Kirby Jackson

They already did though (plus Lawrence, Collins, Martin, Smith, Lamb, Diggs, Jaylon Smith, Gallup, McCoy, etc..). Whether they win or not is TBD but their ability to keep their best guys has been impressive.

No I think that you are spot on. A couple of bad drafts and you become too top-heavy. The irony is that the Cowboys have drafted really, really well over the last few years. They’ve actually acquired so much talent that they can probably make a few gaffes in the draft and still be fine. They were lucky this draft but I thought that they did an outstanding job. I expect them to have 6 of their draft picks playing regularly as rookies (Lamb, Diggs, Gallimore, Robinson, Biadasz and Anae). It’s possible that Biadasz, Lamb, and Diggs start while the 2 defensive linemen rotate in and Robinson plays in certain packages. On a team that already has a lot of talent it’s crazy to think that they could have such a good draft. They were definitely lucky in that they drafted 5 of those guys about as late as they could have possibly gone (or in Anae’s case about 3 rounds after).

You said “him” middling along not “them” middling along. Let’s not move the goalposts again...

If “middling along” is 4,902 yards, 30 TDs and 11 INTs sign me up!! If Allen has that year we will throw a parade.

It really doesn’t though as long as they continue to draft well. Their core is in place for multiple years. As an example they have 7 players on the “best 100 players” that Pete Prisco did this week (Zeke 17, Dak 46, Martin 50, Lawrence 58, Collins 77, Smith 80, and Cooper 81). All of those guys are signed through 2022 (assuming that they keep Dak). They have other guys as well like Jaylon Smith, Trevon Diggs and Ceedee Lamb signed through then as well. You can get in cap trouble when you spend on the wrong guys. Outside of maybe Cooper I don’t think that they’ve spent poorly at all. Their best players are the ones committed to and will be filled in around. The middle and back of the roster will be younger guys on rookie deals but so what? If we were to use the Bills as the comparison it would be like saying “we can’t afford the $6M cap hit for AJ Klein so we are going to play Vosean Joseph and his $690k cap hit there.” The drop off is minimal or doesn’t even exist. The decisions that Dallas has to make at this point are decisions like that. They don’t have to decide between Zack Martin and a rookie 4th rounder. Hope that makes sense

100% buy this and can see that. I tend to agree with this as well. Dak to me is a good QB. He probably is a top 10 QB right now. Top 10 QBs though aren’t a part of dynasties. He’d have to take a step from good QB to great QB. It goes to my other point though as to why no one questioned the Eagles being right below? Dak is well ahead of Wentz as of today. Additionally Dallas has better talent all over the offense. I suspect Dallas was targeted because we dislike Dallas and are indifferent on the Eagles. Objectively though, does anyone think that those 2 teams have the same future ahead?

To be fair he was under 100 yards from 5,000 this year. Also to be fair, he has averaged 10 wins a season. That’s not “occasionally.” You may not think that he’s worth the contract that he’s about to get. You are also WAY underrating the player. Dak is a top 10ish QB that is 26 and ascending.

Maybe, but buyer’s remorse on good players is a gamble we’d all take. They’ve certainly spent but they’ve spent on quality players. It’s basically what the Saints have done for 15 years. They keep their core and build around them. They’ve only won 1 but have been good for a long time. Personally I think Garrett was really bad. McCarthy is just okay IMO but still a big step up. In terms of the talent they had a really good offseason (although I didn’t love the Cooper contract). Additionally, they play in that garbage division.

Good call! Revis was always ahead on that.

What I’m saying is that they don’t have “tough decisions ahead.” They managed to make them all already and are in great shape. If the Bills are able to retain their core like Dallas did we should build a statue for Beane. They’ve done EXACTLY what we hope we will be able to do in 2 or 3 years. Vander Esch is the last “must sign” guy out there and he’s still there for 2 more years assuming they exercise his option. I know it’s fun to hate on the Cowboys but we really should be envious of the way that they navigated this. If they continue to draft as they have they will be good for a while. God willing the Bills will be able to retain: Josh, Diggs, Tre, Edmunds, Dawkins, Milano, Singletary, Oliver and whomever else develops into a young core piece. That’s basically what Dallas has been able to do over the last couple of years.

They are actually fine. Dak is pretty much their last core player that hasn’t signed their second contract. They have actually down a fantastic job of cap management.

Yep, he was the first NFL player to really do it. He took the 1-year deals. There was certainly some risk but it worked perfectly. NBA players started doing it about a decade ago and it was brilliant. They would take these shorter deals with a player option as protection. If things got sideways or the guy got hurt he could opt in. The NFL players take on significantly more risk in that the contracts aren’t guaranteed. These QBs are still willing to risk it to take shorter deals to get that extra bite at the apple. I’m betting that Mahomes does the same. In the old days though guys wanted that 6-year Sam Bradford contract. Now they’d rather sign multiple contracts in a 6-year span as the cap continues to increase.

The contract is what it is. They all are. The next QB always gets more than the previous. I have no issue with the number and Dak probably doesn’t either. It’s the years. You are going to see more and more QBs looking for 4 years. Mahomes will be having the same battle if the Chiefs want 5.

He wants a 4-year deal. I don’t blame him. If they can make year 5 a “player option” I bet he’d jump at it. With the way that the cap grows (although COVID may slow it) he will be a bargain in a few years. He wants one more crack at FA. Like in everything the NFL guys are starting to follow the NBA guy’s lead. Get shorter deals and be a FA multiple times.

FWIW, I ordered 3 more on Amazon today and they are supposed to come tomorrow.

That’s crazy because in those same weeks Singletary averaged 4.8 YPC behind the same line in the same scheme. He was basically getting double what Gore was.

I think this is kind of where I am. It would not be surprising at all to see the Bills having a top end running game. Right now there are some unknowns which is why they rank where they do. They’d be higher now if you factored in Josh too (which you really should in 2020). To me that is like analyzing pass catchers without including TEs or backs. I guess that it’s fine to analyze WRs alone too but it’s only a part of the story.

The Bills will climb a lot this year I suspect. Gore being scored an 80 while Singletary is a 79 is laughable. Gore is about a 65 at this point based on that scale.

I specifically used the bolded because I think that’s why it doesn’t go both ways. That’s a total assumption on my part but it feels right. When it goes the other way there is something to the “she was in danger” that just doesn’t feel the same way when it involves a man. Maybe that’s wrong but that’s how I view it.

That is part of the reason that Gunner and I were giving the Cowboys credit . Outside of the draft picks, Gallup and Vander Esch all of the Cowboys core is on at least their 2nd contract. The Chiefs are about to have to make decisions because Mahomes is ready for his extension. I trust Beane to navigate that but the Bills clearly haven’t gotten to that point yet.

I know that both Bandit and I (and others here) heard some things this year that were true that weren’t being reported. I’m referring mostly to the draft though. The Bills tried to trade up for Devin Duvernay. The Bills were taking Dugger if he was available. Those are real “leaks” that in the past few years wouldn’t have gotten as widespread as they were. Both of those things are true. I didn’t hear much in FA outside of the stuff you are mentioning. That was as much connecting dots though as info. That doesn’t mean that people here weren’t hearing it though. If Bandit says that he was hearing that we should 100% believe it because it’s true.

I’m a sucker for this kind of stuff. They did a really nice job with it and the Bills seemed to have drafted good guys.

As it turned out the Bills ended up with a guy that became DPOY and were frustrated that they couldn’t land a guy who isn’t on a roster. Sometimes the best deals are the ones that you couldn’t get done. That ended up being a really good draft that produced a few potential HOFers (Keuchley, Gilmore, Chandler Jones, Andrew Luck, Fletcher Cox, Bobby Wagner, Kelechi Osemele, and Russell Wilson). Imagine looking back if we ended up with Barron after giving up whatever the cost would have been? Gross

It really was a little uncharacteristic. That makes it harder to blame on the work environment too. At least with the draft you can default to “with people all over the place it’s tough to keep everything silent.” That wasn’t the case during FA.