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I really thought that based on the items listed that this is where it would end up. Marrone seems to have a huge ego, and the broadcasting of the opt out was definitely planned. It also makes sense as to why he played Orton in the last game. He was gunning for as good a record as possible with the opt out in mind.

The decision to trade our first round pick in 2015 to move up to take Watkins will potentially hurt us in the search for a new head coach.

Brandon deserves tremendous credit for his marketing efforts with a team that has not made the playoffs in 15 years. Going to Oakland could be interesting to Brandon, particularly if the real goal is to move the Raiders to LA in a year or two.

Marrone is leveraging the opt out knowing that there are no guarantees that next year will be better without a starting caliber QB currently on the roster. Makes some sense, but the guy's ego is definitely worrisome.

Yes. The QB situation and lack of a first round pick must be considerations (plus his relatively low salary compared to most NFL coaches).

If Marrone has more power or they are trying to placate him, Hackett will not be fired.

Marrone is clearly angling for something, probably more money and who knows what else. The opt out in Marrone's contract was leaked on purpose. If this is true, forget about Hackett getting fired. If Marrone really has the leverage, he will not have to make any changes to his staff unless he wants to, and the only member of the front office in real danger is Whaley. Marrone's stock is up and Whaley's is down. Whether this is fair, it is difficult to say.

Most of the items I listed were factual, except for two and three.

Things are not adding up, or are at least very weird. Consider the following: 1. Polian states that Marrone should be considered for coach of the year after the GB game. 2. Whaley gets negative press from people like Don Banks and Jason La Canfora. Banks, in his "Black Monday Primer" column about possible GM/coaching changes, makes specific reference to the trading up to get Sammy ("Whaley could be vulnerable to be replaced"). La Canfora states that Whaley may be under "review." 3. Rumors about Polian coming to Buffalo in some capacity are refuted by Polian, but then tonight Polian apparently was evasive about it on Sirrius radio Peter King notes today in his MMQB column that a Polian family member is a serious candidate to run the Bills' personnel staff (or two Polians). 4. Marrone's ability to opt out of his contract becomes widely publicized immediately after the season ends with NFL insiders, such as Schefter, suggesting that Marrone could be highly sought after if he decided to opt out. 5. Orton retires suddenly. 6. It is reported that no one on the current staff has been told that they are good for next season. No meetings with ownership are planned. Pegula continues to be silent about any future plans. 7. During the press conference, Marrone notes that he texted the "owner" about Orton retiring and asked Brandon to inform Whaley. Where is this headed?

Why wouldn't he opt out? If he thought the Bills would still try to retain him, at a minimum he could increase his compensation, which apparently is at the very low end of the coaching salary spectrum.

Unless it is Polian, it does not look like the Bills are going to be hiring a consultant, at least not a name we typically hear (Accorsi, Wolf, and Casserly). Kind of shocked about this. Seemed like it would make a lot of sense given new ownership and a failure to make the playoffs for 15 years.

Disclosure of the opt out in Marrone's contract has been widely disseminated. I do not believe this is an accident. Possibly it is coming from his agent. We all know that agents have conversations with teams all of the time. Maybe a formal offer cannot be made, but I would expect that the parameters of a possible deal would be discussed in general terms. Under this scenario, Marrone would opt out only if a deal looks certain and then formally negotiate with the interested team or teams and sign shortly after opting out. I may be wrong, but I think that Marrone, to the world outside of Buffalo and our message boards, is perceived to have undertaken a difficult situation and made the best of it under very difficult the circumstances. Losing an owner, having a bidding process for the team, getting a new owner, having a losing culture after not making the playoffs for 14 years, having a rookie GM, and not having a starting caliber QB on the roster would individually be problems. In the aggregate, these issues would be exceedingly difficult to overcome during the course of a season.

He will opt out if he gets a better offer. Without a first round pick or a starting caliber QB, is the overall situation with the Bills favorable in the near term? If he had won in Oakland, and the Bills ended up at 10-6, Marrone would have been very sought after.

I am suspicious about this information coming out now and being so highly publicized. I wonder if Marrone is angling for another opportunity.

In his MMQB column today, Peter King has a reference to the Polians (one or two) potentially coming to the Bills in his top fifteen list where he ranks the Bills 15th.

Why is this coming out now? Who leaked this information? Was it Marrone, Marrone's agent or someone else? If it was leaked by Marrone's camp, is it getting the word out that he may be available for a different opportunity? interesting.

Not hiring a consultant to this point may mean no changes in the offseason. There is competition for coaches and GMs as soon as the season is over. I doubt the Bills would want to be in a position of finding a new GM and coach months after the season ends, after the best available candidates have been hired and coaching staffs put together. Very depressing if this is the case.

It would definitely suck if the Bills did not at least hire a competent consultant. The franchise needs an objective top to bottom review and evaluation.

Polian is smart and has built winners in three different cities. What is with all of the negativity? Having familiarity and experience with the Bills organization is probably a good thing, but there is some distance in terms of time, which should allow him to be more objective. I hope Brandon stays on in a marketing capacity. His efforts in that regard have been outstanding during some very difficult times. Whaley and Marrone need to be evaluated. I do not get the Whaley love, and I certainly think we can do better than Marrone, particularly with the offense. Having an outside consultant gives me some comfort that informed decisions will be made to put the Bills in position for success in the future.

If Marrone and Whaley do not get along (or cannot get along) none of the thoughts expressed here about the performance of Whaley and Marrone matter. One or both may need to go if the relationship is as bad as described by Bucky, assuming the relationship cannot be repaired.

Even if Pegula has doubts about both Whaley and Marrone, I think Whaley is more likely to go this year. If Pegula is unsure about Whaley, how can you have him hire a new head coach? If Pegula wants to fire Whaley after one more year, how many GMs will want a job where they are either stuck with a head coach who was just hired or they need to fire a coach who was just hired. That scenario seems way too disruptive to the team. Also, with Whaley, you can objectively point to moves that were questionable (trading up for Watkins, drafting CK, and drafting EJ). It would be harder with Marrone, where the Bills have shown improvement in their overall record after two seasons.

Interesting. Does Bucky's piece mean that a change must be made? I get beyond repair, but does that mean they cannot work together? Seems like that would be the case. Not sure who would win here.

If CK is a complete bust, then we need to consider whether this was a disappointing draft for the Bills. I do not think that Whaley et al. deserve credit for drafting Watkins in terms of talent evaluation skills because he was considered by many to be a top WR prospect and we traded a first round pick in 2015 to get him. CK and Richardson showed very little this season. Preston Brown was very solid and may be the best pick of the draft for the Bills based on his play this year and where he was drafted. I know that many think that Henderson was a great pick, but there was no doubt about his talent, it was about his head and his ability to stay focused and clean. Drafting him was not an example of excellent talent evaluation, it was a team taking a chance on a player that had off field issues.

To be fair, I think Gailey could have an OC position if he wanted one. I believe he would be very sought after if he showed interest in coming back to the NFL. Gailey failed because he could not find a fix to the defense. I liked Chan, and I think he would have done well if he had better defensive talent and a competent DC. He sure got a lot out of the talent he had on offense, including the o-line and Spiller. With Marrone, I just do not see what he brings to the table. He likely has no input on the defensive side. For the offense, if he is helping with the o-line and the game planning, it is not making a positive impact.

We will need more years to be able to fully evaluate the trade up for Watkins, but at this point (and it is very early), it was not a wise move. We would be drafting in the middle of the first round this year, and you would hope that the Bills would have drafted a blue or red chip player. A decent QB available may not be available with that pick, but that does not significantly reduce the overall value of the pick, which could have resulted in a top tier prospect. The other aspect of the trade that must be considered is that Whaley would not give up the second round pick in last year's draft, which turned out to be CK. If this is true, you can argue that Whaley gave up a first this year, and drafted a bust last year (in a very strong draft by all accounts), meaning that the Bills missed on the opportunity to have two top tier talents on the team. That is the kind of thing that ends up hurting a team badly in the long run.