Bills Daily
  Serving Buffalo Bills Fans Since 1998 
BillsDaily.com is the place for all the Bills news throughout the 2018 off season! Check out our 2018 front office page your one stop shopping for all moves and the complete free agent list!

FEATURES
Home
2018 Schedule Page
Draft 2018
Front Office 2018
Depth Chart 2018
Gameday 2017
Injury Page
Featured Articles
2017 Results
News Archives
Archives Library
Full Latest News Page
Message Board
Twitter Links
Resources/Links
Chat Room

BILLS ON THE NET
Two Bills Drive
Bills Official Site
Buffalo News
Rochester D&C
New York Upstate
WGRZ-TV
WGR Radio
WKBW-TV
WIVB-TV
Bills Mafia
Buffalo Rumblings
NFL.com
ESPN
SI.com
Fox Sports
CBS Sports

BLOGS ON THE NET
Inside the Bills
ESPN's Bills Blog
Buffalo News Bills Blitz

BILLS DAILY
Site Map
Contact Us
Mobile Site
Mobile Injury Page
Link to Bills Daily
About Bills Daily

NEWS ARCHIVES - MAR 14TH - APR 3RD, 2016 PREVIOUS WEEK

Bills Add Some Depth In Free Agency

Offseason Schedule Announced: The Bills announced their offseason schedule which includes five weeks of the four day voluntary conditioning program, three weeks of three day OTAs, a three day rookie minicamp, and three day mandatory minicamp for all players. The voluntary conditioning program begins on April 18th and the offseason program ends with a mandatory minicamp from June 14th to 16th. The complete list of dates is on the right side of the homepage. Homepage.

Carter Visits: The team had two free agent visitors this week as former Falcon DL Kirk Biermann was in town on Tuesday and former Cowboys LB Bruce Carter visited on Friday. He was a 2nd round pick by Dallas in 2011 and recently played insider backer in the Buccaneers 4-3 defense. Biermann was fifth round draft pick and has spent his entire eight year career in Atlanta. His history is also in a 4-3 defense where he played defensive end. Peters Schrager of Fox Sports reports the Bills hosted six Ohio State football players on a big pre draft visit. LB Darron Lee, QB Cardale Jones, CB Eli Apple, OT Taylor Decker, DL Adolphus Washington, and S Vonn Bell reportedly were all in Buffalo Thursday night.

Coaches Promoted: The Bills promoted two offensive coaches. Pat Meyer has been promoted to the team’s offensive assistant and Jason Vrable has been promoted to the team’s assistant quarterbacks coach. Meyer was a football operations consultant in 2015. Vrable has been the team’s offensive quality control coach the past three years.

Mills Deal Official: WR Leonard Hankerson reportedly signed a one year deal last week but the team has yet to confirm that. On Wednesday they made official a report from last week that OT Jordan Mills signed his one year tender worth $1.671M. Hankerson signed with the Bills before the final game of last season and didn't catch a pass. He immediately joins the fray in a battle for a wide receiver spot that is wide open. Mills will battle for the starting right tackle spot, a position where he played a lot down the stretch due to the illness of Seantrel Henderson. Front Office Page.


Thursday March 24, 2016

Bills Reportedly Sign Two: The Bills have reportedly brought two of their own back in the fold. They reportedly agreed to terms on a new deal with free agent WR Leonard Hankerson to a one year deal and OT Jordan Mills reportedly signed his one year tender worth $1.671M. Hankerson signed with the Bills before the final game of last season and didn't catch a pass. He immediately joins the fray in a battle for a wide receiver spot that is wide open. Mills will battle for the starting right tackle spot, a position where he played a lot down the stretch due to the illness of Seantrel Henderson. Front Office Page.


Friday March 18, 2016

Bills Sign Blanton: The Bills have announced they have signed free agent safety Robert Blanton after a free agent visit today. He is the second free agent signing for the team and will add depth to a safety corps that has some issues with Aaron Williams battling back from a serious neck injury and Bacarri Rambo hitting the free agent market after not getting tendered. Depth Chart.

Bills Bring In Safety For A Visit: The Bills brought in another free agent visitor on Friday as former Vikings four year safety Robert Blanton came for a visit. He started 13 games in his only year as a starter in 2013 where he had 111 tackles which was good for third on the team. He played mostly special teams last year as he has played all four special teams unit during his time in Minnesota. He is a former fifth round pick who was backup on the strong side last year.


Wednesday March 16, 2016

Dray Signs: The Bills entertained four free agents the past two days and pulled the trigger on their first unrestricted free agent signing as they agreed to terms with TE Jim Dray. He is a blocking tight end who will likely fill the role Matthew Mulligan had last year. He was a 7th round draft pick of the Cardinals in 2010 and spent the first four years of his career in Arizona. He was with the Browns the past two seasons. He has started 33 of his last 48 games and has 56 career receptions in 87 games with three touchdowns. Greg Roman was Dray's tight ends coach during his senior year at Stanford. Front Office Page.

Four Visit: Now that the initial rush is over the Bills are wading into the shallow end of free agency with their $7.57M in cap space in hand. The team announced that former Cardinals TE Jim Dray has joined former Lions RB Joique Bell and former Jet WR Jeremy Kerley in Buffalo for a free agent visit. Kerley had most of his success under Rex Ryan in New York. Bell started his NFL career in Buffalo as he was in training camp with the team in 2010 and then on the practice squad for a bit. He has had a decent amount of success in Detroit. Dray is a blocking tight end who spent four years in Arizona and was recently released by Cleveland. The team also announced that their former returner Deonte Thompson was in town for a visit yesterday. They need returners and Kerley and Thompson can fill that role.

Kyle Williams Restructures: The Bills continue to open up cap space as they head to the 2nd tier of free agency and the draft. The team restructrued the contract of Kyle Williams two days after redoing Dan Carpenter's deal. Williams lowered his base salary to $4.25M according to Mike Rodak of ESPN. He reports it opneed up $1.75M in cap space and now leaves them with $7.57M to help sign free agents and draft picks. The team is starting to bring in those lower priced free agents as Jeremy Kerley and Joique Bell are reportedly scheduled to visit this week.


Tuesday March 15, 2016

Kerley To Visit: Adam Caplan of ESPN was the first to report that the Bills will be hosting former Jet WR Jeremy Kerley on a free agent visit tomorrow. He is a slot receiver with plenty of history playing for Rex Ryan. His production was way down last year only catching 16 passes for only 152 yards as he was used sparingly in New York after Rex left. He is a solid punt returner finshing last year with a league leading 48 returns. He was second in the league with 411 punt return yards.

Carpenter Restructures: The Bills opened up a little more cap space by doing a minor restructuring of Dan Carpenter's contract. His salary this year drops from $2.025 Million to $1.775 Million. The $250,000 taken off the cap can be earned back by clearing incentives. He also had a $250,000 roster bonus postponed and he will only get it if he makes the club.

Blake Hiring Official: The Bills officially announced the hiring of John Blake as their new defensive line coach. They also made two other adjustments to the defensive staff. They moved assistant defensive line coach Jeff Weeks to work with the outside linebackers. Jason Rebrovich was coaching the outside backers, he will now assist with the defensive line. These are moves that makes sense for the full change in scheme to a 3-4 defense. Rex Ryan addressed Blake's issues in a statement announcing his hiring. "I believe he will do an excellent job in working with the talented players we have at that position. John is a heck of a coach who has worked with many outstanding players and made them better. He endured a difficult time in his coaching career a few years back, but has moved forward with his life and put that behind him. Since that time he has worked with a number of NFL players and earned their respect with his ability to hone their skills and techniques. I don't think you will find better examples of his teaching abilities than the work he has done recently (as a tutor for) Jason Pierre-Paul (of the New York Giants) and Jerry Hughes (of the Bills)."

Bills Reportedly Hire Coach: The Bills have reportedly found a replacement for fired DL coach Karl Dunbar. Several reports say the Bills have hired former Oklahoma head coach John Blake as their new defensive line coach. He was released as a North Carolina coach in 2010 after being investigated for his relationship with an NFL agent. He did not cooperate with the investigation and was given a three-year show-cause penalty which kept him out of football until he was hired by Lamar University last month. Blake has two Super Bowl rings after being the DL coach in Dallas in from 1993-1995.

Dunbar Statement: The awkward timing of the firing of DL coach Karl Dunbar led to speculation that his firing had to have more to it than performance but several reports indicate that isn't the case. It was just a routine firing despite the fact firings don't normally happen in March. The lateness of the dismissal will hamper Dunbar's attempts at getting another NFL coaching job this year. He released a statement that said, "While I am completely surprised and disappointed in being relieved of my duties by the Buffalo Bills, I would like to thank: the Bills organization, Terry and Kim Pegula, Coach Ryan, the other Bills coaches, all of the Bills players and all of the staff in Buffalo. I am especially grateful to the numerous players and coaches who reached out and shared their support of me. I wish them success in the future as I seek my next coaching opportunity.”


Monday March 14, 2016

Firing Official: The Bills announced the firing of DL coach Karl Dunbar. It was first reported by Kimberly Jones of Newsday. In a statement Rex Ryan said, "this was a difficult decision as Karl both played for me and then coached on my staff with two different teams and I have a great deal of respect for him, but I feel we needed to make a change and go in a different direction at this point in time and so I have informed Karl that I am relieving him of his duties. I want to take this opportunity to thank Karl and wish him the best of luck in the future." Dunbar has 11 years experience coaching the defensive line and has been with Ryan since 2012. The timing of the change is odd but the Dline did underperform last year.



News Archives index
Latest News Section
Archives Library
Back to Bills Daily Homepage

 

This site created and maintained by Steve Saslow.
Bills Daily is not affiliated with the Buffalo Bills or the National Football League.
All written material found on this site is Copyright ©2018 Bills Daily.