Bills GM Doug Whaley said that their coaching staff envisions a different role for Brandon Spikes in their defense, and they’ve encouraged him to meet other prospective teams.
“I just talked to him today and the new staff sees a different role than maybe he does so I told him to see if he can get a team that sees him the way he sees himself,” said Whaley, via BuffaloBills.com. “If not, come back to us and then we can talk.”
The Bills have a number of quality options at inside linebacker including Kiko Alonso, Preston Brown, and Nigel Bradham, which means Buffalo would likely only be able to offer him a part-time role.
“Brandon is one of my favorite players,” Whaley said. “We’re going to reach out to his representation and see how he would fit in this new defensive scheme and because of the depth we have whether it would fit how he sees himself as a player. So it’ll be more of, ‘Hey do you want to come back and be a one or two down player? Or do you want to try to go out and still be an every down player (elsewhere)?’ So that one is going to be a kind of seeing what works for him and what works for us.”
Spikes, 27, signed a one-year contract worth $3,000,000 contract with the Bills last year, which included $900,000 guaranteed. He’s set the be an unrestricted free agent in the coming weeks, and it sounds like his best option will be join a new team.
In 2014, Spikes recorded 54 tackles, one sack and a forced fumble over the course of 16 games. Pro Football Focus has him rated as the No. 13 inside linebacker in the league last year, due to a very impressive run defense rating.
We have Spikes listed as the No. 42 player in our Top 75 Free Agents list.
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