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Gilliam isn't a Tight End on this team. He's been a Fullback since his Rookie year when he won the job over Patrick Dimarco. You can put him at TE in certain packages. But his role isn't going to change. He's not making a full time switch to Tight End on a whim without running with the Tight End group in Training Camp or the Pre-Season. Even if they had (which they didn't), there'd have been another FB brought in. There's been no indication they're removing Fullback from this Offense. And Gilliam's not going to be FB1, TE3, and ST all at the same time. If Shenault is making the roster, he'll take Brandon Codrington's spot and he'll be the 6th "WR", like Codrington was the 6th "CB". Curtis Samuel has returned to Practice in Full. He is no longer dealing with injuries. You can't just IR a healthy person. Hawes is going to be here. It's not a question. And you can't say for sure he wouldn't be poached. All it takes is one team that needs a Blocking TE and wanted to take him after we did. We've never once under Beane and McDermott outright cut a 5th Round Draft Pick the same year they've Drafted them. That's not going to change this year. Especially with the reviews that Hawes has had this off-season. And I have not a clue what you're trying to say with your last sentence. What 7th Rounder are you talking about? Do you think Hawes was a 7th Rounder? He wasn't, he was Drafted in the 5th. What does occasionally using OL as Eligible Receivers have to do with anything? We still carry 3 True TE's every year regardless of that.

Yeah, he's pretty firmly behind Hamlin, Hancock, and Lewis. I didn't think he ever really had much of a chance to make it anyways. His zero guarantees, minimum contract always kind of screamed Camp Body to me. Especially when you looked at the guys in front of him, the investments made in them, and how McDermott values them. Even Forrest's biggest supporters like Joe Marino concede he's not going to make it. He'll probably be back on the Practice Squad though, unless he decides he has better options on another teams Practice Squad.

Yeah, not only does cutting Hamlin NOT save us 7m - it actually *costs* us $662,500 in general Cap Space and another 2m in Dead Cap. Agreed, not sure where they got that number from.

The only way Samuel isn't here is if someone's willing to trade for him. That would save us 7.34m in Cap Space while eating only 1.7m in Dead Cap. Otherwise if we just cut him, we save nothing and eat over 8.8m in Dead Cap. At that point, you're paying for him whether he's on the roster or not. Might as well get something out of him, even if he doesn't stay healthy all year. Moore is an interesting case. He's had some good practices, he's had some bad practices, he's been injured, and he hasn't really popped in the Pre-Season. Depending on who you talk to, he's either had a good off-season or a bad one. He, like Samuel, saves us nothing by cutting him and costs us 2.5m in Dead Money. Like Samuel, you're paying for him whether he's here or not. That said, eating 2.5m is a lot more likely and palatable than eating over 8.8m. So it's possible. One thing I don't think you're going to see though is us cutting both of them. Which would have us saving nothing and eating over 11.3m in Dead Money. If we can Trade Samuel, maybe they'd cut Moore. But it's way more likely they'd Trade Samuel and keep Moore, Cut Moore and keep Samuel, or keep them both - IMO. The other side of what you're saying is regardless of creativity on Offense, they're going to keep at least 5 WR's. So who would the 5th guy be beyond Shakir, Palmer, Coleman, and Shavers if you got rid of both Samuel and Moore? K.J. Hamler? Kristian Wilkerson? Nah. Samuel and Moore are better WR's than them and you're already paying for them. At least one of them will stick. As for keeping an extra RB, I don't see that. We're not going to dress 4 RB's on Game Day and we'll have no problem getting Gore back on the Practice Squad. Yes, Jackson Hawes is dead set as the 3rd TE on the Roster. Much like WR, we're going to keep 3 Tight End's. And he's a very good Blocking Tight End who has had a good off-season. We also spent a 5th Round Pick on him. Releasing a Draft Pick before the bottom of the 6th is a risky proposition trying to sneak them on to the Practice Squad.

Wow. I had read somewhere he was having trouble paying Child Support, but i'm surprised the Ravens signed him at his age....

People are unhappy with the return on investment to this point on Keon Coleman, imagine Drafting Ja'Lynn Polk 4 picks later. In his Rookie season, he played in 15 games and had 7 starts. His stat total for the year were 12 catches, for 87 yards, and 2 TD's. Now he's potentially missing Year 2 to an injury. Ouch.

Ingram and Jackson to me were both likely cuts on my 53 at the start of camp. Now bc of the rash of injuries, it's not only practically a lock they'll both stick, one of them will potentially be starting Week 1.

I don't think there would be a CB trade. We're too close to the start of the Regular Season to plug and play someone in McDermott's complicated Secondary scheme. My guess if there were to be a move at CB bc Tre is out long term, it would be Rasul Douglas. He's a guy they could plug and play alongside Jackson, Strong, and Ingram. It wouldn't be what I'd do, as I think he's toast. But this regime has shown time and again that they prefer familiarity with McDermott's Defense over ability.

It is odd that there's been nothing. It makes me wonder if they think it's potentially something long, but they want results from all tests to make absolutely sure it is or isn't before they say anything. As at this point in his career, announcing that it's a long term injury would essentially be announcing his career is over.

Zy Alexander? He's an Undrafted Rookie that was cut by his original team and has been with us for a total of 2 days. He's still reading the playbook. Plug and play is barely a thing for tried and true veterans in this Defense. If Strong looked like he has the Defense down and has impressed the coaches during the off-season, I wouldn't be surprised to see him get a shot. But Dane Jackson and Ja'Marcus Ingram would and should be the next men up before Alexander. Even with Hairston out and White potentially being out, Alexander is unlikely to make the 53. He's just a body brought in to play in the last Pre-Season game. His ceiling is the Practice Squad.

I agree that with what I'm hearing from Sal, I don't believe Tre is dealing with a long term injury. But we won't know for sure until we know. As for the separate point about Samuel's market, if there were a team that would give him 8-10m, it would have happened by now. We're dangerously close to the time where he takes what's offered or he gets nothing and stays at home. That said, I'm not convinced that even if Tre was done that we'd call Asante. I'm willing to bet they'd call Rasul Douglas. Even though I think he's toast, their MO is always familiarity with McDermott's Defense before talent/ability. Especially being so close to Week 1. Not a lot of time to learn a new complicated playbook.

One thing that wouldn't surprise me, especially given the kind of names that are sitting out there, is if they sign a veteran to the Practice Squad. As I said in an earlier post, this is an almost exact copy of 2023. And in 2023, we signed Christian Kirksey to the Practice Squad just before the start of the year. A lot of people expected him to eventually become the Starter, but Terrel Bernard stepped up and locked down the position from the jump and Kirksey left town. It wouldn't surprise me if they did something similar at Safety. Bringing in a name to the Practice Squad to provide insurance and to push Cole Bishop to put his best foot forward. "Sir, this is a Wendy's"

How does that make sense? If they've lost Harmon, they'd be in need of a DT now - not 7 weeks from now. And any CB we'd get in a Trade for 11 games with Ogunjobi would be the caliber of player that wouldn't play over Dorian Strong, Dane Jackson, and Ja'Marcus Ingram.

And if we offered 56 or 62, not only would that cost us T.J. Sanders or at least Landon Jackson, who's to say the bidding war ends there? Like I said, the Jets included #42 conditionally. So if we beat their offer with one of those, it's very likely they then just offer #42 unconditionally. Then the only way to beat it is to give #30. Which is absolutely INSANE to offer for a half year rental on a 31 year old WR. On top of that, it's been said he wanted to go to the Jets and play with Rodgers again. You say that he doesn't have much say in the matter. He absolutely did. Trading for him would have required us to rework his contract. And he had the ability to say no to that to whichever team wanted to trade for him. So it very well may have been reunite with Rodgers or nothing: I don't know why you "keep coming back to" this idea. Cooper was an option. Adams wasn't once the Jets became involved because of their picks being higher than ours, even more so after it became known that's where he preferred to go, and had the power to say "no" to reworking his deal (which we'd have to do).

You're still doing it but implying "the Bills settled for a significantly worse player". The cap situation is part of it. The bigger part is that we didn't have the ammo to outbid the Jets. Their picks were better than ours. The Raiders weren't going to take #96 that could become #56 (if we were even willing to do that) when the Jets were offering #94 that could become #42.

There's been anonymous source scuttlebutt that he's "done". Implications that he's checked out. Which would explain why we didn't look to bring him back and why he's still on the street.

The other issue is that the picks that were being offered by the Jets were better picks than we could offer. The Jets sent a Round 3 Pick (#92) with conditions in the trade that could turn it into a Round 2 Pick (#42). Even if we matched the Rounds in the trade, they were still lesser Picks. It would have been a Round 3 Pick (#94) with conditions that could it into a Round 2 Pick (either #56 or #62). To beat their offer, we would have had to straight up offer either #56 or #62. Even then, since NYJ put in conditions to make it a 2nd anyways, there's no telling that they wouldn't have countered our offer and just straight up offered #42. That would have been game, set, match - just like the offer that they got him with. The Jets wanted him and had better picks to acquire him that we couldn't match. And that's not even taking the contracts into account. Cooper we were able to easily make work. Adams would have taken a LOT of work to fit in. All this to say you're oversimplifying matters by a LOT by making it just a decision of Cooper or Adams and that we made the wrong choice. Cooper was an option, Adams really wasn't once the Jets got involved.

Please show me where I said Rookies "can't" play well in their first year. I said you can't *rely* on that. That it's unlikely, especially with your first pick being around Pick 30, or in the case of this discussion, 33. And your gotcha's for last year prove my point more than yours. Of a field of 257 picks, you pointed to 7 players. I'll even add Brian Thomas Jr. to your list. Of those 8 players, only 2 were on the board when we picked. And we'd only be able to get 1 of them. Like above, you're taking words like "unlikely" to mean impossible. Statements like "you can't rely on Rookies in Year 1" to mean "Rookies will provide nothing". These are not things I'm saying. What I'm saying is to *expect* it is a lot to ask of them (especially where we're picking). To rely only on just them is foolish, which is why we don't if we can avoid it. The Defense will way more likely than not improve. But it's not all on the Rookies, like you're implying. And it's not all on the Veterans. It's in both. And also, it's in who they're replacing. At CB, from the field of Maxwell Hairston, Tre White, Dorian Strong, and Dane Jackson - to see an improvement they need to provide more than Rasul Douglas (who gave up a 144.2 passer rating when thrown on and is on the street bc he's toast), Kaiir Elam, and Ja'Marcus Ingram. At DE, from the field of Joey Bosa, Michael Hoecht, and Landon Jackson - to see an improvement they need to provide more than Von Miller and Dawuane Smoot. At DT, from the field of T.J. Sanders, Larry Ogunjobi, and Deone Walker - to see an improvement they need to provide more than Austin Johnson, Quinton Jefferson, and Jordan Phillips. These are not big asks of either the Rookies or the Veterans.

Not always. And this year, we have *so* many players dinged up, we can't really afford to do that - as we need to be able to field a team for the last Pre-Season game while also sitting a large percentage of the guys making the 53.

How do you consider it "dirty pool"? It's simply fact that most Drafted Rookies don't light the league on fire in Year 1. Especially when you're consistently picking at the bottom of Round 1. Yes, you need to be patient with Draft Picks. You can't rely on them to get the NFL game down immediately. And the Bills aren't doing that on Defense this year. They have fall back plans everywhere. We're not just relying on Maxwell Hairston and Dorian Strong. We signed Tre White and Dane Jackson. We're not just relying on T.J. Sanders and Deone Walker. We signed Larry Ogunjobi. We're not just relying on Landon Jackson. We signed Joey Bosa and Michael Hoecht. Of course you *want* to find 1st year impact players in the Draft. But the Draft is a crap shoot as is. It's an even bigger crap shoot if you're wanting to see major Year 1 impact. And an even bigger one still if you want Year 1 impact while consistently picking at the bottom of the Round.

The problem with that is what do you think the odds are that we'd pay Rousseau 80m with 54m guaranteed on one side AND pay the insane cost that an "elite guy" would cost on the other side - while also paying a top QB contract? To me, that's *incredibly* unlikely. This is why we took a chance on Joey Bosa on an injury prone discounted rate, signed Michael Hoecht, and Drafted Landon Jackson. With what we're paying Rousseau (on top of everything else), we need to hit on a cheaper option on the other side. Which is why I imagine this scenario has Rousseau involved in a Trade Offer for Hendrickson. We're scraping pennies together right now after all the deals we did. We're dead last on cap space and it's not looking good in future years, again, bc of all the deals and extensions we did. To fit a guy like Hendrickson on and pay him what he wants, we'd need to unload a big contract like Rousseau's. This is why I was out on extending Rousseau. If we need an Elite guy opposite Rousseau for him to be effective, why spend 20m a year on him? If he's something we absolutely needed back, why are we every year saying "we need a pass rush" and yearning for guys like Hendrickson? All that said though, I agree with you. I'm not giving up Rousseau and a 1st Round Pick for Trey Hendrickson. He's very good. But I don't think he's worth all of that. I'll take my chances on Bosa this year and Hoecht and Jackson in future years to be the answer. And bc of our Cap situation and all the deals we did, we're really going to need to rely on the Draft in the next couple years. We can't afford to give up 1st Round Picks, imo.

"Why don't we have any Year 1 Superstars with our highest pick being 33rd overall?!"

I'm sure a potential Samuel trade would just be something like Samuel and a 7th for a 6th, maybe even in 2027. It would be all about unloading the contract to make room. As we're currently Dead Last in the league with 1.7m for the 51. But we need to come up with a fair amount more to go from 51 to 53, pay the Practice Squad, and have some room for In Season Spending. But there's also some restructuring we can do to do that. You don't have to offer Special Teams as a 4th or a 5th WR, but it definitely doesn't help your chances if you're on the bubble if you don't. And that's where Moore kind of is. I'm getting an OJ Howard vibe from him. Down to the dollar amount in guarantees (2.5m isn't nothing, but it's not uncuttable), the lack of Teams, and a young guy on a minimum contract impressing underneath him while he isn't. Right now, I just as easily see him being cut as I do him sticking. If they have an actual interest in Davis and it's not just doing due diligence or helping someone they like out by manufacturing interest - I could easily see a scenario where down the stretch our WR core was Shakir, Palmer, Coleman, Davis, and Shavers.