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NFL teams can begin contacting free agents on Saturday, March 7, and if you believe the latest from Jason La Canfora of CBSSports.com, the Buffalo Bills may or may not use this weekend's early negotiating window to contact the representatives of guard Mike Iupati and linebacker David Harris.
PHI and BUF will be very active. PHI to target Byron Maxwell, Jason Worilds, Devin McCourty among others. BUF like David Harris, Mike Iupati
— Jason La Canfora (@JasonLaCanfora) March 5, 2015
There are very easy dots to connect between the Bills and these two free agents, and those dots have been connected on daily repeat for well over a month now: Harris spent the last six seasons playing for head coach Rex Ryan with the New York Jets, while Iupati spent the past four seasons playing for offensive coordinator Greg Roman with the San Francisco 49ers.
So, sure. The Bills probably like those guys. That's a pretty safe assumption.
Harris is 31 years old, and has enjoyed a wildly productive career playing in Ryan's defense. He has 884 tackles, 30 sacks, nine forced fumbles and six interceptions in his excellent eight-year career, which is otherwise devoid of accolades (i.e. he has never even made a Pro Bowl). In Buffalo, he would conceivably displace one of the team's two projected starting linebackers, Nigel Bradham and Preston Brown, from the lineup on a routine basis, and especially on run downs. His name has become much more popular this week, however, following the trade of Kiko Alonso to Philadelphia for LeSean McCoy.
Iupati, who will be 28 in May, will command a pretty penny on the open market - and that's worth noting, as the Bills have previously been unwilling to pay premium dollar for quality guard talent. Given his deep intimacy of Roman's offense, plus the fact that he is one of the best in the business (he's a three-time Pro Bowl player with a first-team All-Pro to his name), the Bills could conceivably be willing to bend that philosophy a bit, especially given how run-heavy they're going to be on offense.
Teams can begin signing free agents at 4:00 p.m. ET on Tuesday, March 10. It's at that point that this week's trades, in which the Bills moved Alonso and shuffled draft picks to land McCoy and quarterback Matt Cassel, will become official, as well.