April 10, 2013 - 3:48 PM
By Tim Graham
Sometimes, quarterbacks get slapped with a label that can doom them.
He gets sacked too much.
Buffalo Bills fans are familiar with Drew Bledsoe and Rob Johnson. Daunte Culpepper and David Carr are two of the more prominent recent examples.
Kevin Kolb insisted he shouldn't be known as one of those guys.
Continue reading "Kevin Kolb dismisses idea he's a QB who gets sacked too much" »
April 2, 2013 - 3:19 PM
By Mark Gaughan
Defensive lineman Alan Branch looked around at the players on the Buffalo Bills' defensive front and decided he has the chance to look good this season in their uniform.
Branch became a new piece of the Bills' defensive puzzle by signing a one-year contract today. Branch started the past two seasons for Seattle. He's a 324-pound run stopper who adds to the Bills' ability to play a 3-4 front.
Now the Bills can put Marcell Dareus, Kyle Williams and Branch on the defensive line, flanked by Mario Williams and Manny Lawson at outside linebacker. Fourth-year man Alex Carrington can push Branch for time. If fourth-year man Torell Troup comes back from back surgery, all the better.
Continue reading "Bills DT Alan Branch hopes to help Mario 'get some food on his plate'" »
February 28, 2013 - 10:45 AM
By Tim Graham
When the Buffalo Bills rebooted their operations in January, a point of emphasis was the creation of an analytics department. While no details have been divulged on how the Bills will implement analytics, a common usage around the league is in determining contract values.
ProFootballFocus.com, one of the most popular analytics sites, has applied its metrics to the Bills' 2012 roster to determine who underperformed and outperformed their salary-cap figures last year.
You can check out PFF for its explanation of each player, but here are the lists:
Undervalued
Overvalued
The Bills already have released two of the PFF's 10 most undervalued players (Barnett and Wilson). Byrd, Levitre and Scott could become unrestricted free agents in a couple weeks.
From the overvalued list, the Bills have dumped McGee. Kelsay announced his retirement Wednesday night. From the free agents on the list, we safely can assume Thigpen won't be back, Merriman's probably a goner and Johnson isn't worth re-signing.
Tim Graham returned to The Buffalo News in 2011 after covering the NFL for three years at ESPN and for one year at the Palm Beach Post. Before that, the Cleveland native spent seven seasons on the Buffalo Sabres beat for The News and was president of the Boxing Writers Association of America.
@ByTimGraham | tgraham@buffnews.com
Buffalo native Mark Gaughan started working at The News in 1980 and has been covering the Bills exclusively since 1992. He is president of the Pro Football Writers of America, and he is a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame selection committee.
@gggaughan | mgaughan@buffnews.com
Jay Skurski joined The News in January 2009. The Lewiston native attended St. Francis High School before graduating from the University of South Florida. He writes a weekly Fantasy column in addition to his beat writing duties.
