What to do with Peters

Peters’ agent is the one who sent him on this ill-advised journey. I would also think the same agent is telling him to wait until after the draft to see what 1st-round tackles will get. If that is true, the Bills are in an unenviable position.

trading him leaves a hole that may be hard to fill before the start of the season.

Inaccurate: it leaves a hole that is impossible to fill with a player as good as Peters

the blame should be placed squarely on the massive shoulders of Jason Peters. He had been given a pay raise before the 2006 season, a five year $15 million deal

Disagree: If you ere growsely underpaid for what you braught to your job, wouldn’t you demand a raise? and if you didn’t get said raise, wouldn’t you want to walk away? And OBD obviously thinks that he is underpaid for what he brings to the table, otherwise they wouldn’t be renegotiating his contract. Even if the two sides don’t agree on what the raise should be, I think that it is at least clear that both sides think that he is deserving of a raise.

fans assume we would get a 1st round pick for Peters, and we may, but that has been debated as well

Yeah, most of us have been debating whether he’s worth one or two draft pics, plus more pics after that. Now I wont pretend to know whether or not OBD is even entertaining the option of trading Peters, but I would at least like to believe that their minimum asking price is a 1st rounder and a few later picks that would amount to a trade that resembles the Jared Allen trade of a few seasons ago (one 1st, two thirds and a 6th). Would they get that much, probably not, but it should be what they aim for should they choose to trade Peters. So…

First round picks are a gamble and they don’t always meet expectations (remember Mike Williams). Trading Peters could leave us with another hole on the offensive line when we still need a LG.

First round picks are only a gamble if you don’t do your homewrok on the pick, hence Mike Williams. And even though there is a hole at LG, whats to say we can’t handle that in the draft either. I’ll agree with you that it is not the ideal situation to be in, but it would be an answer.

If it wasn’t for the fact that we need to get something positive for him if he’s not going to play, I’d be all for letting him hold out the next two years. He wouldn’t get paid, and he’d see how much he was worth after being out of football for two years.

If he held out for two years, he’d still have two years left on his contract when he’d get back, and his best years would be behind him. Holding out ferther brings him absolutly nothing. And I do believe that Brian said that whether he gets his extention or not, Peters has chosen not to hold out this year.

Since winning is the important thing, I think we need him so I hope Peters and the FO reach an agreement.

Finally something I’ll agree with you on. And since winning is what counts, I’ll answer you what to do about Peters. You tnegotiate an extention with him, and if that doesn’t work, you let him play this year and you renegotiate next year. You have NO obligation to trade him, none. The only reason you would have to trade him is if someone makes a godfather offer, otherwise from that, you play him and you move on. End of story.

1. Sign him for 9-10 M/year, not a dime more.
2. Trade him for for multiple draft picks, not less than this year’s 1st and 3rd, plus next years 2nd.
3. Make him play out the remaining 2 years on this contract, franchise him for a 3rd year. Trade him if possible or let him walk as a last resort. That gives us 3 years to find his replacement via the draft or FA.

Im getting quite bored with all of it really……and this will be the last time I post in a Peters thread……Im over all of it.

The team just signed Owens to a 1-year contract. Why, coupled with the looming suspension of Lynch, would they want to further disrupt their offensive line? This will do nothing to help Owens’ and Evans’ production on the field. They want to win now – Peters will make that attempt easier.

progress seems to have slowed to a halt on the negotiations with LT Jason Peters

Says who? Where do you get that assumption from? The Bills and Peters aren’t close on a contract and the negotiations are going slowly, but thats because its March and not because this team isn’t trying to sign him. Buffalo wants to sign Peters and they almost definitely will. And I know his initial contract demands are very high, but they are his initial demands. I used to work at a pizzeria and I was one of the highest paid employees there and I did it by always asking for ridiculous dollar an hour raises and then negotiating a 50 cent raise instead of going in asking for 25 cents an hour and getting 25 cents an hour. Peters is getting about 10 mil per season, but he has to ask for 12 mil per year to get that 10 and the team has to offer him 8 mil per season to get him for 10. It’s a negotiation.

I think trading a future potential superstar LT makes no sense at all. Right now I agree that he is not there but if anyone has the potential it’s Peters. Like everyone, I hate the stance he has taken on this subject and whether or not it his his fault or his agent’s fault he should be a better man than he has shown. All this to say that I think many fans don’t feel much love for the greedy approach he has taken.

I say we draft Oher with the 11th pick and we keep Peters and offer him a decent raise but without breaking the bank (7-8M range) something in the range of what his actual worth really is, not the future worth that he thinks he’ll be in the future. The odds are that he will want to hold out, so be it – let him hold out! We won’t have to pay him. He can only hurt his reputation by doing so. We own his rights whether he wants to admit it or not. If he wants to play hardball we should oblige him and reciprocate. If he refuses a new contract then let him play this one out and cash in when he hits the open market – or actually play like a top LT in 2009 and the the Bills would gladly step up and offer him a contract that he actually deserves. He is very much worth the 3M he currently gets and if he holds out he doesn’t get paid so where’s the problem? That he won’t be happy to play for us? Bogus, because even he understands that regardless what happens he needs to prove his worth when he plays if he ever intends on being the highest paid lineman in the league. We hold all the cards and we need to take a hard line on this one! What this implies however is that we need to draft 2 linemen in order to mitigate our risk level going into 2009. Accepting a lesser trade now makes no sense because we weaken our team in 2009 for no good reason and if we draft a LT in the first round this year and he turns out great, we have even more options in 2010. We are extremely lucky this year because this year’s crop of LTs is extremely deep, so we have options other than Peters. We can just as easily shop Peters next year and still get a 2nd rounder so why accept such a low offer this year? There is no guarantee that next year’s draft will be as deep at the LT position.

So my position is to play hardball with this guy but we need to address the line in the draft. This means that we can’t draft as many “potential” weapons on offense or defense but looking out for this team long term it seems like the smartest move.