jahnyc

The 2009 draft redo is worse. Elliot Harrison from NFL.com has us taking Orakpo instead of Maybin. Many of us wanted Orakpo in that draft.

Does this make any sense if we take a qb in the first round? Maybe the Bills think the best bet this year is to draft a qb in the later rounds (a development guy with potential). Otherwise, signing Kolb and keeping Jackson does not make any sense to me.

I was really happy that the Bills signed M. Williams last year, but in hindsight, it was not a good move. It may be worth it to spend that kind of money on a player if it puts you over the top (i.e., into the playoffs), but otherwise, it does not make sense, particularly this year when certain free agents experienced a tough market and lower contract amounts. M. Williams counts more than $18 million against the cap next year (2014) and is due a $10.5 million roster bonus. This is a killer. For this amount, we could sign three high quality free agents. We also overpaid for McKelvin. There was a glut of free agent cbs, and many are still available. I know that we all want to attract quality but bargain priced free agents, but it will be difficult to get some of them to come to Buffalo. The team likely will not be good this year, and if you are a wide receiver or TE, why would you come to a team without a QB (you would want to have good stats wherever you go so that if you sign a one year deal, you will be more attractive the next year in free agency).

Based on the free agents available, what we have in T. Jackson, and the QBs that will be drafted this year, I think the best option for this season would be to sign Carson Palmer and draft a QB after the first round this year. I understand that Palmer would be a stog gap, but I think he is better than our other available options (certainly better than T. Jackson), and I am getting the sense that this is a below average group of QBs available in the draft. I also understand that Palmer may go to Arizona, but if he gets cut by the Raiders, the Bills should try to sign him.

I also was hoping the Bills would try to sign Myers.

If McKelvin can develop into a solid starting caliber CB, then his contract is not unreasonable. But this really is the question. He has had five years to develop, and he has not to this point. Maybe it was coaching, we will see, and clearly he should get more dollars for his special teams play, but I have my doubts that he will end up being a starter. If this is the case, then the Bills overpaid. With regard to Fitz, we can all agree that an upgrade at QB is desperately needed. I have no illusions that Fitz would suddenly develop into a quality starter with a new coaching staff. Would the Bills have been better off with Fitz (at a much reduced price) competing with a rookie draft choice instead of Jackson? Who knows, but my view is that it would have made more sense to keep Fitz over Jackson. Of course this assumes that the Bills could have reached an agreement with Fitz, which may not have been possible, especially after the Deadspin thing. I certainly do not like what the Bills have done in free agency so far. This may change after we know what changes are made and players are added, but with a lot of holes and only six draft picks, it seems they much work to do.

Many of the teams that have not been particularly active in free agency (i.e., Dallas, Washington, Pittsburgh, Carolina, New Orleans and Houston) have significant cap issues. Cinci and Jacksonville have cap space and have done little so far.

Of course I have no idea what the Bills the are doing or thinking, but I would note the following: 1. Signing M. Williams to a huge deal last year looks stupid in light of the number of DEs that were available this year and the contracts that these free agents are getting now. I would argue that a strong front office will assess current needs and availability (in the draft and in free agency) as well as future needs and availability. 2. Signing McKelvin at the start of free agency for the amount of money he received was a significant misjudgment of the market for CBs. Many CBs have been (and continue to be) available, some who are more likely to be quality starters than McKelvin. 3. The front office should have realized that cutting Fitz would add to the negatives (i.e., no starting caliber QB) in trying to attract and sign free agents. Instead, the Bills should have used money for free agency to re-sign Levitre, who had indicated interest in staying with the Bills. 4. Why do the Bills wait so long to try to re-sign their own players? Signing Byrd will now cost them much more money based on the deals that some of the free agent safeties have received this offseason. Would Levitre have agreed to less than what he ultimately received from the Titans if the Bills had tried to sign him during last season? 5. Now that the Bills have cut Fitz and only have T. Jackson, it is obvious that the Bills will be drafting a QB in this year's draft. Other GMs know this, and if they are interested in a QB, they know that they may need to move ahead of the Bills. Having all of the NFL teams know what you need to do in the draft is not a good thing. This is a very weak draft for QBs, and the Bills have no choice but to draft one early. Last year was the year to draft a QB, another front office misjudgment.

They should give us some picks out of pity.

I do not know, but I bet Buffalo reached out to a bunch of free agents and they chose to visit and sign with other teams. Some of the NFL "gossip" sites are unreliable, but some did say that Buffalo had contacted the agents for Landry, DeVito, Keller, Vasquez and others. Who knows what really is going on.

Would have felt better if they had re-signed Levitre. If they can't get free agents to sign, the better strategy would have been to keep Levitre.

They will try to sell us a rookie QB taken in the first round of the draft. At this point, it is their only option, and it is unfortunate that the Bills will be forced to make this pick in a year where there are probably no first round quality QBs (even Jim Kelly agrees with this). If you look on Buffalobills.com, they are already hyping a pre-draft, in person visit with Geno Smith. This is all they have.

The Kaye Stephenson and Hank Bullough years were rough. Gregg Williams' first year was also pretty bad. It was hard watching Ferragamo/Mathison, Holcomb and AVP. Looking forward to adding Jackson to this list.

We need to see progress, and instead the team regressed in year three of the rebuild. I am clearly in the minority, but I would have been okay with Gailey coming back as long as the Bills re-signed Levitre and hired a new DC. Seemed pretty clear that Wanny was in over his head.

Are there any visits to the Bills planned by any available free agents other than maybe Florence? This team is going nowhere until it has a viable, starting caliber QB.

I kind of liked Chan as well. He has a really good mind for offense a lot of experience, but poorly run defenses and an average to below average QB ultimately resulted in his firing. I may be in the minority on this, but I think he did a lot with what he had on offense, and I think the offense will take a big step back this year.

The lack of any signings of free agents does not help, but for me it was the realization that the starting QB this year will be either a rookie draft pick or Jackson. I have no problems replacing Fitz, but for this year, I am not sure our current options will bring any success.

I hope no one is suicidal over the lack of signings today by the Bills, but the real issues are the lack of talent and no QB. Feels like rock bottom again, and I think that is why most of us are unhappy now. There seems to be no chance that the Bills will be competitive this year, which is an amazing thing to be say this early in the offseason.

Very disheartening that the team is in roughly the same situation as when Nix became GM (not enough talent, too many holes, no starting QB, and a new head coach and staff).

We need a new GM, and I don't think Whaley is the answer. Brandon should have hired a guy with a lot of experience to turn things around. The team is a complete mess. 1. Signing Fitz to a big deal and then cutting him a little more than a year later. What free agent will want to come here with no QB and a team that cuts a player so soon after making a major committment to them? Maybe the better question is what free agent will want to come here knowing that the Bills will not be competitive next year or for the foreseeable future? 2. I know that many wanted Fitz to be cut, and I understand that, but would the better approach have been to reduce his compensation and let him compete for the starting job at least until the QB we select in the draft was ready to play? 3. Our QB situation will be a mess this year. Even if we draft a QB in the first round, he will likely not be ready to start on day one. New system for the players will further complicate things. If Jackson is our day one starter, it will be difficult for me to watch this team. 4. We are now almost obligated to select a QB with our first pick in a draft with no clear cut top or outstanding prospect at the position. 5. Losing Levitre, even at almost $8 million/year is a disaster. It may be easy for most teams to find starting guards, but not the Bills. He was our most consistent and durable player on the o-line. Should have been re-signed. This will hurt. Are they going to sign Wood who is a free agent next year? Even with all of his past injury issues, some of which were very significant and could affect his longevity as a player? 6. WIth our lack of success and below average talent, how do we not have more cap space? Why did we pay Merriman so much dough over the last couple of years? 7. Our drafts have been below average since Nix became GM.

At this point, Fitz probably wants to get cut. He probably thinks he would have a shot with Arizona. Fitz's agent is aware of this "discussion" and was not happy. See PFC twitter.

1. It is amazing the number of holes we have, even after drafting relatively early in each round and re-signing a bunch of our current players the last couple of years. Needing to fill a number of these holes with free agents is a direct result of poor drafting over the last three years by Nix, particularly in the later rounds. 2. I think many free agent WRs will not be interested in the Bills because of our QB situation. Of course, overpaying them may help to overcome this. 3. Nix also deserves criticism for acquiring and keeping Merriman for too long. He wasted way too many dollars that could have used for other needs on the hope that Merriman would return to form. 4. Seems unlikely that the Bills will re-sign Levitre. I would think that San Diego would be attractive for Levitre since he is from that area and our former o-line coach is now the o-line coach for the Chargers. 5. The Levitre negotiations seem similar to the Poz negotiations from a couple of years ago. The Bills seemed half-hearted in trying to keep Poz and he left. Almost as if the Bills wanted to make it appear that they were out-bid more for public relations reasons than anything else. 6. I wonder if the Bills have decided that they will need to re-sign Woods next year, and this is more important than re-signing Levitre this year. If this is the case, I am not sure I agree given the injury history with Woods versus Levitre staying relatively healthy in his four years as a Bill. 7. I don't really care if the Bills restructure Fitz (i.e., cut his compensation) or release Fitz, but I really do not like the prospect of Fitz and/or Jackson battling for the starting job with a rookie QB. The QBs available in this draft are one of the lowest rated overall groups of QBs I can recall and none of them seem ready to be a day-one starter. It is really depressing that Nix may be forced to draft one of these guys in the first round because of such an extreme need. 8. Speaking of Poz, Nix has not been able to find an adequate replacement for him. Sheppard has been really disappointing and is a significant downgrade. 9. I would not be excited if the Bills add Landry at SS. He is older, below average in pass coverage, and has had injury issues in the past. It would be an admission of another drafted player (in this case Searcy) being unable to step up if the Bills sign Landry. 10. I was surprised that the Bills re-signed McKelvin. Seemed like there were a lot of decent CBs available in free agency. McKelvin as a starting CB scares me. 11. I have not heard much about our needs at DE, and I think they are significant. I don't think Anderson is a three down guy, and is more of a pass rushing specialist type. Do we even have a third or fourth DE currently on the roster? 12. I would be fine if the Bills drafted o-line in the first round this year of the draft. LB or DE would be okay as well. There is real quality available in the first round at these positions. Please do not reach for a QB. 13. Going into free agency and the draft, we have a significant lack of starting caliber players and/or depth at so many key positions (QB, WR, LB, DE and CB). It will be interesting to see how they get filled.

JW, are you hearing whether the Bills have interest in and are still in the running for Levitre? That link to the Tennessean blog is the first that I have heard of continued interest by the Bills in Levitre.

We can agree to disagree on whether McKelvin is worth the money, but I strongly disagree with posts that suggest finding guards is easier than other positions. My recollection is that before Levitre we had almost 10 years of really poor o-line play, including at the guard position. Dockery, Pucillo, Villarial, Tucker, Gandy, B. Anderson and the list goes on and on (there is a reason why you may not have heard these names in a long time).

I would rather the Bills have used this money to sign Levitre. Frankly, this makes no sense to me. He has been benched over each of the last five years by different coaching staffs because he is not a starting caliber CB. Re-signing a CB who is not a starter for $5 million per year versus a starting near Pro Bowl caliber LG for $7 or 8 million per year? This is a microcosm of why the Bills have not made the playoffs in 13 years.