Simple question.......Will Jason Peters be at camp?

[SlamnSam]

No jerky, "deserves...." is too much for him to say.

 

I dont think he will be in camp. I hope the Bills dont pay him either. He's had his extension, now show something more than you did last year to get a bigger contract. One player is not the whole "team". Take a seat Peters and see how quick your bank account grows.

[MarkyMannn]

I wish I was good enough at evaluating talent to know if he's really that good. Is he really, suddenly the best LT in football? Really? Is he that good or is the rest of the field that bad? I mean, he goes from tight end to right tackle and people say "Hey, look at that." And then he gets shifted to left tackle and it goes from "Anything would be an upgrade" straight to "Holy Shiiit, He's a GOD! A FREAKING GOD!"

 

He's like the Barack Obama of LTs. It's Jasonpalooza.

 

Or who knows. Maybe he's really !@#$ing amazing and we got really fuking lucky.

 

You're right. Everyone is on the JP bandwagon. You are kind of taking a softer approach to what I'll say, I'd like to see one more season from him before he is annointed the LT God of the NFL and paid that much. He had one good season and one pro bowl and he is already under a re-negotiated contract. And as far as the pro bowl, how many did Ruben Brown make?

[Steely Dan]

Exactly. Kirwan's point was about players who threaten to hold out of camp for more money. They'll hold out until it starts to actually cost them, then money wins.

 

I'll give Peters this much: he's keeping his mouth shut. I know little or nothing about this part of the NFL, but it would seem to me if the team wanted to re-sign him, both sides would logically have to agree that it was worth it to wait and see what shakes out from signing the draft picks. From that point, if the Bills can't give him what he wants, it would seem to me it's in his best interest to show up to camp and keep the dialogue going. On the other hand, there is nothing logical about the NFL and how it handles contracts.

 

I wish I was good enough at evaluating talent to know if he's really that good. Is he really, suddenly the best LT in football? Really? Is he that good or is the rest of the field that bad? I mean, he goes from tight end to right tackle and people say "Hey, look at that." And then he gets shifted to left tackle and it goes from "Anything would be an upgrade" straight to "Holy Shiiit, He's a GOD! A FREAKING GOD!"

 

He's like the Barack Obama of LTs. It's Jasonpalooza.

 

Or who knows. Maybe he's really !@#$ing amazing and we got really fuking lucky.

 

 

In this case there are some objective signs that speak to his quality as a player:

 

1. The Bills recorded the least number of sacks in their history since the stat started being kept and Peters as the LT as usually lined up against the other teams sackmaster.

 

2. He was voted to the Pro Bowl by the balance of player/fan/coaches though since it was his first time and the Bills are not a fixture in nationally televised games it was his peers and the coaches which led the charge for him in this not perfect but not ignorable honor.

 

3. He is very young and should be a fixture for years when he is signed.

 

It is true that there is a lemming quality to these assessments, but this is certainly not the only explanation for the recognition given to Peters and in fact given the plaudits which he got right from the start from JMac as the best specimen he had ever seen at tackle in his long career. Also given real world progression he made in shifting from TE to OL and then from RT to LT it seems a far better bet that he is the real deal.

 

Saved me the trouble of typing that, thanks.

 

 

Bingo, Jauron can in no way say anything about Peters contract. If he did, what about next year when someone else holds out, and Jauron doesn't say the same thing?

 

My response was about what TE should say about the situation.

[Lori]

Good call.

Interesting that when you start to think of guys who left the game with money on the table you come up with so many backs. Them boys take a pounding.....

 

 

I didn't think he was quite as good last year as he was the year before when he was absolutely kicking the crap out of people. But maybe that's just a case of exceeded vs matched expectations.

Either way he's probably the most dominating player on this team right now.

All I know is, when he went out of the Giants game, things went to hell in a hurry. Now, the Super Bowl showed us just how good that passel of Big Blue rushers was. But if memory serves me, the score was 14-7 Buffalo when Peters limped off the field, and Edwards had yet to be sacked (he ended up with three).

[K-9]

Hard to tell. Ralph might be cheap and senile enough to let the best player on the team languish, and then eventually report out of shape. I really hope not, but little would surprise me.

I also don't know if Jauron would have the ba!!s to step up and say something either. He might spend his time scouting defensive backs for 09.

Dockery called him "The Franchise." Chambers called him the "best LT in the league." Ross Tucker told me that he is as good as anyone he ever played with, and is challenging Walter Jones as the best in the league. The players know.

 

I am telling you.....this team has no shot without Peters. They need him both now and long term, and he deserves a raise.

 

I know you and I agree that Peters is the best player on our offense, perhaps the entire team. But that said, the onus is on him to report. He gains nothing by holding out. Indeed he loses. A lot. He'll get taken care of in due course but holding out will not accomplish that. It wouldn't surprise me if he pulled a Bruce Smith and stayed away to avoid the rigors of camp and all only to show up the last week or two and pick up right where he left off.

 

No doubt he deserves a raise. He'll get it.

 

GO BILLS!!!

[Gordio]

I agree Bill. Ive seen enough from guys who tried to fill his shoes. We need to get this guy locked long term. The price for stud LT's is a high price. But we have a young proven guy. Get him signed. Cause every move the team has made thus far will mean nothing if Peters is not given a deal.

 

Honestly, Peters has the Bills brass by the balls......

 

 

I am not so sure I agree with that. The bills have him signed for the next 3 seasons, starting friday if he is not there he will be fined just north of 15K per day, or $105K per week. I really think Peters has no other option then to report sooner or later.

[Dan]

I know you and I agree that Peters is the best player on our offense, perhaps the entire team. But that said, the onus is on him to report. He gains nothing by holding out. Indeed he loses. A lot. He'll get taken care of in due course but holding out will not accomplish that. It wouldn't surprise me if he pulled a Bruce Smith and stayed away to avoid the rigors of camp and all only to show up the last week or two and pick up right where he left off.

 

No doubt he deserves a raise. He'll get it.

 

GO BILLS!!!

That's kinda how I see it. I'm not sure what this "holdout" is supposed to be doing. The recent Bills management have shown with the recent signings and re-signings of players that they will, indeed, show you the money.... if you're good and fit in with the Bills' plans. Peters is obviously good, but all this is doing is showing that he's a me first player and not a team first player. And those are the guys less likely to get paid.

[stuckincincy]

Has Peters been physically cleared to participate in camp?

[nucci]

Has Peters been physically cleared to participate in camp?

I do find it interesting that his surgery and recovery have not been discussed.

[stuckincincy]

I do find it interesting that his surgery and recovery have not been discussed.

 

The plot thickens...

[Pyrite Gal]

I dont think he will be in camp. I hope the Bills dont pay him either. He's had his extension, now show something more than you did last year to get a bigger contract. One player is not the whole "team". Take a seat Peters and see how quick your bank account grows.

I think this situation simply shows one of the ways in which principle and reality have diverged in a world where business and the buck seems to trump a lot of things.

 

I think most would agree with the principle of a person's word being their bond. From a standpoint of principle and morality, Peters made an agreement to commit to playing a certain number of years and was rewarded richly for making that commitment.

 

However, this principle of fairness and humanity and business practices in terms of the agreement and what has become the norm of operation in the NFL diverge a lot.

 

First, the CBA got its start within the context of operation where the team owners had huge advantages over the players such that when the players attempted to increase their agreed upon % of the take of gross revenues to 52% in the mid-eighties, the team owner locked out the players who used to have to work "real" jobs in the off-season to make ends meet. The NFL owners so badly beat the NFLPA in the lockout, ironically it set the table for for the NFL players led by Gene Upshaw (the team owners profited for years by taking advantage of the colleges being their minor leagues and unlike MLB and the NHL they did not have to pay for player development as college football with a huge government subsidy for state schools picked up that cost for the NFL- yet this created a situation where the NFL players not only developed loyalty beyond their NFL team but a bunch of them were college graduates who had the intelligence and the friends to hire a bunch of NY based lawyers who after the replacement game debacle convinced the NFLPA to threaten to decertify itself as a bargaining agent. In the face of having to operate in a more classic capitalist free market system, the NFL owner beat a hasty retreat to operate within a more socialist system which restrains trade and pays the players dearly for this in the new CBA).

 

At rate some vestiges old the old unequal power arrangement remain such as the owners having the ability under the CBA to simply cut a player and walk away from an agreement. The players do not have the same right to by agreement as the owners to unilaterally abridge the contract, but the operating practice has been that player routinely hold out when the free market would likely pay them more if there was in fact a free market.

 

To me while the difference in rights afforded to the owners and the players does not justify the player not living up to their word, the simple fact that the CBA does not require team owners to honor their word does simply make the CBA not a document based on principle. Why it surprises people when some players do not act in a principled surprises me.

 

2. The NFL use to be a sport that happened to be a business. Now it is a business which happens to be a sport. Again the principles folks argue for are correct. However. the simple fact is that the CBA is not an agreement based on principle.

 

Peters is simply holding out to try to create a marketplace where there is not one. Though Peters "owes" to the team to play hard, it does not surprise me at all that human nature having its limits will result in Peters focusing on his next contract whenever he signs one. In the abesence. I suspect Peters performance will simply suffer the next three years if he does not resign and extend now.

 

Principle says the Bills should not cave and simply require that he live up to his current deal. However, in this case reality simply saws just get 'er done.

 

I wish we lived in a world where principle dictated behavior, but instead its the golden rule in reality, he has his the most gold rules.

[obie_wan]

I do find it interesting that his surgery and recovery have not been discussed.

 

I had raised the point earlier.

 

Peters has not shown that he is recovered from his serious injury.

 

Unlikely the Bills throw money at him until they can validate that he is recovered.

 

 

No problem, though, because the Bills are absolutely loaded with talent to fill in until his return.

 

Good thing the Bills planned ahead knowing that Peters ended the season unable to play.

[eball]

I had raised the point earlier.

 

Peters has not shown that he is recovered from his serious injury.

 

Unlikely the Bills throw money at him until they can validate that he is recovered.

 

 

No problem, though, because the Bills are absolutely loaded with talent to fill in until his return.

 

Good thing the Bills planned ahead knowing that Peters ended the season unable to play.

A friggin' groin pull (or was it sports hernia?) isn't exactly the sort of injury you're worried about from a lasting perspective. I can't imagine recovery from the surgery is an issue, but at this point I won't rule anything out -- primarily because we've heard precisely NOTHING. Everything is speculation right now.

[John from Riverside]

The thing I have been wondering through this whole thing is nobody is saying anything not even PETERS AGENT

 

Usually when holdouts get testy the agent will go into the media with some type of statement and start playing the media politics thing then it is all over the news.

 

Has anyone from the Peters camp said ANYTHING?

[Bill from NYC]

Dip$#!+ there is no HC in the league who publicly gets involved in player contracts. It's not about having the balls it's about working behind the scenes.

 

In this instance I think the Bills should break the bank to keep him. I'm hoping that they are just trying to get all of the draft picks signed and then will work on his contract. His agent may be being a Richard and the Bills may not want to encourage this kind of behavior.

 

I said that I didn't know if he had the balls to do so. Then again, far be it from me to stand in your way of being a douchebag.

[MikeInABQ]

Peters sure is valuable. So valuable, in fact, that he feels he needs to just invalidate the contract he signed in good faith and start squabbling over money, when his team is finally ready to make a push. The Bills will renegotiate his effing contract, and they have NEVER proven that they wouldn't, not with any other player.

 

So, if Peters doesn't show up to camp by midnight tonight, he's the biggest a-hole in sports. !@#$ him. What a douche. And you guys who aren't even mentioning what a dick he's being right... make me sick.

[billybob]

Peters sure is valuable. So valuable, in fact, that he feels he needs to just invalidate the contract he signed in good faith and start squabbling over money, when his team is finally ready to make a push. The Bills will renegotiate his effing contract, and they have NEVER proven that they wouldn't, not with any other player.

 

So, if Peters doesn't show up to camp by midnight tonight, he's the biggest a-hole in sports. !@#$ him. What a douche. And you guys who aren't even mentioning what a dick he's being right... make me sick.

 

1. NFL contracts are not guaranteed 2. he was a RT when he signed the contract 3. He made a Pro-bowl which is a general condition for renegotiation 4. Schobel, Kyle Williams, Brad Butler sets the stage and none of them are played at the level that Jason Peters played at last year.

[obie_wan]

A friggin' groin pull (or was it sports hernia?) isn't exactly the sort of injury you're worried about from a lasting perspective. I can't imagine recovery from the surgery is an issue, but at this point I won't rule anything out -- primarily because we've heard precisely NOTHING. Everything is speculation right now.

 

unless its a tear -

 

it's not like he was able to play thru the injury.

 

At LT, you can't hide an injury that reduces his ability to slide laterally and back pedal.

 

He missed time

 

Sounds like the Bills know this injury is much more severe than publicly reported and hence are waiting until he's healthy.

[MikeInABQ]

1. NFL contracts are not guaranteed 2. he was a RT when he signed the contract 3. He made a Pro-bowl which is a general condition for renegotiation 4. Schobel, Kyle Williams, Brad Butler sets the stage and none of them are played at the level that Jason Peters played at last year.

And again, if he doesn't just show up to camp, because he has faith that the Bills will take all those things into consideration, then he's hurting the morale of his teammates and that makes him a total dickbag. Say what you want, the guy's gonna get the contract he wants, but he better show some !@#$ing class right now or he loses me as a fan, and believe me, I've been screaming his name ever since his first TD catch. If he's holding out, he is a DOUCHE.

[billybob]

And again, if he doesn't just show up to camp, because he has faith that the Bills will take all those things into consideration, then he's hurting the morale of his teammates and that makes him a total dickbag. Say what you want, the guy's gonna get the contract he wants, but he better show some !@#$ing class right now or he loses me as a fan, and believe me, I've been screaming his name ever since his first TD catch. If he's holding out, he is a DOUCHE.

Well I'm sure he will take an important opinion like yours into consideration- he's probably racing to camp right now!