Bills defensive coordinator George Edwards dined with free agent safety Bob Sanders, and Bills GM Buddy Nix confirmed that free agent O.J. Atogwe is a part of the candidate pool as well. A final decision on how a safety is added is still up in the air, but Buffalo's brass does know they will add a safety before the offseason is said and done.
"We'll add a safety somewhere," said Nix Thursday at the NFL combine.
Earlier this week Sanders, a former NFL Defensive Player of the Year was in for a physical, but the interest sounded exploratory in nature.
"Obviously we have an interest or we wouldn't have brought him in," Nix told Buffalobills.com. "It's just another part of the process where we're trying to make sure we're covering all the bases. We don't want to be playing against a guy that we might have been able to have on our team. We'll do that with a lot of people."
When asked if a lot of people would include recently released Rams safety O.J. Atogwe, Nix answered in the affirmative.
"Yes it does," he said.
Buffalo has a pair of safeties set to become free agents in Donte Whitner and George Wilson. When asked if the door is closed on Whitner returning in light of the interest in free agent safeties Nix put the ball in Whitner's court.
"That's up to Donte," said Nix.
Nix indicated that there's a chance a couple of Buffalo's free agents could be re-signed before March 4th when the current CBA would expire and no offseason rules would exist absent a new labor agreement.
"We're working on it," said Nix who would not mention names. "That's a possibility."
Nix also said they need to add a cornerback knowing that Drayton Florence and Ashton Youboty are both pending free agents. Buffalo's GM also feels they need to add a pair of defensive ends and two inside linebackers, which is unchanged from his assessment at the Senior Bowl in late January.
He doesn't see defensive tackle as a pressing positional need, but when it comes to the safety position Nix was clear.
"We'll give it some thought and we obviously need a safety," he said. "And we'll get it one way or the other."
