Bring them in!

[Scumbag College]

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap3000000637315/article/rams-cut-chris-long-james-laurinaitis-jared-cook

Rams cut Chris Long, James Lauinitis, and Jared Cook. A case can be made for all three that they would immediately help the Bills. Laurinitis especially.

Bring them in!

[swiper]

Ho-hum. Must be off-season. Here come these threads again.

[Mace]

Well, I'd be most interested in Laurinaitis, 29 year old lunch bucket MLB. But there's no indication they give up on Preston Brown and you run into the stupid learning curve of Ryan's stupid complex defense anyway (critical for defensive signal caller) and Brown now at least has a year of failing to understand it like everyone else.

I wish they would, but I don't see them thinking ILB is as much a priority as everyone else does.

Biggest thing though atm is that we can't afford to even sign our draft class, or priority fa's so window shopping before they start making any moves to resolve the cap issue is unwise. You'd think they'd start making moves to resolve the cap issues soon though.

[sudzy]

Well, I'd be most interested in Laurinaitis, 29 year old lunch bucket MLB. But there's no indication they give up on Preston Brown and you run into the stupid learning curve of Ryan's stupid complex defense anyway (critical for defensive signal caller) and Brown now at least has a year of failing to understand it like everyone else.

I wish they would, but I don't see them thinking ILB is as much a priority as everyone else does.

Biggest thing though atm is that we can't afford to even sign our draft class, or priority fa's so window shopping before they start making any moves to resolve the cap issue is unwise. You'd think they'd start making moves to resolve the cap issues soon though.

But, I've read Rex is looking to run more 3-4 defense. So the Bills need 2 ILBs. I think they should be kicking the tires on Laurinaitis.

[YardRat]

http://espn.go.com/blog/baltimore-ravens/post/_/id/25772/three-disappointing-contracts-have-put-ravens-in-nfls-second-worst-cap-situation

According to the ESPN roster management system, the Ravens have only $6.1 million in cap space, and that's before the team uses the franchise tag on kicker Justin Tucker (http://espn.go.com/nfl/player/_/id/15683/justin-tucker) ($4.5 million) and places a second-round tender on restricted free agent Kamar Aiken (http://espn.go.com/nfl/player/_/id/14583/kamar-aiken) ($2.5 million). Only the Buffalo Bills (http://espn.go.com/nfl/team/_/name/buf/buffalo-bills), who currently are over the projected $154 million cap, are in a worse situation.

[sudzy]

http://espn.go.com/blog/baltimore-ravens/post/_/id/25772/three-disappointing-contracts-have-put-ravens-in-nfls-second-worst-cap-situation

According to the ESPN roster management system, the Ravens have only $6.1 million in cap space, and that's before the team uses the franchise tag on kicker Justin Tucker (http://espn.go.com/nfl/player/_/id/15683/justin-tucker) ($4.5 million) and places a second-round tender on restricted free agent Kamar Aiken (http://espn.go.com/nfl/player/_/id/14583/kamar-aiken) ($2.5 million). Only the Buffalo Bills (http://espn.go.com/nfl/team/_/name/buf/buffalo-bills), who currently are over the projected $154 million cap, are in a worse situation.

The Bills are in the worst shape vs the cap? Thanks Obama!!! I mean Whaley. (sorry it's just habit anymore)

[Mace]

But, I've read Rex is looking to run more 3-4 defense. So the Bills need 2 ILBs. I think they should be kicking the tires on Laurinaitis.

The thing is though, Rex's defense doesn't, you're thinking standard Fairbanks-Bullough 3-4. Rex only uses 2 real lb's, 3 down ones. mlb and an olb. One of the ends might drop as an olb (Hughes most often), and one of the safeties floats up as an ilb for formation purposes, or, the olb (Bradham) moves to ilb if the end drops to olb as a play develops. Or, sadly, a dt drops to ilb.

Ryan's defense really isn't about positions, it's about the roles the positions play.

I'd kick the tires on Laurinaitis too, but I'm still not sure they want to replace Brown at mlb, Rams are a 4-3, and I don't think Laurinaitis or Brown could play an olb role or how Laurinaitis would be with a complex scheme change. All would have been moot under a Schwartz defense but we also wouldn't be real worried about lb.

[Mr. Pink]

http://espn.go.com/blog/baltimore-ravens/post/_/id/25772/three-disappointing-contracts-have-put-ravens-in-nfls-second-worst-cap-situation

According to the ESPN roster management system, the Ravens have only $6.1 million in cap space, and that's before the team uses the franchise tag on kicker Justin Tucker (http://espn.go.com/nfl/player/_/id/15683/justin-tucker) ($4.5 million) and places a second-round tender on restricted free agent Kamar Aiken (http://espn.go.com/nfl/player/_/id/14583/kamar-aiken) ($2.5 million). Only the Buffalo Bills (http://espn.go.com/nfl/team/_/name/buf/buffalo-bills), who currently are over the projected $154 million cap, are in a worse situation.

But the Bills will get some cap relief on Mario being let go, a potential Leodis restructure - have heard that he's open to reworking his deal, potential cuts of Gay and Carpenter.

I've seen the Bills at 145m currently.

So they're 9m under right now, will gain another 12.9 with Mario being shown the door, Leodis being cut will save 3.9m but I can see him being restructured instead to save about 2 million, Carpenter will save 2.3m if cut after June 1, no idea on Gay. Then there's always potential restructuring Clay - honestly it should be done - he's gonna count for 13m with a 10m roster bonus on day 3 of the new NFL year. But even without Clay or Carpenter, the Bills should be about 24m under the cap. Figure Glenn and Incognito will eat up about 12m of that number, so they have a little flexibility to sign a couple middle tier guys.

Jared Cook wouldn't make any sense as the team doesn't need a tight end and needs to do something with Clay before the league year begins anyway. But Lauranaitis or Long would make sense at around 5m per, Lauranaitis was scheduled to count for 6.2 and Long was on the final year of his contract that he wasn't going to see anyway...14m or something idiotic.

[Scumbag College]

But the Bills will get some cap relief on Mario being let go, a potential Leodis restructure - have heard that he's open to reworking his deal, potential cuts of Gay and Carpenter.

I've seen the Bills at 145m currently.

So they're 9m under right now, will gain another 12.9 with Mario being shown the door, Leodis being cut will save 3.9m but I can see him being restructured instead to save about 2 million, Carpenter will save 2.3m if cut after June 1, no idea on Gay. Then there's always potential restructuring Clay - honestly it should be done - he's gonna count for 13m with a 10m roster bonus on day 3 of the new NFL year. But even without Clay or Carpenter, the Bills should be about 24m under the cap. Figure Glenn and Incognito will eat up about 12m of that number, so they have a little flexibility to sign a couple middle tier guys.

Jared Cook wouldn't make any sense as the team doesn't need a tight end and needs to do something with Clay before the league year begins anyway. But Lauranaitis or Long would make sense at around 5m per, Lauranaitis was scheduled to count for 6.2 and Long was on the final year of his contract that he wasn't going to see anyway...14m or something idiotic.

Agreed.

I'm not too worried about the cap as it stands right this second with Mario all but gone and Leodis if he comes back for much, much less. Obviously Glenn and Incognito coming back is the big priority before FA starts, and if/when both of their deals get hashed out (I don't think either are going anywhere) the Bills can figure out who else they can get. Mid level free agents are probably what we see this year coming in, and that's not entirely a bad thing. There's mid level vet DLs, LBs, OLs, WRs, maybe even at safety that can come in and help out from Day 1 of OTAs. Landing Long and/or Laurinitis would be way better than what I would have thought the Bills could bring in a month or so ago.

[Mace]

But the Bills will get some cap relief on Mario being let go, a potential Leodis restructure - have heard that he's open to reworking his deal, potential cuts of Gay and Carpenter.

I've seen the Bills at 145m currently.

So they're 9m under right now.

Geez, I don't know where you've seen this. I've seen them from 4 million over, to at best less than 500,00 under everywhere from overthecap to espn not even including cutting Mario. The universal opinion is that we're one of the worst cap situations in the league.

http://www.buffalorumblings.com/2016/2/16/11022352/nfl-salary-cap-expected-to-make-big-jump-buffalo-bills-still-over

http://overthecap.com/salary-cap/buffalo-bills/

http://www.ganggreennation.com/2016/2/11/10974328/espn-dolphins-bills-and-patriots-have-three-worst-salary-cap

Last is a ref to espn, I'm not an insider.

[Mace]

Agreed.

I'm not too worried about the cap as it stands right this second with Mario all but gone and Leodis if he comes back for much, much less. Obviously Glenn and Incognito coming back is the big priority before FA starts, and if/when both of their deals get hashed out (I don't think either are going anywhere) the Bills can figure out who else they can get. Mid level free agents are probably what we see this year coming in, and that's not entirely a bad thing. There's mid level vet DLs, LBs, OLs, WRs, maybe even at safety that can come in and help out from Day 1 of OTAs. Landing Long and/or Laurinitis would be way better than what I would have thought the Bills could bring in a month or so ago.

Seriously, not arguing for the sake of it, Incognito and Glenn eat the cap savings from McKelvin and Mario instantly.

[DynaPaul]

Hey... I've heard of that guy. We should sign him?