Nihilarian

Fixing the RB position isn't fixing the offensive line problem they have in leading the league in sacks allowed. Frank Gore isn't the problem as he is good enough at 4.0 ypc avg simply by looking at the other RB's on the roster to see Turbin at a 2.8 ypc avg and Ferguson at 0.7 ypc avg. Then looking at the pass attempts vs the rush attempts is 166 pass vs 91 rushes to see that the team is expecting Luck to carry the offense. The guy has 8 TD passes and 3 INT's so it's not like he is a turnover machine like others are saying. The Colts defense is putrid at 30th in points allowed and 25th in yards. Their run game is putrid at 26th in attempts and 24th in yards so they are not even attempting to run the ball that much to take pass rush pressure off of Luck. Teams will find a way to stop one-dimensional offenses. A crappy coaching staff and surrounding cast will make even the best QB's look bad and that teams HC & OC are on their way to ruining one of the best QB's out of college in the past decade. The man did the job in college gaining many awards with a 162.8 QBR. In 2014 in the playoffs the Colts did beat the Bengals and Peyton Manning's Broncos only to lose to the Patriots in the AFC championship game. If the Colts owner ever awakens from his chemically romanced induced stupor he might want to rethink the move in retaining Grigson, Pagano and hire some people that actually know what they are doing! Whaley! trade for luck while Grigson is still their GM! What's really humorous is that Crayonz makes a thread slamming one of the best young QB's in the league and he gets others to join him in dissing Luck in this endeavor....carry on! When will he start the Drew Brees excuse thread?

Ryan Grigson is still the Colts GM? The very same idiot who traded away a #1 pick In Jerry Hughes for a 3rd round Buffalo bum? How Colts GM Grigson and HC Chuck Pagano still have jobs is beyond me. Luck was a playoff QB in 2012, 2013, 2014 and in 2013 the Colts went to the AFC Championship game. In 2015 Luck was injured most of the year. So now because his GM, supporting cast and coaches suck he is another Jeff George? Jacksonville sacked Luck 6x. Denver sacked Luck 5x. The Lions sacked him 2x. The Chargers sacked him 2x. The Colts lead the NFL in sacks allowed. Their run game isn't very good and their defense is about the worst. Call me crazy as I'd trade, Tyrod Taylor, Marcell Dareus, Sammy Watkins all for Andrew Luck! I wonder if Whaley can work some magic?

Has any other GM in the history of the NFL been able to build three teams into playoff teams in as little as three years or less? It really isn't about inheriting a great QB or drafting one as it's more about building that championship team around that QB. One top QB and DE isn't going to build a WR corps, O-line, run game, defense and special teams and all of those are needed to get to the playoffs. Buffalo, Dec 30th, 1985 named GM, so 1986 was his first season as GM. 1988 the Bills are in the AFC Championship game. Carolina, as an expansion team named GM in 1995. In playoffs in 1996! Indy, Hired in 1998, in playoffs 1999. The man knows talent at every NFL position on both sides of the ball! More importantly, knows the difference between a great QB and a bum! Knows who to hire as his head coach to build a playoff team.

Same here I still have that Jim Kelly poster framed and signed with Mark Gastineau right behind him bearing down in my Bills room. I suppose I should call it my man cave now.

Should the team make the playoffs this year than everything is rainbows, unicorns, and roses! If they don't make the playoffs I'll be surprised if anyone stays. The simple truth is that Whaley knows defensive talent and has not done so great in the draft with offensive talent. If the team could find elite offensive talent in the draft they wouldn't have needed to spend big money to sign McCoy, Clay or used three draft picks on Watkins in a draft loaded with great WR talent. The mere fact that Whaley let it be known that he would have drafted TE Eric Ebron if the Watkins trade fell through tells us the offensive scouts aren't good enough and neither are the team's medical player evaluation people. Look at some the players signed with bad medical history and the team just ignored those facts. Kevin Kolb-OG Chris Williams-Kiko -Glass Goodwin- Watkins- Percy Harvin-Kounadjio- Henderson- Lawson-Ragland. Nine players on IR right now and another 8 questionable. I know I've missed some players. Millions wasted on players like Williams and Harvin on contracts for players who played so few games can't go over so well. Speaking of not so bright signings, who had the bright idea to put a walk away clause in Marroons contract, or to sign Rex for five years?

Looking at the current status of teams the Bills are facing and my expected outcome. The Rams game will be very pivotal IMO because while they are hot at 3-1 they are also at 63 PF-76 PA. They did manage to beat the Seahawks who are a run first team with a mobile QB. The Rams are 3 1/2 point favs. Should Buffalo prevail on the road while traveling to the west coast and win that Rams game they could end up at 10-6! @Rams (3-1) L 2-3 49ers (1-3) W 3-3 @Dolphins (1-3) W 4-3 Patriots (3-1) L 4-4 @Seahawks (3-1) L 4-5 BYE @ Bengals (2-2) W 5-5 Jags W (1-3) 6-5 @ Raiders (3-1) L 6-6 Steelers (3-1) L 6-7 Browns (0-4) W 7-7 Dolphins (1-3) W 8-7 @Jets (1-3) W 9-7

I was wondering if the Bills were thinking of trading him this offseason simply because he doesn't quite fit that Rex Ryan 3-4 as an NT or DE should the team run mostly the same scheme they ran last season. This year with Thurman calling the plays it looks very different and with Dareus's elite talent he could make anything work. I also think the man just doesn't hold himself accountable for his actions off the field and his not being with the team those first two games could have perhaps been the difference in those two 6 point losses. Rex Ryan will be against letting the guy leave I'm sure. However, the GM / FO needs to look at the entire team and should Dareus relapse again he is gone for a year. It will be interesting to see what happens going forward.

http://www.rotoworld.com/headlines/nfl/343928/bills-cancel-workout-with-karlos-williams?ls=roto:FA:topheadlines Wow. ESPN's Adam Schefter made it seem like Williams' return to Buffalo was a done deal earlier today. Vic Carucci of the Buffalo News backtracked somewhat, predicting Williams had a "50-50" chance to re-sign with Buffalo. Now the Bills aren't even going to work him out. We're not sure what's responsible for the abrupt change of plans, though it's understandable why the Bills would be hesitant to bring Williams back. He was embarrassingly out of shape at OTAs this summer and just came off a four-game suspension for violating the league's substance abuse policy. Where Williams goes from here is anyone's guess.

Well said, all of it! Right now Whaley is just so very lucky that he has almost fallen into great situations. Like Spiller turning down, the money Buffalo offered and leaving for New Orleans. Like the Colts GM in foolishly thinking LBer, Jerry Hughes was a bad player and wanted just to rid the team of Polian's last number one pick so he trades away a pro bowl player for a bum. The team needed a better O-line and QB and along comes Rex to vouch for Incognito and asks the team to go after Tyrod Taylor. Right now this team looks great when the run game works and they have a lead and we don't know what the future looks like when the run game stops working and the defense doesn't have a lead. Or, how much effort the coaching staff will put into game planning against the entire remaining schedule.

The Rams got smoked by Chip Kelly's Niners 0-28 Beat Seattle at home which was no easy task. 9-3 Won in Tampa 37-32 which was a West to East type of thing Won at Arizona which was a huge game for them 17-13 What's funny is the Cards shut down Gurley 19 attempts for 33 yards and Case Keenum beat them with his arm. The Cards turned the ball over 5 times too. @ 3-1 they no longer look like the scrubs we thought they were. Although they are currently 31st in the NFL in offensive yards and 25th in defensive yards allowed. This game looks very winnable if the Bills can get their run game working early.

Clearly, Lynn simplified the offense and has the offense working to their respective strengths. The offensive line has looked very good in run blocking and pass blocking. The play calls are coming in quickly and the players are executing them well. The thing is that in the last two games the Bills offense and defense worked well together by getting the lead and allowing both units to do what they do best. For the offense running the ball is what they do best and with a lead in the game, the offense and Tyrod both looked good. Same thing with the defense as once they had a substantial lead they can pin their proverbial ears back and forget about stopping the run while simply getting after that injured rookie QB. What we have yet to see now is "IF" Tyrod can play from behind and win games with his arm with Lynn at the controls of the offense. This is a big "if" because we already saw that the defense when left out on the field simply melts under the pressure like in that Jets game. Let's face things that for whatever reasons the Cardinals came into Buffalo with the completely wrong strategy in attempting to do exactly what the NY Jets did with all those deep passes and it burned them. What they should have done is just kept trying to move the chains by throwing to Fitzgerald. The Patriots were starting a somewhat injured rookie 3rd string QB and they couldn't get the offense to work at all. Once teams get more film on the plays Lynn is calling in the simplified offense it might make things more difficult for the offense to execute the plays. Time will tell if Tyrod can get it done this year when he needs to win games with his arm. This team still has a tough schedule ahead of them as the Rams are 3-1 and the 49ers under Chip Kelly no longer look like the cakewalk they were last year. Like Rex Ryan said, that run game needs to work to get everything else to work.

It was great to beat the Patriots in New England and shut them out. I can recall the talk around here while the Pats were blanking the Texans on Thurs night that anyone's grandma could play QB and the Pats would still win. Still, I can't help but think that their rookie QB Jacoby Brissett was still injured and this sorta felt like the win at the end of the 2014 season because Brady didn't play. Anyway, like others have said it's only two games and the Bills are at .500, 2-2. Let's see where the team is at the bye week before we crown Rex with anything. Don't blink because the LA Rams are 3-1. Both the Dolphins and 49ers are 1-3. Then the Patriots are 3-1 as are the Seahawks. 4-5 maybe?

My take is that both Ryan's and Roman's scheme were overly complex in the sense that the players were forced to learn more plays than really necessary and the result was just too many reads and adjustments to make which slowed things down. An example is that Jon Gruden used to have his offensive players learn about 100 plays so at a certain point in the game he could pull some obscure play out of his azz that nobody knew and attempt to make it work. It usually never did because since it was rarely used all the players failed to remember what it was or how it worked. Probably why the only QB's to have great success under Gruden were savvy vets Rich Gannon and Brad Johnson. Bill Parcells used to go to the offensive and defensive meeting rooms as they were formulating the game plans and throw out all but around 25 plays for each unit. Then he would make them run the same plays over and over until they had them down perfectly. Clearly, the Bills have greatly benefited from going to Lynn calling the offensive plays and Thurman calling the defensive plays. This may change as the season wears on and teams watch the game tapes and get to know what plays the Bills are going to run. Time will tell.

I'll say!! the playcalling on both sides of the ball has improved like night and day, The offense the first two games was putrid and the defense last year was almost as bad. We bills fans knew the talent was there all along and was being misused and now this proves it. It all started with great field position and went on from there.

Right now the team looks so much better with Thurman calling the defense and Lynn calling the offense. Still got a long way to go in the season so let's revisit this conversation at the bye. Absolutely, I don't think any Bills fans saw this future while the Patriots were beating the Texans 27-0 Sept 22nd.

Still Rex for allowing Thurman to call the defensive plays which looks like a godsend at this point. And firing Roman and promoting Lynn as the offensive playcalling was amazing today. So, Rex, Lynn, Thurman, Shady, Tyrod, Hughes

The Patriots are actually 16th in total defense after three games. Still, it was a great win on the road and the first ever shutout of the Patriots by a Buffalo Bills team and in New England no less, afaik. Looks like the Bills didn't miss Sammy that much the last two games! Was the offense trying too hard to get him the ball the first two games??

Firing Roman and promoting Lynn to OC made a huge difference and allowing Thurman to call the defensive plays has also made a huge difference. Let's hope it keeps going.

I gotta admit that Rex really knew what he was doing in firing Greg Roman and promoting Lynn. What a difference on offense!!

Feel free to serve me some humble pie with my crow.

My reasoning in that Whaley needed help from an actual experienced NFL above him is because he was being taught by not so bright people. Just look at his tenure with the Buffalo Bills and in that time who was teaching him the right moves in building an NFL winning team? Marv Levy who was a good NFL HC but never meant to be an NFL team GM. Buddy Nix who might have been a decent chief scout but if the man reaches 70 years old and retires while not ever being offered an NFL GM job you have to think why? Ralph Wilson hired Nix out of retirement and I can only think it's because the man was easily manipulated by the owner in doing his bidding without much debate. Simply looking Buddy Nix's idea of how to build an offensive line leads me to believe he wasn't very bright. Any OT can play OG and how did that work with Erik Pears at RG? OG's are a dime a dozen and bigger is better so how did that work with Colin Brown, Sam Young, and Cornell Green? How did finding the franchise that elite NFL starting QB work out? How many games did the team win with Nix as GM? That baby was stillborn at 6-10! Then looking at the last two head coaching hires and while we know that Whaley was involved we also know that neither was his actual choice for head coach. If the team wouldn't allow the GM to make the choice on the HC it makes me wonder what other choices he wasn't allowed to make as GM? To me, it's rather unsettling to see the team's president / managing partner and ex-CEO sitting in the teams cut room meetings and on the phone to UDFA's. Isn't that the GM's job or perhaps even the assistant GM's job? So, at this point, us fans really don't know exactly how much of the GM's choices were actually the GM's choices. I would like to see the man get another season with just him making the all the GM decisions and keep the owners, the HC and the marketing / finance president out of those football decisions. Mostly because I would really not like it to see him fired in Buffalo and go on to be successful with another team because he was being held back here.

I agree with the OP that this team used to draft players with a questionable injury history and came out with hall of Famers. Jim kelly drafted with shoulder with pins inserted in his senior year. Thurman Thomas with a reconstructed knee. Just look at the history of players acquired recently that can't stay healthy. The team's first two draft choices this year-Sammy, Clay and even Shady who played in only 12 games last year. OG Chris Williams who played in three games given a 5.5 mill guaranteed 13.5 million per contract among others Seems like whomever is giving the team the okay to obtain questionable players is a Patriots fan. Far, far too many players on IR every year since Jauron.

Complete failure...No! Not so great GM...Yes! While some fans here credit Whaley with letting CJ Spiller go that just isn't the case as Spiller was offered a good contract by Buffalo and he turned it down to go to NO... thank the lord! Some fans want to credit Whaley for the Jerry Hughes trade for Kelvin Shepard and it was the Colts GM who foolishly initiated that trade a for a former 1st for a 3rd and Buffalo stole a great pass rusher for a bum! Richie Incognito was Rex Ryan's move as he vouched for Richie. Whaley could have signed Incognito during the entire 2014 season in which Buffalo fielded the very worst offensive line in the league with Pears at RG! Tyrod Taylor was also a Rex move that Whaley takes credit for. What is the one biggest area of team need that helps define the face of the franchise and helps the team win games! Yeah, is the team still looking for that ever elusive franchise QB? Derek Carr- Teddy Bridgewater-Jimmy Garoppolo- Dak Prescott - Trevor Siemain?? the QB position still remains a question of great concern in Buffalo. Not paying Andy Levitre and letting him walk was the right move! However, attempting to replace Levitre with complete scrubs in Colin Brown, Sam Young was a rather heinous move considering the team was attempting to get by with basically three rookie QB's on the roster!! The GM also allowed the coaching staff to go forward with no QB coach or veteran QB on the roster to help teach these inexperienced QB's. How long did it take to Whaley build a viable offensive line? Three offseasons now and the right side has played better so far this season but with 13 games remaining the starters and backup depth are still very questionable. While grading out pretty decently so far the season there still is a long way to go and many really good teams to face this year. Doug Whaley took over as GM after the 2013 draft and has made some very questionable moves since then. Trading for Bryce Brown who was a complete waste. Trading for WR Mike Williams was a complete waste. Signing OG Chris Williams for four years 13.5 million with 5.5 guaranteed only to see the guy play three games was not only a serious waste of a roster spot, money, and this GM has shown a penchant for acquiring players with injury issues. Trading away Stevie Johnson when the team could have really used that WR who is always open was let go because he didn't run precise routes for EJ only to EJ benched and Orton having to take over after a few games and he could have really used Stevie. The coaches stupidly would use Watkins as a decoy most of the season. The trading three draft picks, two first rounders for Sammy Watkins was a bad idea for many reasons. 1) the team wasn't 100% positive that they already have it's franchise QB on the roster. 2) The team had more holes on the roster at that time than one elite WR and still does! 3) While the young man played most of the games his first two seasons, he was also injured so much of the time that he was never 100%. Now to be placed on IR for perhaps half a season or an entire season along with this season's first two draft picks starting out injured just reinforces the bad penchant for acquiring players with injury issues. 4) the team started out under Doug Marrone as a run-first offense to help the young QB's develop properly and then switched to a pass first offense to help make the Watkins choice look good. Watkins was never a great fit for a run first offense that needed so many others positions upgraded and probably the reason the HC walked out of the draft room after trading away three picks to obtain him. 5) the most blatant reason is the team didn't already have that elite franchise QB on the roster that was throwing for 4000k yards a season to take advantage of a talent like Watkins. So, this move looks like desperation to help make the failing young QB look better and the GM didn't take the big picture of the team in view. 6) Hindsight, IDGAF! In probably the greatest draft for WR's in the entire history of the league filled with so much receiver talent that this team uses three draft picks, two first rounders on a WR!! Mike Evans-Odell Beckham Jr-Brandin Cooks-Kelvin Benjamin-Marquise Lee-Jordan Matthews-Allen Robinson- Jarvis Landry- John Brown-Martivas Bryant- Donte Moncrief-Quincy Enunwa. 7) After that 2014 NFL draft, I can recall the team stating that they still needed that big, tall, WR red zone threat...doh! This team spending great resources on what was perceived to be great talent on a past his prime RB going into his 7th season who only played in 12 games last year. Great resources on a TE to fill a team need. Great resources on a WR. The point here is that if the team had been able to identify great talent in the draft on offense it wouldn't need to use up so much cap space, draft picks in the draft or free agency. (The NY Jets have two quality free agent WR's in Brandon Marshall and Eric Decker along with RB Matt Forte as an example.) Anyway, back to the point here. Had the team not been able to make the trade up for Sammy Watkins in the 2014 NFL draft it is well known that the team would have chosen TE Eric Ebron as another example of a bad choice who is also injury prone. EJ Manuel. As so many different ideas surround this draft pick. It was in fact, Doug Whaley who went down to Florida and scouted the young QB for the team and basically stated he was all in for this choice at QB. Let's also not forget that it was a rumor that Eagles HC Chip Kelly was also interested in EJ so the team traded up to acquire him. While current GM Doug Whaley has made some very questionable moves in his tenure as the Buffalo Bills GM. I have to have to ask questions as to who was helping guide this young GM in his football decisions? Buddy Nix a retired chief scout who was never qualified to be a GM in the first place and certainly made his share of stupid decisions as GM. Whaley's direct boss above Nix for the first few years who controlled the entire team was a finance / marketing man with no real winning football experience behind him. I'm not advocating firing Doug Whaley! Just getting this young, talented GM some help in the form of an older, experienced winning NFL football man at the top of the football side of the org chart who's brain he can pick that isn't a loser. Just my 2 cents.

Tallywhacker= BB's main man

It really is amazing that jackass called Whaley and wanted him out of Indy as Bill Polian's last failed #1 pick. How that man still has a job as an NFL GM is beyond me.