QCity

Maybe we finally have a front office that isn't content to let our assets leave without any compensation. We're going to have to overpay to keep him here. He knows he's not going to get a record breaking Nike deal like OBJ just received with our offense. He's not going to get all the accolades, awards, and stats that his peers are getting if he stays here. The odds of his next contract working out in favor of the team over the long haul are pretty low.

I wouldn't buy a Watkins jersey.

Of course we know the value of the pick. This narrative that we are going to use it in a trade for a QB is just speculation. We have a GM that wants to build through the draft -- every draft pick matters. This scenario is Exhibit A of why you fire your employees on a Friday and don't let them linger around the job for a week. The notion that firing your GM after the draft will now be some new "trend" is one of the silliest things I've read this offseason. The question now becomes how exactly does Beane fix this mess? Ducasse and Davis aren't a problem, I suspect they'll be cut simply due to their performance -- there will probably be at least a dozen better players cut this preseason. But that only gets us back to even. Hauschka and DiMarco aren't going anywhere, those contracts have too much gtd money and dead cap. They can't sit around and pray Blanton qualifies as a CFA. Can they cut a guy like Holmes and still have enough space to sign a replacement? Money is still pretty tight.

That's pretty much it.

Cuts have no impact on comp picks. No, that's incorrect, he gave away a "slam dunk" 3rd rounder when we lost Byrd. Ironically and oddly enough, the only time he obtained comp picks was when he went on that spending spree in 2015.

You have to understand we've never had a front office that understood this concept or built a team in this fashion. This is foreign ground for our fanbase, but I can see that we're slowly getting past the snark and learning some sound principles in asset management. Comp picks obtained over a 3-year period are a great barometer to see if your GM is clueless or not. You simply cannot build a team through FA, and that's exactly what we were trying to do. Another thing to note, it's not about trading a 3rd round pick for player X when assessing value. That player or a player comparable to him could be signed easily after May 9th, so it's closer to a 3rd round pick for a guy who is 80% of player X (which makes it even worse). A good rule of thumb is always wait to sign depth. Of course, when you start getting 10 or 11 draft picks for a few years, you are going to find that these "holes" on our team are suddenly disappearing and depth isn't a big issue anymore. Here's some more data from this year's free agency period (as it stands now, could still change). There are 4 teams that lost 5 or more players in FA and are poised to get nothing in return: BUF, JAX, TEN, and CHI. Some pretty poor company to be in. Here are the teams that stand to gain 3+ picks: N.E., CIN, HOU, DAL, OAK, ARI, MIN, and G.B. Five playoff teams that get richer. Green Bay is best example in the league of a team that builds through the draft. In fact, they may take it a bit too far with their aversion to sign free agents. They are slated to get the max of 4 comp pick this year, and with a previous trade, should wind up with 12 (!) draft picks next year.

This was a major problem with Whaley. You simply cannot forfeit draft picks for depth signings. I mentioned this exact same situation about two weeks ago here, I'm guessing Rodak reads these forums because he basically re-wrote my post. We have the possibility of getting 7 picks in the first 4 rounds, which has great potential to be a franchise changing draft. There is another way to gain some help that Rodak didn't mention. If Blanton, E.J., or Hunter play enough non-special teams snaps, they can become a CFA and count toward our losses. This would mean cutting 3 of our FA's would get us 2 more picks. It's not that far fetched -- Barry Church is gone in Dallas and the SS position is in flux, Blanton could win the starting job possibly. These offseason moves really highlight the ineptitude of the Whaley years. This is also an early litmus test for our new front office. We'll know in the next few months if they know how to build through the draft as Beane claimed.

Who exactly is he going to rip apart? He was the organization. He did a lousy job and TBN is spot-on for reporting he did a lousy job.

The bar is set so low in this town that anyone with a pulse that is polite is revered.

The guy's been kicking on the west coast, moving east isn't going to improve his stats.

You're damn right he wasted everyone's time. He was in over his head from day 1.

And McD demanded control because Whaley was terrible at his job. There's no way you can twist this firing around into anything but he was lousy at his job.

He's 19 yrs old and has played in 4 games.

Cautious skepticism is the rational approach. I'd wager 99% of the posters here had no idea who Brandon Beane, Joe Schoen, and Brian Gaine were one month ago. We're only going by what we've learned from reports in the media which have mostly been positive. Ironically, these same members of the media are often attacked and ridiculed as incompetent and clueless when they have something negative to say, so.... we'll see.

Lack of views isn't going to change his salary. He's not going to lose his job and he's certainly not going to change his tone. Again, it's not going to impact him at all. You want to get their attention? Start cancelling subscriptions en masse.

I'm pretty sure if you don't have a sub you can't read the articles anyway. Maybe they give you the first 10 for free or something? But yeah, if you want to voice your displeasure then cancel your subscription. The whole "I'm not going to click on the articles" thing is just silly in this case.

I just want to point out that TBN works on a subscription based model. While they do have ads, whether you click on articles or not isn't going to impact a TBN writer in the least. It's not going to change his salary, this isn't Bleacher Report.

The contract length and size has no impact on qualification. They are never "sometimes too weak" -- it's black or white. He qualified after May 9 when they put that rarely used tag on him. Contract value only affects the compensation received in return. Incentives don't count in that formula either, so this would likely be a 7th round pick. The real value is that it "protects" their higher comp picks in case someone like Chris Long doesn't make the team. For example, if Long or Mingo get cut, the Pats would lose a 4th or 5th round pick. Now, they only stand to lose a 7th round pick.

"It's got to the point where base competence looks like genius to Buffalo fans." He's not wrong.

Rebuttal: Williams, Mularkey, Jauron, Gailey, Marrone, Ryan.

A fracking magnate going solar. That would make a great story. Most of my friends that would consider this (i.e. early adopters) are taking the wait and see approach. I do think it's interesting that even the stout detractors that I know remain very curious.

No, not even close. In fact it's the polar opposite of Whaley's approach.

Those are the exact words I wanted to hear. I've been preaching this approach for the past 4 years, so that's music to my ears.

There are a lot of fans that believe once Brady retires the Pats will immediately morph into the Browns and it will be a cakewalk to the AFC East title and all our problems will be solved. Those fans are living in Fantasyland. Brady could go down for the year tomorrow and that team will still hit double-digit wins. Brady isn't the sole reason that team wins -- right now he's the difference between a 1st or 2nd round playoff exit and a Superbowl (which is substantial of course). I realize any praise of the Pats triggers half of our fanbase (it turns my stomach too), but their front office is at the top of the league.

If Ducasse doesn't make our team the Ravens only lose a 7th. If Ducasse doesn't make our team and the Ravens sign Blount, they lose a 7th and a potential 3rd. They are essentially hamstrung from signing Blount now, because they can't risk losing a 3rd round pick based on what we do with a backup OL. Really quite fascinating.