Screw Free Agency...Lets extend our core players

[milfster1]

I know everyone wants to pay Nate a ton to keep him, and go out and spend mega bucks to get Eric Steinbach and other Free Agents to make us a contender next year. My philosophy is a little bit different in that I will take just the playoffs, and hopefully we go further with our young players developing.

 

What I would like to see our Front Office do, is similar to what Modrak did in Philly a few years back, in going on and signing your young core of superstars as decent rates before they hit a contract year. They were pretty succesful from what I can tell, with this approach. Our candidates for this are:

 

Jason Peters - already done and locked up for a very reosonable rate. Imaging what trying to resign him now would cost.

 

Lee Evans (1 year left on contract) - didn't make the Pro Bowl, but we know how good he is. One of the top 5 WR's in the league in my opinion. If we wait, next year with a polished Losman and better line, he is going to have a monster year and will cost us millions more. I think he would do it, with his team first attitude. he is the opposite of Nate Clements. Give Lee 5 or 6 million to entend. That's what we were paying Eric as a number 1. let's give it to this guy to get kim him in Buffalo for the long term.

 

JP Losman (1 or 2 years left on contract)- Up and Coming, and if we wait and he really develops into star QB, the price tag goes up. No probowl this year, and inconsistant performance, means we can prob get him extended for 5 or 6 mil a year for about 4 or 5 years. Another guy who really seems to love Buffalo.

 

Willis (1 year left on contract) - If he is going to stay in Buffalo, not is the time to do it. Buffalo should give him a decent offer to extend, based on what they think his potential is, and not try and lowball him for this years performance. I don't say break the bank, but give him a fair offer, as he has dealt with a subpar line (A-Trains #'s aren't great either) plus Willis has played hurt and sick. Hopefully that respect we give him, and the faith we show in him, shows him that it ain't all about the money, and let's keep the team 2 gether. If he refuses or asks for megabucks, then we know where his motive is and we move on.

 

London Fletcher (unrestricted FA, but think will give Bills hometeam discount to stay) - Again, we don't break the bank, but this guy will settle for a fair offer from the Bills, as long as we don't low ball him like Pat Williams. They guys loves it hear, and is the heart and soul of our defense, so let's keep him for another 3 or 4 years. For the cost of keeping Nate by the bonus and salary he will demand, I think we could probably keep London, and also Chris Kelsey who shouldn't break the bank either.

 

I just don't think Nate is going to want to stay here unless we make him the highest paid corner in the league, which I don't think is reasonable to pay to 1 guy on your defense. Then we use our extra cap money in getting our offense locked up for the long term.

[ganesh]

I know everyone wants to pay Nate a ton to keep him, and go out and spend mega bucks to get Eric Steinbach and other Free Agents to make us a contender next year.  My philosophy is a little bit different in that I will take just the playoffs, and hopefully we go further with our young players developing.

 

What I would like to see our Front Office do, is similar to what Modrak did in Philly a few years back, in going on and signing your young core of superstars as decent rates before they hit a contract year.  They were pretty succesful from what I can tell, with this approach.  Our candidates for this are:

 

Jason Peters - already done and locked up for a very reosonable rate.  Imaging what trying to resign him now would cost. 

 

Lee Evans (1 year left on contract) - didn't make the Pro Bowl, but we know how good he is.  One of the top 5 WR's in the league in my opinion.  If we wait, next year with a polished Losman and better line, he is going to have a monster year and will cost us millions more.  I think he would do it, with his team first attitude.  he is the opposite of Nate Clements.  Give Lee 5 or 6 million to entend.  That's what we were paying Eric as a number 1.  let's give it to this guy to get kim him in Buffalo for the long term.

 

JP Losman (1 or 2 years left on contract)- Up and Coming, and if we wait and he really develops into star QB, the price tag goes up.  No probowl this year, and inconsistant performance, means we can prob get him extended for 5 or 6 mil a year for about 4 or 5 years.  Another guy who really seems to love Buffalo. 

 

Willis (1 year left on contract) - If he is going to stay in Buffalo, not is the time to do it.  Buffalo should give him a decent offer to extend, based on what they think his potential is, and not try and lowball him for this years performance.  I don't say break the bank, but give him a fair offer, as he has dealt with a subpar line (A-Trains #'s aren't great either) plus Willis has played hurt and sick.  Hopefully that respect we give him, and the faith we show in him, shows him that it ain't all about the money, and let's keep the team 2 gether. If he refuses or asks for megabucks, then we know where his motive is and we move on.

 

London Fletcher (unrestricted FA, but think will give Bills hometeam discount to stay) - Again, we don't break the bank, but this guy will settle for a fair offer from the Bills, as long as we don't low ball him like Pat Williams.  They guys loves it hear, and is the heart and soul of our defense, so let's keep him for another 3 or 4 years. For the cost of keeping Nate by the bonus and salary he will demand, I think we could probably keep London, and also Chris Kelsey who shouldn't break the bank either.

 

I just don't think Nate is going to want to stay here unless we make him the highest paid corner in the league, which I don't think is reasonable to pay to 1 guy on your defense.    Then we use our extra cap money in getting our offense locked up for the long term.

873520[/snapback]

 

1. Peters will definitely renegotiate his contract next year when he becomes a permanent at the LT position.

2. It is too early to break the bank for Losman. He should be in the system for another year. I have every confidence that he is going to be the long time starter for the bills, but he will have to lock up his spot next year before a contract extension. The bills have been burnt by that 25M contract they gave to RJ.

3. Evans has already proved that he is going to be a star....I don't mind giving him a big contract now.

4. McGahee - This one is going to be very difficult. We are talking and bitching about the Clements situation....This one is going to be 100 times more difficult.

5. London -- We should give him a deal that is fair to him and at the same time protects the bills from a cap point of view...

 

6. Does Ralph Wilson have sufficient HARD cash to pay all these guys in the next year or two......It is one thing to have CAP money, but a whole different ball game to actually have that liquid cash to pay out.

[milfster1]

6.  Does Ralph Wilson have sufficient HARD cash to pay all these guys in the next year or two......It is one thing to have CAP money, but a whole different ball game to actually have that liquid cash to pay out.

873557[/snapback]

 

I think that is the magic question. To me I'd rather come up with the money somewhere and save 25-30% on the signing bonus of paying him now, vs the taking the risk of letting him play out his contract year and having a great year, at which point your cost has jumped big time.

 

Unfortunately we have to take risks at some point now with the contract, or you get caught in situations where the player has all the leverege, such as Nate has now.

[donahoeisgod]

Lee Evans has three years remaining on his initial six year deal per NFLPA.org.

 

I agree with your basic premise but would not extend Willis. He has one more year on his contract and then can always be franchised for another year. And then he will be 27-28 so let's wait and see how he holds up. Also, next year (2008) draft is supposed to be replete with top backs so we might want to wait and pick our next RB then rather than extend Willis who has, in my opinion turned out to be really good but not so good that he cannot be replaced by a younger, cheaper model in 2 years.

 

I would also wait on JP until the middle of next year...just to let him prove it over the course of more than 6-8 good games.

However, I would leave some money going into next year for an extension like you propose.

[Miyagi-Do Karate]

This was always Marv's philosophy when he was a coach here. Keep your own guys and build via the draft (i.e., I think he used to say that free agents are more valuable to their old teams than their new ones, or something like that).

 

We've got to figure out the nucleus of our team and hang onto it--Losman, Evans, Moorman, Lindell, Gandy, Fletcher are all priority re-signs. Re-sign them, draft Clements's replacement early, and use the draft and bargain free agents to fill in the rest.

[Rico]

Agreed, starting with Nate. But I also would probably not look at extending Willis right now either.

[Ray]

I think you'll be able to bring back London for about 3-4M/yr. I don't see many teams looking for an aging ML. The Bills can likely sign him w/o breaking the bank. You probably get 1-2 more good yrs from him anyway.

I agree with locking up Lee Evans and then getting Losman early next year to a long term deal. They have a very good cap situation this year/next year and it's only going to go up.