Tipster19

Free agency is starting to pick up steam.

I respect your opinion and maybe it's not just about the Pioli/Belichick relationship. I just don't think that we would be able to obtain Waters from Pioli for a reasonable price. What I do believe is that if Waters is all that then Pioli wouldn't trade him unless he got paid a hefty ransome from whoever. I'm out on this guy unless we can get him for no more than a 4th rder and even then I'm not too sure on that because right now I'm shooting from the hip and I don't know exactly where we are picking in the 4th. PS- Don't think that that relationship doesn't run deep because it does and time will reveal that.

I agree. I rather draft a player with one of those picks than to use it on an aging disgruntled player who is looking for a bigger contract. Because I don't think that Pioli would do anything that would benefit us when we're in the same division as his buddy/mentor Bill Belichick.

If Waters is that good of a player why would Pioli trade him and trade him to us of all teams? I don't think that we should do anything with the Chiefs, I'm still miserable about Bledsoe. On a side note. Waters is upset because Pioli wouldn't meet with him on a one-to-one meeeting. DT Shaun Rogers in Cleveland is complaining about the same thing with Mangini. What, is this a Patriot thing?

I'm an advocate on seeing what the situation is with WR Drew Bennett. I wouldn't want him as another WR but would be interested in if he could be converted into a pass catching TE/HB. He's got tremendous size and already being a WR you know he can catch and have decent speed.

Good point. I think that he's an X factor that not too many around here can get a clear reading on. Who knows maybe we do already have this position address with someone already on the roster. I'd be interested in reading anything on the developement and status of our current players. I wonder where we can find this information.

Oh, you'll get the point when you see the Patriots restructure Wilfork and Seymour's contracts and we're stuck with two overpaid 30+ yr old white boys for DEs. It will get even better if we're stupid enough to use our #1 pick on a TE this year like some people around have been suggesting. That doesn't even make sense, seeing how we hardly ever utilize the TE traditionally. All that is is just a fan's wishlist.

Obviously this Brady is going to be alright and their two back-ups, Kevin O'Connell and Matt Gutierrez, were two QBs I was hoping Buffalo was going to draft, are more than adequate. What better than to clear cap room and then rework Vince Wilfork and Richard Seymour's contracts. It's better for them to keep their own then go out and try and get someone like Julius Peppers, who is unhappy and looking for big money. Keep in mind that Pioli and Belichick go back, waaay back. You do know that the Chiefs' GM Scott Pioli is Bill Parcells' son-in-law right, and he chose to stay with Belichick after the two Bills had their falling out? I remember reading awhile ago that when Belichick was with Cleveland I believe, Pioli was a jr scout and just about lived out of his car. Belichick took a genuine interest and liking to him and would look out for him. Every once in awhile when things went good Belichick would toss him a hundred bucks. Pioli said it was like gold to him back then, not having much even to eat but the guy worked his @$$ off for him and Belichick loved Pioli's passion. Make no mistake about it, these two are close, real close and I don't changing in the future. I fully expect the Chiefs and Patriots to be very franchise friendly for as long as these two are in power. It was such a good story of the relationship between two football guys that I don't even begrudge it, matter of fact I respect it. The Chiefs are going to take over the AFC West before you know it, just like Belichick and the Patriots did and now how Parcells rapidly turned around the Dolphins' fortunes. AJ Smith is the only one in that division who has the savvy and football wits to match this Pioli, and to think that he was once one of us. Pioli put in Todd Haley as coach and I think that he's going to be a pretty good one. The coaching tree in KC has Maurice Carthon Dedric Ward. Geesh, I wonder who they use to play for??? Denver's coach Josh McDaniel is this year's version of Eric Mangini. Belichick has no loyalty to this guy, all he did was employ him. I'm not even going to mention the Raiders in this mix because really who cares? I didn't mean to get into all this but this thread made me reflect and I'm realizing that there is going to be a power shift in this league and I see Kansas City being the new Patriots of the league in a few years. The good news is I don't think that Belichick is going to be around all that long. I believe that in a way the torch is getting past. now all we have to do is wait until this Parcells gets out of the way and I don't expect that to last all that long neither.

You are absolutely correct on both accounts. Nice job!

LOL! todd, you're killing me!

Ty Warren (28 yrs old)-8/16/2007: Signed a five-year, $36 million contract extension through 2013. The deal contains $18 million guaranteed, including a $7 million signing bonus and a $7 million option bonus in the first year. 2009: $1.225 million, 2010: $2.9 million, 2011: $3.1 million, 2012: $3.25 million, 2013: $3.9 million, 2014: Free Agent Aaron Schobel (31yrs old)-8/24/2007: Signed a seven-year, $50.5 million contract. The deal contains $21 million guaranteed, including Schobel's first four base salaries. 2009: $3.5 million, 2010: $6.025 million, 2011-2012: $6.5 million, 2013: $8.5 million, 2014: Free Agent Vince Wilfork (27 yrs old)-7/19/2004: Signed a six-year, $18.05 million contract. The deal included a $5.825 million signing bonus. 2009: $800,000, 2010: Free Agent Marcus Stroud (30 yrs old)-2009: $3.5 million, 2010: $4 million, 2011: Free Agent Spencer Johnson (27 yrs old)-3/1/2008: Signed a five-year, $17.5 million contract. The deal includes $6 million guaranteed. 2009: $1 million, 2010-2012: $3 million, 2013: Free Agent Richard Seymour (29 yrs old)-4/12/2006: Signed a four-year, $30 million contract. The deal contains $24 million guaranteed, including a second-year option bonus of $18.6 million. 2009: $3.685 million, 2010: Free Agent. Cap charge: $11.34 million (2009). Chris Kelsay (29 yrs old)-2/26/2007: Signed a four-year, $23 million contract. The deal included an $8 million signing bonus and initial roster bonus of $3 million. 2009: $3 million, 2010: $3.7 million, 2011: Free Agent My take is this. We're paying top dollar to an aging DE (Schobel) who may even have a bum foot and New England just created a bunch of money under the cap so I would suspect that Seymour's contract may get a facelift this year. I'm not too sure on Stroud's contract status so if anyone can shed any light on this situation it would be much appreciated. We're older right across the D Line and they have the better players for comparable or less money. The Patriots drafted all 3 in the 1st rd and we drafted 50% of ours and those two (Kelsay and Schobel) were both selected in the 2nd rd. It's imperative that we make our D Line the priority in the 1st rd this year, not just for the present but more importantly for the future. The economics of it only makes it more sensible from a GM's point of view. Ability wise it's becoming more and more of a glaring need for us.

Well said friend. He sure did and I can see the value to that. It's nice to have optimism and hope going into each season. I think that this franchise/team/fanbase could use a good shot of it this year.

I'm glad that he's gone but you know that Donahoe wouldn't be able to pass up such a splashy FA acquisition. This is one of the times of the year that he lived for.

Keep in mind that he just turned 32 years old, has a cap charge of $5.1 million and he's due $3.6 million for 2009. It sounds to me that the Chiefs have quite an issue on their hands with an aging, high priced player who is currently very unhappy with his new GM. A mid round (5 rder?) draft pick might be tempting for them.

Are you saying that Taylor came here on his own??? Hmm, I think we invited him. MaGahee is a Pro Bowl RB and where is he? I don't know what your social life has to do with anything but listen, have fun tonight, ok? Whew, that was enlightening.

Cutler.

Denver was almost in a 3 way trade right now. One of the most famous 3 way trades was with Cornelius Bennett. How long have you been a Bills' fan? As far as Lynch goes, I don't want him period. He's getting paid large and he already has two BIG incidents but you're right, let's hang on to him and be sorry later. Hello??? Do you realize what kind of trouble he got into in such a short time of being in the NFL? They weren't minor offenses. Obviously I'm not the only one having second thoughts about this guy, the front office just tried to acquire old ass fragile Fred Taylor and he wasn't tempted.

There's various ways to make a trade with another team. We could use a draft pick for him and it would be like drafting a player with that pick. Another way would be to trade a player/draft pick for a player but I don't think that we have a player of value for the Packers unless McCargo was all of a sudden lucrative but I don't see that happening. There is another way and that is to have a 3 team trade and that is a possible scenario. What I would like to see would be for Buffalo to trade Lynch to Cleveland and we pick up Derrick Ward. I don't have any reservations in making Fred Jackson the focus and complimenting him with Ward. In turn Cleveland trades DT Shaun Rogers to Green Bay and then Green Bay trades Jason Spitz to us and compensate it with a mid round draft pick in this year's draft.

I noticed in the link that QB Charlie Frye is on his way to St. Louis. I wouldn't be too surprised if Losman lands up in Seattle as a back-up to Matt Hasselbeck. The guy is aging and his back has been getting worse IMO.

The Packers may have an abundance on their interior O-Line. If that's case I'd like to see Spitz become a Bill. The Packers are in need of a DT, S, and a LB. I don't know if we have the right player(s) to make a trade with them but maybe compensation from this year's draft could come into play. http://www.packers.com/draft/2006/jasonspitz.phtml

...is that Buffalo has and never will rely on a big time pass catching TE. The biggest TE names that I can remember is Pete Metzelaars and Jay Riemersma and they weren't even in the top echleon by anyone's imagination or standards. ...is that my expectations during free agency, the draft or just during the course of the season have been tempered greatly. It's unlikely that the Bills will make big trades or elite acquisitions. They are more than willing to just take value type players. ...is I could never imagine Trent Edwards or any other QB on our roster ever taking us deep into the play-offs or winning the Super Bowl. Shouldn't that be every fan's hope or expectation? ...is that our whole organization, from the owner to the front office to the coaching staff to the players is nothing but vanilla. Where is the spirit of this franchise? The only thing that even resembles being passionate is the fanbase and we don't a cotton picking thing to do with the direction of this great franchise. Sad. ...is that our players as a whole really don't exemplify character. We draft some players who are borderline thugs but they don't have the toughness of other team's thugs. ...is outside of Lee Evans and Josh Reed, I really don't care or think too much of the other wide receivers that we have and that's not to say that Evans and Reed are even elite. ...is that we have never made the middle of our defense a priority. It seems to me that we are always making concessions when it comes to this area and try and make it up with a bargain player. ...that we use to have some of the best LBs traditionally and this is another position that we just let suffer and wither away. The consensus is too early on Poz but outside of him, who really has stood out in the last SEVERAL years? ...that it is harder and harder to be a fan of this .500 crap year in, year out but I'm sadly committed for life I guess to this milk and cookie organization. I'm stubborn enough not to quit but frustrated enough to get fed up from time to time. I'm stuck, it's too late to forget them because the Bills are firmly imbedded in my soul. ...is if the Bills were EVER to make it to the play-offs and represented us respectively, I'd delete this post and forget anything that I ever wrote, thought or said and be so doggone proud that the Bills are my team of choice. Sick isn't it? ...

In the event that we don't sign Jason Brown, which looks like we won't, I'd be hoping for us to sign Brandon Moore as our G and have Hangarten for our C position. Of course this would be based on us first signing Hangarten, which I'm expecting to happen today.

It looks like the Raiders are jumping in the Jason Brown sweepstakes. The only thing that I like about this is that this might keep the Rams from signing him right now and keep our chances alive. http://www.nationalfootballpost.com/2009/0...more-nfl-scoop/

Thanks Reed83Evans. It's pretty interesting how the Ravens do their contracts with the major players. They have a split-tier signing bonuses. Example being that Heap's split-tier signing bonus gives him $4 million upon signing his contract and then he is also set to receive $7 million in a 2006 roster bonus. That sure is a lot jing for a TE!

I was looking at his contract numbers and also watched his role diminished last year and the two just don't add up. I'm not sure if he can become available thru a trade or become expendable after the draft but he would an ideal player for us, especially if we land up with QB Kyle Boller as a back-up QB. Check out Heap's contract numbers. On 6/15/2005 he signed a six-year, $30 million contract. The deal included an $11 million signing bonus and another $2.27 million "signing bonus" in the fourth year. 2009: $3.6 million, 2010: $4 million, 2011: $4.6 million, 2012: Free Agent. Cap charges: $6.367 million (2009), $6.767 million (2010), $7.367 million (2011). That fourth year signing bonus sure makes him one expensive TE for 2009.