BarleyNY

Have you heard of the salary cap? No reason to overpay a player because they’re throwing out ridiculous numbers publicly. And posting on social media counts as publicly saying words. I’d love for Pegula to open the purse strings and adopt the Eagles salary cap model, but that does not mean overpaying players as doing so would immediately and completely destroy the advantage it is designed to create. Lastly, no, the Bills do not need to make this work. They should offer a fair deal at market value. If Cook doesn’t want to make that work, then it’s on him not the Bills.

Yup. Certainly a big difference in variance between QBs and teams. I don’t think it was a surprise that the Bengals had issues last season. The Bengals didn’t put a good OL in front of Burrow and failed to replace a lot of defensive talent. Meanwhile the Bills have been nothing if not consistent.

I think you are right that Incognito wouldn’t have changed his behavior, but maybe he’d have realized that he was going to have to cut Martin out of it. Pouncey is a total POS too. He’s shown to be cut from the same cloth as Incognito.

The texts came out when my son was in the year of little league baseball when the kids first started pitching. It was brutal. Walk after walk after walk. I sat in my lawn chair and read every text released. My take away was that Incognito was definitely messed up. He was a big POS with his extreme partying, hookers and dangerous behavior. I’m surprised he’s still alive. While his treatment of Martin wouldn’t be tolerated in any workplace, I don’t think he was malicious nor do I think he was bullying him. That was how he treated his friends and he considered Martin a friend. It did seem to be a big stressor for Martin though. Lotta stress added to an already stressful job - and Martin did not seem to understand that Incognito’s intentions were founded in friendship and not malicious. There probably just needed to be a discussion about appropriate behavior and then an adherence on Incognito’s part since it was a work environment. There was no need for it to have gotten to where it did - unless Incognito refused to change his behavior and he never got that chance.

FA to fill holes with players that are ok starting caliber or better. Draft for long term needs, development and depth. Beane’s strategy of leaving one obvious need for the draft has not played out well. I hope we’ve seen the last of it.

In 2024 Bernard made 55 solo tackles and had 49 assists for a total of 104. According to nfl.com he also missed 24 tackles, which is the 5th most in the league. I’d like to see a possible replacement drafted this season. Good talent at LB can be had later so not a premium pick.

That’s standard operating procedure for the Eagles so they can maximize cash spend.

Deep draft at RB. I agree that there will be very good RB prospects available on day 3.

I’m not undermining my point that as more useful information is attained, better predictions can be made. You’re assuming a lot (incorrectly) in the rest of your post.

Were you able to adjust your expectations of the Bills’ final regular season record after they beat KC to get to 9-2? Were you able to adjust your expect of the Vikings regular season record after seeing how Darnold performed in that offense? I was. Another example is the Lions. I thought they were a strong contender to make the NFCCG and SB. Then just about their whole defense went down with injuries. That made me think they’d get bounced early in the playoffs, which they did.

Yes, we will all know more and be able to make better predictions as time passes. FA will bring things into better focus, then the draft, then cuts, then every week. Anyone skilled at projecting anything should know that our ability to project the season’s outcome today is very, very poor. I’m not sure what you’re even arguing. You seem to be disagreeing with me, but then you write paragraphs supporting what I’ve said.

Yeah. That’s all in line with my point. You can’t know how it’ll all shake out for your team or anyone else. No harm in some fans making some optimistic projections, but we will see dozens of things to change those projections leading up to the season and then again during the season.

So much depends on when you get some opponents. The Lions are a great example. Essentially their entire defense was out injured when we played them. It’s a vastly different game if we’d have played them week 2. Do we play in Miami in sweltering heat or in December? Or at night? Do they have to come up here in the snow? Do we have to play the same divisional opponent twice within a couple weeks? So much left to shake out. Not the least of which is what teams add and lose what players - Bills included.

He had significant injuries playing CB when he was younger. No way he holds up as a safety in his 30s - even if he could make the position switch. No as a CB too. They’d be wasting the roster spot and inviting distraction. I say this despite the fact that he was one of my favorite players. The Sabres could use a goalie…….

Agreed. No one is going to give up a pick to pay Milano $10M next season when they can’t rely on him to stay healthy. The Bills probably have to keep him for 2025, but that’ll be it. Maybe the Bills play hardball and get him to convert some salary to active roster bonuses.

Glad someone is bringing up all of this stuff. I agree with all of it. Heck, I’ve already said almost all of it.

When asked about this decision NY Giants owner John Mara had this to say:

I disagree. $15M AAV is outrageous. And what if their limit is $10M AAV? Or $11M? That seems the more appropriate range to me - as I outlined in detail in this thread. And even $11M is a stretch IMO. Nothing exists in a vacuum. If Cook gets a 50% premium, then why shouldn’t other players? And why shouldn’t that extra 4 or 5 million a year go toward keeping or adding another impactful player? As others have said, this hasn’t become a problem (yet). If he needs to play out his deal and test free agency next year, then so be it. Or if we get there and the Bills want to tag him, that works for me. Heck, sign him to an extension that’s backloaded so he can tout it even though he won’t see the real money. But handing him a contract that pays him anything close to $15M AAV would be a huge mistake.

No disagreement there. Just discussing how I’d like to see things handled if it heads down that path. I don’t think that things going that way would be surprising at this point.

No, I agree that he’s going to have to play out his deal if we make him. I wasn’t saying we had to trade him or even that we should, just that the compensation won’t be all that much. People that are thinking a first or second round pick are not in the right ballpark. Also this would be a great opportunity for Beane to show everyone that this team won’t be manipulated again. Players can’t pull a Diggs and expect it to work again.

I agree with all of this, but have an additional concern. I don’t mind players taking to social media when they have a legitimate gripe and things have come to an impasse. But that raises the question of whether negotiations have hit an impasse or if Cook & co. are pushing things into the public sphere even before they began. If it’s the former, then his expectations seem unrealistic and we probably have a real issue. If it’s the latter, then he may be in the process of creating an issue. It’s no secret that the Bills very much prefer working on extensions like his out of the public eye so this is definitely a shot across the Bills bow. And that does not portend happy days ahead. The problem is that he’s a RB with one year left on his contract at $5.2M and he wants a new deal at well over market. We’re looking at a day 3 pick.

Well, the Steelers SHOULD be calling teams about QBs. I’d be much more disappointed in their FO if this is fake.

I appreciate the kind words. I’m always happy to help with things I have some knowledge of. I’m a numbers geek and have been looking at the salary cap for over 20 years now. Things are always so nuanced and so much is unknown by us fans this time of year. We can look at the cap numbers and have a good idea of team needs, but we often don’t know what the team thinks of some of the players on their roster. I think they can get to $30M under if they want to. More, if they really push it. That will enable them to make some reasonable signings and fill their holes. They could even make one big signing if they want. I would not expect more than than one splash signing though. The direction they are going should be a lot clearer in mid March. The new league year will be here and they’ll make their cuts. If there is a splash FA signing, it’ll likely happen then. We will have a better idea of their needs too.

https://247sports.com/nfl/cleveland-browns/longformarticle/understanding-the-cleveland-browns-spending-philosophy-why-it-is-sustainable-2024-235642851/#2480064 Here is an article explaining the methodology of the Browns, which is essentially the same as the Eagles.

There are some articles out there about how the Eagles and Browns are operating. It is infinitely sustainable as long as the NFL’s salary cap increases at its historical pace of about 8% a year. It enables them to outspend typical teams by about 15-18%. I’ll post an article if I can find one.