BillsFan4

Rasmus Dahlin will be on "The Instigators" tomorrow (Tuesday) at 10:30am.

Harrington is sooo thin skinned. Especially for a guy pumping out as many crappy opinions as he does.

Good luck with that... I asked him the same thing like 5 days ago and I'm still waiting. And that was after showing him the reports from Schefter, Rapaport and Simms who all said exactly the opposite.

It would actually be a perfect time to bring him back in, now that the Bills are (or should be) switching back to more of a diverse power run game like Greg a Roman ran here.

I don't know if this is feasible or not, but have you ever considered putting a subscription package together that includes both the Bills and Sabres coverage? Or ideally rolling the Sabres section into the Blitz subscription cost... I only really access the sports sections, so paying double the cost (of the Blitz) for the digital subscription didn't make sense for me personally. i was actually subscribing to the BN Blitz. When I signed up I wrongly assumed it covered the sports news and when I seen that I could still only read a certain number of other sports articles a month I decided not to renew. I would definitely be interested in a subscription that covered both the Bills and Sabres though. Also, I believe I may have mentioned this before, but I really enjoy any/all of the behind the scenes type pieces where we fans get a look behind the curtain. I would love to see more articles like that! Maybe it's just me, but I feel like we don't see those types of pieces as often as we used to (maybe I am just remembering wrong...). That was always something that I felt really set the Buffalo News' coverage apart from the rest. Thanks for your time, and for coming here to answer questions.

Pretty impressive Allen helped take a 2 win team (the previous year) to 8 wins in his 1st season starting.

I wonder if someone in the Bills PR department coached him to say this?

Wow, 1 Billion 773 million invested in western NY...! and this video was made before he bought that other building downtown for Pegula Sports and Entertainment, and before their renovations to New Era Field, the Bills locker room and training facilities, and the new practice facility they're building at New Era. I don't know if that figure includes the renovations they made to the player locker rooms/facilities at the Sabres Arena, either. Im sure I'm probably missing some things, too. Simply amazing to think about. This guy has made such an impact in helping this revitalization of Buffalo.

McDermott was "my guy" too. He was #1 on my wishlist (out of the people the Bills interviewed, anyway) I have been intrigued by him since his rise in Philly when he took over for Jim Johnson, and became a fan at the end of 2012, and 2013 cemented it, after seeing what he did with that Carolina defense who im not sure how many expected to be as good as they ended up being. I was thrilled when I seen his name on the Bills interview list. I wanted the Bills to interview him the year they hired Rex. So I was pretty happy when we finally hired him. I was unsure of Beane, as I kind of felt like he was handed the job on McDermott's asking. But the front office and scouting staff he put together starting winning me over pretty quick... I have been mostly impressed with him so far. I like the very calculated and thorough approach he takes to everything. I also like how aggressive he's been in remaking the roster and making trades, and especially how he went after the QB he wanted. I probably like most that you can actually see a coherent plan in place. They don't just randomly bring in players. You can see how each guy they bring in fits their criteria/vision. He's a great public speaker too. He helps inspire confidence in him when I hear him talk. That's obviously not all that important in the grand scheme of things but it's sure a nice change after our few previous GMs... lol. Overall im pretty damn happy with this new regime so far. It's nice to see a Bills regime that seems so well respected in NFL circles. They're slowly turning the Bills back into a respectable organization instead of the butt of so many jokes.

I wish they would offer something for just the Bills and Sabres sections, or ideally include the Sabres news with the Blitz subscription, as that's pretty much all I read of the Buffalo News. The hockey section is not included in that $2.99 subscription for the Blitz. If it was, I'd re-subscribe. It just kind of aggravated me paying to read the Bills news and still getting locked out of the other sports coverage after a few free articles per week/month or whatever it was. They only other option is their their digital subscription for $72 per year. That's double what the Blitz subscription is. It's just not worth it when I can get pretty much the same coverage for free from other sites.

Whether you like the exact QB picked or not, Beane really did execute the whole 1st round of the draft brilliantly. He stayed patient, held firm and kept pick 22, which almost none of us expected. Shoot, many here were all about giving up THREE 1sts, or two 1sts, two 2nds, and a 3rd or some such combination of picks. Yet he landed his QB for a couple 2nds... It can't be an easy thing to do, staying that patient while players are flying off the board. I know I was freaking out from picks 2-6... lol. A lot of GMs would have panicked and given up that 1st.

I am sure Maccagnan had done as much research as he could have at that point in time. But if its true that this was his plan over over a year ago, Darnold and Allen had only played a single season at that point and Rosen had just missed the 2nd half of the season with a bad shoulder injury (to his throwing shoulder IIRC), so he had only played 1 & 1/2 seasons. A LOT can change over the course of a year... Christian Hackenberg was the next great thing and sure fire #1 overall pick after his first year in college. Matt Barkley was thought to be a potential top 3-4 pick if he had entered the draft in 2012 (Luck/RGIII) and after he didn't declare most thought he'd be a top pick in 2013 (he ended up going in the 3rd IIRC and 5 years later hasn't really done anything in the NFL). Plus, like I mentioned, since scouts aren't allowed to talk to college players during the season, the Jets hadn't had a chance to even meet with the QBs personally at the point of that trade. Maybe a couple of them for a grand total of 15mins at the senior bowl/combine. Pre draft visits hadn't happened yet. Private workouts hadn't happened yet. The Jets took a big gamble IMO. When has Any team ever traded up to #3 6 weeks before the draft? It just comes off as a team willing to just throw a dart at one of these QBs and hope it sticks. Like you said, I like our GMs approach better. He vetted these QBs as fully as possible, using every available avenue to do so, waited to see if the actual guy(s) he wanted were still on the board, and only then did he decide to move up and take a shot on that QB. And the Jets may very well end up being lucky with their pick. But it still doesn't necessarily mean their method was right...

I read numerous pieces from the NY media that said Mike Maccagnan sold Woody Johnson well over a year ago on going all in and doing whatever it took to get one of the top 4 QBs in this class (hence all the veteran players cut and the pretty much unprecedented trade up to #3 6 weeks before the draft (when has that ever happened before?)). Id have to dig up the articles again, but the impression I got was Maccagnan basically bet his job on landing one of these top 4 QBs, so not getting one of the 4 was not an option for him. I think it also comes down to Beane and McDermott being much more thorough and calculating, and Maccagnan being a bit more reckless. The Jets hadn't even had a chance to sit and talk with any of these QBs before that trade up, and had no idea which one of 3 they would land. Smells like desperation to me...

It seems like Allen was thought of much more highly in NFL circles than he was in media and fan circles. and just the opposite seems true on Rosen.

Dude has ontemplated retirement every offseason for the last 2-3 years, and he wonders why the Steelers drafted a QB. lol He did finally say this year that he wants to play 3-5 more years but he still said he will still take it a year at a time and see how his body feels... you can't blame Pittsburgh for drafting a backup plan.

Both have the potential to be the driving force behind a championship. It all all depends on who hits their ceiling. Dahlin seems loke a pretty sure bet to hit his. Allen we will have to wait and see. But they bith both have a tremendous amount of natural ability.

I feel like this pick (Dahlin) has the potential to make all those other very painful misses - McDavid, Babcock (etc) - worth it. We may be able to look back and say "it all happened for a reason". Had we landed McDavid, or Babcock, we wouldn't have been in the position to land Dahlin, and we wouldn't have a potential 1C/1D combo like Eichel/Dahlin. That combo could be "Stanley Cup level" good. Not all by themselves, obviously. But almost every cup winning team has a top tier 1C/1D combo. So I just mean that it looks like Buffalo could be adding a crucial piece to the puzzle. Not the last piece by any means, but maybe the most important. Its amazing what this pick has done to refill my hope meter as far as the Sabres. I was so burnt out after last season....

Listening to Mike Weber talk about Rasmus Dahlin gets me even more fired up about this kid, if that's even possible... lol. I know ive already said this, but he really does sound like exactly what the Sabres need. Buffalo desperately needs more guys that give 100% effort at all times, in games and in practice. Yeah, they added some guys like Nolan and Wilson who work their tails off, and don't get me wrong, It's nice when you have a guy like Jordan Nolan who always works his ass off. But he's a 4th line guy. Nobody's going to follow a 4th line grinder. Now, when your best player is also your hardest worker.... that is something that IMO will trickle down through the whole team. Guys are going to want to match this kids work ethic. Maybe not immediately, but they will once he starts establishing himself among the NHL elite. That's how Crosby was in Pittsburgh. He's one of the hardest working hockey players in the entire NHL, and by year 2 he had kind of changed that culture in Pitts. Everyone on the team wanted to match his work ethic.

Well, just in case there was any doubt in anyone's mind that the Sabres will pick Dahlin, Brandon Beane just gave it away in his WGR interview a few days ago. http://www.wgr550.com/media/audio-channel/04-30-bills-general-manager-brandon-beane-howard-and-jeremy the part about the Sabres starts right near the end of the audio clip around the 21 minute mark. It's a good listen. He says a lot of good stuff about Josh Allen, too (about how he went through his progressions and called plays at the line etc).

Of course I want to get it right. I get it man. I was all in on Darnold and Rosen, and was upset when Allen's name was called. But what can I do? They didn't ask me before they picked him. If Allen fails, I doubt they will ask me before they pick the next QB. So I'll just go along for the ride like I always do. But in the mean time... I like having hope. I am not just just going to assume that Allen is already a bust before he's even thrown a single pass in a Bills uniform, and be miserable for the next few years. That seems absolutely pointless to me. Instead, I am going to try my best to find reasons to be hopeful until proven otherwise. But that's just me. I choose to be positive until given very good reason to be negative. And if/when that negative thing happens I'll get over it and try to find more reasons to be positive again. It has nothing to do with blind faith and treating the Bills like a religion. It has to do with not wanting to be a constantly negative and misaeable person (not saying you are). And it has to do with wanting to be hopeful for my hometown team that I love. What's the point in even being a sports fan if you can't have hope? We dont control any of this stuff. We are just fans. Me personally, I'd rather try to find the good things about Allen and try to spread hope to my fellow Bills fans.

I knew it was going to be a negative article on Allen before I even clicked on this thread. All I needed to see was the screen name of who posted it under the thread title... lol.

Sure it is! lol A fan (usually) only buys a certain player's jersey once. If that player changes teams, a whole new set of fans can/will buy his jersey. And then the fan base from the team he left will buy a jersey for another player currently on the team.

Not surprising. Maybe the only surprising thing is that he was cut before Hackenberg... lol.

https://www.12up.com/posts/4792594-carson-wentz-is-only-an-eagle-because-of-analytics-and-the-browns http://www.theherdnow.com/radio/the-browns-missed-on-carson-wentz-because-analytics-cant-measure-franchise-qb-traits/ Also, I think its worth mentioning that Allen and Wentz had pretty similar college stats - https://www.sports-reference.com/cfb/players/carson-wentz-1.html https://www.sports-reference.com/cfb/players/josh-allen-7.html