BuffaloBillsForever

Whaley set up the draft board. If Whaley's draft board doesn't have him graded to take in the 1st round, we don't take him. Whaley then doubled down on Manuel when everyone knew there was a lot of question marks with the QB. How could they not like his tall stature, long fingers and the fact that he sleeps with the playbook?

QB, offensive line and the secondary are huge concerns for me leading up to this game.

I read it as other GM's etc were snikering at the decision to move up when it first happened. Snikering as in disagreement that it is/was a bad move. I'm sure personnel men judge their colleagues all the time about decisions when they are first made. Remember when Bob Kraft blasted the Bills publicly about the Mario Williams signing/contract before he even played a single snap for the Bills? Happens all the time.

You mean like this? But give Marrone credit. He made the move when it was time. He didn’t flinch. I suspect the head coach took the temperature of his locker room and realized that he might have an insurrection on his hands if his players felt he was allowing political considerations to compromise their playoff chances.

Agree.

New Bills GM Doug Whaley integral in EJ Manuel pick 53 By Chris Wesseling Around the NFL Writer Published: May 17, 2013 at 04:35 p.m. Updated: May 18, 2013 at 02:49 a.m. The Buffalo Bills raised plenty of eyebrows after taking EJ Manuel with the No. 16 pick in the 2013 NFL Draft, making him the first quarterback to go off the board. New general manager Doug Whaley isn't shy about taking ownership of the pick, even if he was second-in-command to Buddy Nix at the time. "I was an integral part in the drafting process of EJ Manuel," Whaley said on NFL Network's "NFL Total Access" on Thursday. "I was the person that handled the draft process and setting up the board." Breer: The 'surprise' that wasn't EJ Manuel over Geno Smith wasn't that shocking, Albert Breer says, considering questions that surrounded Manuel on the field. More ... Whaley did allow that it was a "collaborative effort" between area scouts, cross-checkers, coach Doug Marrone and Nix, but the new front-office boss is comfortable with hanging his hat on Manuel after vetting the quarterback in the pre-draft process. "We have a philosophy that the information makes the decision," Whaley explained. "We think that we did enough due diligence, and the information pointed us all to this point that EJ would be the guy we feel will take the Buffalo Bills into the future." Whaley's confidence is refreshing after Nix seemed to be in over his head while running the show for three and a half years. According to NFL.com's Ian Rapoport, Whaley is a "bright young star" who has impressed colleagues with his smarts and personnel acumen in his time with the Bills and Pittsburgh Steelers. The Bills finally seem pointed in the right direction. It now falls on Whaley's hand-picked franchise quarterback to end the longest active playoff drought in the NFL. http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap1000000204027/article/new-bills-gm-doug-whaley-integral-in-ej-manuel-pick

I will say the CB's especially if Brady has a breakout game against us.

Here are some excerpts from Sullivans article this morning regarding Doug Whaley. They can spin it any way they like. Benching Manuel at this stage of his career is an admission that he’s not cut out to be a franchise quarterback in the NFL, and that the Bills reached badly when they drafted him 16th overall two years ago. Doug Whaley, the general manager, took a reckless gamble by swapping two No. 1 draft picks to Cleveland for the right to move up for receiver Sammy Watkins last May. As I understand it, personnel men around the NFL are still snickering at the deal. I can’t imagine the Pegulas being terribly impressed by the turn of events. But at least the Bills won’t be benching EJ and trotting out his backup against the Pats here in two weeks, in the first game after the Pegulas take over as the new owners. Marrone is still on the hot seat. Management believes it gave him the resources to win. The fact that his quarterback wasn’t ready is immaterial now. Whaley made the promises, now the coach has to win the games. Whaley said he wanted to help Manuel succeed as soon as possible by surrounding him with more weapons. He didn’t do it to help Kyle Orton succeed. But he’s been looking bad on both fronts through the first quarter of the season. Manuel has been mainly bad. Watkins could use a better quarterback to justify Whaley’s gamble. Whatever the case, Whaley looks very bad in all this. Manuel did not distinguish himself as a rookie, except by his ability to get hurt. Trading next year’s top pick, in a year when there should be some gifted quarterback prospects available, bordered on the irresponsible. Failing to bring in a proven backup compounded the folly. They say Thad Lewis regressed in camp, and that’s true, but they needed a better backup plan if they intended to contend for the playoffs – as Whaley himself promised. http://bills.buffalonews.com/2014/09/29/benching-proves-ej-cant-cut-it/

Called what? Marrone isn't calling the plays but he did bench Manuel.

St. Doug being St. Doug.

No. It gives me a sense that this front office and coaching staff are desperate and dysfunctional.

Joe D is down to his 3rd string center and 3rd string RB and Rivers is pulling together another MVP caliber year. What have you done Marrone with your line?

The casual Bills fans are celebrating while the rest of the NFL listens in and laughs at the dysfunction because this is exactly what it is.

Your free to give your opinion.

I don't think any GM makes this move unless he thinks EJ is "the guy". IMO Whaley might have made one of the biggest blunders in this 14 years of ineptness and set new ownership back a minimum of 2 years.

Discuss Manuel, Watkins. Moving up in the draft. How will/should Pegula perceive this misjudgement?

Will you be more disgusted if the browns have our top 10 pick next year?

Dysfunction. So it won't be any different than the last 14 years.

The circus show begins...

My only concern (and it is a big concern) is to what effect will Kim Pegula meddle with the football decisions/operations? I hope we don't end up with another Ralph.

He would have had to of been involved in all those decisions. You can't assume otherwise.

I agree with you about the Whaley comment if this team falters in the 2014 season. There would need to be an entire house cleaning.

It sure was a classic Fitz performance. Sadly classic Fitz is a better QB than EJ Manuel.

The Marrone tenure has totally destroyed what D'Allasandris built over those years. I think a lot of our current problems can be pointed to inexperience (Marrone and Hackett)

Whaley giving up our first next year might be the nail in the coffin because Pegula will see that as crippling and hampering their new ownership. If they have a losing record this year, the Manuel failure and the Watkins pick will show MAJOR misjudgement because he said in making that trade he expects the pick to be a low 1st and making the playoffs.