Pyrite Gal

The obvious question is how much is overpay? I think everyone agrees with you that the Bills should not overpay any player. However, while some would feel any extension to a player who refuses to honor his existing contract would be an overpayment, there are those that feel that if you want to win the sport the key is to put the best team possible on the field. In this view what we have here is a failure to communicate on both the part of Peters and the Bills. If Peters did the right thing he would have showed up in camp and just as the Bills undeservedly seem to give up the store to extend Kelsay and in Schobel's case extended him well before his contract was up so to would they have opened the vault for Peters. However, in this view it also appears true that while Peters did the wrong thing the Bills also have not performed adequately in participating in what appears to be some weird macho flameout where things have degraded to a level where both parties are simply holding their breath and hoping the other side passes out first. This whole thing is stupid and while anyone can have a legitimate preference over who was stupid first, I think that the facts on the ground which have produced no conversation leaves ample room to blame both parties for being idiots regardless who was an idiot first. The simple fact is that if one operates with a basic rule of an eye for an eye, very soon both parties end up blind to the benefit of neither.

I am easily amongst the many who are in the over column on this. Some oddly are in a camp that has continually ragged on Youbouty even though he does not deserve it (in his 2 seasons he actually has had some good accomplishments as he started in a gamewinner against NYJ as a rookie in which he had a lot of PT against a cagey ragarmed QB and he has made a couple of very nice hits as a gunner on the ST unit. His first two seasons have been disappointing for a first day draft pick (though not unusual since most fans seemed to have an inflated sense of the value of the draft (is important though not the sole way to acquire talent and conventional wisdom such as 1st round picks must start as rookies happens a lot but is not true in many many cases and is far from a death knell for a player's career. Analyzing his first two years, a reasonable and football intelligent person would simply see that there was a real world effect on his play and training from being the only adult kid of a single Mom who died and that he has not been able to play consistently due to injuries last year. One could simply categorize these reasons as excuses but doing this I think is poor analysis because your Mom dying and a person being forced to lead and take responsibility for his brothers and sisters is simply a real deal. Youbouty did a great job his rookie season simply by being able to start 1 game IMHO. The recurring injury though could more reasonably labeled an excuse rather than a reason if the problem persists and ultimately he proves to injury prone to start, However, one season of injury problems is too early to declare a player injury prone, so I am willing (as meaningless as what I am willing to do is) to let this one go for a year and watch his play this year before drawing any conclusions. The Bills will happily not have him start this year as I think even as the nickel Youbouty will see plenty of playing time this season. Add to that him being used as a gunner on ST the Bills will have no need to rush Youbouty in at starting CB as he will get tons of chances to make plays for us as a nickel.

This is part of why you just show Peters the money.

I think folks have a problem with Peters AND the Bills having not managed their relationship in a manner that seems productive. Is Jason Peters at fault for not living up to his word? YES! Are the Bills at fault for not finding a way with Peters stupid reaction to not finding someway to acknowledge the reality that he would be worth a lot more on the free market today than when he signed his contract IF a free market existed. Yes. The foolish thing here and what has cost this team chemistry building time in pre-season is the complete breakdown of conversation in the partnership between the player and his team. Sure Peters is a fool but does this mean the Bills have not failed completely in establishing a working relationship with this fool. Being a good owner and doing the tough work means dealing with steroid loaded and pampered players. The Bills have proved not be good enough to do this so far.

It is what you said and the problem is that this simply is untrue of JP in specific circumstances. He learned the game and did well with it in college making productive decisions very quickly while running for his life at Tulane. This is fine for college, but JP quickly learned that it is difficult to get away with relying on this type of game in the NFL (Favre basically did that with GB but Favre is Favre and no one mistakes JP for Favre despite his strong arm and very good running ability. JPs problems as shown in particular plays like the outstanding one he made cited above where he caught the ball on the bounce kept looking downfield and hit Gaines or in games such as NYJ last year where he led the team to a comeback win is that though he can make good decisions quickly in a pinch, he has shown more limited ability to do this when he is given the typical NFL QB straitjacket of running the play just like the OC designed it. It appears to me not so much that JP cannot make quick decisions, but that he has been taught and buys into the idea that he needs to go through all the progressions even if he sees a pass he thinks he can make and that he seems to make his most vexing plays when he has bags of time and he throws a bouncer to the receiver when his brain gets involved but can do quite well when he is simply asked to react or to airmail it deep. The sad thing is that with the revolving door of Bills OCs and HCs he has had in his four seasons no OC has been good enough to craft a hybrid system for JP that makes good use of his rocket arm, his athletic legs and moxie that saw him try to deliver blows to the defender for a couple of meaningless yards in the first year of his career rather than simply get out of bounds once he has the first down. It makes little difference as JP is done as a Bills starter after he himself declared the Jax game make or break for him last year and by anyone's estimation he broke. Maybe JP could restore his teammates faith and belief in him with a couple of good outings. Maybe he could restore the coaches faith with some good practices. However, it seems pretty impossible that JP would ever win over media types like WGR or Sully or the small group of vocal fans who simply hate him even though he is a Bill that are sometimes seen right here on TSW. JP is almost certainly gone when he gets a shot at the free market and ironically he is young enough that he will almost certainly get a huge contract that either pays him a kings ransom flat out or at worse is based on his achievements. The key seems to me for JP to make a good choice in a future employer to play for a team with a solid OL , some WRs that can go deep and/or an ST that keeps the pressure off of him with good field position. Can JP make a bad team good? No. I doubt this. However, could he keep a good team good or even make a good team very good. From what I have seen with the right coaching two time losers like Brad Johnson are capable of leading their team to good seasons. With better coaching I think JP can be a definite asset. He has demonstrated this episodically through his career.

Actually, JP has demonstrated a pretty good ability to read the situation under duress because it is reminiscent to him of his time running for his life behind the Tulane line. I would point to a play such as the one where the Bills C snapped the ball over JPs head, he made a great athletic move in catching the ball on the bounce and even more impressively kept his eyes looking downfield where he saw Gaines intelligently stick with his route and he hit him for a 1st down rather than take what seemed to be a certain loss. In games like last year against NYJ when Edwards was ineffective and then got knocked out of the game, JP came off the bench and taking over a situation where the O was not working and he was called upon to freelance he engineered a comeback and win. From what I saw JP his mental problems were not based in his ability to read and react correctly quickly, his problem was when he got too much time to think and he got sacked double pumping rather than throwing the ball more instinctively or overthrowing short to medium passes and bouncing them when if it was a deep throw he could hit some beauties with Evans. The question it seems to me is whether one could train JP to be productive in the medium game and on set plays as he is when he is running for his life.

The mistake in drafting JP was not necessarily drafting him in the 1st round (the Bills definitely needed a replacement QB for Bledsoe in the future and the best possibility the next year for drafting if the Bills had not traded up for JP was Alex Smith whom has since produced even worse results than those which have brought JP hatred from many Bills fans) but the mistake was to throw him in as out starter compounding the error TD made in extending Bledsoe. JP like it or not was a project when we took him but he was and is a very talented project whom we trained and used as though he was ready to start in the NFL when what he needed was to sit and watch and practice the pro game for at least a full year, probably a second full year and even at least part of a third year but probably a full year before we threw him into the game. Is such a schedule even possible now in an NFL where the future is now? Yep. This was basically the timing that the Jets used to develop Chad Pennington who also was a late 1st rounder and this paid off as his first year as a starter coincided with NYJ making the playoffs. JP could have been a more talented version of Pennington if we had the patience to train him to start in his 4th year rather than throw him in with starter duty too early in his career. Instead, even JP admitted he was handed the starter role by TD before he had done enough on the field to earn it

This what I see as a more exact description of the problem we have here. Where I think the methodology (or whatever phrase you want to use to describe the relationship) has shifted from the old way where the Bills (Ralph) was sitting behind a desk buoyed by the massive amount of capital he had collected in his construction business and applied to this venue because he was brave enough to risk his initial what is now small stake to buy the Bills. Today, it is a different situation than the one the Bills operated in because with the agreement to the CBA which Ralph and the NFL made in the early 90s, the players rather than mere employees whom the big capital holder looks to see how they are acting, the NFLPA is now Ralph's partner in making more money than any of them ever imagined was possible back in the old days when Ralph plunked down his initial investment. In fact, with the new CBA where the NFLPA is guaranteed 60.5% of the TOTAL revenue the players are in fact the majority partner. If Ralph and the Bills wish to prosper and win the sport, they simply need to recognize the new reality and do their part in building the relationship with their partners the players individually and ultimately as a whole to equitably (and even cheerfully to the maximum extent they can). By the letter of the contract all parties agreed to, the Bills are totally within their rights to enforce and expect Peters meet his agreement. However, there is a difference here (not a total difference so that these things should be considered opposed to each other) between doing what the Bills have the "right" to do and doing the right thing. In this case, reality has simply changed in large part due to the virtually unprecedented skills Peters has shown playing the sport. The Bills would in fact set a precedent by renegotiating Peters deal, but the precedent will be that if a player is not judged worthy by the entire league of being drafted but then after he signs at a UDFA base he is good enough to not only shift positions and become a starter, but shift to one of the most difficult to fill positions on a team (LT is not as difficult to fill as QB but it is far more difficult to fill competently than many high contribution positions such as RB). Even more unprecedented, Peters filled the LT position so well that he was judged by a merged vote of his peers, NFL coaches and fans to be the best LT in the AFC. Yes, there will be a precedent set in signing him but you would need be a UDFA player who proves good enough to make the Pro Bowl to honestly meet the precedent. Yet, rather than accurately (IMHO) meeting the role they agreed to play when the Bills as part of the NFL agreed to be part of a CBA which has delivered more wealth to the Bills and Ralph than they ever imagined when Ralph made the original gutsy investment, Ralph and the Bills have instead played the old role that you describe of a guy sitting behind a desk while Peters rants and raves. It may be fun and confirming of the way it used to be to operate in this mode. It may be good business practice for Ralph as an individual or the team as an entity. However, it is outmoded and counter to the new reality of the NFL not to recognize that in the new partnership what one has a "right" to do under the CBA may in fact not be the right thing to do in order to put the best team possible on the field not only today but tomorrow as well. If I am a UDFA who thinks that NFL teams were shortsighted not to draft me and now I am being appealed to by the Bills, the Pats, and the Jets to sign on as a UDFA, I am passing on the Bills and looking hard at the other two teams because when I show what I can do as I think I will, it looks like the Bills are gonna fight me for every dime or even if they have shown a willingness to reward good play with good extensions I am gonna have to fight to make sure that my extension is only for two seasons rather than three or three rather than four because the Bills have shown themselves to be unwilling to share the risk of success and possible failure with their UDFA players who make the Pro Bowl. Yes I agree with you that the Bills come off as someone sitting behind a desk while an employee rants and raves. However, I think that the Bills showing their commitment to the sport (and actually being better businessmen in the long run) would profit from rather than being the man behind the desk are out there in the foxhole with their comrade in arms players. Every army needs generals and needs foot soldiers. There is a world where the Bills can play the role of a good general like a Patton who certainly preened with the best of them but there was no question that he was really pushing himself as well to demand things of his soldiers. The Bills and Ralph come off as more Marie Antoinette saying let them eat cake or Nero fiddling while the Bills fail to make the playoffs because they decide to hang onto outmoded principles of proving they are the boss rather than adopting a new approach which is actually fundamental to the new means of operating seen in the CBA that their is a partnership between the players and the team. I think Peters and the Bills juvenile behavior in this dispute actually speaks volumes about why the Bills have failed to make the playoffs so far this decade under Ralph's mismanagement of his relationship with Butler, his firing and futile attempt at cost recovery from Phillips and the panicked and ultimately flawed relationship with TD. I for one had hoped we had returned to the glory days of the 90s where the Bills resurgence coincided with Ralph opening his wallet to Bruce, Jimbo and the Bills. Unfortunately, it appears that Ralph and the Bills without Marv as GM have returned to the past where rather than administering a family (and its disputes as certainly Marv had with Marchibroda) well enough to a pattern which sees both the players and the team acting like juveniles holding their breath until the other side caves.

Like I said, its hard to make the fantasy premise that the Bell situation is somehow an analogy for the Peter's situation fit when that pesky thing called reality is introduced into the equation. There is simply no way that Bell could accomplish all that Peters has accomplished in his brief career which is the foundation to his Peters correct claim that IF there was a free market for him he would be worth a ton more money. The simple facts seem to be that there is no free market for Peters services because he agreed (and was richly paid to agree) to a deal which suspended a free market for his services for three more years. Is it wrong for Peters to go back on his word? Yep. However, does this also make it right for Ralph not to give him a new extension? Yep. Ralph has the right but it is the right now to emphasize being a good sportsman and put the best team he is capable of putting on the field. Ralph has decided to instead emphasize being a "good" businessman and instead not set the "precedent" of negotiating to extend this contract while Peters is not in camp (a fairly dumb precedent as the only precedent it would set is that if you were recently extended from your small for the NFL UDFA base because of your extraordinary play as a rookie and a one year guy (I am sorry but it is the rate UDFA who not only forces his way into the starting line-up, but does this at a different position than he played in college). Further, it is unheard of for this new new position to be the incredibly difficult to fill LT spot and then to play LT well enough that you get voted in as the Pro Bowl LT starter. I am sorry, if the Bills get another player who actually makes the same precedent they should show him the money as well. Peters is doing this the wrong way, but Ralph at best comes off as a better businessman than sportsman. Even as a businessman he looks more like a little kid to me who is standing in the corner turning blue with Peters while they both hold their breath.

He may point out that to make this fantasy thread fit reality that: 1. Bell would have made the Pro Bowl 2. Bell would have started out at the beginning of camp not as an OL player but as a player who was respected at another position who made the jump to OL. 3. Rather than starting from Bell's late draft pick contract his base salary would be that of a UDFA 4. Bell would have packed three years of steadily improving play into his pre-season. 5. Rather than being drafted Bell would have been a UDFA. Outside of these trivial facts the situation makes this lampoon legit because they both are the same.

The key as to whether they keep 1 less or more than expected at most positions and particularly regarding LBs and DBs is not how these players perform at these positions but how they perform on ST where these players will or will not contribute to this team. If we have to go more than 2 deep at any position we are in big trouble. All the guys who made this team and are listed as 3rd string on the depth chart made this team not because of their position play but because of their ST play. Even at positions like SLB, if Crowell cannot answer the call our choice is likely to go with DeGregorio even though he is listed as a back-up only at MLB on the depth chart and this allows us to keep only 5 functioning LBs. It was also nice to see this team only keep 1 FB and actually only have 1 functional TE because this speaks to the likelihood that our base O is actually gonna be the spread offense with Lynch as the lone setback in most cases. I'd look for Parrish to get a lot of time with us in 3 WR sets and I think this is good because I think Lynch will actually run better in a spread offense or if the other team is playing with their nickel to deal with the 3 WR set.

I know there is a tendency in the virtual world to try to falsely reduce reality to either/or decisions but this is not how the real world works. IMHO Ralph is both a good sport AND a good businessman, but in terms of emphasis he chooses to follow good business practices (let Peters rot unless he caves) rather than emphasizing being the best sportsman he can be (show Peters the money to the extent that he does not create an immediate salary cap violation and keeps in mind some but not all of the future salary cap implications of extending Peters. I think Ralph nor Peters has struck a proper balance on this one and we fans are taking it in the teeth as both these parties have chosen to be juveniles rather than adults on this issue.

Ralph publicly inserted himself in the RJ/Flutie debacle by expressing awe at the way RJ QB'ed the team to dismantling Indy (which in my mind was caused by Indy needing to not only win that game by a significant margin back in the day when "strength" of wins was a determinant in playoff seeding but have other games turn out produce a quite possible but particular result. Early in the Bills/Indy game it was fairly clear to anyone watching the scoreboard that this was not gonna happen and even worse for Indy Bennett suffered a season ending injury early in the Bills game which made them look like the Bills did late in the pre-season game against the Lions meaning that they were not gonna take any chances while RJ was playing for a job. After Ralph's public endorsement, Wade decided to bench Flutie in the last playoff game seen by this team since last century and RJ was unable to QB the team to victory after the homerun throw-up. Ralph definitely inserted himself into the debate and likely the decision making since he wrote the paychecks for everyone.

As I have said tons of times due to my repeatpeatative nature that the NFL used to be a sport which also happened to be a business and now it is a business which happens to be a sport. The sport side and the business side have always been intertwined, but from a time period roughly described by the the NFLPA fighting its way into being a partner with the owners through the players threatening to decertify themselves and the owners running kicking and screaming away from operating in a free market (where they would have signed individual and unrestricted by the CBA contracts with players but instead they cut a partnership deal which affirmed the draft and other agreements in restricting the market) this game has become primarily about being a business rather than primarily about being a sport. Ralph has generally been about this being a business and much to the dismay of Bills fans he tended to throw nickels around like their were manhole covers until he really opened the vault for Bruce Smith. We had a team with an unlikely to be equaled feat of making 4 SBs in a row. However, Ralph was not able to avoid his worst tendencies and canned Polian, made an illegal handshake deal with Jimbo that proved to be bad football anyway and has used his owners right to muddle in decisions like Flutie/RJ and mishandled the hiring of TD because we were between a rock and a hard place because he muddled the Butler relationship. The business and sport are totally interrelated but Ralph has chosen an emphasis on good business practices rather than a priority om good sports practices which is his right to do but we loving Bills fans have had to suffer through years of not making the playoffs because of the mismanagement which begins at the top.

I think we will use different O schemes based on the strengths and weaknesses of our opponents. Though I think this will lead us to use the FB when the opposing O is best exploited by us using this power run game, I think that the preference Schoert has shown will actually make our base O more of a spread offense which sees us go with Lynch alone in the backfield and use of more 3 WR sets with Parrish in the game.

I agree that Ralph emphasizes being a good businessman so he will not show Peters the money. I wish he had more emphasis on being a better sportsman and would be willing to push the salary cap more to produce a better sports product. However, its his money and his team so if he chooses to emphasize the business aspect then so be it.

I agree that the old school philosophy is the right thing to do, but I am not conceited or foolish enough to believe that the world operates based on what I think the right thing to do is. I think the right thing for Peters to do is simply to stick to his word that he gave in an agreement. If he wants a new agreement which gives his commitment to even more time as a Bill in exchange for more money up front that seems fine to me, but in the absence of Ralph wanting to make a new agreement the right thing to do is to stick by his word. I think the right thing for Ralph to do is to emphasize being a good sportsman and make a new agreement with Peters which pays him a substantial chunk of change up front now in exchange for getting his commitment to more time. Ralph has every "right" under the contract to force Peters to simply observe it terms (this would likely be a smart business move), however, if Ralph was more interested in the sport than the business he would forge and agreement with Peters NOW which gives him a chunk of change up front in exchange for joining him in the risk to commit to the Bills for a longer time. This is a case where it seems to me that neither is Peters doing the right thing in terms of living up to his contract nor is Ralph doing the right thing as a sportsman in doing a new deal NOW with Peters.

I think this is a given that if the Bills are going to give him a new contract that inherent in it is that he must pass a physical in order to get a check. This is one of the reasons I think the conspiracy theories that Peters is being non-communicative so he can hide his injury and get a big contract are almost certainly wrong. Even someone who gives the Bills no credit for having any brains can think they are that foolish. A physical is a pro forma part of any deal.

The blocking performance tonight was a plucky effort with a few successful plays to point to. However, the performance tonight shows how like most NFL teams we are in very extremely bad shape if we have to depend on the OL back-ups to be starters. The injury last week to fill-in back-up at LT Walker merely demonstrated that even if one choose to judge his play adequate at LT (a judgment with some validity based on the OL showing some strength on run plays at points in the first three games) one needs to overlook that not only is Walker playing out of his best position, but that his back-up Chambers is not starter material. Add into that the problem that not only has our starting QB been knocked out of the OL but his back-up JP was also forced out of the line-up by injury. Now tonight Hamdan actually looked pretty good, but it was clear the Lions had identified the blitz as the preferred D against a 3rd string QB blocked for by 2nd and 3rd string OL players. Not only did the pressure game produce two safeties in less than a half of play, but our disaster QB saw his blocking wither under the rush and we confronted a double disaster leading to the Bills who could have made this game at least competitive had to essentially not play football at the end of the game. Our main goal was clearly to allow JP to escape with his life. The sad thing is that I think Ralph will once again prove to be a businessman rather than a sportsman do the curmudgeonly thing and refuse to show Peters the money. One certainly needs to run this sport like a business (though avoiding signing Peter is still strangely judges to be a precedent when quite frankly few if any Bills (unfortunately) are going to be able to make a case that their case is similar to that of a Pro Bowler who started at a UDFA base salary. Unless this future FA is seen as a top quality player at his position AND his position is as difficult as LT to fill AND his base salary even with the extension is so small as not to even remotely to be an accurate statement of the players worth IF there were a free market, there simply is no precedent set by giving Peters a big raise in exchange for agreeing to be a Bills for life (and passing a physical before the contract is good. What used to be a sport that also happened to be a business is now a business that also happens to be a sport. This is one vote for Ralph choosing to be a sportsman rather than a businessman as his first priority. He cannot ignore the fiscal impacts on the team, but we have sufficient cap room that he can sign Peters to a rich deal and though the team's profit will be effected, it seems pretty clear we can both show Peters the money and still maintain a reasonable fiscal stance for the team.

Another big winner tonite was Peters. The back-ups on the Oline played so one cannot reasonably expect them to play like starters, but it showed how bad it may well get if injuries like the one which knocked Walker out of the line-up happen and this heightens Peters leverage. Likewise also, the unfortunate injury to Hamdan should have no effect on our regular season play, but this simply shows how vulnerable the QB position is even under normal circumstances and with Edwards and JP already laid low by QB injury this will heighten the desire of the coaches and GM staff to do all they can to protect the QB. The main reason I think he will be back soon is that Ralph will gracefully cave.

This is one of the reasons why I think we are actually quite fortunate that the Peters strategy is to say nothing. He knows that there is nothing he can say that will help his case with the fans or the Bills (maybe the typical NFL player pronouncement that not having the contract he wants takes food out of his kids mouths- yeah right). If he were to say something on a regular basis then virtually guaranteed he would say something which hardened bad feelings with the Bills. I agree that Peters should not hold out and should be there supporting his teammates. However, given that they have made a decision to hold out, this fan is happy he is saying nothing as I cannot think of anything he can say that would help or convince me what he is doing is right.

I think mentioning of the Olympics is actually a big part of the lack of coverage or perceived lack of interest. The media and the newspapers as part of it have specific limits on their news holes to fill and the 2008 Bills paled in terms of storylines and import compared to the big sports story of this summer. I would expect a lower amount of focus on the Bills through the Olympics and actually a bit after it as these storylines are not turned on and off like a tap as some media outlets simply sent their reporters overseas or even if not the NFL interest has not been set up with it being the central focus for the average fan so far this year. Add to that the timing of the Olys ending just as many people are getting in their last vacation periods even if they are still in country before the earlier than the norm Labor Day this year. Was this Oly distaction visible in other papers and towns or did Buffalo pale next to other NFL towns in this regard. As the official station of the Bills is the NBC affiliate, it clearly was more focused on the Olys than the Bills and it happened that the Buff Snooze sent at least one of its major Bills coverage guys to Beijing. 2. In addition to coverage in this town being Oly biased, i would also say that this town even more than most others has developed the habit of taking the pre-season not seriously. marv never cared about winning and losing in the pre-season and I think that attitude really prevails still in Buffalo. if the lame coverage persists into the regular season then there may be a real issue here, but if not there may well be other explanations for the lack of interest. 3. The news media coverage is one thing but there are other measures of fan interest. Bills season ticket sales for the "real" games tell a different story than the media tale. In addition, the signs I saw of amazing interest in St. Johns Fisher and pre-season games in this outback indicate strong interests. 4. The product overall is worse. It used to be a sport that also happened to be a business and now it is a business that also happens to be a sport. The Jason Peters situation is an example of this. It is simply hard for folks to get all exercised about this situation that does impact how well we will do in the sport when the actual discussion or keeping track of it means keeping track of the business, Many follow the NFL as an escape from reality and here the league is foisting reality on to this fantasy. I think the Bills/Peters situations is worse than most in the league and may be in part why some discretionary coverage is simply waiting until the real season starts. 5. Part of the lack of public upset about this Peters situation actually goes to Parker not saying a word. its hard to have a fight when only one guy is fighting and the result is less coverage. This may also explain why their might be marginally less press stories about the Bills than in other cities. The media points you make are real. However, even if real they do not explain everything. Simply because you have a hammer do not look to define everything as a nail. Explanations of greater or lesser interest simply may not be caused by or reflected in lack of newspaper or media coverage. They clearly are related to each other but which is a cause and which is an effect is not clear at all and how much a particular outcome is caused by another is not clear either. Your comments were quite interesting though and many thanks for them!

The important thing to keep in mind here is that Peters after going on to our practice squad was in such demand around the league that we put him on our active roster rather than lose him. Once on our active roster he quickly proved to be unblockable in practice on ST and then not only blocked a punt but showed his soft hands and ball sense by recovering the block for a TD. Then, despite the fact that he was a producer on ST and showed desirable chops at TE that we activated him, JMac publicly identified him as the best athlete on OL he had ever seen and then he went from there not only to force his way onto the field as an RT starter, but made the jump to LT (a trick we paid MW a bunch to do and he blew up) and then was voted to the Pro Bowl at this position. No one with even half a football brain mistakes Chambers as being this good of a player. Hoping that Chambers will produce a similar unlikely result simply will not happen whether one remembers Peters or not.

No, you don't give Dockery and additional contract because: A. He has not played well enough that folks grace him with a Pro Bowl nod at an extremely young age when he is extremely new to the position. B. There is an obvious and clear difference in the size of the FA contract Dockery deserved and got and the extension of and the UDFA size contract which Peters deserved and got an extension of. Any attempt to equate these as the same thing falls short as an analogy Same deal with trying to sat the Peters deal and the Walker deal are the same thing. Should the Bills pay more than the salary cap allows to sign Peters? No. However, given the significant cap room we still have even after they give a big deal to Evans, signing Peters to a long-term deal is almost certainly good football. The concept that this provides a precedent for a non-Pro Bowl quality player at a position which is easier to fill than LT is simply silly.

Its fine by me if April decides to advocate for us keeping him because of his ST work. The problem I see with this team is that our most effective O set seems to be using the spread offense with the FB sitting firmly on the bench. My sense is that it will do a great disservice to our productivity if try to make an offensive silk purse out of Barnes sow's ear play as an offensive threat for us. His blocking ability as an FB has not impressed me at all on running plays and I think Lynch is more productive trying to find holes in the D's nickel or dime rather than us counting on Barnes to clear the way for the RB.