Chandler not only tied for second on the team in receptions with 43, but he was also second behind just Stevie Johnson in receiving yards (571) and was tied with Johnson for most receiving touchdowns with six.

Knowing Buffalo will be plugging in new players to replace the likes of Donald Jones and David Nelson at wideout, having Chandler to pair with Johnson from the very start of the season will offer the new offense two valuable building blocks instead of just one.

As it stands right now Chandler is likely to be a participant in practice right from the start of training camp.

Appearing on PFC radio Wednesday, Davis was asked about the presence of Chandler on Buffalo’s roster and how it was explained to him by the Bills brass in his dinner with them last weekend.

“(I felt good about) just the conversation we had and the offense with what we would do if I was there,” Davis said. ”Me and Chandler together if he comes back healthy I’m sure there would be a lot of two tight end sets. I saw what he did making plays and scoring touchdowns. He’s the red zone man up there.”

Davis also knows the Bills are likely to draft a quarterback and sees that development as a good thing for a tight end too. 

“The offense that they’re running, it’s very tight end friendly and if you add a rookie QB the tight end is the safety net,” said Davis. ”So there would be a lot of opportunities and whoever the other tight end would be.”

Davis said more than once that he’s not looking to be a star addition, just a contributor wherever he lands in the free agent market.

“If I can help and be a piece to the puzzle, that’s all that really matters to me,” he said. ”I’m not a big town guy, what matters to me is being on a good team with good people around you with good coaches that can help you win.”

After cleaning up in the 1st round last week, Leodis McKelvin’s primetime punt return did it again yesterday against a Donald Jones TD. In what was predicted to be a close game between a No. 4 and No. 5 seed, McKelvin finished with 88% of the vote.

With the hardwood tournament tipping off this afternoon, Bills Bracketology will only pick up steam. Today, it’s Jairus Byrd’s diving interception under the bright Thursday night lights at the Ralph against a tricky Scott Chandler endzone grab against the Patriots.

Who will heat it up today? VOTE NOW!

It was all offense all weekend in Bills Bracketology as Scott Chandler’s endzone jump ball and C.J.’s long run for the TD beat out defensive plays by Kyle Williams and Mario Williams.

As expected, the 7 vs. 10 seed game came down to the wire. The 7th seeded Chandler TD eked out the win with 57% of the vote to Mario Williams’ 43%. Chandler will go on to play the perennially tough Jairus Byrd and his primetime pick in the 2nd round of Bills Bracketology, which starts tomorrow.

The C.J. Spiller win was an upset as his 11th seeded 66-yard touchdown run beat Kyle Williams’ 6th seeded sack over Kansas City. C.J. will advance and play the winner of today’s No. 3 vs. No. 14 seed game: a C.J. TD run against the Jets vs. a Bryan Scott interception for a touchdown. Will we see a C.J. vs. C.J. battle in the 2nd round? VOTE NOW!

Eifert had an eye-popping 35.5 inch vertical and a 9’11″ broad jump. He also pumped out 22 reps on the bench.

Ertz had Eifert beat on the bench with 24 reps, but was a bit behind in the vertical (30.5″) and broad jump (9’3″).

Another TE putting in a solid workout is Rice’s Vance McDonald. He’s got the high in his position group for bench press with 31 reps and matched Eifert in the broad jump (9’11″). He has not yet attempted the vertical leap.

Buffalo GM Buddy Nix said tight end is a need position for the Bills due to the uncertainty of Scott Chandler coming off ACL surgery at the end of the regular season.

Bills GM Buddy Nix, who acknowledged last week that tight end was on their list of positions to address, admitted in an appearance on WGR Sportsradio 550 that tight end is one position where reinforcements are needed.

“Certainly tight end is a concern because a guy gets an ACL at the end of the year like Scott (Chandler) did and it limits your time for rehab and you don’t know how strong that guy will come back,” said Nix. ”We’ve got three or four guys on the roster, but we’re definitely looking to add somebody at tight end if we can.”

“It’s a pretty good year because of the juniors,” said ESPN NFL draft analyst Mel Kiper. ”Had it not been for the juniors it would’ve been awful. With (Notre Dame’s) Tyler Eifert and (Stanford’s) Zach Ertz, Jordan Reed out of Florida, Dion Sims out of Michigan State has made it a good tight end crop at the top. Gavin Escobar out of San Diego State is another good underclassman. Levine Toilolo from Stanford is coming out early. Travis Kelce is the top senior in my opinion from Cincinnati. Vance McDonald from Rice deserves to be in the discussion.

“So it’s become a pretty good tight end group because of the juniors. Chris Gragg out of Arkansas had he stayed healthy all year would’ve been in the mix. Joseph Fauria the kid out of UCLA and Ryan Otten out of San Jose State are two guys to watch for late. Phillip Lutzenkirchen with the injury out of Auburn is a versatile kid that can help you. Lucas Reed at New Mexico can catch the football. Jack Doyle out of Western Kentucky has ability. So there are going to be an awful lot of tight ends looked at, but the junior influence at the top are the reason why tight end is pretty doggone good.”

That’s good news for Buffalo, who is looking for a young prospect that could help stem the tide at the position until Chanadler is ready again.

Buffalo signed TE Joe Sawyer and FS Dominique Ellis. Sawyer, a former undrafted signing of the Green Bay Packers in 2010. He’s since worked out for Oakland and San Francisco this past year. He played his college ball at Southwestern Oklahoma St. He’s 6’3″ 270 and is 26-years old. He’s got some athleticism as evidenced by this YouTube video of one of his workouts, which includes some pass catching work.

The reason the tight end position is a question mark heading into next season is because it’s uncertain as to whether Scott Chandler will be ready for the start of the regular season. He just had surgery to repair a torn ACL last week. Knowing rehab is typically 8-9 months it’s almost certain he won’t be participating in training camp. That leaves Buffalo with Lee Smith and Dorin Dickerson at the position from the 2012 roster. Mike Caussin was on I-R.

Meanwhile Dominique Ellis out of South Carolina State, was an undrafted free agent with the Chiefs last season. He played free safety in college and has 4.55 speed. Free safety is another position that has some uncertainty knowing Jairus Byrd is set to become an unrestricted free agent in mid-March.

At 720pm, we’ll be live with Bills TE Scott Chandler. He’s a former teammate of Cowboys TE Jason Witten, and Witten had Marrone as his positon coach at the University of Tennessee back in 2001. We’ll ask Scott what he’s heard about Coach Marrone from Witten, and try to get a sense of what Bills players are thinking and saying about the new man in charge.

For the last week, there’s been a lot of buzz about the Bills push to employ football “analytics” in the future. New Team President Russ Brandon mentioned it last week, and Coach Marrone addressed it in his introductory news conference Monday. Tonight at 8pm, we’ll talk with analyst Sam Monson of Pro Football Focus about analytics, and how NFL teams are using the new information. Monson is one of the core team members at Pro Football Focus.

And as we continue to learn more about Doug Marrone, we’ll touch bases with one of his former college teammates tonight. Daryl “Moose” Johnston played at Syracuse University with Marrone in the mid 1980s. The Youngstown, New York native is now an analyst with the NFL on Fox, after an 11-year career as a fullback with the Cowboys. We’ll ask “Moose” about Marrone tonight at 820pm.

As always, we’ll make plenty of time for the news of the day and we’ll take phone calls from Bills fans.

The John Murphy Show airs weeknights from 7-9pm on the flagship station of the Bills, WGR Sports Radio 550.

Chandler will have surgery to repair his torn ACL next week, and rehab will ensue a short time after that. The Bills tight end is ready to undertake the lengthy rehab process, which typically takes 7-9 months.

What has him encouraged is how successfully a lot of players have come back from torn ACL in the 2012 season across the league.

“You see guys running and cutting and it’s encouraging,” Chandler said. ”These doctors know what they’re doing now. I think a lot of the onus is on the player now to get out there and bust his butt to get back, and that’s what I’m going to do.”

Chandler said he’ll be back and forth between Buffalo and Iowa this offseason during his rehab.

“I think he’ll be able to go (Sunday),” said head coach Chan Gailey. “He practiced yesterday and today so I think he’ll just get stronger as long as we don’t have a setback tomorrow.”

Dickerson’s availability is critical for Sunday’s game with Scott Chandler on injured reserve and Lee Smith the only other healthy tight end on the roster.

Knowing it’s a seven to nine month rehab head coach Chan Gailey admitted that Chandler might not be ready to play at the start of next season.

For Chandler he’s only had one major injury in his career prior to this one.

“I tore up my toe pretty bad when I was in San Diego and the recovery time was pretty close to the same, so we’ll see if that helps in staying mentally focused on what lies ahead,” said Chandler.

Chandler finished the 2012 season with career highs in receptions, receiving yards and tied his career best in touchdowns.

“It’s a knee.  It’s bad.  He’ll have to have surgery.  I think it is an ACL,” Gailey told the media Monday.  He said the injury is bad enough that it might mean Chandler would not be available at the start of next season.

The news on backup tight end Dorin Dickerson is much better.  Gailey says his ankle injury does not appear to be serious, and he might be able to practice this Wednesday.  Dickerson is expected to be available to play Sunday in the season finale against the Jets.

Gailey was asked if the Bills need to sign another tight end to the roster for Sunday.

“We’re looking at all the different things we might have to do between now and Wednesday to see what we need to do,” he said.

Head coach Chan Gailey said it’s an ACL knee injury for Chandler. Torn ACLs typically require a 7-9 month rehab.

“Scott doesn’t look good at all,” said Gailey. “It’s a knee. I saw him in the locker room on crutches.”

Chandler on his Twitter account said he’ll know more on Monday after he gets an MRI.

His replacement in the game, Dorin Dickerson, also left with an injury and had to be carted off. He too will be re-evaluated on Monday.

Though Dickerson consistently executed his assignments according to Ryan Fitzpatrick, the Bills QB admitted they did lose something when Chandler went out of the game.

“You lose a good amount with Scott not out there in terms of mentally and his feel for the game and we kind of have a good connection,” said Fitzpatrick. “It was unfortunate to see him go down with the injury he went down with. You lose a lot when you lose a player like that.

Da’Norris Searcy sustained a hand injury. It appeared to be the same hand he injured earlier this season, though it didn’t cost him any time on the field.

“It was good. I wasn’t sure we were going to have him this early,” said Gailey. :It was great to have him back out there. He and Eric Wood are a big part of our offense. We need both of them so it was good to have both of them.”

Gailey confirmed that Wood did more in practice Thursday than he did on Wednesday.

“It’s looking positive at this point,” Gailey said.

Scott Chandler, Andy Levitre and Kyle Williams were back practicing. We’ll update their level of participation post practice.

Levitre was questionable for last week’s game with a knee ailment, but played. Chandler was listed as probable last week with a groin injury and also started against the Seahawks and finished the game, though Ryan Fitzpatrick stated after the game that Chandler was “fighting through some things.”

Here’s the list of Buffalo’s other non-participants today.

DT Kyle Williams
CB Leodis McKelvin
LB Chris White
WR Marcus Easley
TE Scott Chandler

“We’ve just got to make plays,” said Donald Jones. ”There’s not much more you can say then you have to make the plays at the end of the game. Once it gets to crunch time you’ve got to make the plays and we’re not doing it right now.”

“I think you look at that Houston game and if we catch the ball as well as we did Sunday it’s different,” said Scott Chandler. ”I had a big drop down there on third down. You just really feel like we are kind of hitting our stride, but we’ve got to make those plays in the clutch too. That’s kind of been our Achilles heel so far as a team. You look at the Titans game and the Patriots game if we make the plays we need to in the clutch situations we’re sitting here at 5-4.”

Instead Buffalo is 3-6 leaving themselves no margin for error with seven games to play.