appoo

Got beat on the break, but that was also a perfect throw. Tough to defend

Pass rush folks. How often the D ALMOST got to Goff, only for Goff to make the pass? Pass rush needs to get there a split second faster, and McDermott may need to commit to more blitzing in distance situations. An offense like the Rams with a good QB and good WRs and a good schemer in McVay, they’re going to find 15-20 yards in a heavy zone with little pressure. Bills might regret not getting in on Yannick or Clowney this off-season. I’m not too worried about the Run D. That’s more of a concern without Josh Allen, where we play from behind consistently. Also the Run might give up some plays, but for the most part they’ll make enough plays where it comes down to stoping 3rd and long. That’s pressure Our corners aren’t a huge issue. White got beat noticeably once on a play where he was asked to chase a fast WR clear across the field - an impossible task on that one. Sure Levi gives up some plays, but really this D got killed between the hashes, and that points more to the safeties, backers and again - pass rush

Lots of misdirection than the bills struggled with in the run game, but rams running isn’t why the Bulls collapsed in the 2nd half. That would be the Rams converting down and distance and the Bills struggling getting to Goff

It's not Knox that will give the Bills brass a 2nd though about trading for Ertiz, I think its Gabe Davis. Kid has bigtime potential as a big target in the RZ, and making difficult contested catches in the intermediate and short areas.

If they keep the cap at 175M, then Bills, and everyone else, will be screwed. I am going to guess the cap will be closer to 205M. 175M is just not sustainable for teams. If the cap is 205M, then the Bills shouldn't have to worry too much about re-signing the middle class of their roster.

You raise a good point here, I forgot about COVID, and figured the CAP would be in the 210M range. If it's set at 175M, there's going to be a huge contractions of vets. We wouldn't be be able to replace most of those players.

Mario Addison (+6M) Vernon Butler (+6.8M) Lee Smith (2.3M) Give you the space to resign Milano to the 21 cap. You extend Allen to impact the 2022 cap, where they'll have about 80M in space assuming trading and then extending Ertz, re-signing Milano, with White, Diggs, and Morse all signed. You can structure Allen's extension in such a way where a HUGE chunk of it goes into the 2022 cap. The 21 Bills are going to be loaded. The 22 Bills should have a very solid base, with Allen, Moss, Singletary, Diggs, and Ertz as your offensive core, with White, Poyer, Edwards, Oliver, AJ, and Milano still aboard, and about 30M in space to fill the roster. 23 Allen's hit starts to fade, and you get your Oliver hit. In the meantime, you're drafting RTs, WRs, and Safeties to protect against the purges in those positions.

Cole Beasley + 2nd would likely land Ertz, in terms of balancing the cap. You would have him running those middle, possession and seam routes instead of Cole as well, and you can do more with Gabe Davis. You can extend him in such a way that you probably limit his cap hit to 8-12M, or put another way, 2 - 5M more of a cap hit than Cole Beasley the next 3 years. Basically, this is not a huge deal for the Bills. They can easily work around this. Especially considering Ertz is an absolute stud. The Bill haven't had a SB window since Jim Kelly retired. They have one now. They should do pretty much everything to maximize that opportunity. The CAP isn't a huge blockage, a low 2nd round pick shouldn't stop you. Upgrading your slot, seam and middle from Beasley to Ertz is absolutely not going to stop you.

I think they'd be interested in size, though not necessarily at WR.

Far better target, though I'm not sure we could make that work without making a serious cut

Looking at their cap I think the only way that would work would be if they sent back one of Devante Adams, David Bakhtiari, or Corey Linsley. They have a ton of Dead Cap space

We'd be about $6M short of cap space even if we included Brown

Also OBJ's contract is pretty friendly. You can cut him in the offseason without a dead cap hit.

Odell has a dead cap hit of 14M. That tells you how much the Browns are sick of him that they'd eat that much. His 14M cap hit means there's about 10 teams who have the space to take his contract. New York Jets - rebuilding wouldn't do it Jacksonville Jaguars - rebuilding wouldn't it New England Patriots - possible Dallas Cowboys - don't need Washington Football Team - hmmm Denver Broncos - just drafted a 1st/2nd round WR, have Cortland Sutton Philadelphia Eagles - hmmmm Detroit Lions - with Matt Patricia's job on the line, this might be a good spot for him Miami Dolphins - rebuilding, wouldn't do it. So of that list, I think the Lions are the most logical spot. A desperate HC/GM, a strong armed QB, a team that may or may not be ready to contend for a wold card

a 4th round pick isn't going to help them

The John Brown ~ Josh Allen Chemistry is too valuable to give that up right now (and you'd have to send Brown back the other way, or possibly Cole Beasley, but regardless that's a big change in the offense)

Besides, the real issue is going to be Josh Allen. His cap number is going to up by ~ 30M in 2022, and that is going to be basically a brand new team outside the core - and you very much want Ertz to be a part of that core, as he should continue to be elite for another 4 years.

Not really. Trade for Ertz and he'll fit almost perfectly into our current cap space thanks to dead money. We don't even need to trade anyone. We can get him for a 2nd and just eat his cap as is. You re-sign Ertz, sign him to a huge sign on (~20M, 4 years), and then backload the guaranteed money to years 3 and 4. That means next year you could lower his cap hit to ~7-9M.. Milano you can do the same, and his value is probably similar - so another 7-9M cap hit. So about 14- 18M you want to clear. Addison +6M Quentin Spain (+4M) Restructure Star (extend him 3 years, lower his cap hit to about 2-3M, save about 4M) Vernon Butler (+6.8M) Lee Smith (+2.2M) And there you go. We already have AJ to replace Addison, we can easily draft a new starting gaurd, a backup DT, TE- and keep the only FA of note, Milano, and keep someone like Ertz. This van ABSOLUTELY happen. Bills should go for this, because their window is NOW. How about a world cup winner?

I started this thread like a week before game 1 when word of Ertz's contract issues surfaced. Here's the thing - The Bills likely have a 2-3 year window at most. 1) Allen likely gets paid next year 2) Milano will get paid this off season 3) In 2 years, Oliver will get paid 4) John Brown and Cole Beasley probably will degrade next year 5) Quinton Spain is 29, Mitch Morse is 28, Daryl Williams is 28, Ty Neshke is 34. Outside of Ford, Dawkins and Bates the line is going to have to get overhauled in about 2 years . CURRENTLY, the Bills have a glaring hole at not only TE, but in terms of a large target in general. We don't have size outside of the rookie, other than a very aberage TE in Dawson Knox. Ertz is one of the 3 best TEs in the League, flat out, in his prime. His cap hit, if sign and extend for 3 years, would be about $12M. 5.3M in Cap Space now, about $4M next year, and we can easily free up more with off season cuts to folks like Mario Addison (+6M), Star (+4M), and Cole Beasley (+4M). Adding Ertz means you eat a bit of depth by replacing vets with rookies or cheap F/A NEXT year, but it also means you have an even better shot at winning this thing this year or next year. You do this every opportunity you get. Ertz turns a really good offense, to one of the 3 best in the NFL, with probably the best weapons of any team in the league.

Or Hooper money. https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/cleveland-browns/austin-hooper-19035/ 12M a year going to him, 9-11 in cap hit for the next 3 years. Think that's a good deal for the Bills given they're in win now mode.

https://twitter.com/RapSheet/status/1301599721761497091?s=20 Sorry, didn't see a thread where I could post this - but if you trade, sign and then extend him for 3 years, he's got a cap hit between 10-12M. At 29, he's one of the 5 best TEs in the game, and while Knox isn't a weakness, he's young and as of now an average TE. He'd be worth a 2nd round pick IMO, as he'd elevate this offense quite a bit. In terms of the passing game, the glaring hole the Bills have is size in the RZ. Knox is hoping to solve that. Ertz WOULD solve that, and could possibly elevate the weaponry to 2nd best in the NFL. This post is 100% me trying to make fetch happen.

The last thing I'll say, specifically to culture...wouldn't be asking Fournette to be a leader, which means he can be an ahole all he wants, but he's just a dude who's getting paid 2-3M on a 1 year contract.

I think if the opportunity cost was higher, then we'd have an issue. I feel like the biggest weakness on our offense right now is RT, as I simply don't trust Cody Ford there, and lack of a big RZ Threat. It's basically just Dawson Knox. If getting Fournette meant we weren't getting one of those 2 pieces, then I'd say no. But right now, there doesn't seem to to be an appreciable opportunity cost to signing Fournette to a 1 year deal.

That and I think our OLine is a bit overrated...having someone who can get you yards after contact is a nice hole to fill in our offense

IMO that's not a big transition for a RB, especially since nowa-adays almost all backs have familiarity with both Gap Blocking (which is what I think Daboll uses) and Zone Blocking (which I think the Jags used) You're probably right about not getting that high in yards because of the carries split