NOT good news for Dallas Clark to Buffalo wishers

[patmoran2006]

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=3171368

They signed Bob Sanders to a 5-year extension. This now means if Indy wants, they can franchise Clark, who's surely worth one of the top 5 TE salaries in the league.

Unless Indy is in more cap trouble than I know, I dont think he goes anywhere now.

[realdealryan]

It doesn't help that half of these guys are "nobodies" who are playing for nothing. No Kelsays on that team, I don't think.

[THE END OF ALL DAYS]

there is NO way clark was coming to buffalo. the guy has had manning pitching to him.. why would he want to go anywhere that the team in in 10 years of crap?

[yordad]

there is NO way clark was coming to buffalo. the guy has had manning pitching to him.. why would he want to go anywhere that the team in in 10 years of crap?Money. Why else.

[YardRat]

Although it would be nice, Clark, Briggs, and Haynesworth are most likely all pipe dreams.

Unfortunately this looks to be a very poor FA pool this year.

[Devin]

That said (and I agree yardrat) we really only need 1-2 guys to come in. We sign a WR and push for a guy like COrey Williams id be happy with that alone.

[OpIv37]

I want Clarke here but I never thought it would actually happen.

[RockStar36]

I want a lot of people here every off-season but it usually doesn't happen.

[Midwesternbillsfan]

Although it would be nice, Clark, Briggs, and Haynesworth are most likely all pipe dreams.

Unfortunately this looks to be a very poor FA pool this year.

I don't know about that, Yard. Clark and Haynesworth will be almost undoubtedly franchised (I didn't think Clark would w/Sanders unsigned but obviously that's moot now). But I have been compiling a list of FA's and there are a lot of compelling names. I've even allowed for players that we can reasonably expect will be franchised and there are still many viable options for Buffalo (and the rest of the league, especially at RB, WR, and T). I've also cited this before but at the risk of being superfluous by hopeful FA for Buffalo involves Green Bay DT Corey Williams and Seattle wideout D.J. Hackett. Sizeable contracts involved but not so significant to make it unrealistic. But there are still other options for Buffalo besides the two of them and in fact, Lance Briggs WILL hit FA having reached his incentives that automatically prevent Chicago from being unable to franchise him again, which doesn't make him a pipe dream if the Bills had the resolve to sign him. We'll see what happens but here's an updated list of the 2008 "prominent" FA's:

Bills' 2008 Free Agents:

WR Sam Aiken
TE Michael Gaines
TE Matt Murphy
TE Ryan Neufeld
T/G Jason Whittle
DE Anthony Hargrove
DT Jason Jefferson
LB Josh Stamer
LB Mario Haggan
CB Jason Webster
FS/SS Jim Leonard

Prominent NFL Free Agents (as of 12/14/07):

Dark Red= Either will be franchised or probably will be franchised
Bold= Players on other teams Bills may or should look at

QB Derek Anderson/Cleveland (RFA)
QB Rex Grossman/Chicago
QB Josh McCown/Oakland
QB Cleo Lemon/Miami
QB Jared Lorenzen, New York Giants

RB Marion Barber/Dallas (RFA)
RB Michael Turner/San Diego
RB Jamal Lewis/Cleveland
RB Julius Jones/Dallas
RB Fred Taylor/Jacksonville
RB Chris Brown/Tennessee
RB Justin Fargas/Oakland

FB Tony Richardson/Minnesota

WR Randy Moss/New England
WR Bernard Berrian/Chicago
WR D.J. Hackett/Seattle
WR Patrick Crayton/Dallas- UPDATE: Re-signed with Cowboys, 12/27/07 (4 years, $14 million)
WR Bryant Johnson/Arizona
WR Drew Carter/Carolina
WR Justin Gage/Tennessee

TE Dallas Clark/Indianapolis
TE L.J. Smith/Philadelphia

G Alan Faneca/Pittsburgh
G/T David Diehl/New York Giants
G Jacob Bell/Tennessee
G Rex Hadnot/Miami
G Ryan Lilja/Indianapolis
G Jake Scott/Indianapolis
G Floyd Womack/Seattle
T Max Starks/Pittsburgh
T Flozell Adams/Dallas
T Jordan Gross/Carolina
T Travelle Wharton/Carolina
T Sean Locklear/Seattle

DE Jared Allen/Kansas City
DE Justin Smith/Cincinnati
DE Antwan Odom/Tennessee
DT Albert Haynesworth/Tennessee
DT Corey Williams/Green Bay
DT Tommy Kelly/Oakland

OLB/WLB Lance Briggs/Chicago
OLB Terrell Suggs/Balitmore
OLB Karlos Dansby/Arizona
ILB Tedy Bruschi/New England
WLB Landon Johnson/Cincinnati
OLB Clark Haggans/Pittsburgh
OLB Demorrio Williams/Atlanta
OLB Kawika Mitchell/New York Giants

CB Nnamdi Asomugha/Oakland
CB Asante Samuel/New England
CB Marcus Trufant/Seattle
CB Drayton Florence/San Diego

SS Bob Sanders/Indianapolis- UPDATE: Re-signed with Colts, 12/28/07 (5 years, $37.5 million)
FS Gibril Wilson/New York Giants

K Josh Brown/Seattle

[Michael82]

:(

[njsue]

Indy has minimal cap money. A good possibility that Dallas Clark signs with another team.

[Historian]

Bills' 2008 Free Agents:

WR Sam Aiken
TE Michael Gaines
TE Matt Murphy
TE Ryan Neufeld
T/G Jason Whittle
DE Anthony Hargrove
DT Jason Jefferson
LB Josh Stamer
LB Mario Haggan
CB Jason Webster
FS/SS Jim Leonard



Keep Hargrove, let he rest of them go to the Arena League where they belong.

[casdhf]

I think Gaines deserves another year.

[Jan Reimers]

I want Clarke here but I never thought it would actually happen.
There's no "e" in Clark, and there's no Clark in Buffalo.

[HHURRICANE]

Clark was never, ever, coming to Buffalo nor were we siging him.

[patmoran2006]

That said (and I agree yardrat) we really only need 1-2 guys to come in. We sign a WR and push for a guy like COrey Williams id be happy with that alone.
Yeah. I think it's near universal this off-season that everyone here will be rooting for Buffalo to sign Williams.

I hope so, even if it takes overpaying like they did for Dockery last year.

[DynaPaul]

Clark is such an integral part of their offense I really don't see Indy letting him go and I'm sure he doesn't want to leave either.