Rob's House

Unless TT continues to impress and manages to stay healthy (both of which are big ifs) it appears we would have been better off just keeping Fitz. What does that say about or GM?

If I were GM we'd have Derek Carr on the roster right now, and I'm not even a football professional. I'm just some dude that watches TV and reads message boards, but even I knew something needed to be done and so did a lot of other people. You know who didn't? Doug Whaley, that's who.

You're doing it again. You're giving Whaley credit for talent that was added before he became GM but absolving him of all blame for anything that happened before he officially became GM. You can't have it both ways.

You're essentially arguing that being marginally better than abject failures = success. I'm not saying he hasn't made any good moves; I'm saying that his overall body of work has been a failure. His drafting has been ok, he's made some ok FA moves, some other not so great moves, but his mishandling of the QB situation far outweighs the rest IMO. It's not even a minor miscalculation; his handling of the QB situation has been about as bad as it gets. Worst of all, instead of recognizing his mistake he repeatedly doubles down on it. And look where that's gotten us. Three years in a row we've lost to what was arguably the worst team in the league in a must win situation. I hope he's managed his last off season as Bills GM.

It's a two edge sword. If we're going to give him credit for what he did before taking the reigns then we need to hang some of the blame on him too. He's been here for a while and all we have to show for it is an 8-8 season masquerading as a 9-7. And in all that time he still hasn't helped us find a QB. In fact, since he's taken the reigns he's actively botched the handling of the QB position. I don't know how you can even defend that. Edit: And improving the talent isn't terribly challenging when you have years of high draft picks and a lot more money at your disposal than your predecessors had.

Not good enough. Overall he's done a poor job. Most of the core talent preceeded him taking over as the GM, and he also had the benefit of coming in at a time that the purse strings opened allowing him to retain and bring in talent that previous GMs didn't have at their disposal. I also think we greatly overstate the level of talent he's brought to the team. And the extent to which he's failed at addressing the QB position is inexcuseable. Depending on what TT does (which is Rex's move all the way, I don't give Whaley much credit for that) it looks like we'd be better off if we'd just kept Fitz. Let that sink in. Bottom line, the GM should be evaluated based on results, not based on how excited fans get about how good we think the roster looks on paper. and thus far the results are pretty mediocre despite having a wealth of resources (high draft picks and $$$) to build with.

Why does Whaley get a pass? What exactly has he done to warrant giving him the benefit of the doubt when it's beginning to appear that he's failed miserably?

I lay this season on Whaley more than Rex or Roman. Not that I absolve either of them outright, but they just got here. Whaley's been around for a while now, and he seems to be the one with the boner for EJ.

Doug Whaley has accomplished absolutely nothing. He's got a mind like Dan Snyder. He sucks.

Ways to make the absurd seem plausible.

I'll believe that when I hear one of those people give a plausible explanation of how this is supposed to work.

Two things that get said a lot that I don't understand are 1. We had to take a 1st rd QB 2013, and 2. EJ was clearly the best QB in that class. 1. If the guy's not there you don't reach just to say you drafted one high. Plenty of comparable prospects were available in the 3rd and 4th rounds. 2. It may be your opinion that EJ was the best of the bunch, but there's hardly an objectively quantifiable case for it.

Every Bernie supporter I talk to thinks you can fund $1+ trillion of new spending annually by cutting ~ $200 billion in defense spending. Apparently math and morality are mutually exclusive.

I was trolling FC.

Aaron Williams - He's been invisible the last few weeks. Make a play, damn it. Karlos Williams - See above. Also, what's up with spelling Carlos with a K? Garrison Sanborn - Every year we waste a roster spot on this a**hole and I can't remember the last time I saw him make a big play. EJ Manuel - I'm tired of his attitude. Quit calling out your teammates and giving the opponent bulletin board material. Shut your mouth and play ball. Chris Hogan - Damn affirmative action hire. What's this reverse Rooney rule bull ****?

So you'd rather have an injury prone LB over an all-pro RB? How useful is he in street clothes?

I can't believe you guys like Czaban. I tolerate his emotionally charged whining and sanctimony to hear Chris Cooley (who is outstanding, IMO), but I wouldn't miss him if they dropped him from the show.

That's quite the nuanced analysis. I feel enlightened now.

If he has a concussion so severe that he's out for 3 weeks I have to think it might be time to call it a career.

Personally, I expected to lose Sunday and I think most were prepared for it. I think the combination of injuries to key players and a disappointing outing by the D has brought about the pessimism. If we go out and throttle the Jagoffs and get guys healthy over the bye there will be renewed optimism.

EJ certainly deserves a good portion of the blame. Some of the penalties and poor return game contributed as well, and the defense still didn't look great regardless so I think it was a team loss, but Manuel was definitely a significant part of that.

I think you slightly overstate the case against EJ, but I agree with your overall point. We're beating up on the defense, who did not look like a shutdown unit Sunday, but you're right about the offense doing very little to help. You can't keep handing the ball to a high output offense on a short field and expect good things to happen. Sure, the two scoring drives were nice (the 3rd was borderline garbage time against prevent D) but that's not enough. You have to move the ball and help the defense out. They also need a breather.

Then it must have been a smart move because I have it on good authority that anyone who would question the keen football acumen of Kim Pegula is clearly a misogynist.

"Try" being the key word.

I'm not ready to trash Whaley anymore than I'm ready to sing his praises, and I'm still optimistic about TT, but I think these are cop out arguments. The truth is we really don't know what deals could have been made. And just to throw out a name, Josh McCown is looking pretty good right now.