Mango

Dude, a billionaire explicitly telling a bunch of people making $60k per year that they're there to maintain his family lifestyle is remarkably bad practice. You have to know this, right? RIGHT!? LOL

Yeah, that wasn't Galisano, that was Rigas. Those bums Knox, Rigas, Galisano, figuring out how to field a team that that collectively had the 4th highest P% in the league. It's just this wild circumstances of events that makes the Pegula era Sabres a bottom 5 team in P% since he bought the team.* (* It's been some time since I've run the numbers. I think bottom 5 is generous. I think the Sabres are last/very close to last in P% across league from the 2011/12 season on)

You don't communicate that down to your team of people, many of which are making 5 figures. Obviously rich people want to stay rich.

Cool, when the Pegula era Sabres make a Stanley Cup final, Conference Final, and win the Presidents trophy, I'll remember to count my lucky stars that we are in the Pegula era, and we can finally end the nightmare that was the Galisano years.... Also Reinhart, O'Reilly, and Eichel would like a word. Briere/Drury left over money. The players from the last 14 years are publically begging to GTFO.

Galisano found a way to buy a $75M yacht, not lose money on the Sabres, and replaced/updated the scoreboard at KBC within factory recommendations. So I don't buy it as a reasonable excuse for suckitude and neither should anybody else.

All but $100M for a boat plus the full time staff, fuel, insurance, etc. a quick Google says a mega yacht requires about 10-15% of the total cost per year just to maintain and staff.... The NHL cap is just under $100M, about the same as his yacht. The return on $100M is about $5M per year, which is around what the Sabres have left on the table in cap every year. The interest on his yacht money could close the gap in salaries for th Sabres every year. It was the cost of replacing the score board that was well best it's life expectancy.

The fact that Terry is (and always has been) responsible for a failing KBC and has done nothing/the bare minimum is so frustrationg. He ran the scoreboard for nearly 2x manufacturer recommendations. He allowed the roof to leak on fans for years and year. a roof that leaked on fans for years and years. Then on top of it, he is running the Teemu version of a real NHL franchise, leading the league in unused cap. And after all he that takes nearly $1B in public subsidy while buying a $100M yacht. I am starting to think that this Pegula character is not all that likable.

Kind of surprised we don't have a Tre update yet. Since it is a travel day does McD have any media availability?

Not exactly taking a side in this in regards to McBeane/Allen, I just find it a fun thought exercise. But I think the Eagles make the playoffs with Tyrod Taylor. Their roster is stacked since Hurts contract hasn't hit the cap yet. In fact I'm fairly confident of it. The Chiefs are interesting because I think they miss, but maybe only because of Nix/Payton and Herbert/Harbaugh in the division. I think they're lock if they're in the AFCS and a maybe in the AFCE (a lot depends on Vrabel and Co).

The NFL is in a weird spot. They just don't really practice anymore. I get it, these guys are bigger, faster, stronger. They're getting hit by a mid sized sedan like 8 times per week for 17 weeks (if they're lucky) Unsure if I am getting older or if this is a new phenomenon, but the less there is team practice the more there seems to be more soft tissue injuries. And on top of that, with nobody practicing, and nobody playing preseason, it seems common place to just sort of accept that a bunch of teams are clunky for 2-4 weeks to start the year. If I am the NFL I would put almost any bargaining chip on the table to get these guys back in the facilities full time starting in May. No pads until August, all film, weights, drills, routes vs air, sleds, etc. Honestly, drop TNF, add a bye, increase the NFLPA revenue share, but get these guys back in house 30 hours per week (or whatever) earlier so they're working at NFL speeds against a host of NFL players more often.

And I'll say the same thing I say every season. Without McBeane the Buffalo Bills run the very real risk of becoming the Buffalo Sabres under Terry Pegula.

I think you're arguing something different than what I mean. I'm not saying that we shouldn't get or target better wide receivers. Nor am I saying that Beane has done enough there. I'm saying there's a lot of moving parts and part of what holds us back against KC/making it to the SB is that we keep having to go back to the well. I will say, that for me, our constant misses/redrafts are a bigger concern for me than myopically looking at the offense or defense. But missing on defense seems to be enemy number one. We've devoted a lot more resources there to make up for it. But because we have the QB, we can help cover that up. I think that's similar to KC in that they've hit on defense much better than we have but been abysmal at drafting for offensive skill positions high. Mahomes gas covered that up. Yes the have taken more swings and that's ok. I would probably advicate for Beane to do the same...but alas he botches the defensive picks and leans into Allen to close the gap. I don't love our defensive drafts/FA as of late. I wish we spent more draft capital on offense. But imagine this team if they didn't redraft some of those defensive players? Defense is already holding this team back. We'd have lost to Baltimore on the road in the WC,rather than KC in the AFCCG. Regarding Allen's deal, he's played 7 seasons. 4 of which were a rookie deal and one is his 5th year option. He's had a couple seasons as a top 5/10 cap hit QB. And those are the years we should be spending less on WR. That doesn't mean we've done enough each and every year either. I don't disagree with this at all. I will say that I get what this regime is trying to do. But they've failed in execution. All these resources for TE's and we don't really utilize them at a high level. Constantly chasing receiving backs but we almost never throw the ball to them with frequency. Or dress them in TJ Yeldons case. It is very strange.

He had a 5-6 game stretch there where he was absolutely lights out. I would have to play with the way back machine but I believe he had a fairly average targets per game but like a top (bottom?) 5 Passer Rating when targeted. Ie. He wasn't being carried by a low number of targets that were unfairlyweighing his production.

At the risk of derailing the thread Whaley was a decent talent evaluator, especially in pro personnel, but where McBeane accel is understanding that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

Right, the Bills and Chiefs have a little bit of a similar problem, but when you miss on the offensive side of the ball and your QB is Allen/Mahomes you can cover the mistake. If KC drafted better on the offensive side of the football they would have likely won the last 3 SB's. If the Bills swapped defensive drafts with KC and left their offensive unit the same they'd likely be in a SB by now if not win one. I don't think Beane is deliberately ignoring WR. We just keep losing because of the defense and Allen keeps doing more than enough to win a SB. Philly isn't a comp because Hurts is still running his early contract numbers. He's the 16th highest cap hit among QB's. He's average. I will be curious to see if he can close the gap once his cap number spikes into the top 5. From what I've seen I don't think he will. But he has time, albeit dwindling.

It's a cost issue, when you pay the QB the QB is required to fill the holes in the cost gap. Similar to say KC or NE. The problem is, and continues to be, we've really struggled to hit on enough of our defensive picks. We continue to redraft roles over and over and over and over again. Basham, AJE, Oliver, Rousseau, Phillips,Carter, Sanders, Jackson, Elam, Hairston. You can even add Davis, Moss, Cook, Knox and Kincaid to the list. Those are all the top 100 picks we've had to draft and redraft because they've under performed. Everytime we have to go back to the well to redraft another top 100 pick at the same exact position means we also lose on addressing another issue on the roster. I like McBeane, but this issue is enemy number one for this roster getting over the hump.

At $4M cap number I would have maybe considered that for a 6th and a swap of another pick. He has no dead cap money in 26 of the Bills decided to move on. But we are right against the cap at the moment, and as much as it would be a risk, that money is likely better spent on Simmons (if they were to pick between the two).

Right, it's crazy to me that he knew stuff about perigrine falcons accept that they live in all the places that he has ever lived. He talks about them like they're some exotic jungle species.

It was crazy to me that he knew what a perigrine falcon was, and how fast it dives, but was like "I think they're only in Africa". Some of these guys are just so incredibly dumb. My hot take at the end of last season was that I think Knox is still the better TE, but Kincaid's athleticism, age, and draft status keep him as TE1. Nothing in camp/preseason seems to have changed that.

Lewis is a guy that I'm not really happy with anywhere at any level of the depth chart. But he's just barely solid enough to be 2nd/3rd string in a million spots that he sticks around. As a DB I think Ingram is a better overall prospect at what he does but he has less utility than Lewis. Also doesn't exactly fit the solution here. But again the problem is, Can Lewis sticks around because we haven't addressed the depth chart above him nearly well enough.

Am I the only one who thought it looked like James Cook came right from a safety meeting and into his Hard Knocks interview/contract signing?

Things don't apply generically to all teams. McD relies heavily on his safety tandem. Porter/Hyde injuries and aging have been a major hurdle that McBeane haven't been able to get over. If McD can take any old cerebral 7th round safety and turn them into one of the best (active)safety tandems the league, and our best safety tandem in franchise history, then he's welcome to sprinkle that magic dust again at anytime. But until then it's held this defense back and it's a vital position group for the team.

I think he's still recovering from injury right? Curious if they let him work back on the PS and at that point who knows what we need to do at WR.

Also worth noting that our base isn't cover/tampa 2, it is cover 3.

Right, he isn't a dud, but I think the expectation from fans is for him to be "the guy" on the line. I like having him. His contract is fine. But I think there's an itch for him to be a bigger impact player.