Some thoughts as the Bills go into free agency and the draft

[jahnyc]

1. It is amazing the number of holes we have, even after drafting relatively early in each round and re-signing a bunch of our current players the last couple of years. Needing to fill a number of these holes with free agents is a direct result of poor drafting over the last three years by Nix, particularly in the later rounds.

 

2. I think many free agent WRs will not be interested in the Bills because of our QB situation. Of course, overpaying them may help to overcome this.

 

3. Nix also deserves criticism for acquiring and keeping Merriman for too long. He wasted way too many dollars that could have used for other needs on the hope that Merriman would return to form.

 

4. Seems unlikely that the Bills will re-sign Levitre. I would think that San Diego would be attractive for Levitre since he is from that area and our former o-line coach is now the o-line coach for the Chargers.

 

5. The Levitre negotiations seem similar to the Poz negotiations from a couple of years ago. The Bills seemed half-hearted in trying to keep Poz and he left. Almost as if the Bills wanted to make it appear that they were out-bid more for public relations reasons than anything else.

 

6. I wonder if the Bills have decided that they will need to re-sign Woods next year, and this is more important than re-signing Levitre this year. If this is the case, I am not sure I agree given the injury history with Woods versus Levitre staying relatively healthy in his four years as a Bill.

 

7. I don't really care if the Bills restructure Fitz (i.e., cut his compensation) or release Fitz, but I really do not like the prospect of Fitz and/or Jackson battling for the starting job with a rookie QB. The QBs available in this draft are one of the lowest rated overall groups of QBs I can recall and none of them seem ready to be a day-one starter. It is really depressing that Nix may be forced to draft one of these guys in the first round because of such an extreme need.

 

8. Speaking of Poz, Nix has not been able to find an adequate replacement for him. Sheppard has been really disappointing and is a significant downgrade.

 

9. I would not be excited if the Bills add Landry at SS. He is older, below average in pass coverage, and has had injury issues in the past. It would be an admission of another drafted player (in this case Searcy) being unable to step up if the Bills sign Landry.

 

10. I was surprised that the Bills re-signed McKelvin. Seemed like there were a lot of decent CBs available in free agency. McKelvin as a starting CB scares me.

 

11. I have not heard much about our needs at DE, and I think they are significant. I don't think Anderson is a three down guy, and is more of a pass rushing specialist type. Do we even have a third or fourth DE currently on the roster?

 

12. I would be fine if the Bills drafted o-line in the first round this year of the draft. LB or DE would be okay as well. There is real quality available in the first round at these positions. Please do not reach for a QB.

 

13. Going into free agency and the draft, we have a significant lack of starting caliber players and/or depth at so many key positions (QB, WR, LB, DE and CB). It will be interesting to see how they get filled.