Buffalo's Waiver Wire Strategy to Roster Building: Part 1 (2010 season)

by DanRoc on Feb 4, 2012 12:21 PM EST

Recently a lot of discussion has come up about how injury prone the Bills seemed to be this year, and how it hurt our chances at a playoff spot. While the huge amount of injured players (especially a third of our starters) was a big reason for this team's failure to make the playoffs, I think part of the reason for our high number of players on injured reserve is actually a unique approach to building the team that our coach and GM have employed since their first season: Using the injured reserve list in addition to the waiver wire and other roster rules to acquire new players. Because injured reserve allows a team to keep hold of a player's contract while adding a new one to the roster, it can be used to stockpile prospects rather than reserving a spot on the bench for a player who might not recover for a month or more. As we've seen with Fred Jackson and some other players over the last two years, Chan Gailey is not averse to IRing a player with a fairly significant injury if he's expected to miss a large part of the season.

Let's start by looking at the transactions made when the Bills were in Chan Gailey's first season (2010), and see what kind of players we lost and gained.

9/5/2010: Released DB Dominique Harris - 9/5/2010: Claimed OG Kraig Urbik
9/27/2010: Released QB Trent Edwards - 9/28/2010: Signed QB Levi Brown
10/1/2010: Released TE Rob Myers from Practice Squad - 10/1/2010: Added OT Mansfield Wrotto to Practice Squad
10/4/2010: Waived OT Jamon Meredith - 10/4/2010 Promoted OT Mansfield Wrotto to the active roster
10/18/2010: Released DE Ra'Shon Harris - 10/18/2010 Added OG Chad Rinehart to Practice Squad
11/3/2010: Placed OT Cornell Green on injured reserve - 11/3/2010: Claimed OLB Shawne Merriman off waivers

From the start we knew that Gailey would be actively adjusting his roster to bring up better players. Grabbing a 3rd round draft pick who was only in his second season was a great start to the year, when he picked up Kraig Urbik the day after final cuts. Urbik is now a solid starting guard and backup center on the offensive line.

When Trent Edwards proved him wrong by failing miserably at quarterbacking, Gailey took little time to release him and promote Ryan Fitzpatrick. He also brought back their draft pick Levi Brown to the active roster. (Though Brown wouldn't pan out ultimately)

Another chain of transactions we see involved Mansfield Wrotto. While he ultimately was only in the team's plan for the 2010 season, it does show an example of the team finding a player through the practice squad who had a similar floor to someone on the roster (and an arguably higher ceiling) - releasing one and adding the second. Wrotto spent much of the season working as a RT during the Turnstile Tackles games.

We can also see where our #1 offensive line backup came from. By releasing Ra'Shon Harris (who I honestly cannot even remember at all, let alone find on the Bills transaction listings), they picked up a discarded 3rd round draft pick with a year of Practice Squad eligibility left. Chad Rinehart has ended up becoming a plug-in starter at either Guard spot and an outstanding backup.

The last big transaction from the first half of the season was the placing of Cornell Green on injured reserve and the claiming of Shawne Merriman off waivers. This was a very interesting transaction for both parts. First, Green's injury had been reported to not need surgery and not be a season ender, so the injured reserve approach seemed surprising to some. Second, no one expected Buffalo to go after a player so boom-or-bust, so famous, as Lights Out. This represented a major risk on Buddy's part, but showed that Buffalo was going to try any tactic they could to get talented players.

During a busy rest of November, 4 more players would go on Injured Reserve, including Shawne Merriman, Roscoe Parrish, and Andra Davis. Cornell Green was also released. To replace those players, the Bills did a lot of practice squad shuffling, and brought in some young players to get some practice time:

11/10/2010 Promoted WR Paul Hubbard to the active roster
11/19/2010 Promoted FB Jehuu Caulcrick to the active roster
11/27/2010 Promoted WR Naaman Roosevelt to the active roster
11/27/2010 Promoted LB Thomas Williams to the active roster

Heading into December, the injuries continued for Buffalo. Knowing that they were fighting for draft position and the future at that point in the season, I'm sure it didn't take much for Chan to IR any player who had a semi-serious injury. Some very interesting acquisitions came in as a result of the December IR-fest (highlights below):

12/2/2010 Placed DE Dwan Edwards on injured reserve - 12/2/2010 Signed TE Mike Caussin
12/3/2010 Placed LB Reggie Torbor on injured reserve - 12/3/2010 Awarded TE Scott Chandler off waivers
12/6/2010 Placed LB Antonio Coleman on injured reserve - 12/6/2010 Awarded LB Pierre Woods off waivers
12/7/2010 Placed OG Kraig Urbik on injured reserve - 12/7/2010 Promoted OG Chad Rinehart to the active roster
12/11/2010 Waived LB Thomas Williams - 12/11/2010 Signed DT Kellen Heard
12/14/2010 Placed WR Lee Evans on injured reserve - 12/14/2010 Signed OG Colin Brown
12/14/2010 Placed TE Shawn Nelson on non-football injury reserve - 12/14/2010 Signed OT Erik Pears

At the end of the first season, the roster was hugely different from the one Gailey had inherited when he was hired. Though they had placed 13 (by my count) players on injured reserve, the Bills had managed to collect the following players for their future roster:

Kraig Urbik
Chad Rinehart
Shawne Merriman
Mike Caussin
Scott Chandler
Kellen Heard
Colin Brown
Erik Pears

That makes 4 starters (3 solid starters, one always-injured with potential to be good), 1 excellent backup, and 3 young backups. As we'll see when I profile the 2011 season, this approach continued to a smaller extent in the following year. I'll also try and profile a few prospects the Bills might target in the upcoming 2012 season, based on the approach that the Bills front office took since Nix was hired.

Just another great fan opinion shared on the pages of BuffaloRumblings.com.

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Comments

Caussin and Heard

I think both these guys will be solid in the future, and potentially starters (1-3 yrs. from now).

by billsj on Feb 4, 2012 12:57 PM EST reply actions

Awesome Analysis

Great work. It is pretty amazing what Nix is doing. It would be interesting to see how are waiver wire moves compare to some of the top teams.

With the 10th Pick in the 2012 NFL Draft the Buffalo Bills select Dont'a Hightower LB Alabama.

by tomcs on Feb 4, 2012 1:14 PM EST reply actions

As my sig says, “No one circles the waiver wire like the Buffalo Bills!”

Give a monkey a typewriter and infinite time, and he’ll eventually release Maybin. -- stetzwebs
No one circles the waiver wire like the Buffalo Bills!

by thefourwinds on Feb 4, 2012 5:31 PM EST reply actions

We almost got the QB

From Green Bay but they pulled him up to the active roster. I think that could have been a great move since so many people are focused on Matt Flyn.

I like that we got our eyes open though and that no one is off limits

by mike$bills on Feb 4, 2012 7:52 PM EST reply actions

Great post! Rec'd!

"My new cat just farted on my lap. Smells like Bills football." BG.

by SERGEANT MAJOR THOR on Feb 4, 2012 8:39 PM EST reply actions

this has very quietly been the story of buddy nix’s tenure here.
he may not have been able to get a stud QB yet, and there may still be some big holes on this roster, but buddy nix has been very effective so far adding talent to the roster.

look at that two weeks in december. a string of IR’ed guys and nix signs chandler, rinehart, heard, brown, and pears. with each of those the general fanbase was probably thinking “who are these clowns? this team sucks”. 12 months later and 2 of those guys are solid starters, 1 very good backup (rinehart), and 2 decent backups who are still young and improving. thats pretty impressive roster movement considering it was happening after the trade deadline and before free agency….

Its fun to think quarterback, but i think the odds of nix taking one in the first are close to 0%.

by boomsauce on Feb 4, 2012 10:09 PM EST reply actions 1 recs

It’s really kinda ………. just……. nuts! Great job by Buddy.
Garbage turned into steel.

"My new cat just farted on my lap. Smells like Bills football." BG.

by SERGEANT MAJOR THOR on Feb 4, 2012 10:48 PM EST up reply actions

Buddy is definitely a good troller. Most of these guys are “grunts” though – excuse the term. We likely won’t find skill players this way.

by JapanJohn on Feb 5, 2012 2:17 AM EST reply actions

wha?

we got at least 2 starters in that bunch and another guy who could start.

I'd rather go out in a blaze of glory, then slowly fade away in the antiquities of time.

by suteck on Feb 5, 2012 11:02 AM EST up reply actions

By grunts he means lineman and by skill players he means receivers and DBs and the like. And he’s right. It’s a lot easier to pull offensive lineman off the waiver wire than it is to find a CB.

"You mean @TWHITNER. It’s how he prefers to be referenced." - Jon Harrington

by kaisertown on Feb 6, 2012 9:16 PM EST up reply actions

Another chain of transactions we see involved Mansfield Wrotto. While he ultimately was only in the team’s plan for the 2010 season, it does show an example of the team finding a player through the practice squad who had a similar floor to someone on the roster (and an arguably higher ceiling) – releasing one and adding the second.

or this is just another example of Gailey looking for one of his “boys” to be the answer, when they are clearly not capable.

I appreciate your post. I am not looking to nit pick. But what I see, for the most part, is the result of a TON of effort and time, and potentially hindering other people (though, who knows, as everyone got such short looks, because they wanted to find, someone, ANYONE who could plug some of these holes), to get, what? Like 2, maybe 3 starters? (Urbik, Pears- one, who is a monster, and one, who has been kicking around forever, and then Rinehart/Chandler which I feel are maybe long term starting potential, though there is contention there too)

ABAYARDE IS NOSTRADAMUS JUST WATCH WE WILL NOT YIEALD TO NOBODY YOUR SOUL WE WILL TAKE

by ThaRealTruth on Feb 5, 2012 2:50 AM EST reply actions

I agree with your facts

but not with your conclusion. I don’t think anyone would cut Trent Edwards, as crappy as his play was, for Levi Brown. It’s just the nature of injuries in football. Now, I do agree that Gailey was taking advantage of the injuries once they occured to use that system to acquire some measure of replacing talent. Every coach does that. But did he have an active plan to use it? That seems a little farfetched.

Go Buffalo Bills, Utah Jazz, and Arkansas Razorbacks

OUR KING DOME IS HOLLY GROUND YOU CAN ENTER BUT YOU WILL LEAVE WITH OUT A SOUL - Abayarde, Buffalo Rumblings

by Dyl on Feb 5, 2012 2:51 AM EST reply actions

i agree.

Not many successful GMs are looking to build a team from the waiver wire. This is more likely an example of trying to find bodies, with familiarity doing the things you want (ed) to do… and then bringing them in, as you saw them as an upgrade to keeping a guy who doesn’t or wouldn’t translate. All that said, good GMs DO recognize the value of finding actual players on waivers, but those are likely to be few and far between, on a legit team. This is just an example of how much they stripped this thing down, and why they can afford to make changes now, because I expect, they anticipate being given a legitimate opportunity to restructure the whole organization top to bottom. It is too bad we are going to miss out on some of our guaranteed decade of stability, but starting completely over, a tad too late.

ABAYARDE IS NOSTRADAMUS JUST WATCH WE WILL NOT YIEALD TO NOBODY YOUR SOUL WE WILL TAKE

by ThaRealTruth on Feb 5, 2012 3:07 AM EST up reply actions

that is absolutely NOT TRUE

the Pats have over 20 players that were free agents, other team’s castoffs, and 5th or lower draft picks. Good GM’s do take other team’s mistakes and find starters out of them…

I'd rather go out in a blaze of glory, then slowly fade away in the antiquities of time.

by suteck on Feb 5, 2012 11:04 AM EST up reply actions

free agent doesn't equal waiver wire.

i do agree (and in fact already state myself) that good gms recognize the value of finding actual players on waivers, but few compile whole teams off waiver. Free agency is a separate thing to me. waiver, is more like “picked over” free agency. perhaps you feel differently but…. it isn’t “absolutely NOT TRUE”. that, i don’t agree with. It certainly is a place you can find players, but it isn’t where i would want to start, per say.

ABAYARDE IS NOSTRADAMUS JUST WATCH WE WILL NOT YIEALD TO NOBODY YOUR SOUL WE WILL TAKE

by ThaRealTruth on Feb 5, 2012 4:49 PM EST up reply actions

And which of those 20 players were actually other team’s castoffs that now play a significant role for the Pats? Danny Woodhead, Dan Connolly, Rob Ninkovich, Sterling Moore, Antwaun Molden and the one guy who really matters, Kyle Arrington? Every other late rounder or undrafted guy on their team has either never played for another team or was a prominent move by the Pats (ie: signing potential HOFer Brian Waters over the offseason or trading a 2nd round pick for Wes Welker).

"You mean @TWHITNER. It’s how he prefers to be referenced." - Jon Harrington

by kaisertown on Feb 6, 2012 9:26 PM EST up reply actions 1 recs

To be honest, I'm not sure I have a conclusion yet

I agree that some of the roster moves like Wrotto and Brown seemed like exchanging garbage for someone else’s garbage. I just noticed that a lot of writers had been saying the refrain that Buffalo will “build through the draft,” yet we seemed to be raiding other team’s rosters a lot more than the previous regime. My goal with this and the future articles is to see if there is a reason besides replacing injured players for Buffalo’s actions, and if it provides any advantages. Right now I could be swayed either way.

"Give a monkey a typewriter and infinite time, and he’ll eventually release Maybin." - stetzwebs

by DanRoc on Feb 6, 2012 2:39 PM EST up reply actions

Okay

Yeah, that’s the way I tend to operate too, postponing conclusions and posting information and possibilities. that’s just not how most people are, so I took that you were concluding something.

Go Buffalo Bills, Utah Jazz, and Arkansas Razorbacks

OUR KING DOME IS HOLLY GROUND YOU CAN ENTER BUT YOU WILL LEAVE WITH OUT A SOUL - Abayarde, Buffalo Rumblings

by Dyl on Feb 6, 2012 9:58 PM EST up reply actions

rec'd

I love what Nix does with the waiver wires and RFA’s… It’s not as flashy as outbidding teams for big name UFA’s, but he has been very effective in bringing in quality players and improving the roster.

If I’m not mistaken he also tried to get Matt Flynn as a RFA last season but GB matched the offer. Also made a move on Graham Harrell off GB’s practice squad. Nice to see some good league scouting from the front office.

by astrazz2 on Feb 5, 2012 4:59 PM EST reply actions