Doug Whaley puts full onus of EJ Manuel pick on Buddy Nix; believes he should have been a 3rd/4th round pick

[JMF2006]

1) You never throw your boss under the bus if you ever want to work in the NFL again.

 

2) So your saying as Assistant GM you did not have any input or the bosses ear then you get promoted.

 

3) I was at the Ralph that night for the Draft party and there was plenty of gasps and WTF was that going on.

 

My GF said by everyones reaction this guy must be a bad pick,I said well he is a Bill now so lets give him a chance.

 

What an awful time to be a Bills fan  

[george c]

I put full onus on Whaley for so many bone headed moves, with Watkins at the top. 

[Giuseppe Tognarelli]

15 hours ago, Bill from NYC said:

Sure, blame it on a dead guy.

Buddy Nix isn't dead

 

He's still alive

[NoSaint]

16 hours ago, Coach Tuesday said:

I mean that was literally a pre-recorded speech he gave to the Backers IIRC.  If he now says he was lying, it’s called consumer fraud.  Dude should just never speak to the media because he’s a moron with that stuff.

Saying he’s talented, charismatic, even the best qb in the draft all would not change by saying he probably was a late day 2 grade 

[machine gun kelly]

Doug Whaley, it was his fault.

 

So does that mean Doug is Enos?

[QCity]

Sounds like the pressure of the XFL is getting to him.

[Southern_Bills]

It looks bad to say anything. I don't believe he had no clue Nix was leaving, not for a second. 

 

Was EJ purely Nix's pick? Maybe, but I doubt it. 

 

He should just accept the fact he was on the staff and own the mistakes. Maybe then he might be considered for another job. 

1 hour ago, george c said:

I put full onus on Whaley for so many bone headed moves, with Watkins at the top. 

 

I'm sure if you ask him he has a "great" excuse. 

[JESSEFEFFER]

16 hours ago, Buffalo_Stampede said:

Watch until the end. He wasn't wrong. Lol. 

 

 

 

Here it is.  I have the link to this video copied and ready to paste into a post if someone hadn't done so already.  Doug should be in sales or maybe politics. 

[Ridgewaycynic2013]

1 hour ago, machine gun kelly said:

Doug Whaley, it was his fault.

 

So does that mean Doug is Enos?

No, Costanza...

 

[BurpleBull]

I believe him.

 

I had Manuel in that exact range leading up to the draft, but in cases like that you like to believe the scouts and GM knows a bit more about the prospect than you.

[Ed_Formerly_of_Roch]

17 hours ago, mjt328 said:

 

Whaley clearly had an eye for talent.  But something was missing as a General Manager.

It was hard to put a finger on exactly what that was, until Brandon Beane/Sean McDermott took over.

 

For an organization to be successful, the front office must have a seamless relationship with the coaching staff.  

You can't just throw "good football players" onto a roster.  You must consider the scheme, the personality fit with teammates, etc.

It's not a coincidence that Whaley clashed with both Doug Marrone and Rex Ryan, or that he's throwing his former co-workers under the bus now.

 

I think he deserves a job in the NFL as a pro-scouting director.  But a team would be foolish to give him another GM position.

 

 

I'll defend him some in that the Bills entire front office was kind of a mess as to who was really in charge.  I really don't think Whaley wanted to hire Ryan, but was more a Russ Brandon pushing Pegula to hire him.   Not sure who really did or didn't want Marrone, thought I recalled some connection there too between Marrone and RB?

 

I also do recall Nix stating he wanted to get a QB before he left, so do think that part of what Whaley said is true.  Yes Whaley scouted him, his report may have been great pick in the 3rd round for all we know.

 

If we're going to blame him for lying to the fan base by talking up EJ afterwards and stating he has the "It factor" then every coach GM in the league is guilty of that.  How many teams bad mouth their signings, even after they are gone. 

 

So yes Whaley did that in this article, but does seem his main point he was trying to make was about over drafting, not really blaming Nix for the pick other than that Nix wanted to get a QB whether there was one worthy or not so he over drafted.  But now he's a media guy, not a front office person.

[Albany,n.y.]

13 hours ago, Warcodered said:

As a fan from Wyoming that showed up with Allen don't have much perspective on the guy but this video I thought might have an interesting comparison of him and McDermott. 

 

Sean show up for this press event wearing a suit and tie clearly trying to project his professional manner, and Whaley was wearing a long sleeve T-shirt/sweatshirt?

Whaley obviously had a change of clothes because he was wearing a suit at the press conference.  You can criticize Whaley for a lot of things but waiting until the press conference to put his suit on goes a bit too far.   Other than that, great video, thanks for posting it.  

15 hours ago, Doc said:

I believe him. I also believe that if he had stayed GM, Mahomes would’ve been ours.

On the other side, I believe if Rex Ryan had remained as coach the Bills would have drafted Watson and today we'd be going nuts because right when we finally have a Super Bowl contender the QB would be facing a big suspension or worse & we'd be relying on Mitch Trubisky to get us to the Super Bowl.  

[eball]

18 hours ago, GunnerBill said:

 

Agree totally. He couldn't lead, he could scout. 

 

He had no concept of team-building, either.  Just looked to acquire talent.  He basically did one thing well when the job requires so much more.  I think Whaley is a great example of the Peter Principle.

[Ridgewaycynic2013]

2 hours ago, QCity said:

Sounds like the pressure of the XFL is getting to him.

XFL about to go under the bus wheels.  Hello USFL 2022! 😁

4 minutes ago, eball said:

 

He had no concept of team-building, either.  Just looked to acquire talent.  He basically did one thing well when the job requires so much more.  I think Whaley is a great example of the Peter Principle.

And again...insightful?...or inciteful? 😁

[BarleyNY]

Saying that EJ should’ve been a 3rd or 4th round pick is a very different thing than saying that at the time he was drafted he thought EJ should’ve been a 3rd or 4th round pick.  It looks like Whaley chose his words very carefully as saying the former is truthful and leads people to imply the latter, which would not have been. 

[wppete]

I’d say the EJ Manuel was perhaps the worse draft pick the Bills have ever made in the first round. I was initially hopeful but EJ proved to be awful on the field, seemed like a great guy off the field though. 

[eball]

24 minutes ago, wppete said:

I’d say the EJ Manuel was perhaps the worse draft pick the Bills have ever made in the first round. I was initially hopeful but EJ proved to be awful on the field, seemed like a great guy off the field though. 

 

Erik Flowers and Mike Williams say hi.

[Punching Bag]

5 hours ago, Chicken Boo said:

I'm one of the few who thinks Whaley put a good team together here.  Sure, there were blunders along the way, but you could say that for any GM.

 

Rex and Doug Marrone weren't exactly visionaries who could see the vision through and we all know he wasn't behind those selections.

 

There were a number of veterans signed per request of Rex mostly on defense but Tyrod Tailor was a player that Rex wanted Bills to sign.

[Beast]

5 hours ago, Chicken Boo said:

I'm one of the few who thinks Whaley put a good team together here.  Sure, there were blunders along the way, but you could say that for any GM.

 

Rex and Doug Marrone weren't exactly visionaries who could see the vision through and we all know he wasn't behind those selections.

 

Such good teams they never sniffed the playoffs.

 

Only until McDermott and Beane weeded out the non-team players did the Bills make the post season.

[GunnerBill]

1 hour ago, eball said:

 

He had no concept of team-building, either.  Just looked to acquire talent.  He basically did one thing well when the job requires so much more.  I think Whaley is a great example of the Peter Principle.

 

While I agree with that I think it is hard to make a definitive judgement on him as a team builder. In his 4 years as GM he worked with 2 Head Coaches (if we say he was already on the way out once McDermott was hired), 4 defensive coordinators (even though Rob Ryan never formally held that title) and 3 Offensive Coordinators. I agree he struggled to build a team but I think most people would in all that dysfunction.