Modrak gets endorsement from RW & Buddy Nix

[Coach Tuesday]

+1

 

 

 

 

And you don't have a frickin clue where Modrak had him rated either. Assume all you want but it doesn't prove a thing.

 

He is the DIRECTOR OF COLLEGE SCOUTING. He has been the top scout for almost a decade. And the results - OBJECTIVELY -have been horrible. So the owner comes out and says, "Don't blame our head scout for ten years of bad drafting - we didn't listen to him on draft day." And somehow, amazingly, that gives COMFORT to Bills fans? You people are certifiably insane, do you know that? You have clinical Stockholm Syndrome. Either Ralph is lying, and Modrak is to blame, or Ralph is telling the truth, and the organization is even more dysfunctional than many of us could have imagined. Neither of those things is good.

Edited January 27, 2011 by Coach Tuesday

[Ed_Formerly_of_Roch]

I would doubt that very much. Where do you think people like Kiper and McShay get their info and put together their drafts. They talk to GM's, scouts, etc. Does Kyper attend the combines? Is he even allowed? How many college games and practices does he eve nattend. As much time as he spends on TV and radio, likely not many. So they talk wit hothers, like the GM's and scouts and based o ntheir concensus and other info and sources they have, they develop a draft. As far as wehre a Thompson or Polian had someone like Maybin. I'll guarantee you every year if you looked at the top say 30 players on every GM's list, more than half would be the same, another ten would be close and there would likely be one or twoplayers where one team rates him top 10 talent and another GM doesn't have him in the top 100. Every year it's a different player and a different GM with a very different opinion of a player. Was Maybin that guy? Maybe, maybe not, no one knows. But to say that those two didn't have Maybin in the 1st round is nothing more than pure speculation. Did they have him rated as hig has #10, again who knows??

 

Where do you think Maybin was on Ted Thompson's board? Bill Polian's? I guarantee these guys did not have Maybin in the 1st round on their boards, despite what McShay was spewing and what walterfootball.com said.

[FightClub]

No, we don't know where Modrak had Maybin rated. But according to Ralph in Gaughan's article, Modrak is the one who sets the board. Do you really think there's any way that Maybin was something like #108 on the board, but Jauron picked him at #11, and that flew? That's ridiculous. Sure, I'm willing to buy that Modrak had other available players ahead of Maybin on the big board. But realistically, it couldn't have been many. And it seems pretty likely to me that Modrak had Maybin as his #1 rated DE, ahead of Orakpo. It's just hard for me to believe that Jauron would overrule the draft board within a position. I totally get the idea that Jauron wanted DE, so he overrode Modrak's recommendation of a LB, but it's far-fetched to think that Maybin wasn't still very high on that draft board.

 

And that's not the only example, either. What about John McCargo? Is there any way that the Bills traded up to get him if he didn't have a first-round grade on the draft board that Modrak put together?

 

+1

 

It's amazing how naive some of the fans are or how easily they swallow a load of !#$* when it's spooned to them.

[Bob in STL]

figures don't lie, liers figure.

 

 

 

It would be fun (or depressing) to compare Modrak's picks and the ones ultimately selected.

 

 

I would love to see. it. It would be funny if Modrak got all his picks from reading TSW.

 

We would have Ngata, Mangold, Bulaga and many other favorites.

[DaGimp]

 

 

 

 

I would love to see. it. It would be funny if Modrak got all his picks from reading TSW.

 

We would have Ngata, Mangold, Bulaga and many other favorites.

All easy picks to make by even fans. Yet the Bills fail every time and keep the idiots involved in the decisions!

[Gabe Northern]

So as the man in charge of college scouting in SD, Nix was responsible ("made") for all those "great picks" (i.e., it wasn't Smith, their GM), yet Modrak, who is in charge of college scouting in Buffalo, is NOT reponsible for the Bills awful drafts?

 

Interesting.

 

Yep -- when you're determined to defend 11 years of bad decisions, the logical contradictions can pile up pretty quickly.

 

Can't wait 'till Modrak's contract expires and he gets purged. Then all of OBD's minions will be willing to shift their blame to Modrak as quickly as they jumped on TD and Jauron.

 

Until then, we'll have to listen to nonsense about how college scouting directors are only responsible for the draft when those drafts are successful.

 

I'll guarantee you every year if you looked at the top say 30 players on every GM's list, more than half would be the same, another ten would be close and there would likely be one or twoplayers where one team rates him top 10 talent and another GM doesn't have him in the top 100.

 

This is almost certainly wrong. If every board looked roughly the same, it would be impossible for some teams to have such high success rates in the draft and others to have such low success rates because the player selection process would be essentially random.

[Ramius]

This thread is providing some great hilarity with the teeth gnashing and whining by everyone who is on the "blame modrak for everything" train, because they've been proven wrong.

[eball]

Seems to me a lot of the more level-headed folks on the board have been saying this for several years...

[GG]

This thread is providing some great hilarity with the teeth gnashing and whining by everyone who is on the "blame modrak for everything" train, because they've been proven wrong.

 

How exactly?

 

The only thing that this article proved is that the Buffalo Bills are a Mickey Mouse operation.

[Coach Tuesday]

This thread is providing some great hilarity with the teeth gnashing and whining by everyone who is on the "blame modrak for everything" train, because they've been proven wrong.

 

What are you talking about? Do you know what it means to "prove" something?

[LabattBlue]

Mark Gaughn's excellent piece from tomorrow's Buffalo News made it onto TBD's main board tonite, and goes a long way to exonerate Tom Modrak from being the main cause of all that is wrong with the Bills...

 

How has Modrak survived as the Bills' playoff drought has reached 11 years? Bills owner Ralph C. Wilson Jr. says it's hard to lay a big share of the blame on Modrak when he has not had the final say on draft choices...

 

Modrak served under former team president Tom Donahoe his first four years with the Bills. Marv Levy served as general manager the next two years. Chief Executive Officer Russ Brandon was general manager in 2009. The lack of a definitive voice in the draft room after Donahoe left was a distinct weakness in the Bills' operation. Former coach Dick Jauron had more say in the draft decisions than he probably deserved, and the Bills' "team approach" on making final draft decisions overall proved unsuccessful.

 

(Nicely understated! )

 

Link - Bills keep their faith in Modrak-Wilson says scout chief shoulders unfair blame

 

 

Opine away...

 

.

 

...and If Jauron was still here and Modrak was the one who got canned last year, Ralph would be putting all the blame on Modrak. Nothing but more spin on an utterly forgettable decade of Buffalo Bills football.

Edited January 27, 2011 by LabattBlue

[Gabe Northern]

This thread is providing some great hilarity with the teeth gnashing and whining by everyone who is on the "blame modrak for everything" train, because they've been proven wrong.

 

Mark Gaughan putting his name on a press release issued by the team is "proof" that the college scouting director doesn't deserve blame for the failures in college scouting?

 

Gaughan's only contribution to the article probably is the tid-bit at the end where he suggests that Modrak's contract runs through this year.

 

Hmm...wonder if Ralph/Littman unwillingness to pay a guy not to work had anything to do with his retention?

 

Seems to me a lot of the more level-headed folks on the board have been saying this for several years...

 

The "level-headed folks" who put their faith in an organization that doesn't really seem to mind losing all that much...

 

I like the thesis that Modrak "sets the draft board" but doesn't deserve blame for the picks made from said board.

 

Do you really think they're totally disregarding the board so that they'd, say, take Modrak's 78-th ranked player at #11? Or do you think it was more likely Jauron was given "final say" between the #11 through #15 guys on that board?

[BigBuff423]

Why I think this article is important in that it points to other decision makers and NOT Modrak is that it may also lend some insight as to why the later draft picks and UDFAs are working out better. Jauron, Brandon, et. al, would have a greater investment in the top round picks, ala Maybin, and exercise their authority on getting who they want but when the later round picks come up, rely more heavily on the Scouting visa via Modrak and company. I sincerely think the Bills are heading the right direction and while the jury is still out on last year's draft class, I give it to Ralph coming flat out and stating that they have made many draft mistakes but that they don't necessarily directly reflect on Modrak. It does answer some questions regarding our previous drafts and why our drafts have paled in comparison to those of the Patsies, Jets of recent years, Packers, Giants, Ravens, and Colts who have perennial stellar drafts....all these teams have a true GM and football guru running the draft and have a great eye for talent overall. I think Nix and company are getting the boat turned in the right direction and another year will pass before we know if they're hitting true gold or fool's gold. But so far, I say Nix has a resume that presumes long-term success, let's give him and his staff a few years before we start pulling the "Spiller's a bust" bull ****. Give them time, I know it's painful and it's aggravating because we've been doing that for over a decade, but now with a true GM, a great Pro Scout and up and coming GM in Whaley, Gailey correcting the offense (with an immeidate impact for the better) and now with the hire of Wannstedt, we're moving in the direction of competency. Hands of the triggers fellas and let's see what shakes out before we go blowing a hole through our heads...

[The Senator]

...and If Jauron was still here and Modrak was the one who got canned last year, Ralph would be putting all the blame on Modrak. Nothing but more spin on an utterly forgettable decade of Buffalo Bills football.

Well, my Azure Ale friend, Ralph chose to can Jauron and retain Modrak - leading one to think that RW blames Jauron more than Modrak for the teams failure to re-ignite. He probably also realizes now that re-hiring his old and loyal friend Marv was not in the best long-term interest of the franchise either. Give the old man a break, why don't ya? You're gonna feel much better after this draft - and this season - on our way to...

19 and 0 baby!!!

 

GO BILLSSS!!!!

 

Fear the 'stache!!!!!

[SDS]

 

The guy has set the board here for 9 years (edit: this will be his 10th year) and 3 years in Philadelphia. He set the board means that he went over each player, signed off on their final grade if not ranked them himself, bracketed them with a group of players that he thought would be available at the Bills pick, and placed those names in their groupings on the Bills big board. For 1st round picks it would be highly irregular if he didn't scout every name personally.

 

Sure, we don't know who he'd have selected out of those groups, but we have abundant evidence of who was in those groups and how effective his overall stocking of the board has been. Does it really take another 200 picks or more to figure it out? How many outstanding football players have the Bills drafted the past 10 years? How many elite players fell in our laps after a run at a position? It's all ample evidence as to the scouting department's effectiveness.

 

Ask the owner: "Our drafting has been terrible."

 

So, that is a couple pieces of evidence, but clearly not the whole story.

 

What is maddening about this whole conversation is that Ralph fires people all the time. ALL THE TIME. Head Coaches, Assistant coaches, Presidents, GMs,... you name it. Yet no one will admit that this guy must be sticking around for a reason.

 

What would that be? Ralph admitted the team hasn't drafted well, and he has fired everyone else in the past 10 years. So while we can make judgments from outside the organization and draw simplistic correlations about Modrak's abilities - Ralph has clearly decided Modrak has not underperformed despite the lack of drafting success. Clearly, if the simplistic correlations told the whole story - he would be gone with everyone else.

 

So, maybe we just don't know the whole story and people will just have to live with that fact for now.

[CosmicBills]

This article bugged me for a lot of reasons ... but they've been difficult to formulate or even articulate. So forgive this rambling, incoherent post.

 

On one hand, I'd love to believe every word of this article. I'd love to believe that the problems the Bills have had in the past 10+ drafts have been due to the organization being (uh-hum) disorganized or more simply that the "trigger" men of the past regimes such as Donahoe, Levy, Jauron and Brandon have been the root of all the personnel blunders. That at least gives us hope. Hope that things are going to turn around now that they've "fixed" the organizational problems. Hope that Nix is a better football man than his predecessors. Hope that maybe now the genius that is Modrak can finally be heard.

 

But, on the other hand, if we believe that, what does that really say about the Bills organization as a whole? How much comfort can really be taken in the realization (and seeming acceptance by the top brass) that it took the franchise 10 years, three GMs and four coaches before it realized their system was deeply flawed and needed to be fixed?

 

Or are we supposed to believe that the people that Ralph hired; the Donahoes, Levys, Jaurons and Brandons, were ultimately just poor hires and not the football men Ralph had hoped? If that's true, then isn't it logical to assume the problem is more with Ralph and his judgment than anything else? It's not easy to find the right man, people make mistakes and hind sight is 20/20 -- but you'd think a man who's been as successful as Ralph in life outside of football would have a better success ratio than 0-3 (0-4 if you count Jauron). It seems this is what the article is trying to convince people, but if that's true, why should the Nix hire give us any more comfort? After all, the same person hired him that hired the other men who've since come and gone.

 

So now we find ourselves as fans in somewhat of a conundrum. We are left to believe that either it took Ralph 10 years to figure out that there's a problem with the organizational structure or that Ralph has finally found a better trigger man in Nix. It seems that Ralph, and the article, is trying to steer us towards the later. But again, if that's the case, how can we be expected to believe that a 70 year old, with no prior GM experience and whom was hired from within this admittedly broken organizational structure is not just more of the same?

 

Of course, both of those roads lead to the same conclusion. A conclusion which isn't very reassuring. Namely that Ralph himself is the problem. Whether it be in the form of poor hires or, the more likely (and perhaps more unsettling) scenario, that Ralph is making the final call in the war room on draft day in terms of who is picked. If that's the case, then it really doesn't matter who's installed as the GM. Or the head of scouting. Or the coach. Because at the end of the day, those men won't be able to build the team the way they wish.

 

Like I said, this article is disturbing the more you think about it ...

[Rico]

you are correct

 

 

how can anyone doubt the veracity of a self-serving fluff piece put out by the team being accused of being moronic in keeping an incompetant talent evaluation staff?

 

of course, the article does not question the stones of Modrak for staying employed in an organaiztion which has ignored his recommendations for 10 years

 

I suppose the fact that he lives in Florida in semi-retirement helps him get over the slight and stay employed.

 

It would seem the factual history of 10 years of bad drafts would have a little more weight than some self serving propaganda

 

good to know that Ralph may have figured out the problem --- 92 must be the age of enlightenment

Ralph & Nix were quoted! They wouldn't lie to the public.

[SouthernMan]

So, that is a couple pieces of evidence, but clearly not the whole story.

 

What is maddening about this whole conversation is that Ralph fires people all the time. ALL THE TIME. Head Coaches, Assistant coaches, Presidents, GMs,... you name it. Yet no one will admit that this guy must be sticking around for a reason.

 

What would that be? Ralph admitted the team hasn't drafted well, and he has fired everyone else in the past 10 years. So while we can make judgments from outside the organization and draw simplistic correlations about Modrak's abilities - Ralph has clearly decided Modrak has not underperformed despite the lack of drafting success. Clearly, if the simplistic correlations told the whole story - he would be gone with everyone else.

 

So, maybe we just don't know the whole story and people will just have to live with that fact for now.

 

 

Modrak is no idiot. Possibly a genius. There's a method to Modraks madness and staying employed.

 

He lives in Florida full time. He knows that if he goes to the office in Orchard Park he runs the risk of running into Ralph or one of his henchmen.

All those other guys Ralph fired? Guess where their desks were? Right there next to the trophy case with all the 2nd place hardware.

Easy pickin's for Ralph. He probably doesn't even know who he's firing half the time. It's just some poor bastard who wanted a window office. Ralph probably thinks he's firing Lou Saban. Mike Mularkey quit 'cause he was sick of Ralph callng him "Kay".

 

Modrak figures it this way: outta sight, outta mind. Even easier when the mind is one in which information is more likely to go missing - like outta the noggen of some 100 year insurance salesman.

 

The combination of living out of state and having caller ID has kept Modrak getting paychecks with a Bills logo for 10 years.

 

This is like something George Costanza would have cooked up.

[Sisyphean Bills]

So, that is a couple pieces of evidence, but clearly not the whole story.

 

What is maddening about this whole conversation is that Ralph fires people all the time. ALL THE TIME. Head Coaches, Assistant coaches, Presidents, GMs,... you name it. Yet no one will admit that this guy must be sticking around for a reason.

 

Not sure where I said it was the "whole story". Without some omniscient view of people's thought processes, I don't think anyone could ever understand the "whole story". Does that mean we can turn a blind eye to results because we don't truly know the "whole story"?

 

I'm being critical of Modrak's record in my points because I don't think the Bills drafts under his watch have been anything but below average. They draft busts early, and hit rarely in the middle and late rounds. Is it totally his fault? Hardly. And I never claimed it was. I fully understand he is but one man in a team. I do think he should at least share in some of the blame and not be given a free pass simply because he hasn't been fired yet. Instead of the negative premise, "he has not been fired, therefore...", I'm trying to see what he has accomplished in football terms and just not seeing many highlights.

 

What would that be? Ralph admitted the team hasn't drafted well, and he has fired everyone else in the past 10 years. So while we can make judgments from outside the organization and draw simplistic correlations about Modrak's abilities - Ralph has clearly decided Modrak has not underperformed despite the lack of drafting success. Clearly, if the simplistic correlations told the whole story - he would be gone with everyone else.

 

He's obviously escaping criticism from his bosses. On the other hand, it's far from clear that Ralph fires everyone or that he really fires the correct people from a football perspective. I think a few people would argue that firing Bill Polian wasn't a shrewd football move. You're right that there are a lot of other issues -- let's call them business issues -- involved. Again, it's clear that Ralph does not fire everyone. When Butler quit/was fired, he took many of his guys with him (including Nix). Donahoe brought in a new crew and many of those people are still here (including Modrak). So, the mass firings and house cleanings are where? Wilson has shuffled the GM position around and has always had a short fuse with coaches that don't perform, but he doesn't seem prone to lighting up the whole organization. The last house cleaning being Butler's departure.

 

So, maybe we just don't know the whole story and people will just have to live with that fact for now.

Obviously.

 

And, yes, impatiently blowing up coaching staffs is a problem, not just for the coaches, but for the scouts and players as well.

 

[Edit:

 

Some brief anecdotes as well. Modrak himself said he messed up with Mike Williams. Levy said that they had given Ngata and McCargo identical grades. Donahoe said that Losman was graded as a first-rounder on par with Manning, Roethlisberger, and Rivers and higher than all prospects in the next draft, which included Aaron Rodgers.

 

Maybe the Bills just need a rabbit's foot. ]

[flmike]

Wow, lots of stories of fans leaving the Bills. I root for my hometown team, no matter what. If the organization sucks, then I hold off on buying stuff, but I still cheer them on. I also don't tie up my self worth in how well a bunch a football players do. Sports is entertainment and only one teams wins the Super Bowl tournament.