Parrish, position mates have upside as a unit (Photo Source)

So I was searching through some vintage Rumblings, and one thing that struck me was the look of the Buffalo Bills' wide receiver position. Last year the Bills kept five receivers: Lee Evans, Peerless Price, Roscoe Parrish, Josh Reed, and Clay Sam Aiken. When looking at that group of guys I don't see a very bright future; of course, that is easy to say knowing how the year played out, but even then it was tough to see a bright future. Lee Evans is Lee Evans, a solid, border line true blue #1 receiver; Roscoe is a terrific slot receiver; and Josh Reed is an average at best receiver (I'll say at best an average receiver to make Superfan82 happy).  After that, neither Price nor Aiken offered much in the way of upside.

One year later, it's a much different story. The three best from last year - the same three with the best upside and talent - remain, and the newcomers to the roster all show tremendous potential.

James Hardy: The Bills' second round draft choice out of Indiana has the size and ability to be a huge playmaker in the NFL. He could be starting opposite Evans before the year is out, and probably will be sooner than that.

Justin Jenkins: A special teamer a year ago, Jenkins saw limited time at the end of the year and has distinguished himself as a special teams ace, as well as a guy who can play the position of receiver - something that Aiken could never do.

Steve Johnson: The second of the Bills' three seventh round draft picks this year, Johnson displayed good size and hands during the preseason and earned himself a roster spot for his efforts.

Felton Huggins: I'm writing this with the assumption that Huggins will make the practice squad, given that he was there last year. Huggins looked as just as good as Johnson did this pre-season, and if the Bills had chosen to keep Huggins over Johnson I don't think any of us would have been totally shocked.

Huggins' presence on the practice squad is worth mentioning because of his potential, and that is essentially the point I'm trying to make here: potential is something that the Bills' receiving corps suddenly has a ton of.  In trying to look ahead to next year's group, the Bills will have Evans (assuming he signs that extention we keep hearing is so close), Roscoe, Hardy, Reed (unless the Bills make Superfan82's decade by cutting him), Johnson, Jenkins, and Huggins. In other words, the Bills could have the same guys coming into camp next year, and we don't see it as a BAD thing.

That's a nice change for this team to make - and what's more, it's important to have upside amongst a group that needs to grow with its young quarterback, Trent Edwards.  This is an exciting receiving corps.

...Well the second half of it anyway. I got home late and was only able to catch the 2nd half of last nights game, but a few thing still stood out to me.

1- The Sharpe/Sanders/Faulk trio could only have been worse if the NFL network swaped Sharpes, Sterling (a guy who I've always liked as both a player and analyst) for Shannon.

2- I was Impressed with a couple of guys, most notably Hamdan. He kinda seems like a combo of both J.P. and Trent. Good arm, good mobility, (like J.P.) and better smarts and pocket awarness (like Trent) I don't think there is anyway he isn't on the 53 man roster. Bruce Hall looked pretty good to me aswell. I think he sticks on the PS. Youboty is making this roster unless he gets traded.

3- Some guys who I'm not so impressed with so far, has been Wright (who hasn't, as sure as I am of Hamdan making the team, I'm just as positive Wright gets cut), Felton Huggins worked his way off the team last night me thinks. Hardy...Hardy...Bueller...Bueller. Hard to kill the guy for being hurt but I would be nice if he got on even the practice field before the opener. I never thought I would say this, but is anybody else more confident right now with Youboty on the field then McKelvin?

4- The overall defense has really looked good to me. I know they didn't face Manning last night, or even Sorgi, but if McKelvin doesn't get burned on that long play, they would have shut out the Colts in there own building. Couple that with last weeks win over the Steelers and the Bills have had 2 really nice showings against 2 pretty tough AFC teams. I know it's preseason, but I can't help but get stoked at that.

5- Echoing Arrow's fanpost about Turk, is anybody else chomping at the bit (what the hell does that mean anyway?) to see the Bills play a full game with the starters with Turk's offense? I sure am.

6- I don't want to pine over it for long, and I know that it sounds as if Walker will be ready for the opener, but this team can't go with Chambers and Estes (or some version there of) for too long, like more then a quarter.

I just wanted to vent a little here, so bear with me.

1- Jason Peters. Wake me when he either comes back or makes it offical that he is retiring. I fully understand that he is the most important player on the offensive line, and he is critical to this season, but enough is enough. It's gotten to the point that unless it's "HE'S BACK!" I don't want to hear it. We've all heard the same arguments, some say just give him what he wants, others say play hardball. Right now I just don't care, just tell the Bills what to do already, expect his return or plan on moving on with out him.

2- I'm really tired of Jerry Rice's goofy grin staring out at me every time I visit this site.

3- I'm sick of waiting for the season to start. Maybe it's just the long wait between preseason games, but I'm itching to watch some football.

That's it really. I guess it wasn't too much, but I thought it was worth sharing.

First a small rant. This does kinda go back to what I bitched about when Willie was fired, I still see this as Omar's fault. The Bullpen sucked last year and his big off-season fix was .....Matt Wise? If this team fades down the stretch due to shitty bullpen work, Omar needs a swift kick in the hindquarters out the door IMHO.

O.K. enough bitching time to start fixing.

In order to fix anything you have to diagnose the problem(s). So I will start with a brief look at each bullpen pitcher.

Wags - has been solid with the exception of a few blips. easily the best of the lot. (Keep)

Dirty - his arm is obviously tired no matter what he claims. with a little more rest down the stretch he could still be effective. (Keep)

Joe Smith - Has been very up and down, looks nasty 1 day and crappy the next. he is still young and effective vs. righties for the most part. (Keep)

Pedro2 - Has lots of value as a LOOGY but needs to avoid righties like the plague. (Keep)

Show - Ugh...need I say more (Shit Can)

Heilman - Looked like a stud after his first two appearances this year and it's been down hill since. Not sure why everyone want to make him a starter, he sucks as a reliever, what makes anybody think he would be a good starter? (Shit Can)

Big Eddie - Has looked O.K., not spectacular. Needs more MLB work, so I say...(Keep)

So going by this I would lose both Heilman and Show. I fully realize that Show has little to no trade value and would need to be DFA'd. Heilman on the other hand is the kind of guy that Dave Duncan pulls off the scarp heap and turns into a 17 game winner. Unfortunately Duncan isn't leaving the Cardinals and the Mets don't have a coach of his caliber. The Mets are really stuck because players like Fuentes and Grabow will cost an arm, leg and Mr. Met's first born, so trading is really not an option. So the Mets are left with calling up players form the minors. At this point I don't care if it's Willie Collazo, Eddie Camacho, Carlos Muniz, Ruddy Lugo, Edue Brito, or Ivan Maldonado. They can't be any worse then the slugs who are currently there. If nothing else they can eat innings and rest the 1 1/2 guys who get it done.

Peters' camp holdout reaches Day 10 (Photo Source)

That is the question the Buffalo Bills have to ask themselves; or more specifically, "What if Jason Peters doesn't play this year...or longer?"

We can debate all day about what is going on with Jason Peters.  He could be simply holding out for more money, he might not want to cut his vacation short, maybe he has grown to hate training camp and feels that the fines are worth it not to attend, maybe he has lost his desire to play football. At this point the only thing that is obvious is that nobody has any idea where he is or why he isn't at camp.

So what does Buffalo do moving forward, armed with what little they know about Peters' situation?

The 2008 Season
The Bills can't replace Peters on the roster this year, and nobody like him will be available before the season starts. They can, however, reshuffle the line to make up for his absence. Moving Brad Butler outside to RT (his position in college) and going with Jason Whittle, Christian Gaddis or even (gulp) Duke Preston at RG is one option. Brian mentioned Friday that he thinks current RT Kirk Chambers could be a surprise cut, and showed several reasons as to why he thinks that way (specifically, the increased reps of Matt Murphy and Demetrius Bell).  Could it be however, that the Bills are preparing themselves for Peters' potential absence? 

None of these options are anywhere near as attractive as Peters showing up and playing, but the fact is that those are the options that the Bills will have to deal with because All Pro left tackles aren't just available, especially this time of year. There will be some players that become available before the season starts, guys who would be upgrades to players like Chambers or Murphy, but none are going to be comparable to Peters. I guess what I'm trying to say is that that Bills can't replace Peters this year, they can only try to mask his absence.

Future
At this point the Bills are forced to assume Peters *might* not play this year, which is why they are trying out players at different positions. If Peters does indeed sit out the 2008 season it is a safe bet he could never play again, at least for the Bills.  If that were to be the case obviously the Bills will need to find his replacement, because let's face it - names like Chambers, Whittle, Walker, and Murphy are not long term answers.  Come draft time you will hear names like Ole Miss LT Micheal Oher, Alabama LT Andre Smith, Virginia LT Eugene Monroe, and LSU LT Ciron Black.

Conclusion
I'm finding it more and more difficult to believe that all of this is purely about money. If it was, I would think that Peters would be more out in the open, and be more vocal about wanting a new contract. The fact that nobody has heard from him, to me, says that something else could be at the heart of the matter.  It's time we talk about the long-term ramifications of his absence.  Maybe this is being a little too extreme - there is, after all, still plenty of time for Peters to show up and get his game regular-season ready - but maybe it's not.  The odds say it is, but never say never.  You can bet the Bills' front office executives are having these thoughts, even if they're only in the backs of their minds.

Maybe Marshall Faulk is a lot smarter then we've all given him cedit for.

So I'm looking through the latest Bills Digest and I see a list of players that are at Bills camp. I thought I would try to do a roster prediction using those players listed. I believe that the final roster and subsequent practice squad will be filled out with some players from other teams, that always happens. It would be near impossible to predict all of those so I'm going about this knowing it will be wrong, but here it goes anyway.

Quarterback (3)

- Trent Edwards - J.P. Loseman - Gibran Hamdan

Runningback /Fullback (4)

Marshawn Lynch - Fred Jackson - Dwayne Wright - Darian Barnes

Wide Receivers (6)

Lee Evans - Josh Reed - James Hardy - Roscoe Parrish - Justin Jenkins - Steve Johnson

Tight Ends (4)

Robert Royal - Derek Fine - Derek Schouman - Courtney Anderson

Offensive Line (8)

Jason Peters - Derrick Dockery - Melvin Fowler - Brad Butler - Langston Walker - Jason Whittle - Kirk Chambers - Christian Gaddis

Defesive Ends (5)

Aaron Schobel - Ryan Denney - Chris Ellis - Chris Kelsay - Ryan Neil (DE/LS)

Defensive Tackles (4)

Marcus Stroud - John McCargo - Kyle Williams - Spencer Johnson

Linebackers (7)

Poz - Angelo Crowell - Kawika Mitchell - Alvin Bowen - John DiGiorgio - Jon Banks - Blake Costanzo

Cornerbacks (5)

Terrence McGee (McKee?) - Jabari Greer - Leodis McKelvin - Will James - Reggie Corner

Safety (5)

Donte Whitner - Bryan Scott - John Wendling - Ko Simpson - George Wilson

Specialists (2)

Brian Moorman - Rian Lindell

Practice Squad (8)

Xaiver Omon (RB) - Jason Jones (WR) - Robert Felton (G/C) - Demetrius Bell (T) - Teraz McCray (DT) - Marcus Buggs (LB) - Kennard Cox (CB/S) - Nevin McCaskill (C)

I know that it is strange to keep so many WRs but I think that both Steve Johnson and Justin Jenkins make this team. Jenkins is solid on special teams and they really need Johnson's size, at 6-2 he is the 2nd tallest WR at camp. Parris(5-9), Reed and Evans (5-10), and Jenkins (6-0) are all shorter.

As afr as the LBs go, I think Costanzo's size plus the special teams ability of guys like Buggs and Bowen, make Ellison a goner. (just my prediction)

Surprise cuts;

Jason Jefferson - Keith Ellison - Matt Murphy - Duke Preston (surprise?) - if he's not traded Ashton Youboty.

O.K. gripe/pick/scream/yell away.

The question that I have been pondering for a few eeks now is this; Should the Mets make a deal before the trade deadline? And if they did who or what would they target?

I still believe that this teams biggest need is for a corner outfielder. Even when Church comes back, Endy is not an everyday player, Tatis is usefull but not great, and Anderson is proving to be pretty much worthless.  Even if Church comes back there is no saying that he won't just get injured again. I think a corner outfielder is a must, followed by some bullpen help.

What does everyone else think?