hondo in seattle

Stevie didn't tell you anything really dramatic or shocking. Nonetheless, it's good to hear he's jazzed about the new offense and WRs. I thought it was cool he watched tapes of the 90s teams. Not every player will do that. Shows he's identifying himself as a Bill and not just as a guy stuck in Buffalo and toughing it out just for the money. Thanks for posting!

If the playbook is indeed simple (maybe EJ hasn't seen the whole offense yet) then it's probably because Marrone and Hacket want something simple enough that they can execute it to perfection. The simpler the offense, the more likely you can execute it well. The more complicated the offense, the more you (theoretically) confuse defenses. Every coach finds his own balancing act. Lombardi, for one, was on the simple side of this continuum because he wanted flawless execution. I don't think Marrone is dumbing down his system for the sake of a rookie QB. I think he may instead be philosophically against overly complicated offenses. But it's too soon to say.

Good research... but not sure what conclusions we can draw.

These are all good points BUT... Whaley has brought in two guys from outside the organization for leadership positions. He's also said he will implement a new process. While he may continue to use BLESTO and the old scouts, he intends to have a process that makes them more effective. These may not be the wholesale changes we saw in the coaching staff. But they are pretty significant. Regarding the scouts, he might want to evaluate how well they implement his program before replacing them.

I'm just happy that Doug isn't Buddy Junior. He's going off in his own direction. I don't if that's good or bad but after 13 years of misery, I want something new. New GM, new HC, new OC, new DC, new QB. I'm about as happy as I can be right now.

Your welcome. I've been wondering about Whaley role the past couple years and if, maybe, the reins had already been handed him before the draft in an evolutionary sort of way. Apparently, not. Day One on the job he's making big changes and talking about implementing his own program. He seems to have a plan for improving the house that Nix built.

I think the changes show Nix wasn't just a figurehead as some had speculated. I thought Whaley's comment about Fisher was interesting, "...he knows the process that I'm going to implement." It sounds like Whaley's going to make the Bills scouting department run like the Steeler's scouting department.

From Mark Gaughan... Whaley wasted no time putting his own stamp on the organization. The Bills announced the hiring of Jim Monos as director of player personnel and Kelvin Fisher as director of college scouting. Monos spent the past eight years serving a key role as Southeast college scout for the New Orleans Saints. He becomes Whaley’s right-hand man, overseeing pro and college scouting. Fisher, who spent the past 13 years as a college scout with the Steelers, becomes the Bills’ new director of college scouting. Chuck Cook, who held that title with the Bills the past two years, gets demoted to the role of national college scout. Whaley was quick to make some changes to the scouting hierarchy. Anybody know anything about these guys beyond the above? EDIT: I just found a good article from Jay Skurski answering my question. Here are a couple excerpts... Monos steps into the role that Whaley previously held, overseeing both the pro personnel and college scouting departments. “I’ve known him for a while. He’s an incredible talent evaluator and he will be important for us on the road, seeing the top talent,” Whaley said of Monos, who comes to the Bills after spending the past eight seasons as a scout with the New Orleans Saints.... Fisher has spent the last 13 years with the Pittsburgh Steelers as a college scout. Fisher started with the Steelers in 2000, a year after Whaley. “I’ve been with him for a long time so he knows the process that I’m going to implement,” Whaley said. http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130517/SPORTS/130519255

Gotta love being ranked #32 of 32.

CJ is a classy guy. No matter who we hired as coach, CJ would have had something good to say at this point. He's always looking for the positive.

The first time I ever heard of Doug Whaley is when we promoted Nix to GM. Peter King opined that we should have given the position instead to an young rising start like Doug Whaley, for example, rather than an older guy on the verge of retirement. King said as I recall that Whaley was highly respected in NFL circles. A few days later, we hired Whaley and now Pete got what he was proposing: Whaley as GM. I'm cautiously optimistic.

Who cares about who had the higher stock? The only thing that matters is who will be the better NFL Head Coach. Both Kelly and Marrone were respected in NFL circles when they were coaching in college. Neither - at this point - seems like a bad choice but time will tell. Btw, I agree that Kelly had the higher stock but not by that much. Forget the media buzz and compare the list of teams reportedly interested in Kelly with the list of teams reportedly interested in Marrone. Kelly's list isn't that much longer. The thing about Marrone is that he already understands the NFL and - to a certain extent - has already proven himself on this level. Kelly hasn't.

If EJ turns into a good NFL QB and Marrone into a successful NFL HC, I'll remember Buddy fondly as the guy who turned this failing franchise around. People can argue that this was more Whaley's draft than Nix's. Or that Whaley chose Marrone more so than Buddy. We may never know. But let's not forget Nix hired Whaley. If we blame Nix for the Gailey hiring - and we do - then we should credit him for the Whaley hiring if Whaley is indeed already transforming the Bills into a winner. It's still too early the evaluate the Nix legacy but I'm more hopeful this off-season than I've been in years.

Perry Fewell?

Yep. When Fitz was miked up, you could hear him grunting to throw the ball with any velocity. It took Fitz a lot of effort to throw a deep ball, but it always seemed it was thrown up for grabs because that was the best he could do. I never knew this was called "double-cheeking" but Trent is right. EJ isn't double-cheeking.

I'm glad to hear Troup is doing well. He's had a hard road back since his disc fusion operation. I had a similar procedure (if not the exact same) and 6 months later my doc still doesn't want me to run, lift heavy objects, etc.

My opinion seems to match the consensus... This does seem to be the year that Lindell gets cut. I like Brad Smith's versatility but he's not good enough as a returner, QB or WR to warrant a roster spot. The four new QBs and three new rookie WRs crowd him out. We have other good returners. I do think Pears and Andersen remain. We're too needy for offensive linemen and pass rushers to cut one for some salary cap relief. The QB battle will be interesting. The Bills will keep 3 of these four: EJ, Kolb, TJax, Tuel - so probably either TJax or Tuel is out. I'm not convinced it will be TJax.

Canks has been doing tantra yoga at the Osho Ashram in Pune, India, since 1973 and didn't realize the NFL season changed from 14 games to 16 games since he's been gone.

I wouldn't go so far as to say that talent is roughly equal in the NFL. But I do agree that coaching and leadership tend to be undervalued by modern fans and modern owners. I find it odd that the best players on a team will make more than their coach. A coach has to be a leader of men, but he also needs to be good tactically with X's and O's. He also needs to know this business well enough that he makes all the right decisions when putting together his staff, his off-season plans, his preparations in the week leading up to game day, etc. There's a huge disparity between the great coaches and the bad ones and it shows up in wins and losses. The Pats dynasty is as much about Belichick as it is about Brady. That's what makes this Bills season so intriguing. We have all new coaches and we don't really know how good they are. Pettine ran a good defense with the Jets - or did Rex run it? Marrone ran a good O for the Saints - or did Peyton run it? Can these new coaches transform our formerly mediocre players into high-performers? I don't know, but I'll watch every game until I find out.

Sorry if this was posted before. It's a good vid of EJ's strengths and weaknesses.

Evans was a class act and great at go routes. Moulds was more physical and could do almost anything. I think Moulds would have had a shot at the HOF if he had played for the duration of the Kelly years. He would have put up some big numbers.

New HC, new OC, new DC, new offensive scheme which we know little about, new defensive scheme, something like 33 new faces on the roster... how can anyone accurately add it all up? I'm solidly in the "wait-and-see" camp and happy to be there rather than last year's "here-we-go-again-same-old-thing" camp.

People were asking why we traded for someone else's draft bust when we have enough of our own. But Polian sees something in this guy. Considering how little Shep accomplished when he was on the field, the trade seems like a good gamble. Thanks for the links. True enough... but Polian isn't necessarily wrong.

Yeah, but this isn't yesterday's team. New coaches. New offensive and defensive schemes. New QBs. Lots of other new players. I'm not sure how it all adds up but it will interesting to find out.

I appreciate the humility and, yeah, sometimes OBD actually knows their business better than we fans.