Bills Fan in Beantown

Tweet from Thurman yesterday: @thurmanthomas: I held out 1 year, and was traded 3x's called selfish, greedy, not a team guy, not a leader, & other things.Don't believe everything u hear

We still have a secondary comprised of homegrown talent including two first round picks at corner and a second at safety. Leodis showed us a lot last year and I think we'll finally see what Gilmore can do this year (praying). I like the attitude Aaron brings. I'm not crying about this and acting like Bucky Gleason ripping on the "optimist" Bills fans. I like our D. Take the cash and lock up the Dareus.

The unverified reports sounded like the bills offered him the same money over five years. Who knows if it's true, but I don't doubt that he would take near equal money to get out of town. Either way, I say best of luck to him.

I like the idea of signing Spikes to stuff the run. Knock on him is that he is horrible in coverage, but would be an interesting pairing next to Kiko.

I thought he played with a lot of guts. He seems like a great kid with high character, good football intelligence, etc. That said, if he ends up starting a lot of games because of another EJ injury, then I'm picturing myself back to looking at draft position in December as opposed to figuring out how to make another trip to the Ralph to see us make a run at the playoffs. I agree.

Good news: Ian Rapoport ‏@RapSheet 1m The 4-year extension for #Bills S Aaron Williams is worth $26M, per source. It can be worth up to $27.25M over the course of the deal. Great news. I really like Aaron Williams and he plays with a lot of heart. I read earlier that nobody would reasonably pay top money to two safeties on one roster. Byrd is a good name for a player on the Eagles. I just hope he doesn't go to the Pats.

I think Marrone was happy to have Pettine and he may just be a decent guy that wanted him to do well on a personal level. #Longoffseason

Thanks for posting. That highlight reel is pretty awesome.

Listening to Jim Kelly on the radio the other day he is huge on drafting "play makers" and he was definitely referring to getting good receivers. Just one barometer to look at.

Agreed.

I think Byrd was pretty clear about his interviews after he came off the holdout that he was not happy with the organization and literally had to bite his tongue at times. After being named to the pro-bowl, Byrd made the same type of remarks about being justified, etc. I still think he would take less to play somewhere else. I say figure out what you can offer him and still re-up the big guys that will come up after next season and get it done.

When he speaks directly to buffalobills.com he mentions Byrd first in a nearly identical quote. Still, who knows.

You would think that the talent we have on defense might attract a decent hire for the position. Let's see what they do.

Oh thank god! http://www.sportspickle.com/2014/01/browns-hire-adorable-stray-kitten-new-head-coach

Byrd is the only one of the four that isn't under contract for next year and my guess is he is as good as gone. I think the D-Line is great and could be even better if they re-sign Carrington for depth. The problem with the line will be if the DC is gone and we have to start over with a whole new defensive system.

I agree completely.

Just watched Greg Robinson in the SEC Championship game (link here: http://www.sbnation.com/nfl-mock-draft/2014/1/13/5302134/2014-nfl-mock-draft-blake-bortles-johnny-manziel). He would be quite a beast to bookend with Cordy.

Maybe putting a little more spotlight on these guys wouldn't be a bad thing and "hold them accountable." Either way, I would certainly be tuned it if they put it on. It would be a lot better than the Bills "Roundup" that I watch on iphone app.

Awesome. Just, awesome.

I agree. I think its the opposite of the hometown discount. He'll require a premium to stay here and for even money he walks. I don't know how our ability to tag him for $10M (holdout) year affects the analysis.

I never vote for players on other teams. I couldn't really care less who wins these things unless its somebody I want to watch.

My two cents: I met a couple from Toronto over New Years so I obviously asked them what they thought of the Bills games there. It took them a minute to register what I was even talking about, then they said that they would rather make the drive to the Ralph if they wanted to see a game because you can't tailgate in Canada.

A win builds in all directions for us - from the fans to the young talent, but most importantly to the veterans around the league who will no longer think it will be the sink hole of their career if they sign with us in the off season.

They should see who is available that can ADD to this team, rather than deconstruct any progress. There have to be some good offensive minds out there in the off-season that will be looking for jobs.

If we could just draft Shane Conlan next year AND trade our next few first rounders for Cornelius Bennett, then still manage to draft Thurman Thomas in the second round the year after. Then sign a big free agent wide receiver (future HOF) and I think we might be able to build something for just about any quarterback to work with. Oh wait, its 2013, not 1986. My bad.