Bleeding Bills Blue

I mean - he's barely practiced with these guys. It's tough to get a real evaluation. We also don't even really have scouts yet - so who is the QB of the future supposed to be? Do we flat out bury our guys and say - next year we'll get our QB? Seems like something Whaley would say - and get himself into trouble doing it (http://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/13382343/buffalo-bills-almost-quarterback-purgatory-gm-doug-whaley-says).

Well were a bit hamstrung with a bunch of bad contracts. It's amazing to me how much Miami is able to spend, and it always seems like we're at the cap.

I mean - tomorrow is the future. He's not lying

Lol - tight ship we were running back then. Guy got the job after Levy retired. This all screams Russ Brandon. And we ended up with a lousy GM because of it. But nooooo he's a marketing geeeenius!

I think the goal is to set yourself up for future success. Draft better... lock up the right players... set yourself up for comp picks in walk years... or trade players before you have to lose them for nothing.

That also caused a huge uptick in broker season tickets (which helps sell out games... but also drives revenue down as they'd negotiate pricing on big groups of seats). They only had 1 home preseason game for 5 years, which is usually a sunk cost for a ticket broker.

My friend was telling me a story of old VP of player personnel John Guy. An Intern was interested in being a part of football ops - he basically brought him into the film study room and embarassed him for not knowing anything. How are you supposed to develop talent when you squash everyone, and don't let anyone into the inner circle? John Guy was our player personnel guy when we signed studs like Dockery, Walker, and TO. Needless to say - he was deservedly canned. And hasn't been in football since. This guy seems like he was brought up through the ranks... like most people are within like every other organization in football.

If you can fix this dumpster fire - you'll get a promotion somewhere...

Sure - he needed to be better in those games. That can be agreed upon. But there are a bunch of other reasons we lost those games. But we couldn't get a stop, and couldn't punt in that oakland game either. In the Miami game we gave a huge play to Landry and 200+ rushing to Ajayi. We also couldn't run the ball at all. In the Ravens game our offensive line played like garbage. As well as the rest of the offense. Pittsburgh? See Leveon Bell. 236 and 3 tds and another 62 through the air. Absolutely embarrassing. Another game where we couldn't move the ball on the ground. TT is part of the problem. But those saying we're saved by a QB may be missing some of the bigger picture. Brady did amazing down the stretch to win the super bowl. You know who else did? Their defense... 1-8 on 3rd downs through the entire game. Only 17 1st downs.

Maybe 5 year fully guaranteed deals to coaches who got fired mid-season the year before aren't advisable? That'll definitely put a dent in your P/L.

Everyone has to admit - Tyrod played very well against seattle and in Miami 2. Thats a fact that can't be denied. We lost both games because our defense can't tackle, line up correctly, or generally cover anyone. We even had special teams breakdowns in both games.

I think the biggest issue is the old boys club of dudes who have been here for many years under ralph, and who remained under Pegula. Seems like a bunch of Brandon's buddies who have been promoted. It's not necessarily on them that we were unsuccessful, but they've seemed to be a burden as we have a massive staff of executives and directors.

To be fair - the media pundit gave the dolphins a D+ because of the extensions and free agent deals that they just offered by trying to "win the offseason".

I just look at it like... if our defense wasn't garbage... we don't go 1-5 in the division. NYJ game 1 and both Miami games are for the taking. That's 10-6 and possibly playoffs. We had 30 First downs and almost 600 yards... and no turnovers. And still lost to Miami week 16. Fitz shredded us for 300+ yards. We had the return by NRC for a TD, but that doesn't counter the fact that they marched up and down the field all game long to the tune of about 500 yards. 8 games of 27 or more points allowed. 3 games of 200+ yard rushers. 7 games with no takeaways. Do I think TT is the answer, no... not really. But unless the defense stops being terrible, it doesn't matter who plays QB. Maybe the loser defensive players shouldn't be handed starting jobs.

Is brandon responsible for getting rid of the organ player at the sabres games? It doesn't sound like an Organ anymore, and they don't seem to be as good at whatever instrument that they are playing. If so - Brandon's got to go.

First off - I don't think that the Raiders are a lock here. On the road a year ago on their East coast swing they beat NO and B-more by 1, and beat TB in OT. Only put up 17 on Tenn. After looking at their 2016 record too... part of me thinks they are a regression candidate. 9-1 in 1 score games?!! As for fixing penalties - my hope is that he breaks down why they're happening and focuses on that. Instead of just punishing mistakes. Questionable challenges? Isn't that why we fired the team chaplain?

They weren't going to a super bowl with newton playing like crap all year. Norman plays on defense.

I mean yea the secondary suffered post norman... But they did get a 2017 3rd round comp pick. I think they used that in the Ealy trade to move up in the 2nd round. Used the space to extend Short. They had 0 interest in extending him an offer, and he was not likely to play under the tag. Why not keep the cap space and bank a pick in the process? To me it showed some foresight to at least get something for him. But Newton went from 3800 and 36TDs, 60% passer to a 3500 19 and 52% passer... Thats probably a big part of why they ended up where they did.

Kills their recruiting actually... in like 3-5 years they will be near the bottom of the FBS. Not to mention it's pretty clear they lied to him when they recruited him. Or he was at least misled that he would be able to get out of it after that ruling a year ago. Either way - smart move coming here. We need help at that position.

My expecatation... Play some good football. Get to the QB, work well with zo and create havoc on the strong side.

We did lose like.. a ton of players... and needed upgrades all over the place. The key is structuring contracts better if you want to get comp picks (http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2017/02/13/some-teams-are-using-option-years-to-enhance-compensatory-draft-picks/). Needed: Kicker, backup QB, WR2, WR3, TE2, FB1, CB1, CB3, DE3/4, WLB, FS, SS, RT Several of those players were released - Graham, Robey-Coleman, A-will from their contracts because of cost/performance and don't count in a comp-pick situation. Couple those 3 with the loss of gilmore, and we have a ton of holes in the secondary. If we waited to sign replacements, we're left with many of the players we released/let walk.... See below Aaron Williams Corey Graham Dan Carpenter Marcus Easley Percy Harvin Corbin Bryant Reggie Bush Jerome Felton Leger Douzable James Ihedigbo Corey White Brandon Spikes Sergio Brown Scott Crichton IK Enemkpali Dri Archer Chris Gragg Jonathan Meeks Phillip Thomas Gerald Christian Greg Salas

If we weren't willing to tag & trade Gilmore, then they aren't going to trade Tyrod after giving him all that money. Just doesn't make sense.

Yeah - the marketing argument is ridiculous. His "marketing" is the reason we've brought in guys like TO, and Rex Ryan.

Fire him - clean start with new ownership... which is what they should've done from the beginning. I honestly have no idea why people want to keep him... good marketing guy? We can find someone cheaper and less hated in the buffalo area to do that job.

Hopefully he can form a connection with McDermott. I'd like to see him succeed here.