May Day 10

Darnold was a safer pick. Supposed to be a solid and dependable starter in the NFL Allen was considered risky, had as high of a ceiling as they come, and general thought is he may need to season on the bench for multiple seasons. Boom or bust potential. We see what happened. Through a combination of Allen's internal drive, his skill set, coaching infrastructure, and team construction, Allen is realizing his immense potential. Darnold lacks the last 2, and the first 2 are questionable/unknown at the NFL level. The thing with quarterbacks, is they seem to have a quick shelf-life before development halts. If things don't work out, they generally go into the scrap heap. This is even more true right now with so many really good, athletic quarterbacks, with more on the way. I think Tannehill is a poor example, because he was thought of as pretty decent in Miami. He showed way more there than Darnold has shown for the Jets. Darnold also has had a sketchy injury history thusfar. Maybe a team like Minnesota, New England, Indy, Washington, Detroit take a flier on Darnold and try to develop him? It is probably likely someone will be interested and try and have a reclamation project for a year, and worst case, Darnold leads them to the pick of the litter in the 2022 draft.

Im not a big fan of the lottery either, and that goes for hockey too. IMO I think NBA has the most need for it because it seems that it is completely predictable, and it seems so easy just to overhaul a roster/team overnight. In the NHL and NFL, you have to cut deep to get to #1. That is a huge risk and likely stunts your team's growth potential. The Bills wouldn't be where they are today if they weren't scrappy in their transition years of 2017 and 2018. This is true with the Dolphins as well. The #1 pick is also a risky proposition. Andrew Luck battled injury and then just decided to retire. Lots of #1 picks dont end up as good as the #5, 7, or 10 picks who are selected on a team with a better infrastructure. I'm sure NFL players really wouldn't like being on a tanking team as they are putting their health on the line and are made to look bad in their short career earning window. And lastly, fans of a team like the Jets really need a light at the end of the tunnel. How awful would it be for them if they got screwed by some cloak and dagger lottery and ended up picking 4th or something. That also opens the door for conspiracy feelings that do not sit well with fans.

The Sabres have been much worse than the drought-era Bills IMO. At least the Bills were somewhat mediocre most of the time and would actually provide for some hope and entertainment. Even if it was fruitless, eternal, in-the-hunt dreams. Other than the Mike Williams and Darius seasons, they never really bottomed out, and never finished worst in the NFL. The Sabres have been plain bad. Like worst-in-the league for large stretches of the time, included full seasons buried as worst in the league. The NHL has >50% of its teams qualify for the playoffs and the Sabres have barely had a sniff past New Year's in any of these seasons. Add in the things that get rubbed in our faces like OReilly winning the Stanley Cup and Conn Smythe and Lehner becoming a top goalie and Vezina Candidate. They are a really tough team to root for

I have browsed around there the last few weeks. I find it interesting, because I recall leading up to the opener last season, how 100% certain nearly everyone there was that Darnold was way ahead of Allen and was sure to be onto bigger and better things. I was confused as to how they could be sure, at that point it looked maybe 50/50. I like the banter about how amazing Allen is, it inflates my fan-ego. I have to say a lot of them have a generally good and realistic view. I do feel a bit bad for them. Although I typically hate NYC teams, Jets fans have had it pretty rough for a long time. Many though think.... that a 1st pick QB is a magic pill that fixes everything, along with cap space to spend on shiny toys. That is not true. The QB is important (but this day and age seems to be fairly common). The most important thing is the football CEO who is generally the coach, who works with a savvy GM. Need to get decent starters in the draft, and need to find decent but not all that splashy FA signings. Maybe can swing for the fences if an opportunity arises like the Bills did with Diggs and Cardinals with Hopkins. The environment for the QB is just as important as the QB, and a crummy environment will ruin any QB. The turnaround only needs to take a couple years if done correctly.

time to scrap the reds. they look awful. go with these for a throwback

if the timelines of the vaccine and NFL season were different, then yes. As it is now, the rollout/availability of the vaccine will be very limited through the playoffs. That, and time is short for the Bills/NFL to even create some sort of framework of a plan and verification procedures.

All they need to do is make some marketing muppet the gm/owner for life

Thats a brutal Division. I think they should swap Buffalo and Carolina. That would be a cool division to be in for a year

not happy until the hype video has some sort of major apocalyptic theme to it.

He was terrible last season. For all the variables a football team needs to worry about, getting a halfway decent punt shouldnt be a concern. I didnt necessarily want the guy from the jets, I wanted them to look at options. Bojo has been awesome this season though. It cant be the same punter

It was Bobby Rayburn for sure

Yup. Awesome news.

yeah, it stinks, because it appears this team has potential to keep putting up crooked numbers and could get itself on the National stage (even more). They might score 80 against Akron though.

crud

next up is when they announce a new blue stripe on the pants. It will be a tattered man groping around, desperately scavenging in a post nuclear wasteland and finding the white pants with a blue stripe, just in time for the authorities to come in futuristic tanks and weaponry to apprehend him.

I worked M-Th 10 hours/day for awhile. It was amazing. I would do that forever if I could. Honestly I believe I was way more productive.

Haha. Mine is all gunked up from my kid. He has a playlist that resembles a weird version of Jock Jams. He listens to his playlist over and over again and tries to act out sports highlights. 1. Stop Me (a song that was on Madden a couple years ago) 2. We Will Rock You 3. Song 2 4. Dynamite 5. Vegas Lights Top Artists though kind of represented me better 1. Primus 2. The Claypool Lennon Delirium 3, Panic! at the Disco (from my kid) 4. Pearl Jam 5. Brownout

Just a really bizarre hype video. No words.

An interesting point about the saturation of the NFL and sports in general. I do agree with that. Also, I do see that there was no other evolution to this point. I remember the Sunday routine of ESPN NFL Gameday, 12:00 (or 12:30?) pregame show, then NFL Primetime on ESPN. If you were a crackhead, you might watch George Micheal Sports Machine later. That was all there was. Watching the 1 hour loops of Sportscenter every morning, most of my sports memories from like 1988 - 1997 were directly from that show. You had to wait to see the sports/highlights you wanted. I still remember huge sports moments through the lens of Sportscenter and what the host said. This was also the case with Empire Sports Network. I remember waiting through a Syracuse Orange show, or Ivan the Impaler (RIP) talking about wrestling, to get to the Sabres portion at the top of the hour and it was like drinking from a desert Oasis. It all seems somewhat quaint, but the limited exposure made it better and more 'mystical' as someone said. Now, I could probably tune into any of 4 or 5 syndicated sports radio talk shows, endless podcasts, twitter of every media member, can look at every thought that Tre White had this week on twitter, a team produced Cribs show about someone, countless sports websites, regional sports networks, national sports networks, and youtube. It is great and also a curse.

Get your 1986 Steve Young and jerry Rice graded as well as 89 Barry Sanders and Troy Aikman. If they are in perfect condition (including centering which you have no control of), they could be worth some bux. The rest are basically worthless (other then sentimental value of course).

Lots of interesting perspectives here on all sides. I think part of me thinking the NFL is great today has something to do with the Bills being an actual relevant team after living in kind of a darkness/B league for about 20 years. I also see a lot of the great, young, exciting quarterbacks that have taken the stage and it is kind of an unprecedented time. We get to see it first-hand all the time. because we apparently have one. The lack of 'violence' in the NHL kills it for me on an excitement level. As mentioned, there was always a possibility a game could turn into a mess of fights, misconducts, excitement, etc, and it could happen at any time no matter the score (actually more likely sometimes in a lopsided game). It made watching a crappy team bearable. Things would truly devolve a handful of times per season, but it was enough to keep me glued to games from buzzer to buzzer. It felt like we had our squad of warriors who represented Buffalo and would fight against 'evil' in the Bruins, Habs, Whalers, Flyers, etc. There were clear villains. I still hate Lyle Odelein. I remember going to games, getting the lineup sheet, and first looking at which players on the other team could fight. Now, nothing notable really happens. There is a glut of young stars with immense talent surpassing even gretzky probably.... but they dont really shine that much as per the nature of the sport. You could see a few amazing plays by McDavid, maybe a rush or 2 and even a goal every other game. But he could be completely neutralized on many nights. Contrast with the NBA. You see the best players playing a large portion of the game and doing awesome things. I realize there are great players, but not enough happens any given game to keep my attention for 2.5 hours 82+ games a year.

very sick of Tampa Bay. I went from thinking they were an interesting team to rooting for them to lose every game. It doesnt help that most Patriots fans are now bandwagoning for the Buccaneers because god-forbid their 'favorite' team isnt a top Super Bowl contender one time.

I was shocked at how poorly Lynn and the Chargers were prepared for contingencies with clock management, wasting timeouts, indecision, etc. Reminded me of the Gregg Williams era here. No wonder they lose every close game

That was a mess for the chargers No wonder they lose every game by a point

I say it every time, but I really wish they didnt have a horrible venue A record slashing skill position player makes that possible