Bills Sign Former First Rounder Shane Ray (now released with injury settlement)

[aristocrat]

https://twitter.com/gregtompsett/status/1657540343233912833?s=46&t=WfwBbfFkRiZZWCMxTdpkOw

[4BillsintheBurgh]

5 minutes ago, aristocrat said:

https://twitter.com/gregtompsett/status/1657540343233912833?s=46&t=WfwBbfFkRiZZWCMxTdpkOw

Getting a Shawn Merriman vibe - hope his calves are good.

[aristocrat]

 

[EmotionallyUnstable]

MORE DEFENSIVE LINEMAN LFG

[Warriorspikes51]

Perhaps Beane sees this as the DE he wanted to add?

Rather funny…we signed 2 players Von played with

[Matt_In_NH]

He was lost in a dark retreat for 4 years.  People don’t know those things are dark and it’s hard to get out since you can’t see.  

Edited May 14, 2023 by Matt_In_NH

[Freddie's Dead]

18 minutes ago, aristocrat said:

 

 

[Roundybout]

Former first round pick, won a title with Denver in 2015. Not a bad guy to kick the tires on 

[Starr Almighty]

14 career sacks in 4 seasons. Hasn't played since 2018. Time to wait and see 

[Buffalo_Stampede]

36 minutes ago, Warriorspikes51 said:

Perhaps Beane sees this as the DE he wanted to add?

Rather funny…we signed 2 players Von played with

Better not be.

50 minutes ago, 4BillsintheBurgh said:

Getting a Shawn Merriman vibe - hope his calves are good.

This guy is a walking injury.

[Allen2D̶i̶g̶g̶s̶TBD]

This is the most out-of-left-field signing the Bills have made in years.

 

I had no idea he was still playing, but I'm glad he's getting a second chance.

 

Shane Ray will be reunited with Von Miller, who he won a Superbowl with as a Bronco.

[Zag20]

Shadow GM Von Miller with his first signing 

[BuffaloBillyG]

Odd move, for sure. Camp body with the possibility to latch on perhaps? 

[akcash]

Maybe practice squad? Can he mix in ILB?

[JerseyBills]

Von looked so good last year. Watching his workout video are super impressive.  I think he's just a genetic wonder/all time great DE and will bounce back. I'm sure him and Ray spoke about this signing 

[Sierra Foothills]

48 minutes ago, Starr Almighty said:

14 career sacks in 4 seasons. Hasn't played since 2018. Time to wait and see 

 

He hasn't played in the NFL since 2018.

 

Since then he's played parts of two seasons in the CFL.

 

Possible camp body... zero expectations from over here.

 

[BillsFanForever19]

1 hour ago, Warriorspikes51 said:

Perhaps Beane sees this as the DE he wanted to add?

Rather funny…we signed 2 players Von played with

 

I know you probably don't want to hear it, but I really think between the waiver claim for Kameron Cline and the Shane Ray signing - that's it for DE. 

 

At his presser yesterday when asked about Shane Ray, Beane said:

 

"You know, we didn't hit on any DE's after the Draft as far as guys to sign. And that's why we were excited to get the kid Kameron Cline last week that we claimed from Indy. And then you know we probably, at some point may look to add a DE between now and the start of Camp. And so we're just instead of doing a workout, here's a guy out there, let's bring him in here for a couple days, again test his knowledge, test his skill set, see where he's at, and um ya know, we call it kicking the tires"

 

So to review, he said he tried to get something done with at the DE position, but couldn't. Whether he's talking about UFA's or UDFA's is unclear. But he first claimed Kameron Cline. He said he wanted to add "a" DE between now and the start of Camp (implying one more). Then he "kicked the tires" on Shane Ray and liked what he saw enough to sign him. 

 

That's two signings at the position in the past week or so at DE. Combined with what he already have, I would be shocked if we added another.

 

1 hour ago, Buffalo_Stampede said:

Better not be.

This guy is a walking injury.

 

You're not happy with how Beane chose to address a position in Free Agency or the Draft? This is my shocked face.

 

We started the Offseason 18.5m over the cap with 24 FA's to fill, plus come up with money for Draft picks, plus Practice Squad, plus spending money for emergencies during the season. He's done a great job doing what he's done.

 

If you were expecting "I've heard of him!" superstars across the board - you were deluding yourself and letting yourself down by getting crazy expectations.

Edited May 14, 2023 by BillsFanForever19

[Buffalo_Stampede]

11 minutes ago, BillsFanForever19 said:

 

I know you probably don't want to hear it, but I really think between the waiver claim for Kameron Cline and the Shane Ray signing - that's it for DE. 

 

At his presser yesterday when asked about Shane Ray, Beane said:

 

"You know, we didn't hit on any DE's after the Draft as far as guys to sign. And that's why we were excited to get the kid Kameron Cline last week that we claimed from Indy. And then you know we probably, at some point may look to add a DE between now and the start of Camp. And so we're just instead of doing a workout, here's a guy out there, let's bring him in here for a couple days, again test his knowledge, test his skill set, see where he's at, and um ya know, we call it kicking the tires"

 

So to review, he said he tried to get something done with multiple DE's and couldn't get a deal done for the price he felt comfortable paying at this point. So he first claimed Kameron Cline. He said he wanted to add "a" DE between now and the start of Camp (implying one more). Then he "kicked the tires" on Shane Ray and liked what he saw enough to sign him. 

 

That's two signings at the position in the past week or so at DE. Combined with what he already have, I would be shocked if we added another.

 

 

You're not happy with how Beane chose to address a position in Free Agency or the Draft? This is my shocked face.

 

We started the Offseason 18.5m over the cap with 24 FA's to fill, plus come up with money for Draft picks, plus Practice Squad, plus spending money for emergencies during the season. He's done a great job doing what he's done.

 

If you were expecting "I've heard of him!" superstars across the board - you were deluding yourself and letting yourself down by getting crazy expectations.

Crazy expectations? What do you consider crazy expectations?

 

I want Yannick, but not expecting him. You think Justin Houston is a crazy expectation? Melvin Ingram? We already know our pass rushers aren’t good enough without Von. Von is 34 coming off ACL.

Edited May 14, 2023 by Buffalo_Stampede

[hondo in seattle]

Poor guy  is not living the NFL dream he expected when he was drafted in the first round.

 

2015 to 2016.  Career starts out okay.  Plays in 30 games his first two seasons.  Collects 68 tackles, 12 sacks and scores a TD (on the recovery of a Von-forced fumble).  Wins Super Bowl.  

 

2017 to 2018.  A recurring wrist injury limits his playing time and effectiveness.  Spends part of these years on IR.

 

2019.  Signed by Baltimore in the offseason but fails to make the final cut.   Doesn't play in 2019.  

 

2020.  Out of football.  

 

2021 to 2022.  Plays for the Argonauts.  More injury problems but wins Grey Cup.

 

The guy has seriously good juju.  In his short career, he's won both the Grey Cup and Lombardi.  I'm guessing Ray was brought in as a favor to Von.  But we might want to keep him as a good luck charm!  

 

Edited May 14, 2023 by hondo in seattle

[K-9]

Favor for Von. 

[Sierra Foothills]

25 minutes ago, BillsFanForever19 said:

 

I know you probably don't want to hear it, but I really think between the waiver claim for Kameron Cline and the Shane Ray signing - that's it for DE. 

 

 

I'm gonna predict that you're wrong.

 

We'll see.

 

 

[WEATHER DOT COM]

Nephew of Rob

[Bferra13]

1 hour ago, Zag20 said:

Shadow GM Von Miller with his first signing 

First and only me assumes... Beane musta really got sick of his nutsiness.

[Doc Brown]

The Broncos actually traded up for him.  Apparently fell slightly for marijuana citation.  You never know.

 

 

[RyanC883]

still would like Houston, but this is a good guy to kick tires on.  

[astb41]

Sounds like from the Beane presser comments he couldn’t land the options he tried to sign. My hope is it’s the veteran Houston/Clark/Ingram type guys and they want to wait til the start of training camp to pick where they want to go. Hopefully we land one of ‘em!

[BillsFanForever19]

2 hours ago, Buffalo_Stampede said:

Crazy expectations? What do you consider crazy expectations?

 

I want Yannick, but not expecting him. You think Justin Houston is a crazy expectation? Melvin Ingram? We already know our pass rushers aren’t good enough without Von. Von is 34 coming off ACL.

 

Melvin Ingram? Yes. It's been reported/rumored we offered Yannick an incentive laden deal and he turned it down.

 

What that says to me is we weren't offering anyone anything more than minimum up front and the ability to make more in uncapped incentives.

 

Which falls in line with our cap situation. It's easy to say "we can extend a DT and get some money". But a.) That DT would have to want to sign an extension b.) We'd have to want to extend that DT and c.) Beane would have to be agreeable to their price.

 

Short of that, there is no more money to be had. We scraped the well with restructures time and time again just to do what we've done already. If there were more to be done that Beane was comfortable with, he'd have done it. After signing our picks and the small moves we made, we have no more money.

 

Incentive laden deals aren't going to cut it for a Yannick or an Ingram. From the sounds of his presser that I quoted in the same prior post, it seems the people we wanted weren't agreeable to what we could offer. So Ray it was.

 

1 hour ago, Sierra Foothills said:

 

I'm gonna predict that you're wrong.

 

We'll see.

 

That's wishful thinking to me. Logic says we don't have any money. And that we already have 9 DE's on our Roster. Including our entire depth chart from the 53 last season. Von and the staff are all in lockstep of saying he's unlikely to miss any time or at worst a game or two. So adding a 10th at this point seems unlikely. 

 

If that were to happen, they wouldn't have bothered to do all of re-signing Shaq, claiming Cline, and signing Ray. And like I said Beane's presser seemed pretty clear that he tried to get deals done with some of the big names on the list and they weren't agreeable to what we could offer. Which is reportedly little to nothing up front and everything in incentives - on a team that has Von and Rousseau locked in as starters.

Edited May 14, 2023 by BillsFanForever19

[purple haze]

2 hours ago, K-9 said:

Favor for Von. 

I doubt it.   OBJ is in Baltimore and DHop is still in Arizona.  They didn’t do him those favors.

 

Ray probably showed good athleticism, they could use another pass rusher and they bring 90 to camp.  Why not sign him?    

[Momma Pecoraro]

Paging Reggie Rogers…

[Buffalo_Stampede]

1 hour ago, BillsFanForever19 said:

 

Melvin Ingram? Yes. It's been reported/rumored we offered Yannick an incentive laden deal and he turned it down.

 

What that says to me is we weren't offering anyone anything more than minimum up front and the ability to make more in uncapped incentives.

 

Which falls in line with our cap situation. It's easy to say "we can extend a DT and get some money". But a.) That DT would have to want to sign an extension b.) We'd have to want to extend that DT and c.) Beane would have to be agreeable to their price.

 

Short of that, there is no more money to be had. We scraped the well with restructures time and time again just to do what we've done already. If there were more to be done that Beane was comfortable with, he'd have done it. After signing our picks and the small moves we made, we have no more money.

 

Incentive laden deals aren't going to cut it for a Yannick or an Ingram. From the sounds of his presser that I quoted in the same prior post, it seems the people we wanted weren't agreeable to what we could offer. So Ray it was.

 

 

That's wishful thinking to me. Logic says we don't have any money. And that we already have 9 DE's on our Roster. Including our entire depth chart from the 53 last season. Von and the staff are all in lockstep of saying he's unlikely to miss any time or at worst a game or two. So adding a 10th at this point seems unlikely. 

 

If that were to happen, they wouldn't have bothered to do all of re-signing Shaq, claiming Cline, and signing Ray. And like I said Beane's presser seemed pretty clear that he tried to get deals done with some of the big names on the list and they weren't agreeable to what we could offer. Which is reportedly little to nothing up front and everything in incentives - on a team that has Von and Rousseau locked in as starters.

They have money. I’m not going to make excuses for Beane. Our pass rush has failed us multiple seasons. Relying on 34 year old Von Miller coming off an ACL is playing with fire. 
 

There are good insurance pass rushers available. They need to sign one. Simple as that. Restructure a contract or 2, release a contract, trade someone. Whatever it takes to sign one. Again, I prefer Yannick, but that would mean making a significant trade. So no, I don’t expect that. But they can definitely create enough space for Ingram or Houston.

[K-9]

2 hours ago, purple haze said:

I doubt it.   OBJ is in Baltimore and DHop is still in Arizona.  They didn’t do him those favors.

 

Ray probably showed good athleticism, they could use another pass rusher and they bring 90 to camp.  Why not sign him?    

I’m saying it’s the Bills doing the favor for Von, not Ray. A tongue in cheek comment. I’d be shocked if Ray makes the team though. 

[Chandler#81]

A wrist injury? A freakin WRIST injury?? What a woos! Just say it’s broken and cast that thing up. Worked in the 70’s!

…

[eball]

I really don’t get the “favor for Von” angle one bit.  That’s not how Beane operates.  This guy’s agent was likely putting out feelers throughout the league and while Beane may certainly have asked Von about his character and how he is as a teammate, they can watch the film for themselves and it is a completely no-risk, nothing-but-upside signing.

 

Odds of Ray making the roster are likely 100 to 1 or greater, but it’s a guy with a pedigree and I don’t know why anyone would “criticize” the move.

 

[BillsFanForever19]

3 hours ago, Buffalo_Stampede said:

They have money. I’m not going to make excuses for Beane. Our pass rush has failed us multiple seasons. Relying on 34 year old Von Miller coming off an ACL is playing with fire. 
 

There are good insurance pass rushers available. They need to sign one. Simple as that. Restructure a contract or 2, release a contract, trade someone. Whatever it takes to sign one. Again, I prefer Yannick, but that would mean making a significant trade. So no, I don’t expect that. But they can definitely create enough space for Ingram or Houston.

 

Oh, I see. You're one of those people that thinks no matter how many countless moves have already been done to finesse the cap already, that there is no limit. That the cap isn't real at all. Gotcha.

 

No. They don't have money. As it is, we have to come up with a few million for the Practice Squad and emergency money for midseason.

 

Extending someone takes both the team wanting to do it as well as the player and both agreeing on the price. Releasing a player to save money requires their contract to be written in a way that releasing them will save money and not cost us money.

 

Trading players would involve someone wanting a player, their contract, and us being cool losing them. There isn't really a player that a team would want to trade for and we'd save enough cap space for, that wouldn't cause a significant hole.

 

If it's just that simple and Beane was comfortable with any of those things to get more money, he'd have done it already. Beane doesn't do these types of moves just to get money to spend. He has to want to make those moves. And it's pretty clear he's done all the moving around he's comfortable with.

 

We already have NINE Defensive Ends on the roster. We usually keep 5 tops. Much like your complaints about WR, he decided to claim Cline and sign Ray within the past week or so to address the DE position. You not thinking it's enough isn't going to make him add a 3rd. The roster sits at 88 of 90 right now as is. Which is more than he said he wanted to go into Camp with. If someone's added, I doubt it's a 10th DE.

Edited May 14, 2023 by BillsFanForever19

[Buffalo_Stampede]

48 minutes ago, BillsFanForever19 said:

 

Oh, I see. You're one of those people that thinks no matter how many countless moves have already been done to finesse the cap already, that there is no limit. That the cap isn't real at all. Gotcha.

 

No. They don't have money. As it is, we have to come up with a few million for the Practice Squad and emergency money for midseason.

 

Extending someone takes both the team wanting to do it as well as the player and both agreeing on the price. Releasing a player to save money requires their contract to be written in a way that releasing them will save money and not cost us money.

 

Trading players would involve someone wanting a player, their contract, and us being cool losing them. There isn't really a player that a team would want to trade for and we'd save enough cap space for, that wouldn't cause a significant hole.

 

If it's just that simple and Beane was comfortable with any of those things to get more money, he'd have done it already. Beane doesn't do these types of moves just to get money to spend. He has to want to make those moves. And it's pretty clear he's done all the moving around he's comfortable with.

 

We already have NINE Defensive Ends on the roster. We usually keep 5 tops. Much like your complaints about WR, he decided to claim Cline and sign Ray within the past week or so to address the DE position. You not thinking it's enough isn't going to make him add a 3rd. The roster sits at 88 of 90 right now as is. Which is more than he said he wanted to go into Camp with. If someone's added, I doubt it's a 10th DE.

Man you’re replies are too long for my attention span.

 

I know how the cap works. I know the current contracts on the roster. I know what we can and can’t do. Beane can add to the roster. He’s choosing not to push more cap into the future or make other roster moves to create cap. I understand why he’s not doing. That’s one of the reasons I’m questioning his ability to get us where we want to go. We can’t worry too much about 2-3 years down the road. We are currently in a Super Bowl window. Poyer, Hyde, Diggs, and Miller aren’t going to be all pros forever.

Edited May 14, 2023 by Buffalo_Stampede

[Ridgewaycynic2013]

9 hours ago, hondo in seattle said:

2021 to 2022.  Plays for the Argonauts.  More injury problems but wins Grey Cup.

Canadian Tire will be 'headhunting' him for the executive development program, retail.  Bills better have made it a lucrative signing package for Ray. 🤔

[DCofNC]

You don’t go in the first round without talent.  He should come in motivated to try to get a shot in the NFL.  Expectations? None.  That said, worth a shot to see if you can strike gold.

[BuffaloBill]

6 minutes ago, DCofNC said:

You don’t go in the first round without talent.  He should come in motivated to try to get a shot in the NFL.  Expectations? None.  That said, worth a shot to see if you can strike gold.

 

 

This^^^^^

 

What do the Bills have to lose?

[ROCBillsBeliever]

10 hours ago, BillsFanForever19 said:

We started the Offseason 18.5m over the cap with 24 FA's to fill, plus come up with money for Draft picks, plus Practice Squad, plus spending money for emergencies during the season. He's done a great job doing what he's done.

 

If you were expecting "I've heard of him!" superstars across the board - you were deluding yourself and letting yourself down by getting crazy expectations.

 

@BillsFanForever19 As the Almighty Bruce Nolan says: "Expectations minus reality equals disappointment."

[hondo in seattle]

8 hours ago, purple haze said:

I doubt it.   OBJ is in Baltimore and DHop is still in Arizona.  They didn’t do him those favors.

 

Ray probably showed good athleticism, they could use another pass rusher and they bring 90 to camp.  Why not sign him?    

 

OBJ and DHop were prohibitively expensive.   Maybe Von came to Beane about Ray, and Beane thought - what the heck, we're not strong at DE, Ray is cheap, maybe he's worth a look.  In the end, Beane's doing what's best for the team but given Ray's recent history, he might not have been on Beane's radar.  Maybe Von put him there?