When the Buffalo Bills went out and signed defensive ends Mario Williams and Mark Anderson in free agency or maybe even before that, nearly everyone, including myself concluded it was a formality that incumbent starting defensive end Dwan Edwards would soon be given his pink slip.
And for good reason. Edwards is slated to earn in the ballpark of $4 million this season, and that’s a lot of loot for a team with Williams, Anderson and Chris Kelsay now ahead of him on the depth chart. That list doesn’t include 2010 third-round pick Alex Carrington and the possible transformation of Shawne Merriman from linebacker to defensive end.
Plus, Edwards is a prototypical 3-4 end and it’s common knowledge know the team is radically drifting towards a 4-3 base.
By all accounts the Buffalo Bills have had a successful offseason both with re-signing guys they wanted and acquiring to huge new additions. Over the last 24 hours, two former Bills said goodbye and joined new teams.
Roscoe Parrish inked a one-year deal with the San Diego Chargers on Tuesday. Parrish was well-liked by head coach Chan Gailey but wasn’t a part of team plans going forward, mainly because of his recent injury history and was never offered a contract. Parrish joins Robert Meacham, whom the Bills targeted early among the Chargers new recruits.
This afternoon it was left tackle Demetrius (we’re not calling him Demetress) Bell’s turn to find new employment, signing a five-year deal to joining the Philadelphia Eagles. Unlike Parrish the Bills did have interest in seeing Bell return and had an offer on the table, but apparently it wasn’t to Bell’s satisfaction.
The Buffalo Bills put a punctuation mark on upgrading their defensive line, signing pass rusher Mark Anderson to a contract. While the team hasn’t announced the terms of the deal, Aaron Wilson reports the deal is for four years and $27.5 million, including $8 million guaranteed.
The Bills have called a press conference to announce the signing for this afternoon.
Anderson had 10 sacks with the New England Patriots last season despite playing half their defensive snap. The free agent also drew interest from Baltimore and Tennessee among other teams. Anderson played two seasons ago with Mario Williams in Houston and had four sacks.
Anderson will compete with Chris Kelsay and Shawne Merriman for a starting right defensive end spot alongside Williams. Whether he starts or not is irrelevant, the bottom line is Anderson could be a force in the pass rush with a lot of talent around him.
This could mean the end of the line for Dwan Edwards. It’s not likely the team will keep him as a highly paid fifth of sixth end option.
We’ll have much more analysis on this latest big Bills move later on. For now, another reason for Bills fans to get excited.
The Buffalo Bills continue to sign most of their own free agents, re-signing safety Bryan Scott to a contract Wednesday morning as the news was broken by Scott’s own tweet.
Scott has played both safety and linebacker for Buffalo over the past two seasons and has been a valuable member of the nickel defense. He had 66 tackles, two interceptions and a sack last season.
The Bills also have defensive end Mark Anderson at the team’s facilities today and Mario Williams has fueled speculation about a deal possibly being close after saying on his Twitter regarding Anderson that he “just talked to him on the phone and it’s looking good.”
The Bills also have an offer still on the table to free agent tackle Demetrius Bell, though he’s visiting other teams and is unlikely to re-sign with Buffalo.
The Buffalo Bills continue to show they’re dead serious about improving an anemic pass rush. Less than a week after signing Mario Williams to a six-year deal that could be worth up to $100 million the team announced Tuesday evening that it’s hosting veteran defensive end Mark Anderson today.
Anderson arrived last night to meet team officials. He’ll be conducting his official visit beginning this morning.
Anderson racked up a team-best 10 sacks for the New England Patriots last season, including one against Buffalo in the season finale. The year prior he had four sacks in a part-time role as Williams’ teammate in Houston. In all Anderson has accumulated 35.5 sacks in seven seasons, including four with the Chicago Bears.
Yahoo Sports columnist Dan Wetzel writes that the Bills signing of Mario Williams finally makes the team relevant again.
Mike Freeman of CBS Sports feels that Ralph Wilson is trying to beat the clock with game-changing action.
Fellow CBS columnist Judge Clark says the Bills needed to bold–and they were.
The NFL’s top prize is going to one of its smallest markets, an area known more for snow-inch measurements and hot wings than being a free-agent destination, CBS columnist Pete Prisco thinks.
The Buffalo Bills may or may not be making more free agent moves after signing Mario Williams to a monster six-year/$96 million deal with $50 million guaranteed. Thanks to an interview with WGR 550, we know of one person they haven’t targeted.
Bills general manager Buddy Nix, while on air with the radio station refuted published reports the team has been in contact with free agent wide receiver Mario Manningham.
“We have not contacted Mario Manningham.” Nix said.
While the Bills still may take a look at other receivers before the draft, especially since Robert Meachem signed with San Diego Tuesday night while still visiting Buffalo, Nix stated strongly it’s not a necessity.
He said had they not re-signed Stevie Johnson before free agency ,the need for receiver would be greater and is confident his receivers are good enough to go out and play right now.
I completely believe him regarding Manningham and the receiving market has dried up rather quick, but I still think there’ll be at least one other receiver in the mix through either free agency or the draft.
Courtesy of the Buffalo News, here’s the video from Mario Williams’ introductory press conference after signing his six-year deal with the Buffalo Bills, just in case you missed it or want to relive it again.
Your first— or at least one of your first stupid, meaningless series of facts about Mario Williams and the Buffalo Bills. With Williams officially joining the Buffalo Bills, that makes three players on the team sporting the last names Williams, the other two being Kyle and Aaron.
Did you know that in franchise history, the Bills have had a dozen other players suit up with the last name Williams?
Those 12 consist of: Ben (DE/#77), Chris (CB/#27), Clarence (FB/#39), James (CB/#29 & 31), Kevin (CB/#23), Kevin (WR/#82), Leonard (RB/#26), Mike (OT/#68), Pat (DT/#93), Shaud (RB/#40 & 36), Thomas (LB/#49) and Van (RB#23)
The unthinkable has happened! Buffalo has signed Mario Williams and ESPN is reporting the deal is for six years. There will be a press conference at 1:30pm to announce the signing and we’ll have so, so much more on this throughout the day and night. For now, enjoy this picture that we’re posting on purpose. What a day to be a Bills fan.
Today is the big day. Mario Williams is expected to make a decision, and there’s sure to be a ton of activity around the league. Keep it right here for live updates all day long.
For those hopeful Buffalo Bills fans that retired early Tuesday night, it wasn’t the news you were hoping to wake up to this morning. Wide receiver Robert Meacham signed late last night after visiting with Buffalo, but it was with San Diego over the phone from his downtown hotel room. The deal is worth $25.9 million over four years.
Far more importantly is the fate of Mario Williams seemingly far more unsure than it was yesterday. On Tuesday several reports said Williams signing and becoming the highest paid defensive player in the NFL were imminent, including a WGR report citing a source saying the Bills fully expect to sign both players within the next 24 hours (which could very well be true, the team did expect to sign Meachem.)
But Jason La Canfora reported on NFL.com last night Williams isn’t expected to sign with Buffalo today and has at least one other visit scheduled before making up his mind. It doesn’t take an expert to know if Super Mario leaves Buffalo today without a contract in hand, the organization is in grave danger of missing out on him.
Today should be a very intense, emotional day for Bills fans all over. Was yesterday the start of a brand new culture in town, or was it yet just another punch in the stomach to team supporters all over.
Early this morning several hours in advance of the start of NFL free agency, Buffalo Bills general manager Buddy Nix went on local radio (WGR550) and reiterated that the Bills would be aggressive when it came to free agency, and also claimed they had two primary targets in mind.
He sure as hell wasn’t kidding.
In less than 20 minutes, several reports surfaced that the Bills were bringing wide receiver Robert Meachem to town for a visit tonight as well as the open market’s biggest prize, defensive end Mario Williams. Both will arrive in Buffalo tonight and if the organization has its way, both will depart with fresh new Buffalo contracts.
Adam Schefter was the first to report on Williams arrival this evening. He’s expected to command a salary in upwards of $15 million per season and per several sources and published reports, the Bills are willing to pony up. The former first overall pick of the 2006 draft had 53.5 sacks and 11 forced fumbles with the Houston Texans in 82 career games. He only played in five games last year due to a season-ending shoulder injury.
Meacham could be an ideal speedy complimentary receiver to Stevie Johnson. Playing with Drew Brees in New Orleans, Meachem caught 40 passes last season for 620 yards and six touchdowns. He’s never averaged less than 14.5 yards per catch in his four-year career to this point.
With the receiving market quickly drying up, it’s expected the Bills will soon sign Meachem. When it comes to Williams, it’s clearly now or never. If the Bills are to get a deal done, it almost has to be while they have him in their grasp. Pro Football Talk reports three other teams are hoping to get a crack at Williams and if the Bills can’t get the job done while he’s in town visiting, odds and history greatly suggest he’ll end up elsewhere.
Stay tuned–this may turn out to be a sleepless night.
David Hawthorne, LB (Seattle): He’s led Seattle in tackles for three straight seasons and the Seahawks would like him to return, but he’s going to get a few serious offers in free agency the team doesn’t want to match. One of them could possibly come from Buffalo. Kirk Morrison is currently penciled in as a starter for Buffalo, but that’s hardly set in stone.
Mark Anderson, DE (New England): He had 10 sacks last season for New England, one coming against the Bills and Buffalo is very familiar with him. He’s certainly not an elite defender, but his help in the pass rush would be a huge asset, especially if the organization doesn’t trust Shawne Merriman will ever get back to the way he used to be.
Last week a newspaper in San Diego reported the Buffalo Bills would be players in the hunt for Chargers free agent wide receiver, which many didn’t give a lot of thought to considering Bills general manager Buddy Nix was originally involved in drafting Jackson while with San Diego. However, the speculation about Buffalo truly making a major push to sign Jackson has heated up via a report from Yahoo Sports’ Jason Cole this morning that confirms the Bills will make a serious effort to ink him to a contract.
The report also cites Chicago and Tampa Bay as two favorites to ultimately land him while Buffalo is listed as a “darkhorse” team..
While the thought of Jackson wearing a Bills uniform is appealing to say the least, don’t count on it happening. To have any realistic shot of landing Jackson the Bills would have to pony up a deal that at the least would average around $12 million annually. It remains to be seen if Ralph Wilson is willing to fork over that kind of money on a wide receiver, even though he’s told the front office upgrading the position is a high priority and Nix claims the team will be aggressive beginning this afternoon.
Few will argue that wide receivers are among the most gifted athletes in football. Those that excel at the position have at least a few of the following abilities/traits: good hands to catch the ball, quickness to get down the field, speed to separate from his defender, leaping skills to reach balls and he can read defenses to put himself in the best spot to be open for his quarterback.
Earlier this week, the Buffalo Bills showed how important they think the wide receiver position is by signing Stevie Johnson – who was on the verge of becoming an unrestricted free agent – to a five-year, $36.25 contract extension. The team’s No. 1 receiving option is coming off back-to-back 1,000-yard seasons and is only 25.
Fans are hoping the Bills aren’t done yet with visions of San Diego’s Vincent Jackson inking a deal dancing in their heads. A deep threat Buffalo doesn’t really have right now, Jackson paired with Johnson would give the Bills one of the best 1-2 receiving combinations in the National Football League. I’m sure quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick is salivating at the possibility.
Though I think Buffalo fans should be excited, I also believe that wide receivers in general are a tad overrated. I think it’s hard to argue against the notion that quarterback is the most important position in sports. Just look at the attention Peyton Manning is getting despite several key questions about his ability to play moving forward. With the exception of a few teams already content with star quarterbacks, organizations across the N.F.L. are interested in talking to Peyton.
The Buffalo Bills re-signing frenzy continued on Friday morning when linebacker Kirk Morrison announced via his Twitter that he signed a deal and will remain with the club. Jay Glazer of Fox Sports reported that the deal is for two years.
“I’m happy to announce on this Friday that I re-signed with the Buffalo Bills. Couldn’t be more excited to be coming back.” Morrison tweeted today.
Morrison signed with the Bills on August 24 of last year. He played very sparingly last year, accounting for just seven tackles and one sack in 14 games. However, with Dave Wannstedt taking over the defense and going to more of a 4-3 scheme, the organization felt like Morrison will be a better fit moving forward.
For the time being, he’s likely the starting strong side linebacker with Nick Barnett on the weak side and Kelvin Sheppard in the middle.
Morrison started every game except one between 2005-09 with the Oakland Raiders and racked up at least 116 tackles in each season. He spent 2010 with Jacksonville.
Bryan Scott and Demetrius Bell are now the two most notable Bills pending free agents.
It hasn’t been confirmed by the team as official, but going by Scott Chandler’s tweet this morning, there’s no doubt the tight end will be back with the Buffalo Bills next season.
“Reunited and it feels so good!!! Blessed to be back with the Bills! Nowhere else I want to be! Thankyou Lord for this opportunity!” Chandler tweeted earlier.
Chandler had a breakthrough season in 2011 as he became a favorite target of Ryan Fitzpatrick in the Bills offense. Chandler caught 38 passes for 389 yards and a very productive six touchdowns.
The Bills have done a good job of signing in their own free agents in advance of the open market shopping frenzy that’ll begin next Tuesday. Stevie Johnson and Rian Lindell have also been locked up. Perhaps the team will soon turn towards extending Fred Jackson’s deal next.
We’ll have contract details when they become available.
About 48 hours after Stevie Johnson re-signed with the Buffalo Bills for five years and $36.25 million, the team announced a second receiver inked an extension this week after Ruvell Martin agreed to a new contract.
Don’t go jumping off a bridge now, Bills fans expecting an upgrade to come in free agency. Ravens Insider Aaron Wilson reports Martin’s deal is for one-year and his potential return in no way, shape or form prohibits the Bills from searching for an attractive pass catching option on the open market come next Tuesday afternoon.
Martin caught seven passes for 82 yards in parts of 14 games for Buffalo last season. However, we highly suspect Martin was brought back more due to his special teams prowess than ability to be a consistent wide receiver.
As things stand, Martin is likely to compete with the likes of Donald Jones, Marcus Easley, Naaman Roosevelt, David Clowney and a few others for two or three roster spots in the summer after Johnson, slot guy David Nelson and presumably a free agent on the way in a starting role.
Free agent wide receiver Roscoe Parrish isn’t expected back next season.
With all the talk about NFL “bounties” lately, it’s hardly a surprise when a player that suffered a significant injury now wonders if it were done intentionally. The latest to chime in is Kansas City Chiefs safety Eric Berry.
The Chiefs best defender suffered a season-ending knee injury on opening Sunday after being hit low by Buffalo Bills receiver Stevie Johnson.
“Sometimes I sit n wonder if they had a bounty out on me…oh well…who cares. Either way u can’t hold me down.” Berry tweeted on Monday.
Pro Football Talk picked up on the tweet, forcing Johnson to deny the hit was bounty-related. Johnson’s teammate, David Nelson defended him as well.
“Not true. Clean cut. Freak injury. SJ felt terrible when he heard the news it was season ending. Part of the game.” Nelson tweeted.
For those who don’t remember the play, you can revisit it on this Youtube clip, which was quite obviously made by a Chiefs fan.
Courtesy of the fine people over at the Buffalo Bills media relations department, here is the Stevie Johnson press conference in its entirety following the team signing him to a five-year, $36.25 million deal this morning.
General Manager Buddy Nix:
Just to kick it off a little bit here, it’s a good day for us. Our football team got better. One of our philosophies coming in was that we wanted to try to keep our good players here, draft good, develop them and then try to keep them and we were able to do that with Stevie Johnson. It goes without saying what he’s done in the past two years and I think it’s just going to get better. Again, playing against guys that have been here and have gotten out, one of our main goals was to keep guys like him. It took a long time and probably was going to get done because Stevie said he always wanted to be here and we always said we wanted him. If that’s the case it normally works out. I’m going to turn it over to Russ (Brandon).
The Buffalo Bills announced early Monday morning that the organization and wide receiver Stevie Johnson have agreed to a five-year contract extension that will keep the fourth-year pro in Buffalo through the 2016 season.
While the team didn’t reveal terms of the deal, ESPN’s Adam Schefter reports the contract calls for $36.25 million with $19 million guaranteed and $24 million coming over the firsts three years. Schefter was the first to report Sunday evening the sides were on the verge of a deal.
Negotiations between the sides took a decidedly positive turn over the past two weeks after multiple reports indicated they were very far apart on a deal not long ago. The Bills had the option to place the franchise tag on Johnson by 4pm this afternoon and pay him $9.4 million for next season, but this deal is obviously a fair one for both parties.
There is good news for Buffalo Bills fans waking up this morning after retiring early Sunday night. ESPN’s Adam Schefter is reporting the team and Stevie Johnson are on the verge of a five-year contract that will keep the popular wide receiver from hitting free agency.
“Buffalo Bills and WR Stevie Johnson are on the verge of a five-year contract that is likely to be completed in the next 24 hours.” Schefter tweeted at approximately 11pm Sunday evening.
There have been conflicting reports about Johnson’s future with the team in recent weeks after several news outlets reported the sides were far apart in negotiations. There have also been published reports stating the Bills would not use their franchise tag on Johnson if a deal wasn’t completed before the Monday 4pm deadline.
According to a report by Ravens Insider’s Aaron Wilson, former Buffalo Bills receiver Lee Evan’s one-year stint with the Baltimore Ravens will soon come to an end. The report says Evans along with cornerback Domonique Foxworth will soon be released by the club.
Evans was traded from Buffalo to Baltimore last offseason in exchange for a 2012 fourth-round draft choice. Evans spent most the season battling an injured foot and caught just four passes for 74 yards in nine regular season games. Of course, Baltimore fans will long remember his drop in the closing seconds against New England that ultimately cost his team a chance at the Super Bowl.
There’s sure to be an onslaught of Bills fans wondering if a Buffalo/Evans is in the cards. Don’t count on it. Evans was very well liked and respected in the locker room and still has the top notch deep speed the organization needs, but there’s a reason he was traded in the first place.
Never say never, but it’s not likely Buddy Nix will be looking to bring him back.
A strong contingent of local media (not this guy) are in Indianapolis this week covering the NFL Combine and while there, doing a great job of tracking down juicy information from Buffalo Bills head coach Chan Gailey, who made himself available to media folk yesterday.
Through various reports, Gailey quipped a couple of items that should at least be considered noteworthy. Among them is a report by the Buffalo News surrounding Shawne Merriman.
While Gailey sounded out of the loop regarding Merriman’s health, he appeared pretty sure on what he wants Merriman’s role to be should he be able to return.
When the Buffalo Bills went out and signed defensive ends Mario Williams and Mark Anderson in free agency or maybe even before that, nearly everyone, including myself concluded it was a formality that incumbent starting defensive end Dwan Edwards would soon be given his pink slip.
By all accounts the Buffalo Bills have had a successful offseason both with re-signing guys they wanted and acquiring to huge new additions. Over the last 24 hours, two former Bills said goodbye and joined new teams.
The Buffalo Bills put a punctuation mark on upgrading their defensive line, signing pass rusher Mark Anderson to a contract. While the team hasn’t announced the terms of the deal, Aaron Wilson reports the deal is for four years and $27.5 million, including $8 million guaranteed.
The Buffalo Bills continue to sign most of their own free agents, re-signing safety Bryan Scott to a contract Wednesday morning as the news was broken by Scott’s own tweet.
The Buffalo Bills continue to show they’re dead serious about improving an anemic pass rush. Less than a week after signing Mario Williams to a six-year deal that could be worth up to $100 million the team announced Tuesday evening that it’s hosting veteran defensive end Mark Anderson today.
Yahoo Sports columnist Dan Wetzel writes that the Bills signing of Mario Williams finally makes the 
The Buffalo Bills may or may not be making more free agent moves after signing Mario Williams to a monster six-year/$96 million deal with $50 million guaranteed. Thanks to an interview with WGR 550, we know of one person they haven’t targeted.
Your first— or at least one of your first stupid, meaningless series of facts about Mario Williams and the Buffalo Bills. With Williams officially joining the Buffalo Bills, that makes three players on the team sporting the last names Williams, the other two being Kyle and Aaron.
For those hopeful Buffalo Bills fans that retired early Tuesday night, it wasn’t the news you were hoping to wake up to this morning. Wide receiver Robert Meacham signed late last night after visiting with Buffalo, but it was with San Diego over the phone from his downtown hotel room. The deal is worth $25.9 million over four years.
Early this morning several hours in advance of the start of NFL free agency, Buffalo Bills general manager Buddy Nix went on local radio (WGR550) and reiterated that the Bills would be aggressive when it came to free agency, and also claimed they had two primary targets in mind.
David Hawthorne, LB (Seattle): He’s led Seattle in tackles for three straight seasons and the Seahawks would like him to return, but he’s going to get a few serious offers in free agency the team doesn’t want to match. One of them could possibly come from Buffalo. Kirk Morrison is currently penciled in as a starter for Buffalo, but that’s hardly set in stone.
Last week a newspaper in San Diego reported the Buffalo Bills would be players in the hunt for Chargers free agent wide receiver, which many didn’t give a lot of thought to considering Bills general manager Buddy Nix was originally involved in drafting Jackson while with San Diego. However, the speculation about Buffalo truly making a major push to sign Jackson has heated up via a report from Yahoo Sports’ Jason Cole this morning 
Few will argue that wide receivers are among the most gifted athletes in football. Those that excel at the position have at least a few of the following abilities/traits: good hands to catch the ball, quickness to get down the field, speed to separate from his defender, leaping skills to reach balls and he can read defenses to put himself in the best spot to be open for his quarterback.
The Buffalo Bills re-signing frenzy continued on Friday morning when linebacker Kirk Morrison announced via his Twitter that he signed a deal and will remain with the club. Jay Glazer of Fox Sports reported that the deal is for two years.
It hasn’t been confirmed by the team as official, but going by Scott Chandler’s tweet this morning, there’s no doubt the tight end will be back with the Buffalo Bills next season.
About 48 hours after Stevie Johnson re-signed with the Buffalo Bills for five years and $36.25 million, the team announced a second receiver inked an extension this week after Ruvell Martin agreed to a new contract.
Courtesy of the fine people over at the Buffalo Bills media relations department, here is the Stevie Johnson press conference in its entirety following the team signing him to a five-year, $36.25 million deal this morning.
The Buffalo Bills announced early Monday morning that the organization and wide receiver Stevie Johnson have agreed to a five-year contract extension that will keep the fourth-year pro in Buffalo through the 2016 season.
There is good news for Buffalo Bills fans waking up this morning after retiring early Sunday night. ESPN’s Adam Schefter is reporting the team and Stevie Johnson are on the verge of a five-year contract that will keep the popular wide receiver from hitting free agency.
According to a report by Ravens Insider’s Aaron Wilson, former Buffalo Bills receiver Lee Evan’s one-year stint with the Baltimore Ravens will soon 
A strong contingent of local media (not this guy) are in Indianapolis this week covering the NFL Combine and while there, doing a great job of tracking down juicy information from Buffalo Bills head coach Chan Gailey, who made himself available to media folk yesterday.
