It’s time to recap the latest Buffalo Bills news and rumors this offseason.
We’ll examine the recent contract restructurings, free agent visits, coaching changes and draft prospect meetings in this article.
Restructured Contracts:
Dan Carpenter – It’s no secret that Buffalo Bills kicker Dan Carpenter struggled in 2015. He missed the second most extra points in the entire league with six. The only player who missed more was Jacksonville Jaguars kicker Jason Myers.
There were rumors last season that Carpenter was at risk of losing his job. He doesn’t take the kickoffs for the Bills and with his struggles on extra points, it was hard to continue to justify his salary and roster spot with the team.
The Bills took a step this offseason to reduce his cost by lowering his salary by $250,000 in 2016 according to ESPN’s Mike Rodak. They also changed his $250,000 roster bonus, which was due this week, so that it is contingent on him making the roster in September.
Carpenter will have a chance to make this money back with performance incentives next season. The move didn’t save the Bills much but it definitely made Carpenter aware that his roster spot is in jeopardy if he doesn’t improve quickly.
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Kyle Williams – Kyle Williams is one of the Bills unquestioned leaders on defense. He was drafted by Buffalo in the 5th round in 2006 and has never known another professional team. At 32 years old he is coming off a PCL injury that ended his season last year in mid-October.
Williams agreed to reduce his 2016 salary from $6 million to $4.25 million saving the team $1.75 million in cap space. The Bills are estimated to have about $7.6 million in free cap space after the restructuring according to the below tweet from Mike Rodak.
After restructuring Kyle Williams’ deal, lowering his 2016 base salary to $4.25M, the Bills have $7.57M in cap space.
— Mike Rodak (@mikerodak) March 16, 2016
Now let’s take a look at some of the free agents who are being linked to the Buffalo Bills.
Next: Free Agents Who Are Linked to the Buffalo Bills
Free Agents Who Visited:
The Buffalo Bills have been linked to several free agents recently. Let’s examine some of them.
Jeremy Kerley – Yesterday, former New York Jets wide receiver Jeremy Kerley made a free agent visit to Buffalo according to ESPN NFL Insider Adam Kaplan. It’s not a shock that another day went by and another former New York Jet was linked to the Buffalo Bills.
Kerley was drafted by the Jets in the 5th round in 2011. He played four seasons with the Jets under head coach Rex Ryan and five seasons total with the organization.
The Bills recently lost veteran receiver Chris Hogan to the New England Patriots which has caused some to speculate that Kerley could be used to replace Hogan. While they are both average wide receivers who play special teams, Kerley does so as a return specialist while Hogan does not. If Kerley signs with Buffalo he would be expected to compete for the punt returning role now that Leodis McKelvin is no longer with the team.
The Bills already have a large crop of average receivers on their roster who are on par with Kerley’s level of talent so it’s hard to see how signing him would improve the roster.
Jim Dray – Jim Dray has played in the league for six years with the Arizona Cardinals and the Cleveland Browns. He is mostly a blocking tight end. In his best season, he only had 242 yards receiving and has just three total career touchdowns. If the Bills offer him a contract he would compete for a role similar to the one that Matthew Mulligan filled for the Bills last year before he was released during the season to make room for Nick O’Leary.
***Update – Jim Dray has agreed to a contract with the Buffalo Bills.
There were two other free agent visits to the Bills on Tuesday. Let’s take a look at who they are and if they can help.
Next: More Free Agent Visits to Buffalo
Free Agents Who Visited (continued):
Joique Bell – Former Detroit Lions running back Joique Bell was also in Buffalo for a visit yesterday. Bell fell out of favor with the Lions after an injury-riddled 2015 season. He moved down the depth chart behind Ameer Abdullah and Theo Riddick.
Bell is only 29 but he has yet to break through as a premiere back for a team. He has never amassed more than 900 rushing yards in a season and the last time he averaged more than four yards per carry was in 2012. He is solid as a receiving option but even his numbers in that area have declined the past two years.
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Bell got his start in the NFL as an undrafted free agent. The Bills were the team that signed him to their practice squad but that doesn’t mean that the Bills should seek a reunion with Bell.
The only purpose he would serve on their roster would be as a fill-in if LeSean McCoy is forced to miss time due to an altercation that happened at a bar earlier this offseason. Karlos Williams and Mike Gillislee are better options as a complement to LeSean McCoy than Bell.
Deonte Thompson – Deonte Thompson is an extremely fast wide receiver. His 40 yard dash time at his pro day was 4.31 seconds. He was originally signed in 2012 as an undrafted free agent by the Baltimore Ravens.
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He was signed by the Bills at the end of 2014 and competed for a roster spot with the Bills in 2015 before he was waived due to an injury. He eventually landed on the Bears roster but did not make much of an impact on the team.
He would not cost much and with his upside he could be a good addition to the competition that will shake out in training camp for roster spots amongst the Bills wide receivers.
Next: Coaching Changes
Coaching Changes:
Karl Dunbar – Karl Dunbar was fired by the Buffalo Bills this week. It would not have been surprising to see him fired right after the end of the season based on the performance of the defensive line but the timing of his firing (two months after the season) is a bit curious. We examined what might have happened in a previous article.
John Blake – John Blake was selected as Karl Dunbar’s replacement as the defensive line coach. Blake was set to coach the defensive line at Lamar University in 2016. Several years prior to being hired by Lamar University, he was the defensive line coach at UNC.
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He resigned from his role at UNC due to an NCAA investigation into whether he was receiving monetary compensation from an NFL agent. Blake was penalized by the NCAA but still maintains his innocence to this day.
The Buffalo Bills wasted no time in bringing Blake in shortly after announcing that they fired Karl Dunbar. You might conclude that the Bills had reached out to Blake before the Dunbar firing was official to confirm his interest in the role.
Blake, like many of the other Bills additions in the past year, has ties to head coach Rex Ryan. Rex Ryan was the defensive coordinator for Oklahoma for a season while Blake was the head coach. Things have come full circle as Rex will be Blake’s boss with the Bills.
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Jason Rebrovich – Jason Rebrovich will coach the defensive line along with John Blake. Last season, Rebrovich coached the outside linebackers for the Bills. He will be swapping positions with Jeff Weeks who was previously the assistant defensive line coach for the Bills.
Jeff Weeks – Jeff Weeks will now coach outside linebackers for the Buffalo Bills. Weeks was the assistant defensive line coach for the Bills last season. Essentially he swapped roles with Jason Rebrovich who will now be coaching the defensive line while Weeks coaches the outside linebackers.
Now that we’ve gone over the coaching changes which draft prospects are the Bills interested in?
Next: What Draft Prospects Are The Bills Interested In?
Draft Prospect Visits:
According to WalterFootball.com, below are a list of the players in the 2016 draft who the Bills have met with broken down by visit type.
It’s hard to read too much into these interviews because teams will often purposely meet with a player to throw off other teams and will sometimes choose not to meet a player that they really like so that another team doesn’t know that they are interested in them.
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One common trick is if you like one particular QB in the draft to meet with several so that other teams cannot get a read on which one you like. The Bills could be doing that this year as they met with five quarterbacks including Jared Goff, Kevin Hogan, Paxton Lynch, Christian Hackenberg and Dak Prescott.
One-third (8 of 24) of all the players on this list are from Clemson where Rex Ryan’s son plays football. The Bills saw five defensive ends and five quarterbacks which was the most of any position. The next position with the most amount of interviews was a tie between wide receiver and linebacker which are also two important positions of need for the Bills.
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At this point, it’s tough to tell which visits were a smokescreen and which involve players who the Bills truly desire for their roster. We’ll get a much clearer picture of that during the 2016 NFL Draft on April 28th – 30th.
So that’s it. You’re now all caught up on the latest Buffalo Bills news and rumors. Time to kick your feet up, relax and wait for us to report some more news. Until then!