MMQB: Rex told team playoffs were out of reach on 12/11

[Fadingpain]

My first impression of Anthony Lynn was in the 2015 OTAs when he had just come in as RB coach and AHC. At that time, Bryce Brown was still on the team. Some may recall that Bryce skipped voluntary OTAs, and said it was due to the birth of his child. They interviewed Lynn at one of the practice sessions and asked him about Bryce getting a chance to play, because a few weeks earlier Rex had something like he would learn his name once he learned to hang on to the football and laughed. Lynn looked visibly pissed and said he knew nothing about Bryce because he "had to get in the building first." Meanwhile his face said it all - his a** was grass because he showed no commitment to coming in and learning the new offense. I do not think that Club Rex is what Lynn will be running if hired.

That may well be true. Different man, different attitudes/behaviors, different outcomes.

 

My position is that Lynn is almost certainly not the most qualified man to be the HC of this team next year. Yet he will be hired regardless for various reasons already stated.

 

His hiring will amount to a cynical move on the part of Whaley, almost identical to Regier's hiring of Ron Rolston, and when Pegula finally catches on (he's always late with these things), Whaley will be gone along with Lynn.

 

And around the Merry Go Round goes.

 

It would be so much easier/better/faster to get to that next phase NOW instead of 2 years from now or less.

 

As I've said many times, we are all paying the price for Pegula coming up to speed with this stuff.

[4merper4mer]

What happens if EJ has a good game against the Jets this weekend? Does Whaley keep him and trade Tyrod? I think Doug is hoping EJ does good enough so that it justifies keeping him on the roster, thereby making Whaley look like he didn't waste a first round pick on him. Your thoughts?

 

 

Makes no sense. Whaley should only want to win whether it is with EJ, TT, CJ or Bugs friggin Bunny. If EJ goes out and plays the best game in the history of football it is still just one game and has very little impact on what happens in 2017. It is Whaley's job to put together a winning set of talent....not to be proven right or wrong over a previous pick. There is no way he cares more about being proven right about EJ than winning because only one of those two things will help him long term.

[Dr. Who]

All this about Whaley's ego and what he'll do next is insane. Whaley has one chance to keep his job: build a winner NOW. There's no more time to spare or ways to push off the inevitable. He's being given the authority to control his own future. If he doesn't find the right coach and personnel (starting QB) to make the playoffs in the next 2, maybe 3 years, he's fired and will more than likely not get another shot at a top level NFL office for a very long time.

 

He's not going to ride the rest of his career on EJ just because he drafted him years ago. He's not going to let the rest of his career ride on a coach just because he knows him and keep him under his thumb. He's going to make whatever decision he thinks is best for getting wins.

 

Now, if you think he's simply not talented enough as a GM to get that done, that's at least a fair argument. But saying he's going to throw his reputation out the window just because he's stubborn?

Well stated. I am ambivalent on Whaley. On balance, I think he is slightly above average, though evaluation of qbs is a question mark. I wish he placed accuracy more evidently in his top criteria. The innuendo that he is behind the leaks and actively subverts coaches is troubling if true. I do believe he will make choices that he believes are most likely to result in a winning team. Catfights and calculations to maintain power are meaningless when it is crystal clear the team needs to win or he is out.

Edited December 29, 2016 by Dr. Who

[C.Biscuit97]

Rex might not be smart. It seems he learned nothing from his mistakes in NJ.

[YoloinOhio]

Maybe not mathematically eliminated but the writing was pretty much dry....

And if you read the article it says much the same thing. 9-7 ain't getting it done, not this time around. So you can drag that dead horse out kick it again but it is still dead. Elvis has left the building. Next....

actually they would still be in contention right now had they beaten Miami, so why say they were eliminated?

[26CornerBlitz]

Rex might not be smart. It seems he learned nothing from his mistakes in NJ.

 

He vowed not to repeat those same mistakes upon arrival in Buffalo. Oh well.....next!

[Bookie Man]

The dude is just plain clueless. One of the years he made it to the conference championship, he said the same thing in a press conference. He said the were out, but they ended up getting the help they needed to get in, then went on a run.

That AFC championship game looks good on his resume, but the game almost never took place. Jets were pretty mediocre that year at 9-7. Sound familiar?

[PromoTheRobot]

What happens if EJ has a good game against the Jets this weekend? Does Whaley keep him and trade Tyrod? I think Doug is hoping EJ does good enough so that it justifies keeping him on the roster, thereby making Whaley look like he didn't waste a first round pick on him. Your thoughts?

What happens? Pretty much nothing. This is a preseason game for all intents and purposes. Both teams probably hoping they lose for draft position.

 

If EJ plays well he gets some nice film going into free agency.

[TPS]

That may well be true. Different man, different attitudes/behaviors, different outcomes.

 

My position is that Lynn is almost certainly not the most qualified man to be the HC of this team next year. Yet he will be hired regardless for various reasons already stated.

 

His hiring will amount to a cynical move on the part of Whaley, almost identical to Regier's hiring of Ron Rolston, and when Pegula finally catches on (he's always late with these things), Whaley will be gone along with Lynn.

 

And around the Merry Go Round goes.

 

It would be so much easier/better/faster to get to that next phase NOW instead of 2 years from now or less.

 

As I've said many times, we are all paying the price for Pegula coming up to speed with this stuff.

As someone stated elsewhere, Whaley isn't going to do something that guarantees he stays for a couple more years but ends in failure. Yes, he wants someone he can work with, but he wants someone who shares his philosophy on building a team. Lynn's run-oriented offense, even though the design is not his, fits Whaley's views. As stated, Lynn won't let the players jag off either. Pegulas should let him control things and give him his 2-3 year window. I for one think this combo will succeed, but no one can say for certain at this point.

[YoloinOhio]

The dude is just plain clueless. One of the years he made it to the conference championship, he said the same thing in a press conference. He said the were out, but they ended up getting the help they needed to get in, then went on a run.

That AFC championship game looks good on his resume, but the game almost never took place. Jets were pretty mediocre that year at 9-7. Sound familiar?

and they were a missed FG or missed DPI away from being in maybe the same position this year. One year you get lucky, the next one you don't.

[Acantha]

and they were a missed FG or missed DPI away from being in maybe the same position this year. One year you get lucky, the next one you don't.

Unless you're the Bills.

[Hapless Bills Fan]

Good point.

 

I give Rex most of the blame for the ****ty defense, but you have to give him credit for the offense. Without him bringing in the guys he did we aren't where we are in terms of rushing offense and points scored.

 

It would be stupid of Whaley to ruin that which is why I think it's a bad idea to NOT pick up Tyrods option. But in starting to think Whaleys ego will get in the way and he'll want to find "his guy" again.

 

I don't mean to pick on you but it is an eternal puzzle to me how fans decided who gets credit or blame for various personnel decisions. Apparently Whaley does not get credit for the Hughes trade, because he was only "director of pro personnel" at the time (the guy responsible for identifying pro player targets in FA and trade) on April 29, 2013, but he gets blame for Manuel on April 25, 2013 (despite not being GM yet and Nix stated determination to draft a QB) because he was "de facto GM". Whaley does not get credit for bringing in McCoy and Taylor because he was GM at the time, but somehow Rex does.

 

I think the bottom line is outside the org, we really don't know who was responsible for any of these, but at least some credit should go to the guy with the job title. If one wants to say Whaley was de-facto GM for Manuel, he was de-facto GM for Hughes. Given that Manuel's development was clearly not a sure bet in 2015, it was a logical thing for the Bills to sign or trade for the best available veteran QB they could get, the best available "dark horse" 2nd tier FA they could get, and find the best RB they could get - it's the competent, cover-all-bases choice.

[Wayne Arnold]

Watch! They are going to hire Lynn as HC. It will be akin to Darcy hiring Ron Rolston, and it will be Whaley's ticket out of town.

 

"All of this only worked to deepen the divide between coaches and the personnel staff. So the result is GM Doug Whaley surviving, and Ryan going; the fact that Whaley is leading the search is being perceived in the building as no mistake. His charge is not just to find a good coach, but one he can work with to build a more structurally sound football operation. And that’s why the feeling is that it’s Anthony Lynn’s job to lose. If the burden for Whaley is to find someone he can work with efficiently, it’s a lot safer to go with someone you know rather than someone you don’t."

 

Lynn would likely be the smartest hire.

 

Fans don't like smart hires - they like BIG SPLASHES!!

[YoloinOhio]

 

Lynn would likely be the smartest hire.

 

Fans don't like smart hires - they like BIG SPLASHES!!

Terry probably feels burned by his big splash hire ... I can see why he hired Rex as he wanted to show he could bring a big name coach to Buffalo and they had just bought the team. He also wanted to show Marrone they could replace him with what he thought was an upgrade. And he was the anti-marrone. Neither one were good head coaches but we needed then and need now more substance, less flash.

[K-9]

Shades of Wade.

[dave mcbride]

Shades of Wade.

yep - 7-6 going into the Colts game!

[Hapless Bills Fan]

My first impression of Anthony Lynn was in the 2015 OTAs when he had just come in as RB coach and AHC. At that time, Bryce Brown was still on the team. Some may recall that Bryce skipped voluntary OTAs, and said it was due to the birth of his child. They interviewed Lynn at one of the practice sessions and asked him about Bryce getting a chance to play, because a few weeks earlier Rex had something like he would learn his name once he learned to hang on to the football and laughed. Lynn looked visibly pissed and said he knew nothing about Bryce because he "had to get in the building first." Meanwhile his face said it all - his a** was grass because he showed no commitment to coming in and learning the new offense. I do not think that Club Rex is what Lynn will be running if hired.

 

I hadn't realized Lynn's background as a player:

"The 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m) Lynn played at Celina High School and later at Texas Tech (1988–91), where he was an All-Southwest Conference running back in 1990. His senior year was cut short by a knee injury, and concerns about the injury left him undrafted. He was a journeyman reserve running back and special teams player during his NFL career, playing for the Denver Broncos (1993, 1997–99) and San Francisco 49ers (1995–96). He retired in 2000 due to repeated neck stinger injuries. Lynn was part of Denver's back-to-back Super Bowl champion teams (1997–98).^[2] In 1997 he had his best personal year as an NFL player."

 

This is a guy who knows it from the player's side. Knows what it takes to play on winning teams (SF, Den). Knows what it takes to be a Super Bowl Champion - has 2 rings. Knows what it's like to be "slow getting up". Knows what it's like to play hurt and rehab from injury. That commands a certain respect in the locker room.

 

Things I'd like to know: he aspires to be a HC or OC and apparently has for a long time, yet he chose to stay as RB coach for a long time with the Jets and in fact left one team rather than switch from RB to ST assistant (or maybe didn't like the HC) . Was this due to lack of opportunity to move into OC positions, or to take different assistant positions to better "learn the business", or was it a choice for other reasons (family stability, for example)?

 

What did "assistant HC" mean under Rex? What did he do? How much exposure does he have to the actual roles and responsibilities of HC?

 

Someone referred to Lynn's "military background" but I don't see signs of that in his Wiki. What's up there? He's a Texas kid where they take their HS football practically as religion, and attended Texas Tech.

[MDH]

Maybe not mathematically eliminated but the writing was pretty much dry....

And if you read the article it says much the same thing. 9-7 ain't getting it done, not this time around. So you can drag that dead horse out kick it again but it is still dead. Elvis has left the building. Next....

 

Beat the Dolphins and a team would have gotten in at 9-7.

[Freddie's Dead]

If true, this alone is a fireable offense. This kind of thinking cost Wade Philllips his job, when he declared that the Bills were "out of it", when they weren't. I'm glad Ryan's Reign of Error has come to an end, but I'm not at all optimistic about the Bills future. Somebody at OBD is using the media to advance their agenda instead of handling their bidness in private. The signs point to Doug Whaley or perhaps Russ Brandon. If I'm Pegula, these leaks do not make me comfortable with the front office as currently constructed. Yet somehow Whaley survives. Say what you want about Tim Graham, but he's right. Whaley has more lives than a cat.

[26CornerBlitz]

If true, this alone is a fireable offense. This kind of thinking cost Wade Philllips his job, when he declared that the Bills were "out of it", when they weren't. I'm glad Ryan's Reign of Error has come to an end, but I'm not at all optimistic about the Bills future. Somebody at OBD is using the media to advance their agenda instead of handling their bidness in private. The signs point to Doug Whaley or perhaps Russ Brandon. If I'm Pegula, these leaks do not make me comfortable with the front office as currently constructed. Yet somehow Whaley survives. Say what you want about Tim Graham, but he's right. Whaley has more lives than a cat.