BADOLBILZ

Watkins was arguably the greatest freshman WR in NCAA history. When the U made the terrible Al Golden hire they inadvertently boosted Clemson to another level by hand delivering them south Florida recruits like Watkins for the next number of years. Same with Louisville and West Virginia programs.

By nature inside players are both aided on routine plays and limited on big plays by the congestion of players around them. As a result the edge players usually have the chances to make game altering plays and that's why they get the big bucks to win matchups. So yeah a MLB is critical in McD's defense but it's not necessarily that hard to find good ones so the position is of lesser import on the salary cap level. Preston Brown lead the NFL in tackles in McD's defense. Julian Stanford looked very good in place of Edmunds last season. The action is funneled to the MLB and a dynamic one like Keuchly can really stand out there but they still don't have the cap value of a premier edge rusher. CJ Moseley got PAID this offseason but I don't expect that to change things on the whole for MLB's in FA. I'd certainly trade a 3rd and a 5th for Luke Keuchly's $10M cap hit and move Edmunds to an edge though. If things deteriorate in Carolina this season.....and they may with Cam's shoulder issues.......and the Bills are in contention but Edmunds doesn't take huge steps I could see this being a huge mid-season trade possibility. Hughes isn't one of the greats in the league but he's very effective and playing for half of what Frank Clark is getting in each of those seasons. I think the risk was balking on signing Hughes early and maybe ending up paying $19M per over 5 years for this years version of Trey Flowers in UFA which is definitely poor value relative to Hughes, IMO.

Yeah I know what you are saying.........if they guaranteed all of that AFTER this year's salary it's nearly a 3 year fully guaranteed deal because they aren't cutting him this summer. I am guessing that's what it is though. IMO this late in the game there isn't much incentive for an-in demand player to take 2019 guarantees to get a short extension like that. That would be like accepting a 1.5 year extension because the team could save cap space cutting him after the 2020 season. But hopefully some of it is......that would be nice. I think the trade-off is he and his agent's belief that they would certainly get a 3 year deal in FA if a guy like Wake did. Hughes' deal ends when Tre White's 5th year option ends. That also might have been important to Beane right now.

It's definitely a risk but your top pass rusher is second only to your QB in value, IMO. If you are going to exceed a comfortable risk level it's there. Was it necessary to do now? I mean, if they think that the addition of Oliver is going to push more QB's into Hughes' grasp then it makes sense. I think the fact that 37 year old Cameron Wake got 3 years $23M and $10M guaranteed after a 6 sack season says a good deal about the hunger for pass rushers around the league.

Yeah that's a pretty bold take for a guy who made one TFL and zero QB hits last year. He looked like he was running in quicksand all season....... the opposite of dynamic. His best ability is durability at this point. Hopefully he at least bounces back to his 2017 Carolina level but not counting on it.

2. Absolutely wrong. Glenn started game 6, 7 and 8 after the bye. He was out entirely from week 9 on. But at least you are getting an idea of how to present some kind of arguable point. It's just wrong in this case. Incognito had an exchange with Ngakoue in the playoff game but otherwise there were no obvious signs that he was about to go off his rocker and if there were they wouldn't have been asking for a pay cut they'd have CUT HIM before guaranteeing him more money.

1. This is where you show some data to illustrate that. You can't so you don't. 2. Glenn was a factor when in the lineup in 2017. The opener versus the Jets stood out because Glenn had a strong game and the running game was efficient. They were otherwise inconsistent early in the season with Glenn in and out of the lineup but appeared to be rounding into form offensively with Glenn back versus TB and Oakland but after he was injured in the Jets game the offense REALLY struggled to move the ball the rest of the season. His absence mattered. As for Incognito he was every bit as good as Wood or better and they wanted him for less than half of Wood's contract. Messing with his money made no sense then or in retrospect. When the OG market blew up Incognito lost his sh*t. If paying players was actually about "frame of mind" like it's sold with the Wood extension then messing with RI was bad biz. Personally I felt the LG position was worse than C and it took it's toll on Dawkins who is now a reclamation project after they thought he was a sure-fire franchise LT. 3. What Wawrow has to do with it is that he says Beane wouldn't spend to replace Wood. The Wood contract is why we had to wait a year for a more concerted effort to improve the position. Beane was operating under a cash-to-cap methodology and with $11M+ tied up in the center position he wasn't willing to spend to protect Josh Allen in 2018. That's what it came down to. So it's not a matter of being a hard position to fill.....it's not....that's why very good ones like Morse often make it to UFA. 4. Clearly there were more issues than Bodine filling in for Wood. The guard positions struggled and Dawkins gave up a lot of pass pressure and sacks.

I don't know what kind of memory loss you have but it wasn't a good line in 2017 under Dennison/Castillo with Glenn injured and John Miller falling off a cliff. The Dennison system wasn't as complimentary to the existing OL talent as that of A Lynn/Roman and the performance wasn't anywhere near as good. But it certainly fell to a worse level in 2018 without Wood, Incognito and Glenn.........not just Wood. Incognito was asked to take a pay cut when he was at least the equal of Wood or better and Glenn was dealt. Choices were made. Wawrow says Beane told him they "could not afford" to address the center position more aggressively because of being saddled by the Wood contract. Hence the Bodine signing........who actually wasn't the worst of the Bills starting OL.........I believe PFF had him as the 20 best starting center........which is mediocre, not bad.

More famous for his baby mama dumping a pot of hot water on him when he was sleeping though.

I guess the most important ability is actually sign-ability.

Agreed.......and to expand on that there are a number of other key differences, IMO. Positionally edge rushers are a big ticket item. They are hard to get. If you don't have one you can't just throw a first round pick at that problem in the draft and feel confident that it's solved. Hughes' extension is about performance and it's 60% of top of market for an edge rusher. Hughes isn't a finisher like Von Miller but he's very good, consistent and(as you mentioned) VERY durable and pass rushers sometimes get better at this age On the other hand, the Bills paid Wood almost top of the center market on his extension. It's an important position but not an edge/island and still pretty easy to fill and IMO they saved nothing over just waiting for the offseason to see if he was healthy and deciding to extend him. That premature extension IMO was really all about buying Wood's vocal support for the process. They tossed extra bucks at McCoy at the same time too and they in turn said the right things and/or bit their tongues all summer even as Beane was thinning out the talent base in the name of the process.

Did you walk up and punch the toughest guy in the face on the first day?

Dude you need a slump buster.

Sex and emotion will always be more interesting to mankind than concrete and steel. But if structures endure then the architects are usually remembered for their work.

Former Ohio State doctor Richard Strauss accused of sexually abusing at least 177 male athletes including Buckeye football players? What in the actual ***** Ohio State?