BADOLBILZ

@Thurman#1 is one of the most consistently wrong posters I've ever seen on TSW.........he just defends what he thinks is the company line at the moment and opens every other response with a declaration of "nonsense" as if that adds gravity to his woeful takes. It was simply a juice/squeeze decision. They clearly could have backloaded his deal with no problem........and they would have if he had Logan Wilson level instincts and adaptability. Hell they would have picked up his option if he did. Tremaine is a mediocre processor in a Brian Urlacher-like body and the modest improvements he's made in that regard over time didn't justify the investment.

Correct. The type of player that the Bills COULD afford to sign to a big contract was someone with 5-6 years of career left in front of him like Tremaine Edmunds. But retaining him meant an investment in both cap space AND a style of defense that has been dissected with alarming ease in the playoffs 3 straight seasons. We talk about how the team has reacted to playoff losses with personnel changes directly related to what went wrong in those games..........well I think that becoming a defense that is less predictable and reacts more to specific opponents was a NEED. The latter has helped Cinci over-perform two straight seasons in the playoffs. Retaining Edmunds didn't totally preclude them from being more multiple and he was excellent against inferior opponents.............but it would be hard to take him off the field making that much money and at this point he was an absolute liability in "money" games against elite passers because of his lack of instincts.

Steam shovel today

I looked into him as part of a Hopkins trade earlier and it seems that the Cardinals were pleased with how he played as more of a weak side LB and slot defender late in the year. So they apparently aren't in dump mode on him. Murray I think would be more likely to be available.

Yeah I've heard Marino and others saying that Latavius Murray is a roster lock but I think the way the contract is constructed they basically guaranteed him a sum ($800k) that will put him on par with the lowest values that will count against the cap if they cut him. Which would seem to be structured to allow them to cut him and keep him on the practice squad for compensation that is not far from league minimum for an on-roster player. Perhaps I am wrong on how that would have to be accounted for but that was the impression I got when I saw the contract details.

Nah the guy in SoCal where SoFi stadium ended up costing twice as much as budgeted and was a year late being finished assures us that public works construction is not loaded with inefficiencies that probably should have been worked out in the past 50 years.

Yeah you might be right at this moment. That might be something that will only show up after the Bills sell a cap-hell situation to the base. I remember being on this board in 1998 talking about the pending tear down and urgency to "win now" and 99% of the board thought I was dead wrong and that nothing was going to change whatsoever. It was inevitable if you understood the math. AFTER the tear down it was the exact opposite for about 15 years. Irrational fear of all things salary cap. Which the McBeane regime used to manipulate the fan base and had Bills fans nodding their heads that being $30M+ over the salary cap and almost zero committments by 2019 was just a disaster laid at Beane's feet.

Greg Mancz reading this thread

And hopefully that's where Kincaid really comes in.

Yeah but you know if the crowd got that aware of his incentives they will not be cheering when Poona gets a sack. It will be like losing a comp pick to them. Once he gets to 3 we might even get a thread on TSW about shutting Poona down.

He suffered the turf toe injury running against Tampa. I like him running to avoid being hit in the pocket because those are truly more likely to be where he gets injured but more concerned about the cumulative impact of lot's of violent collisions downfield. Running needs to be part of his game but taking the punishing hits in the process needs to effectively end if there is hope of him playing another 10+ years at a high level.

It's only innovative if it gets bought and used for jobs. It only gets bought for the jobs if using it makes the buyer more money per minute in the grand scheme. It's not really questionable business practice to do what makes you more money........that's kinda' the point of business. Real innovation forces the change. Like digital imaging largely turning Kodak from what would have otherwise been a company worth trillions today into a company that is instead worth a fraction of the soon-to-be labor cost on the new Bills stadium.

Is it? Diesel excavators have been around for 100 years. I expect the Bills stadium to be constructed with lot's of seemingly modest sized equipment that will take tons of time to do the job and subsequently make the production cost much more difficult to calculate. And of course, thousands and thousands of tiny 1/4 full loads of excavated material trucked to remote locations to be dumped. All that small bite construction is how you drain the budget and line your pockets in that biz.

I had to look up what a steam shovel was. I'm pretty certain there wasn't one of those out there.

I think that is his nature, he was a pocket passer without much run ability and though he has a good arm he wasn't able to excel without getting the ball out and throwing with anticipation. But he also has the best WR corps in the NFL...........so we will see if they have some mis-steps at the position like the Bills have after the 2020 season.

That would be great but Rousseau was by far the better player in 2022 and Ed has never approached that level of play over any significant period of time. Ed has a couple big games every year where he looks like an All Pro but otherwise he's never been much more than average in any season(and was bad in 2020). That has to change and SHOULD change. He's much too talented to continue to be JAG. My personal opinion is that he doesn't have the desire to be great and has been coasting on natural talent for the duration of his rookie deal waiting to get motivated by a contract year. I'm not saying he dogs it but he doesn't prepare well enough to be able to play well without extra motivation(like Thanksgiving in front of the entire country). They might have gotten a better prepared Oliver if they hadn't picked up the option.

Another early season matchup would be tiresome. Hope they position that matchup in December, myself.

And if I were in the owner's position, I wouldn't change that. Having a salary hierarchy is to management's advantage. The NFL doesn't want an NBA or MLB system where any position can be your superstars. That inflates costs. And by gently "punishing" teams for not using 1st round picks on premium positions it re-inforces the value of that hierarchy of positions that they've created. I think the NFLPA would strongly prefer that the 5th year option be more reflective of the positional value so those options get picked up..........but the owners aren't just going to give that to them. Some think these guys all just want a shot at free agency but in the big picture guaranteeing big year 5 salaries after year 3 is a big win for players on the whole and a bargaining chip.

If Kincaid can stay healthy he will be a excellent player and Dorsey will make good use of him, IMO. He fell because a lot of teams around the NFL felt that his injury situation and age were too concerning. I don't know the extent of his injuries and how it could impact him but as I stated elsewhere, the age doesn't bother me because other great TE's have started their pro career at his age and gone on to have HOF careers(Gates and Kelce, for example). I like the pick and can live with the trade-up........it wasn't a premium position technically.......but combined with Josh Allen he has the potential to have the impact on the field that a premium position player can have in changing the outcome of games with his individual matchup winning potential.

Of note: Some of those declined options are very related to the fact that the players do not play premium positions. A player doesn't have to reach his potential by year 3 for a team to pick up his 5th year option..............but if he hasn't yet........the potential cap hit better be reasonable for that position.

Brought back memories of 6'10" Mike Rockwood. Recently photographed in the worlds largest polo shirt.

Maybe this is the best hope for both instinctive and athletic enough Look good in preseason last year.

An argument can also be made that having players who separate is better for avoiding being bitten by refs not throwing flags for PI in the playoffs. But I get the point. It definitely seems that they took the issues in the loss(es) to Cincinnati to heart. In bad weather in Buffalo you want to throw more between the hashes and Kincaid hopefully allows that to become a strength. And if you have to throw outside......a large catch radius helps because Buffalo is probably the most difficult boundary to be deadly accurate throwing to in the NFL. Between the wind and the pronounced crown of the field there is a lot at play on out throws. It stuck in my mind that Burrow and Higgins get work done outside when the Bills could not. I heard it mentioned that OC's really like to isolate a TE on the short side of the field opposite trips to expose defensive intentions and Kincaid showed he can make an impact on the boundary so perhaps strides have been made in that regard. And I say losses plural because in the Damar game their offense stalled when Allen threw a pass too high for Beasley near the goal line resulting in them being down on the scoreboard before the incident. Beasley catches that pass in 2020.......but the point is that there was not much margin for error wrt ball placement in the slot with guys like Lil' Dummy and Beasley.......and they didn't have much else.

If they want to nurse a season out of Phillips they might have to limit him to 10-15 or so snaps a game. He can't stay healthy with a 40%-50% kinda' snap count. The Bills aren't big on "designated pass rushers" but that's probably his worth to the team. Lousy run defender anyway.

Chaos........you continue to come up with some contrived premises in the rush to share "found info" without perspective. At no point since McBeane arrived in town have the Bills fielded a young roster by league standards. They've consistently had one of the very oldest rosters each season at the start of seasons. Phillyvoice.com tracks this every year. Takes 5 seconds to search it. 2017 3rd oldest. 2018 5th oldest. 2019 7th oldest. 2020 10th oldest. 2021 6th oldest. 2022 6th oldest. They have averaged being the 6th oldest team in the NFL every year since McD arrived. Appreciate the enthusiasm but c'mon........this was an easy look-up.