In an offseason that will have more than its share of uncertainty the free agents-to-be on Buffalo's roster are waiting and hoping their personal outlooks become clearer in the next few months with respect to future employment.
Among the more notable free agents that are expected to be unrestricted pending a new league labor agreement are Drayton Florence, Paul Posluszny and Donte Whitner.
After putting together a solid season personally, Florence is amenable to returning to the Bills next season.
"Everyone wants to get a deal done as soon as possible," said Drayton Florence. "I did what I could this year, and played as hard as I could. Being a free agent right now is cool. I'm not sure where I'm going to be next season, but if the Bills want me back I'll certainly be open to that."
Inside linebacker Paul Posluszny, who posted a team-leading 157 tackles this season, would also prefer to return.
"I would like to stay in Buffalo and see this thing through, but that's up to Buddy Nix and Coach Gailey and I'll see if they want me to be a part of this thing or not," Posluszny said. "We're just going to have to wait and see. It's a tough situation. You'd rather have something solidified, but it's just part of the deal."
The situation seems more up in the air for Whitner. Bills head coach Chan Gailey addressed the safety's status with the team Monday in a season wrap up press conference.
"Tenuous would be another word you could use there," said Gailey. "He's a really good player, you'd love to have him on your football team, but we're in a business where that doesn't happen every time. So we'll wait and see."
Whitner was not available for comment during Monday's locker clean out. He did however comment after Buffalo's season-ending loss to the Jets on his situation.
"I love these guys in this locker room, and I love this staff," said Whitner. "This is the only place I've ever been. I've spent more time with these guys than I have with my actual family, so it makes it tough. It all comes down to the emotional side of the game. We don't know where were going, but like I said, I would like to be back here. Now it is the off season, so we will see what happens."
The strong safety made a career-high 139 tackles, an interception, a forced fumble, fumble recovery and a half sack.
Buffalo also has a host of recent additions that were signed to one-year contracts to fill roster spots after the team was thinned by injury, like offensive lineman Mansfield Wrotto, running back Quinton Ganther and tight end Scott Chandler among others.
Chan Gailey and his coaching staff will begin the process of player evaluation this week as they decide what players they'd like to re-sign and what talent still needs to be added to improve in 2011.
"We'll go back and evaluate all the plays from the previous season and take them as a total," said Gailey. "We try not to look at late in the season or early in the season. We try to look at the total picture. Then we'll talk about everything from leadership and character to work habits. We evaluate everything about a player so that we're keeping the right guys on our football team and are trying to develop the right guys on our football team."
