Let’s face it – Roscoe Parrish is one hell of a luxury item to have.

I have to admit that there was a time when I thought that trading Parrish was a good idea (that was around draft time). But now it would make no sense to trade him. Any player thats a threat to return a punt to the house every time he gets the ball is a fantastic asset to your team. Parrish is that exact typ of player.

To me there are only 3 players in the league that are feared in the return game: Devin Hester, Josh Cribbs and our very own Roscoe Parrish. Everyone else is on a lower level. Thats why getting rid of Roscoe now would be insane.

So lets keep Roscoe around and see if he can nab us a few TD’s this year. Worst case scenario, we have this conversation again at next year’s draft.

I absolutely agree with you, Brian.

Although Parrish’s athleticism and skill have not been a major asset on offense, his ability on punt returns leaves nothing to question. I’m all for keeping him just for the 30 or so punts he’ll return in a season.

Also, putting Parrish on the field with Evans, Owens, and any combination of Reed, Johnson, Hardy, and Nelson could open up some more opportunites for Roscoe and the other receivers. Roscoe still has his sxplosive quickness, so he’s as valuable as he’s always been.

Lastly, it’s not like Roscoe(or the Bills) has had great quarterback play or coordinators while he’s been here. That doesn’t mean Parrish would put up numbers if we had different QB’s or coordinators, but it can be taken into consideration.

I have no problem with keeping him for punt returns only and using him to back up Reed occasionally.

I have an issue when they trot him out as a starter when more competent players such as Steve Johnson are taking second team reps. If he drops on the depth chart to where he deserves to be and we use him primarily as a punt returner OK, I still think that he is a luxury but at this point in the season maybe you’re right.

Sidenote: If PRe-season doesn’t count, then why are we letting McKelvin return kicks? I’d had to see him get injured, we need him on defense.

Why trade the number one punt returner in the league? Yeah he only got in the endzone once last year but his skills are like none other.

Last year I remember starting in the opponents territory so often after Parrish returned a punt. We still never seemed to get any points though :P

I’ve been wondering for a while now, if we’re having serious conversations about keeping “fake safeties” and linebackers that are too small to play linebacker on our active roster solely for their special teams prowess – why in the world would we trade away our single most important special teams player for what would certainly be little compensation?

I say keep Roscoe as long as we can (until he pulls a Jason Peters) and let him do his thing on punts. I also wouldn’t mind if the Bills tried to get him the ball in space more on offense, I realize it hasn’t worked yet but I do remember in the Titans game a flat pass to Roscoe went for about 10 yards after a sick juke had his would be tackler falling on his ass. Throwing a play like that in from time to time might not be a bad thing, certainly better then running on every first down.

Let him score a couple punt returns for TDs and maybe a few electrifying plays on offense if he can be found by Trent, and then see who wants him then. If Hardy gets healthy and learns the game, and Stevie Johnson is the guy, then after this year you could let Parrish go, assuming we then draft some other mid round receiver with potential assuming also that we don’t have to draft a TE for the next 3 years….we’ll see

returned punts pretty well last year as I recall (is there anything he doesn’t do pretty well?). I’d think about waiting until trade deadline to trade Roscoe. That way you give Freddy’s thumb/wrist a chance to heal, Marshawn gets back as #1 RB, and in the best case scenario Roscoe returns a punt for TD to increase his trade value, and we’d have a better sense of what holes have developed because of injury (though there seems to be obvious holes now in LB corp that front office has not seemed interested in plugging).

P.S. Great blog.

Trading Parrish made some sense a few months ago. But what does Buffalo get from trading him now? Is his trade value going to go down over the course of the season? If Buffalo wanted the draft pick, couldn’t they just deal him after the season? All you gain by trading Parrish is an extra roster spot for somebody like Jenkins, Bryan, Stupar, J, Scott, Wendling or whoever (not a big deal to me) and Ralph pockets a few mil that he doesn’t have to pay to Parrish anymore (even less of a big deal).

Parrish is one guy I have never really given a serious thought to trading. He’s too valuable as a returner, whether he makes an impact at WR or not.

It made sense before the draft if we could get a third rounder for him in 2009 and that draft pick could contribute this year. To trade him for a draft pick for next year does nothing for the Bills this year and he’s not prohibitively expensive. Not a whole lot to gain from it.

I am on my way out of town and haven’t read everyone else’s input so not sure if this is reiterating or going against the grain but here’s my thoughts:
It’s obvious by his not returning punts in the preseason that they are not shopping him. If they were they would probably be trying to show how valuable he is to a team by showcasing his returning skills. I still believe he is a hell of a receiver and is haunted by his small stature. It’s almost as if they’re afraid he’ll get hurt but he’s been pummeled over the middle and held on and bounced back up. Almost as if he can’t be hit that hard cause he is so small. Have you ever tried hitting a feather with a baseball bat? Not much impact. Just a thought. Also, it’s not just his ability to return kicks, it’s his judgement and ability to CATCH the punt. I can’t ever remember Roscoe muffing a punt, although much of my memory is floating in beer…He has such a high return average because he doesn’t catch punts that he’s sure he can’t return more than a yard before getting crushed. That’s not being skittish that’s just being smart. Don’t risk 2 return yards for a fumble or an injury. He has breathtaking moves and without him this team probably loses about 50 yards minimum a game in total field position without him fielding punts. His value on the market is crap as well and his value to our team is too high to let go.