BillsFanForever19

Driving Sports Cars at over 140 as a recent Draft Pick following Henry Ruggs' incident is not a good look.

I wouldn't have a problem with us kicking the tires on him to see if there's anything there and for depth. But if I remember correctly, he wanted out because he wasn't getting enough playing time to his liking. He probably wouldn't be getting much more here either.

Probably to not overwhelm them. They get set up, accustomed to the routine, explained what's expected of them over the following weeks, get to know their fellow rookies more - sort of like a job orientation. If you're a kid coming from College and you're moving in and immediately going straight into everything, it could be a lot.

Not really a fair comparison. You make it sound like any star RB could have been a star QB if they chose. Totally different skill sets.

He absolutely wouldn't. The NFL is a business first and foremost. Your idea that rings come before money is not based in reality. As I said before, players will take less to play for a winning team. But that only goes so far. I'd venture to say a 25% discount probably signifies the most. If Team A is offering double in guaranteed money what Team B is, the player is always going to go to Team A regardless of whether a ring is more likely with Team B.

It was obvious to me when I saw he a.) Took the Titans visit and b.) That he posted a picture of him being picked up in a Titans vehicle that they (embarrassingly) had an image created of him plastered on monitors wearing a Titans uniform and helmet that said "Welcome to Tennessee!" like some fanboys, that it was over. It was clear then that given their situation, they'd do whatever it took. Taking a discount to play with a winning team only goes so far. And when Tennessee came into the picture offering 2 years, 26 guaranteed (up to 32) - it was just a matter of time before he had to accept it or they'd pull the offer. He waited hoping someone like us or KC would come close. But when neither would, he had to take it before that money disappeared. Any player would have done the same. "Playing for a ring" is a romantic fan idea, but not one based in reality. Players will do that if the winning team is in the ballpark of the top offers. But at no point were we, or any other winning team, going to come close to paying a 31 Year Old WR that kind of money this late in the offseason. Especially when we're paying Stefon Diggs what we're paying him.

Mike Evans loves Tampa Bay and Tampa Bay loves Mike Evans. They're working on a Contract Extension now that both sides want to get done. I keep hearing people bringing him up but I don't think he's going anywhere. https://www.nbcsports.com/nfl/profootballtalk/rumor-mill/news/mike-evans-bucs-working-toward-third-contract

The point is that the makeup of the Offense as a whole has us almost universally as the #2 Offense in the league. If the surrounding talent around Josh and Diggs were "garbage" as the guy I quoted likes to say, we wouldn't be that high.

Again, you are completely dismissing each players last full seasons of football where they were given more opportunities than they ever had before and focusing on when they were Undrafted players working their way up rosters with stars in front of them. And the general consensus? According to whom? You and a couple other posters on this thread? A quick Google search showed me these consensus about where the Offense ranks going into this season: NFL.com - #3 Ranked Offense in the NFL: https://www.nfl.com/news/nfl-s-top-10-offenses-in-2023-bills-chiefs-eagles-produce-highest-win-share-proj Bleacher Report - #2 Ranked Offense in the NFL: https://bleacherreport.com/articles/10075320-ranking-every-nfl-offense-after-the-2023-draft Lines.com - #2 Ranked Offense in the NFL: https://www.lines.com/guides/nfl-offense-power-rankings/1615 Pro Football Network - #2 Ranked Offense in the NFL: https://www.profootballnetwork.com/nfl-offense-rankings/

You just love to play the "average" game to justify that Harty and Sherfield are "garbage". The "average" doesn't take into account that these are two players who were playing reserve roles behind stars most of their careers. When given opportunities because of injuries (in Harty's case) or earning them on a different team (in Sherfield's case), they flashed untapped potential. In both cases, this was in their last outings, not years ago. And this is a "what have you done for me lately?" league. But you always seem to lump in the years where they were buried on the depth chart to skew an average to justify your belief that they are nothing and can't possibly be anything. Deonte Harty's 2021 campaign (IR'ed early October 2022) - 570 yards as a 3rd Option Trent Sherfield's 2022 campaign - 417 yards as a 3rd Option You think Davis is a scrub? Beane brought in Harty and Sherfield as some insurance/competition behind him. You think they're scrubs and/or Harty is an injury risk? Beane traded up to Draft Kincaid and takes a chance on Shorter as further insurance. But then you say you can't rely on Rookies. I say that between Gabe Davis, Dalton Kincaid, Deonte Harty, Khalil Shakir, and Trent Sherfield that the odds that two of the five will step up and be solid 2nd and 3rd options behind Stefon Diggs (not to mention Dawson Knox) is way more likely than all 5 being unreliable or "garbage" and that we're in trouble and Beane hasn't done enough. Given where we were on Cap space, the amount of holes we had to fill, and where we were picking in the Draft - he's done more than I thought he'd be able to do.

He pursued OBJ and now Hopkins, half heartedly. He was only interested in OBJ (and now Hopkins as well) at a low risk, low priced, potentially high reward investment to add to the weapons we have. When OBJ couldn't be gotten at a bargain, he was no longer interested. And if Hopkins doesn't want to come at a bargain, he won't be coming here either. At a bargain price, they're not guaranteed to get more reps than Davis. His pursuit of these two does not scream urgency and fear for Davis. It screams due diligence and wanting to add some more weapons into the rotation, if he can get them at a bargain. Not necessarily outright replace. And he's since Drafted Kincaid and signed Harty. So the urgency is even less now. Trying to get either "at the right price" is not the move of someone who is panicking and desiring of outright replacing Davis. If it was of the importance to him you believe it to be, he'd have paid the price they're asking for without hesitation. This idea that he's stressing it and a move is going to happen, he just hasn't closed the deal yet, seems to me to be more of wishful thinking from select fans than actual reality. Especially after the moves he's made this offseason.

For the millionth time, you can have all the concerns you want regarding Harty's injury history. But it doesn't change the fact that Beane evaluated him and assumed that risk. He didn't target him on Day 1 of Free Agency and sign him to a 2 year deal thinking he can't rely on him. Many of you may have wanted Davis outright replaced, but that was never in the cards. The plan was always to give him another hopefully healthy season, but also bring in more weapons for Josh and competition/insurance in the event Davis doesn't progress or regresses. That's why he signed Harty and Drafted Kincaid. If Davis continues to underperform (or even if he doesn't), some of his targets are going to go Kincaid, Knox, and/or Harty's way. If there are injuries in Training Camp, Pre-Season, or Mid Season - Beane will act accordingly. But he made moves for 4 different pass catching weapons this offseason. We already have 6 WR's who are locks for the 53. Beane's lack of urgency on Hopkins clearly says he likes what he's done and is comfortable with what he has. You can poke holes in the players he's brought in all you want. But that's what he chose to go with and he's not going to keep bringing in guys in because you don't think they're good enough.

If Beane feels good enough about our weapons, following the Drafting of Kincaid and Shorter and the signings of Harty and Sherfield, to not make DeAndre Hopkins a priority or pay his asking price - then there's no way he's paying for any of those guys and trading picks on top of it.

They more than eyeballed talent in Round 1. They traded up to Draft Dalton Kincaid, a TE in name only who appeared to be their first choice.

Good point. I was reading it as Buffalo but Bull does make more sense. That said, I don't think him saying "bullsh-t" to a report that we're interested is a good thing either.

Unless he doesn't care because that suitor has offered something that he feels is a slap in the face to him. Which is what I think is going on here. To me, it's been obvious since Day 1 that given our cap situation, the way he operates, things that Beane has said, and the urgency (or lack thereof) in which he's operated - that his interest (if any) has been on a 1 year, incentive laden prove it deal. Much like Poona Ford and Leonard Floyd, the offer has been on the table for him to come back to or simply not. He's not going to all of a sudden up his offer to Hopkins demands and Hopkins knows that. So he simply doesn't care if he's slapping us in the face or not because the door is closed and in his mind we've slapped HIM in the face. If he was worried about what you're alleging, he'd simply say nothing at all.

That interest could have easily disappeared when he saw a meager offer and felt insulted by it.

I read it as him either saying the Buffalo offer is crap and/or Buffalo is crap and he isn't coming here (probably because they offered him crap). The fact that he put the Buffalo first wouldn't lead me to believe he's simply saying the report is dung. If he wanted to say that he would have just posted the poop emoji. Buffalo + poop means something different than that in "emoji". Especially when you consider it's in reply to an article basically saying we're interested only if he wants to come cheap. More wishful thinking on your part. This thing has been a non starter unless he came around to our team friendly offer and this is him saying that isn't going to happen.

https://www.musiccitymiracles.com/2023/7/10/23788871/report-titans-made-aggressive-contract-offer-to-wr-deandre-hopkins This doesn't surprise me. They have a 2022 1st Round Pick in Treylon Burks, who didn't set the league on fire in his rookie year, and literally nothing else at WR or TE. They have Ryan Tannehill at QB, with Will Levis and Malik Wilis behind him and they have their fingers crossed that one of them will amount to something. For him to have even taken that visit, it had to have been a quality offer. Then he posted an IG Story of the visit where he was picked up in a luxury vehicle that had a monitor in the car that was displaying "Welcome to Tennessee, DeAndre Hopkins!" with a custom image of Hopkins in a Titans helmet and uniform. I thought that looked a little cringy and desperate. I'd bet their offer is head and shoulders above anyone else's. I'm sure he really doesn't want to play there. But the problem is that where he does want to play isn't even going to get close to the offers he's getting from TEN (and maybe NE). He's hoping someone like us or KC will get close, but I don't think it's going to happen. My guess is unless there's an injury early in camp, he ends up waiting it out as long as that offers on the table and ends up signing with them because the differential in money is just too great. He'd take a discount for a contender, but that only goes so far.

Tyrod was better than most of the garbage QB's we had during the drought era. His ability to move was great. However, his title for the entirety of his career was "game manager". If the running game and the Defense was carrying the game, he could do enough and protect the ball enough to get us the win. But he couldn't take a game over like a true Franchise QB could. Every week, he'd be praised for not turning the football over. But that was mainly because he rarely threw the ball unless someone was WIDE open. If someone had an ounce of coverage on them, they weren't getting the ball. So many games we'd fall behind and I'd be screaming at the TV "Throw the ball! Make something happen!" and he'd play with the same urgency he played with to start the game. The guy just rarely took a chance. When Josh makes the occasional boneheaded play, I always think of the Tyrod years and say "I'd rather deal with this occasionally than deal with a game manager". Ultimately, Tyrod was the ideal Bridge or Backup QB in the NFL. Someone who won't lose you the game and be a steady hand. But he wasn't a Franchise guy. His career trajectory after we moved on from him kind of proved what he was. But I'll always appreciate that he was the guy steering the ship when we broke the drought.

Where did you hear they were going to release Parker? It doesn't make sense that they'd say "if we can sign Hopkins, we'll release Parker" and then shift to "okay, we couldn't sign Hopkins so we're going to give Parker a 3 year, 33 million dollar extension". Teams don't operate that way. They gave up a 3rd for Parker just last year, he was always in their plans when Hopkins came in to visit. Extending Parker likely frees up cap space this year, making it easier for them to sign Hopkins. I wouldn't read a thing into extending Parker. If anything, the Parker extension helps them get Hopkins.

I agree, to an extent. I believe Buffalo and KC are interested. But they're only in on a one year, incentive laden deal. Hopkins really doesn't want that. On the other hand, the Titans and Pats are probably offering closer to what he wants with a contract, but he'd prefer to sign with a contender and a team with a QB who has better arm strength and talent to get him deep balls. That's why I think we're in this holding pattern. Either he gets a team he wants, but doesn't get the contract he wants or he gets the contract he wants, but doesn't get the situation he wants. He was hoping in taking the visits to New England and Tennessee that a team like Kansas City or Buffalo would see it and up their offer. But obviously, that hasn't happened and it doesn't appear that it will. Ultimately, I think NE and/or TEN are going to tell Hopkins that they'll pull their offer(s) if he doesn't agree by a certain date and when push comes to shove - he'll end up signing with one of them.

I feel like if that were a move they were to make they'd have already done it by now. Not saying it's out of the realm of possibility that after Training Camp they take a look at things and decide they can part ways. But I don't see it happening before then and I'd be surprised if it happened at all. Either way, the point remains the same. Fans look at our situation and Hopkins and say "if we cut this player, extend this player, renegotiate this player - we can pay Hopkins (X amount)". That's not how Beane operates. If he's going to extend someone, it's not done specifically to sign someone else. It's done when he wants the player extended and the player and their agent agrees to their price tag. Anyone he wants to release to save cap space, he does early on in the Offseason or after a correlating move. Like if he felt this about Neal after signing Rapp, he'd have released him soon thereafter like he did with McKenzie following Harty. This late in the game, if he wanted to release Neal for cap space, he'd have done it already. Ultimately, if Hopkins comes here, it's going to be at the price he offered when they talked. Beane's not going to panic and do a bunch of stuff he hadn't planned on doing to get him here, like posters are suggesting. He's not going to get into a bidding war. Just like Leonard Floyd and Poona Ford, it's on Hopkins to come back to the offer, which is surely less than others are offering, or play somewhere else.

When it comes to another DT extension after Oliver's, I get the feeling Beane's going to want to see how Daquan Jones, Poona Ford, and Jordan Phillips play and hold up throughout the season before extending one of them. As for Neal, he's a favorite amongst posters to clear cap. But he's also a favorite of the coaching staff and the locker room. He's our only other Nickel CB besides Taron Johnson, our only Big Nickel, and a core Special Teams player. There's a reason they gave him the contract they did. He's not going anywhere. And Beane doesn't do extensions that aren't in his plans or release players at other positions simply to make a move on a Free Agent. That's not how he operates.

Well if Tennessee and New England weren't offering a decent amount of guaranteed money, that would probably mean we don't even have an offer to him at all or are offering straight up nothing guaranteed.