Buffalo Bills May Have Interest in Jim Leonhard and Josh Johnson
By Josh Hill
The Buffalo Bills are looking to shore up their defense and they may be looking at free agent strong safety Jim Leonhard to help them out in their secondary in 2013. WGR 550 in Buffalo is suggesting that the Bills may have an interest in Leonhard and the two sides could meet up to discuss a deal in the near future.
Leonhard would be a potentially easy fit with the Bills as he’s familiar with Buffalo defensive coordinator Mike Pettine from the duo’s days in New York as members of the Jets. Leonhard fell on hard injury times while with New York and even came in to work with the Bills during training camp last year before ultimately signing with the Denver Broncos.
He’d come cheap too, which is getting into a situation where it couldn’t hurt starts to become real reasoning behind a signing.
Buffalo may also look Josh Johnson’s way, as the team is in desperate need of help and depth at quarterback. Johnson has been drawing interest from some teams around the league, most recently from the Cincinnati Bengals. Johnson isn’t a top-tier name but he could fit in with what the Bills are looking for out of a quarterback.
When Buddy Nix hinted that he wanted to move on from Ryan Fitzpatrick a few months ago, everyone pegged Michael Vick as a major target for Buffalo. The Bills have stated they want to get a more mobile quarterback in town, and Johnson fits that requirement nicely. During his time with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Johnson was used as a Wildcat quarterback but he also demonstrated he’s able to throw the ball as well. He was highly coveted by Jim Harbaugh before Colin Kaepernick exploded but Johnson failed to make the final roster cut.
He’s an intriguing idea for the Bills and also falls under the category of it couldn’t hurt otherwise known as low-risk, high-reward. The Bills currently have Tavaris Jackson penciled in as their starter and while the team is looking to address the quarterback situation in the draft, when Tavaris Jackson is the best option on your roster, anything helps.