BillsFan4

I think that is a different restaurant/dinner. This looks like one with the wives/girlfriends and the other looked like a guys night out or something. Pretty cool that it seems like these dinners might be a common occurrence. I love the term camaraderie McDermott is building. I don’t follow other teams as closely, but it doesn’t feel like it’s all that common to see groups of teammates from both sides of the ball hanging out in the offseason (and with their wives, too).

https://www.buffalobills.com/video/behind-the-scenes-of-bills-free-agency sorry if this was already posted. I tried searching and didn’t see it.

Yeah it definitely hurt Mittelstadt for sure. Even Botterill said that Berglund was acquired to help ease Mitts into the 2C role eventually. But if it is true that Berglund is dealing with some serious mental health issues (and I am pretty sure that is the case. IIRc beeglund gave an interview to a Swedish paper alluding to that fact), I have a hard time holding a grudge against the guy. He has a wife and kids. His health and well being comes before hockey, without a doubt. Honestly, I blame St. Louis more than anyone else. The way they went about trading him was shady and not the way you treat a classy, well respected veteran who’s spent his entire career in your organization. As I’m sure you already know, Berglund was late turning in his no-trade list and Doug Armstrong quickly pounced on it to include him in the buffalo deal without Berglund’s approval. It sounds like Berglund has struggled with mental health issues for quite a while and had a strong support system in place in St. Louis (which makes me believe team management knew of his issues/struggles), and when he was screwed over by the Blues and then shipped to a place where he had no family, no friends, no support system at all, he wasn’t able to cope with it all very well. Edit - here is the article I was talking about - https://www.diebytheblade.com/2019/1/18/18188513/buffalo-sabres-patrik-berglund-tells-his-side-in-exclusive-interview-in-sweden Die by the blade translates some of it. the link to the full article from Sweden is at the bottom. But it’s a PITA cause you have to google translate it paragraph by paragraph. Basically it says what I wrote above about the St. Louis stuff.

Sabres are playing 2 games (against Tampa Bay...) in Sweden next year on Nov. 8-9th. I bet Dahlin has to be excited!

Guessing team doctors must be worried about his injury. Shoulder must not be checking out.

Makes perfect sense. Paul Guenther (raiders DC) was the DC in Cincinnati for 3 years. apparently the raiders tried to trade for Burfict last season and were turned down by Cincy.

Looks like Richie hasn’t garnered much interest on the free agent market.... I don’t think his comeback is going to happen, though I’ll root for him if it does.

Seeing as he wasn’t healthy last year, I kind of figured that he would get another shot this year. Plus, the Bills didn’t land a pass rusher in free agency (yet, anyway).

Called this yesterday. Paul Guenther is their DC and the raiders tried to trade for Burfict last year. Its the place that made the most sense. I’ll be surprised if they don’t work out a deal.

We were never ahead of the Jets in the draft order. They originally sat at #6. The Bills traded up to #12, and then the Jets traded up to #3 roughly 6+ weeks before the draft (which is extremely unusual). The Jets didn’t guarantee that they would get mayfield or Darnold. All they did was guarantee that they get their #3 QB, as at thr time many assumed that Darnold would go #1, and if he didn’t there was a report that the only QB the Giants were interested in was Darnold so it was a popular opinion that he would go #2 to the NYG if he didn’t go #1. It was a reckless movd by the Jets GM, in my opinion. He knew his job depended on getting one of the top 3 QBs in that draft. He sold the owner on that plan back at the 2017 draft when they decided to pass on Mahomes+Watson. So he was willing to be more reckless. I think that the Bills trading to #3 is all a moot point anyway. I don’t think it was possible. It was reported after the Jets trade (by Indy’s GM) that the colts weren’t willing to drop out of the top 10 in the draft. Many assumed it was so they could trade down again on draft day. But that didn’t happen... The Bills tried to trade up to #6 on draft day after the deal with the Broncos fell apart. Indy wasn’t willing to move back to #12 so they moved on to the Bucs at pick #7. Indy clearly targeted Quenton Nelson. So there’s really no reason to believe that the Bills could make the trade to #3, in my opinion. I think Beane did an excellent job playing the hand he was dealt. He ended up getting from pick #21 all the way up to pick #7 without giving up a 1st round pick, and he landed the Bills one of the top 3 available QBs in the coveted 2018 QB draft class.

Nice. Yeah I sold mine too. I still have a sport cruiser that I ride occasionally, but I got rid of the super sport bike(s). What model did you own? I’ve owned and/or ridden all 4 models. 600, 750, 1000 and the Hayabusa (when they first came out in ‘99, before it had the speed governor/restrictor and it could do 200+mph). If youre from the Buffalo area, I used to work at a place called Imperial Cycle Sales, If you remember it. I was lucky enough to get to ride a lot of bikes. We’d have to test ride them after pulling them out of the crates and finishing assembly. I remember when the GSX-r 1000 first came out. Man, that thing was such a beast of a bike at the time. I used to actually try and talk some people out of buying it. Too much bike for beginners. I hunk I saw at least 3 customers crash their brand new gsx-r 1000 leaving the shop after purchasing it. One guy wiped out right in the parking lot, another guy laid it down pulling out of thr parking lot and the 3rd guy made it about 100ft down the road.... I actually preferred the 600 or 750. IMO the GSX-r 750 was the perfect sport bike. It handled like a 600 and had the power of a 1000 (well, not quite, but close). One of my favorite bikes I ever rode/owned.

The chiefs have a lot of money already invested into their o-line. Fisher is making $12M per year, Tardif is making $8.5M, Schwartz makes $6.6M and Erving makes just over $4M. That’s roughly $31 million between those 4. I don’t think that they felt they could have another $9-10M+ player on the o-line, ans felt that they had a strong enough line that they could make due with Austin Reiter at C.

Wow, the Marvin Lewis era truly is over in Cincinnati... lol. I wonder if any other coach/NFL team will put up with all Burfict’s on field crap? Especially with his play slipping. Im sure he will at least get a shot somewhere else. Raiders, maybe? Paul Guenther is their DC. Poor Vontaze. Couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy, ami right? ? lol

Just out of curiosity, your screen name - do you own/ride a Suzuki GSX-r? Agree about Shady, btw. I think he’s still got plenty left in the tank.

https://www.milehighreport.com/2018/5/27/17399220/denver-broncos-matt-paradis-health Sounds like his hip issues were (and/or are) pretty serious. I don’t know if it’s still an ongoing issue, or if his hips are healthy now. But even if his hips are healthy, I would imagine that a surgery of that nature carries some future risks. If it didn’t, I would think that he would have has it done sooner? Plus, Paradis is still rehabbing from that leg injury and while he should be ready to play by the start of the season, it isn’t a 100% guarantee.

Yes, they have done it for other players, especially guys who have worn a letter like ROR, which is why I thought it was interesting. That was my thought as well. I wondered if there may still be some hard feelings over the way things ended. If true, I get it. The Pegulas were damn good to the guy. When he signed that deal in Buffalo, it was the biggest contract in Sabres history (now Eichel’s is). It was a super, super player friendly deal. He got a better contract structure than most super stars do. Almost his entire contract was paid out in lump sum signing bonuses each July 1st. ROR actually has one of the best structured contracts in the entire NHL. It’s buyout and lockout proof too. If the NHL looks out for the 2020 or 2021 season, ROR still gets his entire salary (unlike most guys). Plus they went and signed ROR’s brother to that 2yr $1.4M one way deal. Even though he was a career AHLer, he got a 1 way contract so he got his NHL salary even in the AHL. The Pegulas even let ROR record at their studio (a life long dream of his), and hooked him up with some professional musicians too. Just to be clear, I am not saying I agreed with the trade. Just that I get why the Pegulas may still have some hard feelings.

I thought that it was kind of interesting that the Sabres did not do a tribute video for ROR.

bummer. 49 seconds into OT Minnesota wins it off an offensive zone faceoff. That’s a goal Hensley will want back for sure.

The Beauts game is going into overtime after the intermission. Been a really good game.

Go Beauts! Playing for yet another Isobel Cup!

Penn is nowhere near the player he used to be, and is 36. Definitely wouldn’t consider him a top o linemen anymore.

It looks like the Bell/Bills stuff was nothing more than rumors. I don’t think the Bills were ever actually in on Bell. There’s this - and then there is this - https://theathletic.com/870418/2019/03/15/it-takes-a-village-behind-the-scenes-of-bills-free-agency-with-brandon-beane/ (Subscription required for article) Its from a “behind the scenes in free agency” article that Matthew Fairborn wrote, with a lot of direct quotes from Beane and lots of info on how Beane and his staff handled free agency. So I would have to imagine that Bell info is coming directly from Beane.

May as well add this here, too. We will make this the Brandon Beane interview thread....lol https://www.buffalobills.com/audio/brandon-beane-we-re-excited-about-the-guys Beane on One Bills Live today.

https://theathletic.com/870418/2019/03/15/it-takes-a-village-behind-the-scenes-of-bills-free-agency-with-brandon-beane/ heres a behind the scenes look at free agency with Brandon Beane for those with an athletic subscription. This may not be the best place for this, but I didn’t want to start a new thread for it though, because you need a subscription to read it. Its a pretty long article. Here are a few excerpts (sorry, we’re not allowed to post more than a few paragraphs here). Its a pretty interesting read.

If the raiders go into the season with Peterman as their #2, that will mean AJ Maccarron lost his job to Peterman twice in a row, on 2 separate teams. lol