jahnyc

I have had some concerns that we would be unable to trade Henry. With Alexander, James and the strong talent available in the draft, I thought that maybe there would be no suitors for Henry. I think we all are forgetting the very solid seasons he had before this past year. I know I tend to remember his fumbling, his inability to pick up the blitz and his below average hands. I guess AZ sees more of the positives than the negatives. I hope a deal gets done. I think Shelton will help if healthy. I still hope we draft a guard and/or a center. We will need the help even if Shelton becomes a Bill.

SoCal raises a legitimate question, particularly given our failure to make the playoffs over the last number of years. I am not suggesting that we fire TD, but in light of the foregoing, it is fair to review his performance, where we are and why. The reality is if we were getting better performance from our late round picks the team would be a better team and more balanced in terms of overall player economics. TD has done well with first and second round picks and some free agent acquisitions, but the missing piece of the puzzle is success with the late round picks and cheap free agent acquisitions.

I also agree. The guy played hard when he played. He was a Bills fan and wanted to play for the Bills. I say leave the guy alone and wish him the best (except when he plays the Bills). What surprises me is how the market for rbs can change so dramatically. There are a lot of quality guys available for the right price (James and Alexander) and real potential talent in the draft.

I think some our ability to trade Henry will depend on his contract demands. I also think that our best bet will be to trade him to a team with an injured starting running back. This may happen after the draft and result in a pick for next year.

I agree with you Coach Tuesday. Our draft picks in the late rounds, other than McGee, have not been able to step up and start. If they could, it would balance the team in terms of overall economics. Other than McGee, I don't think we have any players that are starters that were drafted by TD in the fourth round or after.

They may restructure M. Williams' contract, but I doubt he will make less. They will likley convert some of his base into bonus, but not reduce the overall amounts of the contract.

I didn't forget about M. Williams when I wrote my post. Clearly, we are overpaying for the guy, particularly when Ogden, Pace and Jones are signing contracts that average about $7 million per year. The problem I have is that some posters are suggesting that Williams' contract was "slotted" and that is what would have been paid for any #4 pick in that draft. I would love to get confirmation of that by understanding what draft picks were paid around the same pick the year prior, the year of and the year after MW was picked.

I am not sure how it is going to get better cap wise in the future. M. Williams, Moulds, Spikes and others will take up significant cap space in future years. In addition, Clements is a free agent next year and I can assure you that McGahee will want a new deal before his contract expires. If players like Losman, Evans and McGahee become stars, than of course we will have pressures in the near future to extend their contracts and pay the market rate for such players. Although this is a good problem, it will further complicate our cap situation.

But this is what I don't understand. We are up against the cap and we have not made the playoffs the last four years under TD. Does this make TD fiscally responsible? Will next year be any better? We are not significantly under the cap like the Eagles were and we have not been as successful on the field.

Why are people always talking about how TD won't overpay for a player? No gm wants to overpay for a player, but DeMulling seemed reasonably priced based on the contract he signed with Detroit and what other free agents were getting. We are paying more than $3 million a year for Villarail and he is older (I think 32). Is he the better player? I don't know, but clearly we pay market for our players, including free agents, just like every other team. How much we are willing to pay in any given year depends on our need, the supply and demand for that position for that particular year and our salary cap situation. It seems this year it is not about overpaying, but about how much flexibility we have under the salary cap. Last year, we had more room and one could argue that we overpaid for Vincent and Villarail. Overall, I think TD has done a good job with free agent acquisitions. I am sure he would have loved to sign more free agents to fill holes this year, but our salary cap situation does not allow for that.

What I would like to know is why we have been so quiet in free agency. As pointed out, we have lost two quality players, so it would not be unreasonable to expect that we would sign replacements or players that would mitigate our weaknesses, such as our offensive line. We have not made the playoffs in a long time and we had trouble with quality teams last year. We need to improve, and part of that is adding to the talent and depth of the team through free agency.

I would like to be patient, but now it seems that we are relying on the draft to fill our needs. How can we fill LT, LG and C in one draft? I could have understood pursuing a reasonably priced guard and then using the first pick on a LT. That would be economical, since a free agent LT would be too expensive with our current cap situation. Of course this scenario could also mean that JP will get mushed since starting a rooke LT is never a good idea.

Nice job overall. I would probably raise the grade of the dbs since Clements and Milloy played at a very high level and McGee seemed to improve and make plays towards the end of last season. It would be interesting to further break down your anlaysis and separately grade the positions based on free agents acquired versus draft picks. I think where we have been hurt has been the lack of development of our late round picks, particularly since these players are relatively cheap.

I think TD's attitude about free agency and activity would be different if the Bills were $10 million under the cap.

Reviewing TD's tenure, I think there has been good (trading Peerless for a first round pick, drafting McGahee, signing Spikes) and bad (not making the playoffs for four years, hiring Williams and trading a first round pick for Bledsoe). I am not suggesting that TD should be fired, but in light of the above, I think the best we can say is that the results thus far have been a mixed bag. Not making the playoffs is the biggest issue with me. I believe that this is one of the most objective standards you can use to judge TD's tenure as gm. There are a few things that have been bothering me during the course of the Boards' discussions about TD: 1. Posters are attacked for perceived anti-TD statements. I don't understand this since I think you can make a case for and against the efforts of TD to date. 2. That TD is not overspending and hurting our cap situation for coming years. In the fifth year of TD's tenure we appear to be right up against the cap. We did not have the ability to re-sign Williams or Jennings or any significant free agents. TD has paid at least market for many players including Spikes, Milloy and Moulds. The contract with M. Williams is a disaster. It is disingenous to assume that somehow TD is not overpaying this year or is being smarter than other gms when the reality is that we don't have the flexibility or ability to sign expensive free agents. 3. Posters assuming the o-line will be fine with the players we have currently and the coaching of McNally. The o-line is a legitimate concern. I believe that we have many strengths, but I am very worried about Teague, M. Williams or Peters at LT. Who will play LG? Why should we expect Peters or Bannon to be starting caliber?

The offseason so far has been somewhat disappointing (few free agent signings, losing Jennings and Williams, etc.) but it is early. There is a lot to like about this team, but the o-line needs to be fixed, particularly with a qb with no starting experience.

I am kind of baffled about our off-season so far, but maybe the Bills think they will get Shelton? There were many good guards available in free agency and some seemed to have signed for somewhat reasonable deals. I am really surprised that we have not signed anyone for the o-line other than Gandy (who is not a starter). During his tenure, TD has been very good at making moves to get the fans excited about the upcoming season. This year it seems that what has transpired has been kind of depressing (i.e., losing Jennings, Williams, not having a first round pick, not trading Henry yet, and cutting Bledsoe (maybe for a few only)).

I hope we will try to re-sign Clements. Will we be cap healthy next year? I am not too confident about that since I thought we were going to be well under the cap this year.

I was kind of expecting the same type of offseason as we had last year, where TD replaced the players waived (R. Brown) or lost to free agency (A. Winfield) with free agent acquisitions (Villarial and Vincent). I understand that there is a long way to go before training camp and the regular season begin, but I am wondering about the lack of moves so far. Some people seem to think it is because TD does not want to overpay. I don't think this is the case. No one wants to overpay, but we have paid market for many of our free agent acquisitions over the years (i.e., Fletcher, Spikes, Villarial, Vincent, Milloy, etc.). I think our lack of activity has more to do with our cap situation. I still find it interesting that TD has talked about upgrading the o-line each of the last two years but has done little to do so. This leads me to believe that we will draft a guard or left tackle with our first (second round) pick and hope that he can step in and help immediately.

Maybe this has to do with signing DeMulling? I hope this is the case.

I am bothered about his compensation as well and I keep posting about it. I know we could free-up some money now by restructuring his contract, but do we really want to? I guess if we could do it in a way that would still allow us to cut him in a year or two without making the cap hit worse, than I would do it. But I don't think this is possible because as a part of a restructuring he would likely get a new cash bonus. I also don't think he is going to take significantly less money per year on average in the new years of an extension even if he gets a cash bonus now. The real question is whether his contract was standard for where and when he was picked (including escalators) or did we screw it up. If this is a standard contract, there is no way I would want to draft in the top ten (or maybe the top 20) in a draft.

I think the o-line disucssions on the board have been really interesting. Here are some additoinal thoughts. Some posters have brought up a very good point: with free agency and the cap, it is almost impossible to build strong, cohesive units on both offense and defense. I agree with that to a point. For this reason, I think in analyzing our o-line situation, you need to consider the following: 1. Are we allocating our money to offense and defense and the various positions appropriately? and 2. Are we getting good value for the money that we are spending on the various positions? Regarding the first, I believe we are spending too much on our safety position with Vincent and Milloy. Milloy has played really well, but most teams do not seem to spend the way we do for these positions. We are also are spending a lot on linebacker, but I think we are getting our money's worth. This merits more discussion and analysis, but I don't think we are overpaying except for one position which leads to the second point. I think we are significantly overpaying for RT (M. Williams). As a comparison, K. McKenzie, the top free agent RT this year, signed a deal averaging $5 million per year. I think our o-line would be stronger if we took the $9 million that we are paying to Williams and allocated it to RT and LT or some other combination of positions. I think M. Williams has improved, but I think we can use the money we are paying him more effectively. Thoughts?

I agree with SoCal. We must do better with the o-line and I am getting tired of musical chairs. 1. We are overpaying for M. Williams. He is not worth $9 million this year and next year. 2. We have too many guys that can play multiple positions but none of them particularly well. Versatility is great, but I would rather have a solid performer who can only play one position. 3. Center, LG and LT all need to be fixed. We can't go into the season with Teague at LT with a very inexperienced QB. This would be a recipe for disaster. I know he has played LT, but that was four years ago and Shanahan wanted to upgrade the position at the time. 4. We have no depth because our late round picks have not been panning out. I give TD credit for his first round picks, but it is kind of surprising that we have missed on so many late round picks (Pucillo, Sobieski, etc.). 5. We can't start the season hoping that Peters and Bannon will be our starters. They will need time and work before they will be ready to play a significant amount of time. 6. McNally is a great coach, but give him talent to work with so that he can help develop an excellent line instead of a line that is patched together with below average talent. Don't put it all on him.

I guess that means that we are looking at a draft choice in 2006 for Henry since his performance in 2005 would determine the round of the draft pick (all assuming Lenny P. is correct).

I am not sure Womack is the guy we need, but I would like us to do something. We need a replacement at LT and upgrades at LG and C. I don't think we will be okay with our current group and I don't want to see Teague or Peters at LT. I also disagree with those posters that think that McNally can mold any group of players into a solid o-line. He need talent, and why not give him players with strong potential so that he can mold them into a great o-line. I also disagree with those who say that TD always has a plan. What was our plan last year at LG? Pucillo? Smith? We were lucky that Tucker came in after a few games and improved the play at that position.