jahnyc

I would think the players will want the cash now and be fine to restructure, but who knows how the Bills view White and Dawkins, and whether they could be cap casualties in the upcoming years. I assume restructures now will negatively impact the cap hits of players released in the future.

Fair point. Who knows, but something has seemed off between them.

I have a feeling the compensation to Arizona will be the easier part of all this, particularly if they are not going to eat part of Hopkins' salary and if he shows a preference to play for the Bills. As others have noted, Hopkins will be 31 at the start of this season and has had injuries that have affected his availability over the last couple of years. Given the cap considerations for any team at this point (after the initial wave of free agency), I doubt there is a robust market for Hopkins at his compensation level and contract structure. The Bills likely have some difficult considerations to work through. To make this work for the cap, the Bills will need to restructure current players that they may not want to restructure (i.e., Dawkins and White) and/or make trades of players to create cap space (Oliver), which will create new holes. I would not trade Gabe since he will be an effective third option and given the possibility that Hopkins or Diggs will at miss at least some time with injuries during next season. Team culture also must be a consideration for the Bills. If the Bills reach an agreement with Arizona on a trade and fit Hopkins within their cap, what will this mean for their ability to retain their free agents in the next couple of years? Seems to me it will be very difficult to re-sign Gabe, Hyde and Oliver (assuming the Bills want to). Some players are going to believe that the team will not be able to re-sign them when their contracts are up, which must have an affect on attitude and team culture. Also, not sure whether Allen and Diggs have repaired their relationship yet, but adding Hopkins to the mix can only complicate things for Josh. Glad I am not making these decisions.

I would think the draft needs are MLB, OT, DT and DE (in that order) if we acquire Hopkins.

At least with regard to our free agent focus to this point, it seems that the Bills are okay with an adequate o-line rather than making a concerted effort to significantly improve it. McGovern hopefully will be an upgrade from Saffold, but Bates and Dawkins are average and Brown had a poor season last year. I guess Brown can improve given his lack of reps going into last season because of his back surgery, but do we really think it is likely that Dawkins, Morse or Bates will improve from last season? Kramer has a great reputation, but, if anything, the o-line play was worse last year than the year before. I know that we are financially constrained and will be for the foreseeable future with significant other holes to fill in the draft, but McBeane will need to figure out a way to improve the o-line.

Given the cost of quality OTs in free agency and our need to upgrade the o-line, I think tackle (or WR) would potentially make sense in the first round of the draft. OT will make even more sense in next year's draft since both Dawkins and Brown will be free agents after the '24 season.

I have not seen rumors on the internet connecting the Bills to Wagner. Any rumors about this from supposed legitimate sources or sites?

Miami just opened some cap space with a restructured contract with Ramsey. Wonder if this leads to the Dolphins now signing Poyer.

Wondering what we will do at safety. Given the importance of the position in McDermott's defense, I can't imagine we would go with a rookie or a converted CB (Benford) with no experience at the position. Based on where we are with the cap, there really is no realistic chance that we bring back Poyer since he will not be signing a contract with a long term due to his age and we have other needs now (i.e., linebacker).

That is a big if.

Exciting, but how would this make any sense with James Cook and Hines on the roster? All kind of similar backs, although Dalvin is awesome.

I agree, but I don't see it unfolding that way since we are so tight against the cap.

Aren't we done at guard? I would think it will be Bates and McGovern playing guard to start the season, unless Bates moves to center if the Bills move on from Morse, which seems very unlikely.

If McGovern ends up being our big free agent move to shore up the o-line, then our offseason is a failure, certainly compared to the moves that KC has made to protect Mahomes over the last couple of years.

I am guessing that she means that nothing can be announced until Wednesday, but I have to assume he will be playing for a new team this fall. Of course, who knows what she is suggesting with this tweet.

Since the Rams are trading and releasing assets, maybe we can figure out a trade with them for Donald? We can include Oliver in the trade. One can dream.

I agree that there are not a lot of players that are cut candidates, but I thought that McKenzie, Settle, Neal and Hines would at least be considerations for release or possibly salary reductions. Other possibility was contract extensions. Nothing about this either. Very quiet at OBD.

Aren't we waiting on cuts and salary reductions as well? I would have thought that information about releases would have happened by now given that the Bills seem like the kind of organization that would want to give cut players the best opportunity to sign elsewhere, which would be before or as the free agency period begins.

I think the league new year begins on March 15th, so only five days away. Need to tender restricted free agents by then and be under the cap.

Milano seems like a no brainer. So would Diggs, unless there really are issues and he wants out. The Bills will have much to consider as to whether to restructure White and Dawkins (especially White). I would not.

I have no idea what his issues are. I hope the coaches and GM do. We need him to be in the right frame of mind and to be the player he has been for his time with Buffalo. We have no replacement on the roster for his production, and it is unlikely we will replace his production with a free agent or a draft choice.

His head still does not seem to be in the right place after the team was bounced out of the playoffs by the Bengals. He can't let it go, has no understanding of what happened and is leaving a trail of bread crumbs about potentially wanting out (or certainly feeling uncomfortable with the current direction of the team). I think this needs to be resolved as soon as possible since there are too many ramifications associated with whether or not we have a number one WR to start the season.

We really don't have any replacements on the current roster for Edmunds or Poyer, which is unfortunate. How much of an impact their loss will have on the defense will depend on the free agents signed or draft picks made that will replace them.

It will be interesting to see the moves made prior to and on March 15th to get under the salary cap. I would expect we will be hearing soon about salary restructures, salary reductions, cuts, restricted free agent tenders and possibly extensions. I think three of the potential restructures raise potential issues. Will DIggs be willing to restructure (assuming it makes it harder to trade him)? Do you restructure Miller and White (both coming off of ACL injuries)? The only easy restructure is Allen. Hard to guess which current players, if any, will be asked to take pay cuts. I expect the Bills to cut McKenzie, but I am not sure of any others. Guessing maybe Hines, Settle and Neal, unless those contracts are restructured. I hope we tender Jackson. A second round tender would be $4.3 million.

If they restructure his contract for more cap space, that will be a good sign of his commitment to the team because it likely will make trading him even more difficult.