Bills sign Kenny Stills to PS

[Hapless Bills Fan]

1 hour ago, YoloinOhio said:

 

 

Wait, how did that work?  I thought Kroft had to stay on the Covid list for 10 days whether or not he had symptoms?  Or was he put on the Covid list only as a close contact, in which case he can come off in 5 days if he tests negative...I'm So Confused!

 

OK, Lexi Kroft (his wife) has weighed in that it was a false positive:

https://buffalonews.com/sports/bills/tyler-krofts-wife-says-he-doesnt-have-covid-cites-false-positive/article_ecc142e2-4ddd-11eb-b203-bf8981bfca2a.html#tracking-source=article-related-bottom

 

 

[DCofNC]

I’m really just puzzled why they waited until now to sign him, that’s what kills me.  He could have been here working in games fir a month and NOW, you go get him?  I don’t like it.  He’s a better option than 99% of people you could go get in the open market, but again, why not earlier?  I read this as an emergency use only signing.  I can’t see him being on the same page w Josh enough to make it worth putting him out there in the biggest games of the year.  I want my boys that have been around all year to be the ones getting crucial looks.

[SectionC3]

45 minutes ago, DrDawkinstein said:

 

To note, it is a cap savings of $8M if we release Brown. That's a good chunk of cash.

That’s it.  So perhaps it comes down to whether we’re in better shape with Feliciano + Stills, or Brown - Feliciano. 

[Big Turk]

3 minutes ago, DCofNC said:

I’m really just puzzled why they waited until now to sign him, that’s what kills me.  He could have been here working in games fir a month and NOW, you go get him?  I don’t like it.  He’s a better option than 99% of people you could go get in the open market, but again, why not earlier?  I read this as an emergency use only signing.  I can’t see him being on the same page w Josh enough to make it worth putting him out there in the biggest games of the year.  I want my boys that have been around all year to be the ones getting crucial looks.

 

You realize signing is a 2 way street right? Stills might have been wanting to see if he had any offers for an active roster before accepting a PS spot.

[DCofNC]

1 minute ago, Big Turk said:

 

You realize signing is a 2 way street right? Stills might have been wanting to see if he had any offers for an active roster before accepting a PS spot.

Obviously, but with zero visits, who thinks he had a whole lot of options other than not getting paid?

[Warcodered]

59 minutes ago, Cruiserplayer said:

Insurance for Brown injury concerns in playoffs and a possible replacement that can learn the playbook for next year.

 

56 minutes ago, John from Riverside said:

They will make it work....Brown is right where he needs to be......

I love Brown and what he's done here but you're crazy if you think Bean isn't planning for life without our 30 year old 2nd most expensive WR. At certain points your going to lose guys you love on the roster.

 

 

[BillnutinHouston]

47 minutes ago, DrDawkinstein said:

 

Looking back at how the O performed without them, who is more important to the Offense: Brown or Feliciano?

 

Feliciano

[freddyjj]

1 minute ago, DCofNC said:

Obviously, but with zero visits, who thinks he had a whole lot of options other than not getting paid?

He had a guaranteed salary thru Texans which would be reduced by any $$ received from new team - so no upside to sign earlier. And Bills would lose those $$ carrying over to 2021. Stills was also dealing with quad injury and may not have passed physicals. 

[BillnutinHouston]

12 minutes ago, DCofNC said:

I’m really just puzzled why they waited until now to sign him, that’s what kills me.  He could have been here working in games fir a month and NOW, you go get him?  I don’t like it.  He’s a better option than 99% of people you could go get in the open market, but again, why not earlier?  I read this as an emergency use only signing.  I can’t see him being on the same page w Josh enough to make it worth putting him out there in the biggest games of the year.  I want my boys that have been around all year to be the ones getting crucial looks.

I've read that his regular season salary was being paid by the Texans.  That could have had a bearing on the timing.

[Patrick Duffy]

1 hour ago, YoloinOhio said:

 

Yeah I guess I'd rather have Stills and Gentry available if needed than Jennings and Nelson. You pretty much know what you can get with Stills and I guess with the Allen/Gentry familiarity with one another may be a little more essential I would assume.

[Warcodered]

1 minute ago, Patrick_Duffy said:

Yeah I guess I'd rather have Stills and Gentry available if needed than Jennings and Nelson. You pretty much know what you can get with Stills and I guess with the Allen/Gentry familiarity with one another may be a little more essential I would assume.

On the Gentry front I think they decided to roll with the guy they knew had already built good chemistry with him before.

[Coastie]

1 hour ago, Figster said:

Hey man, your ruining my day dream, I'm changing the station 

 

 

Locomotive breath,

 

and the train it won't stop oh no way to slow down...

 

Immigrant Song of course

 

"We come from the land of the ice and snow
From the midnight sun, where the hot springs flow

 

The hammer of the gods will drive our ships to new land
To fight the horde and sing, and cry
Valhalla, I am coming"

[Rochesterfan]

15 minutes ago, DCofNC said:

Obviously, but with zero visits, who thinks he had a whole lot of options other than not getting paid?

 

Except he was getting paid.  Stills had a 100% guaranteed contract with Houston - so his pay did not change once he was cut.

 

Additionally - unless he signed for a bigger contract - his pay would not change because of offsets.  The only thing that would change was which team was paying him - so there was almost no incentive for Stills to sign.

 

Now take it one step further - the only additional money Stills gets is from the playoffs (winning versus losing bonus) as players are not paid in the playoffs.  Therefore - Stills had the most incentive to talk with teams, but hold out signing until he could sign with a team that had a chance to go far and may need his specific services.  He had no incentives to sign weeks ago because he would not get paid any more money and if something happened to him or a key player on what ever team he signed with - he could lose out.

 

The Bills and Stills talked weeks ago - per McD comments about Beane looking at Stills for weeks - they knew the situation and knew the plan for a while.  This is not a surprise.  He is insurance for Brown and Beasley in case of additional injuries.  They are not signing him to be some kind of starter.

 

He provides Veteran depth and playoff experience that McD loves along with some position flexibility.

 

Everything about this signing and the timing makes sense - you just need to understand things rather than just complaining.

Edited January 4, 2021 by Rochesterfan

[Patrick Duffy]

2 minutes ago, Warcodered said:

On the Gentry front I think they decided to roll with the guy they knew had already built good chemistry with him before.

Yeah that's my line of thinking also. Which is good to have

[Juice_32]

1 hour ago, wppete said:

1. Diggs

2. Brown

3. Beasley 

4. Davis

5. Mckenie

6. Roberts

7. Stills

8. Duke Williams

9. Gentry

 

 

Remember when KB was our WR1? 

[Ed_Formerly_of_Roch]

1 hour ago, Doc said:

Sucks for Nelson and Jennings.  I wonder if they would have still signed if they knew they would be released a couple days later?

 

Seems like they knew by the middle of last week they were signing Stills unless he tested positive for Covid.

 

So does seem a little strange to bother going through motions of signing.

[ColoradoBills]

29 minutes ago, Hapless Bills Fan said:

 

Wait, how did that work?  I thought Kroft had to stay on the Covid list for 10 days whether or not he had symptoms?  Or was he put on the Covid list only as a close contact, in which case he can come off in 5 days if he tests negative...I'm So Confused!

 

OK, Lexi Kroft (his wife) has weighed in that it was a false positive:

https://buffalonews.com/sports/bills/tyler-krofts-wife-says-he-doesnt-have-covid-cites-false-positive/article_ecc142e2-4ddd-11eb-b203-bf8981bfca2a.html#tracking-source=article-related-bottom

 

 

 

From the news I heard here it was a "false positive".

[DCofNC]

22 minutes ago, freddyjj said:

He had a guaranteed salary thru Texans which would be reduced by any $$ received from new team - so no upside to sign earlier. And Bills would lose those $$ carrying over to 2021. Stills was also dealing with quad injury and may not have passed physicals. 

There’s some logic!

[Domitian]

1 hour ago, Giuseppe Tognarelli said:

Gabriel Davis is not better than Kenny Stills right now.

 

...What?  If anything they're close to even.  Stills is on the decline of his career.  Davis as a rookie has more yards and TDs than Still had in any of the last 3 years.  Davis' 7TDs would rank as Still 2nd best season of his career.  

[Rochesterfan]

32 minutes ago, Ed_Formerly_of_Roch said:

 

Seems like they knew by the middle of last week they were signing Stills unless he tested positive for Covid.

 

So does seem a little strange to bother going through motions of signing.

 

They needed people on the PS just in case of any last minute issues with the WR team ( like Brown being a close contact last week).  
 

It takes a week to get these guys through protocol - so both guys were brought in when Kumerow was signed and were there just in case they needed call ups for the last game.

 

Once we got through last weeks game and Stills was ready to sign - these guys were always going to be gone.  They were just guys for an emergency.  It happens to fringe players all of the time.

Edited January 4, 2021 by Rochesterfan

[Bobby Hooks]

Can’t someone poach him then if they put him on their active roster? 

Edited January 4, 2021 by Bobby Hooks

[BuffaloBobs]

I don't get the rush to change things for an offense and special teams that are clicking on all cylinders.

 

If one of our guys can't go, I'm happy to have Stills as an option but I would far prefer to run our top six -- Diggs, Brown, Beasley, Davis, McKenzie, and Roberts in their usual roles. If you can 

[Penfield45]

2 minutes ago, BuffaloBobs said:

I don't get the rush to change things for an offense and special teams that are clicking on all cylinders.

 

If one of our guys can't go, I'm happy to have Stills as an option but I would far prefer to run our top six -- Diggs, Brown, Beasley, Davis, McKenzie, and Roberts in their usual roles. If you can 

stills most likely brought in as cover in case someone goes down

 

Beasley is hurt and JB just came back from

a long spell out. Our playoff lives rely on our pass offense so Stills is basically a safety net 

[NickelCity]

2 hours ago, Sherlock Holmes said:

Josh trying to get our boy (Gentry) a Super Bowl ring!!!

 

Ah Sherlock, it's too easy to guess which players you love lol.

 

Hope Gentry's around next preseason so we get a chance to see him!

[BillsfaninSB]

Sorry if this was discussed before but has Duke seen the field at all this season?

[whatdrought]

@Logic - listed on the Bills website as #80!!!!!!

 

 

It’s happening!!!

[DCofNC]

59 minutes ago, Rochesterfan said:

 

Except he was getting paid.  Stills had a 100% guaranteed contract with Houston - so his pay did not change once he was cut.

 

Additionally - unless he signed for a bigger contract - his pay would not change because of offsets.  The only thing that would change was which team was paying him - so there was almost no incentive for Stills to sign.

 

Now take it one step further - the only additional money Stills gets is from the playoffs (winning versus losing bonus) as players are not paid in the playoffs.  Therefore - Stills had the most incentive to talk with teams, but hold out signing until he could sign with a team that had a chance to go far and may need his specific services.  He had no incentives to sign weeks ago because he would not get paid any more money and if something happened to him or a key player on what ever team he signed with - he could lose out.

 

The Bills and Stills talked weeks ago - per McD comments about Beane looking at Stills for weeks - they knew the situation and knew the plan for a while.  This is not a surprise.  He is insurance for Brown and Beasley in case of additional injuries.  They are not signing him to be some kind of starter.

 

He provides Veteran depth and playoff experience that McD loves along with some position flexibility.

 

Everything about this signing and the timing makes sense - you just need to understand things rather than just complaining.

Thank you for laying it out.

[The Frankish Reich]

Gentry: probably more as a favor to Josh than anything else. But he's actually intriguing as a cheap Beasley replacement, probably more for next year than for the playoffs.

Stills: a nice insurance policy for Brown. It's great to see the Bills in a position where they can sign an accomplished player as pure insurance rather than in some desperate attempt to upgrade a position at this point in time.

 

Understanding that I really want to have both of them available for the playoffs and that they don't play precisely the same position, if I had to choose just one - Brown or Beasley - I'd probably say Brown. He was Allen's early season short option, and he adds that dimension of speed that Beasley doesn't. So in a weird way our WR corps is stronger right now than it was during weeks 12-16, when he was out and Beasley was in.

[DCofNC]

24 minutes ago, Bobby Hooks said:

Can’t someone poach him then if they put him on their active roster? 

He can be a protected player.

[JMF2006]

2 hours ago, Figster said:

This McBeane regime really gets it. 

 

Going from really pissing me off when Sammmy was traded to where we are now.

 

Beane is my hero...

 

If they didn't Billieve in the oft injured Sammy then I didn't either and I bought his jersey.

 

He hasn't done much since he left here other than being the 4th or so WR on a SB team.

 

Definitely not a #1 WR.

[Pokebball]

2 hours ago, Logic said:

I think this would be a silly move on the Bills' part.

Davis is the Bills' second leading touchdown scorer at the receiver position this year with 7.

Benching for any amount of time a player who has been producing in our system and building chemistry with Allen all year long and knows our playbook inside and out and scores touchdowns, for a guy who just joined the team a week ago, just doesn't make any sense at all to me.

While I love Davis, he's benefitting from the attention the other WRs are getting.  Davis still struggles running the routes and creating separation.  He doesn't always know where to go when Josh scrambles, looking lost at times.  He doesn't sell PI well at all.  I see it multiple times each game.

 

Billls can plug and play Stills into this offense.  It will be interesting to see how his signing impacts the other WRs.  McD has got to manage this.

[Don Otreply]

Being that we are a pass first offense having reliable hands as reserve backups  it is certainly  a smart move by Beane & Co, it’s good to have adults running the show 👍

 

Go Bills!!!

[SCBills]

Love it..  Provides talented depth for the playoffs and gives us (and him) a look at each other for potentially signing him next year.

[Don Otreply]

2 hours ago, Giuseppe Tognarelli said:

Gabriel Davis is not better than Kenny Stills right now.

With (7) seven TDs and chemistry with our QB it’s not a gimme that Davis is sat down for Stills.. Stills certainly has more experience but... if it ain’t broke... just sayin, 

 

Go Bills!!!

[ColoradoBills]

56 minutes ago, Bobby Hooks said:

Can’t someone poach him then if they put him on their active roster? 

 

He's a vet who signed on the PS.  He doesn't HAVE to sign anywhere.  No team will pursue "poaching" him.

 

46 minutes ago, BuffaloBobs said:

I don't get the rush to change things for an offense and special teams that are clicking on all cylinders.

 

If one of our guys can't go, I'm happy to have Stills as an option but I would far prefer to run our top six -- Diggs, Brown, Beasley, Davis, McKenzie, and Roberts in their usual roles. If you can 

 

Where have you seen anything from OBD that they are rushing to change anything?

He is an extremely cheap term insurance policy.

He could of pursued this option with other playoff teams like NO who needs WRs but he chose Buffalo.

It's a good thing in my book.

[folz]

2 hours ago, wppete said:

1. Diggs

2. Brown

3. Beasley 

4. Davis

5. Mckenzie

6. Roberts

7. Stills

8. Duke Williams

9. Isaiah Hodgins

10. Gentry

 

 

 

You forgot Hodgins.

 

Not only do we have one of the best WR rooms in the NFL, it has to be one of the deepest as well. We have the #1 receiver in the league this year, an above average #2 (1a), the #1 slot WR in the league, the #1 kick returner in the league, a burner to run jet sweeps and gadget plays (can also return), two promising rookies (one with 7 TDs), a vet in Stills, a guy who lit up the CFL, and Josh's go-to receiver in college. We can go 6-7 deep with guys who have skins on the wall in the NFL now.

 

And just think, two years ago, we were starting an UDFA rookie as our #2. Brandon knows how to grow a team. #MagicBeanes

 

[Doc]

7 minutes ago, Don Otreply said:

With (7) seven TDs and chemistry with our QB it’s not a gimme that Davis is sat down for Stills.. Stills certainly has more experience but... if it ain’t broke... just sayin, 

 

Go Bills!!!

 

That was a justification for not inserting Brown back in the starting lineup.  His presence obviously has a positive effect.  I'd like to see what Stills brings to the table because I'd trust a vet over a rookie in the playoffs.

[K-9]

Tanner Gentry. Great name. Sounds like a character out of a Zane Grey novel. 
 

Time to saddle up, Tanner Gentry!

[Don Otreply]

2 minutes ago, Doc said:

 

That was a justification for not inserting Brown back in the starting lineup.  His presence obviously has a positive effect.  I'd like to see what Stills brings to the table because I'd trust a vet over a rookie in the playoffs.

I can understand your point, I just don’t think it’s a forgone outcome is all. 

[Magox]

59 minutes ago, BuffaloBobs said:

I don't get the rush to change things for an offense and special teams that are clicking on all cylinders.

 

If one of our guys can't go, I'm happy to have Stills as an option but I would far prefer to run our top six -- Diggs, Brown, Beasley, Davis, McKenzie, and Roberts in their usual roles. If you can 

 

A, it's not a rush and B, it's not to change things.   Stills in their view represents an opportunity to improve the team.  That may not necessarily mean for the playoffs, it could be a move for the long-term.  Either way, Beane has earned the right to make these personnel decisions especially considering that comparatively speaking since he's taken over, he's been one of the best.