Magox

Stingley is the premier CB ballhawk in the league. The completion percentage you are citing is out of context. Benford is one of the top 2 CB’s in the league in yards per target meaning that when WR’s do catch the ball on him it’s for a pittance. He doesn’t give up many yards and receivers don’t get much separation on him as he is among the leagues best. He’s also scheme versatile as he is not just a zone CB, he is actually a good man to man corner. I was thinking the Bills could get him for $21-$23M AAV. Now I think that ship has sailed. The Bills already have a hole at the position which also increases his leverage. I don’t see how the Bills let him walk next season unless he regresses or has a serious injury concern. Benford is arguably the Bills best defensive player, you don’t let guys like that walk unless you have a good backup plan in place. And the odds that they will find a replacement either via draft or FA as good as him is miniscule. The only leverage the Bills have is that Benford would have to wait another year before he has life altering income and if he were to be seriously injured he jeopardizes tons of guaranteed money. Neither camp is in a hurry to get a deal done, realistically they could wait until a few weeks before the season begins.

It's easy to say that the Bills should have locked up Benford by now but we don't know what he was asking. With that said, his price went up and there is no way that I see that the Bills will let him walk. The sooner they lock him up the lower they will have to pay. His bag went up probably around $3-$5M more AAV than what it could have been had just 2 weeks ago. WR's don't get separation against and they don't get too many meaningful catches on him.

I've been wanting to create a thread on this topic, the two most undervalued position groupings has/had been the RB and CB positions. RB's are now beginning to get paid closer to what I believe are there more fair valuations. The CB market up until now had the highest paid guy at $25M AAV, which is criminally undervalued. If WR's are the 2nd/3rd highest paid groupings with the max at $40M AAV, then the guys who have the ability to cover those guys on an island should be paid at a somewhat commensurate valuation. Stingley's contract is 20% higher than the next closest guy. That is a blowout resetting contract at that position. I think this is probably the disconnect between Benford and the Bills, I'm guessing the Bills are offering a team friendly deal of around $20M AAV and Benford is looking for $25M AAV. Despite what some may believe that he is only a Zone Cover DB, he has demonstrated that he can play man to man sort of coverages at a high level. There is no way in my view that the Bills at some point whether its this year or next let him walk away without either tagging or extending him.

I expect Dalton to have his best year yet. He has a couple things going on last year, injuries and for whatever reason he and Josh couldn’t get on the same page. There were multiple times off the top of my head where Josh over threw him on the down the field plays. Remember the play that he ended up missing a wide open Kincaid that would have been a 27 yd TD? https://www.nfl.com/videos/josh-allen-misses-golden-opportunity-for-28-yard-td-pass-to-kincaid If memory serves me right Kincaid suffered a knee injury and missed a few games and was hobbled for a few more as a result of this play

He still can play at pretty high level. On a side note, I saw a video of him this past season talking to his defensive teammates in a Mic’d up situation on the sideline and he is an absolute leader. Just the energy and what he was saying I just remember coming away very impressed with what and how he was saying it. Would love to have him on the team and now with 2 of our defensive players being sidelined for the first few weeks it should be a consideration

What the Hell???

Greg Cosell really likes this pickup, says he’s very smart, helps setup plays for his teammates because he understands and processes what’s happening, has good athleticism and makes plays

There it is! Dane is serviceable, knows the system and can play man to man. But we are definitely drafting a CB or two this year

I don’t think they will be spending too much more, possibly on a cb, a few other minor signings and the draft. Dawkins I would imagine is a strong possibility. Reduction in pay to Knox and maybe cutting Daquan if they get another DT

There are all sorts of prorated types of payment and I don’t believe any of it can be restructured any further. Just the Base pay

There isn’t really anything to do for 2025. Next year they can convert his $16M salary to bonus and save about $13M

Greens everywhere except height and weight

I think this is going to end up being a sneaky good signing.

@GunnerBill we were talking about this the other day. My feelings were that slot valuations are going up at a very rapid rate. Godwin can play on the boundary but is primarily a slot guy but he just happens to play it at an elite level.

Thats about what I was projecting myself. A late middle rounder. If he simply makes the team and plays special teams it worked out. If he eventually becomes the 3rd LB on the depth chart it’s a success. If he eventually becomes a starter it’s a home run.

Playmaker!

He’s showed himself to be an adequate possibility, but we are talking about a late 5th rounder and why not see if he could end up being better ?

There is no reason why Shaun shouldn't be selected by the Bills with a mid rounder if he's available. Milano will likely need a replacement within a year or two. The guys is ultra productive, and has the measurables to be a really good LB. Get'r done!

Another consideration is that you are looking to trade for someone who is 30 years old who will be looking for probably around $35M+ a year AAV. That dilutes the trade value. Also, Buffalo's recent track record of their 1st and 2nd rounds I don't believe factors in at all. I don't believe any teams GM goes into a trade possibility negotiation thinking "We haven't had the success we'd like with our premium picks, so lets trade it away to get a proven player". I truly believe that is how fans may think but not GM's, specially one like Brandon Beane. I believe they value their premium picks very much so. Also, we don't know if the Bills tried and if they did what they offered. My belief is they did make a bid which is reasonable to believe since there was some reporting that there was a bid for Myles Garrett and that whatever they bid was rejected by the Bengals.

I'm guessing that the Bills made an offer to trade for Trey and the Bengals rejected it because of the comp. Then the Bills didn't have the luxury to wait around and pulled the trigger on Bosa. That's what I'm speculating as to what happened.

Not the same at all. James Cook's networth is probably 2% of what Josh Allen's is and Josh Allen has a guaranteed contract of $250 M more that will be coming in and has significantly more corporate endorsement deals. The shelf life of a QB if successful is around 15 years, the shelf life of a successful RB is about half of that. This is arguably the last big contract that he will ever have and then it dries up. I don't begrudge him for trying to make enough money to leave a legacy behind. Could he have handled it differently? Sure, but honestly I don't care too much about that, it's not as if he is bad mouthing the organization or its players.

More good work from the Cover 1 guys with Michael Hoecht. He seems very football intelligent.

Me as well. Going into last year I always thought of Cook as a good back and I in my mind was already beginning to believe that we probably shouldn't extend him. Sometime around halfway during the year I began to reconsider the possibility of bringing him back and and by the time the season was over I completely made a 180 and believed that a deal should be done. Based off his play last year he no longer is simply a good dime a dozen back but an upper echelon player top 5-6 at his position and advanced metrics agree with that. I think what really did it for me was his homerun playmaking ability and the fact that he showed more in between the tackle strength to run the ball. How many times did we see him go low to bounce off defenders and push forward for a few more yards. Some like to minimize his 16 TD's, I think that's crazy. He showed strength and the ability to bounce it outside when defenders were crowded in the middle. As a general philosophy, I don't think its good business to get rid of playmakers and no doubt that he was the Bills best offensive skilled position player on the team aside from Allen. I'm not advocating for the Bills to give him what he wants but to make every effort to bridge the gap.