BillsVet

For all we know they spent what they felt when Aaron Williams amazingly signed a deal right after Byrd was permitted to test UFA. The inbound UFA's appear to be Legursky-esque type signings where the player could be had far down the road. The new narrative seems to be that we can excuse Byrd leaving because it's the QB that matters most and we're waiting to see if Buffalo has one. It's a nice conflation. Then again, Peyton Manning isn't winning titles himself even in an offensive dominated league, which by the way, is predicated on passing the ball. It's why New Orleans has prioritized getting guys who can combat the aerial nature of the game.

When will the oncoming storm be blamed for Buffalo's inability to attract UFA's to visit? I'm guessing it'll be within the next 4-6 hours as the weather worsens and little news comes out regarding UFA visits.

Elite like Byrd, Lynch, and Peters? Those three players have departed in the last 5 years and brought the Bills only Eric Wood as a starting player. And I'm not even talking Levitre and Posluszny. See the trend? If a team is average at drafting, which the Bills haven't been, then how do you get better when you're losing a solid or better contributor every year and signing lower to mid tier UFA's? You're only maintaining what you've got, which is a 9 or more loss team for going on a decade.

Since 2006, they've averaged 10 wins a year, been to the playoffs 5 times and won a SB. Hard to see how that's a joke.

Buffalo just needs to be luckier, that's all. The Patriots have been lucky pretty much every year winning the AFCE because they lucked into a 6th round HOF QB and a HOF HC.

You do realize they had 20M+ in cap space this season, right? And that's after keeping Aaron Williams.

Mario got 50M guaranteed. http://www.rotoworld.com/player/nfl/3636/mario-williams

They're both really lucky franchises.

Buffalo spent big in UFA in 2007 and again in 2012. Seems like every 5 years they do something like a big splash in UFA when things are going downhill. It doesn't seem to be part of a bigger plan and isn't usually supported with outstanding drafts, but it keeps people interested. Besides, they don't seem concerned with Mario's 18.8M cap hit for 2014, which occupies 1/7th of their current cap hit. There's more time left in UFA, but with 12M in dead cap, you wonder what the plan is: spend less and wait until the inevitable or try and compete. Right now it looks like the former.

I'm not sure what Bills fans want. They've got a visit set up with Nolan Carroll tomorrow and already talked to Jasper Brinkley and Jameel McClain.

Extortion? Because the guy representing Buffalo's top UFA this team had didn't sign here? Every single person, if they were in Byrd's shoes, would want from Parker exactly what he's provided to Byrd. A shot at signing another contract in a league where most guys don't even get the second one after their rookie deal. Objectivity just took a nose dive again.

Brandonomoics? And then there's the Fitz charge split between '13 and '14 which gets them to 12M in dead money.

More like RW saying, "Get me Sammy Baugh, Don Hutson, and Bronko Nagurski!" Brandon come here!

No. Teams must spend 89% of the cap on average from 2013-16 and 2017-20. League-wide the requirement is 95%, but that's more complicated. http://www.ninersnation.com/2014/3/1/5459982/49ers-salary-cap-minimum-cash-spending-requirement-cba

When you wait to the point a player has maximum leverage, i.e. in their walk year, it makes it awfully hard to keep them and stay within budget. It's forced them to use the draft to replace departed UFA's. Trade Willis McGahee? Draft Lynch in the first. Let Fletcher hit UFA? Use a second on Posluszny. Trade Peters? Use a second on Glenn a few years later. Let Levitre hit UFA? Probably means they'll use a high draft pick or further UFA dollars to find a replacement. If anything, the Bills have been behind the curve. Signing Aaron Williams doesn't all of a sudden reverse that trend. It'll take another 2-3 years of recognizing talent and signing it to team friendly contracts before those players are close to UFA. It's been said ad nauseam around here. The Bills use the draft far too much to replace than build. It's why they've remained stuck winning 4-7 games a year for 9 seasons running.

Either Buffalo didn't make an offer consistent with what Parker believed Byrd was worth or the player was not re-signing with Buffalo. I'm interested to know how much guaranteed money was in that release the Bills put out about 3 years and 30M via back door channels. Something doesn't wash about it.

Let's include Johnson as well. That means from 2007-09 the Bills found 7 above average or better starters via the draft. Not great, but certainly not horrible either. Of those 7, they retained the services of 3 (Johnson, Wood, and McKelvin). The main reason Buffalo doesn't retain their draftees from those classes is they weren't doing what they did with Aaron Williams: anticipate a player's value to the team and re-sign them before they hit peak value. (Cue the "it takes two to tango" cliche) I don't expect Buffalo to keep a guy like Posluszny on a contract like what he received from Jacksonville or what Levitre got from Tennessee. If the Bills really wanted to keep Byrd, they should have initiated talks late in 2011 at the end of his third season. I know someone will say hindsight is 20/20, but I expect NFL personnel men to know when to keep a player. That is, if they aren't restricted by the powers that be which exist in Buffalo.

What happens when you build through the draft and don't sign the the majority of guys you drafted when they become good or better? Buffalo drafted 10 players in rounds 1-3 from 2007-2009. 1 was traded for a song (Lynch), 3 were allowed to leave via UFA (Posluszny, Levitre, Byrd), 2 were re-signed (Wood and McKelvin) while the remaining were busts (Maybin, Hardy, Ellis, Edwards). Poor drafting coupled with allowing a majority of your hits on draft day to depart equals a mediocre team, which is what the Bills are.

Brady alone doesn't win that team 10 or more games 11 years in a row. I always find it funny when someone or something is successful that luck is the reason why. Certainly there's an element of luck, but it's not enough to keep you among the league's best for that long. That said, I wouldn't go after someone that Belichick declines to retain.

It's good the Bills are finally starting to sign players before their walk year, as they didn't do that with Levitre or Byrd. For those two, it would have meant negotiating during the 2012 season, which the team didn't appear interested in. Personnel acumen hasn't been Buffalo's strong suit over the years, particularly identifying a player before they reach peak value and are thus harder to keep. You have to hope Williams can provide the value the personnel guys (and Overdorf) feel he's worth.

I'm not clear how anyone can deduce Brandon is squarely in the Whaley/Marrone camp. He's the CEO of the organization, but their org chart has never been very specific. We know that Overdorf does not report to the GM, but to Brandon and Littmann. That said, Brandon at best takes a middle of the road perspective when involving matters of finance. Yet, he's not able to overrule Littmann which on this subject, which creates a strange scenario where Littmann directs Overdorf and neither Brandon nor the GM have much say in the matter. In the corporate culture, typically there isn't full agreement on all matters. Finance is always the first priority in a business, but in Buffalo it takes that to more of an extreme. The Toronto series will return eventually, but postponing it this year doesn't mean one side or the other has won. IMO, it's merely a bone thrown to fans not understanding why Byrd is allowed to leave when they're flush with cap space and have the 2nd most dead cap.

If the NFL ever creates a P.T. Barnum award for league executives, Brandon should be the first winner.

I could see it happening. During the '09 off-season they traded Peters before draft day, moved Langston Walker from RT to LT, Brad Butler from RG to RT, drafted Wood and Levitre, cut Walker, started Bell. The only constant was Hangartner.

He has zero NFL starts at safety and was a mid round pick last year. He might turn into a good pro, but he's completely untested at this point. Quite a gamble if the team elects to go that route. Oh, and he's learning another defense.

Based on his zero NFL starts or his special teams play?