2003Contenders

Is he scheduled to come in for a visit? Or are you wondering what the response would be if he WERE coming in? I have no problem with it as long as he plays the same role as he did for NE last year. In fact, he may not be such a bad signing EVEN IF Willis stays on the staff.

Maybe we'll get a 3rd rounder for Anderson yet!

I wonder why he made no mention of Randy Starks...

Of course, we may not have a #1 pick at all, if we take Briggs off Chicago's hands...

With all of the RB signings this year, I would NOT be too terribly surprised to see Peterson fall to 12. Remember the year we took Willis, he was the first RB taken -- and he went 21. (Larry Johnson went a few picks later.) The year we traded up for JP, Steven Jackson was the first back taken -- and he went with the following pick (23). I still think that one of those top 10 teams will take him -- or some other team will trade up for him... but stranger things have happened.

He came and went today, right? Marv's MO has been to sign them before they leave.

McNally's philosophy is to get the best 5 on the field at the same time. The left side is set with Peters-Dockery-Fowler. Given the large contract, Walker fits in somewhere -- but it will depend on whether the team feels that he underachieved at RT for the Raiders last year and decides to put him there again this year -- or if they believe that he's a better fit at RG, given his propensity to get beat by outside speed rushers at the RT position last season. Assuming he plays RT, I think there will be an open competition at RG with Whittle, Preston, and possibly Butler fighting it out. If they see Walker as a better fit at RG, then look for Butler and Pennington to press for the starting RT position.

I hear ya. The thing is that I believe that Marv understands that he holds all of the cards in relation to Willis. That is, Willis is signed, cheap, in the final year of his contract -- and once he comprehends exactly what the Bills did over the weekend in terms of improving the run blocking, he will probably be highly motivated to return for 2007. Thus, The Bills are not desperate to trade him in the same manner that, say, the Bears were with Thomas Jones' contract demands and Cedric Benson already on the roster. If the team can get a fantastic trade offer for Willis, great. Otherwise, we're better off with him on the roster -- unless Marv and Dick simply do not want him on the team. And, if they feel that way, he'll be gone anyhow.

I give Marv some credit here. Reyes was one of the biggest free agent signings we had last season. When he was not performing last season, rather than being stubborn and trying to insist that the signing was a good one, the team elected to move on without him after the bye week.

Yes, Turner is a RFA, but the Chargers gave him the top tender, which means that it would cost a 1st and a 3rd to sign him.

Terrell Suggs and Chris McAlister... We can ASK, right?

No, not necessarily. I would view either a healthy CB or Rhodes as an improvement over Thomas. But neither is an upgrade over Willis. It also depends on what we can get for Willis in a trade. Personally, I still do not think that Willis is going anywhere, as I do not believe that another team will cough up a Day 1 pick (or decent player) for him. Thus, I hope Rhodes and Brown are being pursued as compliments to Willis -- rather as potential replacements. Regardless of what happens, I fully expect Marv to draft a young back on Day 1 of the draft.

While I agree that he probably is not in the team's long-term plans, if we can't get decent compensation for him, I see no reason why he won't play out his string in 2007.

I wonder how much the injuries have sapped him of his prior abilities. If he was so great -- why did Travis beat him out of a job? The same Travis who lost his job back in 2004 here to Willis? I'm OK with CB as a replacement for A-Train. Not sure I'd be comfortable with him subbing for Willis. Now, maybe a combination of CB AND DR...

The Bears have until June to work out a long-term deal. If they wait until afterwards, then they lose the ability to use the Franchise Tag again for the life of Briggs' contract.

I wouldn't mind having Gandy back at the veteran minimum to backup Dockery at LG -- or compete for the starting RG position.

Maybe not... We still have NOT resigned A-Train.

And it probably means that OLB is the bigger position of need that can be filled either va free agency (Cato June) -- or in the draft. You can usually find a decent OLB that can start right away in the 2nd or 3rd round.

Recall also that Marv came in as a new GM last season -- and he had precious little time to make the decision about franchising Nate right away, as the designation was due by mid February. Also, at that time, there was serious concerns about whether or not there would be an extension to the CBA or not. As it was, 2006 looked to be the final capped season -- and there were serious restriction about how to back-load contracts and prorate signing bonuses. Under the circumstances, the Bills did exactly the right thing. The one area where they seriously err'ed was in their decision to promise NOT to retag Nate. In doing so, they gave up valuable leverage -- and prevented themselves from being able to demand some kind of compensation for him. (Did you see what the Broncos just gave up for Bly?) Truthfully, the Bills' use of the franchise tag last season was the best thing that could have happened to Nate. It gave him a mulligan for a sub-par 2005 season -- and he made good on it. Congrats to him for landing the big payday -- and congrats to the Bills for having the good sense NOT to try to overpay to the extent that the 49ers did.

I'm not sure that we can lay the guilt-by-association at the feet of Fairchild. I think, if anything, he was overly conservative last year -- but most of that was because he was scared to death of JP losing the game. As he became more confident in JP, he began to open the playbook up more -- and the offense magically got better. That is to say, that I liked what I saw out of Fairchild and believe that he will try to make the best use of the talent on hand. Remember that he also used to be a RB coach. I think where the signing of these new big bodies especially helps us is in those situations where we had trouble converting 3rd and 1 or 4th and 1 last year. If I am Willis right now, I'm trying to be on my best behavior so that I do not get traded -- even to the point of promising to show up for OTAs!

Not sure what's up with the the Travis love-fest. I seem to remember his final days playing here back in 2004, when he was stinking it up en route to a lousy 0-4 start -- that we only recovered from AFTER Willis came in for relief. (My heart skips a beat when I think back to THAT Willis, stiff-arm and all!) And it was Travis who FORCED the trade. The Bills wanted him back in 2005. Oh, and what happened after he was traded to the Titans? He had to serve a 4-game suspension. That to go along with the problems he had when he was in Buffalo with under-age girls. As much as we all dis Willis for not knowing the plays, do you all remember how horrible Travis was at doing practically everything except for running with the football? I do.

There is no denying that there may have been some racism involved in regards to Moon's non-selection regardless of Williams' status. Still, I could be wrong, but I would venture to say that in Williams' very short time in the league, he won more playoff games than Warren Moon did over his lo-o-o-ong career.

Raider fans were not sad to see him go: Langston Walker to Void Year... Let's just hope that a change of scenery with better coaching does him some good...

Saw that the NFL Network is reporting that the Bills and Dockery were CLOSE to signing. Now, maybe they are getting their information second-hand from the likes of Chris Brown. However, if this is true, then maybe the PC is on hold until after the deal is done. Anyone know if the PC has even started yet?

Word out of Washington is that he's looking for $12 M up front, which was too rich for the Skins' blood, if you can believe that.