Hapless Bills Fan
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Posts posted by Hapless Bills Fan
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Hopefully nothing fragile in case they drop it.
Oooooooooooohhhhhh
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I think you (and other fans like you) are sorely mistaken about what leadership is.
What I see is a coach leading his players to the water. And you fans like you saying he failed them for not telling them/forcing them to drink it.
Well, fair enough. I think you (and anyone who subscribes to your view) are sorely mistaken about what leadership is.
Leadership is persuading the people you lead that the water is marvelous and it is in their interest to drink it, nay, it is in their interest to extoll the drinking of the water and exert all their powers to see that their peers do drink, whilst at the same time instilling the belief that those who fail to drink shall be cast into the abyss. Leaders (and coaches must be leaders) inspire people to buy into their plan, while at the same time inspiring them to use all their efforts to get everyone on the same page.
We'll just have to agree to disagree.
And that still leaves the question of game planning and management: ineffective schemes, inappropriate play calling for down and distance, poor clock management, poor challenge decisions, and lack of halftime adjustments
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The root cause is Pegs not cleaning out all of Ralph's trash from the get-go. Relying on a proven chump like Russ Brandon to assist with the decision-making process was a recipe for disaster.
This may not be too far off, actually. If we're looking for a common denominator, Brandon came to the Bills in 1997 and has steadily expanded his role ever since, especially since 2006 and including a stint as de facto GM where our drafts were horrible.
Why pay Millions for defense line players and ask them to fall into coverage
LOL! This
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He doesn't suck. He's decent, and he was decent last year too. There's an in-between category good and sucks.
Yes, This. I love it how people around here (including people I respect) have no space between "great" and "awful".
Fitz is a competent NFL QB who is not gifted enough to be in the top-tier of NFL QBs - but then, we got pundits saying that about Russell Wilson. I forget who said it, but someone summed Fitz up pretty well: a QB who is not good enough to be retained by multiple teams, which then do a totally inadequate job of replacing him with someone better.
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Kim Pegula hiring Rex Ryan --> Rex Ryan asking for Tyrod Taylor.
That's where it went wrong. Both of them suck at what they do.
The Pegulas hiring Rex Ryan and Rex bringing in all his cronies from the Jets D coaching staff, including Thurman as DC seems like a logical place.
I don't get all the Taylor hate. Where is the MagicalWonderQB available to the Bills who was better? The Bills traded for a QB, signed a dark horse FA, and kept EJ. Is there any argument that Taylor is the best of the 3?
The offense improved from 20th in the league to 13th in the league. The defense skidded from 4th to whatever they are now - 18th? 20th? 'Nuff said where the problem is.
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An earlier post mentioned these guys as great executives or coaches or something to that point. All this complaining about Rex and Whaley and the Pegulas and Wilson as garbage or some form of fecal matter ignores the only key issue.... you don't win as a GM, Owner, or Coach without a franchise QB. If you get lucky and find one (and a lot of it is circumstances and luck, let's be honest) you win and look like a genius, you don't find one, you're a failure.
Who was the franchise QB in the 2013 SB? For 49ers? For Baltimore - is Flacco your idea of a Franchise Guy?
How about Eli Manning in 2012?
Russ Wilson? You can Google "Russ Wilson Not Elite" and find all sorts of pundits pontificating.
The fact is, a quality QB is important, but it is far from "the only key issue".
GMs owners and coaches have enjoyed considerable winning success with a competent NFL QB and the right scheme/pieces around him.
Without the right pieces around him (strong D, solid OL) many a potentially-franchise QB has failed to find success (Stafford, Bradford, Rivers, Ryan)
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He had players, but he also took over the 0-16 Lions, the worst team in NFL history. Not as though he took a 9-7 team with a top 4 Defense and ruined it.
Added pertinent point. In fact, Schwartz took over a mediocre (20th on points) D and improved it to 4th.
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Congrats to fred! One of the most deserving guys!
Maybe next year, fred (with his super bowl ring) and the new 3rd assistant to the east coast scout of the jags, Doug Whaley, can bury the hatchet and have a good laugh about his release. Perhaps boobie Dixon and boom Herron can join them.
This is bullcrap.
Congrats to Freddie indeed, but the rest is gratuitous and in fact stupid. If you want Whaley gone, fine, good enough, but Whaley had a senior position with Pittsburgh, he is widely respected in the league for his talent evaluation, and if we cut him, he will readily find another significant role on another team. Looking around the league, there are plenty of teams which have to feel they can improve their overall level of talent.
It seemed at the time that it was something of a move to specifically remove his leadership from the lockerroom.........as if unwanted.
It was a terrible move.
Things spiraled out of control here at the end but this season was lost when they had 5 of their first 8 at home......including one road game at a neutral site........and came out of it 4-4.
Fred could really have helped during the EJ stretch, IMO.
It was a hard-headed move of keeping young guys seen as having potential and guys who can play special teams, because we wanted a fullback and more TE on the offensive side, we wanted to keep guys who can play ST, and we wanted to keep more D.
"Specifically to remove his leadership" pah, tin foil hat time. What is the evidence, anywhere, that anyone wanted to lose Fred's leadership or didn't regret its loss?
With 20-20 hindsight, the minimal contribution from Felton, the significant lost time by McCoy and Williams, and the cut of Brown (which still has me blinking), could we have used Fred? Absolutely. But the Fred move made sense from a hard-headed analytics and roster numbers standpoint. Why is this hard to understand?
It is one of the places where I believe Rex, as HC, needed to make a call between differing DC and OC and ST needs, and he decided in favor of D and ST and overruled Roman, and I'm not sure it reflected the kind of balanced judgement a HC needs, but that is just my speculation.
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Everyone acts as if Rex inherited a superstar team that he tanked as opposed to inheriting a bunch of guys who eeked out a 9-7 finish and could have just as easily been 6-10.
Bottom line is that the roster is still filled with a bunch of idiots who are prone to making a boneheaded play once a game.
Yet somehow, many of the same idiots made far fewer boneheaded plays last year
The team's record last year misses an important point. Last year, our D was fourth in the league (pts or yds) but our O was a mediocre 18th. It was reasonable to expect that with offensive improvement, an improvement in our record might follow.
Instead, while our offense has indeed improved modestly to 13th, our D has dropped to the mediocrity (17th) our O enjoyed last year.
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Jim's system worked with the 2014 Bills. as was pointed out the D line is now 2 years older.
Wait, isn't this 2015? One year older?
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You're all idiots.
Wait. Wait. Finally....could it be what I've been waiting for?
Did DC Tom JUST CALL ME AN IDIOT?
*swoooooooon*
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Haynesworth said that the worst decision he made was signing with Washington. The scheme took away everything that made him great. He became a space eater, just like Marcell has.
Yeah, that was a very interesting article, especially as it involved Schwartz
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I just want to take a minute here to thank each and every one of you for adding some fun to my day when I read and post
Especial Thanks to CornerBlitz, Yolo, Bill in NYC, and others who take the time to provide links and summaries of news items and football-savvy analysis of the games. You all play a huge part of making this one of the Best Fan Boards Anywhere, Ever.
Shout out to our Mods who keep things tidy and civil (SHOUT!) who are also huge in making this place work.
And of course, to SDS who makes it happen and puts in time and resources none of us will ever fully know about.
Shower the people you love with love...show them the way that you feel, because we each all live today, everything may change tomorrow.
Be safe everyone and remember above everything - Don't Drink and Bowl
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Peyton Manning in an Elway type role, Chris Polian as assistant GM and Bill Polian as Grand Poobah/Czar
If #18 decided to hang em up after this season.
OMG no
What on earth makes you feel Chris Polian is qualified to be a good assistant GM or that Polian is still interested/energetic/connected enough to the modern game to be GM?
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Question for everyone....
If it took Whaley getting let go in order for Rex to be let go, would you be ok with that?
Oh, hard one. It really depends on the scenario - and do they get rid of Brandon too?
If they kick Brandon all the way over to the Sabres, and hire a new football-knowledgeable President who gets to pick his GM and coach (or pick his GM and the GM picks the coach), I'm OK
If they give Whaley and Rex the ax and keep Brandon around - or worse yet give him the power to choose the GM and coach....I think it's change to keep things the same
You pay money for big parts of your offense. Clay is a big part of our offense. Outside of McCoy, he's probably our highest use offensive player. He's also a good blocker, and can run well after the catch. Both things Chandler struggled with.
As far as 'running from every thread', I do have responsibilities and interests outside of TBD, even with my fairly high post count. But I will be running away again, have a happy holidays and all that jazz.
Yeah, I got that on a different thread too. This is a message board, folks, not life (for most of us). I post when I have time and the fancy takes me. If I post/opine or start threads and then vanish, it's because I have elderly parents, kids, work and home responsibilities - lots of stuff that can pull me away sometimes with minimal notice.
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I never understood the czar hysteria. Each team should have one, isn't that the point of the GM. If you as team owner find yourself incompetent of making te right football decisions for your franchise, hire a president to preside over it all. Either way the answer is to step aside and let the football people do football things. If they fail find a new one, hire a consultant with whome you trust to find a new GM and get out of the way again. Having a guy act as the pen optic for the GM, ony says we don't have the right GM. If they start over ruling said GM in the draft, FA, and re-signings, aren't they then just the GM?
It comes back to, for Terry, the Ted Black role. What was his job? Why have him? I always hated Terry's quote saying something like "Ted isn't the only one in the room with a hockey iq" (paraphrasing). He's got to do a better job of letting the sports people do their sports thing.
A Csar only muddies the waters, and becomes a sounding board for outside (owner) influence.
I've never understood what "Czar" meant, but if it means some sort of advisor to the owner - I agree with you.
Functionally, the Pegulas are filling the CEO role now with Brandon, as president; Whaley, as GM; and Ryan, as coach, all reporting to them. Different teams do things different ways, one way is to have a football-knowledgeable president to whom the GM and coach both report; another way is to have the GM report to the president or owner and have the coach report to the GM.
You are exactly right, if Pegula doesn't feel comfortable overseeing that unholy triumverate, he should hire a football guy president he can trust with the role and have the coach and GM report to him. If you can't trust your football guys to make football decisions, you need different football guys.
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They both have Franchise QBs, excellent coaching staffs who have been together for several seasons, and very good defenses. Three very important factors where the Bills simply do not measure up.
Well....except....isn't Seattle missing their DC, who left for a HC gig? And don't some people question Wilson's status as an "elite" or "franchise" QB?
And then, since we had a top 5 D with very much the same personnel last year, doesn't it beg the question "why don't the Bills measure up?" on Defense?
I read this 3-4/4-3 think over and over on here. However I remember Rex telling us he doesn't run a certain offense. Not a 3-4 or a 4-3 or and Umbrella D or a Flex D or whatever. He runs what's best for the players he has. That's what he said.
Yes. Yes, it is. It's exactly what Rex said, repeatedly, to the media and the smart money betting is it's exactly what he said to "sell himself" to the Pegulas, Brandon, and Whaley (who was reportedly very anxious that the D not be disrupted)
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Defensive starters missed 13 total games this year.
We're up around 35 already this year.
But no, it's "an excuse."
If it were just getting outskilled and outphysicaled, decimating injuries are an excuse I'd accept.
The thing is, even when the starters were in, we were undisciplined, overly penalized, had poor clock and challenge management, and I questioned the schemes we were running defensively.
Remember the astoundingly puzzling lack of pressure in the first NE game? When as far as I recall, all the starters were playing?
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I did not know this. Brandon reminds me of a barker at a cheap carnival, except he is about big time money. It's all he knows and really all that Ralph probably ever wanted from him.
IMHO Brandon is the one who should go, but the Pegulas seem to be engraving "In Russ We Trust" on their ownership and Brandon has successfully obtained plausible deniability for any football operations decisions he may or may not be making
Rex is Russ Brandon's "guy".
he was brought in to raise expectations in order to sell season tickets and sponsorship deals.
mission accomplished.
except cutting freddy screwed M&T. hence the going "rogue" leak.
only a "business" mind would overlook the fact Rex is a 3-4 guy on a team with 4-3 personnel.
This is one of the more plausible theories I've heard, except that I think Rex charmed everyone with his "I'm not a scheme guy, I'm a football guy" Happy Talk
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If you need to bring in multiple ex-players to teach your system....its too complex. We have had more success with Pettine and Shwartz and I dont remember seeing ex jets or lions.
This. Plus....you know....after "winning the interview' and "winning the media" with all his talk about the great talented D and how top-five was a disappointment with these players and how "just give me good football guys and I'll win", it must have been pretty hard for Rex to do a total flip and say "no, you gotta get me these two specific guys whose analytics has them overpriced for their age and ability, or it's gonna be a complete Dumpster Fire around here".
That may have been the truth...but if you were just sitting on a yacht or in a hot tub with a guy pontificating on how you're not a "scheme guy" and you can fit your scheme to the players and just give you top-tier talent as football players, don't you think it would be kinda tough 3 months later to admit you were spewing total bullcrap and now here's the straight gouge?
Um. Okay. You think he elevated the talent of his team and got them to play better than they actually were, but aren't willing to concede that he was a good coach?
Whatever, I don't care.
When I don't care, I typically don't respond.
Just sayin'
There's more to being a good head coach than inspiring players to play above their talent level.
Also just sayin'.
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Go ahead and pull the rosters from 2006-09.
If you want to take a good long list of the players contributing to those teams, then turn around and tell me coaching would have made a difference, you have no business challenging any one on any football-related topic, ever.
It's true that with the benefit of hindsight, Jauron did a pretty good job of "getting more performance out of less" as far as football talent was concerned, but I'm not sure there's a selling point that he was good as a head coach.
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I disagree that Whaley is bad to be honest. I think he is a good General Manager. I accept that he has made a lot of moves that will split the fan base, but I think generally this team has been much improved in its drafting in the Whaley era (both as the Assistant GM and the GM).
I will be furious if they fire Whaley to keep and prop up Rex and my preference would be to keep Whaley and give him full control of the coaching hire without interference. However, I am at the stage where if the only way to get rid of Rex Ryan is to clean the whole damn house then I am for it.
I think Whaley's problem as GM has been not being able, for whatever reason, to be on the same page with his coaches. In Marrone's case, I believe it was because Marrone insisted he had to have a certain kind of player who just isn't commonly available and when Whaley got him the closest thing he wasn't willing or able to adjust to make it work (OLmen in particular). We see what he's doing now as an OL coach, what's that product like?
The problem with getting "on the same page" with Rex is that Rex was loudly and all over the media when he got here with "not being a scheme guy" and "everybody wants 6'7" guys who can run a 4.4, just get me good football players and I'll put them in positions to succeed" (not exact quotes, but it's easy to find the interviews where this is the gist.
I believe that Rex probably sold the same line to the Pegulas and Brandon and Whaley during his interviews. I think he charmed all of them equally and said what they wanted to hear. That's a problem if what you say does not reflect your reality.
Rex can talk the talk, but apparently he is not able to walk the walk. It's very hard for a GM to support a coach adequately if the coach won't be up-front and honest with the GM about what he really needs and wants. I also think there are signs that Rex has gone against Roman at times in what Roman wants and sided with Whaley - which is part of a HC job description, but the HC has to have great judgement and be balanced betwenn O, D, and ST in making those calls and I'm not sure Rex has shown this.
Whaley has, IMO, quietly rebuilt the Bills scouting and personnel departments to produce consistent quality both in drafting and in pro player acquisition. Every team and every GM has misses. The miss rate in the 1st round is something like 50% and goes up from there as you proceed down the draft.
I don't recall Marshawn being a malcontent when he was here. There were many concerns about off-team behavior, but point me to where he wasn't content with the team?
It was pretty clear watching the film that he was taking plays off, not giving maximum effort, not functioning well as a blocker, laughing and whooping it up on the sidelines while the team was losing. He was late reporting to camp (or perhaps skipped OTAs) Gailey's first year. A lot of things that he, after a year or so, did well for Seattle, he was NOT doing here.
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I dont think he would, because I dont think it would ever have gotten this far with a coach like Belichick in charge. It would have been fixed and put to bed weeks ago.
This
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I'm not sure that Bill would even be in the same situation because I think he sets a much more disciplined, structured, team-first approach then Rex.
Yes, this is exactly what I meant with my "board of nails" analogy. If you have one diva (one nail sticking out) you hammer it down.
If you have undisciplined and/or unstructured/"lazy" play across the board, IMO it's then fair to ask "why is that?" - especially if you have a player who played with a high effort last year
This is the Season we Should Have Expected
in The Stadium Wall Archives
Posted
I can't bring myself to read your doubtless well-thought and interesting post.
The title stops me
No. We did not deserve and should not have expected this.