What they thought in 2017 of McD hire

[BADOLBILZ]

5 hours ago, RochesterLifer said:

This is cherry-picking history revisionism. The fact (not hindsight speculation) is that McDermott, teaming very well with Beane, turned a two-decade dysfunctional (dumpster fire) organization into a potential champion through continuous improvement with an exceedingly bright future.

Also, "pseudo-dynasty" means phony dynasty. The Chiefs are working to achieve dynasty status and are off to a solid beginning. There really is nothing phony about them. Dictionary.com is your friend.

 

 

No, it's not revisionist history to suggest that had Anthony Lynn been retained the Bills would have been drafting a QB in round 1.

 

It was a bit of a surprise that McD even retained Tyrod considering that the organization had benched him to end the 2016 season.

 

And it was very surprising that a first year HC passed on the chance to draft a talented QB in round 1 when there was talent on the board.    The excuse the Bills used........about needing more time to assess college QB's.........is one I've never heard a new regime make.    It was a very unorthodox approach and they've paid for it in the short term at least.......the two guys they passed on have ousted them from the playoffs the past two seasons.    And if Watson ends up in Miami.........

 

I've been a fan of every player that the Bills have selected in round 1 since McDermott got here.     That's a much higher approval rating from me than Polian or Butler even so I'm not a hater of their personnel work.   But they were very lucky to get a chance at Josh Allen after passing on Mahomes and Watson.    The amount of chances McD had at a superstar QB in round one of the draft in his first two seasons is unbelievable.    I'm thankful they got Josh,  he was the right pick there,  but it hasn't worked out perfectly yet either.

[Steptide]

I remember many here saying he was the anti-rex. Many were comparing him to a younger jauron, which in hindsight is laughable. Personally I wasn't super excited about it cuz I just didn't know much about him at the time. After they started trading our "good" players (Watkins etc) I thought they were crazy, but obviously all turned out well and I couldn't be happier with the current state of the bills

[nedboy7]

6 minutes ago, BADOLBILZ said:

 

 

No, it's not revisionist history to suggest that had Anthony Lynn been retained the Bills would have been drafting a QB in round 1.

 

It was a bit of a surprise that McD even retained Tyrod considering that the organization had benched him to end the 2016 season.

 

And it was very surprising that a first year HC passed on the chance to draft a talented QB in round 1 when there was talent on the board.    The excuse the Bills used........about needing more time to assess college QB's.........is one I've never heard a new regime make.    It was a very unorthodox approach and they've paid for it in the short term at least.......the two guys they passed on have ousted them from the playoffs the past two seasons.    And if Watson ends up in Miami.........

 

I've been a fan of every player that the Bills have selected in round 1 since McDermott got here.     That's a much higher approval rating from me than Polian or Butler even so I'm not a hater of their personnel work.   But they were very lucky to get a chance at Josh Allen after passing on Mahomes and Watson.    The amount of chances McD had at a superstar QB in round one of the draft in his first two seasons is unbelievable.    I'm thankful they got Josh,  he was the right pick there,  but it hasn't worked out perfectly yet either.

 

Yeah you right.  We would be so much better with Watson the POS. 

[JGMcD2]

2 hours ago, Mr. WEO said:

 

With a new HC and GM, there was nothing for Brandon to do with running the team.  Plus, only a few months after McD got there,  Russ "resigned" as the Pegulas had him under investigation for inappropriate behavior.  Pegula gave him a break by letting him resign.

 

Whaley was a dead man walking after both he and Rex didn't deliver a playoff appearance for Pegula.  As he warned them, Pegula canned Rex before the season ended and Whaley went after the draft.  That was Pegula and everyone knew it was coming.

 

As for football staff, every new HC and GM combo is going to bring in new people.  

You’re right… McDermott hasn’t done anything here. 

 

This run of success would’ve just happened naturally like it did between 2000 - 2016 😅

[GunnerBill]

4 minutes ago, JGMcD2 said:

You’re right… McDermott hasn’t done anything here. 

 

This run of success would’ve just happened naturally like it did between 2000 - 2016 😅

 

The people who underrate the culture change are short sighted. I have been there and done it at semi-pro level at a club that hadn't won in forever. Nobody there expects to win and as a result there is an acceptance when you don't win. Changing that is darn hard. It took me nearly 3 years  it is like pushing water uphill. The idea that any old coach could have achieved it is asinine IMO. 

[Just in Atlanta]

McD seemed pretty uninspiring to me.

 

They drafted the QB I wanted but the Nathan Peterman experience? Kelvin Benjamin? Some of the early decision making was really poor.

 

I’m so glad we finally have our coach. And a GM to boot.

[BillsFanSD]

I didn't know much about McDermott when the Bills hired him. And frankly, I was just numb to the ongoing dysfunction at that point, so I just resigned myself to another guy who might achieve 7-9 on his way to our every-three-or-four-year housecleaning.  I changed my mind in a hurry during the 2017 season.  So happy I was wrong about this guy.

[Mikie2times]

It really was the shared vision and lack of ego between him and Beane that has made the difference. How many coach/GM combinations are actually friends, sharing the same vision on how to build a team, never in conflict with each other, never fighting for who is the biggest reason things have went well. Then with Terry and Kim, I think they both did a great job in identifying the right people and not micro managing them. We had one of the worst front offices in the NFL for almost 20 years and it really didn't matter the moving parts, it just never fit together. A lot of teams still look just like we used to or like we used to have an owner that gets too involved. 

[BillsFanSD]

41 minutes ago, BADOLBILZ said:

 

 

No, it's not revisionist history to suggest that had Anthony Lynn been retained the Bills would have been drafting a QB in round 1.

 

It was a bit of a surprise that McD even retained Tyrod considering that the organization had benched him to end the 2016 season.

 

And it was very surprising that a first year HC passed on the chance to draft a talented QB in round 1 when there was talent on the board.    The excuse the Bills used........about needing more time to assess college QB's.........is one I've never heard a new regime make.    It was a very unorthodox approach and they've paid for it in the short term at least.......the two guys they passed on have ousted them from the playoffs the past two seasons.    And if Watson ends up in Miami.........

 

I've been a fan of every player that the Bills have selected in round 1 since McDermott got here.     That's a much higher approval rating from me than Polian or Butler even so I'm not a hater of their personnel work.   But they were very lucky to get a chance at Josh Allen after passing on Mahomes and Watson.    The amount of chances McD had at a superstar QB in round one of the draft in his first two seasons is unbelievable.    I'm thankful they got Josh,  he was the right pick there,  but it hasn't worked out perfectly yet either.

Hold on a second.  Why are we regretting passing on Watson again?

[WMDman]

He was my preferred choice, then i wanted Kris Richard the dc from Seattle 

[Mr. WEO]

59 minutes ago, JGMcD2 said:

You’re right… McDermott hasn’t done anything here. 

 

This run of success would’ve just happened naturally like it did between 2000 - 2016 😅

Youre not responding to anything that I said, specifically.  I was correcting inaccuracies in another posters post. 
 

But since you’ve stumbled into this convo,  I’ll let you know I agree (again) that McD was the right man for the job.  He took a big risk gutting the roster and it has worked out for the best.   Although, as others have pointed out, his success hinged on Josh.  I would say Allen is at least as pivotal to the culture there as McD—perhaps more so.  A generational talent leading to a lot of wins creates a  lot of “culture”..

[JOE IN HAMPTON ROADS]

6 hours ago, DCofNC said:

You act as if all the moves to get Allen were the Head Coach, which is a joke.   He did fall into their laps, there was a lot of chatter that Cleveland was going to take Allen first overall, how different would things have been? Denver could easily have taken him at 5, the Browns dictated that entire draft, not the Bills.  It was a great job by Beane going up and getting the guy they wanted, but he could have just as easily not ended up in Buffalo. 
 

Think back to 04 draft, the Bills couldn’t pull off the trade to get up for Big Ben and wound up the JP, how much better would the team have been fit years in end, had that gone differently?  How much better would the coaches have done with a real QB?

 

If anything, you could argue McD blew the draft before, not taking Maholmes, but you don’t like that take because it doesn’t fit your narrative.  Beane had to make up for it and go get the player they needed.

Beane did his job that draft for sure, but I am 100% sure McD picked Allen.  Allen and Darnold are "process" guys, team-oriented hard workers who focus on football perfection.  Mayfield and Rosen did not have that reputation.  Mayfield was known for partying and Rosen for dissing other players.  Although Mayfield and Darnold were predictably gone, there was shock - shock I tell you - when the Bills picked Allen over Rosen.  All the analytics guys had Rosen by a mile, all the pundits had Rosen by a mile, TBD had Rosen by a mile.  Beane worked his way to get Allen because McD wanted him, against all conventional wisdom to the contrary, and that was genius.  

 

The Mahomes miss has been subject of numerous threads, suffice to say the Bills were not the only team to miss on him, including the Bears who needed a franchise QB and chose Trubisky.  We didnt need a QB because, you know, we had EJ Manual coming into his own, just ask then-GM Doug Whaley.

 

 

[Watkins101]

7 hours ago, DCofNC said:

I would argue that McD would not be shown in a great light we’re it not for Allen emerging.  Funny how a top 5 QB can make people look like a genius.  He came in and did what was expected, got the D on track and they won enough to back into the playoffs, the next year wasn’t so pretty, then JA came on and here we are.  If Allen had turned out to be the wrong Josh, I don’t think you are singing his praises right now.  His overly conservative approach has been taken away by having Josh basically blow it up.  The D has not been great for the majority of the time he’s been here, but has definitely flashed at times.  Overall, the success of a team these days is tied to scoring points, which is pretty much tied to QB play.  A bad coach can make it harder than it has to be, he is not a bad coach.  A good coach can look really good with a QB and I think that’s where you find him.  Good luck to the other new coaches, their future is tied to the QB they have to work with.

The defense has been solid throughout McDermott’s time, with points allowed being in the top half of the league every year except 2018 (19th) and peaked at 2nd in 2019. Currently it is number 1 in points allowed. For yards allowed the team has been 4th in 2019 and 2nd in 2018.

1 hour ago, BADOLBILZ said:

 

 

No, it's not revisionist history to suggest that had Anthony Lynn been retained the Bills would have been drafting a QB in round 1.

 

It was a bit of a surprise that McD even retained Tyrod considering that the organization had benched him to end the 2016 season.

 

And it was very surprising that a first year HC passed on the chance to draft a talented QB in round 1 when there was talent on the board.    The excuse the Bills used........about needing more time to assess college QB's.........is one I've never heard a new regime make.    It was a very unorthodox approach and they've paid for it in the short term at least.......the two guys they passed on have ousted them from the playoffs the past two seasons.    And if Watson ends up in Miami.........

 

I've been a fan of every player that the Bills have selected in round 1 since McDermott got here.     That's a much higher approval rating from me than Polian or Butler even so I'm not a hater of their personnel work.   But they were very lucky to get a chance at Josh Allen after passing on Mahomes and Watson.    The amount of chances McD had at a superstar QB in round one of the draft in his first two seasons is unbelievable.    I'm thankful they got Josh,  he was the right pick there,  but it hasn't worked out perfectly yet either.

Except the new bills regime was not all on board for that draft. Beanie was not the Bills GM, so it does make sense that they needed more time for the QBs. 

[GunnerBill]

46 minutes ago, Mr. WEO said:

A generational talent leading to a lot of wins creates a  lot of “culture”..

 

I disagree with this. I think a generational talent has a lot to do with wins, sure. McDermott's record isn't what it is without Josh Allen. But the people who dismiss culture as something that ultimately just follows the scoreboard really miss the point. Not all winning teams have good culture and not all losing teams have bad ones. Sometimes you can go into a place and succeed without changing the culture but Buffalo needed a culture change. It needed it badly. And delivering it was an important element of the turnaround, even if it wasn't quite as important as finding the franchise Quarterback. 

[wagne591]

7 hours ago, DCofNC said:

I would argue that McD would not be shown in a great light we’re it not for Allen emerging.  Funny how a top 5 QB can make people look like a genius.  He came in and did what was expected, got the D on track and they won enough to back into the playoffs, the next year wasn’t so pretty, then JA came on and here we are.  If Allen had turned out to be the wrong Josh, I don’t think you are singing his praises right now.  His overly conservative approach has been taken away by having Josh basically blow it up.  The D has not been great for the majority of the time he’s been here, but has definitely flashed at times.  Overall, the success of a team these days is tied to scoring points, which is pretty much tied to QB play.  A bad coach can make it harder than it has to be, he is not a bad coach.  A good coach can look really good with a QB and I think that’s where you find him.  Good luck to the other new coaches, their future is tied to the QB they have to work with.

I don't agree with your logic either. When he first got hired it was before Bean was hired and McD's first draft pick was Tre White All-Pro player. And then Bean gutted this team before the season and I thought along with a lot of other people that the Bills were in tank mode...but low and behold they made the playoffs largely in part due to McD's approach to the game and establishing his culture "The Process" for the future.  In McD's first draft without a GM he picked up Tre, Dion, and Milano great draft. His second draft and Bean's first was JA and Edmonds and I am not going to talk about the draft.  Our Defense which you reference above has been very good under McD not lights out but very good and consistent.  I do wish we caused more turnovers and last year int he beginning was not so great but come playoff time they shined.  And like and QB confidence is fragile in the beginning and I don't think they planned on throwing JA in there during his first NFL game but he had to.  And it was because of coaching and sticking to him that his confidence grew and he became the player he is today.  This team they built doesn't not have many superstars on it like all the patriot teams did with Brady and Belicheat but we have a lot of solid NFL players who play for one another and that is also good coaching and leadership.  I think McD is a great coach and will be for years to come. 

[Mr. WEO]

19 minutes ago, GunnerBill said:

 

I disagree with this. I think a generational talent has a lot to do with wins, sure. McDermott's record isn't what it is without Josh Allen. But the people who dismiss culture as something that ultimately just follows the scoreboard really miss the point. Not all winning teams have good culture and not all losing teams have bad ones. Sometimes you can go into a place and succeed without changing the culture but Buffalo needed a culture change. It needed it badly. And delivering it was an important element of the turnaround, even if it wasn't quite as important as finding the franchise Quarterback. 

with a lesser QB I don’t believe the wind are nearly what they became the past 2 seasons.  Without the wins, whatever the McD cultures began as, changes quickly.  It would be out of his control.  The historic Bills dissatisfaction comes back.  So the culture change was nice….but it wouldn’t sustain the team without Josh Allen
 

 

[GunnerBill]

Just now, Mr. WEO said:

with a lesser QB I don’t believe the wind are nearly what they became the past 2 seasons.  Without the wins, whatever the McD cultures began as, changes quickly.  It would be out of his control.  The historic Bills dissatisfaction comes back.  So the culture change was nice….but it wouldn’t sustain the team without Josh Allen

 

You need a franchise Quarterback for sustained winning, no question, and that is true anywhere in the NFL. In Buffalo you needed culture change too. One without the other would not have got the job done. Especially when their franchise Quarterback was a project who came in raw and needing development.

[JerseyBills]

Perfect example of why I don't read or watch mainstream sports takes. It's literally brain mush. 90%+ on here know more about our team and new players than these frauds on TV and internet. And I trust my opinion over theirs as well 

 

 

[nedboy7]

4 minutes ago, JerseyBills said:

Perfect example of why I don't read or watch mainstream sports takes. It's literally brain mush. 90%+ on here know more about our team and new players than these frauds on TV and internet. And I trust my opinion over theirs as well 

 

 

 

This is America baby!  Never listen to an expert.  Just go with your gut feeling!! 

[BADOLBILZ]

5 hours ago, GunnerBill said:

 

I disagree with this. I think a generational talent has a lot to do with wins, sure. McDermott's record isn't what it is without Josh Allen. But the people who dismiss culture as something that ultimately just follows the scoreboard really miss the point. Not all winning teams have good culture and not all losing teams have bad ones. Sometimes you can go into a place and succeed without changing the culture but Buffalo needed a culture change. It needed it badly. And delivering it was an important element of the turnaround, even if it wasn't quite as important as finding the franchise Quarterback. 

 

 

There were a number of factors that lead the turnaround but if you are just splitting it up between the two......

 

90% QB

10% Culture

 

But 10% is a lot.............it's just that it's a QB driven league.

 

The tendency of some might be to disagree with that.........but we saw what culture without belief in the QB position lead to in 2017 where McDermott's defense came apart at the seems for the worst 3 game stretch in team history.     We also saw how terrible they were in 2018 when Allen was going thru his growing pains.   A Teddy Bridge kinda' solution wasn't going to keep that team culture work intact.   Culture sans winning is not a thing. 

[GunnerBill]

Just now, BADOLBILZ said:

 

 

There were a number of factors that lead the turnaround but if you are just splitting it up between the two......

 

90% QB

10% Culture

 

But 10% is a lot.............it's just that it's a QB driven league.

 

The tendency of some might be to disagree with that.........but we saw what culture without belief in the QB position lead to in 2017 where McDermott's defense came apart at the seems for the worst 3 game stretch in team history.     We also saw how terrible they were in 2018 when Allen was going thru his growing pains.   A Teddy Bridge kinda' solution wasn't going to keep that team culture work intact.   Culture sans winning is not a thing. 

 

You can't sustain a culture long term if you keep losing, for sure. But turning around a culture in a place that hadn't won for this long is really, really hard. And is more than 10% in my view. I agree an elite Quarterback trumps all. But in places that haven't won for as long as the Bills it isn't as easy as slot in Quarterback and press go. 

[BADOLBILZ]

6 hours ago, Watkins101 said:

Except the new bills regime was not all on board for that draft. Beanie was not the Bills GM, so it does make sense that they needed more time for the QBs. 

 

 

Well the question there is why wait until May to hire a different GM when you know who you wanted all along.     

 

That just rang of Billsy incompetence.

 

There were some bad look moments.

 

People want to dismiss that but it's ok to admit that the plan has had to be re-written on the fly.

 

That's actually been the most consistent strength of this regime..........pivoting from bad decisions..........the growth mindset, they call it.

5 minutes ago, GunnerBill said:

 

You can't sustain a culture long term if you keep losing, for sure. But turning around a culture in a place that hadn't won for this long is really, really hard. And is more than 10% in my view. I agree an elite Quarterback trumps all. But in places that haven't won for as long as the Bills it isn't as easy as slot in Quarterback and press go. 

 

 

If Allen hadn't turned it around in the second half of 2018.........I'm not sure Pegs sees them thru a 2019.     It's easy to forget just how bad they looked that year.    They were getting destroyed and playing some of the worst offense in the history of the NFL.   If Allen busts.......the regime almost certainly fails.    I know you don't follow the Pegula's other team,  and I appreciate them keeping the teams in town, but trust me,  they have no idea what they are doing in pro sports management yet.......let alone 3 years ago.   I think they bottomed out with Ralph Krueger, finally. 😂   

[JohnNord]

11 hours ago, Mr. WEO said:

 

With a new HC and GM, there was nothing for Brandon to do with running the team.  Plus, only a few months after McD got there,  Russ "resigned" as the Pegulas had him under investigation for inappropriate behavior.  Pegula gave him a break by letting him resign.

 

Whaley was a dead man walking after both he and Rex didn't deliver a playoff appearance for Pegula.  As he warned them, Pegula canned Rex before the season ended and Whaley went after the draft.  That was Pegula and everyone knew it was coming.

 

As for football staff, every new HC and GM combo is going to bring in new people.  

Yeah so this is not true at all.  Russ was around through McDermott’s first year and into 2018 through May.  I believe he was in the draft room when the Bills took Allen.  That’s over one season.  The Bills had a GM and HC for years before McDermott and Russ still found a way to involve himself in football decisions.  McDermott made sure this didn’t happen.

 

As far as Whaley being a dead man walking, that wasn’t the case in January 2017.  He allowed Doug to run the job search and he was involved in some football decisions at first.  Terry liked Doug personally, I think he was hoping things would work out with Whaley and McDermott, but it became clear that he needed to go

36 minutes ago, BADOLBILZ said:

 

 

Well the question there is why wait until May to hire a different GM when you know who you wanted all along.     

 

That just rang of Billsy incompetence.

 

There were some bad look moments.

 

People want to dismiss that but it's ok to admit that the plan has had to be re-written on the fly.

 

That's actually been the most consistent strength of this regime..........pivoting from bad decisions..........the growth mindset, they call it.

 

 

If Allen hadn't turned it around in the second half of 2018.........I'm not sure Pegs sees them thru a 2019.     It's easy to forget just how bad they looked that year.    They were getting destroyed and playing some of the worst offense in the history of the NFL.   If Allen busts.......the regime almost certainly fails.    I know you don't follow the Pegula's other team,  and I appreciate them keeping the teams in town, but trust me,  they have no idea what they are doing in pro sports management yet.......let alone 3 years ago.   I think they bottomed out with Ralph Krueger, finally. 😂   

Not firing the GM was not “Billsy incompetence.”  It was standard across the league for decades, though not all team subscribe to this procedure any more.  If you are going to fire your GM, you usually wait until after the end of their “season” which is the draft.  The reason being is, if you fire them before, you risk them leaking all the scouting info to other teams.  Also scouting beings nearly a year before the actual draft (sometimes longer).  A few months really isn’t a lot of time for a new GM to put together a new staff and scout players 

 

The reason being is, 

[Straight Hucklebuck]

Yeah you look back at it now, and he gets rid of Sammy Watkins, Marcell Dareus, they start phasing out LeSean McCoy and how smart does that look now?

 

I never thought we’d get there with a modern pass offense. McDermott came in giving interviews on the radio about snowy weather and running the ball with physicality. 

[Mr. WEO]

7 hours ago, JohnNord said:

Yeah so this is not true at all.  Russ was around through McDermott’s first year and into 2018 through May.  I believe he was in the draft room when the Bills took Allen.  That’s over one season.  The Bills had a GM and HC for years before McDermott and Russ still found a way to involve himself in football decisions.  McDermott made sure this didn’t happen.

 

As far as Whaley being a dead man walking, that wasn’t the case in January 2017.  He allowed Doug to run the job search and he was involved in some football decisions at first.  Terry liked Doug personally, I think he was hoping things would work out with Whaley and McDermott, but it became clear that he needed to go

Not firing the GM was not “Billsy incompetence.”  It was standard across the league for decades, though not all team subscribe to this procedure any more.  If you are going to fire your GM, you usually wait until after the end of their “season” which is the draft.  The reason being is, if you fire them before, you risk them leaking all the scouting info to other teams.  Also scouting beings nearly a year before the actual draft (sometimes longer).  A few months really isn’t a lot of time for a new GM to put together a new staff and scout players 

 

The reason being is, 

 

 

You're right about the Russ timeline.  Pegula had made him President of the Bills and Sabres.  Beane was hired as soon as the draft was done--so there's no chance that Pegula was hoping things would work out.  Whaley burned Pegula with the Rex hire and it was a predictable disaster. Plus he publicly embarrassed the franchise in press conferences throwing others under the bus for his own failures.  Pegula couldn't wait until that draft was over, so he could deliver on his threat to Whaley the season before.  McD gets all the credit for the hiring of Beane, as I have said before.

[JMF2006]

22 hours ago, JohnNord said:

The smartest thing McDermott did was get rid of the dysfunction at One Bills Drive when he first took over.  
 

Unlike Rex and Doug Marrone before him, I think he was smart enough to know that the issues at OBD went beyond what happened on the field.

 

Not sure how an unproven rookie HC got that much power, probably the naivety of the Pegulas, but they definitely lucked out.  Very Good coach…now he needs to prove he’s a great coach!  

 

Playoffs 3 out of 4 years after an age of majority drought.

 

2 playoff wins in one year when this franchise hadn't won one game in 25 years

 

13-3 record for only the second time in franchise history.

 

He already is one of the Bills greatest coaches

 

I think he was the one that hired Beane so there is that too.

BTW I was all in him

[78thealltimegreat]

23 hours ago, Ed_Formerly_of_Roch said:

Watching the Jets game and all the off-season gushing over Robert Saleh made me wonder what will they think of him in 3 to 4 years.  He was the sexy hire, but will he actually be any good? 

 

So got me thinking about the very un-sexy hire by the Bills in 2017.  I found a few articles ranking the hires and for the most part McD was ranked near the bottom of the 6 hires.  Some of the articles ranked the Marrone hire above the Bills.  Found  only one article that liked the McD hire.  Here's a comment from Fox Sports:

 

The Bills didn’t retain Anthony Lynn as their full-time head coach after making him the interim head coach for Week 17, which was a bit of a surprising move. Instead, they opted to hire former Panthers defensive coordinator Sean McDermott.

It’s not that it was a bad hire, but with all the issues the Bills have in the front office, and the lack of success they’ve had for the past two decades, McDermott likely won't bring the quick turnaround they need. At the very least, he should be able to turn around the defense, which was inexplicably bad under Rex Ryan.

What’s unclear, though, is how much of the Panthers’ defensive success was McDermott’s doing and how much was the fact that Ron Rivera was the head coach. We’ll find out relatively soon, but the bigger questions for McDermott loom on offense.

Will the Bills’ dominant ground game continue without Lynn? Will he be able to continue Tyrod Taylor’s development as a quarterback, if Taylor returns next season? These are two of the biggest questions McDermott will have to answer.

 

This article ranked McD 5th and Lynn 3rd. Another article  from NFL.com ranked Lynn the #1 hire and McD last.  Two of the hires that season were Shanahan (29-35) and McVay (43-21) compared to McD (38-26) Goff also had one season under his belt when McVay was hired so that likely helped his record some the 1st year.  Overall nothing to complain about much when looking at McD's record compared to them.   Lynn and V Joseph are both gone.  The other "great hire" think it was in 2016 with Pederson and the Eagles, another one who's now on the un-employed list.

 

At the time was hard to argue with most of the articles as many here too were not all that happy with the McD hire.  But interesting how many of the hot names, while great coordinators, never worked out as head coach.  Will Saleh join that list.  This year CBS ranks U Meyer as the 2nd best hire!

Oh I could argue with it I followed Sean’s career and there’s a pretty good chance he was coming home to Philly if Pederson went belly up which he did good thing the Bills did scoop up one of the best young defensive minds in the league or right now he’s be wearing Eagles green 

[DCofNC]

22 hours ago, Ed_Formerly_of_Roch said:

 

Yes Cleveland could have taken him, would the Jets' have then taken Mayfield, maybe.  Denver was ready to trade with us till Bradley Chubb fell into their lap, so highly unlikely they'd have taken Allen as they weren't looking for a QB.  Could the Bills instead have ended up with Darnold, maybe either him or Mayfield.  Either choice wouldn't have been terrible.

 

McD stated he didn't want to take a QB in 2017 as he hadn't had enough time to study them.  If he had known Maholmes were to end up the way he did, maybe he'd have changed his mind, but at the time he had alot of questions, maybe almost as many as Allen had going into the draft.

 

 

 

Most of the time backing into the draft means you lose your last game, but still get in.   That wasn't the case here.  The Bills game ended about 20 minutes prior to the end of the Bengals game.  So if the ending times were reversed, would that mean they didn't back in?  Every year, the last week of the season, things change, teams get in and others get out.  I guess last year Cleveland and think it was Indy both backed in as if Miami had beaten the Bills they'd be in and one of those two out.  Don't recall anyone talking about Cleveland backing in.

 

In fact the only way any team ever makes the playoffs is by another team losing either this week or last week, or maybe 2 weeks prior.  But if according to you a team losing means that you backed in, then every team in the league backs in every year.

 

Regardless winning 9 games with that talent in 2017 was still impressive whether they made the playoff or not.

I’m sorry, but if you aren’t winning the division, you are not winning your way into the playoffs, you are coming in through the back door, BUT let’s assume we don’t take that view point.  If you can’t win more games than the other teams competing for a wildcard and have to rely on a tie breaker, you are in fact backing in, regardless of who you are.  You are in on a technicality, not because you went out and won your way in. 
 

Today, the Bills are one of the best teams in the league and should earn their way to the playoffs with very little problem.   The Chiefs are going to have to battle back and hope to steal a wild card (as it stands now), if they get in on a tie breaker, I will call that just what it is, backing in, because you weren’t good enough to get the job done. 

[JohnNord]

6 hours ago, Mr. WEO said:

 

 

You're right about the Russ timeline.  Pegula had made him President of the Bills and Sabres.  Beane was hired as soon as the draft was done--so there's no chance that Pegula was hoping things would work out.  Whaley burned Pegula with the Rex hire and it was a predictable disaster. Plus he publicly embarrassed the franchise in press conferences throwing others under the bus for his own failures.  Pegula couldn't wait until that draft was over, so he could deliver on his threat to Whaley the season before.  McD gets all the credit for the hiring of Beane, as I have said before.

Everything that I’ve read said this was not the case.  Terry had a fondness for Doug and never held the Rex hire against him.  If anything, the hire was Terry’s and Russ Brandon who famously told him not to let Rex leave the building.  Even with the embarrassing presser, I feel that Terry wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt.   I can guarantee you that the press conference was what made McDermott want a new PR person though.  
 

The question that we’ll probably never know is whether there was a plan to fire Whaley after the draft back in January when McDermott was hired or if it was a decision Terry arrived at later once McDermott took over and slowly started gaining influence.  

 

Whaley (along with Jim Monos) will contend that he felt blind sighted by the firing in May and at the time, had no idea it was coming.   Though it’s possible he’s either covering to make himself better or he simply was too naive to see it coming 

[Ed_Formerly_of_Roch]

2 minutes ago, JohnNord said:

Everything that I’ve read said this was not the case.  Terry had a fondness for Doug and never held the Rex hire against him.  If anything, the hire was Terry’s and Russ Brandon who famously told him not to let Rex leave the building.  Even with the embarrassing presser, I feel that Terry wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt.   I can guarantee you that the press conference was what made McDermott want a new PR person though.  
 

The question that we’ll probably never know is whether there was a plan to fire Whaley after the draft back in January when McDermott was hired or if it was a decision Terry arrived at later once McDermott took over and slowly started gaining influence.  

 

Whaley (along with Jim Monos) will contend that he felt blind sighted by the firing in May and at the time, had no idea it was coming.   Though it’s possible he’s either covering to make himself better or he simply was too naive to see it coming 

 

I think it's hard to hire front office types in January as they have too much intel on teams drafting thoughts.  It's for that reason that front office contracts typically expire in May.  Would Carolina given permission to sign Beane in January, maybe not.  Think they also signed someone from Miami, again, maybe wouldn't have been able to in Jan.

 

The other side of it too, if Whaley is let go in January,you're now kind of going into the draft blind and even worse,  he could have signed with another team and given away all the Bills thoughts on upcoming draft.

[Mr. WEO]

1 hour ago, Ed_Formerly_of_Roch said:

 

I think it's hard to hire front office types in January as they have too much intel on teams drafting thoughts.  It's for that reason that front office contracts typically expire in May.  Would Carolina given permission to sign Beane in January, maybe not.  Think they also signed someone from Miami, again, maybe wouldn't have been able to in Jan.

 

The other side of it too, if Whaley is let go in January,you're now kind of going into the draft blind and even worse,  he could have signed with another team and given away all the Bills thoughts on upcoming draft.

Pegula kept Whaley until after the draft—likely at the recommendation of  McD.  But as I said, as soon Rex was gone and then the season ended, Slow Whaley was dead Doug walking.  Pegula wanted him out.