Thurman#1

Groom a mid-to-late round ILB and you're extremely likely to come up with a decent player. In a position that McDermott clearly finds to be an extremely important one in his defense. A position that he's spent a #9 pick on in Carolina and a #16 on here in Buffalo. A mid-round guy isn't going to do it, unless you're spectacularly lucky. Which could happen, but counting on great luck isn't much of a strategy.

Wagner might indeed be a real boost. If he played at the same level he played at when younger, he absolutely would be. Even if he played at the level he played at last year he'd be an upgrade. But his production has already started to fall. It is likely to continue doing so. And older guys are more likely to be injured. He'd also be expensive. You mention J.J. Watt. Same age then as Wagner is now. Remind me, how did the Watt thing turn out for Arizona anyway? Certainly worth thinking about bringing in Wagner. Great player. But this isn't some sure thing anymore than the Watt thing was. He will likely cost a bunch, and he's old and getting older. IMO they don't do it. But certainly not impossible by any means. But Beane wouldn't back up the Brinks truck in a year when we're not going to have much cap money. It's not the way he works. If Wagner is willing to give a real discount for a shot at a title, it becomes more likely, I think. We'll see.

Yeah, I get it about the 5th year option. Here's the thing ... the 5th year option for Edmunds costs $12.3M. Do you pay an average guy $12.3M a year? NO. You do not. Do you pay an average guy $12.3M a year if, as you say, "it gives you an extra year while you work out an extension"? NO. You do not. You don't need to work out an extension with an average guy if it costs you $12.3M to do it. You can get an average guy elsewhere cheaper and without paying them anywhere near that much. Do you lock up an average guy for another year because "you aren't quite sure about him yet" by paying him $12.3M? NO. You don't do any of those things for an average guy. The idea isn't just bad, it's ludicrous. And I think of you as a smart poster, so I have a really hard time understanding why you're saying something as weird as this. You say that he's average and then you go on to say that moving on from him without an immediate upgrade is not an option. Those two statements are absolutely incongruent. It's a piece of cake to find an average guy, easier still to upgrade from him with $12.3M. You do it. What you don't do to replace an average guy, you don't pay him vastly over his replacement cost. And $12.3M is far far far over the replacement cost of an average linebacker. Sorry, man, the idea doesn't make sense. Again, Beane said THIS WEEK that Edmunds is "definitely" a "core building block moving forward." He simply wouldn't do that if he thought Edmunds was average But more, there isn't a single GM in the league right down to the horrible ones who is stupid enough to do that. To replace a guy who's average you can bring in an FA for probably $3M, and that's the smart thing to do for an average guy. Your opinion is very clearly completely opposite from Beane's. And frankly, if the choice is between believing Beane and believing a guy on the internet. that's not even a real choice. The reason I'm right on this isn't that I'm smart. I don't claim that. I'm just a guy on the internet too. But Beane isn't. He's one of the best GMs in the game. When I find myself disagreeing with Beane, I simply figure that with the vast difference in information he has, experience he has, contacts he has, access to guys like McDermott and our assistant coaches that he has, if I disagree with him about something happening on the Bills about a guy who's been on the team for four years, I'm almost certainly wrong. You too. All of us here too.

Most likely successor to Singletary is Singletary. Could use a backup / competition / 3rd down guy, though.

Please. Even the Texans aren't stupid enough to say to themselves, "OK, we've got an asset and he wants go somewhere else. Our best move is to destroy the value of that asset so we get nothing in return!! Damn, I'm like Lex Luthor over here, an evil genius!!" That idea has absolutely zero validity, and even less sense.

Yeah, yeah, he screwed up last year by putting together probably the best roster in the league. They could use you in the Superman comics writer's room. You could help them figure out what people from Bizarro World might say in any given situation. He did a fantastic job last year, and this year he should absolutely NOT do anything to squeeze our window, which is right now a very long one.

I politely disagree. We don't know whose fault it is. Is McDermott ultimately responsible? Yeah, in the sense that the head coach is responsible for everything. But is it his fault? We just don't know. Say that in pre-season they established a system so that on special teams plays, everyone always knows what happen is happening. Say that they even had this particular situation talked about. Say that McDermott checked on that with Farwell, telling him for example, "Heath, if the kicker isn't in the huddle, it's up to you to specifically talk to one player and make sure that that guy talks to him. Every time. OK? You understand?". And say Farwell confirms his understanding. They realized that plenty of times a kicker wants an extra kick and that he won't always be in the STs huddle, so they specified one guy/coach who would be responsible for telling him the call. So McDermott and Farwell knew this was Farwell's responsibility to tell him and Farwell forgot. Is that McDermott's fault? No. It's his ultimate responsibility, but it's not his fault. There's no way for the head coach to on every play make sure that every player knows his responsibility. It can't be done in the limited time he has. He has to assume that everyone knows what to do if they've prepared for the situation. Now, on the other hand, say that McDermott never established some kind of official chain of command for that kind of situation. Is that his fault? Hell yeah! Do we know whether he had prepared for it? No. So we don't know whose fault it was. But Farwell's fate is a strong indication.

Jesus. Yeah. The big toe and the toe next to it? That's going to affect his walking quite a bit, never mind athletics. I wish him good luck and good health going forward. I'm curious when some people got so insensitive.

No, he really is not average. Again, if he were really average, it would have been moronic to give him $12.3M for a year. Pure dumbage. Beane's not dumb. Edmunds is well above average. It isn't even a question. Now, that doesn't mean he's elite. He isn't. But he absolutely is well above average. That's why Beane said this week that yes he's a core building block moving forward. You don't put average guys into that kind of a category. You just don't. In the same answer Beane said that fans don't understand, they don't see what the Bills do.

Yes, strategy changes. No, not so much when you're close to the SB. It changes from the first year or two when you have a ton of holes to when the team matures and you have at least a solid guy at every position. We have traded draft picks every year. We traded our first for Diggs. But no, you don't trade a lot of high-value picks. Not unless you don't have a QB.

Nonsense. Edmunds has never been average. Always above average. He's very good. You don't give an average LB $12.3M the way the Bills just gave Tremaine by committing to his option. Sorry, calling him average is just complete and utter balderdash and wrongness. It says far more about you and your ability to make good observations than it does about Tremaine. Certainly Wagner is very significantly better than Tremaine, though, at least for what we saw last year. He's aging, though. Agreed they're not absolutely committed to Edmunds. They're not committed to anyone, except Allen. Maaaaaaaybe Diggs, for another four or five years or so. They're committed to winning long-term, rather than individual players. Long-term being the key. They've said again and again that they want to be competitive for a long time. And Tremaine's young, and Wagner really isn't. But they'll absolutely do due diligence on this and look at every side of this.

I doubt it happens. But certainly a real upgrade. Without question one of the absolute best LBs in the league, Wagner. The problem would be age. Wagner's going to be 32. How many more great years will he have? Here's the aging curve at various positions, including LB: https://socalledfantasyexperts.com/aging-curve-nfl-defensive-players-dl-lb-db/ You also have to worry about cost. You don't want Wagner as a one-year guy who has to be replaced. And yet he's likely to want real money for an extension. IMO it's not something they'd consider. Real interesting to think about, though. Edmunds is very good, but Wagner is among the elite. At least he was last year.

Yeah, that's not a smart take. You: "simply miscast in this defensive scheme and not worth signing long term" McBeane (asked whether Edmunds is a long-term building block moving for this team): "Yeah, we definitely do." And frankly, between a small group of Bills fans and Beane, the one to trust isn't the small group of fans.

Don't expect a lot of re-structures. Beane has never worked that way. Do expect a few, though. That is the way he has always worked. And yes, certainly expect players released to create cap space. And a bunch more given a choice of a salary reduction or a release. They have till the 15th. No rush till the new NFL year starts on that day.

I would absolutely not call Cousins mediocre. He's better than that. But in no way good enough to get that kind of contract. He's a bit above average. He has indeed been excellent at getting paid, and pretty good as a QB. If he's my QB, I find a way to draft a guy who might legitimately become a great QB.

Edmunds is a "core building block." - Brandon Beane Kid yourself if you must, but he'll be here. And luckily for us, Beane has a history of kicking a few cans down the road, but not many. Because of that we look to be in decent cap shape in 2023. The best guesses at cuts, re-structures and re-signings I've seen so far is the Cover 1 Salary Cap Spectacular. They predict a bit more than $25M after the cuts and then after re-signing Horrible Harry and a few others ending up with around $10M. But they predict they will have a few contracts they can keep in their pocket as options to cash in as kicked cans if they need money. They called them coupons that they could cash in if they want. That's probably pretty close.

"some money". Many seem to have taken that as "lots of money." But that's not what he said. No, they're not. I mean there may be some guy in his mother's basement covered with Cheetoh dust saying that, but nobody with any degree of understanding is saying "no cap." They just aren't. They're saying we won't have a lot of cap. The reason they're saying that is because we won't have a lot of cap. EDIT: By the way people are responding, it seems that when you said "We have no cap," you actually were referring to the current figure of -$3.9M, at least as Spotrac has it? That's some wildly unclear writing, if so, but if that's what you meant, then it is correct that we are indeed below the cap currently by an amount that the NFL and the Bills have on file, and it's indeed very close to the amounts that Spotrac and OvertheCap have. Unless they act in a way that Brandon Beane has never acted and kick a lot of cans down the road. He could indeed do that. But it's not likely.

If you read the article it makes it clear. No reason to doubt what they say, there'd have been no upside to lying about it.

Love this guy. The instant he catches the ball he's headed upfield looking for YAC. In a very determined manner.

Did they take Lotulelei out against KC? Nope. 58% the first game and 43% when he was playing poorly after Covid. They play our space eater even against mostly pass teams. Not generally on passing downs, but they do play the space eaters. In 2018 when healthy, against New England with Brady he played 53% and 47%. The whole year he played less than 44% in only three games. With the Bills Lotulelei has never played less than 47%, excluding his opt-out. And if they draft Jordan Davis it will be to be the new, available and hopefully improved young Lotulelei. Our DL all platoons, pass rushers included. That's how they're used and yet they still draft DLs in the 1st.

Different needs at 3-tech and 1-tech. They haven't drafted a massive 1-tech because they had one who they spent a ton on in FA. And that guy is no longer able to consistently stay available. They could do this. Don't know if they will, of course, but they could.

Oliver 623 snaps and Phillips 474. Phillips outsnapped him by percentage, but not by snaps. But I totally agree with you. He fits the scheme. They could certainly take someone else, but I'd bet they've done due diligence and more on this guy.

If they draft him, it won't be for sacks. And they might draft him at 25. Not that I met his best friend or any nonsense like that. Just that he's among o group of real possibilities at that point.

Too early for anyone to know. No way to have seen all the offers.

We do have to assess which is more realistic. Neither of your suggested alternatives is realistic. When the Bills offense is hitting on all cylinders, they can't be held down. Same with the top three or four offenses in the league. When you bend the rules to favor the offense as much as the NFL has over the last twenty years, that's the way it is. When our offense was stopped, it was mostly their own fault. Same with KC. Same with two or three other teams. Equally, though, building an offense that can score every possession ... the idea is nuts. It's not a mistake that the most points scored per game this year was 30.4. Buffalo was only 0.6 PPG behind them. Here is the top scoring average across the NFL for the ten years before that. 2020: 31.5 2019: 31.9 2018: 34.8 2017: 29.0 2016: 34.1 2015: 31.1 2014: 30.4 2013: 36.4 2012: 33.9 2011: 34.7 We're not going to start suddenly scoring 40, much less 50 as the nutso headline suggests. We'd be doing incredibly well to average two points a game more.