I still don’t see how both sides are at fault. I agree 100% with the article. How can the Bills have been any clearer? Show up, we’ll negotiate, thats that. Again, I agree with the article and many rumblers who have been saying for some time, the Bills hold all the cards. The play of the Bills O-Line in pass protection (granted its pre-season) hasn’t helped Peters already losing cause one bit. I maintain what I’ve said from the beginning, Peters will show up and play because he has nowhere else to go, he’s under contract for three years. The sooner he stops acting like a baby and negotiates like a man, the better for everyone. He made his point already, which I think he should have, but now show up and negotiate. I am also under the belief that the Bills have been in contact with him to convince him to come back but haven’t been public about it. Its not even like Peters is a running back with a short shelf life like Jackson and must get a huge deal this year or his value will go down. He’s a LT, a position where stars play into their mid thirties, and hes so young. He loses sympathy that I would give to Jackson, who I understand could have his career end at 29 and hes in his prime. Peters just signed a contract and all the Bills are asking is for one more year before inking a new deal, one year in a career that is likely to last ten or more, completely different than a running back. I’ve watched many on this site continue to begin to waver as the season nears because they fear going to an important season without Peters. But the Bills are doing the right thing, the thing myself and many others on this site would do, which is stand firm and watch him collapse because he knows he’s a paper tiger right now.

Except for when he does show back up to camp…….all will be forgiven and forgotten.

That’s the way it should be, but something tells me many Bills fans will not forget easily….

The second quote just seems tanamount to poisoning a well. Why embitter Peters? It’s one thing if he sits out the year because, at that point, it’s pretty clear that he won’t be signing a long term deal with the organization. It’s quite another to turn him upside down and shake him like a 7 year old before he gets into the lunch line….and then ask him to sign an extension.

Totally agree. Why go that far when it would just ruin any relationship between the two sides. If the Bills try to get back some of his signing bonus, he almost has to ask for a trade. That would just be stupid on the front office’s part….

I don’t think the “2008 is non-negotiable” means that he won’t get a new deal this year; I think it just means that any increases from the new deal would start in 2009. There would probably be a sizable amount of guaranteed money that year, of course, either from roster bonuses, base pay, or whatever. I’m not sure if you can defer a signing bonus…

That’s not unreasonable; the front office does have to put numbers on paper for the year pretty soon, and they can’t just have an indeterminate amount earmarked for “Whenever Peters Shows Up”.

The second quote – yeah, that seems a bit odd. Maybe it’s just spear-rattling to threaten Peters and his agent.

is the name that comes to my mind…