Ed_Formerly_of_Roch

So in other words may want to hold off on dumping Verizon.

I suppose it's possible he's agreed to a deal with Buffalo, but they informed him they need to make some moves first to free up cap space. Could be right now as we speak Beane is trying to extend some existing contracts first, then he'll have a better idea who needs to actually cut. On;y then will the Wat signing be announced. Likely too the above scenario could apply to just about any other team too. A deal has been worked out, but waiting to actually sign.

You wonder if it's a case the league wants MNF on ESPN or some type of "broadcast" channel as opposed to streaming only entity, but have a huge offer from someone like a Yahoo waiting in the wings. So trying to make it work with ESPN, but if they can't will dump them. Am surprised at how few subscribers ST has, but then again if DTV is only in the 14 mil range, not as surprising.

Didn't know about DTV selling single game package. Agree $50 way too much. Whatever/whomever is selling it, can't charge too much else the illegal streams will still flourish. The quality of many of those threads was pretty darn good and became very reliable. So I've been told! Any idea how many ST subscriptions, thought I read someplace was only in the 1 to 2 million range?? I expected much higher.

Think you'll be one of the smaller group that's going to be out of luck and not at all happy. Don't know where/who this will end up with, but based on where the world is going, will be shocked if it's not pretty much exclusively streaming. Maybe they will work out a deal with DTV or Dish to supply a satellite package to anyone who wants it for people like you without the base package, but even then it's debatable how long DTV or Dish will still be broadcasting and in business.

And last year in camp they kept moving him back and forth between tackle and guard too when Mongo was also hurt. That also didn't help much. I'm sure I'm forgetting someone, but off the top of my head can't think of anyone else who's been jerked around as much as he has WRT positions and lets do it when he's a rookie.

True, but if you wanted ST, the only way to legally get it was with a DTV subscription first. That's the problem DTV has, not enough people want ST so the rest are dumping DTV for streaming. Plus enough illegal streams for games so even those who wanted ST, dumped DTV and found the illegal downloads instead to some level. You likely will always be able to watch the 2 to 3 games each Sunday on local network TV, that won't change. But if you want out of market games or redzone, they can and will charge for that not differently than today via ST, just likely will b coming fro ma different source other than DTV

DTV wouldn't have any problems selling the ticket. The problem was DTV made you first subscribe to DTV for $100 to $150 to $200 a month (unless you're in the 1st year introductory offer) then on top of that now pay an extra $400 (asking price) for Sunday Ticket. Certainly the people paying $200 a month had a better chance of getting a discount for ST, but not nearly as much and also harder to get the discounts once DTV was bought out by ATT. I don't really blame ATT for that either as I'm sure they basically came in and told DTV, you can't keep giving this away. If DTV allowed people to purchase ST as a stand alone package, say the streaming version, likely could have sold much more ST subscriptions, but without that extra $100 to $200 am month coming in, they'd still lose money so didn't bother. And yes I know in theory they did offer the streaming only for people who couldn't get service via a dish, but was still not that easy to get it. I even put in the address of a nursing home and was told that address is ineligible. That does beg the question though, how will Amazon make money on a stand alone ST like package if they still charge in the $300 price range? $100 a year for Prime membership won't cut it at the rates DTV paid the NFL.

Get nervous when drafting players high from lower level college programs like N Dakota State. Yes many work out, but hard to project how that talent truly measures up against a WR like say a JaMarr Chase. There certainly are a number that work out, look no further than Andre Reed, but still makes me more nervous drafting that high in 2nd round.

College basketball is even worse these days it seems. At least NBA players can shoot much better, while certainly not great, but much better than most in college. One and done's makes it hard for teams to develop unless you are Duke or UK and can sign the absolute best every year. Even then, it makes the team real good, but not very often good enough to win it all, they usually stumble along the way. With March Madness format, all it takes is one bad night. Duke won the one season but a big contributor was the one kid who stayed all 4 years that everyone hated, believe his name was Grayson? Then the other thing in basketball is the stoppages to review who touched it last or to correct the time. Ten minutes later they add two tenths of a second into the clock.

Likely the Bills will need to draft one of those positions, either LB or O-line. I suppose it makes sense money wise to draft the LB as based on what I've read it would cost much more to sign Milano than Williams. So with limited money sign the cheaper guy and draft the other one. Admittedly it's a little riskier as asking a rookie LB to step in as a 3 down starter is a big ask on a team capable of competing for a SB.

I don't mind the GM role, but like to keep it simple, i.e. easily understand the Bills situation and who/what they can do to free up money. But basketball seems to be in another universe. There to play the GM role takes quite the education and/or time.

Terrible article! He doesn't even bother rating punters and kickers. And what about punt catchers, were is their ranking?

That seems to be a thing of the past in all sports. NBA players taking games off, No pitchers going on 3 days rest, etc. Compare that to how many plays did Bruce Smith come out for. Murphy did serve a purpose early in the season Epenesa wasn't yet ready at all, so he helped keep things together early on. Hindsight is easy, on the other hand if Norman played at half the level he did prior, he'd have been the better choice. Again with a very limited of season, bringing in a guy like Norman who knew the system made a lot of sense.

Was just reading an article today in the Athletic evaluating the 2018 draft. Overall the Bills were ranked 4th behind Indy, Balt, and Cleveland. Allen was given an "Approximate Value" score of 35 one of the higher grades, but Lamar Jackson was scored a 48. If this article had come out back in July would have a hard time arguing the numbers, but now that much of a difference seems crazy. The QB''s all drafted were scored as: Jackson 48 Allen 35 Mayfield 31 Darnold 15 Rosen 2 M Rudolph 4 ( in round 2) It appears there were only a total of 3 players scoring higher than Allen; Jackson at 48 and Q Nelson 42 and D Leonard 42 both with Indy. Next was Allen at 35 The 5th highest score BTW was T Edmunds at 33 so maybe take this article at less than good? S Barkley was scored a 23 where as the Giants could have grabbed a QB https://theathletic.com/2385195/2021/02/15/2018-nfl-draft-winners-and-losers-colts-lead-way-saints-class-ranks-last/

So reading all this, is this anything different than what seemed to be announced 3 to 4 weeks ago?

So who are you replacing them with and actually make the team better? You knocked $24 mil off with the 3 listed above, what actual improvement are you going to make with that money? It's doubtful $24 mil is going to improve the line all that much. Your initial post listed 5 players you wanted to cut, one of which Star will cost additional money to cut. I think it's reasonable that two of the three will be cut. With Star coming back the team has one extra D-Line player available, so it's feasible to cut Addison and one of the tackles and just sign a top edge rusher with the $16 mil savings, certainly doable. Anything much beyond that it likely becomes a one for one, cut/sign replacement. You want to cut four and sign two, the math doesn't exactly work out. Sure you could draft a rookie, but counting on him to contribute at the level of any of these guys you're looking to cut is not likely. I believe too that a big issue the Bills had this past season on the D line was do to bringing in a number of new players, then having no off season or per-season for them to work together. Add on top of that with Star's opt out, they didn't have any true replacements on the team for his role. They tried a number of these new guys in that role, none of which worked out very well. They did improve towards year end, but never to the level expected them to play at and to the level they were paid. Now you want to repeat the same thing in another season which likely is going to have at least some level of an abbreviated off-season. I would be fine with drafting a mid round rookie to play Stars role and let him sit on the bench this season and just watch, in 2022 or 23 then can reasonably cut Star and bring the rookie in. Like it or not the Bills scheme on the D line appears to be we're going to wear you down with quality depth so by the 3rd quarter our subs will be able to beat your best players as we're much fresher. That concept worked pretty well in 208 and 2019, not so much in 2020. What that does mean is the team wants 8 to 9 quality players on the line so if cutting multiple players need to end up signing more and finding money to sign them with and likely play much better than the player you're cutting for the same amount of money. How likely is that to wok out? One question I've often wondered, if Beane had known last year around this time that they'd be limited to no off-season, would he instead have more leaned towards signing Lawson and J Phillips instead of all the new players.

No problem, took me a couple minutes to figure it out as I said. I likely had never posted in that that thread if I were overly sensitive about the thing. I've probably had close to 10 now.

Full disclosure, I had no idea I spelled it wrong until seeing your response made me look up the spelling.

Normally it is, but he took his thyme! I went to see Dr. Al Fredo

I think that's the least of the issues. Panthers are rebuilding, if he wanted to come back, they'd likely waive his rights, or take a 6th or 7th rounder in exchange. Not that I think he's coming back, but Panthers having his rights can be easily dealt with. Think he's recall seeing him recently on TV down here in NC, still doing commercials.

I had a basil cell removed last week

Based on talent alone, Watt is likely worth trading a 3rd or 4th rounder for him. Based on talent, age, injury history, AND existing $17.5 mil contract, very unlikely anyone would trade for him and mainly due to the contract. The only way he gets traded is like what happened in Cleveland a few years back where the Browns received a 2nd round draft pick back, ironically also from Houston for taking on a high value contract. Granted this is a little different in that Watt only has one year left on his contract, but even then only about half the teams in the league have enough cap space right now to take on the contract. Houston would be even dumber than they already are made out to be if they didn't trade him for a 3rd or 4th rounder if they actually could have got that. They could have easily told Watts give us a few days or even asked him to give them 5 or 10 teams he'd be interested in going to, they then try and work out a trade. Likely that was what happened, Houston got no takers, so they were being nice in that they quickly released him rather than try and hope someone comes along with a trade offer next month or so. It's easy for Houston to try and look good in all this and they gave him his freedom without trying to trade him, but we'll never know if that is what they did or there were no trade seekers. But if what you say is true, then Houston's front office is even more incompetent than everyone thinks.

Here's my take: O-Line: I'd let Brown walk and use that money to sign Mongo, good chance that happens. Not so sure about Williams, think he'll cost too much so instead will extend Morse contract to reduce his cap hit for this season to free up some money. We'd then have decent starters and depth inside, but would draft a tackle in the 1st or 2nd round and sign a FA tackle for backup depth. Defensive line: I don't like the idea of going after a pass rusher in the draft makes much sense as those are two positions that take some time to excel at and we need good production and improvement in 2021. Instead I'd cut Addison and either Butler or Jefferson. The money saved would be close to $16 mil. With that I'd sign an experienced top edge rusher like a Ngakoue for around that amount. Mid round draft a true replacement for Star and give him a year to develop. Whichever of the combo of Butler or Jefferson that they keep, I'd redo his contract to save a couple million in 2021 TE: Similar to pass rusher, it takes too long to develop a rookie TE so would try and sign someone like J Smith. Could likely come up with enough money to sign him by redoing some contracts, Hyde, Matakevich, Beasley, Klein, Hughes, maybe throw in Diggs and cutting some other players like Smith I'd try and resign McKenzie, he can take Roberts place as a return man but also contribute to the offense so less of a wasted roster slot. I'd let Jones go as Gilliam can fill his role on ST. Certainly sign most of the RFA like Wallace, Boettger, and Bojorquez. The one slot I haven't yet mentioned is Milano. Would try to sign him, but with money as tight as it is not sure they can. Overall LB doesn't have much depth so would try to figure out a way to keep him, but nut sure they can. May end up losing him and Williams. Not to worried about Williams as he can be replaced quickly in draft. LB not so sue we'll get lucky again. Maybe the number make it easier to sign Williams and Mongo, and let Milano walk then instead draft a CB and LB 1st two rounds. My only concern then is we're bringing back the same O line that didn't do a very good job of run blocking. As mentioned earlier I'd use 1st or 2nd round pick on tackle and use the other on either LB, CB and also try to sign vet CB

Just read 2 mocks, one has a us trading up to #21 for a CB, other has us trading back to #37, believe it was for a tackle. In other words, who knows what will happen.