May Day 10

Yes... the same folks who cherry pick excuses why they wouldnt want bill polian or tom coughlin "anywhere near" this organization.

Trust me. It has nothing to do with some sort of gratification of saying "I told you so" on a message board... I have been having this same conversation for a decade now and the organization has continue to fail to make significant changes, and has deliberately insulated itself from outside influence. This franchise is an all-time historically poor NFL franchise and needs significant building at its foundation. A green, although enthusiastic owner alone isn't going to do it. It seemed a no-brainer that Pegula would bring someone in to build the program and he simply kept the same lineage of executives/management. Nothing to do with being 'right' on a message board. I invest too much in season tickets, time, and emotion for such silliness. Instead of continuing to be 'right' on some message board, I would much rather go to a December home game with playoff implications (Not just staying on the in the hunt graphic one more week) than be eliminated by all logic by Thanksgiving. I know some members of the local media and they would love a chance to cover a good team. They don't enjoy the negativity. The Bills and Sabres are both in process of continuing franchise-long playoff droughts. I would like nothing more to be 'wrong' and have the Bills go on a great run. Ultimately, it is an internal locus of control on the Bills. Fans and media have nothing to do with it. Swapping out coaches and outsourcing all the blame has not helped in 17 years. Odds are strong that they wont magically get it right this time either. McDermott has me optimistic at this point, I like what I read, and generally liked his PC... but these guys lose a lot of luster once they drive off the lot and the footballs start flying.

lol, so it would just be a new shuffle, same result

I agree. The Jets and Miami games do nothing for me. It is less than a rivalry... dull. I would rather see a different opponent in the AFC. New England is more intense, just because it is the nature of a 'dynasty' like that and most of the AFC feels the same way anyway. I really hate the Division the Bills are stuck in. it's boring. That is 40% of the schedule every season and has been for 15 years. It has gotten stale. Sure, you have some rivalries league-wide... but mainly they are built on teams who happen to be good at the same time (Seattle/49ers)...

Also, add in that this franchise has a long history of vague responsibilities in the front office. They commit one grievous error after another, and simply outsource one scapegoat, everyone else takes one step to the left, and they keep the waters muddy. Everyone's alarms went off full blast when Whaley stammered and for good reason. It was easily preventable on the Bills' part. Instead, they appear as 'dysfunctional', then cry media

I do believe that they can go a long way with 'using' the media more to their advantage. Pegula has had a petty squabble with TBN since the day he arrived and was naive enough to think that TBN would agree to only print 'nice' stories... and their columns were preventing Tim Connolly from breaking out. Everyone agreed Rex needed to go... but they did it with such a lack of grace and direction in the public eye, it turned everyone back on the franchise and also made their GM look like a bumbling fool. It should be easy for a billion dollar organization to mitigate these disasters... and they predate Pegula as well

100% agree with these sentiments. It comes off and always has come off as an amateur outfit. It desperately needs coats of paint from professionals. Again, people dont want to hear it, but ultimately, team President should be accountable for this too. He does such an amazing job... why does the organization always suffer was bad PR 'incidents'. It isnt the media's fault either. It is 100x worse other places.

I would like it if they went with 4 conferences Lambeau Shula Buffalo Houston Cleveland Miami Pittsburgh Jacksonville Detroit Tampa Bay Cincinnati Carolina Chicago New Orleans Minnesota Atlanta Green Bay Tennessee Parcells Walsh New England Denver NY Giants Los Angeles Rams Washington Seattle Philadelphia Kansas City Baltimore Oakland Dallas San Francisco Indianapolis Los Angeles Chargers NY Jets Arizona It is treated more like NCAA football. Play each Division team 1x. rotate home/away year to year. Pair up 1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 7-8 for an extra Divisional game to make 8 Divisional games. It would also keep teams at the top of the Division duking it out once more each season so you wouldnt lose the 'situational' rivalries that pop up. Then 4 from your other conference Division with typical home/away rotation, and 2/2 from each Division from the other conference with typical home/away rotation. Conference winners get byes. #2 and #3 in each division play in the wildcard round. Then play for the conference championships and re-seed for the final 4.

I have been in favor of this awhile. I like: 4 conferences, 8 teams.. play each team once, but pair up 1 vs 2, 3 vs 4 and so on for one extra game. Play 4 games vs your other afc conference... then 2 vs each nfc one Im sick of miami, ne, and the jets taking up like 40% of the schedule every season. Its boring.

He made an arm chopping motiin when he said russ brandon was business side only. Oh yeah... but then listed many scenarios that he would be involved... and how important it is that everyone needs to be involved in everything.

I have an open mind. It seems that Russ Brandon was (finally) far from the process, which has been my wish for almost a decade.

I wonder if Whaley actually pulled a move on Russ Brandon as well as Rex.

Not a trace of rat hair from russ brandon Im cautiously optimistic a good choice could have been made

The bills have a 50+ year history... lots of source material there.... Interviews, player features, behind the scenes workings of obd and the stadium... early look at 2017 opponents... top draftable players... in depth on coaching candidates including interviews with colleagues.... the john clayton interview on s&bd is always entertaining and takes a chunk of time... focus on current nfl playoffs. Anything but take constant opposing views of callers

I cant begrudge the show for not being cynical and tearing down the inner workings of their organization... However, a show that takes callers needs to screen them. Find more neutral topics and talk about those. If you cant get enough callers that want to go along with the show, start creating non-caller-driven content. Concentrate on the NFL playoffs more, the college bowl season, do more interviews and features, etc. Taking caller after caller, pretending to be obtuse, and arguing is a bad look and a bad show. This happened on the early days of Hockey Hotline too when the Sabres held onto Ruff and Regier too long.

Tbh... out of the current weak crop of choices, mcdermott seems like the best

I dont see it as quitting. He had a contractual opportunity (given by the bills) to leave. For whatever reason, he felt it was in his best interests. Same with any free agent players who do so, or teams who decline an option on a player. These people act in the best interests of their careers. Then you see the bills having similar problems with a new coach, while marrone plays nice as a lowly offensive coordinator. It makes you think a little, especially reflecting back to the whole "lifers" conflict thing. You also start to wonder if the 'serial leaker' within the bills organization floated some unflattering notions about marrone in order to save face.

Columnist vs Reporter

trade for Payton

We need someone who vows not to take a wife, or father any children

Considering the amount of stagnation that has existed, I think that layer of team president is sorely missing with both franchises. LaFontaine, publicly said a lot of extremely prudent/intelligent things on the state of the Sabres and his vision. I was behind him 100%. Not sure about the full body of work as GM, but I would trust him with decisions... or at least the power of signing off. His job certainly wasn't supposed to be 'find a GM' then sit there.

I like his demeanor... however, I do think he talks publicly and candid a bit too much... and I like his attention and experience to scouting My jury is still out on him overall. He needs to hit on some of these picks, other than the slam-dunk tankey guys. He spent a lot of assets in some trades and those moves (Lehner, Kane/Bogosian) are looking a bit questionable. Rochester is somewhat barren and they are fairly short on prospects, considering where they were when Murray took over.

No... but we do not know what happened behind the scenes. All season there seemed to be an impending 'struggle' between Marrone and those entrenched in the Bills' organization. There is likely blame on both sides. Sometimes, general opinion can be 'accepted' as fact, such as "Saint Doug is a Jackazz who attempted a power and money grab". Even if that is true... was he wrong?

First, LaFontaine has this "stigma" due to the Islanders situation that was extremely toxic. He was an unpaid advisor, and was expecting to work with Neil Smith... However, Charles Wang, a notoriously meddlesome owner of a dysfunctional franchise fired Smith like a month later and replaced him with their backup goaltender... and hours later, the unpaid LaFontaine resigned. Any reasons people give for LaFontaine's departure from the Sabres is speculation. Only a few people know and they are on NDAs. I do know I would want LaFontaine running the ship right now as opposed to a Brandon-Pegula-Murray triumvirate. They also had Craig Patrick on board and lost him in the process. I also know the Pegulas are amassing a repeat history of front office drama where it is only fair to not heap all blame on LaFontaine based on assumption.

I am pretty sure if the Bills made a major front office overhaul and committed to a proper rebuild, 90% or more of the fan base would be behind it. The Sabres' fan-base did and they remained capped at Season tickets throughout the process and even were able to increase prices.