McDermott on no trades: "There have been too many years of irresponsible decision-making, let's just put it that way."

[Rico]

Just now, dave mcbride said:

I view them more as a team, especially in the late Nix era. In 2013, I strongly believe that Whaley was running most things, not Nix, who I believe had basically checked out. 

I think it’s better for Whaley to give him the benefit of the doubt on the EJ pick than the credit for the Hughes trade.

[billsfan1959]

6 minutes ago, GG said:

 

Why isn't it an apt comparison?  Jauron is a famously mediocre head coach, who once presided over a 13-3 team. 

 

What has McDermott done so far to prove that he can be an upper echelon coach?   The team is 5-2, with squeaky wins over bottom feeders and looked inept against a roiling Eagles squad.   They have yet to put together a complete game on both sides of the line.  That smacks of being average.

Well, if comparisons to other coaches is your benchmark: McDermott is 20-19 as a head coach. At the exact same point in his career, Bill Bilichick was 14-25. What had he done to prove he could be an upper echelon coach?

 

This is such a ridiculous and pointless exercise. But it is what happens when you cannot intellectually defend your positions.

Edited October 30, 2019 by billsfan1959

[GG]

Just now, billsfan1959 said:

Well, if comparisons to other coaches is your benchmark: McDermott is 20-19 as a head coach. At the exact same point in his career, Bill Bilichick was 14-25. What had he done to prove he could be an upper echelon coach?

 

This is such a ridiculous and pointless exercise. But it is what happens when you cannot intellecytually defend your positions.

 

You do realize that the same comparison was used for Jauron?

[dave mcbride]

3 minutes ago, Rico said:

I think it’s better for Whaley to give him the benefit of the doubt on the EJ pick than the credit for the Hughes trade.

I'm not really trying to pump up Whaley. I was just pointing out that he wasn't some sort of mad trader on deadline day. 

[billsfan1959]

Just now, GG said:

 

You do realize that the same comparison was used for Jauron?

The point here, however difficult it appears to be for you to grasp, is that it is ABSOLUTELY IRRELEVANT to McDermott what any other coach did at any point in NFL history. If you would like to make some sort of intelligent argument as to why what Jauron (or anyone else) did is relevant to McDermott, I would be more than willing to listen.

 

I'll wait....

[apuszczalowski]

1 minute ago, billsfan1959 said:

The point here, however difficult it appears to be for you to grasp, is that it is ABSOLUTELY IRRELEVANT to McDermott what any other coach did at any point in NFL history. If you would like to make some sort of intelligent argument as to why what Jauron (or anyone else) did is relevant to McDermott, I would be more than willing to listen.

 

I'll wait....

But then should the past moves also be irrelevant to him? If Nix and Whaley made bad moves in the past, what does it have to do with him and his current front office and roster. 

[Protocal69]

1 hour ago, One Buffalo said:

Here is the clip - 

 

 

Sounds like McDermott is the GM

[YoloinOhio]

1 hour ago, BuffaloHokie13 said:

Nix and Whaley made dumb decisions. We also did, but we've learned from it.

 

- McD, kind of

 

Oh, and Russ Brandon. The beacon of good decisionmaking. 

Whaley’s most irresponsible decision was letting humans play football. 

[quinnearlysghost88]

1 hour ago, Gugny said:

 

Well this would a good time for him to take a page of out the Bill Belichick guide to speaking to the media.

Agreed. Let your non-answers be the story. 

[GG]

4 minutes ago, billsfan1959 said:

The point here, however difficult it appears to be for you to grasp, is that it is ABSOLUTELY IRRELEVANT to McDermott what any other coach did at any point in NFL history. If you would like to make some sort of intelligent argument as to why what Jauron (or anyone else) did is relevant to McDermott, I would be more than willing to listen.

 

I'll wait....

 

Same logic as lazily bringing up a midseason record without providing any context.

 

Debatable facts are that McDermott has apparently brought discipline and accountability to the team, yet his team is at the top of mistakes and penalties, and has been getting worse since 2017.  Fact is that his record is around 500, but his teams get overwhelmed by top competition and barely survive against weak opponents.

 

This was an interesting time for McDermott to get snarky.  You expect to see a quantum leap in year 3 of a coach's tenure.  Yet despite multitude of draft picks in 3 years and a slew of free agents this year, you still see a team that squeaks out wins against very weak opponents and looks pretty bad against strong opponents.

[HappyDays]

1 hour ago, GG said:

 

Patrick Mahomes approves of this message.

 

Without the benefit of hindsight, do you honestly believe that a defensive head coach that had been in the building for 3 months should have drafted a 1st round QB based on the last regime's scouting, before his own GM was hired? Does that strike you as responsible decision making?

[billsfan1959]

5 minutes ago, apuszczalowski said:

But then should the past moves also be irrelevant to him? If Nix and Whaley made bad moves in the past, what does it have to do with him and his current front office and roster. 

Completely different discussion. However, since you asked, I have no idea why he made the comment that there have been far too many years of irresponsible decisions. It is an accurate assessment; however, not necessary. Their decisions are not relevant to  what is currently happening.

 

But, again, a completely different topic than the one I was responding to.

[BuffaloHokie13]

1 minute ago, YoloinOhio said:

Whaley’s most irresponsible decision was letting humans play football. 

And trying to push EJ on new coach candidates

[billsfan1959]

Just now, GG said:

Same logic as lazily bringing up a midseason record without providing any context.

 

Debatable facts are that McDermott has apparently brought discipline and accountability to the team, yet his team is at the top of mistakes and penalties, and has been getting worse since 2017.  Fact is that his record is around 500, but his teams get overwhelmed by top competition and barely survive against weak opponents.

 

This was an interesting time for McDermott to get snarky.  You expect to see a quantum leap in year 3 of a coach's tenure.  Yet despite multitude of draft picks in 3 years and a slew of free agents this year, you still see a team that squeaks out wins against very weak opponents and looks pretty bad against strong opponents.

Is that what we have to do now? Qualify each and every win and overall record of every team? Where does it end and what does it tell us. Philly beat us, but they lost to Dallas, who lost to the jets, who we beat. So, what does that exactly say?

 

This is so non-sensical. Why are you so unhappy that you have to find a way to diminish anything good about this team?

[GG]

1 minute ago, HappyDays said:

 

Without the benefit of hindsight, do you honestly believe that a defensive head coach that had been in the building for 3 months should have drafted a 1st round QB based on the last regime's scouting, before his own GM was hired? Does that strike you as responsible decision making?

 

With the benefit of knowing that success in this league depends solely on landing a franchise QB, and knowing that the team that hired you has had a franchise QB drought for 2 decades, your inclination should be to devote every second of those 3 months to determine whether Trubisky, Mahomes or Watson are worthy of a No. 10 pick.

[BringBackOrton]

1 hour ago, Kelly the Dog said:

Yup, and they backed themselves into a corner in Whaley's first year where they just had to draft one early, and it just so happened to be one of the worst years ever for QBs. They botched up the position for so long in so many different ways, obviously.

If EJ wasn’t Whaley’s guy, Whaley would

have eventually drafted a QB high over the next 5 years, but he didn’t.

[ColoradoBills]

24 minutes ago, One Buffalo said:

 

 

I think Sal has it right about what is going on here.

Lots of speculation about the McDermott comments and I'm sure he and Beane have been getting a lot of questions about trades.

Seems they got a little tired of it and thus the statement.

 

For me there is nothing to see here.

[GG]

1 minute ago, billsfan1959 said:

Is that what we have to do now? Qualify each and every win and overall record of every team? Where does it end and what does it tell us. Philly beat us, but they lost to Dallas, who lost to the jets, who we beat. So, what does that exactly say?

 

This is so non-sensical. Why are you so unhappy that you have to find a way to diminish anything good about this team?

 

I'm happy with the record.  I'm not convinced that McDermott has earned anything beyond being a mediocre head coach.  The two thoughts can coexist.

[Hebert19]

Looks like green was expecting to get traded based on the article today. 

[BringBackOrton]

8 minutes ago, HappyDays said:

 

Without the benefit of hindsight, do you honestly believe that a defensive head coach that had been in the building for 3 months should have drafted a 1st round QB based on the last regime's scouting, before his own GM was hired? Does that strike you as responsible decision making?

Oooh oooh. I’ll jump in. Yes!

[atlbillsfan1975]

1 hour ago, Kelly the Dog said:

So he either bad-mouthed previous administrations, or Brandon Beane and himself, or both. Not sure that was necessary. 

100% accurate and probably a little necessary from an answer standpoint to the fans questioning no trades made.

[HappyDays]

1 minute ago, GG said:

 

With the benefit of knowing that success in this league depends solely on landing a franchise QB, and knowing that the team that hired you has had a franchise QB drought for 2 decades, your inclination should be to devote every second of those 3 months to determine whether Trubisky, Mahomes or Watson are worthy of a No. 10 pick.

 

I'm sorry but that's absurd. QBs are scouted over the course of at least a year, typically longer. Who do you hold responsible, McDermott? It's not the head coach's job to draft a QB. Beane? He wasn't here yet. If you want to blame someone blame Pegula. You can trace that failure back to Rex Ryan getting hired. There was zero chance we were drafting this regime's hand picked franchise QB in year one. The timing was all off.

[YoloinOhio]

1 minute ago, Hebert19 said:

Looks like green was expecting to get traded based on the article today. 

He will be a FA in a few months and can be signed without giving up assets.

. Which is why no one was willing to give up what the Bengals are asking. Green was adamant he doesn’t want to be franchised and i expect the Bengals won’t because they need good agent relationships 

[apuszczalowski]

3 minutes ago, billsfan1959 said:

Is that what we have to do now? Qualify each and every win and overall record of every team? Where does it end and what does it tell us. Philly beat us, but they lost to Dallas, who lost to the jets, who we beat. So, what does that exactly say?

 

This is so non-sensical. Why are you so unhappy that you have to find a way to diminish anything good about this team?

You don't have to qualify each and every win, it's been pretty apparent across all of them so far this year. The offence can't score more then 20 points in a game, they have only beaten bad teams, and required either late comebacks or gifted the wins because of kickers missing everything. When they play a good team they have lost. They have been pretty consistent this year in their play, it's just the end result that's different, they have also been very lucky in many of the games.

[BringBackOrton]

1 minute ago, HappyDays said:

 

I'm sorry but that's absurd. QBs are scouted over the course of at least a year, typically longer. Who do you hold responsible, McDermott? It's not the head coach's job to draft a QB. Beane? He wasn't here yet. If you want to blame someone blame Pegula. You can trace that failure back to Rex Ryan getting hired. There was zero chance we were drafting this regime's hand picked franchise QB in year one. The timing was all off.

I mean, is QB drafting the rocket science you’re saying it is? Trubisky, Watson and Mahomes were all projected 1st round picks. Watson has been to two National Championships. It’s not like Watson and Mahomes were projected day 3 picks that you needed to be in person to see.

[Kelly the Dog]

5 minutes ago, BringBackOrton said:

If EJ wasn’t Whaley’s guy, Whaley would

have eventually drafted a QB high over the next 5 years, but he didn’t.

Whaley went along with EJ. There were no reports I know of that he was against it. But Buddy Nix was not leaving his job without getting a QB and he chose EJ, along with Brandon. There wasn't much choice, and they did trade down and got Kiko, too, who became Shady.

[BringBackOrton]

Just now, Kelly the Dog said:

Whaley went along with EJ. There were no reports I know of that he was against it. But Buddy Nix was not leaving his job without getting a QB and he chose EJ, along with Brandon. There wasn't much choice, and they did trade down and got Kiko, too, who became Shady.

Whether Buddy “chose” EJ or not, EJ was just as much if not more of Whaley’s boy.

 

Nix “chose” Fitz by giving him a big contract and two years later when he sucked was recorded as wanting to walk away. Whaley gave EJ 2 years, and then kept him in the mix an extra 2 for good measure. Nix retiring set our franchise back 5 years.

[GG]

1 minute ago, HappyDays said:

 

I'm sorry but that's absurd. QBs are scouted over the course of at least a year, typically longer. Who do you hold responsible, McDermott? It's not the head coach's job to draft a QB. Beane? He wasn't here yet. If you want to blame someone blame Pegula. You can trace that failure back to Rex Ryan getting hired. There was zero chance we were drafting this regime's hand picked franchise QB in year one. The timing was all off.

 

That means that he had access to the Panthers' scouting notebook (as hinted by Bills picks in that draft).   Who was running that draft?  Who agreed to trade No. 10 for a pick in '18, when it was known inside the building that Whaley wouldn't be around for that pick?  Why blame Pegula, when there are rumors that he was in favor of Mahomes?

 

Everything about the 2017 draft screams that McD was in full control.   If he didn't do his due diligence on the top 3 QB prospects, that's all on him.

[Kelly the Dog]

14 minutes ago, HappyDays said:

 

Without the benefit of hindsight, do you honestly believe that a defensive head coach that had been in the building for 3 months should have drafted a 1st round QB based on the last regime's scouting, before his own GM was hired? Does that strike you as responsible decision making?

He could have watched some film, decided that he had no idea how he would possibly defend him, so he must then draft him.

 

1 minute ago, BringBackOrton said:

Whether Buddy “chose” EJ or not, EJ was just as much if not more of Whaley’s boy.

 

Nix “chose” Fitz by giving him a big contract and two years later when he sucked was recorded as wanting to walk away. Whaley gave EJ 2 years, and then kept him in the mix an extra 2 for good measure. Nix retiring set our franchise back 5 years.

Not as much as a couple wins. That set us back decades!

[HappyDays]

1 minute ago, BringBackOrton said:

mean, is QB drafting the rocket science you’re saying it is?

 

Drafting the right QB makes and breaks careers. This is entirely hindsight. There isn't a single person in the NFL that would picked a QB there with that timing.

[BringBackOrton]

6 minutes ago, HappyDays said:

 

I'm sorry but that's absurd. QBs are scouted over the course of at least a year, typically longer. Who do you hold responsible, McDermott? It's not the head coach's job to draft a QB. Beane? He wasn't here yet. If you want to blame someone blame Pegula. You can trace that failure back to Rex Ryan getting hired. There was zero chance we were drafting this regime's hand picked franchise QB in year one. The timing was all off.

He drafted his CB and WR and LT of the future that draft.

 

Youre basically saying that every pick in 17 should have sucked because McD was a recent hire. That’s a really interesting easy defense mechanism.

[HappyDays]

2 minutes ago, GG said:

That means that he had access to the Panthers' scouting notebook

 

Yeah I bet the Panthers did a lot of QB scouting. Good point.

[BringBackOrton]

Just now, HappyDays said:

 

Drafting the right QB makes and breaks careers. This is entirely hindsight. There isn't a single person in the NFL that would picked a QB there with that timing.

Maybe, maybe not. Is there a single person in the NFL who would have faulted McD for taking Watson at #10?

 

If not, then your argument is that McD was a coward.

[billsfan1959]

Just now, apuszczalowski said:

You don't have to qualify each and every win, it's been pretty apparent across all of them so far this year. The offence can't score more then 20 points in a game, they have only beaten bad teams, and required either late comebacks or gifted the wins because of kickers missing everything. When they play a good team they have lost. They have been pretty consistent this year in their play, it's just the end result that's different, they have also been very lucky in many of the games.

Ahhhh, another "they are 5-2 but should really be winless if it wasn't for gifts and quality of oppents that is the worst ever seen in the history of the NFL - maybe the worst in the history of competion since the beginning of man" poster.

 

I have never seen such angst, hand-wringing, and misery over a 5-2 record....

[BringBackOrton]

3 minutes ago, Kelly the Dog said:

He could have watched some film, decided that he had no idea how he would possibly defend him, so he must then draft him.

 

Not as much as a couple wins. That set us back decades!

NFC wins, no less.

[GG]

1 minute ago, HappyDays said:

 

Yeah I bet the Panthers did a lot of QB scouting. Good point.

 

Every team scouts the top QBs.  Do you wonder why Beane had his eye on Josh Allen since his sophomore season?

[Kelly the Dog]

1 minute ago, GG said:

 

Every team scouts the top QBs.  Do you wonder why Beane had his eye on Josh Allen since his sophomore season?

True, and I am not sticking up for McD here, but it's a lot different for a HC, especially a new one, even if he is in charge of the draft, than a GM who is scouting all year.

[Pine Barrens Mafia]

1 hour ago, GG said:

 

Patrick Mahomes approves of this message.

 

not surprised by this lamest of takes.

 

[HappyDays]

5 minutes ago, BringBackOrton said:

He drafted his CB and WR and LT of the future that draft.

 

You can die on this hill if you want to. I'm gonna back out.

[BringBackOrton]

Just now, Kelly the Dog said:

True, and I am not sticking up for McD here, but it's a lot different for a HC, especially a new one, even if he is in charge of the draft, than a GM who is scouting all year.

Just like in the real world, if being so afraid of making a wrong decision prevents you from making the right decision, you are useless.