BADOLBILZ

I think the Cover 1 people have given some fans the impression that re-structuring contracts doesn't ALWAYS come at the expense of the future cap by implying that the Bills cap situation is just naturally going to get better. The Bills will have to work and make some tough decisions to make it better. They weren't very forthright about that. Thompsett knows better but as anyone who saw that video knows, they are a very sentimental group. I'm not interested in guaranteeing Morse base salary by distributing it over void years and missing that opportunity to save $8M asap and move on.............Nor am I interested in doing extensions for Morse or Bates. Ideally neither is on the roster by 2025 so I don't want to have another $10M+ in dead cap tied up in them in 2025. I'm done with running it back with all of these guys that were 6-5 at midseason 2 of the past 3 seasons and looked tired in the playoffs in each of the past 3. Time for a re-tool. And a good draft year to have playing time opportunities available instead of all being blocked by over-priced vets.

Beane's tendency has been to try to retain EVERYONE. He once even offered and gave Star Lotulelei and Vernon Butler pay cuts after they'd screwed him with poor effort in prior seasons. He's been a sucker for pay cuts. Which I think mostly just disincentive players to buy-in. So that is the regard where I agree that I'm not certain he will move on from guys like Morse and White. But I don't think going from Morse to Ryan Bates is a "huge" change. Bates best position was long viewed as center and they paid him starting money in FA and he probably would have been the starting left guard last season had Torrence not fallen to their spot in round 2. Not like they don't have a promising solution in place to replace the pretty average Morse(who was probably their worst or second worst starting OL last season). And they need the cap space to address those other lesser stocked positions you mentioned. Which is the larger point.

Maybe at age 27 Bates will be a better option than Morse at age 32. That's often how it works. But for $8M difference if it's close, it's enough. I also like Anderson's potential(another OT kicked inside like Morse and Bates) and I even think maybe McGovern might be a better center option longer term if the Bills decide to go with a more physical left guard in 2025. They aren't bereft of options at center like they are at RT behind Brown, for instance. Again.........it's a strong OL draft. If they invested in a top 3 round center that guy is starting, IMO. They don't have the luxury of picking a non-primo position early and cultivating it given their cap circumstance. Lot of future starting centers in this draft though. Maybe as many as 8?

Yeah it's just an interesting detail considering how happy he seemed to be about moving closer to his central NY home/family/business interests when he came to the Bills. Not your typical Bills player that is originally from the south or CA. It's pretty common for players to have fully stocked homes in 2 places and his playing situation would surely be cleared up in 2-3 months so packing everything up and taking it back to TN is notable. Even if he and his wife just wanted to spend the winter in Nashville and then re-locate in Buffalo if he re-signs it wouldn't seem necessary to move twice. Maybe he just plans to come back without the wife and daughter(like when he played for Carolina) if he does re-sign? Could be a lot of things but it's notable under the circumstance.

Agree. I'd probably be more bullish on Burrow than Allen if I actually believed that Bengals ownership would extend themselves financially the way the Pegula's have. And even that is tempered some by Burrow's mounting injury history. His calf and wrist injuries last year are the kind of thing you usually see with old man QB's.

Why is it a guarantee that you weaken the line by subtracting Mitch Morse? He's a pretty average center IMO. Not a difference maker any longer. They have Bates and Alec Anderson under contract in reserve and it's a very deep center draft. Timing seems good, IMO.

1. Do nose tackles and 1 tech DT's really normally play well into their mid 30's? I think I've mostly heard to the contrary on that prior to this podcast. There are more obviously proven exceptions(see Marcell Dareus) but I look at generational prospects like Haloti Ngata and Dontari Poe who were pretty washed at 30-31. Interior DL seems to be more of a younger mans game, IMO. Edge rushers seem to have a better track record for aging well. In general these Cover 1 guys are WAY too sentimental about players. The Bills have largely avoided making tough decisions on vets in recent years..........and its lead to them having one of the oldest rosters year-in and year-out. IMO it's also contributed some to their tendency toward mid-season malaises. They really need to get younger and take advantage of their organizational stability by giving some more reps to younger players.

Yeah I didn't say that I thought he was going to the Bears because he moved out of Buffalo and back to Nashville(and as you see, he's tweeting from Nashville). I just suspect the Bears are going to go BIG in free agency to try to become next years Houston Texans or better with Caleb Williams on a rookie contract. I'm sure they'd be in on Chris Jones first but I doubt he makes it to UFA. Between his Bills DL coach being the Bears new DC and Pace showing an affinity for Bills players in free agency..........seems like a real good fit for him to get a nice 3 year type contract that aligns with Williams rookie window.

Yeah.........I think it's time to execute a youth-centric re-tool defensively...........and I also think Beane is finally a good enough personnel man that I might even trust him to be able to pull it off. Extending/re-working all of these old, injured players just doesn't seem wise.

I would like to have Daquan Jones back but I think he probably signs with the Chicago Bears right away in free agency. I was told by a reliable source that he packed up his entire household in Buffalo after the season and moved everything to Nashville............he could have waited on that if he thought he might have to stay in Buffalo.

That will have been 25 years ago next January. I don't think that would factor in greatly with the Jets if they are in a position where the Jets don't meet expectations. Johnson basically laid down an ultimatum. They would be desperate. Right now Belichick looks like he'd be the clear #1 candidate for any team in that position. Just weren't any of those jobs this cycle.

Doesn't help perhaps, but it's at least 90% because he's just really old. Youth will be served and the jobs that came open don't match up with his likely 3 year shelf life as a HC. Now if a job with a fully formed roster and old QB at the end of his career comes up then he probably gets that next cycle.

Yeah, same sentiments on those players. In 2016 I really disliked the Shaq Lawson pick(as you know) and would have preferred to have the potential of Jones between the two but I also probably would have taken Myles Jack before either of them. He was considered a generational talent and it looked like a line of low-motor underachievers at DL after him. And that didn't work out for Jacksonville and is another reason to not buy into "generational" non-premium-position players in round 1, IMO. That 2016 draft had some notable busts and over-drafted DL in the first couple rounds but also produced Jones, Bosa, Hargrave, Floyd and Ngakoue..........which made it a huge pass rusher draft.

And so it begins....... https://www.mlb.com/news/5-takeaways-from-aaron-boone-s-opening-news-conference and then it really begins....... https://nypost.com/2024/03/11/sports/gerrit-cole-injury-scare-should-spur-yankees-into-action/ and then it continues......... https://www.mlb.com/news/aaron-judge-abdominal-injury-2024 Here is the link this year to the box scores for the Yankees and all of their minor league affiliates all on one page........just change the day on the left every day if it doesn't refresh. Scranton is playing games currently. Somerset (AA) begins Friday April 5. High A and Low A won't be far behind and then the short season(rookie league's and Dominican Summer League begin in June). https://www.mlb.com/prospects/stats/affiliates?teamId=147

I haven't given up. I think they can catch Ottawa and get in the top 5. https://www.tankathon.com/nhl

Here's the thing........nobody had any idea in their draft years that Watt and Jones had ceilings anywhere near what they developed into. Both were seen as stiff, unathletic guys. Watt was modestly productive(your standard 11 sack Wisconsin OLB) and Jones had been a big disappointment at Mississippi State. They tested well at the combine and boosted their stocks UP to where they were picked.......which wasn't early in either case. Below is Mayock talking Jones down as he runs the 40. NSFW.

Priority list 1. Make your super-elite top 3 talented QB look as good as he can. 2. Everything else in much less specific order. I think people get so focused on how the Patriots and later the Chiefs have done something.......and how to do THAT........that they lose sight of the obvious. Once you've put a couple of Lombardi's in the trophy case and you've decided that your HC is a genius in his own right(and the owner's appetite for paying superstar wages has diminished) well THEN you play the games that the Chiefs have successfully for the past 2 years. One of the common traits of champions who go on runs like NE and KC is that they take advantage of teams who build "not to lose" to them. That's the "hole patching" mentality that Brandon Beane has cultivated. The smarter teams........the one's who break thru against them.........lean into their strengths with the intention of BEATING them. One of my favorite goofy Bills fan takes is complaining that the Bills never sack Mahomes in a playoff game............while ignoring that the Chiefs don't sack Josh Allen either. Think about it.

A first round pick is that rare a chance to get a talent at a premium position that would normally cost in the $20M-$30M aav range if they play to expectations. Using that kind of chip on a safety is just not logical. They are just too easy to find. The free agent market is usually loaded with them..........because like RB's........teams know they can be easily replaced so they don't want to pay them. This year's free agent class is no different. Loaded and there will be solid one's available cheap enough even for the Bills.

Yeah the reality is that Carter probably should be in prison right now. Not saying a murder 1 sentence necessarily.........but it was literally just a year ago.........he should have gotten at least a year or more for his role in the deaths that occurred. I have a hard time generating any sympathy for him when people bring it up and hurt his feelings. You do something incredibly stupid and people get killed you have live with public opinion on your actions. Carter fell in the draft because he's of suspect character and intelligence. Trying to re-direct scorn for what he did on other players isn't the way to make people forget that.

Pooph makes a skunk odor spray that breaks down the oil. Probably good to have around if you let your dogs run free.

2 years of Patrick Mahomes winning SB's that Josh Allen *could* have won instead if perhaps he wasn't too busy with things like GF drama and perfecting his golf game to instead elevate his QB game as a competitor/decision maker to the highest level. Yeah, sure he's awesome to watch and they aren't even competitive without him and a lot of other things could have been better...........but all anyone will remember long term is that when he needed to carry the day against Cinci and then KC he didn't get the job done. Hopefully two straight home playoff losses to his chief rivals as the top QB in the league has finally convinced him he has more to give and that his new talk about more training and eating better etc.. means no more wayyyyyyyysted tiiiiiiime. And hopefully Beane keeps the roster strong so it's not a moot point. I went with this extra annoying cover version with this turtlenecked Euro-dude because this season was so especially annoying to watch........as wasted talent so often is.

They definitely earned it but @FireChans is correct in noting that Mahomes/Allen/Burrow are in a different class of playoff QB than Lamar and Purdy. Not to detract from the 49ers effort because they played their assiz of.........but they ran into a pretty flat KC team and STILL lost. Having seen the 49ers get whipped at home by both Cinci and Baltimore this season I think that the AFC side had the most talented team.

As statistically amazing as the season that Purdy had was in so many ways..........it's easy to envision Shanahan having a new QB in a couple years.

Yeah he's raised his passing game in the last two Chiefs playoff games.........the problem is that he hasn't been consistent enough to make his team the best team in the AFC in the regular season in any of the 3 seasons since he broke out in 2020. I know people will point to the Chiefs winning the SB from the #3 seed this year but they've been the #1 seed 4 of the last 6 seasons and reached the SB the last 3 times they had that #1 seed. The regular season matters.........especially when you are trying to break thru for the first time.

Yeah I don't think it needs to be a perfect world for Allen to get back to where he was as a pocket passer in 2020. He hasn't really been close to that age 24 seasons as a passer. I think it just *feels* like he has to run the ball 9.2 times per game(as he did under Brady) because of a combination of lack of offensive weapons and a lack of focus by him on the finer points of his own game. If he gets back to that 105 PR 37 TD pass 10 INT QB from the 92 QB 29 TD pass 18 INT QB(that he's become) then he can operate from the pocket and win running the ball 4-6 times per game(which is what they have been wanting). That's not far off from Mahomes rush attempts(4.7 this past season). I totally get why they had to pull the emergency lever on this season and turn him into young Cam Newton again...........I just don't buy that Allen doesn't have it in him to evolve. That feeling is a coping mechanism to deal with his stalled career, IMO.