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Gabe Northern

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Posts posted by Gabe Northern

  1. 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...

     

    1. 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 TT came to the bills right out of college . In the same situation as EJ with no QB coach and no veteran QB to talk to. And EJ got drafted by the Ravens and got to sit a couple years behind Flacco and learn from Kubiak. I wonder if TT would still be in the nfl right know. McCoy wasn't here EJ first two years. TT might had to throw the ball more.

     

    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.

  2. 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.

  3. 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

     

    Just for old time's sake, had to do it.

    Anyone else NOT miss those days of TBD? What were some of the other classically annoying weekly thread titles? I've almost forgotten...

    (Hi Russ.)

  4. 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."

     

     

     

     

  5. 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.

  6.  

    As many of our informed posters KNEW on draft day, as Whaley said on draft day, our 2015 pick was never going to be in the top 5, and had a very low propensity to be in the top 10. This directly contributed to the decision to make the trade for Watkins.

     

     

    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.

  7. exactly. if you can run a route, manning can put it in your pocket. it's not them finding a diamond in the rough, it's them finding a warm body that can catch a perfectly thrown pass.

     

    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.

  8. 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.

  9. How many people on here were pining for Bridgewater pre-draft? My recollection is that it was precious few.

     

    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.

  10. 1. His athleticism is vastly overrated. For a guy with a size similar to Cam, he doesnt have 25% of the athletic ability of Cam, Kap or Wilson. Watch those guys, especially Wilson, he usually decides to run very quickly, there isnt any hesitation, he see's the D is giving him the run and he takes it. The other 2 can use the read option to make up for what they lack as passers. They bring 500-800 yards rushing, but with EJ we have to be worried about him getting hurt as if he's some 38 year old Bledsoe not a 240lb, 24 year old. We have an inside handoff with no read or option.

     

    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.

  11. 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.

  12. The President of the Bills SHOULD be INVOLVED in football decisions ! Why is that so hard to fathom ? I'm not talking about being a scout or deciding on the draft board, but he damn well better be setting objectives and strategy, allocating resources and helping to create an operating plan for the team. If he isn't, he's not doing his job. To be clear, you can empower your employees to do their jobs, but you NEVER as a good executive disengage from them. Good executives set clear objectives, help set priorities, provide resources, remove barriers and hold people accountable.

     

    I don't think there should be any debate on whether or not he's involved, he IS involved and should be involved.

     

    To me, the debate centers around whether or not Brandon was involved in the football operations (and therefore responsible and accountable) for the time period PRIOR to January 2013.

     

    Does anyone disagree ?

     

    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.

     

    I don't want to speak for anyone else but I will anyway. You seem to be changing your criterion or question, when everyone on the other side of this argument is much more simple and consistent. What people mean about "not making football decisions" is simply this:

     

    Russ Brandon doesn't ever say "draft this guy not that guy."

    Russ Brandon doesn't ever tell Whaley don't make that trade.

    When Doug Whaley asks him what he thinks about a player, or trade, or draft pick, Russ gives his opinion and Whaley takes that for exactly what it is, an opinion, and then makes the choice completely on his own with his staff of coaches and scouts.

     

    That's it. He never ever makes final football decisions. Period.

     

    It's very simple. He is involved in everything. He doesn't have the final say nor the culpability, except if you want to say he hired Whaley so he is responsible for all of the decisions that Whaley makes.

     

    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.

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