BillsFan4

I heard the Martin thing was not for the head coaching job, but as a possible associate head coach or something along those lines. That would make sense if Botterill hired someone like Rikard Grönborg. Friedman with a few Sabres related tidbits in his latest 31 thoughts - https://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/nhl/31-thoughts-penguins-big-decisions-include-malkin/ If they were relying on Bogo to fill the void a Risto trade would create on the right side, that scares the living **** out of me! lol seriously, the guy is never healthy. You can not rely on Bogo to play for any long stretch of games at a time. Being consistently healthy is the exception. The norm is Bogo dealing with some type of injury. I have to somewhat question Botterill’s judgement if he thought he could rely on Bogo next season, even before the hip surgery. I like the idea of bringing in a good head coach that can improve Riato’s play much better than trading him for a potentially mediocre return. Risto really hasn’t had a good coach since he’s been in the NHL. Or good D partners. Or guys to help carry the load. That could all be corrected for this coming season with the hire of a good coach. We already have Montour and Dahlin to help ease Risto’s minutes, plus some decent depth + young guys. I hope this is the route they take. The Sabres blue line isn’t deep enough to trade away a top 4 D, and especially a right handed one. If a team comes in and blows you away with a trade offer (like Wemonton when they offered Taylor Hall to Tim Murray) then take it. Otherwise, just keep Risto and get him a better coach. Hoping the Martin thing was more as an associate HC as I mentioned above. He does have a ton of experience. He took over an expansion Ottawa Senators team with 16 total wins in 2 seasons and he had them 1st in the division by his 3rd full year. He had some great Ottawa teams, but that was what, 15-20 years ago? And he hasn’t done much as a HC since then. I’d be fine with him as an assistant coach, but I don’t want him as the head coach. Id be fine with Grönborg and pretty damn excited with Keefe. I don’t know a ton about a Grönborg outside of watching some of his Swedish national teams in international tournaments (etc) and doing some reading + watching some interviews of his recently. It would be a risk hiring a guy who not only would be a rookie NHL head coach, but a rookie coach in North America (I know he lived/played here). But I like a lot of what he says and would be excited about his hire. Though I do worry about the rumors he likes to rely on the steady veteran types (but what coach doesn’t, I guess...). The only thing even remotely negative I can see about Sheldon Keefe is that he doesn’t have much professional head coaching experience (4yrs) and he is still pretty young (38). But he’s played professional hockey, been a head coach for 12-13 years and has done an absolutely amazing job wherever he’s coached. Every team he’s coached has vastly improved. He’s won multiple championships and set records. The guy just wins wherever he goes. It would be a risk hiting a fiest timer, but it’s a risk I would be fully on board with. Now’s the time, too. Keefe will be an NHL HC soon. I could see him in Toronto within the next couple years, actually. Their fans want him now. It would be kind of fitting to steal Keefe away after the whole Babcock thing... lol. Id also actually be ok with Dave Tippett. He has a ton of experience too. He played for a decade + in the NHL and has been coaching for 25 or so years now. He also has experience guiding teams through rebuilds. Tippett is also 1 of only 7 coaches in NHL history to lead a team to back-to-back 50 win seasons. Hes shown he can be a very good head coach with a talented team, and he’s also shown that he’s able to have success with less talented teams and under far less than ideal circumstances (Arizona). He went through quite a bit in Arizona. I like that he’s shown an ability to adapt his system/style of play to his team as well. Hes played more defensive oriented systems when necessary and opened up the offense when he had the rosters to do so.

Good stuff JW. Thanks for sharing!

You just click that little up arrow at the bottom right of the tweet to copy the link (you can’t copy the link from the top address bar. It doesn’t work to embed here, at least for me). Paste it here and then click on that “post as plain text” thing that pops up at the bottom of the post. Or you can just paste the link and hit the return/enter key. That usually automatically embeds it.

Not sure if this has been posted yet. Didn’t want to start a new thread, so I’m sticking it in this McCoy thread... https://www.al.com/sports/2019/02/bills-robert-foster-still-growing-after-promising-rookie-season.html Foster gives Shady some credit for his turnaround.

They talk about the AFC east right around the 25 minute mark. And more about Josh Allen around the 33 min mark (right at the end of the AFCE segment).

https://www.nj.com/giants/2019/04/heres-the-strange-conversation-i-had-with-dawyne-haskins-father-before-he-hung-up-on-me.html What a wild interview. Wow.

The 2nd chart I posted (where the Bills were ranked 4th best draft) does account for positional value. Heres the description -

https://theathletic.com/951917/2019/04/29/using-the-consensus-big-board-to-determine-how-teams-did-in-the-draft/ (sub required) Bills ranked 3rd. And they were 4th on their adjusted rankings (that take into account team need + positional value) Edit - also ranked 2nd in Dane Brugler’s rankings - https://theathletic.com/951557/2019/04/28/dane-bruglers-nfl-draft-class-power-rankings/

Thanks for taking the time to d9 this @stevewin. It’s apprecitaed!

I look forward to these videos every year!

Good read. Thanks for sharing. IMO It really highlights what an absolutely terrible job Steve Keim did in handing the Rosen trade situation. He couldn’t have tanked his value much more than he did. I honestly don’t understand why Keim waited until they were basically on the clock to start trying to trade Rosen. Was he truly undecided on drafting Kyler Murray until minutes before the pick, or what? I can’t think of any other reason, unless he’s really just that stupid (which seems plausible...lol)

Love that they self scout and try to improve their process every year. He didn’t say anything about them trading up for ford. Just that they were both trying to trade up at the same time.

https://www.profootballnetwork.com/2019-nfl-draft-misunderstanding-of-ed-oliver-pfn-film-room/ Sounds like Star and Oliver could be a good match.

Great read. Thanks for sharing Yolo. Star Lotulelei?

lol

“In Dwayne Haskins, the Redskins Are Getting a Quarterback and a Brand” https://www.si.com/nfl/2019/04/26/dwayne-haskins-redskins-first-round-draft-party-marketing-company-brand Kind of sounds a bit like RGIII.

https://www.azcentral.com/story/sports/nfl/cardinals/2019/04/27/josh-rosen-receives-ovation-thanks-fans-larry-fitzgeralds-softball-game/3605463002/

this is great! Love seeing these kids reactions

I agree MAJBobby, Jim must have called in a favor to frank. I believe Jim has been working with Chad recently too, iirc. I saw something about it on social media somewhere. Edit -found a link - https://www.tmz.com/2019/03/27/jim-kelly-chad-kelly-workout-support-arrest/

and the senior bowl... seriously. Listen to what Mayock says starting around the 7:38 mark. edit - he also mentioned Nate Peterman by name when asked about what the raiders didn’t draft a QB.

I like to see the Bills supporting UB. I would imagine that it can only help the Bulls with recruiting, if players see that the Bills do keep close tabs on UB and are willing to give guys a shot.

Thanks for keeping the OP updated @MAJBobby. Appreciate it! And thanks to to everyone else reporting the UDFA signings.

Gives me flashbacks to the Rex Ryan Bills era..

Written by Darryl Johnson. Interesting read.