Alright, welcome back to the Buffalo Bread Podcast, JJ here with…
No, after this past week, there's a lot of Buffalo Bills Monty out there feeling a
lot of different ways.
We had what many refer to as Red Wednesday this week.
It was a hard time.
From no news at all for so long to a flurry of roster moves, restructures, cuts, and
just a lot of different things happening that I think a lot of people in the world
of sports media have been expecting some of these things, but certainly not all the things.
Dan, where do you want to start?
How are you feeling?
How have you recovered from Wednesday?
You know, we are very purposefully, JJ, we are not a reaction pod.
We are a once a week, we kind of take it all in six days a week, and then we give measured
and reasoned responses to everything we see happening in Buffalo Bills World on that seventh
day.
And this was the first time, I think, in three, four years that we've been doing this pod,
where I really just wanted to give a reaction to what I was seeing on Wednesday.
It was very surprising.
I don't think when you take the moves individually is the right way to describe it.
But when taken in totality, and when you look at the stark contrast between what Bean did
on Wednesday versus how other teams like the Saints and the Rams being two notable examples,
how they choose to manage their veteran player and their veteran cap numbers.
I mean, I think it is safe to say that this was a novel and not quite seen before approach
to roster reconstruction on the fly in the modern NFL.
It's rare in the offseason that the bills capture national headlines, but what Bean
did on Wednesday did so.
And it wasn't just because of the volume of moves that he made, but it was the the intention
behind those moves.
It was not just to clear cap for this year and be functional for this year from a salary
cap perspective.
It was also done very intentionally to not kick future numbers down the road to 25 and
to 26.
They clearly valued at one bills drive JJ future flexibility.
So to take these moves into their full context, I think it's worth having a discussion about
what it means for the bills in the 2024 season, but what potential doors these moves open up
for future years, particularly in 25 and 26, because most notable to me, we didn't see
a Dion Dawkins extension.
We didn't see a Taryn Johnson extension in this either.
And we didn't see a restructure of Dawson Knox.
That tells me future looking forward that the bills are going to be very, very careful
moving forward with some of these veteran contracts about kicking money down the road.
Yeah, absolutely.
And I also think it shows that Brandon Bean, I think that he has declared that the bills
championship window is open in his mind by really leaning into what I believe is going
to be a year over year practice of one year vet minimum deals for team or for players that
would like to join a team that will be in contention at the end of the year.
I think that that's the thing is, he acknowledges that Josh Allen is probably a top three, top
five quarterback in the league unequivocably, and he knows that he can dangle Josh Allen's
presence.
This bills roster, the organization successes in front of some of these vet minimum deals
and say, listen, you want to do some ring chasing, come join us, be part of the run that pushes
us past the chiefs and in the AFC to represent the Super Bowl.
And so I think that that's also what this move indicates is that, you know, it's kind
of boastful, right?
It's to say that the bills are a year over year contender.
We can get your services for cheaper than the opponents.
And you know, we do not need to kick money down the road.
We do not need to clear up all this space and overpay for people because you want to
play for us.
We don't have to entice you to play for, you know, to play in Buffalo.
We're the desired location.
Absolutely.
And this was a this was a a zag on beans part as he has tended to do, I think, as GM for
the Buffalo bills.
It's not that he bucks conventional wisdom all the time, JJ, but when you look at the
drafting of Josh Allen, to the extended period of time after he had resigned Allen to that
mega money deal, that they continued to invest in a veteran presence on this roster, you
and I talked about maybe they needed to start resetting some of these positions, most notably
safety last season or even two seasons ago to stay ahead of the eventual Josh Allen salary
bump.
And and Bean didn't do that.
He did the exact opposite where he stuck with this philosophy of signing veteran floor razors
year after year after year, extending a lot of these guys year after year after year till
he came to this this sort of straw that breaks the camel's back moment where he had to do
something about the roster construction against the cap.
And then it is a complete 180 from how he has built this roster in the past with all
of these veteran cuts, they're now going to be forced, I think, with the exception of
a couple of key areas that I think they can address of her agency, they're going to be
forced to play high variance, young players on cheap, cheap deals that are contract controlled
for many, many years.
It is a overnight almost shift in philosophy.
But I think to your point, acknowledgement of the reality that the window is open as
long as you have Josh Allen on the roster.
So building around Josh intentionally year after year is the way that they're going to
go, it seems like it and not to say that they haven't been.
They haven't valued Josh.
But I think we can all agree when you look at the way they have spent free agent capital
investing so heavily in the defensive line, where they have sunk a lot of their extension
money with the exception of Stefan Diggs and and Dawson Knox, it's been on the defensive
side of the ball.
This to me is a signal that they're ready to finally pry the Super Bowl window open and
build intentionally around Josh, because the players that you can get on the offensive
side and free agency in the draft are going to be much more cost affordable for the most
part than the guys that are going to be looking to fill spots on the defensive side of the
ball.
So it's going to be fascinating to see how this team approaches free agency JJ.
But before we get into any of that, because I do feel like we've got to reset the table
now from all of our carefully planned free agent preview and draft preview, I think we
got to talk about in specificity, the moves that were made and kind of what that signals
to you and I about where this roster is headed for the 24 season and beyond.
So do you want to dig into some of these moves?
I mean, we can just run down what the moves were to first.
And I think that, you know, that that's a good place to start.
So on the offensive side of the ball, the Buffalo Bills, of course, traded Ryan Rick
Bates to Chicago.
His team that was courting him when they signed, they matched the offer, offer sheet and signed
him to extended contract two years ago.
He had one year with 35 snaps last year as an outstanding backup kind of all do it all
versatile offensive lineman, but then they sent him to Chicago for a fifth round pick.
So they added in their middle rounds to the war chest.
And I think both of us kind of assumed that with Ryan Bates being traded away that Mitch
Morse's safety on the roster was pretty much locked in because he would it was the number
one backup at center.
But lo and behold, that was not the case.
Morse was about 8.4 million, 8.3 million savings to be cut.
And he indeed cut he was.
They cut a, you know, pro bowl caliber center probably above average and above average and
I think would be considered a valuable contract.
I think it's 31.
And yeah, so above average centers who start in this league are paid or around $8 million.
So it seems like it was really leaning into Conor McGovern moving over from guard to center.
The bills definitely let that leak because I think that they, you know, probably wanted
any free agents out there, especially on the offensive side of the ball to not, you know,
to look at the bills as a landing spot and say, okay, they have a complete line because
that was that was leaked through Tim Graham of the athletic.
And then it made its made its rounds online that the, the bills plan and the way they
explained it to McGovern and David Edwards, who they resign, was that McGovern would move
over to center.
They would get some snaps in the NFL in that position, not many.
And then David Edwards, who's a natural left guard would fill in at left guard.
So they still have a complete starting line.
And I'm actually okay with that starting line.
They have, they are worse at this point in time in terms of depth, but I think that it
is a younger line of people and that is something that we've wanted them to get towards.
It's also a heavier line, JJ.
And I think, you know, I think so you and I got into it over text on Tuesday night when
the Bates trade got announced.
I didn't like the Bates move, but I was with you because I thought it was a clear signal
that all right, Mitch Morris finally got a full healthy season as a Buffalo bill under
his belt.
They're going to, because they could have restructured his deal and done a base salary
conversion and kicked more money down the road and still saved about three or four million
under the cap and have kept Morris or Morris rather on the roster because the Bates move,
it doesn't save them a whole lot of money against the cap.
He was scheduled to make five, just over five million, I want to say this season.
And his dead cat, dead cat hit hit was right around 4.1 million.
So the Bates move to me was a signal, if you're not going to get cap savings, it was a signal
that Morris is your guy of the future.
Then the following day he gets cut for his full salary savings of $8.4 million.
And we get the news that McGovern, who hasn't played meaningful snaps at center since his
days at Penn State, moves over into that role.
So JJ, I think this move, when all of those factors are evaluated, this move is the most
surprising to me because it messes with a formula that for the first time in seven years under
this regime, they got right on the offensive line.
And you and I have both been critical on this pod about the way they have managed resources,
development, and snaps along that offensive line.
I was just today because I'm I miss Buffalo Bills football.
I was watching the NFL network.
I was home with my kids and they had the 2021 Tennessee Titans regular season game.
That was the game where I think Josh, that was the only time Josh has ever like failed
to complete a fourth and one in any situation.
The Bills end up losing that game.
And I was just rewatching that game and Josh was running for his life pretty much the entire
game and seeing that and then thinking back to what this what this Bills brain trust has
done to the offensive line to dismantle what was a top five by a top five line by a lot
of metrics.
It made me a little bit unsettled.
I understand the salary cap metrics around it.
I even understand the offensive philosophy around it because this to me isn't just a salary
cap move.
This is what Joe Brady, ultimately, I think our first big sign of what a Joe Brady offense
is going to look like.
And it's going to feature a bigger offensive line to take on some of these fast and ever
decreasing these tiny defenses.
I'll allow the Dallas Cowboys.
I think they're going to want to just put some brutes on the front of that line, some
real big mallers, and they're going to want to establish themselves in the run game more
and more.
So the more smooth when all those factors are taken into consideration to me, it makes
sense in my brain.
But my heart tells me that for a couple of reasons, I should be concerned about this
move one, because he was a really true locker room leader, like he was a voice of reason.
And I think a calming, stabilizing presence in a locker room full of veterans.
He was the one that everybody looked towards, look towards on the offensive side of the
ball to kind of set the tenor and set the tone.
I think they're going to be missing that very much so because McDermott, as we know, relies
a lot on his player leaders to help set the tone day in and day out in that locker room.
So I think my heart tells me that that more smooth is going to leave a big gaping hole
when it comes to player leadership in the locker room.
Secondly, this is a move that you can read either to one of two ways, supreme confidence
in Aaron Kromer to develop anybody that they bring in to play any position along that line.
It is either confidence or on the flip side of that tremendous hubris again by an organization
that in six out of the last seven years has absolutely gotten the protection wrong for
their franchise QB.
So the Morse move to me was the one that left me feeling the most wanting JJ, especially
because you basically just traded your two primary centers off the roster and you still
could have gotten a cap savings with Morse had you done a base salary conversion.
Yeah, no, I get that.
And I think that one thing that you said in there kind of it piqued me a little bit because
I think that that's exactly what it is.
Is being always talks about how your last the last game you play informs your offseason.
And there are a couple of things that they could not do against the Kansas City Chiefs
or that they the things they did well in the game and the things they could not do will
inform how they build this this team in the offseason.
The thing they did well was play clock control time management, but they could have done
better with a more established rushing offense.
And I think that you can say that losing Morse and Bates reduces your capabilities in a rushing
offense.
But I think the thing that you said that kind of triggered me a little bit was they got bigger
on the front.
And I think that's really the purpose is that Brady comes from that college tree.
He comes ultimately up from the Sean McVeigh, no, Sean Payton tree of coaching.
And so he has a definite appreciation and respect for the run game and how it can work
in the modern NFL.
And I think you're right.
I think there's a trend to move to lighter, lighter boxes in terms of weight poundage,
lighter linebackers who are covered specialists across the league.
That's we see that happening all over the bills or even one of those teams who has that.
So the ability to kind of match up and really impose your will control the clock, keep opposing
quarterbacks like Patrick Mahomes, Joe Burrow, Tua Tunga-Veiloa off the field.
I think that might be the move that this is signaling because they increase the average
weight across that line.
And in terms of the locker room leadership, I think that just from what everyone sees
of the public persona of Deion Dawkins, he's not like calming presence elder statesman.
He's a bit of a showman, kind of a clown at times, right?
And so I wonder where they get that from.
Who's going to be that person?
Is it McGovern?
Is it Edwards?
They've both got a couple of years under their belt.
We don't know what they could be like as leaders because they probably deferred to Morris.
Of course they did.
He was a pro bowl caliber center who had cut his teeth, you know, with Patrick Mahomes
up under his butt and then moved on to Josh Allen and was a calming presence for a rookie
QB in his first few seed leagues.
So you know, I think there's a lot there.
And I'm excited to see what they can do.
And I do think that they have ultimate confidence in Aaron Kroemer because of what he was able
to do with Osiris Torrance because of how he was able to assimilate Conor McGovern into
this offense pretty quickly because of how it meshed and blended.
And they certainly got lucky with no injuries, but they also were able to really create a
unit that covered each other's backs that were able to handle twists and stunts.
As the season went on, I think we both saw that some of the weakness that was, you know,
earlier in the year with speed rushes, twists, stunts, delayed blitzes, kind of peeker blitzes,
those sorts of things, that started to get cleaned up.
And that's what I think, you know, triggered some of these moves is they said, okay, we
know that we can bring brand new pieces in and get them on board.
And we're ready to get younger, cheaper.
This is a very deep offensive line draft, especially in the middle to late rounds.
If you're willing to take a player that has either not a lot of starts under their belt
in college, but a lot of traits, or a player who has a lot of starts, but not a lot of
elite traits.
So they have a higher floor.
This is a good draft for that in the rounds three through seven.
Tanner Bordellini from Wisconsin is a name that immediately comes to mind.
We had talked on the last pod about the Duke kid, right?
His name is K.B.
Rick Rambarton.
I think his name is, he's played tackle, but in the NFLE profiles to the inside.
Frazier, the kid out of West Virginia.
Javon Foster out of Missouri.
Jackson Powers Johnson is another one we talked about.
I think though, based on still the amount of veteran cap hit they've got in this offensive
line, I think you look fourth, fifth, even sixth round.
And I think a guy like Tanner Bordellini from Wisconsin, six, four, three, 10 is going to
become more of the profile they're going to look at when it comes to their interior and
their center position for sure.
I think Brady just wants to get big and he wants to push some of these light boxes around
and he wants to let James Cook have a day.
And you know what?
I'm okay with that.
But as long as they also, once these defenses start to condense and bring guys in and dirty
up the box a little bit, as long as he can develop a scheme that'll then be able to take
the top off the defense, right?
Because that's what it's all about.
That's what it's all about.
So I was going to say, yeah, no, I agree completely.
And I'll throw a couple of other, you know, I'll throw some alphabet soup names, names
out you, out at you of players I like late in the draft.
Nathan Thomas out of Louisiana.
Lafayette, that's right.
Kagan Cajuns is a tackle who could probably slide into guard.
Trevor Keegan out of Michigan just went on that championship run.
Oh, boy.
Could be had in a later round.
Not a super superb athlete, but definitely has the chops starting against him.
Some good opposition.
And then Hunter Norzad Penn State Center, six, six round maybe.
So there's there's a couple of guys.
There's some guys late in the game.
Georgia, Cedric Van Pran, maybe a fourth rounder.
Is the the center from Georgia.
So there's some options, I think that the bills could tap into.
And it was notable too, because they re-signed Edwards, which you and I would hope they would
do granted as a depth piece.
Right now, technically on the depth chart, he has their starting left guard in place
of McGovern.
That being said, though, the organization said he'll have the opportunity to compete
for a starting job.
So they have Edwards name in the starting lineup in pencil, not Penn.
It's going to be really interesting to see as we dive a little bit more into and for
agency will tell us a lot.
But as we dive more into the draft and as we sift through some of the breadcrumbs, do
do the bills.
I mean, we've been talking about wide receiver round one, DT safety.
I mean, are the bills going to take an interior offensive lineman round two or three?
I think I think it is absolutely on the table now, JJ for sure, especially because these
guys are so hard to find.
And when you find them, you've got to pay them a boatload of money after their rookie
contract.
Who's the who's the LA LA Rams guy?
They just got Kevin Dotson.
He just signed and he played great for the Rams.
He just signed for 16 million dollars a year.
That's an interior offensive lineman.
I remember.
It was four years ago.
You could have the best.
Who's the guard from Indy who is so good?
Quentin Nelson.
I think Quentin Nelson's deal he signed after his rookie season was like eight million.
It was not, you know, per average annual value.
And like he was known immediately as like a league, you know, top of the league's guard
right out of the gate.
And so like, yeah, four or five years ago, you could have an interior line for $30 million
that would get, you know, get you a thousand yard rusher no matter who you put behind them.
And now it's, you know, that's one guy.
That's two guys.
Right.
I mean, it's almost becoming like the running back position where there's when you look
at a lot of draft charts, there is not a huge amount of value taking a guard in the first
round or taking interior offensive lineman in the first round.
But because these guys keep the pocket clean up the middle for a lot of these mobile QBs
that can use their legs and because they open up escape holes for a lot of these QBs, they're
getting paid.
They're getting paid on their second and on their third contracts.
So we could be entering a realm where Brandon Bean does his best Philadelphia Eagles impression
and is just always throwing a second or a third round pick every year in offensive lineman.
Now I think Bill's mafia would prefer to see that as opposed to throwing a second and third
round pick every year to running back.
Right.
Yeah, for sure.
So the C change in roster management JJ is going to be fascinating to observe here.
Absolutely.
Let's run through some other moves because I think there was one, one that we're going
to get to that was equally, if not more surprising than the more so.
So we'll stay on the offensive side of the ball for the two kind of two other lesser
contracts that everyone sort of expected.
Deontay Hardy, Naim Hines, those are each about $5 million that they save.
They don't really eat a lot of dead cap.
Deontay Hardy, other than that, Plunt returned in the Miami Dolphins game to help kind of
turn the tide and clinched AFC East had a very quiet season.
I think he also had a third down reception against the Chiefs that was clutching that
game.
Naim Hines, of course, was in the unfortunate jet skiing accident before the season kicked
off.
So the ACL was recovering from that and so both of those cuts, sort of everybody expecting,
there's not a lot to lose in those.
I think there's guys like Deontay Hardy and Naim Hines you can find for 1.75 million,
vet minimum deals to catch kicks for you to return kicks.
But it does create a hole in special teams.
And speaking of special teams, the other person they cut was Saron Neal and he was a special
teams ace and a somewhat of a liability on defense.
I think that he at times was utilized to try to take away tight ends and be like a big
nickel in certain defensive sets.
And most of the times he was on the field for defense, it did not go super well.
He was not making impact plays, splash plays.
He was sometimes out of position on run fits.
And so Saron Neal never turned into a player who could really offer you anything on defense
and for that reason, I think they had to move on.
I think it was like three or four million on the books that they cleaned up by moving
on from Saron Neal.
So those are some of the lower tier ones.
Is Boyer the one you want to talk about next?
Boyer was the one that really hit me in my heart the most.
I do know him.
You've met him.
And so I had the good fortune of helping to book him at a previous professional stop
that I made at a previous company.
We brought him in to talk with some of our students about his recovery from alcoholism,
how it impacted him not only as a professional and a player, but as a family man.
And to this date, I'll still talk with some of my former colleagues because I've since
moved on from that particular organization.
But I'll still talk with some of my colleagues and they will note how impactful and memorable
that talk was.
So not only do I have a tremendous amount of respect for Jordan Boyer the player, but
Jordan Boyer the human being and having the good fortune of seeing how inspirational and
how empathetic he was to an auditorium of a thousand students who he didn't know, but
still chose to give his time to.
It was it was a great moment, not just as a fan, but as a now former educator to see
someone like that give themselves to that group in that way.
So Boyer from a player perspective and a human being perspective will always be in my personal
Hall of Fame.
That's the one I think emotionally that hit me the hardest, JJ, but it was not the one
that surprised me the most.
Yes.
So this originally got got posted in the media is a contract restructure.
A contract restructure typically kicks money down the road.
That is not what happened here.
This was a full renegotiation where the bills can still get out of Von Miller's deal after
the end of the season.
His cap hit for next season only went up about a million dollars as a result of the renegotiation.
So they're not kicking money down the road and he took a real pay cut going from about
17 million against the cap, although we had it all the way down to eight and that number
can go back up to 20.
If he hits certain incentives and certain markers, but that money won't hit this year's
cap that'll hit next year's cap if he reaches any of those incentive benchmarks.
Yeah.
JJ, we talked about this.
The bills had no leverage, no leverage whatsoever to get Von Miller to take a pay cut.
This is like some Brandon Bean Houdini stuff because we thought anyone that would sign
on the current roster and incentive laden deal would be Trey White because not a lot
of money was it was guaranteed and the bills could cut him and still recoup a lot of their
cap at Miller.
His dead cap hit was more than what his salary cap hit would have been had he remained on
the roster.
He could have easily just said, nope, I've got a contract.
I'm going to collect my 17.5 and he took, JJ, he took a $10 million pay cut.
Like how did he do that?
See, I don't know that Bean did that.
I think that Miller did that.
I think that, well, I'm sure Bean started open the conversation, but I think, yeah.
I was going to say, there's no way Von like walked, walked, walked, walked and didn't
mean to say, man, listen, I didn't play great last year.
No, right.
All the off the field stuff.
Sorry about that.
Here's 10 mil.
I'll say, I don't think, you know, certainly, certainly Bean opened the conversation, but
I do think that credit needs to be given to Miller, who wants to be a GM in his post playing
career and who wants to, this is, this is in a lot of ways.
It is Miller broadcasting to the league, to teams that might be hiring a GM immediately
after he returns.
I understand how the cap works.
It's that he knows as a player who is hungry to set an NFL record by winning a third Super
Bowl ring with three different teams.
It is a, it is a savvy move of a vet who has that goal in mind.
And if you've ever heard him talk, he's like all about positivity.
He's all about like manifesting your, your reality and that sort of thing.
It is about a player kind of dedicating himself to this, this thing of post post playing career
I might want to work in a front office.
I want to declare that I know how the cap works.
I know that my goal of getting a third Super Bowl ring is not going to be as easy to attain
if I don't have somebody rushing across from me or a good, healthy rotation or a solid
defensive tackle to kind of gobble up double teams.
And so I think in a lot of ways it's a self serving.
It's his one, it's self serving in that he knows he'll be more successful if they have
some cap room to play in free agency a little bit and two, it is also, it's a little bit
of, you know, him betting on himself because he can make more money this season than he
was guaranteed to make if he hits his, his incentives.
And so he has incentives that stack at two sacks, four sacks, six sacks, eight sacks,
10 and a half sacks.
And finally at 15 sacks.
He has not had 10 or more sacks since 2018.
So those last two rungs of that ladder that jump like 2 million and 1 million respectively
are pretty unlikely.
And that's really how the bills got this cap savings is we've discussed on the pods in
the past about unlikely to be earned incentives.
So you don't actually have to count on your cap if you have in someone's contract that
they, they'll get $10 million for getting 10 sacks.
If in the priors immediate prior season, they did not achieve 10 sacks.
That's not likely to be earned.
That doesn't count this year.
If they do achieve those 10 sacks, it does count, but it counts in the next year of the
cap.
And so for those reasons, you know, I think that it's really him one, understanding how
the cap works and that he needs help on the defensive line.
And they have a lot of holes there right now.
And so giving them some relief will actually help him.
And then two, it's about betting on himself because he's a prideful man and he wants to
prove that he wasn't just, he wasn't complete wash this late in his career after the injury.
And so, you know, we'll see, like this is, we knew all along with how the contract was
structured before this renegotiation happened that he wasn't going anywhere and that the
best the bills could hope for was that they would have a healthier, more impactful Vaughan
Miller, you know, in this coming season.
And he is sort of with this renegotiation declaring that he plans to be more impactful
because he, you know, there's a lot of millions of dollars sitting on the table if he is able
to make an impact.
I know it still though it, I mean, Vaughan Miller, everything you said was correct.
Let me just put it that way.
And I think your, your analysis of Miller's personality is spot on.
For anyone who's read any of these player profiles that Miller's been a part of throughout
the course of his career in Denver, LA and now Buffalo, what you said JJ is 110% on target.
Miller though is still part of a union.
Oh yeah, they were pissed at that.
The players union.
I've got, I've, I've got to imagine that that was a contentious conversation with the union
because all of these scales are set by, you know, veteran ceilings and stuff like that.
Vaughan giving up money isn't just about him giving up money.
It's now the next deal that an organization tries to get done with a veteran of his caliber
and his resume is going to be like, well, listen, man, Vaughan took eight and a half million
dollars, right?
He's going to be a Hall of Famer.
24 season.
That's our new benchmark, right?
And he's going to the Hall of Fame and he's got two Super Bowl rings, right?
I mean, so I've got to imagine that this was contentious in ways that we may never know
behind the scenes for Miller and Miller's camp.
I was going to say refer, refer to my previous statement about him declaring to NFL teams
that might want to hire a GM.
I know how the business works.
I'm not player friendly.
I'm team friendly.
Dude, it is, this is four dimensional chess.
Yeah.
Right.
I'm on Miller's part, 100%.
But no, I mean, this was other than the Morse move.
I think this was the most surprising move.
JJ, I want to go backwards and talk a little bit more in depth about about Poyer because
the bills, a lot of the cuts that they they went through on Wednesday, they lost a lot
of veteran leadership on that defensive side of the ball.
Guys that helped establish the culture that we now enjoy as Bill's fans, playoff caliber,
championship caliber.
However, trophy, we may think it now sounds seven years into this experiment with Sean
McDermott and Brandon Bean.
Guys like Jordan Poyer, guys like Trey White, were the cornerstones of establishing that
culture and that philosophy.
And now both are gone.
And you and I talked in very real terms that this was probably going to be the year for
one, if not both of them.
Right after Trey got injured this season, you and I talked pretty early on about this could
be it for Trey.
Did we think that Bean had the had the I don't want to say like cold coldness, right?
The the the the ability to sort of like disassociate from the move.
Like this was an emotional move, I think, regardless, I didn't know if they were going
to be able to be all business about Trey.
Because the bit like had this been Bill Belichick, Trey probably would have been cut the moment
the bills were eliminated from the playoffs, right?
I didn't know if Bean had it in him to cut Trey, but he did.
And it was the smart business move.
The Poyer thing you and I talked about as the season started to wrap up, especially after
Mike Hyde's wife released what was basically a retirement video on Instagram.
And we started to talk in real terms too, about Poyer and Hyde both no longer being a
part of that team.
Now those things have manifested into reality.
And I think from a position value perspective, there's going to be a lot of debate about,
oh, well, you know, Poyer was in decline, he was pretty much a box safety, you can bring
in a guy like Jeremy Chen and get an upgrade.
Sure, and we're going to talk about that, we're going to talk about performance on the
field.
What is going to be hard if not damn near impossible to replace JJ is that those were
the banner men for this era of Buffalo Bill's football.
And it is not going to be any small task to replace what they meant to this fan base and
that locker room heading into next.
Just to mention that they were ambassadors of the McDermott style of defense.
They were the ones who taught the sixth round, Dane Jackson and the undrafted free agent,
Levi Wallace.
They were the ones who were able to translate, you know, the defense for those new players
coming in the door and make sure everyone was playing as a unit on the same page.
There is a big step back that we should probably expect early in the season, especially with
Bobby Babich as a new presumed play caller on the defensive side of the ball, to add
to the fact that you don't have as much vocal leadership on that side of the ball, missing
Micahide, Jordan Poyer, Tredavious White.
I think that part of the reason they were willing to let Poyer and White go is what
they saw from Terrell Bernard.
I don't know if you listened to the Shaw McDermott press conference at the Combine.
He mentioned that at one point in maybe the Miami game or the Steelers game, at one point
he went down the sideline to give the defense a pep talk about closing the game out and
before he even get to the assembled players, he realized that Bernard was already there
giving them that pep talk about getting a stop.
And so that's the kind of leadership that I think there is a new vocal leader.
I think that Milano's never been that.
He's always been a talk with his pads type.
And I don't know what Taylor Rapp is like, but we should expect it to be a step back
because there's a huge leadership void on that back end, especially in the DB room,
depending on who they bring in.
We got to trust the process on this one though.
Well, and I think that there is a there is a trickle down domino effect, if you will,
that starts with the replacement and the potential leveling off or even depreciation and play
at the safety position heading into next year.
I think about Taren Johnson, who you and I both agree for my money, best nickel corner
in the league.
And I love the way Taren Johnson plays, he is an all pro style player and extraordinarily
valuable to that team.
But I encourage Bill's fans to go look at Taren Johnson splits and you got to pick it
out and you got to do a little bit of homework.
Look at his game logs when Poyer played versus when Poyer did not play.
Some of Taren Johnson's worst career games happened when Jordan Poyer was out because
of the safety net that Poyer and hide both presented in that backfield.
It allowed Taren Johnson to attack in the run game the way that he did.
It allowed him to go with his first instinct and first reaction.
Not having that level of safety net has a like I said, a ripple effect across the the
rest of the defense.
I know safeties as a position are being devalued much like running backs are, but in the McDermott
defense where DBs are supposed to have not only their coverage assignments, but their
run gap assignments also on lock.
I think we're going to see, I don't think it's just going to be in coverage JJ that
we're going to start to see some variance.
I think it's going to be in the run game, an area of weakness already for the bills
because the way they rely on their DBs to work in unison and covering that end at that
end of opposing teams playbook.
So that again, I love Poyer.
It was emotional to see him finally, finally cut as we expected he was going to be cut.
I'm still sort of recovering from that, but make no mistake, even with his decline in
play from last season to this past season, there is going to be a ripple effect across
the rest of that defense that we're going to see in the very early weeks to your point,
the bills and Bobby Babbage have to adjust to you can't just take guys like that.
Get that out of the lineup, plug and play some other guys and expect the same level
and same caliber of production.
I agree with that.
And I think too, you mentioned that, you know, Taren Johnson has played his best ball with
Poyer on the field and he had his only all pro season to date with Poyer in the box with
him, which is like something that's worth mentioning.
But we will see, I think that you'd also, if you looked at those splits, see that Taren
Johnson played his best games when Matt Milano was healthy too, because that, you know, that
kind of fast flowing defense.
Yeah.
Fair point.
Yeah.
That's a fair question though, because Matt Milano has had a bit of an injury history.
So hopefully he's able to go this year and play the whole year and no interruptions.
And so, you know, it's a lot to, it's a lot to wonder about.
I'll say this though, I know there's a lot of uncertainty on the defense side of the
ball with the roster build as it stands right now.
I'm excited.
I'm kind of cautiously excited to see what happens at the end of, you know, training
camp and into the season with what the final 53 looks like, because this is the thing,
you know, like be careful what you wish for you, you just might get it.
You and I have been talking about a younger, faster, cheaper defense for a long time.
I think we're going to see one this season.
We certainly are.
So let's do some math real quick, right?
Because the Trey White cap savings is designated as a post June one cut, which means the bills
are not going to see his 10, 10 million dollars in change until after that date.
So according to spot track right now, the bills are sitting at about minus seven million
dollars against the cap.
But I think if you look at some of the NFL PA numbers that have come out on contracts
for next year, there was some shenanigans to add Oliver's contract.
I believe it has not been announced yet, but I think Bill's fans should expect an add Oliver
restructure coming here.
And I would say in the next week or so.
We still haven't seen the Josh Allen restructure either, which would bring the bills a full
23 million under the under the cap, add in that 10 million post June one.
And I think the bills are probably going to be walking into free agency with functional
cap space of probably if my math is right, somewhere between 25 million and 31 million
dollars, JJ, which is more than enough money to stabilize the roster and get up to 53.
And I think take a run at resigning a guy like to Quan Jones or AJ Epinezza.
I think that is now in the realm of possibility based on where the salary cap numbers hit.
And then you need to look at future savings as well.
The Buffalo bills as it stands today are already 38 million under the cap under the projected
cap for 2025.
You can get out of the Dawson Knox contract next season.
You can get out of the Von Miller contract next season.
You can trade Stefan Diggs next season and it won't hurt as much.
There is a very real world JJ in 2025 where the Buffalo bills are playing around with
50 or even $60 million in free agent money.
And it gets it.
I mean, it's going to change as they sign contracts to players that they draft and develop.
But in 2026, they have over 100 million of space as it stands today.
So like the cap this season, this terrible Wednesday of so many stalwarts on the team
being sent packing and cut was really our kind of old yeller or where the redfern grows
moment of behind the woodshed with the rabbit dog, Tradabious White.
So so many good middle school reading references right there.
And now we're going to find our way out of the woods like Hatchet by Gary Paulson.
Oh my God, keep it coming.
Keep it coming.
Anyway, it's a it's a it's a wild world.
And I think that, you know, what we're going to see is cheaper, younger of course.
But I think we're also going to see, you know, this is this is the point I texted this to
you also is all of the people out there who are kind of, you know, oh, you know, Sean McDermott
can't get over the hump.
Oh, Sean McDermott is wasting an excellent talented roster year over year, because he's
an inadequate coach and they can't get to the championship.
Maybe that's true.
But also, you're going to have a real litmus test this year, which is we're going to see
what coaching does with Sean McDermott making multiple decisions, moving on from Ken Dorsey,
bringing Joe Brady on and then making him no longer the interim and a full time offensive
coordinator.
And so, quoting Bobby Babich, a young upstart kind of exciting defensive mind to the defense
DC position, which caused two long time veteran defensive assistants to leave.
Eric Washington and I forget the safety's coach that just left the coach.
Oh, I keep wanting to say John McDonnell, but that is not the name.
Hang on.
Anyway, yeah.
He loses two of his long time, kind of, you know, two of his long time close cabinet members
on that defensive side of the ball, purely to, you know, go with the hot hand, go with
the youth movement.
And that I think is an indication of, okay, you know, folks who may doubt that Sean McDermott
is a good coach, you'll get some proof, better or worse, to either support your argument
or blow your argument out of the water, depending on how well the bill's team this season is
with a completely new roster, especially on the defensive side of the ball in a lot of
ways, a rehashed, restructured, younger offensive line, possibly one or two new offensive weapons.
And you know, the safety's hide and poor that had been kind of the best duo in the league
for so many years, both off the roster.
So we're going to really see what he can, what his acting, you know, his chops are as
an acting, you know, CEO with both a DC and OC in place as well.
And Dan, are you still searching for our DB's coach?
Yeah, I'm still, I am still looking for some reason.
My Google machine is not working.
Damn you, internet.
It should be working right now.
I know, for whatever reason, and I live in the great northern tundra of upstate New York,
never here JJ, our internet goes to absolute crap.
It is the absolute weirdest function of weather in upstate New York that I have ever seen
in my entire life.
It's absolutely, absolutely crazy.
But anyway, anyway, we, we, sir, we have work to do.
We had meticulously, and I would say in a craftmen like way, laid out our free agency preview
and needs and our draft preview and needs.
And all of that, my friend is now out the window with what again, we can't say it enough.
Like teams don't do this stuff.
GMs will continue to keep Super Bowl windows open, kick veteran money down the road year
after year after year and treat the salary cap like it is not a real thing.
Brandon being to the exact opposite of that.
And now JJ, we're left kind of with, with a lot of like it in wonder at what he did,
the spectacle of what Wednesday was and the emotional tone that came with all of that.
But also too, we're left with some pretty significant roster holes.
And we know that being likes to head into the draft, being able to take BPA best player
available and not draft for need.
Dude, the bills are going to be drafting for need because there's no way they can follow
these holes in free agency.
So it's going to be interesting.
It's going to be interesting.
So for those of you listening at home, we are going to take the next week or so to redo
all of our free agency and all of our draft profiles and bring you some fresh content
in this new brave new world of Buffalo Bills roster management that we find ourselves in,
JJ.
Yeah, absolutely.
I think, you know, as you so, you know, aptly put it being lit the table on fire and jump
through it.
We just have to build it back up and reset this thing.
Yeah, for sure.
For sure.
I'm looking forward to it though.
I am 110% on board with this.
Yeah, absolutely.
I think it's going to be great.
Yeah.
I think it's going to be great.
So for all of you listening at home, hopefully you have emotionally recovered from what was
a very trying week for Bill's mafia.
And hopefully there will be some of your skies ahead of us, both figuratively and in
reality, because we are still dealing with a fair amount of cloudy weather by us and I
am ready for spring, sir.
I am ready to move on from the winter.
But for all of you listening at home, thanks for being with us tonight.
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Go Bill's.