Buffalo Bills Free Agency

Nov 17, 2013; Orchard Park, NY, USA; Buffalo Bills free safety Jairus Byrd (31) celebrates his first half interception against the New York Jets at Ralph Wilson Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Timothy T. Ludwig-USA TODAY Sports

With free agency coming up on us quickly, exactly 2 months away, 60 days, March 11th, lets take a look at what the Bills have to offer to the free agent pool, where the players stand and the possibility that they are resigned and come back.

Currently the Buffalo Bills have 13 players listed for free agency.  Of the 13 players, there are three players that are listed as being ERFA (Exclusive Rights Free Agents). These players are Chris Hogan, Frank Summers, and Antoine McClain. What this means for these players is they fall into a gray area for the being under contract and being a free agent.  The Bills are the only team that can offer them a contract and the players are unable to negotiate with any other team.  Also, if the team (Bills) offers them a contract at the three year veteran minimum, the player has to accept it.  There only other option is to leave the NFL.  So really they are a free agent in the sense that they are free to leave the NFL if they so choose.

Of the remaining ten players, two players are RFA (Restricted Free Agents).  These players are Mike Caussin and Danny Batten.  For RFAs the players are not under contract and have three years in the league.  They can receive offers from other teams as long as their previous team has offered them a qualifying offer.  The previous team is allowed to match any other offers the player receives from other teams.  If the previous team decides to let the player go and not to match another teams offer, then they could receive compensation in the form of draft picks based on the qualifying offer of the player.

The remaining eight players are UFA (Unrestricted Free Agents).  These players include Jairus Byrd, Scott Chandler, Brian Moorman, Arthur Moats, Alex Carrington, Thomas Welch, Dan Carpenter, and Jim Leonhard.  Basically for UFAs, they are not under contract and can sign with any team that they choose to.

Of the players listed, I would like to see the Bills make and effort to bring back Byrd, Moorman, Carpenter, and Carrington next year.  Hogan and Summers would be nice additions as they performed well this year, but can be replaced so to say.  Although both are ERFAs so they would need to be approached by the Bills to stay in football.