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Hind sight being ridiculously 20/20: should the Bills have picked up the 5th year on Shaq?


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2 minutes ago, oldmanfan said:

I agree Murphy hasn't been as bad as some would suggest, but I think they will look to upgrade their pass rush this off-season.  So he may be a casualty.

I do agree in that I hope they draft a pass rusher fairly early.

And they have the cap room to retain both I believe...

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I’m not sure what all of this chatter is about. If players are motivated to stay in Buffalo, so be it. If they want to walk for a over priced pay day elsewhere, so be it. The Process is all about staying away from players who’re in pursuit of the latter....isn’t it?

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3 minutes ago, atlbillsfan1975 said:

Great point. The staff and people inside the Bills buildings know the players way better than we do. Shaq doesn’t seem like the kind of guy who hides his emotions. 
Also, if you go back and watch his tape from Clemson, he was the slowest guy off the line a lot. Shaq made up for it with his strength and size, but Shaq was never going to be a pass rushing DE raking up double digit sacks for years. I love to draft one in the first to pair with Oliver for the next 4 years. 

 

 

He has actually improved his get-off to the point where he is close to average.........but interestingly on his sack Thursday he was very late off of the ball.    At Clemson his strangely slow release would often aid him in collecting garbage sacks after his more aggressive linemates had moved the QB off his mark.  Shaq still has no pass rush repertoire to speak of....he often plays armless against OT's and once initially blocked he usually just tucks his shoulder into them and it turns into an unreciprocated doseedo.    But he has a very quick burst if he gets close to the ball.   The blitzing the Bills are using lately has really fractured opposing OL's and created a ton of opportunities for Shaq.  

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55 minutes ago, SoCal Deek said:

The Process is all about staying away from players who’re in pursuit of the latter....isn’t it?

 

Is it? What makes that so different about what any other team would want to do?

 

Pretty much every Free Agent you will sign is "walking away from their team, looking for a bigger payday". That's the rub of Free Agency. You know more about how the player performs on the field, but at a premium of a higher contract than they are probably worth.

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5 hours ago, loveorhatembillsfan4life said:

I don’t mind the move. Not sure it was warranted last season. He’s playing well and I hope we can keep him around. I trust Beane will have a value for him and stick to his guns one way or another. 

His game had definite moved upward last year but not enough to remove questions. Had he had the year he's having this year, I believe he would have had his 5th year picked up. I'd like to see the Bills resign him now for sure.

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3 hours ago, DrDawkinstein said:

 

We have $91M in cap space going into the offseason. The 4th most in the entire league.

 

We can afford to throw $10M-12M/year at Phillips and not even sweat it. It's nice that we get Harry back, but I dont like what little I've seen from Liuget, and dont want to downgrade out Interior DL just to save Pegula money (that we have to spend anyways).

 

We can sign our DL guys, and a few FAs, AND still get extensions done with our own players.

 

In Beane I Trust.

I agree with you in trusting Beane.  I'm not trying to save Pegula money, $91M sounds like a lot but it can go rather quickly.  The Bills have a lot of starters who are still on rookie deals who need to be re-signed in the near future.  Bills may want to get a FA WR and pair him with Brown.  That will cost some coin.

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I think the better question is should we try to re-sign him? There are some good points on the No side in this thread, but here's why I think we might consider it: Zo is probably going to retire, Murphy has a history of getting injured, and Hughes has taken a noticeable step back this year. Maybe Johnson steps up next year but that's probably not something you bank on. 

 

If we let Shaq walk we might be pretty thin at end and our already shaky run D would likely take a hit. I could see both sides coming to agreement on something shorter term that approaches what he would have made on that 5th year option. 

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2 hours ago, DrDawkinstein said:

 

Is it? What makes that so different about what any other team would want to do?

 

Pretty much every Free Agent you will sign is "walking away from their team, looking for a bigger payday". That's the rub of Free Agency. You know more about how the player performs on the field, but at a premium of a higher contract than they are probably worth.

No they’re not. The hope is that if you build a winning culture you’ll be able to retain some talent who choose to stay even if it’s NOT for the biggest payday available. The Patriots are the perfect example.  

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7 minutes ago, SoCal Deek said:

No they’re not. The hope is that if you build a winning culture you’ll be able to retain some talent who choose to stay even if it’s NOT for the biggest payday available. The Patriots are the perfect example.  

 

We need a handful of Super Bowl wins and a decade+ of Division dominance before any player even thinks of giving us a winning-team discount. even players that choose to go to teams like the Pats or Seahawks arent taking less than market value.

 

And besides Brady (who gets paid on the side through his other businesses), which big-name players have stayed on the Pats at a discount?

 

They signed Gilmore to $13M/year, and the most guaranteed money the Pats have ever given a Defensive player, and he was someone who left his original team looking for a pay day.

 

Free agents cost money, it's part of the NFL life.

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Who knows if Shaq plays the same way if he has a guaranteed year locked in after this? Also, people need to keep in mind that Shaq's 5th year option was roughly 10 million, why is anyone so sure that his next deal is going to average as much or more than that? Shaq has 5.5 sacks with 4 games left in the season and he plays 2 QB's who don't take many sacks in the final 4 games (Brady and Lamar Jackson) so at best I think Shaq finishes with 8ish sacks on the season (about 2.5 in the final 4 games seems like a healthy total.) 

 

I am not so sure a player with 5.5-8 or so sacks is going to command more than 10 million aav deal esp if that number doesn't get past 7 sacks. I would much rather see a player and have to overpay him for doing well than lock him into an expensive year despite the fact that he showed no reason to warrant a large guaranteed salary. 

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9 hours ago, BarleyNY said:

Nope.  No way.  Shaq is a decent player, but he’s not worth close to what his option year would’ve paid him - $9.45M.  That also would’ve set the floor for a new contract.  That average salary per year would rank 21st among DEs.  No thanks.  He is not close to that kind of player.  However he is a player that I’d like to have in my 3 DE rotation, but I’m not happy if he’s one of my starting 2.  I’d be happy to pay him accordingly.  If not, there’s other guys out there to fill that role. 

 

 

Correct:  not overpaying a 1st round pick who starts showing up in contract year; forget it.

 

 

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