Darius Slay claimed on waivers by Buffalo

[Nitro]

All this for an old (by football standards) and slowing down CB?   He had a change of heart.  I am sure he was not counting on the Bills making a claim.  Go and retire.  Ingram was a nice PS guy but nothing to get upset about.  

[NeverOutNick]

3 minutes ago, HappyDays said:

 

My honest take on this is that you shouldn't be relying on washed up vets to force themselves onto your team, and washed up vets shouldn't act like they can skirt the rules. We claimed him, he decided he didn't want to play anymore, so be it.

Isn’t that our FOs MO. Get guys that used to play with us years ago and stick them into meaningful roles when it matters most. 

[Draconator]

This whole situation is a big nothing burger. But let's beat this to death with a bunch of pretend GMs who are obviously far better than the one calling the actual shots.

[NeverOutNick]

2 minutes ago, Draconator said:

This whole situation is a big nothing burger. But let's beat this to death with a bunch of pretend GMs who are obviously far better than the one calling the actual shots.

Thank you finally someone gets how bad our actual GM is. Pretend GMs for the win 🥳

[Buffalo Ballin]

One more thing: Didn't realize that Darius Slay is 34 years old. He's ancient.

[NeverOutNick]

9 minutes ago, Buffalo Ballin said:

One more thing: Didn't realize that Darius Slay is 34 years old. He's ancient.

Jordan Poyer old…

[reddogblitz]

2 hours ago, AlCowlingsTaxiService said:

Hasn’t been good in five years but was a starter on a SB defense last year … that guy?

 

I'm just going by what I read on TBD.

 

And let's not also lose sight of the fact that he couldn't even get on the field for that horrible defense that was Pittsburgh last Sunday.

Edited 6 hours ago by reddogblitz

[Joe Marino]

2 hours ago, Kelly to Allen said:

Slay said in an interview with acho that he has nothing against buffalo but at this point in his career he didn't want to pack up his family to go somewhere new.

 

He did praise the bills organization.

That’s pure blather.

 

Why would you ever “pack up your family” to go live in Buffalo at this point?

 

There’s a couple of months left in the season. Go find a nice hotel or live with one of the guys. Maybe try to win a Super Bowl.

 

That reason was fake. Not sure what’s up, but he didn’t want to come play.

[QCity]

10 minutes ago, Joe Marino said:

That’s pure blather.

 

Why would you ever “pack up your family” to go live in Buffalo at this point?

 

There’s a couple of months left in the season. Go find a nice hotel or live with one of the guys. Maybe try to win a Super Bowl.

 

That reason was fake. Not sure what’s up, but he didn’t want to come play.

 

Yeah that's lip service. You don't need to "pack up your family" for 4-6 weeks lol

[reddogblitz]

Super Bowl is February 8th. Best case scenario for us is 2 months and 3 days.  Heaven forbid it could be even less than that.

[newcam2012]

4 hours ago, Tanoros said:

Reading your post, I had to double-check that I wasn’t somehow teleported back to the drought era, or maybe into a Raiders fan forum by accident. Because apparently being a top contender for the better part of a decade is now some kind of tragic disaster.

 

Yeah, Beane is such a “clown” that the Bills have been one of the winningest teams in the league since he got here. Total embarrassment. How dare he.

 

And of course, none of that matters because you’ve decided every draft pick is a bust, every contract is terrible, and every injury is his personal fault. I’m surprised you didn’t blame him for the weather too.

 

Look, has Beane made mistakes? Obviously. Every GM does. If he’d pulled the trigger on a true WR1 for Allen recently, things might look a lot different right now. But let’s at least pretend to be fair,  the guy brought back Cook on a great deal when half the fanbase was ready to ship him out. That didn’t magically happen on its own.

 

What did magically happen, though, is that some Bills fans have forgotten what actual misery looks like. You know, the drought. The seventeen straight years of irrelevance. When “competing” wasn’t even in the vocabulary.

 

Now we expect to make a deep run every single year,  and that somehow equals “Beane is a joke.”

 

Sure. Right.

 

We all want a Super Bowl. But there’s a massive difference between wanting to improve and acting like we’re a bottom feeder. If you honestly think this franchise is some catastrophe under Beane, you might be confusing “legitimate issues” with “I’m frustrated so everything is terrible.”

Both of you make fair points. The Beane and McD era has reached its peak and appears to be regressing. I don't really see much upside to having them continue here in Buffalo. They had a nice run but I think new blood is more than welcomed. We can appreciate their success and acknowledge that football has been a lot more enjoyable the last decade or so. Nevertheless, I believe their messages, style, decisions, drafts, coaching schemes ,etc... aren't in a direction of a super bowl win. That's the bottom line and goal here. The team is flawed and lots of that falls on Beane,McD, and the coaching staff. Doesn't mean they suck because both would get scooped up in a heartbeat.  It's time to move on and give the team some new hope, energy, philosophy, schematic changes, etc... Change is needed; don't fear it rather welcome it. 

 

Go Bills. 

2 hours ago, Sierra Foothills said:

 

Perception around the league is that the Bills are a model franchise.

 

In the NFLPA's annual survey of teams, the Bills are currently the 4th highest ranked franchise as reported by the players.

 

Guys like LeSean McCoy and Shawne Merriman are taken up for the Bills.

 

The only people who think the Bills have a "perception problem" are Beane haters.

 

A model franchise that can't even sniff a super bowl. I think the perception is the Bills can't get it done in the playoffs. Nick Wright mocks the Bills for winning their super bowl when the Bills beat the Chiefs in the regular season. I think you are really overstating the perception angle here. 

[Doc Brown]

6 hours ago, JoPoy88 said:

Bills currently have his rights and *could* throw him on the reserve/retire list right now and send him to his couch for the rest of the season correct? I assume that is what Rosenhaus is trying to convince them not to do.

I'm guessing the Bills will just release him and sign another CB which I agree with.  Reputation is far more important than CB#4 depth.

[BillsFanForever19]

28 minutes ago, Doc Brown said:

I'm guessing the Bills will just release him and sign another CB which I agree with.  Reputation is far more important than CB#4 depth.

 

The problem there is that when you claim a player on Waivers - you take on the responsibility of the contract signed by the team that waived them. 

 

So if we just waived him ourselves and he went unclaimed - that contract stays on our books. So we'd be taking on his contract for the year and have lost Ingram for nothing.

 

And it's likely he would go unclaimed. As just us and the Eagles claimed him. Now teams know he won't play for anyone but the Eagles - including the Eagles. So why would they put in another claim and take the responsibility of the contract off our hands when they don't have to?

 

The move is simple. He plays for us or we put him on the "Did Not Report" list. With that, not only are we off the hook for his contract - we could even look to recoup some of his signing bonus if we wanted to.

 

I don't see how putting him on the "Did Not Report" list would hurt our reputation or why we should hurt ourselves further than we already have to help out someone who screwed us over.

Edited 4 hours ago by BillsFanForever19

[davefan66]

Regardless of who the players are in this mix, Beane should have guessed Slay wanted to go back “home”.  He’s had a few players want to do the same thing. Even had Jordan Phillips say publicly if he played it would only be for the Bills.  Shouldn’t be a surprise to him.  Couple this with the PED twins, and it’s a bad look for Beane…it just is.

 

As for the waiver claim. Was Slay worth the pickup this late in the season? Learn a new defense and be a more viable option versus what we have? Would he have inserted himself into a decent amount of playing time? Not sure he had enough time left in the season to do so.  We may never know. 

 

 

[Rochesterfan]

8 hours ago, strive_for_five_guy said:

Don’t know if it’s been pointed out, but it’s interesting to me that the Texans passed on Slay, but put a claim in on Ingram.  The Texans apparently value Ingram’s services over Slay’s, yet Beane was willing to take the risk of adding Slay to this roster at the expense of Ingram, one of the UB darlings.

 

The question would be why?  
 

My guess is the Texans are going to have one of their core special teams guys becoming a potential starter to cover injury and are looking for more special teams where Ingram outduels Slay.  They are not looking to use Ingram as a DB.

 

Beane was looking for another CB on the field to help in case of injury with Tre, Benford, and Hairston all having minor injuries.

 

Ingram has not even been active the last few weeks so it is not like we parted with a guy that is integral.

 

My guess is in the next couple of weeks once his 3 weeks are up - Ingram gets released by Houston and ends up back in Buffalo on the practice squad or as a camp invite for next year.

[VaMilBill]

5 minutes ago, Rochesterfan said:

 

 

My guess is in the next couple of weeks once his 3 weeks are up - Ingram gets released by Houston and ends up back in Buffalo on the practice squad or as a camp invite for next year.

Ingram is on the Texans active roster

[Rochesterfan]

5 hours ago, HappyDays said:

 

My honest take on this is that you shouldn't be relying on washed up vets to force themselves onto your team, and washed up vets shouldn't act like they can skirt the rules. We claimed him, he decided he didn't want to play anymore, so be it. We tried to upgrade the backup to the backup and it didn't work out. I really don't get all the drama over it. Ja'Marcus Ingram and Dane Jackson are the same player as far as I'm concerned. I don't want to see either of them getting real snaps for this team. I wish Slay had worked out but it has zero real impact on our season. And no I wouldn't release him just to let him go to Philly where he might start against us in two weeks. He made his choice and that's that.

 

 

Slay's contract made it easy, we would have been on the hook for only $300K. Every veteran is different. Brandin Cooks for example would have cost I think at least a couple million this year and the team that claimed him would have absorbed his salary and cap hit for 2026 too. Adam Thielen was just claimed by Pittsburgh. Would that have been his first choice? Probably not but that's the rule.

 

Let’s take it even one step further.  Why was Slay on Pittsburgh to begin with.  He chose to sign a free agent contract there and leave Philly.  He chose to sign a minimal contract that allowed this to happen when he was cut.

 

Beane did everything correctly and even if he does not report - it is no loss - it blocks Philly a SB contender from getting a guy to make them better and we lost a guy that has been inactive the last several weeks and had no role outside special teams.  
 

He can be replaced and most likely ends up back here later this season or in the off season.

 

 

[Rochesterfan]

16 minutes ago, VaMilBill said:

Ingram is on the Texans active roster

correct - when you sign him from waivers it is to the active roster.

 

Do you expect him to play CB there?

 

or will he be an inactive player/ special teams guy for several weeks until their starter gets 100% healthy.

 

I still see them cutting him once they are healthy and/or as a FA in the off season and he is back in Buffalo down the road.

 

 

[VaMilBill]

1 minute ago, Rochesterfan said:

correct - when you sign him from waivers it is to the active roster.

 

Do you expect him to play CB there?

 

or will he be an inactive player/ special teams guy for several weeks until their starter gets 100% healthy.

 

I still see them cutting him once they are healthy and/or as a FA in the off season and he is back in Buffalo down the road.

 

 

Sorry. Misread your original post. 
 

I think he will be a special teamer for them the rest of the season. And when they do get healthy, probably a healthy scratch. He may not end up back in buffalo

[Billzgobowlin]

Is there anything that actually states Slay wants to play in Philly?  Maybe he just wants to be done.  Could be why he was not on the Pittsburgh active roster last week as well as why they put him on waivers.