bostonbillsfan2008

if what people are saying is true and Russ did want Jauron gone, why would he stay? If he was the top guy but now Modrak is in there, even though he lives in Florida, how do you think it would make you feel. It's clear that Ralph doesn't really trust Russ to build the Buffalo Bills the right way. Russ has proved he's a smart guy and a forward thinker. I think he would be smart enough to know how to build the football side. How do we know that Russ didn't want to bring in a true GM and and a real coach? Right now, it's pretty clear that Russ is COO in title only. After this little trip to Detroit, he's probably back talking to his family about his options. There's a lot of NFL teams or the NFL itself that could use Russ' talents. I wouldn't be surprised to see him move on...

This game in many ways made me feel better about our football team, maybe not for this year, but going forward. It's OBVIOUS to anyone who watched that game would agree that NE and the Jets are better football teams this year than us. I think we will catch up shortly, we need another offseason..and a productive one. My thoughts: 1.) Dustin Keller for the Jets proved a viable tight end can win games. 2.) Brett Favre is the right QB for that team right now 3.) Having a TE not perform well (Ben Watson) can kill a team (sound familiar?) 4.) Jarod Mayo is going to be really good for years 5.) The Pats are quietly replacing Bruschi and Vrabel with some good young LB (Woods-#58) 6.) Kris Jenkins is a monster and makes all the other guys on the Jets DLine better 7.) The game is won in the trenches and both these teams have better trench guys than we do on both sides of the line 8.) Matt Cassel has more weapons to work with than Trent Edwards while Brett Favre's experience allows him to create weapons for his team. What this tells me about our team is that we aren't as good as our 4-0 record indicated and not as bad as our 1-4 record in the past 5 games has indicated but we are not yet ready to beat these two football teams. The Jets had a better offseason than we did and if we want to compete, we are going to need to take a good look at our football team and make some vast improvements quickly as Miami is right behind us as well and will be way better next year. Our division is going to be super competitive for the next couple years. We need to get stronger on both sides of the line, we need a TE and another line backer. We need to do that while improving the guys we have on our roster. I think one thing that is obvious, is our coaches need to coach better yes, but they need better players to work with. The one constant in the last few years has been not coaches, but our personnel department..it's been intact...in the meantime, we have seen other teams build and re-build a lot faster than us. I think some amount of responsiblity needs to be put on the personnel side and I would say this upcoming off-season is a good make-it or break-it year for them.

I agree with this..you need people who come from winning organizations who know how to build a winning culture and not perpetuate a culture of losing and mediocrity. It a hard thing to do..anyone who has read Jim Collins "Good to Great" knows you need to get the "right people on the bus and the wrong people off the bus" and if you keep moving things around internally with people who have never had prolonged success at this level. I happen to think Russ Brandon being a young guy with good ideas is perfect for the role he is in, but he needs to convince Mr. Wilson to let him hire a person who has complete and utter football authority from the top down and get someone who knows how to build a winning football operation. A Tom Dimitroff is a great example. You can get a guy who knows how to build a winning football program and instill the culture that it takes to win. He learned from Scott Pioli and understands what it takes. I know people in the Patriots organization and I can tell you with 100% certaintly that everyone in that building is going in the same direction. Mr. Pioli and Bill Belicheck set the tone, and Mr. Kraft sets up the infrastructure based on what those two think is the best way to run the organization. Together, they have installed a system there and had owner support that everyone in the organization needs to be on the same page from the football people to the caterers, to the equipment managers to the scouting department. The problem right now is our organization is filled with people who don't know what it takes to win. What is their backgrounds? Losing organizations, or they've been with the Bills the last decade or so, so they don't know what it's like. They say they do, and they very much want to win, but they don't have the ingredients to get us over the hump. It takes leadership, making tough decisions, holding people accountable, and creating a culture that it's NOT ok to not perform your very best. It doesn't matter what industry you are in...it applies...winning begats winning, success begats success, and in order to get that you need people with the strength and leadership to put the things in place to make that happen and I'm thinking there are some things going on at OBD that are preventing this from occurring. What I see is a team that is moving forward, perhaps in the right direction, but it's going to take some hard choices and real leadership to get over to create a PERPETUAL successful organizaton that can handle winning and losing with the same discipline and put a system in place that is designed to breed success. I hope it can happen, because I love my football team.

As a loyal bills fan, I am completely baffled by the lack of fortitude on the part of our organization. I can't imagine how an organization from top to bottom can continue to be mired in mediocrity. I look at people who have come to our organization with excellent credentials, and for some bizarre reason, they forget about what success they have and succumb to the inferiority complex that is the buffalo bills. Look at people like Kevin Gilbride, Dan Henning, Greg Williams, Mike Mularkey...and lets not forget all the players who have come here and under-performed. Remember when Gilbride was here, he couldn't run an offense, same with Dan Henning. Greg Williams and Mike Mularkey were over their head as head coaches but are excellent coordinators. Gilbride leaves, wins a Superbowl and if anyone is watching the Giants last year and this year would agree, he calls an excellent offense. Why is it that people that come here, fail. I think there is something in our organization that is making it hard for people to reach their potential as players, coaches, or whatever. I wish I knew what it was. Is it our players? we've had the same group of people in personnel for years and we are still a long way away from being a complete team. Maybe we have too many people in the organization that are so used to losing, they don't know what it takes to truly win and be successful. How is it that other franchises, build and re-build faster than us? Unbelievable what is going on here..sad..truthfully...

My point is not get better players..that's obvious and a given. My point is create the culture of a winning organization. The Buffalo Bills have forgotten how a winning organization is created and built. They are starting over. How many people in the front office know what it takes to win? How many people on the coaching staff? Which players? Define a plan, make progress, generate hope, refine the plan, make more progress....building a football team is like building a business... After 7 weeks, it seems it's time to make some refinements to plan to generate progress..we'll see...

I don't have insight into the organization day to day, but I'm worred because I haven't seen progress. Progress is KEY to getting people to buy into the plan. The longer progress isn't made, the players and staff on all parts of the business, (and fans) will start to lose hope and that's when it gets into a very bad place to get out of. The next MONTH will define this organization. They need to start making progress. If they start now, by the end of the season, they can prove to everyone that they know what they are doing and have a plan. They don't have to win, they have to make progress.

Ok, I never usually post on the boards, but I have finally decided to write and express how bewildered I am about the lack of progress in what is admittedly a rebuilding process and ability for the organization at OBD to create a CULTURE of winning and field a competitive team that shows signs of progress. I used to coach Division I Collegiate Soccer up until a couple of years ago and was fortunate to coach a team that had very similar comparisons to the Bills. We were in essence, a small market team, meaning we did not have the full allotment of scholarships. We also had to be creative in how we used our resources to build the team. However, the result (after two years of rebuilding), our team was built into one of the top teams in the region and then the country and I remember going through that rebuilding process and even though it’s a different sport, parallels can be reached when it comes to building winners. During that building process, what we had was PROGRESS, meaning while we were losing, we (coaches, players, administrators) saw enough to know we were moving in the right direction. The coaches knew it and the players knew it. It gave us HOPE. It is very true of the adage that you “need to learn to win.” In order to learn to win, you need to create a culture and environment that is condusive to winning. First, you need to bring in players in key positions, who WANT to be part of rebuilding a winner and have personalities to do that. In our case, when we took over the program, there were weaknesses all over the field. We felt the #1 priority for us was defensive…give up less goals, stay competitive until we had enough resources to address the offense. We felt if we did that the players would at least take away positives that we were moving in the right direction. It was a small sign, but a KEY sign in rebuilding. Create hope and show your players you have a plan so they begin to believe. Many won't be there when it reaches fruition but it sends a message to the players you want to keep. So, we got a goalkeeper and very solid defenders. Each game, while we lost many, there was an improvement. Some games were better than others and in each one of them, something different did us in, but over the course of a season, we saw improvement in the team’s performance and trends about which players to keep and what needed correcting. We were able to steal a game or two but we still had a losing record. But the program had a plan, and we were able to use that as leverage to get players who wanted to build a program. DURING THIS SEASON, WE EVALUATED WHICH PLAYERS CURRENTLY ON THE TEAM WERE HELPFUL TO WINNING AND WHICH ONES WERE HURTFUL AND WE GOT RID OF THE HURTFUL PLAYERS. The next year in the recruiting process, we were able to secure some “playmakers”—midfielders and a very, very good center forward. PROGRESS was made and we lost games that we should not have won and we won games we should not have lost. This was the very important second step—not SELF DESTUCTING at critical moments. WE ALSO HAD THE CORE GROUP OF PLAYERS WHO WERE CONDUSIVE TO NOT MAKING MISTAKES AT CRITICAL MOMENTS..THIS IS THE SECOND STEP IN CREATING A CULTURE OF WINNING. The players on this team also knew that they were the architects of the rebuilding but may not be around to see its results and also they were willing to accept that they may not be around for the final phase, at least they were on a team that played hard and won more than they lost. The following season we had another good recruiting year, and rounded out the team and we got to the conference semi-finals and lost in double overtime. The following year we lost in overtime in the finals. The year after that we won it and went to the NCAA tournament. Each year built on the previous. We had new players come in and old players go, but it was all part of a natural evolution and the players that came in knew the culture they were coming too. How does this apply to the Bills? It’s obvious that they are a team in transition and what the staff at OBD needs to do is have a plan and build around that plan. This year should be about assessing which players iand staff in the organization are condusive to winning and which ones are the problem. It is true that some players are what you call LOSERS in the sense that they do not have the “personality” to make others around them winners. When the chips are down, they make key mistakes, which then spreads to younger players and they make it worse. The key is to find out who these people are and get rid of them. I hope Mr. Wilson, Mr. Levy and Mr. Jauron know what they are doing. We know Mr. Levy is a winner so I’m assuming he is creating an overall organizational environment that will be condusive to winning..getting everyone on the same page, building trust, hiring capable people to manage the day-to-day, etc.. In regards to coaching, you need to have coaches who know how to win and can create a winning environment. I hope Mr. Jauron has that ability. It may be too soon to tell, but his past track record makes me wonder. It will be interesting to see how he performs with a GM who actually supports him and doesn’t try to backstab him like the guy in Chicago did. However, he might be a good teacher, and he might be intelligent but that doesn’t mean he knows HOW to win, or put people in the right place to win. I also find it interesting if he’s so good, why didn’t Matt Millen hire him in Detroit? It’s too early to pass judgment and he might be the answer but my problem with the team (AND ALL BILLS FANS) is after 7 games is we are not seeing PROGRESSION towards competitive football. Building a winner is about putting the framework in place to win. Mr. Levy knows what it takes to win, so hopefully he has started to purge the organization of a losing culture from the previous regime. They key to purging a losing culture and creating a winning culture is to build hope, one small step at a time and show progress. (The Bengals have proven this can occur..with the right people and the right leadership, progress can be made.) This is what should define the 2006 Buffalo Bills. Right now, after 7 games, there is a lot of work to do.

the kid needed to stay in the game..take him out, he would have lost respect of his teammates...by sticking it out, I think this makes sense.

They already have that guy in there right now. His name is Russ Brandon. He is a future NFL President.

Guys and Gals, I just want to pipe in here. I don't usually post, but I do want to comment on a couple of things. There are some great posts here but also it's important to frame our comments around the way WGR is run. Coming from the advertising industry, and working with radio, I know for a fact that over the last 10 years or so, there has been a dramatic shift in the power of radio moving from the host to the producer. Thus someone like Mike Shopp (who I went to college with) is now being given marching orders by a producer who is being directed by a station manager on what to say. They have a much shorter leash than 10 years ago. The station manager is given marching order to run a profitable operation. This is driven by many things..mainly that now radio stations are owned by huge corporations (i.e. Entercom) and they only care about 1 thing...Ad Sales. Ad Sales rates are driven by ratings and IF the station manager and producer say that Mike Shopp's show gets enough ratings to sell ads, they won't change the format. The second ratings slumps and ad sales fall, you can bet that the format will change. Mike Shopp did not change from a good host to a bad host on his own. It's all about his management and the organization he works for. He works for a big company and if he does want to move to another market, it's in his best interests to do what his management says. There are very few hosts in the industry who can control the way their shows work. I live in Boston and WEEI is a great station as one poster noted. They have good hosts, and also supplement their shows with very knowledgeable columnists from the Globe and Herald. Also, it is clear if you listen to the morning show, and the afternoon show, that the hosts are CHARACTERS..they are characters designed to attract their core listening base so they can keep their ad sales up so they can remain profitable. Their mid-day show is a very straight-laced show, with lesser (ie. cheaper talent) because they know they don't make as much in ad sales. I'm not saying stuff you guys all don't know, but what I'm saying is when we react to a host, more often they are given marching orders to step outside their personality. They sometimes make mistakes and cross the line, but usually what you hear is not what they are really like. However, based on this feedback (and WGR) really should get a bigger sample set, they might want to tweak the format of the show. Also, in regards to Sabres vs. Bills, would you expect anything less? They have a business relationship with the Sabres which has direct impact on profitablity and bottom line. They'd be stupid not to hammer them all the time. However, the risk is that if they are completely biased, they lose credibility, and possibly listeners. NESN(TV) in Boston does a good job. They are owned by the Sox and air all the games. Their announcers are knowledgeable and fair, offering criticisms (although soft) when necessary. However, the Sox air on WEEI and they get hammered all the time by the hosts so it can work both ways, but I think that's an anomaly given the passion of Sox Nation. anyway, sorry for rambling....

hi..I'm a Bills fan living in Boston and this morning, I happened to hear Pat Kirwan on WEEI's Dennis and Callahan show. They talked about the Pats..the usual stuff we hear on the Pats and how they were going to be good, etc. They asked Kirwan about the Bills and he said he had the opportunity to visit camp. He felt that they made the right decision to go with Losman but it was probably going to be a year before we got to the 11 or 12 win total. He felt they would be around 8-8. He did say Losman was going to be very good and he has all the tools. Not anything we haven't heard before..just thought you'd all like to know.

I live in Boston and listen to WEEI's Dennis and Calahan in the AM and on the way home from work listen to the Big Show with Glenn Ordway. Both shows mix sports and relvant OT information and engage callers. Granted Boston has more to talk about because of the Sox, etc. it does offer more than just sports at times...this was especially true when there are a lot of relevant national news topics.

I went to Fisher from '87-'91..man the place has changed!

the only problem is, who do you sign--I mean the vikes and titans just signed 40+ year old kickers..

spoiler alert ................................. ........................ (look down) YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!! 2-1 in OT...Brazil carried play but Rochester's Abby Wambach came up HUGE in OT! Congrats..say goodbye to Mia and company...