SoTier

The Giants were never going QB at #2. They spent the off season getting Eli protection and weapons, and all they needed was a RB. The only way they weren't taking Barkley was if Cleveland took him #1. In that case, they likely would have taken Chubb.

It's highly unlikely that either the OL or the WRs "will be fine" despite all the whistling past the graveyard. The Bills have a decent LT, a journeyman RT, and a black hole in the interior of the OL. They are depending upon a backup and a rookie to replace a solid OC. They are hoping that 1 of the 2 RGs who struggled last season can step up and play better. AFAIK, they have only a name penciled in at LG to replace a Pro Bowl LG. This is easily the worst pre-season OL the Bills have had since 2009. They're depending upon backups to replace good starters, and didn't add any depth. The WR unit stunk last season with 1 NFL-caliber WR (Benjamin) on the roster, and he only arrived in mid-season, and was hurt for much of his time with the Bills. Jones was a bust, and will have to have a major turn around to even merit a starting spot on this poor unit. All the others are STers or street FAs. What have the Bills done to improve their WRs? Nothing. AJ McCarron isn't Tom Brady who can make useful WRs out of rookies and street FAs, and if Josh Allen has the misfortune to see the field (which seems likely because of the crappy OL), he's likely doomed. I hope I'm wrong, but I'm really afraid that the Bills are going to struggle to score on offense even more than they did last year, which doesn't bode well for them winning many games.

Read my post again. I said IF McDermott was still HC when the contract renewal came up, then he'd have input, but he'd have to do something spectacular -- like winning the SB -- in order to completely override competing considerations as to where hold TC. I don't believe that the Pegulas are going to cede the right to make what is essentially a business decision to a head coach unless he does something spectacular.

McDermott's 2017 coaching job hardly merited consideration for "Coach of the Year", and his "limited roster" was/is largely of his own making since he had significant input in determining which players were added, sent packing or kept kept over 2017 and into this season. You can jump on the McDermott bandwagon but even Dick Jauron, easily the Bills worst HC in the last three decades, once coached a team to a playoff berth (13-3), so I'll wait and see if he can replicate or improve on 2017 before I nominate him for the HOF.

McDermott might not be the HC in two years, so I find it highly unlikely that the Bills would break a valid contract and possibly alienate business sponsors just to please him. If he's still HC when the contract comes up for renewal, his wishes will be taken in consideration but unless he brings a Lombardi to the Bills in the next 3 or 4 years, his preferences won't be the overriding fact in determining if TC stays at SJF or is held elsewhere.

Because too many posters on this MB don't put their brains in gear before hitting the <Submit Reply> button.

The statement I was commenting was one about "results". The "results" from the Bills first season under McDermott and less than a year under Beane were certainly not that good, and certainly not great, enough to merit more than a "nice job". Neither has demonstrated that he's a coaching or personnel genius. Major personnel changes usually happen when there's a change in ownership/management, not when a team has a modestly successful season. Excuse me, but winning football games is, and should be, the first priority of every NFL football team, although I don't think that was necessarily true of the Bills during Ralph Wilson's ownership. Except for McDermott, his coaching staff, and in small part, Beane, all of the Bills non-player personnel responsible for the Bills 9-7 2017 season were hold overs from previous regimes or were hired at some point after the 2017 NFL draft and OTAs began. McDermott introduced "culture change" into the team itself, but that wasn't what the OP was asking about; he was asking about the replacement of long-time employees who had been with organization over several coaching changes. McDermott's means of "culture change" has been getting rid of players who don't apparently fit into his "culture" despite the cost in talent. This isn't anything particularly new for the Bills, either; McDermott's "process" philosophy is simply a resurrection of Dick Jauron's "my way or the highway", and Beane's drafting of a questionable first round QB just to placate the fans echoes Dough Whaley's drafting of EJ Manuel in 2013. The only thing really separating Whaley and Beane is that Beane paid a whole lot more for Allen than Whaley did for Manuel. I'm not the one rationalizing "moral victories" and pretending that the 2017 Bills were so awesome that the HC and GM should be given carte blanche in running the team. I pointed out that not only were the Bills not that great, but they haven't done anything to fix their serious flaws on offense, which you are trying to now claim is "rationalizing all those years of losing". Sorry, dude, but you're the one doing the rationalizing over a 9-7 team that lucked into a playoff berth, and then promptly lost in the WC game. You can start crowing about "results" when the Bills beat NE in NE with Brady playing QB and when the Bills manage to win 10 games in the same season or -- be still my heart! -- win a playoff game!

Yes, a great 9-7 record highlighted by ... 2 games (2 losses) where the team failed to score a TD 6 games (3 losses) where the team failed to score more than 1 TD 7 games against playoff teams ... 3 wins, 4 losses ... and finally a playoff appearance that resulted in a 10-3 loss to Jacksonville should punch McDermott and Beane's tickets to the HOF especially since we all know that the offense is so much better today than it was at this time last year since the Bills have at long last found their franchise QB!

I can't find any who were drafted in the first round in the last 2 or 3 decades. Favre might be the only one during that entire time period but he was a second rounder. Was Jake Plummer considered a boon-or-bust project? He was a high second rounder back in '97 IIRC. Current 2nd round picks like Dalton, Garoppolo, and Carr and third round pick Wilson don't seem to be boom-or-busters, either. They seem to have been drafted about where they should have been for their measurables and their readiness for the NFL. Guys drafted on Day 3 can't really be busts because if they become even modestly successful backups, their teams are ahead of the game because nothing much was expected of them.

"The Allen project" is only different because of your wishful thinking, OP. You may believe that since the Bills drafted him in the top ten, he MUST be better than the previous two failed project QBs the Bills wasted first round picks on, but I'll wait until he starts playing for real. Big, strong armed collegiate QBs who are supposedly smart are a dime a dozen. Competent NFL startng QBs are much scarcer.

If your description of the Bills organization is correct -- and I have no reason to doubt it since you seem to have some knowledge of the Bills organization on a much more significant scale than most of us -- then there's even less reason for fans to be worried about how "qualified" Kim is to hire coaches or make trades or whatever it is that has gotten so many to carry on for so long and so loudly -- unless their real issue with having her as President is that having a woman as Bills president somehow offends their prejudices against women.

What does it matter if Kim Pegula is "qualified" for the job of Bills president? How much worse a job can she do in leading the team than her predecessors over the last two decades? The last time the Bills won a playoff game was in 1995. The last time the Bills won more than 9 games in the same season was 1999. The Bills have had 6 GMs -- John Butler, Tom Donahoe, Marv Levy, Buddy Nix, Doug Whaley, and Brandon Beane -- plus a two year stretch without one -- since 2000. The Bills have had 8 HCs (excluding temp HCs) -- Wade Phillips, Gregg Williams, Mike Mularkey, Dick Jauron, Chan Gailey, Doug Marrone, Rex Ryan, and Sean McDermott -- since 2000. The Bills have had only 3 winning seasons since 2000. The Bills have made the playoffs only once since 2000, and that was only by literally lucking into them. The Bills mistakes on player personnel have been infamous, including trading away a future All Pro LT and a future All Pro RB for almost nothing to whiffing on draft picks like Aaron Maybin and John McCargo.

Pesky things, facts. Are you aware that Brandon's claim to fame when he joined the Bills a several years before taking over as defacto boss of the team was cutting the Florida Marlins' payroll from one of the highest in MLB to one of the lowest ... and turning the Marlins from World Series winners into cellar dwellers in a single season, MLB's biggest first-to-worst turn around ever? That's a positive qualification for a sports team's president/ceo? I suppose it is if the president's forte coincides with the owner's desire to maximize profits regardless of how the team performs on the field, which it did while Ralph Wilson was the owner, but new owners, new rules, new expectations. In general, an organization's president is someone who provides a philosophy or vision that guides the organization. He or she also manages competing interests by setting priorities, delegates authority, and is the public face of the organization. Depending upon the organization, he or she may do much more or somewhat less, but are usually not particularly involved in the business's day-to-day operations. Being a "people person", as Kim Pegula has been described as being, is a plus for any organization's president because they are expected to deal with a wide range of individuals, from other employees to government officials to the media, and any/all of these may include individuals who are difficult to deal with.

And teams always fall for them, and the Bills more than many since Kelly retired: trading for Rob Johnson, trading up for JP Losman, and drafting EJ Manuel. They weren't even smart enough to keep Bledsoe until the end of career and get some value for the first rounder they gave NE for him. I'm not optimistic for Josh Allen, not because of his obvious weaknesses but primarily because of the obvious weaknesses in the Bills: questions about the quality of offensive coaching as well as the apparent lack of interest in shoring up the OL and the WRs. He's certainly not coming into the best situation for a young QB who has a lot to learn about playing QB in the NFL.

As much as I would personally prefer TC to return to Fredonia, I really don't think it's happening. It's possible that the Bills might move the TC to another site now that a SJF alumnus is no longer the president -- and I have no particular reason to believe there was anything not on the up and up with the Bills/SJF relationship, just that with Brandon out, SJF probably lost it's key "advantage".

Very simply: if you had, you wouldn't be shoveling the misogynistic manure you've been shoveling in this thread.

You obviously have never had a girlfriend or wife or sister or daughter coerced into having sex with her boss in order to keep her job.

Cry me a river for Russ Brandon. The only thing I'm sorry about regarding Brandon's firing is that he got axed because of his personal behavior and not for his incompetence as a football executive. You're only 52? Reading your post, I pegged you to be at least 80 with attitudes more appropriate to the 1950s than the 21st century. Russ Brandon cheated on his wife, apparently over a relatively long period of time. He also knowingly violated modern standards of employer/employee conduct by having a sexual affair with a subordinate. He then lied to his bosses about it, which led them to investigate and apparently find more problems with his conduct. How is any of this defensible? Let me guess ... the Devil made him do it! I don't know what kind of FAMILY you come from, but among my relatives, even the redneck ones, there's certainly not much tolerance for infidelity, lying, and bullying, much less rationalization of such behavior.

I think the difference is that between 1967-1979, effective player FA was very limited and the salary cap didn't exist, so that there was much more inertia in team success, ie, good teams tended to stay good and bad teams tended to stay bad for much longer than they do today. Today, the norm is for teams to rise and fall with considerably more frequency. The Bills have been a rare exception as they have failed to have even modest success on the field, at least until last season.

How is the guy who was in charge of the Bills since the firing of Donahoe (2006) be considered a "whipping boy"? Cry me river for poor Russ Brandon. The Bills had only 2 winning seasons since Brandon took over in 2006 (2014 and 2017). Brandon ran the show, so he's responsible for the results, which stunk. He's not a "scapegoat" or a "whipping boy" or a victim. He failed, so he's out. How close to winning a Super Bowl have the Bills come since 2006 when Brandon was given control of the team? See above. As the man in charge of the Bills, Brandon sucked. He should have been terminated because of the team's poor record when the Pegulas bought the team. I've been a Bills fans since the early 1960s, and no, the Bills have never been as bad for as long as they've been under Brandon's watch. Even in the miserable days of the late 1960s and 1970s, the Bills occasionally managed to put together a winning season or 2 and even make the playoffs. They never went 11 straight seasons (2006-2016) with only 1winning season and 0 playoff appearances.

I can't disagree with Silva's review. Over the last twenty or so years, "project QBs" like Allen who've been taken in the first round have been singularly unsuccessful, so the prospects of Allen's success aren't promising. I remember claims circulating after the 2004 draft that the Bills "had" to get ahead of one team or another or lose Losman to some other team. The reality turned out that Losman would have probably been available in the 2nd round, and if he hadn't been, it wouldn't have been a loss at all. Hopefully, we won't have to say the same thing about Allen, but I'm not hopeful.

Well, now the Bills will have to come up with a new business plan, maybe one that includes winning more than 9 games a season more than every 20 years or so. Brandon wasn't fired because of allegations of sexual misconduct. He was fired because he lied to one of his employers, Kim Pegula. Execs can survive all kinds of trouble -- as Brandon had proven over his years with the Marlins and the Bills -- but they're dead meat if their employers catch them lying to them. At Brandon's pay grade, that's an unforgivable personal betrayal. As for Brandon's financial ruin, I suggest he contact Tom Donahoe about how to deal with the reduced circumstances of a fired ex-top exec. ''

FTR, you used the word "no" for know in your original post which is why I put it in quotes in mine. As for living in the past, there is absolutely no proof that the current regime is any better at building a winning team than previous regimes. All the new bodies at OBD are just that, new. They may be better than the old ones or they may be worse or they may be about the same. None of these folks have even been around for a full year yet, so declaring the Bills FO as "knowing what they're doing" is premature at best. This has been said just about every time the Bills have changed GMs/HCs since Bill Polian left. What can be said at this point is that McDermott seems to be a better HC than previous ones (or maybe luckier) ... and he was hired under the old FO, not the current one. PS. the proper word is which not "witch". Is English not your native language or did you just sleep through your English classes since sixth grade?

If you want to be Susie Cheerleader for a team that has given its fans 17 straight years of missing the playoffs and only 3 winning seasons in the last 18 years, be my guest. Don't try to tell me or other fans that we shouldn't criticize the organization. The Bills have forfeited their claim to blind fan loyalty with their continual failure to win football games over nearly 2 decades. Since you are such an Allen loyalist, you best not criticize him until the Bills send him packing. That's when we'll "no" he is bad, right? ... I mean, since we as fans, aren't allowed to express our opinions.

Especially since the Bills traded up to get him, and Beane has such an established record of recognizing collegiate talent.