Donte wants back in

Donte Whitner is in the news again. This is a tweet from this evening:

@DonteWhitner My Heart is in Buffalo...


I have to be brutally honest. When Whitner made his outrageous financial demands and then pretty much tweeted himself out of Buffalo -- I was happy! I thought, man, this guy doesn't make enough plays to be talking so big. I also didn't appreciate his crybaby attitude. He didn't/doesn't know how to handle the fans on twitter. He's a bit of a headcase. On and on..

But something started to happen a few days ago.. I felt sympathy for the guy! It's like he realized he screwed up and the only place he wanted to be all along was Buffalo, NY. He was blinded by the dollar signs he was seeing as the season concluded.

I even tweeted him the other day:

@DonteWhitner You coming back to Buffalo, Donte? You should


To which he replied:

@Fitzbeardy don't thiink its an option


I'm not quite sure why I added the "you should" part. Maybe it was the fan in me. But anyways, cool of him to respond and to be honest.

Listen, Donte was the scapegoat for a bad defense last year. No, he's never quite lived up to the #8 overall selection and the expectations for him have always been big. To the fan's defense, he assisted in those lofty expectations by guaranteeing the playoffs and other stuff. But Donte was asked to do A LOT of different things and play a lot of different roles last year because other guys weren't doing their job.

I think signing him to a reasonable deal wouldn't hurt us at all. In fact, I think it would bolster our already strong secondary. We still don't know if George Wilson can handle the starting position. He's shown signs of being good but I don't really know if he's better than Donte at the job. Donte has unfinished business here. Let's see what he can do with a little defensive help in the form of Merriman (assuming he stays healthy... yeah I know, big assumption) and Dareus. This is assuming he would take a more reasonable deal than his original contract demands. I personally think anywhere from 3 to 4.5 is fair and anything above that is too much for him.

Donte CLEARLY wants to come back. He misses his guys (tweeted that the other day as well). But the problem is -- he, his agent and Buddy Nix have to mend some fences. Maybe they already have. Who knows at this point. As of last week, I know both sides were not communicating at all. It's entirely possible Donte told his agent to pursue another offer from the Bills but this time at a lower rate. We'll see how this shakes out. I don't know about you but I find this story extremely interesting. It's rare when an athlete wants to come back to Buffalo this badly. More on this as this unfolds...