The set-up: Things were looking up for the Buffalo Bills. They just had the biggest turnaround in team history in terms of wins, going from three victories in 2001 to eight in 2002. The team finished 8-8, but they could have very easily been 10-6 (The loss to the Jets in the season opener and the Chiefs game comes to mind). The most impressive aspect of the team was how incredible the offense preformed.
Drew Bledsoe reestablished himself as a top 10 QB, by passing for 26 touchdowns and set club records in yards, completions and attempts. If the Bills defense showed any signs of being just average, the team would have made the playoffs. Now, Bledsoe did have help along the way. His main targets were Eric Moulds and Peerless Price. Everyone knew what we had with Moulds, who had two previous 1,000 yard seasons, but the emergence of Price was kind of surprising. Price, who averaged 46 catches a year for his first three years as a pro, was awesome. The original #81, had 94 catches for 1,252 yards and 9 touchdowns. He blew up, plain and simple. Moulds and Price combined for 194 catches, 2,544 yards and 19 TDS. You could make a case that the 2002 season, might have been the most exciting year of the decade. At least the on the field product was a lot of fun. Hey, offense sells tickets. However, in order for the team to take a next step, the franchise had a huge choice to make in the offseason.
What happened: The big question that was asked towards the end of the season was whether the Bills should re-sign Peerless Price? Price, was due his first major payday of his career. It was kind of like the Drew Stafford situation for this year. Here was Price, who at the age of just 26, was just entering his prime. At the time, the going rate for a wide receiver with Price’s stats, was around 5-6 million per year. The Bills had already locked up Moulds to a long-term deal a year before, so they had a choice:
Do they invest heavily into the WR core or do they invest their money into defense?
Tom Donahoe decided that the defense needed to improve, instead of keeping the offensive core intact. The Bills placed the franchise tag on Price and then shipped him to Atlanta for a first round pick. Price ended up signing a 7-year, 37-million dollar deal. The Bills would then use the pick on Willis McGahee. More importantly, the Bills would use some of the leftover money from the possible Price contract to sign Takeo Spikes, Lawyer Milloy and Sam Adams. If the Bills resigned Price, more than likely, 2 of the 3 defensive players wouldn’t have signed here. From a Bills standpoint, the defense improved dramatically, ranking in the top 5 in 2003. However, the offense regressed…BIG TIME. I’m not even going to bother googling the records for futility that were set by the Bills offense in 2003. The Bills finished 6-10 and that high-powered offense of 2002 was a thing of the past. Now, you think we had problems? Peerless Price wasn’t exactly lighting the world on fire, as he was a complete BUST for Atlanta. Price averaged 53 catches and just 703 yards in his only two seasons in Atlanta. By year three, Price was cut. On a sidenote: I remember when Price was released, his only comment he made to the media was “I hate you all.” Yeah…He wasn’t singing “Welcome to Atlanta” by Ludacris.
What if the Bills kept Peerless Price? Now, before we get into this, lets just talk about Price’s time in Atlanta. Forget about the way Mike Vick is playing now. Back then, he was a wide receiver’s worst nightmare. During Vick’s time in Atlanta, the Falcons never had a wide receiver go over 1,000 yards. In fact, only one player went over 900 yards receiving on Vick’s watch. Everyone knew Vick wasn’t a pocket passer and he ruined a lot of young wideouts careers in Atlanta.
OK, back to the What If? scenario. Do you think Price catches less than 60 passes with Bledose in 2003? Look at it this way: Bledsoe was a better pocket passer than Vick and Eric Moulds was way better than Brian Finneran. You can’t tell me that the loss of Price didn’t have anything to do with the offense sucking in 2003. When Bledsoe was introduced as the new Cowboys QB in 2005, he had told the media that the reason for his struggles towards the end of his tenure in Buffalo, were due to the personnel changes. He suggested that going to a power style offense had marginalized his throwing ability.
Bledsoe had a point.
The Bills had replaced Price with Josh Reed, who was not ready to be a #2 option. With Reed moving up the depth chart, the Bills 3rd WR was Bobby Shaw. Um, yeah, not exactly the Rams, circa 1999. In fact, you could make the case that Bledsoe and Moulds were never the same after Price left. After 2002, Moulds seemed to become more of a possession WR, who would get catches, but wouldn’t rack up the yards like he use to. Moulds only had one more 1,000 yard season after 2002.
As I alluded to earlier, the Bills wouldn’t have been able to sign Spikes, whose contract canceled out Price’s (32 vs 37 million). However, the team could have still signed Adams and Milloy. Actually, they could have just signed Spikes, because they wouldn’t have to worry about paying a 1st round pick. Now, the draft pick wouldn’t have meant anything in 2003, because McGahee didn’t even play and they already had Travis Henry.
To me, if Price is here in 2003, I can’t see Drew Bledsoe passing for just 11 touchdowns. I just can’t. He wasn’t that bad, especially after witnessing his 2002 season. Now, if you go further along, if the Bills kept Price, would they have drafted Lee Evans in 2004? I don’t think so, because at the time, Price would have been just 27 years old, and would have been groomed as the heir apparent to Moulds. It wouldn’t have made sense to draft a WR.
Maybe the Bills go after Tommie Harris? Maybe, if Bledsoe plays better, the team doesn’t go after JP Losman. I know it sounds crazy, but that’s how much Price meant to the offense in 2002. As much as some people hated Bledsoe, his final season with the Bills was much better than 2003, because he had a 2nd option in Evans. Now, what if Evans’ rookie year had equaled out to what Price would have been in 2003? It’s not that big of a stretch, as Evans had less than 1,000 yards receiving. Again, does JP arrive here? Does Gregg Williams get fired? BTW, how bad does Josh Reed look?
Bottom line: After 2002, Bledsoe, Moulds and Price were never the same again…and neither was the Bills offense.
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