Andy Levitre

[Dragonborn10]

You don't pay him LT money if he is signed before the 2012 season. That is how you get these guys at a discount. Redo their rookie deals early. Use the worry of injury to get them at a small discount. Maybe they tried. I'm guessing they didn't because they blew their wad on Mario and Anderson. RW then said no more signing bonus money between his tablespoons of baby food. Nix was wrong when he said you can't sign them all. He knew they were both up for new deals. All he needed was one of them to sign early and the core of the team is intact.

 

[brucethomas34]

They should of been smart and paid him after his 2nd or 3rd season...smart not to pay him after the 4th, just a guard.

[ColdBlueNorth]

Has anyone bothered to look at the Titan blogs and articles? If they did they would see that they are full of complaints about Locker needing better protection from an o-line that has Womack and Levitre as their bookend guards.

 

I am not saying that it was not a mistake to not address the guard position - it was, but paying Levitre the kind of coin the Titans did when he was nursing a bum knee does not make a lot of sense when rebuilding.

 

The coaching staff did not seem to have much faith in any of our left guard candidates through camp. We will see...next year's draft DB, OL, TE, and maybe throw in a 2-gap wide body run stuffer to boot.

 

Getting pretty tired of losing though, but we do not have that veteran all-star QB to hide all our team warts like NE does. No choice but to take our lumps, and hope the kid is not ruined before he finds his game.

[mannc]

I wouldn't overpay for a LG especially since this team is in rebuild mode.

What do you care? You're not writing the check, are you?

[enlightener]

first nice title OP how did you think of that? also REALLY? we should have kept him? oh was it going to be free? anyone who knows football knows its harder to find a probowl safety than a guard but hindsights 20/20 and who knew byrd would be a shyt.

[3rdnlng]

I dont recall ever reading that the Bills made a contract offer to Levitre and that bothers me to no end (refresh my memory with a link to an offer if you can). To think that our offseason plans were to let AL and CR walk without offering them contracts and then playing hardball with JB by offering him a contract and refusing to negotiate is astounding. That sounds like a plan for discarding your best players and fielding a losing football team to me.

 

You might want to check the facts before voicing an opinion.

[Omar Little]

Letting Levitre walk was a mistake from the get-go and that bad decision is coming home to roost. The Bills don't even give themselves a chance when they let players like him leave.

[3rdnlng]

I agree. But I think what gets lost in the simplicity of these arguments is that the Bills didn't simply have two options: to (1) pay Levitre premium dollar in a talent-starved free agent market, or (2) to let him go. The Bills could have done with Levitre what they did with Eric Wood this year, or with Fitzpatrick two years ago, or with any number of previous veterans that they rightly or wrongly recognized as important fixtures of their roster: they could have negotiated a contract well IN ADVANCE of free agency (likely by a full season, as with Wood), and kept competitors from dictating (or driving up) his value.

 

Granted, BOTH sides need to be interested in coming to these agreements early, but most players tend to be willing to trade the possibility of a premium contract for the security of long-term agreement one year before their current contract elapses. The Bills certainly understand this, but while there were some preliminary discussions (if memory serves) with Levitre early last year, they didn't last very long, and there wasn't a lot of interest on the part of the Bills in keeping discussions open-- with Levitre OR Byrd. The Bills instead took a chance, saved money last year, and ended up losing (arguably with both players). I know Whaley wanted to set a precedent-- he didn't want to get kicked around by aggressive negotiations, especially with Wood, Spiller, and others soon to enter contract years-- but the BILLS could have set a far more important one by locking up their core players BEFORE they hit the market. The front office's approach to Eric Wood-- showing loyalty and providing security by extending him early-- set a far more valuable precedent than letting Levitre walk (who did that benefit?) or playing hardball with Byrd.

 

Levitre, who was a great player for the Bills, made it plain that he was going to test free agency. He did and received an offer that the Bills or most of the other NFL teams wouldn't dream of matching. The Bills were remiss in not bringing in an adequate replacement.

[papazoid]

"I'm in limbo right now," Levitre told me this afternoon from his home in Northern California. "I don't know what their plan is.

 

"Now that Jairus got his franchise tag, there's a week and a half for them to work a deal out with me. But I haven't been offered anything yet. We're waiting around to see if something will pop up."

 

"It would be in the Bills' best interests to at least throw me an offer to see if we can get this thing rolling. There's a lot of unknown for me."

 

"If the Bills offer me a fair deal, I would love to stay there," Levitre said. "I'm very familiar with the place. I love the people there. My girlfriend's from there. There are a lot of reasons to be there.

 

"It would be great to come back, but I understand the business aspect of it. Sometimes, things don't work out. Hopefully, we'll know something soon."

 

http://blogs.buffalonews.com/press-coverage/2013/03/andy-levitre-is-waiting-bills-should-at-least-throw-me-an-offer.html

[Dibs]

I would have loved giving Rinehart 2 million dollars a year.

 

Yeah, this was the much bigger mistake made IMO. They had a decent talent in Rinehart who they could have signed for relatively low money.....and they obviously didn't fully recognize that talent and/or overestimated the talent left on the roster.

[TXBILLSFAN]

"I'm in limbo right now," Levitre told me this afternoon from his home in Northern California. "I don't know what their plan is.

 

"Now that Jairus got his franchise tag, there's a week and a half for them to work a deal out with me. But I haven't been offered anything yet. We're waiting around to see if something will pop up."

 

"It would be in the Bills' best interests to at least throw me an offer to see if we can get this thing rolling. There's a lot of unknown for me."

 

"If the Bills offer me a fair deal, I would love to stay there," Levitre said. "I'm very familiar with the place. I love the people there. My girlfriend's from there. There are a lot of reasons to be there.

 

"It would be great to come back, but I understand the business aspect of it. Sometimes, things don't work out. Hopefully, we'll know something soon."

 

http://blogs.buffalo...e-an-offer.html

If what Levitre said back then is even 1/2 true, what an indictment to this FO --- again, Brandon is the problem -- get rid of him and we might have a chance --- isn't 13 years enough misery for one fan base

Edited September 24, 2013 by TXBILLSFAN

[Pirate Angel]

I can understand not wanting to pay that kind of cash for a Guard...Levitre is a a good solid guard, not great, so i can get past letting him go. I can never understand why the position was never addressed, not by an aging vet, not by retaining rhinehart, not by the draft....Colin Brown who has never been good in his life was handed the job.

[thewildrabbit]

LG Andy Levitre wouldn't fix the Bills offensive woes all by himself. Would he be able to help that left side run pass / run block better then they currently are, sure thing. But the scheme, and play calling are dooming this offense more then one player can fix.

 

The Bills need more then one upgrade on that O line IMO. They also need a decent pass catching TE that can run after the catch.

[Omar Little]

If what Levitre said back then is even 1/2 true, what an indictment to this FO --- again, Brandon is the problem -- get rid of him and we might have a chance --- isn't 13 years enough misery for one fan base

 

The man who owns the team is the problem. That's not Brandon.

[Mickey]

You don't give OT money to a guard.

 

Play-calling was a bigger issue than O-line play. EJ took a couple of those sacks because he held the ball too long. He's a rookie. The pass protection was good enough.

I think the money you give a guy is a function of the distance between the quality of his play and that of his replacement. Using that measure, Levitre was invaluable.

[papazoid]

LG Andy Levitre wouldn't fix the Bills offensive woes all by himself. Would he be able to help that left side run pass / run block better then they currently are, sure thing. But the scheme, and play calling are dooming this offense more then one player can fix.

 

The Bills need more then one upgrade on that O line IMO. They also need a decent pass catching TE that can run after the catch.

 

it's about TIME & SPACE

 

EJ has less time & CJ has less space. Levitre provides more of both.

[xsoldier54]

I think Levitre is hetero, so you are out of luck

Maybe but all of these Levitre threads are gay.

[TXBILLSFAN]

The man who owns the team is the problem. That's not Brandon.

Agree 100% (before January 2013); however, Brandon made it clear that HE was in charge --- either way, you are right, a new owner would be the only one capable of firing Brandon

[C.Biscuit97]

Fact: if the Bills never let go of Peters and Levitre, they would have never lost a game. I wonder how many fans can name the starting guards of the 3-0 Bears? guards are very easily replaced and I still won't pay AL that much money. But as others have said, the problem is not getting some better than Brown to be the replacement.

[NoSaint]

You don't pay him LT money if he is signed before the 2012 season. That is how you get these guys at a discount. Redo their rookie deals early. Use the worry of injury to get them at a small discount. Maybe they tried. I'm guessing they didn't because they blew their wad on Mario and Anderson. RW then said no more signing bonus money between his tablespoons of baby food. Nix was wrong when he said you can't sign them all. He knew they were both up for new deals. All he needed was one of them to sign early and the core of the team is intact.

 

I think many neglect that if we gave him a 6m raise last year and then paid him 7m a year instead of closer to 8 like the titans, we'd just be shifting money around not actually saving. I don't think we were getting him at a massive discount last year. He wanted to maximize money, and that's his choice to make - can't fault him.