SCBills

Doubt it .. he donated $2800 to Biden in 2020

Could not understand why so many people were interested in this case. Was bored at the office yesterday and put it on. Have watched a good bit of it yesterday and today. Murdaugh definitely comes across as a liar with a ton of issues, but there has been nothing .. at all .. that has convinced me he killed his wife and son… at least not yet. …and fwiw, I went into this hearing others explain the case to me and thinking “well, of course he’s guilty of murder”. These two days of him on the stand have made me question that.

Theres a theory, that’s likely wrong - but interesting, that states the Browns knew what they were doing and are actually genius because they knew who was coming up for deals next… Jackson, who they knew would demand the same deal, likely more… and Burrow, playing for a team that has money issues. Both in their division, both using the Watson deal as a template that becomes a major headache for their owners.

“Ok, well if you trade Ed Oliver, who are you replacing him with?”

I think this is the first off-season the fanbase is critical of Beane & McDermott. 13 seconds, last year.. yea, but it was different. It was criticism of a moment, not of failures and philosophy. This year it’s everywhere… fanbase, WGR, podcasters, Twitter personalities It seems 0-100, but honestly it’s just a release of things people were feeling for a while, but able to quell due to the AFC CG, followed by an epic Divisional Round Game. The product on the field was there, we will eventually breakthrough.. just a tweak here or there… and then this year happened.

The contractual demands from Lamar for the Ravens are compounded by the fact that they’re in the AFC. Lamar in the NFC… He might go into the season as the best QB in that conference for whichever team may trade for him. Lamar in the AFC… 2nd best in his division, 6th(?) in the conference. How can an AFC team justify taking on the risk of the contract he wants when there are 5 conference teams that have a QB advantage over you?

I'm sure Lamar knows that some team will give him something like 50M per, fully guaranteed, 6-7 year contract. Easy for us to say that's crazy, given we have Josh Allen, but I'm sure quite a few would pay whatever it takes to someone like Lamar Jackson when we were wandering in the QB wilderness after Jim Kelly. Let's hope the Jets are that team. Kill their cap and deplete their picks... Woody Johnson said he'd do whatever it takes to bring in a top tier QB, didn't he? Lamar, debatable, but most would say he's that.

Two things can be true. 1) He is twice the QB Watson is. 2) Baltimore should absolutely not give him the contract he is asking for.

Chiefs, to their credit, also have the luxury of being able to sign a bunch of 2/3 WR's because they have Travis Kelce in his prime. No other team, not even SF/Kittle or BAL/Andrews, have a TE that is so dominant, fluid, athletic with the ability to beat man, read zone, block at a high level etc., He's their WR1 as a TE. Age aside.. for one year.. I'd take Kelce over any other skill player in the NFL... no hesitation.

Bills are in danger of being relegated to the XFL

Yes Yes To be determined. So far, they've shown they can build/lead a playoff team. They have not shown they can build/lead a championship team, yet.

Would you rather have: Kelce, Juju, Toney, MVS, RD2 Pick and a Top 2 OL or Diggs, Knox, Davis, McKenzie, RD5 Pick and a bottom third OL? I won't even get into the coaching aspect. Strictly talent based... tell me which situation you prefer?

I'd say reset like the Chiefs, but not by trading Diggs due to his accelerated cap hit. -Let Poyer walk -Let Edmunds walk -Trade Oliver Remake the Defense. The core of Edmunds/Poyer/Oliver has run it's course and that money needs to be re-allocated to the Offense. -Sign a mid-tier vet FA MLB -Sign a proven situational pass rusher like Melvin Ingram -Transition Benford to S and bring back Marlowe as insurance/depth -Draft a DT, S and Day 3 CB Tying up 25M+ in Oliver and Edmunds next year is cap malpractice. Neither of them bring us any closer to a Super Bowl appearance. Sign two above average OL Free Agents so Josh has proven protection, also draft an OL Sign a WR and/or draft a WR Day 3 RB We have options, but it's going to take bold moves by this Front Office. Or we can remain held cap hostage by paying absurd money to a DT and MLB.

You can get away with MVS, Juju etc., when your TE is in his prime and, perhaps, the greatest to ever play the position.

Cover 1 broke down metrics from the DL in one of their recent podcasts.. The DL dominated, with Von, Rousseau and Epenesa all playing at a high/above-average level up until Von went down with his injury. At which point Rousseau dipped a tiny bit and AJ actually graded out a tick better than before Von's injury. How this relates to Oliver?... We had a top 5 DL until Von went down. When they broke down our DT metrics, Oliver, during that time span our DL was playing at a top 5 level, had not even played enough snaps to qualify for evaluation in the metrics. So when people like Joe Marino (who, again, I genuinely like his podcast) scoff at the idea of replacing Oliver with, literally anyone, I do not understand the problem. Nevermind the fact we have zero DT's under contract for '24. Extend Jones, bring back Phillips and draft a space eater at some point.

Yea, I see that now. Makes no sense unless someone blows us away with a trade package.. which for a guy with his cap hit is likely not happening.

We replace Edmunds with a vet MLB at a third of the cost, draft a Safety and/or bring back Marlowe to compete with Benford as we transition him to Safety. Trade Oliver and draft his replacement. Cut underperforming guys like Settle and Basham. Sign another pass rusher like Melvin Ingram. The Defense needs to shift and we can't do that by running it back... and even worse, mortgaging future years to bring back BOTH Edmunds and Poyer.

The core of this team has failed 3 years in a row. As far as I'm concerned, the only immovable piece is Josh Allen. If someone wants to give us RD1 pick for Diggs. Fine by me. Just, for the love of God, get Josh Allen a legit OL. If he has time, he will torch any defense, provided we reset the weaponry with a couple high picks and a vet WR. I can't say I necessarily hate the idea of spending his money on OL in FA, bringing in OBJ and then double dipping early on say... Jordan Addison and Smith-Njigba or Jalin Hyatt.

Fair point.. The previous two, prior to this past year, the defenses dominated via pass rush. Not much we can do about our pass rush if we are paying Ed Oliver 11M and Tremaine Edmunds 18M. There is quite a bit we can do if we trade Ed and let Edmunds walk... both in the ability to sign someone like Melvin Ingram and be players for OL help in FA, allowing us to draft a DT early.

We're not in "cap jail" because of a QB contract anyway. We're in perceived cap jail because of the perception that we won't trade Oliver and must re-sign Edmunds.

Agreed. And this is why it's so frustrating to hear podcasters and analysts act like we're in cap jail this off-season because of guys like Edmunds and Oliver. They do not, and should not, be here next year. Cap problem solved. Let's say we cut Basham and Settle, allow Poyer and Edmunds to walk and then trade Oliver. That frees up quite a bit of money. We need to add another piece to the pass rush (or we should). That can't prudently be done by keeping Oliver and Edmunds. Without them, we have money to sign a Melvin Ingram as DE2/DE3. We have money to sign a solid vet MLB. We also have money to sign a good FA IOL as well as potentially bringing in OBJ. DT also needs to be addressed. We have nobody under contract for '24. Is Oliver in our plans? He shouldn't be.. trade him. Settle? He shouldn't be. Cut him. Extend Jones, bring back Phillips and draft a couple DT's... one early because a big body with some juice next to Daquan is worth it, imo. Then come draft, even if we use our Day 2 picks on DT and S, pick 27 can be used to the BPA on Offense, whether that's a WR, OL or Bijan. Point is.. we have options to drastically transform this team into one that has vastly improved pieces where it matters. But we need to be bold and make calculated decisions. I'm afraid that's just not in the cards for us though... Veach in KC flipped over his secondary, let some DL pieces walk and traded Tyreek Hill last off-season... then won the Super Bowl. I can tell you pretty confidently, he would flip this Defense over if he was here... he wouldn't stand for 3 years of playoff letdowns from the same side of the ball.

Epenesa, imo, is probably worth a modest second contract as DE4. Basham, such a bad pick. Just incredibly frustrating. May be time to cut our losses with him. If we subscribe to needing a top tier defensive talent level.. and it seems we do.. Here's what I would do: EDGE: Von - Rousseau - (FA) Ingram - Epenesa - Lawson (Or Kingsley Jonathan) DT: Jones - RD2 Pick - Phillips - RD4/5 Pick *Cut/Trade Basham. Cut Settle. Trade Oliver. Extend Jones. *Frees up a good bit of money and solves the DT issue of having nobody under contract for '24. *Once Von is healthy, that is a dominant DL, assuming (yea yea I know) that they hit on an early DT pick to pair with Daquan Jones. *This also assumes we let Edmunds walk and sign a vet MLB.

This plan has us leveraging the future just to re-sign our own. Allen restructure gets us out of cap jail. Then we need pull a couple more levers to free up Edmunds money. We would need to restructure every candidate we have, and likely backload contracts/void years, just to bring back two core defenders on a defense that hasn't stepped up when it matters.

Not necessarily a ranking, but the bolded are the only guys I want back.