MattM
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I finally found a site that lists pending free agents after the coming season and here's our list:
Pos Player Name FA Status Previous Team Current Team
QB Gibran Hamdan UFA Buffalo Bills
QB J.P. Losman UFA Buffalo Bills
RB Fred Jackson RFA Buffalo Bills
WR Justin Jenkins RFA Buffalo Bills
WR Roscoe Parrish UFA Buffalo Bills [WRONG--EXTENDED LAST YEAR]
TE Kevin Everett UFA Buffalo Bills
OG Kirk Chambers UFA Buffalo Bills
OT Patrick Estes UFA Buffalo Bills
C Melvin Fowler UFA Buffalo Bills
C Christian Gaddis ERFA Buffalo Bills
OL Duke Preston UFA Buffalo Bills
DL Copeland Bryan RFA Buffalo Bills
DL Ryan Neill ERFA Buffalo Bills
LB Angelo Crowell UFA Buffalo Bills
LB John DiGiorgio RFA Buffalo Bills
LB Keith Ellison RFA Buffalo Bills
LB Kevin Harrison RFA Buffalo Bills
CB Jabari Greer UFA Buffalo Bills
CB Kiwaukee Thomas UFA Buffalo Bills
FS George Wilson UFA Buffalo Bills
http://www.kffl.com/static/nfl/features/fr...Team&y=2009
Out of this list, I've highlighted the UFA's that we may want to try to keep.
If we get Evans (and possibly Peters) done this offseason as I expect, this really just leaves Crowell, Greer and Wilson as starters/key subs who we'll potentially be losing. I also see us keeping Ellison and DiGiorgio and Jackson out of the RFAs.
Personally, I suspect that Greer will be gone after this season, as he'll be too expensive to keep, especially if he ends up being a decent nickel back/starter who wants a shot to be a clear starter somewhere. I also suspect his contract status explains at least part of why McKelvin was our top pick. Wilson is nice depth, but if he gets beaten out by Ko, then it's not too great a loss. With respect to Crowell, if he has a monster season we can still franchise him--if not, then he may be affordable to resign longer term if we want to.
All in all, I think we're in very good shape. To me, the most likely scenario is lock up Evans and Peters (or should I say, make Peters happy) this summer and then next year let Greer and Wilson walk (along with Fowler), and re-sign Crowell or tag him. If the past is any indicator of the Bills approach in FA, they'll also sign one or possibly two starters next year from the FA's available. TE (Desmond Clark, anyone?) and/or C would be nice in that regard, as well as locking up 2-3 of our other younger players like they've done this year and last, which would leave our draft something like the following:
1. DE (to replace Schobel, who's getting up there in age);
2 and 3 C and TE if we don't go the FA route--if we do go that route, then we'd be in the enviable spot of BPA after round 1.
Interesting to note that not many teams are in dire straits any more with respect to FA--the lesson seems to be to lock your players up before they get there.....
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I think we resigned these guys to meet the minimum requirement o money you have to spend to satisfy the cba/cap rules.
I don't know about that--I think they planned to extend Evans this offseason before the Peters stuff hit and that alone would put us in decent stead vis-a-vis the cap minimum I'd guess. Before JP fizzled last year, management had to plan for both he and Lee this offseason. Not having to do an extension for both JP and Lee hopefully is going to allow them to do what they need to do to keep both Evans and Peters happy this offseason....
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Great job--must have taken a while to put together. Many thanks for taking the time to do it!
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How much does the possibility of an uncapped 2010 play into the Bills need to extend as many promising players as possible? We will be at a distinct disadvantage in an uncapped NFL. Do you think this plays into extending Williams? Do you think others will follow?
Very good point--I think it very much plays into what they're doing in extending guys like Butler, Williams, Roscoe (last year) and hopefully Evans and Peters. They have to realize that the direction the League is headed is a distinct disadvantage to them so they need to smartly extend guys now before we get too close to 2010.
Personally, I strongly suspect that big market owners like Kraft, Jones and Snyder knew exactly what they were doing the last CBA go around and got themselves and the League a deal they knew wouldn't work so that they could go uncapped. Lip service aside, these guys want the competitive advantage that going uncapped would give them over the other 2/3rd-3/4ths of the League, parity be damned. Killing the goose that laid the golden egg doesn't bother them at all. MLB here we come.....
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I'd still also love a link to a site that shows how many years a player is signed for--I'd love to see who we have coming up as FAs after 2008 and 2009.....
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Great read, even if a bit wordy--he took the words right out of my mouth on some of it. In addition to being a general undressing of the Pats* and their fans last season, it also gave me a bit more hope on our chances against the Evil Empire this year as well. If you look at their roster, they are O-L-D at a number of positions, notably LB, safety and, more interestingly, increasingly old at some other spots, like OL and QB and WR (i.e., Randy Moss). At those last three spots, they have about a 2 year window (maybe 3) for Brady, before they'll have to consider replacements. This team ain't so young anymore in general, and if they keep drafting like they did in 2007 (Meriweather a disappointment and I'm not sure if any of their other 7-8 picks even made the team), they will be passing the Jets and perhaps Fins (much less us) in the opposite direction in a few years time, which may be part of the reason that Big Bob is one of the owners who I strongly suspect wants to get rid of the cap, so that should that draft suckiness occur, they can always try to buy another ring.....
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That's my suspicion as well--I'd also personally love to see somebody give Mike Pereira the once over that the NBA refs are about to get courtesy of Donaghy.....
Have any of you watched Patriot games over the last few years? From the Tuck Rule to the Colts AFCCG to the Ravens game to several screw jobs they've delivered to us over that period, it's incredible the number of calls late in a game that seem to go that team's way. That's what I was referring to here, not the overall officiating in the NFL.
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Looks like Goodell will be able to cover his and Tagliabue's tracks then, because they were involved from the beginning
That's my suspicion as well--I'd also personally love to see somebody give Mike Pereira the once over that the NBA refs are about to get courtesy of Donaghy.....
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Marshawn made his own bed here. He's antagonized the victim (and the police for that matter) by handling this in an adversary fashion. Had he treated this as an accident (even a day or two after the incident) it might be resolved sooner and simpler. There is insurance on the vehicle which covers liability for property damage and personal injury. If he and his agent were smart, he would likely carry an umbrella policy for additional liability above and beyond the vehicle insurance (as does the dealership that owns the car I am sure). He could have filled out reports, apologized privately and publically, dealt with the misdemeanor charge for leaving the scene and let the process take care of itself. The injuries to the victim don't add up to a huge settlement, not one that would reach 7 figures, so the insurance would likely resolve this. He'd pay a fine for the misdemeanor and the harshest penalty would probably come from the league, likely a short suspension. If He had done this, then he's not the villian he is now becoming. If someone else was driving, then he and that person should have come forward in the same fashion.
Instead, he's turning this into a very expensive circus. He's motivated the victim to "take him to the cleaners" along with the DA and the commissioner, and his public perception once very good, will take a severe blow here. His lawyer, knowing that the police knew who's vehicle was involved, should have looked at this whole thing and advised his client to let the insurance companies resolve the accident. The path he is now on was easily predicted and the cost IMO will be higher doing it "his way".
Sure, handling this openly and honestly may not have kept the victim from suing - but every other party that will judge him and punish him (and/or the driver of the car) for this incident (the public, the NFL, the Bills and the courts) would be doing so under much better circumstances.
I think what everyone'f forgetting here is that Marshawn is barely all of 22 years old and not at all versed in things like this. He doesn't have the experience or maturity at that age to tell his advisors to shut up and do the right thing here--he's been very poorly served by them, IMHO, but when you don't have experience in something it's much easier to just "rely on the experts" as I suspect he's doing here. Problem is, his lawyer seems to be a bush league hack (for ex., his firm doesn't even have its own website or even a listing in Martindale-Hubbell, which all decent sized firms have at a bare minimum). I'm a lawyer myself (albeit on the corporate side) and can tell you, the bar is made up of all kinds--from extremely competent to guys who you wonder how they ever graduated from college much less law school or pass the bar. I'm very curious as to who hooked Marshawn up with his attorneys (his agent, perhaps?), as whoever it was doesn't seem to know what he's doing either. This could have been handled with minimal mess when it broke and instead they've turned it into a 3-ring circus, much to their client's and the team's detriment.....
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Seeing Lori's post up above re: the rumor that TBD was his browser home page (which seems very believable), who else has a suspicion that in addition to losing a great man, journalist and Bills fan, we may have also lost at least an occasional fellow TBD and/or !@#$ poster. If you think about it, for a celebrity, where else can you go for anonymity, but the internet....
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We all know that Tim used to close his show on playoff & SB Sundays with his "Go Bills!" cry. And the last chapter of "Big Russ" devoted to what the Bills mean to the City of Buffalo.
For those of you like me who had to seek our fortunes elsewhere to support our families, what do you do to show off your Buffalo roots to your non-Bflo friends and coworkers? Here are some of mine:
- Proudly display my Bills football & etched glass buffalo in my office Check!
- Talk up the Bills every Friday during the season Check!
- Mourn/gloat on Mondays in the fall Check!
- WORK HARDER than everybody else and and show off my blue collar Bflo roots Check!
- Make SURE my kids' favorite team is the Bills by decking out kids room with all Bills gear Check!
- Mandating that all office subordinates install TBD as their home page on their browsers (just kidding)
And you?
In addition to (or as a sign of) all of the above, I wore a Bills golf shirt to work today (and took some flack for it, I might add)--'nuff said.....
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Wow--I'm stunned. Absolutely stunned. A great Bills fan and a great journalist.....
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i've got 5 words for you:
JUST
GIVE
IT
TO
'EM
That was indeed one of the games I was thinking of, along with the first meeting in 2006 when every call (and no call) late in the game seemed to go their way. If you've ever seen Mike Pereira (the head of NFL officiating) interviewed you'd probably agree with me that you wouldn't trust him with the Lord's supper, as my father used to say.
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While you have to consider the source (a convicted felon) obviously, he's making some interesting allegations here--anyone else ever wonder if the NFL does the same thing? I've seen too many odd calls in Pats games over the years to completely dismiss that notion out of hand myself......
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It worked out ok for Sam Malone.
My father owned a bar when I was a kid growing up, so I know from what I speak. It's funny you should mention "Cheers", 'cause I used to tell my friends who thought it was cool that my dad owned a bar, "it ain't 'Cheers'" and by that I meant that show glamorized bars and alcohol, which do indeed have their merits in moderation, but without showing the seamier side of that life, including, obviously, the effects of alcoholism on an individual and families.....
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What does owning a bar have to do with anything?
Let's see, a player clearly has a problem with alcohol (it turns out that Allen had at least 3 DWI's by this point), yet still owns a bar. That's some way to help yourself solve that problem. That's what it has to do with--how smart is it for a player who may well be an alcoholic to own a bar? Not very.....
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Go read the NFL's player conduct policy. That will make it clear for you. The league operates on a separate standard of conduct which does not require that he be convicted or even charged. Goodell is Judge and Jury.
I also thought I'd read elsewhere, however, that Goodell has typically not taken action against first time offenders, especially where there was no serious injuries involved.
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really stupid - but not unlikely if in a drunken stupor
If he was in such a "drunken stupor" how'd he get the car the rest of the way home? Blind luck? Autopilot? Let's stick to the most likely scenario since it is, after all by definition "the most likely". I've given my view of it above.
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Jared Allen was given a 4 game suspension for 2 DWIs in a 2 month span (and he still owned a bar throughout the whole process--a regular Einstein). It was reduced to 2 games because he showed contrition (again, all the while still owning a bar). I think that if it's found that Lynch hit the girl, knew he hit the girl and drove off, then a fair punishment from the League would be the 2 games Allen ended up actually serving, but that's just MHO.....
PS Not sure if Allen had a history prior to his events or not--if he did, then I'd reconsider Marshawn's punishment and go easier on him, as he doesn't have anything in terms of prior history while in the League (I don't count his getting shot at in a case of mistaken ID or the charges that were dropped against him by an ex-girlfriend, as those charges were just that--dropped.)
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Bump, as I'd still really like to know the answer to this one, Clump (or anyone else, for that matter).....
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What was well thought out? All the excuses made for why it was okay to drive away from a hit and run?
What I did was take the FACTS we know (the nature of the injuries, where it occurred, etc.) and extrapolate what likely happened in terms of the physics of the situation. You and others act like he hit this woman head on doing 60, flipped her over the windshield, backed over her and then drove off with a maniacal laugh, when the FACTS show very much otherwise. It is possible that he knew he hit her and drove off, scared of being caught, but it is also possible that he hit her and didn't know he did so and just kept going, for the reasons I laid out. Why don't we wait until the facts come out before riding Lynch out of town on a rail? While he's following his attorney's advice now on keeping mum (which I disagree with for the reasons also mentioned above), eventually this will come out.
If you've got a problem with my logic on the FACTS or how I extrapolated them, please correct me where I'm wrong instead of just coming in with a one-liner "you're wrong". Not a way to win an argument or convince people of your correctness.....
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The amount of posts in multiple threads referencing the fact that "she wasn't hurt seriously", so therefore what is the big deal are mind boggling. Even more ridiculous are the ones stating that "maybe the driver didn't realize they hit somebody". Do you really believe that Lynch or whomever was driving the car at the time was aware of the condition of the victim as they drove away? I don't think so. They were to busy getting the hell out of dodge.
Get your friggin' heads out of the sand.
While I posted this in another dead thread, I think it applies to your question above, so here goes:
"What I'm having real trouble understanding in all of this is how the driver could have hit her and she only suffered the injuries she did, namely a bruised hip and a cut, which was stitched up with a relatively minimal number of stitches (7) and she was released that day/night. If he hit her straight on, it would have been a lot worse than that obviously. It must have been a glancing hit, i.e., he was turning that corner (meaning that he was not going that fast (by definition) unless he was up on two wheels or something, which no one seems to be suggesting) and she was walking across the street and he clipped her with the right side of his car and she probably spun around and went down, taking a piece of the car with her (my guess is it was a piece of the mirror, since, again, it's doubtful that anything on the front of a car would fall off even if it hit a person straight on (which again, doesn't seem to be the case here). Not to be a Marshawn apologist, but in that case, isn't it possible that the driver of the car wasn't even sure he hit someone, since from a glancing blow there's not likely to be the "thud" you'd get if you hit someone or something head on? Folks here seem to have an image of this accident as he ran her over head on and then sped away. From the injuries involved, it really doesn't sound that way to me.
In terms of Marshawn's not speaking to the police, I agree that being uncooperative looks bad. What I really suspect is going on here is that you have a pretty young and scared guy who knows nothing about these kinds of things, but is scared out of his wits as to what can happen to him in the justice and League discipline process and in such a case is just following the advice of his attorney instead of perhaps doing what a more mature person might do, namely exercising some discretion in the matter and telling his attorney he just wants to come clean and cooperate, which is also an area where his interest and his attorney's diverge since there's not much for an attorney to do if he just goes in and spills his guts (assuming his attorney is not doing right by his client in that regard). This is the easiest path to follow for someone in his shoes, although it may not be the best. Again, I think someone a bit older and wiser may realize that he's not helping himself by staying silent and just relying on his attorney's advice blindly. Remember, too, that Marshawn grew up in a neighborhood where the police were usually not your friends, no matter how some folks try to spin that on this board, which adds to the likelihood that he's a bit gullible when his attorney tells him he's better off fighting this than coming clean.
Personally, I think that Marshawn would be better served coming forward, not least of the reasons for which is that it's the right thing to do. That said, I can understand why he may not do so, but that's worse for even him in the long run, as that doesn't look so good either to the Commissioner or the public. I also think, however, that a lot of folks here and elsewhere are blowing this a bit out of proportion--as noted above, based on the facts we have, it's possible that the driver of this care didn't even know they'd really hit someone. This is not a case of attempted murder or even attempt to injure. Even if Marshawn was the driver, I'd say that the sentence would involve no jail time (probation and community service) and from the League, the worst I would see as fair would be a 4 game suspension, reduced to 2 for contrition (if it's shown eventually), much like Jared Allen got last year for 2 DWI's in a short span of time (and for those who talk about Jared's "contrition", remember that he still owned a bar throughout all of that). I'm not even sure that's warranted for Marshawn here, personally, as this was really his first brush with the law (I don't count his being shot at in a case of mistaken identity and the thing with his girlfriend that was dropped--if it was dropped, I don't think it's fair for the NFL to use that against him, but that's just my view)."
Call me a Bills homer, but that's the way I see it.
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What I'm having real trouble understanding in all of this is how the driver could have hit her and she only suffered the injuries she did, namely a bruised hip and a cut, which was stitched up with a relatively minimal number of stitches (7) and she was released that day/night. If he hit her straight on, it would have been a lot worse than that obviously. It must have been a glancing hit, i.e., he was turning that corner (meaning that he was not going that fast (by definition) unless he was up on two wheels or something, which no one seems to be suggesting) and she was walking across the street and he clipped her with the right side of his car and she probably spun around and went down, taking a piece of the car with her (my guess is it was a piece of the mirror, since, again, it's doubtful that anything on the front of a car would fall off even if it hit a person straight on (which again, doesn't seem to be the case here). Not to be a Marshawn apologist, but in that case, isn't it possible that the driver of the car wasn't even sure he hit someone, since from a glancing blow there's not likely to be the "thud" you'd get if you hit someone or something head on? Folks here seem to have an image of this accident as he ran her over head on and then sped away. From the injuries involved, it really doesn't sound that way to me.
In terms of Marshawn's not speaking to the police, I agree that being uncooperative looks bad. What I really suspect is going on here is that you have a pretty young and scared guy who knows nothing about these kinds of things, but is scared out of his wits as to what can happen to him in the justice and League discipline process and in such a case is just following the advice of his attorney instead of perhaps doing what a more mature person might do, namely exercising some discretion in the matter and telling his attorney he just wants to come clean and cooperate, which is also an area where his interest and his attorney's diverge since there's not much for an attorney to do if he just goes in and spills his guts (assuming his attorney is not doing right by his client in that regard). This is the easiest path to follow for someone in his shoes, although it may not be the best. Again, I think someone a bit older and wiser may realize that he's not helping himself by staying silent and just relying on his attorney's advice blindly. Remember, too, that Marshawn grew up in a neighborhood where the police were usually not your friends, no matter how some folks try to spin that on this board, which adds to the likelihood that he's a bit gullible when his attorney tells him he's better off fighting this than coming clean.
Personally, I think that Marshawn would be better served coming forward, not least of the reasons for which is that it's the right thing to do. That said, I can understand why he may not do so, but that's worse for even him in the long run, as that doesn't look so good either to the Commissioner or the public. I also think, however, that a lot of folks here and elsewhere are blowing this a bit out of proportion--as noted above, based on the facts we have, it's possible that the driver of this care didn't even know they'd really hit someone. This is not a case of attempted murder or even attempt to injure. Even if Marshawn was the driver, I'd say that the sentence would involve no jail time (probation and community service) and from the League, the worst I would see as fair would be a 4 game suspension, reduced to 2 for contrition (if it's shown eventually), much like Jared Allen got last year for 2 DWI's in a short span of time (and for those who talk about Jared's "contrition", remember that he still owned a bar throughout all of that). I'm not even sure that's warranted for Marshawn here, personally, as this was really his first brush with the law (I don't count his being shot at in a case of mistaken identity and the thing with his girlfriend that was dropped--if it was dropped, I don't think it's fair for the NFL to use that against him, but that's just my view).
PS My strong suspicion is that Pentium4EEE is really a Pats* fan here to stir up trouble--look at his join date. I've seen on their boards suggestions that they go onto other team's boards and pretend to be local fans during Spygate and suspect that this recent joiner is an extension of that failed policy.....
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Anyone else have a bad feeling about this in terms of who was driving? I mean, if he wasn't driving or in the car, I'm sure we would have heard that by now. I'll wait to see what the "official" word is today, but you have to think that if he was not in the car or not driving it would have come out by now.....
Bills Free Agents after This Year
in The Stadium Wall Archives
Posted
Hope you're right about Wilson-that would be one less relatively important depth guy to worry about.....