Mango

I’ve been critical of Diggs antics the last season or two. But honestly, since camp broke he’s been great all season. I was super happy. This Pro Bowl thing is a total nothing-burger. And I like to read too much sometimes and make something-burgers out those things. That said, maybe he is unhappy here and wants out? Maybe he loves it here and the franchise is over him. Maybe everything is totally cool and he retires a Bill. But the one thing I am certain on is that if either party feels like they have to get out the difference between -$48M and -$51M in cap space won’t hold it back if it gets to that point.

I agree with you on the rest of your post but want to clarify the bolded. Maybe not for you, but others seem to conflate this point. Dead cap is not in addition to, it is in replacement of. So while a high dead cap number is bad in that it is a lot of money to not have a certain player on the roster. It is not necessarily bad when compared to its delta ($3M pre-June 1). Moving on from Diggs either post 6/1 2024 or to open the league year in 2025 isn't delaying anything. They are identical as far as the cap is concerned. It is a net savings for the team. We get $5M off the books if we move on between either of those dates. I don't think Stef will be on the roster to kick the season off in 2025. I think he will and should be on the roster this year. But there is something advantageous about a post June 1 trade now and that is if we don't spend that money ($19M) we can roll that $19M into 2025. Effectively giving the Bills $24M. I also would not be shocked if Mike Evans pulls a OBJ/Hopkins and signs a short term deal late/just before camp. If that became the case I think the Bills will start to ask some questions.

I think Diggs gets moved either post 6/1 this year or pre 6/1 2025. Both have the same cap ramifications. (Excluding any roll over if he’s cut 6/1). Cover 1 does some good stuff. I think their earlier content was a lot better. Now they are just churning clicks with way less depth. For whatever reason everything they say has started to be treated like gospel. I like Kurt Warner’s QB room a lot but I disagree with a lot to. I like Orlovsky a lot, but disagree a ton. But these Cover 1 guys seem to be totally infallible on the boards lately. Greg’s spiel on the cap was….bad…

Ah, OK. I think we are coming at this from two different places. It seems like you are saying there is an additional cost to moving on from Diggs outside of his salary cap, which is replacing your WR1. All fair, and I am in favor of keeping him this year. I am talking just pure cap dollars. Diggs contract itself in no way hamstrings us to Diggs this year. It isn't untradeable. He isn't unmovable. If the Bills no longer want him in the locker room or he no longer is willing to play here, the change in the Bills cap situation is minimal on it's own. This isn't some $40M extra expenditure. $3M that is it. Just looking at the balance sheet it is super workable if they want it to be. I don't think Diggs finishes his career here. But I do think he will be on the roster to start the new year, but he doesn't have to be to balance the books. I do think there is a better than 50% chance he is either a June 1 cut/trade this year or moved next offseason.

The higher cap hit is $3M today. It is surmountable if the team or Diggs want it to be. I don't think we have to or want to move him this year. But we are not hand cuffed and there is no "real challenge".

Diggs has delivered us a few gossip worthy moments. This one doesn’t move the needle for me.

It is very tradable. His cap hit for the receiving team is $18.5M this year with next to zero dead cap on the remaining contract. That number puts him between CeeDee Lamb and Justin Jefferson at number 15 among WR for 2024. If you’re a team with a lot of space and young QB it’s a slam dunk. If Diggs doesn’t work out you can move on with no cap implication. It costs the Bills an extra $3M to move on from Diggs. Im not saying they should, but if they feel they have to he is a very movable piece. As a post June 1 move he saves the team $19M this season.

Not to beat a dead horse, but this is where the over drafting of DE and RB high have hurt us. Groot, AJE, Basham. Then Singletary, Moss, Cook. In theory the cupboard could have been stocked for replacement OL, WR, and Safety. But also nobody bats .1000 and we have a pretty good football team. Something about If's and but's, and aunts and uncles or whatever.

I am admittedly not a huge college guy. I have no meaningful opinion. I really appreciate you and all the other draft wonks on this board in the offseason.

I think the board can handle drafting a DB/Safety in the first. But CB...and not just a CB....a WHITE CB.....sheesh. RIP

Travis Kelce is "Malibu's Most Wanted". It fits so perfect it is almost creepy. Not for nothing, but the main character in that movie starts as a total douche. He also ends the movie as a total douche. But I douche that you kind learns to like and turns out to be a pretty good dude on top of it. All of which are also weirdly identical to Travis Kelce.

This is a very cool and beyond thoughtful. He doesn't have to do this, he could have dedicated that money to any charity he pleased. Some group in Cleveland/Westlake, Philly, or even KC. But he chose the Patricia Allen Fund here in Buffalo. A city and town he has the least connection with. I don't know why I find this gesture so heavy, but I do, and I am incredibly grateful. Jason Kelce is 100% honorary Bills Mafia for life.

Team Bobby

I think this is a good spot for him. He’s a good X’s and O’s Guy who needs a better feel for calling the game live.

I am gonna double down on my own take with another hot take. If Lamar can’t lead a game winning drive or at least get a TD here, I think this performance could lose him the MVP and give it to Josh. (I know this isn’t supposed to be a playoff award. But let’s call a spade a spade. 7 points against KC after Josh played lights out against their vaunted D)

Either they want to keep him and/or Stef wants to stay. It doesn't change the fact that the per June 1 salary cap delta with and without him on the roster is $3M, and $3M isn't holding any team back from from doing anything if they think it is valuable. Post June changes some things. The Bills can save $19M of cap space this season (2024) by cutting/trading Diggs after June 1. But they take a $22M dead cap hit the following year. That said, Diggs cap number on the roster in 2025 is $27M, so the net is still in the Bills favor at +$5M in cap space. Either way Greg is totally wrong about the Bills options with Diggs. My guess is that the Bills play this season with Diggs contract on the roster as-is, and trade him next offseason pre-draft. His cap hit for the receiving team is only $18M, which as of today is middling WR cap money. But the best part is the receiving team can cut him with next zero cap ramifications since the Bills eat all the signing bonus money.

I probably should have read everything before I responded with a near identical post.

Gregg keeps saying this and I don't thin it is true. That move alone needs to be avoided at all costs. It is a death sentence. I absolutely cannot take any Bills cap summary seriously that says "Diggs has to be restructured just to get by". Cover 1 has some good content, but they aren't the authority on everything. Without extending anybody I got the Bills within $5M of the cap by: Restructuring Josh (I would prefer to do this with an extension to help alleviate future years) Cutting Tre Cutting Morse Cutting Harty Cutting Poyer Cutting Hines Cutting GIlliam The roster management page won't let me do stuff like extend Douglas, Dion, or Taron which saves a ton more money. Trading him costs the team an extra $3M. That is it. On the roster he costs the team $28M. Off the roster he costs us $31M. The delta is $3M. If the Bills want to move on or Stef wants to move on, they certainly can.

Here is a bonkers stat. Before Terry bought the Sabres the franchise had the 4th highest point percentage in the NHL at .553. That’s from a teams inception until 2012. I since Terry bought the team they have had the worst point percentage from 2012 until today and have plummeted from the 4th most winning franchise to 14th. If you took the point percentage from Scotty Bowman’s 10 most successful years. Not consecutive years, just cherry picked his best 10 his point percentage would be .693. If the Sabres went on a historical Scotty Bowman run starting next October it would take the team 10 YEARS to get that point percentage back to the pre Pegula era. It is impossible for Terry to fix this franchise in the time it took him to brake it.

His son Steve still isn’t confirmed on Mayo’s staff. Curious if Bill is trying to get some language in his contract around Steve being the heir apparent.

Admittedly I haven’t heard the segment yet. But as a knee jerk that seems like an ownership issue. Like is who is willing to give up control of the culture and to whom? Like is he talking about the GM not relinquishing control of the culture to the HC? HC to OC/DC or positional coach. It has been rumored that McBeane have a“no meddling” clauses in their contracts. In recent history Danny Briere requested it to take of as Head/Pres of Hockey Ops and it was declined. This goes all the way back to Ted Black and Regier on the hockey side where Darcy and Terry were having secret meetings about prospects, trades, etc.

Terry Pegula has the ability to be one of the worst owners in American sports history. Sure, he got it right with McBeane and Allen. But as the Sabres continue to careen out of control as they continue to stretch their historical record of ineptitude for a 13th year, I have no internet in forcing Pegula’s hand to be proactive. If the NHL had a QB postion that could save a franchise in 609 days maybe we could have gotten lucky by now. But it doesn’t, it is a business management league, and he’s an embarrassment to the entire league. Terry is a smart geologist who sold portions of his business to business managers, but refuses to relinquish control of the hockey org. Why would you want Terry to do anything on his own? Keep Terry away from any business decisions.

Meh. Most aren’t good enough. They’re closer to the top of “best of the rest” than they are elite. This also kind of reminds me of when teams get ranked as “top 10”. Like 10th isn’t awesome in a 32 team league. You’re better than 2/3’s of the league. It’s not like top 10 in a field of 60 or 100. Like 9th at the Olympics is awesome at scale. But comparatively 9th behind Michael Phelps is a totally different class. In rowing if you were 0.5% off the best guy, or goal time for a workout you were a totally different class of athlete.

I would maybe remove Romo, McNaab, and McNair from greats and move them to “pretty good”.

I think we’ll see a heavy defensive draft in terms of quantity of picks. I have a sneaking suspicion that we won’t draft our first round pick at 28. We will move up for a WR or move back because we don’t have a great grade on what is left on board. One of the two first picks will be a WR. I also think we’ll take a flyer on a WR in the mid to late rounds as well. Outside of funding an OC or RT to come in and develop behind Brown/Morse I don’t know what other offense we’d take high. But we also need a couple of DE, DL depth, and a tandem of Safeties with minimal cap space.