BuffalothruMyVeins

Hey guys- I have been a Bills fan since I was about 8 years old, as soon as Don Beebe swatted that ball out of Leon Lett's showboating hands, even though the were getting their heads kicked in in that game... but I've lived relatively out of the area for my whole life (about 4-5 hours away). Well, I think I will finally be making my first trip to a Bills game. It will be December 9th, vs the Jets. We will be going to a Sabres game vs. the Flyers (his team) on Saturday the 8th, and then both coming to see the Bills on the 9th, both of our first games. We've been coming to training camp for the last 6 years in SJF, and we got into New Era Field for the first time last year, for the training camp practice, which was cool. When we were there, we got into the seats up in the 200's, and watched practice from up around 211. These seemed like the best seats to take a game in, as I have heard the lower bowl is an issue with constantly standing, and the back half of the 200's up there also has a roof, for any lousy weather situations. I'm a 33 year old guy and so is my friend, so it's not like we will have kids so will NEED to avoid the real raucous areas, but I think I would still prefer to avoid it, if possible. I imagine those being down on the 1st levels in the endzones... and maybe whatever seat that drunk guy who slid down the railing in the 300s and fell on the guy in the 200s was a couple years ago... haha. I am checking the Bills ticket website, and it looks like nothing at all is available up in the 200's where I want (basically straight from 207-215). Must be everyone else thinks these are great seats, too. Are there any other areas of the stadium that you guys who attend frequently would recommend for a first time attendant? I think I would like something along a sideline, but is there a compelling case to be made for an endzone seat instead? I thought I remember thinking that the tunnel endzone maybe being a good seat, too, maybe near 217-219 Endzone Club area, is that true? Sorry for the length of the post, guys, just wanted to explain what I'm looking for in seats, and wanted to run it by you guys who know a lot more about it than I would. Thanks for taking the time to read, and hopefully, comment.

Sorry, I know it's weird to see a thread that isn't 17 versions of "Josh Allen is amazing/terrible", "our offense will suck this year", and "let's pick up this cut player" over and over, instead offering an interesting thought exercise. If you're not interested, than don't comment.

Every once in awhile j like to imagine scenarios where an extremely drastic rules change has happened in the NFL, and how different the league would look if it happened. Today, I was thinking... what if there were "no such thing" as an incomplete pass? What I mean is, any incomplete pass is still a live ball, until it is recovered by the offense or defense, and advanced or ruled down by contact, or the ball goes out of bounds. The TE going up the seam is overthrown, and the ball lands in front of him. The FS now scoops up this pass and returns it 35 yards. Passing games would wildly emphasize accuracy, even more than they currently do. Would running games be completely bottled up, because the defense would assume the offense would only want to pass it, or would offenses take this into account and still pass? What would be the run-pass ratio? Obviously if you're winning, you never run it again, to avoid the risk of a turnover, but what if you alter that by saying that the clock stops after a running play, so that way if you really want to run out the clock, there would be an emphasis on passing (dangerously). Or maybe after a running play, you only have a 25 second play clock for the next play, vs say a 45 or 50 second play clock after a pass? Most "safe" passes would be to out on the sidelines, where an errant pass would go out of bounds... perhaps leaving the middle of the field open for exploitation by an aggressive offense... What else could you guys picture this game emphasizing differently than the current NFL game does?

Hopefully included in these improvements are repairs made to The App, so I can listen live again.

Bills just signed LB Keenan Robinson, so I bet OP feels like a big fool, now, after this big signing...

I don't have the exact details, just that in the past, they have been available at a couple locations in both Rochester and out in Buffalo, and Noco or Sunoco gas stations, at Wegmans, and at Verizon locations. Plus, likely in The Bills Store at 1BD.

Does anyone have any idea when the schedule is typically released? We're 6 or 7 weeks away from them moving facilities out to Rochester, it has to be soon, in the next week or two, right? I guess I'm not sure what you mean. The title of the thread literally is "Training Camp 2018 Dates".

Hey everybody- I did a search on this topic and didn't see anything come up, so I wanted to create a topic, so as to hopefully centralize info about the 2018 Training Camp dates. Has anyone heard anything about when these dates will be released, and if/when they will have a practice at New Era Field? My friend and I live about 3 hours from SJF and around this time, we start to get antsy for the dates to be released, so we can start making hotel reservations. This year, we're hoping for a weekday morning practice, followed the next day by a practice at New Era Field. Last year's practice there was the first time I have ever been in the stadium, and I really hope they have another so we can go again. On a side note, we will be sticking with our reliable Buffalo Brew Pub for wings, but also will be trying Bar Bill. We've done Duffs and Anchor in years past, too. Mod edit: actual schedule now available later in thread!!!

I'm rooting for this league to take off, too. I don't think it has a chance to directly compete with the NFL, but if done right, it could be be an interesting minor league option for the NFL. Allow players to play directly out of high school, so they could have access to young talent before the NFL is even allowed to get their hands on them for 3 years. Obviously the 5 star guys will still go to USC AND Alabama, but there are plenty of 3 star kids who can't make the grades coming out of high school, who have to otherwise go JuCo for a couple years, who could just go XFL for 3 years, and then declare for NFL Draft. Get an exclusive rights broadcast contract with Hulu, Amazon Prime, or Netflix, or better yet, a semi-exclusive, where 1 "Game of the Week" is simultaniously shown on your main Hulu/Amazon/Netflix, and on a network, on Sunday nights at 7:30pm. Make drastic replay changes that the NFL doesn't have the balls to do, to speed up the game. Most people are hating replay right now because it stops all of the action, so get the game back to a faster pace.

The Tank Era in Buffalo is over- time to win.

Plus, if he signs a 1 year deal and then wants to walk, he would sign for likely strong money elsewhere, and that would kick us a comp pick.

Check out @SalSports’s Tweet: https://twitter.com/SalSports/status/989687581666357251?s=09

Looks like 3rd game.

And then he went to San Diego, and drafted Drew Brees. If Ralph weren't so cheap, Smith and Butler wouldn't have left, and that would have been Buffalo selecting Tomlinson and Brees, right at the birth of this QB-friendly era.

Good luck, Jim. This will be a tough one.

The Bills also got the 91st pick in the 2017 draft, a 3rd rounder.

Ice, I see the McCarron signing as mostly the appetizer (cheese curds, to put it in Wisconson-ese for you haha) for this team, before the real thing we call came for, the trade up to #2 or #3 to get our franchise guy. McCarron might be alright, but I'm most interested in how delicious our drafted QB might be. I can't believe how good Hyde and Poyer are, too, especially with such poor sack totals up front forcing the QB into making mistakes that the back end could take advantage of. We finished 29th in sacks with year, which mostly meant that the opposing QB had a good amount of time to make his (or her- TB12) throws, and our secondary still really really impressed me. If we can add some effective pressure up front, we can easily see a flip from a low rated passing defense to a #10 or so.

I’m excited, I hope it’s under $5M per year though.

The price tag to move from 21 to 5 could possibly be the same as moving from 5 to 2, we can't pay that twice in the same draft. If they feel that there are 3 guys who could be franchise guys, you make the trade and get one of them. Then you build around him, something you cannot do if you give up 5 first and second rounders over the next 2 drafts.

I think if we get up to 5, that's good enough, that should get us one of the top 3, and I would be happy.

EW?

I think the Bills have shown their hand enough that they are going to make comp. pick conscious signings, and with is set to lose at least 3 players who could net us picks in that formula, I would be upset to see us bring in a guy who was not elite if he was going to cost north of $8M, plus take a 4th round pick out of our pool next offseason, as I anticipate EJ Gaines and Robinson respectively fetching.

Gaines wasn't a 1 year prove it deal, he was traded for and still on his rookie deal. I'm pleasantly surprised by this.

The shoulder looked good enough, here...

And you're saying all it will cost is a 4th... hmmm. Intriguing.