The Litmus Test

[DraftBoy]

You want to know how good your front office is? Watch them from the time the new CBA starts to when camps open. In that time span every FO in the NFL will have to sign their our Free Agents, any current NFL free agents, negotiate with their own draft picks, and sign undrafted draft picks. Some teams clearly are going to focus on one aspect or another. I fully expect the Bills to focus on the UDFA front, while grabbing a couple of vets through FA. Some teams though will drop the ball, others will excel.

You want to know how good Buddy Nix and Co is? You're going to find out really quickly in about 2-3 weeks. Every NFL FO in the country is going to be putting in crazy amounts of overtime and the news will be flying. This is going to be fun and get people re-enthused for the game.

[methos4ever]

Re: The Litmus Test

You want to know how good your front office is? Watch them from the time the new CBA starts to when camps open. In that time span every FO in the NFL will have to sign their our Free Agents, any current NFL free agents, negotiate with their own draft picks, and sign undrafted draft picks. Some teams clearly are going to focus on one aspect or another. I fully expect the Bills to focus on the UDFA front, while grabbing a couple of vets through FA. Some teams though will drop the ball, others will excel.

You want to know how good Buddy Nix and Co is? You're going to find out really quickly in about 2-3 weeks. Every NFL FO in the country is going to be putting in crazy amounts of overtime and the news will be flying. This is going to be fun and get people re-enthused for the game.

And assuming the 120-130 mil cap and spending 90-93% of the cap, here's what every team will be working with as far as money allocated to players under contract:

http://espn.go.com/blog/nflnation/post/_/id/37327/looking-at-2011-salary-cap-figures

•Arizona $83 million
•Atlanta $102.1 million
•Baltimore $101.3 million
•Buffalo $96.4 million
•Carolina $73 million
•Chicago $104.9 million
•Cincinnati $90.7 million
•Cleveland $99.2 million
•Dallas $136.6 million
•Denver $125 million
•Detroit $113.8 million
•Green Bay $129.8 million
•Houston $118.4 million
•Indianapolis $115.5 million
•Jacksonville $78.1 million
•Kansas City $74.7 million
•Miami $103.1 million
•Minnesota $108.4 million
•New England $102.3 million
•New Orleans $105.2 million
•New York Giants $126.3 million
•New York Jets $128.5 million
•Oakland $85.8 million
•Philadelphia $80.8 million
•Pittsburgh $116 million
•San Diego $85.8 million
•San Francisco $100.9 million
•Seattle $81.1 million
•St. Louis $102.4 million
•Tampa Bay $59.7 million
•Tennessee $107.4 million
•Washington $115.2 million

[better days]

Re: The Litmus Test

And assuming the 120-130 mil cap and spending 90-93% of the cap, here's what every team will be working with as far as money allocated to players under contract:
http://espn.go.com/blog/nflnation/po...ry-cap-figures

Yeah, Dallas, Denver, Jets, Giants, Green Bay are over the cap at this point & that is with no rookie signings. I expect the Bills to sign their own FA that they want to keep like Poz as well as their rookies & undrafted players. They will most likely sign a vet QB & maybe a vet LB & OL. I expect them to extend some players on the team to get up to where they need to be with the cap.

[jamze132]

Re: The Litmus Test

You want to know how good your front office is? Watch them from the time the new CBA starts to when camps open. In that time span every FO in the NFL will have to sign their our Free Agents, any current NFL free agents, negotiate with their own draft picks, and sign undrafted draft picks. Some teams clearly are going to focus on one aspect or another. I fully expect the Bills to focus on the UDFA front, while grabbing a couple of vets through FA. Some teams though will drop the ball, others will excel.

You want to know how good Buddy Nix and Co is? You're going to find out really quickly in about 2-3 weeks. Every NFL FO in the country is going to be putting in crazy amounts of overtime and the news will be flying. This is going to be fun and get people re-enthused for the game.

I think it will be as soon as 7-10 days. There is just too much secrecy going on right now surrounding the talks that we haven't seen yet.

[justasportsfan]

Re: The Litmus Test

Nix will be asleep.

[Ebenezer]

Re: The Litmus Test

I'm not expecting a Pegula-like adventure.

[madness]

Re: The Litmus Test

You want to know how good your front office is? Watch them from the time the new CBA starts to when camps open. In that time span every FO in the NFL will have to sign their our Free Agents, any current NFL free agents, negotiate with their own draft picks, and sign undrafted draft picks. Some teams clearly are going to focus on one aspect or another. I fully expect the Bills to focus on the UDFA front, while grabbing a couple of vets through FA. Some teams though will drop the ball, others will excel.

You want to know how good Buddy Nix and Co is? You're going to find out really quickly in about 2-3 weeks. Every NFL FO in the country is going to be putting in crazy amounts of overtime and the news will be flying. This is going to be fun and get people re-enthused for the game.

Add in possible roster increase for TC, I think Nix is going to have field day in the UDFA market. I can hear the old man giggling now.

[T-Long]

Re: The Litmus Test

Nix will be asleep.

damn, you beat me to it

[DraftBoy]

Re: The Litmus Test

I'm not expecting a Pegula-like adventure.

It may not be in the sense that we won't go big name hunting for our version of Brad Richards, but it should be far more fast paced and action packed. Sabres only made 4 or 5 total moves? Bills should make around 50 in a two week period.

[Mr. Miyagi]

Re: The Litmus Test

Holy crap Tampa Bay is 60+million under the cap. They could pretty much buy out everybody.

[X-Era]

Re: The Litmus Test

You want to know how good your front office is? Watch them from the time the new CBA starts to when camps open. In that time span every FO in the NFL will have to sign their our Free Agents, any current NFL free agents, negotiate with their own draft picks, and sign undrafted draft picks. Some teams clearly are going to focus on one aspect or another. I fully expect the Bills to focus on the UDFA front, while grabbing a couple of vets through FA. Some teams though will drop the ball, others will excel.

You want to know how good Buddy Nix and Co is? You're going to find out really quickly in about 2-3 weeks. Every NFL FO in the country is going to be putting in crazy amounts of overtime and the news will be flying. This is going to be fun and get people re-enthused for the game.

I think it will be huge to see what they do when forced to act like everyone else with the new rule on the salary floor being almost 100%. Will they over invest in their own or make some serious signings? It will all depend on how the new rule is written... whether we have to ditch cash to crap or whether the whole league has to adopt it. But to me, this more than any other area will be the biggest litmus test.

[methos4ever]

Re: The Litmus Test

Holy crap Tampa Bay is 60+million under the cap. They could pretty much buy out everybody.

The big problem for them with that is (to me) this - who has that much in operating income laying about? If they funnelled a good bit of that towards say Man Utd transfers, they're up a creek....


Another note, RE: rosters. Buddy will definitely like this:

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=6745234

Also, teams would be allowed to bring in 80 to 90 players to training camp to allow for injuries and rust because of the lockout, which reached its 114th day Thursday.

[YardRat]

Re: The Litmus Test

I'm not expecting any big splashes, and think some people are still mis-interpreting what the new rules are going to achieve.

[Buddo]

Re: The Litmus Test

In certain respects, it will take a little while to shake out.
As an 'absolute' need, the Bills have one, which is a vet backup QB. How quickly they get onto that, will be interesting.
How quickly they also get the players they want back signed, will also be important to get done quickly.
I don't see the Bills to be big players necessarily in FA, but they might manage to grab some decent depth guys, later on.
I say later on, because I feel that FA will go very well for guys who are in demand, i.e. the best available, but for the mid-tier guys on, I think it will be very much a 'buyers market'.
A team like the Bills, will be able to take a good look around, and find guys to perform roles for them, without too much trouble, imho.
ATM, the Bills don't actually have too many 'holes' as such. What they do lack, is better talent, and that isn't going to be fixed in FA atm - although I do expect them to find at least one vet who performs way better than we expect, and sticks around.
Getting good depth all round, is not going to hurt, and we have seriously lacked in that department, for years. That way, when you do pick a guy like Dareus, he can come in and make an impact.
It isn't going to be 'sexy', but if done right, it will work.

[X-Era]

Re: The Litmus Test

I'm not expecting any big splashes, and think some people are still mis-interpreting what the new rules are going to achieve.

I don't think I am.

100% salary floor is what it is. And whether the teams are allowed to ammortize the SB's or not, all teams will have to follow the league rules and spend close to the same money in the leagues eyes.

The Bills won't be able to account one way while the rest of the league accounts in another way. Ther Bills can't use their own rule to operate at a much lower salary level.