Effin’ A Cotton, effin’ a

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In a summer of major changes for the Sabres organization one more cosmetic one will occur today. First Niagara will acquire the naming rights to HSBC Arena.

This is a move I suspected would occur in the near future, I just didn’t think it would happen this soon. As First Niagara has continued to grow in recent years I began to wonder if they would look into some sort of branding with the Sabres, Bisons or the Bills. When HSBC sold their retail branches to First Niagara I assumed a name change for the Arena was inevitable. However, all news from the three parties involved appeared to be in the contrary.

Now there is the opportunity for the Arena to be called the First Niagara Arena – or FNA (effin’ a). UPDATE: It appears the name will be the First Niagara Center.

With the additional renovations being made to the interior of the Arena and the locker room, a name change will add that much more of a new look for the new regime. Based on the look of the First Niagara logo, it will look much better on the exterior (and interior signage) of the building. I do wonder if they will utilize the neon waves that were once prevalent on the main exterior sign back in the 90s.

Aside from a trade, it seems as if the next biggest change will come with a new sign on the front of the Arena.

Bills make the right move with Morrison

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News broke on Wednesday evening that the Bills had come to terms with inside linebacker Kirk Morrison. It is reportedly a one-year deal for the man who was replaced by Paul Pozluszny in Jacksonville.

Morrison is no slouch, he has amassed over 100 tackles in five of his six pro seasons. The only year he failed to eclipse 100 was last season with the Jaguars. While Morrison’s main experience has come in a 4-3 look, I don’t expect him to struggle much with the Bills.

Most of the reports out cite Reggie Torbor’s uncertain injury status as the reason for signing Morrison. I would like the cite the fact that Torbor has looked incredibly slow in the preseason and seemed unable to cover in space, an issue Bills’ linebackers had last year as well. Morrison should help in that regard while adding some serious experience to the depth chart at inside linebacker. Continue reading →

Sabres-Flames rumors swirl again

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As training camp fast approaches the Sabres timetable to get under the cap continues to shrink.

Despite the obvious solution (sticking players in the minors), Darcy Regier continues to stand by his strategy of utilizing trades to clear the necessary cap space. Due to that apparent strategy, the rumor mill is back up and running.

Everyone’s favorite rumor monger, Eklund, floated the idea of a second trade between the Sabres and Flames. While it is an intriguing notion I doubt that either team could find a workable option.

Jarome Iginla is on every Sabres fan's wish list. I say keep wishing.

Buffalo currently sits $3.6 million over the salary cap. The Flames are just about $1.5 million under the cap at this time. Given those numbers, I can’t find a may either team could work the payroll. The Sabres top trade prospects are Brad Boyes, Ales Kotalik, Shaone Morrisonn, Jason Pominville and Andrej Sekera. Sekera is the most attractive option based on his cap hit (2.75) and his skill level. Pominville is a close second based on his scoring touch, but his $5.3 million cap hit would require a lot of tweaking in a potential trade. Brad Boyes has a moderate cap hit and a moderate offense return, I wonder how attractive he would be for teams around the league.

As for the Flames, there are only a few truly attractive options based on the Sabres’ needs and salary constraints. Rene Bourque, Curtis Glencross, Nik Hagman and Brendan Morrison. Certainly Sabres fans are hoping that the white whale, Jarome Iginla, is a target, but there is no way they could swig the trade based on their current cap situation.

Continue reading →

The new kickoff rule will ruin the NFL

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Trying to watch an NFL game on TV is quite a chore. You get about 20 minutes of real game action and then three hours of a running clock, walking to the huddle, TV timeouts and constant replays.

The new kickoff rule will add to the dullness of the production that is passed off as a competitive sport.

I understand why the lowers that be decided to move kickoffs to the 35. It practically eliminates the risk of injury for the coverage and return teams, thus making the game exponentially safer. However, this safety is achieved by eliminating any chance of a return at any given time.

Any kicker in the NFL can reach the goal line or even get the ball three yards into the end zone. Move that kicker up five yards and there is no chance of the return man carrying the ball out from seven yards deep. The logic is sound in this case. By not going the returner a chance to carry the ball out there is no risk for 20 MPH collisions between 230 pound men. Therefore there is no chance for gruesome collisions that result in devastating injuries that change the lives of these young men (see Kevin Everett). It makes perfect sense to me, however it is going to kill the on field product.

With the idiotic commercial policy the NFL follows the fan at home (and in the stadium) has the pleasure of watching a touchdown, then a commercial, then a touchback followed by another commercial. If you’re a Bills fan this is followed by a three-and-out and yet another commercial. Sounds riveting.

The NFL needs to find a happy medium here. While player safety should be of the utmost concern, the fans may start to slowly walk away. For a league with an exciting product, the NFL is trying awfully hard to make their games last as long as Major League Baseball.

Deskchair Quarterback – Bills vs. Broncos

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Collectively the 86 players on the Buffalo Bills roster got lumped up by the Denver Broncos tonight. However, the 24-10 score is largely irrelevant to me considering this was just an exhibition game.

Terrence McGee had a nice pick to close the first half.

The most concerning issue is that the starting offense failed to score a touchdown for the second-straight week in a row. I can’t find the stats to back me up, but I’m fairly certain that is a streak that dates back to 2010. Again, it is just the preseason so it is all meaningless. Still, the fact that the starting offense is so pathetic is somewhat concerning.

Ryan Fitzpatrick has looked very much like a seventh-round draft pick in his limited time. Most of that can be attributed to the fact that Demetrius Bell is the worst tackle in football. Even on the plays that he didn’t get run by or pushed into the backfield, Bell was very average. Kraig Urbik still looked bad, particularly on that screen to C.J. Spiller in the first quarter. Chad Rinehart looked good, as did Andy Levitre. Both players will be adequate for the Bills’ needs inside. Unfortunately it appears as if the offensive line, as a whole, will prevent the offense from being successful or even mediocre. Continue reading →

Farewell Captain Clutch

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In case you hadn’t heard, Chris Drury played in, and won, the Little League World Series. No fooling.

In a related note, Captain Clutch is calling it a career. After an underwhelming and injury plagued tenure with the New York Rangers, Drury was bought out earlier in the summer and has decided to retire from professional hockey all together.

What this tells me is his degenerative knee condition is more severe than originally expected in July. There were many who figured he would find his was onto a contender’s roster at discounted rate for the 2011-12 campaign. After all his face off skills, penalty killing and other intangibles would be very attractive to a team making a Cup push.

Alas, his injuries likely played a large role in this decision.

Drury was, and will be, one of my favorite players of all time. Ever since his first seasons with Colorado I was a fan of his style and skill. When he was acquired by Buffalo I was ready to do back flips.

Drury was part of some of the best Sabres hockey in the history of the franchise. He, Daniel Briere and the rest of the core players carried the team to the Eastern Conference Finals in back-to-back years in what was one of the most memorable runs I can think of with this team. Then, of course there was the goal. Who else?

And here is an even cooler angle

Continue reading →

Next steps for the Bills

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With the two most recent roster moves by the Buffalo Bills, there are a few spots remaining under the current roster limit of 90. Chris Brown of Buffalobills.com points out that the roster can stay at 90 players until August 30.

I would assume the roster will not stay at 90 (or 87 in this case) up until that date. The staff will need to pare down the roster to only include the players they really want to keep a keen eye on for the final regular season games. I fully expect to see more players released in the next few days, probably after the game against Denver.

That being said, the Bills have the opportunity to sign some help for their offensive line. Right now the group of five that is atop the depth chart stinks. They flat-out stink. Eric Wood and Andy Levitre are the only two quality players they have out there. The jury is still out on Erik Pears, but he can’t support Craig Urbik – neither can Wood. Same goes for Demetrius Bell on the left side. He is a turnstile over there. In the bright side there is help out there if the Bills are willing to sign the players.

Among the remaining free agents; Leonard Davis, Nick Kaczur, Bryant McKinnie, Max Starks and Jon Stinchcomb are all relatively attractive options. Starks reminds me too much of Cornell Green ann Davis is way past his prime. I would rule out those two. Stinchcomb has some injury issues and I feel like McKinnie could be a total flake (being from The U and all). Kaczur and McKinnie would be the two tackles I would consider. Both are capable NFL tackles who have seen plenty of success. They would bring much more stability to the Bills’ line and offer Ryan Fitzpatrick much more pass protection. They wouldn’t help in shoring up the perceived weakest spot, right guard, but I feel like Chad Rinehart or Geoff Hangartner offer better skill argue position. Not to mention a more stable tackle on the right or left side makes the entire line better.

The unfortunate part of this situation is the likelihood of the Bills to stand pat. They will sing a chorus of how happy they are with their prospects and about their ability to develop. Sadly, all that will result in are sacks and a poor running game.

Bills waive Aaron Maybin

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Buffalo Bills fans got their wish. Aaron Maybin was waived by the team this afternoon,mercifully ending two pitiful seasons by the former first-round pick.

Maybin was drafted out of Penn State after having a breakout season in 2008. Considered to be an elite pass rusher, the Bills drafted him over Brian Cushing, Clay Matthews and Brian Orakpo. Michael Oher also was picked after Maybin. Losing those four players alone probably make Bills fans want to pull their hair out. The fact that Maybin was so useless makes matters that much worse.

I wasn’t a fan of Maybin. I wanted Cushing or Everette Brown. They were more explosive and had a better body of work. They also played in a much better conference in college. The most overlooked fact about Maybin was his experience, he had one huge season and declared for the draft, there was no real history on him. Add to that the fact he was a fast player playing in a slow conference, it was a recipe for disaster.

Maybin made plays in college because he is fast and agile. Outside of the two, maybe three, big games a Big Ten team plays in each year, Maybin was playing against inferior opponents. What made it was the fact that he could run by the slow and sluggish Big Ten tackles. That didn’t translate to the NFL and it was painfully obvious.

I rank Maybin as the top bust in Bills draft history. There have been some bad ones, Mike Williams comes to mind. However, no one has been as useless to the team as Maybin has been. That is why I rank him first for Bills draft busts.

Deskchair Quarterback – Bills vs. Bears

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In an attempt to bring a fresh look at each Bills game this season, I’ll try to use this space to offer some analysis and a breakdown of the team’s effort from the last game.

The Bills’ first effort of the preseason ended up as I expected, although there were some high and low points that surely stood out to everyone. Aside from the fact that the NFL preseason is a complete waste of time, the exhibition schedule always catches my eye because I enjoy seeing some of the young talent carve a niche on the roster. For example, Antonio Coleman really stood out as an effective OLB last year and was – and still is – far more effective that Aaron Maybin at the same position.

Saturday night showed me a few things. The most glaring issue is that the Bills’ offense has the potential to be REALLY bad this season. Even before the idiotic trade of Lee Evans, I felt like this would be a down year for the offense. After watching on Saturday I feel like my fears are all but confirmed.

The Bills have no tackles. They have some big guys who are listed as tackles, but they’re not very good at the position. If this team tries to play 16 games with Demetrius Bell, Erik Pears and Ed Wang as the top three bookends, Ryan Fitzpatrick will die. This was the second biggest need for the Bills to address this off season and they failed to do so.

It seems as if this will be a season full of three-and-out, sacks and clogged running lanes.

On the bright side, C.J. Spiller appears to have improved patience and additional duties in the passing game. His rushing numbers didn’t reflect his play, another indication of the porous line, but he looked much better after seeing a handful of plays. Brad Smith also looks like a wise acquisition as he is a true run/pass threat out of the wildcat. Josh Nesbitt was equally impressive in that scheme, it would be cool if they could utilize him as a two-way guy (safety and QB) but there is no need for two wildcat quarterbacks.

Defensively it would seem as if the Bills had adopted the 2000 Baltimore Ravens. Marcel Dareus was beyond disruptive and Shawne Merriman was scary good coming off the edge.

The secondary is still good, the Bills are crazy deep at corner and it will only help if Terrence McGee is going to be healthy all year. The safeties are a little average for my liking. I suppose the organization is hoping Da’Norris Searcy comes along fast and is able to start at strong safety. If that is the case there should be no worries, if Bryan Scott is playing all the time it could get ugly.

The special teams didn’t look good, but there are no set responsibilities yet in the system. There are still guys adjusting to kick coverage who have never done it before. I will say that Bruce DeHaven’s crew was pretty average last season and the results on Saturday didn’t inspire much faith. After years of Bobby April’s brilliance, I worry about the mediocrity of this new system.

The second and third preseason games are always the most entertaining for fans and also offer the most insight as to which players are really going to stick around. The next two Saturdays will tell a whole lot more in regards to what kind of team the Bills will have this season.

Lee Evans traded to Baltimore

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Adam Schefter of ESPN reported that the Bills have traded Lee Evans to the Baltimore Ravens for a 4th round pick in the 2012 NFL Draft.

This is a major move for the Bills as they are trading away one of their most lethal offensive threats, well at least on paper. Evans hasn’t been the same threat since J.P. Losman was removed as the starting quarterback. Since then Evans has seen his number dwindle -blast year he recorded a career-low 37 receptions.

That is pretty much the end of the reasons why it made sense to trade him. Frankly, he is a highly paid decoy. He doesn’t do much other than run a mean nine route, but he freeze up plenty of coverage for Stevie Johnson.

Now Johnson and David Nelson become the top receiving threats for the Bills as they hope that Marcus Easley and, San Diego castoff, Buster Davis can produce. All of that for a fourth round pick next season.

The main need for the Buffalo Bills is to fill their holes at tackle. They continue to ignore that need and the years pile up since the last time they had a true duo of NFL tackles (Howard Ballard and Will Wolford by my count). Instead Nix opted to remove a veteran talent for a draft lick that will turn into a guy like Dwayne Wright, Shawn Nelson, or Ko Simpson. Forgive me for not jumping out of my chair for this trade.

It seems like the Bills are turning into the Cleveland Indians from Major League, just get enough players to fill the roster and play the games. No need to worry about winning in these parts I guess.