Crowell done for the year
The Bills led the NFL with 17 players on the season-ending injured reserve list last year. It didn't take long for the Bills to start another I.R. list. The team announced that outside linebacker Angelo Crowell is done for the year. The news came a few hours after coach Dick Jauron told the media that Crowell had elected to have arthroscopic surgery on a left knee that has bothered him since training camp.
The strange part of this story is knee scopes generally are not season-ending procedures. Was the knee more damaged than the Bills are telling us or is there some other reason Crowell is out. He was entering the final year of his contract, and playing on a bad knee might have hurt his value at the end of the year. I'm not saying that is why he was shut down, but it's a thought worth considering.
What does this mean for the Bills? For one, it leaves them woefully short on linebackers. Keith Ellison will start, but he's a little small to be trying to take on bigger offensive tackles and tight ends for 16 weeks. Jon Corto? Please. The Orchard Park native is a nice story, but he's even smaller than Ellison and just started playing linebacker about midway through training camp. The only experienced backup is John DiGiorgio, who started in the middle for Paul Posluszny last year and could play outside in a pinch.
Crowell's injury is another reason why I thought it was foolish to cut Donnie Spragan. Maybe he wasn't the player he used to be, but the guy has played a lot in the NFL and is versatile enough to line up inside or outside. I suspect money had something to do with his initial release. He was due to make about $600,000 this year. That salary isn't guaranteed unless he's on the roster for the first game.
Spragan's agent, Angelo Wright, told me that despite the Bills releasing Spragan, his client would consider coming back. But after what the Bills did to quarterback Craig Nall a couple of years ago, I can guarantee Angelo is going to want some assurances that Spragan would be re-signed and cut later in the year like Nall was.
The Bills better not wait to long on Spragan. According to his agent, a couple of teams already have plans to bring him in next week for a tryout. There aren't many linebackers on the street that are better than Spragan.
Maybe the Bills try to ride it out with five linebackers this week. If necessary, they could use safety Bryan Scott as a linebacker in nickel situations. He's savvy enough to handle that role.
Crowell's injury overshadowed the fact that Posluszny didn't practice Thursday. He turned his left ankle in practice Wednesday, so he was held out as a precaution. Expect Poz to play on Sunday. Same goes for backup defensive tackle Spencer Johnson, who was held out of Thursday's practice with a sore back.
That's all for now. For more on Crowell, check out Friday's Buffalo News. And oh yeah, don't forget to send us feedback about Crowell, the Bills' linebacker situation or anything else related to the Bills and pro football.
---Allen Wilson
