BobChalmers

Let's follow your logic: Kyle Williams has been a starter on "one of the worst defenses in the league" for several years now. We should cut him, because obviously he is no good since the defense has been bad when he's been on the field. ... I did explain it, but I can repeat myself - why not. He was the #3 man in the rotation in Minnesota behind Pat Williams and Kevin Williams - regarded as the top DT unit in the legue at the time. He's a decent 3-4 end. As a OLB he's a joke, but the real joke was the Bills' DC last year, and/or anyone else on the staff who thought playing a DT as an OLB made sense. He's no star - he's a very good backup DT.

Sure - I'll give them a 4th-rounder. He's better than Evans but not a great locker-room guy. I'm sure some other team will offer something stupid and regret it.

Right - as was Maybin. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don't. One-year-wondrs are riskier. How important is it for the Bills to take a risk to fill a need instead of focus on a safer BPA? It's not an easy question for sure.

You do understand Johnson is a natural 4-3 DT with a pretty solid career as a backup to one of the best DT tandems in the last decade - Pat and Kevin Williams. He's not going to start over Kyle and Marcell either, obviously, but he's excellent depth there. He was very solid for the Bills in that role too. Why in heck they thought a DT would work out well moving to OLB is beyond understanding, other than it says something for why the Bills fired their DC.

You are blaming Nix for Maybin????? So I take it you aren't a Bills fan at all, or just completely clueless?? You do realize Buddy wasn't the GM when they picked Maybin, and had barely been on the staff at all at that point. And you do realize they just fired the DC and replaced him with Wannstadt, right? When Nix was first hired to the new position, he made an explicit point of how he doesn't trust 1-year wonders. I kind of suspect he was warning against Maybin and was ignored, which made his interview for the GM spot easier.

This++ So why the heck can people here not grasp this? Mayock and everyone else is spelling out that the top of the draft is not good for DE's - bummer for us Bills fans, but I don't want them reaching for a guy. Thank you Buddy Nix for not being half as stupid as the people on this board. Given the circumstances, an old guy like Mathis in FA might not be bad - if you have to overpay in the current market for a position of need, might as well do it short-term instead of overpaying a guy on a 5-year deal or reaching on a 1-st rounder that sets you back for years if he's a bust.

You take a break from being a Bills fan when "Wilson's spending pattern" was dumping a fortune on Dockery/Walker/Tripplett?? NO, they don't usually spend big in FA (and neither do most of the consistent winners, btw), but every once in a while when they think they are close, they do break the bank. Nix has been repeating clearly that OBD thinks 2012 is their year, and they "will be aggressive in free agency". He didn't say that last year or the year before, and it does him absolutely no good to lie about it now. He's serious, and they are going to do what they can to make the team playoff-ready THIS year. Unfortunately, neither the draft nor FA is great for pass rush this year, so we'll see what they can do.

The whole argument is based on this premise - and with the number of seriously good FA WR's out there this year, I don't see it at all. What are there - 2 WR's right now over 9M? And the cap isn't getting bigger. As a FA he probably gets ~7M or 7.5 tops. He pwned Revis - but the drops are bad and at bad times. No way he out-earns Wallace, VJ, Bowe, etc.

Swap 1's with the Steelers and give them a 3rd with it. That I'd do. Could be wrong, but I believe if you look up the values - the difference between our 1st round positions might be close to a late 1st.

Apparently you've never heard of the draft. What are you - a Redskins fan?

Stevie's great and he owned Revis and I want the Bills to re-sign him. Stevie also needs to work on his drops. It's not just one. Even in the one game he had a brutal drop followed by a tough but catchable ball that he didn't get. Either catch wins that game. I don't think you've forgotten the Steelers game OT. He's done it a few times. It's a pattern. He's still an excellent WR, but if he's going to be a top-10 guy, especially with his just-OK speed, he needs to stop the drops.

+1

No sir - you have again made my point. Unless you somehow argue it is IMPOSSIBLE that the Bills could improve on their near-bottom-of-the-league pass rush while Fitz is the QB, your entire argument is near-mindless. Your claim logically implies that they could not go even 7-9 with Fitz at QB - even if they improved their pass rush from worst in the league, AND Williams has recovered from his bone spur AND they added the 2nd stud WR Nix is claiming he going after AND they manaege to keep one of their OLT's healthy, AND... For you to be correct, you are saying that everything else that went wrong with the team last year doesn't add up to a single lost game - NOT ONE GAME. According to you, why should they even bother finding a pass rusher? Yes, your assertion is CLEARLY incorrect. Anyone with a functional mind can see it.

I Agree. And I assume you mean as an OLB? Too many folks here are stuck in a mindset that says 4-3 == Tampa2 4-3 where the LB's tend to be small cover guys. That's not the "standard" 4-3, that I am assuming Wanny has in mind. It might be instructive to look back at some of his prior defenses and see what sort of athletes he was looking for at the various spots. Upshaw is bigger than Freeney, but I am not even projecting him to 4-3 DE - I'm lining him up as a 4-3 OLB who can both blitz and play the run.

Saying something this clearly incorrect loses you nearly all credibility with some of your other points. They just did win 6 games with him, despite a poor defense with the worst pass rush in the league, despite losing their starting Center, their only pro-bowler from the prior season, their starting SS, and their pro-bowl-bound starting RB. I think Fitz is mediocre, and I agree the OL is much better than people give it credit for - but it is patently OBVIOUS that they CAN win more than 6 games with Fitz - all they need to do is repeat last season and not lose KW and Wood.

Ravens finished the season with 3 (THREE) on IR. It can happen. That's how you get to the playoffs. If there's an issue causing the Bills to have so many injuries - it needs addressing, but the guys on my list aren't "injury-prone" except for Bell and Merriman. I expect to see the team work hard to get depth at both of their positions. They may not even be back. I refuse to call what's happened to Wood his two seasons that he's been hurt a sign of being injury-prone or an issue for the trainers. KW is the kind of guy that normally injures the other team - hopefully he's cured of what was apparently a long-term issue with his bone spur. FredEx rarely goes down - and now that CJ has finally gotten some real p/t they have depth there.

OMG PEOPLE. Nix was explicit about this - he's trying to re-sign SJ AND bring in a 2nd big WR. He explicitly was asked what if they lose SJ, and he explicitly said "THEN WE NEED TO ADD TWO." He'd have to have been straight-up lying to plan what you suggest, and regardless of what you think of his character - THERE IS NO VALUE TO HIM LYING NOW and then being called out and disappointing the fan base BEFORE the ticket sales period. It's pretty obvious they want to resign Stevie and add a guy like VJ - maybe they can't pull it off (although there are a lot of good FA WR's out there so I think they can) - but it's clearly their plan.

The best/healthiest of the following: Hairston, plus maybe Bell, plus one guy they get when they think they see value in rounds 2-4.

Example??? You're making my point. Buddy Nix was saying essentially the same thing - THIS is the year. Again - in years past they HAVE spent the money in those years when they thought they were on the verge. This is another of those years. My estimate is that it's not quite $20M to sign Stevie and a VJ or similar - more like $16M, and yes, I think they intend to do exactly that. Whether they can do that AND improve the pass rush with other than draft picks is a fair question.

Since I'm still at a loss as to how Donald Jones makes an NFL lineup, this is not saying much. Evans would be the #4 WR on the Bills right now. I'd be fine if they signed him as such. Someone else will decide to gamble that he's better than that - the Bills won't.

I have no clue why people stick to this attitude ignoring all evidence. Nix was very explicit - he intends to resign Stevie AND bring in another top WR. A "Calvin Johnson-type" who's "open when he's covered". He specifically said if they lose Stevie they will add TWO WR's. Guys - if he wasn't serious about spending the cash on FA's this year, he wouldn't have said all that at the press conference. It does him no good to get fans' hopes up for a few months just to let them down before the ticket sales start in earnest. Look at the history of the team - HONESTLY. Every so often when they think they are close, Ralph spends the money. Remember the year of Dockery@$7M/Walker@$5M/etc.? Nix was spelling it out last month - they believe THIS is one of those years, and they intend to bring in the players THIS YEAR to get to the playoffs. If they don't, they are open to serious criticism because he said point-blank they were going to do it.

Forget the length of the list: Kyle Williams George Wilson Merriman Fred Jackson Eric Wood OLT's Bell and Hairston the same day Forget the significance of the rest - the loss of the guys above doomed the Bills' season. If that means they don't have "enough" depth, fine, but few teams if any go 3-deep at OLT or 2-deep at NT or C. In the Bills' case, the team's only returning pro-bowler and the team's only 1st-rounder on the OL.

Barnett is the correct answer to the OP. Other options include: - Dockery. Ralph shelled out $7M/year to (briefly) make him the highest paid interior OL in the NFL. - Langston Walker came the same year at a hefty $5M/year - it's debatable how much competition they had for him. - T.O. Frankly, signing him to only a 1-year deal was one of the smartest moves the Bills have ever made. That shrewd move forced him to behave. I am betting the OP is practicing typically negative Bills-fan selective memory to be going all the way back to Doug Flutie. The truth is, at times, Ralph has spent plenty to bring in a few seemingly important pieces. That's why I take Buddy Nix completely seriously when he says he's going to add a big-time WR to Stevie, and add a 2nd if they lose Stevie, AND add a serious pass rusher. Every few years this team makes a REAL push when they think they are close enough to justify it. Nix's press conference was making it clear that they believe this is one of those years and he absolutely expects playoffs in 2012. Main problem with Posey is they were ignoring the fact that the guy could only play 3-4 OLB and they tried to shoe-horn him into a 4-3 when he already had an NFL track record showing he was nothing at that position. Reminds me of when the Ravens brought in Elvis Grbac, completely ignoring that Grbac's entire success camne playing the West Coast offense, and he was hopelessly wrong for the Ravens' deep ball scheme. Grbac was among the worst FA signings ever, and certainly the worst in the Ravens' history.

3 or 4 more good starters and this will be among the best defenses in the league. Not really sure where you'd want to upgrade anymore. The assumption is that Kyle Williams returns healthy - I assume you are OK with our Pro Bowler from last year, right? Dareus next to him. Sheppard has already been declared by Gailey - he's fine. Someone earlier said he wasn't big enough to play the MLB?? Say what?? He's plenty big. Weird comment. Barnett is a very good LB. There's the first OLB. Given they had possibly the worst pass rush in the league, the play of the DBs wasn't average it was outstanding. Aaron Williams is an excellent CB. Rodgers looks promising. Wilson and Byrd are both very good Safeties. In a 4-3, they need 1 DE, 1 OLB, and it would be nice to get a 2nd DE to upgrade Kelsay/Carrington. Johnson as DT depth is very good. If they get Williams back healthy and significantly upgrade 2 pass-rushers, this will be a top-10 defense easily. I believe they will upgrade at least one, and probably get the second, my guess is one FA plus one high draft pick - either a #1 or #2.

Agreed - and I'd add Buddy Nix just said essentially the same thing just a couple of weeks ago at his presser. They need a pass rush, period. The DB's are fine.