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Inside the NFL
Posted: Tuesday February 15, 2000 08:16 PM The Bills took the unsentimental route, waiving a trio of aging stars By Peter King
Salary-cap-strapped teams could learn a valuable lesson from the way the Bills conducted business last week: Never let sentimentalism get in the way of a contract decision. Declining to offer even the NFL minimum salary, Buffalo released used-up 33-year-old running back Thurman Thomas and bitter 36-year-old wideout Andre Reed. The Bills told one of the game's best defensive ends ever, 36-year-old Bruce Smith, that he too would be waived if he didn't take a $2.4 million pay cut next season. No dice, Smith said, and he got whacked too. So as teams tightened their belts for the start of the free-agent signing period last Friday, three players who were instrumental in taking Buffalo to four straight Super Bowls in the 1990s were on the street.
So while teams such as the 49ers and the Vikings try to hold together rosters with fading veterans, the Bills have cleared the way for rising young talent. Peerless Price, a second-round draft pick in 1999 who finished with 31 catches, will step in for Reed. Phillips hopes unproved multipurpose back Shawn Bryson, a third-round choice in '99, can replace Thomas. Marcellus Wiley, a second-round selection in '97 who had five sacks in limited duty last year, will take over for Smith (who was quickly signed to a five-year, $23 million contract by the Redskins). As Buffalo linebacker John Holecek said last week, "Just as I had to replace a legend, Chris Spielman, other people can step in and replace these legends." Buffalo has retooled well since the end of the Jim Kelly era in 1996. The Bills, along with the Titans, rank third in the league in victories over the past two seasons, with 21, trailing only the Jaguars and the Vikings (25 each). Depth may become a problem -- Buffalo lost valued free-agent cornerback Thomas Smith to the Bears on Sunday and may still lose Pro Bowl guard Ruben Brown -- but the Bills have drafted well and have a solid quarterback tandem with Doug Flutie and Rob Johnson. "Now," says A.J. Smith, the team's director of pro personnel, "a few more of the guys America hasn't heard of will have to step up and become stars." Issue date: February 21, 2000
For more Inside the NFL see this week's issue of Sports Illustrated, on newsstands Wednesday, February 16. Click here to subscribe to SI.
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