Gabe Northern

Very surprised he wasn't Bills top priority given the way he seems to fit in McDermott's scheme.

First comment on PFT dead-on...cannot wait for "We should sign EJ threads" in September when Raiders cut him at the end of camp... therealraider says:Mar 20, 2017 2:42 PM After back to back statistically horrible games, Connor Cook needs a boost of confidence, somebody he can easily beat out for the back up QB job. 63 16 I wonder if Andre Ware came to the 49ers in 1990 and was given the starting job over Joe Montana and Steve Young. I wonder if he wouldn't have flamed out of the NFL after 4 years.

Listenbee might have something seriously wrong with him. He had a sports hernia surgery in March and was unavailable for the entire season? Did they cut him open with a rusty box cutter?

Given career NFL statistics and eye-ball test, it is easier to make the case that "Taylor is great" than it would be to argue that EJ Manuel deserves a chance to start in the NFL.

People on this thread need to appreciate that JP Losman had a far better Bills career than EJ Manuel and was a much better player. JP had elite arm talent and impressive acceleration on scrambles. He threw for over 3,000 yards in an NFL season and authored an impressive comeback in Houston. No doubt JP sucked due to intermediate accuracy issues and turnovers, but at #22 overall, he was a much better pick than EJ at #16.

Bart Scott: "The way to get to the QB in today's game is through tight coverage, not blitzes." Observer: "I see! So did the Bills get the QB more with tight coverage instead of sending pressure?" Scott: "Um no. They went from a team record for sacks to the lowest total in team history." Observer: "Um....okay....thanks."

Yes

Darby is playing like a 1st round pick. Therefore we didn't need the #19 overall selection... because Darby playing well means there are no other areas of need on this team?

The takeaway is that our GM is a friggin' numbskull. That's as informative as anything else you'll read.

Bro - it will never make sense to have done a complete rebuild of the scheme for a unit that finished 4th overall last year.

Maybe we can straight up trade the guy out of Buffalo for 2 first round draft picks? Any Doug Whaley-types out there in other front offices?

Maybe we can trade him away for 2 first round draft picks?

Hardy frickin' har. Greatest misfortune of Pegula era has been that this clown show did not getting tossed out with the rest of the circus

As explained in the article, the Marrone deal was highly unusual and should put to rest the idea that Russ Brandon is a good businessman. He is a sycophant who rose to the top in an organization by sucking up. Anyone who agreed to this deal should be fired. Period. Let's break it down. (1) An out clause in the event of a change of ownership -- Standard. Fully makes sense. What if the team was moving to LA, installed a new CEO, etc? Solid protection for the coach. (2) An out clause that guarantees next year's income -- Very, very generous. Hard to believe it was required to complete the deal. (3) An out clause that guarantees next year's income with No Offset -- OK STOP RIGHT THERE -- THIS IS WHERE IT MAKES NO SENSE WHATSOEVER. If you want to leave, ok. But every cent you earn somewhere else after you leave should reduce our obligation to you. You cannot give someone an option whose exercise makes them richer in almost all scenarios. So while (1) is reasonable given uncertainty, and (2) is borderline, (3) is STRAIGHT UP CRAZY and would not be agreed by ANYONE who had the faintest clue of what he or she was doing. Jeff Littmann probably laughed his ass off over this one, knowing that the $4M payday would come after the Wilson estate had disposed of team. "Russ - if you want to pay this guy $25M of the next owner's money NOT to coach here, you go right ahead."

How about: "Well, that's not really my responsibility. I really only worry about ticket sales and the organization's bottom line." ?

Russ Brandon routinely opines on the football operation: "'Whales' has done a great job," "Marrone has changed the culture, etc." He is always quick to offer his opinion on any football matter to any reporter who asks. Do you think he keeps these opinions to himself on the inside? Hell no. He is trying hard to keep Whaley and Marrone in place to make himself look good (he hired them) and to maintain influence over football decisions. But hiring these clowns should be a firing offense for Brandon. Whaley should be fired for the 2014 draft alone. If a draft is historic in terms of its WR depth, you don't trade up to grab a WR. It makes no sense. You can't know for sure which one of these guys is the best available but you know a very good one will be available at #9. So you trade away a #1 to get to draw the first lottery ticket? idiotic. Marrone hired an overmatched college coordinator to run the offense and has been about as good with in-game decisions as my blind 19-year old terrier mix.

Time to fire up the "he doesn't want to be here" PR campaign once again...

If EJ and Jeff Tuel split the 16 starts this year, as appeared to be likely as of August 29, a top 5 pick was most definitely in play. This whole line of reasoning and the 8+ wins depends entirely on EJ playing so bad against Tampa that the front office panics and pulls the trigger on making Orton the highest paid "back up" in the league.

This is EXACTLY wrong and completely misses the point. The Broncos did not decide "hey, we have Manning. We can let Decker walk and just elevate some scrub." They decided Decker was not worth $37M/5 and SIGNED SOMEONE ELSE. The Bills are really great at not re-signing their players. They are not very good at going out and finding replacements at more affordable salaries.

Emmanuel Sanders had a career night last night. Instead of re-signing Eric Decker ($37 M over 5 years), the Broncos chose to sign Sanders to a 3-year, $15 M contract. Smart move. There's lots of time spent on this Board debating the merits of re-signing expensive UFAs. But the main issue isn't whether the Bills should have re-signed Levitire or not, but rather what the Bills plan to do f they decide to let Levitre walk. Last year, the plan was to install Colin Brown in that spot, who was literally the worst player in the NFL according to PFF. This year, the plan was to sign Chris Williams, which was widely panned by league observers even before his chronic back injury was known. Russ Brandon wants you to debate whether one player is worth the huge contract he'll command in the open market because it distracts attention from the Clown Show. Maybe Levitre, Peters, Byrd, Poz, etc. were overpaid, maybe they weren't. But that shouldn't be looked at in isolation. If we don't re-sign our guys, it should be because we see someone on the market who can provide 85% or more of the output at 75% of less of the price. The "next man up" approach is just an excuse to save money by elevating guys on rookie deals. And if we can't find THAT GUY because they don't want to come to Buffalo, then that actually makes re-signing our guys even more of a priority given advantages teams have in retaining talent -- early negotiations to reduce costs in exchange for reducing player's injury risk and the franchise and transition tags.

It was reasonable to think that 6-7 QBs in this year's draft were better than EJ. In fact, that's what many draft analysts said at the time (Casserly, Brandt, etc.) I didn't want Bridgewater, but I thought he has a better chance to be a good pro QB than EJ. I also think that's true of Terrel Pryor, who is similar to EJ in accuracy but much, much better on the ground.

The WGR All-22 was devastating on the indecisiveness. I think those thinking EJ will get better with time may have some surprises upcoming.

This, to me. is the main issue that posters seem to overlook. EJ with questionable accuracy + 40 yards per game on the ground is a hell of a lot different than EJ with questionable accuracy + 3 yard scrambles out of bounds to protect himself. Read the quotes when he was drafted. He was a dual threat. Nope. If he's going to make it in the NFL, he is going to have to pull it down and run. Period.

What do people think of EJ's refusal to run? He seems perfectly happy to pick up 2 yards and get out of bounds, no matter the down and distance. If he's going to make it in the NFL, he needs to use that big body and athleticism to generate some yards on the ground. Instead, he's focused on not getting injured.

Russ Brandon was GM starting in 2009 and then became CEO in 2011. I think that he bears responsibility for the Peters fiasco, the T.O. signing, and other matters. People say he's on the "business side" and then define "business side" so expansively that obvious indications of the huge influence he wields on football decisions is just chalked up as what someone on the "business side" does. It is infuriating.