marck Posted March 1, 2006 Share Posted March 1, 2006 Here are my thoughts on how the Bills can make progress this off-season and put a good team on the field in 2006. Release Eric Moulds and save 5.5 million in salary space Release Mark Campbell and save 1.0 million in salary space Release Mike Williams and save 4.9 million in salary space Release Bennie Anderson and save about 800,000 in salary space Release Coy Wire and save about 500,000 in salary space Sign Nate Clements to a contract that averages 3 million per year and save 2.9 million in salary space The Bills will need to make qualifying offers for restricted free agents, Sam Aiken, Josh Stamer, Mario Haggens, Jason Peters, Shaud Willams, Jabari Greer and Jonathan Smith. Those qualifying offers should take up another 3 million dollars Projected cuts and resigning Clements and the restricted free agents would open a total of 13.2 million, the Bills are about 7 million under the cap for 2006. This leaves the Bills about 20 million in available cap space, allocate 3 million for rookie salaries and we have about 17 million to work with. Present roster after cuts: QB - Losman & Holcomb + one to be named later RB - McGahee, Williams, Gates, Burns, Shelton TE - Tim Euchs, Kevin Everett & Ryan Neufeld WR - Lee Evans, Roscoe Parrish, Sam Aiken, George Wilson, Jonathan Smith OG - Chris Villarrial, Justin Gesinger, Mike Gandy OT - Jason Peters, Dylan McFarland, Greg Jerman C - Duke Preston PK - Ryan Lindell P - Brian Moorman LS - Mike Schneck DE - Aaron Schoebel, Ryan Denny, Chris Kelsey DT - Sam Adams, Tim Anderson, Justin Bannon, Lauvale Sape OLB - Takeo Spikes, Jeff Posey, Angelo Crowell, Josh Stamer, Mario Haggens MLB - London Fletcher, Liam Ezekiel CB - Nate Clements, Terrence McGee, Eric King, Jabari Greer S - Troy Vincent, Lawyer Milloy, Rashad Baker, Jim Leonhard You have 48 players on this roster and have very specific needs on the offensive line, defensive tackle, wide receiver and safety. These needs should be initially addressed in free agency. Here are my suggestions on players I would sign to shore up the positions of weakness: OL - LeCharles Bentley, Toniu Fonoti - OG, Kenyetta Walker - OT WR - Antonio Bryant or Andre Davis DE - Kimbala Edwards QB - Josh McCown DT - Maake Kemoeatu MLB - Orlando Ruff RB - Shawn Bryson Bentley would be the anchor to the offensive line, Fonoti was a stud run blocker for the Chargers and would further enhance the interrior of the offensive line and Walker was the player the Bills were going to select in the draft where we traded down and selected Nate Clements. Antonio Bryant and Andre Davis are both home run hitting wide receivers with major upside potential. Kimbala Edwards is tall 6'6", quick and is an excellent edge rusher. DT Kemooeatu is a run stuffing beast at 350 lbs and MLB Ruff has an excellent history as a run stuffing linebacker. QB McCown has playing skills comparable to JP and would allow the Bills coaching staff to not have the gameplan change in case of a QB injury or change due to performance. These moves would eat up about 12 to 13 million maximum leaving us about another 4 to 6 million for additional pick-ups. Now we move to the draft to fill in the rest of the pieces. Assuming the first 7 picks go as follows: 1. Houston - Reggie Bush 2. New Orleans - Matt Leinhart 3. Tennessee - Jay Cutler 4. Oakland - Mario Williams 5 -Green Bay - AJ Hawk 6- San Francisco - Michael Huff 7- New York Jets - Debrickashaw Ferguson This leaves the Bills the next pick, we have Ngata or Vernon Davis as the best players available, many solid offensive lineman if we traded down and of course Vince Young is there to anyone who wants to trade up for him. With this choice I select Vernon Davis, TE of Maryland. This adds the element which is consistent on all of the top rated offensive teams, the element of a dominant tight end. Marv does love the single back, two WR and double TE formation from the old K-Gun and with the two TE's of Davis and Everett the Bills would have an incredible down the seam and explosive dimension few teams have, this in addition to having speed in Evans, Parris and either Davis or Bryant. In the 2nd round I would take the best available OL or DT, whomever is rated higher on their board. I would suggest to draft if available Tatsui Lutui the stud guard from USC. In the 3rd round we have two early picks and possibly a compensatory pick for last year's free agent losses. Here is what I would do, select Jesse Mahelona the DT from Tennessee, S Greg Blue of Georgia and with the sandwich pick, select WR Jonathan Orr of Wisconsin In the 4th round I would persue more depth at DE with the selection of Mark Anderson of Alabama. In round 5, I would draft a 3rd down back who can catch passes and this would be Taurean Henderson who comes out of the passing offese at Texas Tech. In the sixth round, I would select QB sleeper Ingals Martin of Furman who looks like a quality back-up with a good arm and legs to be able to handle the rollout package the Bills will incorporate with JP at QB. Lastly in Round 7, I will add more speed and special teams capability by selecting either Skyler Green or Jeff Webb, wide receivers from LSU and San Diego State. Both players are in excess of 6' and have 4.40 to 4.45 speed. I realize this is a very long post, but I hope you all appreciate the time and effort it took in reviewing the information and putting together a package of moves that address functionality within the salary cap and moves to support the biggest holes on the 2006 team roster. I very much look forward to receiving feedback from all of you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ACor58 Posted March 1, 2006 Share Posted March 1, 2006 Well thought out post you lost me after this one... "Sign Nate Clements to a contract that averages 3 million per year and save 2.9 million in salary space" Will never happen. If anything, double the base salary and through a 15 to 18MM signing bonus over 6 years. If we use $16MM as a bonus we are looking at a cap number of $10MM for Nate next year. I would also like to find out more about Everett's recovery before comitting a 1st rd pick to a TE. Davis is a nice pick but so is Ngata. Especially with the questionable health of Ron Edwards and only Bannan, Anderson and Sape backing up Sam Adams. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marck Posted March 1, 2006 Author Share Posted March 1, 2006 Assume a long term deal for Nate will be for 6 years, he will get a 10 to 12 million signing bonus which prorated over the length of the contract would be about 2 million per year. Then he would receive another 12 to 15 million over the length of the contract making this about a 24 million deal. This would equate to a 3.5 million per year deal with the first year being lower on base salary. This is where you could see the 2006 year at 3 million. Edwards will be gone in Free Agency anyways and we will move forward with new players from free agency and the draft. Well thought out post you lost me after this one... "Sign Nate Clements to a contract that averages 3 million per year and save 2.9 million in salary space" Will never happen. If anything, double the base salary and through a 15 to 18MM signing bonus over 6 years. If we use $16MM as a bonus we are looking at a cap number of $10MM for Nate next year. I would also like to find out more about Everett's recovery before comitting a 1st rd pick to a TE. Davis is a nice pick but so is Ngata. Especially with the questionable health of Ron Edwards and only Bannan, Anderson and Sape backing up Sam Adams. 614817[/snapback] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ACor58 Posted March 1, 2006 Share Posted March 1, 2006 Assume a long term deal for Nate will be for 6 years, he will get a 10 to 12 million signing bonus which prorated over the length of the contract would be about 2 million per year. Then he would receive another 12 to 15 million over the length of the contract making this about a 24 million deal. This would equate to a 3.5 million per year deal with the first year being lower on base salary. This is where you could see the 2006 year at 3 million. 614841[/snapback] I believe that you can only prorate siging bonuses over the first for years of the contract and I feel that he will not take less than $15M for a signing bonus, that is why I used 16. I can see where we can manipulate the base for the first few years to lower the cap hit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BB2004 Posted March 1, 2006 Share Posted March 1, 2006 Here are my thoughts on how the Bills can make progress this off-season and put a good team on the field in 2006. Release Eric Moulds and save 5.5 million in salary space Release Mark Campbell and save 1.0 million in salary space Release Mike Williams and save 4.9 million in salary space Release Bennie Anderson and save about 800,000 in salary space Release Coy Wire and save about 500,000 in salary space Sign Nate Clements to a contract that averages 3 million per year and save 2.9 million in salary space The Bills will need to make qualifying offers for restricted free agents, Sam Aiken, Josh Stamer, Mario Haggens, Jason Peters, Shaud Willams, Jabari Greer and Jonathan Smith. Those qualifying offers should take up another 3 million dollars Projected cuts and resigning Clements and the restricted free agents would open a total of 13.2 million, the Bills are about 7 million under the cap for 2006. This leaves the Bills about 20 million in available cap space, allocate 3 million for rookie salaries and we have about 17 million to work with. Present roster after cuts: QB - Losman & Holcomb + one to be named later RB - McGahee, Williams, Gates, Burns, Shelton TE - Tim Euchs, Kevin Everett & Ryan Neufeld WR - Lee Evans, Roscoe Parrish, Sam Aiken, George Wilson, Jonathan Smith OG - Chris Villarrial, Justin Gesinger, Mike Gandy OT - Jason Peters, Dylan McFarland, Greg Jerman C - Duke Preston PK - Ryan Lindell P - Brian Moorman LS - Mike Schneck DE - Aaron Schoebel, Ryan Denny, Chris Kelsey DT - Sam Adams, Tim Anderson, Justin Bannon, Lauvale Sape OLB - Takeo Spikes, Jeff Posey, Angelo Crowell, Josh Stamer, Mario Haggens MLB - London Fletcher, Liam Ezekiel CB - Nate Clements, Terrence McGee, Eric King, Jabari Greer S - Troy Vincent, Lawyer Milloy, Rashad Baker, Jim Leonhard You have 48 players on this roster and have very specific needs on the offensive line, defensive tackle, wide receiver and safety. These needs should be initially addressed in free agency. Here are my suggestions on players I would sign to shore up the positions of weakness: OL - LeCharles Bentley, Toniu Fonoti - OG, Kenyetta Walker - OT WR - Antonio Bryant or Andre Davis DE - Kimbala Edwards QB - Josh McCown DT - Maake Kemoeatu MLB - Orlando Ruff RB - Shawn Bryson Bentley would be the anchor to the offensive line, Fonoti was a stud run blocker for the Chargers and would further enhance the interrior of the offensive line and Walker was the player the Bills were going to select in the draft where we traded down and selected Nate Clements. Antonio Bryant and Andre Davis are both home run hitting wide receivers with major upside potential. Kimbala Edwards is tall 6'6", quick and is an excellent edge rusher. DT Kemooeatu is a run stuffing beast at 350 lbs and MLB Ruff has an excellent history as a run stuffing linebacker. QB McCown has playing skills comparable to JP and would allow the Bills coaching staff to not have the gameplan change in case of a QB injury or change due to performance. These moves would eat up about 12 to 13 million maximum leaving us about another 4 to 6 million for additional pick-ups. Now we move to the draft to fill in the rest of the pieces. Assuming the first 7 picks go as follows: 1. Houston - Reggie Bush 2. New Orleans - Matt Leinhart 3. Tennessee - Jay Cutler 4. Oakland - Mario Williams 5 -Green Bay - AJ Hawk 6- San Francisco - Michael Huff 7- New York Jets - Debrickashaw Ferguson This leaves the Bills the next pick, we have Ngata or Vernon Davis as the best players available, many solid offensive lineman if we traded down and of course Vince Young is there to anyone who wants to trade up for him. With this choice I select Vernon Davis, TE of Maryland. This adds the element which is consistent on all of the top rated offensive teams, the element of a dominant tight end. Marv does love the single back, two WR and double TE formation from the old K-Gun and with the two TE's of Davis and Everett the Bills would have an incredible down the seam and explosive dimension few teams have, this in addition to having speed in Evans, Parris and either Davis or Bryant. In the 2nd round I would take the best available OL or DT, whomever is rated higher on their board. I would suggest to draft if available Tatsui Lutui the stud guard from USC. In the 3rd round we have two early picks and possibly a compensatory pick for last year's free agent losses. Here is what I would do, select Jesse Mahelona the DT from Tennessee, S Greg Blue of Georgia and with the sandwich pick, select WR Jonathan Orr of Wisconsin In the 4th round I would persue more depth at DE with the selection of Mark Anderson of Alabama. In round 5, I would draft a 3rd down back who can catch passes and this would be Taurean Henderson who comes out of the passing offese at Texas Tech. In the sixth round, I would select QB sleeper Ingals Martin of Furman who looks like a quality back-up with a good arm and legs to be able to handle the rollout package the Bills will incorporate with JP at QB. Lastly in Round 7, I will add more speed and special teams capability by selecting either Skyler Green or Jeff Webb, wide receivers from LSU and San Diego State. Both players are in excess of 6' and have 4.40 to 4.45 speed. I realize this is a very long post, but I hope you all appreciate the time and effort it took in reviewing the information and putting together a package of moves that address functionality within the salary cap and moves to support the biggest holes on the 2006 team roster. I very much look forward to receiving feedback from all of you. 614811[/snapback] The roster you have after the cuts looks similar to the team we had in 2001 when we went 3-13 with Rob Johnson as our quaterback but with a better overall defense. It's painful but true. 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bill in Livonia Posted March 1, 2006 Share Posted March 1, 2006 Good Post! Well thought out and nicely positive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marck Posted March 1, 2006 Author Share Posted March 1, 2006 I agree, after the cuts the roster does look horrible. But this was the only way to identify and focus on true need areas. The trimming of the roster sets up free agency targeted players, and then you move forward to the draft to fill out the reset of the roster. Please take the original roster, add the free agents and draft choices and let me know what you think of the projected opening day roster in September 2006. The roster you have after the cuts looks similar to the team we had in 2001 when we went 3-13 with Rob Johnson as our quaterback but with a better overall defense. It's painful but true. 614850[/snapback] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marck Posted March 1, 2006 Author Share Posted March 1, 2006 Here is what my projected 53 man roster looks like after free agency and the draft: Starters are bolded QB (3) - Losman, Holcomb, McCown - Ingals Martin to development squad RB (6) - McGahee, Gates, Bryson, Henderson, Shelton, Burns TE (3) - Davis, Everett, Euchs WR (5) - Evans, Bryant, Parrish, Aiken, Orr - Jeff Webb to development squad OG (4) - Villarrial, Fonoti, Lutui & Gessinger OT (4) - Peters, Walker, McFarland, Gandy C (2) - Bentley, Preston ST (3) - Lindell, Moorman, Schneck DE (4) - Schoebel, Kelsey, Edwards, Denny - Mark Anderson to developmental squad DT (4) - Adams, Kemoeatu, Mahelona, Anderson LB (7) - Spikes, Fletcher, Posey, Crowell, Haggens, Stammer, Ruff CB (4) - Clenents, McGee, King, Greer S (4) - Vincent, Milloy, Blue, Baker The Bills would still have one of the best special teams units in the league, would run a single back, two TE offense and a 4-3 defense with run stuffing tackles and a cover two coverage scheme. Areas of improvement to try and find is a pass rushing edge rusher, better offensive tackles and a dominant free safety. This is my take and I look forward to your collective feedback I agree, after the cuts the roster does look horrible. But this was the only way to identify and focus on true need areas. The trimming of the roster sets up free agency targeted players, and then you move forward to the draft to fill out the reset of the roster. Please take the original roster, add the free agents and draft choices and let me know what you think of the projected opening day roster in September 2006. 614866[/snapback] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BB2004 Posted March 1, 2006 Share Posted March 1, 2006 Here is what my projected 53 man roster looks like after free agency and the draft:Starters are bolded QB (3) - Losman, Holcomb, McCown - Ingals Martin to development squad RB (6) - McGahee, Gates, Bryson, Henderson, Shelton, Burns TE (3) - Davis, Everett, Euchs WR (5) - Evans, Bryant, Parrish, Aiken, Orr - Jeff Webb to development squad OG (4) - Villarrial, Fonoti, Lutui & Gessinger OT (4) - Peters, Walker, McFarland, Gandy C (2) - Bentley, Preston ST (3) - Lindell, Moorman, Schneck DE (4) - Schoebel, Kelsey, Edwards, Denny - Mark Anderson to developmental squad DT (4) - Adams, Kemoeatu, Mahelona, Anderson LB (7) - Spikes, Fletcher, Posey, Crowell, Haggens, Stammer, Ruff CB (4) - Clenents, McGee, King, Greer S (4) - Vincent, Milloy, Blue, Baker The Bills would still have one of the best special teams units in the league, would run a single back, two TE offense and a 4-3 defense with run stuffing tackles and a cover two coverage scheme. Areas of improvement to try and find is a pass rushing edge rusher, better offensive tackles and a dominant free safety. This is my take and I look forward to your collective feedback 614926[/snapback] With your improvements it does look about 3-5 wins better. With this roster we could be competitive but a lot of things have to happen. Number 1 on that list will be the play and leadership of JP Losman. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BB2004 Posted March 1, 2006 Share Posted March 1, 2006 Good Post!Well thought out and nicely positive. 614864[/snapback] Sometimes the truth hurts Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marck Posted March 1, 2006 Author Share Posted March 1, 2006 I think this roster with our 2006 schedule could win 10 games and push for a playoff spot. Totally dependent on JP's development however. Sometimes the truth hurts 614942[/snapback] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BB2004 Posted March 1, 2006 Share Posted March 1, 2006 I think this roster with our 2006 schedule could win 10 games and push for a playoff spot. Totally dependent on JP's development however. 614989[/snapback] And what do you think now that Adams and Milloy have been cut? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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