NFL
Bills keep talking to free agents
Published: March 07, 2009, 7:00 am
Story tools:
Share this story:
The free agent visits keep increasing for the Buffalo Bills, who brought in two more Friday.
Mike Peterson, a veteran middle linebacker from Jacksonville, and former Kansas City defensive end Jason Babin were the latest to spend time at One Bills Drive.
The Bills have met with 13 players in the past week. Their only signings to date are quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick, center Geoff Hangartner and cornerback Drayton Florence.
Peterson is a 10-year pro who spent his first four seasons in Indianapolis, where he was a 1999 second-round draft pick. He signed with Jacksonville in 2003. His visit is a bit curious with Paul Posluszny the established starter and backup John DiGiorgio re-signed recently.
But Peterson is a productive middle linebacker with six seasons of more than 100 tackles. His best season was 2005 when he had 132 tackles, six sacks and three interceptions (one returned for a touchdown.) That also was the last time he played a full 16-game season because of various injuries.
He had 84 tackles in 15 games last year, but fell out of favor in Jacksonville after a midseason confrontation with head coach Jack Del Rio, who didn’t like Peterson celebrating after a sack while the Jaguars were trailing, 21-3, at Cincinnati. Peterson was subsequently ejected from a team meeting, deactivated for a game at Detroit and lost his starting job for six weeks before regaining it the last two games after his replacement got hurt.
Peterson, who turns 33 in June, may have other options besides Buffalo. Detroit and Atlanta also have some interest, according to the Jacksonville Times-Union.
Babin, 28, has played for three teams in five seasons. He appeared in two games for Seattle before the Seahawks released him a little more than a year after acquiring him in a trade with Houston, which selected him in the first round of the 2004 draft. He started all 16 games as a rookie, but only 10 the last four years.
He doesn’t appear to be the pass-rushing help the Bills need. He has just 15 career sacks, two less than Chris Kelsay has in seven seasons. Babin was converted to outside linebacker by the Texans, who had a 3-4 defensive scheme at the time. He returned to defensive end after the trade to Seattle.
Meanwhile, the Bills lost out to the Chicago Bears for the services of running back Kevin Jones, who agreed to a two-year, $3.5 million contract. The former 2004 Detroit Lions first-round draft pick spent last season with the Bears.
awilson@buffnews.com
Reader comments
Log into MyBuffalo to post a comment
MyBuffalo is the new social network from Buffalo.com. Your MyBuffalo account lets you comment on and rate stories at buffalonews.com. You can also head over to mybuffalo.com to share your blog posts, stories, photos, and videos with the community. Join now or learn more.
Comments have been disabled.
Due to a high volume of submissions that violate The News’ guidelines, commenting is no longer available on this story. If you’d like to share your thoughts on this story, click here to get information on contributing to The News’ opinion pages.