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Ep. 35 - Sabres Check-In, NFL Draft Prep
33 Plays1 year ago
3 buds. 2 teams. 1 city - The "Let's Go Buffalo" Podcast. Your new favorite podcast for all things Sabres and Bills. Our mission is to be your guide through the ups and the downs of being a Buffalo Sports fan. We are not members of the media nor are we experts - we’re just 3 friends who love our hometown teams and want to bring you along for the ride. This podcast will be for both veteran and newly ordained fans. We’ll have in depth conversation and debate with a few “newbie” questions sprinkled in to keep everyone afloat.
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Transcript
Podcast Introduction
00:00:09
Speaker
You're listening to the Let's Go Buffalo Podcast, your new favorite podcast for everything bills and sabers.
00:00:23
Speaker
What's going on, everybody? You're listening to the Let's Go Buffalo podcast, your favorite podcast for everything, bills and savers. With the pals, Tom and Jake this evening, episode 35 coming at you while Nigel's down in Nashville, sunny Nashville. A quick reminder to follow all of our social media accounts at Let's Go Buff Pod on Instagram and X and YouTube. Let's say hey to Tom. Tom, how you doing today, man?
00:00:53
Speaker
Hey Tom. I'm good dude. What is up with you? Good to see you bro. I'm good man. Yeah. Quick week off, but I'm back. Good to be back. So nice. Looking forward to episode 35 here. Yeah. So we got a couple of things on, on tap, but I think first off we, we should, we should have a little beverage now.
Beer Choices and Sports Frustration
00:01:11
Speaker
Yeah. I think that's marquee. Absolutely. All right pal. Three, two, one.
00:01:18
Speaker
I recognize that can. Why don't you go first? Yes, sir. I have the sweet, sweet nectar of bells brewing. Two hearted ale. And it's so, so good. One of the very first true craft beers I really got into. So super tasty. I'm excited. Yeah, they're all over. They brew some good stuff. Yeah. Where are they located? Check on the can. I want to say Michigan.
00:01:45
Speaker
Oh, yeah, it's Kalamazoo in the ways that I know that as we I had some friends in college who were from the area and they were like the the progenitors of Bell's beer for me. And they would always bring some back and point it out whenever we were going out and drinking. And so. Yeah. Yeah. Kalamazoo, I believe. Now I should check. But you. Yeah. What are you doing? I believe you. I believe you. They have another really good one. I think it was called like Oberyn or Oberlin or something like Oberon. Oberon. Yeah. Yeah.
00:02:14
Speaker
We had that on tap at bandwagon. The competing brewery that I worked at crossed the way from you and Nigel. Yeah, that was a great one.
00:02:28
Speaker
Not seeing it. Well, that's all right. I look like an idiot on camera. No, I just spit in your can here. Yeah, you can. Oh, no. Comstock, Michigan. I'm sorry. Maybe my buddies were from Kalamazoo. I don't remember. But Comstock, Michigan. Bell's brewing. Two hearted ale. What are you drinking tonight, bro? Something up there in the in the glove. I'm drinking from my little hometown here in Hudson, an oatmeal stout.
00:02:55
Speaker
with a nice little owl on the on the can nice nice and easy easy drinking leftover from st patrick's day if i'm being honest so yep working through um sounds great yeah it's fantastic so let's let's get into some some uh some shit here yeah yeah man i've been wanting to pick your brain about some of this saber stuff because it's just oh
00:03:20
Speaker
Like, I mean, it's the Buffalo sports experience, right? This is it. This is the man. Maybe this is our year. This is going to happen. OK, what the fuck are these guys doing? And then, oh, maybe there's some interest. And then, nah, nope. Yeah, for sure. They were they were close. They made it interesting for a little bit there.
00:03:47
Speaker
I can't remember, it was maybe two, three weeks ago where they were right on that bubble, right? There were three points out of a playoff spot at one point, but it was a phantom. It was an aberration. They had a couple more games played than a lot of other teams. And like I've said for a while, it's just so hard to make up ground against other teams in the league with the overtime loser point in play.
00:04:12
Speaker
I said it from the beginning. I never bought into the hype. I wanted to. Believe me, I wanted to. But it just wasn't a realistic thing. They needed an improbable run. And this was a team that it took them until March to get their first three-game win streak. So I saw something like that. So it wasn't going to happen. This wasn't the year.
00:04:36
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, look, they're still they're still by far the youngest team in the league. But that excuse really only goes gets gets you so far, right? They've been the youngest team in the league for years. At a certain point, you need you need veterans to guide the way but you need the right veterans like they did some of that this year with bringing in Eric Johnson. And it just it didn't click right there wasn't that
00:05:01
Speaker
gel that that needed to come together for the team to play well.
Fan Support and Sabres' Challenges
00:05:05
Speaker
So we'll see. I think it'll be a big offseason for them this this summer, so we'll we'll get plenty into it that over the coming weeks, both looking back at this season and looking ahead to the offseason. But yeah.
00:05:18
Speaker
They're stuck. There's going to be, we're going to be able to like head straight into the lab. And like, I think, I think, I don't know. I think there's going to be quite a bit for us to talk about, about what, what happens with what works. And then like, what, what happens to get that step, that, um, the success that they had over the, you know, a couple of weeks ago. And then what's like, what's the next thing? I don't know. I don't know, dude. Yeah. Cause cause there were things that worked there. There were flashes, but there's a couple of big things that, that,
00:05:46
Speaker
hampered them all through the year. So yeah. Yeah. Well, well, you know, this is a Buffalo sports man. Yeah. This is why we, this is why we have a beer corner on a Buffalo sports. Yep. Yep. Exactly. Yeah. A couple, a couple rough moments over the last few weeks. I mean, just, just falling out of the playoff race for sure. It was rough, but then, uh, last week against Ottawa, they, they, they're on home ice. They had just gotten back from a road trip out West.
00:06:15
Speaker
There's a saying in hockey if you're gonna suck suck on the road and boy, do they not do that They're a good road team, but they suck at home They come back from this road trip in front of home fans and it's five nothing against a division rival before the first buzzer the first intermission buzzer And I got booed off the ice and they should have like people are paying money to go watch them play and you put up an effort like that at home in in a in a
00:06:43
Speaker
kind of playoff push still at that point. It's embarrassing to see, but I don't blame fans for booing at all. Alex Tuck probably isn't happy. He had some comments recently on the 32 Thoughts podcast about
00:06:57
Speaker
Did he not be not being too he's not being too happy with the fans booing them. But well, dude, then do something about it. I don't know. Like it's not even like if it was close, if it was five, four, if it was like, you know, you know, they were in it, they let up a lot of goals, but they got back into it like, OK, make it fun, make it interesting. But if you're just going to sit there on your hands and just be walked around like a freaking JV team like, you know, like
00:07:25
Speaker
Sorry, dude. Against a team that is also struggling and below them in the standings and is also super young. And look, I get it. Nights like that happen, but it's systemic. We've seen it all year of them hemorrhaging goals in the first period. And so it's not a fluke. They've been proving that they are not ready to play when they come out of the gate in the first period. And that is a major issue that will unpack a lot more in future weeks.
00:07:54
Speaker
So, dude. Yeah. Yeah. And then the other, the other dagger was a plant plan Toronto over the weekend. Another, another fierce rival. And look, I get it too. Buffalo fans that have season tickets are selling them to leaf fans to, to, to pay for their season tickets, but it does hurt to see the lower bowl just filled with leaf fans in your own barn. So.
00:08:16
Speaker
Yeah, man, that's rough. That is it's rough. But again, but it loops back around to, hey, give us a reason to want to be in those stands in like like it's a long season. There's a lot of games like this. Give us a reason. Give us a reason to want to be there and be be involved in and feel that. Yeah, I don't know. Yeah. And they've talked about like Dylan Cousins talked about it after the game, saying like,
00:08:43
Speaker
it'd be nice, it'd be nice for us to get that kind of support on the road someday. And he followed it up with like, but we know we have to earn it. We know it starts with us. It's not, it's not the other way around. They have, they have to earn it. So correct. I think how much of that is, is, uh,
00:09:01
Speaker
words and how much is actually internalizing it. Who knows how much of that is some players, not the others who knows that's not, it's not our job, but there should be some tough conversations at locker room clean out this year.
00:09:14
Speaker
And yes, yes, I think it is player accountability. It's it's holding your your your you know, the people you're going to war with, like accountable and and hold hold them to a standard. I don't know. Like, I mean, this used to be a thing with the bills. Right. For the longest time, like they didn't really travel. We didn't always have. I was when I was when we were younger and you had to watch, you know, we didn't have streaming services like you got to hope and pray that we can have a full home stadium or it's going to be blacked out. You can't watch the game. You know, like that was a thing. And then
00:09:44
Speaker
We get Sean McDermott. We get Brandon Bean. We get Josh Allen. Things start to turn around. And now we're one of the best traveling fan bases out there. And that's Buffalo. Buffalo sports fans will do it. They will come out in hordes if they have a reason to.
00:10:04
Speaker
100% yes and but Buffalo as a market is always near the top or at the top of watching the Stanley Cup playoffs come April. Every year and the same as haven't made the playoffs since you and I were in high school like 13 years. It's a hockey hungry town. They will. They will support the team till the end, but they need a reason to go out and support the team and that's not there. It's not there.
00:10:32
Speaker
So this is kind of a funny talking point for me when you were talking about it and put it on the planning doc here. Jeff Skinner's thousandth game tonight, right? Tonight. It's today. It's tonight. Yeah. And there are some negative things around that, but I want to focus on the positive. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. So we'll focus on the positive because I immediately went negative. So you start.
00:10:58
Speaker
Well, we can mention that for sure. But it is his thousandth game. That's a huge milestone. It takes a lot for a player to get to a thousand games and to have the career that Skinner's had. So just wanted to kind of highlight him and say congrats to him for making it to a thousand games.
00:11:20
Speaker
He's been with Buffalo since the 2018-19 season, so that's, I don't know, five, six years, something like that. I'm not very good at math. In that time, he's been a rock for the team. He's been a warrior. He goes out and battles every night. Since joining the team, he's first in goals and points on the Sabres roster, no small feat.
00:11:46
Speaker
Yeah, he's just he's just he's battled through a lot of adversity while he's been here, particularly under coach Ralph Kruger. Not sure if you know that name, Tom, but I don't coach of the team. Yeah, give me context. I got you. Yeah, coach of the team from I think that season may have been when the I think. Yeah, maybe maybe around that season or 2019, 2020, but kind of over the COVID years he was a coach for two years, I think, and he
00:12:16
Speaker
He did not really like Jeff Skinner's style of play. Skinner is a very offensive minded player, doesn't contribute a whole ton in the back at checking back end area. And that's always just kind of been his game. And Ralph Kruger came in and said, you know what, we're going to we're going to play a very
00:12:35
Speaker
very responsible, defensive-minded system and get back to our basics and all these other cheap soundbites that sounded good at the time, but were just a sham. Coach talk, maybe. Coach talk, yeah. But coach talk without a lot of action to back it up.
00:12:53
Speaker
uh Ralph Gruger was a legitimate and bonafide hockey terrorist and I'll I'll die on that hill um so yeah he him and Jeff Skinner didn't get along he buried him on the fourth line or in the press box and uh yeah eventually he got fired and as soon as he got fired Jeff Skinner got bumped back up to the first line and he started putting the puck in the net a bunch so uh see ya Ralph thanks thanks for stopping and uh anyways but the focus on Jeff yeah it's a huge accomplishment he's been a great player for the team so
00:13:24
Speaker
deserves the accolades and the honor for getting to 1,000 tonight. OK.
Trivia Game: Guess the Sabres Player
00:13:29
Speaker
Yeah. All right, man. So hit me with the negative thought that came to mind. What are we doing?
00:13:39
Speaker
You know, I don't know. Like, that's a long player to have a player to be on a team that hasn't had success. It is. And this is a question I think I am absolutely a Sabres newbie is his concert did his contributions.
00:13:55
Speaker
get in the way of saber success or I mean you kind of gave it some context with with that under Ralph Krueger wasn't used properly wasn't there. But should we be happy that we've kept it around for 1000 games? Has he played 1000 games all in Buffalo? No, he started his career in Carolina. Yeah. All right. So okay, maybe I walk it back a little bit. But he's been around for a while. Is he somebody that you're glad has been around here since he's been or would you would you wish for more?
00:14:26
Speaker
Um, that's an interesting question. Yeah. He, so, so no, he started his career with Carolina when they were kind of.
00:14:33
Speaker
not making the playoffs battling through a rebuild and then got traded here in the summer of 2018. And that first year that he was here, he was electric. He had a 40 goal season playing on Jack Eichel's wing. And yeah, he was a breath of fresh air to have somebody that was such a natural sniper and somebody that really prioritized getting to the front of the net and playing in those kind of gritty areas.
00:15:04
Speaker
And I think longer term, now looking back, reflecting. So he's signed a new deal since he's been here. And we signed him for $9 million or so dollars a year. So a hefty contract. And he did not live up to that dollar sign for
00:15:25
Speaker
A bit of that. And so there's been points in that in the life cycle of that contract where it's kind of been a drag on the team. But I also want I don't want to say that I regret him being on the team because it's quite the opposite. Even when he was having those kind of down years and his play wasn't at the best, Buffalo was never near the cap. Buffalo wasn't wasn't tight up against the cap where they were in a situation where they were jeopardizing other players.
00:15:54
Speaker
positions on the team because of him. And so yeah, it was a lot of money to give to a player. He was probably overpaid a little bit. But at the end of the day, there was no opportunity cost for it. There was no other
00:16:09
Speaker
thing that we could have been spending those dollars on. And in the past few years, he has been worth the money. The cap is rising. He's playing with better players. He's putting up points. He's making his paycheck. Is he a touch overpaid? Sure. I'll give you that. But to say he's hurting the team, I think, is not true. Yeah. OK. All right. Yeah. So the other not so fun stat around this is,
00:16:39
Speaker
Well, he's, there's, there's a list of players who have played X number of games in the league, but never played a single playoff game. Where do you think he ranks on that list? Oh, I think he's number one. He is. Yeah, you're right. Yeah. I think he's number one. That's a lot of games to never have played in a playoff game. He's the first player in NHL history to make it to the a thousand game mark and not play a playoff game. Bro.
00:17:03
Speaker
That poor guy. The numbers three and four on that list are also active players and they are former Sabre, Rasmus, Ristolainen and current Sabre, Semgus, Ghergensons. So it's a it's not a it's not a list to be proud of. No, come on. It's right. Do it for Jeffrey. All right. Do it for Jeffrey. Yeah. Do it for Jeffrey. All right, dude. So anyways, yeah. A lot of love to Jeff Skinner. Wish him well.
00:17:31
Speaker
Hope it's a good ceremony tonight, and hopefully they win a game for him. Right? Yeah, dear God. Let's get this guy a win. Anyways, but yeah, that's all I got. I think you mentioned you might have a little surprise here at the end of this segment. We went back to the old files and pulled up something pretty fun. Here we go, folks.
00:17:59
Speaker
Who the fuck is this guy? I'm sorry for all of you who drove off the road because that drop was loud. We need a good lawyer. Yeah, we do. There's nobody for Jake to compete again, so he's competing against himself. Question number one, Jake, you have five clues to guess this player, and you can lock it in at any point.
00:18:27
Speaker
And I'll give you after bonus stars if you lock it in early. OK, I like it. I like it. Hit me with hit me with clue one clue. I'm not ready to lock it. Can you imagine just boom and he got it. That'd be crazy. OK, clue number one. This player has played for two teams in the NHL, drafted by the Sabres, signed to another team and then retired as a Sabre.
00:18:55
Speaker
Oh, interesting. Can I, can I ask clarifying questions? Sure. I may give you vague answers. Did he play games for the savers in his second stint, or was it a ceremonial one day contract? No, he played. It was multiple seasons. He played. Okay. Okay. Oh, that is, that's an interesting hint.
00:19:19
Speaker
Um, I was actually very excited about finding my hints. I have, I have, uh, gotten better at finding good, useful hints. Oh, I might, I might want to walk in.
00:19:31
Speaker
Oh, shit. OK, maybe they're not. Maybe they're too good. All right. Do you want to do you want to go for it? You want to hear another one? I will. I will let the folks at home know the rest of my clues. But for the sake of the game, I want to hear another quick. I'm not competing against Nigel. OK. Clue number two. This player scored his first NHL goal November 27th, 2005 against the Washington Capitals. OK. OK.
00:20:01
Speaker
Is that, are you in the right range? Do you think, you know, I went from, I went from like 50% sure of my answer to 99.9% sure of my answer. So who do you got bro? Who do you go? Read the rest of the clues. Let people, I don't want to spoil it if anyone's if anyone's fine. Okay. All right. Number three, this player shoots right-handed and has scored 727 points with that right-handed shots over a 16 season NHL career.
00:20:30
Speaker
Wow, I didn't. If it's who I'm thinking of, which I wrote down, by the way, so I'm not cheating. All right. OK, he's he's locked in the proverbial locked in. That's more points than I was thinking. Actually, seven hundred and twenty two. Seven, seven hundred and twenty seven. Seven hundred and twenty seven. Wow. That's a lot. If the man has five points, Jake. Yeah. Yeah. OK, clue number five, if you have not figured out at home, is this player earned all star honors in 2012.
00:21:02
Speaker
for Buffalo? Oh, it's okay. No, I think I think I think so. I think so. Can I guess? Yeah, you can guess. Is it Mr. Jason Palminville? It is nice. You man and you clocked it in after clue number one after clue one. I love that. There's there's not many players that like come back to teams like that. So and he did
00:21:28
Speaker
play a fairly significant role in Buffalo in both stints, but more so the first. Right.
Bills Draft Picks and Season Success
00:21:35
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. That was it. Now, do you remember that, like the nature of him coming back? Was it, was he welcomed or was it like, Oh man, this guy? No, he, yeah, he was, he was, I thought very well liked in Buffalo. Um,
00:21:48
Speaker
He got traded away because we were tearing down the roster. Sabre's fans will remember Darcy Rook here having a press conference saying there will be pain. And there was this. It's still happening, Darcy, if you're out there.
00:22:05
Speaker
Um, he got traded away to Minnesota, um, and played there for a couple of years, had some good, good playoff runs with them. I believe didn't get close to a cup, but, um, was a good player for them.
00:22:20
Speaker
And yeah, he was a well-liked, very talented player. I remember he scored a huge goal in overtime against Ottawa in the playoffs during the 0-5-0-6 or 0-6-0-7 run. 0-6, that was going to be a clue. I thought that was going to be too good of a clue and you guys would know that.
00:22:38
Speaker
a hundred percent that would give it that would give it away to me because we were you know 13 14 at the time you were absolutely paying attention you and Nigel so um yeah that would have been too good of a clue i did not include it can i give you hit the fifth clue
00:22:53
Speaker
Yes. But real quick on that, on that goal. Yeah. That totally would have given it away. Any, any savers highlight reel that's on it because Rick Jenner, that's also saying, saying the call, like these, these guys are good. Scary. Good. Um, if you, if you know that quote, so yeah, that call middle way for sure. Yeah. What's what's the fifth clue? So he was drafted. Well, I'm going to ask, I'm going to make this more of a quiz. What year was he drafted?
00:23:19
Speaker
by the scenes. It's weird, because I think he was around the lockout in 2004. I think he was correct. I think his first goal was 2005, so that gives you context. Right, in the fall of 2005, I don't think, I think he was an 04 draft. 01. 01, oh wow, that is surprising. Yeah, and then do you know where they picked him?
00:23:47
Speaker
Could you give a guess of a, give me, give me a range of numbers of a like, this is not it first overall, right? Like give me, can you give me a range like first to 10 or, you know, 90 to a hundredth. Do you ever, do you have an idea? I'm pretty sure he was not a first round pick. Correct. I will say just for the sake of guessing, I'll say he was a third round pick. So like pick, uh, pick 82.
00:24:16
Speaker
too, too low. 55 55. Okay. Okay. That was going to be my last one of draft in 2001 55th overall. That was my last clue. So second, second round pick. Yeah. Yeah.
00:24:27
Speaker
Cool, man. That was a good one. Nice. Nicely done, Tom. Who the puck was that guy? The puck was that. Well, staying on game show, we decided to do a little bit of an AMA this week. So for those listeners out there, we will occasionally do this. So stay tuned to our Instagram, because if you want your question to hit the hit the airwaves here with us, we'd love to hear from you. So this is always really fun. And these are thank you to those that responded. Yeah, keep it up. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And
00:24:58
Speaker
more Buffalo sports related. However, I think we should have to do one where it's just like literally anything. Ask us stupid shit. We're good at talking about stupid things. I think you want to ask this first question or would you like me to? I would love to ask you this first question, Tom. So I think you guys touched on it last week, but a listener was curious. Where do you think, sorry, do you think the Bills go with a wide receiver in round one of this coming draft?
00:25:27
Speaker
So that's part one. If yes, who you got your eye on, and if not, what position do you think they pick? Okay, I'm going to try and be fast because I talk a lot.
00:25:40
Speaker
I think it's absolutely possible. I think it's a 35% chance they draft wide receiver in round one. If they do, man, I hope to God it is Lad McConkie because the guy is just this... He's a weapon. He's a weapon. He can be utilized all across the field. He's not just an inside guy, a slot guy, or just an outside guy.
00:26:04
Speaker
he can do both. And I really think it's forward thinking. I think it's not us looking at old ways of looking at players. We have a lot of weapons on this team. We don't necessarily have wide receiver one, wide receiver two, wide receiver three, tight end one, tight end two. We have pass catchers, right? So I think he would fit right into that. And I think that's us
00:26:28
Speaker
forward, thinking forward and really helping Josh Allen out as a guy who could get open and be a very quarterback friendly guy. Now, that being said, I don't think it's like it's 35 percent chance. I don't think it's likely. I think that we're more than likely to go spend another another first round draft pick somewhere on the defensive line, defensive edge, defensive tackle. Hmm. Hmm. Interesting. That's where being like to spend his money, man. So
00:26:57
Speaker
I, that's where I think. Yeah. I mean, both sides are equally as important. So, um, what a name though. Lad McConkie. Did I get that right? Yeah. L A D D M C C O N K E E. No. K E Y. Um, you know, luck of the Irish man. Like there are so many cool nicknames we can come up for that guy.
00:27:20
Speaker
Yeah, just for the name alone, I'm intrigued. I'm going to force you, though. Not defensive line. What position on the defensive line are we picking if we don't go wide receiver? D tackle. D tackle. DT. Fair enough. D tackle. That's my guess. Predictably, that is my guess. Personally, I want it to be wide receiver. Book it, folks. Book it. That's all we've got for the second question.
00:27:47
Speaker
Jake, what is your criteria for a successful Bills season this year? See, I think there's a lot of ways that can go and it'd be really easy to just say win the Super Bowl and drop the mic and go off from there. But I think to me, I think coming out and
00:28:12
Speaker
I think consistency maybe is the word that comes to mind. They've been pretty up and down in the past season, where there was a lot of question marks early on, middle and late, that we didn't really know who the team was necessarily. So I think for me, seeing a consistent team that can show some stability week over week
00:28:41
Speaker
and show that they can win the games that they should would be a successful season to me. And yeah, that's the big one to me. Obviously make the playoffs, obviously compete in the playoffs and don't get embarrassed in the playoffs.
00:28:57
Speaker
To me, that's a successful season. The bill is getting embarrassed in the playoffs. No, that doesn't happen. Never. We've never seen that. I agree with you though, man. Like, yeah, I think coming out playing consistently. I've said it. I said a couple of weeks ago at the end of the season, if we get in and we have a mid-season slump, man, I am not buying it because we eventually pull it out and we can win multiple seasons, want multiple seasons, multiple games at the end of seasons. Um, but.
00:29:26
Speaker
And it's a good time to get hot, but man, we, yeah, I consistent games win the, um, when the games that we should win the division and let's get to the playoffs and make some noise, like not just, oh man, here come the bills. Watch let's, let's see where they're going to get knocked out again. Like really, really put our foot down and say, no, we belong here. I got, and me in my mind right now it's AFC championship. We have to go make an AFC championship birth.
00:29:54
Speaker
And boy, oh boy, would my little little heart love a Super Bowl appearance. But I guess you can't you can't let you can't hang your hat on saying this is what that season the season is only successful if a Super Bowl happens. Like it can't it can't happen. That happens. One out of 32 teams leaves that season happy and there's no way. But yeah, I think it's make some noise in the playoffs, win the division, remind everybody that, no, we aren't going anywhere. We are. We run the East and
00:30:22
Speaker
and go get get ourselves confidently to an AFC championship game. Yeah, that's a that's a great point, dude. I mean, only one out of 16 teams is making it to to the Super Bowl from each each conference. Like it's it's you got it. You got to battle your way there. And I mean, yeah, injuries, luck, like all that plays in just as much as talent and coaching and players on your roster and all that.
00:30:50
Speaker
Dark horse idea of what will make a successful season. I want to see Joe Brady come in and prove that he can be a legitimate NFL OC and and is ready to make a statement. That's a great one. Yeah, I mean, full offseason, full training camp and all that. I do. I do wonder what. Yeah, his scheme will differ from from kind of the pieces that he had from Ken Dorsey earlier.
00:31:16
Speaker
at the end of last season. Yeah, absolutely. Right. Like let the guy. Let's see. Come on and prove you're playing with one of the coolest NFL toys ever named Joshua Allen. Joshua Patrick Allen. Don't don't fuck around with this. You know, like, yeah, let him go. Ferrari. Don't use it. Oh, yeah. Don't don't push it from behind. Like he's in and let's go. Exactly. Don't play it like it's a Camry. Like we got to we got to figure this out.
00:31:43
Speaker
Yeah. Final AMA question, Jake. This was a fun one. Keep trade cut. Tailgate edition. Okay. Oh, not players. Okay. Okay. Tailgate edition. Thank God I'm better at this. Tailgate breakfast. Oh, okay. Blue light or interactions with strangers.
00:32:06
Speaker
Oh boy, that is tough. I mean, you said two things I love and then the stranger's one. Yeah, you're not a sociable monkey. So I would imagine that you're just gonna, I can see where your cut's gonna be. I know what my order is. What's your order? See, but I don't know. After a couple of blue lights, I'm pretty friendly and open to talking to strangers. So that's, that's tough. I definitely, I gotta say off the rip. I'm a big food guy, of course. I'm keeping, I'm keeping tailgate breakfast without second thought, especially if you're cooking thumb.
00:32:34
Speaker
I love getting to games and we're the only dumbasses there at like seven AM, seven 30 AM. Nobody else is around in our lot and it's just us fucking around, having fun, making food. Like that's the best. It's the buildup to every year. We're like, Oh, we gotta get there early. We gotta get there early. We gotta make sure we like get into the lot. And then it's literally a ghost town for an hour and a half when everybody else is waking up and being a normal human. And we're already like grilling in the parking lot, drinking beers. So.
00:33:05
Speaker
I know it's going to be my way of just getting you guys there. I'm going to try and act really stressed that, oh, man, we like we got to get our parking spot. It's like, no, I just want to be there and I want to start the fun. I agree with you. I'm keeping tailgate breakfast. And then my trade is going to be a high value, well loved blue light. It's got a lot of value. It's one of the better players in the game. He's he's he's coveted by a lot of other teams out there. I agree with that.
00:33:35
Speaker
Correct. Yeah, correct. And then that leaves at least for me, it's cutting interactions with strangers. But as I'm using that as they can be, I could that would be something I would do without. I totally agree. Yeah, for me, I totally agree. Same same logic. And it's because if if none of the strangers were there, I'd still have a blast going to the game with with you guys. So yeah, man, that's the that's the cut. That's a good question, though. I like that. I like that. I like it.
00:34:03
Speaker
Before we hop into our final little segment of the evening, if anybody is out there and currently live with us, please say hello, leave us a like. If you have another AMA, drop it in. We'll do a, I'll happily sprinkle it in in our conversation this evening. So thanks for hanging out with us. We appreciate you. We are going to do at least one little mock draft here at the end, just to get some practice in.
00:34:28
Speaker
Um, we have, uh, Nigel is kind of our, um, our, uh, NFL draft guru. He's the guy who obsesses about it, goes in and has the time to like really pick apart everything. Um, so we're going to definitely lean on him over these next few weeks, weeks to get prepared for the draft, but let's just start get familiar. Right. There might be folks out there, kind of like Jake and I, who are not as familiar with all the names. Let's just go see what's going to happen.
00:34:54
Speaker
We're going to run a few. Or Jake's going to be looking at a whole new thesaurus of new names. I know Caleb Williams. After that, I know absolutely no one other than Lad McConkie, who you taught me about 14 minutes ago, maybe less. Jake is going to hammer the table for Lad McConkie. So anyway, just to review some of the names that Nigel brought up last week that are positions of need.
00:35:20
Speaker
for the first round, at least are John at the tackle, Johnny Newton, Byron Murphy, Braden Fisk, Chris Jenkins and Ruke O'Roe, O'Roe, O'Roe. Say that one. O'Roe, O'Roe, O'Roe, O'Roe, O'Roe, O'Roe. I think you'd be a somewhat fun again with the nickname part of a player. Let's let's do it, dude. Like, give me that wide receiver.
00:35:45
Speaker
Uh, Marvin Harrison Jr. Won't be there. Malik neighbors won't be there. Romeo Dunsey, Rome, a Dunsey, excuse me, won't be there, but these players might Brian Thomas Jr. Adonai Mitchell, lad McConkie. Um, and then possibly Troy Franklin Xavier worthy or Keon Coleman.
00:36:01
Speaker
Um, and then at safety nights when I didn't have an opportunity to talk about this last week, but just some players that could be a first round baby second round, uh, kind of pick would be Tyler Nubin and Javon Bullard. So Jake, as you're doing these mock drafts, um, could you keep an eye on some of these names that we have on this list and call it out if one of those guys is there? Cause that could be, uh, in the running for who we should pick.
00:36:24
Speaker
Oh, for sure. I'll keep my eye out for some lads. All right. So those folks at home just listening on the audio, we will do our best to keep you up to date for what is on the board here. So we are choosing as the Buffalo Bills. We're only going to do a four round draft.
00:36:46
Speaker
You know what, I'm actually pulling a an audible here. We're going to do a three round draft just to keep us things nice and light. And we can actually go through a couple of things, hopefully a couple of times just to like practice. Let's see who might be there.
00:36:58
Speaker
Simulators are that. They're simulators, right? There's no way for them, us to actually know who's actually going to be there until we get to the NFL Draft in April. But this is our way of kind of just practicing. Let's see what might be around. So do fast draft speed now. Fast. We don't want people waiting around. Correct. All right. Here we go. We're going to let it run all the way down to the bills. And then we're going to pause and go look and see what happens.
00:37:24
Speaker
So we have three trade offers. We are absolutely not trading with the chiefs. I should have turned these off. And we are pausing. I think we're paused.
00:37:37
Speaker
Let's go look at who's been picked so far. Up at the top here, Caleb Williams to the Bears, Drake May to Washington, Jayden Daniels to our AFC East rival, doing the Patriots, Marvis Harrison Jr. to the Cardinals, and then neighbors to the Giants, Rome Adunze to the Bears, the Jets drafted Fuaga, an offensive tackle,
00:38:06
Speaker
Some names that we were kind of looking at, Brian Thomas Jr. Wide receiver went to Denver. The Dolphins also drafted offensive tackle Troy Fotanu.
00:38:21
Speaker
And we are here at 28. So dude, I think we have a couple of names that could be here for us, which is exciting. So at the top here, I'm seeing Brian Murphy, or Byron Murphy, excuse me. That dude, I don't think there's a chance in hell he's at 28. I think he absolutely goes before. It honestly makes me want to just run to the stand here.
00:38:50
Speaker
However, we have, we're going to, if we kind of look here at wide receiver, Keon Coleman is up there, Doni Mitchell, Xavier Worthy, Lad McConkie, your boy. He's here. Troy Franklin, Xavier Levitt is another name that's kind of been thrown around quite a bit this week out of South Carolina. I think we wait, dude. I think we go take D tackle here. I think we go,
00:39:13
Speaker
Byron Murphy. Yeah, dude, whatever choice you're gonna make, I'm supportive of. So what makes you so sure he's not gonna be there? Is he just, he's that talented and he's the number two defensive tackle in the draft? Yeah, he's a freak dude. Just, he is on, literally there's a draft analyst, I can't remember his name, he literally comes up with
00:39:40
Speaker
freaks of the draft. That's the name of his little article. And this guy's on there, right? He is just a wrecking ball of a human being. He's squat. He's dense as all could be. And incredibly athletic. The guy would just be a wrecking ball behind at Oliver Daquan Jones and Byron Murphy. Dude, sign me up all day long. Book it. I'm in.
00:40:05
Speaker
So just let's look in round two here a little bit of any players and maybe we were looking at lad mcconkey to the bangles Then Adonai Mitchell went to the Patriots that kind of makes sense especially with a new rookie QB Jane Daniels then Here we are. Okay, I'm Troy Franklin to the Texans and
00:40:32
Speaker
See if any other names popped up that maybe we'd be interested in. No, I don't think so. So at round two for D tackle, a row row row is there. So that's kind of good to know. Maybe next mix, maybe next draft. We probably shouldn't double dip at D tackle, but it's nice to know that he could be here. Chris Jenkins, Braden Fix. There's some picks at D tackle for round two. Maybe this next draft we save and go look at some of those. I think we take a look at what's at wide receiver. So.
00:41:00
Speaker
Many of our first round kind of choice wide receivers are gone. Xavier Leggett is the only remaining name and he could absolutely be interesting. He might be my pick here.
00:41:10
Speaker
I don't even see him on our, on our planning doc list to be honest with you. Yeah, he's kind of been, he's kind of filtered to the top this week of, of conversation in Bill's mafia land on the Twitter. So are you okay with that? If we do, if there is a prime defensive tackle on round one, you're okay with getting maybe a B level wide receiver instead of somebody that's a,
00:41:33
Speaker
Yeah, I don't know. But see, it's always so hard to tell, especially with this wide receiver draft class. They're so deep. There's so many options that you never know, man. Like AJ Brown, star wide receiver in Philadelphia. He was a second round pick. Justin Jefferson, who's considered the top wide receiver in the league. He was the first round pick, but he was 18. He fell in that draft.
00:41:58
Speaker
Um, considering if you were to redraft that now, he would absolutely be way up in the top three. Um, you know, but there's also some interesting safety options here. So I think for here, I think because there's not a immediate answer at wide receiver, I think we go safety. Interesting. I think Tyler new been here.
00:42:20
Speaker
Yeah, and why him over somebody else besides the number next to his name and seemingly how much he fell. So it's because of his fit. I truly think that he
00:42:36
Speaker
has the best kind of ability to go make a difference on the defense. Well, especially in where we are in round two, right? Of all these safeties available, I think he's the one who's going to be able to come in and play that free safety role that we really need as opposed to a strong safety that I honestly see we kind of already have on our roster. So I think Tyler Newbin would be a great fit here.
00:43:00
Speaker
I'm going to hit resume. Oh, okay. I'm going to turn off trades next time. Kaboom. All right. Now we're getting into beyond really my comfort zone. All right. We don't have a third round pick. Oh, there we go. All right. So that's all right.
00:43:24
Speaker
So when's our next in the fourth round? I'm assuming we have a fourth round. Yeah, we have a fourth rounder. Yep, we have a fourth rounder. If it fell this way where you got two players for defense in the first two, the first three rounds at that point, does it become OK? We need to pick a wide receiver in round four.
00:43:41
Speaker
Um, not necessarily. I don't think it forces our hands. Um, I am sure because Brandon Bean and his coaching staff are a thousand times more intelligent than we are. Um, they have picks, you know, at every position all the way through the draft of players they like and who they'll be interested in. So if we don't hit.
00:44:00
Speaker
Um, on a player that we want, like at a certain position early in the draft, I think there's going to be options. There's going to be. And then, and, um, we've relied on a lot of players who are third, fourth, fifth round picks that have come in and played really meaningful football for this team. So I am not, if we don't get the answer at the opposition of need at, um, pick one or pick two round one or two, like, I am okay. I'm not going to freak out. Okay. Okay. Yeah.
00:44:30
Speaker
But you're right, this is a very defensive side, heavy mock draft that we just did. I think we should do one more and maybe experiment with going wide receiver in the first round. I like it. Just to play around, you know?
00:44:48
Speaker
Can I turn off round one, two, three, I guess we can just do one too fast. I can't turn off trades. That's fine. That's all right. Well, we're an unfriendly GM. We'll just, we'll just ignore them all. Yeah. Especially the freaking chiefs, right? We leave them on. Yeah. There he is. Okay. Go away.
00:45:08
Speaker
All right. So let's go see what happened. Wow. The top three are the exact same. Caleb Williams, Drake May, Jayden Daniels to the Patriots. I'm going to have to do some more research on Jayden Daniels. Because we're not interested in quarterback, I have not really picked apart the quarterbacks. I'm interested to see what if you could be of some... Would it should be be concerns if he actually does make it to New England?
00:45:31
Speaker
Malik neighbors above Marmon Harrison. That's interesting. These two guys are just gonna be just giants, dude. Those are, if you're, Jake and I play fantasy together, anybody else out there, fantasy players, these are names to keep in the back of your brain. It does depend on where they get drafted. It depends on where they go. That absolutely will affect things. However, those two teams have some good quarterbacks. They do, they do. Are, ooh, look at that. Jets Draft and JJ McCarthy.
00:46:00
Speaker
Kind of like that, make them take a really valuable pick at somewhere they already have a quarterback at, right? They have Aaron Rodgers coming back, so I'm fine with them kind of burning another pick. Roma Dunsey falling to 15 to the Ravens. Holy shit. Brian Thomas Jr. to 17. Dolphins, sorry, Dolphins drafting edge Dallas Turner. All right, let's go check out who's that wide receiver here.
00:46:29
Speaker
So we have a lot. All five at the top of this list are Nigel recommendations. So they all have Nigel's gold star. They do. Yeah. Do any jump out more than others to you?
00:46:42
Speaker
So, um, I think I always said, uh, I said a little bit ago, lad McConkie is my favorite of this, uh, of this crew because I think he's going to fit what we need the best. The ones that could be cool is Brian Thomas Jr. He's.
00:46:59
Speaker
Unfortunately, I'm wondering if he's going to be a little bit of a Gabe Davis 2.0. I think he's a better prospect than Gabe Davis was. However, his route tree is limited and that's what got us in trouble with Gabe Davis. I don't know. Okay. He did go earlier, so that's not really on the table here. Adana Mitchell,
00:47:24
Speaker
is a really, really kind of sharp route runner. He's aggressive against corners. Well, the issue is playing against aggressive corners because he's such a small player that his timing is really easily thrown off. So, man, I think we go fun. Let's go with Lad McConkie here, dude. I'm in. Let's book it. This is our draft. We're not pros. Exactly.
00:47:53
Speaker
And here we are now. So now you got a wide receiver, right? So does that kind of immediately lower that as a need for you, where you're probably not picking one for a few rounds, you're going to focus more on defensive depth? Yeah, especially considering what we already have as pass catchers on the team, we don't need
00:48:11
Speaker
that much draft capital assigned to it, right? We could get what we need in the first, I would love for us to take a wide receiver in round one, two, or three, like spend some draft capital to get a guy, but we don't need to double dip that high. Absolutely, let's get another body in the room down below, like down in the lower rounds, like the day three pick, like let's do it, let's get more stock the cupboards for Josh Allen, but I don't need it to be that early.
00:48:38
Speaker
Fair enough. Fair enough. All right. So then now we're here. We're here in round two. Well, yes. All right. Go through. Go through who's off the board that jumps out. But Adana Mitchell is out there. Xavier Worthy, those other wide receivers were interested in. Cam Kitchens is actually another interesting safety name. Keon Coleman left. Tyler Neuben, who we drafted in the second round last mock draft, went to New Orleans. Troy Franklin to the Giants.
00:49:09
Speaker
Uh, a row, row, row to the bangles. All right. I think we're going to have some options here, dude. So Xavier Leggett is here again. I think he could be more of a second and third round option. I really do. I'm going to do some research on him and come back to you guys next week. Um, let's check out defense. Let's see who's here. So edge. We have a couple dude. So.
00:49:32
Speaker
Okay, ready? We have two D tackles that could be really awesome picks here in the second round, which makes me feel good about options of, hey, maybe we don't need D tackle round one. Chris Jenkins and Braden Fisk, we talked about quite a bit last week, but just to kind of like recap,
00:49:52
Speaker
This Braden Fisk is just insanely athletic and the guy runs hot. All he does is work. He just goes, goes, goes. He'd be another just amazing contribution in that D tackle room.
00:50:06
Speaker
Chris Jenkins is just like a really, really strong dude. His run defense is unbelievable. It'd be interesting to see how much he could really contribute in like a pass rush kind of world. But man, I think we could go either way. So what do you think? Should we go workhorse or should we go like really solid run defense? What's your thought?
00:50:31
Speaker
Oh man. I mean, I feel like our run defense was pretty decent last year, but I don't know who was the main factor in that or who we need to replace or anything. So I'll, I'll say I'll go with workhorse, I guess. All right. So then that means Chris Jenkins dude. So let's book it. Let's do it. All right, man.
00:50:49
Speaker
Well, that's fun, kind of cool, kind of interesting to see who might be around, throw down some names. Maybe we'll hit one on one of these and we can actually, you know, have predicted what the bills would have done. And it's interesting to just kind of do two of them to, you know, you start off one way or the other and see what falls in for the rest of the next round. So.
00:51:11
Speaker
I think this would be awesome to do with Nigel too at some point before the draft. And maybe we do the full thing just for fun. Why not? I think we're going to do a bunch. I think we should absolutely do a bunch because I think it's good. I think it's good legwork and prep work for the draft. Yeah, it's good to get talking about the, again, I know a few names now. Hopefully others do too. It's good to get to know some names a little bit so that when, hopefully when they're picked on draft day, you kind of have a little bit of background on them. Yeah, man.
00:51:40
Speaker
All right, bro. What do you say? Should we send this one out? Let's do it, man. This is a fun episode. Just kind of bouncing around. Absolutely. So thank you guys, all of you guys out there listening and kind of playing along. We appreciate you. We really, really do. It would mean a lot to us if you could please share this episode. So give us a like. We got a couple of people in on the video right now. Please leave a like. Please share this episode. Give us a follow on IGX, TikTok and YouTube at Let's Go Buff Pod with two F's.
00:52:10
Speaker
That's my buddy, Jake. My name is Tom, and you're listening to the Let's Go Buffalo podcast. We're sending you love wherever you are. Go Bills, go Sabres, Let's Go Buffalo.