Bills' Off-Season Strategy

With the 2006 season in the books, the 7-9 Buffalo Bills have established some solid building blocks heading into one of the most important off-seasons in recent memory. The Bills, who remained in playoff contention through Week 16 for only the second time in the past seven seasons, appear to have a solid chance of earning a playoff berth in 2007.

Over the next four months, Buffalo's off-season moves will be scrutinized by armchair GMs all over Western New York and beyond as the team builds for the future. As mentioned earlier in my future post, the Bills have a lot of key free agents this off-season (minus kicker Rian Lindell, who was re-signed to a 5-year, $10 million deal). Rest assured that a lot of important decisions will be made in short order.

From one armchair GM to another, here are some general observations about what I expect the Bills' off-season to look like:

Free Agency Will Be Slow
Unlike last season, when Buffalo's front office looked to replace a lot of players whom they had recently let go (i.e. Mike Williams, Sam Adams, Lawyer Milloy, etc.), Buffalo won't be parting ways with so many big names this off-season. Due to that and the fact that a lot of the Bills' core players are unrestricted free agents, don't expect much in the way of new players joining the team via free agency. Sure, the Bills will likely add a few pieces to their young team, but it would be a bit of a stretch to think that big names such as Lance Briggs and Cato June would come to town. If the Bills do target free agents, they will be second-tier players with growth potential. Marv Levy will not bet the bank on big-name players unless they're Nate Clements and London Fletcher-Baker.

Bye Bye, Nate
It is unlikely that Nate Clements will be back with this team next season. Clements had a solid year for Buffalo, but the fact remains that the Bills' defense is still young, raw and needs a lot of attention in other areas. Marv Levy will try his hardest to get Nate to sign here - Clements has been a very solid investment and seems to fit well in Perry Fewell's defensive scheme. But Nate Clements is easily the best cornerback available on the open market. He will get a huge contract offer from a big-spending owner (such as Washington's Daniel Snyder), and he'll take the money - unless Buffalo's offer is extremely close to or matches offers made by other clubs.

Building Through the Draft
Levy and head coach Dick Jauron are firm believers that to win in this league consistently, you need to draft well consistently. The tandem is looking to build on a 2006 draft that eventually gave the Bills five starters. The Bills will need a draft similar to that one to continue to build this team's depth; look for more offensive linemen, defensive linemen, and linebackers to be targeted. Don't be surprised to see a running back, wide receiver or cornerback added as well. Whatever the position, the 2007 rookie class will be counted on heavily.

Within the next few days I'll be providing a list of the Top 10 "Under the Radar" free agents of the 2007 class that could get some attention from the Bills. These ten players could prove to have surprisingly high value in free agency and would be of particular help to a Bills team looking to end its seven-year playoff drought next season.