jahnyc

We need to see progress, and instead the team regressed in year three of the rebuild. I am clearly in the minority, but I would have been okay with Gailey coming back as long as the Bills re-signed Levitre and hired a new DC. Seemed pretty clear that Wanny was in over his head.

Are there any visits to the Bills planned by any available free agents other than maybe Florence? This team is going nowhere until it has a viable, starting caliber QB.

I kind of liked Chan as well. He has a really good mind for offense a lot of experience, but poorly run defenses and an average to below average QB ultimately resulted in his firing. I may be in the minority on this, but I think he did a lot with what he had on offense, and I think the offense will take a big step back this year.

The lack of any signings of free agents does not help, but for me it was the realization that the starting QB this year will be either a rookie draft pick or Jackson. I have no problems replacing Fitz, but for this year, I am not sure our current options will bring any success.

I hope no one is suicidal over the lack of signings today by the Bills, but the real issues are the lack of talent and no QB. Feels like rock bottom again, and I think that is why most of us are unhappy now. There seems to be no chance that the Bills will be competitive this year, which is an amazing thing to be say this early in the offseason.

Very disheartening that the team is in roughly the same situation as when Nix became GM (not enough talent, too many holes, no starting QB, and a new head coach and staff).

We need a new GM, and I don't think Whaley is the answer. Brandon should have hired a guy with a lot of experience to turn things around. The team is a complete mess. 1. Signing Fitz to a big deal and then cutting him a little more than a year later. What free agent will want to come here with no QB and a team that cuts a player so soon after making a major committment to them? Maybe the better question is what free agent will want to come here knowing that the Bills will not be competitive next year or for the foreseeable future? 2. I know that many wanted Fitz to be cut, and I understand that, but would the better approach have been to reduce his compensation and let him compete for the starting job at least until the QB we select in the draft was ready to play? 3. Our QB situation will be a mess this year. Even if we draft a QB in the first round, he will likely not be ready to start on day one. New system for the players will further complicate things. If Jackson is our day one starter, it will be difficult for me to watch this team. 4. We are now almost obligated to select a QB with our first pick in a draft with no clear cut top or outstanding prospect at the position. 5. Losing Levitre, even at almost $8 million/year is a disaster. It may be easy for most teams to find starting guards, but not the Bills. He was our most consistent and durable player on the o-line. Should have been re-signed. This will hurt. Are they going to sign Wood who is a free agent next year? Even with all of his past injury issues, some of which were very significant and could affect his longevity as a player? 6. WIth our lack of success and below average talent, how do we not have more cap space? Why did we pay Merriman so much dough over the last couple of years? 7. Our drafts have been below average since Nix became GM.

At this point, Fitz probably wants to get cut. He probably thinks he would have a shot with Arizona. Fitz's agent is aware of this "discussion" and was not happy. See PFC twitter.

1. It is amazing the number of holes we have, even after drafting relatively early in each round and re-signing a bunch of our current players the last couple of years. Needing to fill a number of these holes with free agents is a direct result of poor drafting over the last three years by Nix, particularly in the later rounds. 2. I think many free agent WRs will not be interested in the Bills because of our QB situation. Of course, overpaying them may help to overcome this. 3. Nix also deserves criticism for acquiring and keeping Merriman for too long. He wasted way too many dollars that could have used for other needs on the hope that Merriman would return to form. 4. Seems unlikely that the Bills will re-sign Levitre. I would think that San Diego would be attractive for Levitre since he is from that area and our former o-line coach is now the o-line coach for the Chargers. 5. The Levitre negotiations seem similar to the Poz negotiations from a couple of years ago. The Bills seemed half-hearted in trying to keep Poz and he left. Almost as if the Bills wanted to make it appear that they were out-bid more for public relations reasons than anything else. 6. I wonder if the Bills have decided that they will need to re-sign Woods next year, and this is more important than re-signing Levitre this year. If this is the case, I am not sure I agree given the injury history with Woods versus Levitre staying relatively healthy in his four years as a Bill. 7. I don't really care if the Bills restructure Fitz (i.e., cut his compensation) or release Fitz, but I really do not like the prospect of Fitz and/or Jackson battling for the starting job with a rookie QB. The QBs available in this draft are one of the lowest rated overall groups of QBs I can recall and none of them seem ready to be a day-one starter. It is really depressing that Nix may be forced to draft one of these guys in the first round because of such an extreme need. 8. Speaking of Poz, Nix has not been able to find an adequate replacement for him. Sheppard has been really disappointing and is a significant downgrade. 9. I would not be excited if the Bills add Landry at SS. He is older, below average in pass coverage, and has had injury issues in the past. It would be an admission of another drafted player (in this case Searcy) being unable to step up if the Bills sign Landry. 10. I was surprised that the Bills re-signed McKelvin. Seemed like there were a lot of decent CBs available in free agency. McKelvin as a starting CB scares me. 11. I have not heard much about our needs at DE, and I think they are significant. I don't think Anderson is a three down guy, and is more of a pass rushing specialist type. Do we even have a third or fourth DE currently on the roster? 12. I would be fine if the Bills drafted o-line in the first round this year of the draft. LB or DE would be okay as well. There is real quality available in the first round at these positions. Please do not reach for a QB. 13. Going into free agency and the draft, we have a significant lack of starting caliber players and/or depth at so many key positions (QB, WR, LB, DE and CB). It will be interesting to see how they get filled.

JW, are you hearing whether the Bills have interest in and are still in the running for Levitre? That link to the Tennessean blog is the first that I have heard of continued interest by the Bills in Levitre.

We can agree to disagree on whether McKelvin is worth the money, but I strongly disagree with posts that suggest finding guards is easier than other positions. My recollection is that before Levitre we had almost 10 years of really poor o-line play, including at the guard position. Dockery, Pucillo, Villarial, Tucker, Gandy, B. Anderson and the list goes on and on (there is a reason why you may not have heard these names in a long time).

I would rather the Bills have used this money to sign Levitre. Frankly, this makes no sense to me. He has been benched over each of the last five years by different coaching staffs because he is not a starting caliber CB. Re-signing a CB who is not a starter for $5 million per year versus a starting near Pro Bowl caliber LG for $7 or 8 million per year? This is a microcosm of why the Bills have not made the playoffs in 13 years.

No, I don't think so, but I wonder if they will be able to work out a long-term contract with him. I do think Levitre is gone. It seems way too quiet if any negotiations were taking place or there was a possibility of him being re-signed.

Pretty pessimistic about the upcoming season as well and the current playoff drought is ridiculously long, but at some point it will get better. Even the Bengals have some good players now and have made the playoffs recently. My current negativity stems from the lack of a quality QB and so many holes on the team with not much available for free agent signings in terms of cap space. Kind of shocking that we do not have more cap room given the current talent on the team.

Nix's statements seem less positive about Levitre than what he was saying when Poz and Stevie were going into free agency. If Fitz is willing to forego or defer his upcoming $3 million bonus, I bet there is a better chance that he will be in training camp than Levitre. Not getting a good vibe that the Bills will be making an effort to re-sign Levitre.

I think Levitre gets at least $6 million per year in the open market and possibly up to $8 million per year. I would probably sign Levitre and pass on Woods next year. I really like Woods, but two major leg injuries makes me wonder whether his career will be shortened by past injuries or future injuries.

PFT reports that Dustin Colquitt, the punter for the Chiefs, signed a five year deal worth $18.75 million with $8.9 million guaranteed. This is crazy. How much is Levitre going to get on the open market?

Just read on PFT (from a Tim Graham blog) that Levitre has not heard from the Bills at all (although it is not clear whether this means no contact or there has been contact but no offer made). He is clearly disappointed that he has not received an offer yet. Also, read on Fan Friday with Chris Brown that if Levitre asks for the "moon," Chris Brown does not think that Levitre will be back with the Bills. This all makes no sense to me.

Do we know if the Bills are using the exclusive or non-exclusive franchise tag on Byrd? I kind of hope it is non-exclusive since the Bills could match or get two first round picks if he is signed by another team.

It will be interesting to see if anything has really changed or enough has changed. Russ Brandon is in charge and RW is much less involved and has ceded authority. The Bills fire Gailey and his coaches and bring in a new coach and staff. Nix stays, but Whaley is clearly up next. I think the team could have benefitted from a new GM with strong experience, but they decided to keep Nix, which concerns me. I am not enamored with his drafts over the last three years. The team may a bit more talent now versus when Nix became GM, but the overall talent level is still low. If Nix steps down, are we confident that Whaley can be the guy? How involved has he been with recent drafts? So where we are? Some change, but probably not enough.

Was he projected as a strong safety or free safety? I don't think he would beat out Searcy at strong safety after one training camp as a safety. Seems like he would be a back-up at safety next year, assuming he is moved and the Bills re-sign Byrd.

As I noted above, 2009 was a very good draft, but the 2010 and 2011 drafts were not, at least so far. Too early to tell about 2012. The reality in today's NFL is that you need first and second year players to contribute immediately for overall team success. Players drafted outside of the first round will be free agents after four years. There were way too many misses in 2010 and 2011, including Troup and Williams. Spiller is the only strong pick from these drafts. Even Darreus underperformed last year (although I understand that this could be due in part to the difficult family matters he needed to deal with last year).

Considering where the Bills were in terms of talent four years ago, they needed to "hit" on their drafts. Wood, Levitre and Byrd in one draft is a very good draft. This was the draft before Nix became GM. Nix's drafts have been average to below average (although it is probably not fair to assign a grade to the 2012 draft). The bottom line is that if we only get seven starters out of four drafts, we will not be making the playoffs.

We go through this every year. We start with a bunch of holes immediately after the season, and we end up with more as we approach free agency and the draft. Sure, it is possible that the Bills will fill many of these holes before the start of the season, but the number of holes this year is really significant, and draft picks and few free agents will not be enough to fix this. The reality is that the Bills have not been hitting on enough draft picks over the last three years.

I hope the Bills will be more competitive next year, but we have significant needs at LB, WR, TE and CB (I am ignoring QB for this post, which is probably the biggest need of all). LB: Cutting Barnett leaves us with Sheppard and Bradham. Not sure whether either is starting caliber. I don't think there is a reserve linebacker on the roster who can step up to a starting role. The Bills need at least one new starter, assuming that the team stays with Sheppard and Bradham and Bills do not switch to a 3-4 , in which case we will need two new starters. The current group of LBs could be the worst in the NFL. WR: After SJ, there are no starting caliber WRs on the roster. I have my doubts as to whether Graham will develop. Need at least a second starting wide receiver opposite Stevie and likely a third wide receiver (in the slot, with Nelson not coming back). Another poor unit that ranks among the NFL's worst. TE: I like Chandler, but he may not be ready to start the season. Need a starting caliber TE. CB: Need a starter opposite Gilmore, particularly if McKelvin signs with another team. Need to see if Brooks can develop. I have no hope that Williams will become a solid CB, and I expect him to be shifted to safety. Rogers played poorly last year and we need an upgrade at the nickel and dime CB. How does this all get fixed this offseason? We can't count on rookies filling all of these spots, maybe our first and second round picks will be able to step in, but who knows? What I find disturbing is that there are not obvious choices currently on the roster to fill these spots. Throw in the uncertainty at the QB position and the possibility that Levitre will not be re-signed, and you have a team that still seems far away in year four of the most recent rebuild.