Phil The Thrill

If you haven’t checked out Eric Wood’s interview with EJ Manuel yet, it’s a good listen for any Bills fan. https://www.stitcher.com/s?eid=68066663&autoplay=1 I’ll say this - EJ sounds like a great guy. He was very positive about Buffalo, though you sense he feels thing would’ve turned out better in a different situation. He says his career didn’t work out but believes it happened for a reason and he thinks his story can help others. Some interesting notes: - He said the Doug Whaley/Buddy Nix plan was always to start Kevin Kolb and have EJ learn from him (bad idea). One Kolb got hurt he had no one to learn from since Jeff Tuel (and later Thad Lewis) were inexperienced QB’s, so Wood was the player who tried to mention him at QB! - After his in-season injury in 2013 he was privately tutored by legendary OC Paul Hackett (Nate’s dad) on reading defenses. - EJ said his confidence was shaken after the infamous JJ Watt pick six. Seantrel didn’t cut Watt resulting in the pick, but he said he takes the blame. Doug Marrone sat him down and said he was their guy but they wanted him to take a step back and watch Kyle Orton play. - He thought that Rex was trying to “bring in his own guys” at QB and felt he earned his roster spot with his preseason play. Dressing as an inactive QB hurt his confidence and relationship with Buffalo and said he didn’t play well in the Jets finale in 2016, because his confidence was completely shot. - EJ said he did well in Oakland under Jack Del Rio. When Gruden came in, he felt he wanted Conner Cook to be the backup. While he played well in the preseason, Gruden cut him and he spent the rest of 2018 trying to get a job....it never happened. - Oddly enough this year, he got a call from Andy Reid about backing up Patrick Mahomes once Chad Henne went down. I think he said KC said “thanks but no thank,” and then later said he was beginning his job at the SEC Network and didn’t want to come back. Like I said, he seemed positive and excited about his broadcasting career, but I also sensed some disappointment over how his NFL career ended. If you think about it, he went from 1st round draft pick to street FA with no offers in less than 6 months. So do you think EJ’s was a victim was a happenstance? Or was he an over drafted QB with a limited ceiling? I’m thinking it was more of the later, but it hard to listen to this interview and not like the guy personally.

Interesting.... so how does this work with player contracts? Are they “frozen?” So if there is no NFL Season in 2020, does that mean Tre White is in his final year when he’s only played 3 seasons etc?

awful looking logo

Great analysis!??????

What?

He was not very good...

Will the closing of XFL bring Doug Whaley back to Buffalo as a scout!!!?!?!?!!

Winston handeled it like a pro

I hope you also enjoyed the drought that Ralph gave us?? Thank you for speaking the truth

I can’t stand going to games when it’s that frigid. I had several layers of socks under a pair of Wool socks and construction boots and my feet still froze solid.

There’s no doubt that Ralph did a lot of damage to Buffalo in the 00’s and gave the organization a really bad reputation.

I wasn’t around then, so I’ll have to take your word on that

I think the last few months in Buffalo did a lot of damage to his prospects at getting another GM position. With that being said, while I don’t see him as a GM I do think he would be a good scout or someone to help evaluate pro personnel. Reggie was so bad that year.

Right.... but before you sell Polian short remember this - part of the reason for the success after he was wrongly fired was because Ralph and John Butler were able to coast with the roster Polian built for several seasons. A few years later Butler was able to add a few more important pieces to help, but the core of the teams from 95-99 still was largely comprised of Bills that Polian brought onto the team. Once those “core” players were no longer there...it was the darkest time in franchise history.

LOL You’re right, Ralph ran the team into his 90’s. He RAN the team straight into the ground. The drought was the darkest time in franchise history and it’s all on the shoulders of 1 person - Ralph! Your argument is a little confusing but it goes back to the question - what makes a good professional sports owner? You see to prioritize Ralph’s charitable contributions over the sub par football product he put on the field for decades. This IMO is what makes Ralph’s legacy so conflicting. He did a lot of good for the area but did a lot of bad on the field. Look - Dick Jauron was a really nice guy. I met him on several occasions when he coached here and he was a gentleman. But when people bring up Jauron, all they talk about was the terrible football he was responsible for. Not what a nice guy he was. So while you can acknowledge his generosity to the area, the fact remains - for the last 2 decades of his ownership .... Ralph was a TERRIBLE NFL owner when it came to putting together a good on-field product for his very loyal and dedicated customers.

I would say “cutting off his nose to spit his face” is the perfect analogy here. It was a mistake...period. And many Bills fans paid for that mistake - BIGLY!

I was at home watching that game and I remember it being cold as hell outside. I think it’s one of those games where you’d see the players breathing because it so frigid. Great game and I’ll always remember the amazing tackle Steve Tasker made on a Tim Brown punt return. Then in a great show of sportsmanship, both players shook hands and helped each other up. Cool moment

I thought this was an interesting article. CBS Sportsline provides projections for NFL teams after the first wave of free agency. Trying to predict in April is meaningless considering that the draft hasn’t happened yet. Still it’s a fun article and the Bills come out pretty strong. https://www.sportsline.com/insiders/computer-updates-bills-projected-win-total/ “The SportsLine Projection Model simulated the 2020 NFL schedule 10,000 times and the Bills win an average of 9.9 games in those simulations and make the postseason 77.7 percent of the time while winning the AFC East 54.3 percent of the time. That is a small jump from the 9.6 projected wins the model predicted prior to the start of free agency. Meanwhile, William Hill Sportsbook currently lists the Bills at 20-1 to win the 2021 Super Bowl, which is tied for ninth-best odds in the NFL.”

The difference is the risk worked out better for you. How did it would out for Bills fans? I’d argue firing Polian over a personal reason was foolhardy

Where’s your evidence? Also why bring up Beane? We’re talking about Whaley.

Imagine....just imagine if he’s there when NE selects

This I can agree with ??

Well everyone has a different philosophy. I think firing someone over name calling is bad business. But to your other point - you are correct. Outside of Donahoe, Ralph insisted on hiring people that he was familiar with - which was a disastrous result

In the “process” (pun intended) they ended up eating a lot of cash on his contract. I will say that a huge mistake Terry made was the timing of this firing. It’s my theory that he was by an old-time NFL consultant that you don’t fire a GM until the draft to protect your intel. Not hiring Beane until May kind of messed up their plan to rebuild and could have cost them Watson or Mahomes. But it looks like things might work out this way too I’m not giving Ralph a pass for firing Polian over name calling...sorry

LOL these are not the same things. If Gunner was a good GM I wouldn’t fire him for calling me foolish. You don’t succeed in business making those decisions as evidenced by a 17 year long drought There’s a clear difference...but back to the discussion like you said