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Whaley-Dust Settles Approach to FA


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I guess we will be value shopping once again when free agency starts in March. I cant say I disagree with this approach. Especially this off-season where it seems like there isn't any one player that is worth over paying. High paid fa's usually tend to flop or not live up to high expectations.

What we need to do is value our own players and resign Byrd and start working on extensions for Dareus, A Will and Spiller. This team has alot of talent. We have 4 pro bowlers and at least another 3 players that played at a pro bowl level, Cordy, Kiko and Leodis to name a few.

I took the liberty of trying to put together a list of players that I think are players of value that we could go after..

QB- Schaub, Vick, McCown

RB- Toby Gerhardt, R Jennings, J Starks

Wr- K Britt, D Alexander, B Lafell

TE- B Pettigrew, J Finley, B Myers, D Dickson & Garrett Graham

OT- A Howard, E Winston, A Collins

OG- J Asomoah, G Schwartz, R Incognito

C- R Orhnberger, R Wendell

DE- C Wooten, R Ayers

DT- Mt Cody, T McDaniel, C Thomas

LB's- P Riley, B Spikes, D Bishop, A Jordan, O Schofield

Cb, S - T Thurmand lll, C Graham, J Leonard, R Doughty, Stevie Brown

 

Some of these players are coming off major injuries J Finley, Stevie Brown some of them character concerns R Incognito and K Britt. Im not saying we will pursue all these players but dont be surprised to see some rolling into Tempo with Russ & Crew

 

 

 

Players I love from this list

Perry Riley, Akeem Jordan, Stevie Brown. Garrett Graham, Austin Howard, J Asomoah &

James Starks

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That's great. I'm going to take a "dust settles" and "value" approach to rooting for the team next season. I'll refrain from purchasing season tickets or the NFL Sunday Ticket until the "dust settles" and I have a clearer picture of whether the Bills will actually be competitive for a change. And I'll decide to purchase individual game tickets based upon the "value" that they present as they get closer. I mean, if the Bills aren't going to act aggressively to plug roster holes, why should I as a fan act aggressively to lend my support?

 

Methinks that Brandon is going to have a particularly hard time selling tickets this year, especially after Pettine leaves and they draft a right tackle in Round 1...

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Man...see, I would actually take a flier on Kenny Britt. I know the guy is kind of a head case but you sign him to a one year or two year deal? That's worth it in my books.

I wouldn't mind this either kid is 25yrs old very young. Maybe this is the change he needs to get his career on track.

Another player I like is Akeem Jordan mlb from KC. This kid is a thumper would be a good compliment to Kiko in the middle

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With this value meal strategy we need to start building like the Bengals and Pats. Start bringing in some character risks for cheap. Aqib Talib, Blount, Dennerd, Pac man Jones, Carlos Dunlop. We need to take these types of risks in the draft and in free agency. Im not saying that we should load our team up with thugs. Just a sprinkle will be fine.

A player that will be available soon once the NFL reinstates him is Justin Blackmon I would trade a 4th round pk for a talent like him. We should do this before the Pats do the same.

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I'd be interested in knowing where this "dust settles" idea came from? All I read was this from Whaley:

 

http://www.buffalonews.com/sports/bills-nfl/bills-gm-begins-first-full-offseason-as-the-man-20140121?two-bills-drive

 

“Right before we left, we went over the free-agent possibilities out there,” he said. “We’ve narrowed it down to some key people we may be interested in. I’ll look at them, Monos will look at them. The pro department will look at them and cross-check along with the coaches.”

 

“We’re going to set the pros’ board exactly how we do the colleges,” Whaley said. “We’ll have free-agency meetings just like we have draft meetings, and stack a board.”

 

Whaley said the Bills should have enough salary cap space to do “what we need to do to get better.”

 

Whaley said he has a good grasp of the salary cap, which is managed by Jim Overdorf, Bills senior vice president of football operations. Overdorf handles contract negotiations, but Whaley said he has relationships with the agents with whom the Bills deal.

 

“I know what I need to know,” Whaley said regarding the cap, “and anything that’s really intricate, that’s when we lean on J.O. What we like to do is he gives us a spreadsheet of where we are cap-wise, what we can spend, what everybody’s cap number is, potential accelerations, potential escalators. So you’ve got to be cognizant of all that information, because you have to put value on our free agents and free agents we may be looking to sign.”

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I'd be interested in knowing where this "dust settles" idea came from? All I read was this from Whaley:

 

http://www.buffalonews.com/sports/bills-nfl/bills-gm-begins-first-full-offseason-as-the-man-20140121?two-bills-drive

 

“Right before we left, we went over the free-agent possibilities out there,” he said. “We’ve narrowed it down to some key people we may be interested in. I’ll look at them, Monos will look at them. The pro department will look at them and cross-check along with the coaches.”

 

“We’re going to set the pros’ board exactly how we do the colleges,” Whaley said. “We’ll have free-agency meetings just like we have draft meetings, and stack a board.”

 

Whaley said the Bills should have enough salary cap space to do “what we need to do to get better.”

 

Whaley said he has a good grasp of the salary cap, which is managed by Jim Overdorf, Bills senior vice president of football operations. Overdorf handles contract negotiations, but Whaley said he has relationships with the agents with whom the Bills deal.

 

“I know what I need to know,” Whaley said regarding the cap, “and anything that’s really intricate, that’s when we lean on J.O. What we like to do is he gives us a spreadsheet of where we are cap-wise, what we can spend, what everybody’s cap number is, potential accelerations, potential escalators. So you’ve got to be cognizant of all that information, because you have to put value on our free agents and free agents we may be looking to sign.”

Listen to his interview on the Bills app, He talks bout dust settle players. Says not looking to make splashes.

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I'd be interested in knowing where this "dust settles" idea came from? All I read was this from Whaley:

 

http://www.buffalone...two-bills-drive

 

“Right before we left, we went over the free-agent possibilities out there,” he said. “We’ve narrowed it down to some key people we may be interested in. I’ll look at them, Monos will look at them. The pro department will look at them and cross-check along with the coaches.”

 

“We’re going to set the pros’ board exactly how we do the colleges,” Whaley said. “We’ll have free-agency meetings just like we have draft meetings, and stack a board.”

 

Whaley said the Bills should have enough salary cap space to do “what we need to do to get better.”

 

Whaley said he has a good grasp of the salary cap, which is managed by Jim Overdorf, Bills senior vice president of football operations. Overdorf handles contract negotiations, but Whaley said he has relationships with the agents with whom the Bills deal.

 

“I know what I need to know,” Whaley said regarding the cap, “and anything that’s really intricate, that’s when we lean on J.O. What we like to do is he gives us a spreadsheet of where we are cap-wise, what we can spend, what everybody’s cap number is, potential accelerations, potential escalators. So you’ve got to be cognizant of all that information, because you have to put value on our free agents and free agents we may be looking to sign.”

 

http://blogs.buffalobills.com/2014/01/21/bills-again-have-value-plan-for-free-agency/

 

“I think we’re going to stay that course, value picks, guys that can come in and contribute and we get a real good return on our investment,” said Whaley. “We just set it up before we came down here. We set up the unrestricted free agents by position. What we’ll do is we have certain positions that we think will be interesting to us and we’ll pull out certain guys that we think we’ll be able to look at and talk to or try to get and when we get back we’ll give it to the coaches and have a free agent board set up just like a draft board by position and regardless of position.

 

We call them dust settle guys. After all the dust settles, but we can target guys now. We’ll see when the dust settles, but we can also go to them on day one and say this is what we’re willing to offer, but they’re not going to be big splash guys.”

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Nickell Robey was undrafted and therefore a FA signing. Alan Branch was a good get also.

 

I forgot about Branch but figured I was missing one

 

I don't put undrafted free agents in same category as free agency

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Listen to his interview on the Bills app, He talks bout dust settle players. Says not looking to make splashes.

http://blogs.buffalo...or-free-agency/

 

“I think we’re going to stay that course, value picks, guys that can come in and contribute and we get a real good return on our investment,” said Whaley. “We just set it up before we came down here. We set up the unrestricted free agents by position. What we’ll do is we have certain positions that we think will be interesting to us and we’ll pull out certain guys that we think we’ll be able to look at and talk to or try to get and when we get back we’ll give it to the coaches and have a free agent board set up just like a draft board by position and regardless of position.

 

We call them dust settle guys. After all the dust settles, but we can target guys now. We’ll see when the dust settles, but we can also go to them on day one and say this is what we’re willing to offer, but they’re not going to be big splash guys.”

 

Thanks for the links...I take that to mean they won't go throwing crazy money around, but that if there's a guy they want, they won't wait to go after him or pay more than is responsible to get him.

 

I'm okay with that.

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