Next Thursday is the day

[Pyrite Gal]

2/22 is the deadline date for designating franchise and transition players. The Bills will have to fish and probably cut bait on Fletcher and confirm the agreement which has apparently been made verbally with NC not to tag him again.

 

In the end, when you take the field on Sunday it really is all about the depth chart in terms of

who starts for you on Sunday and whats the plan if a player is unable to play for a series, the rest of the game or for a season.

 

I began this off-season pooh-poohing the idea of tagging Fletch when I first heard it as I had been influenced by the rant on TSW from some that he is light in the pants and hits people to deep in our backfield. However, on of the great things about TSW is that these rants are subjected to counter rants and the indications (but rarely proof which is why this is fun) which statistics provide.

 

Upon looking a bit deeper at things, my bet right now is that the Bills likely tag F-B because:

 

1. There really is no one on the roster who is heir apparent for his job.

 

2. The most likely roster replacement for him on the depth chart is moving Crowell back to the position he was originally trained for but this not only creates a vacancy to be filled at WLB but more important he is coming off an IR level injury.

 

3. He actually has produced quite well for the Bills leading the team in tackles every year he has been here and usually easily, he led the team in INTs this year and even led all LBs in the NFL for INTs. The complaints about him hitting people too deep in the backfield seems like a comment that does not care or understand the D scheme we play. If he was missing tackles or needed help to make them, this is an indicator of him being too light or a bad tackler. but since his tackles are predominantly solo tackles he seems to bring down folks he hits before help comes along and his initial point of contact seems to be driven more by where he is playing than how fast he gets to the point of attack, do folks really want to make the case that F-B does not have enough speed or that he does not read plays well enough? The indicators of his INT total and he is the D capt who calls the plays(his reads) and his use as essentially a safety in our version of the cover 2 (he certainly is trusted to run the field) indicates these concerns are not real.

 

4. The tagging makes sense based on Fletch's moves also. His comments seemed to indicate he was not pleased about something and he went and hired Rosenidiot so something serious is going on. Given the word that he and Ralph have developed a good relationship it seemed more likely even that they had some grand conspiracy of a pre-arranged deal they were not talking about than the idea that F-B was going to the mattresses in a signing effort/war. What likely makes more sense (though its all tea leaves so we will see) is that he has either been told or figures himself that the Bills may be more interested in tagging him to keep him for a year while they train a true roster replacement for him (for example drafting Willis only makes sense if you draft him and sit him to learn for a year because we likely right off a game or two (or more) if we essentially turn the 07 season into an extended pre-season for our MLB who not only will face pro competition and pro OCs for the first time, but also the MLB we play differs from a lot of the rest of the league in that in our Tampa 2 style D the MLB is required to play runs like a DT but passes like a safety). Drew-fool may well have been hired to get a long-term deal from the Bills (which I consider unlikely for a player on the wrong side of 30 even though he is still a productive player today.

 

NC is arguably a better player than Fletch, but even looking at the who is a playmaker for this team despite NC's flashiness, it was Fletch who not only led this team in INTs (they way we employ the Cover 2 plays more toward the MLB than the CBs making INTs) but also got two D TDs and who not only tied for the team lead in INTs last year with McGee, but when you roll in fumble recoveries he led the team in 2006 in turnovers produced.

 

He certainly has not gained respect around the league as he does not even get a trip to Hawaii for the Pro Bowl (more indications this is really a popularity contest) and who knows for sure outside OBD but I think it may be most likely that Fletch gets tagged come next Thursday.

[DrDawkinstein]

what are the numbers? if we tag F-B how much are we required to sink into a MLB that we're looking to replace?

[Ramius]

what are the numbers? if we tag F-B how much are we required to sink into a MLB that we're looking to replace?

 

There was an article not too long ago on ESPN i think, with the new franchise tag #'s, but i cant seem to find it. LB was in the 7 million range.