Bills release Elijah Moore

[Psautcsk]

1 hour ago, BigAl2526 said:

The Bills are betting on Brandin Cooks.  I think as much as anything, Moore is the victim of a numbers game.  He doesn't have enough production to make him indispensable and if they cut Curtis Samuel it's more of a cap hit.  Moore is younger than both of those guys and had Brady figured out how to make effective use of him, he could have been part of some longer range plans, but that's how it goes sometimes.

This is a perfect Patriots signing. Imagine Diggs, Hollins and Moore on the field in a 2 minute drive against the Bills at the end of the game? You know how that would end.

[That's No Moon]

5 minutes ago, harmonkillebrew said:

Moore could have been a good addition, if we didn't already have Samuel and  Shakir. We didn't really need another slot guy

Speaking of another poor evaluation and acquisition. If any of you kids every want to be GMs, learn the lesson. Never sign skill players with bad feet. It never gets better.

3 minutes ago, Psautcsk said:

This is a perfect Patriots signing. Imagine Diggs, Hollins and Moore on the field in a 2 minute drive against the Bills at the end of the game? You know how that would end.

With TreVeyon Henderson running for a 70 yard touchdown?

[Pecker]

1 hour ago, BillsFanForever19 said:

 

There isn't enough separation (no pun intended) between Moore, Coleman, and Samuel to disregard the trade potential in the off-season (a minimal return is better than nothing) or room for growth as a Slot (haven't tried that yet) in Coleman and the cap they'd save by releasing Samuel after this season.

 

Again, I don't understand what you're seeing in Moore. He's been equally as bad as Coleman and Samuel this season, if not moreso. As bad as things have gotten with Coleman - his Week 1 was equivalent to Moore's entire season.

It was t just me.  Many posters in many post game threads praised Moore and said he earned more snaps.  Which he did.  He will probably go to a playoff team and contribute, and we bills fans will say “wtf Brady/beane/whomever!?!?”

[WideNine]

The Bills heavily invested in TEs and really leaned into the 13 personnel and running the ball under Joe Brady last season to limit the sacks, hits, and turnovers and running for his life that Allen was doing under Dorsey.

Why they go out and get receivers they are not going to schematically use effectively is beyond me, but I think they were hoping for a true X receiver when they drafted Coleman who could compete and win at the boundary against man coverage when we were in more 13 personnel looks and that never surfaced.

Samual seems injured, underused, and a schematic outlier since he got here. I felt the same way about Moore and to a degree Palmer. Brady seems ready to admit to needing some more schematic flexibility away from the 13 personnel looks and was trying to use more 11 and 12 personnel and some empty sets last week, but then the OL craps the bed in pass pro against the Texans and our receivers struggled getting open (with any consistency)

Not a whole lot of identity for this unit when I think we all felt pretty good early when our running game was carrying them.

They needed to make room and although I think Samuel has arguably done less with more time than Moore, they paid him too much and the cap hit for letting him go is larger - 2.5 vs 12+ million dead cap hit.


 

Curtis Samuel (Buffalo Bills)

Contract: 3 years, $24 million (signed in 2024)

2025 Base Salary: $6.91 million

2025 Cap Hit: $9.07 million

Guaranteed Money: $15.02 million

Dead Cap if Released in 2025:

Pre-June 1: $12.23 million (negative savings of about $3.17M)

Post-June 1: $8.78 million in 2025 + $3.45 million in 2026 (saves only $280K in 2025)

 

Elijah Moore

Current Deal: 1-year, $2.5 million (with Bills for 2025 after leaving Browns)

2025 Cap Hit: $2.51 million

Dead Cap if Released: $2.51 million (no savings)

 

[Fan in Chicago]

5 hours ago, Kirby Jackson said:

Thoughts?

meh

[BADOLBILZ]

4 hours ago, HappyDays said:

 

What is there to know? He was the 34th pick in the draft and cut by his original team after two seasons. The Browns have a bad WR group and they also let him go after two seasons. His career is just about done at this point. He'll bounce around training camps and maybe practice squads for another couple of seasons and then the calls will stop coming. He's a small WR with a low catch radius and never developed the nuance necessary for a physically limited player to be successful.

 

 

 

The 8 interceptions and the 40 something passer rating when targeted in 2024 basically made him toxic to the rest of the league.

 

I said it when they signed him.........he's just not trustworthy.    

 

I'm sure the Bills thought a simple passing system would elevate him and maybe he'd be an asset in scramble drills but they were wrong.

 

 

 

[Your Brown Eye]

He walked by me at training camp. That's about the extent of my opinion on the matter.

[ChevyVanMiller]

Seeing as how Cooks was at practice today wearing #18, I think the Bills released Moore over Samuel just so Cooks would not have to pay him for the number.

[jlatas]

4 hours ago, Jerry Jabber said:

Had 61 receptions last season in Cleveland with 💩for QB’s, then only had 9 receptions in Buffalo? He was definitely misued by Brady! 

43, 37, 59 and 61 in the first 4 years...now 9..you are right!  One can assume some of these guys want out of Brady's system...so many of them not targeted or utilized. Nobody eats! They all are starving. Even Diggs starved after Brady took over.

1 hour ago, BillsFanForever19 said:

Update to the story - Moore wanted more reps. They obviously felt he either didn't deserve it and/or Cooks had the potential to provide more. Either way, it's now being framed as a mutual parting of the ways.

BBB spin, I'm sure

[3rdand12]

Because Bllls cannot gain much traction passing , I am starting to lose interest.

 Brady might do well to go back to heavy sets , running and passing to the TEs. Hawes says hello.

 all 3 RBs can catch and Shakir was playing very well.

Brady and Co seemed to have either overthought week to week or situational ball. Or have become confused as the the Plan

 

 Tell me again why they shifted away from that and went to empty sets ?

[ProcessTruster]

Cooks can take his #18 now.  About the only number under 20 left.   

[jlatas]

58 minutes ago, ProcessTruster said:

Cooks can take his #18 now.  About the only number under 20 left.   

already happened!

[TheyCallMeAndy]

Same guy that most of us were shocked made the 53? Am I the only one who remembers that?

[Billz4ever]

Can't believe I'm saying this because I thought it was the right call at the time, but had I known Beane was going to totally FUBAR this WR room as badly as he has since, we should've kept Diggs and just keep begging for a competent WR2 to go along with Kincaid and Shakir.  2 legit WRs, good YAC WR in the slot, a mismatch at TE, and 2 backs that can catch out the backfield would be just fine.

 

The wildcard here is Brady since I don't know if he's capable even if he had a nice upgrade in talent considering Diggs basically faded into nothing the partial season he had with Brady.

Edited 1 hour ago by Billz4ever

[White Linen]

I like McDermott and appreciate that he has been the purveyor of turning this organization around.  However I think he's just taken us as far as he could, we're on the downward and we missed our peak with him at the helm.

 

His inability to fully understand offense and make good decisions with personnel and coaches has always been his weakness.  I'd call it largely a failure.  More recently his brand of defense is exposed.  

 

His greatest asset is his ability to bring people together and get them to play and care about each other.  We all know he preaches self development. He believes in doing the same things, just do them better.  He's a toughness coach, beat the man in front of you. It feels like that message is fractured and I think he'll have to coach his way  to gaining the players respect back.  I think he'll fail and the team will fray.   

He's not a strategist.  X's and O's aren't his strong suit.

[Scott7975]

He was just another guy. Maybe Brady could use the guys we have better but the guys we have are all JAGs with no one to take heat off them. A room full of JAGs are too easy to defend because they usually won’t beat their guy unless they are going up against other JAGs. 

[BillsFanForever19]

3 hours ago, Psautcsk said:

This is a perfect Patriots signing. Imagine Diggs, Hollins and Moore on the field in a 2 minute drive against the Bills at the end of the game? You know how that would end.

 

I can't get over the amount of posters in this thread that are questioning this move and are acting as if this was a mistake. Now I'm coming across a post where we are implying he's going to sign with the Patriots and burn us? What is happening?

 

When we signed him, I thought it was a good move. A former 2nd Round Pick that had some decent stats with the Jets and Browns and had some speed. But I remember @HappyDays saying that beyond the stats, the Draft prestige, and the speed that he simply was a bad player. That he wouldn't remotely move the needle for us.

 

But I thought "eh, Mack Hollins wasn't a good WR either when we got him. Maybe his traits plus Josh would revitalize his career". Then he got to Training Camp and the reports were he wasn't showing anything. He wasn't separating from the pack at all and could just be outright cut. 

 

But hey - it takes new WR's and QB's to develop chemistry. Maybe he'd show us something when it counted?

 

What he showed was that for all of his speed, he somehow couldn't separate any more than Keon Coleman did. His "gadget" plays were way more often than not blown up. The one TD he got on a run could have been run by anyone. When everyone was healthy (even when Coleman was sat) - he was the first WR to be without a jersey on Sundays. In 9 games with the team, he contributed a grand total of 9 catches for just over 100 yards. He provided nothing.

 

Before the activations of Gabe Davis and the signings of Brandin Cooks and Mecole Hardman - the WR core as a whole was bemoaned by fans. I didn't hear one person say "Elijah Moore is a bright spot though, he deserves more reps".

 

He was clearly the odd man out to be cut. Not only bc we need Samuel's cap relief in the off-season, Keon Coleman could get us some kind of return in a trade after this year (and/or be tried as a Big Slot), and Moore had only 6 games left with us under contract - but because of his overall standing with the team.

 

If Moore was what some on this thread make him out to be, guys like Cooks and Hardman wouldn't have been signed. Davis wouldn't have been highlighted as he was. And Shavers wouldn't have been given the opportunities he was against Tampa Bay.

 

Elijah Moore was a failed flyer. Bc he simply isn't a good NFL WR. I'd move him off the roster to fit on Brandin Cooks or Gabe Davis 6 days a week and twice on Sundays and not lose a blink of sleep over who signed him. He was always far and away the first WR out the door in my eyes.

Edited 43 minutes ago by BillsFanForever19

[hondo in seattle]

8 hours ago, Long Suffering Fan said:

 

 

This is a terribly heartless thing to say, but I view guys like him, Samuel, and even Cooks as lottery tickets.  They have shown flashes in the past, will they blossom here?  Who knows.  I'm never mad when we sign them (and I was actually cautiously optimistic about Samuel).  If they don't pan out, it is time to move on.  You don't keep lottery tickets that don't win.

 

Of course, it is a valid argument that we shouldn't be in such desperate straights that our strategy appears to be lottery tickets.

 

The fan in me says...maybe one of them will hit.

 

The problem is none of them pan out.  

 

Since Brady became OC, pretty much every FA WR who Beane signs ends up having a bad year.  

 

If I was a FA wideout, I'd stay away from the Bills like it was kryptonite.  

[NewEra]

3 hours ago, Psautcsk said:

This is a perfect Patriots signing. Imagine Diggs, Hollins and Moore on the field in a 2 minute drive against the Bills at the end of the game? You know how that would end.

Lol…. We could only be so lucky for them to play Moore over Boutte and Douglas.  Boutte is a legit WR.  Douglas is more gadgety thy WR at this point….but he’s better than Moore fsho 

[ColoradoBills]

3 hours ago, ***** said:

It was t just me.  Many posters in many post game threads praised Moore and said he earned more snaps.  Which he did.  He will probably go to a playoff team and contribute, and we bills fans will say “wtf Brady/beane/whomever!?!?”

 

If he succeeds later this year on another team one would have to say, "what happened here".

 

That would be on (in order) Henry, Mangas, Lubick, Brady, McDermott and Beane.

maybe even Josh slipped in there somewhere.