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Has anything really changed at OBD?


gjv001

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just guessing, but I think Ralph was only clarifying that Brandon still reports to him, not to the new GM. And while you undoubtedly know this, Brandon was never the GM; he was the Chief Operating Officer with some input and decision making that a GM would typically be responsible for.

 

Doesn't a COO occupy a higher role in an organization than a GM? Then who was the COO reporting to before and who WAS making the football decisions?

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just guessing, but I think Ralph was only clarifying that Brandon still reports to him, not to the new GM. And while you undoubtedly know this, Brandon was never the GM; he was the Chief Operating Officer with some input and decision making that a GM would typically be responsible for.

FWIW, this is a cut/paste from Brandon's bio in the 2009 media guide:

With the responsibility of overseeing the day-to-day operations

of the Bills organization, Russ Brandon was appointed

Chief Operating Officer of the Buffalo Bills on

January 8, 2008 with the addition of “General Manager”

formally added to his title this past spring.

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No. The mere thought that Guy was a finalist for the GM job frightens me, though.

Ralph has made a few 'mistakes' along the way fortunately in Saban,Polian,Knox,AJ Smith,Levy. Lets hope he has another mistake or 2 in him.

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Doesn't a COO occupy a higher role in an organization than a GM? Then who was the COO reporting to before and who WAS making the football decisions?

1. agreed

 

2. he was reporting to Ralph before and still is

 

3. one would think it was a decision-by-committee, with Ralph having the final say in most matters

 

IMO, Ralph is sorta admitting that the former wasn't working and a real football GM was required.

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interesting, I didn't know that, thanks

Not sure they ever officially announced it. Remember discussing it with Wawrow when the COO/GM title appeared in a release from the team, and neither one of us could recall seeing it before then ...

 

Add: okay, sometime before April 2009, but I don't see a separate release to announce it. Here's the one from the pre-draft luncheon: "The Buffalo Bills will host their annual Pre-Draft Luncheon on Wednesday, April 15, 2008 (sic) at noon in the Bills Media Room. Bills Chief Operating Officer/General Manager Russ Brandon and Vice President of College Scouting Tom Modrak will be available to answer questions about the upcoming NFL Draft."

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Doesn't a COO occupy a higher role in an organization than a GM? Then who was the COO reporting to before and who WAS making the football decisions?

Brandon was COO/GM. Ralph was Owner/President. Together they made a lot of decisions. It's not clear to me that hard lines of distinction should be drawn between the two as some posters try to paint it: Ralph taking the heat and Brandon smelling like a rose because he's only doing Ralph's bidding and really has marketing superpowers.

 

It looks like Ralph is stepping back to being just Owner. Brandon's new title being CEO. Looks can be deceptive though. Does this change the relationship between these members of the inner circle? My guess is, no way in hell. They've installed a GM to be the point man of football decisions, whatever that means. At best, Wilson and Smithers will turn over the power and let Nix have a fairly free hand in building the football team including the ability to push-back when the accountants would hamstring the product on the field. At worst, it is nothing but putting a human shield and puppet out in front of the organization and cutting him off at the knees in terms of resources and authority. One interesting point directly from Nix' mouth on the coaching hire was (paraphrasing), "We'll narrow the list down. No more than 3 candidates, that we'd then take to Mr. Wilson." Does that sound like a huge shake-up in the power structure?

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With Brandon as CEO, and Nix reporting to him , Modrake head of scouting and Guy in charge of Free Agent evaluations, it dosn't appear we have much of a strategic change at OBD. It bothers me a little when Brandon has to bring in Kelley and Thomas to sell his decision. I hope I'm wrong, but I feel the same old PR con job coming out of OBD.

I know we know live in a world where immediate results are expected and patience is a four letter word. But, really?

 

Nix was announced as GM on Thursday afternoon. It's now Saturday. Do you really expect the entire FO restructured, replacements hired, a complete 10 year plan in place, and all announced in public press conferences - within 2 days?

 

Damn.

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I know we know live in a world where immediate results are expected and patience is a four letter word. But, really?

 

Nix was announced as GM on Thursday afternoon. It's now Saturday. Do you really expect the entire FO restructured, replacements hired, a complete 10 year plan in place, and all announced in public press conferences - within 2 days?

 

Damn.

 

It seems like there's a lot less patience among NFL fans in general. I live an hour away from Cleveland so I get a lot of Browns coverage. Same with Steelers coverage. There are a lot of Browns' fans clamoring for Mangini's firing, even though he's only been there a year. That's not enough time to accomplish a turn around even by today's standards.

And, amazingly enough, there are some Steelers fans who are actually saying that Tomlin should be fired, or certain players should be cut. Amazing.

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Not sure they ever officially announced it. Remember discussing it with Wawrow when the COO/GM title appeared in a release from the team, and neither one of us could recall seeing it before then ...

 

Add: okay, sometime before April 2009, but I don't see a separate release to announce it. Here's the one from the pre-draft luncheon: "The Buffalo Bills will host their annual Pre-Draft Luncheon on Wednesday, April 15, 2008 (sic) at noon in the Bills Media Room. Bills Chief Operating Officer/General Manager Russ Brandon and Vice President of College Scouting Tom Modrak will be available to answer questions about the upcoming NFL Draft."

ya, I was gonna say that they never, ever announced that, probably by design...

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Doesn't a COO occupy a higher role in an organization than a GM? Then who was the COO reporting to before and who WAS making the football decisions?

Actually for moving forward Russ Brandon has received a promotion from COO to CEO. He has an even higher role in the Bills organization. It seems pretty clear that Nix as the new GM will be responsible for the bottomline produced by Bills football to Brandon who as the Chief Executive Officer oversees all of the fiscal activities of the Buffalo Bills multi-hundreds of millions of dollars operation.

 

However, it is also crystal clear that the CEO reports to team owner Ralph Wilson and ultimately he remains in charge as was demonstrated in the last presser when it was Mr. Ralph and not Russ Brandon who introduced Nix.

 

Mr. Ralph in addition to clearly running the show rather than Brandon seems to be setting up a structure where Brandon gets a promotion which is either in name only or more likely results in him having even greater day-to-day control over the business side of Bills operations at a level when he turned over the keys to the car to TD.

 

However, though he does get this "promotion" Mr. Ralph has hired a football guy Nix who has been designated by Mr. Ralph to exercise authority over the on field football side of the equation.

 

Is Nix below the new CEO on the new hierarchy? For sure!

 

However, is the new CEO below Mr. Ralph in the new hierarchy? Also FOR SURE!

 

Nix has been publicly given the keys to the car to build a winning football team. It seems pretty clear that as it is in many households that Mom handles the books (aka Brandon) but if push comes to shove it is really Dad (aks Mr. Ralph) who makes the ultimate decisions.

 

Clearly Nix and Brandon will need to co-ordinate hand and glove on issues involving the salary cap and contracts. However, Mr. Ralph has set this up so that if Nix feels Mom will not let him have dessert first because it does not fit the books but Nix can run to Dad and whine it is a clear part of the strategy to win it is Nix who will win that argument for now and Brandon will have to simply say thank you and ask for another if he and Nix disagree for now.

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My sources DEEP WITHIN the confines of One Bills Drive tell me that in the Administration Bldg. bathrooms they have taken away the complimentary Cadbury Clorets and are now offering Werther's Original caramels and assorted hard candies.

 

:thumbdown:

DAMMIT!!! :devil:

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Brandon was COO/GM. Ralph was Owner/President. Together they made a lot of decisions. It's not clear to me that hard lines of distinction should be drawn between the two as some posters try to paint it: Ralph taking the heat and Brandon smelling like a rose because he's only doing Ralph's bidding and really has marketing superpowers.

 

It looks like Ralph is stepping back to being just Owner. Brandon's new title being CEO. Looks can be deceptive though. Does this change the relationship between these members of the inner circle? My guess is, no way in hell. They've installed a GM to be the point man of football decisions, whatever that means. At best, Wilson and Smithers will turn over the power and let Nix have a fairly free hand in building the football team including the ability to push-back when the accountants would hamstring the product on the field. At worst, it is nothing but putting a human shield and puppet out in front of the organization and cutting him off at the knees in terms of resources and authority. One interesting point directly from Nix' mouth on the coaching hire was (paraphrasing), "We'll narrow the list down. No more than 3 candidates, that we'd then take to Mr. Wilson." Does that sound like a huge shake-up in the power structure?

As far as the coaching decision, I can't think of a better way to present the options to Ralph. Do your homework, narrow it down to the 3 best candidates, bring it to Ralph with your recommendations, let him interview them, and do your best to convince him to support your choice.

 

Are you trying to insinuate that, because they didn't really do diligence on the GM choice, means picking the coach will be more of the same? Maybe, but not as a result of the process he described.

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As far as the coaching decision, I can't think of a better way to present the options to Ralph. Do your homework, narrow it down to the 3 best candidates, bring it to Ralph with your recommendations, let him interview them, and do your best to convince him to support your choice.

 

Are you trying to insinuate that, because they didn't really do diligence on the GM choice, means picking the coach will be more of the same? Maybe, but not as a result of the process he described.

 

interesting you mention the process Nix described in the PC

 

2 days after laying out his criteria for a coach with prior head coaching experience,

we have reports that the bills are already going in a different direction with Rivera as their first priority

 

sounds like business as usual as OBD

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interesting you mention the process Nix described in the PC

 

2 days after laying out his criteria for a coach with prior head coaching experience,

we have reports that the bills are already going in a different direction with Rivera as their first priority

 

sounds like business as usual as OBD

Along with reports that Cowher is very interested. Nothing against Patrick Moran or his unnamed source, but if you put a lot of faith in them, that's your choice. Also, he used words to the effect that "prior head coaching experience is probably an advantage, but not a prerequisite"

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