BuffaloRush

As the season approaches, it’s tome for your bold NFL predictions for the 2018 season. In this thread share your realistic yet bold prediction for the upcoming year. - Sony Michael will be the NFL rookie of the year - Bills offense will be better than expected, defense will be worse than expected. - There’s no way that Shaq Lawson and Adolphus Washington are both on the roster Week 1.

Any cause of death? Did Saprano have health problems. 2 unique facts I’ll always remember about him. He worse sunglasses 24/7 because he had an accident while he was working in a fast food joint as a high school student. I believe grease burned up his eyes and he was sensitive to light. If this accident happened in 2018, he’s be a rich man. The other is his name. My friend and many other would see his name and call him “Tony Soprano” lead character from The Sopranos. LOL

Go back and watch the Bills vs Houston and Bills vs. Denver and then Bills vs Raiders from 2014. Quite possibly the most important games of 2014. Mario was severely outplayed by each teams’ top pass rushers in JJ Watt, Von Miller and Khalil Mack respectively. Coincidence? Probably not, this was typical Mario and the crux of the argument. I never said that Mario was a bust or that he wasn’t good. In Buffalo he was an excellent DE for 2 of the 4 seasons he was on the team. But I don’t however feel his performance was worthy of the huge contract he received. You don’t fork that much money over for a game changer...an elite player. Mario was very good but he not elite. His contract was elite though.

Chicago and Miami weren’t really world beaters. Not exactly “big games.” I’m talking about making a difference against top opponents. Mario was a no -factor in many of those games

Nice post

Big players, make big plays, in big football games. Outside of a win in Green Bay, Mario was not a difference maker when it mattered. Hence, he was good....not great

I am sure the number of subscribers I s very very low. It is frustrating to read the headline of what sounds like a good article, only to get taken to the pay wall logic

Right you mean like when the Bills played Denver or the Raiders late in the 2024 season and he did nothing? Good...not great

Classic example of Bills fans overrating a player like Mario. As I said, statistically his stats were very good but then again stats can be misleading. I'm on the bandwagon that doesn't believe he lived up to his contract. You pay that kind of money for a play that makes a huge impact on the defense. Mario was notably silent in many big games. His biggest game was probably in 2014 when his strip sack sealed a win for the Bills. Outside of that, I can't remember a big-time game against a good opponent where Mario stood out. I remember going on ProFootballTalk right after Mario signed with Buffalo. A number of Texans fans something along the lines of "you just grossly overpaid for a good.....not great player.:" Good...not great is the perfect description for Mario IMO Again, I'll say this Mario played three good seasons in Buffalo and one horrible season. Overall, I don't feel that justifies the monster deal he was given and thus, putting him at the bottom of the Top 10 is 100% justified. Kudos Bills

No doubt his numbers we good for the first three seasons (or at least two seasons), but I feel that these numbers are somewhat decieving. Keep in mind, they made him the highest paid defensive player in the NFL at the time. Many in the league and the media laughed at the Bills for overspending on the position and the player. You play those players to be game changers like a Reggie White, Bruce Smith, Khalil Mack or JJ Watt. Is Mario in that class? I can recall many times when the Bills defense was on their heels, and Mario was nowhere to be found. Blame Rex all you want, but by 2015 Mario was a shell of the player he used to be. This is evidence by the fact he was out of th league one year. Overall he had three years where he matched or exceeded his previous production. I feel he was less of an impact player as he had been with th Texans. I don’t feel that all of this warrants him a high place on the list.

His delivery might have been a little flat but his reporting and analysis are solid

Good signing for the BN. Josh - is there any chance you could get The Bills Blitz podcast to drop more frequently? Vic and Jay do a great job but go dark in the off-season and seem to skip weeks during the year. It’s great content that I would to hear more of

Seems like they made a good choice

I think that including UDFA’s would be like adding waiver wire signings to this list. By Free Agents, I think most people consider players that are signed during the free agency period in the off-season

LOL it was a typo. I agree with you...I meant to say he "showed little promise" The defense was really good against the run...

Wow... such a great message in the midst of personal tragedies. What a great person Kelly is

The Bills just put out a new Top 10 video, this time it's Top 10 Free Agents in Bills history. This is a great production and a fun watch, though I do dispute the order and actually a few of the selections. 10. Terrell Owen - a big name, but he had very little impact on a weak offense and a 6-10 team. Posted the lowest numbers in years during his 1 year in Buffalo. 9. London Fletcher 8. Mario Williams - Torn on this selections. Stats wise Mario's stint in Buffalo was good, but I don't think he lived up to his huge contract. Also things ended horribly. 7. Bryce Paup - Should be higher on this list. I would put him in the top 3. 6. Doug Flutie - Good signing, I might put him ahead of Steve Christie 5. Steve Christie 4. James Lofton - Does this really count as a free agent signing? Didn't Lofton sign after the start of the 1989 season? 3. Kent Hull - I don't consider this a free agent signing, but if Flutie coming in from the CFL counts, then Hull coming from USFL should count too 2. Takeo Spikes - A excellent signing and had some great seasons in Buffalo but I don't feel he should rank this high 1. Ted Washington - YES! Finally Ted gets credit. He was a huge reason for the turnaround of the Bills defense. He gave the Bills a legit 3-4 NT and improved the weakest spot on the Bills defense (Jeff Wright) So from your perspective which free agents were left off this list. Who would you omit from this list? Who should rank higher?

Why? Adolphus showed very promise in his first two years.

Disagree....lots of HOF’ers took nosedives during their final years. Happens to the best of them

Not up for trade, but up for release....

LOL

Revis had a pretty decent season when he returned to NYJ in 2015 but year he completely fell off a cliff the next year. I just remember him getting torched by Marquis Goodwin in the Thursday night home opener

If your a Bills fan and podcast listener like I am, then you’re always interested in finding new shows. So I want to ask this group what, in your opinion, is the best Bills podcast? My choice is pretty obvious. IMO the best show in terms of content, analysis, frequency, and overall quality is The Bills Beat podcast with Joe B and Matthew Fairburn. Excellent insight and just a very enjoyable. Also to their credit Joe and Matt bust their ass to put out an hourly show multiple times a week during the season and always on Sunday night. https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-bills-beat-with-joe-b-and-matthew-fairburn/id1373776577?mt=2 In year’s past, I used to enjoy The BN’s Bills Blitz podcast with Vic Carucci and Jay Skurski. What bothered me was that it was updated very infrequently. Sometimes there would be a show and other times not. During the off-season they go completely dark which is fine, but again they dont communicate this, so the show is sometimes updated I frequently. https://buffalonews.com/section/sports/bills/podcast/ Outside if these two I can’t really recommend any others. I do enjoy Pat Moran’s podcast which talks a lot about the Bills but it’s not exclusively a Bills Podcast. I haven’t been impressed with some of the others live Cover 1 etc. http://moranalytics.com/ So I’m curious to know your choices...

I never was a fan of EJ as a QB, but he always seemed like a good person. The fact he was rattled after getting benched, shows his humility. I wish EJ all the best

What players were involved? I hope that they don’t face any criminal or disciplinary action for slamming another man through a table. We don’t more players on the Commissioner’s exempt list. This is not good