BillsFan4

http://www.wgr550.com/articles/news/sabres-waive-griffith Sabres waive Seth Griffith. I'm hoping that this means Bogosian is ready to come back... Also hoping that Griffith makes it through waivers. He's always been a very good goal scorer at the AHL level, so he could be a nice boost for a Rochester team already playing well.

Oh, ok. I get what you're saying now. Fair enough. I thought you were saying that Tyrod would choose to leave.

We have an entirely new GM, personnel and scouting staff from top to bottom since that 2017 draft. They fired every single scout and personnel man. So you can't compare any previous draft to what we will see in 2018. We have no clue how the Bills are going to draft yet... but Beane hired some top end people to run things so my hopes are much higher than they've been in years, as far as drafts go. Also, it's a bit early to lament passing on Mahomes, no? He hasn't even played a regular season snap yet. Even on Watson. Yes he's looked good but we've seen plenty of players flame out after good starts. The league catches up quickly. Let's see if Watson is able to keep playing at a high level in years 2 and 3, as game plans are made specifically to exploit his weaknesses. I think it has to be taken into account that McDermott was clearly working with a GM, personnel and scouting staff that he did not trust. I can see why a rookie HC wouldn't want to bet his career on a QB drafted by a staff he had no faith in, especially when I'm sure he knew that a new staff would be brought in after the draft, that would have two 1sts the following year (that was supposed to be a very strong year for QBs). I don't even think he used Whaley's draft board from what has been said. Sounds like they used Carolina's more than Buffalo's, and Carolina wasn't in the market for a QB, so... We we don't know where they will be picking yet either. But I definitely get your point on that, as historically we've missed out on some good QBs by being mediocre.

Thing is, he is under contract for next year. Tyrod can't leave next season unless he is cut or traded. I definitely don't think he is the type to demand a trade just because he was benched for a game. He was benched for the the last game of last season, and that was right after he had played the best game of his career against Miami. He still chose to take a big pay cut to stay here. He could have refused and become a free agent. But he didn't. He said a lot of the same things in interviews that he's saying now, and he chose to come back here. This time he was benched after the worst game of his career. Then they went right back to him 1/2 a game later. I don't see an issue keeping Tyrod if the Bills choose to do so.

Both McDermott and Beane were on that NFL advisory panel's short list of recommended coaching/GM candidates (the committee Bill Polian, Charley Casserly, Ernie Accorsi etc. is on). So they definitely weren't just throwing darts at a board. I know it was written that Doug Whaley helped assemble the list of coaching candidates. But the rumor was that Bill Polian was in Pegula's ear and highly recommended McDermott to him. Not sure if it's true or not though.

So, who higher on the food chain told Beane to get rid of Sammy, Marcell etc? Are you saying that was a Russ Brandon decision? Or Overdorf (who gave Marcell that contract)? Thst doesnt make make any sense to me. Why would Russ Brandon want to trade away so much talent and rebuild the team? How do any of these recent decisions seem like marketing ones? I don't see it at all. Why would Overdorf want to get rid of the Marcell contract, which he just recently wrote (and will cost the Pegulas a bunch of money still, for a guy who isn't even here)? Wouldn't that make him look incompetent? And you think they are the ones deciding which players to play? Like who, Peterman? You are saying Russ Brandon said "hey we are currently in a playoff position, bench our starting QB for marketing reasons!"? I have no no idea where you are getting this stuff from... are you just making assumptions without any proof? If you were talking about the past, I'd agree. But where do you see the same old same old with this new regime? If you have anything to actually back up your opinion, please post it. I think this new regime is clearly in the drivers seat as far as decision making goes. The Bills seem to be running in a much different way than in the past. Look at everything that's happened. They just about totally cleaned house. When has that EVER happened in the past 20 years? They'd scapegoat a coach or GM but never came anywhere close to cleaning house. They are trading away bunches of talented and recently drafted players to collect bunches of draft picks to build the team through the draft. When has that happened during the drought? McDermott and Beane are clearly in charge IMO.

Highlights from the Rochester game last night - https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=czTTQnsAGHk Rochester won 10-4 last night. They haven't scored 10 goals in a game since 2006 IIRC. Nice to see them playing better. Funny, Tim Murray couldn't turn that team around in 3 years despite trying. Botterill seems to have come in and done it in a matter of months (I hope...). Great win by the Sabres last night, too. They all worked their arse off and played a pretty complete, 60 minute game. Well, maybe more like 52 mins, as I thought they kind of went too much into defensive mode the last 7-8 mins. But I'm not complaining! It hasn't really shown up in the win-loss column yet but I see this team improving, especially the last few games. They are playing better, smarter hockey and have stepped up their compete level which is very nice to see. I honestly have have faith that Housley is going to get this team turned around. I mean, he needs more talent to work with first and foremost, especially on the blue line. But I really do think that ultimately he will get the job done. He has such a great mind for the game. Its actually very impressive IMO.

The problem with trading up is that we need talent on the field to surround a QB with, and especially a rookie QB. This team has been stripped down. I know many people seem to think that the Bills front office collected all these picks just to trade up for a QB. But I don't think that's the case At All... I think they collected all these picks to rebuild the whole team, not just the QB position. I want a great QB as much as all of you do. But I just don't think we are in a position to give away a draft (or two) for a single position. The Bills need talent at sooooo many other positions too. If you stick a rookie QB on this current Bills team, you are just asking for him to fail. Id like to see them use their own 1st on a QB and the rest to help fill out the Bills roster. IMO you can't just trade away a draft and stick a 1st or 2nd overall pick on a team that's void of talent. That is setting him up to fail. We are not the Eagles when they traded for Wentz, or the Rams when they traded for Goff. We dont have that type of talent right now to surround a rookie QB with and give him a chance at success. Adtually using all of our draft picks on a bunch of players could go a long way to adding the talent that the Bills need to be successful. Using all those picks on 1 guy doesn't IMO. We are at the start of a rebuild. If you trade away our stockpile of picks, how do you get the draft capital to rebuild the team?

Yeah I remember some analysts saying Watson was Whaley's type of QB and someone else saying that Whaley was "in love" with him or something like that. But then there were people here saying that the QB he actually wanted to draft was Mahomes. And others said the only QB the Bills truly had interest in was Trubisky (if he made it to #10). So who knows... there's a whole lot of misdirection that goes on around draft time. I dont really like getting into "what if's" because you can drive yourself crazy doing that. We have McDermott and Beane. They've collected a bunch of draft picks and plan to build through the draft, which is something that hasn't been done here in a while. I'm excited to see how it turns out. But McDermott was the coach I wanted in the offseason so I'm nowhere near ready to give up on him yet.

Wins against the Giants, Oakland, Denver, Buffalo and Dallas... all struggling teams currently. 4 straight losses to start the year against Denver, Miami, KC and Philly (who were both playing great). Like I said, he may end up being a great head coach. But I'm not ready to say he is yet.

If we kept Lynn, that means Whaley is most likely still the GM. Remember he benched Tyrod at the end of the year and by most accounts he was ready to move on from him. Aaron Kromer's contract was up, too. So even if Lynn was hired he still may have left (as it was said the Bills did try to keep him but he chose to work with McVay in LA). So who knows what our offense would look like. Personally, I'd take McDermott over Lynn. Chargers are playing well the past 2 games. They should be with the top D line in the league, a true franchise QB (who is one of the better QBs in the NFL) and talent on both sides of the ball. But they didn't look all that good for most of the year. The past 2 weeks they beat a struggling Bills team with a putrid offensive line and rookie QB throwing 5 picks. Then they played the Cowboys without Ezekiel Elliott, who had really struggled and gone 0-2 leading up to today's game. Who knows, Lynn may end up being the better coach but I'm sure not ready to crown him yet or say that the Bills made a mistake not hiring him (and it has to be mentioned that he was trained/mentored the last 10 years by Rex Ryan, who the Bills were obviously looking to distance themselves from after the clown show he put on here). I sill think we have the right head head coach and GM combo to have a good chance at success in the coming years. I'm excited to see what they do these next couple/few drafts. I have hope that they will build a sustained winner.

Thats not quite true on Beane or McDermott. Brane he was named asst. GM before the 2015 season, so he spent 2 years as asst. GM. But before aghast he was the director of football operations for 7 years. He climed the football operations and personnel ranks for many many years. He's held scouting responsibilities, put together draft boards, done player evaluations for both college and pro, made NFL trades, negotiated contracts, developed budgets, done CBA compliance and has basically been trained in almost every area of running an NFL team. To me that's a great quality for a GM to have. A GM is usually the guy who runs the entire organization. Sometimes a guy coming from just a scouting background or just a money management background don't have the proper skills necessary to run an entire organization. That is not the case with Beane. He knows every aspect of running an NFL team. He also seemed to recognize that he doesn't have as strong a scouting background as guy's who have spent their entire career in scouting, so he put an excellent, very experienced front office, personnel and scouting staff around him that should give him every chance to succeed. McDermott has also worked his way up for almost 20 years. He played football in college, then worked as a graduate assistant to the head coach. He then moved to the NFL, starting in scouting. Until Andy Reid got to know him and took a special interest. He named him his assistant to the head coach, where Reid began training him in every aspect of being a head coach. He then worked his way up the ranks on the defensive side of the ball for 8 years, holding positions as quality control, defensive assistant, defensive backs, secondary, linebackers and finally defensive coordinator. He was a D.C. for 8 years (where he had a top 10 defense in 4 of the last 5 years) before finally getting his shot as a head coach. Both guys have spent their entire lives/careers in football, working their way up from the bottom with hard work and dedication. Neither were just handed jobs because of nepotism. They've earned everything they got.

Jordan Nolan's comments after the game were dead on IMO. Obviously I'm not in the locker room, but you can almost see that this is a problem. This seems to be be a common theme we've been hearing for years now. There defrinitelt seems to be a culture/leadership/accountability problem with the Sabres. Ennis and Foligno's both mentioned in their comments how losing wasn't acceptable in Minnesota, which wasn't the case in Buffalo. They also said they've had to learn a lot of the small details it takes to win and how the veteran players have really been the ones helping the most in that area. I think this is one of the dangers of complete tear down rebuilds like the Sabres. They got rid of all their good veteran players all at once, which I am sure left a huge void in leadership and accountability in the locker room. Com in that with the players knowing that the expectation is to lose probably allows this type of losing culture to develop and then fester. Theyve ve tried to bring in veterans, but I'd imagine it's pretty hard for most veterans to come in and make a meaningful,change to the culture on their own. There aren't too many Chris Drury type players that can come in and command the respect of the whole locker room - a guy that just know how to win and how to lead. We are currently asking a 20yr old with no experience winning in the NHL to lead our franchise. Problem is that he's one of the main culprits as far as not working hard every shift and making bad turn overs. Is there a player currently on this team that can really put him in check? Is there anyone who he can really look up to and who'll help him to learn the proper ways? I'm not so sure there is... hopefully Housley is on his ass about it. But I think it also takes teammates asdrsssing it, too. I think sometimes it's just different, and more meaningful, when coming from a teammate. Especially a well established, well respected NHL veteran. Thats why I'm really hoping that we can somehow land a good veteran player that can perform at a high level on the ice (because as Eichel said "who's going to follow you if you're not performing on thr ice?") and be a mentor to Eichel. Someone Eichel will respect and listen to. Someone who DNA put Eichel in his place when necessary. My dream is somehow landing John Tavares. Out of everyone possibly available this offseason I can't imagine a better mentor for Eichel, and the entire team, than Tavares. I doubt it's actually an option but until he signs that extension I can dream! lol One way or another I'd love for Botterill to find some type of veteran leadership that can help change the culture here.

Well, damn. They came close. As as much as it stings to lose the 6th or 7th game in a row tonight, they at least made a game of it... I still hate losing but I can at least live with losses like tonight. They played hard + gave a real effort, won their puck battles, created scoring chances and generally looked like a pretty good hockey team for much of the game. If they continue to play like they did tonight, wins will come much more frequently.

Sharp looking Jersey. I really like these a lot. I wish the Sabres would go back to royal blue. Actually, I heard a rumor that they are going to switch back to the royal blue jerseys in a few years for their 50th anniversary season. I hope it's true.

This was the right move IMO. I understand why why he went with Peterman. It was a justifiable switch. But he showed that he probably isn't ready yet, and with the way the O line and the entire team in general is playing right now, you're not really giving a rookie QB any chance to succeed anyway. No reason to destroy Peterman's confidence completely, especially with the next 2 games on the schedule - playing in arrowhead and then against Belichick and the Pats, who eat rookie QBs alive. Plus, switching back to TT ensures that you don't start to lose the locker room. You can always go back to Peterman if TT and the offense continue to struggle, and the Bills continue to lose. Once they are (or I guess I should say If they are) eliminated from the playoffs, then you can play for the future... I just hope this lights a fire under Tyrod's butt. A lot of times I get the impression that he's playing not to lose (the game, and the starting job). He needs to feel the urgency, take a few risks, and also give his receivers a chance to win a contested catch.

At least with the Pegulas I feel like there is a chance the Bills/Sabres can reach that ultimate goal of a championship and sustained success. I definitely didnt feel feel that way under the previous ownership of both teams. We never had owners willing to dedicate the budget and resources necessary to truly be a championship caliber team on a regular basis. We are a small market team that now has ownership who are willing to compete with the big market teams. That's an extremely unusual situation for a small market team. Most are internal budget teams with limited spending and resources, which makes it harder to compete with the big boys. We now know that money is no longer a huge road block to building a competitive team... IMO that's a big deal for a team in Buffalo. I still feel feel lucky to this day that the Pegulas bought both teams.

How can you possibly say that the first time GM and head coach combos have failed miserably already? They are 10 and 20 games in to their tenures. Just under 2/3rds of a single season for McBeane, and 1/4 of a single season for Botterill and Housley... Neither have had a chance to build the team they want. Beane hasn't even had a draft or free agency yet (he came roughly 2 months after it had started). Botterill had 1 draft, after only 1 month on the job, with all of Tim Murray's old scouts who had been scouting for Tim Murray type players all year (although Botterill sure seems to have made the best of a less than ideal situation. The Mittelstadt pick looks like it could be a home run). The way way I look at it - the Pegulas only recently put the people in place, from top to bottom, that they truly wanted. They gave Whaley and Regier a chance to put their current teams over the top by opening the check books in a way we have NEVER seen in Buffalo. When have the Bills or Sabres EVER been cap teams? It may have happened in a random year or two, but they were both almost Always internal budget teams. We hired cheap coaches, cheap GMs, cheap scouts (and in the Sabres case they actually scouted off video tape!) etc etc. When that didn't work out, they cleaned house and brought in the people they wanted. For the Bills it's McDermott and Beane. For the Sabres it was LaFontaine, which only lasted 2 months and then they were more/less stuck with Tim Murray. So they gave him a chance, and made the change to the guy they wanted - Jason Botterill. So lets maybe give them more than 1/4 to 2/3rds of a season, yeah? I think the Pegulas have been great for Buffalo. When have either of our sports teams ever been able to compete, salary wise, with the big boys of the league? As I said above, we used to go after the cheap hires and cheap feee agents. We'd watch our best players leave over monetary reasons. Remember when the Sabres were a true Cup contender and Presidents trophy team ('06 & '07) and we watched both of our co-captains and best players walk in the same offseason (Briere & Drury)? Remember when they used to try and recruit free agents by sending them a coach class plane ticket? Now they recruit with a private plane and yacht + the nicest facilities in both the NFL & NHL (locker rooms, gyms etc). Remember when we had bare bones staffs and put no focus on player development? Now we are on the cutting edge of the league with technology and player development staffs. I could go on and on about all the money they've poured in... and that's not even mentioning all the good they've done for the city of Buffalo. The businesses they've built, the jobs they've added etc. They are new owners. They may make a mistake here and there but I have faith they will get it right. I am perfectly happy with our billionaire owners, who are also big fans of the teams they bought, and I am thankful that both of those teams futures are cemented in Buffalo for a very long time (as they've already said their kids will eventually take over once they are gone).

I've been saying this for years - bad teams stay bad by constantly changing coaches and GMs. Our Bills are a perfect example of this. The Browns too. We we have to stick with this current regime for at least 4-5 years. It would be so insane to even think of firing either of them now. They haven't even had the chance to start building their team yet. We are basically still in the tear down phase. Beane hired the right type of experienced staff to have a damn good shot at building something through the draft. Let's see what they do... Plus, the damage is done now anyway. They've torn the team down. Let's see how they build it back up. I like the types of players they have acquired so far - high character guys with talent, too - Hyde/Poyer/Jones/White/Benjamin/Matthews etc. I'm excited to see how they draft.

lol I was just going to say the same thing.Don't worry chiefs, you are playing Buffalo next. It seems like both of our teams are the slump-busters of the NHL/NFL. I can't even count how many times the Bills/Sabres have played a struggling team and made them look great.

I sure hope we don't come out and look pathetic in that winter classic. They better play with some fire/determination for that game.

I would have loved to be able to keep Robert Woods, but I don't know if that was really an option? (Outside of the tag) I read during last season that him and the Bills were not even trying to negotiate a new contract. That Woods wanted to test free agency. I also read where he said that he really wanted to play back at home (cali) which is why he was so quick to sign with the Rams when they made an offer. So if the above is actually true (which I believe it is), I don't know that he would have been willing to re-sign here, outside of maybe a ridiculous overpay or tagging him.

This place can be kind of terrible after a loss (and during one, too). All the negative posters crawl out of the woodwork (some who seem to hardly post when things are going good, which I find quite strange). The sky is falling... Exactly. We were projected to be a bottom 3 team in the NFL and many of these same fans griping agreed with that assessment. They overachieved big time in the first weeks of the year and gave us an early glimpse of what this defense can look like when playing McDermott's scheme properly. But now their talent level has caught back up with them. Instead of giving people hope for the future, it seems to have done the opposite. As I said before, we are not even in the building stage of the rebuild. They've stripped the team down and have yet to start building it up again. I'm going to hold my judgement until they actually add some talent. The new front office hasn't even had a draft yet. Beane hired what looks like a top of the line front office, personnel and scouting staff in order to build through the draft. Maybe we should, you know, give them a chance to actually do that before declaring them a total failure with no hopes of ever succeeding?

Great to hear there is no ligament damage! Hopefully it's just more of a Zay Jones hyperextension type thing and he'll be back in a week or two... fingers crossed!

So why are you here, on the Bills board then, "wasting your time"?