Luxy312

Golden Tate (unfortunately).

For me, you just made the point of the day. In December, the Bills signed Branch to a 4 year $11.5 million deal with $3.975 million guaranteed (numbers according to Rotoworld). How does this not raise a question in regards to Carrington's value? His productivity relative to Branch has been pretty dismal to boot.

ZERO picks. Let's just take a quick look at some guys that were drafted in that 4th-6th round that some people suggest is a reasonable price for a backup to our backup quarterback. Da'Norris Searcy, Nigel Bradham, Duke Williams, Chris Hairston, Aruthur Moats, Marcus Easley. I would take ANY of those guys (among others) over a quarterback that has a career rating of 5.2 and a QBR of 0.88. I'm baffled at how stupid fans can continue to be. It's almost like they want the team to waste even more draft picks on garbage such that they can field yet another mediocre team.

It's a nice thought, but Jean-Francois's a starter and Carrington is just filler. They're not in the same role at all. While I would agree that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, there's also a tendency to see players through rose colored glasses. Carrington is that type of guy given his versatility to fill in at DT, DE and even OLB. The problem is that there's better players at every position that will be starters. At best, Carrington would get a short term deal with the Bills with a small amount of guaranteed money. It almost certainly would not the $5.5 million guaranteed that Jean-Francois received from the Colts. In terms of another posters question about spending requirements, teams must cumulatively spend 89% of the the cap collectively for the 2013-2016 seasons. My prediction for Buffalo and free agency is conservatism. They have middle of the pack available cap space, but at the same time have the 4th worst dead cap money in the NFL. I think small splashes at best and hopefully getting players that plug holes.

I have to go with Kiko. The other day, a friend told me that he literally played every single defensive snap last year. That's freaking insane! I don't know any of even the great LB's of the last decade that don't take a play here or there off. Every snap and at a high level at that!

For those that care about the issue, this is flat out incorrect. EVERY team in the NFL is required to spend up to a certain percentage of the hard salary cap. Last year it was 85%. This year it's 90% and next year is 95%. The penalty for not spending that minimum percentage is to be fined the difference by the NFL. What this means exactly is that if the theoretical salary cap is indeed $160 million, that the Bills would be required to spend $152 million on player salaries OR pay the difference as a fine to the NFL. I.e. they pay $152 million no matter what. Another incorrect perception about the salary cap is how it is determined. It is driven almost exclusively by NFL national revenue (i.e. advertising and their TV contract are the lions share), and each NFL team gets an equal share. In terms of teams "costing the league money", it is literally impossible for that to be the case. If someone were to simply read the CBA and have even a rudimentary understanding of the revenue sharing formula, they could see that that is the case. Should a team actually suffer a loss of net income (which is possible), it falls squarely on the shoulders of the owner of that team. Nothing goes back upstream to the NFL or to other teams. I want to point out also though that suffering a loss is fairly rare. Last year in fact, only 1 team in the NFL lost money and that was the Detroit Lions primarily as a result of having to pay interest on debt that they incurred some time ago to build Ford Field. Technically, it's really a paper loss only as their cash flow was well out of the red.

The OP might as well have started the thread with "I saw this worthless thought on this website that no one reads and thought it would be interesting to re-post such that more than 3 people would read it (by force)".

Stink cheeze isn't coming to Buffalo. He would be lucky to land with the Argonauts. That writer reminds me why I don't pay much attention to S.I. articles.

No. Look at the numbers guy/gal. He wasn't even close to the best D-lineman. Try again.

No, and not even close. "He played a ton in 2011 and 2012". That's your point. If you go by the NFL, he played in 31 games in those two years. I agree he played a ton. But, in those games, he had a total, and I say TOTAL of 23 tackles and 3 sacks. By that measure, he isn't arguably the best at anything. Less than a tackle a game and a sack every 10 games doesn't get you much. There's your sample. 31 games and only 23 tackles. Where the hell was he? PS - He did get screwed. However, it was by his own inability to do anything. If that's someone elses fault, it fits with the mindset of todays youth. Everything isn't their fault.....

A couple of games don't extrapolate to anything and isn't enough of a sample to even be able to make a reasonable representation of what he would do in a full season. To that point, he hasn't even played a full season for 4 straight years.

He's played in 44 games in his career and has 33 tackles and 4 sacks. Unless we're talking about intangibles that can't be measured, he hasn't done much of anything. He's an example of one of those guys that would have to be extremely cheap. Just the same and to that point, there's only so many roster spots.

Makes me miss London Fletcher big time. Hard to believe that he's still playing (and at a high level) after the Bills parted ways with him 7 years ago!

Looks like Brinkley spent the better part of a day with the Bills. That's in addition to McClain, so clearly they're looking to add someone to play MLB such that they could move Alonzo to the outside. As far as I can tell though, it's been radio silence on Brandon Spikes. He doesn't even appear to be in the discussion.

Fans won't have to say no, because Buffalo already has. Absolutely no chance that Buffalo drafts him. Next?

Why exactly to they need to be players in FA? Have we not learned anything as fans from simply looking at what teams have done when they are significant "players" in free agency? Tell me how many Superbowls the Redskins have won or even better yet GONE TO when Dan Snyder was buying his teams in free agency for 10 straight years. Seattle, Baltimore, New York, Green Bay and New Orleans have won the last 5 Superbowls. Please tell me how big of "players" these guys were in free agency. Not even sorry to point it out, but championship teams are built from the draft. Getting an occasional player in free agency is one thing, but building a team that way just doesn't work. The cap room is significant for some of these teams, but it means very little in the grand scheme of things.

Indy has said that their priority is re-signing Bethea, so I'm not sure it matters what the Bills want. I've certainly not heard anything on WGR or read anything on the local news that says he's being looked at. I DID see that Jameel McClain was visiting the Bills, so MLB is definitely in the mix.

When all is said and done, this is a quarterback league. Absent having a stellar defense, teams are not making it very far in the playoffs without quality QB play. My take: Houston - Matt Schaub hasn't proven to be "the guy", but that doesn't mean they don't grab Bortles here. If they don't, clearly Clowney is the pick. St. Louis - I don't think they're ready to take a pass on Sam Bradford yet or pick his replacement. As such, I think they likely get him some blind side protection in one of the top 2 LT's that are projected to go top-10 by many. Jacksonville - I do not see them standing pat with Chad Henne. Whether Bortles is picked or not, I think they have to grab either Bridgewater or Manziel. Cleveland - Campbell or Hanie? Again, one of the top-3 is still here no matter what. Oakland - They trolled out Terelle Pryor last year, who is GARBAGE. If those top-3 QB's are gone, they actually could still reach for Carr here. If they don't, I could see them drafting Sammy Watkins. They otherwise have no weapons really for Pryor right now. Atlanta - They're clearly sitting with Matt Ryan, but Sam Baker is gone (their LT). I don't see any way they don't get protection for Ryan, unless otherwise through free agency prior to the draft. Tampa Bay - Mike Glennon seemed to come into his own last year and it's probably enough to keep his job UNLESS one of the top-3 fall here. Then I think they pull that trigger. Otherwise, Lovie Smith is a linebacker guy. Mack (provided that someone doesn't take him before hand) would in all likelihood be gone. Minnesota - Yet another proven awful quarterback in Ponder. I could even see them reach for Carr if Oakland does not, but Peterson has already advocated trying to sign Michael Vick. We will see what happens there. 5 teams in the top-8 picks with terrible signal callers. 3 QB's in the draft that are projected first rounders with a potential for a 4th. The draft has always proven to be interesting with where teams reach (Bills last year) or trades that happen that are very much unanticipated. If there is a perceived drop in the perception of value of drafting a quarterback early, I would expect any of those 8 teams to try to trade down unless they're significantly higher on one guy over another. Personally, I'm dreading the possibility that the Bills draft Evans or Ebron in the first round. I just don't perceive the value to be there. Give me Mosely, Barr, or Dennard. To boot, I guess I'm afraid of drafting another average wide out early named Evans....LOL.

Durable guy the most of his career. Not the biggest hitter and not terrific in coverage, but not horrible either. I don't know what others think, but I might take a shot at bringing back Donte Whitner before I would target Bethea. I think he's a little better all around player.

Why do we do this to ourselves as fans year after year? Thad Lewis did nothing special in college and nothing special with his opportunities to start while EJ was injured. It is absolutely irrelevant that EJ performed about the same as a starter, as he was drafted to BE the starter. When all is said and done, EJ absolutely should be the starter for at least the next 2 years. If he doesn't show improvement this year, then the third year will certainly be the hot seat for him. So the OP asks the question of "what's wrong with Thad Lewis"? The question really needs to be qualified to deserve a proper answer. As a backup (which is what he is), there's nothing wrong with him. Similar playing style and demonstrated ability (so far) to EJ IMO makes him a quality backup. As a starter, I have no interest in him what so ever. At some point, we as fans have to let our team endure the growing pains instead of simply wanting to move on. That is absolutely the only way this team will actually get better.

To your point, I'll add that hindsight is 20/20. It's nice to talk about how the Bills should re-sign a guy with 2-3 years left on their contract or trade a guy so that they can make sure to lock in value. On the flip side, how many times has the organization done exactly that with a player that in hindsight DIDN'T deserve what they got in their contract? Also, how many players did the team let linger for far too long that should have been gone? Clearly, no team can keep everyone. It just doesn't work that way in the NFL. Hopefully though for this team, they keep as many of the "right" guys as possible and at the right price.

Upset if we took Clowney? Who said anything about him? He's gone well before the #9 pick, so he's not even in the mix for me. In fact, I think he'll be drafted in the top-3 picks, so unless you're suggesting that somehow the Bills are going to trade up to have a shot at him, it's a joke to even think about. My simple point here is that they're not by any stretch of the imagination going into the draft with no needs. Would I want a 31 year old Daryl Smith over Khalil Mack? No way. I would rather even have Anthony Barr or CJ Mosely in the draft over Smith, Spikes, Dansby, etc. At positions of significant need (which LB is one), I want youth versus the guy that may have 2-3 years in the tank if he's lucky. That was Owens in a nutshell just the same when he played for Buffalo. One more season after his one here and his career was over. I'm pretty much with you on TE and would prefer Chandler back over other options. Fans are so quick to forget that he ranks 2nd behind only Stevie Johnson in receptions over the last 3 years, with last year being his best year despite missing time to injury.

While that would be ideal, I don't think it's a realistic expectation. If I had to peg team needs right now, it would start with linebackers. While Kiko Alonso was a stud, there's very little to be excited about otherwise. Dansby or Spikes would be great pickups, but would we have buyers remorse if somehow Mack fell to the Bills at #9? I probably would. Left guard and right tackle are issues as well where the team could use a significant boost in talent. If they don't re-sign Scott Chandler, you can add TE to the mix. Although I disagree, some say the team needs a big WR for Manuel. To your point too, if they have 6 guys that they want, they're not getting all 6 of them. They'll be lucky to land a couple. To me the first two rounds of the draft are crucial to filling needs.

For me, this is a great signing for a number of reasons. First, it was Aaron Williams calling defensive audibles last season for the D-backs and not Jairus Byrd. To that point, Byrd even gave credit to Williams for his interceptions and being where he could make plays. That brings me to the second point, which is that Williams had just as many interceptions and forced fumbles as Byrd did last year to boot. There's an important point there in that he made plays, but also helped his team mates make plays as well. Williams was never much of a corner, but that's not what he's being asked to do now. 4 years and $26 million ($27.5 million if he meets incentives) is nothing compared to what Byrd and his scumbag agent Parker are asking for. I wouldn't be surprised if Byrd was looking for more than $26 million in just guaranteed money. To the naysayers, you'll always find a reason to complain. Either the team spends too much on a player or doesn't spend on another. Lose lose for you.

Track/field versus real football play. Could give a rats arse!