Cut or Keep in 2020?

[2020 Our Year For Sure 340]

1 hour ago, Virgil said:

I love how our defense completely shut down the Pats and have kept us in all of our games, yet people are willing to write off two starters on our defensive line.  
 

Stop looking at individual stats and start looking at the overall team performance.  
 

We didn’t get a single sack on Brady last Sunday, so they sucked right?

Evaluate them based on the team performance, so release John Brown and Frank Gore today because the offense was dreadful, yeah?

 

Trent Murphy is a 4-3 defensive end who gets no pass rush. If the defense is awesome despite that, great, but it can only be better with a real running mate for Hughes. We could be talking the Denver defense that dragged the corpse of Peyton Manning to a championship despite his awful QB play. I would quite like to watch the Bills win a championship.

[John from Riverside 5,381]

Johnson appears to be getting an awefully lot of playing time early........normallly I would say it makes no sense to get rid of veteran players on such a good defense

[Buffalo Barbarian 3,193]

4 hours ago, Stallions said:

1.       Trent Murphy with 3 assisted tackles in 4 games.  In 2020 his Dead Cap hit will be $1,750,000.  GONE

2.       Lee Smith signed a 3 year $9M contract this year.  In 2020 his Dead Cap hit will be $1M. GONE

3.       Shaq Lawson is a UFA for 2020.  SIGN HIM

S-    Star Lotulelei signed a 5 YEAR $50m contract. His Dead Cap is $19M this year but drops to $8M in 2020.   KEEP HIM UNTIL 2021

 

 

 

 

keep em all, trade Zay

 

 

[Mark Vader 1,693]

2 hours ago, valle78787878 said:

they signed tj yeldon to a 2 year deal 

 

2 hours ago, Stallions said:

Andre got a 2 year deal!

Thank you

[folz 282]

I'm not usually one to stop good discussion, but this seems way premature. We actually have a pretty decent team this year. Let it play out and enjoy the season and then make your final evaluations. I know in Buffalo over the last couple of decades, the offseason has been the best part of the year, because it was the only time to have some hope that things might get better. But to be having offseason-type of discussions after just 4 games seems a bit too early for me. What if Trent picks up his game and comes up with 9 sacks like he did a few years ago? What if Lee Smith doesn't have another penalty the rest of the year, but is a monster blocking for the run game? Etc. It might not happen, but there are still 12 games to play, so who knows right now.

[Stallions 98]

3 minutes ago, folz said:

I'm not usually one to stop good discussion, but this seems way premature. We actually have a pretty decent team this year. Let it play out and enjoy the season and then make your final evaluations. I know in Buffalo over the last couple of decades, the offseason has been the best part of the year, because it was the only time to have some hope that things might get better. But to be having offseason-type of discussions after just 4 games seems a bit too early for me. What if Trent picks up his game and comes up with 9 sacks like he did a few years ago? What if Lee Smith doesn't have another penalty the rest of the year, but is a monster blocking for the run game? Etc. It might not happen, but there are still 12 games to play, so who knows right now.

On a good / decent team it's always the time to look at upgrades.  Trent has 19 total career sacks & he's gone down hill since his PED suspension in 2017.

[WideNine 1,326]

4 hours ago, Bangarang said:

Cut Murphy tomorrow for all I care. Dude does nothing for his team.

 

And I have no idea why Lee Smith gets so many snaps. He’s useless in the passing game and Knox is a good blocker in his own right.

 

I don't think Murphy has been terrible, just not contributing many impact plays.  Johnson has had more impact from the position and is already taking reps from him. I am not sure who else they have on rotation on the end that could fill though and the rotation keeps them fresh.

[DRA3196 325]

7 hours ago, Ed_Formerly_of_Roch said:

The other one they could get rid of next year with little cap hit is Kroft.  If Knox and Sweeney keep developing, think it may happen.

 

Actually think it may come down to him or Smith

 

He could be cut and never have played a down for the team.

This reminds me of  "The Merriman Experiment."

[bmur66 355]

Geez. They have played four games so far this year. Can we wait until at least mid season before we start thinning the herd.

[Pbomb 472]

Why mess with anything on our defense the way they are playing, people are talking about cutting star and Murphy to free up money, we already have over 80 million 

 

the run blocking by the oline has been better but our pass blocking has been terrible, maybe we should be looking there to upgrade 

[Rock'em Sock'em 113]

Three out of four are all starters on a very good defensive unit.  I might be missing something with their play that doesn't equate to stats.

 

Since short term cap space is about zero concern for the Bills, I'd decide using remaining value on the contract (which maximizes long term cap space).

 

Murphy - 1 year $7M.  Keep him, perhaps a compensation pick kicks in the following year. Thin at the position.

 

Lawson - FA.  In the mix if he wants to stay, but not a bank breaker.

 

Star - 3 years $24M - about $8M per year.  Hasn't shown a lot, IMO.  But also not horrible if he is a good locker room guy.  I would try to trade then move on.  Peko played about the same for < $1M. HH is outplaying him.

 

Lee Smith - 2 years $4.7M.  Great in the locker room and as a mentor.  Kind of a 6th lineman when he plays.  Would love to see him as H-back. Decent contract. Keep him.

 

[CLTbills 884]

It's all irrelevant at this point. All of this hinges on the question of if we can find someone better.

[GunnerBill 8,545]

Cut Star. A dead pig would be more use.

[Freddie's Dead 2,439]

Trent Murphy is a big reason the defense is so good.  He's not getting sacks, but he's crucial to the rotation and chews up blockers leaving the LB's free to roam.  He's getting better the further removed he is from the knee injury.  I'm keeping him.

[T master 329]

11 hours ago, Stallions said:

He signed a 3 year, $18.75M contract with the Bills.  His Dead Cap in 2020 is only $1.6M.  He may just stay if he can play!!!

 

Beane is great at structuring these new contracts in favor of the Bills ! I don't know though that the question is if Kroft can play the elephant in the room is can he stay healthy ?

 

If Knox & Sweeney continue the way they have he could be kept as a back up option but i see those 2 as the leaders in that room for the future .

Edited October 1 by T master

[John Adams 162]

11 hours ago, Bangarang said:

 

And I have no idea why Lee Smith gets so many snaps. He’s useless in the passing game and Knox is a good blocker in his own right.

 

I get why Smith plays, but in the first half, they kept splitting DiMarco wide. I mean like it happened on at least 50% of the plays.

 

And say what you want about that helps Josh read the D, I could not understand why they didn't use Yeldon in that role (and eventually they did) since he's an actual threat. 

[GreggTX 538]

Trade Allen and draft another QB if we can't trade for an upgrade. That said, I'd certainly give him the rest of this season to turn it around, but no longer. We can't wait forever.

[TigerJ 1,446]

12 hours ago, Mark Vader said:

Then there are players we signed to 1 year contracts.

 

Frank Gore

TJ Yeldon

Quinton Spain

Jordan Phillips

Lorenzo Alexander

 

Should we re-sign any of them?

Sorry if I didn't list all of the players. This was all I could remember.

Was Andre Roberts a 1 year signing?

The Bills should give serious thought to re-signing Spain and Jordan Phillips.  Gore and Alexander are iffy solely because of age - not their current level of production.  TJ Yeldon is also iffy.  He's certainly versatile, but is not showing any sign of being a difference maker.  It depends on what the Bills do at RB.  I don't expect both Gore and Yeldon to be back because I think the Bills will draft another running back next year, someone who can be a difference maker.  

[Locomark 441]

15 hours ago, Stallions said:

1.       Trent Murphy with 3 assisted tackles in 4 games.  In 2020 his Dead Cap hit will be $1,750,000.  GONE

2.       Lee Smith signed a 3 year $9M contract this year.  In 2020 his Dead Cap hit will be $1M. GONE

3.       Shaq Lawson is a UFA for 2020.  SIGN HIM

S-    Star Lotulelei signed a 5 YEAR $50m contract. His Dead Cap is $19M this year but drops to $8M in 2020.   KEEP HIM UNTIL 2021

 

 

 

Agree with the above except with a caveat on Shaq. Shaq Lawson was invisible last game. Anything more than a $4MM hit and he can walk also. He will never be anything more than rotational. We will draft a DE in the first 2 rounds next year.KC has no Cap room next year and 2 DEs coming out as FAs so I plan on us making a play for one to improve our rush and weaken them at the same time.

The good thing is the Bills have very few contracts that are big ticket out there that have any length. The worst one is Star's and that was a gross over payment.

[Iamkrgr 79]

Our defense has been pretty great. Id like to see more pressure from the ends and figure that will be a target for us next offseason. Lawson and Murphy are good rotation ends but would be nice to have someone with more impact. Good thing with them is you can keep the line fresh without having much drop off in play. Give me a stud pass rusher if possible. 

[buffalostu2 52]

There is a lot of analysis from  cover 1 that shows Trent's value and the mistakes made by our rookie DE as far as containment.  It is worth a look.

 

It is not all about sacks.  

[Doc Brown 4,203]

15 hours ago, Mark Vader said:

Then there are players we signed to 1 year contracts.

 

Frank Gore

TJ Yeldon

Quinton Spain

Jordan Phillips

Lorenzo Alexander

 

Should we re-sign any of them?

Sorry if I didn't list all of the players. This was all I could remember.

Was Andre Roberts a 1 year signing?

Spain and Phillips definitely.  Alexander if he wants to come back as long as he continues to play at a high level.  I love Frank Gore but I think we could find an upgrade to pair with Singletary as Gore will be 37 next year.  Yeldon's useless.

[buffalostu2 52]

Spotrac estimates us with $87,148,087 in cap space for 2020.  You can't spend all that in one off season.

 

Why are we cutting even average football players to bring in rookies and free agents?