BillsVet

In the NFL of today, you can get by with an average RB and above average O Line. You cannot get by with an above average back and a below average O Line. This thing hasn't happened yet, and so let's hope they don't get caught up in the fever of getting rid of their starting back for something that won't help us this season, most likely.

It doesn't matter who you have in the backfield, if your line is poor, the running back has little chance of being productive. Not saying everything is on the O-Line, but he didn't start in Tennessee because Henry was better. Why bring him here, re-sign Anthony Thomas AND draft a RB? Let's not spend too much in any one area. I'd rather have an above-average OL than a host of running backs and a bad line. We've been making the mistake of ignoring the line for years, albeit with different GM's. I hope Marv follows through and goes OL and not RB this year.

Ladell Betts re-signed with Washington late in the season. If our best Free Agent options are Ahman Green, Correll Buckhalter, Anthony Thomas, and Dominic Rhodes, you've got to wonder who we'd have lined up behind the QB in September. While McGahee isn't elite, he's better than the aforementioned options. If you trade him for a pick, you're creating another hole to fill and depleting the offense. It'd be nice to have Turner, but he's going to go only for a 1st, or a 1st and a 3rd, depeding on the tender he receives from SD

The only thing going for Buffalo is that the Free Agent crop this year is weak. Ahman Green is probably the best available and he intends to try the market in the hopes GB gives him more money. Peterson and Lynch are options, but they'll be gone before the Giants pick. Unless of course they move up. Michael Turner is an RFA, and depending on which tag the Chargers give him, his tender will be quite high. Most likely compensation means a 1st, if not a 1st and a 3rd. I don't think the Giants would do that. McGahee has no leverage in this situation. He's under contract. But if Travis Henry got us a 3rd, I can't imagine Willis will garner us anything higher than that. But by making a move like this, we've opened another hole to fill because we've traded a likely starter for a pick that most likely won't start. I can live with 21 for this season and see what happens. He needs to prove to the front office that he plays as good a game as he talks. Then, if he plays well and shows something, re-sign him. But dealing him for a mid-rounder might not be worth it. Especially if Buffalo "is on the verge" of doing something in 2007.

We'll have to wait 6 days when FA begins. There's so much stuff going on behind closed doors and players with their agents trying to read the market. It sounded like Kelsay wanted to stay in Buffalo. Unless he gets no offer or something not befitting an above average DE, well I see him staying. He's one of a group of players who've spent a full season under Jauron, Fewell, and Marv. We'll see how big a drawing card that is. For all we know, it's talk, unless we're speaking with Coy Wire.

Make no mistake, Porter's release from the Steelers is for a reason-he's no longer the player he once was. Accoding to ESPN Insider: Porter on chopping block? Feb. 23 Don't be surprised if the Steelers release Porter in the next week or so, writes ESPN.com's Len Pasquarelli. Porter's productivity tailed off considerably in 2006, and his contract status could become a problem. Porter is due a $1 million roster bonus on March 6 and his scheduled base salary for 2007, the final season of his current deal, is $4 million. Word around the league is that Porter, whose forte has always been his explosive quickness coming off the edge, has lost a half-step. "He isn't the same guy," said one rival AFC North coach this week. "He's not a guy anymore where you say, 'OK, I have to game-plan around him.' It'll be interesting to see what [the Steelers] do with him." I'm not sold on Porter. He's 30 now and while that ain't old it's not young. I won't even make the F-B comparison, but is he worth pursuing if there are other options available?

Sports Illustrated had an excellent article about the Cover 2 back in November. Within the article, the writer identified the Bears as probably running it 40-50 percent of the time. It's very flexible and requires certain personnel to make it as efficient as possible. Here is another separate article I found to be helpful: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/writ....two/index.html I just find it strange that the Tampa 2 demands physical corners. We have one in Buffalo, but will he be around in Year 2 of the Jauron era? We'll have to wait until at least 2 March when FA begins.

What's the point of arguing about the source of this spending guideline? Whether Marv, Littman, Ralph, Overdorf, or Jauron made it, we're still most likley adhering to something. As much as it holds the line on spending I fear it'll creatse an environment in which the team will be in that 7-9/8-8/9-7 window. Remarkably, 15 teams in 2006 finished with records within that range. There's two sides to every coin. I have a feeling some think this is good primarily because it ensures more responsible spending. The flip side to that is people will view this as being cheap. Ralph has some points about the revenue sharing that must be addressed. But I'm not so certain the NFL, in the form of Tagliabue and Goodell, are purposely giving Ralph a hard time. I can see a character like Jerry Jones doing something like that. I'm not clear on the exact cut of the TV revenue pie the Bills receive from the league, but I'm sure it'll cancel out their payroll responsibilities. While few people see enough of the big picture about the financial situation Buffalo finds itself in, I believe there must be something done about the spiraling salary situation. If one refers back to the franchise salaries 2-3 years ago, there's a considerable difference. All in all, the bottom line is people want to see more winning than losing. How you get there, it doesn't matter. Just winning and playoffs.

I'd rather have a guy who is an overacheiver as a 5th rounder than a highly drafted guy who is an underachiever. At least a hard worker can motivate some of the people around him. Every now and then a guy comes around from nowhere. I believe Pat Williams was a UDFA. I'm not referring to his release or anything, just that he's so tough against the run, so it can happen. Hopefully the coaches can plug Kyle in there and use a top pick or FA pick up to address other areas.

There it is.

Did you read my comment on the Pats drafting from 2000-05? All I'm saying is the chances of 4th-7th rounders becoming impact or solid players in the NFL are not great.

I guess we'll just have to wait until opening day and the 2007 season to see what those 06 rookies do. I just don't bank on former 5th rounders to be impact players and guys who could start for a majority of NFL teams. If all 32 teams pass on a guy at least four times, there's a pretty good reason. Sometimes all 32 teams are wrong. But more often than not, a guy usually doesn't have much potential when they're drafted late. If Williams improves, great. If not, we didn't have much of an investment made. You could make the same argument for Pennington, Ellison, Merz, Butler, Simpson, etc. We didn't invest that much in these guys. It's not as if they're 1st rounders. BTW, I'm sure there are a lotta hard workers who want to play in the NFL only they're playing in the CFL, NFL Europe and the Arena League. I'm sure you'll find many who have heart, just not the talent to play in the NFL. Take about a team worth of their best and you're still not going to have a very good team because they're woefully short on talent.

Rarely do teams select Tom Brady's in the late rounds. I presume you're attempting to suppress my argument that late round picks rarely make NFL starters by using the one example that says otherwise. OK, let's look at New England. From 2000-2005 (I will not judge their 06 picks because we all know you cannot comment on a player with only one season in the NFL) the Pats made 32 selections in Rounds 4 thru 7. As of today, a mere 8 remain on the roster. (Brady, FB Patrick Pass, DE Jarvis Green, CB Asante Samuel, C Dan Koppen, OLB Tully Banta-Cain, SS James Sanders, and QB Matt Cassel) Now, we can easily agree Brady and Samuel are excellent NFL'ers. Koppen starts and Banta-Cain is a good contributor, though he was benched in the playoffs. I chose those years to research because 2000 was Belichick's first season as coach in NE. We all know he and GM Pioli are extremely adept at finding talent, and all they took from 6 drafts in the 4-7 was 2 excellent starters, a C and a regular OLB. Now, is it wrong to question if one 5th round pick might be a consistent NFL starter? I don't believe so. The fact is, Buffalo had Ko Simpson, K. Williams, Ellison, and Pennington playing regularly or starting last season. Though the Pats are an entirely different team, they've been the standard for drafting well. What makes you believe that 3-4 guys from the 2006 draft alone will be long term, quality NFL starters? I just wanted to offer the other end of the spectrum regarding Williams. He was a big time player for LSU during their 2003 NCAA title season. So he's got heart. But heart only gets you so far in the NFL.

I sure did. With him we were still 28th in run defense. I hope he becomes part of the normal rotation, but 5th round picks rarely are positive difference makers. Or could I simply be playing devil's advocate?

Unfortunately, IF NC leaves, we'll have to wait until September to tell the true effect of his loss. Should anyone dominate us like Roy Williams did for Detroit, who is there for us to rely on? As far as I can tell, Dallas and the Giants play Buffalo next season. Now, I'm no great fan of TO and Plaxico Burress, but they're big wideouts. Can Terrence McGee cover those two? Probably not. NC gave us a physical corner who matches up well with physical wRs'. We can nitpick about Chris Chambers back in 2005, but I think NC is not even at his top level of play and played at a high level more often than not. He was a significant reason we did not allow a 300 yard passer all season. Let's say NC gets 8M per over 7 yrs and 15M in a signing bonus. Sure, it's a lot of money. But, you have a player in or approaching his prime who can be relied on to hold down a premier wideout. No CB is perfect, but having a player who can be left alone is so comforting. Jason Peters is left alone, and while LT and CB are vastly different positions, they require a high level of trust from the coaching staff. You can argue the Cover 2 doesn't demand WR's to be man to man, but good WR's, when in the right spot, can find the holes in the Cover-2. Sports Illustrated had an excellent article back in December about the Cover-2 and they mentioned this fact. And while we're on the subject of rebuilding the lines, you get what you pay for. Buffalo did seem to overpay their FA's last season. According to Clumping Platelets' cap page, we took a cap hit of 8.3M on Fowler, Reyes, Villarrial, and Royal combined. Is it better to have one player who can play regularly at a high level, or have four who are average or slightly less? That, in essence, is what the team must decide. If they choose the latter, well, a team full of average players won't get you very far. And BTW, how long will we be going after depth players? If we follow that path, it makes two years (2006 and 2007). Eventually, you've got to have above average players somewhere. Lee Evans, Jason Peters, Aaron Schobel, and Angelo Crowell along with Brian Moorman seem to be our top end starters. Indy had a talented O-Line, but they could run and pass block consistently. Ours, in its current state could not. Could one more FA O-Lineman who has played at a high level be better than three or four below average to average ones? We'll see. TD didn't do so well adding the O Lineman he did. What makes us think doing that now will make us better? Free Agency will reveal a lot about this team. The draft is a great event for team building, but Marv himself said they don't depend on rookies to make an immediate impact.

Kyle Williams is definitely strong, a hard worker, and willing to learn. At what point is that not enough? The NFL requires a player to have great upside or potential. Just working hard is not enough. Call that negative, but there have been several players who weren't NFL caliber players, despite a great work ethic. Hopefully, whomever they start at DT can prevent the run enough to get teams throwing more into the teeth of the Cover-2. When that happens, I believe you'll see a much improved defense as long as the pass D doesn't suffer a severe drop-off. Whether Williams can do that for us remains to be seen. If anything, the SB XLI demonstrated Cover-2 teams can become contenders with glaring deficiencies in their defense. Indy stepped it up in the playoffs, having only added McFarland during the season. Though they lost Corey Simon to illness early this past season, the Colts forced teams to throw a little in the playoffs and I believe that's where the Cover-2 is at it's best. The secret to dissecting it is the ability to run. When teams can control the ball enough, they have a better shot of defeating the Cover 2. That said, it's my opinion that DT's must possess sufficient explosiveness to exploit interior O-Lineman in run and pass defense. Size isn't as important given as evidenced by Indy and Chicago playing with 300 lb DT's.

Position non-specific.

OK, Dwight Freeney got franchised today. That means, Lance Briggs, Justin Smith, Asante Samuel, and now another standout defensive player are no longer available. If memory serves correct, NFL teams have already utilized the franchise tag more often in 07 than 06 with a few days remaining. Question is, who is the best free agent available?

Let's not take things to extremes. If we don't see the playoffs this year, is that acceptable as long as you believe the team remains in the process of building for the future? I'm just asking there, because I'd like to know what people think. IMO, seven years missing the post-season is a long time, especially in today's NFL. That groups us with the likes of Detroit and Arizona. I for one figured they'd be 5-11, 6-10 in 2006. They went 7-9. OK, fine as I figured they should get a pass in 06 because they changed GM's, almost the entire coaching staff, and had a question mark at QB. Taking those things into perspective, 7-9 isn't bad. They were rebuilding from a 5 year span that produced very little. I can understand building through the draft and not spending big money on bad and/or over-hyped free agents. Mortgaging the future with signing bonuese may only give you only a 2-3 year window to win, but being a playoff team 2 out of every 4 years is better than saying we're rebuilding every year.

I'm fairly certain those free agents last year (Tripplett, Royal, Reyes, Fowler, P.Price, Bowen, K.Thomas, A.Davis, A.Thomas, and Nall) came to Buffalo because we paid the highest. You could make the case a few of them enjoyed their visit and appreciated the atmosphere so they signed here. But money does talk. Let's admit to ourselves that none of those guys were highly anticipated on the open market. Buffalo went after them because they inspired little interest around the league. And that's why we got what we paid for. They are more depth than starters. Of that group, four were regular starters, (Tripplett, Royal, Fowler, P. Price) one was benched, (Reyes) one was injured and then didn't play. (Bowen) Combined, these additions played relatively average, but not much above that. I have a feeling our additions this season mirror last season's free agent signings. As for NC, I have to believe they'll let him go in FA. OK fine, but do we grab someone and get an above average player elsewhere? Cash to the cap ideology indicates probably otherwise. It would not be fair to assume that, but once March 2 rolls around, we'll see just what a lot of this Press Conference really meant. They'll finally be forced to show their hand and I'm looking forward to see what they have in mind. If that involves competing, then perhaps that's not a bad thing. I think Marv has enough sense not to mortgage the farm for any one player, but who we acquire will have a sizable impact upon where our strengths are next season.

Yeah, I totally agree, if the guy's going to get paid, then he's going to need to play outstanding football all the time. IF Losman and Evans continue to develop, I'll be very interested if we offer them what the market calls for. WR for one is a position that has been particularly lean in free agency both this year and last. CB is that way this year. There are some positions you cannot afford to be cheap in. Having a premier LT and QB make things a lot easier. On defense, MLB and 2-3 guys at the DT and DE make things all the better. Still, it's comforting to know a guy can be left alone in coverage. We've got young safeties who despite playing well this year are still young. They'll progress, but having experienced CB's make up for a lot of their mistakes. I truly don't see us signing NC. If so, who replaces him? Free Agency might provide the answer, but I see guys leaving and I'm afraid their replacements won't be their equal. I see why F-B doesn't fit the system and why Kelsay might be expendable with Hargrove and Denney capable of stepping in. I sure hope Youboty is ready to play or we devote another resource (FA signing and/or draft pick) to shoring up CB position. Nate leaving is not a good thing, no matter which way you spin it. You cannot lose three defensive starters and maintain the same level of play. I'm glad Coy Wire is happy with the atmosphere. Hopefully, that'll be a bargaining point in getting guys to come to Buffalo. I don't think there are many people who feel about DJ the way players think about Tom Coughlin. You can't treat pros like that and have good chemistry.

If Henry Jones comes back for the NFL Veteran Minumum (for 10+ yrs svc) we could move Whitner to CB and then be set in the defensive backfield.

Marv said they're not going to get into a bidding war with other teams over free agents. Read what you want out of that, it effectively limits which players we have a realistic chance of getting.

It seems the Bills are re-defining the role of General Manager. Okay, no problem. Then again, what exactly does Marv do? We know he's not a salary cap whiz or involved with contract negotiations. The Buffalo News article says his sole responsibility is dealing with personnel issues. But he didn't know McGahee announced to the football world through a shady magazine that Buffalo should move to Toronto. And recently he has begun to get more interested in scouting and such. Earlier this month the front office admitted they hadn't contacted Clements and his agent. I guess they were too busy signing Kirk Chambers and Coy Wire. The article continues, "Levy has gotten more involved in scouting. He likes studying college prospects and being a part of the evaluation process." If he's just getting on board with scouting, who made the call last year on those free agents and draft picks we signed? I wish people would stop giving this organization a free pass just because Marv is on board. Marv does not control the money supply. Let's start thinking realistically. The owner has laid down the gauntlet, financially speaking of course. Marv will need to work miracles with our limited budget to make this team even respectable. We're not going to amortize our future, but ask yourself what is the future? The General Manager will need super-human efforts out of his coaching and scouting departments to come up with talent that can fill the positions we're going to lose each season to free agency. I'd like to give Marv the benefit of the doubt, but the PC left more questions in my mind. Come March 2, answers (i.e. players) will begin to be supplied. And those answers won't be what Bills fans want. Pessimistic assessment, not really. But realistic, yes.

Cash to the Cap seems like Ralph's way to fight the large bonuses teams are giving out as a way of attracting players. I think Tripplett received the largest bonus last year, and it was 5.5M. I could be mistaken, but not using large signing bonuses probably translates into restricting the front office from getting better players in here. DeLuca, your scenario takes place after we fail to get better players in here and finish the coming season out of the playoffs. At which point will Bills fans allow their better players to leave because they want a bonus and see their replacements as cheaper, less talented players?