Ed_Formerly_of_Roch

Agree on Hyde, Hughes is risky extending him as he's getting up there in age. That's how a team gets itself in trouble by extending players to old to fulfill contract a level being paid. They just restructured Diggs a couple months back, will they and can they do it again, again could get themselves in trouble restructuring too much. They have 4 signed DT on the roster next year without Butler so I'd just cut him. Cutting Smith only saves 2$2 Mil and now you need to sign a player for that role so not sure you'll gain anything there. Agree too that you may be able to restructure Matakevich to save some. To me cutting Brown or a large paycut is the least painful as you have a capable cheap replacement already on the roster. Agree, he's the only one with speed, but again could sign a cheap burner to replace. I wouldn't call saving $8 Mil by cutting Brown a little cap room. Not sure there's any other player on the roster that would save them as much by cutting.

You're not cutting Murphy, Norman and Milano! Those three are all upcoming free agents so they don't count. You only save money by cutting players under contract for next season. The Bills projected payroll next season for the 40 players under contract is about $170 Mil leaving them to be about $4.8 Mil under the cap of $175 Mil, Rumor has it the cap may end up going up to $190 Mil so that would leave them about $20 Mil under. Out of that 20 mil they need to save about $5 Mil for draft picks and ideally save another $3 to $5 Mil for replacement players signing due to injures etc. There was around 18 to 20 upcoming FA on the Bills roster 16 of which are players that gave a meaningful contribution to this years team so need to replace with equal quality. As I stated they only have 40 players under contract, considering that this team is getting pretty deep and stronger, lets assume 6 draft picks make next years roster, that means they still need to sign around10 players just so that they would end up with 53 players on opening day. And they have about $10 maybe $12 Mil to sign those ten with. So how you going to do that without making some big cuts, but again to save money you can only cut players who are actually under contract for next year. Butler would save you think it was around $7 mil so agree with that one, Addison would get you another $6 Mil, Morse is worth around a $5 Mil saving, Smith is only going to save you about $2 Mil so not sure if he's worth cutting as you'd likely want to replace him with another blocking TE. Kroft is also a FA BTW so the only TE you'd have left on the roster would be Knox, Gilliam, and Sweeney if you cut Smith too. Both Norman and Wallace are FA's so there goes both your #2 CB. At least Wallace is a restricted FA so can resign him on the cheap. Bojo is also a FA, again restricted so can resign cheap. McKenzie, T Jones, Barkley, and Roberts are also upcoming FA's too. There are only 4 O-lineman under contract next year, Dawkins, Bates, Ford, and Morse, but if they cut him to save the money, then only three left signed. And BTW if they do cut those 4 players I mention instead of having ten open roster spots, they now have 14 to fill, admittedly gained around $20 mil more they can spend. Two slots will be filled by Star and Gaines if he can stay healthy. Does Davis have the wherewithal of Brown at this point, no, but he's a rookie, he can learn. Would I like to see them keep Brown yes, but just can't see how they could do that and still be able to sign Feliciano, Williams, and Milano. Of the three I'd rate Milano the lowest so if I had to lose one, maybe it's him. If they can get Brown down to about $4 Mil then he's worth keeping. But if I had to decide between signing those 3 or keeping Brown, I'd let Brown go. And even if they signed all three of them with the $20 mil, you still have another ten or so roster spots to fill the names of the upcoming free agents I mentioned above. I don't think they are in dire shape, but will require a couple of cuts or major restructures of players you don't wish to see leave to maintain or improve the roster. And many here will be very upset to hear some of the names that may be gone. Players Under Contract https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/buffalo-bills/cap/2021/ Free Agents https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/free-agents/buffalo-bills/

You can tell the difference? Really Even though he's hardly played? Agree I'd like to keep the offense intact to, but can't see how they can afford to without some big cuts. And IMO one of the easiest is Brown as his replacement is already on the roster with the only thing you're losing is a bit of speed. Certainly that's nice to have, but may be a luxury they can't afford.

The only way I see him returning is if he agrees to a big pay cut. Agree the speed is needed, but can you guarantee he will still have his speed next year? Lots been written how 30 plus YO WR with knee and leg issues often lose a bit of their speed. Can't see keeping Davis as the #4 WR when you only go 4 wide less than 30% of the time. Sign a mid level FA who is a burner for less money to replace unless he takes the pay cut. Really?? In only three games this years he's had more than 4 catches, so how much has he really elevated? They have a lot of upcoming FA that are playing actively in games and contributing that will need to replace. WR is the one deep position the team has.

The one thin g to me is kind of scary is the Bills only have 40 players signed to a contract for next season. Considering they now have very good strong team counting on more than 4 to 5 draft picks to make he 53 is risky so that means they need to sign at least 10 replacements. While I agree the 3 mentioned above makes alot of sense, they will need to do some serious out right cuts or pay cuts. Cut Brown, Butler, Morse, and Addison frees up around $25 mil Dane Jackson has looked very good, but two years ago all the talk was how Levi Wallace was the answer and also the Un drafted WR we had, can't recall his name. So I'm a little skeptical of saying he's the answer with such limited playing time. To me biggest needs are LB and CB particularly if they don't resign Milano.

It's a gamble , would you rather have one play with a set defense on the field or rely on special teams. Don't think there's a right or wrong answer. One of the Bills games every kick by Bass was shallow enough so fielded and returned but usually not as far as 25 yard line. Bills scored in last minute, next kickoff was real deep so no return. Thought was interesting when game was on the line they preferred to take their chance on playing defense. Granted was more than a few seconds left, actually think it was the Arizona game so know how that worked out.

Think I also was at that game, played on a Sunday afternoon? Lancers lost. If the War Memorial was the Rock Pile, Hollender Stadium in Rochester should have been called the Concrete Patch! Twice now this year a kick by Bass was extremely close that hard to know for certain from TV angle whether kick was in or out. But will trust the official looking straight up did have the best and only truly accurate view. Davis is looking very impressive for a 4th round pick, thought I heard he leads the team in TD's. Can't see them bringing Brown back next year without a good size paycut. Last drive was impressive, think Allen looked shocked/pissed when not given the 1st down on the slide, but he did begin the slide short. First time this year they outplayed by far the opponent in the 3rd quarter Allen's best game against a top defense.

The one thing Allen still needs to prove to the doubters is that he's not a one year wonder. If Daboll leaves will he revert back to last years numbers? L Jackson won the MVP last year, how's he looking this year, OK, but far from great. Were teams just not ready for him and will adjust? Do I think there's reasons to believe this could happen, no, but until he shows similar results next year, some will always question it, in particular based on how so many people state (in a good way) how no QB ever improves his completion percentage by 10 points from year to the next. If this were baseball, he'd be accursed of using steroids when you see improvement like this. So far too as defenses have changed he's been able to adjust as when teams stop him one way, he exceeds somewhere else.

So would you draft Etienne in the 1st? Likely he's projected to go late 1st round so could be there if we wanted him.

So hows this good news for the Bills? Likely even with a Cleveland win everything you just stated would remain the same. OK yes Cleveland could have little better chance to win the division. The only thing I felt slightly good about from the Ravens win was it most likely reduces the odds of the Pats slipping into the playoffs as a wild card team. A Raven's loss would have helped them some.

Yeah, all the article stated was slightly better than the week prior. Reading the title of the article I assumed was going to state best ratings for the year, but no basically the only fact stated was best ratings of the past two weeks! Maybe Alan Pergament will tell us in one of his weekly articles about TV coverage.

It's hard to explain why they've been so bad at it other than maybe dumb luck. I mean what's different about a 2 point conversion compared to a regular play inside the 2? Last week they stopped San Fran on 4 downs inside the 2, think I recall early in the season stopping someone when they had first and goal. So why different on the 2 point try? Seems like it's mostly pass plays they given up. The league average is just a hair under 50% BTW

Well they had their fair share of illegal block in the back penalties so easy to mix up one of a few.

Are you forgetting Feleciano? The Bills have a pretty long list of upcoming FA this offseason, many who are key contributors in one manner or another, Both Wallace and Norman There are only three offensive lineman signed for next year; Bates, Dawson, and Morse who potentially could be cut Kroft; say what you want about him or Knox, but the team will need a #2 pass catching TE from someplace. Possibly they sign a #1 TE but one way or another slot to sign

Agree, it likely will be next season before anything happens.

I think I'd put the Saints ahead of the Steelers. Assuming Brees comes back they will be better, not sure what the Steelers can do to get better other than schedule more games against NFC East and AFC South.

I agree or he doesn't know the rule himself that where you start the slide is where they place the ball

I don't know, IMO he had this shocked look like what do you mean it's not a first down. Agree about the sliding part.

Better technology for the game or fans? I completely agree the kick looked good but we're looking at an angle with no depth perception. I'll assume the official under the goal post does have the right angle and is able to make the correct call. Will they sometimes make a mistake sure, but other than putting a camera there just for the purpose to show a replay so fans watching on TV will have a better answer and maybe for the 1 out of 500 or so kicks that you need to take a better look at. But unless there's a camera on both posts still won't know for certain.

Agree, have we stopped any?

Agree, the two he missed were both very questionable. Both looked like they could have been in.

Did he drive up to Youngstown? On clear day you can see Toronto from there?

Is he even available to play? Did you see the hit he took on his shoulder that took him out of the game. It was one of those plays I had to turn my head away on the replay as was cringe worthy. No official word but think it may be dislocated, minimum 1to 3 weeks out to 4 to 6 months if surgery needed

Imagine if the Bills were just as impatient with Allen as people here are asking to do with Knox. He could be gone by now. Granted he shown more improvement in first two years than Knox has, but also parallels in that both had huge physical skills, but limited experience coming out and have needed time to develop. Well Kroft is a FA so will be interesting to see right there what the team thinks of Knox, if they go out an sign a better option or resign Kroft or do something else. Looking at the list of FA's, Hunter Henry and Jared Cook are the only two names I see on the list that are decent players that should be an improvement unless they want Gronk. There's a couple other names slightly better than Tyler Kroft so not much improvement there may as well, resign Kroft in that case. To me drafting a rookie isn't likely going to help as they are ready to win now. They say TE is one of the longer positions to learn so likely Knox would still beat out a rookie next season.

Play by play doesn't list a penalty, just down at the 29 yard line.