BillsVet

It just seems weird posting 80+ times a day and doing all this.

At the press conference in January announcing Rex as HC a question was asked about differences of opinion between the HC and GM. At the time it was sort of laughed off and there was no real answer besides them saying Whaley had the 53 man roster and Rex/staff had the game day one Well, we saw how that arrangement undermines an organization when the GM is trying to overrule the HC in personnel matters. The Pegulas brought this on themselves by trying to manage a GM who was intent on saving his job (and without a contract extension) by getting his guys PT and a HC who didn't agree. Maybe now they'll find someone who can do what apparently they thought they could this year supervising Rex and Whaley.

26CB are you paid to start these threads? And if not, why post them?

I know it's another season, but some homers are attempting to soften the blow of the playoff drought going from 15 to 16 seasons. They'll be back around draft time buying into the hype and telling the other skeptical types that we're only a right tackle or linebacker away. How quickly they forget the season itself when the issues ran much deeper and higher into OBD. If there's one thing with ticket sales it's that they don't matter much to a team's bottom line. Sure, you want to pack a stadium, but sharing of the television contracts is what keeps a lot of teams financially viable. And people will always go to the games because it's a great big party with some football thrown in. They'll probably lose some ST sales because they can't make the big name moves in 2016 like they this did in the past off-season. Then again, what's wrong with this team is in management and it remains to be seen whether they're willing to shake things up there.

It's already been a long 15+ seasons. 1 week is nothing.

The excuse train just pulled into failure station there. They have an intact OL, and aside from Clay, had every skill position player out there today.

If you were building a NFL team, would it begin with finding the QB (if you don't have one) or trying to build all the other pieces first a la Buddy Nix from 2010-12? That's the reason teams draft QB's high and early during a rebuild. Positional value being what it is, getting the QB means more to a team than any other position...by far. And, you're probably going to need time to develop that QB. So, going the route of building the defense first over the QB means if you draft a guy 2 years in, those high defensive picks or other offensive players have expiring contracts when (and if) the QB does develop. The Nix/Whaley rebuild is now into its 6th year. And much of it has to do with not fixing the QB position early in that rebuild. Hopefully TT doesn't go the route of most athlete QBs and becomes their guy. Or else this rebuild will probably go into a 7th or 8th year.

So, Chris Brown sees fit to run this article when Whaley's status is uncertain for 2016? There's no way Taylor's acquisition was driven predominantly by Whaley, who by all accounts, wanted his guy on the field when the coaches didn't. As for Incognito, I'm sure the staff realized upon taking over their run oriented offense depended on better guard play. Whaley didn't do much at guard in 2013-14, so there's a distinct possibility Incognito's signing was Rex and staff as well. Silence on Whaley's job status is deafening.

Words now elude you?

The QB competition this off-season, specifically EJM's week to week status, was very telling. First, Whaley reportedly talked up Manuel during the off-season and in HC interviews. But then camp started and the staff had EJ 3rd on the depth chart. Surprisingly, Rex gave EJ the first scrimmage start, and subsequently remained buried afterward. Yet, for the week 3 pre-season game EJM started despite being the 3rd guy pretty much all of camp. After that game, TT was named starter and Cassel held his spot as the backup until he was traded after week 2. And that trade inexplicably occurred after Manuel was not active in the first and second games. When you connect the dots here I don't think it's hard to see the two sides were using their respective power in an internal tug of war. With this kind of back and forth, the owner has to pick one guy or the other going into 2016. And right now, the guy likely to go is the one not hired by the current owner.

Reporters tend to criticize an organization when they, you know, don't win for years on end. Start getting into the post-season and all that bad press the homer crowd claims pretty much goes away. Why is that hard to understand? And if you think the BN boys show all their cards every time they get a tip, well, you're just plain naive.

This year we've seen a lot of circumstantial evidence of division at OBD, namely the clumsy way Fred was cut (which included Fred publicly saying Whaley wasn't trustworthy). Or, the abrupt Cassel trade which meant Manuel dressed in Week 3 after he sat the previous 2 games. Anyone remember when Rex started Manuel in the first training camp scrimmage? Or in the 3rd game of the pre-season game versus Pittsburgh? This, after Manuel was clearly the 3rd guy. It also wouldn't surprise me if the BN reporters know there are issues, but cannot report the whole truth because doing so hinders their ability to cover the team.

Newsome didn't offer a contract more than what Buffalo offered either. And the Bills' deal wasn't very much, maxing out at 7M if he met all incentives. As for the Broncos, well, he'd be competing against Osweiler when Manning retired. Of course he's not going that route unless that contract was huge, which I doubt. Right. The book on TT hasn't been fully written yet, but he's not played to a level to preclude them from finding another competitor at the position. Depending on him to improve in 2016 is the wrong move. These final 5 games are going to answer some questions, although the right side of the OL probably won't keep him clean tomorrow.

Compare TT's first 3 games to his middle three starts and then his last 3. You'll see that he's regressed considerably over the season in most statistical categories. Games 1-3 (vs IND, vs NE, at MIA) 58-78 74.4% 714 yards 7 TD 3 INT 9.7 yards per attempt Games 4-6 (vs NYG, at TEN, vs MIA) 49-71 69.0% 564 yards 3 TD 1 INT 7.9 yards per attempt Games 7-9 (at NYJ, at NE, at KC) 58-101 57.4% 682 yards 4 TD 0 INT 6.8 yards per attempt Obviously, stats cannot tell the whole story. What is evident is that the more Taylor is asked to throw the ball the worse he gets. There are two questions I have that are becoming answered as the season continues: 1) Why did Ozzie Newsome allow Taylor to leave as UFA for basically NFL QB minimum wage? and 2) Why after 4 NFL seasons apprenticing can Taylor not read defenses and use the middle of the field? He's not a rookie.

Lions offensive rankings 2011-2015: 4th, 17th, 13th, 22nd, 24th. Sure, not all on Stafford, but.....as long as Rex is the HC this is a run first team. Do you invest (if he becomes available) 20M per on a guy who's going to hand-off 55% of the offensive snaps? Not to mention, where is the money coming from? An increase in the cap isn't covering this even with a release of Mario and Kyle. Besides, this OL isn't built to pass block in support of a passing team even if Rex suddenly changed his offensive tune.

It was positive, but when 2014 ended and the ante was upped in the first quarter of 2015 it didn't become the baseline for this season. Playoffs became the goal and remains so today. Thus, why I take issue with advancing the narrative that it's anything less. As for what ails this team, I see the narrative pushed now that it's all coaching. Well, this being a team game, it can't all be one thing. Personnel acquisition, coaching, and players all share in wins and losses. There's clearly fault among those three aspects that go into putting a team on the field. This is a nuanced subject, so it'll be distorted to

Even with that "win" let's review the win count for the past 6 seasons: 4, 6, 6, 6, 9, _. This year they'll probably finish with 7-9 wins, yet, players are aging and contracts expiring / nearing their end. You cannot continue being mediocre and think there is no price for doing so. It's not good enough to ride the rails of mediocrity and 7, 8, or 9 wins is just that.

The narrative to explain away the lack of wins in 2014 and I guess now in 2015 has been that Doug Whaley added so much talent to the roster. Well, if that were the case, wouldn't these injuries not hurt the team as much? Or could it be roster depth isn't so good? And I might give them some room if it were losing Taylor for the season or an extended period. But this is a team that hasn't lost their QB long term.

Quantity does not equal quality. And Fitzpatrick was signed in 2009 before Buddy and Whaley got there. Back then, Russ Brandon emphatically declared he would not challenge Trent Edwards. I still maintain there isn't a team which has done less at the position since Buddy Nix started the current rebuild which is now into its 6th season. Since that time the Bills have drafted all of 1 QB in the top 2 rounds and he didn't work out. Of the names you've listed, they were acquired UDFAs/Street FAs: Brian Brohm, Jeff Tuel, Dennis Dixon, Josh Johnson, Matt Flynn UFAs: Tyler Thigpen, Kevin Kolb, Kyle Orton, Tyrod Taylor (only Orton was paid more than 4M more per season) Trade: Tarvaris Jackson, Thad Lewis, Matt Cassel Draft: EJ Manuel (1st), Levi Brown (7th) That's 14 QBs Nix and/or Whaley brought in, not including camp auditions like Matt (Max) Leinart, Vince Young, and Jordan Palmer And who is "Vaughan?"

Teams have 9 games worth of film on Taylor, and so if you want to use passing metrics he's declined: Games 1-3: 58-78 / 74.4 completion % / 9.2 yards per attempt / 714 yards passing / 7 TDs 3 INTs Games 4-9: 107-172 62.2 completion % / 7.2 yards per attempt / 1246 yards passing / 7 TDs 1 INT Some of that is on the OC to game-plan, some may be due to injury and there are several factors. But the level of play isn't like it was early when Buffalo scored points in bunches. (NOTE: Originally posted, now deleted in another thread. Thought more appropriate here)

Stay Classy.

Buffalo has won exactly 40% of their games since the 2001 season after Sunday's loss. Now that's consistency.

Philip Rivers has a strange throwing motion and he gets the job done.

You are entitled to your take as am I, but let me take this in another direction. If you're the new owner of the Buffalo Bills who just paid 1.4 billion for a franchise with an uncertain QB situation and the GM was using the term "QB purgatory" to describe why it's hard getting a QB, wouldn't it bother you? It would bother me knowing that guys like Andy Dalton, Derek Carr, Teddy Bridgewater, Joe Flacco, Russell Wilson, and Kirk Cousins were drafted beyond the top 5 picks of the draft and have played well or are playing well. And the other issue here is Doug Whaley is at least bright enough to know his job is on the line. So making that statement is a pre-emptive attempt to shield himself from criticism if things went wrong.

You post an awful lot. And once again I'm not seeing much substance behind those posts. Do you want the lead personnel guy for your favorite NFL team saying it's hard to find a QB in the NFL Draft? How much different is that than Dick Jauron saying it's hard to win in the NFL? This was Whaley espousing an essentially defeatist mentality here. Separate the emotion out of the issue that is being a fan. Whaley gets kudos here for drafting defensive players and that's nice. Except, this is an offensive driven league and he has precious little to show for on that side of the ball unless he trades up for the player or spends on established players in UFA/the trade market.