Thurman#1

You attempting to get into telepathy?

They'll bring back a bunch more, as they should. They'll need them. Spotrac has them with 54 guys on the roster right now, including such stalwarts as: Tommy Doyle, Damar, Tre McKitty, Darrynton Evans, KJ Hamler, Shane Buechele, Kyron Brown, Andy Isabella, Kameron Cline, Ryan Van Demark, Alec Anderson, Ja'Marcus Ingram, Justin Shorter, Zach Davidson, Richard Gouraige, Kevin Jarvis, Tyrell Shavers, Bryan Thompson, and Kendall Williamson. And they haven't even removed Tre White from the roster yet. And that also includes two punters. Even with draft picks and a few more outside FAs, we'll need some returnees, even with the fresh young faces.

Ah, good stuff!!! Welcome back!

I think Taron is up there right now. Otherwise this is pretty on-target. My guess is we'll see Diggs up there again next year. The Bills have put together a really good roster across the board. No weaknesses till the defensive injuries started happening. You can win SBs that way if one of your elite guys is your QB. Add from outside? Possible. You never know. But guys like Oliver, Torrence and Kincaid could very possibly move up to that tier. And Diggs could get back to closer to his usual level and do the same.

9th by AAV among QBs. That's reasonable for Cousins. Not that bad for the Falcons, IMO. The contract details are always important, but I don't think Atlanta got fleeced for Cousins the way the Vikes did with their original all-guaranteed contract for him.

It's nothing new. He's asked guys for paycuts, and gotten many to do it, in previous years.

Yes, Wood was injured trying to block a bigger guy in his 2016 break, but his ankle was rolled up on from the side, and collapsed. That was the main factor. In his 2009 injury he was downfield moving, not anchoring, and the knee was hit from the side. 2016: https://www.buffalorumblings.com/2016/11/7/13559966/eric-wood-leaves-game-with-ankle-injury-on-bills-td (scroll down a bit, you'll find the video). 2009: just go to youtube and search wood broken leg. You'll find it many times. As for wanting a bigger guy, I don't see McDermott as significantly tougher or better at anchoring. He's an athletic type like Morse. They could bring someone else in, but my guess is they will end up with the same type.

Dunno what he thinks about the Jags, but yeah, he thinks we got worse. We know that because right now we're planning on McDermott at C and Edwards at LG. We had those guys on the team last year. Yet we started Morse at C, McDermott at LG and Edwards as 6th man on 148 plays. So yeah, he thinks we got at least a bit worse. We'll have to see how it all works out.

$7M guaranteed for what could well end up being a one-year contract. And they are signing him at 32 while we signed him at 30. They'd have loved to have kept him but didn't want to deal with the cap problems it would have entailed. Anyway, good for Mitch. A great guy. We're not as good on the field without him.

I don't know about "much" better. I still have to see how it works out. But there's a chance it works out that way, I think. My bet would be something more on the order of significantly better and probably won't seriously compete for a title but maybe will win a playoff game or maybe even two if things go well.

So ....? Why are you replying to me? This doesn't have any direct logical link to what I said in my post. I think it's all reasonably on target as far as teams and needs. A few are arguable, but overall OK. But how does this all relate to what I said? Most of those teams need a QB. Doesn't mean they'd want Wilson. Yes, a lot of teams might have been in the Wilson market. After the draft and FA most of them would have committed to someone. Certainly no guarantee that a better opportunity than Pittsburgh would be out there. Probably most, maybe all would at least have looked at him. Plenty of them might have decided not to take him for the reasons I suggested. You said every team. And that's wrong. I'm not at all sure how many would have been willing to commit. And the team would have made many to most of their offseason personnel moves without knowing Wilson would be on the roster and therefore might easily have made moves that would hurt them in terms of having greatly reduced cap room and no draft picks left to make after knowing Wilson will be on board. Pittsburgh can make all their moves now knowing he's their QB and do a much better job of fitting a team around him.

There are plenty of teams that wouldn't give him that contract. Some because they don't want competition for the young guy they are grooming. Others just don't need the possible publicity problems. Nearly any team would think $1.5M is good value for Wilson but plenty might think Wilson isn't a good fit with their offense. We might think Wilson wouldn't be wholly committed in a backup role. Might not want him in the locker room. More, Wilson doesn't want a situation where he's slotted in as a backup. After the draft and FA, more teams will have committed to another guy as starter. Even more, Pittsburgh isn't going to spend any other significant resources on QB now. Because they have Wilson. The fact that they don't spend more resources on QB gives them a chance to be better this year if he works out. If Wilson had not signed there, Pittsburgh would very possibly have committed more resources to QB, perhaps even a first round QB, possibly even a trade-up. At that point even if they later signed Wilson the team would have less resources to put around him this year. And less inclination to bring Wilson in. You could definitely be right that after the draft there'll be a team that at that time looks like it will need Wilson. No reason to think it would definitely be a better fit than the Steelers though. It might be better or it might be worse. There's a very decent chance this will turn out to have been his best move, even in hindsight. It's also possible it will look bad. IMO this was a reasonable move for him. He also gets some certainty early and more time to learn the playbook and get to know what he's getting into.

Yeah. Don't like the guy, but he was handled immensely poorly. ... is on this issue quite reasonable and correct.

Yup. Morse would be 32 and a half on opening day with a history of concussions, Dion 30 and a half and has been really healthy.

That's my guess.

It would be great. Not going to happen, for obvious reasons.

Watson's not that good now. Now being the key word. He was damn good for a couple of years, probably top seven or so. Going forward, who knows. I loved the guy but I find him hard to root for now. Don't have the money for D-Hop to be a smart pickup. And Sanders and Brown were good here, though both aged near the end. Brown very good for a couple of years, though the injury really curtailed that second season.

Yeah, this. And yup, this too. If they want a basher, I'd like to see Dillon from the Packers here, if his salary asks aren't too high.

Not in the know, but they're absolutely changing things. The staff is studying the journals from their fields of specialization, they're attending conferences, they're doing professional development, and they will doubtless mix what they learn in with the current program. Beyond that, there are probably not huge changes going on. If they are shown to be necessary, they would be made, but I don't think anyone feels that the program has any problems. What is generally found about injuries is simply that they go up and down year to year, even in the best strength, conditioning and injury prevention problems. It's the way of things. And injuries happen more as teams get older. Last year there were a ton of injuries, the year before not so many but the ones we had were to important players. The year before that we were spectacularly healthy, and the year before that not quite as spectacularly so, but quite healthy. With the same staff. This is well within normal variability. They haven't changed any staff, at least that I've seen. There isn't a need. You're right that they made a mistake with the timing of the flight on the overseas trip. Hopefully they will learn from that. The injuries really did rip the heart out of this season. It was a huge factor, particularly in late season performance. Hopefully our youth movement should help. Older people do tend to have more injuries and take longer to heal. Have a great offseason.

It's anything but magic. It's just borrowing from future years. Doesn't require a hat like Dumbledores. Figuring it out ain't tough, you're right. Paying the price down the road, that's the hard part. Seeing guys like Mitch Morse get cut because you're feeling the pressure, that's the hard part. Yup. This. Beane's damn good at this. He didn't like how this year started and is making sure things won't get that bad again and that we can still be competitive every year, their oft-stated goal.

So, nobody then? We gonna put a hot dog vendor at DT? IMO the OP has a pretty decent guess. Seems likely we can't pay Epenesa or Floyd. We'll be working hard to bring Jones back and IMO we've got a decent chance there, for more than $3M a year. One or two of the others also seems fairly likely.

There are indeed plenty of things Beane can do to create cap space by restructures / extensions, etc, and you're also right that he can back load FA contracts and add voice years. If he wanted to just create cap space for right now, he'd doubtless do those things. What he's said he wants to do, though, is, "'How much can we create without totally piling up a huge mess in ’25 or ’26, whatever year it is?'” He's never wanted to be one of those guys that consistently push more and more things down the road. He didn't like being in the situation he found himself in this year. He absolutely is going to accept next year as a bit of a reset year, and we saw yet more proof of that today with all the cuts. Nothing is absolutely impossible. If he has a shot at an incredible bargain that will cost a lot, he could take it. But the smart money says he won't, that he's going to add low-priced and maybe one or two medium-priced FAs this year, most likely spend a bit less on FAs than he did last year. He will have to do at the least one re-structure, Josh's, but don't expect too much after that.

That's the difference between likely to be earned and not likely to be earned. It's not what they are "typically based on." There are PLENTY of not likely to be earned bonuses set a lot higher than what the player did last year. So a likely to be earned incentive on tackles for Von would have to be at 3 tackles or less. But a not likely to be earned incentive could be set at four. Or at 50. There's a famous story about Brady keeping Gronk in the last game of the year to earn his incentives. Those incentives were set at 55 receptions and 750 yards. But the year before he'd put up 45 catches and 623 yards. You can set not-likelies as high as you want. Yup. Good point. Doesn't make his replacements better, unfortunately. They seem to have more confidence in Conor McDermott at center than I do, though we may see differently in FA or the draft.

Yes, you do need a crystal ball. I mean, the way you worded it, it's obvious. If it's an overpay, don't do it. If it's an underpay, do do it. If it's just on target, do it. But that's not the way the world works. Plenty of 30+ DEs have been signed for a ton of money and been worth every penny. And plenty of others have not. Knowing which will be which would indeed require a crystal ball, or more specifically, it's impossible. Not everyone is as successful as an older front seven / pass rushing guy as Willie McGinest or Kevin Greene or Calais Campbell or Terrell Suggs or Reggie White or James Harrison or Jason Taylor or Chris Doleman or Michael Strahan or Julius Peppers or Bruce Smith or Jim Jeffcoat or Neil Smith or Trace Armstrong or Sean Jones or Too Tall Jones or Clyde Simmons or Robert Mathis or Rickey Jackson or Leslie O'Neal or John Abraham or John Randle or Justin Smith or Brandon Graham or Clay Matthews or Ron McDole or ... I could go on but the more obvious ones are gone. Hell, Jerry Hughes had a really good season at 34. London Fletcher. Point is, some guys don't. Others .... you know ... do. So yeah, you do need a crystal ball. Could've worked out, especially with the plans to platoon him. So far it hasn't, but it could have. I'm feeling bad emotionally, and I'm worried about the center of the o-line. They were, at long last, genuinely good all along the line this year. Now we don't know how next year will look.

Hunh. I can believe that, it would make sense. They can't really believably threaten to cut him this offseason, not with a dead cap hit of $20M. But if he cuts his salary to make it more palatable for the Bills to keep him long-term, they could in turn guarantee some of his salary over the next couple of years.