If you were Tom Donhoe

[Jeff 311]

How would you attack free agency. Personally I would go to keep Price if we can keep him in the 4-5 million dollar range. On D I think we should go after V. Holiday, K. Brooking and J. Thorton. Then let go E. Rob and Watson. If we do that our depth chart could look something like this for 2003
WR Eric Moulds
WR Peerless Price
TE Jay Riermersma
RB Travis Henry
FB Larry Centers
QB Drew Bledsoe
LT Jonas Jennings
LG Rueben Brown
C Trey Teague
RG Marquis Sullivan
RT Mike Williams


DE Aaron Shobel
DE Vonnie Holiday
DT John Thornton
DT Pat Williams
WLB Keith Brookings
MLB London Fletcher
SLB Bradoon Spoon
CB Antwain Winfield
CB Nate Clements
SS Coy Wire
FS Pierson Prelou

Then in the 2nd rd draft a saftey, this gives us a pass rush on D and keeps our O together and we dont have to break the bank in get in cap trouble
What do you guys think ?

[shelby]

i will be astounded if Riems is still with the Bills next year.

[kgun12]

Brookins WILL NOT leave Atlanta! I saw an interview with him, he is from Atlanta, he owns a huge farm there, BUT most of all his Mom runs a Foster Home there Keith has help out since he can remember (his words). He said he considers all the kids that went through there "his brothers and sister" NO WAY DOES HE LEAVE ATLANTA

[BADTHINGSMAN]

I agree Kgun12 K.Brookings is a Falcon for life. Takeo Spikes looks like he is going to be tagged. After the Buccs won the SB that set a new trend. Everybody wants dominating Defense, so how many Defensive players will be available year after year?

[Tatonka]

brooking will be tagged if he hasnt signed by then.. but he has definately said he wants to stay.

dont waste the money on price.

[SoCalBillsFan]

brooking is a MLB anyway. WE have fletcher for that. We need a more speedy guy like spikes

[Billz_fan]

I love Peerless, but let him go. We need money on "D"

If Spikes is a gonner then we go for Hugh Douglas.

I would also like to see Shelton Quarles Of the Buc's in a Bills uni. He is an UFA and a fast LB with excellent run stopping skills. Im telling ya this guy can play !! Then add DT of choice.

On offense we need a TE. Then we need to start thinking about getting them into the offense. Last year we may as well have played without one.

Josh Reed takes over for Peerless.

[WG]

I'm not sure that everyone realizes how far the green actually goes when you're trying to sign top guys. There's no way on earth that we're gonna be able to keep Price at $4M+ while also signing guys like Holiday, Thornton, and Brookings or others in that range.

We'll be lucky if we can get Spikes, Scioli, and Thornton. We won't be able to sign Price if we do that.

Robinson's gone, Watson's gone, JR will either be gone or take an enormous cut in pay. 32 catches in a gross debacle of underuse isn't going to make the case that he's indispensible.

Actually, if we have any money left over, then we still could use a S. Darius would be good. An ex-Syracuse product.

[Ingtar33]

Quarles is a MLB...

Spikes for WLB, if he stays in Cinci then Peterson or Barber would do...
Colvin for SLB

Jackson for FS
Noble, *Washington, *Adams, or Gardner for DT

and that would be all I'd do in FA... of course this would mean the end of Price, Centers and Riemersma.

*likely cap cut.

[SoCalBillsFan]

Ingtar if we let price go, IMO we need to bring in another receiver to be the # 3 guy. I don't think we can filll that spot from our current roster. Maybe kevin dyson?

[Ingtar33]

good thought... I've always liked him... always figured a no.3 would be both easy and cheap to find... not sure he isn’t already on the roster… I liked what I saw with Rone in preseason last year, and if he isn't the answer then I'm sure we can find someone. I'm more interested in D than O right now (and we're rather deep at WR).

[Voltron]

Ingtar33 why would we want to get rid of centers? I really don't think crosby has the hands to even come close to the talent of Centers. Centers is a great vetren guy for leadership. Crosby is a better blocker than Centers and I guess we could pass more to the TE or HB. I just really like having centers there as a release. His cap hit is only 1 mill I think. not too sure on that. You would know better than I :)

[Ingtar33]

Voltron...

You're forgetting that I'm an ex-football player... The Idea that I know anything is a stretch... and the NFL salary cap absolutely mystifies me... all I know is Centers was used on about 1/2 of the snaps we used a FB... with Crosby being a much better run blocker... furthermore, I liked Henry's RAC ability which is far superior to Centers'... as a result I think its simply common sense that Centers becomes a cap casualty after this off-season.

Sure he's a good guy... He's the best receiver in our backfield... but he's not a threat after catching the ball (like Henry)... and he's not much of a lead blocker.

[SoCalBillsFan]

Originally posted by Ingtar33
good thought... I've always liked him... always figured a no.3 would be both easy and cheap to find... not sure he isn’t already on the roster… I liked what I saw with Rone in preseason last year, and if he isn't the answer then I'm sure we can find someone. I'm more interested in D than O right now (and we're rather deep at WR).


I disagree that we have one already on the roster. I am not willing to let rone be number 3, who will get significant playing time, because that would mean both reed and rone, two unproven players, would be getting significant playing time at the wideout position. I think we need a proven veteran to be the number 3 guy if reed is gonna try to be number 2.

[The_Philster]

Originally posted by Ingtar33
Voltron...

You're forgetting that I'm an ex-football player... The Idea that I know anything is a stretch... and the NFL salary cap absolutely mystifies me... all I know is Centers was used on about 1/2 of the snaps we used a FB... with Crosby being a much better run blocker... furthermore, I liked Henry's RAC ability which is far superior to Centers'... as a result I think its simply common sense that Centers becomes a cap casualty after this off-season.

Sure he's a good guy... He's the best receiver in our backfield... but he's not a threat after catching the ball (like Henry)... and he's not much of a lead blocker.

If worse comes to worse and we release Centers, we could use Sammy Morris as the receiving FB.

[don137]

It is true that Centers is a good receiver but like Ingtar said he is not as good RAC. These days he just runs for daylight and doesn't dodge anyone and seems to go down on first contact most of the time. Philster is right that Morris would fill in nicely as the pass catching fullback. I like Centers leadership but offensively we seem to be OK with leaders with Bledsoe, Moulds and Brown.
The last three Super Bowl champions had average to below average offenses but won because of great defenses. We need to put as much money on the defensive side of the ball as we can. Letting Riemersma, Centers and Price go will help the Bills sign two good players for the defense without hurting the offense too much. Losing Price will hurt but Reed is ready to step in.
I don't think TD will sign all these big names that we hope. Modrak and TD will sign one big name, maybe two, IMO and the rest will be these diamond in the rough players that skills weren't fully utilized with there current team.

[casdhf]

Originally posted by Ingtar33
Voltron...

You're forgetting that I'm an ex-football player...

Are you on Tecmo Bowl? :cas:

[justasportsfan]

I guess coaches are the only onesc who can tell if Reed is ready to step up at no. 2. The best way to tell is during trainning camp. Thing is ,Price will probably be gone (that's if Price isn'y signed of course) by then and w/c Fa's will be available then if Reed isn't ready yet?

[colin]

We can afford Price and some other good players on D, for sure.

[THATHURMANATOR]

I would rather focus on defense then resigning price. No offense to Peerless who had a tremendous season, but doesn't everyone remember that to start the year and for the last few seasons everyone was call for his head because he wasn't producing at a very high level and making key mistakes(fumbles, dropped passes etc.). Then this season, which was a contract year btw he explodes and everyone wants to sign him to a 4 or 5 mil dollar contract. Do we really need 2 players at the same position making that type of money? You guys all watched the superbowl. The strong defense won again, not the strong offense. IMO Reed will step in just fine and I wouldn't be against signing a speedy receiver that can return kicks for the third spot (martay jenkins?), but to sign Price for that much money when our defense played like swiss cheese all year would be a waste....