Congratulations to Buffalo Bills safety George Wilson, who was named the team’s Walter Payton Man of the Year for the second time in his career. Wilson also won the honor in 2009.
Bills.com has a fine profile of Wilson and the many foundations he does work with, including his S.A.F.E.T.Y. foundation and “George’s Jungle” program for youths.
Wilson now becomes the Bills’ nominee for the overall Walter Payton league award. The winner gets a $25,000 donation to the charity of his choice. Wilson already won $1,000 for winning the Buffalo team award.
In other news, Wilson along with the rest of his teammates were shut out of the Pro Bowl selection show last night on NFL Network. Wilson likely would have made the team had he not missed a month with a neck injury. Fred Jackson and Eric Wood both stood a strong chance to make the squad but season-ending injuries to each derailed them.
Western New York was represented by a pair of Pro Bowlers; New England tight end Rob Gronkowski and Chicago special team player Corey Graham.
If you paid any mind to nearly every preseason prognosticator (this one included, sadly) you’d surely have been more inclined to think the Buffalo Bills would be closer to the Andrew Luck sweepstakes come next April than an AFC playoff spot in roughly two more months. But every season the NFL has Cinderella teams and low and behold, the Bills’ glass slipper has been as shiny as anyone.
In defense of all the armchair critics, it was excruciatingly easy to write off the Bills before the season even started. They weren’t very good last year—unless you consider four wins in 2010 an achievement, and general manager Buddy Nix didn’t exactly set the league on notice with marque free agent additions. To make matters worse, the Bills looked awful through most of training camp and even worse for a majority of the preseason. The offensive line depth was so bad the team cut three active reserves from last year following their preseason finale.
Fortunately for the organization, games are played on the field and not newspapers, websites and blogs. The Bills are 5-2 and quite frankly, a couple of plays away from being undefeated. In the process they got the colossal monkey off their back by finally beating New England, forced Tom Brady and Michael Vick into four interceptions apiece, and have one of the most explosive offenses in the league on the other side of the ball.
Now that the dust of the 2011 Draft has settled, we’ve been analyzing the current state of Buffalo’s roster. Today we wrap it up by taking a look at the safety position.
There’s two big question marks hanging over the Bills at the safety position. First, will the team re-sign starting strong safety Donte Whitner? Whitner hasn’t quite lived up to his billing as the former eighth overall pick in the draft and he has a bit of a “running his mouth” problem (or a “typing dumb things on Twitter problem”). Of course, Whitner is also an above-average safety who is pretty decent against the run…and goodness knows the Bills certainly don’t need to get any worse against the run.
The other big issue is the play of free safety Jairus Byrd. Byrd struggled badly in his second season after a fantastic rookie campaign. Which one of those seasons was the fluke?
If Whitner and Byrd are both either not in Buffalo and not effective, the Bills are suddenly very thin at safety. Let’s take a look at this group.
According to a report by Mark Gaughan of the Buffalo News, the three-year deal the Buffalo Bills gave safety George Wilson is worth a total of $7.05 million and includes $4.75 million in base salaries over the next three seasons.
While the organization may still seek safety help either through the draft of via free agency, the deal is clearly a sign the Bills anticipate him starting and have already moved on from pending free agent Donte Whitner.
Despite getting limited opportunities, the converted wide receiver has given the Bills excellent production at safety. Wilson has eight career interceptions ,including four as a part-time starter in 2009. He also racked up 3.5 sacks, a forced fumble and is regarded as one of the team’s best special teams players.
Two Buffalo Bills players were given contract extensions by the club on Tuesday and it was revealed that a third will be getting a significant pay raise in 2011, assuming there is a 2011 season.
Safety George Wilson and offensive tackle Mansfield Wrotto were both given contract extensions by the organization the club announced. George Wilson said on Twitter that his deal is for three years. Wrotto’s length and the salary for both players have yet to be disclosed.
“I want to let all Bills fans now that today I signed a 3 year contract to return to western NY. Words just can’t explain.” Wilson tweeted.
Wrotto started seven games for Buffalo last season after coming over from Seattle. Wrotto told BuffaloBills.com that “the coaches along with myself see me as an interior player who can also play the tackle position.”
Following the Buffalo Bills second straight victory this past Sunday, a 49-31 drubbing of the suddenly hapless Cincinnati Bengals, head coach Chan Gailey was blunt when talking about his team during his post-game presser.
“We don’t have a lot of superstars and prima donnas,” he said. ”We have a bunch of guys that have great character and fight every time they walk on the field.”
Gailey isn’t lying. The Bills have proven that they’re willing to fight, as it’s shown on the scoreboard for five straight games. It’s also pretty apparent when looking where the production is coming from, they don’t possess marquee superstars either.
The Bills offensive resurgence is being directed by a red-hot quarterback (Ryan Fitzpatrick), a former seventh-round draft pick. His primary receiver has become another seventh rounder (Stevie Johnson) while his blind side is protected by yet another seventh rounder (Demetrius Bell).
People have searched high and low for the biggest difference between the 2009 Buffalo Bills and the winless version that’s dropped six straight to begin this season. The front office is supervised by a new general manager, the coaching staff almost entirely new and the team is in a laborious process of trying to revamp the defense via a largely (to this point) fruitless 3-4 transformation.
Terrell Owens is gone, as is Aaron Schobel, Josh Reed and most recently Trent Edwards and Marshawn Lynch.
But when you look at the numbers and how they factor into games, the biggest reason the Bills are 0-6 and last year’s six-win season seems like a Super Bowl run by comparison, is pretty darn obvious.
As all Buffalo Bills fans know by now, George Wilson appeared in Mary J. Blige’s new music video “We Got Hood Love.” Not everyone has had the chance to see it. Here you go.
Congratulations to Wilson; an all-around good guy and emerging Bills defensive playmaker, whose profile is deservedly being raised beyond football.
Buffalo Bills safety George Wilson has had quite the past 12 months. A year ago he was little more than a special teams player trying to carve his way into a prolonged NFL career. The converted wide receiver went from practice squad member to valuable depth in three seasons with the team, but only amassed career totals of 64 tackles and two interceptions.
Wilson’s stock soared last season when he took advantage of injuries in the secondary to become a starter. He finished 2009 with career-highs of 103 tackles, four interceptions and two sacks.
A restricted free agent, the Bills thought enough of him to tender him at the second-round level, which Wilson signed this week worth $1.759 million.
ESPN’s John Clayton is reporting that the Buffalo Bills have re-signed unrestricted free agent Bryan Scott to a two-year, $3-plus million contract.
The six-year veteran logged starts at both safety and linebacker in 2009, ending the season with 81 tackles, two sacks, an interception and a forced fumble. He did miss several weeks with an ankle injury before making the switch to linebacker, and also sat out the final two weeks of the season with a concussion.
Scott, 29, is likely to move back to strong safety as the team transitions to the 3-4 defense under new defensive coordinator George Edwards. The decision to bring back Scott preserves the Bills’ depth at the position, as Scott’s physical style of play complements the skill sets of fellow safeties Jairus Byrd, Donte Whitner and George Wilson rather well.
We’re still waiting word on which Bills restricted free agents the club plans on tendering before the Thursday March 4 deadline. George Wilson, Richie Incognito and Derek Schouman are the leading candidates to receive some level of tender.
I heard a couple of weeks ago that the Bills were interested in signing Wilson to a multiple year deal before the start of free agency but that’s yet to materialize.
Free agency starts at midnight on March 5 and any restricted free agent not tendered will be eligible to sign wherever they like.
Chan Gailey’s first, and already his boldest, move as new head coach of the Buffalo Bills has been to install a 3-4 defense, led by defensive coordinator George Edwards. While no one’s sure exactly what that 3-4 system will look like, it’ll be a fairly dramatic change for a Bills team that has run the 4-3 as its base defense since Gregg Williams’ arrival as head coach in 2001.
While the majority of that overhaul will take place in the defensive front seven, perhaps Gailey’s smartest coaching hire came in the retention of defensive backs coach George Catavolos. Hired by Dick Jauron in 2006, Catavolos has decades of experience coaching in the secondary, and having spent four years in Buffalo already, he’ll be keenly aware of exactly what type of talent the team possesses in the defensive backfield.
(Admitted hot head fan/blogger Joe Pinzone AKA “JoeFromNYC” has a blueprint to solve the Buffalo Bills woes. Many won’t agree with his views–and we probably won’t either. But they’re still interesting enough to publish. This is the third in a series of moves he would like to see the Bills make to return to respectability)
Is it getting hot in here or is it just me? I already sense the disdain towards my first two moves as Buffalo Bills general manager. The people have spoken and they said I’m crazy to trade Lee Evans. I made my points perfectly clear that Evans is overpaid and the Bills need draft picks. I’m also having people say that Evans is a key marketing tool for the Bills.
I spoke with a league source who told me the Buffalo Bills would like to sign restricted free agent George Wilson to a contract extension before NFL free agency starts on March 5.
According to the source, if the Bills are unable to reach an extension before the deadline they will apply a second-round tender on the fourth year safety. If the Bills tag Wilson with the tag at that level it would pay him $1.759 million for 2010 and force a team to give up a second round draft pick as compensation for signing him should the Bills not match an offer.
Wilson was valuable to the Bills in 2009, finishing second on the team with 91 tackles despite not starting full time. He also was second on the club with four interceptions and added a pair of sacks and a forced fumble.
For the past few weeks, our talented colleague Brian Galliford over at Buffalo Rumblings has been generously providing our readers with a Buffalo Bills’ roster breakdown by position. I encourage all fans to check out his brilliant breakdowns by position (as well as visit Rumblings for all Bills related news and views—simply put it’s the best Bills fan site on the web).
Anyway, with the NFL season officially over and the new Bills staff seemingly in place, it’s time to (happily) start looking forward to 2010. New head coach Chan Gailey and General Manager Buddy Nix among other decision makers have hoards of key personnel moves to ponder.
Players will be cut and/or traded in the coming month and released players from other organizations are will be brought in during the time leading to free agency. With a new staff and front office, there’s going to be turnover—probably more so than any recent year.
Congratulations to Buffalo Bills safety George Wilson, who was named the team’s Walter Payton Man of the Year for the second time in his career. Wilson also won the honor in 2009.
If you paid any mind to nearly every preseason prognosticator (this one included, sadly) you’d surely have been more inclined to think the Buffalo Bills would be closer to the Andrew Luck sweepstakes come next April than an AFC playoff spot in roughly two more months. But every season the NFL has Cinderella teams and low and behold, the Bills’ glass slipper has been as shiny as anyone.
Now that the dust of the 2011 Draft has settled, we’ve been analyzing the current state of Buffalo’s roster. Today we wrap it up by taking a look at the safety position.
According to a report by Mark Gaughan of the Buffalo News, the three-year deal the Buffalo Bills gave safety George Wilson is 
Two Buffalo Bills players were given contract extensions by the club on Tuesday and it was revealed that a third will be getting a significant pay raise in 2011, assuming there is a 2011 season.
Following the Buffalo Bills second straight victory this past Sunday, a 49-31 drubbing of the suddenly hapless Cincinnati Bengals, head coach Chan Gailey was blunt when talking about his team during his post-game presser.
People have searched high and low for the biggest difference between the 2009 Buffalo Bills and the winless version that’s dropped six straight to begin this season. The front office is supervised by a new general manager, the coaching staff almost entirely new and the team is in a laborious process of trying to revamp the defense via a largely (to this point) fruitless 3-4 transformation.
Buffalo Bills safety George Wilson has had quite the past 12 months. A year ago he was little more than a special teams player trying to carve his way into a prolonged NFL career. The converted wide receiver went from practice squad member to valuable depth in three seasons with the team, but only amassed career totals of 64 tackles and two interceptions.
ESPN’s John Clayton is reporting that the Buffalo Bills have re-signed unrestricted free agent Bryan Scott to a two-year, $3-plus million contract.
We’re still waiting word on which Bills restricted free agents the club plans on tendering before the Thursday March 4 deadline. George Wilson, Richie Incognito and Derek Schouman are the leading candidates to receive some level of tender.
Chan Gailey’s first, and already his boldest, move as new head coach of the Buffalo Bills has been to install a 3-4 defense, led by defensive coordinator George Edwards. While no one’s sure exactly what that 3-4 system will look like, it’ll be a fairly dramatic change for a Bills team that has run the 4-3 as its base defense since Gregg Williams’ arrival as head coach in 2001.
(Admitted hot head fan/blogger Joe Pinzone AKA “JoeFromNYC” has a blueprint to solve the Buffalo Bills woes. Many won’t agree with his views–and we probably won’t either. But they’re still interesting enough to publish. This is the third in a series of moves he would like to see the Bills make to return to respectability)
I spoke with a league source who told me the Buffalo Bills would like to sign restricted free agent George Wilson to a contract extension before NFL free agency starts on March 5.
For the past few weeks, our talented colleague Brian Galliford over at 
