Retaining Clements unrealistic for Buffalo

[The_Philster]

When the NFL's free agency period commences on March 2, the Buffalo Bills could stand to lose their No. 1 cornerback, Nate Clements. The 27-year-old, who was a first-round pick of Buffalo's in 2001, will become an unrestricted free agent. If Clements and the Bills can't reach a long-term deal prior to early March, he'll more than likely head for greener pastures elsewhere....more

[eyedog]

Re: Retaining Clements unrealistic for Buffalo

That sucks when your approx. 40 m. under the cap and you won't resign your best defensive player. It must be a new strategy for reaching the Super Bowl. It's called, let your good players walk and sign marginal meaningless free agents. You save alot of money that way.

[jamze132]

Re: Retaining Clements unrealistic for Buffalo

That sucks when your approx. 40 m. under the cap and you won't resign your best defensive player. It must be a new strategy for reaching the Super Bowl. It's called, let your good players walk and sign marginal meaningless free agents. You save alot of money that way.

While I feel your sentiment, I hope that Marv can convince the old man to let him spend how he sees fit to build this team to his liking. Marv knows a thing or two about building a perenial winning product. Reating Clements still may not be in Marv's interest though. I will trust his decision which ever way he goes.

[JoeMama]

Re: Retaining Clements unrealistic for Buffalo

That sucks when your approx. 40 m. under the cap and you won't resign your best defensive player.

I can't recall the Bills being under the salary cap by that much since it's inception.

And One Bills Drive is acting like we can't afford a cornerback?

Unreal.

That's embracing a culture of losing & it's absurd.

One thing this front office needs to get thru its thick skull is they're not the Patriots front office. One Bills Drive needs to overcome this misguided impression they can mimick the Patriots & bring in mediocre journeymen & get superstar results.

That's just not how it works. We don't have Bill Belichick. We don't have Tom Brady. We can't get away with nobodies at every position & expect to win games regardless. We're not the Patriots.

Look at the players we brought in over the past two years.

2005
OL Jason Jefferson - Signed 10/12
LS Mike Schneck - Signed 9/6
OL Greg Jerman - Signed - 5/25
OL Bennie Anderson - Signed - 3/31
QB Kelly Holcomb - Signed - 3/4
OL Mike Gandy - Signed - 3/4

2006
LB Roy Manning - Signed - 12/5
TE Matt Murphy - Signed - 11/22
RB Anthony Thomas - Signed - 4/28
G Tutan Reyes - Signed - 4/27
WR Peerless Price- Signed - 4/10
DB Kiwaukee Thomas - Signed - 4/5
C Melvin Fowler - Signed - 3/21
QB Craig Nall - Signed - 3/21
SS Matt Bowen - Signed - 3/16
WR Andre' Davis - Signed - 3/12
DT Larry Tripplett - Signed - 3/11
TE Robert Royal - Signed - 3/11
DT Eric Powell - Signed - 1/19

Not too many stars in that group.

In fact, the only one who played above his head was Kiwaukee Thomas.

It's like OBD suffers from illusions of grandeur.

Elite players cost money. Sometimes you have to pony up the cash to retain great players. There's really no excuse for Nate Clements to walk with an excess of $40 million laying in a pile on Ralph Wilson's desk.

[Carlton Bailey]

Re: Retaining Clements unrealistic for Buffalo

Awesome post, Joe. I couldn't agree more.

[BillsFever21]

Re: Retaining Clements unrealistic for Buffalo

That sucks when your approx. 40 m. under the cap and you won't resign your best defensive player. It must be a new strategy for reaching the Super Bowl. It's called, let your good players walk and sign marginal meaningless free agents. You save alot of money that way.

But we need to save this money for other players on our team who will be FA's in a few years that we won't pay up for or re-sign either because their not worth the money of the going rate for top tier NFL talent.

We will never go anywhere with this type of strategy. You win with good coaching and great players. If you don't have great players then you better have a great coach like Bill Belicheck which we don't.

What are we gonna do sit around with 25 million dollars in cap space every year? What happens when Losman and Evans are FA's in a couple years?

Whenever our team starts to turn the corner we end up further behind the 8-ball the next season because we let a couple important players walk instead of paying up for their services.

It's funny every year when you see teams signing their good players to the big contracts and then you got some people around here talking about how stupid they are for spending that kind of money and how we are smarter then them. Well we're one of only a handful of teams that haven't seen one playoff bearth in the last 7 years. Our strategy must not have been that great.

[eyedog]

Re: Retaining Clements unrealistic for Buffalo

This was how Ralph operated troughout the '70's and into the mid -'80's. Then he finally opened the purse strings when Polian/Kelly arrived and they hit their golden era. I'm starting to question again if Ralph really cares about winning anymore.

[JPFBillsFan]

Re: Retaining Clements unrealistic for Buffalo

This is a very foolish Post....1 player doesn't make a team....especially when your GM believe if you apply good preasure up front you can make an avg DB a superstar......second we have other pressing needs to fix before needing that final piece of a shut down corner to put us over the hump to get to the playoffs....NE won 3 superbowls with a bunch of nobodies......WHY can't we?

[Carlton Bailey]

Re: Retaining Clements unrealistic for Buffalo

New England didn't win three Bowls with nobodies at corner. They had Ty Law for one of them, and he played a huge role in the win over the Rams. Then they had Asante Samuel for the other two.

[BillsFever21]

Re: Retaining Clements unrealistic for Buffalo

This is a very foolish Post....1 player doesn't make a team....especially when your GM believe if you apply good preasure up front you can make an avg DB a superstar......second we have other pressing needs to fix before needing that final piece of a shut down corner to put us over the hump to get to the playoffs....NE won 3 superbowls with a bunch of nobodies......WHY can't we?

They have Bill Belichek. As much as some of you want to think Jauron can pull a Belicheck he isn't. Any other HC in the league would've never taken the Patriots to the success they have over the past few years.

What are more pressing needs? We get rid of our best CB and then we create another need. Then when next year comes and we have somebody else who deserves to be paid the excuse will be it's not worth it because we have more pressing needs like CB.

When you have a lot of needs you try and keep your great players you ALREADY have. When you let them walk when that space is already set that just creates one more hole for your team. It's a never ending revolving door.

So now we can just add CB onto the list of needs for the team. When you never keep any good players around that means you're always trying to fill needs.

And for those who think we can let Clements walk because we drafted his replacement last year in Youboty the guy couldn't even crack playing time and was beat out by journeyman like Thomas.

[BillsFever21]

Re: Retaining Clements unrealistic for Buffalo

New England didn't win three Bowls with nobodies at corner. They had Ty Law for one of them, and he played a huge role in the win over the Rams. Then they had Asante Samuel for the other two.

Some people around here thinks just because the Patriots can let players walk every year and still produce that we can. We're not the Patriots. Jauron isn't Belichek.

A few teams out of 32 can go by this concept and some thinks it's just a given and a piece of cake.

You don't win playoffs games let alone compete for championships by letting all your great players walk and replacing them with cheap journeymen or rookies because you're only 40 million under the cap.

It would be different if we already had a lot of players wrapped up in big contracts or had signed some over the last few years but this isn't the case.

But hey we can still be 25 million under the cap after this season and we can stare at all that cap space we'll have next season for players that we won't wanna pay.

This is the strategy of the Bengals for a period of about 15 years. If you wanna be the Bengals then more power to you.

[Stewie]

Re: Retaining Clements unrealistic for Buffalo

Some people here also assume that Ralph has final say over retaining Clements, which couldn't be further from the truth.

There are way too many factors to assume Ralph is cheap and thats that.

[jamze132]

Re: Retaining Clements unrealistic for Buffalo

Like I said I will trust Marv's decision. But I do believe in keeping your own stars instead of buying someone elses. Evans needs to be given an extension before he becomes one of the NFL's biggest stars. Let's see how JP does next year before we talk about his extension. But with those two, I wouldn't expect that they would screw One Bills Drive. We do have the money to resign Clements and a few others, if that's what Marv chooses to do.

To be honest, I don't think Clement's wants to be on the Bills anymore. I think he wants to be a free agent and have a say in where he plays.

[HHURRICANE]

Re: Retaining Clements unrealistic for Buffalo

That sucks when your approx. 40 m. under the cap and you won't resign your best defensive player. It must be a new strategy for reaching the Super Bowl. It's called, let your good players walk and sign marginal meaningless free agents. You save alot of money that way.

First off I don't give any credibilty to "real 365" considering they were schizophrenic regarding JP and Willis. I think one article was "McGahee, the Bills only offensive weapon".

Clements would be an incredibly stupid signing. He's not top 5 but we want to pay him as if if he's the best player at his position? Was I the only one watching him play like crap for a season and a half. Yeah he stepped it up after the bye and guaranteed himself a big paycheck. If Nate was my best friend I would be high fiving him. But as a Bills fan I would rather spend the money on a decent pass rush which will make Nate's departure less pressing. Considering Asante Samuels can be had for alot less and looked alot more impressive can anyone explain to me why they are upset. Plus this is a bad market to make a mistake. Their is unprecedented Cap space available for all teams so overpaying is a reality. Considering we haven't been to a playoff game since Nate has been here I'll take my chances with some new players.

[eyedog]

Re: Retaining Clements unrealistic for Buffalo

That way of thinking is not bad HHurricane but I have a couple of problems with it. Who is the pass rusher available ?, and What makes you think Ralph will dish out the money for said player ?
If they want to let Nate walk and sign a couple of other top talented free agents, like Steinbach or this mystery pass rushing d-end, or run stuffing tackle, or stud mlb,then I have no problems. But if he walks and they sit at 30-40 m. under the cap going into next season then somethings wrong. Signing a half dozen of crap fa players doesn't cut it.{check out the above list and you show me who the star{s} are.