I'm expecting a veteran LT before week 1

I've been reading a lot of articles recently that the Bills are a heavy contender in the Gaither trade talks.  Just this morning in the article by Patrick Moran, he was suggesting that Ozzie wanted McKelvin in a potential player swap.  I almost fell off of my chair!

Let me first start by saying that trading any of our up & coming stars would be a grave error by the Nix Administration.  McKelvin was taken with an 11th overall selection, was the top CB in that draft class and has shown enough glimpses of what he could become to realize that he is definitely a long term keeper.  Lets not panic and let's not sell the farm to fix one problem and create another.

After the break I'll breakdown both potential veteran free agents that are currently available one the market and I'll outline why only one of them should be on our radar!

Jared Gaither

At 6'9" 340lbs, he is a dominating Giant.  He has the size to dominate, especially in the running game.  The rumor is that Jared Gaither is in John Harbaugh's dog house and has been ever since his arrival as Head Coach.  Gaither, a supplemental fifth rounder in 2007 was drafted by Harbaugh's predecessor.  The knock on Gaither is his work ethic and maturity.  Most believe that Gaither could be a top 5 tackle if he could just apply himself and give more effort.  Meanwhile, in 2009 when Michael Oher fell to Ozzie & John at #23, due in large part to the complete idiocy of OBD but I digress, Harbaugh saw his chance to replace a talented but troublesome misfitted player at a pivotal position and he pulled the trigger and selected Michael Oher.  Now a year later, they are in a position to move Oher to the blindside and move the Lazy Giant.

I personally think John Harbaugh is a very solid coach.  I think he brings a lot of energy and passion to what he does and I think he expects the same out of his players.  Harbaugh had all of the 2008 season to evaluate Gaither and then decided to draft Oher anyways, which leads me to think Gaither is really a lazy Giant.  What makes it worse is the fact that he's in his final year.  Normally if you trade for the guy, you'd want to lock him up long term at the same time but imagine if he is lazy when he's working for his paycheck what it will be once he cashes in?  What makes it even worse is the fact that he wants to be paid like one of the top tackles in the league!  Then again, I look at the Denver situation with McDaniels and I realize that maybe Gaither and Harbaugh just rub each other the wrong way and Gaither is not motivated to work for the guy, it could be right?  Cause in the McDaniels case, I would have taken Cutler, Marshall or Scheffler in a friggin flash!  In their case I think it was a very cocky head coach that did not like guys that he can't fully control.  So maybe it's a similar situation in Baltimore?

Jammal Brown

6'6" 313lbs, a former first round pick in 2005 (13th pick overall, first OT taken off the board).  He has 5 years of starting experience and is a solid young veteran LT.  He was sidelined with a hip & sports hernia injury in 2009 but is said to be back to 100% since the surgery.  After winning the superbowl without him last year without too much drop-off, the Saints are willing to move the veteran and get something in return, especially after giving out such a large contract to Jarhi Evans, it's hard to believe that they could afford to give Brown a huge payday when a guy like Bushrod could easily take the spot.  Brown is a hard working, athletic tackle that could bring instant stability to the Bills Line. 

Interesting Tidbit:  Adrian Peterson's best year as a sooner was incidentally Brown's final year (2004) where he ran for 1925 yards (5.7y average) and 15 TDs.

My opinion

In my opinion we should be targeting Jammal Brown.  He is a top notch LT with very little risk.  Gaither on the other hand is a huge risk for a team in the early stages of a rebuild process.  Lazy people do not tend to change, they just get lazier.  

I expect us to pull off a trade before training camp for one of those two players and I am praying that it will be Jammal Brown.