Mango

It’s been nearly 25 years. Kids were born, came of drinking age, got 401k’s, and produced grand children between now and then. What a heart break year and that still might be the best combined year in Buffalo sports history. I was conflicted on whether or not to include OJ.

Full offseason mode. What’s the greatest single season by one player in the cities professional sports history. I’ll create a poll if this picks up, but thought I’d get feedback from some people a bit older than me. I certainly came of age for Buffalo Sports in the 90’s. For me it’s easy and not close. Hasek in 99. 98-99 Domink Hasek: Carried a flawed roster 6 games into the Stanley Cup Final. Won his 3rd Vezina with a .935 S% and 1.85 GAA. There’s an argument that 97-98 might be a better individual season, but he carried the entire team to the show. I think Hasek voter fatigue is the only reason he didn’t get the Hart trophy three years in a row. As I write this and think of all the other players that have come and gone, Hasek is likely the greatest athlete in Buffalo pro-sports history. 1990 Bruce Smith: Bills make their first run to the Super Bowl. Bruce records 19 sacks only overshadowed by Derrick Thomas 20. 7th best season of all time all from the 3-4 DE. 1991 Thurman Thomas: 1400 rushing yards at 4.9 ypc. Plus 600 yards receiving. NFL MVP and OPOY. 7th best season by a RB at the time. 92-93 Alexander Mogilny: 76 goals, 51 assists. 127 points. Tied Selanne in Goals. 7th in total points. 5th best season of all time. He is the only player in the top 30 not in the HoF. Rudy Pikuzinski: Mullets and Mustaches 1975 Bob McAdoo: NBA MVP 34.5 points, 14.1 rebounds. and 2.12 blocks per game, while shooting 51.2% from the field and 80.5% from the free-throw line 1973 OJ Simpson: 2003 yards in 14 games 1975 OJ Simpson: 329 carries for 1817 yds (5.8 ypc) and 16 TDs. 129.8 ypg average; 28 receptions for 426 yds (15.2 ypc) and 7 TDs. 30.2 ypg average. In 14 games he generated 2243 yards and 23TDs. That's 160 ypg and 1.65 TDs per game.

Not to mention the team has their best players under contract until 2025 and they’ll easily be extended into 2030 after the next season or two. It’s so hard to compare the two. Sure Hasek carried a bad team to the Finals but there is no equivalent to the importance of the QB in the NFL. A 17 week season and one off playoffs means you can play above yourself in 5-6 games in a row and win a SB. You just can’t do that in an 82 game season and 7 game playoff series. I give the Bills a chance every year they have Allen. But I don’t like the direction of the team outside of QB. I found them frustrating to watch as the season went on. The Sabres are a lot more fun at the moment. And yes that includes the Leafs game. They got much better as the game went on. I think Haseks 99 season is likely the greatest single season by any player in Buffalo sports history.

I think we have a 2-3 year reset. We have to clear some cap and reassess where and how we allocate our resources. That’s not to say the Bills still can’t be a good team during that time. They can. Hopefully they will. But we wont get the hype or vibe out of OBD for another few years. Stuff like this is what makes the tenures of Tomlin and Harbaugh so impressive. A lot of times really good teams burn so so hit as they chase a trophy, if (when) they inevitably take a step or two, or three back, coaches can lose the locker room. McDermott will be tested.

Hodgins was always quality. He just had some poorly timed injuries at camp. I think the Bills got cute with his roster status. He didn’t “need a chance” I believe he was totally mismanaged, the Bills just thought they could hide him. FJ flashed. Gentry hasn’t. Fred made an NFL roster in 2006 after graduating in 2003. Gentry graduated in 2017. It’s been 6 years now. Jackson made the Bills at 25. Gentry will be 29 before season end this year. I am pretty confident he is a favor to Josh Allen and that’s why he has stuck around for a few seasons. I wish him no ill will, but I would absolutely stunned if he turned into Fred Jackson at the WR position.

Not unimaginable. We almost lost the second game to Miami too. That puts us at 3-3/ 12 wins. KC, 11. CIN 10. I am unwilling at the moment to start flirting with the .500 mark and hope that the Bills find a way against the NFCE and the rest of their opponents. I guess I’ll mark them down with 2 Division Wins vs the Pats per you above. Pats Pats LV WAS DEN TB JAX NYG (I think they win this game) DAL (I don’t get the hype) Steal a game somewhere. 10 wins.

This is silly. This is an internet message board and a huge part of being a fan of any sport is talking shop, discussing, arguing, disagreeing. One TE giving an opinion shouldn’t end any conversation around any football team. Beane liked Terrel Bernard enough to pick him. I thought it was dumb. Stupid me for disagreeing with Beane I guess. Because football professional and all….

I think YOLO has a bot set up That automatically posts breaking news. I “think” (ouch) he mentioned that when I asked him years ago how he was so quick. @YoloinOhio I am running with this as full truth until you come tell me I am an idiot.

I think less success is relative. My guess is 10 or 11 wins with a bit of drama and dysfunction.

If only worried about stuff I could control I wouldn’t be on an internet message board about my favorite sports team.

I don’t disagree with any of this. But I also don’t think it’s an honest inventory of the situation. I don’t give a Schitts Creek it Diggs goes to Terry and says everything needs to change. I don’t care if he sits down with Dorsey and tells him he needs to be better. But that’s not what we’re discussing. We’re talking about Diggs publicly undressing either Allen, Dorsey, McD, or Beane. Maybe some combination of some or all. We’re talking about him bailing on his teammates post game and locker clean out then gaslighting everybody with tweets about how he is supposed to be ok with losing. As if that’s the only other option. We’re talking about swipes about offensive vs defensive coaches. I can’t recall a player in another sport behaving like that and it leading to winning a championship. Maybe Jordan or Kobe? in order to get away with it you need to be on the GOAT conversation. Diggs is another 5-7 years of his current production away from being a HoF player let alone a GOAT receiver. Leaders of World Championship teams don’t behave this way. I want Diggs here. But I’m over his toxicity. He’ll have to shape up or he’ll be near the epicenter of a Bills implosion.

I have no doubt that Diggs believes he’s doing the right thing. Of course he does. It’s actually part of the problem.The issue is his behavior sucks and is detrimental to the players around him. His role is WR. Not FO. Not GM. Not owner. Not coach. He doesn’t have control over any of that. Creating a toxic work environment doesn’t do any good. Go publicly scream about your direct manager or SVP and see how that goes over. At every National Sales Meeting I’ve ever been to somebody inevitably acts like Diggs over a cocktail or two, the wrong person hears, and year in year out quality employees get fired for being unprofessional.

If only somebody would have given him a shot in the NFL. Imagine if this guy had access to NFL coaching in 2017, 2018, 2019, 2021, and 2022. Somebody give this man a shot!

This was supposed to be a reset year for the Chiefs and they won the whole thing. It is a huge part of my frustration with the state of the Bills roster at the moment. In a lot of years I would be much higher on the Bills than I am now. We’ve lost a lot of distance on KC at the moment. The conference runs through Arrowhead at the moment. It didn’t have to be that way.

I have been a part of a lot of really successful teams. Ultimately competing at that level is a profession. There’s certainly a casualness to athletics, but it’s still a profession. I know about 15-20 world champions, world record holders, and Olympic gold medalists. If any of them acted like Diggs has been I would likely know zero of them. It’s just not how teammates behave over long periods of time and find success at the worlds largest stages. He has got to find a way to be a better teammate.

Great post. I came to say the same. New Orleans proved you can navigate huge amounts of negative cap space. But they also proved that the Bill will eventually come due over the course of one or multiple seasons. Ultimately the Bills have to make some moves that may make the roster worse and in 2024 KC has $85M more cap dollars than the Buffalo Bills. And no matter how much they try, they won’t be able to outspend that difference between them next off season.

My stance is to run the direction of your first paragraph. I am fine with "easily upgradable". Fine go do it. But the guys you want to target are $15-20M+ per year. If we need two $20M WR we don't have a WR problem, we have a QB problem. I don't believe we have a QB problem. If we can get Mike Evans on an $8-12M deal go for it. Otherwise I have no interest in mortgaging 2024 and 2025 cap space for a WR when both OL and DL suck. Wholeheartedly agree that we need a starting slot WR and a change in offensive philosophy. As a guy who watches the A22 every week I am unsure if offensive philosophy is the the total issue. My dumb fan eyes have been telling me the same thing Kurt Warner did at the end of the year, and that is that Allen needs to make the QB position easier and see what the defense is giving him. There is certainly a ton of blame on OC, but Allen deserves a bit as well. My plan wouldn't be to just run it back. We have seen over and over again that teams who spread the ball out to tons of WR, RB, TE, etc have pretty solid post season success. And in that environment Gabe Davis is just fine as a cog in the machine. Upgrade OL and the slot.

Right, that’s the joke I was making….

I don’t think Davis is a world beater. I do think he’s fine. A guy you upgrade when the opportunity presents itself but you dot. Spend a lot of time, money, or resources doing so. Even if you are championship team. I disagree with the bolded. Davis is fine. Having a WR 1a/1b isn’t the norm for any QB post rookie contract. It just isn’t. Mahomes didn’t have a WR with more than 4TD receptions, but Davis isn’t good enough? Fix the OL. Fix the play calling. Get Allen seeing the field better. And we’ll stop caring about Gabe Davis so much.

The most pressing needs for the Bills offense are OL, Slot receiver, Play calling, QB decision making. Spending a lot of resources upgrading Gabe Davis seems like a waste if you could spend thenupgrading the above. (I know you can’t upgrade play calling or QB decision making with money or draft picks)

Give him a break. He just learned about the internet.

Man, being Josh Allen’s college roommate sure has its perks. Make NFL practice squad money. Dress for3 NFL games. Even get to play 20 snaps.

Remember where you heard it first folks. Beef Curtains… Thanks for the insight!

My big thing is return on investment. If the DL and our outside corners were lights out we’d have little complaint. But here we are 8 weeks from the draft and we still have to address the secondary and defensive line as well as our ignored OL.

We don’t have any money. We will have to borrow from 2025 to field a roster.