Mark Long Beach

I'm not sure that the Bills have offered him the best. I think that it's more likely that nobody has offered him stupid money despite there being essentially no LTs on the market. Even though he's the best of a bad crop, it's pretty clear that teams are very wary of his injury history. All we have to go by are rumors and the fact that he's visited a lot of teams and not signed an offer. I don't blame him for looking around and seeing if anyone is desperate enough to give him "Meachum money". Rumor has it that most teams have offered him short contracts for less money or have offered him a RT job. I think that Bell has had more time to be on the market without loss of value compared to most FA. There is almost NO competition for his services. Only the draft. So he hasn't lost too many options, IMO. I hope we keep him. He's solid enough and we're desperately shy of depth and I'm not convinced Hairston is capable of being a LT.

I think that Mario is likely. He's got name recognition, and I believe that with our inside DT's he'll get some nice stats as well. I have a good feeling about Byrd this year. I think that he'll capitalize tremendously on the rush we'll generate up front. He's shown he has a nose for the ball and can catch it. He's shown that he works hard and has improved his game. This year I think that he puts it together and shines.

1 in 6.

I'm going to join the parade of "I can'ts". Seems like he's a Nix style player at a position of need with fewer warts than many of the other possible draft choices. If he's a quality DB we could have one heck of a pass defense. LBs? Pretty weak. Hopefully strong enough to keep opponents from running down our throat.

Yeah, Brian is a terrible drafter. He knows it and admits it, though. Just look at his last few years worth of picks, HORRIBLE drafting. I very much don't get the feeling that Nix loves Bell. I think that Nix tolerates Bell. IMO he feels that he's good enough to play for his team, but is REALLY annoyed that he can't stay healthy. He's shown that he likes him enough to offer him a contract. But I'd bet it's a pretty low contract. The fact that Nix brings someone in to an interview means just a bit more than nothing. Nix is thorough, and some of that is interviewing potential candidates. Even if there's little chance of them actually being the draft choice. I think most of us agree that they'd rather have a smart guy over a dumb one. But I've always felt that Nix really wants reliable PLAYMAKERS in addition to the other facets. I think that other drafters ignore the reliable part and get themselves into trouble by believing too much in potential. That siren call of a high-ceiling, despite many other things that likely keep them from reaching that potential. Yup, and this is just a story in the middle of now-wheres-ville off-season. Not something to be taken seriously. But Enjoyed his reasoning and his explanation of it. So that's the story for me.

Thanks for the update!

See you on Sunday.

There were reports that the 49rs, thinking we were hot for Willis, offered to trade down a spot but we essentially laughed at them (for thinking we wanted Willis). IIRC we drafted Poz at the top of the second.

Awesome!

Was it clear that Bell was our future LT? No. But he sure showed that he had the potential to be. He was too raw and too weak. But he was remarkably agile and seemed to bust his butt every play. I really felt like I was watching him learn on the job and he got better and more consistent. He's still a little weaker than I'd like, and he's obviously had a lot of injuries. But if Bell is the weakest link on the team, I have a helluva team.

12-4 with the most sacks in the NFL.

I'm more of this opinion. He seems more athlete than football player. Still a useful guy, and IMO was perfect as a #4 WR to stretch the field in a pass heavy offense.

It's weird. I swear those are the exact same words that he used just before free agency started. He remains mighty consistent. Unlike Nix though, _I_ have concerns about it! I thought Hairston did an admirable job for a rookie RT playing LT. But I never felt like I was watching our clear future LT. I did feel that way watching Bell's potential.

No Joke! It's awesome! Truthfully, I'm still in a bit of disbelief.

I wish to thank all of the posters here for making me laugh this morning! ...so wait, who's ground up and in the freezer?

Eh... It rotates through the rounds. It makes a difference in the first round (especially high in the draft) but otherwise it's pretty much the same draft positions for teams with the same record. Seems pretty fair to me.

Anderson has had two quality seasons stat-wise with over 10 sacks, especially last seasons performance. Meachum has never had a quality season, even when playing in New Orleans prolific pass first offense. I don't think either are stellar players, but I'd say Anderson is a level higher quality player than Meachum. Since they were both paid the same, Meachum was overpaid.

Our biggest problem last year vs the run was the lack of 3-4 talent. Our weakest part of our team defense was LB and we tried to put FOUR of them out there. Only Barnett and to a much lesser extent B Scott were worth much. My memory was that we were actually pretty good compared to recent years vs the run. <bear with me here> We'd regularly stuff runs to three yard or under gain. But, unfortunately, one LB or more would all-too-often blow an assignment and give up a HUGE running play dramatically skewing the YPR average. This coupled with the fact we had absolutely no pashrush letting teams consistently get 1st downs meant that teams ran enough times to get MANY large runs against us. We were 3rd worst at giving up 20+ yard rushes. We were 6th worst at 1st downs given up per game (even through the crappy weather outdoor games). With our switch to 4-3 we're playing more DL (our strength) and less LB (our weakness). With the return of a pashrush we should presumably be able reduce the number of 1st downs given up per game and give less chances for our opponents to have big plays. With Wanny's simplified 4-3 and a potentially great pashrush I'm excited for this season!

Yeah. Surprisingly coherent bunch of comments from Pats fans. Some like this one were rational and insightful.

Less guaranteed. But is higher than I hoped for. $12.5m for Wimbley & $8m for Anderson. It lets us get out cheaper if he doesn't work out. I'm thinking that it is the Meachem Money.

Hmmmm... I guess I'm the only not happy about it. Tebow has talent, especially as a wildcat QB. He's WAY better at that type of role than Brad Smith. He's a pretty fearsome runner. I'd rather have him (or anyone else with talent) somewhere far away from us.

Agreed. He's a solid role-player though. It's great to have a veteran back there and not have to hope that we draft a rookie that can contribute. I want a rookie to prove that he's better than Scott not win the job by default.

We're not actively looking to trade down so I expect that they'd have to sweeten the pot a little more. However, those bottom 1st round and top of 2nd round picks have increased in value with the new three day draft. So sitting in those draft spots gives a team a lot of room to do more deals. If we had a GM that liked to do that then I'd be very interested. Not Nix's style.

I think and hope so too. But the question is more philosophical. Which one of the two do you value more? They're both top quarter NFL at there position IMO. Both positions are considered lower on the totem pole of importance. I think that Levitre is a slightly better guard than Byrd is a safety, but I think that a guard is easier to replace... But again. I really like both and want to keep both!

IMO it's been building for the last couple years. The Bills organization has been looking better & better and the Dolphins have been looking worse and worse. It's been great that it's been happening at the same time to make the contrast between us look stronger. Now if we can truly get over the hump by winning a bunch of games and even better, winning some playoff games.