Addison & Butler: just how much do their contracts matter?

[Ed_Formerly_of_Roch]

14 hours ago, BillsFanForever19 said:

 

See: Kroft, Tyler

 

And who is having serious discussions that either should be cut, outside of a vocal minority in the fan base? Beane and McDermott continue to speak very highly of Addison. 

 

If either were to be cut, given their stature with the team, it would have happened a few months back to save the cap space and replace them instead of holding on to them with restructures.

 

Tyler Kroft is an example of what exactly?   A player who took a pay cut, got guaranteed money in exchange and they didn't cut him??

 

So what TE last year was on the training camp roster that was close or maybe even better talent wise that they cut instead?    Don't think there was anyone.

 

That's my point!  Beane never it did it before because there was never a reason for him to even consider doing it.  Prior to last year the cupboard was pretty bare so not really any vets in danger of being cut.

 

I look at DT as an example there are legit 5 guys competing for at most 4 spots.  Oliver and Star are locks, from everything being reported, the next best guy may be Zimmer.  Phillips provides a unique trait in that he's the only legit backup for Star so does that give him an inside shot to make roster.  That leaves Butler.  Do they keep Butler solely because of the contract situation even if the other two help the roster more?   Beane has never needed or been in this situation prior to think about doing that.

 

This year with the overall roster depth, things are different and don't think we can go by what was done in the past.  As a fan I'll be kind of disappointed if they keep Butler as sounds like they aren't keeping the best players and not trying to improve as best they can.

[BarleyNY]

On 8/5/2021 at 7:38 PM, NickelCity said:

As we all watch the camp thread in anticipation of hearing about who's flashing and who's not, many of us are focused on the roster bubble and playing the "who do we keep/cut" game. For both DE and DT, roster cut downs are expected to be difficult. Below is the list of players who I think are in contention for roster spots for each position, which I expect is fairly unsurprising.

 

DE:

Hughes

Addison 

Epenesa 

Rousseau

Basham

Obada

Johnson 

 

DT:

Lotulelei

Oliver

Butler

Phillips

Zimmer

 

Assuming we keep 6 DEs and 4 DTs, one player will be cut from each list above. Now, throughout the summer I've heard that Addison and Butler are less likely (or extremely unlikely, depending on who you listen to) to be cut due to their restructured contracts. (1) Just how detrimental to the Bills would cutting these players be, in cap terms? (2) Would cutting one/both be considered controversial within the locker room considering that they were willing to restructure? (3) I'm generally curious just how much faith I should put into the "hard to cut them because of their contracts" observation. Would it be enough to keep them even if they were outperformed by another player? I'm not much of a cap guru, so any insight appreciated. 

 

I’ll make this simple, but this is based on OverTheCap’s numbers because they make a lot more sense than Spotrac’s:

 

Addison: The total difference between him playing this season and getting cut is $2M.  That does not include someone to replace him on the team.

 

Butler: Difference between keeping and cutting is $3.3M, less replacement cost. 
 

Hope that helps.