BillsFanForever19

Read into whatever you'd like. I'm not saying that it's not going to happen. But when people are referencing "all this smoke", it's important to put into context what it is. It's not exactly a Schefter or Rappaport report saying we've been talking to the Cardinals or anything. Just fans reading into things and getting excited over things that may or may not even mean anything.

Look, I'd love it. But let's look at the "smoke": - DHop and Josh Allen followed each other: Players follow each other all the time. More often than not, it's nothing but that. - DHop posted a video of himself set to Buffalo Soldier: Could just be a big Bob Marley fan and it means nothing more than that. Just a coincidence he and Josh followed each other at the same time he decided to caption a video with a Marley song. His deleting it could have been him saying "oh, people are reading more into it than that". It's fun to read into things. But that's all that's happening right now. There's been no real smoke beyond us working ourselves up.

That's a whole lot easier said than done. I know it drops from 31 to 19.45 for the trading team. I imagine that already means they're eating some. Don't know how willing they'd be to take on more dead cap space. Asking them to give him to us and pay for him would cost us more in compensation.

Apparently by adding 3 void years, we can drop it to just under 5 this season. But I don't know what our situation is in 25, 26, and 27 and what it would add to those years.

Tre isn't going anywhere. We can't save cap by releasing him. Actually costs us 6 million more to cut him than it does for him to be here.

Not exactly breaking news.

Ground up and in the freezer

I've been adamant that I don't see a way this move is possible. I still think this is probably a matter of Hopkins trying to put out smoke to get things moving with another team. But if it is real and there is a way to do it, I'd be thrilled to be wrong. As I was with Damien Harris' contract.

Not sure where you're seeing we're under the cap next year. First off - here's the breakdown. On the bottom of the page you'll see, we're 18 million over. https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/buffalo-bills/cap/2024/ Brandon Beane even mentioned that we're in the same situation next year in one of his press conferences when talking about how up against the cap we are this year.

With him, yes. Unless they're trading for Mike Evans, they're failing the Offseason.

I'd love it too. But Mecole Hardman represents the most we could do. And I don't think even Hardman is likely. It would take him asking for too much and finding himself without a suitor deep into FA and willing to take less to play with a contender to try to improve his stock next season. Hopkins is even less likely than him. We're 18+ million over the cap next season with Ed Oliver, Gabe Davis, Micah Hyde, Daquan Jones, Tyler Bass, and Tim Settle (amongst many other depth players and 1 year signings from this year) as Free Agents. As Beane said in his presser, he went all in getting Von last year and now can't afford to put himself in the hole further. On top of getting deeper into the hole, we'd also have to give up picks that we need to keep to replace people, given our cap situation.

We have maybe 7 million dollars of the 43.5 we were able to pull together, when we were already 18.5 over. We have more holes to fill and draft picks to sign. This concept of "I don't care, just get it done" is childish. The cap can be finessed, but it DOES exist. And he's already finessed it quite a bit just to stay afloat. We went all in last year. We can't do that this year. We're 18+ million over the cap next year already for pushing things down the road all the time. His cap hit moves from 31 to 19.45. Simply can't afford that. Even if we did move things around further from there (which i'm not sure we can), we still can't afford it. And they're going to pay for it? How much compensation would that cost for them to give us Hopkins and pay for him? More than anyone would pay for a 30 year old WR. WR will be addressed somehow. Whether it's a gamble on someone coming off an injury like OBJ, someone looking to rebuild their value like Allen Robinson, getting lucky that someone overplayed their hand in FA like Mecole Hardman, and/or more likely than all of that a 1st or 2nd Round Draft pick. But DeAndre Hopkins is a pipedream. Simple as that. If you're expecting or even hoping for that, you're misguided and setting yourself up for surefire anger and/or disappointment.

The point is - that bill comes due. It appears there's more in 2026, 2 years after he's gone that they'll still be paying for. And if we're talking about Hopkins v. Cooks, we're talking about a 12 million cap hit that can be restructured to 4 v. a 31 million cap hit that becomes 19.45.

He'll also carry a $4m dollar cap hit and a $4m dead cap hit in 2025, even though he won't be on the team. https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/dallas-cowboys/brandin-cooks-14429/

Maybe if we had the cap space, he would have been. But giving up on a guy they spent a Day 2 pick on, after a promising rookie season, followed by a sophomore season with a heavy asterisk, when you can't afford to in the first place doesn't make sense. Lots of fans looked at the situation we were in and said "I don't care, figure it out". And he did. He found 43.5 to get out from under 18.5. But we still had 24 bodies to re-sign or replace with that money. Expensive splashes weren't in the cards.

I've been saying all along that we're going to sign a David Quessenberry level OT, or simply bring back Quessenberry himself, and Draft an OT in the mid rounds. Have a competition between the 3. One would start, one would be a Swing Tackle, and one would replace Tommy Doyle. If you listened to Beane at all, he was never going to outright replace Spencer Brown. He's consistently said he feels him having to have back surgery in the Offseason, not having a Training Camp, and being nicked up throughout the season was the cause of him underperforming. And there may be some merit in that. Beane's covering his bases in the event Brown does become a long term issue. But he was never giving up on him. People who were expecting that were fooling themselves. There was never going to be an Orlando Brown level signing to outright replace him.

I think doing a wishlist without regard to cap is kind of a silly venture. I mean, if there's no regard to cap why not trade for a Madden team? I'd much rather do this with regard to cap. WR: - Odell Beckham Jr. (Yes, his knees are a gamble. But his market is at an all time low. If it doesn't work, we won't have paid him near what he'd make otherwise, so it's worth the gamble on a 1 year deal) - Mecole Hardman (Probably not doable, but I'd love him on a 1 year under market deal if his options have dried up or he overplayed his hand) - Allen Robinson (Seems like a Beane signing. A guy who needs to rebuild his brand, can be had for a bargain, and could easily outperform what he's paid) MLB: - Bobby Wagner (Yes, he's getting long in the tooth. Yes, he showed to be a little bit of a liability in coverage. But Milano is an ace coverage LB and we have DB's all over the field. Sign him up, draft a guy in the mid rounds, and game plan accordingly while he mentors Bernard and a Rookie for next year) - Anthony Walker Jr. (Coming off a torn quad last season, he's 27 and has started the majority of the games he's played since coming in to the league in 2017) - Myles Jack (Signed a big deal with Pittsburgh last season, but was injured throughout the year and released. If he can stay healthy, he could be had at a bargain and could provide something for a year while Bernard and a mid round Rookie gain experience) DE: - Shaq Lawson (Appears as though he can only perform at a decent level with us. So he should come back at a decent price for us as teams have noticed he underperforms anywhere else. Von should be ready near the start of the year. But we don't want to have to rely solely on Epenesa and Basham opposite Groot if he can't)

"Start" when it comes to RB on most teams in the NFL, especially the Bills, is an old school thought. We are a committee. Now we have two guys who do different things. The majority of the carries on any given game between Cook and Harris will come down to game plan. And as far as last year and Singletary goes, it had way more to do with McDermott's way of playing Rookies and easing them in. Which, in my opinion, is a little too conservative.

Nope. It's still there if you want to laugh and/or praise the genius that is Brandon Beane. https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/buffalo-bills/damien-harris-29123/market-value/ Again, I was clearly wrong. And I'm thrilled to have been wrong. I didn't see any way we'd get him for half of Alexander Mattison, less than half of Devin Singletary, and even cheaper than Travis Homer and Justice Hill. But here we are!

Well sh-t. I am absolutely thrilled to have been wrong. What an absolute steal!

Good info to have. But even at 19.5 this year and 15 next year, we can't afford that. At most, we were able to get 25 million under the cap with some heavy finessing. Probably have 7 million left right now (with Draft Picks still left to pay for) after the Harris, Sherfield, and Quessenberry signings. We can do some more finessing. Though it's hard to see where anymore. Maybe extensions for DaQuan Jones and/or Ed Oliver? Releasing Siran Neal. But 19.5 plus compensation on one player? No way. Gabe Davis had a down year that Beane attributes to injury. But they aren't about to guarantee that he's gone next season before the year starts by putting themselves in a situation where it would be it would be impossible to bring him back. Beane himself talked up bringing him back already in his last presser. It'll be a move for OBJ at a bargain bc of the risk, an outside chance at a trade for a manageable Jeudy (and even that feels unlikely to me), at most a 1 year deal for around 9 for Mecole Hardman (also unlikely to me), maybe a manageable prove it deal for a guy looking to rebuild his brand in Allen Robinson, or a high Draft pick. But this Hopkins (and Mike Evans) talk is absolute nonsense. This guy was advocating trading Matt Milano to get Mike Evans or DeAndre Hopkins, so yeah, he's pretty much muted to me at this point.

OBJ can be done. Jerry Jeudy depending on the trade could theoretically be done with him still being under his rookie deal. DeAndre Hopkins is not happening. He only has this year and next year left on his deal. He has a 31 million dollar cap hit this season and a 27 million dollar cap hit next season. There's no restructure that can be done that will make him work with our cap this year or next (where we're also 18+ million over). He's not ripping up that deal to sign a new one that isn't a monster. Even if we could afford it, which we can't, there's no way Beane is going to pay Diggs what we're paying him and then turn around and pay Nuke's asking price.

Are you seriously calling Damien Harris a dumpster dive acquisition? C'mon.

He already signed with the Giants.