Logic

There was a whole several page conversation about this recently, but... Suffice it to say that in my opinion, Derrick Henry is going to command too large a contract and too many snaps for it be feasible or logical of the Bills to sign him. Cook had the type of season last year that warrants another year of being RB1. You don't spend the money Henry will command to bring in an RB2, nor will Henry want to be that. I think signing a veteran (think D'onta Foreman, Antonio Gibson, Clyde Edwards-Helaire, or re-signing Ty Johnson) and drafting a kid late is the way to go. No giving big money to Derrick Henry and cutting into James Cook's snaps.

I think perhaps people have unrealistic expectations for a TE3. Morris is about as good as a TE3 can be, especially considering he plays behind a recent 1st round pick and a guy on a big contract. The level of athleticism, pass catching ability, and blocking Morris provides relative to the peanuts he's getting paid made this re-signing a no-brainer, in my opinion. On a team with lots of roster depth needs, TE wasn't on mine. No need to change that by refusing to retain a reasonably talented player who already knows our offense.

There was a time that I wanted the Bills to trade for Jeudy. The acquisition of Kincaid and the emergence of Shakir and the emergence of the Bills' inability to generate explosive plays changed that. I would now view Jeudy's skillset and what he provides to an offense as being redundant on our team. He doesn't provide what the Bills need to add to their receiving corps. He'd just be adding another short and intermediate threat who doesn't scare defenses deep. What the Bills NEED is someone who DOES threaten defenses deep, so that Diggs, Kincaid, and Shakir can eat underneath. Jeudy isn't that. All of that said, I always liked him as a player and still think it's possible he becomes a 1,000 yard guy now that he's in a (presumably) better offense.

It's gonna be a contract extension. He's a "heart and soul guy", coming off a career year, they need cap savings, and they just released their veteran center and won't want to create the leadership and talent void that jettisoning their good LT would create. Announcement will come soon. Watch.

FS Geno Stone SS Jeremy Chinn WR Darnell Mooney -or- Hollywood Brown RB Antonio Gibson -or- Clyde Edwards-Helaire DE AJ Epenesa DT Daquan Jones

Yeah I honestly wouldn't want to give up a premium pick (nor do I think the Steelers can reasonably request one, since he's in the last year of his deal, wants out, and is coming off two lackluster seasons), and I wouldn't want it to preclude us from drafting a WR early. If we could trade a 5th (we have three of them) for him AND still draft a WR in round 1 or 2? Sign me up all day, every day.

He is very good and has suffered from an awful OC and awful QB. He is only 27 years old, and would fit well in our offense. Assuming the compensation required is not significant -- something like a day 3 pick seems fine -- then I WOULD do it. The only thing that gives me pause is that 2024 is the last year of his deal, and he'd need to be re-signed. Drafting a rookie in round 1 or 2 probably makes more sense.

There's a simple and sad but irrefutable fact at play here. In today's sports media landscape, detailed analysis looking at x's and o's, personnel, salary cap, and in-depth team coverage doesn't get NEARLY the amount of viewers and clicks -- and, ultimately, dollars -- as the Stephan A Smith, Skip Bayless, Nick Wright brand of yelling, controversy, and cooked up nonsense. For every 5 passionate, knowledgeable football fans who are hungry for more in depth coverage of the sport itself, there are 100 casual fans that prefer the soap opera, the yelling, the pomp and circumstance. Or at least, that's what the viewership and online engagement numbers and revenue streams seem to indicate. It's sad, but it's true. Until that changes, I will continue to tune out mass media sports coverage and stick to the vastly more informative and interesting podcasts and online shows and football coverage done by people and outlets like Dan Orlovsky, Kurt Warner, Brian Baldinger, and Cover 1.

I can only respond that the coaches must NOT have felt it was unwarranted. And that, given the stacked safety market -- of which they are assuredly aware -- they must have liked enough of what they saw from him last year to feel that bringing him back was worthwhile. I'd also add that getting a raise of a million dollars is arguably not really getting a raise at all, because the salary cap just went up $15million more than expected, and contract inflation is about to happen across the league.

Yet again, the real details of a contract come out and paint it in a much more favorable and justifiable light for the team than it seemed at first. Not to sound like a broken record, but reactions to first announcements of contracts are a waste of time and typing effort. As others have said, this is "compete to start but may wind up as the 3rd safety again" money. Good. I like Rapp in that capacity.

I'd assume the pants ripped in the front, due to his absolutely legendary sized hose. Prolly looks like a tube of tennis balls hangin there. Prolly looks like a baby's arm holdin an apple hangin there. Prolly looks like an 80s policeman's flashlight hangin there. .......I'll see myself out.

Agreed, especially since the return you're likely to get for him is a 6th or 7th rounder. At that rate of return, a guy like Elam is worth more to you than the compensation you'd receive in return. For the record -- and this is probably just the eternal optimist in me -- I'm bullish on Elam this year. I think he knows it's "do or die" for his career as a starter in this league, and if healthy, I think he's gonna make a run for playing time in this defense.

I think that this selection of safeties is gonna mirror the Hyde/Poyer signings 7 years ago. I think they'll identify two guys that fit their scheme but aren't necessarily household names. A mid-to-low tier guy (Hyde) and an afterthought guy (Poyer). Fans will look at both and assume we must also be planning to draft some potential starters at the position, but those signings will wind up starting for us and performing well. McDermott and staff are the safety whisperers. Based on that theory, I could see Alohi Gilman and Kamren Curl. Something like that. I'm sticking with liking Stone and Chinn, but they never listen to me (nor should they).

Shhhh. One "telling BADOL he was right about something" per week is about all I can take.

I have to give you credit (shudder). You called the de-valuation of the safety market a while back. I hate it when you're right.

Brandon Beane will have a ton of options this year to replace Jordan Poyer and Micah Hyde. It's an absolute buyer's market. This also shows that the NFL as a whole is de-valuing the safety position, and that a market adjustment has happened and should continue. Looking at this list, what two do you like? Who should we sign? I say give me Jeremy Chinn and Geno Stone all day long, but there are several names I like on this list.

The Bills are FINALLY playing comp pick Bingo. Between yesterday's cuts, the recent collecting of more draft picks, and now the embracing of the comp pick collection process...it sure looks like Beane is finally doing what a lot here wanted: Going with a youth movement, taking his salary cap medicine, and getting the Bills into much better shape financially and age-wise going forward. As for Fatukasi. Would be a good signing, I think. Not a world beater, but you don't need (and can't afford) 53 world beaters. He's a capable player, and any time you can get a capable player in the trenches and not have it hurt the compensatory pick formula, and can fill a roster hole before free agency's first wave really begins, its a win.

The entire Steelers offense stunk last year. Their offensive coordinator was fired midseason after fans openly chanted "Fire Canada!" at games. The best Trubisky has looked in his career, arguably, was when he was wearing Bills blue. Sometimes certain offenses, styles, and locker rooms fit certain players better. I think Trubisky thrived here. Moreover, I'm just not sure who people would prefer at backup QB. The REALLY good backups in the league -- of which there are very few to begin with -- command more money and likely want a chance to compete to start. The types of guys that are willing to sign cheap contracts to be a guaranteed backups are not generally "starting caliber". That's why they're backups. So I guess my question is: what backup that's willing to come here on a cheap deal and know for sure that he can't compete to be the starter is better than Trubisky? Who should the Bills have signed instead?

Nice. People often have unrealistic expectations of what a backup QB should be. In this day and age, where teams usually only have two QBs on the 53-man roster, the whole "draft a 7th rounder and develop him behind your starter" doesn't necessarily work. It was a fine thing to do back when teams rostered three QBs. The backup was the trusty vet that could play in a pinch, the third stringer was the developmental project. But nowadays? You need a guy that can get you through two quarters or two weeks if your QB gets banged up. Trubisky is better than many backup QBs in the league, and also worse than a few of them. He's certainly closer to the top of the list than the bottom. Already knows our system, our coaches, our locker room, and has a friendship with Josh. Good signing. Not everything needs to be advanced calculous.

I'd bet my bottom dollar that the words "up to" are doing a lot of heavy lifting in the "can earn up to x amount" signing announcement.

I feel like we go through this every year: An announcement is made that Player X has signed or re-signed with a team, and there's immediately a 20-page thread over-reacting, calling it an overpay, etc, etc. REMEMBER: The first announcement of a player signing that gets made and posted on Twitter and news outlets always comes from the player's agent, and is always stated in a way that sounds as favorable as possible to the player in question. It is always, ALWAYS necessary to wait until the full contract details come out, because they often paint a MUCH different picture. How much of the contract is guaranteed? How much came in the form of a signing bonus? How much is based on incentives? How likely are those incentives to be earned? Are there void years? First reports of signings are always incomplete and often inaccurate and often don't tell the whole story. Wait until more details are known before passing judgement. ***Added note for 2024: The salary cap going up an extra 10-15 million beyond what was expected will also result in larger contracts. This year's $10 million contract is not last year's $10 million contract. Expect contract inflation. Adjust your "shocked eyeballs" emojis accordingly***

How many times does it need to be said that you should never, EVER take the first reported signing of a contract at face value? The devil is always, ALWAYS in the details. The first report of a signing or re-signing is always by the player's agent, and always stated in a way that makes it sound as favorable as possible for the player. Invariably, followup reports often show greater detail that make the deal seem a lot more fair and palatable. And yet, every year, we continue to go through the "first announcement sticker shock". Every year.

Respectfully, I believe that it is you who is looking at it all wrong. One can acknowledge that a move needed to be made from a football standpoint and/or a salary cap standpoint (both of which I acknowledged in my post, which I'd bet $100 you failed to actually read), and still feel sad on a human level to see these great members of the Buffalo community and these great Buffalo Bills walk out the door. Too many people forget that NFL players are human beings. We can acknowledge the business side and be happy that the team is moving forward and shedding cap while ALSO being sad to see good human beings -- who helped build this current Bills team and gave us a lot of great memories along the way -- leave. Or at least, I can feel those things simultaneously. Maybe you can't. That's a shame. We've heard for years now how the team culture is one of the things that make this place special, and three huge pieces of that team culture got cut today. It's okay to have human feelings about it, separate from the nuts-and-bolts football strategy. It's also okay if you DON'T have those feelings, but you have no right to tell me that I'm "looking at it all wrong" by having those feelings. Empathy and affection for fellow humans -- even well paid football players -- are virtues, not weaknesses.

Thank you. Exactly this. It's almost as if the cold responders didn't actually read my post, wherein I said several times that the moves were necessary, expected, and even that I'm excited about them from a pure football standpoint. Where I was coming from -- and maybe I failed to get my point across clearly enough -- is that these guys are human beings. Yes, we all root for "the laundry", but we also get to know these guys to some degree as people. They become members of the Buffalo community. They have personalities, and we follow the arcs of their careers, and they lay it all on the line to bring Buffalo its first Lombardi, a thing that a guy like Jordan Poyer wanted just as badly as the fans here want it. So my post wasn't about whether or not these moves needed to happen (they did), and it wasn't stating that I would have kept any of them (I wouldn't). It's recognizing that these men were great HUMAN BEINGS, great leaders, and great Buffalo Bills. That they represented this team and this community with pride, with excellence, and with grit and tenacity and exemplary leadership. There are plenty of threads talking about the strategy of these moves. The nuts and bolts. The salary cap. My post was not that. My post was a "thank you", a recognition of a job very well done, a "farewell", and an acknowledgement that a football TEAM is made of PEOPLE, and sometimes it's a little hard to see those people walk out the door.