Darwin Walker, 4 Weeks Left!!!

[HHURRICANE]

Sorry, but if we have any chance of staying competitive on D this needs to happen.

Here were the positives as I saw before the draft:

1) A healthy McCargo.

2) Anthony Hargrove having a full camp and season with the Bills.

3) The maturing of Yobouty.

4) A faster, healthier, and bigger LB corps.

5) Darwin Walker bringing maturity and a pass rush to the D to help out the secondary.

As it stands now, McCargo is not as far along on his rehab as he neeed to be. Yobouty looks like he can't get the coaching staff to look at him as a starter which isn't a real positive. Our LB corps is going into the season with a lot of unproven talent in DiGorgio and Poz and no vet pickups. Darwin Walker remains unsigned.

So at this point the only thing that is going to happen out of my five is that Anthony Hargrove picks up our system and starts for us on day 1.

What am I missing? If I'm the Bills I do everything to get Walker signed. Period.

[Goobylal]

Well, the fact that they're not doing everything to get Walker signed should tell you something. And I'm fine with McGee and Webster as the starters, because even if Youboty started, he'll be VERY green. It's the same reason I'd rather have JD start at MLB over Poz. That is, at least initially, although ideally I'd like for JD to be a stud MLB and Poz to compete for an outside position.

[justasportsfan]

2) Anthony Hargrove having a full camp and season with the Bills.

.
maybe the plan all along was to put Hargrove at DT which is why they don't care if Walker signs or not.

[Night Train]

I'm not expecting Walker to ever play for us.

DiGorgio should be getting a healthy Poz some Gatorade to drink and little else.

[PromoTheRobot]

We'll use the #6 draft pick to pick someone up in the supplemental draft.

PTR

[patmoran2006]

Forget about Walker.. We're never going to come to an agreement with him.

[ddaryl]

I'm 100% confident that Walker is going back the Eagles and we will get the 6th rd pick.

Personally I'd rather have the 6th rd pick. We'll take some lumps this year and fix the holes next offseason, it was I expected to happen anyways.

[HHURRICANE]

maybe the plan all along was to put Hargrove at DT which is why they don't care if Walker signs or not.

I really saw Hargrove as an ideal DE. I think we are using him as a bandaid otherwise.

[HHURRICANE]

I'm 100% confident that Walker is going back the Eagles and we will get the 6th rd pick.

Personally I'd rather have the 6th rd pick. We'll take some lumps this year and fix the holes next offseason, it was I expected to happen anyways.


So everyone is clear. We let Spikes go for a 6th rounder next year. Nobody has a problem with this?

Why not let him play for 4.5 million? He still would have been better than DiGorgio.

This move looks dumber and dumber.

[OpIv37]

So everyone is clear. We let Spikes go for a 6th rounder next year. Nobody has a problem with this?

Why not let him play for 4.5 million? He still would have been better than DiGorgio.

This move looks dumber and dumber.

Let him play? No, no, no. That wasn't an option. The only options were cutting him for nothing or getting the 6th round pick. If making him play was an option, then there is no way to make Marv look good in this trade. And we can't have that.

[bernielivsey_1]

:yle: Spikes requested a trade. As soon as he did that with Marv and Dick runnin' things...he was gone. If Hargrove, Triplett and McCargo evolve in this system this year I will be very suprised....but very happy. :fishy:

[Goobylal]

Let's see. A 6th next year for Spikes versus nothing if they released him or kept him and ******ed the development of a younger, healthier guy. Yep, I'll take the 6th rounder.

[Michael82]

Let's see. A 6th next year for Spikes versus nothing if they released him or kept him and ******ed the development of a younger, healthier guy. Yep, I'll take the 6th rounder.
Actually, they are wrong...it was a 6th AND 7th rounder for a disgruntled LB who didn't want to be here anymore, who was coming off a very serious injury and might be the next Sam Cowart.

I'll take the 6th and 7th rounders for him. That's fine with me. It's better than just cutting him. Plus it convinced us to draft Poz! He will be a damn good LB. :drool:

[Goobylal]

I'm not sure if the 7th rounder was for Holcomb or not. In either case, getting those 2 picks for players they were going to release anyway is better than nothing.

[justasportsfan]

[FONT="Arial Black"][SIZE="3"][COLOR="Navy"][B]:yle: Spikes requested a trade. As soon as he did that with Marv and Dick runnin' things...he was gone.

It's futile. They can't understand , they don't have the abilityto do so. They think forcing a vet to stay and make him unhappy is a great way to mold the younger ones especially in the lockerroom.

[Lexwhat]

So everyone is clear. We let Spikes go for a 6th rounder next year. Nobody has a problem with this?

Why not let him play for 4.5 million? He still would have been better than DiGorgio.

This move looks dumber and dumber.


First of all, let me just clearly say that I have no idea what kind of a player DiGorgio will become. I also think its UNLIKELY that he will become a pro-bowler. However, he's young, and has never been a starter in this league. He has the potential to become anything.

Now...If I may ask...why are you so harsh on DiGorgio? I'm not sure how good of a talent evaluator you are, but I doubt you can predict what kind of a player he is gonna be...


Go back two years ago...what would you have said if the coaching staff said Jason Peters would be fighting for a job on the O-Line? My guess is you would have said something like: "Great, our O-Line already sucks, and now we have a undrafted TIGHT END competing for a starting job at tackle."

Now, insert "LB" into the "O-Line" and insert "DiGorgio" for "Peters." A similar situation, but we just dont know what the end result for this will be.

This post is also directed towards "Op," as I've heard him complain about DiGorgio too.

What is your problem if DiGorgio is playing well in his 2nd year and is attracting a lot of attention to be a possible starter?

[Lexwhat]

Oh yea, one more thing...

Poz can play all 3 LB positions. If DiGorgio happens to impress the coaching staff enough to be considered as one of the top 3 LBs on the team, then we would likely have Crowell, Poz, and DiGorgio as starters... I dont care where they play. And if they work well together, neither should you.

[ddaryl]

So everyone is clear. We let Spikes go for a 6th rounder next year. Nobody has a problem with this?

Why not let him play for 4.5 million? He still would have been better than DiGorgio.

This move looks dumber and dumber.


When your building a nucleus for a young team keeping an aging slowing vet on the roster that didn't want to stay is just eating up valuable playing time for a young guy. Maybe Spikes hads some veteran mentoring for the young guys, but when Spikes asked ot be traded he obvioulsy wasn't going to be the best mentor, but like everyone else said... he wanted out. Why keep an aging vet with a screwed up achilles heal and a desire to not stay in Buffalo when the team around him is looking to get younger, and faster.

FACT is the Bills weren't going to make the playoff this year with or without Spikes. The Bills however were going to prepare the young nucleus for a run in the near future. By the time the Bills are a bonafide playoff contender Spikes would be a grandpa and even more useless to us.

I stand by my original post. Let Walker and his piss poor, couldn't be bothered to show up in the offseason, attitude head back to Philly and lets grab that 6th rd pick.

I do not see anything dumb about the decision at all. Marv got what he could from Spikes, the other option was just releasing him and letting him become a UFA which means the Bills get nothing.

[Meathead]

holcomb was 100% going to be released so basically was thrown into the deal

so essentially a sixth and seventh for spikes

still feels a little low but i suspect the staff knows he will never come back to close to what he was. could still be an effective lb but not worth the big slick so theyd rather take the two picks and the salary relief

btw - moves can still be made so dont close the door on getting some help elsewhere. and although admittedly unlikely its at least possible they still sign walker its happened before

[justasportsfan]

First of all, let me just clearly say that I have no idea what kind of a player DiGorgio will become. I also think its UNLIKELY that he will become a pro-bowler. However, he's young, and has never been a starter in this league. He has the potential to become anything.

Now...If I may ask...why are you so harsh on DiGorgio? I'm not sure how good of a talent evaluator you are, but I doubt you can predict what kind of a player he is gonna be...


Go back two years ago...what would you have said if the coaching staff said Jason Peters would be fighting for a job on the O-Line? My guess is you would have said something like: "Great, our O-Line already sucks, and now we have a undrafted TIGHT END competing for a starting job at tackle."

Now, insert "LB" into the "O-Line" and insert "DiGorgio" for "Peters." A similar situation, but we just dont know what the end result for this will be.

This post is also directed towards "Op," as I've heard him complain about DiGorgio too.

What is your problem if DiGorgio is playing well in his 2nd year and is attracting a lot of attention to be a possible starter?
Don't go far , Fletcher was undrafted.

[OpIv37]

First of all, let me just clearly say that I have no idea what kind of a player DiGorgio will become. I also think its UNLIKELY that he will become a pro-bowler. However, he's young, and has never been a starter in this league. He has the potential to become anything.

Now...If I may ask...why are you so harsh on DiGorgio? I'm not sure how good of a talent evaluator you are, but I doubt you can predict what kind of a player he is gonna be...


Go back two years ago...what would you have said if the coaching staff said Jason Peters would be fighting for a job on the O-Line? My guess is you would have said something like: "Great, our O-Line already sucks, and now we have a undrafted TIGHT END competing for a starting job at tackle."

Now, insert "LB" into the "O-Line" and insert "DiGorgio" for "Peters." A similar situation, but we just dont know what the end result for this will be.

This post is also directed towards "Op," as I've heard him complain about DiGorgio too.

What is your problem if DiGorgio is playing well in his 2nd year and is attracting a lot of attention to be a possible starter?

First, you're using the exception to prove the rule. What the hell is everyone's problem around here? All that proves is a possibility- well, almost anything is possible- that doesn't make it likely. Even you said it was unlikely that he becomes a pro bowler.

Second, I never said it was impossible for DiGiorgio to do well- I merely predicted the most common and most likely outcome: Undrafted players go on the field and prove why 32 teams passed on them 7 times each.

Third, and most importantly, even if DiGiorgio does turn out to be a Pro Bowler at some point in his career, he won't be playing like one in Week 1 of 2007. He probably won't be playing like one in Week 8 of 2007.

So at least in the short term, we've taken a step backwards at LB. Regardless of how good DiGiorgio and/or Poz turn out to be, at this moment they are not as good as London Fletcher. And we have the same crap-tacular DL in front of them. And we took a hit at CB behind them with with Clements leaving. So they're not going to be getting a lot of help.

[Goobylal]

The advantages with going with JD is he knows the system, has speed, and is a good tackler who can hit. There will be less in the way of growing pains with him than Poz. Frankly after thinking about it recently, I think that they should give Poz more reps at OLB, namely SLB. Crowell is only signed yhrough 2008 and Poz was a great SLB in college. That would be a young and potentially formidable LB'ing corps, if everyone pans out.

[HHURRICANE]

I would like to win sooner than later. Spikes was under contract. Period. We lose nothing by keeping him. If DiGorgio beats him out during the season than that was the worst case scenario.

We are not over the cap so this makes no sense. If Darwin Walker signs and plays than I have no problem with the deal. If he doesn't we got nothing for Spikes in 2007. I don't know about you guys but I like winning games now.

[Goobylal]

So keeping Spikes would have ensured winning?

[CJW]

Forget about Walker.. We're never going to come to an agreement with him.What makes you say that?

[Wally The Barber]

I think we may all be over rating Darvin Walker.
Sometimes I forget he is on our roster!

[CJW]

I think we may all be over rating Darvin Walker.
Sometimes I forget he is on our roster!The only time we would notice him this season would be on 3rd downs because the only thing he can do is rush the passer.