Details On Fernando Velasco's Contract
- Fernando Velasco, OL (Bills): One year, $965K. $80K signing bonus. $453K preseason split (Twitter link).
Bills Interested In Moritz Boehringer
- German receiver Moritz Boehringer “impressed” with his sure-handedness and route-running skills at his workout Friday, Pauline reports. Representatives from the Bengals, Bills, Patriots, Broncos, Jets, Bears, Falcons, Saints and Panthers were in attendance.
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Bills Could Draft Second-Day QB
- With Tyrod Taylor entering a contract year, the Bills look poised to select a quarterback by the second day of the draft, as La Canfora details. The Bills are “enamored” of Ohio State’s Cardale Jones, says La Canfora, who reports that they also like Penn State’s Christian Hackenberg and Stanford’s Kevin Hogan.
Lorenzo Alexander, Colt Anderson Visit Bills
- Although news of draft visits and workouts has dominated the NFL news cycle lately, the Bills aren’t done looking at free agents quite yet. Buffalo confirmed today (via Twitter) that safety Colt Anderson and linebacker Lorenzo Alexander are at the team facility for visits, as the club continues to consider additions on defense.
Sterling Moore Contract Details
- Sterling Moore, CB (Bills): One year, minimum salary benefit. $80K signing bonus (Twitter link).
Doug Whaley Talks Tyrod Taylor
Asked during an appearance on the NFL Network if Tyrod Taylor is the Bills‘ long-term solution at quarterback, Doug Whaley was somewhat non-committal in his answer.
“We want him to be, he wants to be, and time will tell,” the Bills GM said, as NFL.com’s Kevin Patra writes. “But we’re excited about what he did last year — he went 8-6 as a starter. There is a lot of excitement around our football team.… I’ll tell you this, I know he’s a big competitor and he’s going to want to raise his level of his game next year and take the next step and we are excited and we’re going to try to give him as much ammunition around him for him to succeed.”
So what does that mean for a potential contract extension? Whaley says he won’t rule out a new pact being agreed to this season, but it’d have to be at the “right price.” In the interim, the Bills are keeping their options open and meeting with some of the top QBs in this year’s draft.
- GM John Elway and the Broncos have inquired about Taylor, according to Benjamin Allbright of AM1340 in Denver (Twitter link). A trade probably isn’t likely, as the Bills prefer to hang onto their quarterback and the Broncos are just exploring all their options, but it’s an interesting tidbit nonetheless.
Bills Sign Fernando Velasco
After hosting him for a visit today, the Bills have signed free agent offensive lineman Fernando Velasco to a contract, the team announced today in a press release.
Velasco, 31, was one of the Titans’ final cuts prior to the 2015 season and he circled back to Carolina in September. While the veteran is usually listed as a center, he has also spent a good deal of time at guard, and the Bills didn’t specify a position in their press release today, so Velasco could move around on the line depending on where he’s needed.
When he was with the Steelers in 2013, Velasco filled in for injured center Maurkice Pouncey and Pro Football Focus ranked him as the team’s fourth-best lineman. In 2015, Velasco appeared in 12 games, though he started just one. For his career, he has totaled 38 regular-season starts.
Terms of the deal aren’t yet known, but a one-year, minimum salary benefit deal with a modest bonus appears likely.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Bills Meet With Paxton Lynch, To Visit With Connor Cook
- The Bills received good value on a nontraditional quarterback accord last season and still employ Tyrod Taylor but are taking a wide-ranging glance of this year’s quarterback crop. Bills reps ate dinner with Lynch and plan to visit with Connor Cook, Ian Rapoport of NFL.com tweets. The team also already met with Christian Hackenberg, per Albert Breer of NFL.com, and has done plenty of research on Jared Goff.
Bills To Host Cardale Jones On Visit
Bills’ A.J. Tarpley To Retire
A.J. Tarpley announced his retirement tonight via Instagram because of concussion concerns. The second-year Bills linebacker is the latest player to do so and joins a growing list of young players leaving football early.
A second-year cog expected to see time on the Bills’ second level again this season, Tarpley confirmed he suffered the third and fourth concussions of his career as a rookie in 2015. He joined the Bills as an undrafted free agent from Stanford.
Tarpley started in two games last season and played in 15. The 23-year-old linebacker played mostly on special teams but recorded a sack and made two interceptions, though, one of which he returned for 37 yards against the Cowboys.
He looked set to potentially compete for a starting position after Nigel Bradham, whom Tarpley started in place of last season due to injury, left to join the Eagles.
Tarpley joins Husain Abdullah among early retirees this spring who’ve cited concussions as their primary reason for leaving the game early, just as Chris Borland did last year.