Tuco

They have to cut him to make room for Christian Wade.

I don't think they have announced it officially yet.

Good start here. It's top 51 through training camp right up until the final Tuesday before the regular season starts. During that time there is no practice squad. All players count towards the 90 player limit. There are limits to how long players can be on the practice squad, but it's generally a couple years so it's not like a few weeks decision thing for the most part. And last year (and still possibly this year) the PS rules have been expanded to allow more flexibility through the COVID times. At the end of the year PS contracts expire and teams resign their players to regular NFL, usually minimum contracts through training camp. This is why if you look at a salary cap page right now guys like Christian Wade (aren't we about due for a new CW thread? LOL) are technically under NFL contract for the minimum $660,000. Correct, a player must be waived and pass through waivers unclaimed before he can be signed to a practice squad. That's why practice squads aren't established until after the 53 cutdown date. There is a minimum salary for practice squad players, and most players are signed to it. And, with a few limitations, PS players can sign to another team's regular roster (if doing so the new team must keep them on the regular 53 for a 3 week minimum). The PS player's team can't stop the player from signing to a new team's 53, but they are allowed to offer the player the same deal (or better) and sign them to their own 53 if the player wishes (same 3 week minimum applies normally, relaxed last year for COVID reasons). For this reason, PS players CAN be paid any amount. subsequently they do count against the salary cap. On the final 53 cut down date basically all players under contract, including PS and IR, all count against the cap. Certain players with commish exemptions or non-football injuries, etc. do not, but mostly they all do.

Browns center and NFLPA president JC Tretter is from Akron. Not a big deal but FWIW, I played in high school against his uncle and maybe his father when they were at Oakfield-Alabama.

By 1995 we had to use Tasker. Lofton and Beebe were gone. Reed only started 6 games. That left us with guys named Bill Brooks, Russel Copeland, Justin Armour, Lonnie Johnson, Tony Cline and Steve Tasker. We used him more because we had too.

In order to get the floor in 2020 up to $182.5 mil instead of the $175 mil minimum originally agreed to, the NFLPA and NFL agreed to suspend certain player benefits we rarely hear about (severance pay, player savings plans, CBA related performance based pay, etc.) until 2023 when they would be reinstated. This agreement specifies that any amount above the $208.2 mil ceiling will go towards reinstating those benefits in 2022.

Not arguing your points as I agree. Just want to point out they have every team's adjusted cap at $208.2 million. They're just using the ceiling amount for now as I suppose it's way too early to bother trying to know what each team's rollover, etc. will be next year.

Players can only wear dark tinted visors during games if they have a medical reason and approval from the Commish.

Wow. All these years I never knew the reason Brad Van Pelt went to 5 straight Pro Bowls a a middle linebacker was because him wearing #10 consistently faked out the other team.

I think the clause has been around a long time. And Edwards wasn't just some guy hanging out at the Pro Bowl playing flag football. He was invited there by the NFL as one of the season's best rookies, and the flag football game was the NFL's idea and was promoted by them. So I don't think that would have violated the clause anyway. However, I'm sure the incident is undoubtedly the reason we don't see the NFL promoting rookie flag football games before the Pro Bowl any more though.

FWIW, every NFL contract contains this paragraph. 3. OTHER ACTIVITIES. Without prior written consent of the Club, Player will not play football or engage in activities related to football otherwise than for Club or engage in any activity other than football which may involve a significant risk of personal injury. Player represents that he has special, exceptional and unique knowledge, skill, ability, and experience as a football player, the loss of which cannot be estimated with any certainty and cannot be fairly or adequately compensated by damages. Player therefore agrees that Club will have the right, in addition to any other right which Club may possess, to enjoin Player by appropriate proceedings from playing football or engaging in football-related activities other than for Club or from engaging in any activity other than football which may involve a significant risk of personal injury. But it's very non-specific, and I suppose it's more of a disclaimer that gives the team the right to not pay an injured player depending on just what he was doing when injured. I know there are other areas of the CBA that require a player to maintain his excellent physical condition. And I know players have been injured playing basketball but have argued that's part of their offseason conditioning. Still, I would think the paragraph would enable the team to step in and prevent a player from bull riding or auto racing. And the following article from 2005 points out that many contracts do add specific activities that players are not allowed to do. Plus my fading memory seems to remember Jim Kelly one time saying he was looking forward to skiing once he retired because he wasn't allowed to ski throughout his career. So who knows? I don't think anyone could come up with a definitive list prohibiting the million different ways a guy could get injured. And being fine young physical specimens, they can hardly be expected to live in a bubble when they're not on the field. https://www.espn.com/nfl/news/story?id=2051653 CLEVELAND -- Browns tight end Kellen Winslow II sustained internal injuries and complained of chest pains after he was injured in a motorcycle accident, the team said Monday night. Kellen Winslow II suffered various injuries after crashing his motorcycle riding in a community college parking lot Sunday. AP Photo/Westlake Police Dept. A Browns source told ESPN.com that the team was "particularly concerned" about Winslow's right knee. The Browns confirmed his injuries aren't life-threatening. Winslow was riding in a community college parking lot Sunday when he hit a curb at about 35 mph and was thrown from the motorcycle, Westlake police Lt. Ray Arcuri said. Winslow was taken by ambulance to Fairview Hospital and was transferred to the Cleveland Clinic on Monday where the team's medical staff would treat him, Browns spokesman Bill Bonsiewicz said. The extent of the injury to Winslow's right knee, and the possibility of structural damage that might sideline him for an extended period, likely will not be determined until swelling in the knee subsides. There is also swelling in Winslow's right shoulder. "He went over the handlebars and was real evasive about what the injuries were," Arcuri said. The 21-year-old Winslow had minor visible injuries. He was wearing a helmet, but it wasn't strapped on and flew off his head, Arcuri said. He landed in a landscaped area at the edge of the parking lot, falling hard enough to tear out a small tree. He and four other men were riding motorcycles in the parking lot, not far from Winslow's home in suburban Cleveland. There was no alcohol involved, Arcuri said. "The four gentlemen said he was testing the bike out learning to ride," Arcuri said. ESPN.com senior writer Len Pasquarelli reports the availability of Winslow for the 2005 season is not the only thing at risk. Beyond the injuries, there are possible financial ramifications as well, and Winslow may have given the team an opportunity to recover a portion of his signing bonus and option bonus, if he is found to be in breach of his contract. Section 3 of the NFL's standard player contract stipulates, in part, that a "player will not engage in any activity other than football which may involve a significant risk of personal injury. Player therefore agrees that club will have the right to enjoin the player from engaging in any activity other than football which may involve a significant risk of injury." But two league sources said Monday night that Winslow's contract includes language which is even more specific and limiting, and which expressly forbids riding a motorcycle. Many teams include such specific language in the addendums to contracts, especially those involving high-round draft choices. An agent who negotiated the contracts of some high-round Cleveland draft choices in recent years said the Browns routinely include such restrictions. If the Winslow contract indeed includes such language, the Browns could seek to recoup a prorated share of the $6 million signing bonus Winslow received last year and perhaps the entire $4.4 million option bonus he was paid on March 1 of this year. Winslow bought the powerful Suzuki GSX-R750 sport bike April 9 and obtained a 30-day license for it, but the bike, which can reach speeds of 172 miles per hour, is too powerful for a beginner, law enforcement officials told the Cleveland Plain Dealer. Lt. Judy Neel of the Ohio State Highway Patrol told the Plain Dealer on Tuesday that Winslow obtained a motorcycle learner's permit April 26. He passed a written test and vision exam to get the permit, Neel said. Winslow could still be charged with reckless operation of a motor vehicle, Arcuri told the paper. That is a fourth-degree misdemeanor which carries a maximum penalty of 30 days in jail and a $250 fine. It is up to Westlake prosecutor John Wheeler to determine if Winslow will be charged. A learner's permit comes with certain restrictions, including riding in daylight only, wearing a helmet, carrying no passengers and not riding on interstates or heavily congested roadways. A rider must pass a road test or complete a motorcycle course to obtain a permanent license or endorsement. He failed his first attempt at the written test in Garfield Heights, Neel said. He passed it the second time on April 26 -- five days before the accident. Sunday night, Winslow was traveling 35 miles per hour in a Westlake parking lot when he lost control of the bike. The first-round draft pick missed nearly all of his rookie year with the Browns after breaking his right leg against Dallas in Week 2 while attempting to recover an onside kick in the final seconds. Winslow had five receptions for 50 yards in his first two pro games. He has had two operations on the leg and said in March that he expected it to be fully healed for this season. Winslow signed a six-year, $40 million contract with the Browns, but lost a $5.3 million bonus because of the leg injury.

The Bills 1969 first round draft pick ultimately produced 334 touchdowns, over 35,000 passing yards, over 11,000 rushing yards and over 2,100 receiving yards over a 28 year span.

This is also true. However, my original response was to Jokeman's post that said, "Thank God Polian intervened and said we should take Bruce instead" - at which point I responded that decision was made easy for Polian because Flutie signed with the USFL in February. Your statement is true. But it still wasn't Polian who made the decision to pick Bruce and not Flutie. Flutie agreed to sign with the USFL in late January, and actually signed his contract on February 6th. Bills GM Terry Bledsoe had a heart attack right around that same day, prompting Ralph to ultimately let Polian take over as GM. Polian did do a good job signing Bruce as Bruce had also been drafted by Baltimore of the USFL, and was receiving a large offer. But the decision to take Bruce and not Flutie wasn't really made by Polian. I have doubts whether Polian would have chosen Flutie over Bruce anyway, but that decision was basically made for him.

When the Bills ended their 0 for the 70s 20 game losing streak to Miami in the 1980 season opener, it was the first game ever for newcomers Conrad Dobler and Phil Villapiano. They were, to say the least, quite amazed to see the fans storming the field, sharing beers with the players and ripping down the goal posts. It's one of the stories in Dobler's book "They Call Me Dirty."

Polian's decision not to use the first pick on Flutie was made quite simple for him. The reason Flutie went on to not be drafted until the 11th round is because In January he was drafted by the USFL's New Jersey Generals, where, in February, he signed a contract making him the highest paid pro athlete at the time. Two full months before the NFL draft.

Yeah I use that line all the time. Just like I use the line, "you are the son of a thousand fathers, every one a bastard just like you." Love that movie.

Just as Rochesterfan described above, the part about being "assigned" with the IPP exemption is an OPTION available if both Wade and the Bills agree to it. And yes, that is the exact situation Wade has been the last 2 years. But, again, as Rochesterfan described, it's not an indentured servant thing. And I prefaced my earlier post that I know it's partly the fault of guys like Sal who print things the way they do. But nobody is holding Christian Wade back. Again- 1 - Wade is currently under contract, just like any other player, for the minimum of $660,000 per year. This contract became effective on March 17th, but was actually signed by Wade back in January. The only difference between Wade and any other player right now is, since the league extended his IPP eligibility, he can once again be on the Bills roster as a 91st player instead of the regular 90. 2 - If Wade doesn't make the 53 man roster, he gets cut and goes on waivers, just like any other player, and just like he was last year and the year before. There is no "assigning" him to the practice squad without going through waivers first. Every player signed to any practice squad - including Wade - is an unrestricted free agent before being signed to any practice squad. 3 - If Wade clear waivers without being claimed (just like he has the last 2 years), he is then free to continue to be an unrestricted free agent. He is free to sign with any team's roster or any team's regular practice squad, including Buffalo's, if they were to offer it to him. 4 - If no team claims Wade on waivers, and no team (including Buffalo) wishes to sign Wade to their roster or regular practice squad, the Bills are allowed, by virtue of the NFL's IPP program's special practice squad exemption, to SIGN Wade to their practice squad as an exempted IPP player. At that point, and only at that point, does Wade become ineligible to be called up or signed by another team throughout the season. This exemption is normally good for 2 seasons, but since there was no preseason last year so no chance for Wade and the other IPP players around the league to get much exposure to game situations, the league extended their above exemption for a 3rd year. If both Wade and the Bills CHOOSE this option, then Wade will once again be ineligible to be called up or signed to another team - just like he was the last 2 years when, after not being claimed on waivers or having accepted any team's regular practice squad's offer (if any was offered, not likely), Wade chose to sign onto the Bills practice squad as the designated IPP player and accepting it's limitations. I don't care how it's been described, that's how it is. In fact I prefaced my original post by saying I know most writers like Sal don't do a good enough job of describing the actual situation. Regardless, nobody is holding Wade back from going to another team by "assinging" him to the practice squad as an IPP player without his consent. Wade can only be "assigned" as such by mutual agreement. And that option for such agreement has been extended by the league to the Bills and Wade for a 3rd year - meaning yes, he's in the same situation he was the last 2 years.

Well the current CBA that runs through 2030 strictly forbids going to an 18 game schedule. Or, to put it another way, has already been agreed (not) to. So yes it is possible for it to happen in 5 years, but only if both the players and owners want it to.

Yeah there's a lot of fine print in that section for sure. One thing I might add (as another who is just reading publicly available material), it looks as though the extra game check only applies to players who signed their contract prior to the latest CBA signing in February of 2020. I guess the idea is anybody who signed a contract after that date had to be aware the change to 17 games was very likely and therefore signed their contract with that knowledge. There's also some other stuff further down about if the fund where the extra game check money should come from isn't enough plus something about whether the actual player cost is above (or maybe below I don't remember, lol) the 48.5% or whatever it is then teams can apply for a cap credit of some sort which can be spread over 3 years at the team's discretion. Or some other stuff along those lines. That part got really technical so I figured I'd just read about it if and when it happens, LOL.

Here we go again. I realize it's partly the fault of the people who write these articles, because when they say the Bills can assign him to the practice squad as the exempted player it makes it sound like Wade has no say in the matter. That's not true. As we know, he can stay through the offseason and try to make the team. But if he doesn't make the team and clears waivers he is free to go anywhere he wants, either by signing a contract with another team or by signing onto any team's (not just Buffalo's) practice squad. He only gets "assigned" to the Bills practice squad with the exemption if both he and the Bills agree to that. Nobody is holding him back.

While I agree it's not likely he'll amount to anything special, I would like to point out he has made less than $300,000 so far. That's still not bad I know. But I don't know where you get this $1.5-2M from.

He only becomes ineligible if he agrees to it. I can't understand why so many people don't get that.

As another with way too much time on my hands, here's a list of CBA allowed incentives a punter could have in his contract - TEAM INCENTIVES- Opposition punt return average ALL PLAYER INCENTIVES- Wins Playoffs Conference Championship Super Bowl Touchdowns on returns and recoveries Net difference takeaways/giveaways OTHER- Special teams play time PUNTING- Gross average (40 punts) Net average (40 punts) Inside 20-yard line HONORS AND RECOGNIZED MEDIA VETERAN HONORS PRO BOWL ALL NFL (First and Second Team) ALL CONFERENCE (First and Second Team) SUPER BOWL MVP (ROZELLE TROPHY)

Sorry but you're wrong. It has all been accounted for and reported as such, for quite some time now. But for starters let's look at a real website instead of what was originally reported by some Twitter guy looking for attention. Go here- https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/agents-take-2021-nfl-offseason-dates-to-know-for-free-agency-contract-options-franchise-tags-and-more/ - then scroll down to March 17 and you will see this paragraph- Bills: The first day of a five-day period for the team to exercise options for offensive tackle Dion Dawkins and cornerback Tre'Davious White's 2024 and 2025 contract years worth $10.3 million and. $12,535,093, respectively. Paying the required $7.5 million for Dawkins' 2024 contract will drop his fully guaranteed $14.8 million 2021 base salary to a fully guaranteed $7.3 million. The $7.5 million for White's 2025 contract year will take his fully guaranteed $17.95 million 2021 base salary to a fully guaranteed $10.45 million. For now we'll just look at Tre White. It's probably still not clear the way it's worded, but what they're talking about is taking $7.5 million of 2021 salary, using an option to turn that into signing bonus (or prorated option bonus if you will), bringing his $17.95 million salary for 2021 down to $10.45 million. And in doing so, the option also calls for adding a year to White's contract in 2025 worth $12,535,093. Now let's look at White's Spotrac page- We can see White's 2021 salary is listed as $10.45 million, with the $17.95 million figure already reduced by the $7.5 million option bonus turned signing bonus that started this whole thing. We can further see that the 2025 season with an exact total of $12,535,093(salary, $10,485,093 + roster bonus, $1,750,000 + workout bonus, $300,000 = $12,535,093), the same as the above mentioned amount, has been added. And lastly, we can also see the $7.5 million that was taken from the $17.95 2021 salary (reducing it to $10.45 million) has been paid and is listed with a $1,500,000 million proration under the "option" bonus tab (again, yes it is counted in the cap hit) for the years 2021-2025 ($1.5 million X 5 years = $7.5 million). Dawkins contract looks the same only the years and numbers are different. So the option for each player was, (A) don't exercise it and leave their 2021 salaries at $17.95 million and $14.8 million guaranteed, or (B) exercise the option by taking $7.5 million from each of their guaranteed salaries (making them $10.95 million and $7.3 million instead, add a year onto each (2024 for Dawkins, 2025 for White) in order to gain an extra year to prorate the $7.5 million bonus. No doubt the Bills didn't want to go into the new season with a $17.95 million plus cap hit for White and a $14.8+ million for Dawkins only to then reduce their cap numbers after they made room for all that under the cap. So they went with option B, which was no doubt the plan all along. It's a certainty they sent an official notice to the league informing them they would be exercising these 2 options the moment the new year went into effect, at 4:00 PM on the 17th. And Spotrac, with all their resources knew about it and has reported it as such. Regardless, everything that's going to happen is already accounted for and reported on Spotrac. There is no $15 million story, and nothing is going to change in regards to these options in the next 5 days. Not in 2021, 2024 or 2025.

If you look at the numbers closely, and then realize that almost every guaranteed option bonus is almost always exercised and pro-rated, you will realize, by adding the numbers and looking at the numbers reported on Spotrac, that the team likely informed the league they would be exercising the options as soon as the new year kicked in, and because of that the numbers we have been looking at on Spotrac for the last month have already figured this move in. It does still appear as an option on some sites as the language is no doubt written to give the Bills 5 days. But the reality is it has been done, and has been considered done by the league and Spotrac for some time now. There is no magical $15 mil available to us in the next 5 days from these moves. It also isn't really the breaking news the original tweeter would have people believe. It is, in fact, a nothing burger. Carry on.