Mark Long Beach

We often don't share the same viewpoints but I'm with you 100% here. I'm not sure Bell needs to make a quantum leap, but he does need to continue his steady improvement. He's been a pleasant surprise for me. Don't get me wrong, he's no where near as good of a run-blocker as JPeters but isn't that far off as a pass-blocker. If he can get a little stronger and get better as a run-blocker it's a position he could hold down for many years. He's also better than most of the free agents that are out there. Better than Bushrod who many wanted. Gaither is probably better, but is even MORE injury prone and is a malcontent. Not sure how much of an upgrade he might be. At the very least it's not a position that's screaming for an upgrade like it has been so for much of the time. Now if he REGRESSES... All bets are off, and it becomes a screaming need for us. Especially since we have NO depth behind him. Unless by some miracle Ed Wang develops (haven't seen much out of him).

We have money for a LB. All the money that we didn't spend re-signing Poz. I'd be shocked if we didn't pick up some veteran ILB. Truthfully, I'd like to see our rookie LB Shepard (or Batten) step up and seize the job.

Takeo's neck can reach out and tackle people all by itself. Seriously though, it took a few years for his Achilles to truly heel (pun intended). He's been a solid player but no longer a pro-bowl caliber one. He's also transitioned to playing in a 3-4 successfully. He'd start for us over Andra Davis at SILB.

Actually the Steelers OL was TERRIBLE last year and had poor depth (and tons of injuries). They started Jonathan Scott at tackle in the Superbowl last year. That's a guy who couldn't stick on OUR roster as a tackle.

Deion "Prime Time" Sanders was the best CB I've ever watched. I had never seen a DB be such a force in a game before (or since for that matter). Revis looks like he might have a chance to be as good, but he's got to do it for a few more years.

He's had a much longer career than I expected. Reminds me a little bit of our current DT/DE Spencer Johnson. Solid but unspectacular; A true survivor in a tough business.

We offered the same amount that he took in Jacksonville. A too high, too long contract for him IMO. He didn't take our offer but it shows pretty clearly we were willing to overpay for him because we thought he was a solid player. No need to break out the pitchforks because we lost Poz. He's not the lynchpin of our defense. As someone else said, we lost with him, we can lose without him. Not having him makes our defense a little weaker, but not massively so. Not $42 million over 6 years worse.

Thought I'd just start a central list for all of the former Bills players signings and news. I liked some of these guys a lot and so do some other fans. Let me know of others and I'll keep this updated. If you're not one who cares, don't read. Signed: Ron Edwards, DE - $8.25m/3 Carolina Panthers Takeo Spikes, LB - $unk/3 San Diego Chargers John Wendling, S - $2.75m/? Detroit Lions (re-signed) Justin Bannen, DT - St. Louis Trent Edwards, QB - Oakland Raiders Cut: Willis McGahee, RB (Balt) Rumored to Denver Nate Clements, CB (SF) Signed by Cincinnati Marcus Stroud, DT (Pats) (Still injured) Mike Williams, OT (Wash) (Officially released. Didn't play last year) News: Jim Leonard, S - NYJ: Fully medically cleared from a broken fibula last year.

I'm pretty sure that he did.

Well said.

And switching him to LT before the season (traded Jason Peters away). A position he wasn't suited for and he knew it.

I'm only sad that we missed out on some of the high end developmental LBs. But then again, we already have a lot of young developmental linebackers (Moats, Batten, Coleman, and i guess Maybin plus this years draft of Sheppard & White)

No, he really didn't stink. He wasn't a left tackle nor all that good for a "no huddle" offense but as a run oriented RT he was more than adequate. Far better than anything we have at present (rookie possibly excepted). Besides, no need to burn that bridge, it's already crisped.

Yup. Wildly over the cap. They pushed hard last year and got crunched with a 6-10 record. This could end up being a painful year for them. Not that I mind one bit.

We didn't make a splash last year in FA, but signed 4 probable starters. Unfortunately they all got hurt early (Merriman, Dwan Edwards & Andra Davis), or in Greens case: Sucked AND got hurt. I expect we'll sign a couple free agents that have a good chance for a starting job. Fingers crossed. Hangarter has been a decent/good center who's brought a lot of stability to a position that's been a disaster for over a decade. I just think that Wood could be a very good center. I think it's more important to have good center strength because we're in the AFC east with some high quality NTs than if we were dealing with a bunch of weaker 4-3 teams within our division.

Yeah, but there's little chance he'd come back here after getting treated the way he was. I'm not sure that I would. He's definitely a pretty solid upgrade, but closer to a stopgap at this point in his career. He was a good runblocker and a decent passblocker, but didn't watch him last year.

No joke. I forgot how much of the sky is falling. I'm really glad there are so many people here to remind me.

I think we should rip on the Steelers. They've done ABSOLUTELY NOTHING about signing free agents! How do they expect to win the superbowl if they don't sign any free agents??? Unbelievable! Break out the Tar and Feathers! Pitchforks! Rotten tomatoes! ...Oh. Nobody has signed a free agent yet?

Yup. Fingers crossed. But heck, I don't think I know how to tell the difference between 355 lbs and 385 lbs. You'd sure notice 30 lbs on my scrawny frame.

I mostly agree here. I don't demand 3 starters, but I do expect 2. Our depth is pretty poor in many, many places so I'm happy with any decent quality player to give competition. What I'm really hoping is that our young players beat out most or all of our signings because they're developing into good players. IMO we don't have many good players at TE and RT so I don't see much to develop... I don't expect the Bills to ignore FA. For two reasons. We didn't last year, and we have to reach the salary floor. Last year was an uncapped year (no floor or ceiling) and we were in the middle of a youth movement with organizational & coaching regime change. So they didn't spend much (wisely IMO) Yet they still signed FOUR free agents that were intended to be starters. Sadly three got hurt very early in the season (Andra Davis & Sean Merriman) and the other was both hurt and sucked (Green).

I'm a sucker for them too. I do think that upstate NY is prettier than here in SoCal (Although the high Sierras are stunning). I just don't miss the ice crystals whipping through me.

Dude. Take a chill pill, or two or three. No team can even cut anyone yet, the first cut date IIRC is Friday. All the Raven's have done is ANNOUNCE some players that they're going to cut. Whoop-de-<dmn>-doo. If we're going to cut someone we'll cut them. But since we're WAY under the cap, we don't need to until they earn it.

Let's do a little math here. Average means roughly half the players that start in that position are better and the other half are roughly worse. Let us even assume that there are a few backups that are better but are behind some of those better starters... How about a very generous 50%. Since there are 32 teams in the league. Half is roughly 16 and an additional 50% is 8 more for roughly 24. To make it simple lets call it 20-25 people. So there are somewhere around 20-25 people in the known freaking universe who are better than said "Average" player. The bottom line is that there are not many players that are better than (essentially) any NFL starter and there is stiff competition to get those that are available. What exists are plenty of _crappy_ players. A crappy player is easily replaceable. A competent NFL starter is not easily replaceable.

Ah the joys of schadenfreud! Freeze Willis Freeze!

wow, what a great interview. I'm rooting for the kid. Thanks for posting.