BillsVet

I would hope this new front office has the sense to not let a player have maximum leverage and get to play in a contract year. It hasn't worked out in the past.

Who's going to replace those personal foul penalties? Buffalo has seemingly done well drafting LB's the past few years. Brown has 3 years left on his contract, Alonso I believe has 3, and there's Bradham who played well in his third season. You keep Spikes, who at times played less than 20% of the defensive snaps, and you're probably losing something elsewhere.

Objective is a concept that remains elusive because any discussion the QB isn't playing well is invariably greeted with a crescendo of "hater" rhetoric No one wants EJ to fail. It's simply looking, based on objective evidence, that he's not going to be a good enough NFL QB to get this team in the playoffs, never mind advancing in the post-season. I don't need to see a player completely bottom out before one can reasonably conclude they'll succeed. For some that point is earlier than others, although there is a propensity to declare someone a bust.

There should be some offensive quality control positions available. Perhaps a position coach job out there, which is where he should have been back in 2013 when saint douglas was hired. Then again, it's hard to get coaching jobs in the NFL.

Warden Samuel Norton from Shawshank Prison described what I think you're getting at: "This is a conspiracy, that's what it is. One... big... damn conspiracy! And everyone's in on it, including *her*! Government, NFL, Patriots...one big conspiracy. I'll bet Kraft bought off Tagliabue and then Goodell.

What if you could go to London and sit behind the Jaguars sideline and heckle Marrone during the game? He might get mad though. Lol

Another one of Buddy's guys out the door. College Scouting Director Chuck Cook was demoted in 2013. Whaley hired Monos and Fisher. And presumably he's now fired Gibbons and demoted Cook. Guess Doug and Buddy weren't on the same page in 2011 when Gibbons and Cook were hired.

David Lee should talk to Jimbo Fisher. Perhaps then Lee can correct the low confidence, slow eyes, inconsistent accuracy, propensity to throw to point targets, and inability to sense a pass rush.

Who believed Galileo? Who believed Billy Mitchell? Thanks for not debating.

As I suspected, we're right back at the "luck" narrative which states that teams acquire their QB without much skill or savvy manuevering. It's the same mantra preached over and over again that said Polian just happened to have Peyton fall in his lap 17 years ago. And the one cited here, which cherry-picks 2 QB's who were picked later. (EDIT: or found in UDFA. There are zero starting QB's found in the 3rd round or later aside from Romo, Brady or Wilson and if you want, Mettenberger. That means 27-28 teams have a guy who was originally drafted in the 1st or 2nd as the top guy on their depth chart. Or their QB situation is in flux and will be answered this off-season) I stand by my point that the cap does not level the playing field much. When half of the teams in the NFL account for almost 87% of the playoff appearances, it tells me there isn't enough top personnel people, which invariably leads to the same teams making the playoffs. And while we're selectively finding examples, how about the Packers, who transitioned nicely from Favre to Rodgers, missing the playoffs once since 2007. I guess Ted Thompson just happened to be lucky in that 2005 draft. The front office matters. Perhaps as much as the QB, because they're the ones picking that QB.

Who picks the coaches and QB? The root cause is a little deeper than the surface level.

The CBA RW voted against (as did Mike Brown) was not a solid deal and I was wrong on that front. Tagliabue tried to push it through and we learned by 2011 how bad it was. At the same time, you've got owners like Jerry Jones who have a new stadium and have been to the playoffs all of 1 time since 2010. Jets and Giants got a new stadium a few years ago and have 2 playoff appearances in 10 combined seasons, albeit one was a SB win for Big Blue. I will still contend that as important as QB play is to a team's success, teams need to have a solid management organizational chart and personalities who fit within that who can find talent. It's not the old days where Bill Polian was beating most of the teams in the league unearthing talent. It's absurd that half the AFC has only 2 playoff appearances in the past 10 years. That's BUF, MIA, CLE, JAC, TEN, SD, OAK, and NYJ. And there are some big market teams in there as well. I don't see the correlation between unshared revenue and playoffs.

I don't think they're elite...they just happen to get in the wild-card round and lose each year.

I was doing some research today about teams that make the playoffs and the results were pretty staggering, especially in the AFC. Overall the top 11 NFL teams of the past five seasons in terms of playoff appearances account for 70% of postseason participants. The top 16 NFL teams account for about 87% of postseason appearances. That means half the league represents about one out of eight playoff appearances. It should come as no surprise that the elite franchises of the NFL are pretty consistent reaching the postseason. In the AFC, New England, Denver, Indianapolis, Cincinnati, Baltimore, and Pittsburgh account for 24 playoff appearances out of 30 total going back to the 2010 season. The easy explanation is to talk about quarterback play. Yet, these franchises keep winning consistently and it's more than who is under center. If the salary cap was such an equalizing force, one would think eventually these teams would fall back to the middle. But they don't. Meanwhile you have eight AFC teams that have failed to reach the playoffs in that same span. Wasn't the salary cap intended to level competition? As important as quarterback play is, having front office brainpower is more integral to producing consistently high performing franchises. And as good as an attempt as it was to moderate spending, teams are at the mercy of who they hire to acquire personnel and coach. It looks like Buffalo has improved going into 2015. In order to fulfill Rex's promise to make the playoffs they'll need to do a lot of work to catch up with the elite in the AFC.

Is this where William Shatner says to a bunch of Star Trek fans "get a life"

Lighten up Francis.

In other news, Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead. And this coming from a huge WWII reader.

And here's another new narrative pulled seemingly out of nowhere to explain the inexplicable.

Because CJ Spiller was faster? And Buddy thought this was a track meet? At least now we won't be drafting RB's in the first round. I hope.

I've read for years on TBD it's a conspiracy by the league to punish the Bills. I wish there was an easy method to show that bad management eventually shows up on the field. And the Bills have been bottom feeders there for a long time. Hopefully that's changed with TPegs in charge and Rex in the building.

I like the fact that Terry Pegula took a very active role in hiring a HC. Buffalo needs an owner who is engaged and understands the game because business success doesn't lend itself to winning in the NFL. That said, the personnel department is in fact lacking in experience and Whaley's record in the 2013 and 2014 drafts isn't exceptional. Better than Nix, but not anywhere near what Ted Thompson, John Schneider, Ozzie Newsome, or New England have done. And you need the best personnel department to get this deep in the post-season. The best thing is that Russ Brandon no longer will be interfering in the football operations decision making process.

Maybe Eugene Parker took EJ on so that Brandon can feel like he'll win a negotiation against his nemesis. That is, if Brandon had anything to do with football operations anymore.

This isn't a case of whether people agree on defensive or offensive strategy. It's egos, and at the NFL level they tend to be pretty big. Besides, personnel is NOT a black and white topic given that both the GM and HC have a vested interest. Doug Whaley lost responsibility in the new organizational chart because the HC doesn't report to him. And why should he? Rex is more successful as a HC than Whaley is as a GM. Making the experienced report to the relatively new GM makes zero sense.

Terry's hand is on the front office now with the hiring of Rex and changing the org chart to reflect three direct reports, including the HC, GM, and the former Mr. Smithers-Brandon. It's not what some wanted, but hopefully eliminates the issues they had last season when Russ was running the show.

At least Russ Brandon can't lie about claiming to have input on football. Well, almost as much as him not being the big wheel at OBD or the guy who gets in front of camera. His air time is pretty much over because he's never going to be as entertaining as Rex.