hondo in seattle

Unless a coaching legend comes out of retirement, I'm not going to be excited by any hire. There's no one out there who's a sure-fire winner. On the other hand, I'm not going to cut up my Bills Fan Card and leave the country regardless of who they hire. There's virtually no one out there I can label a sure-fire failure. Look at Bill Belichick. Some Pats fans were unhappy with that hire, given his performance in Cleveland. Closer to home, look at Marv Levy. I remember many fans were unexcited with that hire. He failed as a HC at both Cal and William & Mary in the college ranks. He followed that up some good years in the CFL, which doesn't count for much. Then produced a 31-42 record at KC. There was nothing in his resume that suggested he would get the Bills to the Super Bowl four years in a row and later be inducted into the HOF. Hiring coaches can be like drafting QBs - you're never sure what you're going to get.

I still don't get how A Lynn elicits such strong reactions as a coaching candidate when we all know so little about him. He hasn't been interviewed often. He's been a RB coach most of his career so it's hard to evaluate his coaching. On the one hand, his resume is awfully thin for a HC candidate so I wouldn't be surprised if no team hired him to be a Head Coach this year. On the other hand, we fans know virtually nothing about the man's character, judgment, work-ethic, organization abilities, interpersonal skills, knowledge of X's and O's, or leadership. He might be the next Vince Lombardi for all we know. The Pegulas and Whaley know him far, far better than we do. Likewise, they have access to inside information on other candidates as well. They know which coaches have drinking problems, which coaches are detested by their peers, etc. They'll evaluate all that and - rightly or wrongly - make a decision different than ours with our different data sets.

Agreed We fans are so fickle! I remember when we didn't want Mike Shanahan to be our Head Coach because he would bring his loser son with him. Now we want a qualified Head Coach like Kyle Shanahan instead of a guy who's been a RB coach virtually all his career.

I think what Whaley was saying (or attempting to say) in the presser was that he wasn't involved in the phone call or any substantive meeting with the theme of "Should we fire Rex or keep him?" I don't believe Whaley never over the course of the season said things to the Pegulas that may have undermined Rex. It would be hard to believe he hadn't. The team has been stuck at .500, +/- 1 game. So either the GM is failing to produce a winning roster or the coach is failing to coach the team to it's potential. I don't know Doug Whaley at all but it's easy to guess he think it's the latter. When he says the Bills are close, he's hinting that the roster is good enough. So that's got to be what he's been telling Terry and Kim: this roster is a good one, In other words, the coach is under-performing. Pegula probably didn't consult with Whaley before firing Rex because (1) Rex forced Terry's hand and the firing went off prematurely, and (2) he just didn't need to. Whaley wasn't Rex's boss and, in any case, Terry already knew Whaley's frustrations. Whaley probably went into the presser with some general thoughts about the coaching search. He was clearly unprepared to get lambasted with questions about Rex's firing. While trying to be truthful, he was also probably torn by thoughts that he didn't want to be blamed by the new coach for firing a coach after just 2 years, or whatever. Clearly his answers were inelegant. But I do think Terry and Doug were both telling some version of the truth. Polian suggesting Whaley's lying without inside information is too much. Why would he speculate publicly? He's clearly not a Whaley supporter - and that could be bad news in and of itself since Polian is a smart football guy. But you wonder if sour grapes are involved - maybe he wanted a position with the Bills and the Polians never offered. Polian is supposed to be friendly with the Pegulas. You don't publicly bad-mouth your friends' team when they're in the middle of a coaching search. That was disloyal to the Pegulas and, worse, disloyal to the Bills and all our fans.

Yeah, I agree - though more nicely. Just because Rex was fired doesn't mean there was an ultimatum. Terry says there was no ultimatum. I have no reason to think Terry is a liar. And I think he would have more knowledge of the situation than Vic. Vic - like Sully - seems not to have developed many, if any, sources inside OBD. Pretty much everything Vic says is either speculation or stuff he reads on the internet. I miss Larry Felser who once wrote intelligently about the Bills for BN and did often have good sources.

Wow. Vic is going downhill - sounds more like Sully each year. Rex worked directly for the Pegulas. Right or wrong, that's the org chart. So it makes sense that Whaley wouldn't have been involved in the decision to fire Rex. "I'm hearing around the league..." In other words, Vic doesn't have sources inside OBD. Instead he listens to the low paid talking heads in other NFL cities. Weak. There's nothing new in this interview. Only speculation, rumor, and opinion. And there are posters here whose opinions I value more than Vic's. I thought it was interesting Vic referenced 'Terry Pegula's interview for the Associated Press' but did not mention JW by name. Professional envy?

Do Sully and Bucky really think they represent me? Crazy, if true. Sully's an embarrassment to Buffalo, IMHO.

Sully is such a drama queen. "It was quite possibly the worst moment in the history of the franchise.... Welcome to the abyss, the new bottom." The Bills just finished a 7-9 season and fired the coach. The guy not responsible for the firing - but responsible for the next hire - can't adroitly answer questions about the firing. And this is the new low for the franchise? So this is lower than when our greatest player ever slashed up a couple people? Lower than when the Bills went 1-10 under Harvey Johnson as Head Coach? Lower than when the Bills insanely rehired Johnson a couple years later only to see him go 1-13 this time? Lower than Wide Right? Lower than seeing Kevin Everett paralyzed? Lower than when Sully became a beat writer for the BN?

Amazing how someone so good can so quickly become so useless. This makes me rethink the merits of capitalism! Does a guy who plays a game for a living really deserve to live like this when public servants (teachers, cops, firemen, soldiers, sailors, etc) tend to live paycheck to paycheck in far humbler housing?

Doug Whaley looked bad in the interview because the media set the agenda. They kept asking him questions about Rex, rather than the coaching search. Given the scurrilous orientation of the Buffalo media, this was no surprise. Whaley didn't want to talk about Rex. One, it was old news. That ship has sailed. Two, Rex didn't work for him and the Terry's firing of Rex happened spontaneously in a private phone conversation. Hence all the 'not privy' remarks that made DW seem weak and uninformed. The media was obsessed with the rear view mirror while Whaley would have rather talked about the road ahead. But it's Interview 101 to know your talking points. Get those out. Get them out clearly and with authority. Don't let the people questioning you hijack your agenda. But failing Interview 101 is not a big deal. It doesn't mean Whaley is bad at building a roster nor does it indicate he'll fail at hiring a coach.

He transformed it from a bad roster to an average roster. That's progress... but is he flat-lining at .500? There's been a lot of rumor and speculation that Whaley thinks this is actually a good roster. And hence agrees with the need for a new coach. I haven't seen this from a credible source but it seems believable. We'll see.

I've got to agree with this. I've known people who were pretty awful when giving a presentation or interview. But they shined otherwise. Whaley has built the Bills into a .500 (more or less) team. Considering the level of the competition in the NFL, that's not bad. You've got to be pretty bright just to get that far. Is .500 good enough? Of course not. But imagine a lottery where the winner gets to be the GM of a NFL franchise. As smart as we fans like to pretend we are, we're all actually simpletons in the field of talent evaluation. Most fans, given the chance to be a GM, would fail to outperform Matt Millen. I'm willing to judge Whaley on what we actually know - to hell with all the overreached conclusions and speculations. He's had more success with free agency than the draft. So far - without ever before having the opportunity to pick a HC - he's given us an average NFL team. He's no idiot. But so far he hasn't delivered what he needs to deliver.

Maybe I'll be proven wrong, but I felt all season that the Bills had a mediocre roster coached by a mediocre HC. So, I opined, you either fire both Rex and Doug or neither. As I saw it, both were equally complicity in our ongoing mediocrity. Others disagreed. Many felt Rex was more to blame. Others felt Whaley deserved the lion's share of the culpability. Now, it just doesn't matter. Whaley is picking his HC to lead his roster. If we don't win now, there's no doubt who to hold accountable.

From a JW article: Quarterback Tyrod Taylor is unhappy with the Bills' decision to bench him to close the season and questioned whether he's played his final game for Buffalo. Unless he hears otherwise, Taylor said he can only assume the benching reflects the Bills having lost confidence in him to continue on as their starter. "That's fair to say. That's what it showed," Taylor said Monday, when Bills players gathered to clear out their lockers a day after a season-ending 30-10 loss at the New York Jets . "Did I believe that was fair? No, I didn't," Taylor said, adding he's hoping to get a lengthier explanation from the team during exit meetings. "Once we have the conversation and it's actually explained to me why it was done the way it was, we'll move forward from there. But we'll see when that happens." I get the people who are frustrated with Tyrod and want a different QB. But until we find a better signal caller, I think we need to take care of Tyrod. The Jets game showed us how truly bad our offense can be when the wrong guy lines up under center. http://bigstory.ap.org/article/63e7f58a2efc406c963f51a3c7baea68/bills-qb-taylor-questions-future-buffalo-after-benching

By who? By you just now?

Most of what I said/suggested was confirmed in the JW article just posted... As the call came to a close, Pegula said Ryan asked to speak to the owner privately. Pegula said Ryan then directly asked him about his future beyond this season. Pegula said he had no choice but to set things straight with Ryan. "I was asked a point-blank question and based on the discussions we've been having all year, I felt it was better to tell Rex that we were going in a different direction," Pegula said. Ryan recommended Lynn to take over as interim coach for Buffalo's final game. Though Pegula was going to wait to evaluate Ryan's job after the season, he said he probably would've come to the same conclusion now as he did a week ago. Pegula based his decision on his own observations, input he's received from his front-office staff over the course of the season, and also on previous discussions he's had with Ryan regarding addressing the team's struggles. "(Whaley) had input on the basis of conversations throughout the year, what the problems were," Pegula said. "But did Doug ever say, 'Are we firing our coach, are we keeping our coach?' We never had that conversation. I took it upon myself to tell Rex on the basis of conversations about the games and the aftermath of certain games that, hey, things aren't going well."

Rex worked for Terry. Rex told him on that one-on-one phone call, according to reports, "If you're going to fire me, fire me now." Terry had probably wanted to wait until the end of the season. He probably intended to warn Russ and Doug in advance. But now that push unexpectedly came to shove, Terry honored Rex's request. So Whaley was not "privy" to that conversation. That conversation was unplanned and no one knew in advance where it would go. Here are the only facts that actually matter. Rex was fired. Even continuity guys like me can see why. Now Whaley is in charge of the new HC search. GMs typically hire HCs so putting Whaley in charge is interesting (given his past role) but nothing especially worrisome. I see no drama here. No sign of dysfunction. I'll pass on all the hand-wringing and Sully-esque whining. Or - at least - I'll wait until Whaley chooses a new HC.

Yep, it's hard to defend our running game when we effectively have 2, sometimes 3, running backs in the backfield. I don't know how to quantify TT's contribution to the running game but I do know it's more than just his rushing yards. Still, his inconsistent vision and accuracy can be maddening.

Gugny, nice admission. I wanted to believe in EJ because he's a class act. I wanted to believe in EJ because he works & studies hard. I wanted to believe in EJ because he's thrown some beautiful passes that hinted at potential. But after the Jets game, all hope and belief are gone.

Thanks for the summary. Perfectly predictable.

Agree. Whaley will be largely in PR mode today. Far more interesting is who he'll hire for HC, who'll he draft, which FAs he'll sign, and what players he'll jettison.

Yikes, what we see is the tip of the iceberg. Maybe not even that much. We have virtually no idea what's actually happening at OBD. We have no idea how well they're doing their due diligence We have little idea how much authority Whaley has (or deserves). We have zero knowledge of their motivations. We do know a few things about the org chart but not enough to draw any sweeping conclusions.

Much truth in this. I believe even the Pats draft more QBs than the Bills. I do think it's hard to have two developmental QBs on the team at the same time (we have Cardale), but I also think the Bills should have drafted many more QBs since Kelly retired than we have. Even at the considerable risk of wasting draft picks on QBs who don't work out like EJ.

Oh Wise One! I'm glad you know TT's future when us mere mortals are hanging on to futile hope. You may be right about TT's mediocrity. I'm personally not convinced yet. I remember when I thought Plunkett was a proven mediocrity. In his 5th and last year in New England, he completed a stunning 39% of his passes! After two more mediocre years in San Francisco, he went to Oakland and led them to two Super Bowl championships. I remember when I thought Drew Brees was a proven mediocrity. Being a Purdue alum, I watched his career closely and was disappointed by the uninspiring numbers he put up in San Diego. His first three years there he averaged barely 200 yards passing per game. He was Tyrod, without the legs. Now Brees just completed his 5th 5,000 yard season - more 5,000 yard seasons than all other NFL QBs in history combined! Those, and other examples, taught me not to jump to conclusions too quickly. Some QBs need time to develop.

"What you saw today is what we are without Tyrod." This is what I thought when I watched the game. Scary.