That's No Moon

I agree with you, Bosa is washed too.

And yet Todd Collins led the 2nd largest comeback in Bills history (26 points), outdueling Jim Harbaugh and Marshall Faulk in the process.

That part is correct and he wouldn't be the first to do it though it is very rare rare. Bo Jackson did it. He was drafted first overall in 1986 by Tampa Bay. He didn't sign with Tampa (which he told them before the draft), played baseball, went back into the draft in 1987, and was selected by the Raiders in the 7th round where he ultimately signed and played two sports. John Elway made a similar threat when he threatened to play for the Yankees than play for the Colts. Had that actually happened and refused to sign with the Colts, baseball or no, he would have gone into the 1984 draft. The piece that I don't think is accurate with the current situation is the going back to college to play part. From what I've seen, the player forfeits their right to play in college when they declare for the NFL draft and can't go back. There are rules about that and he'd probably have to sue his way back onto the field at Texas A&M. However, If he doesn't play at all, the Bengals don't retain his rights and he goes back into the draft and can be drafted again in 2026 by anyone EXCEPT the Bengals. Other players who did this were Craig Erickson who was drafted by the Eagles in 1991, did not sign, and was then drafted again by the Buccaneers in 1992 and Melvin Bratton who was drafted by the Dolphins in 1988, did not sign, and was drafted again by the Broncos in 1989. Both players had serious knee injuries in their bowl games prior to the draft that significantly impacted their draft status, and they ultimately couldn't come to an agreement with the teams that chose them. They both went back into the draft the following year and were re-drafted. The Bills acquired Cornelius Bennett in a similar situation. He was drafted by the Colts and refused to sign. He was well on his way to sitting out the 1987 season and going back into the 1988 draft when the Colts traded his rights on Halloween night of 1987. The Bengals have until Week 10 to sign the player. If not, he's essentially, though not officially, gone. If Stewart really really wants out he can make this happen and someone will make the trade. Collusion in this situation would be exceedingly easy to prove so I don't think the league will try to orchestrate that. In the previous situations there were extenuating circumstances. Bo played baseball and communicated clearly to teams not to choose him because he was going to play baseball (Al Davis talked him into doing both and baseball was top priority). It was understandable why he would drop from 1st overall to the 7th round the next year. Bratton and Erickson were hurt at the end of their college careers (and probably got bad advice). In the current situation, the player was clearly a 1st round choice, had no injury concerns and sat a year. It would not be reasonable for him to drop very far next year and if the league colluded and he suddenly went undrafted that would be a slam dunk case for Stewart. It won't get to that point. The Bengals won't just let a 1st round choice walk away. They will either cave on the language or trade the player. With the money college kids now receive, they are MUCH more able to sustain a holdout like this and it will be interesting to see if this happens more often in the future. Yes, he should stick to his guns. You can bet that all the other agents are in his corner and the NFLPA is quietly rooting for him to continue the holdout as well.

If that's correct, returning to school makes no sense because he still belongs to the Bengals next year.

It gives them the flexibility to sit him down longer if need be and bring another body in. Who the body is remains to be seen.

The contract was probably signed but tariffs are paid when the items actually enter the country. They certainly aren't just sitting around in storage somewhere waiting to be installed. If they were made overseas and haven't been delivered yet the tariff hasn't been paid yet. If it's a raw materials issue and they are made in the USA any supplier worth their salt will write clauses into the contract to cover such changes that are beyond their control.

He got a bad haircut.

Yeah, it's not terrible, but it's instantly their worst kit combo. They are blessed with an excellent color palette.

Nah, they aren't the walking dead they're dead dead.

Levi panning out above the A will be a surprise. Short goalies are very rare these days.

What change in goalie? Lyon replaces Reimer; they are basically the same player. UPL is terrible and without MASSIVE improvement from him the team is in the same place in goal next season. They have a goalie they are basically stuck with for the next 4 years at 4.75MM AAV, a journeyman backup, and a 23 year old 6' prospect. People seem to be pinning a LOT of hope on Levi to be the rare short goaltender who is successful in modern hockey because other than him the pipeline doesn't have anything else coming any time soon.

I can look at the results and see they don't know what they are doing. There isn't and hasn't been a comprehensive plan. They throw stuff at the wall. The most recent "plan" with Granato was to play wide open hockey with skilled players. That's fine and it's fun. They then didn't invest in a proper goaltender to bail out the young defense and the forwards who backcheck about as energetically as a rotting corpse. Now they are changing course to become harder to play against. Great. The STILL don't have a goaltender or a plan to fix the god awful power play. All the coaches are coming back. Why? Shortly after Botterill and his staff were fired and Adams was hired, I spoke face-to-face with a pretty connected NHL person who would know. This person said out loud that nobody in the league respects Adams. At that time, it was over the way he got his job. However, with the essentially closed society that hockey is, I am quite certain that those people haven't forgotten and it impacts every single thing Adams tries to do, from trades with other GMs to work with agents and players, from people who flat out refuse to work for Adams. Normally people like that are cagey about saying too much specific, this one came right out and said it without prompting. And no I didn't write off the Bills during their drought. The thing that was different about the Bills, even when they couldn't make the playoffs, it was apparent that they were at least trying. What's more than that is supporting them through that time was as much about keeping the team in Buffalo as it was about anything else. My beef with the Sabres, frankly, is personal. I brought my oldest son to the last Sabres playoff game. He was 5. He was starting to play hockey and I was looking forward to going through his childhood with hockey and the Sabres. He's now 19, away at college during the season, and they never played a playoff game again. Not only that they became a joke during that time. People who apparently know better than me hired Ron Rolston, Ted Nolan 2.0, Phil Housley, and Ralph freaking Krueger to be the coach. They also hired Dan Bylsma and Don Granato who got CLOSE to the playoffs but couldn't close the deal but at least looked like they had half a plan while they were losing. If management had gotten Granato a goaltender he would have made the playoffs but it was more important for them to not block the kids. Idiocy. Pegula is a putz and what's worse is that he thinks he knows how to run a hockey team which makes it 1000% worse.

They've drafted very well and often signed or acquired decent players; there are former Sabres all over recent Cup winning teams. In terms of having cursory knowledge, I used to watch every game. I don't think I've watched a full Sabres game in about 3 years and I've truned down free tickets to games the last 4 years. I turn them on, get disgusted quickly, and then turn it back off. If you want to ding people like me for that that fine, they just aren't worth watching or aggravating myself over. It's beyond clear that they have absolutely no idea what they are doing and that Terry has made the decision not to spend on the team. They are the Pirates of the NHL and I'm not here for that. When they get serious about trying to compete then I will get serious about watching them again.

If they get more than 50 games out of Norris I'll be surprised and it remains to be seen if the new defenders are actually better or just different.