Would Pettine make a deal for Byrd?

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Sorry about the $20M figure- my mistake- he will be more about $9-10 M. We will probably franchise him and try to work out a trade. I don't expect any team to beat down our doors to work out a trade for him after working out a new contract with him. Sorry folks, he is not worth that much money, regardless of how many pictures you have posted of him in your bathroom.

 

There are three major costs in getting good players. All of them have to be paid.

 

One cost is the contract cost of money paid to the player. That is not my money, but if you way overpay one of your heart(?) throbs, you can cause trouble in the locker room because other players who contribute as much or more to the team will get pissed off. It is the same in the business world if you have ever managed a group of workers. You have to pay people fairly relative to one another or the team falls apart. You shouldn't pay some people who take a third of the year off top dollar.

 

A second cost is the contribution to the salary cap (and depleting of the owner's budget). There is less money for the other players and somebody else is going to be underpaid and leave the team. Grown-up people have to work within budgets. The Bills have a number of players who are getting beyond their cheap rookie contracts and they are going to either get paid or leave. We have a QB (hope he becomes a star) working on a rookie contract and those guys are very expensive if they get good. Way Way overpaying Byrd doesn't fit with the idea that it is a team sport and there are 22 players on offense and defense. Paying a safety $3-5 million would mean that we could give $2-3 million each to two other very good starting players and keep them. That gives us a better team.

 

The third cost is the cost in draft picks, roster spots, waiver picks, practice squad needed to develop a good veteran player. Moe than half of the draftees don't make any team roster, and most players are dropped from the league within 3-4 years. One way or the other, teams have to pay the piper here as well.

 

If Byrd is really worth $9million a year and is such a phenom of an all pro player, then some team should be willing to pay him that money & cap space and trade something of value, like a high draft pick, to get him. They should be very willing to give up a low first or high second round pick ( what are the chances of getting a for-sure all pro in the second round!!! And a veteran, without a learning curve as well!!) and pay him the $9M or so he feels he should get. I've asked the brain-challenged Byrd (bird?) lovers to identify the team that is willing to do this,,,, and no answer. The market will set the real value for Byrd and I believe it actually will be much lower that his lovers expect. I'm expecting a mid-third round pick and some bells-and-whisles confusing face-saving multiple year contract that would really come in at $5-6M a year. If a trade doesn't happen (and with Byrd's salary demands it probably will not happen- the Bills will probably not go lower than accepting a 3rd round pick), we will get the same BS as last year. Byrd will swing the lead, take a lot of time off, but play hard at the end of the year to showcase himself for the following year of UFA.

 

You have this completely twisted, backwards logic running through all your posts. Just because I say Byrd should get paid doesn't mean I think his value is bottomless. The draft picks used to trade for him also have to factor in to that value as well. But we don't have to pay that draft pick value because we already have him on the squad. So for the Bills to pay him 9 million per is not the same as some other team trading their first rounder and then paying him $9 million. It's objectively more spent, and you seem to acknowledge this.

 

The ridiculous part is that you turn around and say that because no one is willing to spend $9 million + a first, then the Bills shouldn't spend $9million. That's insane logic. It's like saying "If this car is worth $10,000 to us then it should be worth $15,000 to someone else. And if no one else is willing to spend $15K on it, then it's obviously not worth $10,000."

 

The second problem is that you don't seem to recognize that this contract will only run for 3-4 years. You bring up EJ Manuel, but he's not going to be a free agent until 2017. Even if he does play himself into a huge second contract, Byrd's will nearly be up and would present no obstacle to re-signing Manuel. Maybe we have to part ways with Byrd then, but that's no reason to dump him now. Also keep in mind that A) the salary cap continues to rise, and B) multiple players come off the books or age out of their prime between now and then.