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Billy Zabka

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Posts posted by Billy Zabka

  1. LOTS of people on this board are or were saying Whaley was worthless.

     

    In a day that draft picks are gold due to the new rookie wage scale, it is inexcusable to use a 1, 1, 2, 4, 4, 4 on a WR (in the best WR draft in recent memory) and a 3-4 LB. Also factor in drafting only EJ and Cardale at the QB position, and getting the team in cap problems despite zero success, and a slew of other issues...and it's obvious Whaley was in way over his head as a GM.

  2. I think the Buffalo News is/was biased against Whaley, not because the color of his skin, but because he just didn't give them anything. The Buffalo News, particularly under the new ownership, and the the loss of people like Larry Felser, just has no real foot in the door with the Bills (or the Sabres for that matter), and they kind of took it out on Whaely, in my opinion. I used to stick up and defend the BN sports staff all the time here...but I thought the way they treated Whaley during and after the infamous January press conference was disgraceful. Even Vic Carruci, sad to say, has lowered himself. Funny too, the young guy they had there for a season or two (Tyler Dunne?) seemed far more connected to the NFL than the BN hacks.

     

    Whaley's press conference was embarrassing. Yeah he took some heat, but he deserved it with his ridiculous answers. Whaley wasn't a good General manager and i am glad that he is finally gone.

  3. He couldn't do anything in the modern NFL, dealing with salary caps, etc. The game passed Bill by. But they do let him yap on TV.

     

    The NFL salary cap was instituted in 1994.

     

    In that time Bill Polian went 160-96 with 11 playoff appearances and made 2 Super Bowls.

     

    You are a poster who defends just about every move and player made by the Bills despite a 17 year playoff drought, yet you rip Bill Polian with that legacy and record saying he "couldn't do "anything" in the modern NFL." Man you have a warped view of reality.

  4. I'm not criticizing the firing of Whaley---I'm applauding the owner. The firing of Whaley isn't an act of desperation, far from it. It is a decisive act to bring order and coherency to an amorphous and stagnating organization. The Whaley approach was a patchwork approach to building a roster. There was no long term coherent strategy. Decisions were made on a day to day survival mode mentality.

     

    I'm far from declaring McDermott as the answer to this flagging franchise. What I can say about him is that he has a blueprint and a vision for the direction he wants to go. You can agree with it or not but there is at least a thought process to what he is doing.

     

    The past generation, this organization has been a dismal failure. It had no identity other than being mediocre and boring. The goal was simply to be respectable with no belief that it could be a serious challenging team. Personnel decisions were made on an ad hoc basis with the mind-set to fill holes as they popped up. While teams such as the Pats plan years in advance for replacing players when their expiring contracts were imminent the Bills would scramble to respond as if it was a surprise.

     

    The Pegulas have made some big mistakes and it is fair to criticize them. On the other hand they are learning as they gain experience as owners and are not afraid to act when it is called for.

     

    Great synopsis.

  5. Funny that once again all the reports were true.

     

    These organizations all deny them, but at the end of the day Rex gets fired, Whaley gets fired, the Sabres FO is being flipped on they are going on their 4th Coach already of the Pegula era.

     

    All the talk of disfuction has been 100% spot on.

     

    The people that rip any negative reporting and believe that the Head Coach, GM', and Owners are always telling you the complete and total truth live in a land of unicorns and rainbows.

  6. Contrary to you over the top requirements, the only thing the new GM has to do is: don't overeach on a qb, if you draft a qb and hes a bust cut ties early, dont spend early picks on known injured players that every other team has removed from the board and act as if you are smarter than the other 31 teams GMs, retain good players that produce for you, be able to communicate clearly in the most basic of settings without contradicting yourself and making the organization appear to be ran by s bunch of amatuers, and produce a playoff team in a reasonable period 2-4 years.

     

    Great post. I would also add not target guys in the draft and trade up for them burning valuable draft picks.

  7. that_would_be_great_office_space_bill_lu

     

    Doug, we're gonna need to go ahead and move you downstairs into storage B. We have some new people coming in, and we need all the space we can get. So if you could just go ahead and pack up your stuff and move it down there, that would be terrific, OK? In the meantime, don't talk to the media, and we are going to give Sean final say on all personnel and draft choices...mmmkay great.

  8.  

    Whaley has said a lot of stuff to hide the dysfunction that was going on behind the scenes. Pushed him so hard that he signed two other QBs that started.

     

    I'm not here to start a fight, just repeating what was said.

     

     

    Whaley has said a lot of stuff to hide the dysfunction that was going on behind the scenes. Pushed him so hard that he signed two other QBs that started.

     

    I'm not here to start a fight, just repeating what was said.

     

    Well, a journeyman QB (Orton) after his coach went ape **** and a career 6th round backup (Taylor) who rex pushed for, so it's not like Whaley was pursuing high end guys. Other than that Whaley went to camp for two consecutive years with Thad Lewis and Jeff Tuel as EJ's only competition. It's obvious that to anyone paying attention that EJ was Whaley's guy and he wasn't pretending to hide dysfunction, that is ridiculous.

  9. Sal was pretty adamant that the Ej pick was not Whaley. He said it was pretty common knowledge that Buddy was taking him no matter what.

     

    I do feel bad for Whaley, but he needs to get more of a backbone with the position he is in. He gets walked over too much. I think he is a real good talent evaluator, but lacks the ability to stand up for himself. I think he was just too young for the job. He really had no power and was not in the position to hold his ground.

     

    Even if Nix made final call on EJ, it's pretty clear from Whaley's comments following draft and subsequent actions that he was 100% on board with Manuel.

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