BarleyNY

The Bills are taking their medicine this year. Their cash spend last season was 5th in the NFL in 2023. As it stands today it is 22nd. I haven’t read the Globe article as it’s paywalled, but I think he’s drawing an unfair conclusion about the tightening of the purse strings. While it is true that the Bills are spending a lot less cash this season than last, they obviously decided to take a lot of dead cap hits now. It’s a massive $55M in total dead cap hits in fact. It’s a reset and it’ll be a bit of down season. But that’s not the same as a permanent cinching of the purse strings. If the spending doesn’t increase next offseason then that’s a different story. But it’s definitely jumping the gun to think it’s more than a reset.

Knox can’t be traded at this time due to the cap hit. His cap hit would INCREASE by $9.8M if traded by 6/1. Plus the contract of the player replacing him would have to be added.

Didn’t he push a woman who ran on the field as part of a crowd after a game ended? I’m curious if there’s more tho. Seems like there has to be, but if that’s it……

I appreciate that information. I’ve looked for it, but have never found anything definitive that states which of them has final roster authority.

I didn’t say they had to tell anyone, just that it is very out of the ordinary and odd. Why wouldn’t a team be transparent about it? I guess it rubs me wrong for this reason: Beane is the GM. If he has final say then I see no reason at all to not tell the public. But if it’s McDermott, then it’s a problem because Beane winds up taking the heat for decisions he’s getting stuck with. That would be dysfunctional. Edited to add: Gunner just posted that he has seen it states that Beane has final roster authority. If that’s the case, then I’m good with laying the blame and kudos for roster decisions at Beane’s feet. I just haven’t seen anything definitive on the matter myself.

I have levied criticism of McDermott and Beane. On thing I always note when doing so is that it’s unclear who is ultimately making the final decisions. I think that Beane reports to McDermott, but I’m not sure. The Bills invite this kind of speculation because they will not tell the public who has the final roster authority or what the reporting structure. I’ve always found this unnecessary and odd. I can’t say I’ve seen that level of secrecy over that information before.

That is brutal.

With the 54th pick in the draft the Cleveland Browns select Jermaine Burton, WR, Alabama. @Doc Brown is in the clock for Miami Burton has first round talent. I have him as my WR4 from that perspective, but I keep hearing about “off the field issues”. The problem is they no one is talking about what those are. In any event the talent is too great to pass up here.

Pick will be in shortly

It all does seem disingenuous.

I stay away from the “shouty shows” but sports radio is good white noise for me. I don’t really have to pay attention and it is pretty meaningless in the grand scheme of things so it doesn’t have the same strain as the important stuff.

Firstly, we all have seen how an unhappy Diggs acts toward his team. We saw it in Minnesota and we saw it here. Same guy. Same playbook. So no team was going to trade for him unless their expectation was that he wanted to be there and would be happy there. So Diggs had to sign off on his acceptable teams. The Texans were either that singular team or one on a short list of teams. So he chose the Texans, potentially along with others. At that point it would’ve been up to the team(s) to negotiate with Beane. I highly doubt that it was a coincidence that the Texans traded with Minnesota and acquired the pick they traded for Diggs just prior. That was the compensation that got the deal done. It’s probable that it’s what the Texans had to do to match or beat another offer.

Is anyone else more disgusted than usual with the media regarding the Diggs trade? Virtually every Bills centric media member was dismissive about the possibility of him being traded beforehand. Some went so far as to be rude about it and acted like people making the suggestion were idiots for even thinking it was a possibility. Fast forward to the aftermath and I’ve yet to hear one utter anything in the way of a mea culpa. I literally heard one of the more dismissive ones start off their podcast with “Well, it finally happened!” Like it was something he’d been expecting. It’s a good reminder that so many media people are just playing a game. I shared here that an NFL reporter who’d been in Vegas for SB week had said that the big rumor among teams that week was that the Bills would be trying to trade Diggs this offseason. I don’t write that here to LAMP. But if it’s something that can make it to someone like me, how do they not hear it. They’re supposedly so well connected. Or is it that they collectively kept a lid on it? I dunno, either way it’s not a good look. I lost a lot of respect for many of them.

It isn’t riskier for Diggs to have the one year deal versus the old one. His contract had no guarantees beyond 2024 so 2025 and after would’ve effectively been a team option. Roster bonuses eliminated any injury risk to the Texans of having to keep and pay him. Obviously a multi year contract with guaranteed money beyond 2024 would’ve been better for Diggs, but he got the next best thing.

Diggs’ leverage was choosing the Texans. That’s particularly important with a player who has forced his way out of two teams when he had several seasons left on each of his contracts.

This highlights the real problems with that kind of difficult situation. Allen was handcuffed. He wasn’t really in a position to be able to tell off Diggs and put him in line. You can only do that when you’re able to kick someone to the curb and that just barely became feasible this offseason. Florio was right that Diggs had the power in the relationship. Allen had to play peacemaker because burning down the relationship with Diggs would hurt the whole team. The real issue was the contract extension the Bills gave him. You can’t make a guy like Diggs happy for long. He’s only happy if he gets every last thing he wants and the minute he doesn’t he goes back to being a massive problem.

Obviously. This isn’t something that just popped up either. The contract was part of the whole deal. This isn’t unusual in the NFL today. Look at the Jeudy trade from Denver to Cleveland. So many people asked why the Browns extended him so soon after trading for him. Isn’t it obvious that it was part of the package deal to acquire him? This is how it works now when the player has leverage.

If I agreed with you on the number of holes in the roster then it would be easy to say we should push in for a stud WR prospect or player. I don’t so it is not that simple. Our defense needs a pass rush and difference makers in the worst way. I think an argument can still be made to do it though. Get MHJ, Nabors or Odunze this year and then start finding those difference makers on defense in FA next offseason. That’s a reasonable strategy. I’d be happy to go this route if it’s for one of the top 3 WRs in the draft. I have no interest in a big move for any other WR prospect though.

apparently not

Diggs gets more money this year and gets to choose where he plays next year. Seems like a good deal for him and pretty straightforward.

While I’m sure Beane is investigating all options and will do his best to fill the hole opened by Diggs’ departure. I don’t think it went down with a master plan though. Diggs had wanted out for some time and things were at a breaking point. It is what it is. Beane will manage the situation as best he can.

You think he’d rather be on the Bills than the Texans? He knows he doesn’t have many good years left. He dipped on a team taking a step back so it can start another run for a hot team on the rise. Besides it’s not like he hasn’t been unhappy here in Buffalo and trying to get out for years.

Aiyuk’s salary is $14.1M this year. Would love to have him here and would support him getting paid, but it’s not feasible this year.

This - and it’s likely where he wanted to go. More and more agents are making an effort to direct their players to preferred destinations. Everyone knows how Diggs would act if he had been traded to any team that wasn’t a contender so his trade value was nil to those teams. I’m sure he had a very short list of acceptable teams and the Texans were the one that got the deal done.

Dude. That would be nuts. And I can totally see it happening.