Boldin would, likely won’t improve Bills

By Anthony Bialy  |   Tuesday, February 10, 2009  |  Comments( 101 )

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Every idea proposed during the NFL offseason must be considered in terms of what a team should do versus what they will do. For one, receiver Anquan Boldin wants to be traded away from the Arizona Cardinals, and it would work perfectly if he was traded to the Buffalo Bills; nonetheless, a good idea doesn’t always develop into a good reality. The Bills would have to make Boldin happy by splashing cash on him, and this team isn’t precisely renowned for paying big dollars for huge names.

Boldin would improve any offense. As usual, he compiled dazzling statistics last season, catching 89 passes for 1,038 yards while playing in only 12 games; on top of that, he picked up a Boldinesque eight receptions for 84 yards in the Super Bowl, a respectable showing for a player who has posted four 1,000-plus yard seasons in six tries.

While he’s also missed games in four of six campaigns, having been held out of 16 career contests, it’s a product of his roughneck style. At 6-foot-1 and 217 pounds, he compensates for middling speed by playing like a Spartan who had a samurai grandfather. He plays tough and acts fearlessly, culminating in the moment last season when his face was famously smashed in against the New York Jets. Boldin only missed two contests after the shattering, which is why Bills fans didn’t get to see him play in their team’s matchup with the Cards; they’ll have to be content with knowing he’s good despite not getting burned by him personally.

Some might claim that Josh Reed could get to a Pro Bowl playing alongside the Cardinals’ all-world wideout Larry Fitzgerald. But Boldin proved his capacity for self-sufficiency as a rookie: His 101 receptions for 1,377 yards in 2003 were amazing not only because he did it for a 4-12 team in his first year out of college with Bryant Johnson as the other starting wideout, but most of all because Jeff Blake was the quarterback.

Such a magnificent season despite Blake’s middling passing is proof on its own that Boldin is good on his own. Actually, Fitzgerald may negatively impact Boldin’s numbers, as the latter player would be the top receiver on the majority of the league’s other teams. Of course, that’s a problem along the lines of facing a higher utility bill after moving into a manor following a Powerball win, but Boldin is still displeased in Arizona despite getting to share with perhaps the sport’s current best receiver.

He’s grumpy about what he perceives as mistreatment by Cardinals’ management, specifically because he believes they misled him about renegotiating his contract; he wants a new one, which they as of yet won’t give him. Regardless of the reason, he’s already off to a bad start in Buffalo even before the imaginary trade occurs. If he wasn’t happy on a team that just barely came up short of hoisting a Lombardi Trophy, how irritable could be become for a Buffalo team that’s been immune to the postseason?

Money would help him feel sunshiny, but it’s doubtful that the Bills would pull enough capital out of the darkness to make Boldin happy. The Florida State man has two years left at $5.75 million total, and he’d of course want that deal shredded the second he was done holding up his new team’s jersey.

It’s tough envisioning the Bills as the team that lavishes currency upon him. Buffalo has already committed serious resources to Lee Evans in the form of his $37.25 million contract extension, $18.25 million of that guaranteed. Does anyone sincerely hope Ralph Wilson will pay another man at the same position around the same amount? He can either pleasantly surprise everyone by paying for a co-top receiver or unpleasantly do what’s expected and keep his change purse sealed. In his defense, he does have to save up for a round-trip Greyhound ticket to Canton this summer.

Evans and Boldin playing together would be an unbelievable boon to Buffalo’s offense, but the snag is whether this team will pay to unite them. They could pleasantly surprise all and specifically prove cynics wrong, but the likely scenario is that this team’s general talent level will be just like this season’s ticket prices: It will remain unchanged.
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About Anthony Bialy

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CommentsComments: 101  |  Sign Up  View all comments
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No.1
flda-dennis		11:16 AM
02/10/2009
Boldin is still going to be a bird--but a bigger bird---the national bird---an EAGLE. Bills management is hiding under their...
No.2
bflobob8		11:16 AM
02/10/2009
Poor Buffalo has been beat down again. They just cracked the annual "10 most miserable places to live" list by placing 8th...
No.3
PimpDaddy		11:41 AM
02/10/2009
From a fantasy football perspective the idea makes a lot of sense. Looking realistically at the team the point is moot. EVEN IF...
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