Gaither Signs A One-Year Contract

[Bill from NYC]

It's not dissimilar to what they did with Clements, and that proved to be a good move.

 

Yes and no. It caused Levy/Jauron to waste a high pick on McKelvin when there were very good players who we needed much more.

To be fair, Clements wanted out very much. I heard him say it on SIRIUS. My problem with how it was handled was when Marv made him the "promise," and then let him go and got nothing for him.

[KRT88]

Feh! He was a 5th rounder. How good could he be?

 

PTR

 

Tom Brady was a sixth rounder...how good he be?

 

It doesn't matter where you were drafted, it matter what you have done since you became a pro. Apparently he's enough though his work ethic is still a concern

[Bob in STL]

I am just as uncomfortable as you but rather than waste money on yet another guy who can't play, I prefer that we do the best with what we have until we can find a guy worht the investment. Whether that is by trade, free agency or the draft, I don't know. Buddy has made the point several times and it makes a lot of sense: Adding a guy who can't play doesn't solve the problem, it makes it worse because you spend time and money hoping that the guy will improve and he never does. At the same time, though Gaither may not be all that good, he is better than what we have so I see the argument in support of signing him or someone similarly situated. Glad I don't have to make these decsions is all I can say. After the Dockery/Walker disaster, I am ready to give Buddy's way a shot.

 

 

Since when is Gaither considered a guy that cannot play? Gaither can play and he can play LT. It all comes down to what price are we willing to pay for him.

 

Nix's actions indicate he is not willing to pay that price. I just cannot believe that nix will sit pat with Bell, Meredith and Wang as his LT prospects.

[Alphadawg7]

Paying a premium price for Dockery and Walker was a classic example how inept the Bills front office was under Levy. John Guy was the pro scout who was responsible for assessing pro acquisitions. Levy was "in theory" the boss who presided over the football operations. This very nice man set this franchise back for years with his grotesque miscalculations.

 

I have very serious questions about Gaither. I don't see him as a long term solution because of his lack of work ethic. But putting that aside I agree with you that our present LT candidates as a group are very questionable. What is very worrisome is that Nix/Gailey seem to be satisfied with the prospects currently on the roster.

 

Looking at it now its easy to say what a blunder Dockery and Walker were, however, the only one that was really a bad move at the time was Walker. Dockery was the 2nd best OL on the market and the other one (Hutchinson if I am not mistaken) signed a massive deal setting the market. So, Dockery, who was a stud, was going to get that money anywhere he signed and he was a highly regarded young OL who was really up and coming and thought to have pro bowl type skills by just about everyone based on his play in Was.

 

Walker was not very good in Oak and got over paid because of the absurd price tags for OL in that years FA class. So, we definitely over paid for him and it was seen as a questionable move right from the start. Dockery though was us being aggressive and doing what ever it took to get premium help on the OL.

 

This is what Bills fans scream for every single year...to go out and spend what ever we have to get our guy. Of course, those same fans then turn on the FO and say how stupid the FO is for doing just that once the guy gets here and they realize he isnt going to be a savior...its kind of funny actually.

[PromoTheRobot]

Tom Brady was a sixth rounder...how good he be?

 

It doesn't matter where you were drafted, it matter what you have done since you became a pro. Apparently he's enough though his work ethic is still a concern

Really? Then why are people saying Wang will suck because of where he was drafted? It seems to me that around here an awful lot of importance is placed on where players get drafted. How ironic we crave players who were drafted low but dismiss our own players for the same reason.

 

PTR

[Bill from NYC]

Looking at it now its easy to say what a blunder Dockery and Walker were, however, the only one that was really a bad move at the time was Walker. Dockery was the 2nd best OL on the market and the other one (Hutchinson if I am not mistaken) signed a massive deal setting the market. So, Dockery, who was a stud, was going to get that money anywhere he signed and he was a highly regarded young OL who was really up and coming and thought to have pro bowl type skills by just about everyone based on his play in Was.

 

Walker was not very good in Oak and got over paid because of the absurd price tags for OL in that years FA class. So, we definitely over paid for him and it was seen as a questionable move right from the start. Dockery though was us being aggressive and doing what ever it took to get premium help on the OL.

 

This is what Bills fans scream for every single year...to go out and spend what ever we have to get our guy. Of course, those same fans then turn on the FO and say how stupid the FO is for doing just that once the guy gets here and they realize he isnt going to be a savior...its kind of funny actually.

 

That was the year of free agent guards. It wasn't Hutch that season; the big name was Steinbach (who the Bills should have drafted instead of MaGahee). The other (his name escapes me) was a big OG who was drafted as an LT by St. Louis as I recall. He was signed by Dallas.

 

What has always bothered me is the fact that the Bills do not devote draft picks to blockers as successful teams do more often than not. The Bills use their best resources on defensive backs and running backs. Then, they lose.

[vincec]

Yes and no. It caused Levy/Jauron to waste a high pick on McKelvin when there were very good players who we needed much more.

To be fair, Clements wanted out very much. I heard him say it on SIRIUS. My problem with how it was handled was when Marv made him the "promise," and then let him go and got nothing for him.

This is obviously the #1 priority ... resign your own players that are productive for you. So what if Clements didn't do well when he left Buffalo? He did well here and because he left the Bills had to spend another high draft pick on a DB to replace him. Same with Greer ... and Willis McGahee ... and Travis Henry. I would even throw Pat Williams and Antoine Winfield into this category. There were good football players, playing well for the Bills, who were allowed to leave/thrown out and left large holes that needed to be filled when they left.

 

The vast majority of your good players need to be resigned so that you can focus on building up your team in the offseason not replacing players that have left.

[JohnC]

Roaf is a perfect example of off-field stuff making the decision. I don't know what stuff went on behind-the-scenes, but I think that with his injuries, attitude, and performance in 2008, they felt he wasn't worth near what he was asking for, regardless of the difficulty in finding a new one. It's not dissimilar to what they did with Clements, and that proved to be a good move.

 

How much do you think an upper tier LT would cost if signed in free agency? How much would a high LT draftee get in his rookie contract? If you are not willing to pay the market rate then don't be surprised that a player would prefer playing for another team which is willing to do so.

 

Jason Peters forced a trade which resulted in him getting a fair market contract and an opportunity to play in the playoffs for the first time. Neither of which would have happened if he were still with the losing Bills. More power to him. The end result is that the Bills have a desperate need for a capable LT since his departure. Trading him is understandable. Not having a reasonable backup plan when he departed was an act of self destruction.

[Doc]

Yes and no. It caused Levy/Jauron to waste a high pick on McKelvin when there were very good players who we needed much more.

To be fair, Clements wanted out very much. I heard him say it on SIRIUS. My problem with how it was handled was when Marv made him the "promise," and then let him go and got nothing for him.

I think that once McNally was let go, Peters didn't care if he stayed or not. Staying away from the Bills until the day before the season started is something I hadn't ever seen done before, except Sean Gilbert who sat out the entire season.

 

As for Clements, the Bills weren't going to get anything for him in a trade, so the "no franchise" deal was essentially moot.

[H2o]

http://www.rotoworld.com/content/playernews.aspx?sport=NFL

Ravens RT Jared Gaither was absent from Tuesday's voluntary practice, one day after signing his tender and returning to the field.

 

"He practiced yesterday and did a nice job and told me the foot felt a lot better," coach John Harbaugh said. "The injection worked and the orthotics made a big difference." The absence is not injury related, and Harbaugh has no idea why Gaither wasn't present Tuesday.

More fuel for the fire.

[JohnC]

Looking at it now its easy to say what a blunder Dockery and Walker were, however, the only one that was really a bad move at the time was Walker. Dockery was the 2nd best OL on the market and the other one (Hutchinson if I am not mistaken) signed a massive deal setting the market. So, Dockery, who was a stud, was going to get that money anywhere he signed and he was a highly regarded young OL who was really up and coming and thought to have pro bowl type skills by just about everyone based on his play in Was.

 

Walker was not very good in Oak and got over paid because of the absurd price tags for OL in that years FA class. So, we definitely over paid for him and it was seen as a questionable move right from the start. Dockery though was us being aggressive and doing what ever it took to get premium help on the OL.

 

This is what Bills fans scream for every single year...to go out and spend what ever we have to get our guy. Of course, those same fans then turn on the FO and say how stupid the FO is for doing just that once the guy gets here and they realize he isnt going to be a savior...its kind of funny actually.

 

The Bills went out and spent recklessly for Langston Walker who was a mediocre talent to begin with. That was a serious miscalculation. Whether Dockery was the second best OL on the market is meaningless. There are years in which certain positions are very weak on the market. You could be the second best OG on the market and still be a very mediocre player who doesn't deserve a premium contract. The Skins are not known for being afraid to pay high salaries for average players. In the case of Dockery even they decided that at the price that the Bills offered it was too rich for them.

 

You are making a big mistake if you think fans are screaming for the organization to spend recklessly for below average talent. The Bills have been out of the playoffs for ten consecutive years and counting because they make foolish personnel decisions. What the fans want more than anything else is the front office to be competent, not stupid.

[GrudginglyPessimistic]

This is obviously the #1 priority ... resign your own players that are productive for you. So what if Clements didn't do well when he left Buffalo? He did well here and because he left the Bills had to spend another high draft pick on a DB to replace him. Same with Greer ... and Willis McGahee ... and Travis Henry. I would even throw Pat Williams and Antoine Winfield into this category. There were good football players, playing well for the Bills, who were allowed to leave/thrown out and left large holes that needed to be filled when they left.

 

The vast majority of your good players need to be resigned so that you can focus on building up your team in the offseason not replacing players that have left.

I think throwing them into the same category is superficially correct as they were all let go rather than resigned as FAs, but the reasons for each particular case were so different that to treat the all as being the same has skin deep accuracy but in reality is simply incorrect.

 

Specifically:

 

Clements- would have been a fool to sign any Bills offer which did not give him what the market was likely to give him in a what was pretty clearly going to be a tight CB market when he hit FA. Clements took a risk that he was not gonna get hurt, but he had already demonstrated that he was a legend in his own mind who likely would take this risk unless the Bills made him something like the nonsensical offer he eventually signed. True you want to resign your own if you can, but it seemed to me that there was no way Clements was gonna sign a deal that did not pay him far more than he was worth.

 

He was a pretty good player, but really always was the correctly #2 CB behind Winfield early in his career here. Interestingly, his great calling card as a playmaker proved to be his failing for us as his laying a PR on the carpet in a must-win game for us against Pitts scrubs cost us (along with bad Bledsoe play and Lindell missing a makeable FG) big tine.

 

When Clements hit FA he was arguably the #2 CB on the Bills behind McGee and there was a clear question as to whether the FO would have been the big fools to sign Clements to the size contract the market demanded or Clements would have been a bigger fool to take any Bills offer as the CB market tightened even more and Clements walked away with the biggest deal ever signed by a defensive player at the time.

 

McKelvin was a pick-up made necessary by not signing Clements but my sense is that McKelvin could make fumbles on returns at a cheaper cost than Clements could make fumbles on returns and letting Clements go was not a bad deal to make,

 

Winfield- On the other hand this was not a good guy to let go, but reality does have to recognize that TD had lined the ducks up to actually resign Winfield with cap money set aside to do this. While Clements was a showboater who never seemed to act like he had been there before everytime he made even a marginally good play, Winfield was a big time hitter in a little body. The Bills seemed poised to make him a substantial but reasonable offer and he seemed poised to sign it. However, the unexpected happened and TDs plans for SS were to bring in Chad Cota and Ainsley Battle and let these two duke it out on the field to see which could retire as the Bills starting SS.

 

However, both of these men joined the Bills and then retired in camp leaving us with the unacceptable plan C, Coy Wire. at starting safety. To make the situation even more singular who should come on the market but none other than Bellicheat completely hamhanded the negotiations with Lawyer Milloy and then cut him just before the season over chump change. By paying him tons above the market rate (which was quite high as Chicago also had an SS need and cap room to play). The Bills used AW money to get Milloy (and with him a pretty up to date Pats play book and a lot of mo which turned into a 3?-0 Bills blowout of the Pats on opening day.

 

In the long run not a good purchase, but for that Sunday afternoon worth every dime.

 

The bottiom line is that any attempt to claim losing Clements and losing AW (who walked after playing a season to a gigandous MN bid made possible by a arbiters ruling giving MN cash in hand to play with which then caused AW to renege on a deal he agreed to in principle and change his plane ticket from his agreed upon new home (NYJ I think) to MN. Anyone who claims the Bills simply let AW walk rather than match are ignoring the fact we did not have $12 mill or some other outrageous figure in cap room in a one time payment to AW.

 

The details of the other folks you mentioned are not as stark as this CB example (do you want to argue we should have kept McGaghee and developed him?) but the simple notion our problem is that we do not resign are own is just that simple.

[Fingon]

Anyone who says the Bills should have signed Clements is delusional. Yeah, he is really worth more than 8 years $80 million.