Cornerville Posted February 15, 2007 Share Posted February 15, 2007 I can't say I'm a believer yet but if these predictions hold true I will send both you and Marv a box of chocolates. This would be about as awesome an offseason as we can hope for. Only thing I would say is, and I hate to be a wet blanket, that sometimes the best moves on paper end up not making much of a difference. Look at the Browns and Bentley. The Vikes and Hutch. Both big O-line moves but they didn't improve the offense for either team -- one because of freak injury, the latter because of other ineffective cogs in the system. But make no mistake, I'd be very happy with these moves. If I am right...Ill take Godiva please! Good post though and you are right....if the Bills throw big $ at Steinbach..does not mean the offense will instantly resemble the Bills of the early 90's...but the thing about the Hutchinson move is if you look at the Vikes skill positions versus the Buffalo Bills...IMO the Bills have a clear edge there...Vikes QB is not athletic at all....WR's were below average...not a very good running game either....so I believe Steinbach would have a bigger impact on a team like Buffalo that has better skill at QB RB and WR then a team like Minny or Cleveland. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillsVet Posted February 15, 2007 Share Posted February 15, 2007 The rest of the 2007 Off-season. 1. We'll try the RFA game again and maybe get a young player with potential. Or we head back to the dugout with bat in hands. 2. Free Agency will provide "depth" and give us more career backups, some perhaps in starting roles. 3. The draft will offer a surprise, meaning our most glaring weaknesses (G and DT) will not receive attention until late when it doesn't matter much. 4. The PR department will be in high gear, spinning this team as someone to watch out for and gunning for the playoffs. 5. Our cap hit will come in around the league minimum and our low end free agent acquisitions will be overpaid to get us there. This is similar to 2006 when we got Fowler (a career backup prior to Matt Birk's injury) Royal (2.5M per for a guy the skins didn't care for) Tutan Reyes (no comment necessary) and Matt Bowen (was anyone interested in this guy other than CFL teams?) As for the Saints mention from last year, please don't make that comparison. Drew Brees was a question mark, but anyone who thinks we have a QB with Brees' talent is off their rocker. We also don't have Deuce McAllister or selected a Reggie Bush like talent. Two different teams here. One spends and the other one complains about having to spend. Sorry for my pessimism...there is nothing to suggest we're in it to win it. 8-8 here we come! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cornerville Posted February 15, 2007 Share Posted February 15, 2007 4. The PR department will be in high gear, spinning this team as someone to watch out for and gunning for the playoffs. This to me is jumping the gun.... Now in May if this team has let good players go and has had little impact via the draft and FA...then you are right... So the Bills went 7-9 against the toughest schedule in the NFL...but there is no reason to believe this team can improve by 2-3 games next year with a friendler schedule (which they should have?) SD went 9-7 two years ago with a BRUTAL schedule...last year their schedule was reasonable and they improved to 14-2...I am not suggesting the Bills will go 14-2...but if the Bills can had a solid offseason, no reason to believe this team cannot win 9-10 games. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NavyBillsFan Posted February 15, 2007 Share Posted February 15, 2007 You and Joe would be great at a party. The truth always hurts..... I hate to be a booger but I think we all know what is really going to happen to the Bills this summer.... NOTHING Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1billsfan Posted February 15, 2007 Share Posted February 15, 2007 I am wondering what the board overall truly believes we will do this off season. Do you believe that we will make a big splash? After all, the last "big acquisition" we made was bringing in Takeo Spikes, nearly 5 off-seasons ago. What was our last really productive trade? What was our last 'all-star' draft pick? Just wondering what you all think. Have at it. The FA landscape has changed dramatically over the last few years. You want "all-stars"? Well here's a reasonable list of the #1 free agents available (from draftdaddy.com) at their respective positions: Jeff Garcia QB Ahman Green RB Drew Bennett WR Daniel Graham TE Leonard Davis OT Eric Steinbach OG Andre Gurode C Dwight Freeney DE Vonnie Holliday DT Lance Briggs OLB Loundon Fletcher ILB Asante Samuel CB Ken Hamlen S Now these are the TOP players the other 32 teams will be bidding for. That's a pretty lackluster list if you ask me. Out of this list Freeney, Briggs and Samuel may never even reach the FA market. There are a couple of reasons the FA market isn't near what it once was. Firstly, the talent level of the NFL just isn't what it was in the mid to late nineties and up until a few years ago. A lot of HOF type players have retired and their replacements haven't come close to reproducing their accomplishments. Secondly, the "smart" NFL teams have locked up their stars well before they hit the FA market. This is something the Bills have failed miserably at and it's an issue that continues to baffle and anger it's fans. Another aspect here is the war against the "big market" teams that Ralph has been waging for the past year. Wilson's credibility would take a huuuuuge hit if he were to be the team that pays out the biggest free agent contract this off season. He would be risking torpedoing (not a word) his own efforts if the Bills were to do this. I'm sure Marv has a limit on what he's allowed to spend in terms of FA money. The Bills will not be overpaying on free agents anytime soon. So expect no big splash, just look forward to the draft and hope the Bills are on the phone to Losman's and Evan's agents for extension talks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RShirley Posted February 15, 2007 Share Posted February 15, 2007 My predictions: 1. Bills will suprise people and pay up for Clements. 2. Fletcher will leave, Thanks for the service Fletch but it is time for both sides to move on. 3. Bills will make a big run at Steinbach and hopefully Ralph will pony up the $ and bring him to Buffalo 4. Bills will look to solve the DT issue via FA, similar to a Tripplet signing last year 5. Marv will draft offensive skill position in the 1st round, either Lynch or Jarrett If all of this pans out, Bills will win 10 games next year. I think you should be commended for laying out the perfect offseason plan, and I am going to add my two cents to each of your bullets 1.) This is my only disagreement with you, I would let him walk and sign Nick Harper for much less. 2.) Let Fletcher walk like you say and I would use the money we would have spent on Clements, to bring in Lance Briggs. We can figure out later who will play the middle (Spikes or Crowell), but Briggs is a serious impact player. Jauron drafted him (I believe) and don't be surprised for us to make a run at him. 3.) Steinbach would be the most desireable guard, but if he is out of price range than maybe Dielman from San Diego could be signed at a much more reasonable price. 4.) The Bills could fill this need with Ian Scott. I have heard good things, but he sure was non-existent in the Superbowl. I don't know much about his play, but I hear he may be just what we are looking for. 5.) I love the Jarrett pick, but if Gaines Adams drops to us at 12 he would be hard to pass up. If we wanted more draft picks we could trade down and get Bowe from LSU. This would be the perfect offseason - I have no idea if this would be affordable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill from NYC Posted February 15, 2007 Share Posted February 15, 2007 The FA landscape has changed dramatically over the last few years. You want "all-stars"? Well here's a reasonable list of the #1 free agents available (from draftdaddy.com) at their respective positions: Jeff Garcia QB Ahman Green RB Drew Bennett WR Daniel Graham TE Leonard Davis OT Eric Steinbach OG Andre Gurode C Dwight Freeney DE Vonnie Holliday DT Lance Briggs OLB Loundon Fletcher ILB Asante Samuel CB Ken Hamlen S Now these are the TOP players the other 32 teams will be bidding for. That's a pretty lackluster list if you ask me. Out of this list Freeney, Briggs and Samuel may never even reach the FA market. There are a couple of reasons the FA market isn't near what it once was. Firstly, the talent level of the NFL just isn't what it was in the mid to late nineties and up until a few years ago. A lot of HOF type players have retired and their replacements haven't come close to reproducing their accomplishments. Secondly, the "smart" NFL teams have locked up their stars well before they hit the FA market. This is something the Bills have failed miserably at and it's an issue that continues to baffle and anger it's fans. Another aspect here is the war against the "big market" teams that Ralph has been waging for the past year. Wilson's credibility would take a huuuuuge hit if he were to be the team that pays out the biggest free agent contract this off season. He would be risking torpedoing (not a word) his own efforts if the Bills were to do this. I'm sure Marv has a limit on what he's allowed to spend in terms of FA money. The Bills will not be overpaying on free agents anytime soon. So expect no big splash, just look forward to the draft and hope the Bills are on the phone to Losman's and Evan's agents for extension talks. Thanks for a great, and quite realistic post. The only thing I will toss into the mix is that imo this clear lack of UFAs will make the cost of trading up in the draft go up. Draft picks will be worth more as almost the only way to build a team. Looking at this picture makes a trade down sound better and better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BADOLBILZ Posted February 15, 2007 Share Posted February 15, 2007 Winning in the NFL is not about making the Big acquisition, as the Redskins have shown, but it is about making the smart acquisition as the Patriots and Steelers have shown....I would rather have the latter. I think you're talking about adding cheaper system players as opposed to more expensive, high profile players and that would always be preferable if it panned out. Didn't work out well for the Bills last year. On the whole, they overpaid for a bunch of average to below average players and didn't get much out of them. As is often the case with regard to spending, sometimes it's best to pay for quality instead of quantity. $7M per season seems like a lot for somebody like Clements or Steinbach, but are they worth more to the Bills than say, Larry Triplett, Tutan Reyes and Andre Davis? That's about $7M per year right there in those 3 guys. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dibs Posted February 16, 2007 Share Posted February 16, 2007 I think you should be commended for laying out the perfect offseason plan, and I am going to add my two cents to each of your bullets 1.) This is my only disagreement with you, I would let him walk and sign Nick Harper for much less. 2.) Let Fletcher walk like you say and I would use the money we would have spent on Clements, to bring in Lance Briggs. We can figure out later who will play the middle (Spikes or Crowell), but Briggs is a serious impact player. Jauron drafted him (I believe) and don't be surprised for us to make a run at him. 3.) Steinbach would be the most desireable guard, but if he is out of price range than maybe Dielman from San Diego could be signed at a much more reasonable price. 4.) The Bills could fill this need with Ian Scott. I have heard good things, but he sure was non-existent in the Superbowl. I don't know much about his play, but I hear he may be just what we are looking for. 5.) I love the Jarrett pick, but if Gaines Adams drops to us at 12 he would be hard to pass up. If we wanted more draft picks we could trade down and get Bowe from LSU. This would be the perfect offseason - I have no idea if this would be affordable. Thanks....saved me from typing pretty much the same thing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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