Bleeding Bills Blue

"ALL-IN PLAYOFFS OR BUST" - or was that last years... Lets go with the Jauron one "ITS HARD TO WIN IN THE NFL"

Yeah - they have a lot of in house players. However they don't always fill those gaps well when people leave, and have had some mediocre seasons because of it. I also find McCarthy to be a tad overrated as a HC, but thats probably a matter of opinion. I have to agree. They have a much different strategy than NE, but they go about their business in a very similar way.

Restructuring dareus means... making more of a commitment to him.

For watkins - the 5th year option is the transition tag amount (top 10 pick)... so average of the top 10 at his position. The franchise tag is the average of the top 5, or 120% your previous year salary, whichever is higher.

Definitely New England, and probably a couple earlier ones. Depends on the team success.

Russ doesn't handle criticism well. He'd be a disaster. Because everyone said - you want a hockey guy to do all this yadda yadda. His gut says, i should meet and hire the people who are replacing the GM/Coach of the last 15 years. He didn't follow his gut and now looking back regrets it. Whether thats right? Not sure.

If we fire Whaley, it is actually a fairly attractive team to jump on. We're at a stage where you can rebuild without a full tear down. Some good players - about a .500 roster. Players to build around, and players who are probably expendable. The Sabres are so hamstrung with bad contracts, and no defenseman. The way the NHL does their cap, they're so jammed up. They're going to have to package reinhart or kane PLUS cash PLUS a prospect, just to get rid of a moulson or ennis contract. The other probably gets bought out.

No comment until you know how it plays out. Worst case - cut him and prioritize bringing in a few UDFAs at the position.

He loved russell a lot. John elway comparisons.

I just didn't care for the roster he assembled. All of his free agent signings were garbage and overspends. Lehner looks alright at times, O'Reilly is legit, and Eichel who was a no-brainer, and Risto who has developed quite nicely. Kulikov trade was bad. Lehner trade wasn't great. Kane trade kinda stinks cuz were stuck with Bogosian. Franson was a terrible signing. Gorges was a terrible trade. Moulson was a terrible signing. Ennis extension was a mistake. We have a few prospects who should be ready and might be good in a couple of years. But we couldnt play them because we have so much dead weight. 2 more years of moulson and ennis... and 1 more of gorges. Thanks GMTM! Thats why he was fired. Cap mismanagement, and bad moves.

I mean if we match - what does he project here vs. his replacement. He obviously projects to do more with NE as he'd be closer to their feature back.

Letting hogan walk wasn't the biggest mistake. The biggest mistake was believing he could be replaced by the trash we trotted out in training camp. I just like the activity. The arguments are all over the place, but its busy so I enjoy it.

Thats all well and good. How many yards do you project for Gillislee? How many yards to you project for his replacement with the same # of carries?

I seriously doubt he goes in the 2nd.

But then you only have him for 1 year at what - 2.8 million? This is 2 years instead of 1 and 3.25 AAV. Is there really that much of a difference? If you value him that highly you can just match the offer sheet.

Yeah - if they keep butler... they have 2 very good-borderline great corners. They replaced long with Kony Ealy. That roberts kid they drafted looks legit. Brown, Ninkovich, hightower, flowers and McCourtey - the mainstays. They'll probably add some additional LB depth in the draft this year. Pass rush help too. Even their special teams are best in class. Slater and Ebner - Allen and Gostkowski....

Their line is very good too... He won't put up all-pro numbers unless there's injuries, but they will have a top 3 offense. And probably a top 5 defense too TBH.

Hogan was fine for them - but he's just a piece. They attack you through their depth and game planning. This year its like... Gronk, Cooks, Edelman, Hogan, Amendola, Mitchell, Allen, Burkhead, White, Lewis, and Gillislee. Even if they don't get Gillislee they'll just sign someone else... And still beat us twice.

Look at it this way - Gillislee is being paid for the 150-200 carries that he'll likely get in NE. It's an overpay for the 100 carries he'll likely get in Buffalo. One thing i always like to remember is - don't pay someone for what they've done/accomplished for you. Pay someone for what you want/anticipate them doing for you. There's no "rewarding" you for your previous contributions. If i slap a value on you, then I should not exceed that value in contract negotiations. One team's value for a player is different than another teams. Hogan is more valuable in a Brady/Belichick offense, than he is in a Tyrod Taylor offense. Hence the difference of opinion on contract value between the two teams.

He was actually good outside of the fumbles in philly. 4 in a season for a backup running back is a bit out of hand. The rest of his 2012/2013 stat line was pretty good. Still hate the trade that Whaley made there... Good backs can be had with the same pick we traded. We got Karlos in the 5th of the draft that we traded a 4th for Brown in. I dunno - i just assume agents wanna play hard ball and won't sign anything until the market value is determined. Depends how badly he wants to be a bill - apparently not that badly...

I think they're going committee because of Brady. Theyd rather have a bunch of options. Gillislee, burkhead, White, Lewis.... they can hurt you in a bunch of ways.

He fumbled 5 times in 4 seasons... about 1 every 60 touches which is pretty bad. The fact that one cost us a game makes it that much worse.

Right - I'm saying... until he's tendered his agent won't let him sign anything (the goal is to be on the open market). When you tender him at the 2nd round tender the negotiations start at 3mil per year (roughly what the 2nd round tender is). He'd get no interest on the RFA market, and he likely walks in a year because we probably don't want to pay a 27 year old back-up RB that much.

While it guarantees a low-ish hit for a backup/spell/short yardage back, you're also fully guaranteeing a contract for 2018 when he may not be able to play. How would it have been structured to give him more money in 2017? I assume low base salary in 2018? He just got 2-years and 6... so his agent probably wanted more from the get-go. What is the incentive to sign?

For those criticizing Williams regarding his ball security, he was considered mediocre-poor regarding his fumbling in college ---- 1 in every 72 touches. Who knows if it improves if he played in 2015 - but it wasn't considered a strength. The 2 fumbles last year would likely stand to be an outlier from limited production, not necessarily a trend that he's going to fumble once every 15 touches. One was in a game we were leading by 29 points and had taken everyone out, and another was in a game where the team gave up on week 17. He also saw the field a bit less after the fumble against SF. However from a similar perspective - Gillislee in his 2 years playing in the NFL has fumbled 1 in every 81.5 touches. Not exactly the most amazing ball security either.