Got_Wood Posted November 22, 2011 Share Posted November 22, 2011 (edited) I like what Nix has done with the front office for the most part. Nix has some guys in there that know football, and brought in young talent from Pitt in Doug Whaley as his eventual replacement. The structure for the most part seems sound. But there are some serious flaws in their management of talent and player depth. Too many important positions were left up to chance. See the following questionable decisions: 1. O-line: - We decided to rely on unproven Demetrius Bell as our starter at LT, when he has a history of inconsistency and injuries. His only backup has been 5th rounder Ed Wang last season, and 4th rounder Chris Hairston this year. That's an interesting way to treat one of the most improtant positions on the team. - Geoff Hangartner was cut even though our only backup interior O-lineman were an unproven Chad Rinehart and terrible Colin Brown. And our starting Center Eric Wood had a recent horrific leg injury and no experience in the NFL at Center. Pretty bone headed decision making if you ask me. 2. OLB/DE: - The only proven OLB we carry on the roster is Shawne Merriman, who hadn't played a full season in years and was a huge risk to play again this year. To completely bank on this guy when your only backups are Arthur Moats and Danny Batten is just irresponsible. And on top of that, Kelsay doesn't belong at OLB (he's a 4-3 D-End) and Moats started the season at ILB. Baffling. 3. Wide Receiver: - Nix decides to make a big statement and trade away our top WR Lee Evans for a 4th round pick. That's fine, but instead of supplementing this group of uproven, undrafted receivers with more talent, he decides to gamble that one of these guys (outside of Stevie Johnson) is going to step up and be a star. Another ridiculous decision! The players are outraged that the team lets go of Evans for nothing, and then they do nothing to replace him. The stupidity is outrageous here. Especially when guys like Brandon Lloyd were made available via trade early in the season. You can't just passively rebuild a team that has struggled for the last decade. This team needed a big jolt in fee agency, and more aggression in the draft. If you look at why teams like Detroit and San Francisco have drastically turned things around, it's because they AGGRESSIVELY went after talented coaching staffs and made BOLD moves to improve their player talent/depth. If we think we can just slowly build through the draft and bring in a decent journeyman player to fill needs going forward, we're going to be in loser purgatory for another decade. And potentially no longer in the city of Buffalo. If Nix wants to make an impression on the fans (which is important, believe it or not) and keep his job a little longer, I suggest he start making some bold moves. Edited November 22, 2011 by Got_Wood Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
All_Pro_Bills Posted November 22, 2011 Share Posted November 22, 2011 I like what Nix has done with the front office for the most part. Nix has some guys in there that know football, and brought in young talent from Pitt in Doug Whaley as his eventual replacement. The structure for the most part seems sound. But there are some serious flaws in their management of talent and player depth. Too many important positions were left up to chance. See the following questionable decisions: 1. O-line: - We decided to rely on unproven Demetrius Bell as our starter at LT, when he has a history of inconsistency and injuries. His only backup has been 5th rounder Ed Wang last season, and 4th rounder Chris Hairston this year. That's an interesting way to treat one of the most improtant positions on the team. - Geoff Hangartner was cut even though our only backup interior O-lineman were an unproven Chad Rinehart and terrible Colin Brown. And our starting Center Eric Wood had a recent horrific leg injury and no experience in the NFL at Center. Pretty bone headed decision making if you ask me. 2. OLB/DE: - The only proven OLB we carry on the roster is Shawne Merriman, who hadn't played a full season in years and was a huge risk to play again this year. To completely bank on this guy when your only backups are Arthur Moats and Danny Batten is just irresponsible. And on top of that, Kelsay doesn't belong at OLB (he's a 4-3 D-End) and Moats started the season at ILB. Baffling. 3. Wide Receiver: - Nix decides to make a big statement and trade away our top WR Lee Evans for a 4th round pick. That's fine, but instead of supplementing this group of uproven, undrafted receivers with more talent, he decides to gamble that one of these guys (outside of Stevie Johnson) is going to step up and be a star. Another ridiculous decision! The players are outraged that the team lets go of Evans for nothing, and then they do nothing to replace him. The stupidity is outrageous here. Especially when guys like Brandon Lloyd were made available via trade early in the season. You can't just passively rebuild a team that has struggled for the last decade. This team needed a big jolt in fee agency, and more aggression in the draft. If you look at why teams like Detroit and San Francisco have drastically turned things around, it's because they AGGRESSIVELY went after talented coaching staffs and made BOLD moves to improve their player talent/depth. If we think we can just slowly build through the draft and bring in a decent journeyman player to fill needs going forward, we're going to be in loser purgatory for another decade. And potentially no longer in the city of Buffalo. If Nix wants to make an impression on the fans (which is important, believe it or not) and keep his job a little longer, I suggest he start making some bold moves. A great synopsis of the situation but I don't believe for a minute that Nix has the 'green light' from ownership and the Detroit finance guys to go out there and spend the money needed to provide a significant upgrade to the talent pool via veteran free agency. Or the ability to retain 'high priced' veteran backups. Recall this team is running around $30+ million under the cap. That budget is a severe constraint on Nix and Gailey. I believe it will be 2013 when we'll see some relief here when teams are forced by the current collective bargaining agreement to spend at or near the cap. It's not my intent to absolve Nix from any resposibility for the talent situation, certainly he could and should have done better, but he's operating under funding contraints that the majority of other GM's do not have to deal with in performing their jobs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Got_Wood Posted November 22, 2011 Author Share Posted November 22, 2011 A great synopsis of the situation but I don't believe for a minute that Nix has the 'green light' from ownership and the Detroit finance guys to go out there and spend the money needed to provide a significant upgrade to the talent pool via veteran free agency. Or the ability to retain 'high priced' veteran backups. Recall this team is running around $30+ million under the cap. That budget is a severe constraint on Nix and Gailey. I believe it will be 2013 when we'll see some relief here when teams are forced by the current collective bargaining agreement to spend at or near the cap. It's not my intent to absolve Nix from any resposibility for the talent situation, certainly he could and should have done better, but he's operating under funding contraints that the majority of other GM's do not have to deal with in performing their jobs. Point taken, and you're right that he's certainly had his hands tied to a degree. But he has lacked the creativity and nimble ability that many of his peers around the league take advantage of. Such as the ability to make moves in the draft. We've had the opportunity to move up and down in the past couple years, and have stumbled. We could have traded Evans during the draft and had a guy replace him in the lineup THIS year. Not rely on Easley who had a rough injury history already. It would help if Wilson at least sold a portion of this team to setup some kind of future buyout by a group that can keep them around. And potentially a group that is willing to spend some money. But that's a lot to ask I guess. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KollegeStudnet Posted November 22, 2011 Share Posted November 22, 2011 (edited) Since 1998, we gravitate daily to TBD, scratching our heads and trying to figure out what the h*ll has happened!??! We can all agree, that we want this team to succeed and all deserve better than this...Almost every given Sunday, we sit and watch other teams enjoy their successes--wishing it was ours... Dreaming that one day, the Buffalo Bills...will be dominant power in the NFL and win the great City of Buffalo a Super Bowl title... Breaking it down... 2010-Chix took over a '09 team that was just horrendous...we all knew 2010 would be an evaluation year. 2011-was supposed to be the same...just a basic year of adding pieces and evaluating what this team has/needs... As the regular season creeps towards the end, we post daily, pointing out holes and depth issues...But, like our starters--the depth players are also injured! This fast start surprised us all...Now it has harbored all us fans to throw up our hands and to say, "let's start over." This team needs continuity and that starts with keeping Chix in place--for now! 2012-IMO, Edwards should be dismissed, granting Wanstache the position...Also, F$tzmonies should get cut before the 2012 season and the focus should be on getting a real franchise QB...I love Fitz, but we all know this is the end...adding more pieces to this team is a must...Nix won't be asleep on the first day of free agency--at least I hope not! Overall, it's always good to dream...maybe the Bills surprise us all again in 2012, this time trading up to select Stanford product--Andrew Luck...Like I said, it's always good to dream! EDIT: Still...Go Bills! Edited November 22, 2011 by KollegeStudnet Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CSBill Posted November 22, 2011 Share Posted November 22, 2011 I said this in another thread and I think it needs repeated here, and in every new thread about the draft: Draft players from big-time, winning programs. No more players from Richmond, James Madison, Bethany, South Dakota State, Troy, etc. Not that any draftee is a guaranteed success, but the likelihood of a player from Alabama, LSU, Texas, SoCal, Michigan, Florida, etc., being successful is higher than small college crap-shoot picks that we seen to be so enamored with. Yes, there will always be exceptions, but overall, and in the longterm success-to-failure ratio, I believe this is a change in draft philosophy that has to happen, and happen now! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CBD Posted November 22, 2011 Share Posted November 22, 2011 (edited) 2012-IMO, Edwards should be dismissed, granting Wanstache the position...Also, F$tzmonies should get cut before the 2012 season and the focus should be on getting a real franchise QB...I love Fitz, but we all know this is the end...adding more pieces to this team is a must...Nix won't be asleep on the first day of free agency--at least I hope not! Overall, it's always good to dream...maybe the Bills surprise us all again in 2012, this time trading up to select Stanford product--Andrew Luck...Like I said, it's always good to dream! EDIT: Still...Go Bills! If you're firing Edwards today then Wannstedt is the replacement until the season ends. After the season ends they both have to go. Wannstedt has been here for the entire season and has his hands in how terrible the defense has been. If Edwards goes, he has to go too. I don't see any reason to cut Fitz, it doesn't stop you from looking for another QB, especially in the draft. Draft a QB and let him beat out Fitz. I said this in another thread and I think it needs repeated here, and in every new thread about the draft: Draft players from big-time, winning programs. No more players from Richmond, James Madison, Bethany, South Dakota State, Troy, etc. Not that any draftee is a guaranteed success, but the likelihood of a player from Alabama, LSU, Texas, SoCal, Michigan, Florida, etc., being successful is higher than small college crap-shoot picks that we seen to be so enamored with. Yes, there will always be exceptions, but overall, and in the longterm success-to-failure ratio, I believe this is a change in draft philosophy that has to happen, and happen now! Couldn't it be said that they had that philosophy this past season? I see nothing wrong with taking a flyer on a small school guy in the 5th/6th/7th rounds. Edited November 22, 2011 by Carey Bender Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Got_Wood Posted November 22, 2011 Author Share Posted November 22, 2011 I know KollegeStudnet, it's getting old hoping that we somehow become a good team one of these years. It's worn thin on many people, and who knows how much longer people keep their allegiance to this team. It's already started showing in season ticket sales. Before long, it will be a ghost town. CSBill, I agree that we need to focus on more big-time school talent in the draft. We can't draft the Torrell Troup's of the world in the first few rounds of the draft. This year was an improvement. But it needs to continue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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