Jason Peters - Thanks for one year

One quality year after being signed as an undrafted free agent in 2004. That is all that Jason Peters was able to give Buffalo, the team that took a chance on drafting a tight end who was seen as a player that could evolve into a pro bowl offensive tackle. In 2007, the gamble on Peters paid off and he was selected to the first of two consecutive pro bowls. Charles over at the CF Buffalo blog already has an excellent write up on this situation here. I share Charles' view that Peters, while talented is not worth the kind of money that Philadelphia is paying him. The Bills were able to acquire multiple draft picks from the Peters trade. Fans should temper their excitement though. There is a larger failing over the last 5 years and that is the Bills continued inepitude at drafting offensive linemen

Jim McNally, hired from 2004-2007 as Buffalo's offensive line coach, was touted as the savior of the Bills offensive line problems plaguing the team since the late 90's. These are the offensive linemen who were drafted during his tenure:

2004 - Dylan McFarland (7th) Jason Peters (UFA)
2005 - Duke Preston (4th) Justin Geisinger (6th)
2006 - Brad Butler (5th) Terrance Pennington (7th) Aaron Merz (7th)

Tuten Reyes, Bennie Anderson, and Melvin Fowler were also signed during this period.

What was the result of all of this? Two pro bowls for Peters (with last year's being a sham vote) who like all except Butler, no longer play for Buffalo. I find this extremely disappointing and fans should fear the Bills ability to draft, let alone draft offensive linemen. If one of the most widely regarded offensive line coaches could not produce a line to allow running backs to gain a yard on fourth and inches, how can we count on the Bills' current staff to do any better?

Apologies for not posting recently

I want to apologize to all of my readers (by this I of course mean Charles F.) that I have not posted recently. There are several reasons for this including an increase in workload, a new engagement to a wonderful woman, starting a beer club, and now attempting to house hunt. I will attempt to post more regularly, at the very least once a week. So much has happened in the football world since I last posted that I do not even know where to begin. To top it all off, several national stories actually featured the Bills. Now with the draft less than a week away, everyone is trying to guess what the Bills will do.