Dan Vie Wie - According to a story on Pro Football Talk, the breaking news is that Jay Glazer has reported that Buffalo Bills free agent linebacker Paul Posluszny has agreed to a six-year contract with the Jacksonville Jaguars. The deal was agreed to on Tuesday, July 26th, the first day of free agency.
According to Jason La Canfora of NFL.com, the Bills fought hard to keep Posluszny, but the deciding factor was that Posluszny wanted to return to a 4-3 defensive scheme, which is what the Bills switched out of last year.
If anything, Bills fans were worried that Posluszny might want to reunite with his old defensive coordinator Perry Fewell, who holds a similar role with the New York Giants. The Giants are looking for a solid inside linebacker and Posluszny was a player that the Giants were targeting. But the Jaguars? Never saw that one coming.
Although there was no mention of it, Bills General Manager had mentioned prior to the 2011 NFL draft that the Bills needed to get bigger at inside linebacker. Perhaps Posluszny took that as a hint that the Bills were considering to draft a replacement for him. As it was, the Bills did draft two inside linebacker types in the draft, when they selected Kelvin Sheppard and Chris White.
However, due to the 2011 lockout, neither rookie will be in a position to step in and play right away due to the lack of OTAs and mini-camps. Both rookies still have a lot to learn before they are ready to start.
So, this means that the Bills will now have to scramble to find a replacement for Posluszny. It also means that the Bills have lost a fan-favorite player, as Bills fans related to the hard working Posluszny, who had to fight back from injury several times in his career.
This also probably spells the end for the time being of the Penn State linebacker connection, as it would not be a surprise if the Bills let fellow Nittany Lion linebacker Aaron Maybin go as well.
Buddy Nix will begin evaluating potential replacements for Posluszny, and don't be surprised if he turns to his San Diego roots to look at some of the Chargers free agents. The shame of this whole situation is that the Bills had $38 MM under the salary cap and had plenty of money to offer Posluszny. That now will still be the case for his replacement.
Who knows maybe this leads the Bills to sign another major free agent, such as a top tackle, pass rusher or tight end, based on the money they would have paid out to Posluszny. The Bills did announce the signing of ex-Miami Dolphins quarterback Tyler Thigpen, who will now serve as the backup to Ryan Fitzpatrick. Perhaps this frees up money to convince Drayton Florence to return to the Bills, who are said to be battling the New York Jets to sign Florence to a contract.
What was strange was that there was a sale on Bills jerseys today at the Bills store. They had Posluszny jerseys in the ex-Bills bin with people like Marshawn Lynch, Marcus Stroud and Trent Edwards for a discounted price. I thought it was a mistake, but now it looks like somebody might have known something in the marketing department.
This free agency period is off to an interesting start already, but losing Posluszny was never supposed to be part of the plan. Let's see if Buddy Nix can scramble as well as Ryan Fitzpatrick does on Sundays.
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