Greetings people of Earth. I’m Joe and I’m just trying to make this mailbag a thing on the site. I’m doing it every other week and pretty much will take on any question. This week I talk Bills free agency, Walking Dead, NFL Draft, Sabres in FA, Rocky dream match and the meaning of life.
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Matthew Kabel How about a summary on Bills free agency to date. I haven’t been able to read much, would love an honest take.
Joe: I have mixed feelings about it. Obviously I was pretty pissed off about what happened with Byrd. It just seemed like typical Bills. Let go of a guy for nothing when we could have had him last year for cheaper. I could listen to you telling me that safety isn’t an as an important position or he was overpriced, but the losing him for nothing is what ultimately pissed me off.
If they had traded him at the deadline for like a early 3rd or late 2nd, I would have been cool with it. I still think they should have franchised him and been hard asses with him. Is he really going to turn down 8 million?
To me, not franchising him shows weakness with other agents as the franchise tag is suppose to protect teams from losing guys. Now an agent can try and strong-arm the Bills into not tagging someone because of Byrd. Bad news to me.
On the other hand, I love the addition of Spikes. He’s got an attitude and will help tremendously in the run defense. Last year, the Bills problem in stopping the run didn’t start on the DL, it started because the LBs couldn’t get off their blocks and I think Alonso/Moats may have been too undersized. Spikes should help change that and he’s got a lot to prove based on signing just a 1-year deal. Keith Rivers seems more of a reclamation project who will add depth and is an upgrade over Moats/Bradham. Overall, the LBs look so much better than they were 2 years ago. Hell, Nick Barnett wouldn’t even be able to start and he was our best LB in 2012.
Corey Graham is an interesting selection who could thrive depending where they put him. He seems like a nice option as the 3rd CB, but he’s had consistency issues when the Ravens started him as the #2 CB, a job in which he lost. I still don’t know if he’s better than McKelvin at this point. Chris Williams seems like a slight upgrade at guard, but when you look at who he’s replacing (Brown/Legursky), that’s not saying much. Overall, I’d give the Bills a C+.
Kevin Rickner How would you rank the positions the Bills should take with the #9 overall pick? I’d say OL, WR, LB, trade down, in that order. No TE or S in the first round please, Buffalo! Also, only take the best WR or LB, if not, don’t take one. Supposedly there will be several great OL that may fall to us. If none of those are available, trade down I say. More picks!
Joe: NO!!!!!!!!!! I don’t want an OL in the 1st round. I’ve said this 100 times, but the OL discussion has always been a chicken/egg argument with me. What makes good pass protection? The line? The scheme? The QB? All I know is that under Gailey, the Bills line looked fine with Glenn/Pears as your OTs. I remember when the Saints won the SB, they didn’t have any 1st or 2nd rounders on their OL, yet, Brees was only sacked like 15 times while throwing the ball like a mad man.
I think last year the Bills had a lot of moving parts with a rookie QB and new system. Did the line regress? Yes. However, I think with some patience, it can thrive again. Also, every year people have the Bills picking OL in their mock drafts and it never seems to happen in the 1st round.
I’d go TE, WR, safety and guard in that order. Not sure why you’d want a LB when I actually think or LB corp. is pretty stellar as it stands.
Austin Galuszka Who do you think the Sabres will over pay this off season to try and make the cap floor?
Joe: Ryan Callahan. It has been written in a few NY newspapers that he may want to come to Buffalo based on his upstate roots. We all know that Pegula would give someone like Callahan anything he wants (See: Doan/Vanek offers). Obviously, I don’t think you can find anyone who could say anything negative about Callahan. He’d be a fan favorite and a captain in about 2 fucken seconds.
However, would the timing be right?
I’d love Callahan, but the Sabres need like 4-5 more guys like him to even crack the playoffs and by the time they get good again, Callahan would be in the twilight of his career. If the Sabres really want to fix this team and throw money at everyone in FA and trade prospects for vets, I’d say go for it.
However, this isn’t X-Box and I’m not sure it would help them to sign a vet like Callahan when Drew Stafford would be your 2nd best forward if they stay the tanking course. Of course, you could say that having a vet like him around can help with the young kids, so, who knows.
Eric Richard Do you think The Walking Dead can survive as a show if the character of Rick dies?
Joe: Two years ago I would have said yes, but now? No. I think Walking Dead has killed off too many characters and have replaced them with people I don’t give a shit about. While killing leads or crucial characters is the new norm on TV shows nowadays (See: Game of Thrones/Boardwalk Empire), you need to have characters remaining who can carry the torch and Walking Dead doesn’t have that. Seriously..outside of Daryl and maybe Glenn and his farmer chick, do we give a shit about anyone else? Fuck Carl and all those kids on the show who are obvious idiots. Speaking of idiots…Memo to the recently deceased girl: YOU CANT PLAY WITH WALKERS!
James Strassburg What is life?
Joe: It is what you make of it and enjoying everyday as if it is your last.
@BuffaloWins who wins a fight between Clubber Lang an Apollo Creed?
— Monsieur Shorts (@Boner_Shorts) March 20, 2014
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WOW! This is the greatest question ever asked on the mailbag series. Alright, this is like the 3rd mailbag, but whatever. Well, Mr. Boner Shorts..it has to be Clubber Lang. If there’s one thing we’ve seen from Apollo Creed is that he never takes first fights seriously. He was too cocky against Rocky the first time around and when he faced Drago his entourage consisted of fucken James Brown and some smoking bull.
Plus, he had fucken Paulie in his corner. Who the hell would have Paulie in your corner during a fight? Rocky had to because he’s related to him and dumb as shit. Apollo? There’s no bloodline there. The only reason he was in his corner was because Creed didn’t think it would matter because he was soooo Good. And guess what happened when Paulie was in his corner? He fucken died. Once Lang would open his mouth and start speaking in incoherent sentence fragments of pitying the fool, Creed would get cocky and the rest would be history. Lang KOs Creed in the 5th round and bangs his wife.
@BuffaloWins can you name 5 Sabres Prospects not counting, Risto, Grigo, Zadorov, Girgensons and Larsson?
— Two in the Box (@2ITB_Buffalo) March 20, 2014
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OK..without Googling..Here goes..Matt Hackett. That Liewen goalie who played the other night. That’s his name, right? Does Luke Adam and Mark Pysyk count? They have to. They are in Rochester which means Kris Baker stalks them. Those assholes we got from LA in the McNabb trade. Oh, Joe Armia guy or whatever. What is that? 3? 4? Kevin Porter is in Rochester. There’s 5 and I’d trade all of them for guys who I can actually buy their jersey at the NHL Store.
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