BillsVet

Ellison, Costanzo, Buggs, Bowen, Corto. All of them under 240. If Buffalo can play 14 guys on ST's this year, we've got enough undersized LB's to man that squad. In other news, running a 4.86 40 precludes you from playing OLB in the pros.

Don't have any clue who this guy is. Sounds like Camp Fodder and another in a long line of potential special teamers. Thomas per PFT

The point to all of this remains that while QB is the most important position in football, giving up boatloads of picks for Cutler is ridiculous. No one on here has any clue what the Bills would have to give up to acquire this guy, and therefore any debate about getting him is non-sensical. I don't think he's a guarantee to win that many more games than Edwards. But I guarantee you the price over Edwards will be high. But people come out of the woodwork to say it has to happen. Building an entire team for now and the future would drastically be affected by giving up draft picks. And who's to say Cutler wouldn't want a huge contract right away? Probably something in the 5-6 year range for 13M+ per. The deal loses luster considering the financial price and amount of resources it'd take to get him. And BTW, Denver has Ryan Clady, so Peters is not a commodity for them. When you look at the on-field product alone here, sure it looks nice and shiny to trade for JC. Peel back a few layers, and it's not all that great.

Reading all of these posts in favor of acquiring Jay Cutler for an unknown price, got me thinking about how absurd it would be for the Bills. I'm not sure if the more intelligent Bills fans think this way, but I can think of at least five reasons not to. 1. Despite his stats, Cutler throws his share of INT's. 18 last season was among league worst in this category. Granted he's young, but QB's with rocket arms tend to force too much and get picked. (Cue a Favre reference) 2. He's been pampered and the center of attention in Denver. A 3 year vet who's started 2.5 seasons, he doesn't have the maturity to handle adversity. That won't change anytime soon. 3. Shanahan's offenses put up points, but he's not going into a Shanahan offense if he goes to Buffalo. 4. His agent Bus Cook has fomented more rebellion among his players, than most agents. It seems he likes being in the news as much as his clients. 5. The price tag, including draft picks and future cap space would be astronomical. McDaniels is attempting to be Belichick Jr in Denver, and will recognize that someone will overpay for a QB. Cutler's trade value, depsite the conflict, will demand a great deal of resources Buffalo should use to build their team. I'm referring to a DE, TE, perhaps an OLB, and OL depth. Don't forget the Bills top 3 DE's are or will be over 30 this season. Stroud is as well.

AFC Fan? Hmmm...probably some loser Dolphins fan. Why not go to the Bills board and bash them. You have too much time.

So a guy with an "off-off-Broadway" type website gets one thing right (and granted it was TO) and now he's completely legit. Good thing he's not in military intelligence.

Unless McCargo can play DE in Denver's new 3-4 with Mike Nolan as DC, I don't see him moving. I think McDaniels hired him to reproduce what NE did. I do like the addition of Scheffler (should it happen), who is young, on the upswing, and someone that can block and receive.

I can't believe we're getting this worked up over Bus Cook. The same man who for years made GB worry that Favre was retiring. The same guy who got Favre to come back for one final season. I'm sure he's soaking this all in, especially now that his most famous client is (evidently) retired for good. This is the closest most men ever get to soap operas.

And that's precisely what happened last year when Buffalo started going downhill. I remember being at the CLE MNF game and watching Edwards throw coverage with 6-7 guys on almost every down. And that wasn't the first time Buffalo saw the saturated coverage. I still don't have a lot of faith in Schonert to get ahead of defenses and make them react to his game calls. I'd be all for Scheffler, but wouldn't give up a fourth, maybe a third. McDaniels is blowing that team up into NE West and his offenses rely on more of a blocker at TE. Scheffler is more than adequate there, but he's a receiver, and Denver has Daniel Graham already. I think if Denver can get a third for Scheffler, they'd be happy. Evans and TO will give him options, but without someone who has speed to stretch the seem, it'll be a little bit harder to attack these defenses. And Buffalo will see some good ones this year.

I think we as Bills fans want a guy at 11 who'll step in and get 10-12 sacks in their rookie season. While that'd be nice, it's not realistic. Rushing the passer at the NFL level takes a lot more than speed. That said, Maybin's 10 yard split time is something that seems to give him an edge on the other edge rushers. If he can maintain that speed and improve his strength, I think he'll be an excellent future RDE in the NFL.

The most cogent post among 8 pages of back and forth. I agree they're in a preliminary stage of negotiations, and both sides are set in their ways. Parker doesn't play, and Buffalo wants to get the guy under contract for the lowest price possible. Buffalo took more than 6 months to reach agreements with Evans and Schobel. I suspect it'll be that long for Peters, but I hope not.

Or he can get traded to the Oilers, play with Gretzky, win some Stanley Cups, and then become head coach a few years later. In truth, I'll reserve judgment on Stallworth until the tests results are known. For all we know, it could have been the pedestrian's fault. They could have been impaired themselves.

Yes it does. In all probability, this opens up Crabtree for the Seahawks, meaning Raji probably slips to Cincinnati. Cincy then probably doesn't go DE. It's a guess, but I can't see Seattle going DT at this point.

Buffalo has demonstrated in the past their affinity for quantity over quality. That's not to say you should keep players for name only, but in the case of Peters, finding a quality replacement at this juncture is going to be tough. Sure, you'll save the cash, but how does that help this team get to the playoffs. You can spend 11.5M, but would I'd take Peters over four average players (which Buffalo has plenty of) just like I'd have taken Nate Clements over Dockery and Walker. It's a huge gamble to bank on another rookie. There may only be 1-2 rookies per year who can handle the position as a starter from Day 1. In 06 it was Marcus McNeill, Joe Thomas in 07, and Ryan Clady in 08. To bank on finding the one guy (who usually is a first rounder) is indeed a huge gamble. Every year the Bills depend on their top 2 picks to instantly contribute. Getting another first day pick is nice, but that's 3 guys you need to perform.

Save us the self-righteous rant. Playing for team, fans, sure whatever. These guys know it's a business that imitates a sport and want to get paid in the short window they have. This isn't 1940s baseball. I'll clue you in on something from last year: Buffalo wasn't going to renegotiate his contract at any point, either before or during the season. There were no overtures from the front office at all. And so a hard stance was met with an equally hard stance by Peters group. Unfortunately, the problem was not resolved, leaving Peters and the Bills at an impasse. In the end, they're negotiating, and it's not surprising that at the outset they're far apart. BTW, who are you to say a deal is fair? You don't even know what's been offered. Any negotiation begins with a lowball offer, countered by the player high offer. 8.5M per is 1M more than Walter Jones received 4 years ago. The market's been set, and you don't even know what it is.

Who do you suggest? In this entire rambling post you don't list one free agent player. You're simply making hasty, little-thought generalizations that provide no answers. Instead of complaining, how about offering a solution. I've got news for you: after the first week of FA, it's pretty much lesser priced players anyway. There aren't many decent NFL starters hanging around waiting for a big pay day. That money has already been spent and teams are probably turning their attention to the draft. Besides, negotiating contracts isn't an overnight thing. Schobel waited 6 months for his deal two years ago, and Evans waited about 7.

I think they've hedged their bets that those players like June and Keiaho will receive little further interest (being T2 LB's) and the front office can get them for less by making them wait. Frankly, they're gambling on so much this offseason. The LB and LG positions are wide open, with no one starting quality on the roster. If they think they'll get some bargain or start a mid round player, it's not the solution. With needs at DE, TE, interior OL, OLB, and LB depth, that's a lot heading into the wilderness of FA and the draft.

We're talking about the Eagles, who happen to have one of the better front offices in the NFL. Heckert doesn't make decisions on personnel, but Andy Reid does. And with the track record they have of making it deep into the playoffs along with so many needs on that team, I can't see Reid dealing much of his draft for Peters. No way. Philly will use both of their first round picks, and historically go with lineman. So far they've been fairly successful building through the draft. I don't see that changing even if Peters were made available.

No matter what, I don't like the way Peters/Parker handled the holdout last year. Despite a lackluster season, Peters is an elite talent and here's the question: Why do you sign TO and trade away your best OL who happens to play the hardest position on the line? That's really making things harder for the entire offense. Point is, I wouldn't trade Peters and the savings of not giving him a contract for the top pick in the draft. The uncertainty of picks is made worse by the requirement to pay them without any production whatsoever at the pro level. Clayton is probably looking for the next big story to break. I think he's trying to create rather than report.

It seems like the Bills will accept a limited receiver as long as they've got blocking ability. One thing I can't forget about Nelson is watching him put Ray Maualuga on his back at the Senior Bowl drills. Nelson might not be the blocker Pettigrew is now-but he has the ability to become that.

So what? I don't think Drew Rosenhaus is looking for sainthood. But he's a player's agent and he represents his client first, second, and third. That said, if I was a player I'd want someone out there who is a proven agent like Rosenhaus. Most fans can't stand him, but he's not in the business of winning popularity contests. He's there to get his people as much money as possible. Besides, if you don't like being lied to, I hope you didn't vote for any political party-ever.

Voted for Freddie Keiaho. Buffalo is one of the few remaining teams running the T2/C2 as their base defense. I know Minnesota plays the C2, but I'm not sure if any other teams do. That said, the options are few for Keiaho and June.

No less than 20 teams outright said they didn't want TO. I suspect only a handful even considered signing him to any sort of contract, and given that he came to terms two days afterward with Rosenhaus his agent, not much was probably out there. TO has motivation to perform and behave. It's in the form of a one year contract playing for a team in a small market. He also knows most teams didn't want him and he has something to prove after the Dallas issues. Signing TO means accountability, but some people aren't in-line with the way that'll happen. TO is no saint, but if he gets upset for not being involved and he's still physically capable of making plays, that's not a bad thing. It's a lack of accountability which has taken us to this point.

Bill, you do remember who coaches this team, right? If Malcolm Jenkins is there, DJ will at least think about it. That said, I was encouraged that Buffalo was talking with Andy Levitre a top ranked guard from Oregon State. The guard class isn't super this year, but they need another 2-3 guards.

I remember watching Kelly going off the field with that dislocated shoulder in Indy. Things continued erupting that year, and it was really quite the circus, particularly after that game. But the following year Buffalo began the SB run without plenty of characters from those late eighties teams. TO will behave himself this season because that one year deal is motivation enough. Jauron hopefully learned some lessons from Levy on how to manage personalities. The difference here is that Jauron doesn't have a Polian type in the front office. Brandon needs to fill that role.