Doug Whaley Has Landed a New Job

[Bing Bong]

 And can we put ourselves in Whaley's shoes in that PC? Imagine, your boss has fired everybody you've worked without indicating what they have planned for you. You've busted your *** trying to make things work for your horrible coworker who would squander any talent you bring even in a miracle. Boss throws you in a PC without telling you the future, you know you're likely getting fired, you're really pissed off but have to publicly say you don't know jack about what your boss is going to do, and hold back your anger about the exact situation you're placed in so as not to commit career suicide.

 

Could some have handled that more gracefully? I guess, but that skillset doesn't anything to do with being a good GM/whatever job you do. Personally.. I would have exploded. and I bet most would in that situation. 

 

"I DON'T KNOW WHY THE **** I'M UP HERE, ASK THE PEGULAS THESE QUESTIONS CAUSE THEY AIN'T TELLING ME ANYTHING. //madly runs around to each reporter// DO YOU KNOW WHAT TERRY IS THINKING. DO YOU KNOW WHY I'M UP HERE? CAUSE I DON'T. WHY DON'T YOU GET ON THE PODIUM REPORTER CAUSE I'M WONDERING THE SAME THING. **** IT I KNOW WHAT'S GOING TO HAPPEN, TERRY'S FIRING ME! HE THREW REX AT ME WHEN I HAD A GOOD THING GOING AND NOW I WON'T HAVE JOB. BUT I DON'T KNOW WHEN THE HELL I'M GETTING FIRED. so uh.. Terry's great and all. Uh.. ya'll remember my 2014 defense? Let's just talk about that I guess."

I swear if that happens on a more publicized team.. the Packers or Cowboys GM. The national media would be all over how dysfunctional the owners looked. Who sends their strategy guy to hold a PC who knows he's getting fired. Owners too chicken**** to say what's on their mind. Pegulas are cool and all. But I'd qualify anybody in Whaley's situation as a justified disgruntled employee. Not their finest hour.

[Kmart128]

Whaley would make a better director of pro personnel rather than college scouting. He was always able to find talent in free agency from players that were overlooked

[ColoradoBills]

Most NFL GM's have 3 main jobs.

 

1.  Putting together a long term organizational plan with the people who can execute it.

2.  Acquiring football talent.

3.  Managing the 1st 2 jobs.

 

Doug Whaley did not do all 3 of these things.  If the owners or head coaches wouldn't give him the power to do that he

should of insisted they did.  If he did that and Pegula still let him go,  he would of been a better candidate for some other team.

Instead he let people walk all over him.  That is not what a General Manager is suppose to do.

 

I wish him the best.  I hope he has learned from his Buffalo experience.

[NoSaint]

2 hours ago, C.Biscuit97 said:

The Whaley hate is so stupid.  He wasn’t good at press conferences.  He never got to pick his head coach.  Compare this year’s roster with the 2014 one.  A franchise qb in 2014 might have been a SB contender.  Dude got a lot of talent and for how bad of a drafter he supposedly was, a lot of his draft picks are making a bunch of money in the nfl still.

 

Yup.

 

and honestly, I’m assuming this is a nice 6 figure job that allows him to be around the sport while not having it crush an outside life. I know we assume the dream is to be at the top but it seems like it could be a pretty nice niche he found.

[BuffaloRush]

1 hour ago, Happy Gilmore said:

 

Some people get it.  Whaley never got a completely fair shot at being a GM.  Terry should have been the person at the press conference explaining the Rex firing, not Whaley.  Whaley was Rex's peer, Pegula was Rex's boss; big difference.  I do have to say that Whaley's drafting was pretty average, and unfortunately he'll always have the Sammy deal and lack of viable QB anvil around his neck; these probably did him in.  Where Whaley excelled was FA acquisitions where he found several diamonds in the rough.

 

Agree to an extent.  There certainly were barriers in Buffalo which made his job difficult.  But you can also argue that Whaley didn’t really do enough to earn a “fair shot” at being GM.  I would argue his drafting has been slightly “below average,” as Whaley had never drafted a Pro Bowl player in the 3 drafts that he was responsible for.  

 

I would say he excelled at FA acquisitions.  There’s several situations where he overspent for players in FA that really never panned out like Charles Clay or Percy Harvin.   He was good at finding Under the radar type FA’s.  

 

According to Tim Graham, the Pegulas wanted to clean house after the 2014 season.   It seemed like despite giving him an extension, The Pegulas never had 100% confidence in Whaley, and like I said, it’s hard to fault them as his performance as GM was suspect.

 

Unfortunately, Terry made the same mistake with the Bills as he had with the Sabres.  He empowered the wrong people for way longer than he should have.

 

[BillsVet]

11 hours ago, Dr. Who said:

Whaley was a hard-working fella who was saddled with coaches he probably would not have chosen and new owners finding their way. On balance, he was a mediocre GM, but I don't think he was the disaster some appear to believe. Regardless, I have sympathy for the difficulty that must be involved in having to speak publicly when one is less than comfortable doing so. Folks ought to just wish him the best in what is not a particularly prestigious position. Those who take the opportunity to get in one last snide dig are pretty shabby, imo.

 

Whaley was also the guy who was leaking to the media at the end of 2016 that it was all Rex's fault.  RR is obviously a loudmouth who didn't work extremely hard, but it's difficult to land another NFL job when you're blasting the HC through the front office.  And I fully acknowledge that him not getting to hire a HC was not ideal.  Brandon essentially hired Marrone and of course TPegs chose RR.  

 

That said, it doesn't surprise me Whaley isn't in the NFL yet.  He's gonna have to earn his way back into the league after his personnel decisions and behind the scenes shenanigans.  That, and he wasn't know as the hardest working dude in the league. 

Edited June 21, 2018 by BillsVet

[Happy]

8 minutes ago, BuffaloRush said:

 But you can also argue that Whaley didn’t really do enough to earn a “fair shot” at being GM.

 

He never got to choose HIS head coach.  Neither Marrone or Rex were his first choices.  Coaching matters; Rex should have taught everyone that if they didn't already know.

 

7 minutes ago, BuffaloRush said:

There’s several situations where he overspent for players in FA that really never panned out like Charles Clay or Percy Harvin.

 

Clay's contract was front loaded so the Dolphins couldn't match it.  He's still on the team and while not the best TE in the league, is far from the worst.  Clay is not a premiere TE, but he is certainly good enough that you had to overspend on him a bit.  Percy Harvin signed a 1 year, $1.5M contract; very much a prove it deal at a time when the Bills badly needed WRs; Sammy Watkins and Robert Woods were injured, along with most of the corps.  Not too bad for a receiver that had explosive potential.  It didn't work out, ultimately, but little was lost.

[Mr. WEO]

3 hours ago, C.Biscuit97 said:

The Whaley hate is so stupid.  He wasn’t good at press conferences.  He never got to pick his head coach.  Compare this year’s roster with the 2014 one.  A franchise qb in 2014 might have been a SB contender.  Dude got a lot of talent and for how bad of a drafter he supposedly was, a lot of his draft picks are making a bunch of money in the nfl still.

 

 

Stupid is STILL claiming Whaley didn't ever pick his own HC.  Christ, he put that to rest himself 3 years ago.  Just stop.

 

A GM makes his career by the HC and QB he picks--in fact that's his real job, the rest is gravy.  He drafted  a bunch of guys who are still bouncing around the league.  The Bills improved and continue to do so as soon as he was given the long delayed boot.

 

He failed miserably at both.  Let it go....

Edited June 21, 2018 by Mr. WEO

[B Fan in LA]

Some of us are old enough to remember Bill Polian as GM.

Bill Polian built the Buffalo Bills into a powerhouse that won the AFC title 4 times in a row.

Not the AFC East....the AFC. ............Four straight trips to the Super Bowl.

After Polian was fired, he went to the Carolina Panthers and almost won a Super Bowl in his 2nd year.

After Carolina, Polian took over the Indianapolis Colts and built them into a powerhouse.

Bill Polian is a 10 as a GM, IMHO.

 

Doug Whaley is a 2................maybe.

Best of luck in your new job, Doug.

[Buffalo86]

Sorry, guys.  I come not to praise Whaley, but to bury him.  

 

Doug Whaley being cut loose was my happiest Bills moment of the last decade or so.  It signaled an official end to 11 years (11!) of looking within an inept front office for the latest crony GM hire.  No more taking advantage of owners' fading mental capacity or lack of experience; the gravy train had finally left the station.  

 

IMO, Whaley was a yes man, more interested in keeping his job than in doing what was best for the team.  Upset that the owners didn't let you pick your own coach?  Maybe telling the world that you're soul mates who can complete each other's sentences isn't the best way to handle it.  Add in an unwillingness to accept mistakes & an inability to play well with others, and you get a man who faces very steep odds of ever being an NFL GM again. 

[BuffBillsForLife]

I don't like Whaley.  But I'm glad to see him get a job doing scouting, which is what he's good at.  He's great at finding diamonds in the rough, although as we found out most can only be polished so much.

[Doc Brown]

Tips to succeed as a GM 

 

-Find an elite franchise quarterback.

-Don't completely suck at everything else.

[Thurman#1]

20 hours ago, Seanbillsfan2206 said:

I don’t hate Doug Whaley. The trade for Hughes is one of the best trades in the history of the team. Unfortunately the trade to land Watkins is probably one of the worst. It was a makes or break move, too bad we didn’t have a QB to get him the ball...

 

 

Yes, but the trade for Hughes was under Nix's watch. Whaley may have had something to do with it, but he didn't pull the trigger.

 

I don't hate him either, but I'm very glad they moved on.

[Thurman#1]

5 hours ago, Happy Gilmore said:

 

He never got to choose HIS head coach.  Neither Marrone or Rex were his first choices.  Coaching matters; Rex should have taught everyone that if they didn't already know.

 

 

Clay's contract was front loaded so the Dolphins couldn't match it.  He's still on the team and while not the best TE in the league, is far from the worst.  Clay is not a premiere TE, but he is certainly good enough that you had to overspend on him a bit.  Percy Harvin signed a 1 year, $1.5M contract; very much a prove it deal at a time when the Bills badly needed WRs; Sammy Watkins and Robert Woods were injured, along with most of the corps.  Not too bad for a receiver that had explosive potential.  It didn't work out, ultimately, but little was lost.

 

 

Harvin's first deal was a three year contract actually built to be a one-year contract. $6 mill for 2015. Yeah, they brought him back for the year you're mentioning but that first deal was a bad one and the Clay deal - while I like Clay - has looked so far like a serious overpayment.

 

And if he never got to pick his head coach it's probably because he didn't force the issue. He had a chance to do so either time. Particularly with the Pegulas and Rex, if he'd said he couldn't work with Rex, they likely would have listened, as he was the main football guy at that time, really pretty much the only high-ranking guy left.

[Thurman#1]

7 hours ago, ColoradoBills said:

Most NFL GM's have 3 main jobs.

 

1.  Putting together a long term organizational plan with the people who can execute it.

2.  Acquiring football talent.

3.  Managing the 1st 2 jobs.

 

Doug Whaley did not do all 3 of these things.  If the owners or head coaches wouldn't give him the power to do that he

should of insisted they did.  If he did that and Pegula still let him go,  he would of been a better candidate for some other team.

Instead he let people walk all over him.  That is not what a General Manager is suppose to do.

 

I wish him the best.  I hope he has learned from his Buffalo experience.

 

 

 

Very nicely put.

[billsredneck1]

8 hours ago, PetermanThrew5Picks said:

 And can we put ourselves in Whaley's shoes in that PC? Imagine, your boss has fired everybody you've worked without indicating what they have planned for you. You've busted your *** trying to make things work for your horrible coworker who would squander any talent you bring even in a miracle. Boss throws you in a PC without telling you the future, you know you're likely getting fired, you're really pissed off but have to publicly say you don't know jack about what your boss is going to do, and hold back your anger about the exact situation you're placed in so as not to commit career suicide.

 

Could some have handled that more gracefully? I guess, but that skillset doesn't anything to do with being a good GM/whatever job you do. Personally.. I would have exploded. and I bet most would in that situation. 

 

"I DON'T KNOW WHY THE **** I'M UP HERE, ASK THE PEGULAS THESE QUESTIONS CAUSE THEY AIN'T TELLING ME ANYTHING. //madly runs around to each reporter// DO YOU KNOW WHAT TERRY IS THINKING. DO YOU KNOW WHY I'M UP HERE? CAUSE I DON'T. WHY DON'T YOU GET ON THE PODIUM REPORTER CAUSE I'M WONDERING THE SAME THING. **** IT I KNOW WHAT'S GOING TO HAPPEN, TERRY'S FIRING ME! HE THREW REX AT ME WHEN I HAD A GOOD THING GOING AND NOW I WON'T HAVE JOB. BUT I DON'T KNOW WHEN THE HELL I'M GETTING FIRED. so uh.. Terry's great and all. Uh.. ya'll remember my 2014 defense? Let's just talk about that I guess."

I swear if that happens on a more publicized team.. the Packers or Cowboys GM. The national media would be all over how dysfunctional the owners looked. Who sends their strategy guy to hold a PC who knows he's getting fired. Owners too chicken**** to say what's on their mind. Pegulas are cool and all. But I'd qualify anybody in Whaley's situation as a justified disgruntled employee. Not their finest hour.

whaley got gone because he signed on to selling rex to terry and for playing along with putting butts in the seats, russ got him a big exten$ion.

he also got gone for having peeing matches with coaches who didn't want to play his golden boy e.j.

there's a reason(s) he's not in an nfl fo.

 

[Ridgewaycynic2013]

8 minutes ago, billsredneck1 said:

there's a reason(s) he's not in an nfl fo.

 

I read that sentence quickly, and for a second I thought you were telling PetermanThrew5Picks to f*** off.  ?

[billsredneck1]

1 minute ago, Ridgewaycynic2013 said:

I read that sentence quickly, and for a second I thought you were telling PetermanThrew5Picks to f*** off.  ?

lol i didn't think of that....however those words do frequently go through my head when i read his posts......or see his username....

[Ridgewaycynic2013]

24 minutes ago, billsredneck1 said:

lol i didn't think of that....however those words do frequently go through my head when i read his posts......or see his username....

Similar to how I often mistake 'FIFY' (Fixed It For You) as F*** It, F*** You. Sometimes my incorrect interpretation seems more appropriate.  ?

[GunnerBill]

21 hours ago, aristocrat said:

always thought he was better than got credit for.  couldnt get a qb but could build a defense. couldnt get a coach either

 

Wasn't allowed to get a coach. To be fair to the Pegulas though.... while the fat idiot was a huge miss I think they might have had a huge hit 2nd time round. 

 

I think Doug was a better GM than he often gets credit for but he was not a strategic manager. That is the part of the job where he was found wanting. His relationships with people hurt him. Beane exudes a clam, quiet, authority. Doug always gave off a more maverick vibe.