SoTier

This is an excuse the Bills faithful trot out every time the team hires a new head coach, and since they change HCs every 2 or 3 years, the faithful remain placated. As long as the fans continue to fill the stadium and buy merchandise, the Bills are going to continue to do what they've been doing for the last 17 years ... what they've done for most of their history except for the brief time in the "Glory Years". Why would they spend big bucks to put an improved product on the field when the fans fill the stadium for an inferior product that costs less to produce? For those who are younger and might not remember, it wasn't all that long ago that both Cincinnati and Arizona were as much perennial bottom feeders as the Bills. IIRC,the fans in Cinci, and maybe in Phoenix, too, held new stadium approvals hostage to promises of improved performance based on the teams getting serious about fielding winners. Even the Bills "Glory Years" had their roots in fan discontent. It might be hard to believe, but support for the team -- and its losing ways -- deteriorated in the mid-1980s to the point where usually only about 30k fans filled then 80k seat Rich Stadium. I think that the Bills sold fewer than 20k season tickets. Back then, teams actually depended upon ticket sales for much of their profit, so the lack of fans in the seats at last encouraged Wilson to bring in Polian and upgrade the organization ... especially when the long term lease the Bills had on Rich meant they couldn't pull up stakes and find another sucker city like teams do today. As long as Bills fans continue to make excuses for poor team management and to fill the stadium every Sunday, nothing is really going to change with how the Bills do business. I totally agree. This team is significantly better talent-wise than the teams all of the Bills previous new HC inherited in this century. It has both a functional offense and defense. Even the team Ryan inherited, which had a good defense, lacked a competent offense. This one has the talent to be decent on both sides of the ball if it gets competent coaching. Keep in mind, the Bills don't have to good enough to win a Super Bowl this year. They just have to be good enough to get double digit wins, something they haven't done since 1999. I agree, especially about Russ Brandon. Previous to joining the Bills, Brandon worked on dismantling the Florida (now Miami) Marlins baseball team after it won the 1997 World Series by selling off talent to make more profit. That career stop is conveniently missing from Brandon's current on-line bios BTW. It's like his professional career started when he joined the Bills. FYI, in 1997, the Marlins had the 7th highest opening day salary total out of 28 MLB teams. They took the NL wild card in their division and won the World Series. In 1998, they ranked 20th out of 30 MLB teams and compiled the worst record in MLB history for a defending World Series champ.

How have the Pegulas changed the Bills' FO philosophy? Overdorf is still in charge of "cap management", which can best be described as replace pricey stars/vets with much cheaper rookies and never weres and hope for the best. Terrence McGee for Antoine Winfield ... Zay Jones for Robert Woods ... The Bills preferred to let 2012 first round DB, Stephon Gilmore, who made the Pro Bowl in 2016, leave, which is exactly what the Bills did with 1999 first round DB Antoine Winfield, 1999 second round WR Peerless Price, 2001 first round DB pick Nate Clements, 2003 first round RB Willis McGahee, 2006 first round safety Donte Whitner, 2007 second round LB Paul Posluszny, 2009 second round DB Jairus Byrd, 2009 second round LG Andy Levitre, 2010 first round RB CJ Spiller, and 2013 second round WR Robert Woods. The Bills have also let other top players as well as key role players leave through FA or trades rather than pay them ... in 2017 as well as in the past. Who did the Bills have on the roster to replace Peerless Price in 2003? Who did they have to replace Chris Hogan in 2016? How many years did it take to replace Pat Williams at DT or Ruben Brown at LG or Jason Peters at LT? So, how long will it take for the Bills to fill Sammy Watkins' spot when he signs with another team next season? They're on their third HC since purchasing the team in the fall of 2013. As somebody said, Ryan was supposed to be this era's Chuck Knox. When it turned out he wasn't, the Bills went back to their "tried and true" philosophy of hiring a cheaper HC with a mediocre record and limited experience. Sorry, dude, but I just can't see significant differences between the behavior of the Bills FO under Ralph Wilson's ownership and the Pegulas' ownership. Maybe I'm just getting pessimistic in my old age. Maybe I've just spent enough time in the working world to realize how impossible it is to change corporate/organizational culture without a willingness to shed some blood at the very top of the food chain. That the Pegulas have owned the Sabres for several years longer than they've owned the Bills and have failed to get that organization squared away doesn't seem to bode well for the Bills, and that includes McDermott. Hopefully, I'm dead wrong but I'm not buying into anything until I see some results that look different from the results of the last twenty years.

Oh, puh-leez! This has been the Bills FO's excuse for letting key players walk away for 20 years, and in many, perhaps most, of those seasons they weren't even within 10 million $ of the cap even including dead money! I am sick of the Bills organization fielding crappy teams because they either can't or won't manage the salary cap well enough to put a winning team on the field! Maximizing profit is a whole lot more important at OBD than winning games for this entire century! Jeez maree! It takes real skill to manage to put together only 2 winning seasons and no playoff appearances in 17 years!!!! Even Cleveland's done better than that because they made the playoffs at least once in the last 17 years. What I'm upset about is constantly watching ex-Buffalo Bills help other teams make the playoffs and play in and even win Super Bowls ... Antoine Smith won a Super Bowl with NE. Jabari Greer won a Super Bowl with New Orleans. Marshawn Lynch won a Super Bowl with Seattle. Chris Hogan won a Super Bowl with NE. Ruben Brown, Mike Gandy, and Donte Whitner all played in the Super Bowl within the last decade. Then there's all the former Bills who took Pro Bowl and All Pro honors while helping other teams to make the playoffs during the Bills playoff drought. I have no idea whether McDermott can be a good HC coach or not, but my gut feeling is that he's doomed to mediocrity at best because he's unlikely to get the support from the Bills FO that he needs in terms of retaining key talent. Oh, they might bring in an expensive FA to excite the fans like Terrell Owens and Mario Williams but they'll let key players already on the roster go and then use the draft to try to fill those holes, leaving McDermott and his staff to rearrange the deck chairs on Titanic.

I agree. I think if Fitz was the QB in 2013 and 2014, the Bills would have had at least a 9-7 record in 2013 (they went 6-10 with virtually no QB at all). They went 9-7 in 2014 with Manuel and Orton, and by the end of the season, Orton had lost interest in playing in the NFL. They would have made the playoffs in at least one of those years, and possibly both with Fitzy. He was the perfect example of the Bills organization's willingness to sacrifce wins for profit. They wanted to maximize profits, so they cut Fitz without having any viable QB on the roster. Then they drafted Manuel in the first round even though there wasn't a good QB prospect in entire the 2013 draft and signed Kevin Kolb who couldn't even stay healthy enough to make the first preseason game. I believe Jeff Tuel was the starting QB at the beginning of the season, followed by Thad Lewis, and then Manuel. In 2014, they lured Kyle Orton out of retirement late in preseason, and he eventually replaced Manuel who sucked. The problem was, Orton called it a career about 3 or 4 games before the end of the 2014 season, even though he was still the Bills starting QB.

Nonsense. "Fine" coaches make the playoffs even without QBs, as witness Rex Ryan in 2009 & 2010 (Mark Sanchez) and John Fox in 2011 (Tim Tebow). Rex took those Jests teams to the AFC Championship game both years. Fox won a playoff game with Tebow, beating Pittsburgh in OT in the wild card. Neither Sanchez nor Tebow were ever even half as good as Taylor is today. Minnesota has made the playoffs several times with different HCs when they didn't have anybody resembling a franchise QB, the last time in 2012 with Christian Ponder. New England won a Super Bowl in Brady's first year as a starter when he replaced an injured Drew Bledsoe, and Seattle went to the AFC Championship with rookie QB Russell Wilson. Neither Brady nor Wilson were "franchise" QBs in those years. I totally agree. Same old, same old. I reserve judgement until I see what McDermott actually does as a coach. Ryan came with much better credentials, and he flopped. Jauron and Gailey both had more NFL experience than McDermott and they both failed. I agree. If Cinci can make the playoffs with Andy Dalton, KC with Alex Smith, and Miami with Ryan Tannehill, the Bills can certainly do the same with Tyrod if the rest of the team is up to snuff, which, I'm afraid it's not AGAIN. IMO, the problem isn't that the Bills lack a "franchise QB", they lack the commitment to winning on the part of the front office that's needed to assemble and keep the necessary talent. The FO is primarily interested in putting a fancy shine on the same old product with a new coaching staff or new stars or whatever will put butts in the seats. McDermott won't even get two years. Two months, maybe, and the same posters who are "all in" on McDermott today will be leading the cheerleaders for firing his arse.

^^^ If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, there's a good chance it's a duck. For your edification, gentlemen, I will list 1st and 2nd round draft picks that the Bills either did not re-sign after their rookie contracts or traded away during their rookie contracts in the last seventeen playoff years: 1999-1-Antoine Winfield - signed with Minnesota in 2004, made the Pro Bowl in 2008,2009,2010, 2012 and was named to an All Pro team 3 times. 1999-2-Peerless Price - traded to Atlanta in 2003 for first round pick 2001-1-Nate Clements - signed with Minnesota in 2007, made the Pro Bowl in 2004. 2001-2-Travis Henry - traded to Tennessee in 2005, made the Pro Bowl in 2002 2003-1-Willis McGahee- traded to Baltimore in 2006, made the Pro Bowl in 2007 and 2011 2006-1-Donte Whitner - signed with San Francisco in 2011, made the Pro Bowl in 2012, 2013, 2014 2007-1-Marshawn Lynch - traded to Seattle Seahawks in 2010, made the Pro Bowl in 2008, 2010, 2011, 20112, 2013, 2014, and was named an All Pro once. He also won a Super Bowl ring. 2007-1-Paul Posluszny- signed with Jacksonville in 2011, made the Pro Bowl in 2013. 2010-1-CJ Spiller - signed with New Orleans in 2015, made the Pro Bowl in 2012. 2012-1-Stephon Gilmore - signed with New England in 2017, made the Pro Bowl in 2016 Other infamous instances of the Bills deciding that players weren't "worth paying": Ruben Brown, 4 time All Pro and 8 time Pro Bowler with the Bills, signed with Chicago in 2004. He made the Pro Bowl again in 2006 and helped create the wicked ground game that got Chicago into the playoffs in 2005 with rookie Kyle Orton at QB. Pat Williams, 3 time Pro Bowler with Minnesota, signed with the Vikings in 2005. Williams, along with Winfield and Clements, helped create a deadly defense for Minnesota that got them into the playoffs despite poor QBing. London Fletcher, signed as a FA from ST Louis in 2003, he was released in 2007 and went to make the Pro Bowl from 2009-2012, twice being named All Pro. Jason Peters, 6 time Pro Bowler and All Pro, traded to Philadelphia after a contract dispute. You can make all the excuses that you want for the Bills FO but the plain fact is that the Bills got rid practically every Pro Bowl caliber player they developed during the playoff drought rather than sign them to a second contract, including most of their 1st and 2nd round picks from 1999 through 2012 who weren't busts. Aaron Schobel and Marcell Dareus are among the few exceptions. What I'd really like to know is how the New England Patriots can figure out how to pay Stephon Gilmour as well as Brady and Gronkowski? How can the Miami Dolphins (who made the playoffs for the first time since 2008 and so are much closer to the Bills' talent level) afford Tannehill, Landry, Suh, and Wake?

That's because you can't separate player valuations from talent evaluations. Fifteen years ago or so, all the gurus in the media were convinced that the salary cap meant the end to dynasties because teams supposedly couldn't pay top talent, especially QBs, and maintain enough quality around them to make the playoffs with regularity. Well, all the gurus were wrong. Teams with truly smart guys working their cap numbers figured out how to do it, which is why teams like NE, PIttsburgh, Denver, Atlanta, Green Bay, KC, etc have continually been able to field playoff teams year in and year out. The Bills haven't made the playoffs in 17 years because they're clueless about how to manage the cap. They don't have a QB taking a huge bite out of their cap,but they STILL can't retain the talented players they've developed. They're still operating on principles that were proven unsuccessful fifteen years ago. You don't need to know how the Bills FO operates to realize it's not doing its job. The results speak for themselves ... over and over again. Overdorf needs to go .. and all the rest of the good ol' boys at OBD, too.

Thanks. It's common sense. A franchise QB -- even if he's only as good as an Andy Dalton or Ryan Tannehill -- commands big bucks. The Bills haven't had to pay that freight for the last 20 years, yet they've still regularly failed to retain the talent they've developed. That's not "managing the cap" with anything approaching competency. Teams that are good at managing the cap figure out how to pay Aaron Rodgers, Ben Roethlisberger or Tom Brady while providing their QBs with protection, targets and a respectable defense. The Bills haven't figured out how to do that even though they haven't had a decent NFL QB since Bledsoe was cut in 2005 ... and it's reflected in their record.

Who, exactly, other than some Bills fans and the organization, considers Overdorf "one of the best in the NFL with the cap"? It's easy to manage the cap when a team does not have an elite/franchise QB, an All Pro LT or an all-world defensive end or a future HOF WR. It's even easier to manage the cap when the team regularly uses its first round picks on DBs to replace the top DBs it's developed and sent packing rather than pay. The sad state of the Bills franchise over the last twenty years rests squarely on the shoulders of the owner(s) and their suits from the second floor of OBD, and it's not going to improve much until there's a change in attitude and personnel there. Unfortunately, new ownership still hasn't brought all about all of the necessary FO changes needed to set the team on the winning path. Overdorf, among others, needs to go.

I think the glaring anomalies found in your stats, OP, say that there's something logically wrong with your methodology. There's no way that Daunte Culpepper or Michael Vick belong in the same category as P Manning, Brady, and Rodgers, and Robert Griffin III, David Garrard, and Josh Freeman certainly belong significantly lower than your numbers say they are. None of them was as consistently good as QBs like Tannehill and Carr, both of whom have been good for longer than these duds who had about 1 good season each in their short starting careers. I think part of the problem is that QBs with relatively few seasons as starters are being either more severely punished (like Carr and Tannehill) for being on poor teams or more generously rewarded (like Griffin and Freeman, both of whom had 1 good season each) for being on better teams. Another problem, as Crusher pointed out and which is the real problem, is that your stats don't account for differences among teams. For example, the Miami Dolphins sucked at least until the last year or two of Tannehill's tenure with the team, including poor coaching and poor talent, especially on the OL and among receivers. In contrast, Andy Dalton has always had good coaching, a strong running game, a decent OL ... and AJ Green in Cinci. At the beginning of his career, Phillip Rivers had the luxury of playing on a team overflowing with talent but in recent years, as that talent dried up, Rivers' stats have declined. There's no other position on the football team as dependent on the talent surrounding him than the QB. Every QB needs protection and targets, but those aren't evenly distributed, not only among teams but also on a single team over the course of a long career such as with Rivers or Roethlisberger or Eli Manning. When/If you figure out how to adequately factor in the length of QBs' careers and how to account for the differing quality of teams QBs play on, then you might be able to get a usable statistical measure without the anomalies.

As others have said, not so. I'm a Craftsman fan. My old Craftsman walk behind was 18 years old before it finally needed more than just tuning and blades sharpened. I'm still sorry I put it out on the curb with a 'Free' sign on it rather than have it fixed. My newer Craftsman walk behind is a self-propelled model from 2010. It had its first "professional" tune up (ie, not my simple oil change/new spark plug/have blade sharpened) this past spring. My Craftsman lawn tractor is 18 years old, and aside from about $300 worth of work done to the starter mechanism a few years ago, it's never missed a beat in all that time except for twice when careless drivers ran over things and bent blades. I use it regularly to mow my backyard as well as the large backyards of three elderly neighbors who have only walk behinds. For a couple of years, I used to haul it out to the camp every two or three weeks to mow the 2 acres of lawn we had out there.

Dissertation topics are meant to be boring. In fact, the entire process to get a PhD is a test of endurance -- just how much excrement can a person tolerate without becoming violent to him/herself or, more likely, his/her advisor?

My thesis disputed the idea/myth/stereotype that most of the early settlement of the Great Plains was done primarily by individual families living on isolated homesteads separated from others by long distances. Rather, I argued that most early settlers in the area tended to settle in groups, creating small towns that served as little social and commercial centers from the very beginning. Other communities were created as railroad stops by the Union Pacific RR or as steamboat landings or ferry crossings to facilitate commercial activity. In Nebraska specifically, there seemed to be a tendency for groups, sometimes based on hometown, ethnicity or religious affiliation, to migrate together and create communities out on the prairies ... literally in the middle of nowhere. I find the lack of women following STEM courses of study in college to be extremely frustrating. My guess is that there's still a strong bias in western culture that discourages women from going into mathematics and science. Specifically, in the US, math education just sucks, which exacerbates the problem. It seems most American students graduate from HS lacking an understanding of fundamental math and/or convinced that they "can't do math" (ie, algebra), so they shut themselves out of most STEM fields.

Yes. I have a PhD in history and used my degree for a few years as an adjunct (ie part time) college prof and middle school teacher before taking some programming classes and switching to Information Technology where for 30 years I made computers jump through the hoops my clients wanted them to jump through (applications programmer). If I had it to do over again, I'd have definitely gone into engineering. Of course, back when I was in HS, girls didn't go into what we now call STEM (science/technology/engineering/math). Actually, not enough girls go into STEM today. If you're a HS or college student of the female persuasion, ladies, seriously consider STEM majors. If you're a parent, encourage both your daughters and sons to go into STEM. That is where most of the new jobs for the future will be.

The thing is that most people, like CBF don't make waves when they're screwed over, so private employers can get away with this crap easily. I do believe that asking about your age/race/gender/ethnicity/marital status on job applications is not illegal for private employers, but it is in some states and local jurisdictions, and definitely an invitation to anti-discrimination lawsuits if there's a pattern. It's much harder in public service positions where many states have civil service and anti-discrimination laws for public employees that are stricter than the federal standards. One thing that employees in toxic situations should do is document all meetings. Use an appointment calendar to mark down your meetings, the attendees, the topics, either electronic (do NOT keep it on company hardware) or hard copied. Be especially detailed about private meetings, especially those with supervisors. Forward emails about your performance, private meetings, goals, expectations, etc. to your private home email. If you feel you are being harassed because of your gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, handicaps, etc, keep diaries recording the dates and times of all incidents and what happened. If there are witnesses, record their full names in case they leave the employer and need to be tracked down years later. You should record the names of any individuals who you know have suffered the same harassment. Hard evidence is priceless.

Nope. I agree with mannc. Rivers was horrible last season. At 36 years old, the chances of him improving to become the kind of passer he was 8 or 9 years ago are much less than the chances of Taylor stepping up to become a QB good enough to lead a team to the playoffs. Moreover, what it would take to get Rivers, including whatever the Bills would trade for him plus his 2017 salary, would limit the Bills' ability for improvement elsewhere. At the present time, Rivers wouldn't be a good fit for the Bills: too old, too immobile, too expensive -- and maybe done for.

What, exactly, does having $10-12 million in cap space in 2017, but no Maclin possibly get the Bills? A team doesn't improve unless it adds talent where it's lacking. If they add it for a short term, then they'll have to either re-sign that player or find somebody to replace him. There's no law that says every FA has to be signed to a multi-year contract. A one year deal for Maclin, as others have pointed out, doesn't impact next year's cap at all, and having Maclin as another target for Taylor may very well mean the difference between the Bills winning 8 games and winning 10. I'll take that even if it's not quite good enough to get the Bills in the playoffs, because the Bills haven't had a double digit win season for as long as they haven't made the playoffs. I'm sick of the Bills losing.

I hope this is true because this is what the Bills need. They have had enough talent on the team to make the playoffs for a couple of years now -- and they had it a few other times during the last 17 years, too -- but they've never had a HC who could -- or more importantly, would -- alter his "scheme" to fit the players they've got. That's especially true on the defense where there's been a 4-3/3-4 pendulum with every change of DC it seems. How about the FO hire a HC who wants a DC and OC who are flexible enough to adapt their schemes to the personnel available instead of demanding that square pegs fit into the round holes created by their egos?

To underscore your point, here are some teams that have been to the playoffs with QBs no better than Tyrod Taylor and sometimes worse ... 2001: NE Patriots won the Super Bowl with second year pro/first year starter Tom Brady. Remember when we all debated whether he was a "flash in the pan"? 2002, 2004, 2006: Chad "Noodle Arm" Pennington took the NY Jets to the AFC Championship. 2004: Pittsburgh Steelers went 15-1 with rookie Ben Roethlisberger. 2005: Chicago went 11-5 and won the NFCN behind rookie Kyle Orton filling in for injured Rex Grossman. 2008: Chad "Noodle Arm" Pennington took the Miami Dolphis to the AFCE championship with an 11-5 record after the team went 1-15 the previous season, edging out the NE Patriots (also 11-5) under Brady's sub, Matt Cassel. 2009, 2010: Mark Sanchez took the NY Jets to back-to-back AFC Championships. 2011: Houston Texans won the AFCS and won a wild card game without a QB after Matt Schaub went down. They finished up with Jake Delhomme, Jeff Garcia, and TJ Yates. 2011: Denver Broncos actually won a playoff game on aTim Tebow TD pass in OT. 2012: Seattle Seahawks made the playoffs with rookie Russell Wilson, who threw for 100 yards or less in a couple of games. 2013: Minnesota Vikings made the playoffs with Christian Ponder as their QB. 2013: Philadelphia Eagles made the playoffs with Nick Foles at QB. 2015: Brock Osweiler got the Broncos to the playoffs, although he was benched for the playoffs in favor of Peyton Manning. "Game manager" type QBs like Matt Schaub, Alex Smith and Andy Dalton have led their teams to the playoffs for years. Joe Flacco is a decent QB with a Super Bowl ring to prove it but HOFer he ain't. Brad Johnson won a SB with Tampa Bay. Jake Delhomme got to the Super Bowl. Kurt Warner resurrected his career in Arizona and almost won another Super Bowl. OTOH, Drew Brees won a SB ring in New Orleans but in recent years the Saints have struggled because they haven't been able to build a good enough defense. The same is true for Andrew Luck in Indy. My point is that it takes more than a great QB to win. Teams can win games and make the playoffs with less than perfect rosters, even at QB. The Bills have tried really hard to disprove that over the last 17 years, but it's true. Just about every year, other teams around the NFL prove this.

Rivers has a history of not playing well in big games, and that goes back to his early years in the league when SD was stacked with talent on both sides of the ball. Early on, he failed to help get SD playoff wins. More recently, he's failed to help SD get into the playoffs. IMO, he's the opposite of Brady or Rogers who seem to play their best when situations are most crucial. I think the comparison to Fitzpatrick isn't far off.

I've never been that drunk or that high to ever try something like that ... and I never will.

Code name: Beast Mode. He was the best Bills RB since OJ Simpson ... and the asshat Bills gave him away. They're still a developmental league squad for DBs. Draft 'em high or develop them from low picks/free agents and give 'em away.

This is either the first or second most used excuse for OBD's incompentence made by fans who refuse to face the reality of how hard the Bills have worked to miss the playoffs for the last 17 years, ranking right up there with "he didn't want to be here". Foolish fans have made these claims about nearly every decent player that the Bills cut or traded or didn't resign in FA over the last 20 years. Specifically about Lynch: he was suspended for four games in 2009 and he then he had an ankle injury. The Bills had him on the trade block in 2010, so they used him sparingly. It's hard for a RB to run for a lot of yards when he doesn't get the ball. Ruben was a cut/release for salary cap reasons. He was another guy whom fans claimed had "quit". He went on to road grade for the Bears the year rookie Kyle Orton, their running game, and their defense took them to the SB. If they had stuck to their old formula instead of going with Rex Grossman at QB, they might have won it all. A certain percentage of Bills fans ALWAYS make excuses for stupid moves by the Bills FO by blaming players. This is the third most used excuse by Bills fans to send a player packing. "The Bills weren't going to make the playoffs with X anyways." The reality is that you can't make the playoffs without talented players, and talented players cost more than STers. Missing the playoffs in 2004 was squarely on the Bills defense which let the Steelers' second stringers shred them like limp noodles in the last game of the season. Rookie RB Willie Parker ran for 100+ yards. The Steelers second and third string QBs threw at will. Would the Bills have made the playoffs in 2005? I don't know. They won 5 or 6 games with JP Losman and Kelly Holcomb as their QBs, which was the equivalent of not having a QB, so it's entirely possible that they would won a few more games, maybe enough to do the trick. Of course, Bledsoe was cut to save $$$, as was Fitzpatrick, and the QB situation in 2013 was eerily similar to 2005. The Bills didn't want to pay Fitzpatrick, so they sent him packing without having a starting QB on the roster. They used three that year: EJ Manuel, Thad Lewis, and Jeff Tuel. They won 5 or 6 games that season, and might have won more in 2013 because poor QBing clearly lost them several games.

I think the blame for the Bills' horrendous record from 1970 through 2014 rests squarely on the shoulders of the late Ralph Wilson, Jr. He was the constant through that entire period, and he was an active owner. Wilson's success in the AFL with winning championships on shoestring budgets seemed to have colored his attitudes towards running the team, and he was always cutting corners to save money, preferring profits to wins. All during the 1970s and 1980s, the Bills drafted poorly and often failed to sign the good draft picks they did make: OJ Simpson held out into the regular season I believe; Tom Cousineau went to play in Canada rather than play for the Bills; and Jim Kelly preferred the Houston Gamblers of the WFL to the Bills. The coaching staffs were abominations. Except for Lou Saban in the mid 70s stint and Chuck Knox in the early 80s, these guys were even worse than the coaches since Wade Phillips left. Low attendance finally forced Wilson to put a "football guy" in charge of the team. That would have been Bill Polian, who actually brought the Bills organization up to modern day standards. However, Wilson and Polian had a falling out, and Polian departed for Indy. Polian imperfectly understood how to manage the salary cap, but his astute eye for talent overcame that. John Butler and AJ Smith were Polian's proteges, and they kept the Bills talent pool alive for a few years after BP left. When they left to build a powerhouse in San Diego in the early 2000s, there was nobody in the Bills organization who had a good understanding of how to manage the salary cap while maintaining talent ala New England, Pittsburgh, and Baltimore. Actually, there was nobody at OBD who could competently manage the salary cap OR recognize talent, as the team's crappy record from 2001 through 2014 demonstrates. The Pegulas have only had about 2 years of ownership, and they didn't make a good start with falling for Ryan's BS. Hopefully, they'll learn from their mistake.

I'll admit that I may be prejudiced since I like Marv and absolutely detest Jauron as easily one of three worst HCs the Bills have had (Ringo and Bullough being the other two turds). Levy was part of the "GM By Committee" where the Bills really didn't have a GM, but he seemed to be largely a figurehead for the group, which included Brandon, Modrak, and Jauron. My gut feeling is that Levy didn't exert much influence on who the Bills drafted or signed as FA, and that Jauron dominated any discussions. Whaley was definitely better than Levy and that rest of his group. So were Nix and Donahoe. The sad state of the Bills' talent (or, truthfully, lack of talent) at the end of the 2009 season makes that easy to see.