The Plunge

Mitch Morse was #1 on my FA wish list. Couldn't be happier with this signing. Today was a great start to free agency. Beane doing it right. I predict we'll sign one more O-lineman. And trade for an elite WR. (My prediction is Julio Jones). Great day for the Bills!!!

Before I get started, I want to go on record as saying that Josh Allen was not in my top 3 QB choices for the Bills at this draft. That said, I’m going to support this guy with everything I have, and I’d like to explain why. Sometimes, we as fans easily forget that these young men are people, just like you and I. They have the same fears, anxiety, doubts and emotions we do. No amount of money will change that. And those emotions will affect them the same way they affect you or I. I’ve always viewed my role as a fan as being an important one. I’m not going to tell anyone how to be a fan. You can choose to support, or not support, your team in any way you choose. It’s a free country. But my dad taught me how to be a fan and I’ve always followed his guidance in this area. He taught me to be loyal. He taught me to cheer with passion. He taught me to do my part in the stands. When to be loud and when to be quiet. How to make it uncomfortable for the other team. How to be respectful and passionate at the same time. In my mind, I do a great job as a fan. Now, he also taught me that you don’t have to blindly agree with every single thing your team does. It’s one of the best parts about being a fan. We get to sit at work on Monday morning and debate what should’ve been done. What WE would’ve done in the same position (which in itself is laughable, but it’s still fun to talk about). Again, we are all allowed to question our team. It doesn’t hurt anyone. And it’s fun. No issue there. That said, I do have an issue with fans who go out of their way to make players uncomfortable. First off, it’s low class. And if you wouldn’t say it to their face, you shouldn’t say it on social media. But second, what do you think this accomplishes? When I learned to be a fan, it was really just about how I behaved on game days. But times have changed. Now, players are far more involved in their communities than ever before. They are now connected to fans 24 hours a day through social media. And now, the relationship between fans and players is constant. It never stops. It’s about far more than just what happens on Sundays. And because of that, I view my role as a fan as something that has changed too. You tell me, as a human being, do you perform better at your job when you feel supported? Have you ever been in a position where you feel everyone is coming after you? Or where they don’t trust you? It’s hard to be good at your job when that is happening. It is not possible to play well as a quarterback without confidence. I’ll say it again…NOT POSSIBLE. Other than goaltending in hockey, I’m not sure there is a position in any sport where confidence is more important than the QB position. So why would we, as fans, do anything to hurt the confidence of any of our players, let alone the QB? If your desire is to see your team succeed, then you should do things that will increase the confidence of the players on that team. Will it help them win? Maybe, maybe not. But it won’t hurt, that’s for sure. But I can guarantee you sending negative hate will NOT help. It’s hard enough to play QB in this league. A 21 year old kid shouldn’t have to overcome negative hate before they’ve played a single down for the team. And before you can say it, please save me the argument of “These guys get paid millions of dollars. I buy my ticket. I can say whatever the hell I want.” You are correct. It is 100% within your right to cheer, boo, or anything in between. It’s a free country. But if your goal is to see your team succeed, I would challenge you to ask yourself this question…will behavior like this help the team? Or hurt the team? Last point I’ll make is this. And again, I’m not trying to be positive just for the sake of being positive, but it’s a point that needs to be made. At what point do we trust Beane and McDermott? As a fan, I questioned every trade they made last year, with the exception of maybe the Benjamin trade. I was upset at each move. I questioned each and every trade and actually questioned the motive of some of those moves. Tell me you didn’t think they were tanking when they traded Sammy and Darby right before the season started! I sure did. But you know what? I was wrong! Each move proved to be a legit football move. Each one designed to get this team heading in the right direction. And each one proved to be a good move. They took a team most thought wouldn’t win 5 games last year, then traded away some of their most talented players. They brought this team together in a way we haven’t seen in almost 20 years. They are proving to know what they are doing. Yet when they draft a QB that many experts had going 1st overall, many fans are not just upset about the move, they are acting in ways they’ve never acted before! Threatening to quit on the team. Sending brutal tweets directly at Josh Allen. I’m sorry, but I just don’t get it. If you think you know more about Josh Allen than Beane and McDermott do, you are wrong. I’m sorry, but it’s true. This doesn’t mean he will work out and be our franchise QB for the next 15 years. It’s hard to find that guy. But I like their chances of finding “the guy” than I do from the twitter tough guys who are acting like their living room is filled with old Lombardi trophy’s and Superbowl rings. None of this is meant to be preachy. And I’m not saying we all need to be hyper-positive with everything that occurs at One Bills Drive. But we also don’t need to act like we know better than the team of experts that are doing everything we’ve wanted our club to do for the last 20 years. Josh Allen was not my first choice. But if he’s good enough for Brandon Beane and Sean McDermott, he’s definitely good enough for me! Go Bills!

Update - I've now received e-mail responses from both Tim Graham, and Mike Connelly (Editor - Buffalo News). Tim took the time to thank me for the kind words. He didn't have to do that. But he did. Mike was very appreciative of my e-mail. I'm paraphrasing a bit here, but basically said that even though he didn't agree with what Mr. Watson wrote, he didn't think it was appropriate to censor it either. I SORT of see his point, but I countered by saying that you could look at it as censorship, or you could look at it as just common sense to not publish it. Anyone saying they wouldn't care was wrong. They do care. And their responses proved it to me. If they didn't care, my email would've been ignored. It wasn't. Go Bills!

All good man. And thanks for saying that. Go Bills!

I'm not sure that's a fair comment, particularly since Josh Barnett took the time to weigh in on this thread. He is the Executive Sports Editor for the paper. Shows me that he DOES care.

I can't tell you how much I appreciate this response Josh. For the record, I was not one who thought the letter would go unanswered. I also recognize, as I said in the letter, how difficult it must be to manage a newspaper these days. Our society has become incredibly divisive, and as a result, you can't print anything now without offending someone. I hate to be "that guy" who's easily offended, but I felt this needed to be addressed. I was aware that Rod is not a sports columnist. And one of the other posters on this thread mentioned that he suspects this was more of a "final straw" for me. He's partially right. Without naming names, some of the people who write for the sports section seem to like to focus on the negative aspects of things. And whether they're right or wrong in the approach, it's hard for Bills fans to read sometimes. The Bills get slagged by the national media enough, it hurts more when it comes from someone in your local market. I recognize that this isn't a fair comment. It's your JOB to have a take. And the last 18 years have been hard. So I'm not complaining about it. Just stating that the other comment made in this thread is partially right. My letter was driven partially by emotion. I tried my best to not let emotion dictate my tone, but it was certainly there. The last thing I'll say is this. You commented that we have to believe in diversity of voices. And I agree. But we also need to have some common sense. I 100% support someone's right to be a contrarian. But it doesn't mean I have to like it. Take any topic, sports, politics, etc...there will always be multiple views. The article written by Mr. Watson was a deliberate attempt to piss people off. And that just isn't cool, in my mind. You want to publish an article like that at a different time of the year? Fine. But why do it when emotions are already so high? When Bills fans are elated, for the first time in almost two decades? I think, Josh, what I'm saying is someone in the editing department maybe should've weighed the risk vs the reward on this one. Does this mean you're sensoring him? No. But maybe a conversation around "What exactly are you trying to accomplish here Rod" and "Do you really think this is the best way to get what you want to get across here?" would've been appropriate. I mean, he didn't even mention the money that was raised for the Dalton Charity in the article. He just comes across like a grumpy old man shaking his cane at people walking on his sidewalk. I don't want this to come across as "preachy". And I certainly don't want to talk to you about how to do your job. That would be completely inappropriate. But in this society, people are very reluctant to ever admit a mistake. And based on the response to this article, I think we can all agree that it didn't add anything positive to your paper, the city you write for, or the fan base of the team. I'm thrilled that you are doing an all Bills section this week. I'd expect nothing less! Josh, again, thank you for your response. I am very appreciative. I wrote the letter because I wanted you and your newspaper to know that while you have the right to publish anything you want. You have the right to have any take that you want - positive, negative, contrarian or whatever. But you also need to know that there are consequences to those choices. And we, as readers, have the right to do what WE want to. That article was very insulting to a lot of people and many will vote with their dollar. That's why I wrote it. I just didn't want that to be lost on anyone at the Buffalo News. I just wanted to extend the courtesy of providing some direct, balanced feedback so you can gain the perspective of one of your readers. Thanks again. Go Bills!!!

I really appreciate that John. I will! Go Bills

I actually think the majority of the writers there take great pleasure in the misery of Bills fans. Sully right at the top of the list. But I couldn’t “pile on” in my letter to them if I wanted it to be received the right way. The entire point of my letter was to show them that choosing to publish things like that will ultimately hurt their newspaper. I put a lot of thought into the approach and tried to deliver my message in a way would make the people in charge there pause before they choose to publish something like that. The reason I mentioned Tim and Vic is simple. I needed the letter to be balanced. They are both excellent, in my opinion, but they are the only two writers there who I feel are worthy of praise. Thankfully, Vic and Tim are active in other ways, like social media, NFL radio, etc, so if I want their opinions on things I can still get them. Stony, I appreciate the feedback but I’m not sure the name calling is necessary. Pretty sure I didn’t deserve that, but it’s all good. I made a point in my letter to ensure that there were no personal insults anywhere in the letter. It’s sort of a shame that you couldn’t do the same, even though none of it was directed at you, but so be it. As a business owner myself, sometimes I need to hear critical feedback from clients in order to improve. I made that quite clear in the first paragraph that this was my intention with the letter. Go Bills!

By now we've all read the article by Rod Watson. I tried to let it go, but I couldn't. This is the letter I sent to the editors of the paper, and also those in charge of sales and marketing. They should all know that choosing to publish stuff like this will hurt their ability to land readers, particularly now that it is subscription bases. I'm not recommending a mutiny, or anything like that. But I did want to send a message to the powers that be at The Buffalo News that their choices can have an impact. Here is what I sent them... Good Afternoon, After reading the article you published yesterday by Rod Watson, I thought I would take a minute to provide you with some feedback. I’m a business owner, and if I have a client who is upset, I like to know so I can do something about it. I am extending that courtesy to you. First off, I understand that the business you are in is tricky. It’s hard to please everyone. And with the changes to the way news is delivered today, I’m completely supportive of the change to a subscription-based system. You currently employ two of my favourite writers in Vic Carucci and Tim Graham. I was all set to sign up for a monthly subscription, mostly because I wanted to continue reading their outstanding work. After reading the article by Rod Watson yesterday, I’ve decided not to subscribe to your publication. I just can’t. Either that article was written with the intention of causing a stir and generating a number of hits on the website, or it was actually written with sincerity. Either way, I can’t support any paper who chooses to print something like that. If you are doing it for web hits, I view that as bush league journalism. TMZ has more discretion. But I actually don’t think that’s why it was done. I think it was done because that’s genuinely the way Mr. Watson feels. And that’s actually worse, in my opinion. Everyone working at your newspaper understands what the Bills mean to Buffalo. While I don’t live in Buffalo, I understand what it means to the city. All you have to do is watch the video of Bills fans crying tears of joy when the Bengals scored that TD to understand what this means to people. To ridicule that raw emotion, or to try to take that away from people, is just sad. There is no other word for it. I don’t care if Mr. Watson is a football fan or not. It’s not the point. He doesn’t need to understand WHY people are that excited. But he should be prepared to accept the fact that they are without feeling the need to try to ruin it for people. One of the mom’s on my son’s hockey team loves to play Pokemon on her iPhone. I don’t understand it. I don’t get it. But she loves it. And I see the joy on her face when she finds something she’s been looking for. I would never, ever think of ridiculing her for this. It doesn’t matter that I don’t “get it". It’s not my place to try to ruin it for her. This cynical, negative tactic serves no purpose. And in a time when our world is such a terrifying, negative place, why would we worry what makes people happy? Does it matter if the happiness comes from things that don’t really matter in the real world? Like football? Or Pokemon? Or anything else like that? It breaks my heart to write this. It really does. The work Tim Graham did on the Darryl and Janine Talley story is one of the most impactful articles I’ve ever read about any sport. It forever changed the way I view the game of football and the athletes who play it. It actually convinced me that my kids will never, ever play tackle football. It also showed how powerful Bills fans can be when they unite for a cause. As you know, they raised an incredible amount of money for the Talley’s in a very short period of time. We also saw that power this week with the money raised for the charities of Andy Dalton and Tyler Boyd - over $275k the last time I looked. And most of that money was raised in $17 increments. If that doesn’t show you the incredible power of the Bills fan base, I’m not sure what will. But this speaks again to the incredible lack of awareness by Mr. Watson and also, the editor who allowed it to go to print. If you published that article when your subscription was still free, there’s little to no consequence. Your readers can still get the great material from people like Tim and Vic. But now, you’ve switched to a subscription bases system. Bills fans have already proven, twice now, how much money they can raise in small increments. And you want to put an article like that out NOW? That same fan base that can raise hundreds of thousands of dollars, $17 at a time, will have no problem NOT spending $3 a month on a paper who publishes things like that. I’m not asking for a solution for this. I’m not asking for anyone to be fired. I just wanted you to know that you won’t be getting my subscription, and from the reactions on Twitter and the message boards, I suspect I’m not alone. Please keep this in mind the next time Mr. Watson feels the need to take cheap shots at the great people of Buffalo, and the happiness the Bills are finally bringing to them. Thank you and have a good day. Go Bills.

A few thoughts 1. I'm very proud of this team. This team is loaded with character and resolve. You can say that we shouldn't complain about the officiating, but those calls were game changers. A team doesn't play as hard when they get to the point where they know they're screwed no matter what they do. It's like a hockey team with a brutal goalie. They play differently when they worry about everything going in the back of their net. Same thing here. I can't imagine how demoralizing it must be for the players to do everything right, and have it still reward the other team. That said, I'm proud of this team. We're coming, and the league knows it. 2. That said, there is no way this team can take the next step with Dennison in charge of the offense. I don't care who the QB is. I don't care who our WR's are. Rick Dennison would ruin Aaron Rodgers. There is no point drafting a QB next year, or signing someone new, if he's in charge of this scheme. I'm not even sure how we can comment on Tyrod's play with these plays being called. Everything "good" done on offense is being done in spite of Dennison. Not because of him. There were a lot of rumours last year saying that McCoy was Dennison's first choice. Well he's available now. Go get him. McDermott and Beane have been very quick to part ways with anyone who doesn't fit their long term plans. They need to be consistent with this. Treat your coaching staff the same way you treat your players. If Dennison is the answer, I don't want to know what the question is. He's rivalling Turk Schonert as the worst OC we've ever had in Buffalo. 3. Lastly, I no longer trust the integrity of this league. I just don't. I'm not sure how you could anymore. The Benjamin touchdown wasn't a 50/50 call. If you gave 100 replay officials the ability to review that play, 98 of them let the call on the field stand. There is no debate on this. The call was wrong. But if you want evidence of how bad this league has gotten, ask yourself this. Were you surprised when they overturned it? I wasn't. I absolutely knew it was gonna be overturned. Whenever a league official has a chance to influence a call involving NE during a time in the game that it matters, it goes NE's way. It's gotten to the point where it's laughable. This team has been caught cheating twice. And they still get these calls. I'm sorry, but if a team has gone to the lengths they have to spy on opponents, would it be out of the question for them to be involved in other unethical behaviour? They've alreasdy told the world that they're willing to break the rules, in some pretty intricate ways, in order to win. I believe it's naive to think that they aren't capable of more in this regard. You can call this sour grapes. I think NE would've found a way to win today anyway. They are a great football team. We're not there yet. Don't confuse these comments. I'm not saying the refs cost us the game today. But I am saying that once again, the refs influenced a game in a way that made it impossible for us to win. This franchise, historically, hasn't "earned" much. Good teams get calls. We've been bad for ages. But this team deserves better than this. And the fans definitely do. Go Bills! And Merry Christmas everyone!

Interesting. I wasnt' aware of that. Thanks for clarifying. I'm fine with someone being critical of things. I think it's healthy. But it has to be done with balance. I don't like people who just report the positive either. You lose credibility when your opinion is too skewed either way.

re point 2, I think you're thinking about Rodak, aren't you?

I used to get angry at Jerry's articles and tweets. But now I just feel sorry for him. He's a miserable, sad human. And he's only happy when he brings people down to his level of misery. It's very sad actually. I think he genuinely hates the team and it's players. And if any of them are finding success, he takes it upon himself to pull them back down. When's the last time he wrote an article where he praised a player on the team? Or a coach? I've muted Jerry on twitter. I hate seeing his articles posted at Two Bills Drive but I get why they're here. That said, if this site decided to stop posting his crap, I would applaud the decision.

When reviewing the additions and subtractions on our squad this offseason, we need to remember that we're essentially adding Sammy Watkins, Shaq Lawson and Reggie Ragland to the team this year. Those are three noteworty additions. Of course, Shaq and Sammy played some last year, but Sammy was far from healthy and it's safe to assume Shaq will be stronger to start this year than he was at any point last year. I try to be realistic with my assessments of the Bills heading into any given year. I had almost no confidence in our ability to improve last year, mostly because I didn't believe in Rex as a coach. But this year, I have a hard time believing we won't improve. If we add another solid receiving option, and re-sign Gillislee, I think our offense should be every bit as good as it was last year in terms of scoring and yardage. Losing Woods sucks, but he's far from irreplaceable. I believe this unit will be well coached, and if they stay healthy should be quite productive. On D, we have some notable subtractions for sure. The secondary is a big question mark. But I believe our front 7 will be notably better than it was in the last 2 years mostly because the scheme fits the talent we have now. The most important improvement is on the coaching front. If we add nobody else to the D between now and the start of the season, I STILL think they perform better than they did under Rex. Do I think this is a Superbowl caliber team? Definitley not. Do I think we can win 10 games and make the playoffs? Yes I do. Go Bills!

I actually think RB is a bit aggressive. No point in getting another RB until we really have the FB position locked up. Talk about putting the cart ahead of the horse. I've got us drafting a fullback at 10. RB in the first next year.