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Ep. 32 - Changing of the Guard
36 Plays1 year ago
Buffalo sports fans... what a week. Join us as we break it all down, both Sabres and Bills news.
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 and Hosts Greeting
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 are listening to the Let's Go Buffalo podcast, your favorite podcast for all things bills and sabers with the pals, Nigel, Tom and Jake. Episode 32 coming at you.
00:00:39
Speaker
Don't forget to follow our social medias. You can find us on all the platforms, Instagram, X, TikTok, YouTube. You can use the handle at Let's Go Buff Pod and you'll come right to us. Let's say hello to the fellows this evening. Tommy, how you doing, buddy? Dude, I'm good. I'm good.
00:00:59
Speaker
I'm ready to roll. We got a marathon of a sandwich to get through here tonight. So yeah, I'm good. Lots to talk about for sure. Lots to talk about for sure. Torpedo, what's shaking, Browski?
00:01:11
Speaker
I'm good, too. Yeah. Good week so far. Weather's warming up. Feels like spring. But I did get one last skiing session in the weekend. So I'm thrilled about that. But we got a lot to chew on this week, boys. Dan, you skied this past weekend? I did. Yeah. Was it a piece of cardboard down like a single track of snow? Like, what was it?
00:01:31
Speaker
No, it was really warm last week. But over the weekend, it dipped a little bit and it actually it snowed the night before and then it was snowing during the day on the mountain. So it was like it was real snow. It was fantastic. Now, what what mountain is that over by you that you go to?
00:01:46
Speaker
I went to Bel Air and the Catskills. Bel Air. I thought that was in, is that California? I don't know. I don't even know. Different spelling. Different spelling. Gotcha. Gotcha. Sweet dude. I'm glad you got one more in before the, for the season ended. Tom, did you go skiing once this season? No, no, I, I ski an embarrassing, small amount for a Vermonter. So yeah, I know. I didn't go, I didn't go once this year.
College Memories and Beer Experiences
00:02:08
Speaker
I think this is the first time in a long time. I haven't gone at least one time, but
00:02:13
Speaker
Yeah, I got to figure that out. Yeah, me too. All right. Well, uh, hey fellas, good news. It's time for a beverage and I can join you today for a change. What do you say? Shall I count us down? I was premature. I'm already open here. I got a bottle anyway. So, all right, here we go.
00:02:32
Speaker
Ready? Three, two, one. Nice. I'm going first because I'm excited because I finally have a beer and I'm going with the old stomping grounds, boys. You guessed it. The old beer company.
00:02:49
Speaker
flower power. So for those that may not know, all three of us went to Ithaca College. And for a little bit of time, myself and Tom and our buddy Jack, we were all students in the School of Music at Ithaca. And for a hot minute there, one summer, we all worked at Ithaca Beer Company. It was only one season for Tom, but Jack and I bartended there together for about four years.
00:03:14
Speaker
And it was as ridiculous as anybody who knows this can imagine. Yeah. Who decided to hire all three of us to then, you know, be responsible for anything? The craziest part of the craziest part of the whole thing was Jack was there first. And Jack was the one that put in good words for us. And first of all, the bad thing is people listened to Jack to him. Yes. His words held weight. Right. And then all of a sudden you get to you get to Tom and I and they had to be not thrilled with those hirings. But
00:03:42
Speaker
It's such a wonder that that building isn't burned down at this point with the three of you guys running around there. Yeah, I know. Yeah, it's very good. Yeah, it was. But yeah, definitely, you know, fueled our parties. It was good. It was for sure. For sure. Yeah. Working there steady stream and the creeker that you guys brought back, like some recur, man, it was delicious, but it was like a 10 percent beer or something like that.
00:04:06
Speaker
Yeah, 995, I want to say it was or something like that. But the old the old bottling line that they had there used to not be great. So when they would bottle beer, they would always be what are called shorts. And there would be pallets. I'm talking like full pallets, six cases high of beers that we couldn't technically sell in stores because there was like
00:04:27
Speaker
that much less than what there was half an ounce or something. Yeah, it was like not, not exactly. Or in some cases more than 12 ounces. So those shorts were just free beer for us. And that was, yeah, I don't think I paid for beer for three years of college. And then we returned the bottles at the grocery store.
00:04:49
Speaker
We're nothing but intelligent. I'm not telling you. My absolute favorite dude was getting the kegs for like a fraction of the price. And then at our house parties charging five bucks a cup, we would like quadruple our, our expenses, dude. So yeah. Flower power IPA. Shout out Ithaca. Shout out Ithaca college. Let's see. Torpedo. You're drinking up there, big dog.
00:05:14
Speaker
I'm glad you let Tom go last because he's excited about his, but I have a two roads brewing, but too juicy, which has never been used to describe me, but it's a, it's a very solid hazy IPA from our friends at two roads in Connecticut. Nice dude.
00:05:30
Speaker
Hell yeah. A foam brewery, which is delicious up here by Burlington VT. Um, and, uh, it's a golden ale dry hops, super tasty. I was telling the guys earlier, I could hardly kind of save one. I bought this like a week and a half ago and it took a lot of effort to not just drink them all before the podcast. So.
00:05:52
Speaker
We got a couple of listeners out there. Anybody out there having a drink with us? What are you guys drinking? Throw it in the comments. Yeah. Don't be afraid to throw a like on there as well. A couple of people in here, throw a comment, throw a make fun of somebody. I don't know. Do something, but we'll, we'll pin it. All right, boy. Should we get into this big old mess of stuff that we got going on here?
00:06:12
Speaker
Please do it. Yeah.
Buffalo Sabres Trades and Performance
00:06:15
Speaker
Name of the game today, folks, is just going to be trying our last time we podcasted was Tuesday of last week. So we have a whole different world. We were we were literally back then. Yes. Trade off, dude, at least in the sports world. So so much has happened. Trade deadlines have come and gone. Legal tampering periods. The NFL have coming gone. Free agency deals.
00:06:35
Speaker
money getting thrown around in the NFL like it's not even an object so there's a lot to get into today we're gonna try and keep it around an hour we might go over a little bit but we're gonna kick things off with the savers so there have been some pretty exciting things that have been happening
00:06:52
Speaker
And we're going to get into the big stuff there. But first, a couple of the smaller things. So Jake, first off, dude, I got a shout out, you and I, because everybody that moved was somebody that we talked about last pod as a potential candidate for going. So shout out to us. I think we did a pretty good job of guessing those players there. I forgot to change where it says my name. This is Tom's dad.
00:07:25
Speaker
it's too late now dude it's there now I have to leave it so yeah so yeah first of those uh less sort of fun sexy trades um air johnson air johnson went to Philadelphia Philadelphia Flyers um somehow on this planet we got a
00:07:43
Speaker
fourth round pick for Eric Johnson, which is absolutely crazy. For some reason, we love to fleece the Philadelphia Flyers and trades. Don't forget that they gave us a first round pick for Rasmus wrist aligning, I think three years ago now. So you can just put this on their tab in terms of them giving us more than they should have. I would have parted with EJ for a sixth, but I guess they wanted the leadership. Does this do anything for you, Jake? Any anything move the needle here?
00:08:11
Speaker
I mean, I think it's good that he gets a chance to go to Philly. They're fighting for a playoff spot, so good for him. I'm happy with the return. Yeah, fourth round pick is more than I was bargaining for, too. I think fifth, sixth round pick somewhere in there is kind of what I expected, so I'm pleasantly surprised by the fourth. I mean, yeah, we definitely fleeced Philadelphia in the wrist of line and trade. He's looked better. I got to give him credit. They have put him in a position to succeed in Philadelphia, so
00:08:42
Speaker
I'm not saying that we didn't fleece them, but they at least they at least made him a more valuable defenseman for them. But I think that that's a bit of a sham. I don't I don't think he could go and replicate that on another team. I think it's very much how they insulated him in Philadelphia. But anyways, to put a bow on it. Yeah, no, I'm super thrilled for the fourth round pick for Johnson.
00:09:05
Speaker
Yeah. Kyle Acposo off to the Florida Panthers, which if nothing else, dude, I'm just thrilled because I think for mine and your money, Jake, we sent Kyle to the best team in the league right now. And all we can do right now is just kind of hope that he's going to get a cup because that guy deserves it. He's done a lot for the Sabres.
00:09:32
Speaker
I'm grateful for him, but also glad to see him go. It's not somebody that's adding a lot offensively or anything like that at this point. Um, so I post off to Florida in return, and I'm going to butcher this name. I looked it up to the, trying to figure it out. I Jake, you don't know how to say this guy's name by chance. Do you not, not any more than you do. I think based on what I found. And so he's Swedish. I think it's college.
00:09:57
Speaker
Um, something like that. I, I think I'm sure that's going to be wrong, but, um, AHL defenseman, uh, he did get a point in his first game with us, um, after having only three points and like 30 games, um, with the Charlotte checkers. So, um, we like that, but yeah, he's going to play for Rochester. And then we also got a 2024 seventh round pick for Kyle up. So Jake, anything there you want to touch on?
00:10:23
Speaker
I think the return for this, the AHLD man in a seventh round pick is pretty irrelevant. I think I would have given him away for free to do him a solid. He was such a tremendous captain for this team, not so much in what the team did while he was captain, but
00:10:43
Speaker
He was the torch bearer, if you will, to bring this team kind of out of a very, very dark era into an era that has a little bit more excitement and hope around it. I think he's a consummate professional. I can't think of a better player to give you an interview or represent the team with him.
00:11:07
Speaker
A family man, like he's, he's just, he's just a great dude. Like I got no other words than that. And I, with the injuries that he's had in his career and the health scares, I mean, he almost fucking died. Like let's not forget that the fact that he's still playing and the fact that he still has some gas left in the tank.
00:11:24
Speaker
especially on the defensive side of the puck, which is where he's going to be more valuable in Florida. I'm thrilled for him. I was cheering for Florida last year in the playoffs for a good number of the rounds. I'm not going to lie. And this really cements it. I truly hope Florida goes and gets a cup for him.
00:11:47
Speaker
Couldn't really care less about anyone else on that team, but I hope he gets a cup. Well, who else is on their team that we love and care about? Sam Reinhardt, right? Who is ready to fucking cash in on this summer, dude. He deserves it. But he is, he's been.
00:12:03
Speaker
Oh, so good. Yeah. So we got, and then, um, Montor, a defenseman on that team as well. So we got a lot of sabers on that Panthers team. Just, just go get a cup to make up for having to deal with being a Buffalo saber for a couple of years.
00:12:17
Speaker
Um, that should be, that should make it all even out there. Um, cool. So good for those guys. We appreciate the leadership, all that stuff, but goodbye. Um, the big one, the sexy one, Casey middle stat went off to Colorado in return for Mr. Bowen by room and my sweet God damn.
00:12:40
Speaker
has Bowen Byram been sick to watch two, three games, three goals. I'm not going to lie, dude. I thought he was going to demand a trade that very first game when I had to watch that poor guy be on the power play going like this, trying to dictate.
00:12:56
Speaker
like traffic and and tell guys where to go because nobody's moving and he comes from an incredibly fluid power play over in Colorado and he's like what the hell is going on but dude this looks like since this guy came into the fold looks like a different savers team Jake I totally agree yeah I think I think Bowen Byram does a lot of little things well for an incredibly young and relatively inexperienced defenseman
00:13:26
Speaker
And you said it right there. You can see it on the powerplay where he's trying to influence how the Savers players are interacting with him in the offensive zone on the powerplay. You sent a clip around from Twitter of him kind of trying to direct traffic that you were just referencing on the powerplay. And it was maddening to see the inaction from a lot of Savers players in the zone. There was no movement at all from
00:13:54
Speaker
any player other than Pyram except when they were like chasing a puck into a corner. And that is unacceptable for a team that has the foot speed and the playing style speed that Buffalo can demonstrate. And I think it's, it's a hundred percent the B reason why their power play has struggled so much this year. And I think that power play struggling is one of the primary reasons why they're where they are in the standings today.
00:14:23
Speaker
Yeah, so seeing him come from a system so Colorado that each for those that don't know each team runs two power play units a first unit second unit Colorado with their embarrassment of riches at
00:14:37
Speaker
the defensive position, would run their first power play unit with Kale McCarr, who's one of the best defensemen in the league, and then they would run their second power play unit using three defensemen because they had that much talent back there and not enough forward depth to really stock a second power play unit. So Bowen Byram is used to playing second power play minutes in that system
00:14:56
Speaker
with two other defencemen on the power play and they still are able to create an environment where you're pressuring the puck and creating movement in the offensive zone to drive scoring chances. And so he comes to Buffalo and is playing on the power play and he sees none of that and that absolutely must change and I hope he's a driver to push that change.
00:15:16
Speaker
Yeah, I so far, dude, I mean, you know, we talk about the eye test with with hockey. It literally, dude, so like I was at a rehearsal last night, but I had the game on my phone and like every chance I get, I'm trying to watch little snippets of the game.
00:15:32
Speaker
We looked fast as hell last night, dude. Yeah. The absolute wheels off of Detroit who was ahead of us in the standings. Right. I think they're a little bit of a fraudulent team. We can get into that a different time. Their their analytics don't back up their standing position. But all that being said, it's a team that's ahead of us. Seven to three was the score with Bowen Byron scoring two goals. Zach Benson having three points, dude. Anyway, dude, like this team just looks faster and more fluid.
00:16:02
Speaker
Were you bringing a guy like Bowen by room? Yeah. I lean and bow as a defensive pairing, dude. What a, what a skating wet dream. Like the, the way these two moved dude is like, it is, it is incredible to watch those two skate together. He, he isn't, he's an incredible skater. Yeah. It's, it's one of his main strengths, I think. And.
00:16:25
Speaker
I think you need good skaters on your team, but you don't necessarily need fast skating players to be able to play a fast tempo, but he is good at doing both. Like Pittsburgh, for example, is a good example of a team that skates slow. Their guys are a bit older or not as fleet of foot, but they still play a really fast tempo of hockey. They're aggressive and moving the puck up the ice.
00:16:50
Speaker
I think like Buffalo, I think they have faster players. They have a lot of guys that can turn the burners on, especially on the blue line. There's some really, really talented skaters back there. But I felt like earlier in the year, they weren't playing a fast style of hockey. And that's kind of changed in the fast little bit where they're playing a fast tempo, they're pushing other teams pace. And it's good. It's earning them a lot more points than they were earlier in the year.
Sabres' Playoff Chances and Defense Strategy
00:17:18
Speaker
So
00:17:19
Speaker
I don't think he's the only thing that's changed, but he's definitely a huge breath of fresh air. Yeah. I think it's, I think breath of fresh air is a great way to put it. It's like guys can look at him and be like, Oh yeah. Like that's what we're supposed to be doing. This is professional hockey. Instead of watching Eric Johnson freaking drag his prehistoric ass up and down the ice and look like he's ready for a nap by
00:17:46
Speaker
10 minutes into the first period. So yeah, dude, I think and and okay, I know veteran leadership is important on a hockey team. I'm handing out analogy now. But can we please, please, dude, like, I, I don't want any more Eric Johnson type signings. Like, I just don't want it, dude. Yeah, go ahead. If the Eric Johnson move felt that felt like a move that a
00:18:16
Speaker
a continual contender might make to give the boys a voice that has seen it and been there before. And I understand that you want that for a young team that's pushing for the playoffs. But it felt like it didn't feel like a move to move the needle at all as far as how the team competed. It was just a leadership move, which, again, is fine. But I don't like necessarily for the team. I think maybe it was a good experiment. But I'm happy to move on from him.
00:18:46
Speaker
inject a young player that has that same experience. He was on the same team as Eric Johnson, winning that cup and was. Oh, he he he he performed excellently during that playoff run. I mean, I wouldn't say he was the best player on the team during that run, but I think I think the conversation stops at top three. He was credible. Yeah. Borderline point of game.
00:19:12
Speaker
Yeah, as a 20 year old, I think. So I think that experience is great to have. And I think that's the I don't think that's the norm. I think that's maybe the ceiling for him. But the floor is also incredibly high as well. I think there's
00:19:37
Speaker
I think we get into his injury history in a moment here, but I think adding him to the team is a huge boon to bolster the back end.
00:19:46
Speaker
Yeah, it is. And go ahead, Tommy. I got two questions here to kind of kind of put kind of put some punctuation here. What a what's his contract situation like? Is he is he going to be coming up for a new deal coming up soon here or is he signed to one already? I think Jake and I are both scrambling to produce right now. I don't know. I have no idea.
00:20:08
Speaker
I got you. So, um, in on July 1st, 2023. So for this, he signed a two year deal. Uh, it's about 3 million a year, three and a half million a year. So he's signed for next year as well. And then he'll be a restricted free agent. Okay. So then they got, this year is kind of the trial and then next year that's, you know, see, we get a full off season, see what, what it looks like with the full season, then go from there.
00:20:31
Speaker
Yeah. His, his cap hit the next. So 23, 24, his cap hit is 3,850,000 next season. Same exact gap at 3,850,000 25, 26 season. He's an RFA. Okay. Cool. Yep. So, uh, you're right. You're right. National. So two more full years of him under contract.
00:20:52
Speaker
Yeah, I know only only one more full year right up next year and then the following season is when he's in All right. Yeah. Yeah. Okay, dude. Okay Tommy yeah, so then you guys all uh
00:21:08
Speaker
kind of all season, you're one of your biggest gripes has been that this team doesn't seem to be all constructed in a way where we have all the pieces we need. We have lots of the same kind of players. Does he diversify the saber's roster or is he kind of more of the same? Like, what does he fit in? Right. Does he, does he start to give you guys some excitement for changing the roster structure next year or you guys are both giggling. So I'd be interested to see what happens.
00:21:33
Speaker
Well, I think let me guess, Jake, what if you're giggling? Because I know why I'm giggling. And I think I'm giggling because he makes me grumpy because I think he's the same type of player in that regard. And maybe Jake feels differently. But that's why I'm giggling because I'm thrilled about the move. He's been sick. But he is another high end skill, not super dirty, gritty player. Jake, do you do you feel differently?
00:22:03
Speaker
I had a different answer but the similar sentiment. So Tom in the NHL you have a left defense and right defense and typically in a perfect world you'd have three left defensemen that shoot left and then three right defensemen that shoot right.
00:22:23
Speaker
The Sabres have a glut of left shooting defenseman, Daliin, Power, Ryan Johnson, now Bowen Byram. So there's four right there. You only have three defensive pairs. So he's a left shot defenseman. The Sabres have a lot of, he's a speedy puck moving defenseman, which personally, I don't think you can have enough of.
00:22:52
Speaker
So I'm not mad about that. Um, I think, I think it does, it, it, it does beg the question, where does the defensive core go after the season? Because he is a left shot defenseman. And one of, I do want to highlight this. One of the main reasons that he was.
00:23:09
Speaker
maybe on the way out with Colorado and vice versa, is he expressed a desire in Colorado that, look, I know my skill level. I know where I want to be. I want to be a number one defenseman in the NHL one day. But this this schlub, Kale McCarr, who is one of the best defenseman, if not the best defenseman in the league. For my money, he's the third best player in the league. It goes to David McKinnon, Kale McCarr, for me.
00:23:39
Speaker
Fair enough. I yeah, he's that good. He is saying so he is a left a left-shot defenseman play in Colorado He's eating up power play one minutes in Colorado. He's you can book him for 24 minutes a night Every night in and out. So Bob. I room said look this this guy That's fears older than me has taken up all my ice time. I want to be a number one defensive in the league one day So we acquire him
00:24:03
Speaker
Who do we have on the team already? We have Rasmus Dalin, who is already a number one defenseman, who is young and has eaten up those minutes. And then you have Owen Power, who's 21 years old and is hopefully going to progress into being an excellent left-shot defenseman. So where does Beau Vyram fit in that? And that's a question I have. I'm not looking for an answer.
00:24:25
Speaker
I think one of the solutions and that we've seen in the past few games that he's been here, Rasmus D'Alene is a left shot defenseman, but is very comfortable and plays very well playing on the right side. So if you can allow Bowen Byram to be his defense partner and play on the left ball, D'Alene plays on the right, I think that's an excellent way forward where you keep
00:24:47
Speaker
Virum happy by playing number one minutes while the Daliin flanks him on the right hand side and you have two excellent excellent excellent puck movers on the back end and I've said this before on this podcast I don't want someone like Daliin paired with someone that's like an old grizzled defensive defenseman I want him paired with another puck mover
00:25:11
Speaker
It allows both players to move the puck better if you can put them in a position where the passes that they're getting from their defense partner are more beneficial to them breaking out into the neutral and offensive zone. With that said, I'm rambling, I'm sorry, but with that said, my concern there becomes, is Owen Power a number one overall pick left shot defenseman? Is he okay with being a second pair of defensemen on that team?
00:25:37
Speaker
So those are the kind of questions I think the Sabres need to ask themselves in the next couple of years as these contracts kind of come to a head. I don't know if, I'm not saying this is a guarantee, but I don't know if it's too crowded back there with top flight talent on the back end, but I guess we'll have to see.
00:25:57
Speaker
You make such good points, dude. It's so compelling. Now, here would be my counter, right? And we're already spending too much time on the savers. There's so much to get through. Oh, my God.
00:26:10
Speaker
Here would be my counter to that one. To me, in a perfect world, on NHL offense, there's so much fluidity and there's so much motion that it doesn't matter what handedness your defensemen are. Because to me, in a perfect world, your defensemen are down low, they're
00:26:32
Speaker
They're below goal on extended. They trade with the wingers. The wingers go up to the point, right? Like every hockey is such a fluid game, like, and I think that's the saber's biggest issue right now. Wherever we are, we plant roots. There's not enough movement. So for me, I worry less about the handedness because I want to see an offense where kind of it seems like what Bo was talking about, or at least looking for on the power play, right? Just more fluidity. You're never in the same spot for
00:27:02
Speaker
a super long time. Nor should you be. It's unpredictable. It's easier for your opponent to negate what you're about to do. Yeah, exactly. So like if if and that's why you to your point, Jake, the offseason moves or the potential for offseason moves for the decor
00:27:19
Speaker
I personally, and this is just my own opinion, I don't mind if we have six left shot defensemen as long as that fluidity is happening and guys are moving. Because I think at the end of the day, it matters way more that, like you said, it's easy to defend when guys aren't moving.
00:27:39
Speaker
I think at the end of the day, the most important thing is that in the offensive zone, there's a ton of fluidity going on. Guys are moving and you're never in the same spot for more than what? Two to three passes like the most. So that's how I feel about all that stuff. But I mean, you're certainly like right, right shot. Defense men are a premium in the NHL for whatever reason. The ratio seems to be like seven to one left shot, the right shot.
00:28:05
Speaker
So it's, which is weird, but yeah, almost any team needs guys to play on their off off side, which is not, it's not uncommon. So that leans great at it, but.
00:28:16
Speaker
I do wonder if, I don't think this is the only move the Sabres make between now and season opening next year. No worries. Certainly other moves. I wonder if anyone gets pushed off the blue line. And I'm not talking about Daliin, Byroom, or Power, but I'm wondering, does this force out Yokee Hari? Does this force out Ryan Johnson in some kind of move?
00:28:37
Speaker
And you just said the two guys that I could see being gone, right? Legitimate NHL players, 100% Ryan Johnson, especially, but like the only other guy I could see maybe going to Sammy, but he just signed that big contract. Agreed. Yeah, I don't think he's he's gone. I do. I if I could pick into Kevin Adams brain, I wonder how it if and how much he regrets that Samuelson massive contract today.
00:29:03
Speaker
if he regrets it at all. I don't know because when he signed it, Samuelson was stapled to Darlene's pair and they were a shutdown pair and they played really good hockey at the time. Does he regret it at all at this point? I don't know, but I think that contract is
00:29:19
Speaker
Probably not movable. I think he's probably a saver for a long time, which is yeah I'm not mad about but it does it does I'm only I'm only upset about it because it limits your opportunities to do other things So I don't know if those two move on, but we'll see I guess But if if if those guys are traded again, like I said with middle set I don't want them traded like alright Yoki Haru's gone and we got a second round pick from him That would be a failure to me. I'm sad. I want like like like yeah Yeah trade one of those
00:29:47
Speaker
NHL defenseman with a forward prospect to get a better player for your roster. Yeah. Sign me up. Honestly. Yeah. Okay. So ready to do just two seconds. I would not even blanket this dude. Yokey first round pick and Noah Austin for a boots. Nevich book it. I'm good. Give it to me.
00:30:11
Speaker
Oh, but I would do that. But he's a good player. He's a good player. And the asking price is high. I would I would.
00:30:20
Speaker
I would consider that. Yeah, for sure. Okay. So Jake, we do there. It's not all flowers with bow. Byram. He does have a substantial injury history specifically to do with concussions. He said, I think he said, is it three now he's had it's two or three for sure. It's not a lot of time. He's lost a lot of regular season play. I think everybody remembers his Stanley cup wrong that we talked about, but his regular seasons have been.
00:30:47
Speaker
maybe not the most remarkable. And it's been hampered by injury. I think, I think the most games he's played in a season is like 50 something like 51 or 52, something like that. So that is something to keep in the back pocket. It is a gamble that Kevin Adams took with this because, I mean, if, if the truth is, right, if Bo Byron just keeps getting concussions, we lose this trade a thousand times over in Colorado's off and running to another Stanley couple of Casey middle staff.
00:31:13
Speaker
Right, so it is a risk, but it's a risk that I'm OK with taking because and you know what, Jake, I can't even be pissed about it because based on what you and I discussed last week, a lot of that conversation was circled around. By the way, shout out you because you were the one that initially pasted Casey Middlestadt back for a top four defenseman. So good on you. But if you know, like if he can't go like the best abilities availability.
00:31:43
Speaker
Yeah. So it is a risk, but it's a worthy risk. It's, it's high risk, high reward. And I think the, the I'm fine with it. I'm okay with that because I think the discussion that happened internally was Casey middle stat is not going to be a long-term signed player for our team. Let's get something for him before we just lose him. Right. So I'm okay with that. Go out and get a hot, like, like Byron can be an incredible player. And I think it's important to remember.
00:32:12
Speaker
Yes, there are a lot of examples of players getting hampered with head injuries that don't make it to their full potential and fade away into obscurity. I don't wish that for anyone, but it is a reality. But there's other examples of players and defenseman even having injury history, head injuries earlier in their career, and then progressing and putting those injuries behind them to be a top defenseman in the league.
00:32:39
Speaker
We talked about the team already. Ocposo went there. Aaron Ekblad, a lot of head injuries and injury history earlier in his career. Missed a ton of time. He's one of the best defensemen, one of the best teams in the league right now. So there's paths forward. Injury history is exactly what it says. It's history. It doesn't have to be what happens moving forward. So hopefully all the best to Byrom and hope he kind of stays out of the press box.
00:33:05
Speaker
Yeah, Chris, Chris pronger to another guy that is like injuries early. And I think pretty universally considered one of the best defenseman ever. Yeah. All right. I'm going to keep us moving here, Jake. There's week you and I could do this for days, but real quick, we have to discuss the fact the Sabres are making a push.
00:33:28
Speaker
Jake, I'm going to count us down. The question is, are you and I buying the hype? And that's going to be three, two, one answer. You ready? I'm ready. Are we buying the Buffalo Sabres playoff hype? Ready? Three, two, one. No.
00:33:47
Speaker
No, they're making a push. It's fun. It's exciting. UPL is playing out of his mind. I had a coworker today tell me if we had this year's UPL last year, we make the playoffs with like 104 points was his guess. And I don't know if we get quite that high, but I think we probably make the playoffs if we have this year's UPL. It's an interesting thing to consider. UPL has been monstrous, but I think we're probably riding the wave of a bow and buy room acquisition and the guys are hype.
00:34:18
Speaker
we in order to make it feasible we have to win out the rest of this week right because we play the aisles thursday who are in the second wild card spot and then we play detroit again on saturday at 12 30 who was one of the three teams that are between or two teams between us and that second wild card spot so for me to buy any of that you gotta win out this week
00:34:41
Speaker
I was adamant that we were going to get spent last night and we won seven to three. So who knows, but I'm still not buying the hype. I've been a fan long enough to know that when it really, really, really matters, this sabers team doesn't show up. So I am still operating under the impression. We're not even going to sniff the playoffs. You heard it here first from Nigel and Jake. Don't buy the hype. You will only end up heartbroken. Anything else?
00:35:06
Speaker
They're not going to make the playoffs. I'll guarantee that. It's too far out. It's too far gone. The inconsistencies from the entire year have been there the entire year, and they're not going away. This is a team that has won three games in a row exactly one time, and it wasn't that long ago. I don't think they have it in them to keep that going. If they do win out this week and win against the Islanders and the Red Wings, that would put them on a four-game win streak. Edmonton, Detroit, New York,
00:35:36
Speaker
Detroit again, that's a huge step. That's great. But then they go out West and they play Seattle, Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, and then they come back and then they play Ottawa, New Jersey, Toronto. Those aren't easy teams to win against. To make the playoffs, you have to get to at least 90 points. There's almost no seasons on record where a team makes the playoffs with less than 90 points. They're at 67 points right now.
00:36:01
Speaker
If they were to get to 90 points exactly, they would have to go 10, 3, and 3 in their last 16 games to get there.
00:36:09
Speaker
There's just there's just no way that this team that's shown so much inconsistency Can go ten three and three in any stretch of games let alone during the playoff push when everybody's playing hard Everybody wants to make the playoffs. They're playing teams that are fighting to make the playoffs. It's just not gonna happen You are you are so deluded if you think this team is making the playoffs and I will I will stick to that opinion I'll say this I desperately hope That you and I are wrong
00:36:39
Speaker
And that's that's should we wish we wish we should have a punishment that we decide right now. If the Sabres make the playoffs, what are Jake and I going to do? We're going to shotgun on air. Oh, no, it's it's a whole blue light 12 pack on air one episode. Oh, my God, you guys don't think it's small. I was ready to burn down the police station next to the playoffs.
00:37:02
Speaker
That's how confident I am, boys. And just in case there are any police officers that see this, we are just kidding. Yes, not arsonists. Yeah, that's true. Maybe Jake did it. I know I didn't. Jake, any final real quick thoughts from the savers? I don't think so. We should probably move on. I'm empty. Tom, get us going. I'll be right back in three seconds. All right, pal.
00:37:31
Speaker
Well, folks, that's the boys keeping it short. I love you guys. I love you guys. I just love how smart you guys are about hockey. It's so cool. It's like, man, you guys could literally just talk for days. It's freaking amazing. Smart or important? Way too many hours into a meaningless thing.
00:37:52
Speaker
I don't know if this is meaningless because you clearly identify quite a bit. This is a right. Like, I don't know. I would call this me. Fandom is not meaningless. Oh, man, we're getting into the philosophy here. Fandom is not. That's not not at all. Fandom is not. Now Tom's a philosophizer. It's not. No, this is what we enjoy. This is these are things that we can identify with. These are things that we take into our personality and our our character. And yeah, no, I don't think so.
00:38:21
Speaker
Anyway, all right. Wow. Oh, okay. Real back in folks.
00:38:26
Speaker
So that was just the Buffalo Sabres half of the week since Tuesday, OK, everybody? It is now. We're now going to roll over to the Buffalo Bills side. And it's what a roller coaster we've had. And I'm going to kind of try and there's a lot that's happened. I'm going to try and make this into a little bit of a story so that way we can have some flow to our conversation. It started with Tuesday or Wednesday. Well, we recorded Tuesday, so Wednesday, I think.
00:38:54
Speaker
came across the ticker tape that Ryan Bates has been traded in Chicago Bears for a fifth round pick. Initially it was like, Oh man, like darn, Rick Bates, he's like a good player. He's really solid. He's, he's been very reliable. He's very, he can almost, he can be the first one off the bench at across anywhere on the line, like a very valuable player.
00:39:16
Speaker
But he didn't really make his way onto the field this past season. So man, maybe he's going to go in for him. Let's go get him a starting spot. He can play, get some more playing time. And for a fifth round pick back, that's not bad.
Buffalo Bills Roster Changes
00:39:33
Speaker
Then more came.
00:39:36
Speaker
Bill's Mafia really took it to the chin last week, with the following players all cut. I'm going to start with the easy ones. Saran Neil, cut. De'Anse Hardy, cut. Naeem Hines, cut. Folks. I feel like I'm going to cry. I know. I know. Damn it. Jordan Poyer, cut. Mitch Morse, cut. Trey White, cut.
00:40:07
Speaker
Everybody take a breath. Everybody take a breath. It's been a couple of days. I'm sure we've all kind of come, like our heart rates have come back down, but man, yeah, I was right. Like I get emotional about it. I'm wearing my Trey white Jersey right now. I got to wear it one more time on the pod before it's going back up here on the wall next to bees. Like,
00:40:23
Speaker
Man, what, this is clearly a changing of the guard, right? This is us, the, not us, us, us, Bill's mafia, Brandon Bean leading the way, trying, turning the page. Trey White was the very first pick, first round pick by this regime. Before Brandon Bean was even like in Buffalo, he was Sean McDermott, picked him first round.
00:40:47
Speaker
Jordan Poirier came in, was a free agency pickup, was not a significant player. He was a middle of the roster player where he came from and turned into one of the best safety tandems in the league. One player who is not a cut, but is not returning is Micah Hyde. I just want to include him in this conversation because I think he deserves a spot here. He was a free agent and he just wasn't resigned, but he and
00:41:12
Speaker
Jordan Poyer, in my mind, are shoe ins for Wall of Fame on one Bill's drive. Like, what do you think that they should be? The Wall of Fame thing is weird, man, because like there are some like, OK, Kyle Williams isn't up there yet. Like, I'm not sure what to make of the Wall of Fame stuff yet. You have to imagine the list. They're on the list. Right. They're on the list. Exactly. But are in Bill's mafia is mine. Who cares what? I don't know what the pagoulas are doing. They need that rolling again. But in our minds, right, they're they're Wall of Fame type players.
00:41:42
Speaker
And I want it specifically for you and I, Tom, so we're 31, our age group, right? These are the guys that pulled us out of the shit.
00:41:54
Speaker
Right. Because all you and I know prior to guys like Poirier and Hyde coming is seven and nine, eight and eight, nine and seven seasons. Right. Like perennial. Since you and I were born in 93. So like, these are the guys, right, that like, I don't want to speak for you. These are the guys that put me in a position where I felt like I could take pride in being a Bills fan.
00:42:23
Speaker
Oh dude, absolutely. I think all of us did. Right. And, and I think like for, for as long as I, and it's just my hatred. It's just where I came in, uh, into the world and all that stuff. But like the, these guys will forever until the day you put me in the ground, we'll forever hold a significant spot in my heart as a fan, because they were the ones that, like I just said, pulled us out of the ship. Yeah.
00:42:48
Speaker
Dude, and they and this includes Mitch Morse, like Mitch Morse was absolutely my favorite press conference player to watch. Oh, like the guy always came in. He seems he was always level headed. He had really wise things to say. He was never really buttered. Anything's up. He never shied away from the tough questions. He he was a leader. Right. And Jordan Poirier, Michael Hyde, Trey White, all these guys were that way. Yeah.
00:43:15
Speaker
Right. Same story. And I think you nailed it. You hit on the head where these are the guys who gave us something to believe in and gave us a reason to believe in this team. And really, we can identify with. I mean, heck, we just got off our philosophizing there a second ago, right? Of fandom. It's players like that who encouraged us in
00:43:34
Speaker
and help us really start to identify with the team because of the way they speak, the way they carry themselves, and the way they play in the field. Or the rink, right? It's both ways. It's how you carry yourself is a big deal, and it's something you can...
00:43:49
Speaker
connect with. And I think that's important. So, man, these guys, this is clearly a change in the car. Brandon Bean clearly made decisions that something needed to change. And unfortunately, these guys were on the receiving end of that. But I want to take a quick moment before we go flying through our gazillion other news hits here. I want to take a moment. Can we do a little cheers to these guys? I was just going to say, can we toast these guys?
00:44:13
Speaker
Yeah. Specifically for me, Poyer, Hyde, Trey White, because those three guys came in like at the same time almost. Yeah, man. Yeah. Yeah. Cheers to the boys. Cheers to the boys. All of them. Thank you, guys. Thank you so much for everything. The bottom of our hearts, like honestly, right? Like this is this is a big deal. This is not. Yeah, we I wish you best. They have now continued. Many of them have resigned. So
00:44:44
Speaker
We wish you the best. There's a lot of some bills not be who is not. However, I am I'm amongst them. I amongst the bill members of bills not be who are wishing you the best. Yeah. And really, you know, want to see you do well. But man, I can't wait for you to come lead the lead the charge in on a game. Oh, it's going to be so sick. But when Jordan Poyer leads the charge, I
00:45:09
Speaker
Pray to God that I'm at that game, dude, because when he does the where would you rather be or where would you rather be than right here right now, that's going to be at the whole the stadium, the new stadium is just going to fall. Just follow. They're going to need another one. They're going to get a new one. Third one in like eight years. So just to quickly hit the news points, because, man, we could this is going to be a long episode, folks. Like I said, I was not kidding. Go grab another beer as you listen, please. Another cup of coffee wherever you're at. Too late.
00:45:40
Speaker
Jordan Poirier was signed by Miami, one year, $2 million. Mitch Moore signed by the Jaguars, two year, $10.5 million, $7 million guaranteed. So it's slightly more significant contract. Saran Neal also signed by Miami, one year. Naeem Heinz signed with the Browns, with good old Ken Dorsey, one year up to $3.5 million. Deonti Hardy has not signed and Trey White has not signed. So. Can I ask a quick question? Yes, Jake. All right, so Jordan Poirier.
00:46:07
Speaker
signed by Miami, $2 million for one year. That does not strike me as an incredibly large amount of money for the NFL. So because he signed for that much, do you think it was more the bills saying, look, we appreciate you and respect what you've done for the franchise, but we think we have better options out there rather than it costs?
00:46:29
Speaker
issue. Oh, absolutely. I'm sorry. I'm going to hop in here. No, no. Yeah. Yeah. This was, this was Brandon being making a choice that we are not going to resign over 30 year old players to deals and continue to hang on to the past. And as much as it hurts, I do at the end of the day, think that he's correct.
00:46:51
Speaker
Right, man, I wish we could have all these guys play for 100 years. I wish Carter was 25 years old for the rest of my life. That's free to go. Right. But he's not and he can't be. So, yes. And to that end, I actually texted this to Nige like this past week. I think this is the moment that we find out if Brandon Bean, Sean McDermott in this front office is here for the long haul.
GM Strategy and Future Team Building
00:47:16
Speaker
This is the moment of can they, they did one build, right? They brought in free agents, they drafted sec seven years of draft classes. This is the moment. Now can you do it again? Can you sustain this, get another crop of players? We have many young players who are really, really exciting and going to develop into these bigger contracts. I'm going to need to be resigned. Do we sign them? Do we let them walk? Like these decisions that are coming up.
00:47:41
Speaker
And this is the moment that we find out if this, this version of the Buffalo Bills is going to stick around or if in a couple of years we're going to be part of that carousel. Yeah. 100%. I think that's a really good point, Tom.
00:47:56
Speaker
I you know Bean came in in 2017 or was it 2018? 17. He's got a couple misses for sure. Cody Ford immediately comes to mind as a monstrous second round miss. That being said dude
00:48:14
Speaker
The sample size of Brandon Bean doing the correct thing is significantly bigger than the sample size of him wildly screwing up. I think if you polled fans in the league, 95% of them would go to war for Brandon Bean to be their GM because of what he did for the Bills.
00:48:40
Speaker
Absolutely. So I think like all this to say, I have every bit of confidence in Brandon Bean that he's going to keep this thing afloat. I like everything that he's done so far because I agree with you as much as it sucks and it stings and it hurts because I mean, you and I are two emotional guys. We become attached to these players, right? Like I feel bad. Can I keep them? I feel so attached to Trey White, dude, and for literally no reason.
00:49:08
Speaker
other than the fact that I love this football team but like yeah dude it's just man it's yeah this is where you find out you said it I don't have to keep going you said it this is where you find out if they can do it again and they're either going to
00:49:25
Speaker
or they're not, but I've loved everything that he's done. And even though it sucks, I agree. It's the right call. The Mitch Morris move is the right call. Micah has got a severed neck borderline. Po is, you know, we saw his first season of being less effective. Like these guys have given the organization so much, but the only one that I feel like he had a lot, he has a lot of game left is Mitch Morris, but
00:49:51
Speaker
Yeah. Poe and Hyde, like, yeah, they're at the end of their run, dude. And it was a hell of a run. But it's time. I agree. I think that this could get into a 24-hour-long podcast if we start to, like, I want to save the, I want to talk about the moves that were made, and then we can talk about the ramifications and maybe in a future episode. Cool. Like, as Mitch Morris is gone, that means that things are moving on the line. And I think we should get to that in another episode.
00:50:19
Speaker
We already know what's going to happen with Mitch Morse though, right? Supposedly. Yes. But I think, I think again, we could get, we could go down this rabbit hole and then I got a scroll guy. Folks, I'm scrolling down this, this podcast. We haven't even touched it. Sorry. Get to the ramifications later. Let's talk about what happened. Okay. Damn it. I know. So, um,
00:50:39
Speaker
We've had all those players cut mostly because we were 50 million over the, over the, um, the cat, like there was no way that we could operate going into the new leak, um, new the gear, which I think happened today. Right. I think it was today at 4 p.m. The new start today, baby.
00:50:54
Speaker
Hey! Happy New Year! Happy New Year! So wait real quick, do you have to be do you have to be cap compliant on today at 4 p.m? You have to get on today at 4 p.m. which is why all those moves had to be made. And it also seems like the chargers are circumnavigating all the rules because I don't think they're under the cap at this point. Who knows, I don't freaking know what the chargers are doing.
00:51:15
Speaker
We hardly know what the Buffalo Bills are doing. So to get there, a couple of things happens. To get cap compliance, you need to do a couple of things. You need to cut players. You need to renegotiate with players. Or you can extend players to change their contracts so that their salary hit changes what's going to be part of the equation.
00:51:39
Speaker
Excuse me. So we've had some cuts. We also had some contract restructures. Connor McGovern has restructured his contract. So that was a big deal. Josh Allen converted a bunch of his contract with Brandon Bean converted a bunch of his contract. It's all part of the contract. This is Josh didn't really have much of a choice in the matter. He already knew it was coming. Wait, real quick on the Josh Allen one. It's a big deal. The Josh Allen restructure because there was another almost 7 million
00:52:08
Speaker
for Brandon Blaine, Brandon Bean to open up there. And he only he could have done about 23 million. He only freed up about 16 million with the Josh Elvry structure, which is significant. I wanted to point that out. Right. So hopefully he's being cognizant because if whatever you do now and to make it make more room, you got to pay for it later. It doesn't disappear. So what he's doing is making the future years slightly easier. So which is good. I hopeful that Brandon Bean is being smart here.
00:52:37
Speaker
Um, and then Russell Douglas also restructured his contract. We've had a couple of extensions. Dion Dawkins gave all of us a heart attack.
00:52:46
Speaker
Uh, by first off, uh, putting on an Instagram message saying goodbye and then 10 minutes later being, you know, having an accident. Yeah. Yeah. Like 60 and a half million dollar extension, making him one of the top five paid left tackles in the league. And, um, he deserves it. So all of those moves made some, uh, made some room for, um, Oh, all of those were restructures. We have more moves.
00:53:11
Speaker
Brandon Bean, in all of his glory, I don't know how he convinced two players who are making a gazillion dollars on this, on this team have, have, have somehow given up money. I don't know why. I don't know how, I don't know who, I don't know where, I don't know why. Um, bond Miller and Dawson Knox both renegotiated their contracts.
00:53:31
Speaker
Not restructured. Restructured beans, they still make the same amount of money, but it just looks different. It comes in a different pile of boxes, a different pile of coins. This was, hey, we took pay cuts to stay on this team. It must have been a conversation of, hey, look, we're gone. Dude, your ACL is ripped in half. You didn't do your 37 and a half years old. We need you to give us some money back, or we're going to cut you. I don't know what these conversations were like. But both of them,
00:53:59
Speaker
bond miller and dawson knocked um bond saved the bills about eight and a half million dollars dawson saved the bills about five million dollars um by renegotiating and honestly what happened was their contracts got turned into not likely to be earned incentives meaning do they do x y or z this year that they didn't do last year and if they do those things they get more money so they can essentially get the money that they were going to be getting but
00:54:26
Speaker
they won't. Right. Well, hopefully it does. Hopefully it means they have both have insane years and we, but it doesn't count against their serious cap. That's the big deal. So it saves us the money. Go ahead. When we talk about incentives, it's like Von Miller gets X amount of dollars if he hits 10 sacks this year.
00:54:46
Speaker
Right. So those are what we're talking about with the incentives. You know, Dawson Knox needs to have X amount of catches in order to get some of that money again. So he gets 70 catches or whatever. He gets this bonus that we're talking about there. It's not likely to be earned because they didn't do it in the previous season. Correct. Bond had clearly had his big injury. Dawson added a couple of injuries. Right. He had a wrist injury with surgery and stuff. So he did not have as productive of a year as he was expected to. So
00:55:15
Speaker
in theory, they can still earn their money. However, they didn't have to do that. So that's a big deal. Right. Okay. Those are all the things made some room. We are now kept compliant and honestly with more room that you might think, right? Going in to free agency. I got, I don't know. We haven't really had a time to much time to discuss it. We did a little bit, but
00:55:36
Speaker
We didn't really talk money-wise. I was not expecting many big moves. I'm still not expecting huge moves, but man, we had more room to do than what we kind of thought. Totally, dude. So, Knights, you get to pick. Do you want us to do with the new signees or the re-signed players? Give me a category.
00:55:57
Speaker
Let's let's go with the re-sign guys. We'll end on the fighting stuff, but it's not that exciting. Actually, actually, I flip that. The re-signings are more exciting than the free agents that we've signed. OK, let's start there. So that's a good sign, right? You got talent on your team that you want to keep. Exactly. Bingo, Jake. Hell yeah, torpedo.
00:56:18
Speaker
All right, nice. I'm going to I'm going to say the the player. You got to give me a little bit of reaction. Jake inter interject when you want. Mr. Biski signed a two year deal. Five point two five billion two point seven guaranteed. What do you think? Completely indifferent. Wish we kept Kyle Allen for the continuity.
00:56:36
Speaker
We had Mitch Trubisky in the past, but it's tough with him, man, because he's only ever been in dog shit, offensive situation. Excuse me, beer, air bubble, dog shit, offensive situations, right? Matt Canada last year, less couple of years with Pittsburgh, Chicago. Yeah. You know, like silly. Yeah. So.
00:56:57
Speaker
It's tough to know what you have with him, but I will kind of do it. I mean, but he's he's he's he's he's started more than 50 games in the NFL. He has a winning record and he has playoff starts. So of backup QBs that you can pay two and a half million dollars. I take it. Right. Yeah, totally. Matt Hawk has signed a one year one point one million dollar deal. Sam Martin is still on the roster. What do you think of that?
00:57:20
Speaker
I am hoping for those folks out there. Those are punters, Matt Hawk punter, Sam Martin punter. Um, for my money, I think this is just so last year.
00:57:35
Speaker
Brandon being brought in no competition for Tyler brass and for Sam Martin, and both of those guys had down seasons. So I think you will see this season, Brandon being bring in competition for those guys. I think Sam Martin is going to be the punter for this team. I think Matt Hawk is competition in camp.
00:57:54
Speaker
Is it possible that our punter, who is also the holder for Tyler Bass, who had a kind of disappointing, well, a disappointing season this year. Don't say it. Don't say it. But he had a freaking great year with Matt Hawk as a holder. Does that like that's got to play into it, right? Maybe one of those kicker scores points. The other one doesn't. The other one doesn't. And Matt Hawk did a he did a great holder, great holder, middle of the road job as a punter.
00:58:24
Speaker
It could be. I don't know. It could be. Hey, Sam, figure out a hold for Tyler Bass. Yeah, just catch it and hold it. OK. Linebacker Nicholas Moreau from the Philadelphia Eagles was signed one year deal. No real money deals on money details on spot rack. But I know it's not for a lot. Thoughts. It's an older Tyrell Dotson batting coverage. Good in the run game. Good blitzer. Cool.
00:58:52
Speaker
but not a huge deal. Lineback depth depth depth. It's it's good because it's competition for Dorian Williams. Right. You don't want to go into the season just assuming that Dorian Williams is your number three linebacker. You want you want every guy on the team to feel like their spot is under the gun unless you're Josh Allen or Steph Diggs. Right. But like these these guys, like you want there to be competition, right? You don't want Dorian Williams his second year in the league walking in being like, yeah, I'm the number three linebacker on this team.
00:59:21
Speaker
You bring in Nick Rowe for that reason in and of itself and he might went out. You never know so Correct. It's it's it's not a big deal, but it's it's important and necessary. Yeah. Oh, absolutely cool And then finally another re-sign or newly signed. Excuse me was wide receiver Matt Collins from the Las Vegas Raiders one year up to three million dollars Yet tough to be excited about it because I was excited about Trent Sherfield last year and he was a complete letdown
00:59:51
Speaker
Matt Collins is two years removed from a, what was this? Yeah. 700, um, receiving yard season with, with the touchdowns touchdowns, like, yeah. So like your wide receiver for you take that 10 times out of 10. So hopefully he can come in. I, if he can contribute more than trench your field.
01:00:12
Speaker
then I'm stoked. I think this is where you're getting your big body run game blocking wide receiver. Correct. He's also has a bunch of special teams experience and he's been a team captain in both in college and the NFL.
01:00:35
Speaker
I think as a depth at the bottom of the roster, four, five, six wide receiver, like for 3 million bucks. That's nothing. Right.
01:00:44
Speaker
All right, now the re-signs, these were fun. I'm gonna start with, I apologize, we think all these are fun, those players who are listening. But these ones are less fun. Critt and Morris, tight ends, re-signed one year. Cam Lewis signed to a two-year, $4 million deal. Real quick, do you think there's a chance Cam Lewis starts with Taylor Rapp?
01:01:08
Speaker
Well, at this point, yes, because there's nobody else on the roster. It's him or DeMar Hammond. And I mean, between them, it's a 50 50 flip a coin for me. Yeah. OK, keep going. I'm just curious. So I'm hoping that there's more to do. He didn't sign for he didn't sign for starter money.
01:01:24
Speaker
Correct. So, but he's got continuity in the system. Sean McDermott loves the guy. He can start and he can honestly back up. He's been a backup quarterback before too, or even slot like corner. So like the guy's got versatility that I think that's fine at the bottom of the roster. Totally.
01:01:43
Speaker
Um, the other one that was signed also at safety was Taylor wrap three year, $10.62 million, 4.85 million guaranteed. It is a technically a three year deal, but it's kind of a one year and we'll see kind of deal. So at first everybody was freaking out because it was like, Oh my God, three years, $14 million. That was a wild deal for a safety who didn't really show us anything. Um, but details came out.
01:02:09
Speaker
I think that's fine. The guy, again, for continuity and where we're at, we can't go get the big marquee signings. Like I think you're not going to go get Simmons. You're not going to go get curl. Like you can't afford these guys right now. And I'm still holding out.
01:02:24
Speaker
for who? Well, Curl sign today. He did. He's going to be a commander. Well, have fun. Enjoy your money. Enjoy. Enjoy losing. Exactly. So true. But yeah, dude, like these, you know, these are the kind of deals that this is where the bills are at. And this is where you want to be in your life cycle.
01:02:43
Speaker
When you're signing these players, it's because you're sick, right? It's because your team is really good. Right. So this is a good place to be. It doesn't. It's not sexy and exciting, but it's a good place to be. Keep on going, Tommy.
01:02:55
Speaker
Another one that I was really excited about is David Edwards coming back on a two year, 6 million, 2.95 million guaranteed. The guy was awesome. O-line depth. He came in as the big tight ends. I think he's going to be starting it at guard. I know we were going to talk ramifications at a future pod, but with Ryan Bates out the door and Mitch Morris out the door, I think this gives David Edwards a road right onto that starting O-line. Hell yeah, it does.
01:03:21
Speaker
But glad to have him back because he's a good guy, great player, has starting experience, like a lot of it. So I think he is a viable starting guard. You just saw Robert Hunt signed for all the money in the world as a guard. So to get David Edwards for three mil a year, sign me the hell up.
01:03:40
Speaker
Jake, he's talking about Robert Hunt was a, um, dolphins guard and he resigned somewhere for five years, a hundred million dollars. Yeah. North of 20, which for guards is that's tackle type money, dude. That is insane. Don't make that money. Leah, Leah is upset about it too. Um, yes, I have to imagine, you know, how many freaking cookies that could buy.
01:04:04
Speaker
Um, Dion Dawkins just resigned for 20 point something like, like just a little bit more than that at lap starting left tackle, which is like a premier, like marquee, one of the big positions on the offense. So protecting the blind side of the quarterback. No, not, not to mention Josh Allen as a top three quarterback in the NFL.
01:04:23
Speaker
Right. Now, Nij, I'm going to queue you up for this next one, and then I got to get my poor dog, Woodlake, out of the room. Next one, let's do AGF and ESSA. I'm going to save the biggest, most exciting one for last. AGF and ESSA were signed to a two-year base value of $7 million up to $20 million. What do you think?
01:04:42
Speaker
Yeah baby, Eppie, dude. It's a necessary signing for the team right now because at this point in time, you've got Greg Russo, you got Von Miller, you got Kingsley Jonathan, and then really, who else do you have at this point? So having AJ, Eppinessa, I think there is a really insanely high chance that you're starting DNs next year
01:05:06
Speaker
are Greg Russo and AJ Appanessa. It is going to depend on what Von Miller we get at camp. The only thing I'll say about Von Miller is this contract renegotiation that he did
01:05:19
Speaker
It is him betting on himself, right? It is essentially what he's doing here because the conversion of the salary, like Tom said, went into the incentives. So he's like, hell yeah, dude, I'm confident enough in myself to hit these incentives and get that money back. So if right now I can do these things to help my football team and recoup that money later, sign me up. So hopefully there's still, at least emotionally, some fire left in that tank.
01:05:45
Speaker
Who knows what we get from Von Miller this year? Khalil Mack is north of 30 and just hit 17 sacks last year. So it's not impossible. We don't know what we're going to get, though, is the big thing. Von Miller, positive and confident. No, imagine. Right. What world am I in? Earth. H.A.F. Vanessa had a great year. He did. Yeah. Great for him. I don't know. That's maybe what I meant. Like he exceeded his own expectations. Maybe it's a better way to say it.
01:06:14
Speaker
Yes, that's that's the great way to put it. Yeah, totally. Because he's not like he's not a top tier defensive end by any stretch of the imagination. But he is serviceable more than serviceable. And in the last two years, dude, at least six acts and a couple of turnovers, including some picks off of Patrick Mahomes. So like, you know, yeah, he just gets those.
01:06:41
Speaker
Yeah. So like, I mean, for the money that we signed him, which is far as starting defensive ends go is absolute peanuts. I think this is a great move by Brandon beam. Yeah. I think the value in, especially because the what's guaranteed is not a lot. And he has incentives to get to a whole bunch. Like, dude, go get it.
01:07:00
Speaker
And I, in an interview, he even came out and said, like, man, I was kind of like debating two years is, you know, that doesn't really set me up for super long. But what it does is it lets him be able to sign another contract before he's 30. So like, man, dude, I would love for him to go out and outplay this contract. And we have to like really decide, like, do we need to sign this guy and like keep him around? Like, hell yeah. Please, please. I would love that. Make you want to go get a Jersey, dude. Like,
01:07:28
Speaker
And then finally, my number one pick of the week was Daquan Jones. Two years, $16 million. Coming back, baby. Tom, who benefits the most from this re-signing? Our lovely, lovely, speedy, but kind of tiny linebacker.
01:07:46
Speaker
Matt Milano and Terrell Bernard are cream in their jeans, dude, because that big blocker soaking Daquan Jones is back. Yeah. What's really important for people to understand is when you're, when you're a team like the bills and you've got undersized linebackers, right? Matt Milano and Terrell Bernard insanely athletic, insanely fast, insanely good in coverage, but not huge, right? You need to keep offensive linemen
01:08:13
Speaker
off of them and when you have a really good one tech defensive tackle that's the guy that's usually taking most of the double teams right when you've got that legitimately awesome one tech defensive tackle all you are doing is soaking up blockers and keeping bodies off of Milano and Terrell Bernard and when those two cats can run around free you are talking about a
01:08:37
Speaker
nasty Buffalo Bills defense because those two guys, whether it's run or pass, are freaks. You keep them clean and they're going to do some serious damage. This is a huge reassign for the Bills. Love it. Love it. He's pumped to be, but I mean, he's a Western New York native, dude. Like he's stoked to be back. And I love that. I do too.
01:08:57
Speaker
Yeah. Really happy for him. Glad he's back. Glad he got a decent deal. Like that's, that's like top eight D tackle money in the league. Like absolutely. That's just where the D tackle contracts are at. So I know it doesn't look like a gazillion dollars. Like some of these other players are getting, but like he's, he's paid significantly well. So I'm pretty happy about that. And like you said, I think that does open up some things for, for our, our linebacker friends now.
01:09:24
Speaker
Before we close things out, I want to quickly go and look at our little to-do list and priorities of players that we wanted to kind of positions that we wanted to go look at. So I'm going to share our documents right now. Thank you.
01:09:49
Speaker
I do that for everything I do. Just like, you know, make an eggs in the morning, like for your exit. Yeah, dude, that'd be great. So we had in this order, wide receiver, D tackle, D and safety cornerback running back to QB two. Um, what can we cross off of this list?
01:10:14
Speaker
But it's taken care of. So yes, good answer. Thank you. And the honest truth, Tom is nothing else because you still need that wide receiver to desperately. It looks like that's going to come from the draft.
01:10:28
Speaker
which let's go. Yeah, I'm just salivating. Jake, I don't know. I don't know how much so. Have you heard about this wide receiver crop coming in from none? It's very good. It's incredible. It's it. There are there are, I don't know, 10 players who could be picked in the first round at wide receiver, which is unheard of. And a couple of them will get picked in the third round.
01:10:52
Speaker
them. So somebody's falling to us at 28 and hopefully somebody falls us at second in the second round. And you know, anyway, so we have, we have options, which is cool. I understand the defensive impact, like, like I understand the impact that defense could have on the game, but I'm here to watch the office. I want to see a wide receiver picked in the first round, like give, give our boy Josh Allen some
01:11:18
Speaker
fucking weapons. Who cares if the other team scores 56 points? If we score 57, I'm a happy boy. That's all I have to say.
Quarterback Debate: Joe Burrow vs. Josh Allen
01:11:28
Speaker
Hey, man. There's so many people that agree with you, Jake, because when the best player on your team is the third best quarterback in the league, and I do say third best, I do think, truly, gone to my head when he's healthy, I think Joe Burrow's a more accurate quarterback, and I think he does better.
01:11:44
Speaker
Oh, Tom doesn't agree. Yeah, you ever see Joe Burrow try to run? No, but you ever seen Joe Burrow not throw a ton of interceptions? Have you ever seen Josh Allen just score all the touchdowns? That's the problem. We need more people scoring the touchdowns now. It's a whole other podcast. Tom, stay focused. I'm sick of you always going off the rails.
Team Needs and Positional Value
01:12:11
Speaker
Okay, wait, I'm gonna summarize these positions real quick. You ready?
01:12:17
Speaker
RB2 doesn't exist yet, so that's still a need. CB, your your starters are Rasul Douglas and Christian Benford, but your depth is poopy. So it's a need. Safety. You've got one of your two starters. So yes, it's still a need. Defense event. You've probably got your starters, but depth is a huge necessity. Defensive tackle your backups after right now. Daquan Jones and Oliver are super, super, super subpar. So they don't exist. They don't exist. Right. We have we have at Oliver and Daquan Jones. That's it.
01:12:47
Speaker
so depth an issue and then wide receiver two still non-existent so the only thing crossed off this list at this point qb2 thanks mitch can i put can i move up safety no no i'm just kidding no that's the whole point we have to i know i know so wait where was dialogue safety was the end
01:13:10
Speaker
and then safety here. Oh, that's D. That's not. That's D. You're looking for S. So my honest opinion is is no, even though even though you need the starter at the safety position, if you if you use the Nigel Croston tier of positional value, safety so much.
01:13:32
Speaker
Yeah, trademark safety is so far below defensive end. I would rather have a super strong four man defensive end rotation than two elite safety starters. You're not a 10 times. Never mind. You're right. So anyway, folks, I mean, we crossed something off the list, but there's still work to do. So yeah, exciting work to do. But yeah, holy cow. So for sure. Oh boy.
Emotional Farewell to Trey White
01:14:00
Speaker
What an emotional week we've had. Oh my God. I actually, I texted you guys. And when I saw the tray white was caught, dude, when I saw that, I actually, there were tears in my eyes. I welled up, dude. He gave his body, both legs literally for the team. Yeah. Yeah, man. I, he's not signed with a team.
01:14:22
Speaker
Who knows? Hopefully he go. Hopefully you still come back and be able to play. Maybe he's going to be one of those players who like, you know, signs in the middle of the year kind of thing. I don't know what he's healthy. There's always somebody called the Academy. Oh, the Trey White Coley Academy needs some pointers, dude. So I everybody could use them, dude. You know what? Sign me up for the Trey White Coley Academy.
01:14:46
Speaker
Folks, thank you so much for hanging out with us and riding through this free agency and trade deadline bonanza because holy cow.
Closing Remarks and Social Media Call-to-Action
01:14:56
Speaker
And hanging in there, we appreciate you guys. Please give us a like wherever you can, either in person, on YouTube,
01:15:05
Speaker
on Instagram, on Twitter, on TikTok, like all the places, please do. We're at Let's Go Buff Pod with two Fs. These are my pals. That's Jake. That's Nigel. My name is Tom. And you're listening to the Let's Go Buffaloe Pod. We're sending you up wherever you are. Go Phil. Go Phil. Buffaloe.