peterpan Posted November 6, 2013 Share Posted November 6, 2013 It seems that our FO did one hell of a job adding quality veteran talent this off season. Alan Branch has done very well on the DL for us. Manny Lawson has been great at LB. The trade for Hughes seems to be turning out great. The trade for Thad Lewis was another great addition. Legurskey has been very strong since being inserted, and Jim Leonard provided some quality play at a moments notice with Byrd out. I cannot imagine our team performing very well without those guys. None of which are big names but are the type of players we need to keep adding. Is this a sign of Whaley putting his mark on the team? I think so. Coupled with our draft, we have about 6-8 new starters from last years team. That is a big turn around and IMO it was desperately needed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bills Fan in Beantown Posted November 6, 2013 Share Posted November 6, 2013 I was totally surprised when we signed Branch and Lawson. They have worked out great. I think Legursky is servicable, but if he didn't have the injury he would have beat out Brown and could be playing even better at this point. I think the Sheppard/Hughs trade was some good "out of the box" thinking. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maybe Someday Posted November 6, 2013 Share Posted November 6, 2013 I completely agree. At the time they weren’t huge signings (by media standards) but turned out to be very solid pickups. It’s not about flash, it’s about substance. I also like how they continue to try and improve the team during the season with signings like Stefan Charles. I though he played pretty darn well last week considering he had only been with the team for a week and probably barely knows the defense. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
starrymessenger Posted November 6, 2013 Share Posted November 6, 2013 I have high expectations for Doug Whaley. I think he will find good players and I think this coaching staff will be capable of developing them. Bills fans are rightly reluctant to be too optimistic but with another good draft, and FA signing or two, this team will be ready to raise a lot of eyebrows. They are doing it already. I can't believe that the football world has failed to notice that the Bills basically wiped the floor with the leagues only unbeaten team with an as green as can be UDFA QB getting his first start. In fact they have noticed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flip Johnson Posted November 6, 2013 Share Posted November 6, 2013 I'm very impressed by the Lawson signing and the Hughes trade. In Lawson they found a player that the rest of the league didn't put a high price tag on and he is playing an essential role in this defense. With Hughes they found an impact pass rusher and gave away a non-contributor. That tells me that Pettine knows the types of players he needs and that Whaley has the ability to execute. Very positive sign. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cash Posted November 6, 2013 Share Posted November 6, 2013 I didn't exactly hate the Lawson signing, but I'd say I was fairly skeptical. But he's been really good, especially against the run. I have to give the Bills credit -- he's pretty much been exactly what Buddy Nix said he would be at the time of the signing. Branch looked like a solid signing at the time, and has held up to that. He's not exactly a world-beater, but a good player, and very necessary once Carrington got hurt. I was on board with the Sheppard/Hughes trade at the time, and saw it as basically losing nothing and gaining a lottery ticket. Hughes has played pretty well and looks like a decent rotational pass rusher. This is more of a $10 win on a scratch off than a Powerball jackpot, but a win nonetheless. I was very underwhelmed by the Legursky signing at the time, and remain so. I think he's well below average, and only looks good when compared to Colin Brown. I still wish they'd done more to address this spot in the offseason. (And no, I don't mind that they let Levitre walk. My beef is just with their Plan B once his price tag got too high.) The Thad Lewis trade, in hindsight, was a gigantic steal! Reason being, they traded a special-teams LB who was going to get cut anyway, and got back a QB who doesn't suck and shows some competence as a starter. Lewis isn't very good, but he does some positive things, and he's shown that you can win a game or two with him as your QB. It's hard to ask a lot more of a backup QB, and at this point, I think I'd be fine with Lewis entering camp next year as the primary backup, or at least in competition for the backup job. I like him. Leonhard was a nice signing as a veteran who knows the defense, who can be like an extra coach on the field and in the locker room to help the young guys integrate into the system. Plus, he made a couple nice INTs while Byrd was out. Now that Byrd's getting back up to speed, I'm glad to see his PT diminish, but he remains a solid veteran presence in a very young secondary. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjt328 Posted November 6, 2013 Share Posted November 6, 2013 I really like the Lawson signing back then, and I was actually hoping we grabbed him back in 2012 (when he signed the 1-year deal with Cincinnati). Branch and Hughes were both surprises to me. I didn't expect either guy to do much. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miyagi-Do Karate Posted November 6, 2013 Share Posted November 6, 2013 The Lawson signing alone was brilliant. No one saw that coming. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bowery4 Posted November 7, 2013 Share Posted November 7, 2013 Props it is, you can add Robey to the list too (and IMO Tuel, even though). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CSBill Posted November 7, 2013 Share Posted November 7, 2013 over all, the Bills free agent signings over the past few years have been above average Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Webster Guy Posted November 7, 2013 Share Posted November 7, 2013 Props it is, you can add Robey to the list too (and IMO Tuel, even though). You were the first to mention Robey. Amazing. The guy won us the Miami game with his pick six, and had a 4 point play against KC with that incredible hit in the flat on 3rd and 4 in the red zone. What a gamer. So glad he's 5'7 otherwise there is no way he falls in our lap like that. He's the Darren Sproles of d-backs. Love this kid.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
San Jose Bills Fan Posted November 7, 2013 Share Posted November 7, 2013 Being a big Michigan fan, I knew Branch was a very solid player and figured he'd be a great addition. He was drafted 33rd overall so he was virtually a first rounder and the Bills gave him $3 million for this year. A very good established NFL player and fans of building a team in the trenches should have been thrilled. Lawson was also a good pro. He confounded many because he's good at everything and has no real weaknesses, yet he isn't outstanding at anything either. The "scouting reports" on him were wildly conflicting: good in coverage, bad in coverage, decent pass rusher, weak pass rusher, etc. What we got is a player who understands leverages, angles, and who never makes mental errors. Lawson's probably on the downside of his career but the Bills should be able to get 2 good years out of him on the journey towards upgrading the roster talent. Sheppard demonstrated beyond a shadow of a doubt that he sucked and Hughes was coming off a career best season so how could anyone be surprised that the Bills got the better of that deal? In a league which covets pass rushers, it's amazing to me that Indy made this trade. I view it as an organizational failure by the Colts. Love the moves this team has made since the end of last season. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Vader Posted November 7, 2013 Share Posted November 7, 2013 Lawson has been a great addition to the Bills, he's helped our run defense a lot. Branch should be re-signed once the season is over. He's been a big help on the D-Line and we could use his veteran presence. Especially with the uncertainty of Carrington returning. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ganesh Posted November 7, 2013 Share Posted November 7, 2013 I was totally surprised when we signed Branch and Lawson. They have worked out great. I think Legursky is servicable, but if he didn't have the injury he would have beat out Brown and could be playing even better at this point. I think the Sheppard/Hughs trade was some good "out of the box" thinking. I hope they will be able to re-sign all of them especially Lawson, who I believe is on a 1-year contract. Having Lawson finish his career here would be awesome. It is strange that the Bills drafted John McCargo in the 1st round, and then signed Mario Williams and Manny Lawson as Free Agents. Mario, Lawson and McCargo were all First Round Draft picks in the same draft year and they anchored the NCST defensive line. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hplarrm Posted November 7, 2013 Share Posted November 7, 2013 I hope they will be able to re-sign all of them especially Lawson, who I believe is on a 1-year contract. Having Lawson finish his career here would be awesome. It is strange that the Bills drafted John McCargo in the 1st round, and then signed Mario Williams and Manny Lawson as Free Agents. Mario, Lawson and McCargo were all First Round Draft picks in the same draft year and they anchored the NCST defensive line. The interesting thing about the year of the McCargo draft is that as this team had two must-fill starting roles in the draft (a dubious proposition at best since at the time even in a deep draft only a little over 50% of the first round picks were at #1 on the teams depth chart at the start of the next season). They had a hole at SS and on the DL. The picks they made (Whitner was the second S taken in the draft and actually one of 4 Ss taken in the 1st round in that draft) and then trading back into the 1st for McCargo (no other DL player was taken until the 4th round that year) seemed long shots but not an unreasonable effort at the time. The true irony though is actually though McCargo turned out to be a failure in the end, the Bills led by retread Marv Levy (a good guy but in the end one of the few FO guys who would put up with the Mr. Wilson stupidity after Mr. Ralph swung and missed on leadership picks like Butler, Donahoe, Wade Phillips, and whatshisname who walked away from a couple of million bucks by quitting when Ralph refused to fire him after stripping him of HC authority). Marv was really too old to be a GM, but bless him as though he fanned on the high risk move of trading up for McCargo, he did get the Pro Bowl quality DT he needed in drafting Kyle Williams in the 5th. A weird draft as he made the unusual pick of Whitner and McCargp in the 1st, but in the end as the Bills had such clear needs at S and DT, the fact that Whitner was probably the best S taken in that draft (the other 1st rounders were pretty much busts) and that no other DL player was deemed worthy of a 2nd or even 3rd round choice, the approach taken by Marv to deal with the mess he inherited from Mr. Ralph was not unreasonable. In fact, given that he did get a Pro Bowl worthy DT in Williams in the 5th who is still a force in the NFL speaks highly of Marv's efforts to make a silk purse from a sow's ear. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
San Jose Bills Fan Posted November 7, 2013 Share Posted November 7, 2013 ^^^^^^^^^^^^ I've posted before that if McCargo had the career that Kyle Williams is having, no one would have considered him a bust. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boyst Posted November 7, 2013 Share Posted November 7, 2013 I'm glad rationality is finally shining thru on Marv's second tenure. The hand was forced to play the cards before the game even started. I look at even some of the last 2 years FA and consider most of them successful. even Anderson. He never produced here but he was given a contract fairly close to fair market. He is not in the league now but be was definitely no Jim Jeffcoat or Chidi Ahounatu. We cut ties appropriately but not after attempting to better ourselves. When looking at that entire year of FA I am pleased. We sat firm on our value of Manningham and the WR who went to SD and now its clear that was smart. We did not go waste money on the big It's like others did. Not even this off season, either. Granted we are thin there but I think we are fairing better then most with regard to FA Now... if we could keep our own FA players it'd be different. That'd go back many seasons, though. And who really believed Jabari Greer would have a longer more solid career then Winfield or Clements??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bowery4 Posted November 7, 2013 Share Posted November 7, 2013 And who really believed Jabari Greer would have a longer more solid career then Winfield or Clements??? Winfield has had a very good career. And I wanted us to keep Greer over McInjuered, he finally showed he was a real good player and we let him go, still pissed about it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dibs Posted November 7, 2013 Share Posted November 7, 2013 I hope they will be able to re-sign all of them especially Lawson, who I believe is on a 1-year contract. Having Lawson finish his career here would be awesome..... Lawson is on the first year of a 4 year contract. We have him till the end of 2016. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Vader Posted November 8, 2013 Share Posted November 8, 2013 Lawson is on the first year of a 4 year contract. We have him till the end of 2016. Yes. Branch is who we signed for one year. I'd love to see him get a 2 or 3 year deal from the Bills at seasons end. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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