Sisyphean Bills

No argument really. I don't tend to think of recurring issues as unfortunate, isolated events. But that's my issue.

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My point was definitely not to argue that resigning an NFL HC job is seen as "cool" or whatever. Nothing of the sort was implied. The issue is that this happens to the Bills and Marrone is not an isolated case. Like the original post said, it isn't commonplace overall. There is no reason to assume it will never happen based on that. However, when there is a historical trend to coaches quitting or setting the table for their own dismissals, then it begs the question why? The easy approach is to blame it on the weather or Smoking Man, but the harder question is whether there is something about the organization itself that turns people off? And if so, what is it? FWIW, here is a link to the Knox resigning bit. http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1755&dat=19830126&id=ghweAAAAIBAJ&sjid=SWgEAAAAIBAJ&pg=3377,1877716

Chip Kelly's offensive system helped hide Sanchez's deficiencies, and that is definitely coaching. He wasn't being asked to run the butt fumble, for one thing. The big question though is, assuming that EJM is anointed as "The Guy" next year, who is the coach that is willing and able to run a system that minimizes EJM's deficiencies? That's not a question with a simple knee-jerk answer. Every move made comes with a series of counter moves by the competition to eliminate and then reverse advantages from one year (even one game) to the next. Harbaugh had some success with building a system around Kaepernick. But last year, the trend for these zone-read QBs was noticeably downwards. Harbaugh quit/was forced out. Add that there was no bigger collapse in the NFL than RG3 last year. And, of course, the Bills ditched their offense and went with a pocket passer in Kyle Orton. So ... someone would have to see enough strengths in EJM to invest the time, resources, and creativity to transform him into a QB who can win and win consistently—this hypothetical coach would be betting his short-term career on EJM being successful. On the other hand, it's possible EJM is not anointed and maybe the Bills will instead try to pull another Orton out of another hat. In which case, all they could really offer a prospective head coach is assurances that they'll make some sort of effort to find "The Guy" for him.

Since nobody has been hired yet, it does take a bit of the pressure off. It's like musical chairs, but the music is still blaring at this point.

While this is true, it has happened multiple times to the Bills. If you look deeper, it doesn't get much better. Marrone took his buy-out. Mularkey resigned. Saban resigned. Chuck Knox resigned. Curiosities: Gregg Williams was offered a contract extension in 2002 and declined, claiming he'd rather spend 2003 as a lame duck coach. The spent their 1st round pick on a guy who'd never play a single down for Coach Williams. Wade Phillips refused to fire members of his staff and was summarily fired. Ralph even tried to get out of paying off Wade's contract.

Lou Holtz is slowing down.

Rex being leery sounds like he isn't asleep at the wheel at least.

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From the other thread ... if there is truth to Overdorf getting locked out and Brandon is just acting as coffee gopher ... you may be right that this is just the first shots fired.

Maybe. I can certainly see Pegula looking at that "Emeritus" title and asking some tough questions. He isn't obligated to carry virtually retired people that Ralph knew on his payroll.

Good point. Someone who has a low opinion of EJM and actually wants to hit the ground running isn't "stupid" to walk away. He may just decide that having EJM rammed down his throat wasn't in his best career interest.

Respect from whom? Wasn't Brandon blowing the guy's whistle with 2 games left to play? His message got stale. It is questionable logic. People really want a guy who plays inferior players to develop them like a farm team? So his resume will be one of failure and he will be afraid to leave? And no doubt if he had done just that they'd want him fired.

Just scheme around it.

No one equates a caretaker QB with a franchise QB, and no one suggested the Bills shouldn't get a franchise QB. The Bills painted themselves into a corner all by themselves and managed their resources at the most important position in their product like it was a beauty pageant run by a public opinion poll. To emphasize my point, I'll submit that as soon as the Bills finally landed a caretaker QB (see Kyle Orton) and he had some basic grasp of the offense, Coach Marrone named him the starter over the possible future franchise but currently just a project QB and never looked back. Like Marv Levy said, "If you listen to the fans, you'll end up sitting with them." As far as the "shared responsibility", I commented on this earlier, but it is a system for establishing plausible deniability. It allows people to build and protect little fiefdoms. Why is EJM's failure (so far) 100% on Nix? Whaley helped set the draft board. Brandon signed off on it. Nix made the pick. The scouting department did the due diligence. Marrone and Hackett bought in and apparently thought Hackett could bring him along single-handedly the first year. It's a fluster duck result based on a whole series of dominoes toppling the wrong way over multiple years as you astutely point out. It's an organizational strategic failure. And those sorts of strategic blind spots are how a team defies the odds and goes 15 straight years without a playoff berth.

Do you know anybody who's spent a year or less as an offensive coordinator at the NCAA Division II level?

The problem with this is that they already had two veteran care-taker QBs under contract. They have only themselves to blame for forcing themselves into a "we have to roll the dice" situation. Also, the "he refused to renegotiate" line is regurgitating the official company line. If they were that hard up, why turn right around and flush cap money straight down the toilet on the brittle and damaged Kevin "TKO'd by a Rubber Mat" Kolb? They were well under the cap before and after cutting Fitzpatrick. In a way, it was purely a marketing move to dump him and replace him with a first-round pick. It was exactly what people were publicly suggesting was the solution.

People are blaming them to fit data to the outcome they hope to see. If a player is a failure, it is better to assume that it was Nix who screwed the soup, because Nix has left the building. The phenomena is a board constant. Every time someone is fired (or leaves), all the recent garbage on the field is shoveled into a brown paper bag, placed on the guy's doormat, set on fire, and the doorbell rung. Edit: And like you say, the converse is also true. Some may place all the blame on the guy still in the building. The sticky part is that for some, saying there are group decisions involved is totally unacceptable. Saying X had anything more than 0% to do with bad decision Y is simply unfathomable.

I blame them both. They both worked elbow to elbow in the kitchen. Saying one screwed up the soup by stirring it too much and the other screwed it up by not stirring it enough is, well, comical.

The problem with the "two years" thing is that people want to cherry pick the good moves of 2 years ago and tag them with 'Whaley' and put 'Nix' next to all the fumbles. It's simply fitting the data to a theory.

There is another problem with using your top draft resources on QB like an involuntary reaction until you get one. How do you define "until you get one"? Tom Brady wasn't ready as a rookie. Neither was Aaron Rodgers. Drew Brees? Nope. Peyton Manning wasn't what he is now, for sure. And the assumption is that the people doing this evaluation can tell. Well, after EJM's rookie season, Whaley determined that he'd "got one" and went all-in to get the first WR in a WR deep draft. A preseason and September later, the "we got one" tea leaves reading looks like it may have been inaccurate. Now for the sake of argument imagine they give up on a guy who later turns into the next Tom Brady for the Dolphins. I think a lot of people would "get one"—a pink slip as the room gets fired by the owner.

I don't think he's really been on the job long enough to give an objective evaluation. He's had one off-season to date to put his mark on this team and the early returns are very mixed so far. Pegula should be monitoring things closely. The rapid dysfunction between Marrone and Whaley suggests potential problems. One of them is gone, but there are two sides to any conflict.

What did Marrone really think? Who knows. There is no doubt that it benefits Marrone to distance himself from that trade.

I think you mean Brian Griese, but it was fun image.

The Mike Williams thing was surreal.