BillsFan4

Nice! I can’t say that I ever thought either Buffalo team would have owners that would just decide all on their own to drop $18M of their own money to upgrade the training facilities. The Bills already had one of the better training facilities in the NFL as it was (thanks again to Terry and Kim). Its a a nice little reminder of how lucky we Buffalo fans are to have Terry and Kim Pegula as owners.

I am still all pumped up from this trade. If Skinner is signed long term, this has the potential to be one of the more lopsided trades in Sabres history. Botterill has done done an excellent job in his trades for players. Imagine if someone had said to you that we could turn Ennis, Foligno, Pu + 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 6th round picks into Scandella, Sheary sand Skinner... We all would have laughed and told that person they were out to lunch... Botts has been excellent at making these low risk, high reward type trades. It’s such a stark difference from Tim Murray, who seemed to overpay in every trade. I can only imagine what he’d have given up for Skinner... To be fair though, I would have liked to see more value come back in the Kane + ROR trade. But I think there were extenuating circumstances in both cases. So I have a hard time laying all the blame on Botterill. Wow. He’s tied with Connor McDavid for 7th in even strength goal scoring over the past 3 seasons. That is impressive!

I LOVE this trade! Now we just have to get him signed. I’m a little surprised that Botterill hasn’t talked extension,but I would imagine the price would have been quite a bit higher if he did. Skinner fills such such a huge need for Buffalo. He is instantly our #1 LW. He’s a great even strength goal scorer (I believe about 3/4ths of his goals have been at ES) , has scored 30+ three times (including almost 40g 2yrs ago) and more than 20 goals 6 out of his 8 NHL seasons. I think we finally have someone who can finish Eichel’s passes! Between Skinner and Sherry, watch Eichel’s assist totals skyrocket! (I hope...). Im pumped up! I was hoping we’d trade for Skinner all offseason, but I had heard he nixed a bunch of trades at the draft and figured Buffalo was among the teams he said no to. Thrilled to learn we were very high on his list!!

Beane put together an excellent scouting and personnel staff. He started winning me over pretty quickly with all the big name hires he made in that regard. Tim will tell, but IMO I think this front office staff has a chance to be the best we’ve had since the Bill Polian era.

Upgrade it with who? Who is currently available that would be an upgrade at WR? And remember, during the off-season we traded Tyrod. We have no set starting QB. All we had during free agency was Peterman and a totally unproven McCarron. Do you think veteran receivers with other options were lining up to come to Buffalo? Training camp just started though. Rosters have not yet been trimmed. Some good players will shake loose, and hopefully Buffalo will take a look fit is right. So let’s wait and see. I do expect that WR will be a bigger priority next year for sure, with Josh Allen likely taking on full time starting duty and the Bills having a ridiculous amount of cap space. Well said.

I loved hearing him say “the camaraderie here is tighter than other camps I’ve seen”. McDermott has been such a breath of fresh air for this entire organization. I can’t wait to see what they’re able to build in Buffalo. Thanks for sharing OP.

I have been a Sony guy for many years now. Ever since they released their flat screen CRT (tube) TVs. They just make excellent televisions. Their motion + picture processing and HD upscaling has led the industry for years. Having said that, the new Samsung Q9 has me very interested. I happened to see it at the store recently and I was beyond impressed with it. They had it next to the Sony Z9D (considered by many to be the best LED tv on the market) and it looked just as good, and in some ways even better. I couldn’t believe how good the picture looked. It was almost as good as the OLED’s. Honestly, it really has me considering buying a Samsung for the first time. Sony is coming out with a brand new processor soon, though, and it’s supposed to be more than 2x more powerful than their current one. I seen a demo TV with the new processor and it was unbelievable. So I will wait for their release and compare the 2.

Nice! I can’t wait to watch it. I really love this kind of stuff. Thanks for sharing astb41 All I do is copy the YouTube address from the top of the page (address bar) and post it here. It embeds it automatically for me.

Good stuff. I enjoyed reading that. Thank you for sharing.

Oops, my bad. I should have been more clear that I meant Paxton Lynch. Thanks for answering though.

I remember there were a LOT of people banging the table hard for this kid (Lynch) over on the old BBMB, and many were quite angry when the Bills passed on him after he “fell into their laps”. There were many cries of “the same old Bills, passing on another franchise QB...”. lol Was it the same at TBD? I only lurked around here at that time.

I agree with almost everything you said. And I don’t think this contest is rigged for Allen, either (like SoTier does). The only real real issue I took with the approach in 2013 is that they got rid of their proven starting QB before they had anyone on the roster to replace him (well that, and them choosing to take a 1st round QB in what everyone knew was one of the weakest QB draft classes in a loonnggg time). Yes they signed Kolb, but he had quite the injury history already, and wasn’t the safest bet to be relied on to stay healthy. It led to EJ Manuel being forced into starting duty long before he was ready. That is my fear in 2018 as well. I want to see Allen developed properly. I don’t want to see him forced into starting duty too early. Hopefully one of the other 2 can do well enough to hold him off the field until he’s truly ready.

Good article. Thanks for sharing. Great to hear. I believe that a QBs driver and work ethic can often be the difference between their success and failure. The best QBs are also often the most driven to succeed, and the hardest working. They’re usually football junkies, as well. All 3 are traits Allen (hopefully) seems to have. Glad to hear this, as well. I like this approach better than Mayfield’s “read everything the media + fans say and use it to motivate me” approach. I worry that constantly reading and focusing on all the negative criticisms that come along with being an NFL QB will eventually get inside Mayfield’s head, especially if he struggles to start his career.

Pretty cool to have 2 of the top 4 prospects in hockey. Disappointing to see Nylander, a recent top 10 pick,only make it way down the list as an honorable mention. Even more disappointing ting not to see Tage Thompson on the list at all, even as an honorable mention. Especially with both Kyrou and Thomas in the top 17, and Klim Kostin as an honorable mention (all 3 are Blues prospects). But I am not sure if Thompson didn’t qualify for the list, due to playing in the NHL for a good chunk of last year. Or if he just didn’t make the cut... Wheeler is kind of vague about his criteria - Thompson is only 20 and not yet a full time NHLer. But the author may have concluded that he does look poised to return to the NHL. Then again, he’s not really close to the age 23 cutoff. But Wheeler leaves the age cutoff kind of open by using the word “primarily”. I guess it really doesn’t matter anyway. I am just curious if Thomspon didn’t make the cut or was left off.

Yes, but I thought that they also kind of walked back those comments - https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/jets-gm-indicates-sam-darnold-will-get-chance-to-start-nothings-been-predetermined/ I dont think they’ll force him into that #1 role by any means. But I do think he will be given plenty of opportunity to win the job.

Not sure if that’s true or not, but I read that the Jets plan on giving Darnold every chance to win the starting job.

It’s still early, but so far I think the Buffalo News is doing a better job covering Bills training camp than The Athletic is. Ive actually been a bit disappointed by the athletic’s coverage of Bills camp up to this point. They’ve basically only been doing 1 training camp article per day. It kind of seems like maybe they’re just doing the bare minimum IMO. I’ve found that the BN Blitz has been providing more in depth coverage (so far, anyway). I’m glad I gave them a chance.

I just read an article on the Bills QB competition, and they had the current betting odds for each QB to start. https://theathletic.com/445131/2018/07/25/handicapping-bills-quarterbacks-nathan-peterman-josh-allen-and-a-j-mccarron/ You could really clean up if Peterman won the starting job. Hey OP - How confident are you in your prediction...? lol (j/k) Seriously though, I’m not a gambler but those odds do have me just a bit tempted. Im just not sure Peterman can pull it off.

Hope it doesn’t happen. I’ve actually been happy with Spectrum. My internet speed has went from 20mbps when they first took over, up to 60mbps for free. Then up from 60 to 100mbps for free again. They also added more channels to my tv package for free. Stuff like that NEVER happened under Time Warner. I wish verizon fios would come to my area, but there are no plans of that happening.

https://mobile.twitter.com/Rachel__Bush Just browsed through her twitter timeline. Boy does she like re-tweeting compliments about herself...

https://www.theplayerstribune.com/en-us/articles/vernon-turner-nfl-letter-to-my-younger-self This is the letter Vernon Butler wrote for the players tribune (for those who can’t read the Athletic article). What a story. I highly recommend reading it. It’s a tear jerker though...

Fantastic news. I was worried when he said something came up.

I think it’s important to remember that even if he does go on to have success in KC, that doesn’t mean he’d have that same success here. That was my main point in my response to you on the 1st page. He was traded to a place where he is a perfect scheme fit (they run a very similar defense to Rex Ryan’s scheme he was drafted to play in), and that was done partly to give him a chance to have a successful career. So, it shouldn’t be shocking if he does do well there, and even if he does, that doesn’t mean the Bills made a mistake trading him.