Bills official offseason Cap moves thread.

[SoonerBillsFan]

Exactly 4 weeks from today, March 13th, Free agency starts and the Bills have to be under the cap. I thought I would start an official cap moves thread so we can put all the moves in one thread. 

 

Things should start heating up to get under the cap pretty quickly.

[LabattBlue]

What makes this an “official” thread? 😂

[frostbitmic]

Where is the team sitting in regards to the cap with players who are signed for 2024 ?

[Buffalo_Stampede]

Just now, frostbitmic said:

Where is the team sitting in regards to the cap with players who are signed for 2024 ?

Simple answer is they are about $25 million under the cap with some simple non drastic moves.

[MR8]

3 minutes ago, frostbitmic said:

Where is the team sitting in regards to the cap with players who are signed for 2024 ?

They're $51M over as of now.  Lots of moves to work on that but as of now they're 2nd worst in cap space in th NFL, actually virtually tied with Miami. 

 

https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/buffalo-bills/cap/

[Don Otreply]

2 hours ago, LabattBlue said:

What makes this an “official” thread? 😂

The fancy letter head on the paper it is typed on, 

[78thealltimegreat]

Well Josh’s restructure clears down the overcap charges by something like 27 million. 
Extending Rasul Douglas also clear up a nice bit of cap Space too.

So there’s two things I know will happen as Deon Dawkins is just about do for a restructure as well.

The toughest move to me will be what the Bills do with Mitch Morse who has been Josh’s guy at center for 5 years. 

[Billl]

26 minutes ago, 78thealltimegreat said:

Well Josh’s restructure clears down the overcap charges by something like 27 million. 
Extending Rasul Douglas also clear up a nice bit of cap Space too.

So there’s two things I know will happen as Deon Dawkins is just about do for a restructure as well.

The toughest move to me will be what the Bills do with Mitch Morse who has been Josh’s guy at center for 5 years. 

What kind of extension would you give Douglas?  He’ll be 30 when the season starts.

[TheBeaneBandit]

3 minutes ago, Billl said:

What kind of extension would you give Douglas?  He’ll be 30 when the season starts.

2 to 3 years with the understanding that a move to safety could be on the table.

[juno999]

45 minutes ago, 78thealltimegreat said:

Well Josh’s restructure clears down the overcap charges by something like 27 million. 
Extending Rasul Douglas also clear up a nice bit of cap Space too.

So there’s two things I know will happen as Deon Dawkins is just about do for a restructure as well.

The toughest move to me will be what the Bills do with Mitch Morse who has been Josh’s guy at center for 5 years. 

Dawkins has one year left on current deal.  So does Taron Johnson.  I believe they'll both get extensions this off-season to reduce cap hit this year.  Restructure possibilities are McGovern, Allen, and Milano.  As of now Hines is scheduled for $5.4M.  I think they'll redo that contract or cut him.  Not sure what they'll do with Tre White.

[Matt_In_NH]

I hate officials.  

[SoonerBillsFan]

4 hours ago, LabattBlue said:

What makes this an “official” thread? 😂

Because I put official in the title 😁

[TheyCallMeAndy]

Josh Allen, Ed Oliver, Dawson Knox, Matt Milano, and Conor McGovern restructuring opens quite a bit of cap space. 
 

As mentioned, Dion Dawkins, Taron Johnson and Rasule Douglas extensions make sense. 
 

I have no doubt Tre White takes a pay cut to help the team, maybe they add a year to his deal to spread it out. 
 

Deonte Hardy is a cut candidate, but I can see him taking a pay cut as well. 

[SoonerBillsFan]

1 minute ago, TheyCallMeAndy said:

Josh Allen, Ed Oliver, Dawson Knox, Matt Milano, and Conor McGovern restructuring opens quite a bit of cap space. 
 

As mentioned, Dion Dawkins, Taron Johnson and Rasule Douglas extensions make sense. 
 

I have no doubt Tre White takes a pay cut to help the team, maybe they add a year to his deal to spread it out. 
 

Deonte Hardy is a cut candidate, but I can see him taking a pay cut as well. 

I don't see tre being here. 

[ControllerOfPlanetX]

Just cut a bunch of people and start over.

[BarleyNY]

https://overthecap.com/calculator/buffalo-bills

 

OTC’s calculator is a good tool to look at options for getting under the cap. While it’s not going to be fun, the Bills are going to be able to get under. They also will be able to get out from under some big contracts if they feel they need to. 

[gonzo1105]

1 hour ago, TheyCallMeAndy said:

Josh Allen, Ed Oliver, Dawson Knox, Matt Milano, and Conor McGovern restructuring opens quite a bit of cap space. 
 

As mentioned, Dion Dawkins, Taron Johnson and Rasule Douglas extensions make sense. 
 

I have no doubt Tre White takes a pay cut to help the team, maybe they add a year to his deal to spread it out. 
 

Deonte Hardy is a cut candidate, but I can see him taking a pay cut as well. 

 

Why would you add a year to a guy who has had two pretty catastrophic injuries to a DB. It either you take a significant pay cut or your gone. Its as simple as that.

[In Summary]

8 hours ago, LabattBlue said:

What makes this an “official” thread? 😂

This

[BillsFanForever19]

On 2/14/2024 at 7:51 PM, TheyCallMeAndy said:

Josh Allen, Ed Oliver, Dawson Knox, Matt Milano, and Conor McGovern restructuring opens quite a bit of cap space. 
 

As mentioned, Dion Dawkins, Taron Johnson and Rasule Douglas extensions make sense. 
 

I have no doubt Tre White takes a pay cut to help the team, maybe they add a year to his deal to spread it out. 
 

Deonte Hardy is a cut candidate, but I can see him taking a pay cut as well. 

 

I keep seeing "pay cut" or restructure for Tre White. 

 

Do you have any idea the kind of pay cut he would have to take for keeping him to make sense? It would be an insulting amount.

 

We're talking about a guy that if he were on the market now would have to take an incentive laden prove it deal. He never returned to consistent form from his ACL and then tore an Achilles.

 

His role would be a guy coming off the bench and mixing in, hoping he can get back up to speed. He's on a 16.44m cap hit this season and a 16.67m cap hit next season for that role. And unlike some other players that we can't get out from under right now, Tre White's out in that massive contract is THIS offseason.

 

When we gave up a 3rd for Douglas, it was pretty clear to me then that he wasn't only the Tre White replacement for just last year. In Douglas, Benford, Johnson, and Elam - we have our 3 starters and a 1st Round Pick coming off the bench in relief.

 

Douglas and Johnson will be extended and Benford has been getting better and better. He's the present and the future of the CB position and you don't want to mess with that development.

 

I just don't see a restructure or pay cut that makes sense for both sides. Save for White being okay with going from one of the top paid CB's in Football to being paid reserve money. We're not going to extend Douglas to put him on the bench and we're not going to stunt Benford's development by sticking him on the bench either. And we don't want that much money tied up into the CB position, especially for the role he'd have and being at best, a MASSIVE question mark.

 

In the position we're in, we have to come up with cap space anywhere we can. There's only a handful of players who have outs in their deals this offseason. Tre is the easiest decision amongst them, if you remove emotion from the equation.

 

We're set at CB without him. His replacement is already in house. The only reason to not move on is it would be sad to and fans are in their feels about it. And that's simply not a valid reason when it comes to Business.

Edited February 16 by BillsFanForever19

[hondo in seattle]

This is a depressing thread.  The Bills need to get better to win the Lombardi.  Whenever I read about this year's cap, I can't help but feel we're going to get worse.

 

Restructuring might buy us some relief.  But that's just kicking the can down the road making future years difficult too.   I like the team Beane has built for the most part, but I don't like where he's put us with the cap.  

 

 

[boyst]

6 minutes ago, hondo in seattle said:

This is a depressing thread.  The Bills need to get better to win the Lombardi.  Whenever I read about this year's cap, I can't help but feel we're going to get worse.

 

Restructuring might buy us some relief.  But that's just kicking the can down the road making future years difficult too.   I like the team Beane has built for the most part, but I don't like where he's put us with the cap.  

 

 

Two part question.

 

Did you think we had a chance to win it all this year?

Based upon your answer above would you have been in favor of a restructuring of the team? Not a full rebuild, a soft rebuild. A restructure.

[hondo in seattle]

Just now, boyst said:

Two part question.

 

Did you think we had a chance to win it all this year?

Based upon your answer above would you have been in favor of a restructuring of the team? Not a full rebuild, a soft rebuild. A restructure.

 

Before the season began, I did think we had a chance.  I think the average NFL team starts with a 3% chance of winning it all but the Bills, as one of the best teams, had maybe a 10% chance.  By the time the playoffs rolled around, with all our injuries, I wasn't very hopeful anymore.

 

You could argue that Beane's had some bad luck with injuries to big contract guys.   But the Miller contract probably should have never happened.  But here we are so how do we move forward?  Soft rebuild?  If there were easy answers, we'd all be GMs. 

 

But I do hope Beane doesn't go whole-hog on restructuring contracts, mortgaging the future to make us competitive in 2024.  Then again, I don't want to be uncompetitive in 2024 so I want to see some restructuring.  My fear is this process will perennially produce a playoff level roster but never a championship one. 

 

We're in a tough situation and I'm hoping Beane finds a way out by hitting big on some draft picks and low-priced FAs that turn into big contributors.  

 

 

[st pete gogolak]

Thanks for starting this thread. Went to look at KC’s cap situation. Some crazy stuff there (if I’m reading it right). J. Taylor and Thuney making $10 million more than Kelce (who basically makes the same as Knox - LOL).  The biggest thing that jumps out is how the #### did KC get Chris Jones to play for $5 million this season???  He should fire his agent immediately.

[ALF]

1 hour ago, boyst said:

Two part question.

 

Did you think we had a chance to win it all this year?

Based upon your answer above would you have been in favor of a restructuring of the team? Not a full rebuild, a soft rebuild. A restructure.

 

The Bills had a chance to win this year thanks to all the restructuring. It was a gamble that failed because of the old and new injuries  jmo.  Now it's time to pay the piper

[All I Need is Hope]

When do we find out the official salary cap amount for 2024?

 

When we say we’re 51M over, is that assuming a new cap figure, or last year’s?

 

The cap went up 20M from ‘22 to ‘23 and they anticipate another similar jump this year.  Should make our outlook much better.

Edited February 15 by All I Need is Hope

[Aussie Joe]

11 minutes ago, All I Need is Hope said:

When do we find out the official salary cap amount for 2024?

 

When we say we’re 51M over, is that assuming a new cap figure, or last year’s?

 

The cap went up 20M from ‘22 to ‘23 and they anticipate another similar jump this year.  Should make our outlook much better.

Bills $51m over is assuming a figure of $242 M which is $18m more than last years cap…

 

This may not be “official” as yet .. but has been reported by the usual suspects that seem to get fed all the inside info ( Rappaport ) 

[colin]

the downside is we are in a horrible cap situation.

 

the upside is, we are getting such poor production from so many guys who are either leaving (with a couple exceptions) or big contracts (diggs sorta kinda, milano, tre, von, knox for obv reasons) that the bar isn't that high to get better production form the players who play next season.

 

 

[Rubes]

13 hours ago, BillsFanForever19 said:

 

I keep seeing "pay cut" or restructure for Tre White. 

 

Do you have any idea the kind of pay cut he would have to take for keeping him to be even a remote possibility? It would be an insulting amount.

 

We're talking about a guy that if he were on the market now would have to take an incentive laden prove it deal. He never returned to consistent form from his ACL and then tore an Achilles.

 

His role would be a guy coming off the bench and mixing in, hoping he can get back up to speed. He's on a 16.44m cap hit this season and a 16.67m cap hit next season for that role. And unlike some other players that we can't get out from under right now, Tre White's out in that massive contract is THIS offseason.

 

When we gave up a 3rd for Douglas, it was pretty clear to me then that he wasn't only the Tre White replacement for just last year. In Douglas, Benford, Johnson, and Elam - we have our 3 starters and a 1st Round Pick coming off the bench in relief.

 

Douglas and Johnson will be extended and Benford has been getting better and better. He's the present and the future of the CB position and you don't want to mess with that development.

 

I just don't see a restructure or pay cut that makes sense for both sides. Save for White being okay with going from one of the top paid CB's in Football to being paid reserve money. We're not going to extend Douglas to put him on the bench and we're not going to stunt Benford's development by sticking him on the bench either. And we don't want that much money tied up into the CB position, especially for the role he'd have and being at best, a MASSIVE question mark.

 

In the position we're in, we have to come up with cap space anywhere we can. There's only a handful of players who have outs in their deals this offseason. Tre is the easiest decision amongst them, if you remove emotion from the equation.

 

We're set at CB without him. His replacement is already in house. The only reason to not move on is it would be sad to and fans are in their feels about it. And that's simply not a valid reason when it comes to Business.

I think you’re right about Tre. It’s tough, because we all love him and how he has been a great rep for the team. But if you take emotion out of it, keeping him around doesn’t make a lot of sense for the future of the team.

 

Coming back from an Achilles injury is not easy. It takes a lot of time, and his chances of getting back to his old level of play are not good. Especially when you consider his position is one that requires top speed and cutting ability, neither of which he’ll likely have back anytime soon. Certainly not likely next season.

 

If the Bills weren’t in such terrible cap shape, then maybe I can see them working something out. Given the way things are, I just don’t see it.

 

And that sucks.

 

[Tuco]

1 hour ago, st pete gogolak said:

Thanks for starting this thread. Went to look at KC’s cap situation. Some crazy stuff there (if I’m reading it right). J. Taylor and Thuney making $10 million more than Kelce (who basically makes the same as Knox - LOL).  The biggest thing that jumps out is how the #### did KC get Chris Jones to play for $5 million this season???  He should fire his agent immediately.

Chris Jones played for something like $20 million. What cap page are you looking at?

[GASabresIUFan]

What can the Bills do to get cap complaint?  They have to dump or restructure about 75-80 million to have any freedom in free agency and to sign their draft picks.

 

The big piece will likely be moving some or all of Josh’s 23.5 salary to a bonus of some sort, shrinking Josh’s can hit significantly.  
 

The cuts should be Hines (cap savings $5 mill), Harty (4.2), White (6), although there is probably some things Beane can do to keep Hines and White, but restructure to reduce their cap hits significantly. White, if designated for June 1 would save 10 mill in cap for 2024.

 

Morse, Douglas, Dawkins, T Johnson are all on the last year of their current deals.  I can see all of them being extended a year or two to create cap space through bonus structuring. 
 

I’m sure there are other restructuring Beane could do to come the necessary cap space. 
I can also see Morse retiring, and Bates taking over his slot.  This would save nearly 8.5

 

Other potential cap casualties Gilliam (savings 1.9), Neal (2.9), and Martin (1.2).

 

All of this gets about 55-60 off the books in 2024.  I figured a out $3 mill in savings per extension for the 4 players. 

 

These move leaves us about $20 mill short of the goal.  I wonder if we can somehow defer for cap purposes 3 mill each from Diggs and Miller and push it to the 2026 cap.  This will eat some of the cap savings in 2026, but not really significantly.  I also think Diggs will be here through 2026 anyway and Miller through 2025.  Miller’s dead cap is $9 (vs 20 salary in 2026) and Digg’s dead cap is $5 in 2027 (vs a salary of 18).

 

[st pete gogolak]

1 hour ago, Tuco said:

Chris Jones played for something like $20 million. What cap page are you looking at?

The link in this thread.  Certainly I can be misinterpreting it because $5 million for Jones seems absurd.

[strive_for_five_guy]

15 hours ago, BillsFanForever19 said:

 

I keep seeing "pay cut" or restructure for Tre White. 

 

Do you have any idea the kind of pay cut he would have to take for keeping him to be even a remote possibility? It would be an insulting amount.

 

We're talking about a guy that if he were on the market now would have to take an incentive laden prove it deal. He never returned to consistent form from his ACL and then tore an Achilles.

 

His role would be a guy coming off the bench and mixing in, hoping he can get back up to speed. He's on a 16.44m cap hit this season and a 16.67m cap hit next season for that role. And unlike some other players that we can't get out from under right now, Tre White's out in that massive contract is THIS offseason.

 

When we gave up a 3rd for Douglas, it was pretty clear to me then that he wasn't only the Tre White replacement for just last year. In Douglas, Benford, Johnson, and Elam - we have our 3 starters and a 1st Round Pick coming off the bench in relief.

 

Douglas and Johnson will be extended and Benford has been getting better and better. He's the present and the future of the CB position and you don't want to mess with that development.

 

I just don't see a restructure or pay cut that makes sense for both sides. Save for White being okay with going from one of the top paid CB's in Football to being paid reserve money. We're not going to extend Douglas to put him on the bench and we're not going to stunt Benford's development by sticking him on the bench either. And we don't want that much money tied up into the CB position, especially for the role he'd have and being at best, a MASSIVE question mark.

 

In the position we're in, we have to come up with cap space anywhere we can. There's only a handful of players who have outs in their deals this offseason. Tre is the easiest decision amongst them, if you remove emotion from the equation.

 

We're set at CB without him. His replacement is already in house. The only reason to not move on is it would be sad to and fans are in their feels about it. And that's simply not a valid reason when it comes to Business.

If they cut White, how much do the Bills still owe him for this year and next?  For instance, current deal, he’ll make around $16M in 2024, right?  Cut him, do they still owe him $10M for 2024?

[JohnBonhamRocks]

Recommend if anyone wants some info on how we can get under the cap.

[MarkyMannn]

18 hours ago, gonzo1105 said:

 

Why would you add a year to a guy who has had two pretty catastrophic injuries to a DB. It either you take a significant pay cut or your gone. Its as simple as that.

Tre should be gone I agree

[GASabresIUFan]

https://theathletic.com/5238669/2024/02/02/buffalo-bills-offseason-salary-cap/

 

This is the best approach I've seen

1) Josh - Restructure salary and roster bonus - 22.63 in savings

2) White - Roster bonus due in early March - sign an extension but one without any guarantees to 2027.  Allows White time to heal and gives the Bill immediate savings - 7.39

3) Douglas - Extend Douglas for two years - 6.03 in savings

4) Knox - Restructure -5.86 in savings

5) Morse - one-year extension with 3 void years - 5.01 in savings

6) McGovern - turn his base salary into a signing bonus - $3.12 in savings 

7) Hines  - pay cut - 2.5 in savings

8.) Milano - restructure - Salary to bonus - 2.19 in saving

9) Bates - turn salary in bonus - 2.08 in savings

10) Poyer - Restructure + a void year - 1.765 in savings

11) Harty - pay cut - 1.5 in savings (I'd cut him if we are keeping Hines)

12) T Johnson - Extension - Depending on extension length - potential savings 2-5 million

13) Dawkins - Extension - 2 years with possible 2 void years - potential savings 2-4 million? more? 

 

This nets us about 63-70 million.  I still think we need to get to 80.  Not sure how he gets there.  I'm moving on from Harty and Hines as I can find cheaper and better replacements for substantially less.  Middle to late-round draftees could perform at their levels for less than $2 mill total.  I'd cut both, save the $9 mill, and use draft picks or other depth FAs as replacements.  That saves $7 mill net vs the $4 mill projected in the article.  

Edited February 15 by GASabresIUFan

[Aussie Joe]

30 minutes ago, GASabresIUFan said:

https://theathletic.com/5238669/2024/02/02/buffalo-bills-offseason-salary-cap/

 

This is the best approach I've seen

1) Josh - Restructure salary and roster bonus - 22.63 in savings

2) White - Roster bonus due in early March - sign an extension but one without any guarantees to 2027.  Allows White time to heal and gives the Bill immediate savings - 7.39

3) Douglas - Extend Douglas for two years - 6.03 in savings

4) Knox - Restructure -5.86 in savings

5) Morse - one-year extension with 3 void years - 5.01 in savings

6) McGovern - turn his base salary into a signing bonus - $3.12 in savings 

7) Hines  - pay cut - 2.5 in savings

8.) Milano - restructure - Salary to bonus - 2.19 in saving

9) Bates - turn salary in bonus - 2.08 in savings

10) Poyer - Restructure + a void year - 1.765 in savings

11) Harty - pay cut - 1.5 in savings (I'd cut him if we are keeping Hines)

12) T Johnson - Extension - Depending on extension length - potential savings 2-5 million

13) Dawkins - Extension - 2 years with possible 2 void years - potential savings 2-4 million? more? 

 

This nets us about 63-70 million.  I still think we need to get to 80.  Not sure how he gets there.  I'm moving on from Harty and Hines as I can find cheaper and better replacements for substantially less.  Middle to late-round draftees could do perform at their levels for less than $2 mill total.  I'd cut both, save the $9 mill, and use draft picks or other depth FAs as replacements.  That saves $7 mill net vs the $4 mill projected in the article.  

Move on from Morse … no need to kick that down the road any further …they must have kept Bates around for a reason …

 

Restructuring Knox concerns me … I would be looking to trade him after this season … he has more value elsewhere than to the Bills … but they can’t trade him this year

 

Edited February 15 by Aussie Joe

[SoonerBillsFan]

5 hours ago, hondo in seattle said:

 

Before the season began, I did think we had a chance.  I think the average NFL team starts with a 3% chance of winning it all but the Bills, as one of the best teams, had maybe a 10% chance.  By the time the playoffs rolled around, with all our injuries, I wasn't very hopeful anymore.

 

You could argue that Beane's had some bad luck with injuries to big contract guys.   But the Miller contract probably should have never happened.  But here we are so how do we move forward?  Soft rebuild?  If there were easy answers, we'd all be GMs. 

 

But I do hope Beane doesn't go whole-hog on restructuring contracts, mortgaging the future to make us competitive in 2024.  Then again, I don't want to be uncompetitive in 2024 so I want to see some restructuring.  My fear is this process will perennially produce a playoff level roster but never a championship one. 

 

We're in a tough situation and I'm hoping Beane finds a way out by hitting big on some draft picks and low-priced FAs that turn into big contributors.  

 

 

I don't touch Diggs or Von so both can be unloaded next year if they don't move them this year.

30 minutes ago, GASabresIUFan said:

https://theathletic.com/5238669/2024/02/02/buffalo-bills-offseason-salary-cap/

 

This is the best approach I've seen

1) Josh - Restructure salary and roster bonus - 22.63 in savings

2) White - Roster bonus due in early March - sign an extension but one without any guarantees to 2027.  Allows White time to heal and gives the Bill immediate savings - 7.39

3) Douglas - Extend Douglas for two years - 6.03 in savings

4) Knox - Restructure -5.86 in savings

5) Morse - one-year extension with 3 void years - 5.01 in savings

6) McGovern - turn his base salary into a signing bonus - $3.12 in savings 

7) Hines  - pay cut - 2.5 in savings

8.) Milano - restructure - Salary to bonus - 2.19 in saving

9) Bates - turn salary in bonus - 2.08 in savings

10) Poyer - Restructure + a void year - 1.765 in savings

11) Harty - pay cut - 1.5 in savings (I'd cut him if we are keeping Hines)

12) T Johnson - Extension - Depending on extension length - potential savings 2-5 million

13) Dawkins - Extension - 2 years with possible 2 void years - potential savings 2-4 million? more? 

 

This nets us about 63-70 million.  I still think we need to get to 80.  Not sure how he gets there.  I'm moving on from Harty and Hines as I can find cheaper and better replacements for substantially less.  Middle to late-round draftees could do perform at their levels for less than $2 mill total.  I'd cut both, save the $9 mill, and use draft picks or other depth FAs as replacements.  That saves $7 mill net vs the $4 mill projected in the article.  

I do that and sit out FA until June 1st.  Draft well and try and hit on 4 picks like the Lions did, then see whats out there to fill out the roster. We do that, and 2025 we are in much better shape.

12 minutes ago, Aussie Joe said:

Move on from Morse … no need to kick that down the road any further …they must have kept Bates around for a reason …

 

Extending Knox concerns me … I would be looking to trade him after this season … he has more value elsewhere than to the Bills … but they can’t trade him this year

 

Bates is an emergency backup. Draft our next Center in this draft if we can grab one.

[Aussie Joe]

9 minutes ago, SoonerBillsFan said:

 

Bates is an emergency backup. Draft our next Center in this draft if we can grab one.

They are paying him $4m a year which is not back up money..,:make him earn it this year…

 

Take a guy Day 3 to see if he can be the man next year

Edited February 15 by Aussie Joe

[SoonerBillsFan]

20 minutes ago, Aussie Joe said:

They are paying him $4m a year which is not back up money..,:make him earn it this year…

 

Take a guy Day 3 to see if he can be the man next year

I just don't see them cutting Morse, but I do see your point.

[Aussie Joe]

3 minutes ago, SoonerBillsFan said:

I just don't see them cutting Morse, but I do see your point.

Well… I’m sure they would prefer not to cut Morse …but they need to find $80m in savings … and even with that long laundry list noted above they still don’t get there..

 

I would also prefer them to get there without restructuring Diggs and Miller any further … so tough moves like this might have to be made…

 

They had the opportunity to move on from Bates 2 years back … but elected to keep him and match the Bears tender .. so they must have seen something that perhaps we don’t see as yet …we don’t really know what he has at C as Morse hasn’t missed a game there in years …