Darius Slay claimed on waivers by Buffalo

[mjt328]

I've stated that I'm ready to move-on from Brandon Beane.  But I'm not going to blame him for things that are out of his control.

 

As revealed by many sources, it's against NFL rules for him to contact Slay or his agent before putting through the waiver wire claim.  He had no way to know Slay would rather retire than play for an 8-4 perennial Super Bowl contender... outside of tampering and taking the risk of getting caught/punished by the league.  We did things by the book, and end up losing a player (Ingram) for following the correct procedure.

 

Meanwhile, (based on the information that has come out) the Eagles likely did tamper with Slay.  They will never get officially caught or punished, and will almost certainly end up with him on their roster before the year's end anyway.

[5ths the charm]

Cant we trade his rights to them for a pick?  If they want him, it'll cost them

[TheBrownBear]

40 minutes ago, bills742 said:

 

You could tell Sean was not happy about the situation when he was on with Sal this morning. He didn't say anything too specific, but I got the feeling that Beane might not be getting a holiday fruitcake from Mrs. McDermott this year.

[Matt_In_NH]

1 minute ago, 5ths the charm said:

Cant we trade his rights to them for a pick?  If they want him, it'll cost them

No the trade deadline has passed

[nucci]

1 minute ago, 5ths the charm said:

Cant we trade his rights to them for a pick?  If they want him, it'll cost them

not until next March

[LabattBlue]

5 minutes ago, TheBrownBear said:

You could tell Sean was not happy about the situation when he was on with Sal this morning. He didn't say anything too specific, but I got the feeling that Beane might not be getting a holiday fruitcake from Mrs. McDermott this year.

You really believe that BB put in a claim for Slay with the intention of waiving Ingram without running the scenario by McD?

[Matt_In_NH]

Having thought through some of the details financially, it is not super surprising a guy n Slay's shoes could make this decision.   He has made $120,000,000 in the NFL so he has generational wealth. This past year he signed a one year $10,000,000 with the Steelers.  At this point there is only $348,000 left to earn or roughly 3.5%.   In order to earn that 3.5% he will have to move his family or just himself during the holidays.  What he is giving up financially is not much, it would be $3500 for a more common person making $100,000. Would you pick up and move for that if you had some other priorities?  Also understand there s risk in my trying to earn that $348,000 at 34 years old, if he tears an ACL his career is likely done while if he goes and hangs with the family, gets to the offseason he can probably get another 3-5M to play somewhere next year.  You could argue some kind of moral obligation or something but I will just say I can see why in this situation he can sleep ok doing what he is doing.

[mjt328]

11 hours ago, HappyDays said:

This is a whole lot of drama over a guy that we were trying to bring here as our CB4. He wasn't going to get a chance to "leave everything on the field" because he was barely going to play. He was replacing Ingram who has been a mainstay on the inactive list. What a waste of media attention this whole saga has been.

 

Fans are frustrated, because it seems like these kinds of things always happen to us.  Not because Slay or Ingram are anything special.

 

Anquan Boldin retired a week after signing with us.  Vontae Davis retired at halftime.  Antonio Brown forced Pittsburgh to back out of a trade to the Bills (although we probably dodged a bullet there).  Roger Goodell pushed Michael Vick to the Eagles instead of us, back when we really needed a QB.  A few years ago, JD McKissic agreed to a deal with Beane... then changed his mind at the last minute and went back to the Redskins, after all the other potential RB signings had already found homes.  This forced us to use a draft pick on a running back (fortunately it worked out and we picked James Cook).

 

This offseason, two of our top free agents (Michael Hoecht and Larry Ogunjobi) were signed to fill holes on the D-Line.  And right after the ink was dry, the NFL suddenly announces that both would miss the first quarter of the season with drug suspensions.  Why couldn't they have announced it before free agency, so teams had a heads-up?

 

If Beane had been the one tampering, the Bills would have lost a draft pick.  Because it's the Eagles, nothing will happen.

 

[paulmm3]

The only response from Buffalo now is to tell Darius Slay he plays here or he doesn't play again this season. We should not do Slay or the Eagles any favors.

[boyst]

4 minutes ago, paulmm3 said:

The only response from Buffalo now is to tell Darius Slay he plays here or he doesn't play again this season. We should not do Slay or the Eagles any favors.

this is the business of football. not being nice.

 

when the Bills play the Eagles at home the Bills should trot out a video for Slay thanking him for his NFL career and congratulating him on his retirement.

 

beautiful. don't let this chump back us down.

[Alphadawg7]

37 minutes ago, Matt_In_NH said:

Having thought through some of the details financially, it is not super surprising a guy n Slay's shoes could make this decision.   He has made $120,000,000 in the NFL so he has generational wealth. This past year he signed a one year $10,000,000 with the Steelers.  At this point there is only $348,000 left to earn or roughly 3.5%.   In order to earn that 3.5% he will have to move his family or just himself during the holidays.  What he is giving up financially is not much, it would be $3500 for a more common person making $100,000. Would you pick up and move for that if you had some other priorities?  Also understand there s risk in my trying to earn that $348,000 at 34 years old, if he tears an ACL his career is likely done while if he goes and hangs with the family, gets to the offseason he can probably get another 3-5M to play somewhere next year.  You could argue some kind of moral obligation or something but I will just say I can see why in this situation he can sleep ok doing what he is doing.

 

At this stage of his career he is also a SB Champ, so no glory to chase either.  Its clear he wants to go some place familiar where he doesn't have to learn a whole new defense, doesn't have to disrupt his family, doesn't have to go someplace with no connections or roots, etc.

 

People are making too big of a deal over this IMO.  If I was in his shoes, I would probably feel the same not needing the money nor the ring.  BUT - the bigger issue to me is did anyone in the FO reach out to Slay or his people and inquire about a 34 year old player wanting to come here and keep playing BEFORE we cut the guy he was gonna replace?  If we did, and then Slay changed his mind then that is bad on Slay.  If we didn't, then that is a big screw up by our FO and out of character for Beane to make such a sloppy mistake.

Edited 32 minutes ago by Alphadawg7

[SectionC3]

7 minutes ago, boyst said:

this is the business of football. not being nice.

 

when the Bills play the Eagles at home the Bills should trot out a video for Slay thanking him for his NFL career and congratulating him on his retirement.

 

beautiful. don't let this chump back us down.

You and I disagree on politics, but we otherwise think alike.  I love that S.  Us against the world.  F slay.   I would have let him go until he ran his mouth.  Now he can sit. 

[Charles Romes]

18 minutes ago, paulmm3 said:

The only response from Buffalo now is to tell Darius Slay he plays here or he doesn't play again this season. We should not do Slay or the Eagles any favors.

We can’t do them any favors since we play them at least once, and Slay solves a major issue for them. 

[HappyDays]

20 minutes ago, mjt328 said:

Fans are frustrated, because it seems like these kinds of things always happen to us.  Not because Slay or Ingram are anything special.

 

Anquan Boldin retired a week after signing with us.  Vontae Davis retired at halftime.  Antonio Brown forced Pittsburgh to back out of a trade to the Bills (although we probably dodged a bullet there).  Roger Goodell pushed Michael Vick to the Eagles instead of us, back when we really needed a QB.  A few years ago, JD McKissic agreed to a deal with Beane... then changed his mind at the last minute and went back to the Redskins, after all the other potential RB signings had already found homes.  This forced us to use a draft pick on a running back (fortunately it worked out and we picked James Cook).

 

Yeah I get it. I'm under no illusions about how players feel about Buffalo. Regardless of our current status as a championship contender, there will be always be a few players that don't have the willpower to deal with the cold and the boring nightlife. I made my peace with that a long time ago. But that isn't Beane's fault. His job is to make moves that improve the roster. If that move is undercut by a player that wants to turn down life changing money because they can't handle the cold for a couple months, so be it.

 

The Hoecht/Ogunjobi circus did bother me quite a bit but that was a different situation. I'll criticize Beane when warranted and he's given us no shortage of such scenarios these past couple years. I just don't think there is anything to criticize in this case.

[SoonerBillsFan]

47 minutes ago, TheBrownBear said:

You could tell Sean was not happy about the situation when he was on with Sal this morning. He didn't say anything too specific, but I got the feeling that Beane might not be getting a holiday fruitcake from Mrs. McDermott this year.

Go talk to Terry Sean.  

[vincec]

13 hours ago, biggerdaddynj said:

Buddy’s still searching for that WR who’s “open when he's covered.”

So are the current Bills.

[The Jokeman]

49 minutes ago, 5ths the charm said:

Cant we trade his rights to them for a pick?  If they want him, it'll cost them

Trade deadline come and gone.

[Coffeesforclosers]

At this point, we're paying him $350k to not play against us in the SB, possibly.

 

$350k is to Terry Pegula what $10 is most of us.

 

***** him.

[GoBills808]

not a big deal

[ngbills]

Some of these rules should be worked on by the NFL. 

 

In a waiver situation if I a guy doesnt report then the transaction should be voided, including any corresponding move. Or the corresponding move should not be required until the player reports. 

 

Player going IR should have some cap relief. Prorate salary based on how many games they played or something.