dave mcbride

I'm not really passing judgment one way or the other; I just expect with near certainty that a trade will happen. There's always a way to figure the finances out. The salary cap is a house of mirrors for a reason.

It's more than that -- he played over 90 percent of the snaps, which is crazy for a d-lineman. He may have played the most snaps of any d-lineman in the league; no one on the Bills came close to his rate. Of course, you'd think the counting stats would be higher because of this ...

Watson is awesome, but he has one big flaw in his game: he takes too many sacks. Over four seasons, he's never had less than an 8.2 percent sack rate (he was 8.3 percent this year). Allen got his to 4.3 this season, which is excellent. He was at 8.0 in 2018 and 7.6 in 2019. Sacks basically kill possessions, and getting sacked once out of every 23 dropbacks vs. once out of ever 12 dropbacks has a huge effect on offensive performance. The yards don't add up to much, but a sack almost always steals a possession from you. Houston punted 54 times this season and Buffalo punted only 41 times.

Don't know. It's one of those "in the eye of the beholder" stats like pressures, but it shouldn't be -- it's pretty clear cut.

He is a FA, and he's a lot more appealing to me than Milano (who I also like). I don't think we'll get him, but man, did he blow up this season after a mediocre first three years (young talented players do get better!). He'd 12.5 sacks and finished 3rd in the league in tackles for a loss with 15. That's 27.5 negative yardage plays. He also had SIX forced fumbles and four passes defensed. He also runs a 4.52 40. My guess is that he gets north of $15 million per. One can dream.

PFR has Addison at 7 (you have to sort by TFL): https://www.pro-football-reference.com/years/2020/defense.htm#defense::tackles_loss

I don't disagree, but 14 TFLs is a lot. He finished 6th in the league in that category.

Ken Dorsey, maybe?

7.4 (always account for sack yardage lost on passing plays) but your point is taken. If you account for sacks in 2016 (Tyrod got sacked a lot) and treat the sack plays as passing attempts, they averaged 5.8 yards per passing play (vs 5.3 per rushing play). Incidentally, because of those garbage-time bombs to Davis, Barkley averaged 9.4 ypa!

Tell that to the 2018 Patriots and 2019 49ers.

He didn't have a great season (5 sacks), but he had 14 tackles for loss (a lot) and a pick six. He'd certainly be an upgrade. He also played WAY too many snaps last season -- well over 90 percent. That seems counterproductive to me.

Marcus Cannon is a great player, as is Hightower (obviously). And Patrick Chung is a vet who knows how to perform well in that scheme. They're big losses, personnel-wise. I'm not saying they would have made this year's team a playoff team, but they are good players. I do think the Bills are the team to beat in 2021 in the division, but I'm never going to underestimate Belichick. I'm just saying that they have a lot room to maneuver and have some good players coming back.

I think that clause is something every franchise qb securing that monster second contract is going to get.

The last person was actually Jalen Ramsey. It worked out for him. Fyi, here are the details: https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/30749365/deshaun-watson-no-trade-clause-puts-houston-texans-no-win-situation. FWIW, I fully expect that Allen will get a no-trade clause given that Mahomes, Watson, and Russell (the immediate predecessor models for his contract) all have one.

I am worried about the Pats, to be honest. They went 7-9 with a garbage roster, have 10 opt-outs coming back (including Dont'a Hightower, an awesome player), 10 draft picks, and over $60 million in cap space. In an interview mid-season, Matt Light said that Belichick felt all along that this was a joke of a season given Covid (I disagree about that), and that the solution was to load up to go all in in 2021. It is the case that he's the greatest coach ever. As for QB, there are enough decent options floating around out there that I fear they'll end up with someone who is at least pretty good.

Do you believe in any of these QBs beyond Lawrence? I don't. Someone may pan out, but it's a gamble. Watson is a proven franchise QB.

This makes sense, but the Jets have a ton of ammo too, and I personally prefer Darnold to Tua. But the Texans might feel otherwise.

Let me introduce everyone to Jalen Ramsey. If he can force a trade, Watson surely can.

Now I see -- the bonus number is small. Thanks. I was looking at the wrong column. https://www.forbes.com/sites/vincentfrank/2018/02/10/breaking-down-the-details-of-jimmy-garoppolos-record-deal/?sh=442efc3c785a

Enh. That's not realistic. He's going to get traded.

Exactly. Good to know. Didn't realize that. Thanks. That said, wouldn't the signing bonus accelerate from $24 million to $48 million on SF's balance sheet this year?

He can void a deal to Detroit because of his no-trade clause. I don't know why people get upset about this stuff. He's gone, and it's in the best interest for everyone if he's traded. The Texans need a new start, and they can get a boatload for him.

SF doesn't have enough: 12th, 44th, and 112th picks. They have no third rounder. I guess it depends on who you prefer Jimmy G, Darnold, or Tua. The problem with Garapolo is his big contract. The Texans have a bad cap situation. The other two are on rookie contracts, and personally I think Darnold has a fair bit more upside than Tua.

Re QBs going down, check out this quote from Ron Jaworski's book: 'As we watched, we were surprised to see Manning taking virtually all the reps in the session. Jon [Gruden] asked Tom [Moore, the Colts offensive coordinator,] why he wasn’t giving some snaps to Peyton’s backups…He looked at us both in the eye, paused for a moment, then said in that gravelly voice of his, “Fellas, if ‘18’ goes down, we’re f*cked. And we don’t practice f*cked.”'

The Jets have the draft ammo, a tradeable young QB who still has promise, and the cap space. They make too much sense.