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Bills add LB Donnie Spragan

The Bills added veteran LB Donnie Spragan Saturday morning to bolster depth at LB following the loss of Alvin Bowen.  Spragan, a 7 year vet, has good size (6'3", 242 lbs) and provides solid special teams ability, along with experience defensively.

Dick Jauron made it pretty clear that fifth-round pick Alvin Bowen was likely lost for the season after suffering what appeared to be a severe knee injury in practice Friday afternoon. Buffalo decided to fill the void quickly signing veteran free agent linebacker Donnie Spragan Saturday.

Spragan arrived at the St. John Fisher campus shortly after 9 am and signed his contract less than an hour later.

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Sh*tty!!

That really sucks. How come when we lose a guy, we LOSE a guy. Don’t our guys know how to have medium severity injuries? Most of the time they’re either knicked up or completely broken.

Bowen had the hopes of being a special teams impact, a passing down linebacker, and even a long shot for being a starter a year or two down the road. Now we have no idea what kind of player he’ll become. His chance to gain valuable playing experience is lost. It’s sort of like losing Poz last year in the fact that you want to see more(we didn’t get to see anything from Bowen!) and now we have to wait ‘til next year.

by jj24 on Aug 2, 2008 11:45 AM EDT reply actions   0 recs

Call it a testament to our players' hearts

They never do anything half-assed.

by rexob on Aug 2, 2008 3:36 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

This is an interesting signing

He has size that none of the other Bills backup LBs have. I will be cheering for him to outperform Ellison and the other backups enough to be the primary backup on the strong side.

The 7th linebacker will be inactive for games so if the Bills keep a 7th guy (Banks, Buggs, Costanzo) ST ability might not be the most important thing.

If Spragan is the backup on the strong side AND if Digiorgio beats out Ellison to be the primary backup on the weak side (in addition to the middle), Ellison will have to make the team based on his special teams ability.

An interesting thing about Ellison: I was watching some Terrence McGee youtube stuff and Ellison was blocking for a few of his returns.

Is there any chance that the Bills could keep Spragan as the backup SLB, Digi as the backup MLB and WLB and keep a guy like Buggs or Costanzo active as the 6th LB if they outperform Ellison on specials? The Bills could still keep Ellison around as the 7th LB. He would be inactive until somebody gets hurt.

by kaisertown on Aug 2, 2008 2:07 PM EDT reply actions   0 recs

I agree with you

it is a very interesting signing. If anything he has shown that he can at least start in this league if needed as he did at some point for the Broncos and Dolphins. I’m not really sure what his strengths are though, so I’m curious as to what we got here.

McKelvin and Hardy - rookies of the year

by poz on Aug 2, 2008 2:41 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

Spraggan is a good signing

He is a decent all around type backer, not great at anyone thing, but will give you a bit of everything. He won’t be a liability like Ellison is, nowhere near it in fact. He played well for the Phins and Broncos, but since most teams have 1-2 rookies on the roster most seasons that rookies, he wasn’t going to get any sniffs till after someone got hurt.

I think we’ll be OK with him there, and if he plays well and is willing to accept a longer term contract, it would be nice to have him backing Mitchell at the SLB, next season have Bowen at the WLB, and DiGi at the middle. Or have Spraggan replaced Crowell if he is not resigned and have Bowen be the primary outside LB backup.

Fear the mighty helmet wearing gopher, he is coming for your soul....

by WABillsfan on Aug 2, 2008 5:44 PM EDT reply actions   0 recs

whoops, bad grammar here...

most teams have 1-2 rookies on the roster most seasons that rookies

Should in fact read—
“most teams have 1-2 rookies on the roster most seasons that are LBs, so he wasn’t” ......

Fear the mighty helmet wearing gopher, he is coming for your soul....

by WABillsfan on Aug 2, 2008 5:45 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

Might be our Haggan this year.

For goaline and Bear defenses.

GO BLUE!!!

by Kumario! on Aug 4, 2008 11:28 PM EDT reply actions   0 recs

More quality depth

than we’ve had recently at the LB position. Good deal and about time!

Get the Bills back to the big game!

by Blitz on Aug 6, 2008 11:14 AM EDT reply actions   0 recs

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