Was Doug Whaley the Browns Rooney Rule Interview for GM?

[Call_Of_Ktulu]

1 hour ago, blacklabel said:

Whaley = great scout, but not a great team builder. He has a good eye for talent, I just don't think his philosophy of drafting guys from big time/winning programs and expecting those young guys to carry that winning tradition over into the NFL.

 

Good eye for talent? He took a chance on Hughes and it payed off. Shady was already a top 3 rb,everyone already knew he was great. 

 

His eye eye for talent might have only applied to defense which he was very average at.

 

He was the worst at evaluating the most important position in football which is QB. 

 

The Dareus signing was a complete blunder.

 

Trading up to get Watkins in one of the deepest WR drafts ever is epically bad.

 

When the Brown's won't sign you that means you sucked at your job and try to do something else. 

[Buffalo_Stampede]

13 minutes ago, Big Curt said:

I believe Doug Whaley has a great eye for talent and is a great scout.  He wasn't a great GM because he was so concerned with ending the playoff drought that he didn't "build for the future".  A GM has to look 5 to 10 years down the road and not put a Band-Aid on the team.   If you look at the talent that was traded away or let go in free agency, you see these players are top contributors on their new teams.  I think many Bills fans have condemned this man and not given him enough praise for the job he did.  The Bills had more talent under his watch then we've had in many years.   His lack of finding a QB and giving up too much for Sammy Watkins as well as trying to pay for all his high priced talent in the rush to end the drought was his downfall.  I think he learned his lesson and will make a great GM one day. To answer the question.  Yes.  This was the Rooney rule in effect and it sucks to be the "token minority" when there's no legitimate chance of being hired. 

Finding a QB is a lot harder than you make it sound. There weren't a lot of franchise QBs available to him. 

6 minutes ago, Call_Of_Ktulu said:

 

Good eye for talent? He took a chance on Hughes and it payed off. Shady was already a top 3 rb,everyone already knew he was great. 

 

His eye eye for talent might have only applied to defense which he was very average at.

 

He was the worst at evaluating the most important position in football which is QB. 

 

The Dareus signing was a complete blunder.

 

Trading up to get Watkins in one of the deepest WR drafts ever is epically bad.

 

When the Brown's won't sign you that means you sucked at your job and try to do something else. 

This is BS. 

[Call_Of_Ktulu]

44 minutes ago, simool said:

I don't see how anyone can properly grade Whaley's performance as GM, he never got to pick his coach, and he was grocery shopping for several different systems.  He has a nose for talent.  I believe he will get another chance someday and it will be the right chance where he gets to call the ball, and we will be sorry.

 

Much like Kansas City is going to be sorry when Dorsey turns the Browns into a winner.

 

I am not concerned in the least about that happing. I wanted Whaley out of here after his 2nd year as GM, he is a big reason we are in this drought. 

[GunnerBill]

1 minute ago, Call_Of_Ktulu said:

 

I am not concerned in the least about that happing. I wanted Whaley out of here after his 2nd year as GM, he is a big reason we are in this drought. 

 

Nah.  Whaley's roster in 2015 would have ended the drought with semi competent coaching.  It is the best roster we have had in well over a decade.  Blame that squarely on the Pegulas.  

[dpberr]

Whaley is a top notch pro personnel guy.  Had an eye for those affordable high performers.  

 

Unfortunately, he's a lousy drafter.  If he's a GM again, he needs to acknowledge this and get some draft nerds to help make wiser choices.  

[Buffalo_Stampede]

4 minutes ago, dpberr said:

Whaley is a top notch pro personnel guy.  Had an eye for those affordable high performers.  

 

Unfortunately, he's a lousy drafter.  If he's a GM again, he needs to acknowledge this and get some draft nerds to help make wiser choices.  

Biggest problem was the coaching carousel and scheme changes. The mistakes were made above Whaley. 

[hondo in seattle]

20 minutes ago, dpberr said:

Whaley is a top notch pro personnel guy.  Had an eye for those affordable high performers.  

 

Unfortunately, he's a lousy drafter.  If he's a GM again, he needs to acknowledge this and get some draft nerds to help make wiser choices.  

 

Agree.

[blacklabel]

19 minutes ago, Call_Of_Ktulu said:

 

Good eye for talent? He took a chance on Hughes and it payed off. Shady was already a top 3 rb,everyone already knew he was great. 

 

His eye eye for talent might have only applied to defense which he was very average at.

 

He was the worst at evaluating the most important position in football which is QB. 

 

The Dareus signing was a complete blunder.

 

Trading up to get Watkins in one of the deepest WR drafts ever is epically bad.

 

When the Brown's won't sign you that means you sucked at your job and try to do something else. 

 

Yeah, he has a good eye for talent. He's a good scout. That doesn't mean he's a good GM. He didn't work his way up the front office ladder in Pittsburgh because he was clueless. Steelers are one of the most well-run organizations in all of sports. That's why I was excited when they hired Whaley. I figured he'd bring to Buffalo what he learned in Pittsburgh and I'm sure he tried it just never worked.

 

He absolutely nailed the Hughes trade because the player they gave up was Kelvin Sheppard who has since bounced around to a bunch of different teams, mostly in back-up/special teams roles. In fact I think the Bills see him this Sunday as he's on the Colts now.

 

Alonso for McCoy, yeah, no brainer. 

 

He didn't draft Dareus, Nix did, and it was the right pick at that time. Nobody complained when Dareus received his extension because he had just come off excellent seasons in 2013 and 2014. He was starting to turn the corner and show that he could be a truly dominant DT. Now had they not extended him, this fan base would have been livid. "There goes another one of our best players! Walks away and we get nothing!" So with that logic, he really can't win either way, can he? Sign him and it's a mistake. Don't sign him, also a mistake. For years fans whined endlessly about how this team consistently would not re-sign key players. Once they started doing that, everyone starts going, "No no, not that way, not that guy!" Can't win.

 

Dareus fizzled out here because he was stuck in a scheme for two years that didn't suit him. He's in Jacksonville now, playing well as part of one of the top defenses in the league. 

 

The Watkins trade in hindsight doesn't look great, but before that, fans were constantly upset that no Bills GM would make any moves during draft day. Nix wouldn't budge on his picks. The super-duo of Marv and Russ were clueless so they didn't bounce around in the draft. There weren't any player for player or player for picks trades. People be like, "They need to make moves if they wanna win! They need to take risks and be bold!" So Whaley comes in and he's almost a polar opposite of Nix and Marv/Russ. He swings trades, he keeps the phone lines open, he makes bold moves. He does what fans had been calling for a Bills front office to do for years. What's he get for it? Crapped on. 

 

Whaley did find some street FAs that happened to play really well, Gillislee for instance. And Justin Hunter last season was a nice addition. 

 

So let's not act as though the man came in and was a trainwreck from the start. He was able to retain guys like Dareus, Hughes and Glenn at a time when it seemed those players were gonna be cornerstones for the franchise (think around 2014). Had those guys left, fans would've wanted him fired for not signing them. He signs them, they still want him fired. 

 

And look around the league right now, there are a number of former Bills, drafted or signed by Whaley who are doing pretty well with their new teams. Woods has been balling in LA. Watkins is finally coming around. Robey-Coleman is also out there and is their starting nickel CB. Chris Hogan has an important role in NE. Like I said, a good eye for talent but was never very good at team chemistry and finding the right types of players for the locker room. Is what it is.

 

What exactly can any of these executives or coaches do to truly appease this fan base? Cause absolutely NOTHING is ever good enough. I swear, this team is gonna win the Super Bowl one day and during the parade there's gonna be a truckload of fans screaming about how McD (or whoever is coach by then) mismanaged his time outs or how he should've challenged that one play. "Yeah, they won the Super Bowl, but NOT IN THE WAY I WANTED!"

 

And what are your contingency plans for when you start screaming for coaches and executives to be fired? "Hire this guy here, I know he's good, I read an article and heard a guy talk about him on NFL Network, he is the best ever!" 

 

We all get it. 17 years of suck, well, sucks. We're impatient. But for cripes sake, if anyone thinks constantly hitting the reset button every other season is going to fix this team, you're wrong. Doing that will only keep them in the cycle of suck for even longer. 

 

[Dr. K]

1 hour ago, simool said:

I don't see how anyone can properly grade Whaley's performance as GM, he never got to pick his coach, and he was grocery shopping for several different systems.  He has a nose for talent.  I believe he will get another chance someday and it will be the right chance where he gets to call the ball, and we will be sorry.

 

Much like Kansas City is going to be sorry when Dorsey turns the Browns into a winner.

This is my take, too . He will get another chance, sooner or later, with another team. 

15 minutes ago, blacklabel said:

 

Yeah, he has a good eye for talent. He's a good scout. That doesn't mean he's a good GM. He didn't work his way up the front office ladder in Pittsburgh because he was clueless. Steelers are one of the most well-run organizations in all of sports. That's why I was excited when they hired Whaley. I figured he'd bring to Buffalo what he learned in Pittsburgh and I'm sure he tried it just never worked.

 

He absolutely nailed the Hughes trade because the player they gave up was Kelvin Sheppard who has since bounced around to a bunch of different teams, mostly in back-up/special teams roles. In fact I think the Bills see him this Sunday as he's on the Colts now.

 

Alonso for McCoy, yeah, no brainer. 

 

He didn't draft Dareus, Nix did, and it was the right pick at that time. Nobody complained when Dareus received his extension because he had just come off excellent seasons in 2013 and 2014. He was starting to turn the corner and show that he could be a truly dominant DT. Now had they not extended him, this fan base would have been livid. "There goes another one of our best players! Walks away and we get nothing!" So with that logic, he really can't win either way, can he? Sign him and it's a mistake. Don't sign him, also a mistake. For years fans whined endlessly about how this team consistently would not re-sign key players. Once they started doing that, everyone starts going, "No no, not that way, not that guy!" Can't win.

 

Dareus fizzled out here because he was stuck in a scheme for two years that didn't suit him. He's in Jacksonville now, playing well as part of one of the top defenses in the league. 

 

The Watkins trade in hindsight doesn't look great, but before that, fans were constantly upset that no Bills GM would make any moves during draft day. Nix wouldn't budge on his picks. The super-duo of Marv and Russ were clueless so they didn't bounce around in the draft. There weren't any player for player or player for picks trades. People be like, "They need to make moves if they wanna win! They need to take risks and be bold!" So Whaley comes in and he's almost a polar opposite of Nix and Marv/Russ. He swings trades, he keeps the phone lines open, he makes bold moves. He does what fans had been calling for a Bills front office to do for years. What's he get for it? Crapped on. 

 

Whaley did find some street FAs that happened to play really well, Gillislee for instance. And Justin Hunter last season was a nice addition. 

 

So let's not act as though the man came in and was a trainwreck from the start. He was able to retain guys like Dareus, Hughes and Glenn at a time when it seemed those players were gonna be cornerstones for the franchise (think around 2014). Had those guys left, fans would've wanted him fired for not signing them. He signs them, they still want him fired. 

 

And look around the league right now, there are a number of former Bills, drafted or signed by Whaley who are doing pretty well with their new teams. Woods has been balling in LA. Watkins is finally coming around. Robey-Coleman is also out there and is their starting nickel CB. Chris Hogan has an important role in NE. Like I said, a good eye for talent but was never very good at team chemistry and finding the right types of players for the locker room. Is what it is.

 

What exactly can any of these executives or coaches do to truly appease this fan base? Cause absolutely NOTHING is ever good enough. I swear, this team is gonna win the Super Bowl one day and during the parade there's gonna be a truckload of fans screaming about how McD (or whoever is coach by then) mismanaged his time outs or how he should've challenged that one play. "Yeah, they won the Super Bowl, but NOT IN THE WAY I WANTED!"

 

And what are your contingency plans for when you start screaming for coaches and executives to be fired? "Hire this guy here, I know he's good, I read an article and heard a guy talk about him on NFL Network, he is the best ever!" 

 

We all get it. 17 years of suck, well, sucks. We're impatient. But for cripes sake, if anyone thinks constantly hitting the reset button every other season is going to fix this team, you're wrong. Doing that will only keep them in the cycle of suck for even longer. 

 

THIS, too.

[Buffalo Bills Fan]

32 minutes ago, blacklabel said:

 

Yeah, he has a good eye for talent. He's a good scout. That doesn't mean he's a good GM. He didn't work his way up the front office ladder in Pittsburgh because he was clueless. Steelers are one of the most well-run organizations in all of sports. That's why I was excited when they hired Whaley. I figured he'd bring to Buffalo what he learned in Pittsburgh and I'm sure he tried it just never worked.

 

He absolutely nailed the Hughes trade because the player they gave up was Kelvin Sheppard who has since bounced around to a bunch of different teams, mostly in back-up/special teams roles. In fact I think the Bills see him this Sunday as he's on the Colts now.

 

Alonso for McCoy, yeah, no brainer. 

 

He didn't draft Dareus, Nix did, and it was the right pick at that time. Nobody complained when Dareus received his extension because he had just come off excellent seasons in 2013 and 2014. He was starting to turn the corner and show that he could be a truly dominant DT. Now had they not extended him, this fan base would have been livid. "There goes another one of our best players! Walks away and we get nothing!" So with that logic, he really can't win either way, can he? Sign him and it's a mistake. Don't sign him, also a mistake. For years fans whined endlessly about how this team consistently would not re-sign key players. Once they started doing that, everyone starts going, "No no, not that way, not that guy!" Can't win.

 

Dareus fizzled out here because he was stuck in a scheme for two years that didn't suit him. He's in Jacksonville now, playing well as part of one of the top defenses in the league. 

 

The Watkins trade in hindsight doesn't look great, but before that, fans were constantly upset that no Bills GM would make any moves during draft day. Nix wouldn't budge on his picks. The super-duo of Marv and Russ were clueless so they didn't bounce around in the draft. There weren't any player for player or player for picks trades. People be like, "They need to make moves if they wanna win! They need to take risks and be bold!" So Whaley comes in and he's almost a polar opposite of Nix and Marv/Russ. He swings trades, he keeps the phone lines open, he makes bold moves. He does what fans had been calling for a Bills front office to do for years. What's he get for it? Crapped on. 

 

Whaley did find some street FAs that happened to play really well, Gillislee for instance. And Justin Hunter last season was a nice addition. 

 

So let's not act as though the man came in and was a trainwreck from the start. He was able to retain guys like Dareus, Hughes and Glenn at a time when it seemed those players were gonna be cornerstones for the franchise (think around 2014). Had those guys left, fans would've wanted him fired for not signing them. He signs them, they still want him fired. 

 

And look around the league right now, there are a number of former Bills, drafted or signed by Whaley who are doing pretty well with their new teams. Woods has been balling in LA. Watkins is finally coming around. Robey-Coleman is also out there and is their starting nickel CB. Chris Hogan has an important role in NE. Like I said, a good eye for talent but was never very good at team chemistry and finding the right types of players for the locker room. Is what it is.

 

What exactly can any of these executives or coaches do to truly appease this fan base? Cause absolutely NOTHING is ever good enough. I swear, this team is gonna win the Super Bowl one day and during the parade there's gonna be a truckload of fans screaming about how McD (or whoever is coach by then) mismanaged his time outs or how he should've challenged that one play. "Yeah, they won the Super Bowl, but NOT IN THE WAY I WANTED!"

 

And what are your contingency plans for when you start screaming for coaches and executives to be fired? "Hire this guy here, I know he's good, I read an article and heard a guy talk about him on NFL Network, he is the best ever!" 

 

We all get it. 17 years of suck, well, sucks. We're impatient. But for cripes sake, if anyone thinks constantly hitting the reset button every other season is going to fix this team, you're wrong. Doing that will only keep them in the cycle of suck for even longer. 

 

 

Rex Ryan hire killed everything for Whaley. IMO

[Bing Bong]

2 hours ago, TheTruthHurts said:

Wish we knew his involvement in the Rex Ryan hire. The Bills were very loaded talent wise, one of the most talented in the NFL under Whaley .

So true. The truth hurts.

[H2o]

3 hours ago, 26CornerBlitz said:

 

Doug Whaley: "Can we get on with this Jimmy? I've got a hot lunch date someone paid for to get to."

[Mat68]

From the outside looking in Whaley was very good at identifying NFL talent.  Imo he was not a good communicator or leader.  imo he was manipulated too much by Brandon to go with the flashy move over the right move more often than not.  The trade up for Watkins looks terrible with the success of Mack and the other Wrs drafted later in the draft.  His major down fall was not finding a Qb.  The other stuff gets overlooked if there is a qb to hide the the warts.

[yungmack]

2 hours ago, Big Curt said:

I believe Doug Whaley has a great eye for talent and is a great scout.  He wasn't a great GM because he was so concerned with ending the playoff drought that he didn't "build for the future".  A GM has to look 5 to 10 years down the road and not put a Band-Aid on the team.   If you look at the talent that was traded away or let go in free agency, you see these players are top contributors on their new teams.  I think many Bills fans have condemned this man and not given him enough praise for the job he did.  The Bills had more talent under his watch then we've had in many years.   His lack of finding a QB and giving up too much for Sammy Watkins as well as trying to pay for all his high priced talent in the rush to end the drought was his downfall.  I think he learned his lesson and will make a great GM one day. To answer the question.  Yes.  This was the Rooney rule in effect and it sucks to be the "token minority" when there's no legitimate chance of being hired. 

Didn't build for the future? Good Lord Almighty, look at the picks he made -- many of them now playing well for teams across the league -- and how they fit. He also put together a stellar scouting staff that was particularly adept at finding pros from other teams who fit in quite well. Whaley was hit with two coaches, Marrone and Ryan, who were either stubborn, belligerent or, in Wrecks case, lazy, who did either did not properly use the talent he gave them or demanded the Bills sign their dregs (Rex's Jets mafia) and use the precious draft picks on "their kind of player."

 

Whaley had the misfortune of having an aged and sick owner followed by a tentative newbie owner. I would like to see how he'd have done had both the Wilson Mafia and the Pegs said, "You're in charge completely, you're our football czar." I suspect this whole thing would have worked out far, far better and we'd now be confidently discussing how far into the post season the 2017 Bills would be going.

[Pine Barrens Mafia]

2 hours ago, dpberr said:

Whaley is a top notch pro personnel guy.  Had an eye for those affordable high performers.  

 

Unfortunately, he's a lousy drafter.  If he's a GM again, he needs to acknowledge this and get some draft nerds to help make wiser choices.  

 

This guy gets it. His drafts were atrocious.

 

15 minutes ago, yungmack said:

Didn't build for the future? Good Lord Almighty, look at the picks he made -- many of them now playing well for teams across the league -- and how they fit. He also put together a stellar scouting staff that was particularly adept at finding pros from other teams who fit in quite well. Whaley was hit with two coaches, Marrone and Ryan, who were either stubborn, belligerent or, in Wrecks case, lazy, who did either did not properly use the talent he gave them or demanded the Bills sign their dregs (Rex's Jets mafia) and use the precious draft picks on "their kind of player."

 

Whaley had the misfortune of having an aged and sick owner followed by a tentative newbie owner. I would like to see how he'd have done had both the Wilson Mafia and the Pegs said, "You're in charge completely, you're our football czar." I suspect this whole thing would have worked out far, far better and we'd now be confidently discussing how far into the post season the 2017 Bills would be going.

 

I think you're giving him and his picks way too much credit.

 

[Buftex]

Personally, I think Whaley was fine...he got the guys that the coaches wanted, and it cost him.  Changing schemes with Ryan (the biggest mistake hire that the owners could have made), when the team he had put together, under Marrone was on the cusp of being very, very good.  Hiring Rex was like re-building, when you really didn't need to.  There seems to be plenty of indication that Rex was not Whaley's choice as QB.  He wanted to hire Hue Jackson.  The Browns, in the last few days, said that Hue Jackson will be back next year...so, maybe the Browns are thinking they need a GM who wants Hue Jackson as their coach?

 

 

[Big Curt]

3 hours ago, TheTruthHurts said:

Finding a QB is a lot harder than you make it sound. There weren't a lot of franchise QBs available to him. 

This is BS. 

I'm not saying finding a QB is easy.  The fact that he struck out on EJ and gave up a 1st rounder for Sammy Watkins was his down fall.  Finding a franchise QB is the hardest thing  to find in sports. 

[Jacobo Peterman]

4 hours ago, ProcessTheTrust said:

Maybe, but it's not like he has the worst GM record ever. Probably will have to take a position lower to work his way back up though.

 

If not the worst ever he would certainly make the roll call along with Donahue. He will probably receive a nice honorarium for fulfilling the Rooney requirement 

over the next several years. 

Teams only need to cite the January 2017 presser which couldn't have gone much worse.  After that I don't know if he could lead a Cub Scout Pack let alone an NFL team.

Poor drafts, Poor Contracts, Poor Cap management, just like coaches some guys are great assistants but don't have what it takes to be the head guy. 

 

[OldTimeAFLGuy]

5 hours ago, frostbitmic said:

Of course he was ... The Browns knew who they wanted when they fired their GM earlier this week.

 

 

....the rule is a joke.......can't imagine if you are a coach of color what it must feel like when they call you for an interview.....are they REALLY interested or am I just their "rule satisfier"?........

[Mr. WEO]

They did it over lunch with Doug----they put in the winning bid!

 

As for "Whaley never got to pick his now coach"...this gets endlessly repeated, but is there any reporting that says Pegula vetoed Hue Jackson?

 

And I'll just say that if Hue was Doug's first pick,  that's even worse than Rex.  He's 1-27.  He has won a single game in the NFL the past two seasons!  That's nearly impossible.  Every human alive could have only one 1 game worse coaching the Browns than Jackson.

 

An awful choice.