BrooklynBills

Bills can still free up almost $4 million by cutting Matakevitch and Cody Ford. Also Ryan Bates currently counts against the cap at 2.5 million but he's either going to get signed away or he's going to re-sign and i think that number goes down too.

I think any contract can be restructured. Hyde still has 1 "regular" year remaining after this one. They can simply extend his contract into the future tearing up those "void" years. It's only locked in if they intend to simply let the contract run out after the 2023 season. I think.

I would imagine that they have every intention of re-signing Hyde after this season which would essentially tear up those void years.

Not athletic enough AND actually is expensive at a 2.3 mil cap hit. They can save 1.4 million by cutting him. I'm guessing he's either traded or a training camp cut.

So he's gauranteed 12.7 million for this year. That doesn't mean that he won't sign for less than that on a long term deal. Can easily structure something so that he gets more money up front or over the first 2 years AND it lowers his overall cap hit early on.

played for Kromer for 2 years in LA when McVay first was hired. Perfect fit for an athletic blocking scheme. I'm guessing he can play either G position

I don't think we signed McKenzie to that contract for him to be the locked in slot WR. If they can get Landry at a good price, that would be a great addition.

No. They will need about 5ish mil or less depending how the top 51 contracts play out. They can likely get that by cutting guys who are likely to lose jobs in camp, etc, depending on how the draft goes. Wouldn't worry about this.

Getting more athletic on OL. I would think that they are going to go all in on a more zone-based blocking scheme, so maybe Ford is also going to go. He's cheap on a trade so they might actually be able to get a late round pick for him

IMO McKenzie re-sign indicates that the Bills are likely going WR in RD2 or RD3, although RD1 is not out of the question. He is essentially on a 1 year deal and he's a proven commodity and has comfort with the offense. This allows them to either (a). draft a 2nd round WR and not force him into being a starter which also allows them to not pass a high end CB or DL if one falls to them at 25 OR (b). draft Jameson Williams at 25 and not havbe to worry about rushing him into the lineup too quickly.

Kromer's last two years in LA they also ran a ton of 2TE sets. Knox being a true TE allows them the possibility of using Engram as hybrid TE/WR. Draft a 2nd day WR and your weapons are in a good place moving forward for a few years.

Akiem Hicks has the market value and can probably be signed for less gtd $$. I think this is just Phillips pricing himself out of what the Bills want to spend for a 1T, 2 down DT.

I don't think he would be considered a big name FA. All the Gronk talk started again around combine time. I think it's gotta be him.

I hear what you are saying, but I'm thinking in terms of tiers of market value. I understand that you are saying Kirk at around $12 mil/yr is going to attract more teams, maybe many more, than the top tier talent. And maybe that inflates his final number. But if he's so in demand that he gets above market value, let's say aggressively $14/yr, wouldn't that drive those teams to the higher talent anyway? Why pay Kirk $14 mil/yr when you can pay Robinson, Cooper, or Williams $16-17mil/yr? Couple that with the idea that teams could get a legitimate starting WR in the draft from picks 20-50 and i think you might see a hard ceiling for the guys in that $10-12 mil/yr tier.

Davante Adams Chris Godwin Amari Cooper Allen Robinson Mike Williams OBJ Kirk Gallup DJ Chark He's either top of tier 3 or bottom of tier 2. Not to mention that he's got at least 4 guys in direct competition with him at his own price point. $7 mil/yr is obviously way too low. But I think 4yr/40-45 mil with like 30%-40% gtd in the 1st 2 years is where I'd be willing to go. Then you essentially decide between Davis and Kirk after 2 years.

This will also bring down values in the 2nd and 3rd tier of FA WRs, which is where Kirk is. Deep WR draft won't affect the top WRs but you could see some value suppression as all these teams are going to be thinking the same thing about getting WRs in the draft round 1-4. Difference is that the Bills want to win now now and other teams who are still building could see the advantage of drafting a WR.

SHOCKING that the guy who hosts a podcast with Jim Monos and Doug Whaley would come out with yet another McDermott hit piece. This tries to come off as a Seth Wickersham-style deep dive is just Dunne carrying Whaley's and Monos' water for them.

It does somewhat because you can sign your draft picks after June 1

He's only in his 2nd year in the NFL. Maybe a veteran K would know or have more confidence to speak up about it. For all we know, Bass could've been thinking it but was unsure if he should speak up and just thought "hey - games over probably"

I think Campbell is looking for his best shot to get a ring as it's probably his last year. I don't think it'll be that expensive. But if it's $10 mil on a 1 year deal, then yeah that'll be too much.

I like the idea of signing Calais Campbell as a veteran guy who can play inside and out to mentor both Groot and Basham. Would give us that pressure DT that we can rotate inside also. He seems to have a relationship with Rousseau so I think he'd be open to it. He's not an All-Pro anymore but he can definitely still play.

Just from a Xs and Os standpoint, I'm expecting: 1. WRs who are willing blockers. While the Bills ran a more power scheme when Kromer was here (although they ran much more zone when Anthony Lynn took over in 2016) and the Rams were a predominate zone scheme, a common tenet of both run game were having willing blockers at WR and even featuring them as lead blockers at times. Robert Woods was great at this both with the Bills and with the Rams. Kupp also is a great blocker. Gabe Davis already is a decent blocker in the run game. Diggs - whatever, with WR1 you can kind of scheme around asking him to block. I'm not sure WR3 is on the roster right now TBH. 2. Even less utilization of a FB. More utilization of 2TE sets. Definitely think we'll be in the FA market for a 2nd TE and might move on from Gilliam. I think they'll want someone who is more of a TE who can fill in on 2RB sets than someone like Gilliam who does both but isn't really good at either. UFA TE OJ Howard is intriguing to me. He'll likely be cheap and he played the H-back role often at Alabama. Panthers TE Ian Thomas is another guy who is a great blocker with athleticism that would be a great, cheap TE2.

CB: stop gap vet - $4-5 million/yr at the most. Hopefully can get someone cheaper and pair with a 1st or 2nd rounder who starts by mid-season. DT: re-sign Harry unless the number gets crazy. No more than $4-5 mil/yr. Draft DT depth in round 3-4, especially if you are taking about a 1tech guy. IOL: re-sign Bates($2ish million/yr, extend/restructure Morse(if he isn't interested, cutting saves $8 million which can be used to find another IOL), sign another mid-tier G who actually fits the blocking scheme. Draft a G on day 1 or 2 who will start by mid-season (hopefully sooner). If they release/restructure the obvious players, they'll have roughly 20-30 million in cap space. IMO we are not going to be breaking the bank for in FA for G or DT and anyone worth a big contract at CB will just be way too expensive. IMO, WR is a sneaky spot where we could give out a pretty good contract because WR3 is a big part of the offense and some of the guys available are young enough where a long term deal could make sense for our cap, especially if they can keep that initial year 1 number low. I think actually think Chris Godwin is someone that we will target. He's a monster in the slot and can play outside. Would let us not have to play 2 different slot WRs depending on what kind of coverage we are seeing.

3rd round maybe

With a late 1st round pick, I'm looking to get the most talented player who can be a starter. I don't need to chase a Chiefs stopper or a speed need. You can get defensive depth in FA and you can get speed past the 1st round. Also, I think we have several positional needs so I don't think its right to hone in on absolutely getting a CB with 25th pick or absolutely getting a speed WR there either. That said, I'm hoping one of these guys is available with that pick: CB Roger McCreary CB Ahmad Gardner WR Chris Olave WR Jameson Williams DE David Ojabo CB makes alot of sense to me not just because its a need position ton but because they will be able to get a cheap 1st round contract to pair with Tre White's for the next few years. I don't think they'll have the cap flexibilty to spend at this position in FA in future years and I would expect us to take a CB early and in the mid rounds. I'm also looking to trade down out of this pick if we can get and extra 2 and 3. I might rather have multiple 2s and 3s in this draft TBH.