Woah: Bills interviewing Phillip Rivers for HC gig

[GunnerBill]

3 minutes ago, MasterStrategist said:

Again, and last time I rehash the past, it wasnt about "unfocused recruitment".  

 

It was about alot of other factors - coach recruitment/staff build, outside perspective/ideas - this was more of an internal review and how can they make that final step to reach the Sb; rather than a true search for a new leader outside the organization.  

 

Was Joe Brady already picked in advance?  I was told not 100%, by all decision makers.  But he was the consensus pick, and Iv been told every external candidate was chosen for a specific reason to either compare directly to Joe or gather more Intel across the league.  

 

So it wasn't some random number generator on who they decided to bring in.

 

Ultimately, we landed on a coach who has brought an entire new energy to this team, and that was a major influencing factor in the process ("energy"/mood/setting the desired tone).

 

I was fine with Joe's hire, and I'm fine with him being basically chosen from the start. 

[Alphadawg7]

I don't think it was a sham personally, I think that is poor choice of words.  I am sure that internally they were hoping it would be Brady, but there is no chance IMO they made their mind up before it started.  They didn't just hand him the job to hand him the job.  They made him earn it, and he went through the same scrutiny as others, and reportedly even more given they knew more about Brady.  

 

There is no chance they give Brady the job to coach the remaining prime years of Allen had he struggled in the hiring process.  Being an early favorite is different than already deciding to give him the job before going through the hiring process of both him and other candidates.

 

Now - I fully beleive, like anyone should, that Brady had a leg up and was an internal favorite given his continuity, relationship with Josh, success with the offense, etc.  But there is just no chance he gets the job if he had not convinced him he was ready for it.  Beane is too smart to just give away Allens remaining prime years to someone they didn't fully believe in.  And the Pegulas were not going to risk opening a new stadium in a huge season with someone they didn't feel was up to the job.  

Edited October 2 by Alphadawg7

[DrDawkinstein]

Just now, Alphadawg7 said:

I don't think it was a sham personally, I think that is poor choice of words.  I am sure that internally they were hoping it would be Brady, but there is no chance IMO they made their mind up before it started.  They didn't just hand him the job to hand him the job.  They made him earn it, and he went through the same scrutiny as others, and reportedly even more given they knew more about Brady.  

 

There is no chance they give Brady the job to coach the remaining prime years of Allen had he struggled in the hiring process.  I am sure they were rooting for Brady to win it or lock it down, but there is no way it was a foregone conclusion when they fired McD and all a ruse from the get go.  

 

Now - I fully beleive, like anyone should, that Brady had a leg up and was an internal favorite given his continuity, relationship with Josh, success with the offense, etc.  But there is just no chance he gets the job if he had not convinced him he was ready for it.  Beane is too smart to just give away Allens remaining prime years to someone they didn't fully believe in.  And the Pegulas were not going to risk opening a new stadium in a huge season with someone they didn't feel was up to the job.  

 

Agreed, terms like "sham" and "absurd" only disregard the fact that the Bills have been one of the best managed organizations and one of the leagues best teams for the past ~10 years.

 

Like how dare a consistently top-3 team lean toward hiring from within.

 

Feels like a lot of folks are stuck on the Bills being irrelevant buffoons. But that hasnt been the case for this franchise in quite some time.

 

Outside of the SB winners with Kubiak, where else should a top team look? Tennessee? Miami? Cincinnati?

 

This aint our daddies' Bills.

[Mr. WEO]

45 minutes ago, SoTier said:

 

That's likely because most QBs with hundreds of starts aren't interested in coaching.  They're financially secure with lots of opportunities to make more money in a variety of ways.  I can't think of any HC with those credentials who failed, either.   Most NFL coaches who were/are former NFL players tend to be JAGs, probably because they learned the ins and outs of their positions and nuances of the game to make up for their lack of top end talent.

 

By your reasoning,  the Bills would have hired Anthony Lynn for HC rather than Sean McDermott in 2017.   I believe that Lynn did interview for the positon. 

 

 

Because as we agree such guys haven't existed, so there can be no success or failures.

 

There is really no real reason to believe Rivers could be an NFL HC.  He has no relevant coaching experience. By his own recollection of the interview, he didn't seem prepared for the opportunity, nor had he a real plan for how he would coach a team except that he would hire a bunch of more experienced coaches to surround him.  There was no chance that was going to fly for any team looking.   It's hard to understand what the point of interviewing Rivers was as it can't have been seen as serious by anyone in or outside of the Bills.  

 

Lynn was part of the Ryan disaster that Pegula foolishly stumbled into and was therefore doomed with the rest of the staff.  He had zero chance of being hired.  Again, 10 years later, Pegula was not going outside the building after Beane had convinced him that he and Brady were the way to go, both having just Brutus'ed McD.

[DrDawkinstein]

23 minutes ago, Mr. WEO said:

 

Again, 10 years later, Pegula was not going outside the building after Beane had convinced him that he and Brady were the way to go, both having just Brutus'ed McD.

 

This is where you (and others) go off track and invalidate any previous logic.

 

McD Brutus'ed himself. No one had to help him out the door. It wasnt as scandalous as you Bravo-watchers want it to be. But I think a new season of Real Housewives is starting soon 

[GunnerBill]

51 minutes ago, DrDawkinstein said:

 

Agreed, terms like "sham" and "absurd" only disregard the fact that the Bills have been one of the best managed organizations and one of the leagues best teams for the past ~10 years.

 

Like how dare a consistently top-3 team lean toward hiring from within.

 

Feels like a lot of folks are stuck on the Bills being irrelevant buffoons. But that hasnt been the case for this franchise in quite some time.

 

Outside of the SB winners with Kubiak, where else should a top team look? Tennessee? Miami? Cincinnati?

 

This aint our daddies' Bills.

 

I don't want to labour the point too much because I don't think we are changing one another's minds on this and I think we are both good with the outcome but I think if the search really was a search in the way it was presented I'd consider that closer to buffoonery. Running a bit of a sham search because you have all but decided Joe was getting the job is more what I consider a competent franchise would do. The Bills ran a lots of candidates, all flavours of tea search in 2015 when they were, indeed, baffoons and hired a baffoon. 

[Mr. WEO]

11 minutes ago, DrDawkinstein said:

 

This is where you (and others) go off track and invalidate any previous logic.

 

McD Brutus'ed himself. No one had to help him out the door. It wasnt as scandalous as you Bravo-watchers want it to be. But I think a new season of Real Housewives is starting soon 

 

I was calling for McD's firing years before so, no drama here.  You can pretend otherwise if you must, but the fact that the architect of the Bills SB futility since they  got Josh Allen was kept on after McD was fired was seen as at least very surprising to many here and many more around the NFL-watching public.

 

Nothing about that changes the validity that Pegula wasn't looking to go outside of Brady to find his HC---least of all Rivers, which was truly a bizarre and pointless publicity stunt of some kind, the goal of which is still obscure.  If the Bills felt they needed to show the league (or whoever) that they were truly conducting a HC search, they wouldn't have let it be known Phil Rivers was heading to One Bills Drive with his pencil and notebook.

[RoyBatty is alive]

3 hours ago, DrDawkinstein said:

 

When you know you want a younger, Offensive "hot shot", and looking at the available candidates from last year... It really comes down to Kubiak and Brady. Across the entire NFL pool of candidates.

 

I think if Kubiak had been available, he would have received serious consideration.

I think they had real interviews with those other young offensive guys, but based on resumes alone, Brady would have been top of the pile anywhere. We were just lucky enough to already have him in the building and a head start.

 

The Raiders interviewed Brady twice this cycle.

For them it was down to Brady or Kubiak. They knew they werent getting Brady out of our building. If they had, we'd likely have Kubiak.

 

1a and 1b as far as I'm concerned.

Kubiak vs Brady, Brady was a no brainer to the Bills.  The continuity with Josh Allen and Allen loves Brady.

[NoSaint]

2 hours ago, GunnerBill said:

 

Not true. The two places he was a finalist other than Buffalo - Vegas yes, but also Arizona - hired AFTER the Bills.

 

And also hiring a Head Coach late isn't just about hiring them it is about hiring the staff too. Its just a terrible idea to wait when you haven't even spoken to the guy. 

this also assumes you haven’t spoken to the guy quite literally and…. 

[Captain Hindsight]

4 hours ago, GaryPinC said:

 

Yep, when you consider this point in Allen's career and how critical this hire would be for the entire franchise, the search and candidates seemed overall a bit lacking. Rivers was just absurdity.

He probably will be, if he chooses that route in the future.  Consider both sides though:

 

The Bills:  Josh is at his peak and slowly heading toward the end of his career.  HC hire right now is crucial because you don't want to take a large step backwards or at worst have to blow it all up in 2 or 3 more years and start again.  

 

Philip Rivers:  10 kids, married his Jr. High sweetheart, coaching high school ball, lives in Fairhope Alabama after having lived in San Diego.  Originally from Decatur  AL.  Has never coached in any role at the NFL level.  44 years old.

 

The  Bills called his agent on Wednesday and requested Rivers interview for the HC job in Florida on Friday.  Rivers shows up with a pen and notebook and dressed like he's going to hit the cabana bar at the beach afterwards.

 

Head coaching is far more than just xs and Os.  Rivers is going to move almost his entire family up to Buffalo and set up shop here?  Buffalo is going to annoint him head coach when he's never tried to balance running a team and family vs coaching at this level?  What are your superpowers telling you in this particular situation Captain Hindsight?

 

At the time I felt the entire situation was absurd and didn't make much sense given the gravity of our situation and his focus on family.  

 

@NoSaint gave some excellent reasons why they brought him in, there's a couple more I can imagine:

-Gauge his interest in coaching, see if he would come on as an assistant in the future.

-Discuss the possibility of him being a potential late season emergency or even backup QB if Josh goes down to injury.

Obviously he didn’t get the job, I think it was Brady all along unless someone blew them away in an interview. 
 

I still believe Rivers would make a good HC someday. Maybe Beane is gauging his interest in 5-10 years? But to say he’s not a serious candidate is simply not true. No GM is going to pitch to the owner and franchise QB to sit in on an interview unless there was legitimate interest in the candidate

 

In no way do I think Rivers was ready to do that this season, but who knows. He got a call last season, and stated an NFL game a few days later against the eventual SB champs. I’d never count him out 

[nedboy7]

Oh the old Rivers thread. 🤣

How embarrassing. 

[GaryPinC]

3 hours ago, Captain Hindsight said:

Obviously he didn’t get the job, I think it was Brady all along unless someone blew them away in an interview. 
 

I still believe Rivers would make a good HC someday. Maybe Beane is gauging his interest in 5-10 years? But to say he’s not a serious candidate is simply not true. No GM is going to pitch to the owner and franchise QB to sit in on an interview unless there was legitimate interest in the candidate

 

In no way do I think Rivers was ready to do that this season, but who knows. He got a call last season, and stated an NFL game a few days later against the eventual SB champs. I’d never count him out 

I agree with you with everything except Rivers being a serious HC candidate  this past spring.  He dismissed himself as a serious candidate,  to no one's surprise.

  I tend to agree with others that maybe he was brought in to pick his brain and maybe the odd chance he could be enticed, but it was always a long shot and therefore not a serious candidate.  I'm sure as husbands and fathers, Beane and Pegula were not surprised Rivers bowed out.

[Einstein's Dog]

7 hours ago, DrDawkinstein said:

 

Agreed, terms like "sham" and "absurd" only disregard the fact that the Bills have been one of the best managed organizations and one of the leagues best teams for the past ~10 years.

 

Like how dare a consistently top-3 team lean toward hiring from within.

 

Feels like a lot of folks are stuck on the Bills being irrelevant buffoons. But that hasnt been the case for this franchise in quite some time.

 

Outside of the SB winners with Kubiak, where else should a top team look? Tennessee? Miami? Cincinnati?

 

This aint our daddies' Bills.

Being a good organization does not mean the coaching search wasn't a sham.  I have been of the opinion the whole thing was a sham from the start.  And the whole P Rivers buildup was embarrassing - putting a portion of the fanbase through the absurd idea that P Rivers would be given the reigns.

 

I contend it was discussed by Pegula/Beane/McD (maybe Josh) that if McD didn't get to the Superbowl he was out.   Seemed like McD knew - the thinly veiled criticism of Beane and the missed WR at the deadline.  The reaction of Josh at the loss.  The speed of the firing (and ridiculous statements by Pegula).

 

This was a preplanned Beane move.  Doesn't mean it's a bad move.  They needed a change and J Brady is a good replacement.  The misfits they brought in for the sham were all for show.

[NoSaint]

9 hours ago, DrDawkinstein said:

 

Agreed, terms like "sham" and "absurd" only disregard the fact that the Bills have been one of the best managed organizations and one of the leagues best teams for the past ~10 years.

 

Like how dare a consistently top-3 team lean toward hiring from within.

 

Feels like a lot of folks are stuck on the Bills being irrelevant buffoons. But that hasnt been the case for this franchise in quite some time.

 

Outside of the SB winners with Kubiak, where else should a top team look? Tennessee? Miami? Cincinnati?

 

This aint our daddies' Bills.

its such a weird crossroads 

 

Josh is such a force in the franchise- how much of his glow is absorbed by those around him. 
 

i like Brady. It’s a good start.

 

But there’s the reality of even hiring WEO probably gets us to 10-7.

 

can we assume we are a great front office that simply made the wrong coaching choice the last 3-4 offseasons but not this one? Maybe. It’s more fun that way.