Does the Jerry Hughes Signing Mark the Beginning of an Era in Buffalo?

Greetings from the 4th blogger on 2 Eggs, Toast and Homefield Advantage. To answer your questions: 1) Yes I do in fact exist, 2) Yes I intend to focus on the NFL, MLB, and NCAA, 3) Yes I am a Bills, Yankees, and Syracuse fan, and inherently have some level of bias to those teams, and 4) Yes I do my best to remain objective despite those bias' (you be the judge of that at the end of this blog).

Now moving on...

If you overslept your 4AM alarm that you set this morning to make sure you were up for any NFL free agency news (sleep is for quitters), it's possible you missed that the Bills re-signed Jerry Hughes to a 5 year, $45M deal with $22M in guarantees. Bottom line; at $9M/year average salary, this is a serious win for the Buffalo Bills. With Hughes arguably the #1 edge rusher available in free agency this year, maybe even before JPP was franchise tagged by the Giants, a $9M/year average salary at a time where teams are paying for QB pressures/sacks feels low. As Vic Carruci of the Buffalo News reports, this may in fact have been driven by Hughes' desire to remain a Buffalo Bill.

News that a player wants to remain in Buffalo is not something that you typically hear. A combination of the upstate NY weather, the unfavorable state tax rate, and 15 years of a losing culture (maybe that last one should have been listed first?) has kept high profile free agents away from Buffalo for a long time. So why would a highly touted edge rusher give Buffalo what seems like a hometown discount? Two words: Rex Ryan.

Everyone knows Rex has a reputation for being a 'players coach' and someone that players love to grind for. While that may be true, that's not enough for a guy like Hughes to leave $2-$3M/year on the table. What may be enough though, is the thought of being a part of a record-setting defense that leads a team to the playoffs for the first time in 15 years. I already know the response to that last statement: "But Blair, you're acting like the typical Bills fan, calling playoffs the second something positive happens in Buffalo." 

Fair, but riddle me this: If Ryan was able to coach his talent-lacking '13 and '14 Jets defense's to an 11th and 6th ranking respectively (on a yards/game basis), what can he do with a unit that over the same time frame lead the league in sacks (111), forced 60 total turnovers (3rd best), and finished 10th and 4th in total yards allowed per game? Simply looking at the discrepancy in edge rushing talent between the Jets and Bills over the last two years is enough to make anyone wonder just how good this defense can be. The Hughes/Williams combination averaged 126.0 Hurries/Hits/Sacks the last two years, versus the Pace/Coples combination at 74.5 over the same time frame. Upgrade anyone?

At the end of the day, Jerry Hughes is coming back to a team that took a chance by trading for him from Indy in 2013, ultimately reigniting his career. He's signed on for five years to play for one of the best defensive minded coaches in football, and with a unit that has emerged as the most threatening pass rush in the game. If the Bills keep their aggressive approach to free agency alive and sign some more beef up front to block for new RB Lesean McCoy, and maybe a pass catching TE as well, the 'Bills to the playoffs in 2015' call might end up not being so crazy after all.

P.S. This blog sets up the worlds easiest rebuttal.....