BrooklynBills

Jason Peters and Duane Brown are both 6'4 and had lots of success playing OT for either Dennison or Castillo.

It sounds like there was a Us vs. Them mentality within the scouting department and that there was zero chance that any of would be retained in any way and that is why they were all let go. As far as the upper level guys like Monos and Fischer, again I think there was zero chance that McDermott was going to accept and inherit anyone from the previous FO and, knowing what we know about him and Beane now, they likely had an extensive list of priority candidates for these jobs that in no way included anyone who was employed already.

You realize that the Pegula's rejected the NFL's help last time when Rex was hired, probably at the behest of Brandon.

He had one year highlighted by getting a 1st round pick for Trent Richardson. Hard to say he was dreadful when he was allowed to run one draft with a prior GMs scouting info.

But that is the whole point. The front office structure needed to change. And the reason that Whaley wasn't "allowed to pick his own coach" was because the man has not at any point(in interviews, with draft strategy, with the type of players that were brought in) established a vision for what a team of his would look like. Don't you think they have had those conversations with him? If he had a convincing answer or plan, they would have let him execute it. They did not want to fire him. They had to. From Doug's own mouth has always come the idea that he is in charge of acquiring the players and the coach will coach him. And that philosophy sucks and is pretty much evident as the root of any dysfunctional issue with this team since Whaley/Marrone Year 1. It goes beyond Whaley because this mantra was regurgitated from Russ Brandon's mouth also any time he would talk about "the 53." That's why Rex and Roman appealed to them so much; because they thought that they could just feed them great players and they could plug and play them into his multi-hybrid schemes on offense and defense. It was clear from the Watkins trade, when Whaley quoted his Pittsburgh mentor Bill Nunn that if you like a guy so much you go get him despite the cost, that Whaley was in over his head as GM and that he hadn't a real clue as to build a team. It's not Whaley's fault. He was a player acquisition guy in Pittsburgh but he was not in the inner circle of decision making. They brought him here and he mentored under another career scout in Buddy Nix along with Brandon and Overdorf(3 guys that have no success in the league as a top administator) and we really expected him to become a great visionary manager.

Agree with every word.

The only teams that I see that we are "better" than in the AFC are the Jets and the Browns and I think the Jets have more talent on their roster right now than we do. I'm expecting a bottom 5 overall team, honestly. Our best players are old. No established QB. New offensive scheme. New defensive scheme. Kyle Williams is a year older, 3 LBs who might not fit the defense, starting CBs with very little experience. Shaq Lawson is a question mark as a starting DE. I'm fine with this though because I was of the opinion after Rex year 1 this team needed to be completely rebuilt anyway.

This is what is called talking out of both sides of your mouth. You can't say that McDermott has no long term vision when the Bills just ran the most focused, disciplined, and strategic draft in forever. This organization was absolutely reckless and lacked any semblance of long term planning under Whaley and it dates much further back than Rex Ryan. They are going to bring in a GM who sees eye to eye with the HC and who will work with him to build a team in a way that they can agree on. Do you think McDermott waited all this time to become a HC and choose the Bills job just to try to put some band aids on it to get this team into the playoffs early on? I don't. They are rebuilding, maybe not from sctratch, but they are absolutely rebuilding(as they should be). Beane interviewed in SF earlier this year and is in line for the Carolina job soon when Gettleman retires. He's not coming here to be McDermott's errand boy. He would be coming here to be a part of management team, much like all successful organizations have. Now I'm not saying that this is a full proof plan for success. It could easily go the way of Mike Nolan in SF(he was GM of the 49ers while he was a first time coach) or McDaniels/Xanders in Denver. But IMO this is better than going out and finding a young GM and asking him to run everything autonomously. BTW, those situations haved failed famously also(Pioli in KC, Savage in CLE).

Using your paradigm of McDermott as a power hungry, win-now coach with no vision for the future, explain trading back for a future 1st round pick.

He is co-director of player personnel. Depending on his duties there it might not be a lateral move.

Albert Breer mentioned that 2 teams in addition to the Redskins used McCloughan's scouting information and board for the 2017 draft. As soon as the Whaley firing went down, NFL reporter Benjamin Albright said that the Bills were looking at McCloughan for a front office role(not specifically GM). With our front office situation, I would have to think we were one of the 2 teams and that could be where some of this McCloughan rumor is/was coming from. Secondly, with the Bills looking at first time GMs, I would expect some type of personnel guru type to be in the front office mix. At this point, I don't think Pegula is above saying to Scot, "How much do make from your scouting consulting? Come work for me. I'll double your yearly salary and all you have to do not give your data to anyone else but us." It makes alot of sense. And you are not putting in a high profile position at all.

Reading between the lines, it's pretty clear that McDermott did not really trust our scouting department. White is a consensus solid but not spectacular player. Zay Jones college coach is now our WR coach. And it seems that we had some inside info on Carolina with Dawkins. Other than the trade back to pick up a first next year, they've been pretty much targeting specific guys and haven't been shy about trading picks in this year's draft. Pretty damming for the scouting department IMO

Andy Reid was basically fired in Philly for a run of questionable personnel decisions and poor drafting. I'm not buying into the idea that he "knows what a QB looks like." He did not draft Bret Favre. Tom Modrak had more to do with the selection of McNabb than Reid. Has Reid developed QBs - absolutely. But these are the QBs that he has been directly involved in selecting in the draft: Kevin Kolb AJ Feeley Andy Hall Mike Kafka Nick Foles Aaron Murray Kevin Hogan I'm not worried that Reid sees something in Mahomes that we don't. Also, the Chiefs have the 3rd hardest schedule in the NFL next year and have to play OAK twice, DEN twice, SD twice, NE, DAL, NYG, and PIT. Not to mention that the strength of their team was a number 1 defense that is typically an unsustainable trait from year to year. And finally, they were many articles written last year midseason that the Chiefs were about to fall off a cliff. As we all know, they didn't. But that fall is coming. I think this is a pretty calculated trade that we made here.

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All day make that trade

These people were formerly under football operations. That was/is Russ Brandon not Doug Whaley as many are reporting. There was a report from after Marrone's first season that Whaley and Marrone wanted to make changes to the training staff and that those people were under the Brandon's control. If McDermott wants to implement a different athletic support system, it's a lot easier to bring in people who are well versed in whatever program he wants to implement rather than re-train the current staff.

As far as I'm concerned, the Bills need FO leadership. Whaley has proven that he is not it. That doesn't mean that he needs to be fired or that he cannot work with McDermott. If McDermott is the guy to provide organization direction and leadership and Whaley is there to support him and his direction, then so be it.

Yes. They are. Schneider was not forced on Carroll when Carroll was named HC/Team President. They hired Carroll first and then Carroll had a say in the hiring of Schneider. You'll also notice that the owner is no where involved in any decisions. It is much different than what the Bills are presenting right now.

It doesn't change the fact that Schneider takes his orders from Carroll. Letting his GM have a player in the 4th round is not the same as deffering to him in terms of player types targeted, team philosophy, and draft strategy/management.

Carroll is absolutely in charge. Schneider works for Carroll.

I'm not saying that either. I'd like to get a QB out of this draft, but taking one at 10 is a waste of draft capital. If they really want a QB in this draft. Overdrafting a questionable QB prospect will set us back even further than we are. There is not a QB worthy of taking in the top 15-20 picks, maybe even the entire 1st round.

Taking a QB at 10 is reactionary, not visionary.

He's actually a great candidate for the job with or without any ties to McDermott.

Louis Riddick was up for the 49ers job and has Philly connections to McDermott. I would think he is a more likely choice if it were to happen.

1. Total Control - I don't think anyone is saying that they want McD to have total control. Even the LaConfora article says they'd be bringing in someone to take Whaley's place. I think most people sensible people here are simply saying "yeah, it looks like Whaley is not easy to work with." The coach-GM dynamic is a partnership, not 2 separate groups working independently. 2. I understand from reading your posts in this thread that you would prefer the "GM as King" model. That is a fine model if the GM is a talented player evaluator AND has a vision and plan for how to build a football team. I love that you mention McKenzie because he is a great example of a recent hire who had had some success. But he had a clear plan from day 1 of how he was going to handle their cap issues, how he was going to upgrade talent, and where/when he was going to spend in FA. It is/was a very calculated process. He is also a leader who got his organization and owner to buy in and give him time when many were questioning him, including said owner very publicly. Having a clear long term plan allows you to make mistakes or overcome misfortunes because you have a foundation to keep coming back to. I think at this point it should be abundantly clear that Doug Whaley does not have a clear plan for how to build a football team. We would have seen it bear out in the types of football players brought in over time, in the way he talks about the game in interviews, etc. But he's been here a while now and what's his vision? What kind of team does he like? Also, that is alot of power to give a first time executive unless they have a proven track record and even then, it doesn't always work out. Finally, regarding McKenzie - if you did your research you would know that Del Rio has plenty of roster control, more so than any Raider coach. Your constant mentioning of McKenzie more than proves the point that the GM and HC are a team and that in order to be successful they need to work together. 3. Doug Whaley always has said that he just goes out and finds the right players for the coach. Well, like it or not, that is placing the bulk of team building(philosophy, player types/personalities, etc.) onto the coach. So if the coach is setting the team direction and philosophy and plan of action, why doesn't it make sense that he has a say in who he's working with. Again, if Doug Whaley is hard to work with(which there is overwhelming evidence of at this point), why would McD not want to bring in someone who is easier to work with and who he can trust. Doug Whaley has proven nothing in this league. If better men can be found to do his than so be it. It's not like we have a new coach who his trying to usurp power from an entrenched, experienced GM. There is a power/leadership void within the football department. Someone has to fill it.