billsfan89

After the Dareus trade the Bills were rumored to have 39 million in cap space in 2018, after the Benjamin trade they added 8 million in 2018 salary. So their cap space is likely around 30 million but also don't be surprised if they restructure some contracts or cut players. Charles Clay and Jerry Hughes come to mind as productive players who could take a restructuring and that could easily free up more cap space. I suspect that Kyle Williams will likely retire, he will be 35 and has a bit of an injury history. That leaves three other major free agents that are starters 1- Jordan Matthews, 2- EJ Gaines, and 3- Preston Brown. Gaines to me will likely stay, although he gets hurt I think they can get him on a modest 4-5 million dollar a year contract with a low guarantee. Matthews will command 7-8 million a year not sure if he is worth that much or not. But once again it comes down to how much the front office likes him which I think they do like him a lot. Preston Brown is a curious case, he is a decent starting LB but not one breaking the bank for. If the market for Brown is hot then I suspect he is gone. But if he can be had at the right price I think they retain him. The Bills will have a chunk of change to work with in free agency. Even they resign Matthews, Gaines, and Brown they could still add another starting caliber player and 1-2 depth players via free agency and then have a ton of picks to address needs and depth in the draft.

That O'Leary fumble pretty much crushed any hope of a comeback. Down 24-7 late in the third you get some light and momentum trimming it to 24-14 if you can score on that drive. That being said I would now more than ever consider a chance to the college rule. More so because of the QB rules. QB's are so over protected that defenders are afraid of them but the down by contact rule kind of allows QB's to take advantage of their over protected status. That being said O'Leary made a bad play, just own up to it.

Great teams don't miss opportunities to get fat against lesser opponents. That being said it was a road Thursday Night game against a not so bad team and the team is 5-3. Fluky things happen in the NFL esp on Thursday's. Next weeks game is huge but they have a long time to prepare. Hopefully they can get back to playing the way they need to. Also Benjamin coming and a possible return from injury for Charles Clay lends hope that the offense could get some much needed reinforcements at the skill positions.

That's like going from bad to bad.

It's a trap game for sure. Thursday game on the road against a team that isn't completely terrible, that's not as easy as a game as a lot of people are making it out to be. A good team wins these games and gets fat. You win this you go to 6-2 with a mini-bye week coming up. That's the place you need to be if you are going to make the playoffs.

It's best for Luck that he take the year off, he has taken a beating so far in his NFL career, his body sitting out a season while he is still young might prolong his career. Hell if I were the Colts I might PUP him to start next season just to be safe.

The Jets run defense is even worse than Oakland's. But that being said this is the NFL things vary wildly from week to week and a road Thursday game is never easy. The Jets are a scrappy team, the Bills better effectively run the ball or else they might have a hard time on offense.

3-4 TD's is decent, 5 is really good, 6 or more would be insane. Benjamin is a very good receiver but not a complete game changer. I think he gets 3 TD's over the next 8 games. He is new to the offense, new to the QB, and the offense will still be run heavy and conservative. But 3 TD's would be solid, the team doesn't need Benjamin to come in and be a dynamic play maker. They need him to make some plays and be a factor for defenses to be aware of. Just being a consistent factor defenses have to pay attention to is enough to help out the offense dramatically.

Way too early for playoff talk. The team has had some hot starts before in 2008 in 2011, they were even 4-2 last year. Take care of business against the Jets on the road and then I think you can start to get a little more excited. The Bills could easily lose against the Jets. The Jets are 3-5, they aren't very good but they aren't a complete doormat and this is a road game, its always hard to win on the road in the NFL. A playoff team does not miss the opportunity to get fat and beat a divisional opponent. Division record is a huge tie breaker and it always hurts to drop a road game.

There is something extremely encouraging about the Bills ability to take cast offs and backups from other teams and turn them into good or useful players. Hopefully it isn't smoke and mirrors, it looks legit but things can always fall apart.

Goodell directly handled the Ray Rice and Anthem situations poorly to say the least. And both of those mistakes have cost the league dearly in recent years and is resulting in a ratings dip. Decades of ratings growth and now the ratings slow down after two very bad PR disasters? Also the general overexposure of the product can be attributed to the recent ratings dip. Revenue is coming from newly inked TV deals that were made when the product was more popular. The NFL's product might not attract an insane price for its TV deals that expire over the next decade if ratings continue to disappoint. They need to turn around the recent ratings slump quickly and the person to do that isn't the guy that made all the mistakes that got you into this mess.

I would love it if the NFL had a new commissioner. Goodell has bungled a lot of things. Goodell over exposed the product with the lame Thursday games and the London games. He !@#$ed up the Ray Rice situation and now isn't doing the best job with the anthem situation. Goodell also isn't effectively modernizing the game and utilizing technology effectively either. A new commissioner would allow the league a soft reset and allow new management to go forward in a much better direction.

I will respect the !@#$ out of Jerry Jones (Who I despise, !@#$ the Cowboys) if Jones can get Goodell fired. Jones holds a lot of sway with the owners and if he can convince them Goodell has been terrible and shouldn't be the commissioner anymore then my respect for Jones will be tremendous. Hell even if Jerry Jones can just get some owners to question Goodell he will earn a lot of props.

I think Dareus will have a good season in 2017, but I think his eventual lack of motivation will rear its head in 2018. Dareus didn't seem to like Marrone or McD who were both disciplinarians, he didn't seem to like Rex a whole lot either and Rex is a big time players coach. So neither a players coach nor disciplinarian could really reach him after he got his big contract. Kind of proves that the big contract gave him a big head.

I think Star would be a great free agent, with Dareus gone and Kyle likely retired (And even if he came back he would be 35 and has shown signs of declining, although he is still a good player) the team could use a new interior anchor. Star is about to be 28 by seasons end and this is his 5th season. Star at age 28/29 could hold down the fort at DT for 3-5 years while the team drafts and grooms players behind him. Cam is a pipe dream, why on Earth would Carolina want to get rid of a player with the talent to be the best QB in the NFL?

You get 46 active players, 7 inactive. Unless the Bills have 7 injured players and need Benjamin as a body out there I doubt he is active. Clay and Humber are likely going to be inactive due to injury. Poyer and Gaines could also be inactive due to injury but both stand a chance of playing. So at worst you have 4 inactive players due to injury. Miller, Henderson, and Connor McD were the other 3 inactives. So I think Benjamin is inactive because he will be far too limited and situational a player if activated. But it would be fun to see him out there even if it's just a limited set of plays he can run.

Garoppolo is the longest tenured backup to hit the market from the Pats* at three and a half seasons. he also was the highest draft choice 62nd overall of any of Brady's backups (Granted Mallett and Brissett were third rounders.) He looked good in the limited amount of games he played (then again Cassell had a good season too) so there are a lot of positives to Garoppolo. I think for a 2nd round pick to grab a former second round pick who has been developing behind the best QB of all time and in the best QB system of all time for three and a half years is a fair deal. Only big red flag for me is that Garoppolo might only start 5-6 games for the Niners and even a decent performance at QB could make you have to sign him for a lot of money. So the Niners to me took a very good chance on a QB who could be very good. They can get a look at him in live games before having to make a decision too.

The number of people who pay for Amazon video will likely not be greater than the number of people who have basic cable or a skinny cable bundle. But if Amazon makes Prime video a part of their basic Prime membership then I think for sure those numbers will be flipped. Although you are completely correct that content distribution will be massively different in the near future. Cable companies over the past 10 years have bet big on live sports holding their audiences since Live Sports is DVR proof. But the massive rights fees haven't produced the revenue needed, in fact some ratings have still gone down for live sports due to chord cutting and illegal streaming. So now these companies are overpaying for lower ratings. I suspect as these deals expire in the 2020's these networks will likely pay less for the rights fees.

With Jimmy G traded I doubt there is a riff between Brady and BB. Just doesn't make much sense given that the player that could have been the heir apparent was just traded.

A lot of younger fans who can't afford cable are using free illegal online streaming to watch games. Cord cutting and having a free alternative has to be impacting things for them. I also think the biggest factor are the Thursday and Sunday Night games. The Sunday Night games have the better scheduled games and the Thursday games overexpose the product as Monday Night is no longer the last day to see NFL football before Sunday. Now you are never more than 3 days away from a NFL game.

Barring a collapse in Tyrod's quality of play the rest of the season I think that the Bills are better off grooming Peterson and another young QB behind Tyrod over the next few years. The team has 5 premium picks possibly 6 if they get that comp pick. I wouldn't be opposed to one of those picks being used to draft a QB but they should use more than one of those picks to draft a QB. Trading multiple picks for a QB could be a waste of resources. Tyrod is a QB you can win with and the team will have various other needs going into the season. Why not use those picks to solidify the foundation of the roster around Tyrod and have 2 good young QB's behind him developing. Peterman and another young QB developing offer the team a lot of trade bait down the line too if Tyrod develops further. DT, DE, CB, LB, WR (depending on how Zay finishes and if Matthews resigns), and RG could all be urgent needs going into the off-season. LG, TE, and RB could also be positions where the team younger players at. If the team trades 3 or more premium picks for a trade up for a QB then the ability to address those other needs are compromised. The Bills have plenty of draft choices and a pretty good amount of cap space. Hopefully the manage those assets well and fill out the gaps that remain in the roster. A all in move for a QB could be very costly if they miss.

Unless there is something I missed it isn't like Glenn was a malcontent or the team was 1-7. I think if the team was 1-7 and a mess you could justify dumping Glenn if you got a really good deal like a 1st and 4th, get good picks and free up some cap space for a team that isn't going anywhere. But at 5-2 why would you trade away a well liked player who has been huge in reviving your offensive line? It made no sense. Just because a player is on a big contract doesn't mean you trade him.

I doubt that he plays much, as some others here have said he might play situational if the Bills have enough inactive players and could use the spot. But there is no way he can be used in any meaningful capacity.

Love the move, the Bills still have 5 premium draft picks and possibly a 3rd round compensatory pick. But they have a quality top 2 receiver who is locked in for next season at an affordable rate. Benjamin is also the kind of tall player the Bills needed at that position. The cost wasn't too steep and it still provides the team with talent next year. The offense needed a lot of help and they got a pretty good piece to satisfy that need.

I also don't see the Giants making a deal until during the season. I get that the Giants biggest issue is their O-line but Glenn isn't going to fix that and even if Glenn did at 1-6 they aren't going anywhere even if Glenn dramatically improves their O-line. The Giants season has slipped too far away from them to invest a high draft pick to win this season. This type of deal would likely happen in the off-season, the Giants might be interested in the deal but likely don't want that contract on the books until next season.