msw2112

Glasgow is definitely a "process" guy who would be a great fit in Buffalo. He was a walk-on at Michigan, earned a scholarship, became a starter and is now a successful NFL player. Interestingly, his 2 brothers also walked on at Michigan and earned scholarships. One of the brothers in in the NFL now (I think) and the other one just graduated and has a shot at an NFL roster, likely as a late round pick or UDFA. All high-character guys. Great family with a huge grocery bill when all 3 were in the house.

I like Shaq and would like to keep him. As someone mentioned above, if you pay him, you know what you're getting. If you pay the same kind of money to a FA from another team, it may or may not work out. Lawson was drafted by the franchise (yes, I know it was a prior regime), worked through the difficulties of an injury (and playing for Rex), has improved every year and is a solid contributor to a good defense. Obviously, you don't pay him $15 M per year and you let him walk if that's what the market commands for his services, but he likely gets, by today's NFL standards, a multi-year deal in the $7-12 M per year range. Some creative accounting and cap management could allocate that type of money any number of ways to make it mutually beneficial to the player and the team.

Draft, develop, retain. The proper way to build a successful organization.

I'm a big Michigan fan and have seen all of their games. I like Ruiz as a prospect and think he'll make a good pro. That said, I don't think he's the right pick for the Bills at 22 this year. I don't think Ruiz at 22 is a stretch for a team that really likes him and needs a center, but it isn't a priority pick for the Bills. If he were to fall the Bills in the 2nd or 3rd round and was the best player on their board, I would grab him in a heartbeat.

I'm not so sure about this. One of Allen's biggest weaknesses this year was his lack of accuracy on the deep ball. And that was the ONE thing that Losman did really well.

It could be any number of things. More $, a more established QB, a team with a better track record in recent years, the lure of a larger, more cosmopolitan city and/or the Pacific NW. Who knows? Olsen would have been a nice add for the Bills, but he's not exactly inexpensive, he's at an advanced age/past his prime and is often injured. Not a huge loss, in my opinion.

While I agree that it is exciting as a fan to have your team "flexed" to prime time and makes for better TV, flexing is a total screw job to the fans who purchase tickets. As mentioned above, people pay for flights, book hotels, arrange for babysitters, etc. to attend a game, and with little notice, the entire thing can be switched around, potentially causing hundreds of dollars of loss for the traveling fan, if not only inconvenience. With flights and hotels involved, the costs could easily exceed $1,000.

With his concussion history, Morse was huge injury risk. Kevin Johnson had an injury history too. It seems to me that Beane is more willing to take a risk with injured guys that are "process-oriented" rather than on guys that are "character" risks. Duke Williams and Tyrell Dotson really don't count, because they are end of the roster fringe players on small contracts, whereby both the player and the contract can be easily shed without much issue.

As mentioned above, his age is a factor. He is 28 and turns 29 in May. If is sits on the PS another year, I'm not sure if he will ever make it. There isn't much of a market for 30 year old running backs. It would be a great story if he could land a spot on the 53 this upcoming season.

I was there. We decided to stay for one series after halftime to see if the Bills could could come out of the gate with anything and they came out and threw a pick 6. Somehow, we decided to stick it out after that. Kinda glad we did....

I really like Beane's pragmatic and honest approach. If he presents to the players the same way that he presents to the media and the fans, I believe that most guys would really appreciate it. It's a nice departure from a lot of the "corporate speak" and "coach speak" that we see in professional sports. The only guys who may not like it are those that are unwilling to accept the truth, such as an aging player who is on the decline and still believes they are what they used to be, or a guy who had one good year but is closer to an average replacement level player.

Although I have never head of this assistant coach, I wish him well. The move makes sense for a number of reasons: His "boss" left the team and a new one has come in. The new guy may want to bring in his own guys. While the Bills have a good D-line, the 49ers' is arguably the best in football. Working with that line, a SB team, and a highly regarded DC may help promote his career. It's crazy expensive to live there, but the Bay Area is a very interesting part of the country and maybe he wanted to live out there. It has different things to offer than the Buffalo area that some people might prefer.

People may disagree, but I think that we are lucky to have Pegula as the Sabres owner. It is taking him a LONG time to figure it out, but he will eventually get it right, just as he did with the Bills. He is willing to commit whatever resources are necessary to be successful, but he just has not been able to get the right people in place - players, coaches and management. I think they might finally have the right coach and management in place, and a few core players, but they need to strengthen the middle of the lineup. They have good 1st line and 4th line players, but terrible 2nd and 3rd liners. Years bad drafting and Murray trading away draft picks and assets to accelerate the rebuild is the cause. Of course, Botterill can't be let off the hook for the O'Reilly trade, but if Ryan wanted out of town, perhaps Jason's hand was forced and he got the best the market would bear. Maybe Tage develops into a 1st or 2nd line player (I'm not holding my breath, but we'll see) and the trade doesn't look so bad down the road. I'm still on board with Terry & Kim.

It's too bad that this guy may be done at such a young age. Good for him that he got paid when he did. A "no" for the Bills, even if the Rams threw in draft picks a la Osweiller. I'd rather spend the cap space on Lawson and/or Phillips and draft a young, inexpensive RB in the middle rounds.

While I don't usually think that fantasy football has much to do with the discussions on this forum, in this case it is applicable. I drafted Jeffery this year and have had him on my roster in the past. This is relevant, because it means that I have followed his production closely. In doing so, I have noticed that Jeffery is wildly inconsistent and often injured. He may have the physical traits in the WR that the Bills need, but I don't think he's the right guy for the team. I just looked at his stats, and he has only played in all 16 games in 3 out of the 8 years he has been in the league. Last year, he missed 6 games. He will be 30 years old next season and isn't getting any younger (and likely not any healthier). In the 10 games he played last year, he only had 1 game with over 100 yards, only 2 with over 75, and only 4 TDs total.

I have not followed his career that closely, but I don't think that Cooper's play has been commensurate with his draft status. He's been good, but not great. He's very talented and will likely command top dollar. He doesn't seem to be a "process" guy and the secret to the Bills success is a cohesive roster consisting of the types of players who want to be in Buffalo and want to be a part of what the team is building. Cooper does not appear to be one of those guys. The deep WR draft class also warrants going after younger, less expensive, talented WR options.

I have not read all of the posts, but in response to the original post, I say you keep Barkley and draft a young, developmental QB in the mid-to-late rounds. Barkley, playing with the starters is serviceable and he is a good team guy/mentor for Josh.

What I meant was that a team is not giving up the revenue from one of its existing home games. Although they have to pay the players to play one more game, someone is going to televise the game, which brings in TV revenue and I assume the teams would each get a cut of the gate from the neutral site game. They are not going to lose money on the deal.

I agree with this. Preseason is a prefect opportunity to do neutral site games in US cities that don't have NFL franchises. How about a Bills game in the Carrier Dome in Syracuse? Someone else mentioned Lincoln, Nebraska. The Patsies in Montreal? Cowboys preseason game in Tulsa, why not? Chiefs preseason game in Wichita, sure! Although preseason games are a dud, they would be an "event" in those markets and would draw interest on that alone. It would also ease the financial burden on season ticket holders while marketing the game. While I'm not a fan of expanding the schedule, it appears to be inevitable. The right answer is a 17th game at a neutral site, so that no team is forced to give up a home game (both the revenue and the home field advantage). As also mentioned, I think the logistics of having a full-time NFL franchise in London or elsewhere outside of North America is a bad idea. Traveling across that many time zones 8 times per year (or more) would be brutal on the players and staff. The players would be far from their families, friends and lifestyles. The team would not be able to attract free agents and would likely have low morale and end up being a bottom feeder. The 17th game is the way to do this and market the game more globally.

I did.

The truth is that many pro athletes and other celebrities are real d-bags. Nice to hear a story where a guy isn't. We love Josh Allen, because he seems to be that kind of guy. I've had a few encounters with Buffalo sports figures over the years. A few years ago, I bumped into Marv Levy in the grocery store in the Chicago neighborhood where we both lived. I was very polite, but I did introduce myself and had a brief conversation with him. He was very friendly and had a great sense of humor. Subsequent to that, I got to know his wife and stepdaughter a little bit, as they went to the Bills bar to watch a few games (Marv didn't join them). Very nice people. A few years prior, I bumped into then-Sabres GM John Muckler at a bar in Chicago. Granted, most people wouldn't have known who in the hell he was. He was wearing a watch with a gold face that was a Sabres logo. I also had a brief conversation with him and he was pretty cool. Neither of these are quite the same as a Super Bowl QB at the height of his fame having dinner in a restaurant in his hometown. That said, many years ago, I saw Jim Kelly at the Stuffed Mushroom in Buffalo. I didn't attempt to talk to him, but he was with an entourage and was acting like a d-bag, strutting through there like he owned the place. Around that same era, I saw a huge table of Bills having dinner at the old "Shooters" on the waterfront. It was Bruce Smith, Darryl Talley, Cornelius Bennett and a few others. Me and my friends didn't disturb them. Most recently of all (maybe 3 or 4 years ago), I had dinner at Mulberry's in Lackawanna and Eric Wood was at the next table. We didn't bother him and he didn't pick up our tab.... My apologies if I bored everyone with my many stories, but perhaps it would make a nice thread topic - where people ran into prominent Buffalo sports figures and what (if anything) happened.

I don't want to come off as sexist, but some people are better off seen and not heard. I have not listened to Glab (you all have done it for me), but I have seen picture of her. She's a very attractive young woman. Apparently, her speaking/reporting skills are not equal to her looks. Hopefully, as others mention above, she will hone her skills and improve her broadcasting abilities.

I was at the 16th hole yesterday. Always a great time! Had I realized that Allen was part of the Pro Am on Wednesday, I might have gone then instead. For those that have never experienced it, the Phoenix Open is a unique combination of a PGA golf tournament and huge party. The 16th hole Par-3 is the epicenter of the party and if you can score tickets into one of the corporate suites, it's fantastic. Unlimited food, mostly unlimited booze (10 drink limit, but you can drink more before or after in other parts of the venue), great weather, attractive women all around and, oh yeah, a professional sports event. I saw at least 3 people in Bills gear there and gave the appropriate shout outs.

I'm a huge football fan. I like to watch as many regular season and playoff games as I can, even some of those terrible Monday and Thursday night matchups. I knew the Pro Bowl was this weekend, but I didn't know what time, what channel, etc. and I made no attempt to even find it. And today, the next morning, I don't feel as if I missed anything. I suppose it was nice to find out (from this board) that a Bills special teams WR caught a TD.

If he doesn't win the Super Bowl, he's borderline. If he wins it this year (or in the future), he's in for sure. The guy has had great success with 2 different franchises and led both to many division titles, playoff appearances and now the Super Bowl. There's no question he knows how to create and run an offense as well as anyone in the history of the league. He also comes across, at least to me, as a good guy.