BarleyNY

Wow. Stupid post. Pegula has owned the Bills for what, 2 years? Seriously?

Oddly, Dallas will likely still part ways with Romo (or possibly rework his deal to a much cheaper salary). It's a huge amount of dead money, but it would actually save them $5.1M against the cap in 2017. That's if he's traded or cut under regular rules. If they cut him and designate him a June 1st cut then $8.9M of dead money would be deferred to 2018. That's $14M that could be freed up for 2017 for a team in dire need of short term cap space. Dallas is currently projected to be $1.7M over the 2017 cap and they have over $115M scheduled to be allocated to the offense. That's unreal. I haven't dug into their contracts, but Romo seems an obvious place to start. He's very, very expensive, getting older and is usually injured. Oh, I don't want Romo unless he's a free agent and cheap, which is incredibly unlikely. He's just too fragile at this point in his career. Foles, if he hits the market, would likely be the best of the lot.

True. There are valid concerns that he was not asked to go through the kinds of progressions and make the kinds of reads that will be required of him in the NFL. He executed the offense he was asked to run - half field reads, one or two options before running, etc. - and he did it well. He may or may not make he growth he needs to make it in the NFL - and in that regard he's a lot like every other top QB coming out this year. I don't want to see the Bills reach for a QB, I just want them to get a guy who has a real chance to make it at a reasonable draft value and I want to see them bring him along properly, even if it takes time and frustrates fans.

Quality coach + quality QB

Looks like Gregg Williams is the new Browns DC.

An intentional tank job would be the only real reason to bring Cutler to Buffalo.

I totally thought that was going to be a pic of Cutler puking. Expect a bridge QB to be signed - at a lot less than Tyrod's contract. Then a QB will be drafted to complete our trio.

This isn't the season to move up from 10 for a QB. Every single one of them needs significant development. Take a chance on one of them on day 1 or 2, but don't overdraft one. This team needs too much to waste draft capital. Also expect to start seeing the name Josh Allen in these conversations. I haven't made my mind up on him yet, but he might very well be the first QB off the board. And he just declared.

Trubisky may go back to UNC for another season. Gillislee is a RFA. He needs to be under contract to be traded.

The word in NFL circles is that Wade will stay in Denver if the new HC wants a him to stay. If not, then he will look elsewhere. He'd be a tremendous DC hire anywhere.

LMAO

I've seen a lot of this crap, too. The defense was very average - 15th in yards/game and 16th in points per game. They weren't what they were two seasons ago and they weren't what Rex told us we'd get, but they weren't nearly the biggest issue on the team. It wasn't the 1st ranked run offense either. My guess at what held the Bills back most in 2016 was their 31st ranked passing offense. Specials didn't help either.

Wow. I'm trying to wrap my head around them in a booth. That would either be tremendous or totally unlistenable. I'm not sure which.

Money paid or guaranteed to a player must be accounted for on the cap. Some of Taylor's cap hit would be deferred, but those dollars still must be accounted for. Deferring a cap hit can help in the near term, but eventually the team has to take the hit. BS. The Bills beat one .500+ team this season - the Patriots who started an injured 3rd string QB. Taylor is a big part of the reason why, I'm not putting it all on him (or any QB) to carry the team to a SB, but he should be able to help them get there and not hold the team back.

Yup. My first thought upon reading the OP was, "Well okay, then whose fault was it in 2015?" I'm sure Rob was part of the problem, but the real issue was the Ryan scheme and the inflexibility of Rex (and Rob). They didn't change their scheme to keep in step with today's NFL and they sure didn't tailor it to their personnel. That major coaching failure is on them.

No chance. Whaley will have made his decision about Tyrod and he will go with a coach that agrees with him. No way does he tie himself to a coach that he doesn't see eye to eye with. And Tyrod's contract is substantial. The team will be tied to him for at least two seasons at a cost of $40.5M. You've got to genuinely believe in him to move forward with him because he's going to be your QB. If you're Whaley, then he's going to be the guy you tie your tenure in Buffalo to. If you're the new HC, then with Tyrod you have real, immediate expectations for improvement. He's got to be your guy. Or you can choose your own guy and get a little extra time. I don't see the Bills keeping Tyrod. He's the best QB that's been in Buffalo in a long, long time, but he's limited. He's not going to get you to a Super Bowl. That is really the clincher for me.

I suspect that's not going to happen. He will get a nice deal - and he should - but nothing close to $40.5M over 2 years.

I can't believe this. How can the front office NOT have made their decision? They've seen everything there is to see. Nothing new is going to come to light before the decision needs to be made. It's done. There could be no greater indictment of the front office than if they didn't know what they were going to do. Part ways with Tyrod. Keep Tyrod. Either is far better than not knowing what they're going to do.

Tyrod is one staph infection away from an enormous payday.

Feel better?

Horton's defense in Cleveland this past season wasn't just talent deficient, the players were making fundamental mistakes throughout the entire year. For a coach who has been around as long as him, it was shocking. I am not a fan of Horton, but I wouldn't have thought he'd field a defense like that.

Now would be a good time for a proper rebuild, but that would mean parting ways with Whaley and other front office people. Since that isn't happening it looks like it isn't in the cards.

OTC shows $168,000,000 right at the top of the chart for base salary cap. They seem to only be giving the Bills $2.8M carryover though. Thus the $170.8M in team salary cap. I wonder if they're including some end of season bonuses that spotrac isn't. http://overthecap.com/salary-cap-space/

I didn't want to include positions in obvious need of upgrades, but you gotta think at least Carp gets replaced. That probably will have minimal impact on the salary cap. Very true about WR1. Failure to address the position this past season has led to this. We're an injury (or failure of injury to heal) to Watkins away from nothing but scrubs at the position. I'm not sure how that's acceptable to Pegula and is one reason I'm surprised Whaley is still here.

Both are using $168M. OTC isn't adding the carryover in their 2017 numbers yet. Spotrac is. The Bills are carrying over $5M. That's the difference.