Marv is trying to get as much as they can now [Archive] - BillsZone.com

ghz in pittsburgh

03-26-2007, 09:50 AM

I think he learned a lesson from Nate Clements. He could've dealt Clements last year and we could very well have the Jets center in our roster today.

From what we learned of McGahee now, the guy obviously would leave Buffalo after next season no matter what. I'm disappointed to see him go because his leaving does leave the Bills a big hole at RB. I'm pretty sure Marv and Co. got the message loud and clear from his agent long time ago and they are doing their best to get something in return.

Spikes would have his last year as a Bill this coming season for all practical purpose. He had his injury and he's 30. It's obvious that he's not figured in as part of Marv's plan for the Bills in the future. Do we want to force him to play out - basically filling the gap at LB - or should we get something in return while he still has value? In that light, I can see why he's being shopped.

Individual player aside, we have to look at the big picture. This is where I see a big difference between Levy and Donahoe. Marv has his plan and he's sticking to it. After the trade of Spikes, how many starters left over the age of 30? Almost none. And most of them are coming into the prime of their career between 25 - 29 years old.

It is impossible to build a team with one draft. This is the 2nd draft for Levy. He needs as many picks as possible. With the way Buffalo choosing their FAs, I think the team is targeted to be a strong playoff contending team next year if they have another solid draft this year. That is, in my mind, Marv's grand plan all along.

The surprise factor is Losman. Traditionally a solid QB play can lift a team up much quickly. We saw some light on that case with Losman's improvement last year. If Losman picks up where he left off last year, I'd not be surprised to see the Bills finishing 10 - 6 this year despite the holes created by the trading of McGahee and Spikes, as well as the FA loss of Clements and Fletcher.

LifetimeBillsFan

03-26-2007, 11:42 AM

I think when Marv took over he saw an aging team with a lot of holes, that couldn't win in the clutch when it did have a veteran QB, that had a lot of malcontents and lockerroom lawyers who may or may not have been smarter than the coaches, but were out-spoken in voicing the opinion that they knew more and were better than they were. I think that he quickly concluded that there was little chance that that group of players would ever be able to get its act together enough to truly compete for a title. And, he decided to tear things down as quickly as he could and start over from scratch with a group of young kids that he and the coaches that he selected hand-picked and could mold in the way that he and they wanted.

While he couldn't get rid of all of the older players immediately, he got rid of as many as he could last year without negatively impacting the team's competitiveness (remember, the team won 2 more games last year, AFTER he jettisoned several vets), and began to assemble the young core of players that he and the coaching staff intend to rebuild around. And, that process is continuing this year (we are in the middle of that process at this point, not the end!). He has gotten rid of deadwood on the offensive line, an aging MLB who didn't fit the new defense and wanted a longer contract than would be prudent for the team to give him, traded a talented, but malcontented RB who didn't want to be in the area or with the team and let that impact his play, refused to mortgage the team's future to resign a quality CB who was determined to be the highest paid CB in the game, and is about to trade a former Pro Bowl LB who has missed the better part of the last two seasons, is in the last two, most expensive years of his contract, is 30 and unhappy with the fact that teh team is rebuilding around young players. In return, he has already gotten 3 draft picks that can be used to augment the young core of players that he is trying to assemble and is looking to get more.

Anyone who has followed football for any length of time knows that, when a team rebuilds around young players, it takes at least 2-3 years to assemble a core of young players capable of being competitive and another year or two for those young players to mature to the point where the team can win consistently. I'm sure that someone who has been around football as long as Marv Levy has been knew that the Bills had so many holes and problems after the 2005 season that it would take 3 years to tear things down and rebuild the team to the point where it would be seriously able to compete with the elite teams in the league. At this point, we are just about exactly halfway through those 3 years.

Does that mean that this season is a lost cause and the Bills won't win a fair amount of games this season? No. The team still has some major holes to fill and needs to mature, but Levy and Jauron are assembling a young group of players that they can mold into a team that will play the game the way that they want it played. And, the team that they put on the field will play hard and be competitive in most of its games. It's just that they won't be ready to seriously challenge the elite teams this season. Next season, however, as they add more pieces to fill those holes and their players continue to mature and develop, could be a very different story.

If you notice, Levy has begun to assemble a group of offensive players who are in or approaching their mid-20s (with the exception of RB, where players are able to contribute sooner, but have shorter careers) and a group of defensive players that are in their early 20s (most of last year's defensive draft picks were juniors). The better offensive players still have a considerable amount of "tread left on their tires"--long enough for the young defensive players to mature as a unit before they will have to be replaced--and, once the defensive group has been assembled, can be replaced as they age or injuries/free agency take their toll at a less frenetic clip. This will allow the team to make a sustained run for a title over more than a couple of seasons if management can keep its essential core players together. And, that will be a key down the road.

Despite their big names and reputations and the contributions that they made to the team in the past, the players that Levy has let or pushed out the door this offseason were, for various reasons, never players who were going to be a part of that run. So, losing them has not been a setback to the building of the core that will make that run. Indeed, getting 3 draft picks for McGahee and possibly more for Spikes can only help to augment that core and make the team better able to begin that run sooner.

Unless and until the NFL owners come up with some resolution to allow the small market teams to compete financially on an equal footing with the larger market teams, the Buffalo Bills are not going to be able to successfully compete every single year with the better run, elite big-market teams. What they can do, however, is periodically assemble groups of young players who will develop and mature as a unit that the team can keep together for a few seasons to make a serious title run before it has to start all over again (think the Oakland A's and Minnesota Twins in baseball). Levy is in the process of trying to assemble that core of young players now.

Obviously, this is not going to make some people who believe that the team can or should shower money on every well-known player who comes available. But it is a realistic approach for a team in the position that the Bills are in now to adopt.

If the Bills prospects are realistically not quite as bright as we Bills fans might hope this season because the team still is a year or so away from being ready to challenge the elite teams for a title, if anything, this approach will make this year's draft and next offseason even more interesting because it will be critical for the team's future development.