Crystal Ball: Bills Final Roster

Todd MorseAug 25, 2008

Hello friends, we all know the final exhibition game is pointless, so lets look ahead to Sunday when final cuts are due, ok? Good.

Here we go.

Definitely In (34):

TOP NEWS

Offense (16):

QB Edwards

QB Losman

RB Lynch

RB Jackson

FB Barnes

WR Evans

WR Reed

WR Hardy

WR Parrish

TE Fine

OL Butler

OL Chambers

OL Dockery

OL Fowler

OL Peters

OL Walker

Defense(16):

DE Kelsay

DE Schobel

DE Ellis

DT Stroud

DT Williams

DT McCargo

DT Johnson

LB Posluszny

LB Mitchell

LB Crowell

LB DiGiorgio

CB McGee

CB Greer

CB McKelvin

S Whitner

S Simpson

Special Teams(2):

P Moorman

K Lindell

Definitely Out (2):

P Fitzpatrick

FB Evans

That leaves 46 “bubble” players for 19 positions. I was originally thinking, when looking at the roster that they were going to heavily on weapons for Edwards and carry six WR’s and four TEs. With Steve Johnson not performing in preseason, Courtney Alexander doing nothing, and the offense clicking sooner than expected, my hunch is that as long as the Jason Peters situation remains in the air, the Bills are going to go heavy into the trenches and the secondary

My thoughts on the final 19 are:

QB Gibran Hamdan

RB Dwayne Wright

TE Derek Schouman

TE Robert Royal

WR Justin Jenkins

OL Christian Gaddis

OL Duke Preston

OL Jason Whittle

OL Demetrius Bell (R)

DE/LS Ryan Neill

DE Ryan Denney

DT Jason Jefferson

CB Will James

CB Reggie Corner (R)

LB Keith Ellison

LB Donnie Spragan

S George Wilson

S Bryan Scott

S John Wendling

To IR:

OL Matt Murphy

LB Alvin Bowen (R)

Cut:

QB Matt Baker (Practice Squad)

RB Xavier Omon (R) (Practice Squad)

RB Bruce Hall (R) (Practice Squad)

OL Nevin McCaskill (Practice Squad)

OL Patrick Estes

OL Dustin Dickinson (R) (Practice Squad)

OL Robert Felton (R) (Practice Squad)

TE Tim Massaquoi

TE Courtney Alexander

WR Felton Huggins

WR CJ Hawthorne (R) (Practice Squad)

WR Steve Johnson (R) (Practice Squad)

WR Jason Jones (R)

WR Scott Mayle

CB Dustin Fox

CB Kennard Cox (R) (Practice Squad)

CB Ashton Youboty

DE Shaun Nua

DE Bryan Copeland

DE Corey Mace (Practice Squad)

DE Derrick Jones

DT Teraz McCray (R)

LB/S Jon Corto (Practice Squad)

LB Blake Costanzo

LB Marcus Buggs (R) (Practice Squad)

LB Jon Banks (R)

The final decisions are between these players:

Jefferson, Denney, Whittle, Steve Johnson, Felton, Corto, Youboty, James, Scott, Wendling, Hamdan and Spragan. I chose who I chose. I think the Bills should go heavy in the secondary and the defensive line, but they seem to like players who can play multiple positions. My final decision was Whittle over Youboty. It just makes sense. I have this gut feeling that no matter how good Youboty looks (and despite what anyone says, it isn’t THAT good), this coaching staff absolutely hates him. As far as Whittl over Felton, Whittle is a veteran and the Bills want to make the playoffs. They are going to try to sneak Felton through waivers and to the practice squad and hope he sits this season. I think he is going to be good and he was a good find. Wendling is Bobby April’s guy, and he seems to be the only true strong safety the team has. The staff loves Wilson’s ceiling and Scott can play any position in the a secondary dime package, I will be surprised if they don’t keep all of them.

I understand the practice squad is too big. These are guys who they can place there and probably some of them will end up there. There will probably be about six guys from this list on the squad and two players from other teams on the squad, that’s usually how it works.

Final Roster Stats:

3 QB: Edwards, Losman, Hamdan

3 RB: Lynch, Jackson, Wright

1 FB: Barnes, (Wright)

5 WR: Evans, Reed, Hardy, Parrish, Jenkins

3 TE: Royal, Schouman, Fine

4 OT: Peters, Walker, Chambers, Bell, (Butler), (Preston)

5 OG: Dockery, Butler, Preston, Gaddis, Whittle

1 C: Fowler, (Preston), (Whittle)

1 K: Lindell

26 Offense

1 P: Moorman