No_Matter_What

Yeah there were some assumptions in my comments, but not helluva lot imo We upgraded DE, DT, RB and TE based on the performances of respective players last year. That it a fact imo. WR and LB remains to be seen, those are certainly question marks. Nah, cmon Majority of OP content are facts. I wanted to summarize what happened, mostly for my own future reference, and also for anybody here who was interested. Didn't want to imply that we won an offseason I might be wrong, but as far as I know PS players count towards the cap. So they don't need to bump anybody of 53 to count. You need to count 53 roster players + all PS players (+ all dead cap and other things, but that's beyond the point). And all PS players with two or fewer accrued NFL seasons earn at least $166k, which means at least $2,65M total (16 players). If a player has more than 2 seasons, then he has to ear at least $252k, i.e. $86k more. So it will be something between $2,65M and $3M for whole PS.

Didn't see this posted so I'd like to make a recap. Please let me know if I omitted something / someone. I am not listing players who we re-signed but who were mostly PS players so far. FAs not re-signed: QB Trubisky, WR Sanders, RB Breida DE Hughes, DE Addison, DE Obada, DT H. Phillips, DT Butler, DT Zimmer, CB Wallace Cut: OG Feliciano, OT Williams, WR Beasley DT Lotulelei, LB Klein Re-signed: OG Bates - $17M/4y (matched RFA tender) CB/S Neal - $9M/3y WR McKenzie - $4,4M/2y One year deals: OG Boettger, RB T.Jones, WR Kumerow, LB Dodson FA acquisitions: DE Von Miller - $120M/6y (potential out after 3 seasons with $7,4M dead cap) DT D. Jones - $14/2y (+void year) DT Settle - $9M/2y (+void year) One year deals: QB Keenum, QB Barkley, OG Saffold, OT Quessenberry, OG Mancz, RB Johnson, TE Howard, WR Crowder DE Lawson, DT J. Phillips, LB Lee Draft: CB Elam, RB Cook, LB Bernard, WR Shakir, P Araiza, CB Benford, OT Tenuta, LB Spector UDFA: TE Wydermyer, RB Blackshear, OT Anderson, OG Kerstetter, OG Owen, WR M.Williams, WR Pau'u, DE Jonathan, CB T.Fuller Restructures: WR Diggs - $96M/4y, under contract 6 seasons total C Morse - $19,5M/2y, under contract 3 seasons total LB Milano - conversion of $6,5M salary into signing bonus (3years under contract + added 2 void years) S Hyde - conversion of $5,7M salary into signing bonus (2years under contract + added 3 void years) P Haack - pay cut Cap situation: $5M cap space according to Sportrac. However, its only top51 right now and real season is 53 players, which means additional $1,8M. Practice squad players also count, so that's roughly $3M extra. All in all, we are about zero right now and need to make some space for in season moves. Possible cut candidates: LB Matakevich ($2,5M), OG Ford ($1,5M) - actual cap savings will be less since we need to replace them on the roster (that is why cutting Haack does not save cap space). Possible restructures: CB White, LT Dawkins Possible extensions: S Poyer, LB Edmunds My comments: Great offseason on paper. With tight cap space Beane managed to upgrade the roster. On defense, we got better at DE, better at DT, better and faster at CB (Elam over Wallace), at least faster and hopefully better (?) with more upside (?) at LB (Bernard over Klein). On offense, we got better at RB (Cook over Breida), hopefully much better at TE (Howard) and if not better then younger at WR (Crowder and Shakir over Beasley and Sanders). We added competition to return game (Shakir) and potentially massively upgraded punting game. From core players we kept all but maybe 4 (Diggs, Morse, Hyde and Poyer) are young or relatively young and should be trending upwards. My only gripe is OL. I don't feel competent to judge OL play, but from your comments guys it seems Saffold and Quesenberry are either a wash or maybe minor upgrade over Williams and Feliciano. I was hoping for more. Something like better FAs or drafting a guard in 2nd or 3rd round, or at least some project with huge upside in 5th. But you can't have everything I guess, and we upgraded other units much more than I hoped for. I am also sure that we wanted to draft OL, it just didn't go that way. There is also a solid chance that Brown gets better, Bates will be consistent upgrade and OL as whole will be better with new OL coach. I am also not sure if Diggs contract isn't for one year too many, but it is also a minor thing. I love that we extended him. Current roster: Go Bills!

Answer is zero. I locked the voting one day before the draft started. But it is not surprising that Elam got most votes at that stage. If you read OP, there were already top 24 players elected, so we were voting for 25th player on TSW Bills big board. No offense taken You're mostly right, I was trying to much to spin it in an optimistic way I don't think your first statement is that relevant - he probably would end up as 15th on that board, which is 25th overall (counting top 10 players excluded from the poll). We chose him at 23 with one QB taken. I'd say that's pretty close. It doesn't say much he didn't made it to top 14, since it was clear from the beginning that most of those guys will be taken in teens. What I find relevant that there were 4 players available who we didn't take before Elam and could. I agree it is not that close, he was 5th option from TSW view (based on voting of members who wanted to vote). I'd probably put an asterix next to Andrew Booth, since there seems to be more to his medical issues than it was known to fans before draft. But even if we take him out people here still preferred Lloyd, Hill and Gordon more. Gordon is a crucial name here since it say that in this voting, since he plays very same position and people preferred him to Elam in this voting. That applies also to Hill to some extent. On a side note, one of the 10 players I excluded from the poll due to presumed unavailability was surprisingly available - Jermaine Johnson.

Is this guy credible?

I almost forgot to close this thing. When we were on the clock, following players from our big board (listed in OP) were still available: 3. Andrew Booth, CB, Clemson 7. Daxton Hill, S, Michigan 8. Devin Lloyd, LB, Utah 9. Kyler Gordon, CB, Washington Kaiir Elam had most votes when I closed the poll, so I consider him next on the board. Booth's medical concerns were apparently bigger than we expected, and I don't think Bills were interested in the first round LB at all. So all in all we were pretty close to the Bills choice.

Beane asleep at the wheel. He is also not signing our draft picks. I say fire him until it's too late!

Wow. I am coming from Europe this year no matter what. I planned week 2 since I expected Bills to be home and it fits me the best work wise as well as weather wise. Now I am happy its Titans but surpised it is MNF 😲 Does it mean tickets will be more expensive? Does it change tailgaiting experience for better or worse?

Sportrac already has Wydermyer and RB Blackshear accounted for. What I find interesting is that Blackshear got 15k signing bonus, while Wydermyer got nothing. Do I understand it correctly that this is something what depends only on the agreement between the specific player and the team? Anyway, it would be great if Wydermyer could stick. Talented depth players with 700k cap hit this year and 870k-980k next two years is exactly what we need.

Jets? Are you kidding? I just read on jetnation that if Denzel Mims becomes what he was drafted to be their offense could become truly unstoppable!

Why do you keep on repeating "undersized LB"? We already have one "undersized LB" and he is one of the best player in the team.

You're right about Beane and I am not a skeptic, I have no problem believing he would've taken Shakir in the 4th. And I am completely fine with still wanting Elam+Cook. I would do the same. But unless I am missing something your math is wrong. It is fifth and sixth in such case. We take Hall, Emerson and Shakir, and we still have both picks we used to trade up for Shakir (our original 5th and 6th).

All of this plus DTs are also an upgrade, at least on the paper.

You need to include that 4th rounder we gave up for Elam in the equation. That might change things a little.

Quality of his play is a big deal. Why would we let go somebody who is like 100% top 5 WR on our roster? Makes absolutely no sense to me. And the fact that he is on a cheap contract makes it even less likely.

Ford saves money but I still think he stays. They will give him one last shot under new OL coach and it's not like we have better options. Haack is gone for sure but he saves only a little money. I think its less than $400k if you consider that he needs to be replaced by Araiza. Don't you think that Matakevich could be cut? Cutting him saves quite a lot. Any chance that Spector (or anybody else) pushes him off the roster?

I am truly surprised how many posters mention Crowder as a possible cut candidate (you mention it as remote possibility only, but some people are even advocating it). He is not going anywhere. If he is healthy, he is super reliable WR who will thrive with Allen, same as Beasley. If he gets hurt, he might be replaced by Shakir or McKenzie and might not get his snaps back, but he isn't going to be cut.

Sweeney is as good as gone. OJ Howard already took his spot, and if we roster one more TE, it will be Wydermyer.

I remember him from Hard Knocks. He didn't seem ok to me mentally.

That is entirely possible. I wanted to add that Moss has definitely upper hand. But I am less sure than Epenesa and Ford.

Haack is gone for sure. Epenesa stays (95%), Ford stays (90%). Moss is a tough one. We are not keeping all four RB. I can imagine a world when we decide to keep Duke Johnson. Gilliam, Matakevich and Taiwan Jones might be gone.

You sir are a prophet.

That's right and fine. But my point was that NFLPA Report I linked states that we have actually 2 MORE players on the roster (i.e. 69 not 67).

Not that it matters much, but I just wanted to point out that NFLPA Public Salary Cap Report has Bills at 69 players (before rookies and UDFA). Last month they always listed 2 more players than Sportrac. I have no idea what is the reason but I think its worth mentioning. https://nflpa.com/reports/public-salary-cap-report Sportrac has 67 players + 8 rookies (i.e. 75 you mention).

In Gunner's Day 2 Debrief I was quite vocal about Terrel Bernard pick - I didn't like it at all since I felt that was a huge reach. So I need to stop by and say that Shakir pick makes up for in in terms of value. From now on I'll consider both 4th round picks and my soul can rest in peace Speaking about UDFA, I was really surprised how many of them actually make our roster. I am talking only about those, who were originally signed as UDFA by the Bills. Right now it is Cam Lewis, Tyrel Dodson, Ike Boettger and Reggie Gilliam (plus Reid Ferguson, but nobody drafts LSs so that's logical). Recently it was also Levi Wallace and Justin Zimmer. Then there are lot of guys who hand around and never actually make 53 man roster. So it will be interesting to see if somebody gets in this time. Now it surely looks that Wydermyer could be the man since we are lacking in TE department and he can play.

When the names were called, Shakir. But now after I digested it all a little, its Elam. I wanted Booth so much and was like 100% convinced we take him if he is there, that I was in shock when we took Kaiir and quite dissapointed. But now after watching him and reading about him I love that pick. Shakir is 2nd because of value. Cook close 3rd. Bernard is such a wild card.