Bills S Jairus Byrd Targeting Similar Contract To Eric Weddle & DaShon Goldson?

Joe Buscaglia of WGR 550 Buffalo spoke with a few league sources regarding the current situation surrounding the Bills and S Jairus Byrd.

It appears as though the two sides are still nowhere near reaching an agreement before next week’s deadline to sign franchised players to a long-term extension.

“I would be completely and utterly shocked if there was a deal done by Monday,” said one league source. “There are no talks going on. Someone would have to seriously cave.”

A separate league source added that he is hearing that Byrd is targeting a deal close to the ones signed by Eric Weddle and Dashon Goldson.

“The reason why Byrd is getting tagged is for the simple fact that they just can’t get a deal done,” said the other league source. “From what I understand, they’re pushing for numbers in and around what Eric Weddle is at and also keeping the Dashon Goldson deal in to perspective as well.”

Here’s a quick breakdown of those two contracts:

• Weddle: five-years, $40 million, $19 million in guaranteed. (Signed in 2011)
• Goldson: five-years, $41.25 million, $22 million in guaranteed. (Signed in 2013)

Byrd, 26, is clearly one of the best players at his position and typically players of his caliber aren’t available on the open market. The way things look right now, there appears to be a very good chance that Byrd will head into the 2014 offseason with an opportunity to cash in the free agent market.

This is of course assuming that the Bills are unwilling to pay an additional 20 percent increase to franchise him for the second straight season.

We have Byrd listed as the No. 5 player in our Top 50 – 2014 Free Agents list.

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Tim Graham of the Buffalo News reports that no talks between the Bills and S Jairus Byrd  are not close to reaching a long-term deal.

Graham adds that there are no talks scheduled between the team and Byrd’s agent Eugene Parker.

There is only a week left to negotiate a long-term deal with franchised players, so time is obviously running out. Once the deadline passes, Byrd could hold out seeing as he’s already qualifies as an unrestricted free agent.

This situation could end up being a mess for the Bills, there’s still time to get something worked out.

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James Walker of ESPN.com reports that the Bills and S Jairus Byrd still haven’t made any progress towards a long-term contract extension that would prevent him from becoming an unrestricted free agent in 2014.

Byrd, 26, received the Bills franchise tag, so Buffalo would have to be willing to pay him an additional 20 percent on top of the 2014 franchise total for safeties to use their tag on him again.

The Bills will have until July 15 to negotiate a long-term deal, but Walker adds that they still “have a long way to go as of Friday evening.”

With that being said, Walker remains optimistic that contract talks will pick up at some point in the near future.