A (0:00)

Listen at that position and the type of player he is. If he had a, if he had this year, next year he's getting paid and he's probably making more. Hey everybody, welcome Back to the Buffalo Plus YouTube channel, presented by Connors and Ferris. I'm Mike Catalana. Please make sure to like, comment and and subscribe. Working a little bit from home today. We got a lot going on in western New York today, including the Buffalo Bills making some moves. The latest one, Greg Russo with a contract extension. The numbers though not official yet. Four years, 80 million, 54 million guaranteed. This on top of the other moves Brandon Bean has made to bring back other players including Terrell Bernard. His extension and the one they already signed with Khalil Shakir and Reed Ferguson, the long snapper getting a deal. I'm going to give you all of my thoughts on what I think of the Russo move. But Dan Fates, he'll tell you why, is on board with this one.

B (1:10)

Brandon Bean has been busy. Russo getting a reported four year extension worth $80 million, 54 of which is guaranteed. And I kind of like this deal a lot. Look, I was skeptical about giving Russo a 100 plus million dollar contract which is what spot track estimated his market value at, but at 80. Yeah. For a 25 year old edge rusher that's supposedly entering the prime years of his career. I'm all for it. To me, home run for both the Bills and Russo who gets a big payday.

A (1:44)

Now look, I have been a proponent of Greg Russo. I, I think he is a talented guy and I wanted to see the Bills. Well, I definitely wanted to see them, see what was out there and then potentially look to this deal. He could have played it out, right? He could have played this year and then become a free agent then you don't know what you get. Now we had all compared it a bit to Tremaine Edmonds, right? And I think they like Rousseau for the position more than they like Edmonds. I think they knew what Edmonds was, but Chicago Bears wanted to pay him. I think they like Tremaine. I think they really like Greg Russo. I think they like his skill set. I think they know they need to be better around him so they extend them. And I think about it, Dan's right, the numbers are, I would say it's, it's team friendly now what Greg Russo is doing, I mean, you know, you're putting potentially, you know, let's see, we say it's 54 guaranteed. He potentially could get up to, you know, $80 million. So what you're saying to Greg Russo is, you're a Buffalo Bill. You like it there, they like you. You're getting paid because you never know what's going to happen. He could have played this out the one year because this was up to Rousseau. Like, he had to agree to the deal. They had already picked up his fifth year option. So now they extend it and listen at that position and the type of player he is. If he had a. If he had this year, next year he's getting paid and he's probably making more. So what do you do if you're Rousseau? You know, the bird in the hand thing? Right. They are paying him a lot of freaking money. Could he make more? Absolutely. A lot of these guys could, but it is a risk. And I think he likes where he is and they need help on the other side, whether they draft that trade for that, whatever it is. You know, I'm not all about numbers, but Rousseau gives them hope that he can be a bigger time player, that this may look like a really good deal for the Bills if he does what they think he can do. Take what you want from Pro Football Focus. Right? Because sometimes we talk about that and I think everybody who mentions Pro Football Focus says that they're like, yeah, it's Pro Football Focus numbers. But they do dive into the things that aren't the simple. You know, home runs, RBIs and base hits. Right. They go into the other thing with Rousseau. It's funny, when you look at the Rousseau numbers on Pro Football Focus, they had him for nine sacks. Most of the other NFL stats that I've seen had him for eight. But sacks is just one of the components of it. Eight was okay. He had three to start the year. In the first game, I predicted double digits. He didn't get there. He should have. Right. He's a good enough player. But you look at where he ranks amongst edge defenders. Again, Pro Football Focus diving into the numbers a little bit more. Pass rush. Out of 211 edge defenders, he's 13 overall. Edge defenders put all the numbers together. He's 12th. He had three forced fumbles. He was 15th in solo tackles for edge. He was 10th in stops. And there is a formula for stops. It's preventing a player from getting the goal, which is not necessarily the end zone. It could be. It's on a third and three. Did you stop them short of the three yards? All those things go into it. He was 18th in hurries, second in hits. He forced fumbles, blocked some passes. He's six foot six, and he's still young. And they like the whole idea of draft develop and resign. And so now they're doing it and they're putting their money into this, that year's draft, because they've already played, paid Bernard, They've already paid Shakir. I would think that Benford is the next one, right? It's funny. James Cook had the social media thing. I swear, I hear people talking about. I. I don't think it matters at all. I don't think it's come into play one bit outside of the fact that maybe if you're James Cook, you think of yourself as a higher. I mean, that's the same thing. You know, we could see from Christian Benford, right? He could think, why sign now when I can sign after this season? And the Bills rarely, if ever, use the franchise tag. Cody Ford was the last one thinking long term. But, you know, it's easy to say play it out and then see how much money you can get on the open market. $54 million is a lot of money, right, for these players. They all have, not just security, generational wealth. Sure. Could they make more? Yep, they can make more. Josh Sweat's numbers kind of similar to Russo, and he had the Super Bowl. Let's see what he gets. He's going to get a lot of money. But at the moment, if you're Greg Russo and you're the Bills, you're happy this came together. I like the move again. They need more on that D line. But you take Rousseau out of there now you go from being a, I think a slightly below average defensive line. I don't know what you have. You don't have a pass rusher on the roster. I mean, if Vaughn is still here and who knows, by the time we're recording this, maybe he's not. I think he's still going to be around. But you don't have any other pass rushers. They got to go out and get them signing, trading, drafting, whatever it is. So you take Greg Russo off the field. I don't really know what you have, so I think he's a very important player. I. I'm glad. Now, see, I'm not gonna do Dan. Dan and Jenna call me flip flopper. Dan's not flip flopping in this. I think Jenna really likes Greg Russo as a player. 2. It's just about the money, right? It's about how much are you going to pay him and does it make sense? They did come around in my way of thinking. Credit to me. I shouldn't Say that I, I, I said I, I like Rousseau and I think he can be better with help around him. I do think this sets up the way they've manipulated the money, which is what good general managers like Brandon Bean do. I think they're set up to do something this year. I think there's something out there in terms of trade or I'd say free agent signing. I'm not sure who that would be. There's a lot of pass rushers on the market. You know, we don't know what's going to happen to Miles Garrett thing. The downside of the Garrett thing is Cleveland could hold on to this stance of not trading them well into the spring and the summer. So it makes it tough to plan around those things. You would think if you're Cleveland and you want to get a deal done, you do it before the draft. But that being said, I think the Bills are focused on the very good players they have. Extend them, keep them there, and then go out and find guys around them. And, you know, that could be a wide receiver, it could be a defensive end. I really like Metcalf. I don't know what's going to happen there. I mean, Seattle's out there saying, we're talking to all these teams. They're trying to build up the market, too. And they just traded Geno Smith. So, like, I don't know what they're doing, but they're going to trade them. So that's all out there. I would love to see DK Metcalf. I would love to see Miles Garrett, like, name any of these guys. I like to see him go try to pry T.J. watt on the other side. Right. We'd all like to see that for the Bills. The question is what's going to be out there? But I do believe there is a feeling this year, unlike a year ago when it was all about who's going out the door. The reset year, Brandon Beans coming out swinging this year. He is getting these deals done. He is the smart thing about getting these deals done now. And we talked about, do you have to get them done before you start free agency? No, because they were all under their number for this year. These guys were not free agents. But does it help you have clarity for the years going forward and you can structure those deals to spread out the cap hit higher in different years. So, you know, it is kind of fascinating the way they're moving and moving quickly. So we still have some time, very little before the deadline for the league, but that's the deadline when you have to have everything done, they need to know what kind of money they have in their hands when they go shopping on Monday. And that includes, you're going to see the Josh Allen restructure, right? The Dion restructure, maybe Ed Oliver, all those things. I think you're going to see that. But honestly, there is something about getting new players that is exciting, right? When you say, oh, we drafted this guy, we signed this guy, we traded for this guy, and I'm not talking about Miles Garrett here, I'm talking about normal NFL players, right? You go, oh, let's see what this guy has and what he can do. And there's something less, I'll say, exciting about resigning your own. You're happy about it. These guys have been on your team. You've seen their best and you've seen their worst. That's the way it is in the NFL. So there's something less thrilling about, oh, boy, here's Greg Russo. Like, people have his jersey, like he's been on the team. But honestly, pass rushers are hard to come by. There's a reason they get paid. And I think Brandon Bean did a really good job of getting him signed to a contract that this team can make work. He's got to play up to that. You know, when they paid at Oliver that way, Ed went out and had a really big year. I didn't think he was as good this past season. I don't think it's motivation. I think some of it is he needs some help around him, too. Keeping Rousseau is a big bit of help. So let's see what they do. You know, they've got ammunition with three picks in the top 62. Let's see if they can work around that, work with that to try to make plays. But so far, so good. So, yeah, Rousseau is back, Bernard is back, Shakira is back, extended. Obviously, they were already going to be there. James Cook will be fine. Not saying that deal couldn't happen, but that deal would happen right now on the Bill's terms, not on James Cook's terms or not on what he ultimately wants, like for the Bills to extend them. Now, the same thing with Christian Benford. It's going to be more on the Bill side because they don't have the pressure. He's got another year left in his contract, so both of them do. So let's see what happens. But, hey, and long snappers are people, too. Congrats to Reed Ferguson. He is the longest tenured Bill. Nice to see him get a new four year deal. He's the constant there. They're going to have I I'm assuming now since Sam Martin is gone, I don't think he's coming back. I guess you never know. You know the way sometimes they can cut a guy and bring him back at a lower number. But the the consistency there for Tyler Bass to at least have the same long snapper and he does a great job in the weather and every other thing and then and to work with Tyler Bass. So we're happy for Reed to get his new deal with the Bills. All right. Enjoy your weekend. When something else big breaks. We will be here for you for my team, which is Jenna Cottrell and Dan Fates. I'm Mike Catalana. Thanks for watching. Please make sure to like, comment and subscribe. We will have complete coverage of whatever the Bills are doing over the next few days. Exciting times in the national football League. That's going to do it for me. We'll see you next time here on Buffalo. Plus, in the time it takes you to actually board a flight from Group 8 now boarding Premier Altitude Elite club members. You could have bought a Hyundai on Amazon. Visit HyundaiUSA.com or call 562-314-4603 for more details. Limited availability pickup through participating Hyundai dealer in select markets.