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BarleyNY

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Posts posted by BarleyNY

  1. After that article, no way the Browns would hire Marrone.

     

    He did fair having Pettine then Schwartz as DCs.

     

    If Brown's players want a players coach, Lovie Smith would be a good choice.

    I'm hearing that teams, including the Browns, have been wary of Marrone due to how he left Buffalo and that he's been asked about that situation by the teams he's talked to about a HC job. It's definitely been an obstacle.

  2. just because they made a few questionable moves regarding salaries doesn't make them one of the worst. A few moves to be made and they'll be ok...you said it yourself

    They thought it was realistic and so did many here...... High expectations for the D and with Harvin, Clay, McCoy, Sammy...everyone said with decent QB we could be contenders

    The cumulative effect of their moves and lack of success puts them in a difficult position. I'd put them in bottom 5 in the league. I didn't say they'll be okay. They might be, but they also might have a real problem staying even with this year. Then there's 2017. A lot of the contracts that we are discussing here are going to have much lower numbers in 2016 than they will in 2017 so the horizon isn't great either.

     

    Many of the fans were overexuberant to be sure, but I wasn't and neither were a lot of other people. I thought that the Bills would be good, but I thought their chances of winning a championship were negligible. The lack of a proven franchise QB was a big part of that. I thought that the defense would be better and that the Bills would squeak into the playoffs, then lose in the WC round. Their ceiling was one playoff win if they got a good draw. Their floor was 6 or 7 wins depending upon QB play and the time it took to adjust to the new schemes. That's not the time to push in free agency.

     

    They've got to draft their way out of this and I have little faith in their ability to do so (but it could happen). After all, that's what got them into the situation that they are in. They've had to try to make up for poor drafting by going the free agency route and that has to change or things will get worse, not better.

  3. This is where we disagree. Every team will spend right up to the cap but for the teams who are completely and utterly rebuilding -- the Bills don't fall into that category. Being cheap with the roster is not something we will see in Buffalo under the Pegulas, those days are gone.

     

    I'm not advocating being irresponsible with the cap, but because of how flexible and fluid non guaranteed contracts are in this league, it's really difficult to get into cap jail when you have an owner willing to spend. Almost impossible, you just do not see it happening anymore in the NFL.

     

    Wow, I don't see it like that at all. The standard model for a title run is to build through the draft with reasonable free agency spending, then to retain players at reasonable contracts (usually via extensions prior to their contracts expiring). During this time the cap is managed so that there is flexibility. Then when the team is ready to compete for the title they can spend up to the limit. If the window is short, then the team can overspend and suffer after the run when the rebuilding starts. It makes no sense to go on a spending spree and hurt your long term plans to get to mediocre or just above mediocre.

  4. Deranged, has the cap increase of $10M been officially announced somewhere?

     

    I suppose what's bugging me is that I really don't want to see Mario go and $7M of dead money get added to our hit when he was so productive in his first years here. But if the coaches view the film and it's true that he wasn't "All In", that, coupled to his vocal complaints and his cap hit, means it's time for him to go.

     

    I just hope that Whaley and Rex have true honesty now about what Rex needs to make his D successful and not this "work with any player" BS. The spotty nature of its success (in a PPG perspective) seems to indicate it does need special ingredients.

    The base cap for 2015 was $143.28M. The 2016 cap hasn't been determined yet, but all of the quality sources for estimates are in the $150M-$154M range. The Bills will gain $7.5M in 2016 from converting Clay's roster bonus to a signing bonus. Cutting Mario yields another $12.9M. Gillmore's number would reduce if signed to a long term deal. They'll have $5M or so in carryover. It's not hopeless, but they've got some expensive players hitting FA and other needs - Glenn, Incognito, Bradham, a QB(s) besides Taylor, Mario's replacement, WR( Harvin won't be back), etc. They won't be cheap to keep or replace and only so much can be done with draft picks.

     

    I'd include the Bills on a list of worst cap management in the league right now. They aren't the Saints or the Dolphins, but they aren't in good shape and they've made some poor decisions with their space. When you're dumping guys like Mario for the space, but have signed guys like Clay to big deals you've got issues. The Bills already made some decisions about who stays and who goes when they inked the Clay, Shady, Harvin and Hughes deals. Now we see if they can navigate through some very rough waters.

  5. I think you are on to something here. For the life of me, I cannot figure out why Gase's name keeps popping up as a candidate. He hasn't exactly done anything in Chicago.

    Sexton is THE agent for coaches. His client list is unbelievable*. Gase switched to him a year ago and since then the media has portrayed every team looking for a coach as infatuated with him. Yet he didn't get hired last season. He's a good candidate and he might make a very good HC, but the hype is unreal.

     

    * Saban, Malzahn, Freeze, Jim Mora Jr., Schwartz, Rex Ryan, Gase, Marrone, Suh, Julio Jones, etc., etc.

  6. Doug Marrone, according to Adam Schefter and Jimmy Sexton.

    Adam Gase?

    Gase is also Sexton's client. And if the media is to be believed every team is about to offer him a bajillion dollar contract - just like Marrone! When I saw how similar the media reports of Marrone and Gase were I had a pretty good guess who his agent was. Yup. Sexton.

     

    Not sure about the Lovie Smith firing either. It did seem like he had that team headed in the right direction. I wonder if there was some major disagreement with the front office or some kind of power struggle?

  7. @NFLMedia

     

     

    People were shocked when Patrick Willis and Chris Borland retired last year.

     

    I know there were some HGH rumors around Willis and some strong suspicions that he and some other players were allowed to retire rather than face suspensions and increased testing. I can't remember if Borland was on that list or not. I'm not saying that Megatron has the same issue, just explaining some other retirements.

     

    Still, maybe he is just done. It happens.

  8. Injuries are no excuse.

    Right , but they are an explanation. If second stringers were equal to starters, there'd be controversy at every position. Declining play is expected when back ups play.

    I despise the injury excuse/explanation because:

    1) It is indicitive of a loser's mindset, one where excuses are made in lieu of attempts to overcome obstacles.

    2) It is often used by people only looking at their team and they usually fail to notice the injuries on their opponents/competitors.

  9. I say do nothing. Screw the league. the Ralph totally works for WNY. they can't even sell the suites they have at the Ralph... sure, now lets lets double the number and the price per suite. right. Pegs can make the "new stadium is irrelevant " argument for another 10 years, minimum..

     

    That's the most responsible choice, but if an NFL owner can get the public to finance/heavily subsidize a shiny, new, moneymaking stadium I can't help but think that's the way it's gonna go.

  10. Say we do cut Mario this offseason, when would we be finally free of his contract?

    CBF

    http://overthecap.com/player/mario-williams/246/

     

    It'll all be accounted for in 2016 (unless they designate him as a post June 1st cut, which is very doubtful). $7M in dead money, $12.9M cap savings in 2016, no charges after. He's got a roster bonus so I'd wager that he'll be on the trade block up until that day.

     

    Does having 1 kidney factor into this at all?

    You'd think there'd be some trepidation based on chances of a career ending injury happening. That might affect the contract structure in some way. It's also a good reason why the team would have held off on a new contract. They wanted to see how he came back and performed before investing a lot into him.

     

    Vic is reporting that if Cordy's kidney doesn't perform next year he is gone.

    That's hilarious!
  11. The NFL is a high velocity sport with many violent collisions. You're expecting guys to not sustain injuries? It's an inherent part of the game.

     

    Your final point on Harvin elicits a huh?

    I agree on the first point. A lot of teams had a lot of bad injuries and some of them made the playoffs. In fact, almost all of the teams in the playoffs had major injury issues. There seems to be an increase among all teams due to the shortened training camp and practice rules.

     

    As for Harvin, his give-a-crap has never worked very well and he's been such a malcontent his whole career I question the severity of an injury that he could have played through. The fact that the Bills seemed to have issue with the situation definitely points toward him not playing through his injury. When looking at what some of the other players on the team played through I see it as a slap in the face to them.

  12. Hoping for 8-9 mill when the article is stating 11 mill per when the top end is 13 mill, maybe!

     

    Incognito wants to stay in Buffalo and the going rate for a top OG is 8 mill per.

     

    The past history of how the Bills pay their O-linemen tells me I doubt they sign either player.

     

    If they don't, then I don't see how the OL won't tank the team. It's close to a nightmare scenario. The right side is already marginal and Woods was good last season with Cogs next to him, but sucked the season before when lined up between two crappy guards. Slapping two new left side players that are either rookies or cheaper vets does not bode well.

  13. SBNation did some good work there. I agree that the 5 year, $55M deal is a good approximation of what it'll take to re-sign Glenn at this point. I think it's a little more than what his value to the team is, but it's the deal you have to do at this point if you want to keep him. FA is looming and the market would definitely put his contract in that range - and maybe higher if some team got stupid.

  14. Draft one.

     

    I think it's in everyone's best interests to have E.J. find another place to play.

    Agree on EJ. Time to be done with him - a little late actually.

     

    I'm all for drafting a quarterback, but I also want to see a vet signed as an additional player. I'd expect a guy at the end of his career who can help the rookie and TT understand the game.

  15. waah, we're not getting enough corporate welfare

    You're going to tell me that San Diego doesn't have more sports dollars than Buffalo? If Terry Pegula can build his own barn, the Spanos' can too.

     

    The big problem for the Chargers is that an LA team would dramatically reduce their market size. Right now they're the only team in So Cal and have it all to themselves (even though there are many fans of many teams in LA). Still, it is the Charger games getting broadcast in So Cal and they're the only close stadium. If a team moved into LA then all that would change. Suddenly they'd have a fraction of their old base and coverage. The 2010 Census has the LA area with just over 12M people and San Diego with just under 3M. Sharing the whole market (or, better yet, remaining the only So Cal team) is a far better option business-wise. I don't think they had a real choice barring some insane deal from the city.

     

    I feel bad for whoever loses their team, really, but I cannot express how nice it is not to have the Bills involved in any of this discussion whatsoever.

    As someone born and raised in Cleveland I wholeheartedly agree.
  16. http://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/nfl/10-most-disappointing-nfl-teams-of-2015/ar-AAgl50d?li=BBnb7Kz&ocid=DELLDHP#page=1

     

    This is kind of a backhanded insult since we all expected the Bills to be a playoff contender.

    The expectations of most Bills fans were overinflated, but they were more realistic - or pessimistic - everywhere else. Heck, most fans of other teams probably would say that they had no expectations of the Bills making it to the post season (why would they?) and that 8-8 was pretty decent for them. I had the Bills as a fringe playoff team (6th seed, loss in WC round) and they just missed the postseason by a game or two. A slight letdown? Sure, but still pretty close to expectations.

  17. It further illustrates that last year's spending spree came with a price that some are realizing. Cap space is a commodity that must be managed efficiently and the Bills have done a poor job of that over the years.

     

    This is my major beef with Whaley. He's been in win-now mode since RW passed without a playoff appearance to show for it. There's no way anyone can say the team has had a blueprint for building a perennial contender. Making trades into the top 10 and spending big on free agents or traded for RB's is not a strategy.

     

    Eventually the go-for broke method means you pay up and I suspect that happens in 2016.

     

    I've had the same gripe. It makes sense to do what he did if a team is poised to challenge for a title in the short term, but not the long. That clearly wasn't the case here. The lack of a proven QB alone should have precluded spending that way. Any GM can bring in talent that he significantly overpays for. Finding value consistently in the draft and free agency is another matter. Whaley has primarily done the former.

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