Two Bills Drive

“Peerless, I’m glad to give you a lot of the money I have left because I know it will be circulated back into the community”, Blank said at a news conference Friday.

As part of their recruiting pitch to Peerless Price, the Falcons took him to the Georgia Dome, where the big screens featured a highlight film that spliced together Mike Vick passes and Price catches.

While saying the Bengals have yet to decide whether to match Spikes’ offer sheet, Lewis said Hardy and Thornton were players he wanted all along.

Also on Saturday, the Enquirer learned that former Bengals coach Dick LeBeau has accepted a position on the Buffalo Bills coaching staff. LeBeau will be assistant head coach to Gregg Williams and will start work Monday.

‘The view from this perspective is the Bengals are not going to match Spikes’ six-year, $32 million deal. The Bengals have seven days to make their decision, but the aggressive back-to-back deals with Hardy and defensive lineman John Thornton suggest the team is moving in another direction – and that direction appears to go away from Spikes.’

After trading Peerless Price to the Atlanta Falcons, the Bills are escalating their search for a replacement at WR. Kevin Dyson and Curtis Conway appear to be two of the top candidates. Dyson might have an edge because Bills coach Gregg Williams knows him from his days as an assistant in Tennessee. Dyson’s first pro receiver coach also is in Buffalo. Dyson was going to pick between Carolina and Washington this week, but the opening in Buffalo intrigued him enough to make the visit.

Joe DeLamielleure he will be appearing in Chantilly Virginia next Sunday (March 16th) and New England on March 29th.

Donahoe didn’t have a contingency plan if the Bengals matched his offer to Spikes.

"We’re planning that they won’t match," Donahoe said. "If they do, we’ll regroup and come up with plan whatever, B, C, D."

Congratulations to Tom Donahoe for having the foresight to franchise-tag Peerless Price a few weeks ago and then move him to Atlanta for a first-round pick. That was a shrewd maneuver; one I suspect other NFL general managers might copy when unrestricted free agency occurs in the coming seasons.

“I don’t think they will match now, but I don’t want to say anything until there’s an official announcement that they’re signed,” Spikes said shortly after arriving back home.

‘It is likely that Lewis has decided not to dump huge money on Spikes but rather use the money to sign a number of players at different positions.’

‘"I don’t think so," said Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis when asked if the organization will take the full week to make its decision on Spikes. "I think things will progress quickly."’

"We're in good shape. We were in good shape if Peerless came in and signed a tender and wanted to play at that figure. We still would have been active and had the chance to be out there doing things. We've done a better job of managing the cap, we still have to find better ways to improve that but at least we have some flexibility this year.

We have enough flexibility to look at other players. We do have to be smart shoppers and if we do deals they (have to be) the right deals for the player, our club and our salary cap."

THE BOTTOM LINE by SI.com’s Don Banks: Price was the consensus top-rated receiver available. He gives Vick a go-to guy and should lessen the amount of scrambling that the Falcons’ gifted young passer does, thereby keeping him healthier. But what the deal underlines is that in his short time in the league, owner Arthur Blank has gained a reputation for passing out inflated signing bonuses.

Is Price another Alvin Harper waiting to happen, a solid No. 2 WR who couldn’t make the jump to No. 1 once he moved away from Dallas in free agency? Probably not. But with that $10 million bonus, the Falcons are banking heavily that he’s among the game’s top 10 receivers, and he hasn’t proven that he merits that kind of billing just yet.