BarleyNY

I think Kim is probably focusing on her recovery. She certainly should be. And she can’t be involved in the day to day activities like she used to be. It is a shame, but it is what it is.

Man are you going to get flamed for this. But it’s a far more legitimate question than most here will admit. Kim Pegula’s serious health problems have taken away half of the brain trust at the top of the Bills and Sabres decision making pyramid. Anyone who fails to recognize this is not giving Kim her due. I’m not sure what Terry has done to fill that void, but I hope he’s found high quality people to do so. I also hope that he is choosing better than Jerry Jones, who he seems to be leaning on for all things stadium related. And, yes, NFL owners often seek the council of other, more experienced owners. The NFL is a business first and foremost.

We can kick some of the cap hit down the road a year or two with void years. The Browns are doing that with Za’darius Smith’s contract, though all the details are not out yet. Cap hit of about $3M this season on an $11.75M, 1-year deal. They’ll either re-sign him (unlikely) or designate him a 6/1 cut next offseason to push some of the hit out to 2025. They’re being very aggressive with the cap to try to gain an advantage. Obviously there are always risks to that. We will just have to wait and see how aggressive the Bills are willing to be.

Yup. He had a year left on his contract so they have to pay him out as long as he doesn’t take another coaching job in the meantime. Thus the year off. Pretty simple really.

I saw a program that did experiments with wolves and dogs. Each was put in a room with a cage. There was a stick sticking out of the cage. It had a piece of meat on the end in the cage. Both the wolves and dogs pawed at the stick until they got the meat. Next the stick was fastened so it could not move. Both the wolves and dogs tried to paw it out with no success and both got agitated. The wolves looked only to their pack for help. The dogs also looked to the people observing for help. We are part of their pack.

I’m very sorry for your loss. Pets are part of the family. My corgis turned 2 today. Not looking forward to that day 10 or 15 years from now.

Eli Manning kept Tom Brady from winning two more Super Bowls. He can go in a second time AFAIC.

To sum up: - Cards want to dump Hopkins salary but still get something in trade for him. - Hopkins wants to go to a contender, but not so much that he’s willing to take a pay cut to do so. - Now the Cards have to decide if they’re going to pay him $20M for a lost season, keep him in hopes of trading him at the deadline (praying the whole time that he doesn’t get injured) or simply cut him post 6/1. I think this thread will go well beyond 300 pages. The ride’s not over yet.

Spotrac multi year Bills That link is useful when looking at future seasons. There are some obvious restructures and some players that probably won’t be worth what they’re going to make. One huge issue is that the only good DL on the roster next season are Miller and Rousseau. Basham too if you want to count him. No DTs. Quality ones aren’t cheap and rookies usually don’t make a big impact. Here is what I see for 2024: QB: Allen-restructure, need to sign a back up. RB: Hines-probable cut or pay cut, will need to add to the room. WR: Diggs-possible restructure, need to replace Davis and add another. TE: Looks set. OL: Dawkins-possible extension. Morse possible cut. Need to add OT. DL: Miller-possible restructure. Need to add full DT roster of 3-4 players. Need DE depth. LB: Possible need of MLB depending on how players on the roster do this year. CB: Johnson is probable for an extension. Nothing likely to happen with White. S: Will need to replace Hyde and add depth. We could extend Rapp for one spot. Specials: Looks set. We could get a little cap space by restructuring Bass if we want. There you have it.

ILB - I didn’t want to see the Bills pay Edmunds $18M a year, but I thought the answer would be to snag a good vet for a lot less. RB - Difficult to see this as a big need. DT - It would have been better to have found another DT in the draft or signed to a long term deal. Still, DT doesn’t look like a problem this season. OL - OT is an issue, but not so much the interior. Real competition for Brown was in order and we didn’t get that. Bringing in that competition would have improved our swing tackle as well.

The Browns season will likely go as Watson goes. He has to return to form and gel with Stefanski’s play calling for them to be serious contenders. Even if that happens it might take time. In the AFC and AFCN that would be a problem. They open hosting Burrow and the Bengals so they start with a big challenge.

The Vikings are not in cap trouble, but Smith has been unhappy in Minnesota and asked to be released so a parting of the ways seemed necessary. The Browns capitalized on that. He’s 30 (31 this year) and is still playing at an elite level (10 sacks, 15 TFL, Pro Bowl).

Berry and the Browns stole Smith. Fifth round picks in 2024 & 2025, but they get back a sixth and seventh in 2025. Wow. That is it for a top 10-15 Edge. Just one year at $11.25M though. Ofc they could get a decent comp pick in 2025 if he walks (which is likely). Still, this was a robbery. Edit: No comp pick possible for the Browns since Smith’s contract was shortened to one year as part of the trade.

Exactly. I cannot believe how many people care about stuff like this - and get so worked up over it.

I agree. If cut he’d be a FA, no waivers (unless after the trade deadline). So if he’s cheap I’m absolutely in. He’d be very nice depth and the familiarity he has with our system and the coaches have with him is important.

Reinstate? We released him. He’s been free to sign wherever he can. Also we have a very good punter signed for the next three seasons.

Your guess is as good as mine. I don’t buy that it just didn’t work out though. RT is too important. It should’ve been addressed with something better than running back it back with Brown and Quess. Maybe Beane was just sending a message to Brown. If that was the case, then nothing changes. I’m still very disappointed that his message didn’t have any teeth behind it.

Agreed. Beane gave me hope this off-season when he said that Brown would have competition and that he would have to “earn his roster spot”. Turns out that was BS. Huge disappointment.

Of the four you mention I’d take the Commanders WR corps. I have the Bills comfortably second ahead of Denver and then Chicago. Diggs is the best WR on any of the four teams, but McLaurin is the second. And he’s very good. Washington has the advantage at WR2 and WR3. Dotson and Samuel are both better receivers than Davis and Harty is far behind all of them. Washington’s problem hasn't been their WRs, it’s been their QBs.

FWIW I listened to the PFF podcast on 5th year options and Simmons was discussed. They thought that AZ made a mistake by trying to make him an off-the-ball LBer. They said that it often takes 4-6 years for college players who were already playing that position to adapt to the NFL. That is largely due to the massive amount of information that met have to process very, very quickly to be effective. So moving Simmons there was not something that was likely to succeed. They think he’s best as the SS in a C-3 or as a Big Nickel Slot. That obviously would take him out of consideration for the Bills. On a side note, Edmunds was not mentioned, but he certainly fits their analysis. It took him until year 5 for him to take the step up we were hoping for. It also indicates that a good team strategy with off-the-ball LBers is to look for vets in FA that are 5 or 6 seasons in and look ready to make that step forward. It also points toward Edmunds sustaining his step forward last season and maybe even growing further.

I was not down for trading Oliver durning FA. We’d never have gotten value. However now that we’ve got Ford and a deep enough DT roster to withstand losing him, it’s a different story. If, after the DT FA pool finishes drying up, a team that fancies itself a contender finds itself in serious need of a 3T, well, it’d be rude not to listen to their offer.

A team trading for Simmons would only assume a $3.4M cap hit. Spotrac I remember him as a prospect and thought I heard that he was doing well for AZ. I don’t know why they’d be looking to move on from him if that’s the case though. I haven’t watched him play so I don’t have any opinion on whether I’d want the Bills to acquire him.

Barry Sanders would be incredible in today’s game.

Absolutely. But in a situation like what was discussed - Allen agreed to protect himself as a condition of getting cleared to play, but didn’t do so. Watching a couple series from the sideline could’ve reinforced the importance of protecting himself, especially in those circumstances.

I agree. It’s also on the coaching staff to rein him in. They should’ve pulled him from that Vikings game, at least long enough to get the message through.