ngbills

Agreed. But no matter how you look at it if you have $90M in cap space you better have room to sign some guys with significant contracts. Look at the key guys all locked in for the next 2 and some even 3+ years: OFF: Allen, Singletary, Brown, Beasley, Knox, Morse, Ford DEF: Star, Oliver, Hughes, H Phillips, Edmunds, Hyde, White, T Johnson, S Neal We have the ability to spend a ton of money and still be fine in a few years when decisions need to be made on guys. Perfect time to sign some higher priced players and draft future replacements. No more needing to sign mid tier depth guys. We have a ton of that already.

If Milano was on another team I doubt many on this board even talk about him. If he was a free agent anbd we signed him to $12-14M contract people would be like WTF are we doing. There are a lot of guys that can do what he does in this league and he is not some physical freak. If he left we could replace him and not miss a beat. That does not mean he sucks just that he is a decent player in a good system with good players around him. Easy plug and play type of spot.

And the fact the defense does have to defend the pass. Teams are still game planning to stop the passing game with Kittle and the other attributes of the 49er passing attack including WR motions and runs, etc. Much more to it than they just beat you up with the run straight ahead.

For those saying we either dont want to or wont be able to sign big name talent. Do you think this roster as constructed is already good enough? Just need the guys we have to get better? Is that the approach. Allen gets better and only needs Knox/Kroft, Brown, Beasley and whatever other WR we keep. The OL as constructed is good enough? On Defense, we can lose Phillips, Shaq, Lorax and just plug in some cheap names and maintain the level of play. Oliver gets better and healthy H Phil help the DL. For me its hard to see that team ever being more than a occasional playoff team. 7-9 one year and 10-6 another. Then Allen gets his new contract and we start have to cut back the talent level even more. Sounds like a losing proposition. I prefer you have your centerpieces and bring in big level talent as needed. Rotate out some of the peripheral pieces as needed to make it work. You dont need a roster distribution that has very few at the top a ton in the middle and some at the bottom. Cut out out the middle and pad the top and bottom. Bottom either rises to top and is gone. They dont graduate to the middle.

Why do so many people say we will not sign anyone but 2-3rd tier free agents? What is the point of all this cap space if we use it on just our own plus some lower level free agents. This roster has a ton of good 2-3rd level guys. If we have $90M in cap and our QB is on his rookie contract we better sign a couple top level guys. That is what this team needs to get over the hump.

I will take those two signings along with Hooper :). Then this draft I just did on their site 22 Laviska Shenault Jr., WR Colorado 54 Joshua Uche, EDGE Michigan 86 Tyler Biadasz, IOL Wisconsin 118 Raequan Williams, IDL Michigan State 137 Chase Lucas , CB Arizona State 149 Michael Onwenu, IOL Michigan 168 Lamical Perine, RB Florida 181 Scott Frantz , OT Kansas State 187 Akeem Davis-Gaither, LB Appalachian State

Notable is how many of those teams have mobile or running QB's - BALT, SEA, DAL, BUF, HOU, AZ, IND. You just need to be able to produce - whether it be passing, QB run, traditional run, etc. The more balanced you can be the the less one dimensional and harder to gameplan. Look at the 49ers - they could beat you running or throwing the ball. They dominated some teams or had teams not be able to stop the run so why even try to stop. But if needed they also had 4 300+ yard passing games. BALT on the other hand is not in that same bucket. They beat you with the run and QB run. You stop that and I dont think they can win with a pure passing game. Its about keeping you off balance and LJ making plays as an athlete.

Basically what I wrote in another thread. Draft a WR; Sign AJ Green or Amari Cooper Sign Hooper or Henry at TE Sign Yannick Sign Conklin Plenty of draft picks to get more OL and other needs. Pretty easy....

Too bad the NFL is more than a competition standing around throwing the ball at targets or how far you can throw it. Love how if someone posted Allen completion % folks would be all over how there is more to it than that, etc. Yet Jackson the league MVP does bad in target practice and its he sucks, next year will be different etc. Guy still completed 66% of his passes so obviously he can hit targets in a real game setting.

Or maybe they had Well the purpose was not really the timing of the cuts. Just who the potential cuts could be. So the cut Kroft is the same regardless...if you have someone better then you upgrade and cut Kroft. But I do think they may cut him regardless so they can allocate his money elsewhere if they are happy with Knox, Sweeney, Smith, Croom. They are not keeping all 5 and Kroft is the most expensive. Bills failures is not as simple as they failed to keep their own. There are many reasons - mostly lack of a QB, bad hiring decisions and repeated churning of coaches, bad luck playing in AFC east vs Brady, and on and on. Not sure if simply keeping our own would have changed much of that. Making the right coach hire and him developing a roster over a number of years is what would have. I agree on your WR need. However, after that this team does not lack depth.They lack star power. If anything depth is the strength of this team. They have a ton of avg to above avg talent across the board. They need a few elite players. They need a star WR and young OL and edge rusher. They have $90M lets use some of that on those areas. Not padding our depth.If Allen can be more consistent then this team is a 2-3 really good players away from being a playoff and super bowl contender. Better Allen with AJ Green/Amari Cooper, Yannick or other edge guy and just upgrade one OL spot and this team is really good. $90M can get you those. I would add Hooper at TE there and it is still doable. Maybe a pipe dream with everything falling into place but still a ton of young talent that can be good for the next 5+ years.

I am not liking the the focus on the resigning or extending our own. I know its just talk but all the we have so many guys coming up on contracts comes across as a cop out on using the $90M in cap space they have. What is the point of creating all that cap space if its only used to resign our own guys? Yes you hvae some players you need to lock up but that statement only applies if your team is good enough. We have a ton of upgrading that is still needed. Keeping our own does not solve that problem.

If your going after Hooper or Henry then you are moving on from Kroft. You dont allocate your salary with over $20M to TE's. If you believe in Know then what is left for Kroft? Know makes Kroft expendable. My view is you need to upgrade from Know and Kroft with a Hooper or Henry. Knox can still have a significant role along with a more legit weapon at TE. Money paid to a player impacts what other players can be brought in. I dont care about the actual money the Pegulas spend or make. Its about the construction of the roster of the Bills. I am lobbying to save to spend more. Not save so the Pegulas can buy another jet or whatever. Not sure where anything I am saying leads one to believe I want bottom level talent. I would say keeping Kroft and Smith over going after Hooper is more along the bottom feeder mentality.

At his price that is too high to be just useful in multi TE sets. There just seems to be better options - if you can get Hooper or Hunter great. If not then you can find someone to go along with Knox, Sweeney, and Smith or Croom. What upgrade is Kroft really providing to that group? His best year he caught 40 balls for 400 yds. Every other year - 11, 10, 4, and 6 rec's. You dont need to spend $6M on a guy that will catch 10 balls all season.

I will add: If the Saints had a better defense If Rodgers had more, well any weapons If Brady was well Brady Then you have Mahomes v Brady and Rodgers vs Brees and we are still saying you need a QB to win...

But look at the final 4 teams RB's. I would argue maybe they are a dime a dozen. Outside of Henry you could have had any of these guys on your roster if you wanted them. SF - Mostert barely made it in the league KC - Damien Williams another marginal league player GB - Aaron Jones, 5th round pick, no superstar TEN - Henry, 2nd round pick, did not reach star status until this year

Jordan Matthews...

Kroft is making over $6M per. He has only had one productive year in his career. I think they signed him last year more out of not having anything at the position but is he worth the money? If for $10M you can add Hooper and drop Kroft you have to do that in a heartbeat. Hooper can put up Kroft numbers with his eyes closed. He is a guy you line up outside and its like having another WR out there. I dont know if we could get him, but if you can that is a swap you better make.

Purpose would be to upgrade and use these cuts to help make room for it whether it be a roster spot or the cash. The Bills have only 12 free agents this year. They will bring some of them back possibly and then you have 10 draft picks. So between our own free agents, draft picks and guys we sign there will be some guys let go.

Believe me I expect to be disappointed. If they sign just one - Hooper. Then I am excited. I know folks like Knox. He is fun to watch but quite the level of a guy like Hooper.

Well $20M is going to Yannick Ngakoue. Trent Murphy pays for a big chunk of that. Then $10M+ to Conklin. Spencer Long savings will help with that. Kroft helps pay for Hooper and his $10M. Then we are in good shape headed to the draft and a few other lower priced free agents. Get AJ Green on a short deal if possible, Robbie Anderson, and draft a WR.

Very easily. He went from 44 targets to 18 targets. The balls that could have been thrown to him were thrown to someone else - namely Brown, Beasley, Knox, McK, Williams, etc.

Kroft is the only one who I could see being an excuse. But he was hurt pretty early on and Knox may have turned out to be better than a healthy Kroft. So a big fat NO.

Expected: Trent Murphy ($8.95 cap hit / $1.75M dead cap) Spencer Long ($4.1M cap hit / $700k dead cap) Surprise: Star Lotulelei ($10.1M cap hit / $7.8M dead cap) Tyler Kroft ($6.4M cap hit / $1.6M dead cap) Lee Smith ($3.25M cap hit / $1M dead cap) Steven Hauschka ($3M cap hit / $1.25M dead cap) Pat Dimcarco ($2.35M cap hit / $500k dead cap) Andre Roberts ($2M cap hit / $500k dead cap) TJ Yeldon ($1.9M cap hit / $250K dead cap)

Hate it. Lets hope not.

Cant hurt but lower on the priority list. Though with Tannehill and some of the other guys this year it could lead to some rethinking about your backup. I like the old logic of you want a guy that win 50% of your games. With our D I see Barkley as that. Never hurts to draft a prospect though - whether for yourself or future trade bait.