Marrone yells to Russ "go ahead and fire me"

[Best Player Available]

 

Possible but doubtful in my mind. Think about what Orton was doing and put yourself in his shoes. There are not a lot of good back up QBs in the league. The Bills and other teams were calling him for weeks (he said it flat out). He simply wasn't going to make a decision until the last Thursday of preseason. What happens if there is another Sam Bradford injury and a starting job opens up? He's waiting until it all plays out.

 

The Bills, for their part, cannot put all their eggs in his basket, they don't know if their offer is going to be enough, they don't know if there is going to be an injury either that will make the Bills situation less appealing to Orton.

 

They also know for sure (and should have known long ago), that Tuel and Thad are not the answer. They aren't going to drop both backups who know the play book for Palmer who is a stopgap at best. So they cut Thad and sign Palmer, still hoping for Orton. Palmer schits the bed predictably and they make their final offer. There is ten days left. Orton sees no starting jobs materialized so he takes the best offer and chance to play, in buffalo, with a shaky starter, but good skill players and a good running game and LT.

That post about says it all. How scary would it have been going into the season with Palmer(or any of the back ups for that matter)? And your Orton scenario sounds very reasonable.

[YoloinOhio]

They certainly are in San Francisco....

And Indy. yuck. No buffer anymore between Grigson and Irsay.

[chris heff]

 

Possible but doubtful in my mind. Think about what Orton was doing and put yourself in his shoes. There are not a lot of good back up QBs in the league. The Bills and other teams were calling him for weeks (he said it flat out). He simply wasn't going to make a decision until the last Thursday of preseason. What happens if there is another Sam Bradford injury and a starting job opens up? He's waiting until it all plays out.

 

The Bills, for their part, cannot put all their eggs in his basket, they don't know if their offer is going to be enough, they don't know if there is going to be an injury either that will make the Bills situation less appealing to Orton.

 

They also know for sure (and should have known long ago), that Tuel and Thad are not the answer. They aren't going to drop both backups who know the play book for Palmer who is a stopgap at best. So they cut Thad and sign Palmer, still hoping for Orton. Palmer schits the bed predictably and they make their final offer. There is ten days left. Orton sees no starting jobs materialized so he takes the best offer and chance to play, in buffalo, with a shaky starter, but good skill players and a good running game and LT.

Unless it was about money.

[Kelly the Dog]

 

Unless it was about money.

Money, too. Sure. The Bills kept offering more money but I truly doubt he would have taken the Bills offer of 11m or whatever the final one was if they offered it earlier. They weren't going to lower their offer. These teams knew what he was doing.

[Mort Hendrickson]

I've read every post before responding. First thought is LaCanfora has really gone downhill since he left NFLN. Thought that way before this story too. Lots of times he pushes bad info

 

Second thought. I don't mind a bit of arguments. This has to be one of the most high pressure jobs. The FO and coaching staff are under tremendous pressure with uncertain ownership, an impatient fan base and a serious lack of success in recent years. I don't envy them at the moment.

 

Arguments happen in high pressure situations. It's natural. I'm not surprised that would be disagreements. Marrone is like Coughlin. In fact they are good friends I believe. I know Marrone doesn't have the same track record as Coughlin, but everyone starts somewhere. Coughlin has gotten into plenty of arguments over the years. As has Harbaugh but so has Todd Haley. Who knows what this means. At the very least, it's not the same old Bills anymore

 

My hope is that this story is way overblown. That's LaCanforas style in general so it wouldn't shock me if it was. I trust Kirby in saying that it's overblown. If it's all true, then it's going to be a long year.

 

LaCanfora is nothing more than the illegitimate son of Chuck Dickerson. He not credible and must have burned some bridges leaving NFLN. He has not been credible since.

[jahnyc]

Not sure if this has been posted or discussed, but the Bills Blog on foxsports1280.com has a link to John DiTullio on 1180 AM (Rochester) who is claiming that he has been told that Marrone does not have the respect of the players in the lockerroom. I know nothing about this guy, but it is an interesting listen.

[TheFunPolice]

nah, it's all made up!

 

Marrone is doing a great job, just like EJ! Everyone gets along great, and these guys love working together. They couldn't ask for anything better!

 

Everything is great, don't believe your lyin eyes!

 

lol

[NoSaint]

Not sure if this has been posted or discussed, but the Bills Blog on foxsports1280.com has a link to John DiTullio on 1180 AM (Rochester) who is claiming that he has been told that Marrone does not have the respect of the players in the lockerroom. I know nothing about this guy, but it is an interesting listen.

 

The marrone questions started last training camp and while nothing firm yet there have been a lot of little comments that are making the situation seem ready to head downhill fast if the team doesn't look great out of the gate

[26CornerBlitz]

Not sure if this has been posted or discussed, but the Bills Blog on foxsports1280.com has a link to John DiTullio on 1180 AM (Rochester) who is claiming that he has been told that Marrone does not have the respect of the players in the lockerroom. I know nothing about this guy, but it is an interesting listen.

 

I listened to that and it was a fleeting question to Matt Bowen. No substantive discussion and seemed to me to be pure conjecture.

[KOKBILLS]

aim higher! The Seahawks won't let you down. Their message board must be sunshine, puppies and rainbows. Lol. I can't imagine.

I'm good friends with 3 Seahawks fans... All 3 live in Washington... They are all so happy and hopeful it makes me sick...

[CBD]

 

 

I listened to that and it was a fleeting question to Matt Bowen. No substantive discussion and seemed to me to be pure conjecture.

 

Bulldog has cited sources claiming the same thing on multiple occasions, FWIW

[LeGOATski]

Soooo much misinformation in this thread.

 

Media is taking advantage of all the negativity surrounding a bunch of preseason practice scrimmages and everyone is falling for it...hook, line, and sinker.

 

Quick, go click on some more links about Doug Marrone's melt down!

[26CornerBlitz]

@john_wawrow

I'm not sure that #Bills tensions report had much of anything accurate except that Marrone did erupt last week.

[machine gun kelly]

Remain Calm, All is Well!

 

[Bill from NYC]

 

 

I should have said the front office asked Parcells to say something about hiring DM. BP refused because he'd never had him on staff. It was clearly a PR maneuver to gin up support for the hiring.

 

My point is, the Bills got a guy, who like Parcells, doesn't hold back. Bills coaches in recent years have toed the company line more often than not when the team struggled on the field. DM isn't.

 

BV, I was against the Marrone hire. I considered him under credentialed and a Brandon Syracuse crony. I never hid this view. And, his clock management was really piss poor, especially at halftime. This is beyond dispute.

That said, I am sensing that you might admire what he did in this scenario, if of course it is true. I must say that again.....IF this is true, I actually am fond of what was alleged!

An announcer on Sirius said this afternoon that he was not into drafting EJ. I like the fact hat if Marrone goes down, he will go down swinging (unlike the slow blinking Jauron).

Look, this team has problems. We know this. But I am impressed with Marrone standing up. I am going to root even harder for him.

I really do hope that Coach Marrone is successful. I never thought that he would be but again, I love that if he tanks, he will go down fighting.

Am I making sense lol?

Edited September 5, 2014 by Bill from NYC

[YoloinOhio]

 

 

BV, I was against the Marrone hire. I considered him under credentialed and a Brandon Syracuse crony. I never hid this view. And, his clock management was really piss poor, especially at halftime. This is beyond dispute.

That said, I am sensing that you might admire what he did in this scenario, if of course it is true. I must say that again.....IF this is true, I actually am fond of what was alleged!

An announcer on Sirius said this afternoon that he was not into drafting EJ. I like the fact hat if Marrone goes down, he will go down swinging (unlike the slow blinking Jauron).

Look, this team has problems. We know this. But I am impressed with Marrone standing up. I am going to root even harder for him.

I really do hope that Coach Marrone is successful. I never thought that he would be but again, I love that if he tanks, he will go down fighting.

Am I making sense lol?

yes.

[Tipster19]

Now I understand a little bit more why Fred was re-signed, he bleeds blue.

[dayman]

When a new owner takes over it's either a bad roster or bad coaching or both. A maximum o one scenario works out for Doug--the one that most likely doesn't work out for Whaley.

Edited September 5, 2014 by MoreOffense

[Mango]

 

 

I do. And the PR dept doesn't tell the boss what to do. They make recommendations.

 

One key part missing. Marrone is far from "the boss".

[The Dean]

I just realized, this "Saint Doug" thing is really going to stick.

 

C'mon, it's funny. It has to be said as a joke. I think it should stick, for better or worse,

 

If you don't think the HC of a professional football team is major management I would like to see what you consider one? He is akin to a Director in the cooperate world. He is charge of the all the coaches and players. There is hierarchy underneath him. I am not saying he is the boss but to dismiss him as the Xs and Os guy is naive. I would suspect only two people are higher than him in Bills organization. Russ and Whaley. That said, it doesn't mean he can dictate what he wants outside of his domain of influence.

 

As with any director position he obviously has peers on a similar level as him.

 

I agree the HC is a major management position. I actually think it is higher than a Director position (depending, I suppose on what organization you are in). It is a Sr VP at least. President of a division is more like it, I think.

 

Or Marrone had been screaming for a veteran backup like Orton and he got Palmer. Reports state the Bills had been trying to sign Orton for a while. My guess is Ralph's bean counters wouldn't pony up. Thus the pissed offedness.

 

Could be the bean counters, but I doubt it. I think they were actively trying to sign him, but Orton was standing pat, and waiting. The argument could have been about that (unless is really was about Monos). Whaley could have been explaining he can't make Orton sign, or sign any faster, and he got them Palmer for the week. "Pick his brain on the Bears. Let him have a sit down or two with EJ. Maybe he won't suck so bad. And I'm still working on Orton!" All speculation of course. In the end they probably spent more than they had hoped, but far less than it might have cost them to sign him months earlier, while he was still "weighing his options."