The National Football League's free-agency frenzy begins at 12:01 a.m. on Feb. 29 -- that's Friday morning, for those for whom winter days have all started to blend together.
The first few days of competitive bidding should offer a pretty good indication of how Buffalo's reconfigured front office is functioning. With Marv Levy stepping down after two seasons as the Bills' general manager, free-agency decisions will fall to head coach Dick Jauron and Vice President of Pro Personnel John Guy, with the blessing of Senior Vice President Jim Overdorf, who is charged with handling contract negotiations and managing the salary cap.
The above triumvirate may also seek the input of Tom Modrak, the vice president of college scouting, to see which positions may be best addressed through the draft. Russell Brandon, the new chief operating officer, would have to sign off on any major expenditure.
While the Bills have no shortage of vice presidents -- and we have not mentioned the five non-football people who also possess the title -- their roster is far less deep in a number of areas.
And let's face it -- when you haven't reached the playoffs this century and finished 30th in a 32-team league in total offense and 31st in total defense, there's plenty of room for improvement.
Much of that upgrading will come by way of next month's draft. But with the salary cap rising by $7 million to $116 million for the 2008 season, the Bills -- like every other team in the league -- have room to bolster themselves starting in the wee hours of Friday morning.
Some positions are pretty well set. Jauron has committed to Trent Edwards as the starting quarterback, so the only variable is whether the front office decides to keep J.P. Losman as insurance during the final year of his contract or release him.
Marshawn Lynch's standout rookie performance and the emergence of Fred Jackson give Buffalo a capable one-two at running back, while last spring's spending spree at offensive line makes a big signing there unlikely.
The Bills could use a boost at linebacker, but with Paul Posluszny returning from a broken arm that cost him most of his rookie season to fill one starting spot, that need isn't as urgent as those listed below.
Buffalo's erratic pass rush seems to cry out for a splashy signing at defensive end, but with last year's long-term investments in Aaron Schobel and Chris Kelsay, any addition there will either be a draft pick or a low-end free agent.
At the most glaring weak spots, particularly defensive tackle and wide receiver, adding both a veteran and a higher-profile rookie or two makes sense -- at least when you're not spending your own money.
While waiting to see what the Bills decide to spend on whom, BillStuff offers you a look at where the most help is needed and who could provide it:
DEFENSIVE TACKLE: A couple of names on the list of unrestricted free agents are more than reminiscent of Ted Washington and Sam Adams, the former Bills most frequently lamented while opposing backs gleefully prance up the gut.
They are Ted Washington and Sam Adams.
Much to the relief of the team's caterer, Washington and Adams never played together in Buffalo, with Big Ted departing after the 2000 season and Equally Big Sam spending 2003 to 2005 with the Bills.
They played more or less the same role, though -- lining up next to the slightly smaller but significantly quicker Pat Williams and engulfing two or more opposing blockers on just about every snap. The tightness of their jerseys distorted the numbers on the garments, presenting a visual image nearly as humorous as their listed weights, which the team estimated, quite conservatively, in the 330- or 340-pound range.
Such girth was deemed obsolete when Levy and Jauron arrived to clean up after Tom Donahoe and Mike Mularkey, with morbidly overgrown space hogs replaced in the grand scheme by the nimble likes of Larry Tripplett and John McCargo, svelte types who have to stuff their pockets with rocks to even reach the 300-pound mark.
Like anarchy, deep-fried vegetables and the deregulation of almost any industry, swapping heft for quickness worked far better as a theory than in reality.
Buffalo ranked 28th against the run in 2006, allowing more than twice as many yards on the ground as the NFL leader. The Bills were a little better statistically in 2007, shaving about 15 yards per contest off their average and moving all the way up to 25th in yards allowed, giving up less than twice as much as the No. 1 defense.
Maybe it's just coincidence that the top spot in both seasons was occupied by the Minnesota Vikings, who lured the aforementioned Mr. Williams away from Buffalo following the 2004 season.
Whatever the case, few numbers have told more blatant lies than those quantifying last year's rushing defense. Any opponent that made a sustained effort to run the ball did so, usually with rather spectacular results.
While starting the season 0-3, the Bills allowed Denver, Pittsburgh and New England to gain 171, 184 and 177 yards on the ground.
After scraping back into rather strong playoff position, Jamal Lewis bludgeoned the Bills for 163 yards during the course of an afternoon-long whiteout in Cleveland. A week later, the then-struggling New York Giants piled up a humiliating 288 yards, including an 88-yard jaunt by the previously anonymous rookie Ahmad Bradshaw.
The most egregious element of the defensive front's implosion was that apocalyptic weather conditions left both the Browns and Giants with no feasible option but to run again and again. And still Buffalo could do nothing to stop them.
The return of linebacker Paul Posluszny, who missed most of his rookie season with a broken arm, should help. Then again, the three games in which he played comprised that trio of season-opening losses, so his comeback alone is not going to fix things.
That will take some added bulk up front. A couple of wider bodies, even if not quite as wide as Washington or Adams, are needed to anchor the middle and give the likes of Tripplett, McCargo and the light-bodied defensive end corps more space to operate, as well as keeping blockers off of Posluszny and the rest of the linebackers.
At least one will have to come through the draft, since most franchises are loathe to allow their defensive behemoths to roam free. Tennessee recently slapped the franchise label on the most coveted of the 2008 crop, Albert Haynesworth, and Green Bay did the same with Corey Williams.
Picking up a veteran run-stuffer to flesh out the tackle rotation, though, could be a bargain. Washington is probably too far gone, as he turns 40 in April and was released by Cleveland in midseason, due to a chronic knee problem. Seventeen years' worth of wear on your suspension system is not easily fixed, particularly when your official weight is 375 pounds.
Adams, though, is a mere 35 years old and weighs in at a dainty 350. He was still starting regularly for Denver last season until the Broncos released him in December, following their fall from playoff contention.
Another 35-year-old stop-gap prospect is Grady Jackson, who ate his way out of Oakland, Green Bay and Atlanta before finishing last year in Jacksonville. Jackson is listed at 345, though it is unclear how many feet he had on the scale at the weigh-in, but showed he can still contribute after signing with the Jaguars.
The rest of the market is clogged with underachievers and high-character guys like Tennessee's Randy Starks, who agreed to attend anger-management counseling in 2006, though his lawyer said that was "not an admission of guilt" to domestic violence charges, presumably with a straight face.
There are a few interesting possibilities, though.
A blend of size (6-foot-6, 300 pounds) and athleticism allowed Tommy Kelly to play tackle and end in Oakland, where a knee injury wiped out the second half of his 2007 season. Of the tackles on the market, he most closely resembles the versatile Justin Tuck of the Giants, whose dominant Super Bowl performance would have earned him the game's MVP award, but for the glory boy-centric nature of the award.
Signed as a rookie free agent, due to questions about his attitude while at Mississippi State, Kelly has steadily improved through three-and-a-half pro seasons. Since other teams have probably noticed this, too, he will not come cheap, even if his torn anterior cruciate ligament has not yet fully healed.
Jimmy Kennedy was a first-round pick of St. Louis and had his moments with the Rams before injuries and, surprisingly enough, weight issues sent the alleged 325-pounder bouncing to Denver, then Chicago.
Isaac Sapoaga, recently of San Francisco, produced one of the most impressive workouts in the history of the NFL Combine before entering the 2004 draft, bench-pressing 225 pounds 42 times, the second-highest total entering last weekend's meat market. He also showed flashes of quickness to go with his strength while with the 49ers. Just as promisingly, the native Samoan's nickname is "Icebox."
WIDE RECEIVER: Lee Evans backslid in 2007, which wasn't terribly surprising given the chaos at quarterback and the lack of consistent production from any other receiver.
Despite that, he remains Buffalo's undisputed No. 1 top target. Peerless Price -- inarguably Levy's biggest personnel blunder -- was mercifully released. After five seasons, it is delusional to think Josh Reed will ever be anything more than a decent backup. And Roscoe Parrish is a spectacular punt returner and occasional big-play threat, but lacks the size and route-running precision to be a consistent second option.
There is no shortage of unrestricted free agents who have filled that role in the past, starting with New England's Donte Stallworth, who was dropped by the Patriots last week despite averaging 15.2 yards on 46 catches.
Stallworth's former teammate Jabar Gaffney caught 36 passes, five for scores, despite being stuck behind Randy Moss, Wes Welker and Stallworth on the Patriots' depth chart.
Bernard Berrian, who caught 71 passes for Chicago in '07, will likely attract the most suitors of any free agent who might realistically be signed. That list excludes Randy Moss, who while technically not under contract as the free-agent period dawns, is not going anywhere unless Tom Brady decides to pursue his modeling career full-time.
Should Buffalo's front-office committee emphasize experience at the position, there's 34-year-old Muhsin Muhammad, most recently of Chicago, who has caught at least 40 passes in each of the last 10 seasons.
If they want size, 6-4, 223-pound Ernest Wilford, who never quite put it all together in Jacksonville, is available.
Bryant Johnson was stuck behind Larry Fitzgerald and Anquan Boldin in Arizona, but still caught at least 40 passes in each of the last four seasons, averaging an impressive 18.5 yards per catch in '06. At 6-3, 216 pounds, he would give Edwards another easily spotted target.
Perhaps the fastest free-agent wideout is one who Buffalo couldn't find any use for in 2006. Andre Davis, who caught all of two passes as a member of the Bills, spent last year with Houston and filled in nicely when Andre Johnson missed several games early in the season, finishing with 33 catches for a healthy 17.7 yards-per-catch average. Davis also returned three kickoffs for touchdowns. Showing a tremendous sense of timing, Davis produced two of those scoring runbacks in the season finale, tying an NFL record in his last game before hitting the market.
And for those infatuated with the idea of bringing back former Bills now that they're older and less productive, there is also Eric Moulds. In two seasons since leaving Buffalo -- one with Houston and one with Tennessee -- he has caught 89 passes, but averaged just more than 10 yards per catch and scored but a single touchdown.
TIGHT END: Robert Royal and Michael Gaines are decent backups, but neither has established himself as a clear No. 1.
Royal has displayed all the physical tools, including an ability to get downfield, but his maddening lapses in concentration -- failing to get both feet inbounds on an easy touchdown a couple years back, moving before the snap on a regular basis -- should have been eliminated five years into his career.
At 277 pounds, Gaines amounts to a sixth lineman on running plays and matched Royal with 25 catches. His agonizing drop in Cleveland cost Buffalo its best scoring chance in a loss that ended its playoff hopes and he averaged a puny 8.2 yards on the throws he did keep in his possession. A free-agent himself, Gaines may draw more interest elsewhere than he earned from the Bills during his single season here.
Alge Crumpler is easily the best available tight end, particularly with Indianapolis adhering its franchise label to Dallas Clark. Despite the dog-fighting charges that short-circuited Atlanta's season and Michael Vick's career, his favorite receiver still caught 42 passes and scored five touchdowns.
Crumpler was released earlier this month as part of the Falcons' effort to cleanse the team of all things Vick-related (Crumpler was one of five players fined for showing support for the banished quarterback during a game against New Orleans), but the five-time Pro Bowler is only 30 and still a dangerous receiver.
Eric Johnson has 240 career catches in seven seasons with San Francisco and New Orleans, but he runs like the Yale product he is, exceeding 10 yards per catch only once and managing a meager 7.9 in '07.
Bo Scaife caught a career-high 46 passes for Tennessee, but sustained a lacerated liver in the season finale. He's a restricted free agent, so signing him would cost Buffalo a draft choice, likely a second-rounder.
Jerramy Stevens has size (6-7, 260) and the speed to take his routes into the secondary. He also has an off-the-field record that is, to put it generously, checkered. A series of arrests led to his departure from Seattle last spring and a one-game suspension for violating the NFL's substance-abuse policy helped Tampa Bay decide to let him hit the market again, despite catching three touchdown passes in the final two games of the regular season. He would likely come cheap, but with very good reason.
Then there is the selection of familiar, but worn-out, veterans, including Bubba Franks, Marcus Pollard and Christian Fauria. At this point, none is better than what the Bills already have, or what they could acquire cheaper.
| Niagara Falls Reporter | www.niagarafallsreporter.com | Feb. 26 2008 |