Steve Tasker brought up a great point today on One Bills Live...

[78thealltimegreat]

That because of COVID some true in their prime stars are going to be on the market this year with teams like the Saints 112 million over the cap for starters much less Eagles, Rams, even the Raiders have major cap issues so waiting to release a veteran till later in the off season because you

might be able to get a good player on a 1 year come try to win a ring in Buffalo deal seems like a good strategy 

[Buffalo_Stampede]

Waller to the Bills confirmed. 

[The Jokeman]

2 minutes ago, 78thealltimegreat said:

That because of COVID some true in their prime stars are going to be on the market this year with teams like the Saints 112 million over the cap for starters much less Eagles, Rams, even the Raiders have major cap issues so waiting to release a veteran till later in the off season because you

might be able to get a good player on a 1 year come try to win a ring in Buffalo deal seems like a good strategy 

True especially if other teams are having cap issues some guys may just sign a 1 year deal in hopes to have a big year and get a bigger deal next offseason (see what Taylor Hall did with Sabres). 

[JohnNord]

7 minutes ago, 78thealltimegreat said:

That because of COVID some true in their prime stars are going to be on the market this year with teams like the Saints 112 million over the cap for starters much less Eagles, Rams, even the Raiders have major cap issues so waiting to release a veteran till later in the off season because you

might be able to get a good player on a 1 year come try to win a ring in Buffalo deal seems like a good strategy 

Yeah this has been talked about quite a bit. Of course, no one knows what the cap number will be, but if it’s on the lower end teams will be forced to part with some pretty good players....and teams with cap space might be a great place for bargain deals

[Buffalo_Stampede]

I'm kind of hoping that offensive players look at the Bills thinking they can sign cheap for a year and put up big numbers. Cash in next year. 

 

John Brown, Beasley, and Diggs have had career years in Buffalo. I think we should get someone here cheap. 

[Bob in STL]

In Beane We Trust. 

[ngbills]

I think the cap will wind up higher than the numbers being thrown around. The $175M is the floor and using this allows for more interesting discussions. It winds up at $200M+ and teams have $25M more in space than all of these talks.

I think many players will be willing to restructure if all teams are faced with cap issues. 

[CaptnCoke11]

There will be ways to relieve cap money in for 2021 season.. Obviously could release some guys like Addison, Jefferson, Butler etc.  They can also add a year on to some players deals like Brown, Diggs and move some bonus money around to lesson the hit for 2021.  Either way it’s going to be a challenging off season for Beane.  

[Over 29 years of fanhood]

Forget Milano, sign Bobby Wagner after he’s cut for cap savings!! 

Edited January 27, 2021 by Over 29 years of fanhood

[Shaw66]

23 minutes ago, 78thealltimegreat said:

That because of COVID some true in their prime stars are going to be on the market this year with teams like the Saints 112 million over the cap for starters much less Eagles, Rams, even the Raiders have major cap issues so waiting to release a veteran till later in the off season because you

might be able to get a good player on a 1 year come try to win a ring in Buffalo deal seems like a good strategy 

I think this is wrong.

 

Without COVID, the 32 teams were, relative to each other, were in better or worse cap situations going into 2021.   Since COVID, relative to one another, they're in the same cap positions.   For just about all teams, if they want to make moves, they're going to have cut people to create room to sign rookies and others.  New Orleans always was going to have cut players, they just have to cut more.   The Bills were going to have to cut players, now they may need to cut more.  

 

The real result here is that the players who get cut are going to take big pay cuts.  There's no way around it.  It sounded in Beane's press conference like Milano is gone.  Whenever Beane says "it's a business and he is free to get paid what he can," he usually means we've had a preliminary conversation with his agent, and it that's what he wants, we're not going there.  The problem is that this is horrible year to be a free agent, because NO ONE is going to have enough cap space to write contracts like they did last year.   Guys on multi-year deals are protected, guys on one-year deals are not.  

 

So, yeah, New Orleans or whoever may be letting more players go than the Bills, but if all those players stay in the league, they're going to be paid a lot less than they thought a year ago they'd be getting.  But the teams, relative to one another, are still going to be able sign more or less the same number of players.   That's an oversimplification. 

 

Beane said in his presser that no one should expect the Bills to pick up any high-powered help in free agency.  

 

 

[Big Turk]

12 minutes ago, Shaw66 said:

I think this is wrong.

 

Without COVID, the 32 teams were, relative to each other, were in better or worse cap situations going into 2021.   Since COVID, relative to one another, they're in the same cap positions.   For just about all teams, if they want to make moves, they're going to have cut people to create room to sign rookies and others.  New Orleans always was going to have cut players, they just have to cut more.   The Bills were going to have to cut players, now they may need to cut more.  

 

The real result here is that the players who get cut are going to take big pay cuts.  There's no way around it.  It sounded in Beane's press conference like Milano is gone.  Whenever Beane says "it's a business and he is free to get paid what he can," he usually means we've had a preliminary conversation with his agent, and it that's what he wants, we're not going there.  The problem is that this is horrible year to be a free agent, because NO ONE is going to have enough cap space to write contracts like they did last year.   Guys on multi-year deals are protected, guys on one-year deals are not.  

 

So, yeah, New Orleans or whoever may be letting more players go than the Bills, but if all those players stay in the league, they're going to be paid a lot less than they thought a year ago they'd be getting.  But the teams, relative to one another, are still going to be able sign more or less the same number of players.   That's an oversimplification. 

 

Beane said in his presser that no one should expect the Bills to pick up any high-powered help in free agency.  

 

 

 

Not necessarily...a team might have been able to do some restructures to clean up cap space up to a certain amount but now will have to cut a plyer or players from the $25 million more they would be over.  So one team may still be fine but another may have to release players now.  There is only so much cap maneuvering that can be done.  

 

I don't see the NFL letting this happen and I think the cap number is probably closer to $200 million regardless of how they have to get there. 

[eball]

Is this the ultimate "get him on the cheap" thread?

[SoCal Deek]

I cannot imagine any team being in a better position than the Bills. They have a young core who may be looking to get paid but who aren't entering a market swimming in cash.  They also have some veteran under-achievers, who can be cut with zero harm to a now three out of four year playoff team.  I'll take where we are.

[Figster]

13 minutes ago, Shaw66 said:

I think this is wrong.

 

Without COVID, the 32 teams were, relative to each other, were in better or worse cap situations going into 2021.   Since COVID, relative to one another, they're in the same cap positions.   For just about all teams, if they want to make moves, they're going to have cut people to create room to sign rookies and others.  New Orleans always was going to have cut players, they just have to cut more.   The Bills were going to have to cut players, now they may need to cut more.  

 

The real result here is that the players who get cut are going to take big pay cuts.  There's no way around it.  It sounded in Beane's press conference like Milano is gone.  Whenever Beane says "it's a business and he is free to get paid what he can," he usually means we've had a preliminary conversation with his agent, and it that's what he wants, we're not going there.  The problem is that this is horrible year to be a free agent, because NO ONE is going to have enough cap space to write contracts like they did last year.   Guys on multi-year deals are protected, guys on one-year deals are not.  

 

So, yeah, New Orleans or whoever may be letting more players go than the Bills, but if all those players stay in the league, they're going to be paid a lot less than they thought a year ago they'd be getting.  But the teams, relative to one another, are still going to be able sign more or less the same number of players.   That's an oversimplification. 

 

Beane said in his presser that no one should expect the Bills to pick up any high-powered help in free agency.  

 

 

Not at all a fan of losing Milano.  Its like taking two steps back to go one step forward. 

 

Thanks for the insight concerning Covid.

[spartacus]

1 hour ago, 78thealltimegreat said:

That because of COVID some true in their prime stars are going to be on the market this year with teams like the Saints 112 million over the cap for starters much less Eagles, Rams, even the Raiders have major cap issues so waiting to release a veteran till later in the off season because you

might be able to get a good player on a 1 year come try to win a ring in Buffalo deal seems like a good strategy 

teams over the cap now can not wait to cut big ticket players

moves will need to be made before day 1 to get under the cap

 

also means Bills may make some early moves to enable quick bargain hunting 

[mushypeaches]

1 hour ago, Buffalo_Stampede said:

Waller to the Bills confirmed. 

 

This would be amazing if we could pull it off

 

[cv05]

This is bad news for the bills. They are 19th in available cap space compared with other teams. The Bills are  going to be more in the group of shedding star players than signing them. The teams that benefit from this are teams with more cap space - Jaguars, Jets, Colts, Patriots, Bengals

[Punching Bag]

30 minutes ago, Shaw66 said:

The real result here is that the players who get cut are going to take big pay cuts.  There's no way around it.  It sounded in Beane's press conference like Milano is gone.  Whenever Beane says "it's a business and he is free to get paid what he can," he usually means we've had a preliminary conversation with his agent, and it that's what he wants, we're not going there.  The problem is that this is horrible year to be a free agent, because NO ONE is going to have enough cap space to write contracts like they did last year.   Guys on multi-year deals are protected, guys on one-year deals are not.  

 

Bills probably told his agent "Your floor is too high for us. We want to keep him and we know Milano wants to stay.  Check out free agency and come back and talk to us."

[Buffalo_Stampede]

18 minutes ago, mushypeaches said:

 

This would be amazing if we could pull it off

 

Its not going to happen. Lol. Would be amazing yes. 

[Ethan in Cleveland]

1 hour ago, Bob in STL said:

In Beane We Trust. 

Not entirely in spending free agent dollars... Murphy, Addison, Butler, Jefferson, Klein, Norman, Long, and Mantekevich all were quite expensive with little return.  Brown, Feliciano, Williams, and Beasley appear to have been worth the investment. Morse is somehwere in between at a super high cost for maybe at best average play.  

[BuffaloBill]

Nice thought but the Bills do not have a ton of cap to play with next year.  Yes, they can make moves. However, not the organization’s DNA to do so in a flashy manner.

[Ethan in Cleveland]

16 minutes ago, cv05 said:

This is bad news for the bills. They are 19th in available cap space compared with other teams. The Bills are  going to be more in the group of shedding star players than signing them. The teams that benefit from this are teams with more cap space - Jaguars, Jets, Colts, Patriots, Bengals

They will shed Murphy and some of the dead weight DL guys they signed last year.  As for stars? I just hope they keep either Williams or Milano.  If they lose both they will need to backfill in free agency.  They would have two many needs to fix just in the draft.

Hopefully the silver lining would be if Milano leaves and Edmunds moves outside. 

 

[Nextmanup]

31 minutes ago, Figster said:

Not at all a fan of losing Milano.  Its like taking two steps back to go one step forward. 

 

Thanks for the insight concerning Covid.

If you end up forward of where you were to begin with, it's all good.

 

 

 

 

[Dablitzkrieg]

It's a nice point, but considering that Beane even said they're not going to be spending in free agency, it's kind of unrealistic to think that any of them are going to be coming to Buffalo.

[DrDawkinstein]

We arent in any better spot to sign street FAs.

 

It looks like the Jags, Colts, Jets, and Pats will be signing everyone tho...

 

https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/cap/

[cv05]

10 minutes ago, Ethan in Portland said:

They will shed Murphy and some of the dead weight DL guys they signed last year.  As for stars? I just hope they keep either Williams or Milano.  If they lose both they will need to backfill in free agency.  They would have two many needs to fix just in the draft.

Hopefully the silver lining would be if Milano leaves and Edmunds moves outside. 

 

 

I guess I view it as a market - supply and demand. If there is a surplus of free agent talent that can be had, we're objectively going to be taking part less in it than other teams, which is unfortunate. We are poorly positioned to this relative to other teams. I know your eyes light up at the idea of cutting dead weight like Murphy but it likely will go beyond those types of cuts. Williams, Milano- how about John Brown? Half of our D-line? Teams that have a lot of cap space are going to be well positioned to get bargain prices on good talent - we are not one of them.

 

 

[78thealltimegreat]

22 minutes ago, DrDawkinstein said:

We arent in any better spot to sign street FAs.

 

It looks like the Jags, Colts, Jets, and Pats will be signing everyone tho...

 

https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/cap/

One problem none of these teams have a QB except the Jags and Trevor will be a rookie 

23 minutes ago, cv05 said:

 

I guess I view it as a market - supply and demand. If there is a surplus of free agent talent that can be had, we're objectively going to be taking part less in it than other teams, which is unfortunate. We are poorly positioned to this relative to other teams. I know your eyes light up at the idea of cutting dead weight like Murphy but it likely will go beyond those types of cuts. Williams, Milano- how about John Brown? Half of our D-line? Teams that have a lot of cap space are going to be well positioned to get bargain prices on good talent - we are not one of them.

 

 

Those teams with cap space also don’t have franchise QBs like we do 

[Eastport bills]

1 hour ago, Over 29 years of fanhood said:

Forget Milano, sign Bobby Wagner after he’s cut for cap savings!! 

If they let Wagner go, there will be teams lined up for him, but you're onto something. The most crucial need we have is a bone crushing LB like Warner, Wagner, or Bush.

[Shaw66]

1 hour ago, Big Turk said:

 

Not necessarily...a team might have been able to do some restructures to clean up cap space up to a certain amount but now will have to cut a plyer or players from the $25 million more they would be over.  So one team may still be fine but another may have to release players now.  There is only so much cap maneuvering that can be done.  

 

I don't see the NFL letting this happen and I think the cap number is probably closer to $200 million regardless of how they have to get there. 

I hear you. You may be right. As I think about it I think you're really right about the cap being higher than we might think.  A drastic cap drop is really disruptive to the teams and really unfair to players who became free agents at the end of this season.  Make cap artificially high for the coming season and a bit low next season to average it out.  I bet you're right about that.  

[The Firebaugh Kid]

We've gotta change our mentality folks. This is a quality destination now. That's some major leverage we've never had before. 

Waller and Kamara please 😉

[Bob in STL]

4 hours ago, Ethan in Portland said:

Not entirely in spending free agent dollars... Murphy, Addison, Butler, Jefferson, Klein, Norman, Long, and Mantekevich all were quite expensive with little return.  Brown, Feliciano, Williams, and Beasley appear to have been worth the investment. Morse is somehwere in between at a super high cost for maybe at best average play.  

I disagree that we got little return from all those players.   Other “experts” say he built us up fast in part because of Beane’s staffs pro scouting ability.   I can think of many positive contributions by Addison, Klein, Norman and Mantekevich that helped us go 15-4.   Big plays numerous times by each of them.  

 

Listen to Beane’s interview.  He talks about the cap value changing after Covid, making every GMs job harder today.  He talks about letting Jordan Phillips walk because they had Star, only to lose Star to Covid opt out.  Phillips would have been retained with your 20-20 hindsight.  He also indicated everything starts with the DL. 
 

It easy to criticize moves after the fact but you do not know the intrinsic value these players bring to the team and the locker room. You don’t have the film or the playbook either. 

No one hits every draft pick, every free agent, and every move.  
 

I think we are in good hands with Beane.  He is not perfect, just very dam good.  

Edited January 28, 2021 by Bob in STL

[Einstein's Dog]

5 hours ago, BuffaloBill said:

Nice thought but the Bills do not have a ton of cap to play with next year.  Yes, they can make moves. However, not the organization’s DNA to do so in a flashy manner.

Kind of like how it's not in their DNA to make a big trade, until it is.  Pretty obvious need for this team to get a big time pass rusher.  If they want to address that concern you can't look to the draft. 

 

You're analysis of the FO's DNA might just be subject to change, just as it did last year.

[artmalibu]

Did Steve talk about the 8 million over the cap the Bills are now.  They will need to sign their draft picks, and maybe a couple of their own free agents too.  

 

Dont expect the Bills to make any splashy free agent moves.  Bean said they wouldnt and I believe him!  

[78thealltimegreat]

25 minutes ago, artmalibu said:

Did Steve talk about the 8 million over the cap the Bills are now.  They will need to sign their draft picks, and maybe a couple of their own free agents too.  

 

Dont expect the Bills to make any splashy free agent moves.  Bean said they wouldnt and I believe him!  

Yes he did I can’t believe some of the contracts with dead weight on the roster for instance Lee Smith and Trent Murphy alone would get them under the cap much less the other anchors on this team they could restructure or release 

Edited January 28, 2021 by 78thealltimegreat

[artmalibu]

1 hour ago, 78thealltimegreat said:

Yes he did I can’t believe some of the contracts with dead weight on the roster for instance Lee Smith and Trent Murphy alone would get them under the cap much less the other anchors on this team they could restructure or release 

 

I dont think Murphy is under contract and Smith is 2.25 mill, but yes there is 30 mil could be trimmed.   

[Buffalo Barbarian]

JJ Watt

 

 

[machine gun kelly]

FWIW, per Spotrac, they still have the cap at $178 mil. and they are the cap experts, not someone saying, yeah but it will be $185, 190, 200 mil.  The only saving grace is if there are new tv deals that come 5rough so they can borrow for two years against their future.  That does mean the cap won’t go up though in two future years as they borrowed against their future.

 

I just looked and something changed from yesterday as it now places us 21st at -$6 mil. so teams like Seattle who are +$4 mil. are in better shape.  I expect this will ebb and flow and I don’t know why we flipped $8.8 mil.  
 

The excitement of grabbing some guy on the cheap isn’t going to happen.  The teams at the top of have gluts of $ like the Jags, Colts, Jets, Pats, Bengals, WFT, Bucs, and Dolphins will benefit.  There are more, but these guys right now are at the top.

 

We have now due to comp. picks 8.  If the Texans hire Frazier we get another 3rd., and an extra 3rd. next year.  Wrap you’re arms around that point.

[US Egg]

Brandon Beane does not tip his hand.

 

The cap is tight, but he's on the case.

 

No surprise to me he snags a solid FA.

[Madbillsfan]

15 hours ago, Buffalo_Stampede said:

I'm kind of hoping that offensive players look at the Bills thinking they can sign cheap for a year and put up big numbers. Cash in next year. 

 

John Brown, Beasley, and Diggs have had career years in Buffalo. I think we should get someone here cheap. 

That’s how you end up with Josh Norman. 
I know he’s a cb, but no one who is very good is gonna sign for peanuts. 

[Buffalo_Stampede]

6 hours ago, I am the egg man said:

Brandon Beane does not tip his hand.

 

The cap is tight, but he's on the case.

 

No surprise to me he snags a solid FA.

I think he's being straight forward. Honestly though we don't need him to say anything. Our cap situation as is doesn't put us in position to make a big move.