WGR

‘The Bills signed former Colts CB Vontae Davis to a 1-year worth $5M base, source said, with $3.5M of that guaranteed. The max he can earn is $8M.’

‘The Davis signing likely means the end to E.J. Gaines, who will be a free agent in a few weeks. Gaines had a very good season and could be asking for a hefty salary. Davis comes in as a cheaper option, and a 1-year deal which doesn’t tie the Bills up with another long term contract.’

‘While most have speculated for much of the season that the team would move on from the signal-caller this offseason, especially after McDermott benched the 28-year old in favor of rookie Nathan Peterman before the team’s week eleven game at the Los Angeles Chargers, NFL Insider Ian Rapoport reported Thursday that the team won’t do that unless they know who his replacement will be.’

‘The main thing is, everyone assumes that the $6 million is up, the Bills are going to cut him and figure it out from there. That is definitely not my understanding. I would be very surprised, do not expect them to just cut him. I would expect them, like a lot of teams do, to try to upgrade at the position. He was a starter good enough last year to help them get to the playoffs. A starter good enough to get benched, and a starter good enough to come back, rebound, and play well from that. He’s not perfect, but he’s good enough to be a starter in the NFL, and they’re not just going to cut that.’

‘Here they are again facing a very similar situation. While most have speculated for much of the season that the team would move on from the signal-caller this offseason, especially after head coach Sean McDermott benched the 28-year old in favor of rookie Nathan Peterman before the team’s week eleven game at the Los Angeles Chargers, NFL Insider Ian Rapoport reported Thursday that the team won’t do that unless they know who his replacement will be.’

‘Any team’s goal isn’t drafting the best players, it’s winning. Those things are not mutually exclusive, of course. The list of Super Bowl-winning quarterbacks isn’t a list of the league’s best quarterbacks through the years, but it’s mostly very good-to-great players. Dan Marino and Jim Kelly aren’t on it, Trent Dilfer and Brad Johnson are.’

‘However, his body of work with the Bengals is incredibly small. A fifth round pick in the 2014 NFL Draft, McCarron has played in only eleven games and has just four starts. All of those starts (three in the regular season and one in the playoffs) came in 2015 when Andy Dalton was injured.’

‘Here’s how it works: The Bills simply need to submit a contract offer, also known as a “tender,” to that player for the minimum one-year salary for how many accrued years he will have in the league in 2018. The player doesn’t even have to sign that offer. It simply has to be formally submitted to him for the Bills to retain his rights through next season. Then no other team has any available avenues to sign that player to a contract or even an offer sheet.’

‘”At this point, it’s more exploratory framework. What’s it going to take? Are you interested in any of our players? Are there going to be any picks? How do we do that kind of stuff? So they’re trying to outline a framework with different teams where they feel they need to move up to, and then have contingency plans. Let’s say the player they want falls a couple of spots, and they have a contingency plan with the teams behind them to be able to make sure they don’t overpay to get up to the spot they want to.”‘

‘Schefter did say this was Davis’ “first” free agent visit. So, unless the Bills want him bad enough to not let him out of the building without a contract, he’ll will visit other teams.’

‘Robiskie has the experience and pedigree head coach Sean McDermott seems to value in his assistants. The 63-year old has been an NFL assistant for 36 years, coaching for six different organizations. His first coaching job was with the Los Angeles Raiders in 1982. He was the offensive coordinator for the Tennessee Titans for the past two seasons.’

‘Mueller would have familiarity with both McDermott and Beane, as he spent 20 years in the Carolina Panthers organization. Guilamo served as a consultant to the Bills last season. As ESPN’s Mike Rodak points out, this makes more than two dozen changes to the Bills front office since the arrival of Beane and McDermott.’

‘”They have aggressively scouting quarterbacks all year long. I think Josh Rosen is the apple of their eye. It’ll be hard to go up and get him, but I think the tie between Buffalo and Giants GM David Gettleman kind of paints a picture of where they both might be thinking to go.”‘

‘Both Robiskie and Robinson have the experience and pedigree head coach Sean McDermott values in his assistants. Robiskie, 63, has been an NFL assistant for over 35 years, coaching for six different organizations. His first coaching job was with the Los Angeles Raiders in 1982.’

‘The Colts’ Twitter account had some fun with the situation Sunday, making fun at their own expense by tweeting out pictures of Reich actually signing the contract and then standing next to owner Jim Irsay while holding the newspaper to prove the date of the photo.’