Kirby Jackson

What franchise QB is just hitting the market that you can throw money at? Darnold? That’s not how it works anymore. They don’t go to FA. You likely have to draft one. You can occasionally get lucky with a reclamation project that is cheap (see Baker Mayfield). If you draft one, the first thing you have to do is find them an elite WR. If you aren’t paying a franchise QB you have loads of cap space. You can win in the QBs rookie deal with the right high need talent around him (like the 49ers with Purdy) or the Chiefs with Mahomes. Imagine having an elite WR already? It is a no brainer and the perfect time to pay a WR.

What did the Vikings do when they signed Jefferson? When you don’t have a franchise QB or have a QB on a rookie deal is the PERFECT time to pay a number 1 WR.

When you have stars, especially at premium positions, you have to pay them. The quality of the rest of the team can’t stand in your way of that. You pay Myles Garrett, Maxx Crosby, Garrett Wilson, Justin Jefferson, Chase and Higgins, etc… There aren’t enough great players in football to not do that. Wilson is one of the top 5 or so most talented WRs in the NFL. The Titans decided to move on from AJ Brown and Henry in a similar spot. The Giants didn’t value Saquon. You need star players to win. The Eagles have them. The Chiefs have them. The Ravens have them. The Lions have them. The Bills have 1 (plus the OL).

I figured that this thread would be littered with Keon Coleman for most improved. Personally, I feel that’s some wishful thinking. The player he was last year looked so much like the player he was in college. I just don’t think he’s very good. IMO, he’s just a guy. Hopefully he takes a step forward but that video last week of him running routes was 😬. For me, most improved needs to be Cole Bishop. I don’t think he was very good last year but he has tools. He needs to take a step. The Bills bet on that. If he becomes that player, he and Rapp are a pretty good duo. I’d say that the most likely to improve is Ed Oliver. I think he has a Pro Bowl year this year. I love he and Sanders rushing on passing downs together. My sleeper is Javon Solomon. He is a better football player than he is a physical freak. I think he’s a 6+ sack guy. I’d lump Elijah Moore in here. The Bills will maximize his ability to run routes and he will prove to be a very valuable part of that offense. Most likely to regress for me is Connor McGovern. I think he’s really good. He was one of the best centers in football while playing there for the first time in years. I still think he will be good but maybe closer to 10 than top 5. The OL in general was outstanding last year. It feels like that has to regress a little. I hope I’m wrong. Milano and Taron feel too obvious to me. Both are veterans with a decent amount of mileage. A few years ago we all knew Hyde and Poyer would start to regress even if it was only a little. Those 2 guys fit that.

Nice job with this roster.

I was fortunate enough, in another lifetime, to spend quite a bit of time with Marv. Probably spent 20+ hours, just he and I. He is such an interesting and smart guy. Marv is so wise and was always giving life advice. I was in my early to mid 20’s. A couple of things stand out to me: - First, he asked me if I ever saw the Borat movie (this was right after it came out). I told him that I had. He and his wife had just gone the night prior and he said “it was a little crude for my tastes. I was quite uncomfortable when he was running around in that bikini contraption.” 🤣🤣 - Second, he said that he’s met 375,000 people that swear they were at the Comeback Game and stayed the whole time. - Third, he told a story about a guy (and I think he’s told this before) that he ran into one day and said, “remember me.” Marv gave him a puzzled look and the guy said, “a couple of years ago you were going down an escalator in O’Hare and I was going up. I yelled Go Bills to you.” 🤣🤣 - The last one that sticks out is when I asked him who the greatest player he ever saw was. He said, “Gale Sayers” without ANY hesitation. I said, “do you want to think about that?” He said, “No, it’s Gayle Sayers.” I asked him, “what about Bruce?” He said, “he was a damn good football player but Sayers is the best.” (Keep in mind this is probably 20 years ago so Brady was early into his career). Anyways, HBD Marv!!

Exactly. The teams are in a sold out situation. They really don’t care about people offloading some games. Ticketexchange, is a team sponsored, AND REVENUE SHARED, source. Teams literally get a cut of seats transacted on there. Lol, they aren’t staffed to have people scouring the internet in search of someone that sold a pair of seats 4 times in a year. 🤣🤣 In certain situations there may be teams that try to curtail people buying only to resell. That’s so much less common in 2025 than people think. That is more for one-off events like the Masters or a Taylor Swift concert. In those instances they really control who can go. One of the the things that fans probably don’t want to hear is that teams don’t care if access is extremely limited to big games. My cousin was complaining the other day because he wants to go to the Chiefs game but it’s too expensive. I said, “go to the Saints game or Bucs game.” He said, “well I don’t want to go to those as much.” No kidding. That’s why the tickets are more affordable for those games. Teams would probably crack down more on reselling if the pricing made it so that people could never go. They aren’t going to crack down because people can never go to see KC. They would say, “there are plenty of other games to pick from.” This is a bigger deal in other sports (think Yankees are in town, or the Leafs are playing in Buffalo, or the Lakers in MSG). The teams would say, “the benefit of committing to the season is that you ensure yourself the KC game at face value.” That’s literally the sales pitch. The dirty little secret is that they LOVE the fact that people can’t get into the best games for a reasonable price. That’s how they sell packages and season tickets.

Yep. Any weighting of WR isn’t going to help the Bills. They aren’t good at that position comparatively.

That’s probably true. They’ve certainly already cut the deals with the parties that they’ve worked with for a long time. They probably have 8-10 partners that they’re working with and have limited the number of total seats between them. I have a good friend that works for a company that’s the largest reseller on the college side. I’ll try to get some info from him as to how it’s being handled. On the college side they just make giant donations to the athletic department and then buy from there. It’s kind of PSLish

They monitor on ticket exchange as well as other popular sites. It’s really easy (if they care). It is rare that they would care if someone is selling 2 or 4 to a game. That’s why they have those platforms. I think that the reseller issue is a MUCH bigger issue for concerts and other 1 off events. They artificially change the market and limit demand so much.

They would already be season ticket holders. Resellers are more stable during a downswing. Lots of the current base going through are already resellers. Surely they won’t be kicked out. Now, they may limit them some but they won’t revoke their seats. Those people are stable during a downswing. If, and when, the Bills cool off, PSLs and tickets will be dumped. That happens all of the time. The resellers don’t dump in those times. In fact, they may add more. In exchange, you allow them to keep what they have when you’re hot. You can’t just go to them when the tickets have no demand. During the drought, the Bills had thousands and thousands of seats owned by resellers. My assumption is that they still own a lot.

I think that the perception of resellers is a little misunderstood. In the 90’s there were guys outside with signs trying to sling tickets. Over the last 20 years it has changed dramatically. The teams partner with large, national, professional resellers to create another avenue of distribution. The Bills (and pretty much every team), have some partners that own large chunks of season tickets with only the intent of resale. When I worked in sports, we were one of the first teams to embrace it. Roughly 10% of our season tickets were to resellers. I don’t think it’s quite that high here because of the size of an NFL stadium but I think it’s reasonable that 5k or so belong to resellers. Maybe they gave a deal like 100 PSLs for the price of 75? Resellers want to buy low rows, seats on the low end of a price break, close to midfield, etc… Teams will usually allocate some of that prime real estate to them in exchange for offloading the toughest to move inventory (upper corners, etc). It used to be an adversarial relationship 20 years ago or so but that’s changed. It makes WAY more business sense, for both sides, to embrace it (at least to a degree depending on demand). These resellers keep you stable during a down swing in demand and in exchange you reward them when the demand is high. With all of the websites out there now, offering protection, it has changed the game. There are still some antiquated feelings on the secondary market but it’s not going away.

It’s maybe a little unfair. The WRs are at or near the bottom. The TEs are top 10ish and the backs are top 10ish. I’d say closer to 20.