Pyrite Gal Posted April 30, 2008 Share Posted April 30, 2008 are you somehow asserting that walker would have helped the defense last year? are suggesting that the bills should have caved to this piece of trash and given him an extension? his lack of production and new contract speak to how replaceable he really is.......the bills made the right decision - hindsight not required i've heard of people being overly critical of bills management, but this is taking it a bit far! how anyone can sit here and come down on them for NOT signing him long-term is laughable I don't think that he (or almost everyone who argued for signing Walker) are saying the Bills should have caved into him. I think some like the approach the Bills took which I understand was actually offering to extend Walker, but not give him the amount of $ he was asking for and to negotiate a contract which would allow the Bills to cut him semi-gracefully if he did not perform. Though such an offer actually would have given Walker part of what he was asking for I do not think that meeting his part of the way on this would have been caving in to everything he asked for. The Bills let him walk when he demanded even more or refused the compromises we would have needed for him to sign. IMHO the Bills actually could have gone even further in terms of giving Walker what he asked for (a choice for him of getting more $ but agreeing to a contract which easily would have let us cut him if he did not cut the mustard, or having more guarantees but lees money) and this also would not constitute caving in. From what I hear, he would not come to camp unless he got an extension with both the money and the guarantees which would have been caving IMHO, but the Bills let him walk. Its hard for me to fault them for the concept they were trying to make work (our pass D did suck last year because we did not get enough pressure) nor for not caving (which we did not do). However it is simply simplistic for anyone to maintain that Walker had nothing to offer this team (we cut Tripletts and retooled the CL bigtime this off-season because we did need some upgrade) and it would be simply incorrect to claim our pass D is any good without having more pressure to offer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OCinBuffalo Posted April 30, 2008 Share Posted April 30, 2008 You mean to say they hired Triplett, knowing his days were numbered? Ever hear of a stop gap player? Who do you mean...Triplett or Walker? Would Walker have "stopped" the gap that Triplett didn't? Ever hear of Tutan Reyes, Peerless Price, or Anthony Thomas and the rest? All stop gap, all gone, minus one = Melvin Fowler. The fact is that there were so many holes on this team that we even had to keep Tim Anderson around for a little while. I don't think we will ever really be able to comprehend fully the mess that this team was in when Levy/DJ took over. The fact that we went 7-9 in the first year was really a back handed achievement. I was one who thought Walker might be the right guy for the D, after all he went to the Bears for the same reason we wanted him = penetrating tackle, not space eater. But the minute he started with the contract nonsense I was done. As I have said before, we traded: McGahee, Spikes and Holcomb for Poz, Stroud and 7th round picks. Steve Johnson is one of those 7th picks, imagine if pans out, or is it Bell?. Either way, we easily won that trade regardless, it's not even close. If Bell or Johnson do anything it's merely icing on the cake. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain Hindsight Posted April 30, 2008 Share Posted April 30, 2008 Who do you mean...Triplett or Walker? Would Walker have "stopped" the gap that Triplett didn't? Triplett. He was signed as a cheap alterantive and we had a potential chance to upgrade by dumping some slaery in a trade in darwin walker. It didnt work so while we waited for a our next option (johnson) and McCargo to develop we kept triplett. Teams sign players to fill a position for a year or two all the time this isnt anything new Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alaska Darin Posted April 30, 2008 Share Posted April 30, 2008 Ask the Bears...or for that matter ask the Panthers in about 9 months...how Darwin worked out for them? PTR I don't care about either of those teams. Like I said, we could certainly have signed Walker to a deal similiar to what the Bears did and cut him loose after the season, just like they did. Sending him away was no better a move than keeping him would have been, especially considering the DT play we saw from everyone not named McCargo... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
d_wag Posted April 30, 2008 Share Posted April 30, 2008 I don't care about either of those teams. Like I said, we could certainly have signed Walker to a deal similiar to what the Bears did and cut him loose after the season, just like they did. Sending him away was no better a move than keeping him would have been, especially considering the DT play we saw from everyone not named McCargo... wrong - the bills offered him the same deal by telling him they'd rip up the 2nd and final year of his contract.......he got no more money from the bears in '07 then what the bills were offering by honoring his '07 contract......... the fact of the matter is he didn't give the bills a fair chance and he wanted a trade or to be sent back to the eagles so he could be cut........he got what he wanted..........but i am glad that MANY bills fans didn't get what they wanted - which was not just to rip up the final year of his deal, but also to give him a fat signing bonus just to show up.........those fans were extremely short-sighted and it would have been a bad move - then and now Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OCinBuffalo Posted April 30, 2008 Share Posted April 30, 2008 I don't care about either of those teams. Like I said, we could certainly have signed Walker to a deal similiar to what the Bears did and cut him loose after the season, just like they did. Sending him away was no better a move than keeping him would have been, especially considering the DT play we saw from everyone not named McCargo... Ok, but in doing that we don't get Stroud as easily. And Stroud is better than 2 Walkers as it stands right now. Not that being without Alvin Bowen's pick would have killed us, but, as of where we stand right now, it's certainly handy to have had that extra 5 to give up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buftex Posted April 30, 2008 Share Posted April 30, 2008 wrong - the bills offered him the same deal by telling him they'd rip up the 2nd and final year of his contract.......he got no more money from the bears in '07 then what the bills were offering by honoring his '07 contract......... the fact of the matter is he didn't give the bills a fair chance and he wanted a trade or to be sent back to the eagles so he could be cut........he got what he wanted..........but i am glad that MANY bills fans didn't get what they wanted - which was not just to rip up the final year of his deal, but also to give him a fat signing bonus just to show up.........those fans were extremely short-sighted and it would have been a bad move - then and now Before patting you and all your wise bretheren on the ass, ask yourself, then, why did the Bills trade for Walker in the first place? They obviously thought he was somebody they wanted to play for the Bills. I wouldn't give them that much credit for knowing how it would pan out in the end. Sometimes your good, and sometimes you just get lucky. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trader Posted May 1, 2008 Share Posted May 1, 2008 I will bet he does not make it to the final cut. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steely Dan Posted May 1, 2008 Share Posted May 1, 2008 I don't care about either of those teams. Like I said, we could certainly have signed Walker to a deal similiar to what the Bears did and cut him loose after the season, just like they did. Sending him away was no better a move than keeping him would have been, especially considering the DT play we saw from everyone not named McCargo... I was for signing him until I found out he wanted an extension before showing up to training camp. The Bills wanted to see him in camp before committing to a contract extension which I think is more than reasonable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JAMIEBUF12 Posted May 1, 2008 Share Posted May 1, 2008 what an idiot........thinking back to this time last year, it's absolutely amazing how many people on this board were screaming at management to cave into his demands and give him an extension i was one of those fans last year.............i was blinded,all i could see was a defensive tackle the bills desperately needed.i figured if you traded for the guy then pay him..some posters pointed out that it was really just a salary dump on our part(to rid us of takeos big contract).well bills were right and i was wrong.we still sucked at stopping the run last season though....go bills! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dibs Posted May 1, 2008 Share Posted May 1, 2008 Triplett. He was signed as a cheap alterantive and we had a potential chance to upgrade by dumping some slaery in a trade in darwin walker. It didnt work so while we waited for a our next option (johnson) and McCargo to develop we kept triplett. Teams sign players to fill a position for a year or two all the time this isnt anything new Actually for the time, Tripplett was a fairly big signing at $18mil over 5 years......certainly not stopgap money. He obviously didn't produce to the levels expected of him. If you recall.....when Marv & Co. took over at OBD we didn't have one DT.....we needed to fill both starter & both backup slots(hopefully job completed now with Stroud/Williams & McCargo/Johnson) and LT was supposed to be one of those. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Senator Posted May 1, 2008 Share Posted May 1, 2008 Jeez, I thought I was done saying this months ago but... F%#K DARWIN WALKER I think we're gonna like Marcus Stroud a whole lot more than washed-up Walker when we're... 19 and 0 baby!!! GO BILLSSS!!!! Posluszny!!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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