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5 reasons to re-sign Drayton Florence


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1) He's a very physical, aggressive corner. It's becoming crystal clear that the new front office is intent on creating a tough physical defense and Florence fits this mold very well. His willingness to bang anywhere on the field makes him the kind of guy the Bills are already looking for so get him under contract and save yourself some work.

 

2) Terrence McGee is most likely done. His strength was always his ability to recover and make plays down the field but his weakness was always that he struggled in short area coverage. Between age and injury both of those facets of his game are probably going to take a significant hit and as such he is no longer a reliable option on the outside and never was on the inside. Barring a remarkable recovery, there may not even be a place for him on this roster going forward.

 

3) Leodis McKelvin is too inconsistent at this point in his career. One week he can play an outstanding 4th qrtr against Calvin Johnson and be a huge factor in a rare win, the next he can be out there spinning around trying to figure out where he's supposed to be. Until he proves to be more reliable he simply cannot serve as the Bills #1 corner by default.

 

4) The more starting caliber CB's the Bills have the farther down the depth chart it pushes Reggie Corner, and imo the farther down the depth chart he goes, the better off the Bills defense is. As inconsistent as McKelvin was, as invisible as McGee was, as much as Florence struggled at times, and as unreliable as Whitner was, Reggie Corner was still the biggest pigeon in the Bills secondary. When opponents spread the field he was target #1, primarily because the guy is a human 3rd down conversion.

 

5) Better the devil you know than the devil you don't. Yes, Drayton had some issues last year (although I wonder if a lot of that was the fact that he had to spend so much time with his eyes in the backfield to support the Bills porous front7) but he's already familiar with what is likely to be an even more complicated system, he's a good fit with the kind of defense the Bills are trying to build, the staff is intimately familiar with his strengths and weaknesses and he's a veteran presence in what is going to be a very young secondary. The Bills have spent enough time creating holes for which they then need to commit limited assets to refill. If the kind of player you want is already in the neighborhood, there's no point in going out of town looking for somebody else.

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Okay, you've sold me. Now, what are you looking to offer him?

Sorry, I don't do contracts. :blush:

But after the fiasco in Jacksonville I've got to think there's not a lot of teams that will be stepping up to throw money at him, particularly with the surrounding labor uncertainty. Somebody smarter than me can determine fair market value and work with him on how he'd like a contract structured in that neighborhood.

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He has too big a mouth with not enough production.

Last year he had over 50 tackles, 15 passes defended, 3 picks, a forced fumble, a recovered fumble and a TD, making him arguable the most "productive" player in the Bills secondary.

What the heck kind of "production" do you want from a corner? :blink:

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He has too big a mouth with not enough production.

 

Seriously?

 

Compared to Donte' Whitner he is practically Marcel Marceau

 

He wasn't a pigeon. He wasn't a star. He was a respectable performer and seemed like a team guy.

 

Who would you rather have out there on the current Bills roster?

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Last year he had over 50 tackles, 15 passes defended, 3 picks, a forced fumble, a recovered fumble and a TD, making him arguable the most "productive" player in the Bills secondary.

What the heck kind of "production" do you want from a corner? :blink:

Seriously. I know it's common for fans to bad mouth a player when it appears they could be out the door, but Flo was easily the best DB on this team last year. If Williams struggles (which is very possible) and we let Flo get away, all of a sudden our 2 corners are the oft-injured McGee and Leodis (who is very shaky).

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4) The more starting caliber CB's the Bills have the farther down the depth chart it pushes Reggie Corner, and imo the farther down the depth chart he goes, the better off the Bills defense is. As inconsistent as McKelvin was, as invisible as McGee was, as much as Florence struggled at times, and as unreliable as Whitner was, Reggie Corner was still the biggest pigeon in the Bills secondary. When opponents spread the field he was target #1, primarily because the guy is a human 3rd down conversion.

 

:yeahthat: i never understood this board's love affair for reggie corner. whenever i watched him, he underwhelmed.

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He was the MVP of FA signings the last couple of years. He stepped in w all the injuries we had in the secondary and is a vet who provides leadership. He was active in the community and it seems like he wants to be here. I agree w your reasons but didnt need them to sell me. I've been saying we need to resign him since well before last season ended......

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I dont need five reasons. He is good, maybe not great, but good. If Whitner would shut his mouth and not want a huge contract he would be great to keep too, but the Bills are already paying the most for players in the AFC East so he needs to back off his target.

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Last year he had over 50 tackles, 15 passes defended, 3 picks, a forced fumble, a recovered fumble and a TD, making him arguable the most "productive" player in the Bills secondary.

What the heck kind of "production" do you want from a corner? :blink:

 

Please figure out when the majority of his production was during the game, you'll find garbage time & out of reach games. Performing when it doesn't matter was a hallmark of the defense last year, regardless of padding stats.

 

20% of his total tackles came in the first game, where was he the other 15 games? 95% of the tackles were solo after they blew by our O-line, so he had a line on the play. All his PD (Passes defended) came in losing efforts except for one game (Cin). Cincy was a huge stat padder for him & the rest of the team, as you can see. They also drafted next to us, so figure we beat up a suck team to find credit at the end of the year. Please feel free to read between the lines & draw your own conclusione before challenging my findings:

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/players/profile?playerId=4504

Edited by Scrappy
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Please figure out when the majority of his production was during the game, you'll find garbage time & out of reach games. Performing when it doesn't matter was a hallmark of the defense last year, regardless of padding stats.

 

95% of the tackles were solo after they blew by our O-line, so he had a line on the play. All his PD (Passes defended) came in losing efforts except for one game (Cin). Cincy was a huge stat padder for him & the rest of the team, as you can see. Please feel free to read between the lines:

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/players/profile?playerId=4504

His int for a TD came at the beginning of the Minnesota game, to put them up 7-0. The Int counts as a PD, so that wouldn't be during garbage time. The other pick that game was on the 1st drive. His FF in the NE game the score was 6-7.

 

You can make stats say whatever you want, especially when you're not actually analyzing the game and therefore making things up, as you are with your "95% of his tackles" stat.

 

The team only won 4 games, so you're saying his PD's didnt come in a total of 3 games last season? Not a very large sample to make a conclusion from. Also, pass defensed is probably one of the most worthless stats ever. Though you could say perhaps he wasn't targeted in those games, making it not possible to have a Pass Defensed.

 

Can we give him credit for being a productive player on a bad team, and actually playing out the whole year despite only winning 4 games.

Edited by Ghost of Rob Johnson
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Your stats don't say when in the game the play was made, to determine whether they were garbage time or not as you claim. His int for a TD came at the beginning of the Minnesota game, to put them up 7-0. Did you count that? The Int counts as a PD, so that wouldn't be during garbage time, right?

 

You can make stats say whatever you want, especially when you're not actually analyzing the game and therefore making things up, as you are with your "95% of his tackles" stat.

 

The team only won 4 games, so you're saying his PD's didnt come in a total of 3 games last season? Not a very large sample to make a conclusion from. Also, pass defensed is probably one of the most worthless stats ever. Though you could say perhaps he wasn't targeted in those games, making it not possible to have a Pass Defensed.

 

Revis had double the tackles & people avoided him like the plague:

 

http://espn.go.com/nfl/team/stats/_/name/nyj/new-york-jets

 

After game one, Whitner averages 3.75 tackles a game. That is not a solid year, nor does it deserve a top dollar return. This is my opinion as well, so you'll have a hard time debating me he worked hard during great times. Our team sucked & the defense was ran over, in all aspects. We didn't draft all this defensive help because of our depth or talent & if they planned on resigning Whitner for top dollar, they might have approached him during the season being so much under the cap.

 

He gets credit for being better than the rest of the terrible defense, you don't pay big for that.

Edited by Scrappy
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What happened to Demarcus Buggs hahah I loved this guy and he has a great name

 

NVM I need to lay off the beers its Marcus Buggs... he is a LB...I still love him hope he plays

What team would you like him to play for? :)

 

(Marcus isn't in the NFL right now)

 

Anyways, I agree with you, Simon.

 

DF played on a team with zero pass rush. He always played hard, came up hard in run support, and played a physical press style of cornerback.

 

Not saying much but he was our best CB by far and would be about the last DB I'd want to see this team lose.

Edited by San Jose Bills Fan
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3) Leodis McKelvin is too inconsistent at this point in his career. One week he can play an outstanding 4th qrtr against Calvin Johnson and be a huge factor in a rare win, the next he can be out there spinning around trying to figure out where he's supposed to be. Until he proves to be more reliable he simply cannot serve as the Bills #1 corner by default.

 

4) The more starting caliber CB's the Bills have the farther down the depth chart it pushes Reggie Corner, and imo the farther down the depth chart he goes, the better off the Bills defense is. As inconsistent as McKelvin was, as invisible as McGee was, as much as Florence struggled at times, and as unreliable as Whitner was, Reggie Corner was still the biggest pigeon in the Bills secondary. When opponents spread the field he was target #1, primarily because the guy is a human 3rd down conversion.

 

 

 

As the run D improves, and teams are forced to throw more on the Bills, we will see just how bad these guys really are.

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