4:26pm: Clay will in fact be visiting the Bills, according to Armando Salguero of the Miami Herald (via Twitter). Buffalo will attempt to structure its offer sheet to Clay so that it’s difficult for the Dolphins to match, adds Ian Rapoport of NFL.com (Twitter link). In fact, the Bills value Clay so highly that they’d be happy with landing him and little else, tweets Tim Graham of the Buffalo News.
2:14pm: The Bills plan to prepare the strongest possible offer sheet for Clay, tweets Vic Carucci of the Buffalo News, adding that the Browns are also interested in Clay.
7:20am: The transition tag isn’t expected to stop the Bills from making a run at tight end Charles Clay, says Mike Garafolo of Fox Sports (via Twitter). Clay, who received the one-year transition tender worth $7.071MM from the Dolphins last week, is still free to negotiate with other teams starting this afternoon, and according to Jason La Canfora of CBSSports.com (via Twitter), Buffalo is preparing to make the tight end an offer.
While that offer could come as soon as today, Garafolo (via Twitter) cautions that things may not play out quite that quickly. For an unrestricted free agent, teams will race to get him to put pen to paper to finalize a deal, but for a transition player, the Dolphins will have five days to match any offer sheet, so there’s no rush to get anything done immediately. Garafolo expects the Bills to try to bring Clay in for a visit later this week.
In other Bills-related news, La Canfora notes that the team also hopes to sign former Vikings fullback Jerome Felton, who is a free agent this winter. With former Niners offensive coordinator Greg Roman ready to take over control of Buffalo’s offense, the Bills are expected to add some sort of fullback this offseason, whether it’s Felton or someone else.
Finally, speaking of San Francisco, Vic Carucci of the Buffalo News adds (via Twitter) that – despite multiple reports to the contrary – the Bills weren’t actually among the teams pursuing former Niners guard Mike Iupati, who is expected to sign with the Cardinals.