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Plus Tyrod was recovering from a shoulder injury, which I would imagine affected the velocity he was clocked at. So that may take the count down to 1 (borderline) starter currently playing with a velocity almost as bad as Watson. It's not even his velocity alone, either. IMO he struggles with some of the most important traits you look for in a QB - accuracy, decision making, ability to read defenses and go through progressions/field vision, ability to play in the pocket, play in the red zone (Clemson was ranked 70something and 120 something in 2 of his 3 years there, but to be fair they were ranked much higher in the other year), ability to handle pressure (I seen a stat that said he threw 1 interception every 16 times pressured as of before the 2016 season, and I don't imagine it improved since his Int's went up). Personally, I would not take Watson top 10, but that's just my opinion. There's too many red flags for me. I have some major doubts about how his game will translate to the NFL. I do like his confidence, personality and work ethic. I think he does have traits you look for in starting QBs in those categories (not enough to go top 10 though IMO). . I also like how he showed up in big games and won that national championship. But I don't as much stock into that as some. EJ won all 4 bowl games he played in. I heard that same stuff about how he played his best when the bright lights were on. And there's no correlation between a national championship winning QB and NFL success. The list I seen had very few national championship winning QBs with very successful NFL starting QB careers. Really hoping this is just a smoke screen. But I've thought for a while that Watson would be Doug Whaley's type of QB.

This would be fantastic if true!! All I was saying is that it wasn't a dirty hit - no targeting the head. No charging. No leaving his feet (etc). I was just saying that if Girgensons doesn't intercept that puck, there is no penalty on the play because it would have been a perfectly clean hit. I know it was interference since the puck didn't get there, and I know it deserved a penalty and maybe a game misconduct. But IMO that should have been the end of it. 3 games on top of that was ridiculous, especially for a guy like Risto, with no history of suspension or dirty play (and with such low penalty minutes too. IIRC I believe he even went a large stretch in the beginning of the year without a single penalty minute, which is pretty amazing considering how many minutes he plays per game). Things happen in a split second on the ice. Ristolainen was skating backwards into the hit and it looked like he did try to slow up but I don't know how realistic it is to expect him to be able to pull out of that hit completely. It was an unfortunate broken play, but absolutely not worthy of 4 missed games in total, IMO.

To make it worse, this is Marchand's FIFTH suspension in his short career, and that's not even mentioning how many fines he's received for other dirty plays (like sucker punching Landeskog for ex), and he gets 2 games for a totally intentional spear to the nuts (but to be fair, some guys wouldn't even get suspended at all for that play). While Ristolainen gets basically 4 games (3 games plus his game misconduct penalty) for a clean hit on a broken play on his very first offense ever. Had Girgensons not intercepted that puck,it was a perfectly clean, legal hit. Ristolainen has absolutely no history of dirty play either. He hardly even takes many penalty minutes. This new player safety department is very, very inconsistent. It almost makes me miss Brendan Shana-ban running things (plus, he wouldn't be with the Leafs either, which would be a huge plus. lol).

http://buffalonews.com/2017/04/05/sabres-okposo-hospitalized-icu-department/ "Okposo is in the Neuro Surgical ICU at Buffalo General Hospital, Paul Hamilton of WGR-AM 550 reported Wednesday. The Buffalo News has confirmed the story. website for the UCLA Neurosurgery Department, the neuro ICU cares for patients with all types of neurosurgical and neurological injuries, including stroke, brain hemorrhage, trauma and tumors." Spooky stuff. Prayers for Okposo. I really hope he is ok.

I don't even bother going in the comments section on social media in general. It usually makes me want to bang my head against the wall. Things are really changing with so much social media interaction these days. It really seems to bring out the worst in people. It's kind of sad. I've seen what some of the fans say to our players on Facebook/Twitter. Some really disgusting stuff. There's no reason for that. And there's really no good football discussion on their social media pages either. No good breakdowns or statistical analysis (etc). It's usually just mostly hate. That's why I was so sad when they closed BBMB. But this place has been great. Much better than BBMB in a lot of ways. Pretty cool that you have guys like John Wawrow posting here. I mean, I get why some Bills fans are so bitter. I've been following this team a long time too. It's frustrating. But it's not these current player's (and owner's) faults that the Bills were run so poorly for the last 17+ years. There's no reason to take out all your frustration on them. Also, IMO, if you can't find any reason to be hopeful about a team anymore, then why follow? Especially in the offseason, which is all about hope. Sports are supposed to be fun. For me, they give me a break from my daily life and all the worries that come with it. I may get emotional during a game, but when it's over I let it go. I never understood the people who let a bad Bills game ruin their entire Sunday. I've even seen some who let it ruin half their week! For me, sports are all about hope, and when I can't find reasons to be hopeful anymore, I will probably no longer follow the Bills/Sabres so closely anymore. Hope is one of the things that makes sports so great IMO. You never know when an underdog team will have a great season and shock the sports world, or an underdog player will have a super star type season. There are so many great underdog stories in sports. I always root for the underdog.

Yup. That's what I was thinking too. I would guess that a number of the people who are reluctant to give McDermott credit for much of anything are the ones who were all in with Rex Ryan and bought all his hype. I have no idea if this is actually true or not, but it would make sense. Me personally, I am much more on board with McDermott than I ever was with Rex. I never bought Rex's hype.

I think about what could have been with those two 1st round picks in 2015 given up for Kane and Lehner. That was an insanely deep draft. If you look at the players that would have been available for our picks at 21 and 25 - Connor Brown, Brock Boeser, Travis Konecny, Jacob Larsson, Jack Roslovic, Noah Juulsen, Anthony Beauvillier, Travis Dermott, Sebastion Aho, Brandon Carlo (and the list goes on). You add 2 players like Konecny and Brown/Boeser/Aho to our forward prospects or Larsson and Carlo to our defensive prospects,and this team could look much different... But, to be fair, Tim Murray said he was planning on using that #21 pick on a goalie anyway, so if it wasn't traded for Lehner, we'd probably have someone like Ilya Samsonov, so... (and it'll be years before he's ready for the NHL). We needed a goalie now, so I get it, and Murray did get one of the 2 best available goalies that offseason. But I'd rather have just signed Chad Johnson or some other stop gap or found a cheaper alternative. Or like others said, only given up a 2nd for Lehner (although then we may not have Brendan Guhle, who I am very high on). The book is still very much out on Lehner though. He is very young by NHL starting goalie standards. A lot of very good #1 goalies never even played an NHL game until they were 24/25/26 years old, and Lehner is only 25. So he's ahead of the curve as far as that goes. I think the book is still out on both those trades. I was never a fan of the Kane trade from day 1, but he does add a lot of value on the ice, and he may still end up being traded for a good defenseman, so I will hold judgement until I see if he's re-signed or traded and for what/how much... Also, IMO I think Bogosian for Myers was basically a wash. Both are injured about the same amount and both are very similar as far as skill/value, but they just play different styles and Bogosian's toughness was something desperately needed in Buffalo at the time of the trade. Bogosian looked great that first 1/2 season after the trade. Not sure what's happened to him since then... But I think Tim Murray has tended to give up 1 too many assets in most trades IMO. You take that 1st round pick or Lemieux/Armia out of the Kane trade, or one of the 2nd round picks out of the Fasching trade and those trades look much different IMO.

Actually, Babcock and Murray are friends. Tim Murray was a big part of Anaheim hiring Babcock for his first NHL coaching job in Anaheim and I guess they've been friends ever since. Babcock even made a point of saying at his Toronto introductory press conference that not choosing the Sabres has nothing to do with Tim Murray. He said he couldn't make Buffalo work with his family. I believe it was Bob McKenzie (IIRC) who said that Babcock's wife nixed the Sabres deal. I guess she didn't want to live in Buffalo (or would rather live in Toronto, since that's where she's from and still has family there). To be clear, I am still very much up in the air on Tim Murray. But I don't have nearly the hate for him that you do. He is very well respected in the NHL as a talent evaluator. I think we need to give him more time before we can make a definitive judgement on him. He's done some things I like and he's done some things that I hate, but every GMmis like that. The next 2 seasons will be big for Tim Murray. Some of his drafted players should be ready for the AHL and NHL, so we will get a better idea of things IMO. But he has to address the blue line in a meaningful way this offseason or everyone will be looking for new jobs in a year...

Yeah I didn't really understand what Ristolainen was so upset about. I watched the replay a bunch of times and all I seen was Kadri getting pushed into the goalie and then cross checked/slashed repeatedly by 2 separate Buffalo Sabres, but I didn't see Kadri actually do anything. Maybe something happened that we didn't see? Kadri is a bit of a pest, it wouldn't surprise me... Ristolainen was charged up all game though. He was one of the few Sabres that actually looked engaged in the game. Half the damn team looked like they had no interest in being there.

I haven't heard anything at all about the players not wanting to play for the Sabres because of Tim Murray. All I've heard is respect from the players for him. But there has been all sorts of stuff about how Bylsma has lost the younger players on the team and how half the team doesn't want to play for him, and how Eichel hates playing for Bylsma etc etc etc.

If you're going to be "that guy", then you should probably correct all the misspelled words in the sentence. (Our & Knot) lol j/k

Interesting he got another 1 year prove it type deal. Not all that surprising though, given his history.

Man, 3-0 Leafs already... Matthews with his 39th goal. 69 points. Just broke the Leafs rookie record. That's amazing. But man I HATE losing to Toronto. Buffalo needs to wake up here. I was expecting them to be fired up for this game and so far they are sleep walking. They literally don't even have a shot on net almost 10 minutes into the game. WTF

I ought most were saying Trubisky would need to sit for a couple years, no? Either way, none of these QBs are viewed as day 1 starters and all are being called projects. Maybe long term wasn't the right word. But I still think my argument holds up.

I've seen this argument a number of times here. But how true is it? How often do NFL execs actually get fired for passing on a QB who seems to be almost universally viewed as more of a long term project type? If Trubisky turns out to be a true franchise changing type QB, then yeah I could see it being one factor in some people's long term job security. But it will be years before we know what Trubisky is for sure, and Whaley and others could be gone by then anyway. Who knows. But the argument could also be made form the other side - if they drafts Trubisky at #10 (who is a huge risk with only 13 games started) and he doesn't turn out to be a true franchise QB, then that almost definitely costs Whaley his job IMO. You can't swing and miss on two 1st round QBs and keep your job IMO. Especially if you blow a top 10 pick on a QB. I don't know, IMO it seems like a much bigger risk to job security to take a project QB at #10 then it does to pass on a project QB at #10. How many GMs have been fired for missing on a top 10 pick as opposed to passing on a project QB who turns out to be good? GMs pass on project QBs every draft and I can't remember any losing their jobs because of it. I'm not saying that they shouldn't draft Trubisky or anything like that. Just looking at the premise of the argument...

Agreed. I've been saying this for a while now. People like to say that this is only Toronto's 2nd (or 3rd) year rebuilding, and I just don't see it that way at all. Look at all the players they have from previous rebuilds - Rielly, Kadri, Bozak, Gardiner, JVR, Connor Brown. Those are all guys that are big contributors to the Leafs current success, and all of them have been with the Leafs longer than a couple/few years. Kadri was drafted in 2009... The Leafs just didn't tear it down the same way the Sabres did. Sabres went scorched earth, total rebuild. The Leafs current rebuild is more of a re-tool of previous rebuilds. They kept a lot of talent from previous teams. Buffalo didn't do that. The other MAJOR difference is coaching (and probably management IMO). Babcock blows Bylsma out of the water. It's not even close IMO. And Shanahan is proving to be a top, top end NHL exec. I am very impressed with him. He's done a fantastic job in Toronto. The book is still,out on Tim Murray, but I think he may have screwed up by trying to speed hints up so much and trading away so many assets. Thinking about what could have been from just that 2015 draft alone really bugs me some days. Toronto definitely went flying by us in their rebuild. But I also think maybe people thought Toronto was going to continue tearing down the team this year. I kept reading how JVR, Bozak and more would be traded away. But they kept them instead and they've been contributing more than anyone thought. Their rookies have been very surprising as well. Auston Matthews is about to hit 40 goals! Who would have ever thought that?! Man that's nuts! Marner and Nylander have also been fantastic. Nobody thought they'd come in and contribute so much. I get it. It's hard not to be jealous of Toronto. I know I am at times. They still have some nice talent in the pipeline too, and their rookies look miles ahead of some of ours. But I am willing to be patient with the Sabres. Our rebuild was just different than theirs, and their coaching is far superior. I do like what Toronto is doing though. They are drafting for speed and skill. Talent is their #1 priority. Buffalo is drafting for size and toughness, along with speed and skill. I feel like Tim Murray is building a team more in the Western conference mold and Toronto is building a team that seems to fit the direction the East is currently going (but NHL trends are constantly changing). We will see which works out better. Ultimately, you have to beat a western conference team to win a Cup. But you have to go through multiple eastern conference teams to get there...

I was just going to post a new thread with this info. Glad I looked here first. lol

Not surprising. I bet he will get a huge raise in a few years when the Pegula money dries up... (assuming he lasts that long).

I just read the other day that the local Arizona Sports Radio show that covers the Cardinals said that Arians was referring to Deshone Kizer.

Me too. But he was the guy I wanted from day 1. I've been a fan of his for years now. So I was thrilled when I seen him on the Bills coaching interview list, and even more thrilled when I heard he was the leading candidate. I think McDermott is exactly what this team needs. I don't expect that everything will be perfect. There will definitely be rookie mistakes, and it'll take some time to reverse this losing Bills culture that's been so ingrained here. But I really think we got the right coach for once. I honestly haven't been this excited about a Bills coach in a very, very long time (I was never on the Rex hype train) and I also really like the coaching staff he's put together (I especially like that he hired 2 of the best line coaches in the NFL IMO (Waufle & Castillo)). Can't wait to see what this guy can do. I just hope he is given time. The Bills can't keep changing coaches.

No, I'm not nervous. I am actually hopeful, more than anything. We've seen Brady pick apart the Bills D on many occasions. Brady put up what, like 5 or 600 passing yards(?) in a single game on Rex Ryan's defensive scheme. I figure it can't get all that much worse than that, right...? (knock on wood). Hopefully McDermott will be able to do better, even if it doesn't happen immediately. I know he will put everything he has into getting it figured out, and I can't ask for much more than that at this point. I also think/hope that he's the type of coach who will learn from his mistakes and adjust. So I'm willing to give him some time to get it figured out.

I'd be very curious to know what caused his accuracy issues in 2016. He was so good with his deep ball in 2015, and he was pretty damn accurate on the short/mid throws too. Then in 2016 he seemed to struggle with his accuracy in general. He wasn't terrible or anything, but he did struggle at times and there was definitely a noticeable difference in his accuracy from 2015 to 2016. Was 2015 just an anomaly and 2016 the real Tyrod? Or did something happen? Like David Lee messing with his mechanics/footwork/throwing motion (etc) too much for example. Or was it as simple as not getting to play in preseason (doubt it) and/or all the injuries to his receiving corps? Maybe it was something else completely, or a combination of things. I don't know. This year should hopefully give us all some answers. It'll be everyone's first year in the system, so I expect some hiccups. But I think this season will give us a better idea of whether or not Tyrod has any type of future with his team. I'm not ready to give up on him yet, as he still is the best the Bills have had in quite a long time. But I also don't really expect him to be any type of long term solution either. I'd be very happy if he somehow turned out to be a franchise type guy. But I think the odds are pretty slim on that. I haven't completely ruled it out though, like some have. I also agree that the Bills still have to address the QB position either this year or next. I'm not too high on this draft that I'd take any of these QBs at #10, but I think there's some worth taking a shot on in the 2nd or later. But I also won't be mad if McDermott isn't in any rush to draft a QB in the first few rounds (or at all) in his first year as a new HC and wants to get to know his roster/team/coaches (etc) better first.

https://mobile.twitter.com/SabresProspects/status/848569350974058497/video/1 Alex Nylander with an absolutely amazing assist the other night. Check it out. Also, I heard he is supposed to be getting called up for tomorrow's game against Toronto. I haven't seen it confirmed yet, but that would be nice to get a look at him in the NHL. Pretty cool for Alex to get his first game against his brother's team too (if true).

Man, how did John Guy keep his job here for so long? I don't think he's ever had another NFL job since he was let go here, has he? Same with Tom Modrak I believe...

Would have been a better April fools joke if it was even a tiny bit realistic...