Hapless Bills Fan
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Posts posted by Hapless Bills Fan
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Maybe Pegs isn't perfect, Kryk, but at least this guy isn't our owner
@realDonaldTrump: Congratulations to Tom Brady on yet another great victory- Tom is my friend and a total winner!
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Just think of all the cap money if we DONT resign Marcel!
I thought we were playing to win THIS YEAR. Sounds like we have been playing for next year so long it is a hard habit to break.
We are playing to win this year. We're talking about saving money by cutting backup/part time players including a QB who is currently our 9th highest cap hit. That's still playing to win this year *provided* you feel you have younger, cheaper backups who are similar or better in quality. (That last point can be argued and debated, the point is how the coaching staff sees it)
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Your link is bad, but your points are good. I looked up for myself the publicly stated roles of Whaley and Rex and found you are correct. According to Pegula, Whaley has been given authority to select the 53 man roster. Based on that, I will back off my position about Whaley overstepping his authority or boundaries.
That said, it's hardly following the open, consultative, unified model Pegula spoke about so passionately. If, as reported, he cut Fred unilaterally and secretly against the desires of football ops, which is headed by Ryan, it's pretty sleazy. Whaley may have final say on the 53, but that doesn't mean he's the only voice that matters.
Thanks for letting me know about the link; I edited and actually linked in the press conference transcript, which is the better source.
I also appreciate you researching and changing your view.
That said, please note that it was NOT reported that "Whaley cut Fred unilaterally and secretly against the desires of football ops, which is headed by Ryan."
If you feel to the contrary, kindly provide a link. Otherwise, IMHO I think you should stop saying it was reported, because that's in fact not true.
What was "reported" was that two (unspecified) sources told Graham that Whaley "went rogue" with the cut, without any detail about what "going rogue" meant. It was later corrected by Graham that Pegula had been informed, and that M&T was "embarassed".
Everything else is inference from Graham's vague tweet with no further details as yet forthcoming.
Important detail, as explained, Ryan is the head coach, he is not the head of football ops. In fact, if you go to the Bills home page and look at "front office", you will see that the Bills have no one with that title, but in any case, Ryan's title is "head coach". Brandon is "President". Brandon functionally heads what is commonly called the "football operations" branch, which means the people who handle day to day operations - keep the stadium and locker room running, make sure there are meals and gatorade and hotels and transportation, handle equipment, supervise the office staff and interns, negotiate contracts, handle PR, etc etc - Google "duties of director of football operations" if you don't believe me (Edit: I sit corrected, the Bills do indeed have a Director of Football Operations, just too low down to show on their home page - he's in the "Football Administration" branch under Overdorf. It's still not Ryan, and I think to most, Football Ops means someone in the Front Office Staff, under Brandon.)
So if you heard "football operations wasn't informed" and inferred from that "Rex Ryan was not consulted or Whaley went against his wishes", you are working from a misunderstanding of what Football Ops means. Football ops means Brandon and his underlings (Overdorf), and in most organizations, Football Ops is not consulted on decisions to cut a player other than to weigh in on the salary cap implications.
What muddies the water with the Bills is that for many years, Brandon functioned as GM and WAS directly involved in roster decisions and the line between business/PR decisions and football decisions was blurred. Most people regard this as a Bad Thing and a major factor in the Bills playoff drought.
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Well, a couple things I take from all this. Twitter is a horribly irresponsible form of reporting. Tim Graham was doing what we in Buffalo know he always does, stir the pot. Unfortunately with Rex's national reputation of being this big larger than life, brash personality, he is getting tons of national attention here, further blowing it out of proportion. And Whaley, as I said earlier, is put in the hot seat for numerous reasons.
If they work well together behind closed doors, while disagreeing on minor matters it can be a fine enough situation and no one has anything to worry about. But I think, of anyone, an unsuccessful season this year, may fall on Whaleys shoulders.
Agreed on Twitter and on pot stirring.
Also agreed that the real issue is what went down between Rex and Whaley and the Pegulas. Screw the media, but the three of them and especially Rex and Whaley, need to work hand in glove.
If this year's season is unsuccessful, I think the question is "why?" At times, the Jets were hampered by questionable game management by Ryan, stupid assistant tricks (tripping the gunner, remember that?), and what looked like a poorly controlled locker room. I think if any of that emerges or if the defense is clearly taking a step back from last year, the blame will fall to Rex.
On the other hand, if Cassel is cut, added to FredEx, and then injuries or poor performance hamper the run game and Taylor/EJ don't work out, well, the roster buck falls to Whaley so he should shoulder it. OTOH, Rex does have a reputation in the NY media for making personnel decisions then deflecting responsibility onto others, so I think that aspect will be watched.
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Which wasn't illegal at the time.
Incorrect, in Alabama "Spice" was made illegal by emergency order in October 2011.
If you are the Bills, do you want him playing vs the Colts and risk having to serve his suspension later in the season? Or do you figure we need him the most now?
If I'm Dareus lawyer and/or agent, I'm certainly calling my client and asking if he wants to file an appeal in court. Once you get it in court, there's always the chance it will go away completely. But I think in this case, it's up to Dareus, I don't think the Bills are going to get legally involved in a non-football-related player issue even if not having that player will impact their football
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Nope. Read articles. Banned substance, not illegal substance. Reported by both USA Today and NFL.com.
My point remains the same anyway. Players can get suspension for PLENTY of substances that are legal. What matters is what's listed in the NFLPA, not what's allowed by the law.
The article also notes that "found him to be in possession of synthetic marijuana and drug paraphernalia, both Class C felonies that carry a minimum one-year jail term had he been indicted and found guilty at trial" and "Last May, Dareus was arrested for felony possession of a controlled substance and possession of drug paraphernalia" which sounds to me like it's illegal
But your point is well taken that suspension correlates to the NFL's banned substances, which may or may not be illegal
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Did Dareus receive advance notice from the league that he could be suspended for a game for driving too fast?
I thought this suspension was for "substance abuse" - the arrest for synthetic mary jane which is illegal in Alabama***
***(and stupid everywhere - public service announcement to anyone considering it, the people making that stuff are into money and skirting the law, not into ensuring that the changes in chemistry that keep it legal don't f*** your body up.)
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And the other 30 NFL teams. The *pats will no longer get the benefit of not being called for a penalty in the final 5 minites of games. They will no longer get the phantom calls of pass interference or roughing the passer when the game is on the line.
With Goodels ego and the way the NFL works do you really think the pats will get the red carpet rolled out for them anymore in the fourth quarter? The three things that made the Patriots great over the years were Bellichick, Brady, and the refs.
Better they lose the refs for the whole season and beyond than Brady for four games.
Interesting thought. I would take that red carpet roll-back.
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lol I would not have seen it unless Tim Graham forwarded the fake Whaley Wife tweet to the Bills to see if it was real... Had to see what the heck he was doing
If he could forward the fake Whaley wife tweet to the Bills to see if it was real, why couldn't he forward his 'two sources" tweet to the Bills and report any comment?
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Very well put and informative. Thanks. Sounds like a pretty reasonable clear cut and productive structure they have in place, now if they can all just get along.
I have a feeling the tweets were a little overblown.
Thanks.
The tweet is really bothering me. I feel that if reporters want to use Twitter to publish breaking news, they have a journalistic responsibility to follow it up with longer explanation not possible in Twitter. And, their peers have a responsibility to follow it up, not just cite their colleague's tweet as a source.
Worse, Graham made his tweet impossible for Whaley or Rex or the Bills organization to refute, since the first thing he said is that the Bills organization will maintain unity when speaking publically.
So now we have it all over the news media that Whaley "went rogue" by cutting Jackson, without any explanation of exactly what that means - who was allegedly left out of the loop? Anyone reiterating Graham's tweet should provide clarification from him on what "going rogue" meant - who allegedly wasn't consulted or informed who should have been? and seek comment from Rex Ryan, Whaley, and the Pegulas. Then they'd have a story. Without that, they have Middle-school Girls Gossip Hour.
Rex has stated that the decision to cut Jackson was an organizational decision and has used the pronoun "we": "This is a really hard decision, but we felt the decision that we made, especially at the time we made it, was appropriate." Whaley has said that the Pegulas were informed (and even Graham later acknowledged this) and implied that both he and Rex were involved in communicating to Jackson
There has been all kinds of speculation that what "rogue" means is that Whaley acted without the Pegulas or HC knowledge, but even Graham has backpedaled on the Pegulas and as long as Rex and Whaley state that they were both in the loop, I really don't think an unnamed source and a tweet with the unexplained term "rogue" are enough grounds to question that.
The only further information that Graham has provided, that I've seen, is that Whaley's decision embarassed M&T bank, which it really shouldn't be, if M&T has competent ad agency
The problem faced by Whaley and Ryan and the Bills is that any further statement they make goes for naught in the face of Graham's tweet since, you know, they're going to maintain public unity even if they're privately screaming at each other, cuz Timmah sez that's what they'll do. Like Whaley or dislike Whaley, that's really a scummy situation to put anyone in. Golden Rule, One, Violated.
I think Tim Graham needs to either put up (follow up his tweet with specific information about who what when where - you know, like a journalist?) or issue a public apology to Whaley for libeling him. I think every reporter who has lazily quoted Graham without any follow-up or new information should do likewise or transfer to the gossip or horoscope section of their organization. And I think posters here who are assuming what "rogue" means without any confirmation and in the face of contrary statements from the people involved should pause and think about what they're doing.
I don't expect that to happen because I understand this is real life, but I think it should. OK, I'm done now.
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If you wouldn't make the decision, you don't think it was the right one.
You know, this isn't how real life works.
Decisions are often close calls. A decision can be a "right decision" in the sense of being correct given the information used to make it and the weight assigned to that information, even if someone else would make a different decision because they would factor in different information or weight it differently - saying "I think it was the right decision, although I wouldn't have made it" is really shorthand for this
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I thought I made myself perfectly clear, but let me help you.
The GM controls the purse strings, and it's his job to work with the coach to ensure his decisions of who is kept and cut are fiscally viable and responsible. The coach, who is on the field with his staff evaluating the players every day, is the only one capable of deciding who the better players are for the team and who should be let go.
The GM's job is to assemble talent for the coach to evaluate. The coach should be able to consult the GM on personell matters to ensure they are getting the right type of guys for his team, but the trigger on who to sign and who to draft is ultimately the GM's.
If the coach goes unilateral on talent acquisition, or the GM goes unilateral on roster decisions, they will have overstepped their boundaries...or gone rogue if you will.
Did that help?
I doubt it will influence you, but that's actually not how things work. It varies from team to team, and on some teams the coach controls the 53 man roster.
The announced Bills procedure is: "Brandon said the 53-man roster will come under Whaley's responsibilities, while the 46-man roster on game day will be Ryan's. Pegula said the three would all report to him and co-owner and wife Kim Pegula. As was the case with the press conference that followed the Bills' change in ownership in October, Kim Pegula sat in the front row with other family members."
So:
Brandon: controls purse strings and staff which writes contracts
Whaley: controls talent acquisition and 53 man roster decisions, scouting and pro player personnel staff
Ryan: controls game-day decisions, scheme, coaching staff
All three: report directly to the Pegulas
In reality, the GM works to understand what type of players the coach needs to implement his schemes and acts according to player evaluation and rankings provided by the HC/coaching staff, and the GM and coach provide talent comparison/player value input to guide the football ops guys in how they write contracts.
Your description of how things work is factually incorrect according to the Bills announced organizational structure and rather than helping, will misinform people who take it seriously.
This post is provided as a service to people who want to understand how things work
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Well, it probably dissappoints his father, now he will have to go to Buffalo this year, and you know there are no decent hotels there.....
Perhaps Dareus and the Williams Bros can deflate him now
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I don't believe that reporters should be getting the quality of information that they seem to be getting about the inner workings of the organization. I don't think that happens with quality organizations, hopefully we get it straightened out.
Well, that sort of creates a tautology, doesn't it? Leaks don't happen in quality organizations -> Leak happens -> Therefore we're not a quality organization.
I think leaks happen all the time.... Joe Employee talks to his wife, or his friend, or his chiropracter, who then cultivates self-importance "guess what I heard!".
The issue with the Bills seems to be lack of accountability in the media for the credibility of the sources. One guy tweets some gossip which, since it's twitter and not his news org, he can say whatever he likes without any awkward questions from an editor. Then the rest of the media takes off with it citing the tweet, who if called on it, can say "oh, I didn't publish that in an article, it's just a quick tweet"
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Yeah, sure.
But if you take away EJ's 51 yd touchdown to Deonte Thompson in the Carolina game, and then, if you take away his 31 yd pass to Gragg and his 14 yd TD pass to Davis in the Cleveland game, AND then take away his 61 yd TD bomb to Clay and the 37 yd TD pass to Tobias Palmer his stats aren't so hot!
He'd only be 15 of 30 for 164 yards and NO TDs. Sure, you might say he still didn't get intercepted once, but that doesn't mean he's not inaccurate. [/runEJouttatownmob]
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In all honesty I think this was all done so Rex doesn't take any heat. Whaley is handling the fallout.
Would fit what's going down. "Good cop Bad cop"
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and look at the clicks gotten!
If the Bills collapse that its warranted. If not is is all hot air.
BTW was this person pro or anti EJ throughout camp.
Tough cuts happen all the time. I expect more tough cuts to come.
Kryk is typically a feature piece/opinion writer, not a daily news guy AFAIK. His one piece I saw on the QB competition was very even-handed and described the flaws of all 3 QB as he saw at the practice he attended, without any apparent bias.
HIs flaw seems to be that he lacks his own inner connections so he tends to regurgitate what other media says at times - for example after Marrone left, he referred to the Bills as "Dysfunction Junction" and talked about Polian coming as Football Czar etc. He promoted the Bills trying to acquire RGIII after Orton retired as 'we're not going to find our next QB in EJ'. When writing about Marrone as OL coach of Jax, he quoted Bradley as saying the Bills had a well-coached line under Marrone and "ran the ball very well" -- which he may have thought spoke for itself as delusional but it would have been clearer to those who aren't intimate with the Bills if he'd cited the Bills YPA and # of attempts or something.
Edit: I guess I should add that mainstream media seems to have the same flaw, after I saw the MMQB piece by Robert Klemko parroting the Tim Graham tweet as "Whaley facing accusations of going rogue". Sorry, but a reporter's tweet about "going rogue" which is not substantiated or sourced except "inside the organization" does not constitute an accusation IMO and if it does - under law one has the right to face one's accuser, morally and ethically I think the principle holds. "intimation" or "reported by unidentified sources in the organization" would be better. The media are also exploiting Twitter I think,
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I dunno maybe its just me. Because I never saw this great 5th round pick at RB play good enough to unseat Jackson as the #2. I understand he move up the depth chart in camp, and looked good before his injury. Still, lots of RB's look great in camp / pre season to make the team, and then fall on their face once the season starts.
The point is whether the coaches believe he played or could play to that level. They see a lot more of the players than we do. And yes, sometimes they're proven wrong in the regular season, it goes with the job.
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He's got one thing right - this was the fault of the Pegulas. They should have never said anything or got involved back in March. (...)
That pained look on Rex's and Doug's face at the press conference was genuine - they knew they botched this. (....)
Maybe the Pegulas didn't get involved. Do you remember the source of that information? The Pegulas never confirmed or denied IIRC
Maybe Rex and Doug looked pained because they genuinely feel bad about cutting players with whom they've worked closely for several months and in Jackson's case years
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OK. so we're going to debate the uselessness of Tim Graham now. Can we debate the negativity of Jerry Sullivan next?
Oh, hey, I have a novel idea, we could talk football!
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I see a quote from one of the paragraphs that reads, "Even at this level, fear is still a healthy motivator" Whaley sure put the fear in these players knowing, hey I better play my ass off.
I don't think that's a good read on the situation at all. If anything, the contrary - "even if I play my ass off for years and keep playing, the Turk will eventually find me".
Except that the players should already know that, and accept that the payoff is the salary they get whilst playing, the team camaraderie, and the opportunity to play the game at the highest level.
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I don't think there is any reason to believe that Ryan was not told and in favor of the Fred situation.
This - not only that Rex was told, but that it was his and his coordinator/position coach's evaluations that drove the decision.
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It falls on the org structure set by the Pegulas
Interesting thoughts, many conveyed by posters here as well
Kryk is writing as though it is certain Whaley went behind, around, or over Ryan. That is actually going against what Ryan has said publically that lines of communication are open and that the decision was an organizational decision.
I don't see why Whaley or the Pegulas need to "fix" anything. They set it up so THEY are the football overlords and if Rex or Whaley disagree, they will call the shot. Why should they change that? Either Rex and Whaley are both telling the truth and they were all in the room and agreed, or there was a disagreement and the Pegulas settled it.
I also don't see why the Bills need to address Tim Graham's tweet. IMO it would give it undeserved credibility. I asked in another thread "how much credibility do we give Tim Graham?"
I somewhat answered my own question when in a search for a specific article I found all sorts of Graham dirt-grubbing from January about Marrone bad-mouthing TBD to Polian and thus persuading Polian not to come because Polian had so much respect for Marrone etc etc. In hindsight, it seems overblown and furor-seeking. Polians own public statement was that he didn't want as much responsibility/effort as the Pegulas wanted to hire him for (real organization effort vs. "mentoring and advisory role") and that his view of the job did shift quickly because after the QB retired and the coach left, more work was clearly going to be involved than he thought initially. Both sides expressed respect and the whole Graham story about Marrone convincing Polian not to come by bad-mouthing the Bills or revealing Bills bad-mouthing to Polian was never substantiated.
I'm starting to wonder if Graham has a deep throat AKA "well placed source" in the Bills organization who is either 1) a drama llama who fluffs up the drama in every situation 2) more underinformed than Tim thinks or 3) using Tim for their own agenda
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So the latest seattlepi sportswriter thing is that Cam Chancellor's holdout is making it hard for the Seasnakes to sign Jackson:
Giving the same salt-shaker to them that I give to our media, can anyone explain this to me?
I know Chancellor is holding out 'cuz he doesn't like the deal he signed, but I'm not up enough on the Seasnakes to understand their cap situation and so forth
Kryk: You could see the latest Bills melodrama coming
in The Stadium Wall Archives
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Thank you for writing this - this is a very thoughtful take, and a history lesson re: Bills prior ops.
I thought "Brandon" at first as well. But Brandon was just handed a whole new arena of power and influence with the Sabres, and Brandon also reports directly to Pegula and might be expected to hear from the top. And there are other holdovers - Littman is gone but Overdorf, as Sr VP of Football Administration, Berchtold as Sr VP of Communications for sure. LaMattina as EVP, Finance and Business Operations? Brent Rossi as EVP of Marketing and Brand Strategy?
Ah ha. What was Graham's one factual complaint? M&T started a marketing campaign featuring Jackson today and that "embarrassment" could have been avoided. That sounds like Marketing and Brand Strategy, or possibly Communications.
It sounds to me as though Brent Rossi is a prime candidate for one of Graham's sources, or Berchtold., or someone under them, or both. Think about it - these guys are part of Brandon's staff, used to sitting at his right hand and in a market based/fan opinion driven organization, used to knowing about or even contributing to player personnel decisions.
Moreover, Graham previously reported on a disconnect/conflict between these guys and Whaley/Marrone back during the Byrd negotiations, when Wilson was still alive. Now the organizational structure under the Pegulas gives more power and influence to Whaley and Ryan; Littmann is gone; Brandon is now President of 2 Sports Teams; and these guys are further out of the loop. It sounds as if they already had some bad feeling towards Whaley, and if left out of the loop (and there is no reason why they should participate in the decision), maybe they would be happy to do their best to back-stab Whaley.
All speculation, of course, I don't know a thing.