The Buffalo Bills have announced that they have placed linebacker Angelo Crowell on Injured Reserve. The move ends the season club's leading tackler from the 2007 season. Keith Ellison is expected to assume Crowell's starting strong side linebacker position; look for the Bills to make a move for a linebacker on the active roster, as the team currently only has five.
Ineresting tidbit:
"Crowell’s decision to have surgery this close the start of the season likely did not sit well with the Bills coaching staff, and their decision to put him on injured reserve, in what is a contract year for the linebacker, likely does not sit well with him.
Crowell will be an unrestricted free agent at the end of the 2008 season, but he’ll be unable to have an effect on his market value with his play on the field this season."
I wonder what this means for Crowell's future with the team... Think there'll be some bad blood?
Editor's Comments, by Brian Galliford: Props to BuffCrunch for breaking the news here. 17 players on IR in 2007, and before a single game is played, we're already at 2 in 2008. This one is fishy though... like, Jason Peters fishy.
I think it's pretty clear at this point that Crowell's brief appearance in the pre-season win over Indy was his final appearance in a Bills uniform. We've been hearing since before the end of the 2007 season that the Bills, while they like Crowell, aren't so enamored with him that they'll break the bank for him. Now the bridges between Crowell and the Bills organization may be ablaze. I don't think it was likely he was a Bill after '09 before this incident; I think he's a goner for sure now.
If I'm Buffalo - and clearly I'm not, because they're simply plugging and chugging with Keith Ellison - I'm sliding Kawika Mitchell over to strong side and starting John DiGiorgio (Buffalo's second-leading tackler in '07) on the weak side. Alas, that won't happen for now; Ellison starts on the strong side, Mitchell stays on the weak side, and we pray to the NFL gods that Ellison learns how to play well.
When did it become such a headache to be a Bills fan? So much promise has turned into so much distraction, and we haven't even taken the field yet... I'm disgusted. Something has to go right at some point.
