Current Bills salary cap situation - 4/8/2022 12:50 PM $200.1MM - taken for “Top 51” - Sportrac current estimate is that Bills are over by $2.8MM for all - Link to Sportrac in 1st post

[Hapless Bills Fan]

53 minutes ago, Tenhigh said:

Honestly, I'm not super comfortable if that is McD's plan.  

 

I will go further - based upon scouting reports, I would say that would be a Bad Plan.

https://www.nfl.com/prospects/isaiah-hodgins/3200484f-4453-7222-c7f0-678f7be73ebc

OP this is in response to:"Hodgins might be your new slot receiver. Davis #2, McKenzie the #4 motion, keep the D off balance guy. They’ll also go with ALOT of 12 personnel with OJ in the fold"

 

In particular, the "Hodgins might be your new slot receiver" idea:

Quote

Potential inside/outside target with below average speed but outstanding ball skills, instincts and will to make the contested catch. Scouts must balance his impressive pass-catching talent against issues eluding press-man and NFL-caliber coverage.

 

Quote

Weaknesses:

Has issues against talented press-man

Release will be mirrored and stalled

Excessive stutter release needs to be quicker

Below average short area twitch to lose coverage

Doesn't have enough speed to worry a cornerback

Long cornerbacks phase up his sideline routes

Extended gather steps to open on comebacks

Needs additional play strength to battle at the top of the route

 

Guys can 100% improve and develop.  McKenzie can compensate for "issues against talented press-man...release mirrored and stalled" type stuff because he DOES have the speed and quickness to worry a QB and he's also improved his cuts and become pretty strong.  But a guy who's neither fast nor quick is not on a development track that says "Good candidate as slot receiver".

 

I also love Davis - but he's not a sure fire bet to develop as the #2 we need IMHO.  He's shown flashes, but he's also shown crashes (dropped TD in Ravens playoff game and a couple other critical drops)

 

It would be a very troubling pattern to me if we don't invest a couple reasonably high draft picks on offense.

30 minutes ago, MAJBobby said:

The longer the 39, will be 40 QB sits on the market the closer that Bridge becomes.  (ooo and coming off MAJOR Hip INJ)  Who has already made 82.1M in Cash in his career.  

 

Right, so why would a guy who has made $82.1M and very likely invested it wisely want to play a vet minimum contract when he could be a fan, attend games shirtless and slam beers with his friends, and be present at his kids' football and soccer games?

 

Like I said, there's a Dignity Point.

[MAJBobby]

4 minutes ago, Hapless Bills Fan said:

 

I will go further - based upon scouting reports, I would say that would be a Bad Plan.

https://www.nfl.com/prospects/isaiah-hodgins/3200484f-4453-7222-c7f0-678f7be73ebc

OP this is in response to:"Hodgins might be your new slot receiver. Davis #2, McKenzie the #4 motion, keep the D off balance guy. They’ll also go with ALOT of 12 personnel with OJ in the fold"

 

In particular, the "Hodgins might be your new slot receiver" idea:

 

 

Guys can 100% improve and develop.  McKenzie can compensate for "issues against talented press-man...release mirrored and stalled" type stuff because he DOES have the speed and quickness to worry a QB and he's also improved his cuts and become pretty strong.  But a guy who's neither fast nor quick is not on a development track that says "Good candidate as slot receiver".

 

I also love Davis - but he's not a sure fire bet to develop as the #2 we need IMHO.  He's shown flashes, but he's also shown crashes (dropped TD in Ravens playoff game and a couple other critical drops)

 

It would be a very troubling pattern to me if we don't invest a couple reasonably high draft picks on offense.

 

Right, so why would a guy who has made $82.1M and very likely invested it wisely want to play a vet minimum contract when he could be a fan, attend games shirtless and slam beers with his friends, and be present at his kids' football and soccer games?

 

Like I said, there's a Dignity Point.

And can make another Cool easy 1.1M getting a front row seat. holding the clipbaord and a possible ring to boot.  So yes.

[Chandler#81]

4 minutes ago, Hapless Bills Fan said:

 

Like I said, there's a Dignity Point.

Where? WhatTH is this “Dignity Point” you speak of? 
 

I don’t have one. I know of no one who does. Now PRICE? Everybody has a price! But I don’t think Mr. Hava-d cares at this point of his remarkable career.

[BuffaloBill]

7 minutes ago, Chandler#81 said:

Where? WhatTH is this “Dignity Point” you speak of? 
 

 

 

I have no idea because I’ve never found it.

[Hapless Bills Fan]

33 minutes ago, Chandler#81 said:

Where? WhatTH is this “Dignity Point” you speak of? 
 

I don’t have one. I know of no one who does. Now PRICE? Everybody has a price! But I don’t think Mr. Hava-d cares at this point of his remarkable career.

 

This is gonna sound potentially snarky.  I don't mean it that way.  A 'dignity point' is a luxury possessed by people who are financially independent and have a high probability to be able to maintain their desired lifestyle (whatever that is: $300k house and canoe; $3M house and yacht) without working for another day's paycheck.    If you don't have one and don't know anyone who has one, that probably doesn't describe you and the people you know.  That almost certainly does describe Fitz.

 

Of course Fitz cares about compensation.  His NFL continued NFL career comes at a cost of lost time with his wife and his kids, for example.  The cost has to be offset by getting some combination of (what he probably sees as) needs and wants - like the cost of a relo covered, a starter job or the chance to compete to start, etc.

 

I'm not saying we won't possibly see Fitz here, but if he wants to keep playing and we do see him, it won't be on a Vet Salary Benefit contract.  It would be at least what the Bills gave Trubisky last season or the Texans gave Kyle Allen, which was $2.5M, almost all guaranteed.

[MAJBobby]

 

Star Done.  Now we wait to see if Post June 1 or not.  To see what the savings is.

[Hapless Bills Fan]

1 minute ago, MAJBobby said:

 

Star Done.  Now we wait to see if Post June 1 or not.  To see what the savings is.

 

Interesting!

[No_Matter_What]

Waiting for Sportrac to catch up I'll make a wild guess how we stand.

 

They show we have 15,5M right now (actually 16,9M top51 but since final roster is 53 players I have no clue what's the point of temporary top 51). That's after cutting Star already.

 

They have OJ Howard wrong, since they count 3,5M and his actual cap hit for 2022 will be 2,9M if the reports are true. So we have 16,1M cap space.

 

Saffold - 4,25M (reported)

Miller - 6M (my wild guess, I expect up to 4M prorated signing bonus and max  2M salary)

DQ Jones - 5M (maybe little less, it was reported as 14/2 but some void year would not surprise me)

Phillips - 2,5M (no clue, but I guess he and Lawson came very cheap)

Lawson - 2M (same as above, even less money)

 

However, these cap hits replace 700k cap hit of other players currently accounted for so we need to add extra 3,5M.

 

In this scenario we are right now having around 0 cap space. 

 

We need backup QB, and I expect maybe 2 more FA players (CB, OL?, RB?, LB?), plus we need up to 3M for rookies, so 2 more restructures incoming.

 

Looking forward real numbers.

Edited March 18, 2022 by No_Matter_What

[ColoradoBills]

4 hours ago, No_Matter_What said:

Anybody has idea when should sportrac has missing data? I mean they are now trying to get info from league or agents or what?

 

I find it weird that some contracts are immediately known to details and in some (many) cases we need to wait days (weeks?).

 

Per Spotrac site.

 

NFL SOURCES

Spotrac relies on these great sources for collecting thorough & accurate NFL news, contract data, and more.

Certified NFL Agents

Official Reports

Team Beat Reporters

Our data is our interpretation of these reports and in no way represents official data collected by the league. 

[GunnerBill]

I missed most of the activity on Wednesday and Thursday because I have been away at the horse racing for a couple of days. Just thought I should reflect that the second day of free agency was much more the aggressive Bills I wanted to see than the first day. 

 

I think Von Miller, OJ Howard and Jordan Phillips are all good signings, contracts allowing. Add that to Settle and Jones and moving on from Beas and Star I give them a solid B+. Still meh on Roger Saffold as the answer at guard. But overall relatively pleased with what they have done. Receiver, OL, Corner in the first two days of the draft please Brandon. 

[HappyDays]

3 minutes ago, GunnerBill said:

Still meh on Roger Saffold as the answer at guard

 

Only a $4.2m cap hit in 2022 with a $2m dead cap hit in 2023. Cheaper than Daryl Williams and arguably a better option.

[No_Matter_What]

4 minutes ago, GunnerBill said:

I missed most of the activity on Wednesday and Thursday because I have been away at the horse racing for a couple of days. Just thought I should reflect that the second day of free agency was much more the aggressive Bills I wanted to see than the first day. 

 

I think Von Miller, OJ Howard and Jordan Phillips are all good signings, contracts allowing. Add that to Settle and Jones and moving on from Beas and Star I give them a solid B+. Still meh on Roger Saffold as the answer at guard. But overall relatively pleased with what they have done. Receiver, OL, Corner in the first two days of the draft please Brandon. 

I've been saying that all along and everything what happened in FA so far points to that direction.

 

I think CB situation solves itself somehow, so the only thing which I am not happy with right now is OL. I have no idea how good Saffold is but I wanted to get best OL available in FA, draft OL Day1 or Day2 in draft AND retain Bates+Williams. With Williams gone we have definitely not upgraded both strating line and depth. Hopefully Beane has some additional ideas.

[GunnerBill]

3 minutes ago, HappyDays said:

 

Only a $4.2m cap hit in 2022 with a $2m dead cap hit in 2023. Cheaper than Daryl Williams and arguably a better option.

 

I think he is both cheaper and better than Daryl at guard. I still don't think he is very good. Not a guy to throw $6m at in my opinion. I'd have gone a different route at guard. That remains the most glaring weakness on this roster IMO. They might need an immediate contributor from the draft in that spot. 

[Hapless Bills Fan]

On 3/17/2022 at 9:53 AM, BuffaloBill said:

Bills Cap as of 3/18/2022 - 2:00 PM $16.9MM following release of Star and inclusion of Howard & Settle

 

Still missing: Jones, Lawson, Miller and Saffold

 

Bills Cap As of 3/17/2022 - 3:16 PM $17.5MM following release of Beasley

 

Bills Cap As of 3/17/2022 - 10:45 AM (Allegedly $11.4MM available)

 

Thought it might be helpful to have one thread where the Bills current cap status is tracked.  

 

According to Sportrac, the Bills have about $11.4 MM in space right now.  However, their number does not include new contracts for Howard, Jones, Miller and Saffold.

 

The Bills obviously have more work to do to be under the cap and leave themselves room for draft signings and in-season signings.

 

We have Saffold now.  Reported by Greg Tompsett of Cover1.

 

So $16.9M - $4.2 = $12.7M following release of Star, inclusion of Howard, Settle, and Saffold.

 

Still missing: Miller, Jones, Lawson  - Question - do we have Jordan Phillips?

EDIT: after perusing Spotrac I think the above does NOT include Phillips, so I will add him to the title

 

17 minutes ago, GunnerBill said:

 

I think he is both cheaper and better than Daryl at guard. I still don't think he is very good. Not a guy to throw $6m at in my opinion. I'd have gone a different route at guard. That remains the most glaring weakness on this roster IMO. They might need an immediate contributor from the draft in that spot. 

 

Have you had a look at the AAV for a guard recently?

[BillsShredder83]

4 hours ago, BearNorth said:

I don't think Fitz, considering the money he's made, and coming off a serious injury, is going to want to play anywhere for Vet minimum.  He might have to shave, but I suspect with his intelligence, he might become a first rate TV analyst, or an eventual GM like Elway or Lynch

Please baby Jesus!!! 

[Buffalo_Stampede]

Beane speaks at 4pm. Hopefully we get an answer of where the Bills are at cap wise. I think right now we’re tight.

[Warcodered]

4 hours ago, BearNorth said:

I don't think Fitz, considering the money he's made, and coming off a serious injury, is going to want to play anywhere for Vet minimum.  He might have to shave, but I suspect with his intelligence, he might become a first rate TV analyst, or an eventual GM like Elway or Lynch

 

[GunnerBill]

2 minutes ago, Hapless Bills Fan said:

 

Have you had a look at the AAV for a guard recently?

 

Yes. Andrew Norwell got $10m over two years with $4.2m guaranteed. I don't think you can look at the contracts guys like Conor Williams and James Daniels signed in their first adventure into FA and compare them to the deals that proper vet guys in their 2nd or 3rd dip in the FA pool like Norwell and Saffold got. 

5 minutes ago, Buffalo_Stampede said:

Beane speaks at 4pm. Hopefully we get an answer of where the Bills are at cap wise. I think right now we’re tight.

 

Yea we must be. And we should be. This is the time when you load the eff up for a run. 

[Hapless Bills Fan]

On 3/17/2022 at 9:53 AM, BuffaloBill said:

Bills Cap as of 3/18/2022 - 2:00 PM $16.9MM following release of Star and inclusion of Howard & Settle

 

Still missing: Jones, Lawson, Miller and Saffold

 

Bills Cap As of 3/17/2022 - 3:16 PM $17.5MM following release of Beasley

 

Bills Cap As of 3/17/2022 - 10:45 AM (Allegedly $11.4MM available)

 

Thought it might be helpful to have one thread where the Bills current cap status is tracked.  

 

According to Sportrac, the Bills have about $11.4 MM in space right now.  However, their number does not include new contracts for Howard, Jones, Miller and Saffold.

 

The Bills obviously have more work to do to be under the cap and leave themselves room for draft signings and in-season signings.

 

Just a little note that according to Joe B, the $3.5M cap hit Spotrac has for Howard is wrong:

 

So add $625k to that $16.9 then subtract out $4.22 for Saffold: $13.3 at present

[No_Matter_What]

38 minutes ago, Hapless Bills Fan said:

 

Just a little note that according to Joe B, the $3.5M cap hit Spotrac has for Howard is wrong:

 

So add $625k to that $16.9 then subtract out $4.22 for Saffold: $13.3 at present

Hap you have it wrong. You can't substract all 4.2 for Saffold. It's only 3.5, since it replaces 700k of bottom roster guy.

[Hapless Bills Fan]

56 minutes ago, No_Matter_What said:

Hap you have it wrong. You can't substract all 4.2 for Saffold. It's only 3.5, since it replaces 700k of bottom roster guy.

 

The cap number from Spotrac should already reflect doing that, I believe - it only needs to be done once, and for the bottom most guy

 

Same thing when people are like "no, you can't subtract 1.5M for because (same logic).  The bottom guy only gets counted 1x, and all these cap hits are pushing him down.

 

But I could be thinking about this incorrectly, in which case on a per-guy basis, when we add the 5 guys who aren't counted currently, we take $700k*5 or $3.5M off.  We get OJ Howard cap-free 😂😛

[No_Matter_What]

47 minutes ago, Hapless Bills Fan said:

 

The cap number from Spotrac should already reflect doing that, I believe - it only needs to be done once, and for the bottom most guy

 

Same thing when people are like "no, you can't subtract 1.5M for because (same logic).  The bottom guy only gets counted 1x, and all these cap hits are pushing him down.

 

But I could be thinking about this incorrectly, in which case on a per-guy basis, when we add the 5 guys who aren't counted currently, we take $700k*5 or $3.5M off.  We get OJ Howard cap-free 😂😛

Yes Hap I am pretty sure you don't quite unterstand how Sportrac works, and bolded is exactly how it works. See my post on previous page where I did exactly that - you need to take $3.5M off once you count complete cap hits of all 5 remaining new players.

 

Sportrac has no way how to reflect that.

 

At this moment, it counts 51 players, including last one Quintin Morris who has 705k cap hit. Cap space (top 51) is lets say 17M. So if Saffold's contracts is accounted for, his 4.2M cap hit goes to top 51, but Morris' 0.7M cap goes out of the equation. So our cap space is lowered by the difference only, and it becomes 13.5M.

[No_Matter_What]

@Hapless Bills Fan Saffold is on, so you can see it. We are at 13.5 from 17.0.

 

Really curious about those other 4 guys.

 

Edited March 18, 2022 by No_Matter_What

[ganesh]

On 3/17/2022 at 8:46 PM, extrahammer said:

 

I assume they've made some other cap moves that just haven't been publicized in order to make moves for the signings.

The moves for extending Hyde and restructuring Milano (converting his year salary to bonus) has given them more than 10M in cap space for this year.

[BillsFanForever19]

It's not an exact number, but per Brandon Beane as far as the cap goes "we're right up on it".

 

He says we'll be addressing QB early next week (hopefully Barkley is replacing Webb and not Trubisky) and then it's going to be "guys who value opportunity" later on in FA after the Draft. Might be some tiny Marquel Lee like signings between now and then, but we're pretty much done.

[Simon Says]

On 3/17/2022 at 11:03 AM, aristocrat said:

 

6.5 mil more space with 1.5 dead cap only this year

6.1

[Magox]

Super low cap hit for 2022 and I would venture to guess they can free up room next year and continue kicking the can down the road throughout the contract.

[jlgarsh]

Just saw Miller was added! Now that's some cap Wizardry there!!!

[SoCal Deek]

20 minutes ago, Magox said:

Super low cap hit for 2022 and I would venture to guess they can free up room next year and continue kicking the can down the road throughout the contract.

Looks like he’s stuck renting a studio apartment this year. 😂

[BuffaloBill]

56 minutes ago, Magox said:

Super low cap hit for 2022 and I would venture to guess they can free up room next year and continue kicking the can down the road throughout the contract.

 

 

They probably do not need to or want to kick the can - difference can be made up by decrease in dead cap money next season

[Turbo44]

43 minutes ago, SoCal Deek said:

Looks like he’s stuck renting a studio apartment this year. 😂

Ha - cap cash if different than real cash. When he signed his contract he was wired his signing bonus of 18.5m. 

[Magox]

9 minutes ago, BuffaloBill said:

 

 

They probably do not need to or want to kick the can - difference can be made up by decrease in dead cap money next season

Ideally they don’t want to but they may need to.

[BrooklynBills]

Bills can still free up almost $4 million by cutting Matakevitch and Cody Ford.

 

Also Ryan Bates currently counts against the cap at 2.5 million but he's either going to get signed away or he's going to re-sign and i think that number goes down too.

[Beast]

11 minutes ago, BrooklynBills said:

Bills can still free up almost $4 million by cutting Matakevitch and Cody Ford.

 

Also Ryan Bates currently counts against the cap at 2.5 million but he's either going to get signed away or he's going to re-sign and i think that number goes down too.

 

They aren't cutting Ford.

[RyanC883]

any interesting WR’s, RB or CB’s we could bring in?  

 

Hopefully a vet QB also (Kyle Allen)

[Shaw66]

1 hour ago, Beast said:

 

They aren't cutting Ford.

I ththink certainly not before camp.   Kromer might declare him worthless by the end of camp. 

[BuffaloBill]

2 hours ago, SoCal Deek said:

Looks like he’s stuck renting a studio apartment this year. 😂

 

Perhaps a full building of them.

[Hapless Bills Fan]

3 hours ago, Magox said:

Super low cap hit for 2022 and I would venture to guess they can free up room next year and continue kicking the can down the road throughout the contract.

 

$5.1M for 2022 - That's Some *****!!!!!

 

1 hour ago, RyanC883 said:

any interesting WR’s, RB or CB’s we could bring in?  

 

Hopefully a vet QB also (Kyle Allen)

 

Kyle Allen is under contract to the Houston Texans.  He was someone I thought might be of interest to the Bills, but he's "taken"

 

You can look up available free agents on Spotrac:

https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/free-agents/

 

Just select the position of interest from the drop-down and click "update"

[Beast]

1 hour ago, Shaw66 said:

I ththink certainly not before camp.   Kromer might declare him worthless by the end of camp. 

 

A lot of players might be deemed worthless by the end of camp.

 

Right now the Bills have no depth at all at guard. Ford is still on a rookie deal. He is not going anywhere until there are others that supplant him or his deal expires.

Edited March 19, 2022 by Beast

[BillsFanForever19]

3 hours ago, BrooklynBills said:

Bills can still free up almost $4 million by cutting Matakevitch and Cody Ford.

 

Also Ryan Bates currently counts against the cap at 2.5 million but he's either going to get signed away or he's going to re-sign and i think that number goes down too.

 

3 hours ago, Beast said:

 

They aren't cutting Ford.

 

They aren't cutting Matakevitch either. He's maybe our best Special Teamer. And in losing Taiwan Jones on that side and A.J. Klein on the LB side, we're a little thin at both the roles he provides. 

 

Cody Ford isn't going to be released with Kromer coming in. They made a large investment in him and they'll hope that Kromer can bring more out of him. And especially not when we're thin at O-Line depth already and might be losing Ryan Bates too.