PalmTreeMafia

Good luck with that one... Next season, the Sabres will be paying $24 million to the following 6 untradeable future NHL Hall of Famers: Kyle Okposo, Zach Bogosian, Matt Moulson, Jason Pominville, Johan Larsson, Nathan Bieuauauaaleuuouuuou.

There's a lot of truth to this. 15 of the past 17 AFC championships, for example, have come from teams led by just 3 future first-ballot Hall of Famers - Brady, Manning, and Roethlisberger. The anomalies to this trend come from teams with absolutely elite defenses combined with competent QB's or teams whose otherwise mediocre QB's had monster single seasons. The bottom line is that an NFL QB is extremey important to a franchise's success. Way too important, if you ask me. But I don't write the rule book for the modern NFL, which seems to be over-the-top in its favoritism toward QB's and WR's at the expense of DB's and DL's. Interesting stat: in their franchise history, the Bills have drafted 33 times in the top-12. They have taken 6 RB's, 4 WR's, 3 TE's, 5 OL, 9 DL, 2 LB, and 4 DB's. Not one single QB.

Interestingly enough, McCarron was once considered a mid-first to mid-second round prospect for the 2014 draft, but he dropped all the way down to the fifth round over character concerns (too confident), arm strength (not elite), and inflated stats (played on an all-star Alabama team). 2014 was a weird year for drafting QB's. Bortles and Manziel were taken ahead of Carr and Garoppolo. Our very own TE, Logan Thomas, was taken as a QB ahead of McCarron, who ended up being the 9th overall QB chosen. I'm not at all convinced McCarron will be a worse QB than Taylor. Apparently many people on this message board have already written him off. McCarron seems like a guy with a floor as a capable NFL backup and a ceiling as a mid-tier NFL starter. After 4 years behind Dalton, he deserves a genuine chance at a starting job just like Taylor was given after 4 years behind Flacco. Taylor has been in the NFL for 7 years and has started 42 games. The book has largely been written on this guy. Glorified running back. Gets sacked too often. Rarely turns the ball over because he rarely tries to make plays with his arm. Mentally too slow to read defenses and the entire field in real time. 31st overall passing offense. 3 points in a playoff game. Can't lead his team when down by any points in the 4th quarter. Slightly above 0.500 career record. Gets credit for breaking the 17-year drought, even though McCoy and the defense were way more responsible for that than Taylor. At the moment, my first choice is for a trade-up for one of the top 4 franchise QB's (Darnold, Mayfield, Rosen, Allen in that order). But I also don't want the Giants or Browns to anally rape us in a trade. My second choice would be Lamar Jackson with one of our first round picks. Jackson's biggest problem is accuracy, but I think that can actually be fixed with some simple changes to his footwork and throwing mechanics. My third choice would be a trade with the Eagles for Foles. But my 4th choice is McCarron. Surround him with a quality team that includes 5 new top-65 overall picks from the 2018 draft, and you may easily see a second consecutive playoff berth and a decent run similar to what Foles did in Philly, Keenum in Minnesota, or Bortles in Jax.

Yeah, probably. His career, in my opinion, will be quite binary - either he'll be the next Sam Bradford or a future pro football Hall of Fame QB. All of the character attacks on him are ridiculous. Dude is genuinely elite.

I PRAY this is true. But this is just about the worst news I could have woken up to...trading up with the Giants will be way too costly now. And after two decades of Brady's , I don't want another two decades of Rosen or Mayfield. I'm assuming here that Browns go Darnold and Giants go Barkley.

Improving upon the 31st ranked passing offense will not be too difficult. Also keep in mind that the rookie QB will be expected to be the opening day starter if he is Rosen/Darnold/Mayfield. So in these instances, we are really comparing 2018 McCarron vs 2017 Peterman for the #2 QB spot and 2018 (insert franchise QB name) vs. 2017 Taylor for the starting QB spot. Everywhere outside this particular message board, people would say that the latter QB1/QB2 duo is a substantial improvement.

McCarron is a much better fit for the particular offense that Daboll wants to implement. He also has a lot more upside than your typical back-up NFL QB. Other pluses: has a very affordable contract, is very religious so will fit into the locker room culture, and has a hot wife. Last year alone, we saw several no-name QB's around the league (Foles, Keenum, McCown) suddenly have success when placed into the right offensive system. So why not McCarron? Unlike Taylor, he may actually attempt to throw to his WR's and try to make the occasional comeback when down by 1 or more points in a game. Moving on to the other Buffalo Bills QB debate....the team is quite obviously gunning for one of the top 4 QB's (Darnold, Mayfield, Rosen, Allen). According to standard NFL draft value charts, the 12th and 22nd picks alone give the Bills enough draft capital to move up between the 4th and 3rd overall picks. One can make a strong case for or against any of these guys. I'm curious at to where all of you currently stand on the big 4??? Here's mine: 1. Darnold - has all the football character and the athleticism that the Bills want in a franchise QB. Only major concern are the large number of turnovers last season. Would have liked to have seen a third year from him. 2. Mayfield - still not sure about him...is spending a top 4 overall pick on such a small QB a good idea? Brees and Wilson would say yes, but they are exceptions to a longstanding rule. 3. Rosen - I just can't get over his extensive injury history. Without it, he's clearly my number one choice. But McDermott and Beane are risking their careers on this choice, and "availability" and "dependability" are classic buzzwords we've heard often from The Process Trusters. 4. Allen - same way I felt about Rob Johnson, JP Losman, and EJ Manuel....looks like Tarzan, plays like Jane.

Sabres have now won their last 5 games against the elite teams in the division (TB, Boston, Toronto). Not bad... 3 more against Toronto, plus 6 more from our division, plus 1 against the Rangers, plus 6 more from the West. Then the season is (thankfully) over!

I don't know, but I'll say it.... I'll go on record as saying that the Maple Leafs will win the Cup within the next 5 seasons. Meanwhile, the Sabre will set the NHL record for most consecutive seasons without a playoff berth.

I'd be content with a late 1st and a solid prospect.

Nah, he just went to go get the papers get the papers.

Any chance of dumping the contracts of Moulson, Bogosian, or Pominville?

Fair enough. I didn't know Jackson's accuracy was considered so poor. At the moment, Mayfield is my #1 choice for QB. But I wouldn't trade into the top 5-10 for him.

Doesn't "megawatt smile" just mean someone who has a big smile that lights up the room? Why is that considered racist? Regarding Lamar Jackson: Michael Vick has stated that Jackson is the closest player he has ever seen to himself, more so than Newton or any other mobile QB. I realize that Michael Vick isn't an NFL scout, but it does give pause as to why such a talent like Jackson isn't considered with the big 4 of Darnold, Rosen, Mayfield, and Allen.

What specifically have you heard?! If they are not making an honest attempt to end the playoff drought next season, then I'm out. It's as simple as that. Not worth my money nor my time. And I consider myself a pretty hardcore fan. Life is too short and precious to waste leisure hours on a franchise this incompetent.

Yes. It began on October 5 and runs through April 7.....ba dum tss.

I'm not advocating that we sell low. I want fair market value for each and every loser on this roster. Risto and Reinhart are the only two players I could envision performing significantly better elsewhere. So I would be particularly careful when trading those two. But make no mistake: The Purge must happen. It doesn't all have to happen next Monday. Some can be purged over the summer. Some can be purged next February. But purging must be done. I'm no longer interested in trying to sort out which players are Bylsma loyalists and which are part of some pro-Housley cabal. It's time to bring in talented hockey players who are also intrinsically self-motivated and naturally good teammates (i.e., have agreeable personalities and don't act like a bunch of backstabbing teenage girls on their respective periods).

Nah, there's nothing any other defenseman in the system can do to help at this point. Risto and Scandella are a solid #2 pair on a good team. Nelson and Antipin are solid 3rd pair guys. Beauloeauoeuou is borderline NHL material. Gorges should be retired. So we're missing two top-pair NHL defensemen.

No, you need new players. If we fire Housley and hire a drill sergeant personality, it will be yet another excuse this time next season: the new coach is too mean, doesn't listen to us, works us too hard at practice, makes playing hockey not fun, etc...if only we hire Coach #4 things will be better.... BULL . Can't wait for The Purge. Only 6 more days.

Please make it stop. I can't take any more games.

Rosen's concussion history doesn't scare you?

Awesome win! Screw tanking. Let's learn how to be a winning organization instead. Interesting how we started the season with 3 of our top 6 forwards producing (Eichel, Kane, Pominville) and the trio of supposed slowpokes not producing (Reinhart, Okposo, O'Reilly). Now with the Eichel injury, it looks like these groups have completely flipped. So is Nelson for real?! If so, maybe I was wrong and maybe we are only a single elite defender (Dahlin?) away from having what you could consider a "good" defense corps of 8 next season, listed from best to worst in my opinion: Risto, Scandella, Guhle, McCabe, Antipin, Nelson, Beauioieuieioaaeuualuiueaeaeu, Bogosian. Nelson's arrival is most welcome because this team badly needs a quality right-hand shot defenseman aside from Risto.

My Lord, this is an absolutely awful roster on paper. No hope in sight.

No need to get super negative. We weren't making the playoffs. This is a perfect opportunity for many of our players to rally together and show they belong in this league. Everyone seems to play better when paired with Eichel. Now guys need to produce in less than optimal conditions.

Another high ankle sprain, this time on the other leg. We'll see him in late March at the earliest, but very easily he's out for the rest of the season. I am NOT saying he's injury prone, but he definitely could beneift from more focused leg strengthening rehab between now and October.