Ray Rice mercifully not on Buffalo Bills radar

Earlier today, a “high-level club executive” told Sports Illustrated’s Don Banks that he views the Buffalo Bills as a “team to watch” with regards to free agent running back Ray Rice. This executive stated that he could see a team with a strong front office- he named the Green Bay Packers, Seattle Seahawks, and RB-inquisitive Dallas Cowboys- as a possible landing spot for Rice, but cited Rex Ryan’s “love” for Rice (he emphasized this, too) as a reason for a possible match.

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I’m sure I wasn’t the only one who scratched my head at this exec’s suggestion, because it simply didn’t make any sense. Not only is Rice a player who might not be deserving of another chance in the league at all, but he was also flat-out horrible in his last season in 2013 with an average of just 3.1 yards per carry. You can certainly blame the offensive line for his struggles, but he’s 28 and has spent a year off the field with bad tape on his most recent resume.

Beyond that, the Bills don’t even need a running back, and it goes beyond the fact that they aggressively traded for the elite LeSean McCoy, who is the focal point of the offense. The Bills also have a major competition for other spots on the roster at the position with veteran and fan favorite Fred Jackson, Anthony Dixon, Bryce Brown, and rookie Karlos Williams vying for spots. One of those notable names is going to get cut, and the only guarantee is that it won’t be Williams, who is somebody the coaching staff is probably smitten with.

Nobody should be “smitten with” Rice at this point, and even if Ryan does love Rice that much, it shouldn’t have a significant impact in the Bills decision-making process. Thankfully, it doesn’t, as ESPN NFL Nation’s Mike Rodak confirmed through a source within the team that stated the organization is not interested in signing the former Baltimore Ravens star. Rodak mildly introduced this by saying “don’t expect” a signing of Rice to be made by the Bills, but I think that’s putting it mildly.

As you can tell in Rodak’s mentions, most people didn’t even see this as news (or hear about the Banks report), because the exec’s musings on the link between the Bills and Rice was weak speculation at best. It’s dangerous speculation, of course, since fans do take opinions of execs seriously, and most writers don’t use this kind of info unless there could be legs to the story.

In this case, there are no legs to it, and we can be thankful that we don’t have to see Ray Rice joining a crowded Bills backfield that includes much better players. Only F-Jax is older, but his 2014 season, which included 66 catches to overcome 3.7 YPC behind an offensive line that was also poor, was considerably better than Rice’s 2013 campaign. And oh yeah, he didn’t nearly murder his fiancee in an elevator.

I just can’t see any team taking a flier on Rice, because even a team that, unlike the Buffalo Bills, could need another RB in the mix, such as the Cowboys, would have better options. Even if you think he deserves a second chance, I don’t even think most teams believe he’s good enough to deserve another shot, but all it takes is one team to take a shot on him; I’m sure Bills fans are glad that it is, as we fully expected, not going to be their team.

Next: Will Tyrod Taylor be a factor at QB?

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