Jairus Byrd Moving On?

With the season now over and lockers cleaned out we will have to wait until next season to see if this team can finally reach the playoffs but first this offseason will be a busy one. Things on the agenda thus far include: looking for a receivers coach, making sure your hopefully franchise quarterback is back and ready to play injury free and also of course looking at your roster and making the necessary changes to upgrade it. One question that may have already been answered is the status of Jairus Byrd.

Byrd stat wise had a pretty good season but from many indications was not very happy with the Bills organization. The reasoning as much of you know is because of the franchise tag that was put on him earlier this year. The tag pretty much means the player is going to get paid a profitable salary but what it lacks is the guaranteed money tied in with no multiyear commitment.

Regarding Byrd he was not present in the 3 hour allotted time that reporters were granted access to talk to the players yesterday. Byrd not being there may have been expected by some but it was what was in his locker that had people talking. Safety and fellow friend/teammate Aaron Williams left a jersey signed along with what seemed to be at farewell message. It read

“To Byrd Man “, “Preciate everything you’ve done for us. Wish you the best of luck. Ball out for Jesus. Phil 4:6”.

To me something has to be known within the locker room or maybe just Williams because this just doesn’t happen. I think if there was any hope of resigning him this would have never happened. Was Byrd told he was only going to be offered a certain number or are the Bills not even going to offer him a contract? I know it was said that they would be but as this plays on we may see it was just used as a cover to keep away from any confrontation for the time being.

That being said I think the way Byrd has gone about this whole process hasn’t been the greatest but I can see his side. I don’t believe he should be paid as a top one-two safety but possibly a top five. Seeing what Byrd is asking for I can’t see the Bills budging. It sure will be interesting as he’s a good player but how good according to the Bills will determine if he’s on the team next year or not. If Byrd is not back next season look for the Bills to possibly go after HaHa Clinton-Dix (Alabama) if  he decides to enter the draft.