getting 2-3 solid guys, if we could end up with 4-5. Instead of just being solid starters, maybe we could get an All-Pro or two in the mix. It would also be nice for rookies to make a more immediate impact. It seems like the majority of Beane's picks are slow-burners. They do little to nothing as rookies and then take 3-4 years to really get going. The most recent examples are Ed Oliver and AJ Epenesa. AJ Epenesa was due to repeating different directions on what they wanted his weight to be starting with the season without team workouts due to COVID-19. Despite the help of the Bills he seemed to get more help from his sister, a nutritionist. Some of the stuff is in the Athletic article (Joe Buscaglia, Sep 17, 2022) and today this article is available to me. https://theathletic.com/3600859/2022/09/17/bills-aj-epenesa/ I do hope they can find a way to keep him. Bills like to send defense linemen in waves to keep them fresh but that also drives up the cost of line and slows down development. I liked it when Bills had defense linemen who could stay on field like Bruce Smith and Phil Hansen. Dwight Freeney was another good example of a smaller DE who could take the pounding. Quote
GunnerBill Posted February 27 Posted February 27 7 minutes ago, Punching Bag said: Bills like to send defense linemen in waves to keep them fresh but that also drives up the cost of line and slows down development. I liked it when Bills had defense linemen who could stay on field like Bruce Smith and Phil Hansen. Dwight Freeney was another good example of a smaller DE who could take the pounding. All the best teams pretty much do now. I crunched the numbers on this recently. KC have three who played high 60s percentage wise, but the majority of teams have one guy playing 65-75% and then 1 or 2 in the mid 50s and a load of rotation beneath that. The issue is the Bills haven't had cheap guys in that rotation. It has been decent FA deals or high picks. One of KC's three heavy usage guys is Mike Danna - a 5th round pick. That is the kind of thing we need, some cheap, young guys capable of being in that 7 or 8 man rotation. 1 Quote
mjt328 Posted February 27 Posted February 27 22 hours ago, Utah John said: Salary cap games are like a drug addiction. You get hooked and you can't get off the cycle. The only way for the Saints to meet the NFL's required numbers before the middle of March -- just two or three weeks away -- is to buy more drugs. They have to restructure some of their contracts to have them count less now, but they're not going to get clean. They can't even quit cold turkey because the existing obligations won't go away even if the player is cut. In fact cold turkey makes the immediate problem worse. The Bills are skirting this desperate situation, largely due to Beane breaking his own financial prudence rules and signing Von Miller to that silly contract. The Biils were prime drug candidates after the 13 second debacle, feeling depressed, and more to the point, letting McDermott blame the lack of a pass rush for the huge team and coaching failure. So Beane tried going all-in to fix it by popping a few cap pills. And now the Bills are on the edge of a total addiction collapse in the near future, Josh Allen or no Josh Allen. The Dawson Knox contract will also be a burden soon, with no good solution in sight. Joe Buscaglia had a good article in the Atlantic a couple of weeks ago about how the Bills could get by for the coming season. Part of the cure involved buying more drugs. But it would let the team attempt to continue its success by retaining just enough good players, hoping the draft yields 5 or more starters, or good reserves now who become starters when current players age out, and praying for no more significant injuries. If there's any good news, it's that Miami is in about the same situation, but debating whether to pay Tua with cap drugs, or try to replace him with a cheap rookie. Tough choice since Tua has never shown he's a championship QB, just a system guy who can beat up on weak teams. So the Bills and Dolphins are both vulnerable. You know who's not? The Jets. Watch out. If they get a QB (and can avoid cap death for the Rodgers contract) and can fix their O line, they could win the division. The Bills cap situation is nowhere near the catastrophe people want to make it. In the past, you had teams like the Saints (buying up every top free agent on the market) or the Rams (trading away top picks for star players). With the exception of the Von Miller move two years ago... literally one player contract, Brandon Beane has been consistent with his plan of building through the draft and getting low-priced free agents to fill-out the depth. Annual contract restructures are done by literally every team, including the 3x World Champion Kansas City Chiefs we have been desperately trying to catch. They only become an issue when the player becomes old/ineffective and you can no longer part ways. Restructuring Josh Allen every year holds zero risk. Because when he becomes old and ineffective, the team falls apart and needs a rebuild anyway. We will continue using this method every year to clear $20-30 million, and it will be OK. Trust me. They aren't doing this with every contract on the team. Only a handful each year who strategically make sense. The only current contracts the Bills have which are really a burden are with Miller (as already mentioned), and possibly Stefon Diggs. Both have outs in 2024. So if we can get by one more year "kicking the can down the road" - we can clear a lot of cap space by next offseason. The idea that our cap problems will continue to compound infinitely simply isn't true. Everyone freaked out last year, because the Bills were leaving huge holes at Middle Linebacker and Right Tackle. Then Terrell Bernard and Spencer Brown developed and stepped up. Everything was OK. So as long as Beane continues to draft well, we can continue rolling. We enter this offseason with questions at WR2, DE, DT and FS. We should be able to address at least two of those spots with minimal cap space, and the others with draft picks. Quote
billsfan89 Posted February 27 Posted February 27 (edited) 19 hours ago, NoSaint said: the approach to the post Payton era has been just nonsensical. The only explanation is trying to preserve pride and avoid “it was just Sean and drew” comments I’ll echo, they have 40m on the books in the running back room if that’s where you map taysom. Plus they’ve locked themselves to carr for 2 more years and doubled down on Dennis Allen. It’s like they are praying all the bad choices just kind of work out and somehow they look good in the end It's very Isaiah Thomas Knicks-era style of management. Thomas would trade expiring contracts for players with more years left on their deals which would have made sense had those players been better than the players whose contracts were expiring. But the players Thomas traded for were the same mediocre overpaid type of players he was trading away except the Knicks were now saddled with a player with more years on their contract. When pressed about this cycle on the radio Thomas said that it doesn't matter the Knicks are saddled with bad contracts because in a few years, those deals will be expiring contracts. I will give the Saints some "credit" in that after their 2020 last run with Drew their last three seasons aren't tragic (a pair of 9-8 seasons and a 7-10 season) but the issue is that rather than tank a year to get out from under their cap issues and maybe snag a QB in the top of the draft they just kept going with these short term shenanigans. Edited February 27 by billsfan89 Quote
Just in Atlanta Posted February 28 Posted February 28 That’s like having your 1989 Ford Festiva repossessed. Quote
billsfan714 Posted February 28 Posted February 28 When i was messing with the Saints cap on Spotrac I couldnt believe there weren't a lot of cuts to be made that saved much money. Quote
BuffaloBillsGospel2014 Posted February 28 Posted February 28 On 2/25/2024 at 9:03 PM, DrBob806 said: It just kicks the can down the road, like the Saints. There is no other choice, the good thing is Allen is here for the long run. Quote
Saxum Posted March 1 Author Posted March 1 Former NFL Head Coach Concerned The New Orleans Saints 'Are Already Over' The NFL Salary Cap For The 2025 Season https://www.si.com/nfl/saints/news/saints-salary-cap-issues-for-2025 Quote NEW ORLEANS - During "Airing It Out" on Monday morning, Charlie Weis criticized the New Orleans Saints for being the only team over the NFL salary cap for the 2025 season despite currently tackling their 2024 salary cap issues. "I read one thing this morning, Bob, which really shows you how some teams are in some serious, serious trouble," former NFL head coach Charlie Weis told Papa. "They're the only team in the league that right now is already over the 2025 [salary cap]...when are you ever going to get out from underneath the salary cap problems if you keep on pushing everything down the road?" He coached for the Cheats so he knows cheating when he sees it. Quote
TBBills Fan Posted March 1 Posted March 1 On 2/28/2024 at 12:08 PM, Just in Atlanta said: That’s like having your 1989 Ford Festiva repossessed. I feel attacked 1 Quote
Pine Barrens Mafia Posted March 1 Posted March 1 This guy's a yahoo, but he's right about this point Quote
without a drought Posted March 1 Posted March 1 On 2/28/2024 at 12:08 PM, Just in Atlanta said: That’s like having your 1989 Ford Festiva repossessed. At least I still have my Yugo. 1 Quote
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.