jahnyc

I thought our defense was noticeably improved after Douglas was acquired. Even if Elam can develop, seems to make sense to me extend Douglas to reduce his cap hit for next season. I think releasing or trading him would be a mistake until it is clear that Elam (or another CB on our roster) can be a starting caliber CB opposite Benford.

Unlike Bernard, there have been a couple of negative things that have been evident about the play of Elam in his first two years. First, Elam seems to have a tendency to hold receivers and take penalties for it. We even heard about it in training camp updates and summaries. Second, he is not a sure tackler, which I thought was particularly important in McD's defense (and any defense). I hope I am wrong, and Elam does seem to have an ability to make big plays (i.e., interceptions).

Between Beane's presser and Tasker's views on the secondary, I have a feeling that Douglas will be released for cap savings. I think it will be a mistake, particularly if the Bills think Elam can be a starter at CB.

There may have been issues between Elam and Butler, and Elam did have an injury last season, but I don't see him suddenly making the jump to a quality starting CB for this season. He had issues with holding/interference when he does play and he seems to be a poor tackler, which is not ideal in McD's (or any) defense. At this point, Elam being a first round pick should have no bearing on whether he starts, plays or sits.

Tasker's comments are a surprise to me. I don't think he is plugged into what McD and Beane are thinking, but it is a bit weird for him to be expressing these views in a video on the Bills' website. Wonder if Douglas will be traded or released because of the cap savings (almost $10 million)? I don't think that Elam is a fit for the Bills, and I had thought he was a trade candidate this offseason.

Surprised that Sportrac is estimating Reader at a $14.9 million annual average given the nature of his injury, but he is only 29, which is younger than I thought.

Wonder if the Bills would pursue DJ Reader (DT) if they are unable to sign Jones (assuming they are interested in re-signing Jones). Reader is coming off of a significant injury and may need to sign a one-year prove it deal. I think the Bills were interested in him a few years ago when he was a free agent.

I don't really understand the focus on the Knox contract. Not a good contract, but Knox was coming off a solid season and Kincaid had not been drafted (plus Knox seems to be pals with Allen, for whatever additional value that provided). Sure, it would be great if we could be using some of the cap dollars that represent an over pay by the Bills for the Knox contract, but shouldn't there be a lot more discussion regarding the awful contract with Miller given the magnitude of the wasted dollars involved compared to the Knox contract?

It will be really challenging for Beane to fill the roster for this season, particularly on defense, with the limited cap space that will be available to sign free agents. At DE and DT, the Bills have the following free agents: Epenesa, Floyd, Ford, Jones, Lawson, Phillips, Settle and Joseph. One would think that between the draft and free agency, the Bills will need to fill at least six spots on the D-lline. At safety, the Bills will need to replace Hyde and Rapp, and at LB, Dodson and Matakevich. As a result, I expect the draft for the Bills to be heavily focused on defense, but we will need to sign a significant number of free agents as well to fill all of the holes. I think this means that the Bills will need to open more cap space than maybe some are projecting at this point. It appears that the defensive roster will undergo a significant re-making this offseason.

Given our cap situation, I do think, as others have suggested, that we are going to need to do a basic restructure of the Diggs contract for the cap savings it will represent (approximately $13 million).

1. Elam is traded in the offseason for a fourth round pick in the draft. 2. Bills select a defensive lineman with their first round pick. 3. Bills lose Epenesa, Jones and Floyd in free agency because of salary cap constraints.

Would feel it to be more of a possibility if we had cap space to add some free agents and re-sign some of our own free agents. Without that flexibility, I don't really see how the overall team roster will be better next season or have the depth that we have had over the last couple of years.

I know there are other ways to get there with releases and extensions, but I am wondering if Beane will need to do the simple restructure of Diggs' contract to get under the cap this offseason and have limited space to sign and re-sign free agents. $13 million in cap savings for a restructure (according to Over the Cap) is significant when the team is $50 million plus over the cap and the only other easy restructure is Allen.

I also thought his responses were better today, certainly better than I expected. I have a feeling this may be his way of sending a message to Beane that he will not accept a pay cut to play for the Bills next season.

Don't usually see such a negative response to the hiring of a position coach for the Bills. Would have thought based on his resume that he would have been more likely to be the assistant DB coach. Surprised there was not better candidates available, at least in terms of NFL experience and reputation. I guess we will see.

Who knows what Diggs is communicating to his agent and the Bills front office about his future with the Bills, but he is putting the Bills in a bind because I doubt the Bills will want to do a simple contract restructuring providing cap savings for the current year under current circumstances. If there is a break-up between the Bills and Diggs, it seems the only real option would be a post-June 1st release designation, which would provide significant cap savings for the Bills. Not sure a trade would work unless it happened after June 1st.

I assume we now need new d-line, LB and QB coaches. Wonder if one of both of the guys we interviewed for DC (Desai and Caldwell) fill the available defensive assistant coach positions.

Maybe I missed this, but interesting that we have not been hearing about any requests to interview Brady for open OC positions. Does this potentially mean that he is turning down requests or, less likely in my view, that he is not getting any traction?

What else can Beane say about Diggs other than what he said? He knows that Diggs is mercurial and can't be traded or cut in the near-term, so how would it help to say that he is not a #1 WR?

I like McDermott and Beane (I like Beane more than McDermott), but, assuming McDermott and Beane are back, I will have no hopes of next year somehow yielding a different result than the past four seasons. I don't know if it is coaching, the players, injuries, a combination of all of these things or something else. It does not matter, because I have no confidence that next year will be any different.

The Bills have a lot of free agents and we will not be able to sign all of them (or even most of them). Adding in players that will need to be cut for salary cap reasons, and the Bills definitely will have a younger roster next year.

KC had their best game in two months because they were playing the Bills defense, which they never seem to have difficulties with in the playoffs when it matters. Yes, our defense was depleted because of injuries, but would it have mattered if it was not? I am not sure given our past experiences plus our d-line was relatively healthy in this match-up and was held without a sack and could not stop KC's rushing attack.

The defense was disappointing overall. KC's offense was significantly weaker this season compared to previous seasons, but they probably had their best game against our defense, which is a poor reflection on our defense. I get it that we had injuries, but our inability to stop KC's rushing attack was surprising. Our d-line had a bad game, which is particularly frustrating given the resources that have been devoted to that group in terms of draft picks and free agents.

Understanding that we would lose home field advantage which can be significant, I would be fine if the game was moved to a domed stadium at a neutral site because it would strongly favor our offense over their defense, particularly with Watt out, and possibly reduce the effectiveness of their rushing attack compared to a cold weather game.

Daboll has a bunch of open spots on his staff, including defensive coordinator, but who would want to join his staff given these reports, recent history of coaches being fired or resigning, and poor performance of the team this year, which could mean he may not make it through his third year as coach of the Giants.