Archives for May 2017

'Pegula suggested that these would be his first GM hires. Forget the past. What droughts? Fans need to trust the "process" — which he and Sean McDermott have adopted as the operative buzz word for the Bills. Given a chance to pick their own GM, he and Kim will finally get it right.'

'Let the record show, however, that McDermott never would have taken the job if the previous structure of Whaley primarily having the biggest say on picking players while the coaches stuck almost exclusively to coaching them remained in place. Let the record also show that, as Pegula was careful to explain Sunday, Whaley "wasn’t the only person involved in hiring the new head coach. It was Kim and I and a lot of input from other places."'

'This is what rebuilding looks like. The Bills finally are doing it.'

'Wright never really panned out for the Ravens. He started 15 of the 22 games he played and did not make an interception. Interestingly, one of his best games came in the 2016 season opener against the Bills when Wright made a career-high 11 tackles in Baltimore’s 13-7 victory. That day, the Bills had only 95 net passing yards.'

'"No, you're not going to bring him back," Kornheiser said. "I have a serious question: Who is running the Buffalo Bills? Because it's very hard for me to believe that Terry Pegula, who just sort of walked in there a couple of years ago, knows enough to fire a coach in Rex Ryan, fire a GM in Doug Whaley so that means he's invested all of this power it seems to me in a guy named Sean McDermott who has never coached an NFL game as the head coach in his life. You look at this team and you say what exactly is going on here? Who is running this team?"'

'His 2016 season hit a rough patch after that game, though. In a three-game stretch early in the season, Wright allowed 16 catches for 205 yards. That was after giving up just 205 yards in the final 10 games of 2015 and earning a three-year, $16 million extension in the process.'

'Being the survivor he is, Whaley hung on. He then stumbled through a disastrous end-of-season press conference. He was woefully unprepared to face questions, which wasn't entirely his fault. He insisted he had no idea why Rex Ryan was fired and continually uttered the now infamous line, "I was not privy to the conversation."'

'"I thought the Bills had a great draft," McShay said. "Obviously, they were working through their front office situation, but just focusing on the football part of it and what they did, I thought it was one of the best drafts that they've had in years."'

'Beane has been in the league for 19 years, all with the Carolina Panthers. The 39-year old assistant general manager began in the team's media relations office after graduating from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington in 1998. He also worked as director of football operations and was named assistant general manager in June of 2015. He served as interim general manager in 2012 before the Panthers hired current general manager Dave Gettleman.'

'"Taking a swing at this one given that Sean McDermott is installing a new system and may want a hand-selected linebacker at the center of it. Milano is the first linebacker taken in the McDermott era after the former Panthers defensive coordinator had a lot of success with another linebacker out of Boston College. One Northeast scout told NFL.com's Lance Zierlein that Milano reminds him of a smaller Brian Cushing — or at least plays in that mold. Can he put on some more weight and mix it up?'

'“Just having Leslie coach me last year and being familiar with him and the way he coaches and what he expects (made a difference),” Wright said to BuffaloBills.com. “He made that phone call to me and told me he felt like it’s a great opportunity for me to come here and add something to this defense. I trust in him and we went from there.”'

'Beane essentially started in the PR department for the Panthers and rose to his current position, including a seven-year span as Director of Football Operations.'

'All that tied together, here’s how some national outlets graded the 2017 Bills draft…'.

'Analysis: The Bills made a good move with the trade down and drafted solid players. This was a great draft for them. The Bills are a better team, especially with the additions of White, Jones and Dawkins.'

'If this strikes you as an ownership group (Pegula and his wife, Kim) that doesn’t know what the hell it’s doing, then you would be correct.'