Bye bye Donte...

[buffaloaggie]

I see Whitner gone and don't care. Poz, I see coming back. In fact, I'm praying for him to come back and add David Harris from the Jets (who I don't think the Jets have the money to re-sign).

From RapidReports:

 

SS Donte Whitner was one notable absence at locker room cleanout day. Whitner, an upcoming free agent, has been outspoken with his unhappiness regarding contract talks with the team. His locker is empty and his nameplate has been removed.

 

GOOD RIDDANCE!!!

[DrDawkinstein]

I agree, are those two players Pro Bowlers? Heck no, but are they the biggest weaknesses on the team, not even close. This team has so many holes, it makes no sense to create more. You don't get 25 draft picks, that is what it would take if you keep making new holes to fill with the several we already have. I think Poz's biggest problem this year was he was caught in the middle of the defense coversion, which wasn't thought all the way through, but was a decision made while they (Nix and Gailey) were standing at a podium announcing their signings.

 

Finally, after all this time, something I can agree with you on.

 

You have to keep your players, even if they are only OK, in order to BUILD a team. Or else you are constantly RE-building.

 

Keep Whitner. Keep Poz. Keep Florence. Keep Wilson. And if nothing else, let them be the low mark standard for talent to add to their position, or around them.

[bananathumb]

Hey whitner, good luck conning another team. Try it on Belichick.

[akm0404]

If you keep getting rid of your average players, you end up in a situation where, when a few of your starting players go down to injury, you end up playing with a lineup filled with undrafted free agents and practice squad refugees.

 

Sound familiar?

 

Edit: Also, the Bills are in absolutely no salary jeopardy and have the resources to sign their free agents AND draft picks AND a smattering of street free agents. They would have been WAY below the salary cap this year, had there been one.

Edited January 3, 2011 by akm0404

[shoretalk]

I think we'll re-sign Florence, Poz, & Wilson. Poz will be much better with an improved defensive line in front of him. Whitner's time in Buffalo is over....good riddance.

The more I have watched POZ these last few weeks get blown back by blocks and then make tackles downfield the more I have realized that he just doesn't have it. His coverage ... haha ... cannot even call what he does pass coverage ... is a gift to opposing players who discover that they have entered the POZ zone. The POZ Dispenser gives out receptions as candy.

 

Of the two, both of whom I think we should say goodbye to, and I hate to say this ... but I think Donte is the one we resign. Let Poz go off to get a lot of worthless tackles with some other team ... his statistics and Penn State history will sucker a team in. Who knows if we let Aaron go maybe that team can get a two-fer. Why not, it's the New Year and time to share glad tidings!

[DrDawkinstein]

The more I have watched POZ these last few weeks get blown back by blocks and then make tackles downfield the more I have realized that he just doesn't have it. His coverage ... haha ... cannot even call what he does pass coverage ... is a gift to opposing players who discover that they have entered the POZ zone. The POZ Dispenser gives out receptions as candy.

 

Of the two, both of whom I think we should say goodbye to, and I hate to say this ... but I think Donte is the one we resign. Let Poz go off to get a lot of worthless tackles with some other team ... his statistics and Penn State history will sucker a team in. Who knows if we let Aaron go maybe that team can get a two-fer. Why not, it's the New Year and time to share glad tidings!

 

The bolded statement is also an indictment of our DLine. Kyle Williams is the only one doing anything up front. Outside of Williams, blockers are allowed free runs from the line into the second level where they are FLATTENING our LBs.

 

Until the line is shored up, it wouldnt matter if you had Ray Lewis back there, the LBs are going to get destroyed on a regular basis.

[Dorkington]

Keep Donte and Poz, and add pieces to the defense around/in front of them. Getting rid of average players, when you have worse players, is just dumb.

[Drifter]

I am all for keeping Poz. He is a solid linebacker that will improve with additions to the D line and line backing corp. Donte on the other hand can go and get a wake up call on the open market. He wants to be paid like a top 5 safety. He is barely in the top 5 free agent safeties. I would put Dawan Landry, Quintin Mikell, Roman Harper and Bernard Pollard ahead of him on a wish list.

[Sisyphean Bills]

Hey whitner, good luck conning another team. Try it on Belichick.

He seems to be doing what he can to burn his bridges. Really looked like he mailed it in yesterday.

[Gabe Northern]

Throw in that McCargo dude and you have Marv and Dick's perfect trifecta.

 

Right. Blame it on Marv.

 

Because Tom Modrak's drafts were tremendous from 2002-2005 and 2008-10.

 

Luckily the Bills can stand some rough 2006-2007 picks with all of those pro bowlers acquired in the other drafts.

 

[DrDawkinstein]

He seems to be doing what he can to burn his bridges. Really looked like he mailed it in yesterday.

 

Just him? or the entire franchise?

[Gabe Northern]

Keep Donte and Poz, and add pieces to the defense around/in front of them. Getting rid of average players, when you have worse players, is just dumb.

 

Why do people insist these guys are average?

 

Do you watch other teams? Average strong safeties don't give up 11 TDs to tight ends (Whitner) or take horrible angles in run support. Similarly, average ILBs do not look painfully lost in pass coverage and make 75% of their tackles 7 yards past the line of scrimmage.

 

These guys suck. I agree that if you were to team them with Bruce Smith, Ray Lewis, and Deion Sanders in their primes they could be part of an outstanding defensive unit. Great point.

 

Back in the real world, if these guys ask to be paid like their top 10 talents, let them walk and spend the money elsewhere.

[pimp on da' net]

The bolded statement is also an indictment of our DLine. Kyle Williams is the only one doing anything up front. Outside of Williams, blockers are allowed free runs from the line into the second level where they are FLATTENING our LBs.

 

Until the line is shored up, it wouldnt matter if you had Ray Lewis back there, the LBs are going to get destroyed on a regular basis.

 

Unfortunately that's what happens when you use the 3-4 under tackle formation ( KW is not stacking,he's still penetrates)if you have a smallish DT he has to make the tackle at the LOS because he's literally 1 on 1 with the lineman. Now when he's combo blocked your ILB has to be instinctive & read the hole. But in the under tackle formation you sacrifice the ILB's to the opposing OL. That's why most teams use bigger stacking ILB's (250-260+ lb range) in that formation, plus when one of the ILB takes on the block the other has to be able to read their keys and also be instinctive in the hole. If we're gonna stick with this formation in run situations KW has to move out of there or we have to get bigger at the position. I think the plan next year is to go 4-3 on run downs and the 3-4 under tackle in passing situations to disguise the rush LB, still in all we need instinctive LB's at all positions (playmakers)that can get off a block.

[mattsox]

What a great plan, let them go and resign a broke dick, never healthy, one strike away from steriod suspension for a year, shadow of his oldself linebacker who said he didn't want to be in Buffalo instead. Boy do we have some Einsteins running this team?

 

Scary stuff. Hopefully this isn't the master plan of the offseason. I hope both Nix and Gailey wake up and realize than inaction and signing meandering low impact free agents will get them nowhere. I keep hearing Build through the draft. So how many drafts do I have to endure before we're in anything close to resembling a consistant 10-6 team year in and out???

[Spiderweb]

Thanks for showing everyone why it is better to build a defense from up the middle by starting with a DT and not a SS who is bad in coverage.

 

And when Poz is not resigned, Marv Levy's failure will be complete...

 

While Poz may not be elite at this point, losing him would create another gaping hole. Whitner I would offer what the Bills have been reported to have offered and possibly some incentives, but that's it.

 

Sign Poz, stand firm on Whitner.

[b stein 22]

Here is a picture of whitners locker. For all those Whitner haters this is for you.

 

 

http://nflbills.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/img00040-20110103-09432.jpg

[Logical Reasoning]

The guy works hard and plays hard but really has not gotten much done during the time here which began by a holdout and a year less on his contract than most rookies in the top ten were signing for that year. He turned down five mill because he wants seven which is an overpayment for both amounts, so the team that gets him for seven if that is in fact what he gets will have a situation similar to what we had with Peters, Dockery, and Walker. The best player in a position of influence is under paid compared to the lesser player and you lose the best one because you can't up the ante or meet the budget for one group position.

 

The Bills made a mistake signing Kelsay to such a huge contract. That was an overpayment but Whitner is asking for too much based on what he has done. I am more than happy to overpay for leadership but only to a degree. Whitner's request is foolish and he needs to question his agent.

[Red]

After reading the Bills website and how Whitner cleaned out his locker and was long gone afterwards, and purely on a knee-jerk reaction based entirely on the surface...

 

...I'd say Whitner is characteristic of the modern prima donna.

 

He's a little better than Maybin at this point, in terms of actual plays that he has helped with. Yet, because his salary is up in the air, he's a ghost.

 

Are these the actions of a true leader? Of someone who really wants to remain a Buffalo Bill?

 

My all-time favorite athlete, Bruce Smith, and who famously held his contract squabbles every offseason, never acted like such a pansy and to appear as so sanctimonious and self-serving as this move Whitner pulled.

 

Yeah, yeah, Donte. We get it.

 

You're not getting what you want, so we won't get you.

 

I've said this before, and I'll say it again: you're not Troy Polamalu. Or Ed Reed.

 

For all of your blabbering the past few seasons about guaranteeing the Bills in the playoffs, winning games, etc and all of them falling flat is not pumping the team up, they served to prove what kind of an idiot you truly are.

 

Like Maybin holding out of camp for the ability he has oh so glaringly displayed since being in Buffalo, shut your mouth and let your play do all of the talking.

 

There are two things that strike me as sad if Whitner is gone:

 

1.) that out of all his plays as a Bill, what I will remember most is his idiotic "Bills will make the playoffs" statement, and then they don't.

 

and

 

2.) that we could have had Haloti Ngata with that #8 overall pick. To not have Ngata, and to lose Whitner for nothing, would destroy Levy;s standing in my eyes and anyone else who felt we needed a safety over a true space eating, pass rushing, run stuffing DT monster like Ngata.

 

Today was alot about character. Again, don't tell me, show me. Whitner doesn't have to "tweet" anything.

 

Grow a damn spine and show some character. Answer why you deserve more money for a pedestrian performance as a safety.

[Dawgg]

... and according to him, "He wants to stay in Buffalo."

 

Bills free agent safety to be Donte Whitner was nowhere to be found during locker clean out at One Bills Drive Monday. The former first-round pick looked to be long gone with his locker completely bare including his name plate at the top, which was disappointing to see as far as his head coach was concerned.

“Tenuous would be a word you could use there,” said Chan Gailey when asked about Whitner’s future with the organization. “I didn’t realize that until I was told that a few minutes ago that that had happened. He’s a really good player. You’d love to have him on your football team, but we’re in a business where that doesn’t happen every time. We’ll wait and see what happens.”

When asked Whitner’s apparent intentions to exit quickly Gailey said the following.

“You don’t what kind of advice these guys get,” he said.

Here was Whitner’s bare locker late this morning. It’s the one on the left.

 

http://blogs.buffalobills.com/2011/01/03/whitners-exit/

[KOKBILLS]

Buh-Bye...