JohnNord

Perhaps... but he didn’t have to be. Ralph never should’ve empowered him and could have left him in sales/marketing. But Russ made Ralph money and he trusted him. Again, Ralph’s poor decisions led to the drought History and a lot of evidence is on my side

No for building the playoff drought Ralph would ever give McDermott the level of control or autonomy that the Pegulas did. NEVER. Especially not in the decade of his ownership. There’s no way he lets McDermott get rid of longtime employees or make major chances to the facilities The closest he came was Donahoe which was a disaster. From that moment, Ralph only hired people he knew.

I’m not sure if the part about Brandon is 100% accurate. On paper, I think the Bills tried moving Brandon out of football operations around the time Rex was hired in 2015, but he still was rumored to be making decisions. IMO I don’t think Russ was truly moved out until McDermott took over in 2017 and started gaining some power. If anything, McDermott seemed to understand where the problems in the organization were. He got rid of many long-time Bills employees like Scott Berchtold, the training staff (forget their names) and several others. I also think he used the autonomy with The Pegulas to ensure that Russ didn’t interfere with any football decision. This is where you stopped seeing Russ Brandon in the draft room. He also was inept as a football owner by 2000, and his poor decisions led to a nearly 2 decade long drought. You can recognize his philanthropy and also recognize the very poor product he put on the field for a long time.

Depending on the price, I’d strongly consider bringing him back

Not officially but many believed he still had some input and presence around football decisions. I don’t think he actually was moved out of football ops until McDermott came on board

This is hardly confirmation of what you wrote, though not trading for Brown dodging a huge bullet

In my opinion, part of what McDermott successful is that he was given the autonomy to make some major decisions within the organization. This likely included minimizing Russ Brandon’s role with football, removing Whaley and some long-time employees, upgrading team facilities and changing procedures and policies. None of this happens if Ralph is in charge. He was very much about keeping things consistent. He could have hired McDermott for sure, but there’s no way he could accomplish what he did the last 4 years in that organization. To that point, you can question the Pegula’s decision to give a first-time HC that much power to begin with. Fortunately...it worked

He’d make Jim Kelly GM and hire Frank Reich as OC He had nearly 2 decades to turn things around and failed miserably

New ownership had a huge effect. Not just on the on-field product but also with how much money they spent upgrading facilities and on front office personnel. I will die on this hill...Ralph Wilson WAS the reason for the Bills drought. Not because he wasn’t generous the WNY region because his philanthropic efforts were tremendous. But as an NFL owner he was terrible. After firing Tom Donahoe, every major hire was made out of cronyism...EVERY single one. This included the hiring people Marv Levy, Russ Brandon, and Buddy Nix in leadership positions. He also refused to fire some of the longtime Bills employees who were clearly bad for business. You can argue that the Pegulas lucked out on hiring Sean McDermott. He was disciplined, organized, and thought long-term. The exact opposite from the arrogance and bluster of Doug Whaley and Rex Ryan, who swindled them. McDermott likely recruited Beane who had similar traits.

I watched some of the Phins/Cardinals game. I came away with thinking that Murray and the WR’s are very good. Murray was killing Miami with his legs and was almost Lamar Jackson-like. I do remember how well the Bills held the edge versus Lamar and I hope for a repeat strategy. If they can keep him in the pocket, I like our chances. I see a tight game and the difference could be turnovers

I can totally see the Cardinals taking it to the Bills this week. I don’t why but I can see a game similar to the Titans

Sa Sal Capaccio said toward the end of the game he was running in place on the sidelines with his helmet on and could’ve gone back into the game.

I haven’t paid much attention to Arizona this year so I’m wondering how the Bills match up on offense and defense. Obviously their offense is Kyler Murray as a runner and passer. I think the wideouts might be a handful. I feel comfortable with Tre on Hopkins though I have some concerns about Tauron Johnson trying to defend Christian Kirk. I have seen quite a bit of criticism of the playcalling of Kliff Kingsbury - namely in calling running plays. They seem to try to run the football a lot and not always effectively. It’s hard to make out what they are on defense. They’ve given up points to good offenses and it seems like they are ranked toward the middle. Jordan Phillips seems like he’s playing a lot up front and knowing his weakness versus the run, it makes me wonder if the targets runs at him? If anyone watches AZ share your thoughts

It’s pretty common for sports fans to be reactionary and way out of touch with reality. It’s part of what makes following sports so fun. But a good amount of Bills fans (those who are vocal anyway) seem to take this to an extreme. When the team is winning they are Super Bowl contenders, but when they have a bad game or stumble, they are going to lose out. My theory is that suffering through the great drought for 2 decades did some serious damage to the Bills fan base - especially after a loss. Rather than letting the season play out, some fans want drastic measure to be taken and you’ve outlined many above. Everything it appears that there’s a chance that the Bills have weakness there’s a feeling of “here, we go again...”. Sean McDermott becomes Dick Jauron, Josh Allen becomes JP Losman, Brandon Beane becomes Doug Whaley I subscribe to something that Matthew Fairburn said on his podcast along the lines that in the NFL that in reality after a win, a team often times isn’t as good as they might have looked and after a loss they aren’t as bad as they might have looked. It’s a long season and there’s a number for games ahead that could go either way starting next week. We do have to let things play out

I think the Bills do have someone for that role. It was weird, we never got any kind of replay on TV and Davis didn’t really gesture like he was close so is it possible that it just flew under the radar. On TV, we didn’t even hear it was close until after the commercial break when they showed the relay. Brock Huard said that McDermott was gunshy because of his poor record with challenges and didnt want to risk losing a TO in what could have been a close game. I hope that wasn’t the case. it would be a good question to ask McDermott

Its so tough to project this season only because it seems like the games are so close. Teams like San Diego, SF, and Denver (to a lesser extent) look weak on paper but can pull out a win against good teams. I’m taking this week by week

I remember watching him in preseason a few years ago. He actually looked pretty good for a 3rd string QB

Exactly... I’m not suggesting trying to make this a low scoring affair. What I’m saying is that the Bills offense needs to try to control time of possession and efficient in the redzone. More time for the Bills offense means less Seattle possessions. On defense they need to get Seattle off the field at least a few times. If the offense limits possessions but the defense allows a TD every time they have the ball, it’s not going to matter.

Paywall.... can’t read Fad Brown has no clue what he’s talking about

I’m telling you... The Bills need to establish the run and take short throws to sustain long drives. Take some serious time off the clock. You can’t really stop Seattle’s offense but you if you can move the ball, you can limit possessions and keep them off the field. If you can get a few stops on a few of those possessions you can win. The Bills will need to score points and won’t be able to win 24-21. But I feel they can limit scoring opportunities

Doesn’t look like many trades are happening now. There’s a definite possibility the Bills stand pt with what they have. Not a good sign at 1TDT.

To be honest, he does some really impressive things with his arm and legs but he’s more inconsistent than Josh Allen on his worst day. The turnovers are brutal too. I think he was a reach by a desperate GM but I don’t think he’s that bad and that he has a chance to improve. He’s also done a fairly decent job elevating the receivers on the roster

This and the fact that there’s not a better healthy replacement on the roster. Andre Smith wasn’t very good either and Tyler Matekevich probably is worse. Maybe Darron Lee can at least provide some help with coverage, but it might take a few weeks. Fingers crossed...if all goes well after the bye, the LB room should looks like this: starters: - Edmunds - Milano - Dodson depth: Klein Lee Phillips

It’s simple. From the national perspective, I think getting beaten badly by Tennessee and KC created a negative impression, as did narrow wins versus NYJ and KC. I think the Bills are viewed as a good team but not one that’s taken seriously. A team like Baltimore who has a worse record and has yet to defeat a top team, is viewed as a more legit contender because of last season and a larger margin of victory versus opponents. The Bills have a chance to change all that over the next few weeks

The Iron Sheik’s Twitter is run by his managers the Magen brothers who live near Toronto. Like many of our neighbors to the north, it’s no surprise that the Magens are Bills fans, eh?