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Source: LB Matt Milano looking for “top dollar” in FA


YoloinOhio

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On 2/21/2021 at 5:11 PM, Hapless Bills Fan said:

 

Well, it's on his Instagram feed, which is not private....so of course it's intended to get out.

 

Call me naive if you like, but how is this a bad message to send?  The plausible deniability is strong with this one.  He's thinking about buying a boat.  He just re-watched that movie.

 

Everyone and his Cat knows that at the Senior Bowl in January and combine in February, agents and front office people have drinks and dinner and, in a perfectly hypothetical way of course, chat about what their clients want/what teams are willing to pay for a free agent of similar abilities.  Most deals are brokered informally well before the start of the "Legal Tampering" period.

 

I think the point of the Wawrow/AP article (whether it came from the Bills, or from Milano's camp) was that Milano's camp politely let the Bills know what they thought they'd lined up so that the Bills could match, and the Bills said "sorry, no can do, Godspeed!"

 

Yea Milano's agent has a few dinners and informal chats works out roughly what the market is. Let's say for argument's sake (and because I think it is the reality) that number is around $11-12m AAV) in that Corey Littleton to Jaylon Smith range. He has an initial look and see conversation with Buffalo and because he knows it is a negotiation he opens at $13m and Beane opens at $9m.... it isn't a long conversation because both sides know that is a big bridge to cross and there is no driving incentive for either to shift dramatically. I am sure the door remains open to Matt. If the legal tampering period opens and he has no bites and the agent rings Beane and says "the number is $11m" then I am positive the Bills would be open to talk and see if they can come to a compromise. But there is no point exploring that when you start so far apart which I am guessing is where they are now. It is the business side of the sport, that is the way this cookie crumbles.

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6 hours ago, CircleTheWagons99 said:

Money isn’t everything. MILLIONS of people live off of way less then these people and are just fine, like myself. Greed is a terrible thing. And this is not just about Milano, all these players making MILLIONS playing a GAME and having the nerve to complain about money. 

 

I only have 2 houses and 3 cars but I get along OK

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the more sort of breakdown tape i see of our LBs the past 3 seasons, the more i am convinced that in our D, milano's job is mentally much easier than edmunds.  milano is really good at getting places on the field, and he's gotten better at taking on blocks, but his tackling technique is not really clean and he gets himself out of position sometimes.  i've waffled back and forth, but i think if we can get a solid smart fundamental MLB (earlyish in the draft or even via FA if the money is right, a hyde/poyer type value) then sliding edmunds to OLB will make us all forget milano.

 

from what i can see, they both have very similar roles, but the MLB in our D ends up having to diagnose more than one gap, decide on depth, and then go make the tackle.  w our sad sack interior line play this season it left edumunds in the lurch way to often (his mistakes don'e help either).

 

looking back at carolina when mccorch was there, when their pass rush fell off and big guys got hurt the struggled, but they still mashed people up when luke was out for a few games, so the interplay between the line and the lbs is not lost on me.

 

one game that stands out a few years ago, was like 2014 or so carolina at SF.  some low scoring slug fest.  SF had a super physical gregg roman front, and carlina just straight up banged with them all day.  i think if we get a couple monsters in the gut and improve our passrush edmunds and whoever can play disruption and clean up and get us to that level.

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On 2/19/2021 at 7:34 PM, Hapless Bills Fan said:

 

https://apnews.com/article/nfl-football-coronavirus-pandemic-matt-milano-buffalo-bills-78e5474366e94f75bf9ce7f5d26bfe50

 

actual article

 

He does point out that Beane said it was likely:

 

The quote I had written down was "He intends to, and he's earned the right to, test free agency" which makes it sound as though the Bills knew it was a done deal that Milano intended (at the point of Beane's presser) to test the FA market.

 

Some aspects I find a little strange about this:

1) Wawrow "teased" it on twitter, as if it were big news, instead of incremental news "Beane said he intended to do it, now there's a source with direct knowledge saying it's gonna happen".  That's up to him, of course, but the next time I see this kinda tweet from him

Imma be 🙄

2) The timing, as someone else pointed out - with FA actually 4 weeks away

 

It's probably not in the Bills interest to tip their hand this early.  But, if I were Milano's agent and wanted to drum up more business with limited opportunities for F2F contact with club personnel (limit on Sr Bowl, virtual combine), it makes perfect sense.

 

3) the rationale given

Milano and his agent probably have some idea what offers have been "hypothetically" floated his way and how sure of a bet they are.  Would the Bills?  🤷‍♂️

 

Some of the stats brought up are strange -

I'm sure it's truth, but it seems like something someone comes up with when they're looking for a way to highlight their guy, y'know?

 

2019 was by far Milano's best year, with 15 games played, 101 combined tackles,  9 PD, a forced fumble, 7 TFL, 7 QB hits, and 1.5 sacks.  But he didn't have any picks and only 1 fumble recovery.

 

My feeling is if Milano had had a similar sort of year this season, the Bills would have been turning over rocks in their cap situation to find the money to sign him. 

 

But instead, the "11 games this season" Wawrow cites (I find 10 regular season plus 3 playoff games) over states his availability.  Milano has generally played 100% of the defensive snaps plus substantial ST snaps since becoming a starter.  But this season, that was true in only one (1) of the regular season games, Week 3.

 

Total speculation: I'm wondering if the Bills made Milano an offer he considered insulting - not because of $$ because that's always going to start apart and get negotiated, but because the Bills made a bunch of contingent, in per-game and performance bonuses.

 

 

The timing of it was the timing. A day after the NFL announced the minimum cap was going to be at least $180M, led to people speculating on the twitter of whether that changed the economics enough for the Bills to take a shot at re-signing Milano.

Read as much between the lines as you want, nothing Beane said entirely ruled out Milano from being re-signed. Beane didn't even suggest he "expected" Milano to hit free agency. He simply said, he's earned the right to do so.

 

Like it or not, I deal in absolutes, which is why the story was clear in saying Matt Milano will test free agency, as opposed to "intends to" or is "planning to" test free agency. That, under AP sourcing standards, wouldn't have been enough for me to write the story.

 

I don't think I need to apologize for shedding further light on the matter.

I asked the question, and received a definitive response.

 

jw

 

 

 

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2 hours ago, john wawrow said:

 

 

The timing of it was the timing. A day after the NFL announced the minimum cap was going to be at least $180M, led to people speculating on the twitter of whether that changed the economics enough for the Bills to take a shot at re-signing Milano.

Read as much between the lines as you want, nothing Beane said entirely ruled out Milano from being re-signed. Beane didn't even suggest he "expected" Milano to hit free agency. He simply said, he's earned the right to do so.

 

Like it or not, I deal in absolutes, which is why the story was clear in saying Matt Milano will test free agency, as opposed to "intends to" or is "planning to" test free agency. That, under AP sourcing standards, wouldn't have been enough for me to write the story.

 

I don't think I need to apologize for shedding further light on the matter.

I asked the question, and received a definitive response.

 

Were you asked to apologize or something?  Seems like a strange response.

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12 hours ago, Buffalo Timmy said:

Every player should say he wants top dollar since it is a cutthroat business but from what I have heard about him from his high school coaches he values winning as much as money, so he is likely to take less than top dollar to stay on a good team.

Money wasn't his big issue in High School?

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2 hours ago, john wawrow said:

 

 

The timing of it was the timing. A day after the NFL announced the minimum cap was going to be at least $180M, led to people speculating on the twitter of whether that changed the economics enough for the Bills to take a shot at re-signing Milano.

Read as much between the lines as you want, nothing Beane said entirely ruled out Milano from being re-signed. Beane didn't even suggest he "expected" Milano to hit free agency. He simply said, he's earned the right to do so.

 

Like it or not, I deal in absolutes, which is why the story was clear in saying Matt Milano will test free agency, as opposed to "intends to" or is "planning to" test free agency. That, under AP sourcing standards, wouldn't have been enough for me to write the story.

 

I don't think I need to apologize for shedding further light on the matter.

I asked the question, and received a definitive response.

 

jw

 

 

 


Appreciate the story.  Just seems strange that the Bills and Milano skipped right to Milano is testing free agency more than 3 weeks from free agency.  I guess that implies Bills won’t be using franchise or transition tag on him and that they’re done negotiating if they had any negotiations at all.  Not familiar with any other high profile free agents across the League where this has been publicly stated except for Milano. Why would Beane give other teams a 3 week head start on knowing Milano is gonna be available if Beane has any interest in retaining him?  Bye Matt.  

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