I posted this on the other thread… however it fits perfect here…

The Bills have all the cap room in the world to sign any of these guys including Coles and Taylor, plus do deals with Jason Peters, however they choose not too for whatever reasons. This only leads me (and many other fans) to believe they are being cheap. What were they at the start of last season $20 million under the cap? To me, we can count on that same level of spending or less this year.

We’ve probably had more players visiting OBD than any other team so far this year. What for? My guess is that they are bargain shopping and kicking the tires of these players to see if they will in fact give Buffalo a "discount" to sign with them. Taylor and Coles didn’t budge, Greer didn’t give either. Our only hope is that no other team steps up and draws interest in these players so that they have no other choice but sign with us for a discount.

At least Ralph and the inner circle can say that they "tried" to sign players or bring in talent when we are faced with answering questions why our team can’t score or stop the scoring next year.

Who ever believed that the Bills were going to make a "splash" this year with FA because of what transpired last year and how much the fanbase was disgruntled, is sorely being taken advantage of. The draft is another story you say and we’ll make a splash there… well so does every other team! Everybody gets better because of the draft.

Our only chance to make a "splash" is through FA or trades. So far, all we have been doing is spinning our wheels, kicking tires, and bargain shopping so Ralph can keep $20 – $25 million more in his pocket compared to those other teams that actually "spend to the cap".

Look at all the teams in the league and ask yourselves which ones made a “splash” and then follow that up with which types of splashes you would have wished the Bills had made?
Now, most teams didn’t make a “splash” and for the Bills, outside of Coles there wasn’t anyone they brought in that would have been an impact player they couldn’t get elsewhere.While i don’t like the current coaching staff and FO, I don’t think they are cheap in a bad way. Donahoe was a big splasher, and what did that give us. Oh yeah, nothin!

What do you want OBD to do?

Sign medicore players to make a “splash”
I live near NYC and the Jets didn’t come out on top of their FA spending frenzy from last year. Yes other markets have more money than Buffalo. I was born and raised buffalo for 26 yrs. I am 29 and live near NYC. Trust me, the Jets have Millions more to spend than the Bills could dream of…………

Now the Jets are back to square 1. You need a QB to win in this league. At least we can hope T. Edwards becomes serviceable to build around. I hate to say this, but T. Edwards reminds me alot of T.Brady in his first 2yrs in the league, minus the injuries.

Brady couldnt even hit a deep route consistantly his first few yrs (Losman can though). Give trent time…..and let OBD draft the team of the future. FA spending should only fill in medicore talent. This FA class stinks compared to most. Dont overspend for bad talent.

It was just a couple of years ago that Buffalo stunned the NFL by handing out enormous contracts to Dock and Walker. If memory serves, the total on those two deals was about $75 million. You can make the case that Buffalo could have done more in free agency or made a (better) play for this player or that. You can’t, however, make the case that Wilson is unwilling to spend money.

OBD isn’t going to sign guys to expensive contracts just to do it. Coles? Come on! There are better ways to spend 5% of the 2009 cap space than a possession receiver. Coles will put up some nice yards in Cincy….and the Bengals will still suck. When it comes to getting bang for the buck there wasn’t much to be had this offseason. Buffalo responded accordingly.

i live 1500 miles away and there no way i could get season tickets

also i have been to every game they have played in jax since i moved here

The Bills are nowhere near cheap and anyone who complains about Buffalo not “spending” enough money is simply uninformed.

How many teams are in the bottom few in the league in population of their home city, average income of their fans, ticket prices, big businesses that support the team etc…. I’m going to go over those numbers just to show everybody how much of an econonic disadvantage the Bills are really at:

Buffalo is the 46th largest city in the US when you add in suburbs and the smallest market of any NFL team. Our 2007 population was about 1.1 mil according to the US Census Bureau. Places like NY, Houston, Dallas, Miami, Chicago and Philly have 5 times as many potential ticket purchasers. Indy, Milwaukee (Green Bay) and Jacksonville are the only other NFL teams with populations under 2 mil. So even “small market” teams like Pittsburgh and Cincy have about twice as many people living in and around the city as Buffalo does.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Table_of_United_States_Metropolitan_Statistical_Areas

The greater Buffalo area has an average income of $38,352. That isn’t even just the city, that is every man woman and child living in Erie, Niagara and Cattaraugus County. Washington DC’s average income is $72,800. And when nobody lives in your city and when nobody in your city makes money it’s pretty tough to have high ticket prices. The Bills had an average ticket price of 51 dollars. It’s well known that its the lowest total in the league, but I bet people don’t know that there are only 3 other NFL teams whose totals are below 60 bucks. The NFL average is over 72 dollars and the teams that consistently make big FA splashes like Dallas, Washington, NE and the Jets all charge 80 or more for your average ticket. The evil Patriots charge almost 118 dollars per ticket.

http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/article/123936

So Buffalo is at a disadvantage right off the bat. But I also think it’s completely untrue that Buffalo doesn’t spend on players. Buffalo paid their players 113.4 mil last year in salary and bonuses. That is the 16th most in the league so that means that Buffalo spent more than 16 other teams. Buffalo also started this offseason with a lot of 2009 salary that they had to pay. Before they even resigned any of their own FAs, Buffalo had about 85 mil on the books for the upcoming season. That is more than Kansas City paid their entire team last year. If Buffalo did nothing but resign their own players, give Peters an extension that includes a sizeable signing bonus and keep the 11th pick in the draft, Buffalo probably would have matched last year’s 113 mil in spending and depending on the Peters contract could have exceeded that by a large margain. If Peters gets a contract similiar to Jordan Gross and signs a few more FAs, we might actually be watching one of the 10 highest paid teams in the league next year.

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/football/nfl/2008-11-05-salaries_N.htm

The salary cap is a terrible way to determine how much teams are actually spending on their rosters. When players get signing bonuses the salary cap spreads them out over the length of the deal. Buffalo tends to not give big signing bonuses and instead puts the guaranteed money into other bonuses that are in the first couple years of the contract. This will always make the Bills look like they have more future cap space then they really do. The salary cap has become largely irrelevant. Calling Wilson or the Bills cheap because they currently have more salary cap space than other teams is about as uninformed of an opinion as anyone can have about the economy of the NFL.

It’s not that the Bills are cheap, it’s that they don’t evaluate talent all that well. If our drafts were better, our team would be better and we’d be able to bring in players that see this team as a winner.

The biggest problem isn’t spending money, it’s spending it correctly.

“The biggest problem isn’t spending money, it’s spending it correctly.”
We have a winner!
That’s exactly it. I wasn’t pleased when they just signed Fitzpatrick, but sometimes a conservative approach isn’t bad. Although N.E. has made some big time free agent splashes sometimes they play it very conservative and get players nobody else wants and gets value for them. So in my opinion it is never the big names, it is never the money, it is how much value you get out of each player on Sunday, it’s about filling in holes and weaknesses on your football team.

I intentionally spend no money on the Bills because it’s the only tangible way I, as a fan, can make my displeasure felt at OBD. If enough people who really had problems with the organization wanted to make a statement, they’d do the same. But most never willl.

a post that Geronimo put up a few days ago. Might shed some light on the Bill’s financial situation.

http://www.buffalorumblings.com/2009/3/4/780838/coles-goes-to-cincinnati#12758996

This is not a rich team folks, they can’t spend like the Redskins or the Cowboys do and they have NO ROOM FOR ERROR when they sign free agents. So while you call them cheap, i’ll call them constructively cautious.

WE JUST SIGNED TERRELL FREAKING OWENS! If OBD is cheap then they’re doing a great job of hidding it.