Shocking Ted Black Out; Russ Brandon In as President of the Sabres

Much to the shock of myself, the Sabres announced they parted ways with team president Ted Black and replacing him with current Buffalo Bills President Russ Brandon. Brandon now is the President of both Buffalo pro sports teams. Why not? Both are owned by Terry and Kim Pegula and they must have loved the job Brandon did with the Bills, running the business side of that team for 18 years.

I know many around dislike Brandon and the job he's done with the Bills as evidenced by their 15 year playoff drought. Now Russ might be responsible a little bit but he's not totally to blame for terrible ownership running this team into the ground in Ralph's last decade and a half as owner with all due respect to Mr. Wilson. All Brandon did was run the business Mr. Wilson wanted it be run and he made the team very profitable. He gets credit albeit a little too much credit for selling this franchise and selling tickets to a team that's terrible.

The reason I say too much credit is because this is Buffalo and fans are Bills crazy and sadly there's not much else to do in late fall early winter then go to or watch Bills football on Sunday. I think I can sell the team to this fan base too. Try selling a fan base to Jacksonville or Tampa or Miami or San Diego where there's beautiful weather all year and more to do.

If the Toronto series did make the team more profitable to buy and keep the team here then fine it was a success. I think we can all no longer talk about Toronto. Many don't like or trust him for the Toronto series and neither do I to a point. As long as he's not running the hockey department, like he's no longer running the football department of the Bills, and simply just running the team as a business we'll be fine.

I did not like the job he did as President of the Bills when he replaced Ralph Wilson on January 1, 2013. He hired Doug Marrone after an "extensive coaching search" all of five days and then made sure he signed here over Cleveland by putting in an opt clause where he can leave three days after the season ended in a season in which an ownership change occurred. Why does he get such a deal for being a .500 coach in Syracuse? Russ dropped the ball on that one but thankfully to a point he did or else we wouldn't have Rex Ryan so half-thank you Russ.

He also did a pretty poor job as the Bills GM in 2008-09, but was he really that much worse than our past GMs? Was he so much worse than Marv Levy or Buddy Nix or Tom Donahoe? He did just as good as them while yes Aaron Maybin and James Hardy were awful, really awful.

But he did get Eric Wood, Andy Levitre, Jairus Byrd, and Stevie Johnson in his two drafts. So it's a wash just like other GMs some good picks, some bad picks, some awful picks. He did also sign Terrell Owens too. As you know my feelings on GMs no one is better or worse at picking a player it's all a crap shoot and everyone is 50-50 except for those who have a franchise QB.

One thing he did not do which could have made or break his GM career and that's draft a Quarterback. Trent Edwards was already on the roster and he didn't do anything to draft or get a QB in the offseason. His tenure could have been spectacular had he gotten the right QB or Edwards became the guy or it could have been a disaster where Donahoe, Levy, and Nix's tenure was.

Finding the right QB can make any GM look good and you don't have to be a "football guy." Sometimes being a football guy is even worse because you think you know all this crap while the entire draft and QB is nothing but a crap shoot.

It's a gamble and a coin flip. Those who get the coin flip right will be a GM for life and missing the coin flip means you will be fired. He wasn't great but not terrible, he was about the same maybe even slightly better than the other GMs during this playoff drought. All that matters really is who is your QB and any GM is amazing or terrible based on how good or bad the QB is.

One thing reportedly the Pegulas do like about Brandon and that helped make him the President of the Sabres. That was after the season ended and Marrone left, Brandon and Doug Whaley contacted various head coaching candidates and setup interviews as quickly as possible. That impressed both Terry and Kim Pegula, especially getting Rex Ryan in for an interview and the rest is history.

I don't know the whole detail behind Black's departure nor will I pretend like I know. Black did a great job every week coming on WGR 550 and listening to fans call in and voice their satisfaction or displeasure. Black was also good at taking emails and getting back to as many fans as he could, which was a lot. He made sure he handled fan emails about what to do at the arena and improve the team with a lot of respect. He cared a lot about the opinions of the fans and how to make the team and arena better.

Black was really good at letting season ticket holders know what their plan on rebuilding was by sending them a letter that detailed how important getting first round picks, really highly drafted first round picks were to success of teams around the NHL.

He detailed how much percentage of goals are scored by players drafted in the first two rounds, then by how big of a percentage were scored simply by first round picks, and then how much of a large percentage of goals scored in the NHL by players picked in the top-3-5 picks and why it was so important that the Sabres get to where they finished to get high draft picks. He also outlined the success of teams with a great amount of top-3 picks. I liked Ted Black and wish him the best in his future endeavors but I guess it's time to move on.

The Sabres, Bills, and mostly the Pegulas show they aren't thinking the past or or going old guard like a lot of teams even here in the past (http://buffalosportsbeat.blogspot.com/2015/07/lou-lamoriello-shockingly-new-toronto.html). They are full of fresh, new ideas which is what this area needs.

RIP Van Miller; A Celebration of Miller's Life and Famous Calls with the Bills

Sadly this past weekend, Buffalo Bills fans and Western New York lost a legend as Van Miller passed away. Miller died after complications from a stroke at his home in Tonawanda, NY and battled health problems in his final years. He was 87 years old. Miller is gone but will never be forgotten.

Miller was born in 1927 and raised in Dunkirk, NY and did play-by-play for various local sports in the Western New York area. He knew when he was 10 years old he wanted to be a play-by-play announcer. He worked at several different radio stations across Western New York until he got his first big break in 1955. He was hired at WBEN and WIVB Channel 4. Although his job at Channel 4 was supposed to be temporary, Van remained there until retiring in 1998 as the sports director.

When it was announced in 1959 that the Buffalo Bills will be playing for the then American Football League (AFL) in 1960, one of the first things general manager Richard Gallagher did was hire Van Miller to do play-by-play for the new Buffalo team after WBEN got the rights to broadcast Bills games on radio. Miller did play-by-play for some of the best teams in Bills history in their early days in the AFL as he called the 1964 and 1965 AFL Championship Games where the Bills whipped the San Diego Chargers both times, allowing one single touchdown in both games. The Bills went to a third straight AFL Championship Game in 1966, with the winner playing in the inaugural Super Bowl against the Green Bay Packers. But the Bills lost to the Kansas City Chiefs, who got whipped by the Packers in Super Bowl I.

Miller was with the Bills through 1971 when the Bills' radio rights was switched over WBEN's rival WKBW and Miller did not broadcast Bills games for seven years. During Van's seven-year absence as Bills play-by-play, he called games for the then-Buffalo NBA team the Buffalo Braves. Van also called games for Niagara University Basketball and was a part of some of the best moments in NU Purple Eagles history, especially the Calvin Murphy era. Van called Murphy's 68-point game against Syracuse and their run to the NCAA Tournament in 1970, where they upset Pennsylvania University in the first round. He also called games for the Buffalo Stallions Soccer team as well as the University at Buffalo Football team.

He returned as the Bills play-by-play man when WBEN got the games back in 1978 and remained their play-by-play man through the 2003 season. Unfortunately he missed some of O.J. Simpson's best seasons (including his 2000-yard season in 1973), but he was a part of the Bills greatest success from 1988-1993, when they played in four straight Super Bowls from 1990-93 and won five AFC East Division Championships in those six years. Maybe Van's best calls were in the Greatest Comeback Game over the Houston Oilers where they were down 35-3 and won 41-38 in January 1993.

Miller called some of the best players in this era: Jim Kelly, Thurman Thomas, Bruce Smith, Andre Reed, Darryl Talley, Cornelius Bennett, Steve Tasker, and many more. Even though the rest of the 1990s did not produce any more Super Bowl appearances, they were still a very good team. In the entire decade of the 1990s, the Bills won 103 games (averaging over 10 wins a season) and made the playoffs eight times in those 10 years with four division titles and four Super Bowl appearances. No word was better used by Miller than "Fandemonium." Talley says he's the one who came up with that while Miller disputes that. Regardless, Miller made the term famous.

Miller has been inducted into six hall of fames, but none greater than the one he made shortly after his retirement in 2004. That year, the Pro Football Hall of Fame honored Van with the Pete Rozelle Award as he became the first local broadcaster to win that prestigious award. What was supposed to be a two-minute speech became a seven-minute speech/stand up comedy routine. I'm sure few if any cared that he went beyond his allotted time.

Miller was inducted into the Buffalo Bills Wall of Fame last October.

Here's a look back at some of Van's finest moments:

1964 AFL Championship
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CP0a781vZuE

1990 AFC Championship 51-3 beatdown over the Los Angeles Raiders
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNlozIBMnro

1988 AFC East Championship clinching win over the Jets
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ot4raqK0oJI

Ending the 20-game losing streak against the Dolphins 1980
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPFP8bt4Tyo

Jim Kelly's Game-winning TD run against Miami 1989
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ok0fczZw9gE

Of course the greatest Comeback in NFL history
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSgfGKhYKu8

RIP Van Miller, you will be greatly missed.

What's Going On Here in Buffalo? First Aaron Kromer Now Ryan O'Reilly

The Buffalo summer is well underway. The weather is finally starting to be nice and the fans are very excited for this upcoming Bills and Sabres season. I can' remember how long it's been for fans to be very excited for both teams, let alone simply one. With the wait comes a lot of down time and in that down time as many of you know leads to some interesting and exciting things happening, both good and bad.

That's especially true with both the Bills and Sabres as one member of each organization did something over the last couple of days that brought upon shame and embarrassment to themselves and their respective organizations. Bills offensive line coach Aaron Kromer has been arrested for allegedly pushing down and punching a minor over what appears to be three boys taking beach chairs from his property without permission. The other is recent Sabres' acquisition Ryan O'Reilly crashed his truck into a Tim Horton's and left his truck behind. His blood alcohol level was apparently a .08.

Kromer spotted three young boys taking lawn beach chairs from his yard without his permission. He heard what was going on and saw some kids (i don't know how he could tell they were kids assuming it's as dark as it was) doing something. Rather than call the cops, he went out there to confront the kids. After a heated argument, Kromer grabbed one of the kids, pushed him to the ground and punched him according to the police report. If you can't trust a police report what can you trust? Until I learn otherwise I will go by what the police report says.

Another disturbing thing listed on the police report was that Kromer threatened to kill the boy and his parents if they called the police about this. That's not a good look. Unfortunately for Kromer, the threat to kill did not work. Can you imagine Kromer's wife? "Honey you should call the cops about what's going on outside." Aaron replies "no, I will go out there and I will threaten them, punch one of them, and threaten to kill them and their families. We're all good honey."

Why wouldn't Kromer just call the cops especially if it's dark outside? Why would you risk going out there and you don't know who they are and maybe one of them has a gun or something? It's not very smart on Kromer but based on this guy's past track record of judgment, he doesn't have very good judgment. Just like a lot of football people, a lot of these meatheads use their football culture of violence to try to solve issues rather than use common sense.

Don't forget, Kromer last year leaked out to the media that the Chicago Bears regretted giving Jay Cutler that big contract the year before. That drew the ire of many in the Bears' facility and locker room and the media which led to Kromer being fired after the season was over. He should have been gone right on the spot. He seems like an idiot. He should probably be gone over this but I am sure the Bills will wait for the facts to come out before making a move.

I believe in innocent until proven guilty but I would not be upset if they let him go. It's not the end of the world if Aaron Kromer isn't on the staff. You can find another offensive line coach and I am sure many of the players know what's going on as it is because they've had mini camp and OTAs to learn. It's not the end of the world, at least it wasn't Rex Ryan doing this. If that's the case they'd have to do what they can to keep him and discipline him. Kromer, not so much you can move on from him. I didn't like the hire of him in the first place as I am not a fan of the guy based on what happened last year and now this makes me like him even less.

This isn't the first time this offseason a member of the Buffalo Bills has been in hot water for something. Remember last week when second round pick Ronald Darby was criticized for his comments on the Florida State QB hitting that woman on the camera and has been kicked out of the school (http://www.wgrz.com/story/news/2015/07/07/bills-cornerback-under-fire-for-response-to-fsu-assault/29821723/)?

Darby did say hitting women is 100% wrong but drew criticism for saying there was a double standard because the woman hit the QB first before the QB (De'Andre Johnson) slugged her in retaliation and it was caught on camera. While I do agree with Darby about the double standard because I don't think women should hit men in case they think they can get away with it, men should not hit women back because it's simply common sense.

Darby seems to also be sticking up for his college teammate and unfortunately, these young kids are too committed to their teammates, especially college teammates, to the point where they lose proper perspective. Much like Kromer using his football instincts, Darby uses them along with his blind college love to defend a Florida State player. Much like a lot of Bills fans who don't think the Bills do anything wrong, Darby defends a Florida State player for thinking he's done nothing wrong.

Let's not forget, Darby might have a role in covering up the Jameis Winston rape case in December 2012. He was named a witness in the investigation to the rape committed by Winston, who was never charged with rape. Darby did not testify against Winston in a student conduct hearing and was not disciplined by the school. I said it after the draft, I wouldn't have drafted Darby despite some of his skills simply because of what has been alleged to have happened.

Isn't it possible to find someone albeit not as fast but somewhat closely skilled that doesn't have some sort of baggage around him you can take instead? What really is a second round pick cornerback going to do to make this team a playoff and championship team? He might be a very good corner, he might be a great corner. Obviously the Bills and Rex Ryan love him or else they wouldn't draft him with their "first pick." I guess we'll see in due time.

I don't need him that badly to make this team look more foolish as they already have had some interesting things going on such as signing Richie Incognito, the Kromer incident, the taking La'El Collins to dinner while he was being investigated for being a suspect in the shooting death of his pregnant girlfriend, and even drafting Darby's Florida State teammate Karlos Williams, who was alleged to have punched his pregnant girlfriend. Good job Florida State, way to run a great program Jimbo Fisher. He needs to be fired because coaches have been fired for a lot less. I guess the Bills are "building a bully" for sure.

O'Reilly has brought upon further excitement for the upcoming Sabres season (http://buffalosportsbeat.blogspot.com/2015/06/sabres-officially-draft-jack-eichel-and.html (http://buffalosportsbeat.blogspot.com/2015/07/ryan-oreilly-signs-seven-year-deal-its.html). Optimism should still be high, but it will be a little bit deflated. O'Reilly is due in court on August 20 and if convicted he will face up to six months in jail, $400-$2,000 fine, seven points on his license, and a suspended license up to two years.

O'Reilly probably will and should be suspended by the NHL and even Buffalo Sabres. I wouldn't mind him being sat for however long at the start of the season to teach him a lesson and the others a lesson. Thank God he didn't hurt or kill anyone else. I do want him punished but I don't want him gone and I am not regretting getting him. He's young and made a mistake, albeit a big one. But we've all done that ourselves. It's a ridiculous double standard I get it as he would get punished but not kicked off the team like a 4th line player would, much like an offensive line coach like Kromer would be fired instead of a head coach or even top notch coordinator.

That's just the way sports works. You don't have to like it but it's the way it works.

Eichel officially signs with Us!! He's not going back to BU so Stop Worrying About him not Coming Back Here!! Other big time signings and trades today

Well any worries about Jack Eichel not signing with the Sabres and going back to BU are officially done. Today, he signed his 3-year entry level contract and hopefully three years from now, we will have him signed to a really long-term deal. July 1st for Sabres fans usually meant disappointment and heartbreak. Eight years ago today, Chris Drury and Daniel Briere left via free agency after winning the President's Trophy. July 1st also seen the Sabres be snubbed by high profile free agents Brad Richards, Zach Parise, Ryan Suter, and Shane Doan after Terry Pegula bought the team and wanted to spend top dollar. It also meant we got Ville Leino as well.

July 1st now means the official signing and berth of the Jack Eichel era in Buffalo, NY. We'll never have to think of that ever again. We are still waiting for the announcement of the extension of Ryan O'Reilly for seven to eight years for around $7-8 million a year. To help further keep him here, his brother Cal O'Reilly signed earlier for a two-year, one-way deal which means if he plays in the NHL or AHL he's still getting the same salary.

Some former Sabres were involved in trades or signings. Cody Hodgson, waived and bought out one day ago, was signed by Nashville to a one-year deal, not 12 years. I thought Arizona and Darcy Regier would sign him. Goalies Jhonas Enroth signed with the Los Angeles Kings while Michal Neuvirth signed with the Philadelphia Flyes and Anders Lindback with Arizona. So it means currently the Sabres are going with Robin Lehner and Chad Johnson as their goalies so far as they did not bring back any of their former goalies. Drew Stafford signed a two-year deal worth around $4.35 million a season yesterday to remain in Winnipeg.

Speaking of not bringing back any former Sabres, Andrej Sekera signed with Edmonton for six years which is a great move for the Oilers. I liked Sekera and wished he came back here but he moved on. He was very good in Carolina and was used very well unlike his time here with Lindy Ruff. Vancouver did not win the Hodgson trade either as they traded Zack Kassian, who was a disappointment, to Montreal for Brandon Prust and a fifth round pick.

The biggest move of the day was the Pittsburgh Penguins trading for Phil Kessel. The Penguins didn't give up much to get Kessel out of Toronto. Kessel is a very productive scorer (a point a game player) who doesn't always play hard or try hard (as evidenced by last season) and doesn't play great defense. Maybe getting him out of a horrible situation in Toronto and playing with Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin will help him. Hopefully Crosby can keep him in line but he's the type of player they need badly. I think it's a great move for Pittsburgh unless they continue to go belly-up in the playoffs and he doesn't perform.

The St. Louis Blues are trying to move on from their core that's failed them in the playoffs the last few years. Defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk is reportedly on the trade market and I would love for the Sabres to get him. The Blues let star forward Vladimir Tarasenko hit restricted free agency but they said they'll match any offer and rightfully so. They can't let him go and need to build around him. Dallas reportedly signed him to an offer sheet for 6 years, $45 million. I bet they'll match it and eventually part ways with players like David Backes and TJ Oshie.

The Chicago Blackhawks made a big move yesterday trading restricted free agent Brandon Saad to the Columbus Blue Jackets. It was a shock because many thought the Blackhawks would have kept him as there were talks of them negotiating a long term deal. They dealt his rights to the Blue Jackets for Artem Anisimov and Marko Dano. GM Stan Bowman was worried that with the Hawks' cap trouble that teams would load up on an offer sheet for Saad.

One defenseman the Sabres would have liked, Paul Martin, signed a four-year deal with the San Jose Sharks. They also traded for and signed goalie Martin Jones. They did not resign Antii Niemi, who signed with Dallas. The Sharks sent a 2016 First Round pick and prospect Sean Kuraly to the Bruins for Jones as the Sharks immediately signed him to a 3-year deal.

Barrett Jackman's 13-year career with the Blues came to an end when he signed with Nashville. Detroit surprisingly signed Mike Green to a three-year deal while also signing Brad Richards to a one-year deal. Richards won a Cup with Chicago after signing a one-year deal one year after being bought out by the New York Rangers.

The buyouts from a day ago were very interesting. The Kings terminated Mike Richards' gigantic contract after he was stopped at the border with possession of Oxycontin. Others bought out not named Cody Hodgson were Alexander Semin and former Sabre Brad Boyes. I have no interest in any of them. I liked Semin a couple years ago when he signed with Carolina for one year and was very good. He was given a ridiculous longterm contract and never lived up close to it. And to think Jim Rutherford was fired from Carolina but hired in Pittsburgh. Go figure.

This was a very interesting first day of free agency with so much going on. More deals will be made in the coming days hopefully for Buffalo as well to get a defenseman and sign O'Reilly.

Sabres Officially Draft Jack Eichel and Acquire O'Reiily on Busy and Exciting Draft Day

The future of the Buffalo Sabres starts tonight with the drafting of Jack Eichel (assuming he signs with us and doesn't go back to college which I believe he won't). He's our franchise player and it will be awesome to have a forward/ No. 1 center be our franchise elite player. It's been way too long since what LaFontaine or maybe even Perrault? Sure even Briere and Drury were very good for the short time they were here but this is an 18-year-old kid who will be here for a good 15 years or so helping leading this team to the promised land. Who doesn't love it when Tim Murray doesn't do the BS of thanking everyone just goes "Buffalo selects Jack Eichel" like he did last year with Sam Reinhart?

Eichel is considered to be one of the best prospects in the last what 15-20 years? Since then Eichel has been considered the number one pick in every draft in that time except the Alex Ovechkin, Sidney Crosby, and of course the Connor McDavid years. Ovechkin and Crosby helped turn their teams around from miserable failures to success and McDavid should do the same with Edmonton. I've heard Eichel compared to fellow American Mike Modano (1988 #1 overall pick) and current stars Steven Stamkos and Jeff Carter.

As of that wasn't enough, they traded for a goalie early in the day (http://buffalosportsbeat.blogspot.com/2015/06/sabres-acquire-goalie-robin-lehner-and.html) and right after selecting Eichel, the Sabres announced they traded for Ryan O'Reilly. They traded Nikita Zadorov, Mikhail Grigorenko, JT Compher, and the 31st pick in this year's draft for O'Reilly and forward Jamie McGinn. O'Reilly gives them a legitimate number two center behind Eichel and gives the Sabres one of the best center depth in the NHL with Zemgus Girgensons and Sam Reinhart also on the roster.

Now O'Reilly has one year left on his deal that carries a $6 million cap hit which the Avalanche matched an offer sheet signed two years ago by the Calgary Flames and that basically ruined the relationship between the Avs and O'Reilly. We have to sign O'Reilly and it appears he wants a deal in the $8 million range which might be steep but also kind of worth it given his offensive production and amazing two-way, possession game. He's the complete opposite of Cody Hodgson as a two-way player. Murray said they are preparing to offer him a big contract or else why did they trade so much for him?

Murray got a lot of flack for making this deal especially trading Zadorov. Zadorov can be a very good defenseman and showed flashes of brilliance last season. But he also really struggled at times and got benched and suspended and had an attitude of entitlement. That doesn't mean he should be gone yet he became expendable to make a big trade. Like I wrote the other day (http://buffalosportsbeat.blogspot.com/2015/06/i-would-trade-reinhart-for-oreilly-i.html), you have to be prepared to trade someone you might not want or be comfortable trading to improve your team and Zadorov (and maybe some who still had hope for Grigorenko) were the ones to go. Rasmus Ristolainen and Eichel are the only "untouchables" on this roster. We can fill another spot in free agency and one guy I'm very interested in is former Sabre Andrej Seker, who is a UFA. We don't have a guy on the defense for the power play and he's always been good at that and point producing even though a lot of people didn't like him here. I liked Sekera.

No surprise obviously McDavid went first overall with the Oilers. Arizona was not able to trade it's third overall pick (http://buffalosportsbeat.blogspot.com/2015/06/coyotes-looking-to-trade-pick-3-bruins.html) and instead took McDavid's Erie Otters' teammate Dylan Strome. Had the Sabres not picked in the top-2 for McDavid or Eichel, Strome would have been my top pick at number three. Toronto and Mike Babcock select center Mitch Marner, who finished a close second behind Strome for the OHL scoring title this past season which McDavid would have easily won had he not gotten hurt for six weeks of the season.

Carolina took Boston College defenseman Noah Hanifan and Carolina looks to get better on the blue line and they're a team I could see on the rise. Hanifan would make an excellent addition and partner for fellow defenseman Justin Faulk, who had a breakout season and franchise record-breaking season for most points by a defenseman. If they keep both Staals and maybe Jeff Skinner or get a great trade for him (http://buffalosportsbeat.blogspot.com/2015/06/jeff-skinner-might-be-available-id-go.html) they'll be on the rise no doubt. They're penalty kill (which dramatically) and possession numbers are both very great as first year head coach Bill Peters has done a great job and they finished the second half of the season really strong. They get a good goalie, they're a playoff team.

The team who hosted the draft, the Florida Panthers, took Lawson Crouse 11th overall. Crouse was talked as a possible top-5 pick as he was 5th in the final NHL Central Scouting rankings because of his size and scoring ability plus his play in the World Juniors this past season for Team Canada. He did not score a lot in juniors which is a red flag in my opinion as he was nowhere even close to the scoring leaders, but he did jump up significantly this past season from the season before as he went from 27 to 51 points. However, he still ranked 63rd in the OHL scoring race. 63rd!!! He just averaged under a point a game in a league where the best scorers averaged 2 points a game (or in McDavid's case close to 3 points a game). He has high bust potential but could be the next Milan Lucic or Todd Bertuzzi if it pans out, maybe even better. We shall see.

Ottawa took young American center prospect Colin White, who is considered one of the better prospects in this deep draft, 21st overall with the Sabres pick. White is considered to play for Boston College this upcoming season but who knows. The one and only goalie taken in the first round one pick after as the Washington Capitals took Ilya Samsonov 22nd overall as he was expected to go late in round one and if the Sabres still had pick 21, they'd probably take him.

One last thing is that the Boston Bruins continue to make mind numbing decision after decision. It didn't matter that Peter Chiarelli was fired for making mind numbing trades like Phil Kessel for two first round picks what turned out to be Tyler Seguin and Dougie Hamilton then trading Seguin for garbage and put them in the place they're currently in. I didn't even mention Joe Thornton going for practically nothing before Chiarelli was GM but they get credit because they won the Cup. Yes they did get lucky trading Kessel, who even though he produces points, he doesn't always show up and puts in terrible efforts night in night out and is awful defensively. Seguin and Hamilton should have taken your team to the Cup for many years to come. I don't know what's in the water in Boston but whoever the GM is, makes dumb decisions enough said.

Reports were they were interested in trading top defenseman Dougie Hamilton to the Coyotes for the third pick in the draft to take Hanifan but instead, they trade him to Calgary for the 15th overall pick?!?! Huh? Don Sweeney is doing a great job let me tell you (smh). They also traded Milan Lucic to Los Angeles for the 13th overall pick and restricted free agent goalie Martin Jones combine the two picks with their own, they had the 13th, 14th, and 15th overall picks in the draft. Many thought they'd trade all 3 or 2 of the 3 along with either Jones or Tukka Rask to move up but did not.

Trading Lucic no big deal as he's on the decline. But trading Hamilton a #1 defenseman for many years to come for basically nothing is just pathetic and I will enjoy them being a bottom feeder for quite some time. They fired Chiarelli and should fired Sweeney as well along with President Cam Neely. They want to be a physical and tough team and I say fine, we'll just circle around you like we did 10 years ago after the lockout. I love how teams bring in former players to run their teams into the ground. I'll write more about that in the coming days.

Buffalo is a team on the rise and I for one can't wait for this season to start. Next year's draft will be held here in Buffalo even though more than likely next year's draft won't be as important as they should be on the way towards winning. Let's go Buffalo!!

What Can the Sabres Do at 21? Get a Goalie? Or Get a Top-6 Forward Like Skinner, O'Reilly, or Okposo?

With all the hype of getting Jack Eichel, there is the question of what to do at pick #21? Do the Sabres get a goalie and/or a top-6 forward like Jeff Skinner, Ryan O'Reilly, or even Kyle Okposo? For goalie, the top guys to be traded are New York Rangers' backup Cam Talbot and Vancouver's backup Eddie Lack.

The Rangers reportedly want two first round picks but could just want pick #21 from the Sabres and a conditional pick, That pick might be too high for a goalie. Lack could go for a 2nd or even 3rd round pick and that could be a good price. There's also LA Kings' backup Martin Jones, who they could go after with an offer sheet as he's a restricted free agent.

The Hurricanes are looking to move Skinner (http://buffalosportsbeat.blogspot.com/2015/06/jeff-skinner-might-be-available-id-go.html) as they want to re-sign both Eric Staal and Cam Ward (I don't know why). The Hurricanes are in the position they are in because of giving Ward a big contract years ago in the first place. He's been mediocre at best and even great goalies who sign big contracts aren't worth that, it's even worse for a mediocre or worse goalie. I remember the game against them in the final week of the season last year where he was awful and cost them the game by allowing 4 goals and almost hurt our chances at McEichel.

O'Reilly (http://buffalosportsbeat.blogspot.com/2015/06/i-would-trade-reinhart-for-oreilly-i.html) is pretty much done in Colorado especially after they just gave Carl Soderberg a five-year deal nearly worth five million a year. I love how the Avalanche continue to fail and not use analytics to their advantage. Patrick Roy and Joe Sakic continue to thumb their nose at analytics because "they played the game."

Analytics called for a regression this past season after they miraculously won the division and had a 100-point season in 2013-14 after finishing with the second-worst record in 2012-13. Many analytics experts felt they were lucky to win the division and called for them to lose in the first round (which they did) and expected them to fail, which they did as they had the 10th worst record this past season.

Islanders' GM Garth Snow said he wasn't going to trade Okposo but take that with a grain of salt. Okposo is scheduled to be an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season. Okposo is a solid player who would be a good fit for the Sabres perhaps for the 21st overall pick. He's had 18 or more goals in three of the last four seasons (the only one he didn't was the lockout-shortened season) and has had 27 goals two seasons ago. He had 18 in only 60 games as he missed 22 with injury, which would put him around his career-high if he played the full season.

Patrick Sharp is also available but unlikely for the Sabres because of the steep asking price of the Blackhawks. The Blackhawks reportedly want a first round pick, a top prospect, AND a top six forward on an entry level contract. I expect the asking price to drop because Chicago needs to ,over some salaries because they're in cap trouble with the upcoming raises of Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews. I like Sharp but not at that price.

Whatever happens later today will be very interesting. Don't expect Tim Murray to not just take Eichel as he will do whatever to improve this team as quickly as possible. For those who think this is a five-year project will be in for a rude awakening.

Happy Eichel Day!!! This Will Be Our Best (Non Goalie) Player Since LaFontaine? Perrault?

"Today is the Greatest Day Ever!" - Smashing Pumpkins

This is great!! Tonight in about 12 hours or so the Sabres make it official they're drafting Jack Eichel second overall!! This has to be the most excited anyone has ever been over the second overall pick in the NHL or any draft for that matter maybe ever?! We've been talking about Eichel for over a year more like a year and a half when we started hearing about how he was going to challenge Connor McDavid for the top spot in the 2015 NHL Draft. 

It felt like June 26, 2015 would never come but it's here finally!!! All our patience and sacrifice and suffering have finally paid off. Waiting and watching the team lose and getting into arguments with each other about whether or not we want the Sabres to win or lose for "McEichel" are all done. Thank God!!

This is the best offensive player since what? LaFontaine or even Perrault? I wasn't old enough to see Gilbert Perrault as he retired when i was about 4 or 5 years old. I definitely don't know the feeling it was when the Sabres drafted him as their first ever draft pick as I am sure no one really knew as the information isn't like it was today. I'm sure most felt he was the best player in the draft and the Sabres thankfully won the spinning of the wheel to get him so there might be some excitement. But I am sure no one followed this guy's career and even life for about two years. 

I was only about 10 years old when LaFontaine was traded here and I wasn't quite following hockey yet. A couple of years later is when I really started to follow hockey and the Sabres so LaFontaine (and Mogilny) were already here kicking ass. I'm sure most know he was a star with the Islanders when he was traded here and most were very excited to get him. But he wasn't a draft pick of ours and this isn't the same as it is today. 

Both LaFontaine and Perrault are Hall of Famers and we should expect Jack Eichel to be in that group maybe even better (no pressure). I expect him to be the best player in franchise history not just forward but even better than Dominik Hasek. I definitely want the greatest player in franchise history to be a scoring forward and not a goalie. I'm sick and tired of our better players in recent history to be a goalie and constantly be bailed out by a goalie every night. 

This is a new day and a new era!! The draft can't come soon enough. 

This is a Deep Draft But Will it Rival the 2003 Draft?

Tomorrow's NHL draft is considered to be a very deep, talent rich draft, especially in the first round. It's not just Connor McDavid and Jack Eichel, which are the top prizes, but the top-5, 10, maybe even the entire first round has potential great talent. It's supposed to be the deepest draft since the 2003 NHL Draft. The question is will be be as deep as 2003? (http://www.cbc.ca/sports/hockey/nhl/nhl-draft-can-this-year-s-class-rival-2003-1.3126035) Here's an old article from five years ago (http://news.nationalpost.com/sports/nhl/further-proof-that-the-2003-nhl-entry-draft-was-the-best-of-all-time).

NHL drafts usually don't produce a ton except for the top three-to-five picks. It's really a crap shoot when you get out of the top-5, top-10. The 2003 NHL Draft however did not just produce talent at the top. No way, the vast majority of the first round picks turned out to have very productive careers in the NHL. Not only was the first round very successful, the second produced a decent amount of talent as did the rest of the rounds in that draft.

This is probably the best draft in NHL history, some say even better than the 1979 NHL draft that featured a total of five hall of famers including Mark Messier, Ray Bourque, and Mike Gartner with three of the hall of famers selected in the first round (Messier was taken the 3rd round). Technically there's six hall of famers from that draft if you count Dino Ciccarelli, who went undrafted.

12 of the 21 first round picks that year were selected to at least one All-Star game, 19 of the 21 picks played in at least 450 NHL games and every one of the 21 picks played in at least 200 games. 82% of the total picks played in at least NHL game. This might still be the best of all time depending on how many of the players from the 2003 draft make it to the Hall of Fame. The 1979 draft could be even greater if then 18-year-old Wayne Gretzky entered the draft, but his rights were retained by the Edmonton Oilers after they had him in the WHA before they moved to the NHL.

Anyways back to 2003, every one of the 30 picks in the first round went on to play at least one game in the NHL with 28 of those playing in at least 200 games. 14 of those 30 made it to at least one All-Star game, 12 have representer their country in the Olympics, and nine have won the Stanley Cup. Five players in the draft (including second round pick Patrice Bergeron) played significant playing time in their rookie seasons and every player drafted in the top-10 played in at least nine games by the end of the 2005-06 season.

The first overall pick of that year's draft was Marc-Andre Fleury. This is second time ever and hasn't happened since that the #1 overall pick was used on a goalie (Rick DiPietro in 2000 was the other). Roberto Luongo was the previous highest at #4 in 1997 and Kari Lehtonen was second in 2002. Drafting goalies in round 1 is never really a good idea (unless its at the bottom of round 1 and you have depth everywhere else) because you can find goalies anywhere in the draft. Many of the best goalies in NHL history were taken outside the first round.

Both #1 overall pick goalies have been busts, DiPietro more so because of his 15-year contract but he was pretty good until then until injuries and inconsistent play along with having to live up to that gigantic contract. Fleury was actually very good early in Pittsburgh, winning a Stanley Cup in 2009 after being in the finals the year before. He was very good in those two playoff runs and gave the Penguins hope for a long term goalie. Since then however, his performances have been laughable in the postseason with sub-.900 save percentages from 2010-15 playoffs and usually losing in the first or second rounds to lesser teams because of his awful play.

It makes you think he was only good because of the teams he had early on with Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Jordan Staal, and other veterans they'd acquire at the trade deadlines. Fleury's postseason performances post-Cup have gotten current Sabres head coach Dan Bylsma fired from Pittsburgh. Fleury has looked like a bust since 2009 and does not look like anything worth the number one overall pick, which is why I would never use a top-3, top-5, top-10, pretty much almost any first round pick on a goalie. He was the first of four consecutive top-2 picks in the draft followed by Crosby, Malkin, and Staal.

The Penguins could have been better served with the number two overall pick, center Eric Staal, who went to Carolina and helped them win the Cup in 2006. Third went to Florida, who took winger Nathan Horton, who has had a very good career but injuries prevented what could have been an even better career. He did help Boston win the Stanley Cup in 2011 and to the finals again in 2013. He had six consecutive 20-goal seasons and had 17 and 13 after playing in 46 and 43 games in 2012 and 2013 respectively. A back injury has pretty much ended his career now. Interestingly, Florida held the number one overall pick as they won the draft lottery for the second year in a row. But for the second year in a row, they traded the pick to move down to #3. In 2002, they passed on a chance to take Rick Nash 1st overall to move down to take defenseman Jay Bouwmeester.

Nikolay Zherdev went fourth with the Columbus Blue Jackets. He had a couple of productive 27 and 26 goal seasons with Columbus before being traded to the New York Rangers in 2008. He had 23 goals and 58 points with the Rangers before leaving to go to the KHL in a messy contract dispute. He since bounced around between teams in the KHL and one year in Philadelphia and has since become somewhat of a bust.

Buffalo took Thomas Vanek fifth overall in what was a great pick and never had fewer than 20 goals in any season in the NHL. Twice he's had 40 goal seasons along two other 30+ goal seasons with the Sabres. His 20 goals in 2012-13 came in only 38 games as it was a lockout-shortened season and it would have projected to 43 over a full 82-game season, which would tie his career high. The Sabres drafted Vanek shortly after he led the Minnesota Golden Gophers to the 2003 NCAA National Championship and was named Frozen Four Tournament MVP in Buffalo nonetheless.

The rest of the top-10 Milan Michalek, Ryan Suter, Brayden Coburn, Dion Phaneuf, and Andrei Kostitsyn. All have been pretty good except Coburn, who started strong but has fallen off, and Kostitsyn, who had three 20+ goal seasons before injuries and going to the KHL ended his time in the NHL. Phaneuf had a 20-goal season his rookie season and was a force in his first few seasons with Calgary before he regressed both offensively and defensively and was traded to Toronto, and has never lived up to his early years.

Other great players in the first round include: Jeff Carter, Dustin Brown, Brent Seabrook, Zach Parise, Brent Burns, Ryan Kessler, Mike Richards, and Anaheim got two players who helped them win a Cup in 2007 and have been one of the better teams in the NHL post-2004 Lockout in Ryan Getzlaf (19th overall) and Corey Perry (who went 28th overall). Tim Murray was working in Anaheim at that time under his uncle and then-Ducks' GM Bryan Murray.

The first round wasn't the only round to produce All-Star talent. The second round produced such talent as Loui Eriksson, Patrice Bergeron, Matt Carle, Shea Weber, Corey Crawford, David Backes, and Jimmy Howard. After a couple of so-so rounds 3 and 4, which saw the Sabres take Clarke MacArthur in the 3rd round, the talent picks back up again with Western New York's own Lee Stempniak being picked in round 5. Joe Pavelski was taken in the 7th round. Defensemen Tobias Enstrom and Dustin Byfuglien were taken in the 8th round (the NHL Draft is only 7 rounds long now). The ninth and final round produced current Sabre Matt Moulson and goalies Jaroslav Halak and Brian Elliott (who was the next-to-last pick of the draft).

That's an amazing amount talent in one entire draft. It's tough to say whether this draft will produce anything close to that. It will be a deep draft no doubt. Will it be like 2003? Only time will tell. One thing for sure though is the top two picks this year will definitely be better than 2003. The Sabres will get their franchise guy no doubt.

Dan Bylsma New Head Coach of the Buffalo Sabres!!! Yea he's Got Only One Cup Who Cares!? He has More than the Sabres and As Many as Babcock

It's been over a week since Mike Babcock spurned the Buffalo Sabres to take the Toronto Maple Leafs job. But it's no worry as the Sabres have officially hired Dan Bylsma as their next head coach. This continues to show that the Sabres are on the up-and-up considering they will be drafting Jack Eichel next month.

They finished second in the race for the best head coach but they also finished first in the race for the second best head coach available and it's not like it's a slam dunk that Babcock is that much better. He chose Toronto fine I get that. Good luck with that. But Dan Bylsma will be here to work with Eichel and the best group of prospects in the NHL. Bylsma works with USA Hockey and he'll have what should be the best player America has to offer in another couple of more years. I love the USA Hockey connection. It's not the reason I want him here because I think he's a good coach but the USA connection just makes it all the more sweeter.

People only think Bylsma won because he had Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin. He's never had less than 101 points in an entire 82-game season. He had 72 points in the 48-game lockout-shortened season which projects to 123 points over a full 82-game schedule. Even when Bylsma first took over in Pittsburgh, he coached only 25 games but went an impressive 18-4-3 and 40 points and that projects to a whopping 131 over 82 games. Bylsma never finished lower than second in the division and the Penguins were never lower than 4th in the Eastern Conference.

As for Bylsma only won because he had Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, he had two 100-point seasons despite Crosby missing a total of 101 games over two seasons between 2010-11 to 2011-12 because of concussions and other injuries. The 2010-11 season saw Crosby and Malkin missing the entire second half of the season (and playoffs) due to injuries and their other top center Jordan Staal was out for the first half of the season. The result, the Penguins had 106 points without their two best players. Travis Yost of TSN broke down how good Bylsma and the Penguins were in scoring and puck possession without Crosby and Malkin (http://www.tsn.ca/bylsma-can-stand-on-his-track-record-1.293813).

Thanks to GM Ray Shero, Bylsma wasn't able to build on his Stanley Cup success as he didn't really get a lot more better pieces in addition to Crosby and Malkin. The bottom six forwards were one of the worst in the league. The defense, outside of Kris Letang (who I'm a huge fan of), have been brutal. They're prospects were lousy and Shero traded a lot of draft picks and prospects to trade for rent-a-players at the trade deadline because they were contending for the cup and those players usually left in free agency, leaving the pens with not much to work with.

To be fair, the Penguins would be drafting at the bottom of round 1 because of their regular season success and generally weren't in very good position to draft a star. In 2008, the Pens did not even have a draft pick until the 4th round because of all the deadline deals to try and win the Cup. But a GM's job is still get good decent players and find them anywhere in the draft. Even the draft picks and prospects they've picked have been brutal. Shero's best forward since his first draft of Jordan Staal was none other than Beau Bennett (look up his numbers I dare you). Shero never gave Bylsma a good goalie whatsoever (more on the goaltending point later). Even his signings and re-signings (Brooks Orpik) have been failures.

Cap casualties include both Staal and James Neal. Bylsma has gotten the most out of Neal (who had 40 goals, 81 points one year) and Neal has not matched his production outside of his time playing for Bylsma. He never had less than 21 goals and was a point a game player in each of his full seasons under Bylsma, even though he is a total douche and dirty rotten scummy player. He scored goals, but his overall point totals never came close to when he played in Pittsburgh (although I think Crosby and Malkin had a lot to do with that).

Chris Kunitz has had his best years under Bylsma and struggled this year under Mike Johnston. The Penguins struggled as a whole this year under Johnston, barely making the playoffs on the last day of the season. Heck, Bylsma even got offensive production (including 19 goals one year) out of the scum of the earth Matt Cooke (Neal is close to Cooke for scum of the earth as well).

The goaltending has been a nightmare for the Pens and Bylsma. Marc-Andre Fleury was brutal, absolutely abysmal since they won the Cup in 2009 and he wasn't even great then as his save % was only .908 (which is Dominik Hasek numbers compared to other years) but he played well at times and made big saves, including the finals. Since Bylsma's first year, Fleury's save % in the playoffs were: .891, .899, .834 (a 5-year-old could do better than that), .883, and .915 (which isn't even that good). Fleury never had a save % of at least .920 in any of Bylsma's regular seasons as head coach.

I don't care what coach you are or have the greatest player of this generation, no one can win in the playoffs with those dreadful goaltending performances. I know many think that Bylsma should have pulled Fleury many times but there are two problems with that thinking. 1.) Crosby apparently was close with Fleury and demanded that Fleury play so Bylsma probably did not want to tick off the star player. 2.) For several years, the backup to Fleury was Brent Johnson, who was awful as his .904 career save % indicates. He was .901 in three years in Pittsburgh, including .883 his last year there. No matter how awful Fleury was, Johnson was a lot worse if you can believe that. Bylsma had no other choice.

Shero did not provide adequate goaltending at all for the Penguins. Finally they brought in Tomas Vokoun in 2013 and they replaced Fleury with Vokoun after Fleury was awful in the first round against the New York Islanders. Vokoun then led the Penguins to the Eastern Conference Finals, where they were swept by the Boston Bruins. Vokoun eventually retired due to blood clots and the job was given back to Fleury, who signed an extension this past year. It's great when teams and people don't learn from their mistakes. Give the Sabres anything better than Fleury and they're a good team.

Bylsma has as many Cups as Mike Babcock and his win% in both regular season and playoffs are nearly identical. Babcock has only one Stanley Cup and he's coached at least three Hall of Famers. I know many think the Penguins underachieved in the playoffs under Bylsma with Crosby and Malkin and their fantastic regular season records. I agree with that to an extent as they did lose to lower seeds in the first or second rounds. But a lot of great teams and coaches lose early to a lower seed every now and then.

Babcock was eliminated in the first round in his first season in Detroit in the 2005-06 playoffs. They won the President's Trophy with the best record in the league and were eliminated by the 8th seeded Edmonton Oilers in the first round and yet you never hear of anyone saying he or his team underachieved. No one ever mentions that. Babcock went to the finals three times to just one by Byslma, but he's also coached at least five years longer in the NHL as well.

The Pens did lose in the first or second round four times to lower-seeded teams, but three of those were the fifth seed so they weren't so much worse than the Penguins. The only really bad lose was in 2010 when they lost to the 8th-seeded Montreal Canadiens in seven games. They blew a 3-1 series lead to the Tampa Bay Lightning in the first round in 2011. They lost in six games to the Philadelphia Flyers in 2012 in a series where the Pens looked awful taking a ton of dumb and dirty penalties and Fleury played the worst I ever saw a goalie play (and that even included Iyla Bryzgalov on the other side) with his .834 save %.

As for losing to lower seeds, when you don't win the Cup, which only one team can, you lose in the playoffs. And when you are a top seed and you lose in the playoffs, you generally lose to a lower-seeded team that's how it works. When you are a top seed and have 100 point seasons and have two of the best players in the league, expectations are really high. I commend the Penguins for having high aspirations and goals of winning championships and anything else isn't acceptable.

However, I do like realistic goals and when you're goalie plays like he shouldn't even be in a pee wee league you won't win much. It's hard to win the Cup and win in the playoffs. It's really hard. It's hard just to win a playoff series where you need to win four times where luck and bounces can go for or against you. Also, you can run into a hot goalie that can beat you anytime. I'm not making excuses for Bylsma at all, I am just stating the facts.

Then in 2014, the Pens blew a 3-1 series lead to the New York Rangers in the second round as the Rangers went to the finals and lost to Los Angeles. I get the underachieving point and even their first round wins over the Islanders and Columbus Blue Jackets in 2013 and 2014 looked bad. They should have lost to either team if their respective goaltending wasn't awful. Like I said however, only two teams won two Cups since 2002 as it's hard to win the Cup and even harder in this salary cap era where parity rules.

Bruce Boudreau was fired in Washington for nearly the same thing as Bylsma, but Boudreau did not even get out of the second round while losing game 7 each year on home ice in either the first or second round to a lower seeded team. He had talented players and won the division every year in Washington and were a top-3 seed every year but could not for whatever reason win in the playoffs. It was similar in Pittsburgh with a weak defense and goalie and a weaker bottom-six forward group. A good team hired him as Anaheim quickly picked him up after he was fired after they fired a goof in Randy Carlyle. Boudreau has won the division every year he's been in Anaheim and they are one game away from going to the finals.

See, really good coaches get fired and Boudreau is very good. I am a fan of him and his unorthodox methods and personality. Bylsma is a complete 180 from Boudreau but still very good in his own right. Joel Quenneville and Alain Vigneault, the other two coaches in the conference finals, were both fired twice each by their teams before having success with the Blackhawks and Rangers. Good to great coaches get fired and land on their feet in better organizations. Lindy Ruff was even fired here after 16 years and seems to be in a better situation in Dallas.

I like how Bylsma wants his team to carry the puck out of his own end as quick as possible as that's the game nowadays. He's very good with analytics and puck possession. Dan Bylsma's hiring is just another reason to get excited about the Buffalo Sabres in 2015-16 and beyond of course there's some Eichel-guy playing here next year to get your hopes up a little bit. Take the Bills hiring Rex Ryan in addition to Bylsma and things are looking great for our Buffalo sports teams. Once again, we must thank Terry and Kim Pegula for all things being possible.

EJ Could Be Cut If He Doesn't Show Progress; Move on From Him If You Don't Think He's the Guy

A lot of buzz has been made by former WGR 550 Buffalo Bills beat reporter and current Bills beat reporter for WKBW Ch. 7 Joe Buscaglia about EJ Manuel's future with the Bills (http://www.wkbw.com/sports/bills/joe-b-sans-progress-ej-may-be-done-in-buffalo). It appears that the honeymoon with the 2013 first round pick and the supposed to be franchise QB is likely over unless he shows major improvement this summer from what has been a disappointing two-year stint. Manuel was drafted to be the franchise QB that this franchise has lacked since Jim Kelly retired in 1996 and so far it has not materialized.

It has been coined a "make or break year" for EJ, who will be battling for the starting job along with newcomers Matt Cassel and Tyrod Taylor. This new coaching staff has no ties to EJ Manuel and if they don't think he's the guy, he's likely gone. I think that's the right move if that's the case, there's no reason to keep him around if he can't beat out Cassel and/or Taylor. I think if he's not even the starter it might just be time to move on from him, let alone be the backup. Nothing against Cassel and Taylor but they aren't the best QBs in the league and they're here for a reason and if EJ can't beat them out, he'll never be the guy.

Of course Doug Whaley drafted him, well depending on who you ask some say it's Buddy Nix's pick but Whaley doesn't shy away from picking Manuel as it was a Buffalo Bills pick. Whaley I'm sure wants him to succeed and it makes him look a lot better. Some are ridiculous stating since this report came out that EJ is behind Jeff Tuel and is the 4th QB on the depth chart and that's just absolutely bogus. If for some reason he's behind Tuel, then cut him now.

I know Manuel has only 14 starts, which is still not a full 16-game season, but he's had two seasons worth of mini camps, OTAs, training camps, and preseasons and make it three after this summer. I don't think 14 starts is enough but I feel three seasons worth of all the above mentioned practices, preseason and regular season games is enough to tell you whether the guy is good or not and if he's improving or regressing.

It's not that Manuel was awful as he was just 6-8 as a starter (6-7 in games in which he finished after being injured against Cleveland his rookie year), but he continued to regress and show inaccuracy after coming back from injury in the middle of his rookie season. He missed six games due to injury his rookie season as he suffered three separate knee injuries (one was in preseason). His career completion percentage is just 58.6 and he averages 6.4 yards per pass attempt, which is in Trent Edwards territory.

Last season, the Bills traded the 2015 first round pick to move up five spots to draft Sammy Watkins in an attempt to add a big time weapon to help EJ. They basically gave EJ two years at starting QB with the Watkins trade. Manuel was pretty good the first two games of the season as they won the first two. He completed 66.7% of his passes and averaged 7.9 yards an attempt, both were very good. Then Manuel struggled mightily the next two games in which he lost both of them. He was really bad against Houston as his signature moment was throwing a short pass right into JJ Watt's hands, who returned it for a touchdown.

Manuel was benched after that game for a guy who was retired and did not even go to training camp or play in the preseason in Kyle Orton. Orton was not much better except for both Jets games, a half against Detroit, and the 4th quarter against Minnesota. Otherwise he was awful as the team had trouble getting into the end zone. Orton was basically the same as his yards per attempt was basically the same, but he completed 10% more of his passes, big deal considering most of his passes were at or behind the line of scrimmage.

It was sad that the last month or two, Doug Marrone did not bench Orton and put Manuel back in. Now some of that was Marrone being selfish and wanting to win for his own glory to take a buyout and leave after the season to try and get another head coaching job. The other was that sadly, Orton was the "best chance to win." If you couldn't pull an awful Orton for a young first round pick prospect to see what he's done being on the bench, then it doesn't speak very highly for Manuel. It was sad that Manuel was benched for Orton in the first place.

I'd like to see what Manuel can do in Greg Roman's offense. Roman got a lot out of Alex Smith when no one could. Smith is definitely limited but Roman got the most out of him. Then he got a lot out of Colin Kaepernick in terms of throwing the ball down field and especially running for a year-and-a-half until he completely struggled last year. Kaepernick was inaccurate and has always struggled with accuracy issues. But when he throws the ball down the field, he can surely fling it with ease and can make big plays down the field whereas EJ could not. Of course Kaepernick's big time strength was his running ability and can make so many plays with his legs.

I'd like to see Manuel be able to run more as that's supposed to be a strength of his. That's one of the reasons why the Bills drafted him two years ago. He's not the fastest nor most mobile but he can more than make enough plays with his legs. He got injured as a rookie against Cleveland on a spectacular run and Marrone was very cautious to have him run. I don't 100% blame him because you don't want your young QB to get hurt.

The problem was that they never wanted Manuel to run ever, which was a strength of his. When he did run, it was usually just run out of bounds or slide even if it was short of the first down marker because "a punt is better than a turnover" and did not want him to risk injury. Marrone was super conservative. It was definitely Marrone not wanting him to run but when Manuel did run, he would never try and make any sort of move to have a defender miss to pick up a couple of yards and a first down. Get the first down and then slide or run out of bounds.

Marrone and Nate Hackett brought in the Read Option with Manuel's mobility as well as the no huddle and I was super excited. For some reason, they never ran the read option with Manuel running or throwing. Instead, Manuel would just hand the ball off in shot gun to either CJ Spiller or Fred Jackson and getting destroyed for losses. Never did Manuel just take off running after faking a hand off or threw from the read option which is what QBs like Kaepernick, Russell Wilson, Cam Newton, RGIII, and even Ryan Tannehill do as they both run and throw to some success. Oh yeah, they scrapped the no huddle as well as injuries and EJ's poor development led to them throwing no huddle out of the playbook.

I did not want the kid to get hurt but if he wasn't going to be play the game right or the way he is capable of playing, then I did not need him in there whatsoever. I'd love to see Rex and Roman let the kid run and try to throw down the field and try to make some plays. Ryan usually let Geno Smith throw down field and Smith would not just run out of bounds when he ran as he would make a move and get the first down. Smith was terrible but Ryan at least let him try to make plays and see if he can play the position or not. I wouldn't mind letting them let Tyrod Taylor loose as they seemed enamored with him and his play making ability.

EJ has a strong arm but he was not accurate down the field. In fact, too many times he'd throw deep passes out of bounds and never kept balls in play for a chance for the receiver to make a play and/or a draw a defensive penalty. Manuel was so inaccurate especially throwing short. He completed only 61% of his passes from 1-10 yards which is very bad. Usually great QBs even decent QBs can complete 1-10 yard passes in the 70% range.

If Manuel can't improve his accuracy the next couple of months, he won't just be on the bench he'll be in the unemployment line. Now Roman can try and improve his accuracy somewhat, but accuracy is something you can't teach and you usually are what you are. I like Manuel he seems like a great person but if he's not the guy then it's time to move on. I just want Ryan and Roman to let him at least try and make plays and if he can't then cut him loose and let's go with Cassel or Taylor.

I want the Islanders to Give the Sabres Their 2015 1st Round Pick

I've been thinking about the up-coming 2014 NHL Draft where it appears that the Sabres will more than likely be drafting either 1st or 2nd in the draft. They have a 99% chance according to sportsclubstats.com they be drafting 1st or 2nd with a 94% chance they finish with the worst record in the league. The Sabres have a 25% chance of winning the Draft Lottery (which is easily the best odds of winning) if they finish last. If they lose the lottery, they draft 2nd, still a great chance at a great pick and player. I'll write more in a different entry about how great it is to draft in the top-2-3 picks as the NHL Draft pretty much always produces really good to great players in the top-2 or 3 spots.

They traded unrestricted free agent-to-be, 30-40-goal scorer Thomas Vanek to the New York Islanders for forward and fellow 30-goal scorer Matt Moulson, a 2014 1st round pick, and a 2015 2nd round pick. Now the Islanders can keep the 1st round pick this year if they draft in top-10 and then they can defer it and give us their 1st round pick for next year. The Islanders have struggled badly as they are 22-30-8 with only 52 points. Right now they'd be drafting 5th if the season were to end, or 6th if a team behind them wins the lottery or they could be drafting 1st if they win the lottery. Barring a ridiculous post-Olympic run, the Islanders will be no doubt drafting in the top-10, maybe top-5.

So I know many of you want their 2014 1st round pick because the Sabres could have two top-5 picks in this year's NHL Draft. But if I had my choice, I'd want their 2015 1st round pick. I know many of you are like "why would you risk a sure top-5, 10 pick on what could very well be a lower pick?" Good question and yes it could be a risk drafting lower than the top-5. But they could remain the same next year or be even worse. Now I don't have a crystal ball to predict the future but I don't see the Islanders getting better next year, I see them being the same if not worse next year, especially with Thomas Vanek being gone and probably won't return next year. If they again miss the playoffs and especially draft in the top-5, hopefully 2 or 3 so it increases our chances at hopefully getting the #1 overall pick and the top prospect in the 2015 Draft in Connor McDavid.

Supposedly next year's draft, led by top prospect McDavid, who is supposedly the enxt Sidney Crosby, is better than this year's class. Of course we'll never know for sure until they play the game and of course its all speculation. This year's draft with top prospects Sam Reinhart, Sam Bennett, Aaron Ekblad, and Leon Draisaitl aren't McDavid or Sidney Crosby or Alex Ovechkin or Malkin or Kane or Stamkos; but they can be very good players as players drafted at the top of the NHL Draft usually are such as John Tavares, Matt Duchene, Taylor Hall, Tyler Seguin, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Gabriel Landeskog or even Nathan MacKinnon. Who wouldn't want one of those?

I don't expect the Sabres to be good again next year so they'll be in the McDavid sweepstakes next year and hopefully with the Islanders pick will double their chances. Plus I heard Tim Murray wants mostly 2015 first round draft picks if he unloads Ryan Miller, Matt Moulson, and Steve Ott. The more the merrier for me!! You can't have enough great players and you get them at the top of the draft. Imagine we get one of the top-2 picks this year, McDavid and maybe even another top-5 pick next year? Who wouldn't get excited? Plus we might be able to get a big free agent or two such as Kane.

Like I said I don't think the Islanders will be better next year, I think they'll be the same or hopefully worse so we can get another pick towards the McDavid sweepstakes. The Islanders have a terrible defense and their goaltending is really bad as they allowed the most goals of any team. I don't see them fixing their defense/goaltending issues in one off season. I think GM Garth Snow is in win now mode and really can't afford to wait another bad year or else he'll be out of a job. He's been there for eight years and produced just two playoff appearances. If they are in the top-5 they might have to just take the pick and hope for the best even if the class isnt as good as next year's. Tim Murray has the luxury of waiting a draft or two to fix this mess.

The Islanders just came off a playoff appearance in which they gave the top-seeded Penguins all they could handle in six games last year and hopes were very high for this once downtrodden franchise. They started a mediocre 4-4-3 when they traded for Vanek. Unfortunately, the Vanek deal has not brought a ton of success as the losses began to pile up. They've lost 31 of their last 49 games (26 of the losses were in regulation). Their 22 wins and 52 points in 60 games are two fewer wins and three fewer points than they had all last season in just 48 lockout-shortened games when they made the playoffs. They are moving to Brooklyn after next season and will need some marquee players in addition to Vanek to show they belong in the big city instead of the island. So they would be wise to wait till 2015 for McDavid but it's hard to predict whether they'll be as bad or worse next year.

They only have one good line which is John Tavares, Kyle Okposo and Vanek. Not much scoring outside of that line. Plus I think Vanek is gone, he'll probably be traded before the trade deadline as he recently turned down a 7-year, $50 million contract (which is the same contract he signed 7 years ago) extension from the Islanders as he wants to test the open market. Who can blame him? He's 30 years old, he will have maybe one big chance to make big money on the open market as he's averaged over 30 goals a season for his first 8 years in the league (which will bring big bucks to a team that needs goal scoring), and he's never had a chance to go to any or all teams to see what he's really worth and who really wants him. He's been in Buffalo all his career until last October when he was traded to the Islanders.

He's never had a chance to test the open market. 7 years ago when he was a restricted free agent, the Sabres matched the offer by the Edmonton Oilers which kept him here another 7 years. the Sabres just lost Briere and Drury for nothing and needed to keep a guy who just scored 43 goals and 84 points instead of taking Edmonton's 4 first round picks. Who knows, maybe Vanek wanted to leave and maybe he was upset that the sabres matched it and didn't allow him to leave for Edmonton or maybe somewhere else. Plus he was wondering if the Sabres really wanted him, why did they let him go to possibly be signed by another team and why didn't they give him an offer before? The Sabres, notable Darcy Regier really dropped the ball on that one.

So yea, I'm not only in 2014 NHL Draft mode, I'm also in 2015 NHL Draft mode because I expect the Sabres to be closer to the lottery than the playoffs for Connor McDavid. I hate to root for them to be bad, but I can't help but want a couple of high draft picks for potential great players. This franchise hasn't had generationally great superstars in a long time. Even for those of you who don't want to lose for the top pick in the 2015 Draft, that's why I want the Islanders to give us the 2015 pick and hope they are really bad so we get the top pick or win the lottery. Could you imagine being an Islanders fan and you give away what could be Connor McDavid? The fans would riot. But I hope the Sabres end up with him,

Trade Miller, Build a Better Team, Don't Waste Big $$$ on a Goalie

I believe that trading Ryan Miller makes the most sense for this team if they want to rebuild and hopefully build a future winner. It makes no sense 1.) keeping a goalie who is 33 and will be 34 next season and 2.) keeping a goalie who is set to be an unrestricted free agent who doesn't seem to want to be here or else he'd sign already and they are in last place by a mile. Everyone is upset and panicking what will they do without Miller. Um hello, they are in last place, they aren't winning anything with him playing as well as he is.

If you say they'd be even worse, I think you're wrong I don't think they can really be that much worse. They have the fewest goals scored with 110 and they're 25 behind the team with the next fewest. They're 15 wins are the least and they are 5 wins behind the next team which is Edmonton with 20 and their 38 points are nine fewer than Edmonton, who is the second-worst team in the NHL. It can't get much worse than that. What they win 3-5 fewer games and have 10 fewer points? Big whoop. The Edmonton Oilers, Calgary Flames, Florida Panthers, and New York Islanders are really, really bad but they are miles ahead of the Sabres. For me I like it because it means they have a really strong shot at the #1 overall pick in this June's draft and this team needs as many great players as possible and you get them at the top of the draft.

If you're gonna be upset that they'd trade Miller rather than re-sign him, would you rather risk losing him for nothing instead of hopefully getting a 1st round pick and maybe even a prospect? I don't think he's re-signing here and I don't think GM Tim Murray is interested in giving a long-term deal. So because of foolish pride, you'd risk losing him in free agency rather than getting something for him? I can understand if this team was say 7th, 8th, or even 9th place and are trying to get into the playoffs and don't want to lose him for the playoff run, but this team is in last place!!! It should be even easier to let him go and get over it.

This isn't like when we lost Briere and Drury after the 2007 season for nothing as they both signed deals with other teams as unrestricted free agents. The team came off a President's Trophy season and came off back-to-back Eastern Conference Finals appearances and were Stanley Cup contenders. I don't care what anyone thinks, the Sabres are still struggling to replace both those men as they will miss the playoffs for the 5th time in 7 years. It's also not like losing Dominik Hasek, yea we traded him but got nothing no where near what we should have in return because he didn't want Detroit to give up too much so he can win the Stanley Cup. Hasek took us to an Eastern Conference Finals appearance in 1998 and all the way to Game Six of the Stanley Cup Finals in 1999 and even lost in the 2nd round in overtime in Game Seven against Pittsburgh before he left. The team was very competitive and fell apart. But in this case, they are the worst team in hockey and it ain't even close.

I want to say I like Miller a lot and I hate to see him go. I appreciate all he has done here for the Sabres, for WNY, and for USA Hockey. I'll root for him of course in the Olympics and I'll even root for him if he leaves because I want him to succeed. I know what many of you are thinking: "if you like him and think he's so good, why do you want him traded? This team needs great players and why get rid of our best?" That is a great question and here is the answer. Because a goalie, even a really good one like Miller, really can't do much by himself on a terrible team.

Many of you are thinking "but if we build a better team, then it would help him out." True so why not just build a better team then? In the NHL, it's important to find a good goalie but you don't need a top-notch goalie to win. Teams have won post 2004-05 Lockout with decent, OK goalies but with better talent in forwards and defense. Notice I didn't say terrible goalie but if you can find a mediocre to slightly mediocre one and put him on a great team, they'll win no matter what. The goalies are pretty much similar as there are only a couple of elite and only a couple of really bad ones, everyone else is pretty much the same. So my question is if goalies are pretty much the same, then why pay big bucks for one when you can put money into much better forwards and defensemen and win with an average goalie?

It's about goal scoring and how do you score? With great puck possession numbers!! I looked at the top-8 teams in the NHL in terms of points (Chicago, Anaheim, St. Louis, Boston, Pittsburgh, San Jose, Colorado, and Tampa Bay) and all 8 of those teams are in the top-12 in goals scored and all are in the top-9 in puck possession. Guess where the Sabres rank? You guess it!! Dead last. Last year they were second-to-last only to the analytics nightmare known as the Toronto Maple Leafs. If you spend more time in your end than in the other team's end, then you will not score many goals and have more goals scored on you. So what would be the point of having a great, high-priced goalie who gets all these shots and goals scored on? It's not just stop the puck, there's all these bounces and deflections that go in all the time that you can't stop if you are in your own end. Conversely, if you are in the other team's end, then you'll get all the bounces and deflections. This team needs to be better possessing the puck. If a Miller trade can help enable that, then I'm all for it.

Miller is in the last year of his current deal which is worth $6.25 million a season, currently the 5th highest paid goalie in the NHL. To re-sign him you probably have to pay him in the $7-8 million a year range to keep him here as it appears he might want to move closer to his wife. Then you gotta give him 5-7 years so he'd be in his 40s by the time the contract is done. I don't want to do that. I looked up the goalie salaries and seven of the top-10 goalies are either barely in the playoffs, on the outside looking in, or completely out of the playoffs. That doesn't even include Henrik Lunqvist, whose $7.5 million a year deal doesn't kick in until next season, making him the highest-paid goalie in the NHL. I just don't get it, I'd never give a goalie that kind of money. Lundqvist and Jonathan Quick are the two best but teams paying goalies in the $2-3 million range are winning and are near or at the top of the league.

Players such as Ben Scrivens, Ben Bishop, Josh Harding, Cory Schneider, Frederik Andersen, Brian Elliott, and Jaroslav Halak are among the leaders in save percentage and goals against average and outperforming their much higher-paid counterparts. It shows if you have a great team, you can win with almost any goalie. Quick is having a great season, but was injured early in the year and Scrivens did well in his place and even third-string goalie Maritn Jones has played very well which led the Kings to trade Scrivens to Edmonton once Quick was healthy. Scrivens is doing well on a terrible Oilers team with no defense. Last year, Ray Emery, who was a big disappointment in the NHL, went 17-1-0 with a .922 save % and a 1.94 goals against average. Is it because Emery is good or the Blackhawks are great? Well it's because the Blackhawks are great. Emery is struggling on a worse Flyers team. Would you rather have Emery on a great Blackhawks team or Miller on a terrible Sabres team? I'd hope you'd answer Emery, but I can't control what you think or believe.

I want this organization and the fans to think they can win without Miller because it's probably gonna happen. That's what I hated about this organization under Darcy Regier is that they thought they can't dare win without Miller or they were doomed. The fans were conditioned to think the same. He's good but you can win without him. Miller as good as he is couldn't help this team from missing the playoffs five out of the last seven years including this year. The team was bad. When the Sabres were awesome in 2005-06 and 2006-07, they won with Miller and Martin Biron, in fact I believe Biron had something like a 12-game unbeaten streak one point. Even when the Sabres made the playoffs in 2011, Jhonas Enroth played very well in relief of Miller down the stretch run as he went 9-2-2 and an 8-game unbeaten streak which helped them make the playoffs I don't care what anybody says. Enroth's numbers are very similar to Miller's and can't do much more without a competant offense and team in front of him more than Miller can and he makes about 1/5 of the money Miller makes. We can win with Enroth (I'm not saying he's better than Miller but he's not worse) or any kid down in Rochester or anyone floating around the NHL.

I hate to say it, but it's time fans to move on from Miller and start over with a brand new identity that focuses on scoring and puck possession while the goalie is what he is supposed to be, the last line of defense. But go Miller and Team USA!!! Let's win the Gold!!

Bye Bye Derek Roy

Derek Roy being traded no doubt made a lot of Sabres fans happy yesterday, including myself. It was long overdue. I used to like Roy a lot. But I've gotten tired of his act the last few years. For me it was in the playoffs in 2010 when the 3rd seeded Sabres lost to the Bruins in the first round and he had zero goals that I wanted him gone. Fans disliked him long before. Many feel he's not a good teammate, is a problem in the locker room, is not a leader, not a good character guy, constantly clashes with Lindy Ruff, takes dumb penalties, whines to the refs, fails to show up in big games, fails to make his teammates better, and has a lack of focus because of all the partying that he does off the ice. Roy no doubt was a fairly productive player offensively in his Sabre career as he averaged nearly 0.80 points per game and had scored 18 or more goals in a full season every season from 2005-06 to 2009-10.

But Roy represents and might be the poster child for the "core" that has massively underachieved the last five years after both Chris Drury and Daniel Briere left in 2007. They were the young group of players that would carry this franchise to the promised land and failed to deliver. They had missed the playoffs three out of the last five seasons, including last season where they had the highest payroll in the league after Terry Pegula took over as owner in Feb. 2011. They also did not win a single playoff series. Whether or not these players were mentally tough enough or focused enough or just plain and simple not good enough, they couldn't get the job done. If the goal is to win the Stanley Cup, then this is not good enough and you have to shake up the roster and get better. They already let Tim Connolly leave and traded Paul Gaustad in the last year and now they traded Roy with one year left on his contract.

Roy's best statistical season came in the 2007-08 season, the season after Briere and Drury left, when he recorded 32 goals and 81 points in 78 games. From the 2007-08 season to the 2010-11 season, Roy averaged 27 goals and averaged 0.92 points per game a season. In the 2010-11 season, Roy was having by far his best season with 10 goals and 35 points in 35 games before he missed the rest of the regular season with a hip injury. This past season, Roy had his career-worst season stats wise (not counting his rookie season where he only played 49 games and the 2010-11 season where he only played 35) as he set career-lows in almost every major offensive statistical category. He scored only 17 goals, 27 assists, 44 points, was a -7, and had a 9.7 shooting % (his career average is 12.7). His 0.55 points per game was by far the lowest of his career not counting his rookie season after he had a point a game the year before. By the way, Roy played in 80 of the 82 games this season. His 27 assists this season were only two more than the 25 he had in 35 games the year before. He only had nine more points in 80 games than he had the year before in 35 games. Roy had as many 12 power play assists alone in 2010-11 as he had power play points in 80 games this past season.

To be fair, Roy did come a serious injury that they claim you need two years to recover and he got the injury in December 2010. He in the last year of his 6-year, $24 million deal so he would be in a contract year and he might breakthrough for a chance at a great contract. But the Sabres have been trying to move Roy apparently for two years now and now they got a gritty forward in Steve Ott and a depth defenseman in Adam Pardy. Roy still has some value as he is a top-6 forward and could be a very productive second line center if his head is on straight. He is not a number one center and unfortunately for most of the season he was our number one center as the Sabres had perhaps the worst center depth in the league as any team at the beginning of the season. The Sabres are still looking for a center in free agency or via a trade and they drafted two in the first round in Mikhail Grigorenko and Zemgus Girgensons. Girgensons is supposedly going to play college for Vermont while hopefully Grigorenko makes the team and can be the guy who was potentially the number one pick and compared to Evgeni Malkin before falling to the Sabres at 12. Don't forget the Sabres have Tyler Ennis and Cody Hodgson as their top-two centers right now and they're both pretty good.

Roy's problem for whatever reason is that he just doesn't make anyone around him better. As a center, that's what you are supposed to do. Even Tim Connolly was better at that than Roy was. Connolly didn't score a ton of goals (never got to 20) and rarely scored when it mattered the most (hasn't scored a playoff goal since Game 1 of the Ottawa Series in 2006 prior to his concussion), but he made the wingers on his line very productive scorers as he was a really good setup man. Roy doesn't do that quite so much. This past season, Drew Stafford and Tomas Vanek were both on lines with Roy, both struggled. Stafford was having an awful year after having 30 the year before while he was with Roy. I think he still had a single digit goal total as late as February before rebounding to score 20 when he was on a line with Ennis at center and Marcus Foligno and they were the best line on the team. Stafford scored 31 in 62 games the year before with I believe Connolly at center. Vanek was on pace for a 40 goal season, but was moved to the line centered by Roy and struggled before finishing strong down the stretch with Hodgson at center. The biggest point of Roy bringing the team down came in 2010-11 when he had 35 points in 35 games. But the Sabres record was 14-17-4 and were 10 points out of the playoffs with him in the lineup. The team outside of Roy struggled. Then after Roy was out, the Sabres went on a tear going 29-12-6 and had the best record in the Eastern Conference as they made the playoffs. I don't care what anyone says, there is some serious validity to Roy being out and the team being well. He played 80 games this past season and the Sabres underachieved and missed the playoffs.

So long Roy. It was nice knowing you.

The Bills are Actually Signing and Keeping Players

What an off season it has been for the Bills!! It has been one of the best in recent years and the best I can remember in some time. Back in the early to mid '90s when the Bills had great seasons and offseasons, I was too young to understand and appreciate it. Now after a 12-year playoff drought, I've really grown to appreciate and enjoy this off season. It just got better with the extension given to Fred Jackson.

The first thing the Bills really did to kickoff this off season was the contract extension of wide receiver Stevie Johnson. Johnson was set to become a free agent unless the Bills used their franchise tag on him, but thankfully they got the job done. Johnson has been a big part of Chan Gailey's offense the last two years as he is the first player in Bills history to record back-to-back 1,000-yard receiving seasons. Not even the great Andre Reed did that. Johnson has been a number one wide receiver and yes, he does crazy touchdown celebrations which have drawn fines and penalties and criticism. But he makes up for it on the field. By the way, Johnson is the lone wide receiver whom Darrelle Revis struggles with as Johnson has caught more passes for more yards against Revis than any other wide receiver. Had they let him go and figured he wasn't worth the money for his immature celebrations, then this off season would have probably just sucked. They would have had to probably draft a wide receiver in the 1st round to replace him and it would have been a joke. Johnson's signing set the tone for this fabulous off season so far. Of course one could argue it really all started when they gave Ryan Fitzpatrick a contract extension last October as they have their QB and receiver locked in.

The Bills went out and surprisingly were one of the most aggressive players in the free agent market. I heard they were talking a big game but I wasn't impressed until they landed a big player or two. They tried after wide receivers Vincent Jackson and Robert Meacham, but both signed elsewhere. Then they began going after the biggest free agent out there (not named Peyton Manning) in Mario Williams. Williams visited One Bills Drive first before any other team which was amazing. But again, if they fail to sign him, then it was a disappointment. Thankfully, the Bills managed to get Williams to sign before he even had a chance to visit elsewhere to a six-year, $100 million contract with $50 million guaranteed, most guaranteed money to a defensive player. Suddenly, the Bills became a contender as they were the talk of ESPN and all major networks for signing perhaps the biggest free agent out there. The Bills need Williams so bad because they need a pass rusher and they need as many great players as possible. In addition to Williams, the Bills also sign defensive end Mark Anderson, perhaps the second best defensive end free agent behind only Williams. The Bills went from one of the worst defensive lines to one of the best. Even though they couldn't get a big free agent wide receiver opposite Stevie, it was still a great off season.

Then came the draft, which the Bills seemed to pass with flying colors. They addressed their needs at corner back by taking South Carolina's Stephon Gilmore with the 10th pick and also took offensive tackle Cordy Glenn in the 2nd round, a player the Bills really seemed to like and were perhaps going to take him in the 1st round, but thankfully he fell right into their laps at 41. There were some who thought the Bills should have moved up to get USC offensive tackle Matt Kalil and give up their 2nd round pick, but I'm so glad they didn't. I don't value the tackle that much to move up and give up an early 2nd in the process, especially considering we got a potential shut down corner and hopefully a starting left tackle. I would only move up for a franchise QB. We will see how the other picks pan out. I wish they could still get a wide receiver, but there could be a guy available down the road and I am interested in seeing what TJ Graham could do. Like I've said before, the draft and off season would have been pointless had they not signed Williams as he was the key pickup.

Then there's the Fred Jackson contract extension Monday. I am amazed they were able to get Jackson an extension this early, I thought it would have lasted into training camp. But this team, that used to screw around with contracts, are prepared and willing to get their key players taken care and ready to go. You know the story about Jackson, undrafted out of tiny Coe College, played in both arena football (not the Arena Football League or even af2) and in NFL Europe. Jackson made the Bills in 2006 and had been a very good running back since. He became the first NFL player to have over 1,000 rushing and kickoff return yards in 2009. Last year, Jackson was among the NFL rushing leaders with 934 yards in the first 10 games before breaking his leg and ending his season. Jackson was such a huge part of the Bills offense during the 5-2 start. Even though he is 31 and generally running backs' careers end after 30, the Bills believe Jackson can still give them plenty in the next couple of years plus its a reward for all his hard work the last 6 years. There is also possible contract extensions for Jairus Byrd and Andy Levitre on the way.

The Bills in the past, maybe 3-5 years ago, were reluctant to give players contract extensions and sign free agents. When they'd sign a free agent or acquire someone in the off season via trade, it was usually a no name player or someone who was past his prime (IE Terrell Owens). The not resigning players and/or trading them away because they wouldn't resign them really bugged me. In order to win in this league, you need to have good players and you need to keep them. The Bills would be reluctant to not re-sign someone because they feel they could spend their money better, in other words, they were cheap. But they would pay a big price for being cheap. Anytime a player was a year away from their contract expiring, they would trade them away for a draft pick. Rather than re-sign a free agent, they'd let them walk. The solution: they would just draft their replacement. So instead of keeping good players and trying to fix holes and/or add depth, they would just keep creating more holes as if a rookie could replace the outgoing player. Here are some examples of players the Bills have let go: Pat Williams, Drew Bledsoe, Antoine Winfield, Nate Clements, Peerless Price (the first time), Willis McGahee, Marshawn Lynch, London Fletcher, Jabari Greer, Jason Peters to name a few. They are all pretty good players whether you loved all of them or not. Had they kept these players and signed and drafted others, the Bills wouldn't be on a 12-year playoff drought.

At least now giving Fitz, Stevie, and Freddy contract extensions along with the signing of Williams and Anderson and the last two drafts can hopefully give this fan base a playoff appearance. There should be no excuses for at least 9-7 or 10-6. Injuries can be a huge part. I don't want to sound like a jerk, but stay healthy. Trainers, do whatever you can to get these players to stay healthy and not get hurt. Go Bills!!!

Why I Would Want Vince Young to Come to Buffalo

So the Buffalo Bills recently worked out former Tennessee Titans and Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Vince Young to be a backup quarterback for them. Make no mistake, he will be a backup as Ryan Fitzpatrick is the starter so please don't be like "Young can't start and it makes Fitz worse." According to Buddy Nix and Chan Gailey, Fitz is their guy. It's his team. But they do need a competent backup in case anything happens to Fitz, like last year when he suffered a broken rib and played poorly as the Bills lost 8 of their last 9 games after a wonderful 5-2 start. If they knew about the injury and he was playing poorly, why did they let Fitzpatrick continue to play and why did they not play Tyler Thigpen, who they gave a 3-year and played under Gailey in KC? It couldn't have worse than an injured Fitzpatrick, right? Maybe they didn't think highly of him, which is bad. That's why I would want Vince Young here, because I believe he can win a game or two if anything short term happened to Fitz and it wouldn't just destroy our team. Even if Young played terrible and lost, what's the difference? We would lose with a lesser backup QB or an injured Fitz playing through the pain. And if Young played great and won, well we all benefit from wins.

I loved watching Young play at the University of Texas, where he started for three years and made many highlight plays with both his arm and his legs. Young was a winner and led Texas to a National Championship in 2005 in a win over #1 USC. He also led the Longhorns to a Rose Bowl win over Michigan in 2004 and was the Rose Bowl MVP both times. In the win over USC, Young put on a show for the ages by recording a Rose Bowl record 467 yards of total offense (267 passing and 200 rushing) and three rushing touchdowns in the 41-38 win over a USC Trojans team that hadn't lost in over two years. Young scored the winning touchdown on 4th down with just 19 seconds to go. Young finished the season with over 3,000 yards passing and 1,000 yards rushing with 26 touchdown passes to just 10 interceptions along with 12 rushing touchdowns and completed over 65% of his passes. He also led the nation in passing effiency with a 163.9 QB Rating. Young finished his college career at Texas with a 30-2 record and completed 61.8% of his passes. Also as a junior, Young improved from being just a running quarterback to a consistent and precise pocket passer who could run. He left college after his junior year to declare for the 2006 NFL Draft as he was considered to be a very high pick.

It appeared that his hometown Houston Texans would select Young 1st overall in the draft. There were still some concerns about his throwing motion, but some thought he could be a better pocket passer and more accurate than Michael Vick, who is more of a running quarterback and has made numerous plays and won games in the league. Young's arm and his running ability was intriguing to many scouts. As a Bills fan, I wanted the Bills to move up somehow to acquire him, that or sign Drew Brees, who eventually signed with the New Orleans Saints. I thought Young could be what Cam Newton is now, a big powerful thrower who could run. But Young has shown he doesn't quite have the arm like Newton does or the throwing ability like Newton does in the NFL. Houston passed on Young to take defensive end Mario Williams with the first overall pick, a pick that many, including myself, criticized the Texans for passing on Young for Williams. Of course the Williams pick turned out to be great.

The Tennessee Titans took Young 3rd overall in the draft. After a disappointing 0-3 start, the Titans put Young in to be the starter. After two more losses dropped the Titans to 0-5, Young led the Titans to an 8-3 record over the final 11 games, including six wins in a row, as the Titans barely missed the playoffs with an 8-8 record. The Titans trailed the New York Giants 21-0 in the 4th quarter before Young led the Titans to 28 unanswered points to defeat them 28-21. The next week against Indianapolis, Young brought the Titans back from a 14-0 deficit to win 20-17 as Young became the first rookie QB in NFL history to lead his team back twice from 14+ point deficits. Then in the game here in Buffalo on Christmas Eve, the Titans trailed by nine points and scored 10 in the 4th quarter to win 30-29. I was so impressed with Young and his ability to make plays and win games even though he might have been putting up pedestrian numbers, like his lowly 66.7 QB Rating, but the team was better and they were winning. Young was named Offensive Player of the Year.

Young struggled a bit in 2007 as his passing numbers weren't very good as he threw for over 2,500 yards, nine touchdowns and 17 interceptions and a 71.1 rating. Unlike his rookie year where he had four 4th quarter comebacks, Young did not have any 4th quarter comebacks. Young was in the bottom 1/4 of the major passing statistics, but despite struggling passing, Young led the Titans to a 10-6 record and a playoff berth. Critics called Young a manage the game quarterback where they felt their defense and running game carried the Titans. That was somewhat true, but Young still made plays when it mattered the most to win games. As a Bills fan, I wouldn't care if my QB completed 0 passes and recorded a 0 QB Rating as long as we won. We've had terrible QBs who played awful and didn't win. I'd take a QB who struggled passing as long as we won (boy that sounds an awful lot like Tim Tebow. There was immaturity issues coming out on Young. Young was injured in the opener in 2008 and was replaced by Kerry Collins. After the game, Young left without telling anyone and people were worried as he was depressed. There were some reports Jeff Fisher and the Titans were worried that Young might take his own life, which was reported false. But Young was very upset and hurt both inside and out, according to his mother anyways. Fisher named Collins starter the rest of the season as the Titans would go 13-3. Young was the backup.

Young came back in 2009 as Collins was still the starter. However after an 0-6 start, there was pressure by owner Bud Adams to Fisher to play Young as Adams was paying him a lot of money and didn't want him on the bench despite Fisher wanting to play Collins. Young was rejuvenated as he led the Titans to a 5-game winning streak and won 8 out of 10 starts as the Titans finished 8-8 after an 0-6 start. Young completed 58.7% of his passes for 10 touchdowns and 7 interceptions and recorded an 82.8 rating. Again, pedestrian numbers, but the record speaks for itself. He also recorded three 4th quarter comebacks and three game winning drives. Young reclaimed his starting job and led the Titans to a 5-5 record in the first 10 games and threw for 10 touchdowns, just three interceptions, and a career-best 98.6 rating. But Young injured his thumb and was taken out of the game. Young threw his shoulder pads into the stands after the game was over and had an altercation with Fisher in the locker room. Young was benched for the rest of the season and did not appear in another game for the Titans. After the season, Bud Adams, a supported or Young, decided he would release Young from the Titans as well as fire Fisher as head coach. Young was 30-17 as the starter in Tennessee and they were 15-18 without him.

Young was signed to be the backup to Michael Vick in Philadelphia for 2011, a move I thought was very good as they needed a backup to Vick, who is injury-prone. Young declared the Eagles as the "Dream Team" and was criticized for it and fairly I might add. Young started 3 games for an injured Vick and went 1-2 with 4 touchdowns and 9 interceptions and played awful. After the season, the Eagles decided not to re-sign him and instead went with Trent Edwards to be backup. That's not a good sign when a team wants Trent Edwards over you. I really don't know what's up with that. Criticize Young all you want, have you seen Edwards play? Really? You want Edwards more? Maybe Young fell out of favor with coaches and I can see that.

Young has completed 57.9% of his passes for 46 touchdowns, 51 interceptions, fumbled 40 times, lost 12, and posted a 74.4 rating for his career. Very bad numbers. But his record is tremendous, 31-19. How can a QB win 31 out of 50 starts with those numbers? He must make plays to win games or else there is no explanation. I don't think he should be the starter here, but I love him as a backup. Fitz is the starter and his numbers are a slightly more TD-to-INT ratio and his rating and completion percentage are very similar to Young. But the record is much more in favor of Young. Maybe it is because Fitz was on more lousy teams than Young was. Maybe Young has more of an "It" quality. I like Young a lot, but Fitz is suited much more for this offense. Young can make some plays too in this offense. I still like Young a lot because of his record. Don't get me wrong, he's not Brady, Rodgers, Manning, Brees. He's not even Vick. But when you need a guy to win a game or two, he's the guy. The team still believes in Fitz and he's the starter hands down.