Mickey

Good, lets pass them out a few merit badges for their selfless devotion because afterall, who cares about winning? It's about being the gosh darn nicest team around. And don't forget Schobel held the team up, and held out of 4 OTA's to get a new contract, the biggest one on the team, when had just been given a new, huuuuge contract all because the team caved in a big way to Kelsay. Schobel wasn't thinking about everyone else then, he was thinking about himself and only himself. You don't think it was just a little prima donna-ish for Schobel to insist on a new deal just because he wanted to make more than Kelsay? Precisely what "antics" are talking about? His only "antic" was to hold out, hardly a shocking, unprecedented thing. This is just about money, and its someone elses money yet you guys take this personally and are positively vitriolic about the guy. So you are all over a pro bowler, the first decent left tackle we have had for years and you give a complete pass to the geniuses who have brought you a steady diet of uninspired, boring, playing scared 7-9 football. A hold out is a player's only card in the situation Peters is in. And that hold out cost him nothing, it cost the team having him at his best which he would have been if he had a new contract. What you complain about is exactly his leverage. You don't think the team is thinking about what it is going to cost them on the field this year if they have another drama like last year? The team has to decide if Peters at his best, after a full camp etc. for this year and having him inked to a long term deal is worth the extra money they are going to have to pay this year and next. It is just a business decision. Do they want the Peters of 2007 or the Peters of 2008 in '09?

I think Poz has been a disappointment so far. I know that is blasphemy given how much everyone hereabouts loves him but I just don't think he has been an impact player at all. He has been a serviceable MLB so far, nothing more. Remember, we traded up to get this guy. The injury hampered his development but despite that, he has had two full camps, two full preseasons including the games, and a full season under his belt. And please don't quote the number of tackles he has. Fletcher lead the team in tackles every year too. Its where those tackles take place that count.

Trade downs are the white whale of the draft, everyone wants to harpoon one but its way easier said than done. NE was at 7 last year, 4 spots higher than we are, NO traded up from 10, one spot higher than we are before trading. Point being, who is going to trade up to get the 11 spot? If it happens, it will only be because some player someone is hot for slips and is unexpectedly there at 11. I am not saying it doesn't make sense, just that I will beleive it when I see it. Every year there are a slew of posts about trading down and every year, it doesn't happen and afterward, its proponents claim the Bills could have but were just too stupid to do it. I just don't buy it.

He appears to have the size and weight needed so if he has hands to go with that speed, he isn't going to drop into anyones lap.

I think it is worth noting that no one is up in arms about Kelsay and Schobel who are robbing the team absolutely blind, as was Dockery for that matter. If they want to play the "he doesn't deserve that kind of $" card, I don't understand why the don't play it with those guys. If I were Brandon/Wilson, I would be infuriated over their lack of production in relation to their salaries. Even with missing camp and having, for him, an off year, Peters was still more valuable to this team than those two underperforming money pits. The team could save a lot more money without sacrificing performance by cutting loose that dead weight.

Way to focus on the meaningless distinction between being named to the pro bowl and actually playing in one. Not even Brandon would be dumb enough to try to use that in negotiations. Perhaps you haven't followed Peter's career, such as the fact the team already tore up one contract and gave him a hefty raise and are ready to do it again this year, the only problem being settling on a price. The team has shown absolutely no sign of not having full confidence in his abilities. They let Dockery go, not Peters and they haven't developed quality depth at OT either. Really, there are just too many knee jerk authoritarians here whose bitterness over someone elses employment contract blinds them to what a fan should care about most, winning football games. Let Mr. Wilson worry about his money. I want Peters on the field at his best because I have seen his best and it is very, very good. I don't really care how that happens.

hI think he has already demonstrated that, hence is rise from UDFA to a top LT in this game. I think what you really mean is that he has to continuously show it. But that means he would have to concede the only card he has to play. Other than the moral high ground, what would be his option if he does as you suggest and the Bills, figuring there is no drama to worry about, don't give him the contract he deserves? If you only have one card to play, even if its not a good one, you might as well play it. Some think he owes the Bills to play at a discount because he was an undrafted TE but what he achieved in this league, he achieved, it wasn't a free gift from the Bills and if you look at all the reports from that draft, Peters was no secret and was on the short list of a lot of teams to get signed as a long term project. He chose Buffalo from among a number of other teams. The notion that he was a nobody hanging on to the game by a thread until he was rescued by the generous Bills is just ludicrous.

We will have to wait for that fat lady to take the stage. Sure hope is resolved long before then so we can all discuss something else besides the oh-so-exciting topic of the relative sizes of the teams' and Peters' bank account. I have a suspicion that if we lose Peters, we will live to regret it. Brandon will end up being an answer to a trivia question, the GM who let Peters go. Who was the guy who let Darryl Lamonica go?

I don't know why you feel its necessary to be condescending and insulting to those who simply think Peters is worth keeping on the roster, hardly an extreme view given his two trips to the pro bowl and the teams efforts to try and keep him around. I thought to respond in kind but instead I am hoping maybe you will reconsider that attitude and join in a more constructive discussion.

I think his plan was to try and get Peters out of his contract as soon as possible when the Bills contractually had no obligation to do that at all. The drama last year was worth it to see if they would balk then and if not, to lay the foundation for this year. It was a free roll of the dice. The only real risk was that Peters really was just a flash in the pan and shoulud just capitalize on that before his lack of talent became apparent. I am sure Peters didn't see that as a realisitic risk. He is good, he knows it and that isn't going to change and in the end, talent, in this league, is leverage. Negotiating when the other side has no incentive to do so is a pretty tough position to be in and that was where Peters was last year and would have been this year had it not been for the hold out last year. Now the team has to pay him, trade him or go through another offseason of drama involving one of the best players on the team. There comes a point where the organization's interests are best served by giving him a new deal rather than saving the cash by trying to keep him on the field under his existing contract. Peters had limited leverage and Parker's job was to create more, last year's soap opera did just that. I have always believed that reasonable minds can differ over the best strategy in that very difficult situation but to label Parker's tactics as stupid or moronic etc., is way off. The guy is a successfull agent for a reason and I am sure knows and understands how to handle these situations way better than we do. What made the problem so hard to solve, and still hard to solve, is that both sides have strong positions, usually deals are made when both sides have weaknesses to protect. For Peters, he kind of has nothing to lose at this point, either he gets a new deal or he is stuck being the cheapest pro bowler around. That and his talent gives him some options besides caving. The team's weakness is that they are chronically mediocre and have no better options at LT but on the other hand, they have him under contract still. So there are reasons aplenty for them not to cave either. That is why we had a stand off next year and will again this year unless the team decides it doesn't want to go through that again.

Bravo sir. Love the gallows humor.

yeah we really played that just perfectly

No they don't, not as long as they are content with 7-9 and a healthier bank account because I am sure that is what Ralph wants, not a trophy but a few more samolians. Or they can have another distracting soap opera and one of their best players being useless again until about week 3 or 4 because he missed camp.

This is essentially what I said...last year and was promptly gutted for being Parker's butt boy. Peters had nothing to lose last year by holding out and it laid the foundation for a new deal this year as, hopefully, the team doesn't have the stomach for a replay of that. Well stated though and we just all need to hope this doesn't become another 7 month long soap opera.

Lets run with that!

Because treating him with a complete lack of respect is probably not the best way to get him contractually locked up with numbers you can live with. If you want to inuslt him, for him to become entrenched in his position, if you want him to want out of Buffalo the first chance he gets and if you want do all you can to make sure that a very difficult negotiation for both sides never bears fruit, that would be a great idea. Right up there with calling Peters out publicly at the start of camp last year. That worked out just great.

There is no proof at all that he has had to pay any fines at all and the usual practice is for them to be waived. The Bills wanted him in last year asap and are trying to sign him now, trying to make those fines stick would not exactly have helped bring him in finally last year nor given Peters the warm and fuzzies during the negotiations this year. So unless something different happened here than what happens 99% of the time, my bet is that the fines were waived in to-to. As for willingness to negotiate last year, the reason I am sure they were not willing to do so is the simple fact that they didn't. Again, unless they somehow lost the agents phone number, all it would have took is a phone call anytime last offseason. They started negotiating Schobel's deal long before training camp and even so, he skipped 4 OTA's to let them know he was serious if the negotiating didn't keep moving. Unless Peters' agent is a moron, and his success in the league certainly speaks otherwise, there is no way he would not have hopped on a plane if Brandon had called in March of 2008 and offered to talk turkey. The press conference Brandon called to lambaste Peters at the start of camp was a big mistake and every word of it was for PR purposes. If he wanted to send a message to Peters, all he had to do was to call his agent, no need to do it through the press. So the only reason to do what he did was to get the fans on his side and frankly, it worked like a charm. It was the classless act of an inexperienced GM in my opinion. Whenever a player or a team goes to the press in these situations it is for the purpose of getting the fans to blame the other guy. In that light, there is no way Brandon is going to give a press conference to inform the fans that Peters asked for the same treatment they gave Schobel the year before and would hold out if he didn't and that the team told him that wasn't going to happen. That wouldn't have cast Peters and his agent as villains. Instead, it would have presented was really the difficult truth, Peters is better than his contract so he has a point and the Bills already tore up on contract for him so they had a point. The hardest disputes to settle are the ones where both sides are right. Maybe his new deal this year won't be as good as the one he would have had otherwise, we will likely never know. For now though, he has lost nothing and given how much he would fetch on the open market, I think he did nothing but help himself last year. He is under contract, totally stuck and his only weapon was to take a stab at a hold out which he did and when they called his bluff, he folded his tent having laid the foundation for a new deal this year. Certainly, reasonable minds can disagree with my view on this but to characterize Peters and his agent as being stupid, is simply not warranted and is more the product of all the anger he caused last year with the hold out. The team definitely won the PR battle there but for Peters, I don't think that will matter in the long run. The fans for his new team won't give a frack that the Buffalo fans despise him, they will just be thankful that we were foolish enough to give up a pro bowl LT. The way this is going, I can't see why Peters wouldn't bolt Buffalo the first chance he gets.

No reason the team would be less than honest in their public statements now is there? Did they ever say they couldn't reach his agent? That is who you negotiate a new deal with, not the player. And if you want to convince a team that you are not bluffing, that you really will hold out, maybe it wouldn't be a good idea to talk to the coaches. As for Peters being stupid, a constant refrain hereabouts, you might want to consider that Peters lost nothing at all by that hold out and gained a commitment by the team to give him a new deal this year despite the fact that he is still under contract and the team doesn't have to give him a new deal. So, tell me again how stupid Peters is. For being such a stupid guy, he sure seems to be doing okay for himself. We should all be so stupid.

No need to go back and parse every word, it wasn't a mystery really. He wanted a new deal last year and the team didn't want to give him one. He asked, they said no and that was it. The notion that they won't negotiate with someone skipping the otas is silly, just as silly as all the carping that Peters was being silent. Pretty sure Brandon has Parker's phone number. There was simply nothing to negotiate. Peters took a shot at forcing the issue using the only leverage he had, it didn't work but it laid the foundation for a new deal this year and this year, they are negotiating. They might not reach agreement but the bottom line is that he is being offered a new deal with lots more cash long before the his current contract is up. Advantage Peters.

"in constant talks" is the difference. The bills weren't willing to negotiate a new deal last year, nothing to talk about. Here, the steelers are going to give him a new deal, its just a question of agreeing on a number. Besides, who really cares about "class"?? I want him to block, not teach an ethics class or date my daughter. Last year's holdout cost Peters nothing but it cost the Bills on the field. But they saved some cash so yippee for us because aren't we all more interested in the team's bank account than we are in actually winning games? But we really taught Peters a lesson didn't we? Didn't we?

Jeez, over before I even knew there was one. Can't beleive I missed that chance to waste a chunk of time on a wild theory. Quick, lets start another one.

It doesn't make sense but rumors always flourish in an environment of uncertainty. Until we know wtf they are doing with Peters, he is going to be the center piece of many a wild theory.

I don't want this to happen but I think that if we trade for Sheffler, they are definitely going to cancel "House" next season. Not what I would want, but it's possible.

I have missed 100% of my pro career due to a lack of talent. *sigh* Darn the luck.

I like to obsess on stats as much as the next guy but as interesting as this analysis is, there are some apparent flaws. I would be more interested to see the stats for these guys over the last 2-3 years, not just last year. In this analysis, we are comparing Peters' worst year with what was likely Preston's and Chambers' best year. Quaility of opposition matters and the game situation matters. True, that should even out over time but the sample size for Chambers and Preston is much smaller, perhaps too small. Otherwise, one would have to conclude that Peston is almost as good at pass blocking at guard as Peters is at tackle. Sometimes an absurd result is not abusrd, just a surprise. Sometimes however, an absurd result means the methodology was flawed. Still, fascinating to read none the less if taken for what it is worth so thanks for the link and thanks to the guy who did all that work to compile the info for our benefit.