BADOLBILZ

Basham turns 24 during the season.

No, they don't. Only other teams that don't maximize the value of their controllable assets are mocked. When Marv Levy made that "arrangement" with Nate Clements the apologists were more concerned about the goodwill that Levy was creating with the mythical union of free agents of the future. We've occasionally seen this ridiculous sentiment re-emerge. Stupidly giving away value just makes you look weak. Marv made the Bills organization look spineless and that snowballed into more players asking to be freed and then the shark Eugene Parker smelling blood and turning into the official player agent of the Buffalo Bills.

He wasn't so much a football player that was passed up in the draft as a guy who didn't play college football.

Yeah if the cap space wasn't needed I'd keep him and try to trade him in TC/preseason after somebody loses a TE. That nets you something and decreases the chance he is familiar enough with his new team to go out and put up 80 grabs and embarrasses the Eagles organization for letting him go. Of course I would have franchised and traded Stephon Gilmore for a day 1 or day 2 pick..........not doing so was a much more egregious waste of value........and nobody got on the McWhaley about that. The reality is a 6th or 7th rounder is a tiny fraction of that kind of value.........and it might not be worth jerking around a guy who did a lot for the franchise or even worth risking him getting injured and having to actually pay him, etc..

Not just the Eagles.........nobody was rushing to take on an $8.3M cap hit in trade for a guy coming off a down year that thinks he's going to bounce back and have a big year and maybe get a $10M per long term deal. Not a lot of motivation for him to take a pay cut or sign a cheaper long term deal if you trade for him. As a free agent, when he can choose his destination, different story.

Yeah he doesn't sn*tch the ball out of the air on slants with those hands so while he projects to the slot because of size and quickness........he's probably never becoming a full time slot. Tyreek Hill has even smaller hands but he is SO explosive that everyone plays off of him.........allowing him to excel as a body catcher.

Chad says don't worry about the tiny hands Marquez

The window to get a late round pick was probably pretty small and all but gone on draft week. Teams clutch their draft picks.......often a bit irrationally so.........so it wasn't going to be easy for Philly to get value here.

It was a pretty deep tackle class and there are 2020 starting tackles still on the free agent market so I doubt Ford has much trade value as a mediocre guard with right tackle-only flex and coming off of injury. But he'd only cost about $1M in base salary for an acquiring team, so there is that. Forest Lamp was a former recent second round pick G and he didn't garner much interest in UFA. I suspect Ford will not be on the final roster......but maybe he comes in sharpened by the threat of losing his job and has a good TC/preseason. More likely he gets dealt for a late conditional after another team has an injury though, IMO. Maybe Howie Roseman liked him in that 2019 draft and would take him for Ertz but I doubt he'd be enough.

No the option is 100% base salary.

It's just like a guaranteed base salary. They can mutually agree to a new deal and convert much or most of that fully guaranteed base salary to signing bonus etc........but the extension has to be for at least the value of the 5th year option, of course. The extension will probably be 4x that or more.

Yeah, I'm not saying Beane is an idiot. I'm saying he made choices. Every GM makes mistakes. Beane made a ton of them early and some of that was, as you said, the fact that the destination was not appealing. That was part of the risk of tearing down the roster rather than trying to add to it though.........do you keep a Dareus for $6M non-guaranteed base salary for another year? Or do you go out and spend a bunch of money to replace him? He was playing outstanding 1T for them. They chose to deal him and replace.......and that got EXPENSIVE. Between Dareus dead money and Lotulelei's pay they have expended over $60M in cap room in 3 years for a position that only gets 45% of the snaps........and they have stunk at the position and still aren't done paying Star.

The primary risk with giving a high traffic, off-ball LB a fully guaranteed season 2 years from now is injury. As discussed, we've lost young studs Damien Covington and Sam Cowart to sudden, basically career ending injuries. Takeo Spikes injury reduced him from All Pro to a JAG overnight. Beane has taken risk like this before..........he surprisingly extended a 30+ Eric Wood in the summer of 2017..........a post-season physical revealed a neck issue........I believe Beane ended up eating $10M because of that.

I knew Gilmore was underrated. Not franchise tagging him was a stupid decision. Even if he didn't want to stay, anyone who knew how good he was knew he would have netted a high draft pick. Maybe a #1. I know Edmunds has been a disappointment. Not the same situation. It FULLY guarantees his 2022 salary. Right now. Regardless of quality of play or injury.......they can't cut him and save that money at any point now. That's the way the 5th year option works now.

The money spent on Star, Murphy, Eifert, Bodine and Newhouse was cap space they do not have now and they've gotten almost nothing out of those guys. You can roll over unused cap space every year.........so every cap decision carries a future impact. That's why you don't sign a 30+ year old Eric Wood to an extension the summer before his UFA when you know he's highly unlikely to leave Buffalo. It's why you don't just toss Shady McCoy a couple extra million to keep him happy that same summer. When Kelvin Benjamin shows a lack of effort and performance in half of a season in 2017 maybe you should move him rather than pay him $10M in 2018 and quietly cut him half way thru the year. Choices. They made a lot of decisions that nickeled and dimed them into the cap position they are in. It really added up to A LOT in-season in 2017 and the offseason of 2018........creating dead money and acquiring dead money walking. They also made a lot of good personnel decisions. But their cap issues trace back to the first 12 months of Beane's money decisions.

The way the cap works is that unused cap dollars can be rolled forward to the next year........and the next year......etc..........so money spent or "killed" in 2018 is cap room they do not have now that they could have had. The two are tied together because the players whose money they had to bury were replaced with a garbage class in UFA. Lotulelei, Murphy, Eifert, Bodine, Newhouse..........just atrocious. I'm pointing this out because the OP is trying to create a narrative that the reason the Bills didn't have the money to outmaneuver the rest of the league in UFA this offseason is because they were disproportionately harmed by the pandemic. They were, in fact, PROPORTIONATELY harmed........same amount of cap space as everyone else.

That answer is simple and tangible. Cap dollars. They chose to create the dead money........they felt it was necessary........fine. But it was a CHOICE. They also chose to sink about $80M in cap space into Star Lotulelei and Trent Murphy with those deals in 2018..........that was a big chunk of change for a couple duds..........most of which they could have rolled over and had available to spend this offseason. These were Bills choices. There were lot's of smaller mistakes that added up as well.........giving Corey Coleman $3.5M for 10 days of TC........Paying Quinton Spain $5M to go away after re-signing him.......overspending on reserves like Spencer Long.........and of course the low impact DL signings of last offseason(and choosing to retain both Addison and Butler again). But the primary culprit for the Bills relative lack of cap room were the very impactful $ decisions of 2018 offseason. The pandemic was not a primary reason for the Bills lack of flexibility...........every team had their salary cap affected by the same amount. The Bills could have chosen to push debt down the line if they felt that was going to push them over the top. The reality is that the Bills weren't going to be in a better cap position to improve themselves in free agency than the rest of the teams in the league. The other teams would have had the same amount MORE to spend. It's not that complicated.

The minutia is not worth arguing with you about it. You have yourself tied in a knot of reasoning. It's not that complicated. His lack of impact is broad........he isn't good against the run..........he isn't a good blitzer..........his pass coverage leaves plenty to be desired..........and he doesn't make plays in the backfield or on the football........the kinds of plays that change games.

If they are simply allowing passes to be completed over the middle why do they need a special athlete to do that? I know the narrative.........but people talk themselves into a knot trying to explain this mysterious greatness that Edmunds brings........and then think they've drawn a straight conclusion. He's disappointed. I don't care that McBeane fluff him up in the media. They are a middling defense in great deal due to his lack of impactful plays.......and I am sure they don't like that. McDermott actually did say Edmunds had to play better when pressed on it last year.........which was RARE criticism of any player from the publicly uncritical HC. He's got a high ceiling, they have taken the experiment this far, they likely have their fingers crossed that this is the year he plays up to his potential.

2 of his 3 seasons his passer rating against have been poor. He hasn't forced a fumble in his last 42 regular season games. It's not just last year that he hasn't made plays............and as @GunnerBill has pointed out, teams have good scouting reports on him now and they have learned how to manipulate him in coverage to take advantage of his lack of instincts. Maybe the light comes on in year 4 but the reality is that he isn't playing anywhere near what his measurables indicated he would. When they drafted this dude and moved him inside there was HOF whispers and Brian Urlacher comps. Yet in most games he's virtually invisible.

This is why people need to be on board with a pick like Greg Rousseau. Yes, there is plenty of risk involved with a guy who has played one season on the DL in college at age 19. But in the NFL you CAN go broke just making a profit early in the draft. You need to replenish franchise difference makers. The Butler Bills tended to pick guys with low ceilings and impact potential early........perhaps with the idea being that they already had their impact players. That's what allowed the Patriots to come up from behind and take them down as their stars aged out. The first round of the draft should be for guys who would cost you $20M per season if they pan out...........not to fill the "need of the hour" like a frickin' RB.

Holecek was a nice player but the thing I will always remember is Donahoe re-working his contract in April and then cutting him in May.........costing the team an additional $2M in cap space..........when he was on his total tear down tour. Utter stupidity but fans were on board with the "5 years of cap hell narrative" (the f*cker was back shopping in free agency for "his guys" the very next offseason). That Holecek move ranks second only to Beane's 10 day trial with Corey Coleman that cost the Bills $3.5M in cap space for such sudden wastes of cap space.

Yeah.........the eye test says he simply doesn't make game changing plays. The counting stats......turnovers forced and collected, passes defensed, TFL's......they all say he doesn't make game changing plays. The advanced stats...... like his atrocious 114 passer rating allowed and an astonishing 0 pressures on 72 blitzes......say he doesn't make game changing plays. The hope has to be that he has a breakout season like Roquan Smith did in the second half of last season. Very talented player........loved the draft pick.........he's basically got the wingspan of Greg Rousseau but with 4.5 speed and excellent agility.