The Bills Should Fire Rex Ryan

           
          I'm usually not one to jump to harsh conclusions, but this time is different.  After losing today to the Eagles, the Bills have fallen to 6-7 and will have to win out just to match last years record.  That is just the surface though, once you remember the fact that the Bills could have beaten the Raiders, Chiefs and Texans last year and had the chance to be a 10 or 11 win team, you start to get even more mad.
           The Bills have a better roster than last year and a much easier schedule, yet are managing to get worse results.  The Bills got to play the two worst divisions in football this year, the NFC East and the AFC South.  Yet they have already lost to the Eagles, the Giants and the Jaguars, and barely squeaked past the Titans.  So even though the Bills remaining schedule does not look that daunting, that really does not seem to matter, and i would not be surprised one bit if they manage to only win one more game the rest of the way.
           It gets even worse when you consider a couple more things.  For one, it is not the offense that is the problem.  It has generally speaking been the defenses fault.  The Bills had a top 5 defense last year, and led the league in sacks.  Than you bring in a so called defensive guru who loves to blitz the quarterback and the defense gets worse, and the sack numbers go way down, that speaks to something.  I came into this season expecting a bad offense and a great defense, but it has been quite the opposite.  Tyrod Taylor has been the best QB the Bills have had in a while.  Sammy Watkins is starting to look like the guy we thought he would be and even Lesean Mccoy, until today, had looked pretty good.  The offense most of the time has been getting the job done, the defense has been a problem.
          You also have to take in account the lack of discipline this team has in also every aspect of the game.  The Bills had 15 penalties today.  15.  That is beyond bad.  They also came at horrific times, the amount of times the Bills had the Eagles in a third and long than jumped into the neutral zone and turned it into a third and short were way to many.  Than the opposite happened a bunch as well, with the Bills being in a third and short on offense but committing a false start and turning it into a third and long.  They had many plays called back for penalties, and continued to folly on special teams.
        But the most damning thing of all is the Jets themselves, the team Rex came from.  Well the Bills did beat them, the Jets sit at 8-5 and are squarely in the playoff race.  I know the Jets signed some people after last year, but we still cannot forgot how much of a disaster they were last year.  So Rex went from a team that was a disaster to a team with playoff hopes, and has turned those playoff hopes into a disaster, while that former disaster now has playoff hopes.  That speaks to something and that something is the coach.  Rob Ryan flamed out in the league and it looks like Rex may not be that far behind him.  Will the Bills fire Rex after just 1 season, i doubt it, but i would hope they would at least have a conversation about it.  And if you ask me, i think they should fire him.
         Also i don't want to hear the, we have a lot of injuries excuse.  Every team gets injuries, this is football, not shuffle board.  The best teams overcome those injuries.

Yankees 2015 Recap

     So once again the Yankee season has come to a close.  This time being virtually the same to last year, even the same record.  But due to the fact that everybody else in the A.L decided to not show up this year, (i'm looking at you Angels, Mariners, Orioles, Redsox, Tigers and Whitesox), the Yanks managed to "earn" a wildcard berth, not only that but have it at their stadium.
     Then the game started, but it was really over before it began.  Houston had Dallas Keuchel on the mound, and i don't care how iffy he has been on the road this year, any time the Yanks faced a quality pitcher in the second half of the season, the quality pitcher won.  And that is exactly what happened.  The Bronx bombers could not touch him.  Their best attack was hoping he walked them, which worked a few times, but when they needed a hit, they sure as hell did not get one.  Oh and if you did not know, after A-rod was put out with men on first and second, he became the holder of another record.  He now holds the record for worst batting average with runners in scoring position in post season history.  Really earning that contract.  Back to the game, i feel bad for Tanaka, he gave up 2 runs and lost, what else did you want him to do?  How could you celebrate the way you did after clinching a postseason berth than show up to the postseason game at home, and not score a single run.  That is utterly disgraceful.
     But then again, they should not have even been there to begin with.  Most "experts" agreed that the Yanks would be a very average team at best, with some choosing them to finish last in the A.L East. Most people had either the Jays, Redsox or Orioles winning the division, which props to the Jays for finally fulfilling their potential.
     That's where the problem lies.  They will in theory be showing up next spring training with a virtually similar roster to this years, but you can not expect all the teams that underperformed to underperform again.  Which means the Yankees are going to have to get better. The Yanks have very little to no flexibility though.  Texeira is still undercontract, same with CC, Jacoby Ellsbury, Brett Gardner, Chase Headley, Carlos Beltran and of course good old A-rod.  None of those players are tradeable, not with the contracts they have and the way they have played.  Which means the opening day lineup will be virtually the same as this years, with one exception at second base, though Dustin Ackley, or Rob Refsnyder are sadly both only slight improvements over Drew.  The only real place you can improve is the pitching staff.  But i doubt Cashman gives a big time contract to a big time pitcher, not with how the last 2 he handed out look now (Tanaka and CC).  So the one area he could, and should upgrade is the bullpen.  Unless your name was Betances, Miller or Wilson, you probably were not the most reliable person in the world.  So an upgrade here should be expected. 
    Lastly the coach.  I am honestly not a huge Joe Giradi fan.  I think he plays by the book too much, mis-uses his bullpen, and is generally scared to bench the big money players for people who are playing well.  Though he did bench jacoby yesterday for Young, but Jacoby has been playing so bad recently if he did not do that i would have called for his head immediately.  His saving grace is he has won a worldseries, how much of that was because of him who knows, and their aren't many replacement options out there that really would make me jump for joy.  So if he gets fired or comes back, it really would not surprise me.   Unless he personally asked cashman to give all these aging players absurd contracts, you can't entirely blame him.
    So next year will come and the Yanks will be average again, though maybe not, maybe they will make some moves, or let the youngsters play, or over-achieve once more.  Until then though, time to enjoy watching some real playoff caliber teams play baseball.

My Thoughts On the Knicks

I am sitting in my college cafeteria waiting for my next class and decided to write this, so if you are looking for a well written article from some 50 year old journalist you clicked the wrong link.  But otherwise here are my thoughts on the knicks.

For one i feel as though the basketball gods must hate me.  I did not become a basketball fan until around 13 or 14 so i have yet to really see a good season, with the 2012-13 being the exception.  I became a fan with al harrington, gallo, chris duhon and david lee.  Ive become so used to the knicks losing i have to drug test myself anytime they win.  Which is really really sad for a team that apparantely plays in the worlds greatest arena.  Right now they are the worlds worst team.  But that was all supposed to change when the zen master himself came in, Phil Jackson.

I am a huge fan of Phil as a basketball coach.  So much so that i actually believe that Jordan and Kobe are somewhat overated.  I mean you can count how many chips they have won without phil on one hand, because its 0.  Now without phil kobe is either injured or taking 97 shots while the lakers lose by 30.  Either way i thought he would turn it around and that he had a plan. 

On paper the tyson chandler trade wasnt all that bad.  In theory dalembert would be a slight downgrade to chandler, calderon would be a huge upgrade to felton, plus larkin ellington and 2 second round picks.  Well it failed miserably.  Chandler looks like an allstar, and dalembert ellington arent even on the roster anymore, and neither would calderon but noone wanted to take him.  Than came the cleveland trade, again not horrible on paper.  Get rid of 2 underperforming players for cap space.  Again though it all blew up in his face.  Jr and shump look good again, the cavs are on a roll and look like a title contender. 

Now that shouldnt matter in theory until the trade deadline came.  Both Goran dragic and Reggie Jackson were traded, with the general thought being that they are now going to stay with those respective teams.  Both were players the knicks were thought to be looking at come free agency.  Also to me roy hibbert will be staying in indiana and do we really want deandre jordan.  Lob city works nicely with cp3, but with calderon, ehhh not so much.  I mean we could overpay for rondo to pair him up with jordan and melo, but having two guys that couldnt hit a free throw to save their lives wouldnt work out well. 

The only hope is that either jackson or dragic still decide to leave otherwise we are screwed.  Hell some people have the hope that love will decide to leave cleveland and come to ny.  One, not gonna happen.  And two that would be terrible as well.  Calderon, melo, hardaway jr, love and whoever we pick off of the street to play center all cant play d.  We would get picked apart like butter that has been in a microwave for 3 weeks.

Now stinking isnt horrible, i mean we get a high draft pick, and hopefully a really good player.  So if we stink again next year we will get another good player.  Oh wait, toronto has our 1st next year from that robbery they did for he who shall not be named.  So if we stink, they get a good pick.  But with no good free agents this year that would come to ny, we are probably going to stink.  And many people are saying who cares if toronto gets a good pick, because we are going to get durant.  Really, is durant coming here.  Lets see he could stay in okc with westbrook and co., he could go to washington with beal, wall and co. Or he could come to ny, with langston galloway, lance thomas and a one legged melo.  Because looking at both dwade and granger, you can have all the optimism you want, but melo will most likely not be the same after this surgery.

Which is why i have an idea of how to start to fix the knicks.  Phil has already started to blow everything up, but he needs to blow it up even more.  Trade melo to some team who wants him.  My thoughts, the lakers.  Think about it, jim bus is under huge pressure to land somebody big this offseason, but likely will strikeout.  When he does people will be gunning for his head.  Melo and kobe have always wanted to play together, and melo reportedly was really interested in going to la in free agency but ultimately came back to ny for the money.  Well now he has his money, so one would think he would be willing to waive his no trade clause to play with kobe, especially when he sees how bad the knicks are going to be again next year.  So what could you get for him.  I would want randle, whoever they draft this year with their pick and the rockets and the next first rd pick they could trade.  That would give us a huge influx of young talent, 4 first round players, and would give bus the 2nd superstar he has been searching for. Both parties come out happy.

That is just my opinion on the knicks present and future, now time to go to class.

Buffalo Bills 2015

The Bills hadnt had a winning season since 2004.  Yet why do i still feel disappointed.  Probably the fact that we should have been much, much better.  Houston, miami, denver and kc were all games that we should have won but didnt for one reason or another.  Whether it be bad refering or mental errors or poor qb play. Than defeating greenbay we went ahead and lost to oakland.  Than Doug Marrone got up and left and in came rex ryan, the former coach of the jets who we beat badly 3 times in a row.  So now i am left here like usual thinking about next year.

Usually when i think about next year the first thing i think about is the draft.  But we dont have a first round pick because we traded it for sammy watkins.  Who honestly didnt play bad but when every body else below you played as good or better it makes the trade look not so good. Especially odell beckham, who would have been available for the bills in there original spot to draft.  All he did was out catch sammy in 4 less games.  So now looking at the team, like usual we need a qb.  At least someone to give ej some competition, cause damn compared to ej, orton looked like john elway.  But the best guy we will be able to get in the draft is bryce petty or sean mannion, whom neither looked that good in the senior bowl.  So the other options are free agency and trades.  Well the free agent class is super strong, with mark sanchez being the best available.  Sarcasm if you didnt get that.  I mean are we really going to go for a sanchez rex reunion, i would lose my mind.  So trade is probably the best option.  But who is out there.  Some people have said ryan mallet, or garapollo or nick foles, but the most popular is jay cutler.  Now while i actually like cutler and think the biggest part of his issues is the bears o line being awful,  he got sacked 7 times in one game, i think a similar person is a better idea.  Aaron kromer was the former bears o coordinator, and didnt have too much success with cutler.  But he did have some with a different qb.  His name is josh mccown and my thinking is he is either going to be dropped or traded by tampa bay seeing as they have the no1 pick and are likely to use it on a qb and not want there backup making a lot of money.  Mcown did very well under kromer which is how he got that very large contract.  Now do i think he is the future, of course not, but he is 100 times better than what we got right now.

Speaking of free agency let me touch on that.  We have a bunch of people hitting the market this year.  With the biggest being cj, dareus, hughes,spikes.  Now i like spikes and for the right price we should bring him back.  Same with dareus, though i think we should take a swing at suh first, though i doubt he would want to come to buffalo, but than again that is what i thought about mario. But i dont think we should retain hughes.  Im guessing under rex we will be going back to the 3-4 while we played 4-3 last year.  Hughes is a great defensive end, but not a great olb which is what he would have to play some in rexs system.  We will also need to sign a 3rd defensive tackle as well and might wanna use the money saved from hughes on that.  How i see it is this, with spikes, bradham, brown, alonso coming back and lawson, plus some people we might drafy, hughes would not be worth it unless we get him back for very cheap.  Next up is cj.  Again let him walk.  Too injury prone, we still got jackson and brown and it has been proved many times that you can find a solid running back late in the draft, so i say draft someone and keep what you got, sorry cj.  The only other rb i would be willing to sign is lynch.  Though he is not a free agent, the thought is that he will be a salary cap cur from the seahawks, and who better to use in greg romans ground and pound system than beast mode.  Though again i doubt he would want to make a comeback to buffalo.

Either way unless we get a qb next year will be more of the same, a great defense and a horrid offense.  With what looks like an easier schelduel though i can see the bills goin 9-7 once again, which it would be nice to have 2 winning seasons in a row.