BillsFan4

Here’s Mayock’s press conference on signing Incognito - Found it interesting that after a year out of football, they only put him through a 2-3 minute workout before deciding he was in good enough shape to play. https://www.raiders.com/video/gm-mike-mayock-discusses-new-g-richie-incognito

I mean... there is no other choice for Hard Knocks at this point, right?

I agree. That’s why I said that I think he’s been covering crappy buffalo teams for too long and It’s taken a toll on him. He just seems unable to objectively cover the team anymore. You can see a big difference in the way he covers the Sabres struggles vs a new guy like Lance Lysowski (IMO anyway)

I try my best to avoid clicking on any article with Harrington’s name attached to it. He’s just been covering crappy buffalo teams for too long now. He’s just a jaded journalist at this point. I think it’s about time he joined his best buddies, Bucky and sully, wherever they’re at now. I really like that Lance Lysowski guy the buffalo news hired, though. He’s written some excellent pieces.

Hope everything is ok with Foles and his family.

Welcome back ice bowl!

I don’t see how anyone could have any complaints about this deal after seeing the way it’s structured. (I had no complaints even before seeing the breakdown...). Great job Beane! and Overdorf (credit where credit is due)

I wasn’t going to post this because I didn’t want to restart the whole ROR trade discussion. But since it’s already being discussed I figured why not? interesting clip w/some new info I hadn’t heard before (about ROR being jealous of Eichel) with Paul Hamilton. He’s been banging this drum pretty hard for a while now. I take it with a grain of salt because he clearly had issues with ROR for quite some time, and this isn’t the first time he’s went on a crusade against a Sabres player. But it’s been reported in enough places now that I do believe some of what he’s saying. I remember reading about that too. John Vogl mentioned something about it, and so did Harrington and Hamilton iirc. The story was that Cal was very unhappy in Rochester and did what he could to force his way out. There was also stuff about how he and his wife supposedly treated Alex Nylander poorly, and like he was a burden - getting mad anytime he asked for a ride or anything else. That whole “loaned to the Toronto Marlies” situation was very strange. Cal was the captain of the Amerks and their leading scorer. And he wasn’t even traded for an asset. He was loaned, for free, to a direct division rival and the Amerks got nothing in return. Stuff like that doesn’t happen unless there is some issue there between the team and player.

Good interview. Love his quote at the end of the interview about “if I can bring this group together, you could be talking about the Buffalo Sabres a lot next season”.

excellent article on Krueger. IMO it should put to bed some of the fears some fans have about him being just some motivational speaker, which is completely ridiculous. I knew of Krueger and have been intrigued by him for years, but now that he’s officially the Sabres coach and I’ve spent some time researching him, I am more intrigued than ever. I haven’t heard/read anything but effusive praise for Krueger (outside of a few random Oiler fans . Every player and coach he’s ever worked with just seems to gush over him. I am genuinely excited to see what he can do with the Sabres. I just hope he’s given a legitimate chance. I really want to see him get the full 3 years on his deal at minimum. I’m done with constant turnover.

I agree. He inspires no confidence. If I were a Jets fan, I would be terrified to know this guy is in charge of pretty much everything right now. That comment about “Christopher Johnson isn’t looking for a traditional GM” would also make me nervous. I’d be worried that Gase may retain control of the 53 man roster (even though he said he wouldn’t). Ill be somewhat surprised if this guy isn’t a disaster. BTW, I think he keeps his hat low like that to hide his eyes after that whole “crazy eyes” introductory press conference. The NYC media is going to eat him alive.... lol.

It had nothing to do with Ford. This was a move to upgrade the depth/competition at tackle. They released one tackle and replaced him with someone they feel is better. Plus, The Bills must clearly like Wesley. They’ve signed him to their practice squad twice, and now grabbed him off waivers.

No. According to Bitterill, Skinner was waiting to see who the coach was and he said now that the coach is hired he will be sitting down with Skinner agent in the next few weeks or so.

Makes the Kane trade better and the ROR trade that much worse. lol

I guess he is leaving to focus on his nascar team or something like that I don’t think so. It was, but I thought he kind of set the record straight in that article on the Athletic a while back. I just meant that this should officially put it to bed.

I am just listening to the interview now. They are talking about Phil Kessel.

https://wgr550.radio.com/media/audio-channel/05-21-winnipeg-jets-head-coach-paul-maurice-howard-and-jeremy-ralph-krueger Paul Maurice on WGR talking about Ralph Krueger. He was an assistant on Ralph Krueger’s team Europe, and iirc they worked together with carolina too. Maurice - - incredible presence in the locker room - what’s most interesting to him is that when he travels around to other cities and runs into one of the guys from the World Cup team, their first question is “hey have you talked to Ralph?”. Says he made such an impression on not just the players, but the equipment guys, the medical guys, media members etc etc. He just gives off this incredible energy, and it goes from 5am to midnight. - He’s just wired differently than other guys. Energy level is off the charts. - Ralph does leadership consulting and leadership forums in his spare time. Excellent public speaker, which Maurice says is very important with hockey players. They are easy to lose, but that’s not a problem with Ralph. Says there are times during the year when you really need to grab the players attention, and that’s never a problem with Ralph. - this is the right time for Ralph’s personality to be in the game, with players personalities today. He’s a real “connector”. When Maurice started in NHL, players took care of themselves. No cell phones, soclai media etc. Now it’s much different. Players need a lot more 1 on 1 attention, and Ralph is great at that. He has a great ability to connect with people. - feels the ability to connect with players may be the most important aspect of NHL coaching these days. Times have changed. Players and coaches used to be separated. to push a player hard these days, Maurice says there has to be a deeper connection than just player/coach relationship. Need to have a connection and the players need to understand you care. That’s something he learned from Ralph - connecting with everyone, not just players, and making them feel included in, and important to, what the team is doing (sounds just like McDermott). - but he’s not soft. He has no problem holding room accountable. He can really let it fly when he needs to. Has a good balance between the 2. - coached his Swiss teams to be very quick on the puck, and very detailed without being too constricted in the way they play. I didn’t do the last 5 minutes because I really think it’s worth a listen for yourselves. Maurice tells some stories and goes into details that I felt wouldn’t be accurately conveyed by me. Definitely some good stuff around the 9 minute mark. If you only listen to part of the interview, I would start at 9 minutes. Maurice sounded very impressed by Krueger and talks about multiple things he’s learned from him. Paul Maurice is one of the most respected coaches in the NHL. It’s cool to hear him talking about learning from Krueger.

I really hope they give Gase control of the 53. It’ll limit most of the better GM candidates from even getting permission to interview (iirc it’s not viewed as a true promotion if they don’t have control of the 53 man roster). I actually feel a bit a bit bad for Jets fans. But it’s also a fun story to follow. lol

Thanks guys. Glad it sounds like it was his choice. As I said, I’m sad to see Kelso go. But I think Wood will be good at this, especially with all the insight he has into this current Bills organization and how McBeane do things. His articles on The Athletic have been really good. So I expect more of the same.

They must not be too concerned with Morse if they’re not having Long play center. Who the heck is playing C though? If Bodine and Morse are both injured, who else is left besides Long?

Yeah I’m bummed he’s leaving. But happy E. Wood is here. wonder if he chose to leave or what?

Was just coming to post this. Pretty cool! Very happy E. Wood is back in the Bills organization! Plus We can fully put to bed that there were any hard feeling over his whole retirement press conference debacle.