Mark Anderson last year probably costs us Andy LeVitre this year.

[Dragonborn10]

Why would either Levitre or Byrd stay? They served their time on a dysfunctional franchise. If given the chance to play for a winner for the same money wouldn't you leave? There was no market for Stevie. He is a #2 playing as a number 1 making middle tier number 1 money. Byrd may be the best safety in the league and will be paid so. The time to sign them was last year when the potential for injury or a bad year could be used against them. Signing them early was the best chance to keep them. Likely their agents said unless it is a ridiculouly good offer it is best to wait. Neither has an injury history and both had very good seasons. They will franchise one, most likely Byrd and hope they can resign Levitre. It will be his choice to stay or leave. The only way I think they let Byrd walk is if they think A. Williams can play FS. Since it is a new coaching staff they will have no way of knowing that. Also franchising a safety is less money than franchising a guard by a few million dollars. Therefore I think Byrd gets the tag and they take their chances with Levitre.

Edited January 27, 2013 by Dadonkadonk

[RealityCheck]

Levitre is very agile. He played LT in college, and is custom made for the game today given the rule changes. Not only that, he has a history of durability. And, how would he be replaced? Do you want to use a #8 on Warmack?

Wow. Where did you get Warmack from? There are bigger, higher upside 3rd round tackles that could do Levitre's job and grow to be far more physical in the long run for less money now. He is a guard in the NFL and is physically good now as he will ever be. His ceiling is just about hit and it will be down hill from here. I would like a more physical specimen at his spot lining up next to Cordy.

[3rdand12]

One of Levitre's assets is that he has been so consistent and depenadable. And he gets to the second level effectively. Not a mauler but he gets it done day in day out.

A big key to an offensive line in my opinion is keeping them together. We have a good line that can get better even.

Just sign Andy and move on to some important issues.

Byrd should not be fiddled with either. Pay him.

Anderson. i dont care what they do with him. Unfortunately he has NO value to anyone at this point. We ate that one ooops!

[Rob's House]

I'm reminded of a couple years ago when many here were adamant that the FO should cough up $10 mil/yr for Tyson Clabo, a guy who is only marginally better, if at all, than what we have now at a fraction of that cost, and who ultimately signed for $5 mil/yr. Supposing we'd wasted that money on Clabo we'd have $5 mil less to spend this off season. Anyone still wish we'd made that deal?

 

 

To clarify, I'm not saying Levitre's expendable, just saying we should keep some perspective in our expectations of what the FO should be willing to pay to retain him.

Edited January 27, 2013 by Rob's House

[Bufcomments]

Last I read, the Bills were $20 million under the cap. I would not be surprised to see the Bills make some cuts to save even more money.

 

So the signing of Mark Anderson should have absolutely no bearing on the Bills losing Levitre, which I doubt will happen anyway.

yep

[Pirate Angel]

They have cap room....the letting go of Kelsey, Brad Smith, George Wilson, Spencer Johnson, and Ryan Fitzpatrick will create more

[T master]

There is one way to fix that , cut him before the league year starts & & draft a young DE like a Okafor in the first.

 

Anderson is at best a situational pass rusher & for the money it is not worth it ! Plus if you free up the extra money we can probably get Moore to resign for less than Anderson.

 

Anderson will cost to see if he can come off this operation on his knee & be a more productive player !!

Edited January 27, 2013 by T master

[John from Riverside]

Wait a minute.....

 

Anderson has only been with us for a year.....played in an aweful scheme under a aweful out of date DC......where SEVERAL players did not play up to potential.....and was hurt most of the year.

 

And we are ready to just dump him?

[QCity]

the bills are losing NEITHER of them....

 

 

byrd will be signed long term first......

 

levitre's deal will take longer and the bills will Franchise tag him......then sign him long term......

 

 

i believe Levitre is more valuable and will be harder to replace compared to byrd.

 

No. Just no. It would cost $9.6M to franchise Levitre, there's just no possible way that's going to happen - that's more than the highest paid guard in the league gets per year. (by comparison, Byrd could be franchised for ~$6.5M, that's a very realistic scenario)

 

Levitre's a good player - he's durable and has the flexibility to swing out to tackle in an emergency, but we are not talking about Larry Allen here. He's not in the same class as Nicks, Yanda, or Mankins. He's probably in the 10-15 range if you rank the top guards in the league.

 

My biggest problem with letting Levitre go will be the all the whining when the fact is, you can't break the bank for the 15th best guard in the league. It's not difficult to replace an above-average guard. Have fun in Chicago Andy.

[Saint Doug]

I can't believe some people are afraid of losing a LG off of a 6-10 team.

 

You mean lose a LG, who is versatile enough to play multiple OL positions, from the OL that allowed the least number of sacks in the NFL last season? The one who hasn't missed a start (which is saying a lot for our line) in the last 3 years and tweeted a side boob pick? That one? Obviously replaceable.

[RuntheDamnBall]

Why would either Levitre or Byrd stay? They served their time on a dysfunctional franchise. If given the chance to play for a winner for the same money wouldn't you leave?

That presumes there is a winner they want to go to that can afford them. There is NE, which is the scariest of all possible propositions, but they aren't usually big splash FA players. They find lots and lots of gold in support roles and undervalued FAs and draft stars of their own.

 

Lots of players, especially linemen, struggle when they move to another team as FAs. The linemen especially rely on some continuity and familiarity with their linemates. It would not surprise me to see Levitre place some premium on this, though not a big one. I think Levitre likes it here and likes his linemates and would like to succeed with Buffalo. It remains to be seen if the Bills are equal to that task and have a commitment to keeping him.

[xsoldier54]

Last I read, the Bills were $20 million under the cap. I would not be surprised to see the Bills make some cuts to save even more money.

 

So the signing of Mark Anderson should have absolutely no bearing on the Bills losing Levitre, which I doubt will happen anyway.

Agree 100%. I don't believe that the signing of Anderson will have any impact on re-signing Levitre. I also do not believe they will let Levitre walk. The two things are not related.

[San Jose Bills Fan]

There would be no way to prove this, but I bet over 90% of us don't even know how good Levitre is especially in comparison. Maybe we've noticed him when he came into the view of a play and we certainly know he doesn't miss games. But most of us have no idea what we would even be loosing or gaining by signing Levitre if we're honest.

 

Like the guy that says "we can't afford to just keep losing top players". Someone told you he was a top player, but you really don't know.

 

I don't think anyone here considered Donte Whitner or Paul Poszluzny a top player but the loss of those two players hurt the Bills substantially, IMO.

 

Bottom line for me, you can't keep creating holes in the starting lineup.

 

You can't keep burning draft picks for filling holes. The team never improves if that's what your draft picks are being spent on.

 

Analytically speaking Byrd is more valuable than Levitre, as he was ranked the 2nd best safety versus Levitre being ranked the 17th best guard...

 

I think you're referring to the PFF player rankings.

 

Considering that there are 64 starting guards in the NFL and Levitre is ranked by them at 17, that tells me that he's an excellent player.

 

And again, here's a guy who never misses games and can play multiple positions.

 

I hope to God we can retain both Levitre and Byrd and I feel like we will.

Edited January 28, 2013 by San Jose Bills Fan

[White Linen]

I don't think anyone here considered Donte Whitner or Paul Poszluzny a top player but the loss of those two players hurt the Bills substantially, IMO.

 

Bottom line for me, you can't keep creating holes in the starting lineup.

 

You can't keep burning draft picks for filling holes. The team never improves if that's what your draft picks are being spent on.

 

 

 

Let me clarify, I'm not saying that Andy isn't a priority or that we shouldn't do everything we can to sign him. I'm just saying most people have no idea what they are saying when evaluating a guard.

[San Jose Bills Fan]

Let me clarify, I'm not saying that Andy isn't a priority or that we shouldn't do everything we can to sign him. I'm just saying most people have no idea what they are saying when evaluating a guard.

 

Understand.

 

Thanks TT.

[Malazan]

Wait a minute.....

 

Anderson has only been with us for a year.....played in an aweful scheme under a aweful out of date DC......where SEVERAL players did not play up to potential.....and was hurt most of the year.

 

And we are ready to just dump him?

 

Yes, fans are not rational

[Mark Vader]

Let me clarify, I'm not saying that Andy isn't a priority or that we shouldn't do everything we can to sign him. I'm just saying most people have no idea what they are saying when evaluating a guard.

I agree. In fact I admit that I am not that good at evaluating a guard.

 

Here's my opinion. The Bills have put together the best O-Line they have had in years. I firmly believe that. I'm not saying it is the best ever, but it is a strength on this team.

 

Andy Levitre has been a key to this O-Line's success. He has shown us just how valuable he is to the team. He's played several different positions on the line, showing his versatility. He has remained injury free, unlike everyone else on the line. He's very good on both run blocking and pass protection.

 

I have no complaints with the guy. He's earned a big contract and I think the Bills should give it to him. If they should overpay, I don't care, they can always renegotiate sometime down the line if necessary.

 

What gets me is how some fans here say that we can't survive without Byrd, but losing Levitre is no big deal.

 

Don't get me wrong I want to keep Byrd too. I just don't understand how people say that getting a good Offensive Guard is easy. Honestly, when was the last time we had a guard as good as Levitre on our team?

 

It's even more frustrating when people here say, "You don't let your best players walk", but then turn around and say, "It's ok if we lose Levitre, finding guards are easy".

 

I don't know. I guess to some people, Levitre is no different than Duke Preston.

 

We need to keep this O-Line intact, it's a damn good unit and we need to see them all grow together.

[QCity]

What gets me is how some fans here say that we can't survive without Byrd, but losing Levitre is no big deal.

 

Don't get me wrong I want to keep Byrd too. I just don't understand how people say that getting a good Offensive Guard is easy. Honestly, when was the last time we had a guard as good as Levitre on our team?

 

It's even more frustrating when people here say, "You don't let your best players walk", but then turn around and say, "It's ok if we lose Levitre, finding guards are easy".

 

That's a lot of hyperbole. I don't think anyone is saying that losing Levitre would be "no big deal." I don't think it would be "easy" to replace him, but I also don't think it would be that difficult either. I'm of the opinion it's more important to sign Byrd (emerging top 3 FS) than Levitre. I like Levitre, I want him to stay, but if he wants Carl Nicks money i.e. 5yrs 47M then bye-bye. I agree that you don't let your best players walk. Failing to sign Stevie last year, failing to sign Byrd this year, failing to sign Spiller in 2 years - that would qualify as "letting your best players walk." Losing the 17th ranked guard in the league? No.

 

And this may sound crazy, but I think Chan's offensive scheming did a lot to bolster the sack numbers of our OL. Nearly every play was designed to get the ball out of Fitz's hand in under 3 seconds - you rarely saw him drop back and survey the field. Fitz overthrows receivers and flutters balls into the ground faster than any QB in the league.

 

I'll be as happy as anyone here if we can resign him to a deal, but realisitcally there are teams out there like Chicago who probably think they are 1 or 2 OL away from contending for it all. It makes sense for them to overspend and take a shot while they have this window. Couple that with a soft FA market for OL this year and what do you get? Probably about 15-20 DOOOOOOOMED threads incoming. Brace yourself.

[Big Turk]

There would be no way to prove this, but I bet over 90% of us don't even know how good Levitre is especially in comparison. Maybe we've noticed him when he came into the view of a play and we certainly know he doesn't miss games. But mosppt of us have no idea what we would even be loosing or gaining by signing Levitre if we're honest.

 

Like the guy that says "we can't afford to just keep losing top players". Someone told you he was a top player, but you really don't know.

 

Actually we do know. Analytics say he is the 17th best guard in the NFL(both sides) overall and is rated the best pass blocking guard in the NFL...

Edited January 28, 2013 by matter2003

[BillsFan-4-Ever]

Ryan Fitzpatrick - 7 yr/$62,195,000

 

UFA's

QB Travaris Jackson - 2 yr/$8,000,000

QB Tyler Thigpen - 3 yr/$9,000,000

G Andy Levitre - 4 yr/$3,560,000

S Jairus Byrd - 4 yr/$4,150,000

DE Kyle Moore - 2 yr/$1,065,000

RB Tashard Choice - 1 yr/$700,000

DL Spencer Johnson - 5 yr/$17,500,000

WR Ruvell Martin - 1 yr/$700,000

FB Corey McIntyre - 2 yr/$2,500,500

CB Leodis McKelvin - 5 yr/$19,400,000

DE Shawne Merriman - 1 yr/$700,000

G Chad Rinehart - 1 yr/$1,260,000

LB Bryan Scott - 1 yr/$825,000

FA's

C/G Colin Brown -

WR Donald Jones -

WR David Nelson -

 

ERFA

TE Mike Caussin

TE Dorin Dickerson

 

$ figures found on http://www.spotrac.com/nfl/buffalo-bills/

 

Look at how much can be saved on dumping 2 of the three QB's listed!

 

Spencer Johnson - 19 Tackles - 2 sacks 5 years with the Bills - At 31 they should cut or resign him at a moderate price.

 

is Leodis really worth - $3.88 M yr