Verba getting some interest from Buffalo?

[Alaska Darin]

We should have been spending more picks sooner, like about 4 - 5 years ago.

 

But, oh well.  Seems funny that the weekest unit on the team has the most

free agents.

382565[/snapback]

You mean like the Patriots?

 

Jeff Roehl - Free Agent

Billy Yates - Free Agent

Lonie Paxton - Undrafted Free Agent

Steve Neal - Free Agent

Gene Mruczkowski - Undrafted Free Agent

Matt Light - 2001 Second Round draft choice

Victor Leyva - Free Agent

Dan Koppen - 2003 sixth round draft choice

Russ Hochstein - Free Agent

Brandon Goren - Free Agent

Tom Ashworth - Undrafted Free Agent

 

Look at all them draft picks.

[KnightRider]

Gotta agree with with Socal on this one. I believe the o-line has been the weakest unit on this team for quite some time IMO. Drew kept it close though

382807[/snapback]

 

D-Line was even worse than the O-Line. Remember Eddie Robinson? How about the Safety situation?

 

The O-Line was not that bad toward the end of the year last year, either...

 

If we are planning one handing it off to WM, and you don't have Bledsoe holding the ball for 5+ seconds, what do you need an Orlando Pace for?

[Fake-Fat Sunny]

I took a look at the beginning of this thread as "new" news regarding Verba would be quite interesting, but was enthralled to look through all four pages because the points folks were making (in addition to the repeated posts about repeating oneself) in many cases seemed to make points that went way too far beyond what the reality of stats or decisions by NFL teams would indicate.

 

Further, folks expressed dismay about the woeful past history of Bills OL play in the past 10 years, but it is amazing that these tirades do not include at all mention of one significant upgrade (I could have missed one mention or so of a fact that should be a part of any Bills OL assessment).

 

Specifically, folks led by Kelso's Helmet really let Bennie Anderson have it and seem to regard him as a total stiff from what they sae in his play in Baltimore. Maybe so. However, if they are right the they not only know alot more than a pro football staff (not impossible given some questionable decisions across the league) but what does stretch credibility is that they seem to make an assessment which diverges totally from what from the professional decision for 4 straight years.

 

True we outside observers correctly point out episodes of mistaken judgment made by the pros all the time. In addition, some of the pro folks can be so pigheaded they will repeat that mistake. However it simply does not ring true that Anderson is so obviously bad that even we fans in another town can see it, but the Ravens never do.

 

Further, this broadside against Anderson seems even sillier when one considers real world results and it was behind an OL with Anderson playing a prominent role that Jamal Lewis had one of the best years of running in HFL history.

 

Anderson is certainly not a world class player, but the stats and reality indicate he is not a stiff either.

 

Even if he is a stiff (which he is not) the other things that folks seem to ignore is that he is almost certainly an upgrade for the Bills who started last season with Lawrence Smith at the LG position. Smith was actually taken by the Bills from non-other the Ravens PS where he was not good enough to not only bear the same Bennie Anderson out as a starter, but he could not even beat out Anderson's back-up.

 

Granted that Smith was not good enough to remain a Billa atarter and Tucker who replaced him was an upgrade, but not such a huge upgrade that Anderson should not be credibly judged an upgrade for us at LG regardless of how folks judge his play.

 

The other faux pas I see in the posts is that I think it is impossible to assess the improvement in the Bills OL last year over the year before and the promise of vast improvement in the midst of the current 3 years compared to three years under GW because we have JMac at OL position coach.

 

Everyone knows that JMac is not a miracle worker, but again if one is correctly indicting the Bills for 10 years or so of inadequateOL play and simply bad play under TD, then any assessment of the OL play during this time needs to give serious assessment to the fact that Vinklarek took over this task with 0 experience as an OL coach and after his poor performance led to him being canned after his second season, he was replaced with Pat Ruel who had all of one year's experience with Detroit.

 

Bringing in JMac and his 25 years of NFL experience was an obvious and huge upgrade over Vinky and Ruel regardelss of whether you think JMac is bad. Vinky and Ruel were worse.

 

As this will be the second year of JMac installing his system and any players who return doing so with finally having an adult teach them, the JMac difference was huge last year and I think there is no rational reason to expect it not to be significant this yea. not because he is so great but because our not-ready-for-primetime OL coaches were worse.

[richNjoisy]

Your points are well-made FFS. Anderson is, without much doubt IMO, an upgrade.

 

Losing Jennings MAY hurt but he was WITHOUT A DOUBT way overpaid for by the 49ers.

 

The O-Line play definitely improved as the season progressed last year. That had to be a function somewhat of McGahee's presence helping the offense as a whole click but only a very careful analysis can determine how much the overall imp. of the O was due to line play (I am a big football fan but not THAT much of one to spend time evaluating this! )

 

Fans love to banter and spout their opinions as experts (I am as guilty as the next guy) but I am willing to grant the Bills front office the edge in evaluating talent. Having said this, I would be thrilled if the Bills sign Verba to a relatively cheap deal. If they sign him, he must be good right (heh heh )

[Mickey]

I found this related link interesting:

 

Fredo Laponza reference from Average Joe

 

On the subject of signing Verba, I hope TD is seriously looking into it. We should be able to sign him for a relatively cheap, low-risk contract with bonus incentives contingent on him not getting into any serious legal trouble.

 

For those not wanting to even entertain the thought of signing Verba, I politely request that you put down your crack pipe and go check out our OL roster. It's a horror show. We have only 3 players that are legitimate starters in this league - Williams, Villarial, and Teague.

382730[/snapback]

I don't think he can be had for anything less than top dollar. He seriously wants to be paid as one of the top 3 LT's in the game or retire. Certainly that is part posturing so may be he will want only top 10 kinf of money but he sure isn't going to be had for peanuts. Unless we think he is really that good and worth the money, we shouldn't bother with him. I don't see it happening. If we were willing to pay that kind of money for that level of talent, we would have resigned Jennings.

[The_Real]

I don't think he can be had for anything less than top dollar.  He seriously wants to be paid as one of the top 3 LT's in the game or retire.  Certainly that is part posturing so may be he will want only top 10 kinf of money but he sure isn't going to be had for peanuts.  Unless we think he is really that good and worth the money, we shouldn't bother with him.  I don't see it happening.  If we were willing to pay that kind of money for that level of talent, we would have resigned Jennings.

383077[/snapback]

 

A friendly wager says he doesn't retire. I know he's saying that he will, but he won't. There is still money to be made and he's not going to walk away.

 

Jennings is 27 and entering the prime of his career thus the big contract. Verba is going to be 33.

[BillnutinHouston]

That is of course if he has come down off his high hoarse enough to take much less than he was asking for.

382567[/snapback]

 

What does a "high hoarse" sound like?

[The_Real]

What does a "high hoarse" sound like?

383136[/snapback]

 

A Soprano that smokes.

[Typical TBD Guy]

383008[/snapback]

 

Bennie is an excellent backup and a capable starter in short intervals/obvious run situations. But to call him anything more than that is - at this time, and IMHO - overly optimistic. Doesn't mean he won't or can't develop into a legitimate starting LG, but until he dramatically improves his pass blocking skills this August, as a Bills fan I have the right to express my doubts.

 

Jim McNally is a great OL coach, and maybe he will be able to teach Bennie how to pass block. But maybe he won't. We don't know. How did McNally do with Mike Pucillo starting at LG last year? Not very well. So as you can see, Bills management's OL analysis isn't so amazing that they can afford to be so choosy regarding free agent OL's and simply throw all their eggs in the basket that is McNally's tutelage.

 

Like seemingly most football debates on this board, this one has again come down to The Optimists vs. The Pessimists. No doubt I'm a Pessimist, but during TD's reign there has been a lot of positive vibes yet very negative season results. I will remain skepticial of TD & Co. until this team shows it can put together a nice string of wins with JP behind center.

 

Regarding Verba's contract demands, I find it hard to believe that he is going to retire if he doesn't get his top $$$. Physically, he should still have around 2 good seasons left in him, and even vet minimum is better for him than sitting on his ass doing nothing but host wild rape parties. Hmmm, then again...

[Astrobot]

FFS, one of your best posts ever.

[Rico]

Bennie is an excellent backup and a capable starter in short intervals/obvious run situations. But to call him anything more than that is - at this time, and IMHO - overly optimistic. Doesn't mean he won't or can't develop into a legitimate starting LG, but until he dramatically improves his pass blocking skills this August, as a Bills fan I have the right to express my doubts.

 

Jim McNally is a great OL coach, and maybe he will be able to teach Bennie how to pass block. But maybe he won't. We don't know. How did McNally do with Mike Pucillo starting at LG last year? Not very well. So as you can see, Bills management's OL analysis isn't so amazing that they can afford to be so choosy regarding free agent OL's and simply throw all their eggs in the basket that is McNally's tutelage.

383188[/snapback]

Another outstanding post, Kelso's Helmet.

 

Given the awful pass-blocking skills and propensity for making mental errors that Bennie has displayed with the Ravens, OLG at best can only be labeled a big question mark, much like OLT.... no way is Anderson a rock-solid answer at this time. I do hope that JMac can turn Anderson into a true NFL OG, and will wait to watch his performance this year before passing final judgment.

[Fake-Fat Sunny]

Bennie is an excellent backup and a capable starter in short intervals/obvious run situations. But to call him anything more than that is - at this time, and IMHO - overly optimistic. Doesn't mean he won't or can't develop into a legitimate starting LG, but until he dramatically improves his pass blocking skills this August, as a Bills fan I have the right to express my doubts.

 

Jim McNally is a great OL coach, and maybe he will be able to teach Bennie how to pass block. But maybe he won't. We don't know. How did McNally do with Mike Pucillo starting at LG last year? Not very well. So as you can see, Bills management's OL analysis isn't so amazing that they can afford to be so choosy regarding free agent OL's and simply throw all their eggs in the basket that is McNally's tutelage.

 

Like seemingly most football debates on this board, this one has again come down to The Optimists vs. The Pessimists. No doubt I'm a Pessimist, but during TD's reign there has been a lot of positive vibes yet very negative season results. I will remain skepticial of TD & Co. until this team shows it can put together a nice string of wins with JP behind center.

 

Regarding Verba's contract demands, I find it hard to believe that he is going to retire if he doesn't get his top $$$. Physically, he should still have around 2 good seasons left in him, and even vet minimum is better for him than sitting on his ass doing nothing but host wild rape parties. Hmmm, then again...

383188[/snapback]

 

Your post actually prompted me to go back to your posts and note where you had said that Anderson is an excellent back-up already in one post while I had actually focused on your earlier post where you labeled Anderson a 1 -dimensional player.

 

There is little need to harp on your seeming thought from combining these ideas that 1 dimensional players can make excellent back-ups but I had focused on merely on your 1st assessment.

 

In terms of the Bills, I think there are two bottomline factors:

 

1. Is a player an upgrade at a position?- I think the answer is almost certainly yes regarding Anderson because at the LG position he is slotted for, in 2004 the LG play level was at about at a slight upgrade from the Lawrence Smith level. I think Tucker was a notable but slight upgrade over Lawrence Smith who was our starter last year.

 

The question is whether Anderson is an upgrade over this level and given that Anderson was judged by the Balt staff to be a starter (perhaps they were overenthrusiastic as you say in this judgment though it is one which they stuck with for 4 seasons) while Smith was judged by them to be at a PS level.

 

Obviously the Bills thought more of him and thus poached him (and I think they were correct) but even the Bills found him not be at starter level. Your argument asserts that the Ravens were both wrong in making Anderson a starter and were also wrong in their assessment of Smith in order for Anderson not to be an upgrade over Smith (or the Smith level). I am willing to buy that both of these things may be true, but I just do not see anyway that they are both true to the extent that Anderson is so lacking that he is not an upgrade over the Smith level.

 

I think it is far more likely that we got a marginal starter instead of an OK back-up in terms of the level of play at LG last year. In terms of absolute player assessment it is a judgement by the viewer of how you compare Anderson to Tucker and how this fits into the OL product.

 

Overall, my judgment is that Anderson (even taking your 1-dimensional assessment as relatively true) is a signficiant upgrade over Smith and also a notable upgrade over Tucker.

 

Anderson- pluses- considerably more starting experience than either Tucker or Smith, paart of a productive OL for the Ravens that has extraordinary rushing achievements and so-so passing achievement behind a young QB, young durable player (he started 16 games 3 of his 4 years as opposed for example to a player like Jennings who never ever has been able to start all 16), he has played other positions as a pro besides guard and has some flexibility for OL use.

 

Minuses- He has exceled far more as a run blocker than on pass protection. He seems to have issues when isolated with an athletic rusher in space and you better cover for him if the D gets this match-up.

 

The bottomline to me seems to be that Jmac seems to feel that he can do something specific with Ravens talent to improve their play. Though he was not able to make Lawrence Smith into an adequate starter, he pulled off a big jum[p in his productivity merely raising him from PS level to inadequate Bills starter. If he is able to oversee Anderson developing in his realtively young career from exceptional back-up to adequate starter at LG this is not a huge progression and the Bills would seem to have a reasonable chance at bringing this off.

[Fla Bills Fan]

You have not seen this OL play together yet. You do not know if this OL blows. You have not seen this OL play with a different quarterback yet. You havent seen this Ol play with a healthy Willis McGahee yet. You haven't seen this OL play after most of the players have a year under McNally's belt where they showed drastic improvement yet. You haven't seen this OL play after a year under MM and TC's tutelage yet. You can have an opinion that they will blow but we will wait and see. The best OL's in the league are not full of big names and #1 draft picks. They are units that are coached well, that mesh together, that play as one, that play extended periods of time together, that utilize strengths and mask weaknesses, that play in offenses that put players and playmakers in good position to make plays.

382771[/snapback]

Great post.

[Typical TBD Guy]

383280[/snapback]

 

WARNING: long, as in "FFS-length" long!

 

I always like talking football with you, FFS, but we're only spinning our wheels debating the specific merits of Mr. Anderson starting at LG. Might as well wait until mid-August to resurrect such a discussion.

 

In the meantime, I'd like to broaden the topic a bit beyond Bennie to reach the whole OL in general. The original thread topic was whether or not Ross Verba is worth looking at, and my argument has been that - for the right price, i.e. if he's willing to dramatically lower his salary demands - he definitely is.

 

Here's my logic...

 

I've organized the 16 current linemen on the roster by 4 tiers:

 

Starters Tier (3 of 'em): Mike Williams at RT, Chris Villarial at RG, Trey Teague at C...these guys, despite whatever flaws they have in their game, are solid starters who match up reasonably well with most NFL DL's.

 

Marginal Starters Tier (4 of 'em): Ross Tucker at LG, Bennie Anderson at LG, Lawrence Smith at LG, Mike Gandy at LT or LG...more on these guys in a second.

 

Marginal Backups Tier (5 of 'em): Jason Peters, Dylan McFarland, Ben Sobieski, Justin Geisinger, Ray Preston...each one should make the team in some capacity, whether backup or practice squad, but expecting any to challenge for a starting spot is highly unrealistic.

 

Marginal Practice Squad Tier (4 of 'em): Greg Jerman, David Pruce, Geir Gundmundsen, Jason Esposito...camp fodder. 1 or 2 could make the practice squad - or even team - with a good preseason showing, but in all probability, none will ever challenge for a starter's spot.

 

The vast majority of fans reading this probably agree with all but the 2nd tier. Within this 2nd tier, we either need 2 of the 4 to step up and become solid starters...or we need outside help (like Verba)...or we can expect JP to have a really rough season.

 

IMHO all 4 are great backups, but all 4 have major flaws in their game that currently prevent them from being considered as reliable starters. With Smith, it's his poor leverage at the point of attack that makes him a huge liability in the run game. With Anderson, it's his poor lateral movement that makes him a liability in the passing game. I think Tucker is just flat out not talented enough, and he gets by with attitude and effort. Gandy's development in Chicago has been slowed down primarily by injuries, though I don't think he will ever have the natural mobility to be a decent starting LT. Starting LG is another matter for Gandy. FWIW, my Bears friends believe he was a great starter when playing at guard.

 

So we are in need of 2 more good starters on the line, and I think Gandy will be a good LG, which leaves only the LT spot. While there's nothing really wrong with these "marginal starters" for single drives or against crappy teams, their obvious weaknesses will get exposed during the course of a game against a decent opponent or over a long season. This only magnifies when you have 2 or more of these type of guys starting, which we already have right now in mid-July even before injuries strike.

 

And so this is my reasoning for why an affordable Verba would be very important to us.

[MadBuffaloDisease]

So IOW, Anderson is an upgrade over Smith and Tucker at LG. I agree. And as for his pass-blocking, let's see him with the Bills, because the Ravens' QB's the past 4 years have been crap, and McNally might be able to teach him a thing or two. That's not saying that JP ISN'T crap since that remains to be seen, just that I couldn't care less what Anderson looked like pass-blocking for the Ravens, and his skill in the running game is what will be more important, at least for this year.

[Fake-Fat Sunny]

Kels- Agreed that the truth about what works on the OL will br found in August which is soon enough for me. I enjoy your football thoughts as well I think my lengthy diatribes on this issue came because I (and I others in this thread and n other posts) focused on your descriptions of Anderson as 1-D and a mistake as a starter (maybe but a mistake for four years begins to raise questions as to whether he has something that keeps him around) rather than your additional views that he is an excellent back-up (Marcus Price showed us the essential import of these types of players) and even a marginal starter (I feel a 1-D player cannot survive as even a marginal starter in this league because once a weakness is revealed on tape NFL opponents will pick on this until a player solves the problem ot is gone).

 

I actually agree with your general assessment. I also have stated that I assumed prior to the draft we would get Shelton because I felt our starting LT was not on the roster. I still feel that way talent wise, but it seems to be the case that JMac feels otherwise and not only does he make the decisions and I do not, but he has forgotten more than I will ever know about the OL game, so it looks like he will make it work with we got.

 

Thus, I think the question is who are the "mover", who do we think might develop into a solid starter with JMac's guidance. I think the good news is that I see several candidates from your listL

 

Anderson- I actually am pretty comfortable with him as a starter at LG for the Bills even with his limitations with lateral movement and working in space which are true. I think he has been a starter much of his career because though he has the limitations mentioned they can be worked with and around, The good news for us is that at guard, except for the pulling requirement, a lack of lateral mobility and athleticism is not the basics of G play. It interest me that JMac in desperation as Pacillo proved to be not up to the LG role and Sullivan also deserved his release that we were able to pull a Raven off their PS and elevate his play to near adequacy as starting LG for the Bills. If we pull off the same amount of improvement with a better player than Smith Anderson will be fine at LG and may even develop an ability to pull that simply allows us to not eliminate this play from our playbook.

 

Tucker- I think he was an upgrade over Smith last year and did an adequate job at LT at the end of the season. I think his work as a back-up for Teafie starting at C for him just as we began the winning streak and to dominate is a demonstration that he can start. The major discomfort I have regarding him are some rumors I have seen in the lasst couple of months that he may have some injury issues, but if he is fine I would have no problem if he was actually slated to be our starter at LG. He is not because I think that Anderson (a huge upgrade over Smith as Smith was not even a back-up to Anderson when they battled it out head to head in Baltimore) is the starter and while Tucker is notably but marginally better than Smith, Amderson is a lot better. This configuration will be great for us because Tucker has already showed his value as a reliable back-up at C for Teague, he has started in the NFL now for us at F amd actually he came into and first stuck in the NFL as a back-up T/

 

Smith- I was really amazed to see him make the jump from PS of one team to starter for another so quickly and despite him ultimately proving to be inadequate as a starting G for the Bills last year I thought his performance and improvement last season was a tribute to both him and to JMac. While it is quite normal amd not unreasonable fro Bills fans to judge this purely in terms of "what have you done for me lately" and clearly Smith was not good enough for us last season. I think it would be premature and a mistake to write him off completely and declare him a done deal.

 

He is young. He has a lot he can and will learn and JMac clearly likes him because they made a special effort to steal him off the Ravens PS last year. Some may look at the particulars of Smith's play and claim that they have determined he is not good enough and cannot make it. I think most of our fan pronouncements and on line assessment are pretty laughable because I think they are relatively uninformed:

 

1. Line plsy is pretty invisible from the stands because of the distance and angles involved and the infighting and angles that oftern make the difference in blocking play. When someone tells me they are a Bills addict and attended every game, I bow to them and hail them for their unquestionable devotion to the team, but I pretty much ignore any opinions they have about assessment of line play because you actually can see a lot more on TV than you can at the game.

 

2. TV is better for observing line play than being at the stadium, but quite frankly TV sucks for this purpose also because it is designed to follow the ball and OL activity and blocking occurs off the ball and sometimes off of TV completely. Occaisionally the replay will focus on a key block or an edge rush will fotrce the blocker to work in space for all to see, but usually this simply leads to us observers over-emphasizing this one block or play and ignoring the over 59 mimutes of game time that really tells the story.

 

3. Even when we see the play, we have no idea what the blocking call on a play may be. A sack may happen not because a player missed the guy assigned to the position usually blocked by a blocker at a position, but because we failed to execute a blocking shift called by the center and the player often blamed is not at fault at all for the sack.

 

4. Results in the game is how things are measured, but it is often how a player practices that determines who starts and who does not. For the most part we are nt privy to this at all,

 

With careful (and often repeated with the videotape) analysis of a player we can often figure out what happened, but we also may be totally wrong. This is the reality of OL assessment. We can make good guesses from what we see in the game and looking at the stat sheet and word about who is good and who is not worms its way out. However, little is conclisive and certain regardin fan OL assessment.

 

In terms of Smith the word I hear is that oddly he actually showed more skill last year in pass pro than he did in runblocking. Usually it is the other way around for the young OL player. He showed good athleticism but was not the road-grader we wanted at G. This refllected itself in the redzone where long passes were not possible and yards came tough and running and plowing was what a lot was all about. This is all consistent with him being shifted to T on the depth chart and actually coming in to play back-up back-up tackle in one game last year when both MW and JJ went down.

 

I will not be shocked at all to see Smith actually become one of our first reserves at tackle and if he can repeat the same level of progress he achieved last year he may even take the Marcus Price role on this O. Starter, I doubt it, important reserve at T quite possible.

 

Gandy- Clearly JMax sees something in him I do not and after his far superior performance last year to the sub par work done by Vinky and Ruel is by no means perfect but gets the benefit of the doubt from mr.

 

I am quite comfortable with all four of these players being on my "move" list of players who can become quality starters or frequently used back-ups for us.

 

I woul add Preston as a real dark horse but a possibiity to become our primary back-up at C given how many rookies have actually been able to break into line-ups as starters the last couple of seasons or at least to cement his position as a back-up C if he truly is the next Kent Hull as we hope.

 

If between Teague, MW, Villarial, Anderson and Gandy we can get a starting five. Tucker, Smith and Preston become dedicated back-ups this may be the 7 or more likely OL players we have active each Sunday.

 

Add to that we take the best of 2 more from Gesinger (likely PS), McFarland and whoever as our PS or a 9th roster guy is one of them shows ST chops this will get it done.

 

If you and I are right and actually the extra $1.25 million we now have in cap room with the trade of Henry allows us to get Verba or someone then I think we likely cut an OL player who could have made this team.

[Mikie2times]

I heard of Verba so I think we sign him......

 

Kidding aside I think something could be in the works with the Bills. TD certainly has a flair for the dramatic, and the timing of the Bills contacting Verba's agent and the Henry deal lead me to think we could be clearing cap space.

 

Obviously this is just a theory, but it just seems possible given the Bills circumstances. TD is rolling the dice big time on this LT situation and if it doesn't work out the media is gonna to fry him. He can relieve so much media and fan pressure by making this move, and in essence clear his liability for the coming season. We get Verba and what peace of the puzzle can the fans or media hang TD for? Not only would this make sense or TD's future but it would also give the Bills 5 quality starters across and some quality depth.

 

People mentioned some character issues but why would the Bills even bother contacting Verba’s agent if that was a major issue? The big hurdle would be the contract Verba is looking for, however as time passes his demands will fall and it might be possible to work out a reasonable offer.

 

I guess we will see in the coming weeks if talks heat up between the two.

[Chilly]

giggity giggity giggity

[MrLocke]

I heard of Verba so I think we sign him......

 

Kidding aside I think something could be in the works with the Bills. TD certainly has a flair for the dramatic, and the timing of the Bills contacting Verba's agent and the Henry deal lead me to think we could be clearing cap space.

 

Obviously this is just a theory, but it just seems possible given the Bills circumstances. TD is rolling the dice big time on this LT situation and if it doesn't work out the media is gonna to fry him.  He can relieve so much media and fan pressure by making this move, and in essence clear his liability for the coming season.  We get Verba and what peace of the puzzle can you the fans or media hang TD for? Not only would this make sense or TD's future but it would also give the Bills 5 quality starters across and some quality depth.

 

People mentioned some character issues but why would the Bills even bother contacting Verba’s agent if that was a major issue? The big hurdle would be the contract Verba is looking for, however as time passes his demands will fall and it might be possible to work out a reasonable offer.

 

I guess we will see in the coming weeks if talks heat up between the two.

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I wouldn't mind bringing in Verba for the right price. I'm not sure what the cap situation is but I keep hearing about Mike Williams re-structuring, but I haven't seen any action. I'd say if Mike Williams restructures and now with Travis gone to the Titans the money is there to sign Verba. At the very least Verba makes the competition better at left tackle and I would see with him and Gandy atleast one of them would have to pan out.

[Buffalo Wing]

With Travis Henry traded, I believe the Bills are now somewhere in the neighborhood of $4 million under the cap. This is based on salary cap info provided on Bills Zone ($2.78 million) + Henry's contract ($1.25 million).

 

We still have most of our draft picks to sign, so this number will drop a little. Donahoe also likes to hold onto some money to give him a buffer for the year in the event that an injury occurs. With those factors in play, I am not sure that Verba is in the picture.

 

Personally, I still have concerns at the tackle position...mostly from a depth standpoint. Heck, we have Jason Peters and Dylan McFarland as our backups to Gandy and Big Mike. I would feel a heck of a lot better if we had someone with experience for a backup (ala Marcus Price). If Gandy and/or Big Mike go down for any extended period of time, we are in trouble...unless the plan would be to move Teague out to tackle and slide Tucker or Preston into center...the problem with that scenario is that you are making 2 changes on the line at the same time...which from a continuity standpoint is not good.