Ed_Formerly_of_Roch

Wouldn't be surprised if this week start to see some movement either players signing extensions or cuts to free up money. Match 17th is getting closer. Are we already in the Tag window?? Thought there was a pinned topic on NFL off-season dates? Did the pin fall out?

Personally I think teams don't want to wait that long for teams in the playoffs. Once the Bills beat Baltimore, Daboll's chances were done. I think if the Bills had beaten the Chiefs, Bienemy had a chance, but again once the Chiefs were SB bound, his chances also were done. Not sure how they can solve that issue?

This is from an article in The Athletic what their Business manager thinks will happen to ST. Overall a good article about the entire new NFL TV contract. The article appears to have been written slightly prior to ATT selling DTV. From what I read though ATT really didn't sell DTV, they spun it off and partnered up with some other company but are still are supplying the biggest share of the $$. Think eventually they'll hand it completely over to this new company. What takes its place could be a single provider like a cable operator or a streaming company, or a hybrid model that splits the out-of-market games among two types of technological platforms. But the interesting thing here is the NFL may see a reduction because AT&T treated the NFL as a marketing expense. If it is not willing to do so again — and it’s not — and others need to make the economics work, this might be a rare NFL rights package where the league’s take goes in reverse. https://theathletic.com/2409140/2021/02/25/nfl-tv-contracts-101-how-deals-with-cbs-fox-espn-nbc-amazon-could-change/

With Diggs as the #1 and Beasley in the slot, in this offense the #2 WR is lucky to catch 50 balls a season. Brown has only exceeded that number twice in his career, in 2019 with the Bills when he was their #1 WR and think one other year early in his career. Davis on a rookie contract caught in the mid 30's and early in the season wasn't playing as the #2 when Brown was still healthy. With a year experience and playing as a true #2 all season can see him getting close to 50. So the only thing Brown gives you that still maybe to be replaced is a little more speed. You can draft a rookie burner for that and a rookie and Davis together won't cost more than about $2 mil. Or they sign some vet with speed for $2 to $3 mil. So unless Brown is willing to take a huge pay cut down to that range can easily seeing him being replaced skill wise and still save $4 mil. For this team to improve to become elite they need improvement in a handful of positions and little to no money available to do that with so they need to cut some players who present a large savings. To me WR is the one position on this team that has enough depth so can afford to cut him without worrying about losing much production and skill wise. They can cut D lineman but whomever they cut there, they need to replace with someone better for the team to improve. As little as Brown played this year, they produced 2nd in the league without him. So unless he agrees to cut salary in half or so, will be surprised if he's not cut.

Except the NFL is saying no deal has been reached. Sounds like Disney announced something a little too early or some details still to be worked out, but likely close For those who have access to The Athletic good article there today too about broadcast rights and more details. This article does clear up one thing that's been discussed on prior posts. There were some posts stating this is all bogus, there are no new TV deals coming as the NFL just signed new deals with Fox and CBS so nothing is being announced. This article explains while that is true, this deal now spells out the rights and $$ for once those existing deals run out. Basically it's a contract extension so everyone will know what the amounts coming in for close to the next 10 years. The only actual new $$ coming will be the ESPN deal as that expires very soon. The other thing it addresses is all the talk here about how the bulk will be going to a streaming package, because this is a long term deal, likely the opposite is true, the NFL has no plans for any expanded streaming with the exception of Thursday night package. Sunday Ticket may also go to streaming, but may be some type of split transmission deal and that is the one rights package that likely could go down in value as DTV way over paid for it as it was a "loss leader " to them to generate DTV subs. To a new player in town, it will become their bread and butter so need to make money on it. https://theathletic.com/2409140/2021/02/25/nfl-tv-contracts-101-how-deals-with-cbs-fox-espn-nbc-amazon-could-change/

He would wear the NFL gear of the closest team to where he was playing. Likely was wearing Bills gear when they were playing at Oak Hill in Rochester. Don't believe there's any PGA events in Buffalo so would assume that's the closest??

I wouldn't trade a 1st as the article suggests. Never know about neck injuries, maybe a 2nd and 3rd or 4th the following year that can bump up one round depending on meeting certain levels of play.

Can see this working for one off type events; weddings, concerts, easy too for the Bills with only 8 games a season plus playoffs. For basketball and hockey have a hard time seeing this work 40 times a year. Even amusement parks, are you going to spend, think I read the cost for testing was like $60?

So is this article only about what's happening in 2023?? https://sports.yahoo.com/nfl-reportedly-seeking-double-broadcast-000258351.html

3 years away? I just read someplace they hope to have a new TV announced prior to the start of free agency! At most by next season the contracts run out.

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/