BarleyNY

That’s because we are approximately $22M over the cap now. The first $22M we free up just gets us to $0.

You said “restructure” which specifically means keeping compensation the same but changing its structure. Usually that means converting salary or a roster bonus into a signing bonus to delay the cap hit. What you mean is that you want him to take a pay cut. I don’t have any issue with that, but if he said “no” we’d probably have to part ways with him and find a FA C to replace him. He’s due a roster bonus on the 3rd day of the league year so it would have to be done before then. I’d like to see a new OG and competition at RT so that could mean 3 new starters on the OL. That might not be optimal, but I’d be open to it. Another way to go would be to draft a player this year who (hopefully) will be his replacement next year and part ways next offseason. That obviously would work with or without going down the pay cut path.

That would not do a whole lot of good. Any cap space we could push out would just hit next year.

We are very lucky Morse has held up as well as he has. We should have had our future C on the roster two drafts ago, but we didn’t take one. Then we ignored it again last year. We have to draft one this April.

While it is necessary to restructure some contracts, the Bills have to keep an eye on future seasons. They currently have approximately $220M allocated in 2024. Restructures this season will add to that cap number.

Yup. Certainly a fair point.

My point is that judging every move by every team on whether or not they won the Super Bowl that season is absurd. By those standards every move 31 teams made were bad and every move Philly or KC made was good. It’s just ridiculous.

Is there a Matador competition?

Maybe Saffold is a really good dodgeball player

That’s a very solid draft overall. People forget how few draft picks actually work out. Too WR with Diggs via trade, back up DE, solid (if limited) starting WR, quality PK, great depth/decent spot starter at CB and a good depth WR we let go. Really tough to complain about this one. The big issue is that the two drafts since have not yielded much value.

I didn’t come into the game rooting for either team, but I found myself rooting for KC for two reasons: - Eli Apple - KC looking like they’d give Philly less of a fight with a banged up Mahomes

I watched Ossai push Mahomes and said “He just cost Cincy the game.” before I even saw the flag.

I just wanted the AFC team to lose to the NFC team. Looks promising

Cool. I guess Josh Allen is not that great since the Bills keep coming up short with him too. Crazy, I thought he was a top QB and I was happy to have him. But now I understand how wrong I was.

Come on. SF came up short having to play an injured third string QB.

This quote from Beane at the press conference puzzled me: “I don't want to overreact to one game.” Did he miss the wildcard game against the Dolphins?

Well, the Bills did get to an exciting level of success long enough to get the new stadium deal.

This. It’s too early to tell with Brown. A competent starting RT or Swing Tackle should be brought in. Then it should be about who earns what in the competition.

That’s fair. The Bills have not publicly disclosed if one is technically higher than the other in the org. They may technically be peers, but I don’t think there’s any chance that Beane outranks McD. Also I don’t think it’s an overstatement to say that Beane got this job because he was McDermott’s choice. It would make sense that Beane would feel like he is in his debt for that.

That is not what I’m saying. I think I’ve explained it as well as I can do I’m just going to drop out of this conversation.

I have been harping on the mistake of using so many resources on defense at the expense of the offense for some time now. It makes little sense in a league with rules skewed toward the offense. It does seem like McDermott puts his side of the ball first. I also agree that the coaching has been a problem in the playoffs. It cost us the KC game last year and any chance of being competitive against the Bengals this year. Something I think you have wrong is thinking Beane is McDermott’s boss. He’s not, McDermott hired Beane. I think he defers to him too much because of that. As for signing Von Miller, I think he was the player that defense needed to win in the playoffs. My problem is that after spending so many picks and so much cap space on the defense - and the DL in particular - it’s ridiculous that we needed an addition like him. That cap space should have gone to the offense for another difference maker whether or not there was still a need on defense.

I said the exact same thing in the post you responded to. The second contract expectations for a 1st round pick staying with their drafting team are very much impacted by their draft position. Let’s use Oliver as an example. He was drafted 9th overall and the team picked up his 5th year option at $10.75M. In extension negotiations the expectations will be that $10.75M plus a percentage adjustment for the cap increase as a starting point. That puts him at about $11.5M/season to start. we’d be looking at something like a 4 year, $50M contract to stay with the Bills. He’s a solid player, but he’s worth nowhere near that so he’ll hit FA where some team will likely overpay him. He won’t get the above contract, but he will almost certainly get more than the Bills would pay him. Some team will decide that they can utilize him better or take a chance that he wasn’t developed properly or just have a lot of cap space and a huge need. Look at Shaq Lawson. We didn’t even pick up his 5th year option and he got 3 years, $30M from the Phins. He only played one season for them, but he made $13.5M for that season. Since then he’s been playing for vet minimum. Incidentally payroll structure is moot. The player’s value to the team and his contract demands are what matter. Just because a payroll has capacity at a certain position does not mean the team should waste it on overpaying a player.

Well, not just you

To me it’s coaching (O & D), offensive skill positions and OL, in that order. The second and third don’t much matter without the first. The Bengals showed us how having quality offensive skill players can mask a bad OL so it’s second. We need another difference maker on O. Thirdly, we could still use improvement on the OL to help the passing and running games. We don’t need any All Pros, but lining up five even slightly above average players would be a big improvement.

Myles Garrett.