Buffalo Bills: Following the team has become a year round affair

Being a Buffalo Bills fan has become a year-round job. These are some of the top headlines from the past few weeks.

There is always something to report at One Bills Drive no matter spring, summer, fall or winter. The groundhog could report bad news or good news. Bad news is usually only good for skiers who want to be drinking green beer in ski lodges. If good news is projected, typically it has an end result of an incorrect forecast. So the trust or following of the world famous groundhog tends to be Buffalonians watching the Bill Murray classic movie, over and over and over and….I digress.

While fans wait for the next season, these are some of the top storylines for the Buffalo Bills in recent weeks.

Star Lotulelei and the Bills agreed to restructure his contract, opening up even more salary cap space for a team already in a great position. Lowering his salary at the same time as making it all guaranteed money, really helps both sides as far as stability. Like the security of Linus’ blanket from the comic strip Peanuts.

Pass rusher Jerry Hughes had his second offseason surgery striving to come back at 31 years old  as a peak performer. He sacked Deshaun Watson three times in the Buffalo Bills’ Wild Card overtime loss to the Houston Texans after being a tad low on the sacks during the regular season at four and a half.

https://www.buffalorumblings.com/2020/1/17/21070368/buffalo-bills-jerry-hughes-ed-oliver-cody-ford-jon-feliciano-undergo-offseason-surgery

This news of Hughes was after three other key Bills players went under said knife earlier this offseason.  Rookie defensive tackle Ed Oliver had surgery on a core muscle, guard Jon Feliciano had his shoulder taken care of, as did Cody Ford. It is refreshing to see they have these issues taken care sooner rather than later, giving them time to be back in prime physical condition.

Joe DiBiase of WGR550 really made some valid points about how using the franchise tag on Jordan Phillips makes so much sense. I would have never considered the move prior to be reviewing the details.

It is only for one season where the team has a large amount of room under the cap. You get stability for next season without impacting long term cap space when more urgent players will need to be signed on both sides of the ball. If he improves on last season becoming an urgent signing, at that point of time you can work out a longer deal.

If he is expendable after one season of arguably overpaying him at $15.5 million, simply walk away. It makes more sense than not using the entire cap while younger players currently on the team and not on the team develop. This would be a luxury stability tag by no means suggesting he is worth that money. Someone will overpay him and in this rare situation, why not Buffalo? After all, he was the team leader in sacks with nine and a half. He tallied 20 quarterback pressures which was an impressive second place on the team.

With the Sabres recent winning games  in bunches, if they have a good west coast trip and stay relevant for a playoff spot currently being only six points out, some of the Bills minor news could slip down the headlines. That said, If the hockey team has a non successful road trip with about 20 games remaining, then you can expect the headlines covering the standard Bills big stories, as well as every little scratch or bruise by players that may or may not make the practice squad.