Buffalo Bills: Buddy Nix and Chan Gailey Begin Operation Roster Purge

When you have more than 80 players on your roster, you have to start trimming some of the fat at some point in time. This year the Buffalo Bills decided to start early by announcing that they have released seven players.

The cuts include safety John Wendling, tight end Derek (Not So) Fine, defensive tackle Marcus Smith, defensive end Jermaine McGhee, wide receiver Justin Jenkins, linebacker Ashlee Palmer, and center Marvin Philip.

What is somewhat surprising about these moves is that three of them were leaders on the special teams unit as Wendling, Palmer, and Jenkins played key roles. The picture for this article shows the interception Wendling had on special teams that led to the overtime win against the Jets, clearly one of his biggest plays during his stay here.

During a recent interview, Bills coach Chan Gailey had mentioned that one of the reasons for switching to the 3-4 was that it forced the team to carry extra linebackers, which would then improve the athletic nature of the special teams unit. It would force the team to carry as many as eight or nine linebackers, so for Palmer to be released even before OTA's is somewhat of a surprise.

Palmer will be remembered for delivering some really big jarring tackles on special teams. Apparently, the Bills decided that none of these players were an ideal fit for the 3-4 alignment, so they were released now. What it also says is that the new special teams players are going to be starting fresh with Bruce DeHaven, so Bobby April's key players have been asked to exit stage left.

Derek Fine was a reasonably high draft pick as he was selected in the fourth round. But there really wasn't any one area that he excelled at, as he was an average blocker and seemed to excel at catching passes that covered one or two yards. Fine had trouble staying healthy, and that also probably figured in to the decision to release him now.

It also means that the Bills will probably be investing a draft pick in another tight end to go with Shawn Nelson. No word yet on how well Derek Schouman is progressing on his rehab.

Justin Jenkins never really made an impact as a receiver on the team but had some moments of good plays on the special teams unit. He was stuck in the logjam at wide receiver behind Josh Reed, Roscoe Parrish, Steve Johnson, and James Hardy.

Jermaine McGhee and Marcus Smith never really figured in to the team's plans as they were basically there for roster depth, so the purge is now in full operational mode.

There has been no further word yet on how the Nix and Gailey duo plan to deal with the quarterback situation, but that is obviously one huge area of interest for the fans and for the team. Expect to see more cuts as the coaching staff continues their evaluation process of the team that finished below .500 for yet another year.