Matt Parrino, Syracuse.com Bills Beat Reporter

Dana Carvey and David Spade here. You might know our podcast, Fly on the Wall. We decided a spinoff called Superfly, and it's fun. It's just two of us riffing on current events, pop culture.

Maestro is an Oscar-nominated movie Bradley Cooper's in, and I'm sure it's a perfect quality, well-done movie, but it looks a little boring. Honestly, I fell asleep during the billboard. Listen to and follow Superfly on the Odyssey app or wherever you get here. Podcast.

It's Matt Perino. Matt, how you doing, man? I'm great, man. How are you?

Listen, I'm living, breathing. I got no complaints. Now, there might be some Buffalo Bills fans complaining.

Maybe there might be some players complaining. We know about Hoyer. We know about the adjustment of Von Miller's contract. What's going on in Buffalo? What's the cap situation look like?

What's the plan? Yeah, so this was kind of foreshadowed over the last month and a half since the season ended. I mean, when you go into an off-season and you have about just under 50 million of cap space that you have to shed just to get cap compliant, there are some really tough decisions that go along with that. And so what we've seen over the last couple of days here is some franchise pillars, you know, the Bills have moved on from those folks. So Jordan Hoyer, Tredavious White, Mitch Morse, those are guys that have been pro bowlers, all pros. I mean, you talk about Tredavious White, he was the guy who was the first draft pick of Sean McDermott's tenure back in 2017. He's been an all-pro.

He's been a really reliable guy, a really high-level guy, but he's had two season-ending injuries in the last three seasons. And I think at his current cap number that he was set to make this year, just about $17 million, they decided, you know, that they're gonna go in a different direction. They got really good young players at that position. They got a guy, it was Sewell Douglas, who they traded for at the deadline last year.

And so it's gonna look a lot different. And listen, they gotta build around Josh Allen. They gotta get weapons for him. They gotta continue to add to that offense. And I think Sean McDermott's strength is finding talent, developing that talent. I mean, that's what Jordan Hoyer and Micah Hyde were. When they brought them in as free agents back in 17, nobody in the league really wanted them. So they gotta find those kinds of guys, low cap numbers, and add them and reshuffle the deck here.

Listen, Matt Perino is joining us here at the JR Sport Reshow on CBS Sports Radio. Every year, we can pencil the Buffalo Bills in at 10, 11, 12, 13 wins. It's almost a foregone conclusion. We know what happens when they get to the postseason. How are they going to, not necessarily replace that talent, but are they expecting other players internally that we don't know about to step up? We know that they select late in the draft. They don't pick until 28.

How are they gonna maintain that level? To me, I feel like the Kansas City Chiefs, like they have over the last five, six years, they've really set the blueprint for how to kind of, like I mentioned, reshuffle on the fly, and then go out and really hit on players in the draft. If you noticed earlier in the week, Brandon Bean sent Ryan Bates, one of their top-depth offensive linemen, to the Chicago Bears for a fifth-round draft pick. They now have 11 going into the 2024 NFL draft, and that is a pivotal moment for this franchise. Brandon Bean has to find valuable players, probably a handful of starters, and if you go back to the Super Bowl for the Chiefs two years ago, after they moved on from Tyreek Hill, look at some of the players that really shine for them in that Super Bowl, especially on the defensive side. You think of guys like Trent McDuffie, who I think the Bills actually wanted in that draft a couple years ago. You find a player like that, a difference-maker in the draft, and that's how you replace guys that you've relied upon, and I think to your point of that question, let's talk about what hasn't happened for the Bills in this regime. They haven't gotten over the hump, so I think sometimes moving on from some of the players that have been a part of that heartbreak, maybe bringing in fresh perspectives on how to get this thing done. The Bills are gonna have almost an entirely new defensive coaching staff going into this. They've promoted Bobby Babbage. They have new position coaches all over the place. This is gonna be a lot different, and oh, by the way, they still have Josh Allen, and I will remain confident in their Super Bowl window being open as long as 17's on the roster. Well, Matt Perino knows everything about what's going on in Western New York.

I wanna get to Josh Allen. What is the temperature for the fan base right now of the Bills? Are they understanding of these moves? Are they kind of like, what are we doing here?

What's the temperature of the fan base? You know, there's a healthy mix of understanding the business, I think. That's my perception based on what I've seen on social media. There's some emotions. I mean, these are guys that if you think about Bills football from 2000 to 2017 when they didn't make the playoffs in that entire stretch, there were a lot of bad teams and a lot of bad draft picks, and some of the guys that they've said goodbye to over the last couple of days have been guys that have helped rectify years of torment and torture in a lot of ways, and so I think there's an emotional part of that, but I also think it's a business, and I think that they know they have to get cap compliance. They have to make some room so that they can make some moves to add new players because you do have to restock.

This is an arms race. When you're trying to beat Patrick Mahomes, you have to continually, year after year, figure out different ways to beat them, and I think part of that is gonna be with the weapons, and I think, I wouldn't be surprised if the Bills try to trade up in the draft now with all the draft capital that they have, try to go get a bonafide future number one wide receiver that can play that co-star role with Stefan Diggs right now because I know that's been a talking point. I don't think the Bills are moving on from Stefan Diggs. I still think he's an elite-level wide receiver, and I don't think you're in the business of getting rid of those players, especially with the dead money situation, so you add a weapon or two, you restock the shells on defense, and you go at it again.

Matt Perino here with us, the JR Sport Reshow on CBS Sports Radio. You talk about the defense. It was always shocking that Von Miller got a $120 million deal in six years given his age, and then he blew out his knee.

No, I don't wanna say a shock, but hey, what a big shock that was, right? Why the hell did they give him that amount of money, and what does the current restructuring of his deal mean? So I didn't have a huge issue with the initial deal because if you go back and look at the terms, it was a three-year commitment in guaranteed money, right? So they could've gotten out of it after three years, which this upcoming season would've been the last year, and whenever you have an ACL at this stage of his career, it complicates things. And so the problem that I had, the biggest issue that I had with what Brandon Bean did was he restructured the contract before last season, which I think put the bills in the deep end of the pool with him a little bit longer and makes it a little bit more challenging to get out of it, and the dead money that you'll look at over the next couple of years, it's pretty sizable. Even after next season, if they wanna move on pre-June 1st, it's costly.

I think it's somewhere around 20 million in debt cap. But go back to when they signed him. I mean, Von Miller was coming off of arguably one of the seven or eight, that seven or eight game stretch, one of the best stretches to end a season for a pass rusher in league history. And then the performance in the Super Bowl, the way that he affected the passer and won that game in a lot of ways for the Rams, I think Brandon Bean was buying at that point. And also, Von Miller had eight sacks in nine games before he went down. He was what they paid for. But now they're banking on with this restructured deal.

It's bringing down the cap number for this year, which will allow them to do a little bit more and make it incentive-based. Von Miller's gotta get back to that level to collect this money. And I think they're banking on two years removed from the injury.

You'll start to see a little bit more signs of the player of old, but it's definitely still up in the air whether or not he can be that. Well, Matt, we all know Von was hopefully gonna be the centerpiece of that defense, most certainly on that defensive line. The centerpiece of the team, as we all know, is Josh Allen. He's now making only $43 million a year.

We see the guys who've jumped in front of him, the Joe Burrows of the world. What's Josh Allen's current standing with the team when it comes to the finances? Yeah, so I think right now the bills, according to spottrack.com, which tracks the contract numbers and the finances, the bills are a little bit still over the salary cap limit at about $7 million. If they restructure Allen's deal, that would give them about $23 million in cap relief and put them into the positive and give them some maneuverability. I mean, Allen's locked in long-term. I mean, I think they're gonna probably restructure that deal. I think you could even see next season maybe them give him that new deal, because right now it's amazing.

Josh Allen, I think you make an argument as the second best quarterback in the NFL, and he's not even in the top 10 in AAV, average annual salary, after a couple of the deals that we've seen handed out the last couple of years, Lamar Jackson, Dak Prescott, Justin Herbert. So the bills are gonna want to get him back into that, you know, the top tier and maybe even in the same realm as Patrick Mahomes, but this is a big season coming up. I mean, this is, you know, they've invested in their philosophy, they've invested in their own people in giving Joe Brady that promotion and then making him now the official offensive coordinator. They brought in a couple new coaches. I think you're gonna see a couple new pieces in the offense, but, you know, it's always gonna be, you know, beat the Chiefs, get to the Super Bowl or the season's a failure. And I'll tell you right now, Bill's fans embrace that.

They're enjoying that, because the alternative is what they experienced for the 17 years before they got here. Absolutely. Well, in your opinion, Matt, and this is a final question for you, we certainly don't know what the roster is gonna look like come September, given the draft and free agency and what have you, but is there still that confidence from you that, hey, given what they've done over the past couple of days and what we've seen over the past few years, that they're gonna get back into the playoffs and maybe still have a chance? I mean, yeah, because if you look in their division, and to your point, there's, you know, we don't know the full picture of what these teams are gonna look like. I think the Patriots have a chance, if they do things right this off-season, to get into the mix and be at least a past once again in this division.

We'll see what Dromaeo does out there, but I have serious questions about, you know, the sustainability of the models in Miami and New York. I mean, you have Aaron Rodgers coming off the injury. Hasn't really played football in well over a season, and I don't even think you know what you're getting when he, you know, you roll the balls out again.

And then in Miami, you know, I think Connery killed on a ticking clock. We haven't seen this drop-off from him yet, but once that speed goes, like, what is he going to be, and what is that offense gonna be? Are they gonna pay two up?

We still haven't got an answer to that question. So I think with the Bills, Josh Allen and company, I think Kincaid is a nice young weapon. I think they gotta, they gotta get one in the draft, but I think that, I still think they're gonna be a threat, and I think that Sean McDermott with a couple of the guys that they developed this past year, Terrell Bernard, who was an upgrade over Tremaine Edmonds, their former first-round pick.

Nobody saw that coming. Christian Benford, a six-round pick in his second season was an absolute stud in December as a cornerback to help them win the AFCE. So those are guys coming back, and I think they could develop a few more of those guys on defense, and I still think they're gonna be in the mix. Hey, Matt, I think we're gonna be having some cool conversations in a couple of months. Let's see what the Buffalo Bills continue to do. It seems like these cuts, these contract restructurings are just the beginning.

Let's see what they do in the draft. Hey, Matt, where can people follow you in all your work, my man? Yeah, I'm at Matt Perrino, M-A-T-T-P-A-R-R-I-N-O, over on Axe Twitter, that's the best place. We did a full one-hour podcast yesterday, breaking down everything that happened with what everybody's calling Black Wednesday for the Buffalo Bills. Well, it's a bright day for you, right? No Black Wednesday for you, a bright day, right? Exactly, I'm in Orlando. Tomorrow's the last day of Disney World.

Well, listen, man, enjoy it. Say hello to Mickey Mouse. Does he still blink? He creeps me out with the blinking.

I don't know, man, he doesn't blink, but he's got a big smile on his face, and the kids are always loving it, so I just love it. Oh, no. I saw live-action mascot Mickey, and he looked at me, and his eyes blinked, and I said, okay, this is a little too much, so too realistic, this giant rat coming to say hello. Enjoy it, Matt, we'll talk to you down the line, okay?

All right, man, take care. Dana Carvey and David Spade here. You might know our podcast, Fly on the Wall. We decided a spin-off called Superfly, and it's fun.

It's just two of us riffing on current events, pop culture. When I looked up the flight, when that door flew off, these people were dead silent, everyone just quiet. I don't think I could contain it.

I think that's free rein to wail on your call button in that situation. Bong, bong, bong, bong, bong. Hey, I don't want to be a pest.

Was there a door when I got out? Listen to and follow Superfly on the Odyssey app or wherever you get here, podcast.