What do you think is the reason why good FA wont come to Buffalo?

[Canadian Bills Fan]

From an offensive POV. Would it be the OL or our QB that would cause you to turn away? Which one is the bigger problem?

 

I say OL

[PromoTheRobot]

1) History of losing.

 

2) Bad rep of city and area.

 

What else do you need?

 

PTR

[Maddog69]

I think it is less about the top FA's not wanting to come here and more about the Bills not trying to bring them here.

The philosophy of the Bills has almost always been not to go after top Free agents and I tend to agree with that philosophy.

Now, if we were a really good team and were just missing 1 player, then by all means, break the bank to get him. But we aren't. So it makes no sense to overpay top FA's and end up with Albert Haynesworth.

That being I would have loved to see the team go out and bring in more mid-level talent to help out. They need help all across the O-line, D-line, LB, WR and obviously QB and there were guys out there they could have had at reasonable prices. The Bills chose not to go after any of them. I think part of the reason is that they intend to suck this year and try to get a high pick to get a QB and #2, I think with the lack of a salary floor this year, Ralph saw an oppoortunity to really save some dough this year so they only guys they brought in were low salary guys and undrafted FA's.

[UN-Hazed and Amuzed]

We should start with finding reasons that FA's would WANT to come here. Why would you want to play for the Bills if you had other options(besides being a fan)? 5 HC's(if you count Fewell) in 10 years, no playoffs in 10 years, No QB in 10 years, owner who is on his way out, should I keep going? I think you get the point, in fact I think we all get the point...

[Guest dog14787]

Sub Par Coaching/management

[tennesseeboy]

probably because they weren't asked, weren't offered enough money, were concerned and not confident in coaching, were scared off because of a poor offensive line.

 

The main reason is that we did not aggressively recruit them nor did we put together enough of a financial package for those we were interested in.

[McBeane]

1) History of losing.

 

2) Bad rep of city and area.

 

What else do you need?

 

PTR

 

This.

 

Honestly, if you could make millions playing somewhere like San Diego or Dallas would you choose Buffalo over them?

Edited September 16, 2010 by SpillerTime21

[BuffOrange]

I think it is less about the top FA's not wanting to come here and more about the Bills not trying to bring them here.

 

I think it is less about both of those and more about never drafting a good QB.

[tbonestake]

This.

 

Honestly, if you could make millions playing somewhere like San Diego or Dallas would you choose Buffalo over them?

 

 

Probably not

[Another Point of View]

Sorry guys, its 2 major factors

 

#1 Lack of talent already on the roster

 

#2 The coaching situation, you never know who will be fired next.

 

If I was a player, I stay away! You may be playing linebacker when you were drafted as a DE

Edited September 16, 2010 by Another Point of View

[Brainiac72]

all true, but what good FA's are we talking about? Who is so good that made it to FA that we needed? There have not been many the last couple seasons that I can think of. TO may have been one of the best and we DID get him. Karlos Dansby, but hard to top Miami as a destination for most of these guys. Bart Scott was a FA I guess, but the only teams in the running were his own team, and the free spending Jets who happened to have his former DC as head coach... and he still did not jump teams.

 

a 3-4 DE? Edwards was one of best available and we got him.

 

What else we really needed, QB and Oline, there has not been much out there.

[ChasBB]

High state income tax.

 

Alaska, Florida, Nevada, South Dakota, Texas, Washington, and Wyoming have NO state income tax. New Hampshire and Tennessee limit their state income taxes to only dividends and interest income, so regular earnings are not taxed.

 

So, you're an NFL player about to sign a multi-million dollar contract -- you gonna want to fork 8-9% of that over to NYS? !@#$ that. I'd play for the Titans, the Seahawks, the Cowboys, the Texans, the Bucs/Dolphins/Jaguars before I give up that additional income.

 

Oh, and other states that do have income taxes are a bit more reasonable on the tax rate. NYS=socialist state.

Edited September 16, 2010 by ChasBB

[Fan in Chicago]

From an offensive POV. Would it be the OL or our QB that would cause you to turn away? Which one is the bigger problem?

 

I say OL

Can you be specific about which OL was available, we courted and who refused to come ?

[filthymcnasty08]

Small Market- Big Time FA's can make a boatload in endorsements and local appearances.

History of losing-No apparent commitment to winning

History of being CHEAP - $ talks

Bad Reputation: Any/Every player out there is one or two degrees of separation from one of our former coaches...they talk to each other for certain.

For a QB: We havent had an OL in the top half of the league since 90's Fina Brown Nails etc. One deep threat, no possession reciever, no TE.

Weather

Facilities pale in comparison to rest of league

 

And who says we even try to go after top FA's to begin with....I don't see it.

[Hplarrm]

It all comes down to comparison of options with the primary factor for most athletes being which option provides the most $ up front.

 

There actually has tended to be a fairly minimal amount of movement in the FA market generally as far as it goes as it beyond movement of players who are at the bottom of their roster and reasonable fill-ins on ST. The Pete Rozelle model where virtually all teams are mathematically in the hunt until the last 2-3 of the season has become a reality (the key thing IMHO was the wildcard and expansion of the playoffs) and even a team which has been as mediocre as the Bills for a decade in producing results is still in the hunt mathematically (and even practically as the nets described them as "in the hunt' until very late last season). My guess is that this pool will expand even more this year with Goodell leading the charge into playing division games early and late.

 

Most players really do not have much of a choice in terms of locale and add-ons and are happy to take a marginally higher offer from the Bills or other teams. A player who does have a choice like a Brett Favre or a Donovan McNabb may simply dismiss us out of hand (or merely use us as leverage in negotiations with others) but these players are rare and as the problems with this team extend far beyond one person (even someone worshipped like QBs are) this does not strike me as a real issue with the goal of getting good.

 

The team has actually been able to attract an FA like TO who like it or not was pretty much the #1 producer at WR for this team last year. They also got one of their starting CBs from FA last year in addition to signing add-ons like Scott who were rejects from other teams who have performed for us.

 

In addition, to holding our own among most higher profile FAs, the team also had had a few examples of very good UDFA signings like Peters (who had his choice among several teams but belief in Mouse MacNally and other things got him to come here.

 

Mismanagement of his contract cost the Bills his play but actually says a lot about this from a player perspective. If making big bucks is your primary motivator then signing with the Bills is not a bad move. Ask Dockery, Langston Walker, Schobel, Kelsay or Peters (who got everything he was demanding contractually by following the Schobel model of hanging tough with the Bills.

 

Of course, there are other factors (being close to winning is a key but we are not there) but in the end, the buck stops with the owner. Mr. Ralph has utilized his capitalist given right to meddle and from his handshake deal to ignore the salary cap and shake hands with Jimbo to reward him in his next contract (which due to Mr. R's bad football judgment never happened).

 

IMHO, a big part of our 0 for a decade playoff streak has been our relentless mismanaged search for a savior at QB which led us to:

 

start a year later than we should of looking for our next QB

draft TC at least a round early

make TC the starter when he still needed training to reduce his happy feet (if that is even possible)

overreach for that idiot Bill Joe

spend not an unreasonable amount to get RJ but then guarantee his contract too early w/o proof he was not injury prone

set-up a situation where if DF played as we hopped we ended up with both RJ and DF cap hits (which led directly to the having cheaper ST guys who did not stay in their lane on the Homerun Throw-up.

Extending Bledsoe when we should have cut him and declared his pick-up a wash (1 deserved Pro Bowl and 1 bad seasons)

rushing JP to start before even he admitted he was ready

the current QB folderol.

 

Ultimately Mr. Ralph played a direct role in each of these decisions (he made the original Jimbo error and had public finger prints on the end of the RJ/DF saga. He almost certainly played a direct role in some of the big contract decisions (extending RJ, Bledsoe and signing Hobert may have not been at his specific initiation but he had to have some clear sign off), and in the end the buck stops with him even if he is hands off.

 

My GUESS is that the ultimate FAs like Shanahan have no interest in coming here because though the owner deserves great credit for keeping the team here he also exercises his "right" in our system to meddle and he does this badly.

[Rico]

No secret around the league that Ralph is a POS, all problems continue to start there.

[TheBlackMamba]

1. no committment to winning consistenly

2. climate

3. notoriously frugal owner

4. state income tax

[SouthGeorgiaBillsFan]

I think it is less about the top FA's not wanting to come here and more about the Bills not trying to bring them here.

The philosophy of the Bills has almost always been not to go after top Free agents and I tend to agree with that philosophy.

Now, if we were a really good team and were just missing 1 player, then by all means, break the bank to get him. But we aren't. So it makes no sense to overpay top FA's and end up with Albert Haynesworth.

That being I would have loved to see the team go out and bring in more mid-level talent to help out. They need help all across the O-line, D-line, LB, WR and obviously QB and there were guys out there they could have had at reasonable prices. The Bills chose not to go after any of them. I think part of the reason is that they intend to suck this year and try to get a high pick to get a QB and #2, I think with the lack of a salary floor this year, Ralph saw an oppoortunity to really save some dough this year so they only guys they brought in were low salary guys and undrafted FA's.

 

"The philosophy of the Bills has almost always been not to go after top Free agents and I tend to agree with that philosophy."

 

You mean like James Lofton, Cornelius Bennett, Bryce Paup, Drew Bledsoe, Takeo Spikes, London Fletcher, Terrell Owens, etc etc etc...

 

"I think part of the reason is that they intend to suck this year and try to get a high pick to get a QB and #2,"

 

lol...and this is why Bills fans don't get paid to run the franchise.

[mattsox]

It's a bad organization. The owner doesn't have a win now attitude. He doesn't hire relevant GMs or Head Coaches. The Players on this team belong in the UFL. There might be 20-25 players that belong on actual NFL team here. Bad drafting and bad management of this team has lead to this organization being completely inept. Why would anyone any allpro player wanna come to Buffalo? There is no draw. This team is not built to win championships. They are not 1 or 2 players away from it. They are move like 30 players away. So that is why good FA won't come to Buffalo.

Edited September 16, 2010 by mattsox

[BobDVA]

What top FA's are you referring to not wanting to come here? Personally, I did not see a whole lot out there that I would have been willing to pay more than they were worth to obtain. The free agent market this year stunk to high heaven.