Beck Water

I'd just like to throw in here that given the way the league has operated in the past, I would predict that Rice's legal team will delay any legal procedings until well into or after the season, and NFL discipline, if any, will be applied to the 2025 season. So nothing to worry about here for the Chiffs.

I actually don't agree that Allen hasn't improved since 2020. He had his highest completion % and yards in 2020, but there's more to being a great QB than those two parameters. In 2021, early in the season, Josh played an amazing, patient, "take what the defense gives" game against the Chiefs. The comeback they played against Tampa Bay when he took them to OT absolutely made Tom Brady a fan. He then played two utterly amazing games at the end of the 2021 season - the NE playoff game where the Bills scored a TD on every single drive of the game, and Bill Belicheck actually came to the locker room after the game to offer respect to Josh, then the 13-second game against KC. Those and other games in 2021 were games that showed a step in his level of QB play - not his completion % or YPG, but his mental grasp of the game. I find 2022 and 2023 difficult to assess because I don't know how much of what I saw was Dorsey or Brady as OCs, how much was the definite drop in WR talent with Brown, Sanders and Beasley gone and inadequately replaced by Davis, McKenzie, and an injured Crowder. Your point about Mahomes is also valid, but I'd say the same thing that I believe Mahomes has gotten better at reads and at taking what the defense offers since 2018 as well, and that completion % and yards don't tell the whole story.

1) discussion of the Bills W-L record with Allen, before and after Stefon Diggs, as though that proves Allen "needs" Diggs or Diggs "made" Allen what he is. Look, folks, he was a raw rookie and then an improved 2nd year player, then he would have become a more improved player in 2020 whether Beane traded for Diggs or another WR or drafted Jefferson or someone else. It was a big story in 2020 how Allen changed up his throwing motion and it helped him become more accurate. 2) discussion of how "Allen doesn't work in the off season" with the implication that Diggs is just out there grinding. Meanwhile Diggs is going to fashion week in Paris, Coachella during Bills OTAs (while Allen is actually with the team in OTAs) 3) the latest is people dumping on Allen for Tim Graham's podcast revelation about the "it's only one ***** game" without the context of it being after the game, while Allen is sitting there taking the loss hard, still in his pads, and the rest of the team is coming over trying to lift him up, and whatever Diggs said wasn't reported (but Allen wasn't snapping at anyone else). Probably more, but I'm actively trying to avoid it

I think you both don't see this. Knox has a cap hit this season of $7.728M, created by taking a salary cut and converting some of his salary to bonus, in exchange for a fully guaranteed salary this year, some guaranteed salary next year, and incentives. If he's traded before the draft and the trade partner picks up 100% of this year's guaranteed salary, his dead cap hit is something like $17.54M (the $24.45M Spotrac shows minus his salary guarantees) The Bills currently have an estimated cap space of $4.2M, so they'd have to free up like $13.3M of cap space to make this happen I can't see that happening, myself.

Having read said note, I think by "he" you mean "his PR team"

I posted in Dibs thread three of the ones I'll remember

Josh to Diggs: "Get Open, and Catch the Ball" Happened before: Also More Diggs thoughts: "I am at Coachella 2023 wondering why my QB and teammates aren't working their tails off....Oh, that's right, it's 2023 OTAs and they're there, including Allen"

Simmer down, Shorty. Please explain why you think we should all take the generic "Cover1" account as insider gospel on the Bills? I don't want to diss of the work those guys do breaking down film and talking Bills, but they don't even get inside the locker room.

It's an interesting idea. I think no more than 6 captains would be good.

JMO I know we have had them before, but 8 captains IMHO are too many Jones??

Well...let's start with Austin Proehl. He didn't play for "a few years". He was drafted with our 7th round pick in 2018 and waived at roster cutdown. He went on to bounce around the league a little bit on practice squads for the Titans (1 day), to the XFL, to the Rams (most of 2018), and in 2021 the Chargers (2 months) and Bills (something like 2 - 2 week stints). Those are the "few years" he played for the Bills - Training camp 2018 with 89 other of Beane's closest personal friends, and then 3 years later a couple 2 week stints on PS. Does he know Beane in the sense that he's met him and spoken to him, maybe a bit more than the usual cup-of-coffee UDFA guys who get cut at the end of training camp because he's Ricky Proehl's son? Yes. Is he someone the routinely and widely acknowledged to be close-mouthed Beane is going to ring up and chat with? IMO, No Do I believe the Bills might have asked Diggs to restructure and he refused? Yes. Yes, I do. Do I believe Diggs would have a contract discussion with Beane without his agent involved? No. No, I don't. Contract discussions take place with agents, or with agents and players. Do I believe Adisa Bakari would shove an entire package of socks in Digg's mouth before he let him say "Josh wouldn't be anything without me" to Beane? Yes, Yes I do. Do I believe Beane issued some kind of "restructure or we trade you" ultimatum to a guy who strongly implied he wanted out anyway? That would be dumb. Diggs would be "Don't threaten me with a Good Time"

With all respect, that's not enough. 4 guys getting 900 yds is 3,600 yds. That would represent a 700 yd dip in what was already a second "down year" for Allen with only 4300 yds passing. It would also be asking a 7 year vet to exceed his previous career year (possible), asking Shakir AND Kincaid to jump 50% in their production, AND asking a 3rd guy to step into the mix and push 1000 yds.

First of all, no one is calling Houston "crap". Everyone here recognizes they've got an excellent-looking young QB and are a team on the rise. They could be the 2020 Bills. Second, "every time a guy leaves"? Nonsense. We wished Jerry Hughes and Singletary well, going to the Texans. Wished Moss well with the Colts. McKenzie got dunked on, but then he got dunked on while he was here, no one dunked on the Colts. Edmunds - mixed reactions mostly "not worth that contract" followed by "but who we got at MLB?" Hodgins - rampant and disproportionate nostalgia. Beasley - gratitude for what he'd done for the team and Josh, mixed reactions between people who thought he'd been "done wrong" for his personal views and people who thought he was "done" and it was time. Tre' White - tears. Gabe Davis and Mitch Morse - total respect. And don't get me started on Wyatt Teller. You're either not being truthful to us, or not truthful to yourself.

So some pundits are already re-evaluating after Houston re-tooled the contract https://www.theringer.com/nfl/2024/4/5/24121898/stefon-diggs-trade-houston-texans-cj-stroud-buffalo-bills The article goes on to analyze Digg's usage and results during the 2023 Bills season - recommend giving it a read.

Yeah, the only current Bill I've seen respond to him is Dawkins, and that response was...somewhat ambiguous

I don't think this was correct last season. It was correct in 2020 and 2021. I think the Bills saw a lot of man coverage, and a lot of hybrid coverage (1 side man, 1 side zone)

It's Capology. When we traded for Diggs, we had a QB on a rookie contract and an improved WR corps where trying "#1 by committee" had fallen short. We needed to draft and develop, or sign, a #1 talent. It made sense to spend some of the cap money we had due to cheap QB, LT, and #1 CB contracts on a canny vet WR who could help develop our QB. Now, we're paying our QB, an aging DE who hasn't given us ROI to date, LT, LB, DT and we'll probably pick up Rousseau's 5th year option. It doesn't make sense to pick up a huge WR contract.

How have Buscaglia's past predictions worked out?

Oh, Jeesh. Made me look, and I wish I hadn't. Nothing against Beasley welcoming Diggs to Texas or praising him as a hard workin 'Dog' Dawkins "Till next time" but that look in the 4th picture he chose!!!!!

You know, there are ways to exorcise your spleen, and there are ways to hold a guy accountable in a meaningful and effective way. When a guy is really down on himself at the end of the game, if you say something to him that leads to the response "it's only one ***** game!" and a wave-off, I think it's a safe bet you're doing the former - taking a shot, to vent your own spleen. Effectively holding a guy accountable does not look like that. No one in that locker room, including Josh, including the stream of players Graham reports as coming up to give Josh encouragement, thought Josh played a good enough game. He also targeted Diggs 13 times for 103 yds, and one of his interceptions was on a target to Diggs (4 on the year targeting Diggs, 6 targeting Davis). And we still took the game to overtime, where if we hadn't given up a punt return TD maybe we could have won it.

I dunno. People said stuff about Diggs being an idiot to force his way out of Minnesota where he had a very consistent, 69% 70% completion QB throwing to him, to go to Buffalo where he had that young Wild Thing Josh Allen, who couldn't break 59% completion in 2 seasons and wasn't even passing for 200 ypg. Of course, Josh worked hard on himself to totally re-work his passing motion that off season, and when the receivers got together during Covid, all of them said "you can tell he's been in the lab" (Singletary) "Josh is making throws he wouldn't try last season" (Beasley) and Diggs just thought it was fine. So clearly any narrative around "Diggs made Josh what he is", based on Josh's jump in completion %, doesn't have the full picture. I'm just still puzzled by the difference in opinion between Cosell, who watches tape compulsively and says definitively that Diggs is not a #1 WR at this point and he's not going to the Texans to be a #1 WR (and he's said previously the Bills don't have an elite receiver, they have a single, good receiver - so this isn't something he made up at the Bills urging after the trade) vs. the Texans giving him an extra $3.5M that, IIRC, was not fully guaranteed on his contract, it guaranteed at the start of the next league year, and all the pundits expressing doubt that Nico Collins is a #1 receiver.

I hope Beane learned something the year he "double dipped" at DE after announcing post 2020 season that "we couldn't affect the QB". So he took Greg Rousseau, who was a high-ceiling, low floor guy due to limited playing experience in college, and Boogie Basham, who was supposed to be a solid floor but higher ceiling guy - but who played at a lower level of competition at Wake Forest. In hindsight, I think Beane was reaching, In the end, we may get more value (and certainly more ROI) out of 2022 UDFA Kingsley Jonathan, and we missed on some players who could have helped us. I don't think Beane has a problem putting more young WR in the room. Khalil is a 3rd year guy now; he's got vet Curtis Samuel and vet Mack Hollins who both know how to get through a season. But I hope he's more likely to do what he did with Elam and Benford - draft a guy they like early, and double-dip by taking a shot at potential late in the draft.

It's a fair point, along with the point someone else made that Diggs "leverage", after his salary was fully guaranteed, was simply telling any team he didn't want to be traded to that he wouldn't report until contractually forced. No one wants that, especially, as you point out, that an unhappy Diggs can be a passive aggressive PITA.

Samuel and Davis are very different players. Davis was trying to be that Boundary Guy and he really didn't get it done when asked to be that clever route runner over the middle. Samuel had his best year, with Joe Brady, playing something like 70+% of his snaps from the slot. I think a more realistic hope is that he'll be the Beasley replacement Crowder and McKenzie were supposed to be. I really like how Shakir came on last year and how Kincaid looked as a rookie - so smooth! But I think it's a long stretch to think Kincaid can replace Diggs. But with all respect, here's the thing: I think this "Jenga Game" with WR where the Bills (not just you) look at WR and argue something like "Davis sure looked All World in the playoffs against the Colts in 2020 and against KC in 2021. And McKenzie has been stuck behind Beasley on the depth chart, but he seized his opportunity and showed what he could do against NWE and earlier against the Dolphins. So we don't need to "splash" in FA or in the draft this year. We project from what guys can do in an occasional game or while the D is focused on someone else. The Bills seem to do this, too. It doesn't necessarily work that way, though.

It's a valid point that once the league year passed the point of guaranteeing Diggs $18.5M, he acquired that leverage. I don't remember the point at which a player can be penalized for "failure to report", though I remember thinking it was surprisingly lenient. But then, we all saw DeSean Watson getting paid to sit on the bench and not play for one entire season by the Texans.