FireChan

I think it's more of him extending an olive branch to the team. Some folks don't retire with any team.

Doubt it. Just ask Dougie. "And Whaley made it clear moments after the pick that Lawson would start immediately... over the other Lawson. "He walks in, Day 1, as the starter opposite Jerry Hughes," Whaley said. "So he can set the edge from the outside, he can rush speed to power and that gives us two nice rushers off the edge. And then you've got the push in the middle with our defensive tackles. I think this is again, a guy who has the versatile, when we go nickel or sub, he can go inside and use his quickness on the interior offensive linemen. "First day, coming off the bus, he's starting." Drafted to be a "Day One" starter.

From your mouth to God's ears. Buffalo Bills‏Verified account @buffalobills 7m7 minutes ago Will the tackle who helped our A+ rushing game be back? Jordan Mills' agent is talking to Bills brass this week: http://bufbills.co/GQoypx Don't fix what ain't broke! Don't upgrade! 7th in the leaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaague.

That's not why he was drafted.

Buffalo Bills‏Verified account @buffalobills 7m7 minutes ago Will the tackle who helped our A+ rushing game be back? Jordan Mills' agent is talking to Bills brass this week: http://bufbills.co/GQoypx Relevant.

If we kept Fred in 2015, I think we may have made the playoffs.

We better resign them then. What if we find an RT worse than Mills? Too risky.

Those guys put up the 7th scoring offense. Don't fix what ain't broke.

Bring back Fred for third downs! He's better than JWill

I'm just breaking his balls a little bit. I didn't insult him.

I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt here that you just don't remember what was said. "And Whaley made it clear moments after the pick that Lawson would start immediately... over the other Lawson. "He walks in, Day 1, as the starter opposite Jerry Hughes," Whaley said. "So he can set the edge from the outside, he can rush speed to power and that gives us two nice rushers off the edge. And then you've got the push in the middle with our defensive tackles. I think this is again, a guy who has the versatile, when we go nickel or sub, he can go inside and use his quickness on the interior offensive linemen. "First day, coming off the bus, he's starting." This actually exactly means Shaq was penciled in over Manny to start opposite Hughes. If Manny thrashed him in camp, would he start? Of course not. But that wasn't expected to happen either. It's funny. You play the "what does Whaley mean by this exactly" card, yet you seem to always know. Very curious indeed. I know another poster who used to always play that game too. He was incorrect often. How many times do I have to explain that the expectations were set by our rocks for brains GM? Caldwell isn't getting killed for the Jack pick because he managed expectations. That's a part of the job, like it or not. If Whaley goes, "Shaq Lawson is an extraordinary talent and we expect him to be a high level starter for years to come. We were not concerned about the short term effects of a possible shoulder injury on the player we know he will turn out to be," he gets about a million feet more of rope. But no. He had to take cues from Rex the buffoon and make drunken boasts that blew up in his face. And if your point is that Whaley will never be that guy.? That he'll always be the laughingstock who opines glowingly on every player he drafts like they're his soulmate? Then he better buckle up for the next couple years of him getting killed over and over again. Just like Rex. Or find a QB. That's really the magic bullet for all this window dressing.

Like it or not, the fans are a key factor in all this. You seem to flip between, "the fans are naive and irrational," to "Whaley needed to do damage control to appease the fans." Going forward, if I was Whaley, I wouldn't take a guy who may need surgery in the first, proclaim him a day one starter over a veteran, gush about how he's going to contribute his rookie year, then throw my hands up in wonder when the fans get upset that he needs surgery and is gonna miss 3/4's of the season. PR 101, really. In contrast, here is what Caldwell said about Jack post-draft: “We want to be great,” Caldwell said Friday night after picking Jack. “We’ve got to take chances. We’ve been pretty conservative in our time here and in our philosophy in drafting, and in some of our free-agent acquisitions. There comes a point in time where we’ve got to close the talent gap, and you’re not going to do that without taking risks. This is one that we just felt [was a] calculated risk. He’s going to play out his contract and hopefully he’s here for 10, 12 years and we’ll look back at it as a good thing for the Jaguars.’’ No "day one starter" talk here. I can't even find a comment about the Boys taking Jaylon Smith either. But of course, it's the "butt-hurt fans" fault that Whaley is one of the most incompetent GM's in the league when it comes to putting his foot in his mouth and orchestrating his own fate. It might. Except he didn't explain, because he was trying to to sell the fans a bill of goods. Per usual.

Okay, I think this is our disconnect. You say that everybody in the know knew he would need to have surgery at some point. "But it's nothing that we're real worried about or we wouldn't have taken him. We got complete faith in our medical staff and they signed off on him, so we're excited to have him." Tyler Dunne ✔ @TyDunne Whaley on Lawson's shoulder: Medical staff cleared him and said he can play. "There's nothing we're worried about." These lines imply the exact opposite. So if Whaley knew that Shaq would need surgery at some point (your claim), came out and said there's nothing to worry about after a report came out that Shaq would need surgery, and then months later he gets surgery, you expect no backlash? You don't think the casual fan got hoodwinked by Whaley saying there's nothing to worry about, then finding out there was in fact something to worry about? I don't expect the truth. I know we won't get it. What I won't do is say "please Sir, can I have some more," when Doug Whaley pisses on my head and tells me it's raining. If you're gonna lie and spin zone, at least do it well.

Probably not. The argument that it's reasonable he could gut out the rookie year has some merit. I can admit my biases. I don't particularly like Whaley. Whether or not he had good reasons to mislead the general public, when it blew up in his face, he was going to raked over the coals and analyzed and called a liar. That's just the business he's in. Pretending he didn't mislead the fans is your bias, not mine.

There's no need to question anything. You're pretending that the double-speak was not a roundabout way of not-so-subtly implying there was no injury to worry about. I wonder if you can seriously tell me he wasn't intentionally misleading the fans with his statement, and that the conclusion that he's scot-free because he didn't "technically lie" isn't disingenuous at best.

The key difference with Mariota is that he's 23, not 27. He doesn't have 7 years of NFL coaching and experience. And Mariota is still relatively cheap, and will be for 3 more years. Mariota is well on his way to franchise status if he isn't already there, IMO. He's got mobility, but he makes more and better throws than TT. That and throwing more TD's in the the last 2 years, taking less sacks etc etc without the benefit of the #1 rushing attack puts him squarely above TT.

Metz, you became a "realist" 3 months after being a second away of proclaiming TT Russell Wilson. Revisionist history, population you bro.

If you don't draft a QB, you can't be held responsible if he busts. Between that and Whaley's snake oil "we don't have a chance at good QB prospects" in the Pegula's ear, he may never be fired. After all, there's no way he could find a QB with this awesome roster he's built. Bills general manager Doug Whaley downplayed the injury when speaking to reporters after the selection. "[Our] medical staff cleared him, said he can play," Whaley said. "Now, if something happens, it's going to happen. But it's nothing that we're real worried about or we wouldn't have taken him. We got complete faith in our medical staff and they signed off on him, so we're excited to have him." http://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/15426426/buffalo-bills-draft-pick-shaq-lawson-denies-needs-shoulder-surgery

Whaley has been deathly afraid of picking another QB and having it not work, I doubt he's that confident in himself.

Don't you have a thread to be reverse racist in?

No, they can't.

Why did you say this?

Huge mistake. What a shame.

So many terrible players are given big money deals, that swapping out a terrible player with a 3 year deal for a terrible player with 1 year left is actually worth a lot, trade value wise. All about creating cap. That's why the NBA with its 15 man roster per team has just as many big dead money bad players as the entire NFL with 53 man rosters. Conversely, picks are worth much less, or at least valued much less for the most part. A team like GS or the Cavs will probably not be lottery teams for 5 years, making their first rounders next to useless compared to a team like the 76ers or the Magic. Basically, the top 10 picks in the NBA are treated like the entire first round in the NFL.