Bills 2017 FA Class or Gilmore/Woods?

[Adam727]

I hope it's ok I'm starting a thread with only 10 posts, I couldn't find one that this question would be a good fit for.

 

But now that the first few waves of Free Agency are over...

 

It looks like the Bills have spent roughly $22mil(ish)/year to sign all the new FA's they've picked up so far (Hyde, Holmes, Poyer, Dimarco, Hauschka, Brown, Davis, Ducasse, Tolbert, Butler, Johnson, Washington)

 

For the same amount of money the Bills probably could have brought back Gilmore & Woods. (And had no money to build the rest of the team, meaning we'd need to lean on a lot of UDFAs this year)

 

I personally thought it was a good move that the Bills didn't "overpay" for Gilmore or Woods. But now that we can see how they spent the money instead, I'm wondering if re-signing two proven above average starters wouldn't have been a better way to go. Other than Hyde, Dimarco, & Hauschka I'm not sure how many others on that list have starter potential.

 

I'm curious what everyone else thinks. If you had to choose would you take Gilmore/Woods back or the list of players above?

 

 

[Kmart128]

We couldnt bring back Woods and Gilmore. We still have a ton of spots that need filled. If we brought back those two we would have had to sign like 40 UDFA to fill out a roster lol

[CDogg20]

I'm ok with the moves that have been made. I'll really miss woods but steph I was never too high on anyways. Plus him then going to the Pats* sealed my hatred for him so good riddance. We needed a kicker and did that, and also got Hyde and Dimarco. If anything I think we got better this off-season while saving money. Right now id say we're a better team than we were 6 months ago.

[NewEra]

I love the moves we've made. I think we're much better of going the route we did s oposed to signing Gilmore be woods

[Hurricane]

I love the moves we've made. I think we're much better of going the route we did s oposed to signing Gilmore be woods

Agree..

[ChiGoose]

Letting Woods walk was the right call regardless of our cap situation. I liked him enough, but he was overvalued. I also liked Gilmore, but he is only effective in certain schemes. Even if he was going to fit our newest scheme, it was going to be too much money with our cap. In an ideal scenario where we had cap space and a scheme that fit his talents, I would have kept him. Since that wasn't the case, it was right to let him walk.

[papazoid]

i'd say we are alot better off spending that $22 mil on those 12 new FA vs keeping gilmore & woods

[YoloinOhio]

Interestingly most people felt Woods wasn't even good enough to be the #2 WR going into last season. Many felt he was a fringe 2,good WR3 and we needed to upgrade at WR2. So even though we still need a solid wr2 I don't think he was worth the money to retain at his value.

[Mark Vader]

I'm satisfied with the moves the Bills made.

 

Are all of these players we signed going to work out? I don't know.

 

They addressed needs, and I have little to complain about.

 

I am going to miss Woods. I liked his play and the attitude he brought to his game.

 

As for Gilmore, I would have liked to have kept him, but I was angry with how he carried himself during last season. So I will not miss him.

[Big C]

Interestingly most people felt Woods wasn't even good enough to be the #2 WR going into last season. Many felt he was a fringe 2,good WR3 and we needed to upgrade at WR2. So even though we still need a solid wr2 I don't think he was worth the money to retain at his value.

 

I feel like Woods has the abilities to be a quality #2. He was drafted in the second for a reason. We just never really got to see him flourish here, for lack of a quality QB or a run-heavy offensive scheme, perhaps? Unfortunately I don't think he's going to fare much better in LA, but at least he's getting paid!

[BarleyNY]

It probably makes sense in the context of McD's predominantly Cover 3 scheme to not spend big on CBs. From a difference maker standpoint we lost one in Gilmore and didn't replace him with another player of that caliber. The Hyde signing was our best get in FA. He rates between Gilmore and Woods. Beyond that it's mostly depth and stopgap players. Still, they'll be some of this sort of thing when a new scheme is implemented and the cap is pretty tight. Definitely some holes left to fill, but Whaley did a good job for the situation he (at least partially) put himself in.

[RyanC883]

Fire WHaley!!!

 

J/K. That's a great question by the OP. Personally I like the moves so-far, esp. Hyde, Dimarco, Hauschka,and Holmes.

 

Woods is listed by some as one of the worst FA signings because of his cost and past-production. Holmes offers much more upside, IMO.

 

And I'd take the versatile Hyde over an overpaid Gillmore who is too inconsistent. We also needed a new kicker, problem solved. Keeping Alexander was also nice. Perhaps he is the next "ageless" LB (James Harrison being the 1st).

[JerseyBills]

It probably makes sense in the context of McD's predominantly Cover 3 scheme to not spend big on CBs. From a difference maker standpoint we lost one in Gilmore and didn't replace him with another player of that caliber. The Hyde signing was our best get in FA. He rates between Gilmore and Woods. Beyond that it's mostly depth and stopgap players. Still, they'll be some of this sort of thing when a new scheme is implemented and the cap is pretty tight. Definitely some holes left to fill, but Whaley did a good job for the situation he (at least partially) put himself in.

Good post.

I personally loved this FA class, including retaining Tyrod, Zo,Groy,Mills, etc... I feel like we got tremendous VALUE in our signings. Then you look at the contracts Gilmore and Woods got and I feel NE and LA both overpaid by alot. Talented players but I'm very happy we didn't sign em for that amount.

 

I don't know, it felt different this year, like it was all business , no signings that made you feel like it was 'a marketing ploy.

[Chuck Wagon]

Keep Gilmore, let Woods walk. We have enough cap space to have kept Gilmore and have our same FA class if we restructure Clay and/or one of Darues / Hughes / Glenn or if we would have put a "Post June 1" designation on Williams or Graham. Only signing I dislike is Ducasse, but I'm not convinced he makes the final roster. I think we signed "good football players" but I'm not sure any of them move the needle outside of Hyde.

[Doc]

Woods got way overpaid. And I'm still shocked that the Cheaters gave Gilmore all that money.

[r00tabaga]

You had me at no more Carpenter.

[blacklabel]

I'm good with how free agency has gone down for them this season. Again, no really big "flashy" signings but quality players with versatility.

 

I was a Gilmore fan from day one, I felt like he was the best corner to come from the 2012 class. He certainly didn't deserve the bum rap he got from some fans as every CB gets beat now and again. Also, it's likely not easy to stay consistent when you're working under a new head coach, defensive coordinator and different scheme every season or every other season. Gilmore is a good player but not irreplaceable. If he had been a consistent Pro Bowl/All-Pro type player I would've wanted the Bills to pony up to keep him, but he isn't that so it's fine by me that he went elsewhere. He has some excellent traits and abilities but he does tend to shy away from tackles (and I think that's because of the injuries he suffered early in his career which were the direct result of being involved in tackles) and to hear that he felt disrespected and unwanted in Buffalo kinda baffled me. Unfortunately his reputation in Buffalo was any time a pass was completed on him there was a ridiculous group of fans who screamed about "how awful" he was, as if the only acceptable type of DB play for these fans was if Gilmore or any DB allowed a 0% completion rate, which is impossible.

 

I was also a fan of Woods, there's a lot to like about the guy. He's a team-first guy, realized his role within the offense and really excelled as a blocker. I'm sure he was bummed out more than a few times after some games when he was getting open consistently but just not being seen by whomever was under center. Again, tough to be consistent with the turnover this team has gone through since 2013. He worked with Marrone/Hackett/EJ, then Marrone/Hackett/Orton (his best season), and then Rex/Roman/Taylor, and Rex/Lynn/Taylor.

 

When you stack those two guys up against the guys they've signed, it's fine. They upgraded at kicker. They upgraded at fullback (Felton is a great blocker but didn't offer much beyond that, Tolbert has been RB1 before and DiMarco catches it coming out of the backfield, the H-back or the TE spot), they upgraded at safety with Hyde and Poyer, both younger and more versatile than Graham and more durable than Williams. Holmes had similar numbers in 2014 to what Woods had so there's potential there for the same and probably a fair share of red zone targets given his size. Overall I think they've done well and I like the direction McDermott is headed.

[mjt328]

In my opinion, it's better to have a solid roster from top to bottom than to have a few Pro Bowlers and weak spots everywhere else.

 

Don't get me wrong. It's OK to overspend in Free Agency sometimes. But teams can only afford to give big salaries to a handful of guys. Then they are looking at salary cap troubles. If a GM is going to hand out a huge contract, they have to be picky about which guys are really worth it. In this case, I think Doug Whaley made the right choice.

 

Stephon Gilmore was a good (but often inconsistent) player who wanted to get paid like the best corner in football. Robert Woods was a decent #2 on a run-first and run-second football team, who ended up getting paid like a lower-end #1 guy. Neither guy was worth that kind of investment.

 

Gilmore will be the tougher of those to replace. But this is a deep draft class at Defensive Back, and there are several guys who could end up being just as good as Gilmore (hopefully the Bills pick the right one...) In this offense, I think Andre Holmes can easily match the production we got from Woods as the fourth option in the passing game.

[Success]

Time to follow the model that brought our division rivals 5 rings.

 

They're going all in this year. But prior to that, their rule was to never overpay, and to build quality depth. Better to have 3 guys at 5 million than 1 guy at 15 million.

[billsfan89]

Woods was overpaid as was Gilmore. But I do think that the team could be missing Gilmore more so than Woods. Woods is a effective number 3 being paid like a high end number 2. Gilmore is a solid starting corner being paid as a top 10 corner but I do think that the team will struggle a lot more to replace him.

 

Hopefully the Bills find a way to maximize their remaining cap space and the remaining market of free agents. Safety and Linebacker in particular are places where the Bills can take some needs off the board before the draft with quality players.