hondo in seattle

Every HC worries about the talent the FO will bring him. It goes with the job. At least Whaley & Nix got Marrone a lot of talent on the D side of the ball.

"The Bills were two plays away from the Playoffs" It may be true but it's the loser's lament... I pray for the day when we can reflect upon the plays that got us to the playoffs.

To ask for an opt-out clause with a 3 day window in the event of an ownership change seems like reasonable request. Russ probably agreed to it because not only was it reasonable, it was also unlikely to be exercised. How many HCs actually quit? Three days doesn't give Marrone a lot of opportunity to explore options.

Clearly we need to go after the best FA (or tradeable) QB available. But what about the draft? Do we draft a QB? Or a couple of guards? QB and OL draft picks not mutually exclusive of course but Whaley will need to prioritize. Personally, I'd rather draft some guards. Whoever lines up under center needs a running game and time to throw. I'm hoping for better but I'd be planning on EJ.

According to the National Bureau of Economic Research, about 20% of the population is sexually attracted to their own gender. But who cares which players are gay and which are not? Why does it matter?

Orton didn't have the talent or swagger to make any of us give up our Jim Kelly nostalgia. But when was the last time a QB left Buffalo with a winning record? I was an Orton fan for as long as he wore Buffalo colors. Now that his day has passed, I wish him well. Let's hope next year's QB - whoever it may be - also delivers a winning record.

If a man could dream.... We would run 30 or 40 times a game. EJ would only have to throw maybe 15 times and he'd be doing it from a clean pocket.

I'd love to see Schopp as the HC or GM of a NFL team for a year or two. As long as it wasn't the Bills, it would a very amusing experiment.

Everybody retires eventually. Orton leaves Buffalo with a winning record. Sadly, not many former Buffalo QBs can say that. I wish him well.

It's so early in the prediction game, what other guess makes more sense? Cutler? Glennon? Sanchez? I don't think you need to project "miraculous" improvement to end up with EJ as a starter. Lots of young QBs get better. EJ's QB rating in his career so far (78.5 with 15 starts) is better than Drew Bree's QB rating in his first season as a starter (76.9 with 16 starts). Drew got better, why can't EJ? And then there's the matter of competition. How many FA QBs out there are better than EJ? How many QBs in the draft this year could come in and start right away? I'm not saying I'd be happy seeing EJ under center opening day, but I don't think KD's prediction is horribly unlikely. In fact, it's hard to think of a more likely scenario.

The old adage is still true; Games are won and lost in the trenches. Our offensive trench sucked. Looking at the talent Whaley and Nix assembled, this seems like a 9-7 team. Our coaches didn't help the players over-achieve but I can't say they underachieved much either.

I'm not a Hackett fan and would love to see him replaced. But we all have to admit that he wasn't given a lot to work with. That OL made it very hard to establish a run or pass game. The lack of the confidence in the OL affected the play-calling as well as the decision-making of the QB. We'd all maybe have a higher opinion of Hackett if he had been given a competent OL and an experienced QB who had been here through camp.

Great resume. Cutler is a coach-killer. I'd love to have Trestman replace Hackett (or complement him). I don't want Cutler.

I don't want Cutler. Then again, I don't want anyone else who's available. Can we play without a QB? Oh, that's the problem. So maybe we ought to look at Cutler.

Kyle Orton went 7-5 without a running attack and without time to throw. Orton wasn't great but he was better than what we saw in EJ earlier in the season.

The practical questions are these: Is Glennon better than EJ? Is he better than the other FA QBs? If Glennon was a HOFer, he wouldn't be available. Let's be honest, we're dumpster diving because that's the position we're in. But it seems to me, unless we find some guards, we need a fleet-footed QB who can run for his life. That's not Glennon. This is going to be a tough off-season for Whaley.

I'm sure this is a popular sentiment but I disagree. Whatever his limitations, right now Orton is the best QB on the roster. We can't be sure we'll find anyone better than him during the off-season, or even as good as him. I don't think Orton's retirement inspires Whaley to look any harder for a QB because I think he was going to look hard anyway. It's going to be an interesting off-season. Good luck to Kyle.

Only if we get a new OC who knows what to do with him.

I usually watch the Bills games at a local sports bar with the Bills Backers of Seattle, if not on my own TV. Today , however, I listened to WGR online while doing some work at my desk. But I couldn't stand the negativity of the post-game show - any positive caller was treated like an idiot. I really wanted to bask in a win in Gillette Stadium and our first winning season in 10 years. Instead I heard a bunch of whining. Yep, the Bills victory today was against a team that wasn't putting forth their best effort. Yep, our offense has been horrible this year. But we went out with a win today and only 12 of 32 NFL clubs finished the season with a better record. It wasn't the season we all wanted but neither was it the season many of us feared. Personally, I found the post-game whining annoying and turned the radio off (and I'm not a person who's easily annoyed).

His credibility with who? With you? I don't think the players will lose faith in the Pegulas if they give Whaley and Marrone more than 2 years to turn the team around. I don't think fellow owners will blink an eye. A few fans might be pissed - but not pissed enough to damage revenues. No one remembers what Ralph did back in 1960. No mistakes he made back then permanently ruined his credibility. Terry has built up a solid reputation in business over the course of decades. He saved the Bills, keeping them in Buffalo. He's got tons of credibility and retaining a coach another year won't change that. And, personally, I'm not convinced that Whaley and Marrone don't deserve another year. Though if I was Terry, I'd ask them both some hard questions about their plans for 2015, especially on the offensive side of the ball.

A top 3 defense in the NFL.

What's an "authentic" head coach? Apparently the Browns didn't think Belicheck was an "authentic" head coach and was instead just a coordinator who, as per the Peter Principle, was promoted to the level of his incompetence. Our friends in Boston might have a different opinion. Apparently neither the Pats nor the Jets considered Pete Carroll an "authentic" head coach. Here in Seattle, fans would disagree. Sometimes coaches need time to grow into their roles and fully implement their systems. John Wooden, to offer up a b-ball example, needed 16 years to perfect his approach to coaching before winning his first national championship. But then he won 10 championships in 12 years. Sometimes coaches need better talent suiting up. Oftentimes, owners, GMs and fans are too impatient with their HCs.

Actually Orton gets the ball out in 2.32 seconds (if memory serves), third fastest of qualifiers in the NFL. With or without Urbik, this OL has been awful. Maybe less awful with him, but still horrid.

Polian will come here in what capacity? Bringing back Levy didn't bring back the glory of those 90s Bills. I'm not sure bringing back Polian will either. Polian's old, Whaley's young. I don't see Polian as the long term leader of the franchise. If Polian comes in as a special adviser to the Pegulas, it could potentially be a good thing. (And potentially disruptive). I'm not confident that Polian coming to replace Whaley would be good for the Bills.

DJ was an OC short of having a good coaching staff. Chan was a DC short. Neither had a lot of player talent and may have won with more time and a better FO. What makes Marrone interesting is that his biggest struggles are in his area of expertise.