Dawgg

Sure, they certainly decided that they would rather devote their financial resources to other areas. With that being said, they still should have franchised him and sent him to the highest bidder, netting the team additional compensation. As for this team being "stronger" it will be very difficult given the losses on defense. Our secondary is extremely raw and young and will have some growing pains to overcome. What are your thoughts on the Langston Walker signing? Personally, not a big fan.

If they had no intention of retaining Clements, you STILL franchise him. The Lions got a ton of talent in exchange for Dre Bly, who is a #2 corner on most days. Imagine what the Bills could get for Nate Clements! People keep justifying this as though we had to make a choice, when in actuality, the Bills could have had their cake and eaten it too...

I completely disagree. Either way, the franchise tag represented a critical point of leverage for the Bills. The prospect of being tagged 2 years in a row might bring Clements and his agent to the bargainig table, making them more amenable to a deal, rather than risk an additional year without long-term security. If they could not reach a long-term contract, they could EASILY trade him for a draft choice. You're right, Donahoe spoiled us by aquiring a first rounder for Peerless Price.. but it is most certainly feasible to obtain a 2nd or 3rd from some team for Clements. The reason why you won't find many examples of this is because more often than not, the FRANCHISE TAG IS USED TO RETAIN PLAYERS! Orlando Pace could have been traded by the Rams, but they had every intention of keeping him. Walter Jones could have been traded by the Seahawks, but they had every intention of keeping him. Oakland tagged Charles Woodson and tried to trade him, but he was an overrated corner and everyone outside of Oakland knew it. If New England put Asante Samuel on the block, you better believe some team would have traded for him. Gave up little? Are you serious??? The opportunity cost was enormous. Dre Bly garnered significant compensation in the trade market... just imagine what Nate Clements would generated -- easilly a first day pick. Alas, we will never know, due to an egregious error on the part of Bills management.

Dockery -- great signing. Young player, reaching the prime of his career. Walker -- an awful lot of change considering (a) there wasn't much competition for his services, (b) he played on one of the worst lines in recent memory and © we have a decent prospect on board with starting experience in Pennington. That signing is definitely raising some eyebrows around the league. As for Clements... the whole thing makes me sick that our management allowed our most valuable asset walk away with nothing in return, especially when they held all the cards. If you're going to relinquish the franchise tag because you intend to sign him long-term (or at least try) FINE. If you knew all along you won't retain him and you still relinquish the franchise tag... that's just bad business. At the very worst, keeping Clements franchised for one more year would have bought the team some more time to groom his replacement. Now, with 2 rookie safeties, what WAS a strength on the defense becomes a huge vulnerablity.

Also love the good old "I don't criticize any of the moves the Bills make so I'm smarter than you" posts.

Seriously, give up because you make absolutely no sense. Numerous reports have confirmed that the Seahawks were willing to pay Dielman big bucks and he turned it down. http://abclocal.go.com/kfsn/story?section=...&id=5089939 http://community.foxsports.com/blogs/NFL_C...for_Chris_Simms

Give it up already... Admit you were wrong then... and you are wrong now.

We're splitting hairs here... let's say for argument case that Fletch is the "3rd" best player on the unit... it will still hurt the defense badly when he's not around. Couple that with the pending loss of Spikes (say what you want about his play but he was defintiely one of the team leaders), it will be a very challenging season for the Bills' defense. They made a conscious decision this year, to improve the offensive line at the expense of the defense, when in fact, they could have done better than throw $25M at Langston Walker. Let's see how it works out, but as you can tell, I don't like the decision.

Please stop criticizing management. This board is meant for everyone to gush about every move the Bills make, no matter how dumb it may have been. My favorite is the annual "We're going to the playoffs!" predictions around this time of year... what are we... 0-7 now?

Evidence: - The defense has lost the two biggest playmakers on the defensive side of the ball. - The secondary is now extremely vulnerable and young. While many gush about the future of Ko Simpson and Whitner, the fact of the matter is it will take some time for them to develop into good players. Simpson looked fairly pedestrian most of the time. Without Clements holding down the fort in 2007, defensive coordinators will be salivating over at the prospect of attacking the safeties... - And when they're not attacking safeties, they can go straight at Terrance McGee. While an excellent athlete, he has proven that he often has severe lapses... not good when he is your #1 corner. Even if they take a corner high in the draft, it will take some time for that new player to develop. - The defense was among the worst against the run. Part of the reason for this was that one of the strengths of the unit was pass defense. Without Clements (or a viable replacement for him), the pass defense stands to be one fo the league's WORST... and yes, that's how imprortant Clements was to this unit. So there's your evidence. The question wasn't whether the future (2-3 years from now) looks bright... it was about NEXT season's defense... and it sure doesn't look good!

Yes.

Judging from your posts, you'd agree with Marv if he gave Wes Welker 5yrs and $25M.

Compared to what a safety of his caliber would get, he DID get huge money. That's not to say the Bills overpaid for him... it's just pointing out the general fact that good DL's are more expensive and harder to find than good safeties. Yes, we got 2 starting safeties. Ko Simpson may be fast, but he didn't show a whole lot his rookie year. In fact, he was pretty bad. He took bad angles to the ball, often resulting in runs turning into long gains and significant YAC for opposing receivers. Whitner was pretty horrific against tight ends in coverage... with that being said, both are rookies and will improve over time. If you trade down to the middle of the first round, you get an extra FIRST day pick, not second day pick. Remember -- when Donahoe traded the #14 overall and moved down to #21, he aquired an extra 2nd and 4th roud pick. With those picks, we got Clements & Travis Henry. Instead, the Bills stuck tight and targetted their guy and got Whitner. Fine... but when you are operating in a deep draft and you are in a rebuilding situation, you simply don't marry yourself to a single player. The Bills made that mistake.

By "good" safeties, I don't necessarily mean game breaking safeties... I mean good, solid players... and they do tend to be freely available, especially relative to other defensive posiions. Take this year for example: Mike Doss, Deion Grant, Ken Hamlin. All 3 are starting-caliber "good" safeties at the right age-range and will not cost an arm and a leg to sign. In contrast, "good" (not game-breaking) players like Chris Kelsay are commanding huge bucks because quality at those positions is simply too scarce.

... ahh that's more like it.

He showed some great flashes the first 2 games, that's for sure... if he can improve his coverage skills on tight ends, then he'll be alright. I just look at it as a supply-demand issue. Good safeties are available in free agency year after year at reasonable prices... good linebackers, defensive linemen and corners tend to be scarce in free agency. When they are available, they generally come at premium prices. If I hold a blue-chip pick and am rebuilding a defense that has numerous holes... my money would go to the LB corps and DL before safety. In this particular draft, with Ernie Sims and Ngata were available... OK I'll stop.

This is precisely where you are wrong, IMO. Safety is a position in which solid players can be found A LOT easier than other positions. Because of this, taking one in the top 10 is fine -- if the team feels this is a special player. That's why I think the bar is a lot higher for Whitner... you simply don't take a safety in the Top 10 unless, as an organization, you are convinced that he will be a game-changing stud.

... and if Whitner is not an absolutely dominating safety, picking him at #8 was simply NOT smart no matter how you spin it. To me, he looks like a solid starter in the making, borderline Pro Bowl player -- like an Antoine Winfield. Winfield-type players can be found in the mid to late first round.

There were about 4 other teams interested in Price... the Pats were one of them. The moment they realized that Price was going to get a salary in the $2M range from the Bills, they laughed, turned around and signed Jabar Gafney and Reche Caldwell for $1.6M COMBINED. The Pats have a huge money advantage over the Bills... but they always sign players according to their value.... which is why they are where they are and the Bills are where they are.

I'd be surprised if Jarrett cracks the top 10. I see him lasting all the way to Tennessee's pick. In fact, I'd love to see the Bills trade down to Tennessee's spot and allow the Titans to take Jarrett at #12, thus reuniting him with his former offensive coordinator Norm Chow.

Someone who couldn't cut it in Atlanta and Dallas and hadn't had a productive season in the NFL in a few years... Couple that with the fact that he's 30 years old... I wouldn't pay him $2.3M. ... but that's just me.

Not debilitating to the cap by any means... but I still think $2.3M for him is a king's ransom. The Pats went after Price too... they valued him at a 1-year deal for less than $1M. Same with the Dolphins. The bottom line is that the Bills didn't have to pay that sum of money to a marginal WR like Price. By comparison, the Patriots settled for Reche Caldwell (hardly Jerry Rice, but a decent player) for a salary of $1M. They got Jabar Gafney, another decent complimentary player for $600K. Bear in mind both signed 2 year deals. The Bills paid more for Price than both those players COMBINED. If Ralph is going to make a big deal about the competitive disadvantage the Bills have, they should start operating like the Oakland A's and avoid overpaying in areas where they don't have to. $2M isn't a lot, but those little things add up.

How about the two critical 3rd down passes he dropped at Indy that would have kept drives alive and perhaps resulted in one of the biggest upsets in recent memory for the Bills? Beating the Texans on a comeback was nice... it was a great catch by Peerless... but let's not kid ourselves. The contract the Bills handed to him was flat out stupid.

TD tried to resign Nate but couldn't get it done... Nate was smart and knew that the amount of money out there would only increase if he reached free agency. TD offered Clements, Schobel and Jennings contract extensions early and only Schobel bit. Don't think you can blame him for not trying... it was Marv who served up free agency on a silver platter. Nice work, Marv!

Nobody said there is anything "wrong" with that. But when you lay down the facts and take his motivation into account, McGahee was poised for a career year.