In honor of St. Patrick’s Day, this is a logo of the Shamrock Rovers Football Club, a “football” team that is the most successful soccer team in the Premier Division of the League of Ireland. Founded in 1901 in Dublin, the club has won the League of Ireland title a record 17 times and the FAI Cup a record 24 times.
A pair of classic sports cards of one of the greatest two-sport stars of all time, Bo Jackson. On the left is a 1989 ProSet football card of Jackson as a Los Angeles Raider, on the right a 1987 Donruss baseball card of Jackson during his days as an outfielder for the Kansas City Royals. Jackson is the only pro athlete to be named an All Star in two major sports. He won the Heisman Trophy at Auburn and then focused on playing both sports in the pros, starring for the Royals, and the Raiders for four years before a major hip injury ended his football playing days. He then turned full time to baseball, although the Royals released him rather than pay him while he rehabbed his football injury. He played two more years for the Chicago White Sox.
Sabres’ interim coach Ted Nolan at the Olympics
So this is what “Hockey Heaven” is supposed to look like? That’s a question loyal Buffalo Sabres’ fans have to be asking after a crazy weekend of turmoil surrounding the team. It’s been quite awhile since I posted anything regarding the local NHL team, in fact, the last was a 2012-13 season review of the team published last May. Since then, the creator of that “Hockey Heaven” title, owner Terry Pegula, finally came to his senses and got rid of both GM Darcy Regier and coach Ron Roulston, and made what looked like a brilliant move by hiring Pat Lafontaine to guide the franchise back to respectability. Dumping the previous regime amounted to lifting the Sabres out of a “Night of The Living Dead” era with the placid Regier and Roulston, and reviving them behind a well-respected figure from the team’s past in Lafontaine. It was a terrific PR move, made even better when Lafontaine brought in Ted Nolan along with him to become interim coach. Then a veteran Hall of Fame front office man, Craig Patrick, was added to the mix as an advisor. Lafontaine, after a careful search, hired Tim Murray from Ottawa as the team’s new general manager, and an impressive executive team was complete. Everything looked rosy, until a whirlwind weekend of events shook the team to its’ core. Those events were a blockbuster trade that sent the face of the franchise, goaltender Ryan Miller, and team captain Steve Ott to the St. Louis Blues for what appears to be an impressive haul in return – goalie Jaroslav Halak, young forward Chris Stewart, junior prospect William Carrier, a 2015 first round draft pick and a conditional 2014 pick – and the abrupt resignation of Lafontaine.
The two events sent shock waves through the Sabres’ fan base. The trade was something that was mostly expected, so the reactions were mixed between negative and positive. Lafontaine’s departure, however, was stunning and drew complete negative reaction. Where does the team go from here? To me, once the dust settles and the trade deadline passes, there are two people who will be the most important in shaping the future success of the team, Murray and Nolan. Here’s my take on both of them: Murray deserves credit for pulling off the blockbuster trade in his first major move as GM. There are rumors that both Halak and Stewart may still be traded, but if Buffalo decides to keep them, they have a goalie who has been inconsistent, but who also was a star in a deep playoff run with Montreal a few years ago. Stewart is a power forward who is only 26 and can score, in addition to being a physical force. Carrier and the draft picks are bonuses, and who knows what other assets could be coming here if either Halak and/or Stewart are traded. Minnesota is rumored to be interested in Halak and Murray’s old team, the Ottawa Senators, are supposedly salivating at the chance to get Stewart. The bottom line is this – Murray made a bold move that Regier wouldn’t have had the guts to pull the trigger on in a million years, and did it without spending a lot of time being sentimental about the departing players. I see that as a positive, since the Sabres, Pegula included, have been mired in a sentimental journey into the team’s legacy, honoring past players by erecting statues. Even bringing back Lafontaine, to a degree, fed into that. The team has been a great part of the community throughout its’ history and had plenty of memorable moments, but they’ve never won anything, unless Presidents’ Trophies and Prince of Wales Conference titles are good enough. Murray is a fresh set of eyes for this organization, with no ties and no sentimental attachment to the past, and that’s a good thing. I’m excited to see what he can accomplish as a GM.
The one concern I do have with Murray is what he will decide is the future of the other person I consider important to the team – Nolan. There are stories that claim Murray will want to bring in his own coach, and I suppose he has a right to do that. However, Nolan was asked to come here and attempt to right the ship, and he has more than answered the call. He inherited basically the same team as Roulston, and the difference in the play of that team between the beginning of the year under Roulston and now is like night and day. The three games since the Olympics have been amazing. Three wins under the cloud of the trade deadline engineered by a guy still holding the “interim” tag. The most impressive was Friday night’s win over San Jose. It was a bizarre game, with Miller and Ott pulled from the lineup less than an hour before the drop of the puck. The game telecast included an unreal scene where the intermission show between the first and second periods included a farewell press conference for the traded players. The Sabres, for the foreseeable future, are going to be a rebuilding project of trying to piece together young players into some semblance of a competitive NHL team. After watching the Latvian team in Sochi, is there any coach out there with better credentials to accomplish this job than Ted Nolan? It would be a crying shame if he is denied, for a second time in his career, the opportunity to finish a job he started.
Logo of a major junior hockey team that plays in the Ontario Hockey League, the Erie Otters. Based in Erie, PA, they are one of only three American teams in the league. The franchise has existed since 1943, when they were the Windsor Spitfires, and has played in Erie since 1996. They won the Robertson Cup as OHL champs in 2001/02, and Otter players who’ve gone on to play in the NHL include Brad Boyes, Ryan O’Reilly, Tim Connolly and Steve Montador. A player considered to be a top NHL future prospect, Connor McDavid, currently plays for the Otters.
1984 Topps hockey card of former National Hockey League goaltender Tom Barrasso. Drafted as a teenager in 1983, he became the first player in history to go directly from high school into the NHL. Amazingly, he won both the Calder Trophy as rookie of the year and the Vezina Trophy as top goaltender in his first year. Barrasso wound up playing a total of 18 seasons in the league for six different teams, with his most successful years coming in the early 1990s while playing for the Pittsburgh Penguins, where he won a pair of Stanley Cups.
The fourth and final section of the Buffalo Bills’ 2013 season review takes a look at the needs the team’s management has to try to fill for 2014, and some ideas on how they can fill those needs, through the draft, trades and free agency. Last year, I mentioned that their biggest priority needed to be re-signing their own potential free agents – Andy Levitre and Jairus Byrd. They didn’t manage to get either one signed, losing Levitre and putting the franchise tag on Byrd. Now they still have to try to keep Byrd in the fold, while their most important player to retain from this year’s free agents is probably kicker Dan Carpenter, who had a great year. Here is a look at the positions of greatest need that the Bills have, and what options they have to fill those needs:
Offensive Line
The Bills were extremely lucky not to have any major injuries on the line in 2013, but they can’t expect to be that lucky next season, so they definitely need to address the depth issue here. If they should happen to decide to dive into the free agent market for O-line help, one of the most interesting prospects is center Alex Mack of Cleveland. He has comparable abilities to Buffalo’s Eric Wood, and if they were to sign Mack, one of the two would be facing a position change to guard. Maybe neither of them would be thrilled to do that, but it would certainly upgrade the Bills’ line. If the team decides to draft a lineman with their first round pick (ninth overall), a top prospect is Texas A&M guard Jake Matthews, son of Hall of Fame offensive lineman Bruce Matthews. He played alongside Luke Joeckel, a first round choice last year, and supposedly when 5 NFL scouts were asked last year who was the better player, 2 of the 5 picked Matthews. If they choose to wait until the second round to address the line, a couple of good players who should be available are Cyril Richardson, a guard from Baylor (although some scouts feel he is overrated) and Gabe Jackson, a guard from Mississippi State who some regard as the best offensive lineman in the SEC.
Tight End
Coach Doug Marrone hasn’t said as much, but signs point to the club looking to upgrade this position. If the Bills decide to use the ninth pick on a tight end, the best available is Eric Ebron from North Carolina, a stud who is projected to be the first at his position to be drafted in 2014. His upside is his tremendous athletic ability – he made some unbelievable catches in his college career. His downside is he isn’t always consistent and has shown a penchant for dropping balls. A better option may be to wait a couple rounds and pick Texas Tech’s Jace Amaro. The best free agent TE available is New Orleans’ Jimmy Graham, a Pro Bowler. It’s hard to imagine the Saints not getting him re-signed, but they do have salary cap issues. It’s also hard to imagine him signing with the Bills, but then again no one ever expected Mario Williams to sign here either.
Receivers
With possibly 5 of the top 8 teams picking in the draft looking for quarterbacks, the Bills could have an outstanding wide receiver prospect drop into their lap at pick number nine. Sammy Watkins of Clemson is the best athlete of the receivers, and could develop into the top playmaker of this year’s available crop of receivers. Mike Evans, who caught passes from Johnny Manziel at Texas A&M, is a big (6’5) receiver who would fit the team’s need for a red zone playmaker. Robert Woods’ old teammate at USC, Marquise Lee, could also be available, as well as another big receiver who just declared for the draft, 6’5 Kelvin Benjamin from national champion Florida State. There aren’t really any veteran free agent receivers available who would be an improvement over the players already on the Buffalo roster.
Linebacker
If there is one veteran free agent linebacker out there who would be a good fit for the Bills’ defense, it’s Darryl Smith of the Baltimore Ravens, an inside backer who signed on with the Ravens last year from Jacksonville, for one year only, and wound up doing an admirable job replacing Ray Lewis after he retired. Among draft prospects, UCLA’s Anthony Barr is a great prospect with NFL bloodlines (his father and 2 uncles played in the league). To me, an intriguing prospect who should be available at number nine is local product Khalil Mack from the University of Buffalo. He is much more than just a local favorite, as he has been rated a top ten prospect in the draft by some scouts. He is tall and rangy and great in pass coverage, pass rushing as an outside backer and a strong run defender. His skill set is a lot like current Buffalo rookie Kiko Alonso, and pairing those two against opposing offenses that in today’s game feature mobile quarterbacks, slot receivers and tight ends that run like wide receivers would vastly improve the team on that side of the ball. The defenses that ultimately challenge the modern-day offenses will have to feature quick, rangy players at linebacker who can cover and also aren’t afraid to stick their noses into the action against the run. Alonso is that type of player, and Mack should develop into the same type of player.
Logo of an indoor football team that plays in the Arena League, the San Jose SaberCats. The team played in the original Arena League for its’ entire existence from 1995 until 2008, winning three league titles in that time. That league eventually folded, but the SaberCats were revived in a new version of the AFL starting in 2011.
1989 Topps football card of former Chicago Bears’ linebacker Ron Rivera, who played nine seasons for the team. He was a member of the famed 1985 “Super Bowl Shuffle” Bears team, which beat New England 46-10 in the big game. That made Rivera the first Puerto Rican player to play on a Super Bowl championship team. After retiring as a player, Rivera entered the coaching ranks, and currently is the head coach of the Carolina Panthers.
Part 3 of the Bills’ 2013 season review will take a look at the current roster of defensive players. I thought it would be interesting to look back on part of a statement I made in regards to the job Dave Wannstedt did as coordinator of the Bills’ defense in 2012:
” It just looked to me like the players were put in positions that appeared to make them robotic, and not instinctive. I really believe the players on the defensive side are mostly gamers who play hard, but they really underachieved as a unit in 2012. It will be a tough job for the new coaching staff to sort out what they have on defense and try to forge a respectable unit in 2013.”
Well, they weren’t the Steel Curtain, but new coordinator Mike Pettine’s defensive unit certainly was markedly improved, and much more aggressive, than what Wannstedt put on the field. There’s still a lot of room for improvement, but in only one season the unit appears poised to become a strength of the team, rather than a liability. Here is a position-by-position analysis of the Bills’ defense:
Defensive Linemen
The new more aggressive defensive scheme rejuvenated the players on this unit. Mario Williams and Kyle Williams had career years, while Marcell Dareus came into his own and became the player the team thought they were getting when they drafted him high a couple years ago. The Bills had three D-linemen with double-digit sack totals, if you include Jerry Hughes, who is listed on the roster as a lineman but plays more of an outside linebacker role. Dareus also added 7.5 sacks, a tremendous total for an interior lineman. The loss of Alex Carrington to injury early in the year was a blow, but his replacement, Alan Branch, filled in well enough to get a contract extension from the team. Two free agents picked off the waiver wire the last couple years, Corbin Bryant and Stefan Charles, looked good in reserve roles, especially Charles, who made plays in limited playing time after joining the club late in the year. The team signed a future prospect near the end of the season named Ikponmwosa Igbinosun. Good luck to the game broadcast announcers if he makes the team.
Linebackers
The gem at this position in 2013 was rookie second round draft pick Kiko Alonso, who played at a Pro Bowl level for most of the year and will undoubtedly be one of the major building blocks for the future. Free agent signee Manny Lawson played pretty well at one outside linebacker spot and Arthur Moats and Nigel Bradham shared time on the other. Neither had much of an impact, although Moats is a contributor on special teams. Another mid-season addition to the roster, Ty Powell, is the only other LB on the roster at this point, so this should be an area the team targets in the draft and/or free agency to try to upgrade. With the studs the Bills line up with on their defensive line, the linebackers should be the guys roaming the field making plays, and out of the current group only Alonso seemed to be doing it. Adding some playmakers here would also hopefully help cut down on the defense’s penchant for giving up huge chunks of yardage in the running game.
Defensive Backs
If they can get star safety Jairus Byrd re-signed, the Bills will have a deep, solid group in the secondary. Pairing Byrd with Aaron Williams at the starting safety spots would give the team one of the top safety tandems in the NFL. Williams, who struggled in his first couple of years at cornerback, was a revelation after being moved to safety, and only got better as the season wore on, becoming a real leader on the defense. Jim Leonhard and Da’Norris Searcy provided depth at the position and both made plays in their limited opportunities also. Two promising rookies, Duke Williams and Jonathan Meeks, are waiting in the wings for their shots also, although they mostly played on special teams this year. At cornerback, Stephon Gilmore struggled early on after coming back from a wrist injury, but his play improved by leaps and bounds late in the year. Leodis McKelvin was the most consistent performer overall, and with undrafted rookie Nickell Robey forcing his way into major playing time with some huge plays, the team looks solid at the corners and in their nickel packages. Ron Brooks played well on special teams and showed some ability as a corner also, so there’s a good amount of depth there as well. It would help if the team’s defensive backfield position coaches worked with these guys on their ball skills, as they still seem to find themselves in the perfect position in coverage, only to look lost and get beaten when the ball arrives. Granted, in today’s pass-happy NFL, it’s a league-wide problem, but the team that can build a dominating defense that stops the run and snuffs out opposing passing games will get the edge on the rest of the league. Although at this point they’re certainly not a dominating or even a “physical” defense, the Bills are right on the cusp of being able to do that, as long as they work to get better and not settle for the status quo.
Logo of a longstanding college football bowl game, the Sun Bowl. Played in El Paso, Texas, the game has existed since 1935, and is the second oldest bowl game (along with the more heralded Orange and Sugar Bowls), second only to the Rose Bowl. Some famous players who’ve won the game’s MVP Award include Jim Kiick, Bert Jones, Cornelius Bennett, Thurman Thomas and Priest Holmes. Like every other bowl game, it has a corporate sponsor, and is now known as the Hyundai Sun Bowl.