Dr. K

This is my view. Some of the things he tried did not work out. He was saddled with coaches, notably Rex, that he did not want, but he kept his mouth shut for the most part and did his job. He made some smart trades, such as the one that brought Hughes here, and consistently picked up undrafted gems for the roster. I hope McDermott will work out, but this move in and of itself does not inspire confidence in the Pegulas and the organization. And the Pegulas have already done a number of things, such as fall in love with Rex, that seriously call their judgment into question. Firing the scouts also strikes me as iffy. We'll see.

I agree 100% The amount of unwarranted crap that Whaley takes on this board is depressing. I used to read the discussions all the time but can only take it in small doses anymore.

How can you pick Spiller when you have winners like Eric Flowers, who never did ANYTHING in any game, ever? Or Maybin. Those who include Losman or Whitner or Spiller are letting their disappointment over those players not being up to the hopes for them overcome the fact that, actually, they could play well at times, and had some (few) accomplishments, Whereas guys like Flowers were a complete waste.

I never liked him. He was always a buffoon and blowhard to me.

Great post. I feel exactly the same way, though I am older than you are; I've followed this team closely since the AFL title days.

Maybe we should just declare the apostrophe a decoration rather than a punctuation mark. People can just put them in or leave them out of words for aesthetic reasons, depending on how they feel that day. But wait—we already do that.

My daughter graduated from William & Mary last May. Maybe the Bills have a place for her on the coaching staff?

Good one.

I agree that obviously you can never win it all if you never even make the playoffs. I was mostly just commenting on how this 17-year drought had raised the degree of emotional weight we have come to place on making the playoffs. Making the playoffs for all but one team still means ending the season with a loss. I was around for all four Super Bowls and I was as charged up as anyone about the Bills being there, and would not have wanted it otherwise. I took it hard when they lost them all, and for the most part in humiliating fashion--Thurman can't find his helmet, getting pounded into jelly by the Cowboys in the third one, losing the fourth badly after leading at the half. Looking back on it, I wish I had spent a little less emotional energy on that, and spent more time enjoying my wife and kid.

Eli should not have had an incompletion so far. Four drops.

Having a look at the Detroit-Seattle and the Miami-Pittsburgh games, it comes to me how odd it is for us all to suffer and moan about the Bills not making the playoffs for so long, as if their making it would really make any sort of difference. For half the teams all you get is another humiliating loss like the ones suffered by the Lions and the Fins (not that I would ever shed a tear for Miami). Not to mention the lame ending of Oakland's season. And the winners this week are likely to go down badly next week. To put so much emotional weight on making the playoffs is a prescription for misery. And if they don't get wiped out, then you lose the way the Bills did to Tennessee, and suffer for the next twenty years from that.

Unfortunately, this is all pretty plausible. I'm not counting on some sudden improvement in the team no matter who they hire at Head Coach. The fatal moment for the Bills was when the Pegulas fell in love with Sexy Rexy at his interview and hired him. Two years and a strong defense wasted, 2016 draft wasted, Kyle Williams' last years wasted, etc. I'm afraid a rebuild will be necessary and it won't be easy given the cap situation.

This The biggest dysfunction was the result of having Rex and Whaley separately report to the Pegulas instead of having the GM over the coach. But I understand that when you hire a big name coach who can throw his weight around in formulating his hiring contract, that coach is going to prefer not to answer to the GM. Everything Whaley said in the press conference that all the press is so hysterical about criticizing him for arises from that, and from his desire to not criticize Rex or the Pegulas or Tyrod in public.

You guys drive me nuts, putting an apostrophe in a simple plural. PEGULAS, not PEGULA'S. Would you write the plural of dog as "dog's?" Maybe you would. There is no education in America.

I agree about EJ, and I was one of his supporters. He really has some basic incapacity despite his physical skills. I'm glad that they played him in this game so people like us could move on with no regrets. I'm not too optimistic about TT, but I could understand if they are reluctant to axe him considering his occasional superior play and the lack of alternatives.

You're in luck! I got an advanced copy of the statement Whaley is going to make today: "I hereby resign. I am responsible for everything that has gone wrong with this team. Rex Ryan was a saint. We should have called him Saint Rex. All my draft picks were failures. I did it on purpose, and because I am an idiot, and because I hate you. Oh, yes, I'm a coward, too. The trade up for Watkins was a deliberate ploy to ruin the team. So was my trading all of our 2013 draft picks in order to move up and draft EJ Manuel with the #1 pick in the entire draft, as you all remember, when we could easily have had Geno Smith in the second round, or Andrew Luck in the fifth, or Aaron Rodgers in the seventh, or any of the other franchise QBs who came out of that draft. We should have drafted a QB every other year like the Jets have done--look how well that has worked out. Jerry Sullivan is a saint. We should call him Saint Jerry. I screwed up in that trade for Hughes, too. And the Kouandjio draft pick--what a bust he has turned out to be. And the trade for Shady--what was I thinking? And hiring Schwartz--big mistake. And letting the Pegulas lose their minds over Rex when I could have forced them to hire someone else. Oops--I mean Saint Rex. It was my idea, not Saint Rex's, to draft that guy with the bad shoulder. And I knew Ragland's knee was going to blow out, ha ha! Tricked you, you losers! The new GM will be some really old guy who had success in 1993. The new coach will be some other really old guy whose name you recognize. We will call him Saint New Old Guy Coach and he will walk on water and you will be very happy with him because he is a Saint except he won't have to be a Saint because he won't have to deal with me, Doug Whaley, the reason for our 17-year playoff drought. Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa."

He should absolutely retire, no question. You only get one life, and one body. He should save himself.

If the shoe don't fit, don't wear it. You're the guy whose sign-off is "Blow it sky high!" Let me guess who you voted for in the presidential election.

What exactly do you people want him to say? I expect you want, "I hereby resign. I am responsible for everything that has gone wrong with this team. Rex Ryan was a saint. We should have called him Saint Rex. All my draft picks were failures. I did it on purpose, and because I am an idiot, and because I hate you. Oh, yes, I'm a coward, too. The trade up for Watkins was a deliberate ploy to ruin the team. So was my trading all of our 2013 draft picks in order to move up and draft EJ Manuel with the #1 pick in the entire draft, as you all remember, when we could easily have had Geno Smith in the second round, or Andrew Luck in the fifth, or Aaron Rodgers in the seventh, or any of the other franchise QBs who came out of that draft. We should have drafted a QB every other year like the Jets have done--look how well that has worked out. Jerry Sullivan is a saint. We should call him Saint Jerry. I screwed up in that trade for Hughes, too. And the Kouandjio draft pick--what a bust he has turned out to be. And the trade for Shady--what was I thinking? And hiring Schwartz--big mistake. And letting the Pegulas lose their minds over Rex when I could have forced them to hire someone else. Oops--I mean Saint Rex. It was my idea, not Saint Rex's, to draft that guy with the bad shoulder. And I knew Ragland's knee was going to blow out, ha ha! Tricked you, you losers! The new GM will be some really old guy who had success in 1993. The new coach will be some other really old guy whose name you recognize. We will call him Saint New Old Guy Coach and he will walk on water and you will be very happy with him because he is a Saint except he won't have to be a Saint because he won't have to deal with me, Doug Whaley, the reason for our 17-year playoff drought. Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa."

This

That's far from enough said. They may have liked to play for Rex (which I do not believe is universal) but the guy took a top five defense and sank it. It doesn't matter if they loved playing for him; what matters is the results. This

I know that. My point is: who gives a damn about him, and why should they?

Who is Bart Scott and why should I care what he says? Did he watch the Bills defense screw up repeatedly all season? Linebackers with heir backs to the line of scrimmage trying to get a signal straight as the ball is snapped? Too many or too few players on the field? Three 200-yard runners?

All the hysteria about Tyrod not starting this game, and Lynn not satisfying the reporters at the Wednesday PC, and speculation about who's making decisions, and the wild negativity about Whaley strike me as being wrongheaded and short sighted. I am happier about the Bills' situation than I have been since they hired Rex, which I thought, and said the time, was a mistake. Here's what I like about where we are now: 1) Rex is gone. This offers a chance for the team to become more disciplined and focused. No more clown show press conferences and egomania. I expect a lot less bluster standing in for accomplishment, less boasting about what the team is going to do before it's done anything. The stupid pickup truck. The skydiving. It was always the Rex show and I was tired of it before it even started. 2) A cleaner chain of command. Whaley picks the coach and manages the roster and stands or falls on how that plays out. I think a lot of the negativity about Whaley's tenure is overblown, but whether I am right or not about that, we are going to see accountability. I expect the Pegulas to learn their lesson and stay out of the process. 3) It's early yet, but I am hoping they hire Lynn as head coach, not some "big name" guy who may draw media attention but whose days are past. Please, no Cowher, no Coughlin, no Gruden, etc. (Even if they would come here, which they probably would not). 4) The end of Rex's defensive scheme, which did not play to the roster's strengths. It made Gilmour, for instance, look worse than he was. Likewise Brown the linebacker. It chased Bradham off the team. Good riddance. Let the national media say whatever they want about the Bills. Let the Buffalo News and Sully and the others whine and stir the pot. I hope the front office completely ignores them. I could probably think of a couple of other bright spots, but that's a start. Happy Holidays and best wishes for the New Year.

Very interesting. A very positive take.