No Free Agent visitations

[ALF]

Let the FA's stay out there long enough to be more reasonable on contracts. I like that we have more cap space . 1 player Mario takes more then 10% of cap alone. look how the Ravens have to let starters go.

[8-8 Forever?]

Analytics. Get used to it. Big name money players will leave, including Spiller if he commands a big payday.

 

Oakland A's are the model. Guys like Miguel Tejada, the Giambi Brothers and Barry Zito all left for big contracts. That's the way the Bills are going to handle it now. Be prepared.

Yes. Spiller will get all the action until a QB develops, will play out his rookie contract, will have awesome stats (as he is the only good player on the team and getting 40 touches a game while the Qb develops) and will leave after his contract is up. And the Bills beat goes on. We will have a QB and no running game.

 

Its sometimes best to sit back and let these teams overpay these mid tier players. Come a week or two the Bills can sign players to reasonable contracts that can fill needs.

Right. bunch of Kirk Morrisons and Bryan Scotts. that'll get you in the playoffs. not in my lifetime. and we will praise the Bills for "not overpaying" as they trot out a minor league football team. Give me the Denver Broncos. That is a team that wants to win a title. Or Miami. Doing what it takes in a big boy league. While the Bills stay "financially prudent" as another season goes in the toilet.

[ALF]

If we build a dominate OL , it can make a average rb and qb good. That's why I would take a OT with 8th pick or trade it for both the Vikings 1st picks.

[maddenboy]

The Bills have missed the playoffs for the past 2 million years. Lets ask ourselves:

 

What's the one year plan?

 

I dont care about a 3 year plan.

 

What are the Bills doing to WIN THE SUPERBOWL THIS YEAR?

 

Nothing.

[Keukasmallies]

So, just figuring on the parking lots around RW stadium, how many flea market stalls do you think could be set up on weekends this fall...? Doesn't appear there will be any other reason to use the space.

[HamSandwhich]

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

[Nanker]

[uncle flap]

Did you guys hear that they called Lawson at 12:01 on Saturday? That tells me that they are trying.

 

I aslo can't imagine that he was the only guy that they called early on. Nearly every FA that has signed has either gone to a contender or has been extremely overpaid for.

 

There are plenty of good, solid guys out there can help the Bills. It takes some time to hammer out these signings when you aren't willing to overpay. Be patient.

 

There's no way that they go into the draft without signing a few more players; Most likely another LB, a WR, a Safety, and an O lineman. Probably a TE too. With the Bills' cap situation, they cant fill all those holes by over paying on top flight guys.

 

Oh, and "A's" is short for "Athletics." An apostrophe is used to mark omissions. As in "you're" and "can't" for example.

[Canadian Bills Fan]

Analytics. Get used to it. Big name money players will leave, including Spiller if he commands a big payday.

 

Oakland A's are the model. Guys like Miguel Tejada, the Giambi Brothers and Barry Zito all left for big contracts. That's the way the Bills are going to handle it now. Be prepared.

 

 

Bills have showed us they have no problem paying for top talent.

 

See Mario Williams

 

 

CBF

[Dibs]

Analytics. Get used to it. Big name money players will leave, including Spiller if he commands a big payday.

 

Oakland A's are the model. Guys like Miguel Tejada, the Giambi Brothers and Barry Zito all left for big contracts. That's the way the Bills are going to handle it now. Be prepared.

Bollocks.

Apologies for my previous post.....was getting frustrated with the plethora of ways people are finding to be negative around here.

 

Analytics is not going to be used in Football in the same way it is used in Baseball.

 

In Football there is revenue sharing and a realistic salary cap. There is a relatively level playing field in the NFL......which is totally different to Baseball. The aspect of "moneyball" that you(& others) are putting forward is simply the concept of "value for money". This concept has been used in the NFL since the introduction of the salary cap.

 

Also....in Baseball....it is far easier to assess an individual players' worth.....directly from their batting average. It is an individual stat totally unreliant on other people. It is easy to correlate this directly to the money that they command & determine their "value for money".

 

In football, how does one determine the relative level that one player is worth at one position on the team compared to another player? How does one determine the skill level of player "A" who plays with 5 pro-bowl players......and player "B" who plays with a bunch of journeymen? In short, there is no direct analytics that can achieve this. Talent evaluation via the "eye test" is key. One can't simply say that since a QB has a high QBR over the period of 7 games, that they are therefore a "good" QB and are therefore worth "X" dollars(Yes I'm looking at Fitz here).

 

Analytics will surely have its roll to play in talent evaluation......but likely more so with the evaluation success of the evaluators rather than with the actual players themselves.

Edited March 14, 2013 by Dibs

[KGun12TD]

Dear God, I am so tired of all the "Chicken Littles" on the boards. Relax people! We could be worst off. Chan and Fitz could still be running the show! Geez!

[dbringer]

Bollocks.

Didn't he play linebacker for the Titans?

[CBD]

Didn't he play linebacker for the Titans?

Syracuse guy, sign him up!

[thebandit27]

As much as it pains me to say it, no body wants to come to Buffalo. How is it that Laron Landry, Mike Devito and others have not expressed interest in signing in buffalo knowing that Mike Pettine is there. At this point, all we could hope for are trades.

 

Well, if it makes you feel any better, they did go after DeVito...he wanted to start, and he wasn't going to do that here, so he chose KC.

 

Or so says the USA Today:

 

http://www.buffalorumblings.com/2013/3/12/4096416/2013-nfl-free-agents-buffalo-bills-mike-devito

 

Also, I wouldn't jump to conclusions about no visitors...nobody knew Lawson was at 1 Bills Drive until they announced a deal.

 

For me personally, there's really only been 1 deal that I've looked at and thought: "boy, I wish the Bills would've done that"...that deal was Phillip Wheeler in Miami...good value. The rest of the signings have been massive over-payings, Levitre included.

[1billsfan]

We don't overpay, the franchise is a complete mess and is in full rebuild mode for the 3rd time in less than 10 years, has no QB, a bunch of college coaches, lousy facilities plus the place arguably sucks for a young single rich guy with a lot of money, etc etc. The Bills cannot compete. This movie repeats itself over and over. The Bills are like a minor league baseball team... develop college talent for the big leagues, otherwise stuck with over the hill and marginal guys. Just the way it is. Sucks to be a Bills fan.

 

All this free agent talk is background noise. The reason this team and almost everybody in the bottom 10 is a complete mess is because of the QB position. Obviously it's fun to banter back and forth about who might be signed or who wasn't signed, but seriously, what difference does it make?

 

The Bills need to hit on the "golden ticket" in this draft or next year's draft. Like the Niners did and like the Seahawks did. The Seahawks were kind of being laughed at this time last year. If Wilson never developed as fast as he did and they had to go with Flynn, that team would not have made the playoffs and would be looked at like an average club.

 

So the #1, #2, #3 ect. most important thing to make this franchise successful again is to hit on the "golden ticket" franchise QB. BTW, I don't think Smith is the "golden ticket", I think Manuel and Scott are the possible "golden ticket" QBs I'd target in this draft.

[Kevin]

 

Apologies for my previous post.....was getting frustrated with the plethora of ways people are finding to be negative around here.

 

Analytics is not going to be used in Football in the same way it is used in Baseball.

 

In Football there is revenue sharing and a realistic salary cap. There is a relatively level playing field in the NFL......which is totally different to Baseball. The aspect of "moneyball" that you(& others) are putting forward is simply the concept of "value for money". This concept has been used in the NFL since the introduction of the salary cap.

 

Also....in Baseball....it is far easier to assess an individual players' worth.....directly from their batting average. It is an individual stat totally unreliant on other people. It is easy to correlate this directly to the money that they command & determine their "value for money".

 

In football, how does one determine the relative level that one player is worth at one position on the team compared to another player? How does one determine the skill level of player "A" who plays with 5 pro-bowl players......and player "B" who plays with a bunch of journeymen? In short, there is no direct analytics that can achieve this. Talent evaluation via the "eye test" is key. One can't simply say that since a QB has a high QBR over the period of 7 games, that they are therefore a "good" QB and are therefore worth "X" dollars(Yes I'm looking at Fitz here).

 

Analytics will surely have its roll to play in talent evaluation......but likely more so with the evaluation success of the evaluators rather than with the actual players themselves.

 

I appreciate your explanation. I must say that with my post I wasn't trying to be negative.

 

To CBF I don't foresee the Bills doing what they did with Mario as long as Russ is running the ship. I understand that Russ signed him, but I just don't see a $100 million dollar contract coming anymore as long as analytics is the theme of the franchise.

[Dr. Fong]

I think the Bills basically had a choice Byrd or Landry and they chose Byrd. Now sign him to a long term deal averaging 8 mil.

[dpberr]

This panic/woe/doom response is how some generations (those born in the 80s and 90s especially) react to cause and effect because society has generally turned to one of instant gratification. We get our news, food, coffee, electricity all nearly instantly. Trained to want and expect things almost immediately, when it doesn't happen, there is this almost automatic response of panic. The Bills not gobbling up free agents in the day is akin to the power being out for a half hour or a cell tower down and we can't get on Facebook.

[Dibs]

I appreciate your explanation. I must say that with my post I wasn't trying to be negative.

 

To CBF I don't foresee the Bills doing what they did with Mario as long as Russ is running the ship. I understand that Russ signed him, but I just don't see a $100 million dollar contract coming anymore as long as analytics is the theme of the franchise.

 

No probs.....you copped the arse end of me reading the truly negative spun posts lol .

 

My point was that analytics won't hinder the Bills signing a Mario type deal in the future.....the salary cap automatically does that.

 

This off-season for instance. How could we possibly sign a player to 12-16m/year when we only have 21m left under the cap......need 4-5 FAs & be able to sign our rookies(5m)? Unless you mortgage future caps.....and have to cut your players and go through cap hell(like many teams are doing this season), the cap insures that there is no way to do it.

[NoSaint]

 

 

Well, if it makes you feel any better, they did go after DeVito...he wanted to start, and he wasn't going to do that here, so he chose KC.

 

Or so says the USA Today:

 

http://www.buffalorumblings.com/2013/3/12/4096416/2013-nfl-free-agents-buffalo-bills-mike-devito

 

Also, I wouldn't jump to conclusions about no visitors...nobody knew Lawson was at 1 Bills Drive until they announced a deal.

 

For me personally, there's really only been 1 deal that I've looked at and thought: "boy, I wish the Bills would've done that"...that deal was Phillip Wheeler in Miami...good value. The rest of the signings have been massive over-payings, Levitre included.

 

The irony - wheeler was a free agent last year and got only one year at 700k after Miami passed on him.

 

So that's a positive