Price's Price

[LouGrant]

By Wile E.
The Zone
2/1/03

While many players this offseason figure to be released for either cap or performance purposes or both, the big move that all Bills fans will have their eye on is whether or not the Bills move to sign Peerless Price. Price will likely be one of the top 2 free-agent wide receiver prospects along with Cardinals standout David Boston whom the Cardinals could tag. Initial reports are that the Bills will not tag Price. While the initial inclination on the part of many fans is to sign Price at all costs, there are other costs involved as well if the Bills do sign him.

I am not referring to only the actual cost of signing him, which presumably is going to be in the $4-5 million range, but also the opportunity costs of the players that the Bills would not be able to sign. Early estimates put the Bills cap space at between $16 and $20 million dependent upon which players are cut. Assuming that the actual space is closer to $16 million, signing Price would take about a third of that figure, perhaps a little less thus leaving only say $11 to $13 million for the Bills to fill in significant holes on defense as well as rookies and other fill-in free agents.

http://www.billszone.com/YourSite/global/templates/view.php?state=news&action=YourSite_content&month=2&nid=3952

(AP Photo)

[ublinkwescore]

But when we get rid of Riemersma, we'll end up with another 3.5 million in revenue - that will soften the blow of re-signing Price. Not to mention that Keith Newman will (unfortunately) probably be gone, along with (hopefully) Eddie Robinson, Charlie Rogers, and Chris Watson - that's should give us more cap space right?

[Doc]

Actually Lou, if the Bills sign Price to a contract and don't FP him, his cap hit for 2003 will at worst be $2.5M, which is what Moulds' was approximately for the first year after he signed his big deal (and I don't expect Price to get that much). If they FP him, then they need to set aside $5M, but again the Bills will realize a cap savings of $5.8M if they release JR, Robinson, Watson, and Jenkins.

[ublinkwescore]

Why don't we just offer him a little less then what we tendered Eric Moulds, and cut all those people mentioned, and use all the rest of our money on D - more specifically the Best DT we can find (no matter how much of an @$$hole they are), the best LB we can find, and some QUALITY depth at safety - get rid of Jenkins, Watson, Robinson, Rogers, Polk or Newman - not both, and Charles Johnson - if we resign Price, we won't need Johnson.

Maybe we should look at La'roi Glover from Dallas that way we can have a one-two punch with Pat Williams providing the size and power, and Glover providing the speed and nastiness.

[Bruce is Loose]

Very well written article, and very convincing. I agree that Price is not our top priority. He is not the reason we succeeded last year - he has been quiet in his first yeats until our offense exploded this year. Playing across from Moulds is the reason he succeeded. I am not saying he isnt good, but he is very overrated. Reed looked great when he played and would also shine across from Moulds. After that, third recievers are a dime a dozen or we could draft a rookie. As nice as it would be to have him, imagine gettig two top LBs and a top DT... maybe even another good DE or S. We would be a much better team overall.

[WG]

Thanks tanked!!!

Nice post btw. I agree completely.

[Novacane]

Ditto! Price is not a priority. Tampa proved Defense wins championships. Use all our extra cash on D

[mybills]

How much is Reed worth?

[mush69]

Keeping Price would be great but let's not break the bank on him. D. Darius would be an awesome pick up for Safety. Darius can bring it and is good in coverage also!

[clumping platelets]

Bills will be only about $10 million under after tendering RFAs and EFAs.....not $15-20 million.

[Bufftp]

Originally posted by clumping platelets
Bills will be only about $10 million under after tendering RFAs and EFAs.....not $15-20 million.

Thanks clump, we are so lucky to have you-thanks for the hard work.
That highlights the point- by to price and focus on the D.

[mybills]

I'm still waiting for someone to answer my question..

[Doc]

I'll be interested to see where the real numbers lie. My $20M under is culled from several places and includes releasing some players, but doesn't take into account tendering EFA's and RFA's.

[WG]

Originally posted by mush69
Keeping Price would be great but let's not break the bank on him. D. Darius would be an awesome pick up for Safety. Darius can bring it and is good in coverage also!

I agree 69, Darius is good. He went to Syracuse too, so it would be a homecoming of sorts. I don't think we can afford to even consider that kind of money at the S position when we have a DT, DE, and two OLB positions to fill.

Originally posted by clumping platelets
Bills will be only about $10 million under after tendering RFAs and EFAs.....not $15-20 million.

Thanks CP! Yeah, it's tough to predict who would accept those tenders too. I'll adjust the article to read $10-16 then. Even worse and how much more we cannot afford to even look at Price then.

Again, Bledsoe says he'll give up some of his salary to accommodate Price. The only way I'd be in favor of that cap wise is if Price and Bledsoe combined agree to split Drew's salary which likely wouldn't happen. I can't see Drew giving up near $3M and I can't see Price accepting less.