Marcell Dareus is currently working on a contract extension with the Buffalo Bills (http://www.foxsports.com/nfl/story/bills-marcell-dareus-talking-contract-extention-dt-focused-on-football-072415).
He is in the final year of his contract as the Bills picked up his fifth year option for this year. Dareus is expected to make somewhere between the six year $95 million deal Gerald McCoy got and the $114 million deal for six years Ndamukong Suh signed this offseason with Miami with roughly between $55-60 million guaranteed.
He's up there with Suh and McCoy for best defensive tackles in the league. He's better than McCoy and is on par with Suh. In fact, Dareus has 28.5 sacks in his first four years compared to 27.5 for Suh in his first four years and McCoy had just 18.5. Hall of famer and one of the best defensive tackles to ever play the game, Warren Sapp, had 29.5 sacks his first 4 years in the league. So you can tell how great Dareus is.
The Bills are expected to have a great defense like they've had the last two seasons and it should be even greater with Rex Ryan taking over. The defense could be number one overall this season with a healthy Dareus (who will be suspended for the opener for violating the league's substance abuse policy).
It got me thinking however as to how good will the defense be if Dareus wasn't on the roster? I'm thinking what do the Bills need more than Dareus and the number one ranked defense? Shouldn't be a surprise as the answer is quarterback.
Dareus is the best player on this defense but it will be tough to have two $100 million men on the defense (although I expect them to restructure Mario Williams). I still think the defense would be more than capable without Dareus. Isn't that one of the reasons you hired Rex in the first place to run the defense?
He should be able to make this a top-10, maybe even top-5. I know you can't just get rid of everyone and give him garbage and say ok Rex make this the number one defense in the league. I get that. But he needs a QB badly as he can do whatever on the defense even if it were missing their top players while the QB can also help overcome the loss of a really talented football player. That's the whole point of this exercise to figure out how much Dareus is worth in terms of QB.
I doubt that the Bills could trade Dareus for a qb because who would trade a great QB for a defensive player, no matter how great that defensive player and one who's contract is about to expire after this season? To get one of the top QBs you'd have to trade an entire defense, which they would say no to. But let's pretend we can trade Dareus for any QB in the league. In that case, who do you want?
I'll use this Mike Sando ESPN article (http://abcnews.go.com/Sports/2015-nfl-qb-tier-rankings/story?id=32652348) where he ranks QBs in tiers 1, 2, 3, and 4. I'll list QBs and see how far we will go to trade Dareus for a QB.
Let's make this one quick, tier 1 (Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers, Andrew Luck, Ben Roethlisberger, Peyton Manning, and Drew Brees). We can all agree we'd trade Dareus for anyone of these, even Manning who's on his way out but still can get you into the playoffs as a top seed regardless of whether or not he can still win a Super Bowl or not.
Manning might be the only one in this list I might say no because he's a bit on the decline but I'll still say yes as I'll take even one-two seasons like last: 4,724 yard, 39 touchdowns, 7.9 yards per attempt, and 101.5 QB Rating. Give this team with this talent those numbers and you're in contention for the Super Bowl.
Tier 2 (Philip Rivers, Russell Wilson, Tony Romo, Joe Flacco, Matt Ryan, Eli Manning, Matt Stafford, and Cam Newton). Now you can debate some guys on this list more than others but for me, I need a QB badly and I'd even trade Dareus for anyone on this list because while these guys need might need some more help to win games than tier 1, they are still so much better than what the Bills currently have or have had since Jim Kelly.
There are more I'd rather have than others. I'd really like Rivers, Romo, Flacco, and especially Ryan, who I think is very good and I am a huge fan despite the lack of love for him around the league. Flacco doesn't put up eye popping numbers in the regular season, but man when it comes to the playoffs he's money, the complete opposite of Peyton Manning.
Peyton's brother Eli is a lot like Flacco but lately has struggled badly in the regular season whereas Flacco still gets the team into the playoffs. Manning did have a bounce back year last year thanks to a new offensive coordinator and the emergence of Odell Beckham Jr.
Both Rivers and Eli are entering the final year of their contracts as I would expect both the Chargers and Giants to be working out contract extensions for both as both are in talks about new contracts. However, if one if not both are prepared to move (which I doubt but let's see) on from them, then Dareus could definitely be in play and I'd be willing to get one of the two, preferably Rivers.
Wilson is similar as well where he won't wow you and needs the defense and Marshawn Lynch to help but he makes big plays in big moments when it matters the most. He plays his best ball in November, December and January, where his QB Rating is over 100 combined. Even September and October his QB Rating is in the mid 90s as his career rating is 98.6.
He puts up much better numbers than people give him credit for because of Lynch and the defense, but he doesn't have elite weapons to throw to either and he puts up decent numbers regardless. He won't necessarily win a game on his own, or at least we don't know that until they lose some players because he will get a ton of money. Only time will tell. But he's not garbage either although I am sick of hearing about his contract.
Stafford is good, not elite but good much better than anything the Bills have. Stafford does have Megatron but he doesn't also just have Megatron. He had a 5,000 yard, 41 touchdown season in 2011 and last time I checked, Megatron did not catch all 5,000 yards and 41 touchdowns.
He's had close to 5,000 yard seasons a couple of times since, but his TD numbers declined. His overall numbers declined last year, but they had a great defense and had injuries to Megatron, which affected him. Stafford also makes a lot of mistakes and turns the ball over, but he's a gun slinger.
Newton also makes some mistakes and can be inaccurate at times. Much like Wilson, he can run very well and needs a good defense and running game. Last year, he did help the Panthers win the division with the top 4-5 receivers from the previous year's team gone and has a terrible coach and front office and offensive line.
These guys can't win games on their own without a little help, but the help is here in Buffalo. I am still pretty high on Newton and am a big Newton fan. No offense Dareus, I wish the Bills lost two more games in 2010 so we could have the #1 overall pick and drafted Newton instead. Dareus is great but the QB is more important.
Now we're on to tier 3 and I wouldn't trade Dareus for any of these QBs and tier 4, yeah no thanks. You couldn't trade them to us for nothing. Ok exceptions of course being Carson Palmer if he's healthy he's still really good. Palmer was 6-0 as the starter until he was injured and is 13-2 in his last 15 starts over the last two years. If he's healthy, then yes I'll trade Dareus for him as I still think Palmer is very good. I'd gamble anyway.
Andy Dalton might be of some interest but to me I feel a lot is the talent around him. He's not bad although he had a down year last but two years ago he threw 33 touchdowns. I still think he's pretty good but most of it his team surrounding him that probably makes him better than he is. I'd say at this point no thanks.
I'd consider trading Dareus for Teddy Bridgewater, Derek Carr, Jameis Winston, or Marcus Mariota despite them being rookies or second-year players because I think they are all possible franchise QBs. I'd consider trading Dareus for a package to move up for either Winston or Mariota this year if they were available which neither Tampa nor Tennessee would trade them.
I'd say no right now on Blake Bortles as he needs a lot of work to show he can be a franchise QB. He does play on one of if not the worst team in the NFL in Jacksonville and that could be a reason for the struggles. Of course he's shown me very little at this point to make this trade and consider him a franchise QB. Of course we'll see over time what comes of this. No to Johnny Manziel btw.
This isn't I want Dareus traded, it's I'd only trade him for a top notch QB, even a "tier 2" QB that could take this team to the playoffs with a 11-5, 12-4 record. Dareus isn't worth trading unless it's a top-10, 12 QB in the NFL, that's it.
Nothing else, no lineman, no running back, no receiver, no tight end, nor draft pick (unless it's a top-5 pick for a potential QB) is worth it. Dareus is worth a big time QB so let's get this deal done as no QB will be available.
I must explain about Brady and Peyton Manning some more. I would trade for Brady and Manning, or should I say the caliber of them in their best days, not so much now because they're going to be 38 and 39 years old.
Despite Brady being an arrogant douchebag and a jackass, I still would take him in his prime or even right now as he's still really good. Manning is a shell of his former self but I'd trade for the Manning even two years ago where had a record-breaking season.
As long as I got a few good years from them, then sure I'd risk trading a star like Dareus. Otherwise, I'd stick with Dareus.
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