Looking more and more like Milano is a goner

[ghz in pittsburgh]

https://heavy.com/sports/buffalo-bil...o-matt-milano/

What Beane said is very much like what he said about Lawson and Philips last year at this time - "they earned right to see their worth in the market."

[Jan Reimers]

We are neither deep nor strong at LB. I would like to keep Milano, if his price tag makes sense.

[Saratoga Slim]

We are neither deep nor strong at LB. I would like to keep Milano, if his price tag makes sense.

I would also like to keep Milano. But I'd want his price tag to reflect how often he's injured. I do think that the free agency pool is going to be deep this year because of cuts required by the lower cap number--this could both keep Milano reasonable as well as provide good options if someone else is willing to overpay our valuation.

I also do think that LB is a position you can draft pretty reliably--at some point we can't pay everyone or we end up with a veteran-heavy roster that gives us a narrow title window. Look at Houston, Atlanta etc.

[TigerJ]

I think he's being a realist. Whether or not he stays is not a simple issue. Factors include Buffalo's assessment of his value to the team as well as their cap room, but also includes Milano's level of interest in staying with the team over against his value on the open market. We don't know any of the numbers, and we especially don't know Milano's interest in staying with the team. He is a different sort of guy, without much apparent social life outside of the team. He's as obsessed as anybody with football.

[Historian]

Means linebacker is a definite pick this year.

I like Milano. Kinda reminds me of Conlan, only with a neck.

[Ed]

Beane also said that they were expecting the cap to be around $210 mil this season like everyone else, but if they had known what was going to happen they may have done some things differently last year, or not been as aggressive in free agency. I think the plan was to have enough cap space to at least keep their key guys, but now they're right up against the cap. He made it pretty clear that they really like Milano and it's always their goal to keep good players they develop, but the unexpected cap situation is going to make things tougher this offseason.

[OpIv37]

It's times like these that I'm glad I'm not an NFL GM.

Clearly the D needs work, especially the run D. Milano was part of the problem. That being said, the D was clearly better when he was healthy than when he was hurt. Losing him would make us worse at a position where we are already weak.

So, can we replace him with someone equal or better? The FA market should be good this year because there will be a lot of cap casualties, but we have to deal with the reduced cap as well. Hopefully the reduced cap space and increased FA pool will drive the market down. There's always the draft, but that's the downside of being good. We're picking 29th. I doubt we can find someone that low in the draft who can immediately step in and play at Milano's level (yes, I know Milano was a 5th rounder but he also wasn't an instant starter- if he leaves, we can't afford to take a step back so we need someone who can instantly step up and be equal or better).

[Forward_Lateral]

Meh. I'm indifferent. He's grossly over rated by Bills fans, IMO. I'd love it if they kept him, but if they don't, oh well.

[timekills]

What keeps me optimistic about these "who we're going to lose" scenarios is the cap reduction affects everyone.
It's not as if Buffalo is the only or one of the few teams with this challenge.

All these players that we're afraid we can't pay...there aren't a lot of teams that have excess cap room to entice them either.
And if they do, there are plenty of other teams that have to let their good players test free agency.

I think the players are going to have an adjustment period where, yes, they're worth X $M/year normally but normally means there are many teams with cap space who can drive up the price.
Not the case this year.

[yordad]

We were the worst in the league vs tight ends. If we lose Malano expect it to get historically bad.

[OpIv37]

We were the worst in the league vs tight ends.

It's the Ghost of Donte Whitner. We can't cover TE's.

I'm starting to think that some of these big TE's are just impossible to cover and the only solution isn't shutting them down. It's getting one of our own so we can keep up. Of course, that's easier said than done.

[Forward_Lateral]

We were the worst in the league vs tight ends. If we lose Malano expect it to get historically bad.

Why would losing him make it worse? He was not very good covering TE's himself. He's too small.

[Woodman]

Revamped LB'ing group .... go big or stay home.

[Historian]

I appreciate everyone's thoughts, just remember this defense was half of the team that won 15 of 19 ballgames this year.

[OpIv37]

I appreciate everyone's thoughts, just remember this defense was half of the team that won 15 of 19 ballgames this year.

True, but you could argue that a lot of those wins came in spite of the defense and not because of them, especially early in the season when the D struggled. We gave up yards and points even in a lot of the wins.

It's nice that we have an O that can score 30, but we shouldn't NEED to score 30 to win.

And most importantly, the D isn't good enough to beat the Chiefs. In a weird way, it's a good problem to have. They're the best team in the NFL. They won the SB last year and there's a very good chance they're going to repeat this year. No one else can stop them either. But, they've set the bar. If we are going to take those final steps and win the AFC and the SB, then we are going to have to reach that bar. And that means we are going to have to improve the D, particularly the ability to stop the run and cover TE's.

[sukie]

Safety LB hybrid... that is the way to go. A cover dude that can hammer

[Ed]

Safety LB hybrid... that is the way to go. A cover dude that can hammer

Hamsah Nasirildeen of FSU in round 2 or 3 of the draft.