Adam727

What teams are people thinking might need a QB next year? It seems like a lot of QB needy teams (Browns, Jets, Texans, KC, Vikings, Redskins, Bears, Arizona, 49ers etc) have addressed the position in FA or draft in the last year or so. Giants? Ravens? Are there any teams QB needy enough that they'd trade a big haul of picks in 2019?

Thank you for this post. This is my issue with the current regime. I can fully support tanking now to win later. But the way they keep/start/sign these 30+ year old players that won't be here by the time they rebuild is a complete waste of resources, cap space, & in game learning experience for younger players. Watkins/Glenn/Dareus/Darby/Ragland (whichever of these players you wanted to keep) are young enough to build around. Vontae Davis, Vlad Ducasse, Lesean McCoy, Chris Ivory etc are not.

If the team starts 0-6 with Allen at QB, I'd probably trade Shady, and cut Miller (depending on how he's playing) to save a little cap space for the multi-year rebuild we have ahead. Other than that I probably wouldn't change much.

Right. Which at the time I understood. I didn't like the idea of losing that much talent on the Oline & Dline, but I understood we were saving the money going forward. Then they spent $50mil on Star (over the length of the contract) and another ~$15-$20mil this year on Vontae Davis/Chris Ivory/McCarron/Coleman/Kerley/Bodine. I'd rather have Glenn & Dareus at that point. The people they are spending salary cap $$ on appear to be worse than the players they cut/traded to free up the space in the first place I guess is my issue.

I think between the dead cap we're paying McCarron, Coleman, & Kerley that would've paid the part of Cordy Glenn's salary we saved by trading him. Or would have been pretty close to paying for Dareus. I know 2018 is all about Allen and players like Kerley, W/Ls, etc really don't matter that much. But with each of these transactions I am losing faith that the current Bills front office knows how to successfully build a roster and am especially concerned that they don't seem to be doing a very good job managing the salary cap.

This has been my thought process since the day they drafted Allen. Unless he really lights it up in 2018, they should keep looking until they have a definite franchise QB. Look how much it cost them to move up and get the "third" QB prospect in 2018. If they have a top 5 pick in 2019 and there's a potential franchise QB sitting there they should draft him too. If both pan out (like when the Chargers had Brees/Rivers) then we can always trade one for multiple 1s back. And if Allen doesn't pan out, we're not waiting several years and giving up the same type of haul we gave up this year to draft the next "QB" of the future. Hopefully this year will be an anomaly and we won't be drafting top 5 again anytime soon so make the most of the opportunity while it's available! I don't think it's going to happen though. My guess is a top 5 pick will get spent on an LT, Edge rusher, or WR depending on who's available.

I don't think I want the Bills to trade for Mack. The contract we'll have to give him is massive and our 2019 1st round pick is probably going to be a very high one. I think that's too many resources to put into the DE/LB position until our QB and O-line are solidified. For Hughes/Lawson, a 2019 2nd, and 2020 2nd maybe but I'm sure the Raiders will want more. Mack, Edmunds, & White would be a nice trio on Defense to build around though!

I think even if Dez is only 60% of the receiver he was in his prime, he'd still be the best WR on this team other than Benjamin. I think he could put up 1-2 good years here like what T.O. did at the end of his career. But I don't think the Bills are close to competing for a Superbowl this year, and I'm not sure what 1-2 years of an aging receiver at the end of his career does for this team at the moment other than eat up salary cap space and take reps away from younger WRs. Dez would make sense to some team like NE, PIT, GB, ATL, MINN if one of them winds up with a major WR injury.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks this. I thought maybe I was just too excited to have Bills football back, but I can't think of a single QB I've ever watched that is able to throw the ball like that. I still think it's more likely than not that Allen never succeeds as an NFL QB due to accuracy issues, but his arm is insane. I am starting to understand why he was drafted 7th overall.

Anyone but JP Losman in 2004 so we could take Aaron Rodgers in 2005.

He's young enough that if he works out he could be on the team for a while. He was good enough to start at RG for a team that won the Superbowl. I wouldn't pay much because of his injury history (and I'd like to see Miller and Teller get some playing time this year anyway) but I think I'd sign him at the right price.

I'm conflicted on the job Beane has done with the salary cap so far. He's definitely not afraid to make big moves and move on from players. And he took us from salary cap hell to a great forward-looking salary cap situation in just one year. So he deserves kudos for that. But he did it by stripping the team of a LOT of talent. Looking strictly at the moves he's made so far, I think Watkins makes sense since they weren't going to pay him. I'm not sure that Star @ $10mil is better than Dareus @ ~$10mil (the amount per year we were able to shed on Dareus's contract after eating the dead money either way) but it sounds like Star will buy into the process better so i'm willing to wait and see. I don't think Chris Ivory was a better use of cap dollars this year than EJ Gaines, and I didn't think Mike Tolbert was a better use of salary cap $$ than Gilislee last year. Hyde & Poyer both look like steals but I don't remember if they were Beane or Whaley. My biggest concern so far is I don't like all the players in their early 20s that were let go (Darby, Watkins, Dareus, Seymour, Ragland, etc) where we used their cap dollars to sign players in their early to mid 30s instead. I think a team that is rebuilding should be trying to get younger, not older. And I could see that creating holes on the roster just when the team is *hopefully* getting good. It's an interesting topic but my personal opinion is we're a year or two away from having a sense of whether or not Beane is good at managing the cap or not. i think we'll have a pretty good idea after 2019 FA.

Thanks for this. But just FYI those numbers don't count Josh Allen's salary cap (for 2018 or for 2019)

He pretty much gutted the EPA rolling back important protections about what is / is not allowed to pollute our air & water. He got rid of the most important parts of Dodd Frank that were put in place to prevent the banks from making risky bets and causing another financial crisis like the one in '08. He got rid of the individual mandate which starting next year will cause health insurance premiums for everyone who still has health insurance to rise by at least 20% He has pulled America out of the Paris Climate Accord (making us the only country in the world not part of the deal now that even Syria has joined) He has pulled America out of the Iran nuclear deal making it easier for Iran to develop nuclear weapons, and telling the world America no longer honors it's commitments. He has placed doubt about whether or not Russia interfered in our 2016 elections when there should be none (unanimous agreement by 17 government agencies that it happened) and refused to impose sanctions on Russia passed 98-2 by Congress to punish them for election meddling, allowing not only Russia but any other country to try again in 2018, 2020, and beyond. As commander in chief he has done nothing to safeguard our democracy from future attacks. He has passed tax cuts that are unfunded and disproportionately help large businesses/corporations while most Americans see little or no benefit (or will see their taxes go up) He inherited a strong economy so we aren't seeing the full effect of that yet, but eventually the debt he is piling up combined with less revenue from corporate taxes will cause the deficit to become an unsustainable percentage of GDP and it will not be pretty for anyone. He intentionally tries to divide Americans along pre-existing fault lines (such as Charlottesville, NFL player protests etc) to help himself politically but bringing american discourse to an all time low. He has lied 3300+ times since taking the oath of office diminishing the office of the presidency, and leaving us as a country in a situation where opinions/political loyalties appear to be more important than facts. He almost helped get a pedophile elected to the United States Senate. He insulted and attacked an American Senator and war hero while he was dying of brain cancer, and insulted two gold star families. Then disinvited the super bowl champs from visiting the white house and tried to say it's because they aren't patriotic enough.

Cmon man... I know this is supposed to be a politics free zone but he's lied over 3,300 documented times since taking office. #spygate? claiming he didn't dictate Don Jr's statement on the russia meeting? Claiming not to know about the Stormy Daniels payment? largest inauguration crowd size in history? claiming Barack Obama wasn't born in this country? like or hate his policies if you want to but he lies A L L T H E T I M E!!!

Are we reading the same story? You think it's the Eagles that look bad and are being immature? How many times has POTUS done this now? Anyone know if the Pittsburgh Penguins are available to go to the white house again?

The Bills had about $100mil in cap space next year before spending on FA this year (McCarron, Star, Murphy, Davis, Ivory, etc) Now Spotrac has them closer to $50mil. (probably more like 60-65mil after the salary cap goes up and we roll over some $$) But that's how quickly $50mil can be spent. I'd expect next year's FA to be similar to this year. (Depending on how well the team, and especially Allen does in 2018)

I think the big ? on D this year is the D-line. Especially DT. If Star returns to form from a few years ago and Phillips is able to become starter material by the time KW retires, this front office will have done a great job replacing Dareus/Williams without using a ton of capital to do it. That would be huge for this team going forward considering DT was pretty much the strength of our defense for the last few years and was using up a lot of cap room. If Star continues his downward trend and/or Phillips doesn't work out as hoped DT could be a major problem going forward. The rest of the D looks like it's coming together pretty well. We have a few young LBs with potential and if one of the CBs we signed/drafted this year can replace Gaines we should have a solid secondary again this year.

I think the Bills get off to a rough start at 0-4 or 1-3 and finish the season 5-11. Maybe 6-10.

1. Worse 2. Same 3. Worse 4. MUCH worse 5. Better 6. Too soon to tell. I like the moves at this position but so far we swapped the NFL leading tackler for a Rookie with much bigger upside. 7. Worse

I'm going to guess this is not legit. It wouldn't make sense for either side. What benefit do the Bills get from using salary cap space to sign Dez to a 1 year contract? Is he the missing piece that'll get the Bills back into the playoffs this year? And what sort of sense does it make for Dez? Are the 2018 Buffalo Bills the best fit for Dez if he wants to go somewhere on a 1 year prove-it deal to cash in next year? Bad idea for everyone involved!

I'd rather keep both positions the way they are. If they can trade for a young player on a cheap contract at WR or OG I'd be open to that. But NO big name free agents please. The Bills aren't going to the playoffs this year anyway. and Bryant/Maclin aren't going to change that. Let's take the opportunity to see what we have in Groy, Miller, Bodine, Newhouse, Zay, and the rookies we just drafted at WR & OG. Save the salary cap space for the future and address both positions aggressively next year if needed.

The GM. Just like it's supposed to be!

I should have chosen my words better. "think highly" is inaccurate. Even a team that has Allen as the 5th QB on their board could still like him. And you're right that we don't know where Allen ranked on most teams' draft boards. But Cleveland was rumored to be interested at #1, and this article says he was ranked no higher than 5th. The Jets didn't take him at 3. Denver was rumored to be interested but passed. And if Arizona was interested in Allen over Rosen (which I don't think we know one way or the other?) we have since found out they weren't willing to give up a single 2nd round pick to move up for their QB. (We gave up 2 of them and a Franchise LT) Giving up essentially a franchise LT, the pick we got for Watkins, a #1 pick, a #2 pick, and passing on Watson/Mahomes/Rosen for Allen seems like the kind of mistake that could set this franchise back for a long time. All I meant to say is that it does not help to hear that the Allen to Cleveland hype was fake, and that Arizona was not willing to give up as much as we thought for whichever QB they were trying to move up for.

So the Browns who were supposedly considering Allen at #1 overall actually had him ranked 5th (or lower) behind the other top 4 QBs. And Arizona who we supposedly had to outbid for Allen at 7 wasn't willing to part with even one 2nd round pick to move up for a QB.. I think I need to stop reading football related articles for a few weeks. I keep waiting for the disappointment from the draft to wear off but articles like this one don't help. I really hope Beane turns out to be the smartest person in the room and makes all his doubters look stupid, but it feels more and more like there weren't many GMs other than Beane that thought very highly of Allen..