GrudginglyPessimistic

For sure his D's were well-below average (a production rate at 19th which is in the 2nd third of the league), however, where the stats INDICATE he did a better job than Jauron coaching was that at some point when he took over the team was ranked 32nd in the league. The question is not whether the Fewell team was good (it was not flat out) the question in fact is whether the Bills were better with Fewell than they were under the other HC. My sense (again reflected by the ultimate stat W/L is that he took over a team which was 3-6 when he got it and through motivation, toughness, inspiration (and some slight improvements in play calling) he produced a 3-4 record as HC. Is he good? No, not with this team (which actually had a Bills record # of guys on IR and easily could have cashed in the season and finished at a 1-6 or 2-5 record consistent with Jauron output). Was he better? Yep. He deserves to be gone as Bills HC, but all looks good as both he and the YEAM were helped by the job he did!

As said above TO being a normal teammate does deserve some note as there has been immediate and seemingly relentless speculation from the moment that he signed that TO was gonna be a cancer for this team. This rant grew from initial speculation of what would happen for sure before he even came to town, predictions that he would pull a prima donna number and skip voluntary practices and all sorts of wild stories that he only came here out of desperation cause he got no other offers (maybe true but how does any media type know for sure) or that even his initial comments were showing his true negative stripes even before he arrived. When all of this was shown to be simple speculation, folks hopped on him not coming back for the second voluntary session (only to have it turn out he had officially been excused and was in Philly to receive and award for various humanitarian actions and a long scheduled visit to a hospital. Frankly, TO being normal is worth mentioning as all this preliminary speculation based on some legitimate interpretations of the fights he had a definite part in (and likely caused in many cases) in SF, Ph, and Dallas completely ignored the fact that a cancer has to first become a favorite to half the locker room and half the fans before he could even become a cancer. Anyone with half a brain (or even a quarter of a brain) should have seen it coming from a mile away that TO was gonna be great his first year of a new contract if only to set the table for him to be a cancer. The one year contract the Bills signed him to virtually guaranteed good behavior. The fact that he was at the end of his career and wanted one more big contract virtually guaranteed that TO was going to be a model Bill all the time he was here. He was. This was the case even though the pathetic Noffense we mounted with the OC fired a couple of weeks before the start of the season and an anemic offense that cost his his consecutive game with catches record did not inspire a negative rant from TO. Not only is him ending his year here being normal worth a mention, but quite frankly he is owed an apology by all who declared his signing a disaster because of how he was guaranteed to divide the Bills.

Its been 3 years of play for the Bill's classes of 06 and 07 chosen under Marv Levy's GM ship and legit judgments can be made. There is some reasonable case to want to give Marv two grades in terms of our 20/20 hindsight (the real grade based on what really happened) but also a grade based on what reasonably could have been known at the time 20/20 Hindsight Grade What we Knew Then Donte Whitner Ohio State- C (at best)pro starter but no difference maker B- Definitely best S available in this draft better than Huff taken just prior and 2nd of three Ss taken in first round (this fact and the importance of SZS in SB winners at Pitt and Indy shows those who claim you never take an S that early are simply behind the times) but filling trench openings is rarely a bad strategy and the team should likely have gone after Ngata rather than be disappointed by Whitner John McCargo NC State- F a bust due to injury and skill level C- Reaching for this pick shows DT was a real need and though McCargo was better than other high profile options (no DT was taken by anyone in the 2nd indicating you had to step up if you wanted McCargo but strategy should have been to strengthen the DL with Ngata making the need to stretch and fail with McCargo Ashton Youboty Ohio State - D (at best due to injury and bad luck when his Mom died) B- Nice pick-u[ at the time as Youbouty showed signs of being a 1st round talent who was available in the 3rd because he left a year early and there had been a DB run in the first round because teams were forced to bid higher than the past for help at safety. It was also a smart move on paper at the time as insiders could see a coming problem with the DBs due to FA strategy and market Ko Simpson South Carolina- D (at best as we did get an instant starter from a second day choice which is a big bonus but in hindsight he did not have the talent to sustain a career as a Bill). C- Not a bad pick at the time as we had clear needs at safety and Simpson gave us an immediate starter though he fizzled for the Bills after a couple of years. Kyle Williams LSU- B+ (turned out to be a Pro Bowl alternate level player which is pretty amazing for a second day pick- however any revelation about this picks needs to be done in the context of the failed reach for McCargo and any whine about missing on McCargo need to join with giving kudos for picking Williams) B- Good pick at the time due to our lack of depth at DT and desire to move to a rotation which quickly became a very good pick as he beat out McCargo for the starting job Brad Butler Virginia C- (In real life this second day pick became a starter legiimately worthy of the extension he got, he was a part of a productive OL we had a couple of years ago but gets marked down some in reality due to injury issues) B+ a very good pick-up of a guy available on the second day who had first day talent. He lost ground because an uncharacteristic dirty play was caught clearly on film, but good research produced enough character references that the Bills took the risk. Keith Ellison Oregon St. B- Reasonable second day depth choice who quickly due to injury played a key role as a starter. It is doubtful he is big enough to be relied upon as a starting OLB but until injured earlier this year was leading the league in tackles- this is a subjective rather than objective stat so there is no way one should consider him the real deal at starting OLB, but still in real life he was asked too much of but was a + pick by Marv. A mere avg C pick at the time. Terrance Pennington New Mexico D in real life he got cut but did give the Bills some valuable credible starts before longterm reality set in C pick as second late rounders are mere projects or fill-ins at best Aaron Merz California Same deal as Pennington as this D in real life got cut but only after providing a credible valuable start for us due to injuries of frontline players his rookie year but his skill level dictated that in reality he was no answer. C pick as second day late rounders are mere projects or fill-ins at best. Overall- Not a bad job by Marv considering that overall the team was dysfunctional under the ownership of Mr. Ralph (Marv came in as a fellow "Golden Boy" for Mr. Ralph which actually underscored how the ultimate Bills problem is toxic relationships between the owners and GMs Polian, Butler and TD). However, the results were clearly inadequate as Marv deserves his fair share of the blame (a heaping portion though the big blame goes to his fellow Golden Boy Mr. Ralph) For this first year output I think at best one gives Marv a C for the real world results of the choices as the first day picks were all disappointments or flat out busts and the second day picks produced some solid players and he made some inventive picks with what we knew at the time. Nice try but no cigar in terms of results. Marshawn Lynch California - I would give him a B as he still has some great value to the Bills as a former Pro Bowl pick now backing up the #1 Jackson in a league in which a team simply needs 2 potential starter RBs. In the real world, Lynch has proven himself to be (despite a downturn in his production now that the clearly is the #2 RB). His production problems though are not physical talent issues but some really stupid personal choices in driving on Chippewa St. as a rookie and carrying a gun as a sophomore. I assume (may be wrong but I do not think so) that he signed a 5 year deal as a rookie and if so the Bills should push him to produce next season but depending on how reality plays out look to maximize his value to the team next year by either seeing more real world production out of him or potentially getting value for him in a late season trade next year. A I think it was an A choice at the time as he was clearly the best RB in the draft after Peterson and he demonstrated on the field where he was incredibly difficult to bring down on the first hit that he was the real deal. Paul Posluszny Penn St. - i would also give him a B in that he has proven to be a consistent starter at MLB who has shown the both the speed and intellect needed for the dual run plug and coverage duty required on an MLB in the Tampa 2 style Cover 2 we use. However, having missed significant parts of his first two years to arm breaks the choice of finding an immediate starter at MLB from the draft is downgraded by the reality of his injuries. I would give him an A choice at the time because he seemingly had found an immediate starter (a 50/50 proposition to even find a first year at some point starter in the 1st round in the real world). However, the fantasy ended quickly with an injury after a quarter of a season. Trent Edwards Stanford - C at best as a former starting QB has some value to other teams in the NFL and since he seems to be done as a Bills starter (though we are about to get a new HC and thus a new OC and QB Coach so it would not be utterly surprising if he gets a chance to work his way back into the Bills picture. Still I am pretty tempted to list him as a D because the Edwards fantasy ran head on into the fact he meets my qualifications for declaring him injury prone (misses PT 3 or more times in 2 seasons with injuries to different part of his body. Edwards was a good B pick at least when he was taken as no less than Bill Walsh recommended him and he had slipped through the 2nd round where many felt he would be taken. Those inside the Bills organization also knew how tenuous the Bills plans for Losman who had been too quickly promoted to starter were so the Edwards pick was actually a smart move by Marv. Dwayne Wright Fresno St. F- we got nothing out of him and this pick was wasted. It was a C idea at the time though as Wright had shown productivity in college as a rusher and as a pass catcher that he made outward sense to be developed as a second RB who could play the FB role for us. John Wendling Wyoming - C- Reasonable ST performer as he was drafted to be. C as a reasonable second day ST/depth choice. Derek Schouman Boise St. - C as he is on IR now but has provided ST play and back-up. C choice as an ST role and fill-in status are what one would expect from a late second day choice C.J. Ah You Oklahoma F in the real world and D as a project choice. In his second year, I though Marv sort of reversed his first year performance. He found two immediate starters with his first two picks but the second day produced uninspired choices. Real world limitations caused by injuries to Poz and crime by Lynch reduce this draft from a B result to a C. Overall, i think those who complain and whine about Marv actually miss the point that the real problem here is Mr. Ralph and that overall even the real world results are better than one can expect given the other dysfunctions of this team.

That may well prove to be the case. It all depends upon what else is available. In the absence of other specific names being suggested I focus my calculations on the positives Reed brings (which go hand in hand with the negatives we Bills fans tend to focus on as part of the death by a thousand cuts we have had over the past decade). My sense is that a legend in his own mind like Belichek makes a calculation that he can get production out of and inspire and control players like no else in the league can (I think unfortunately this has actually proven true at the WR position where he has in fact demonstrated an impermanent ability to get outstanding production from a talent like Moss while keeping him under control and also get incredible production out of Welker when his previous team had judged him expendable. Reed strikes me as in some ways fitting the MO of a player who is not a superstar talent, but has shown definite skills which got him the Biletnikoff award as the best WR in college ball his senior year and produced a very good rookie year for the Bills as he feasted off of the distraction the Moulds/Peerless duo offered Bills opponents. Reed failed miserably his sophomore year as the Bills gave him the starters' opportunity but he developed a pretty clearly mental case causing severe droppsies. Since that failure, Reed has ridden a solid rep as one of the brighter Bills minds to be a fairly studly at times 3rd down possession guy. It would not surprise me if he turned out to be just the type of player who a change of scenery offered good benefits for his play and production. I think he is done as a Bill (particularly after a bad drop a game or so ago for the Bills on an endzone play) and I hope if he can reclaim some remnants from what is left of his playing time he does this for some NFC team rather than following the Aiken model to NE.

With the injury to Welker, my guess is that NE interest in Josh Reed will heighten a lot. While there is no way to compare what Welker has done in the real world to what Reed would be able to do, beggars will not be choosers and I suspect Belicheck will be jonesing heavily for options of a possession receiver. NE seemed to have good luck with Bills with WR chops and demonstrated ST talents with Sam Aiken and I will not be shocked to see NE seeing Reed as an option of interest for a similar role for them at least with a definite need for a possession WR as well.

Bill's Daily (a source I often find to be though not perfect is often a reliable source and analyst) is reporting that we lost only one spot by winning on Sunday. Given the good momentum achieved for what will be a busy off-season and some personal milestones set I do not see the trade-off of losing one draft position for the win to be a big problem.

The Bills were looking at GM candidates as well as HC candidates up until the hiring of Nix. Thus if there is any need to make a case that they are doing their first HC interview to satisfy the Rooney Rule then that case can easily be made. Actually, I have never seen a Rooney Rule requirement that the first interview must be a minority candidate and this makes little sense to me if it is the rule (Perhaps after Det and Millen so flagrantly ignored it with the hiring of the long since let go Mariucci without the semblance of any competitive interview process ridiculous things were required to deal with a ridiculous situation where the good old boy network resulted in few qualified minority candidates getting HC jobs while idiots such as Rich Kotite got multiple shots). As best as I can tell the Rooney Rule represents a great step forward for the NFL as it does not simply require a hiring quota creating unqualified folks to get hired but does set an opportunity quota where an obviously aggrieved group gets a shot at inteviewing. The blatant silliness of qualified applicants who happened to be of minority descent not getting HC jobs was clear by the numbers in the NFL. Rather than a hiring quota the NFL instituted an internship program to feed the pipeline of minority candidates. Though by the numbers the HCs do not come near to matching the racial breakdown on the players (an obvious major source of qualified candidates though clearly not an exclusive source) quite quickly we are seeing qualified minority candidates getting more HC jobs but also seeing them exceed with folks like Dungy and Tomlin HCing their teams to SB wins. My guess is that Fewell has greatly increased his leverage in market place by toting up a 3-4 record as an HC of a team which was 3-6 when he got it. It seems clear to me that since he failed to achieve a winning record with the squad there is no way the Bills should keep him. However, by going through the interview process once (likely unsuccessfully unless Nix is totally deranged) and logging a near 500 record with a team that easily could have given up he has put himself on the track to be named asst HC somewhere in the DC role as well. By the numbers, the Rooney Rule seems to work well.

This actually is the problem. Maybe my expectations are just too high but I would expect actual reporters to do a lot better than an hour before having word on who will be hired. Perhaps I am spoiled by a character as remote as Chris Berman seemingly having day of knowledge of who the Bills would pick with their 1st rounder, but I would hope that a local reporter on the scene would have built contacts and a reporting network that pretty much a couple of days priorto a galactic decision like the hiring of a GM a pretty good idea would be had about who it might be. The reality was that not only did the press find out at about the same time as us rubes on TSW, but in the Xmas holiday vacuum the local press was simply locked into fan like theorizing about who the next coach we would hire would be, One would think competent reporters would at least have a notion that the Bills were gonna go GM first and that given apparently was not only Nix interviewed and they finalized a complex deal s GM contract must be but they interviewed another internal candidate who was likely #2 (Guy?) and possibly several out of town candidates. The local press swung and missed on this one but quite frankly they may have just struck out not even looking.

My guess (since we are all guessing) is that this a Mom and Dad situation. Like many traditional families Mom really handles the books day to day and her authorization is required for most expenditures. However, the kids (Nix in this case) can always appeal to Dad who controls the checkbook in the traditional family. Nix has been empowered by Dad to win the game and when it comes down to a war between Nix and Brandon unless he wants something really crazy Dad is gonna choose what Nix wants. The CEO sop to Brandon is likely a sop and really as always Mr. Ralph pulls the trigger or does not.

The bottom line is that it is less important whose list they start with than that they all end up on the same page together pretty smoothly. One almost certainly wants some pushing and shoving between various forces in the braintrust since that is a sign that dynamic ideas are being tossed around and considered. However, in the end its going to be the team that wins this thing and not any one individual or savior. In fact the thing that separates the SB winners from those who "merely" make the playoffs (if only we could merely do this thing) ia that the team is really a TEAM. The rough and tumble comes together with everyone being fairly happy (or at least equal levels of dissatisfaction) and always moves forward without a lot of individual drama. In the end it is Mr. Ralph who is gonna be in charge and it is my sense that to toxic relationships he ended up having with Polian, Butler, Phillips, TD, MM and others is the real reason why this team was 0 for a decade in playoff appearances. Jauron deserves a ton of blame for his mediocre job. TD deserves blame for his non-winning record but like it or not neither of these idiots bears responsibility for the majority of the 0 for a decade record. The best hope for the Bills is that Mr. Ralph himself says Nix is a football man and by clear implication he is not. If Mr. Ralph backs down we have a fighting chance.

My sense is that Nix might well be the right answer if and only if this is a sign that Mr. Ralph is going to back off meddling (as is his right to do as an owner in our capitalist system) and leave the team building to Nix who has a pretty good proven record of picking individual players who perform (I think 8 of the SD draft selections taken on his watch were good enough performers to win the popularity contest called the Pro Bowl berth a couple of years ago). Even more critical Mr. Ralph if he wants good results needs to not get involved in building and maintaining relationships with the men in charge. This is a tall order and difficult to get an owner to do. However, it is clear that regardless of who was at fault that the Bills won despite and probably lost due to toxic relationships between Mr. Ralph and Polian, Butler, Wade, TD, Mularkey, etc. If Mr. Ralph wants to win then he had better simply back off, allow the football guys to build a team and then he can be wheeled out to accept glory when they happens. Many thanks to Mr. Ralph for keeping the team here when there was more $ to be made elsewhere but the simple fact is that when he makes football judgments (only he could make the handshake deal with Jimbo which was based on the false football judgment that Jimbo would have a career with another contract- and other judgments which were clearly all him like firing and arbitrating Wade's contract or he almost certainly had a key role in like paying RJ a guaranteed boatload of $ which made him the starter when part of signing Flutie was guaranteeing him at least a shot) were simply bad football judgments. Mr. Ralph has a right to be an idiot under the golden rule (he who has the gold rules) but even if folks want to blame Marv, Jauron or whomever there is simply one common denominator in the 0 for a decade non-playoff record, That is Mr. Ralph. If Mr. Ralph backs off Nix may fail. If Mr. Ralph exercises his fiscal right to meddle then Nix is almost guaranteed to fail.

I think some posters here either were not around or have forgotten about the history which truly defines the WGR/Bills relationship. Back in the 90s or maybe even some of the early 00s, WGR rather than the FM rock folks actually used to be the flagship station for the Bills. As part of this relationship they seemed to provide almost 24/7 coverage of the Bills and played host to shows like the Ruben Brown show. However, at some point the relationship began to degrade and then fall apart (I cannot remember which happened first) but it actually took some time to disentangle their relationship as several supporting contracts and deals had been made and it took time for all of them to run out. In this interim period there was still alot of Bills coverage on WGR (and how could there not be as there remained tons of interest generated by the glory teams of the early 90s) but the WGR coverage was defined by former Bills coach who simply hated Marv Levy who had fired him ruinning his mouth doing analysis. I actually found some of the Dickerson analysis to be very good to listen to. He was fairly recently removed from the team but had lots of buddies and contacts with the team which allowed him insights into real news. However, over time, his players and friends retired or were traded and his schtick mostly was to rag stupidly about the Bills no matter what they did (at his worst he went big time after Glenn Parker and essentially drove him out of town but he landed in NYG where he proved to be a key acquisition in Mouse MacNally coaching their OL to an SB berth). The Coach (as Dickerson sold himself) was hoist on his own professional petard when he swore up and down that Corey Louchiey was the answer for the Bills at LT and when this actually happened when Parker left town the venal stupidity of the Coach was revealed. The WGR/Bills relationship totally disintegrated when with no official remaining ties to the Bills and with Dickerson off to FL and out of gas, the station managed to pick up the Sabres and tried to cover the Bills only to rag on them no matter what they did. its been a long time since WGR really practiced any journalism regarding the Bills. They were in the bag for the Bills and then in the bag against them but the only thing is they have always been in the bag with a pre-determined mantra which drove beat coverage rather than having any journalistic commitment to truth.

Actually for moving forward Russ Brandon has received a promotion from COO to CEO. He has an even higher role in the Bills organization. It seems pretty clear that Nix as the new GM will be responsible for the bottomline produced by Bills football to Brandon who as the Chief Executive Officer oversees all of the fiscal activities of the Buffalo Bills multi-hundreds of millions of dollars operation. However, it is also crystal clear that the CEO reports to team owner Ralph Wilson and ultimately he remains in charge as was demonstrated in the last presser when it was Mr. Ralph and not Russ Brandon who introduced Nix. Mr. Ralph in addition to clearly running the show rather than Brandon seems to be setting up a structure where Brandon gets a promotion which is either in name only or more likely results in him having even greater day-to-day control over the business side of Bills operations at a level when he turned over the keys to the car to TD. However, though he does get this "promotion" Mr. Ralph has hired a football guy Nix who has been designated by Mr. Ralph to exercise authority over the on field football side of the equation. Is Nix below the new CEO on the new hierarchy? For sure! However, is the new CEO below Mr. Ralph in the new hierarchy? Also FOR SURE! Nix has been publicly given the keys to the car to build a winning football team. It seems pretty clear that as it is in many households that Mom handles the books (aka Brandon) but if push comes to shove it is really Dad (aks Mr. Ralph) who makes the ultimate decisions. Clearly Nix and Brandon will need to co-ordinate hand and glove on issues involving the salary cap and contracts. However, Mr. Ralph has set this up so that if Nix feels Mom will not let him have dessert first because it does not fit the books but Nix can run to Dad and whine it is a clear part of the strategy to win it is Nix who will win that argument for now and Brandon will have to simply say thank you and ask for another if he and Nix disagree for now.

While it would be absurd to assume that reporters make conclusions or assertions without any evidence (afterall we routinely hear members of the media like Sully and WGR make absurd assertions without any real evidence whatsoever) it does strike me as at least a little lacking in reasonable consumer demand to expect a true sports reporter or journalist to put some shoe leather or phone effort into developing other credible sources beyond the four men in charge. It has certainly been my experience that s mere half decent member of the media would: 1. Cultivate relationships with the myriad number of folks at OBD outside of the four good ol boys to get info on what is going on. Granted this will not be the word from on high from any of the four members of the good ol boy network, but simply in order to do business and run a multi-million dollar business there are gonna be dozens of employees with various levels of access to info. It takes work and cross-checking but part of being a good reporter is building and cultivating relationships and we on the outside simply do not see much evidence of results like having so reasonable incite into whats going on at OBD or even simple logistics as a major announcement on the GM issue should come next week. 2. Cultivate relationships with the likely several or more employees at OBD who have had their toes stepped on directly or good buddies like Butler, TD, Polian, Jauron, or a bunch of other folks fired. I would simply be surprised if OBD is some wall off fortress impenatrable to a good journalist/reporter given all the folks involved in a multi-million $ enterprise where heads have been rolled on a fairly routine basis over recent years. Particularly when the old boys are made up of geriatrics who probably need help to go to the bathroom much less have a meeting. A good reporter would seem to have lots of opportunities. 3. Cultivate relationships with the secretaries who are the real gatekeepers to get to the guys in charge and who know where they are and where they are going. Even when the secretary is unwilling to give up access if one cultivates a good personal relationship even in a conversation about how they are doing for Xmas and the secretary mentioning that they are quite busy during the holiday season because the old man will be in Buffalo on New Years a good reporter can get nuggets of info that may be useful. 4. Particularly for a newspaper such as the Buffalo Snooze which has multiple reporters and journalists dedicated to the Bills it would seem that a good sports editor in charge would co-ordinate all of these reporters to assign some the bad cop task of asking incisive questions and even attacking OBD while other reporters would play the good cop and generally write positive things and make a show of protecting OBD folks in order to gain their trust and get info to defend the team from his "evil" co-workers. It is silly folks fall for this but cops keep using good cop/bad cop because it often works. Instead when an enterprise like the Bills routinely seems to operate with opaqueness even though part of their business is to give away info to the public it simply points to a failed media. I do not say this as an attack on TBD, from my view it is actually one of the few working parts of the media covering the Bills. With the help of the thousands of reporters who use the internet it actually is the first place I go to for breaking news because the traditional media has failed once again to predict or even hint at something like the Nix announcement. I tend to view TBD not so much as a source of shoe leather journalism but as a source whose primary advantage is the speed of info transport the "tubes" of the internet provides and the thousands of reporters who use it. It is in fact the utter failure of the traditional media sources of info which actually makes TBD of even greater value as we can longer reasonably count on sources like Sully, WGR, Empire TV or the rest for real news or solid analysis. TBD does have an opening IMHO to fill the gap left by the traditional media to provide more shoe leather real reporting, but I would not expect it to since this would involve some heavy editorial weight lifting and some likely large costs which no no one has quite figured out how to generate from the internet. if one wanted to pursue this course I would suggest actually trying to form alliances with local academic institutions and professors there who may want to teach true investigative journalism. The classes would provide the unpaid person power to collect information and pursue stories, the professors would provide the editorial guidance and teach investigative journalism to the students and TBD would provide an outlet where this work could be published and students would gain practice and credit for doing so. However, all I would love to see as an interested consumer of info about the Bills would be some good reporting which simply refuses to accept that this is all the info that the four guys in charge will spoon feed me and that is all I can do. I have seen much better things done on much tougher eggs than the folks at OBD. And so on. I am not sau

As someone pointed out above it does depend upon the number of media guys lurking around your basement (which I am sure is an interesting place) but the question speaks more to the fact that: 1. A significant amount of media guys earn their nickels from supposedly lurking around the Bills with a paid mission to ferret out interesting news nuggets for a public which plays in sites like TSW, buys the Buffalo Snooze, listens to radio outlets like WGR, and either buys these media outlets or at least furnishes their eyeballs so these media outlets can make nickels selling ads. I do not know about coverage of your basement but all these outlets seem to have swung and missed regarding the marginal item of our Bills hiring a GM 2. There is actually way too much focus on simplistic fake races whether one outlet released the news 4 miliseconds quicker than the other news outlets. However, we fans are dependent upon the more informed and theoretically more knowledgable experts to have some notion about what to expect in terms of general format and timing of Bills decision making. It certainly appears to me that the media and experts were pretty clueless about both the big picture and the details of this situation. 3. This media el foldo is particularly odd in that the basement at OBD is to some extent pretty opaque as there is really one ulimate decision-maker Mr. Ralph and he has had destructive relationships with pretty much every alternative info source such as the fired Polian, the walked away Butler, the fired TD, Wade, etc and he has shown a penchant for hiring fellow Golden Boys like Marv and potentially now Nix. I mean the modern NFL team is designed to give info to the public. The media has the place set for them and they were totally unable to squeeze out the barest hint of additional info. One would think that good reporters would either suck up to the decision-maker, OR finding out he was unsuckable to they would develop other back channels for substantive info, OR at least spend some shoe leather and find out earlier than the official announcement that the press room is reserved for 2:30 or some other insider info. The Nix hiring and the lack of any described forknowledge or hint expressed by the media covering the Bills is simply a colossal miss as far as this fan can tell.

Hey Tim. Many thanks for all the reporting which you have done since you took on the Bills best for ESPN. I really do appreciate the nuggets you have graced us with in the wasteland of media reportage represented by folks at WGR and Sully who mostly strike me as legends in their own mind. However, particularly in light of how this Buddy Nix news was given to the world, it is my sense that the media covering the Bills which I and other fans depend upon for info really swung and missed on this one. Is it unreasonable for me or other fans to hope that the media would: 1. Give us a heads up on whether the Bills were gonna go G, HC, or some hybrid first. 2. Give us a sense as much as a week ago or at some point approaching yesterday that a decision was coming. 3. Float Buddy Nix as a possible name being out there at some point in the last week? As best as I can tell the media we fans depend upon was not there during the Xmas week (not surprising I guess since reporters are people too- for the most part). However I really saw no descriptions which seemed to have a handle on where this team might go or is looking at things. Clearly a lot is happening based on the Nix decision and its announcement and with a lot of folks apparently getting interviewed (Guy got a GM interview, he may or may not have been the Rooney Rule candidate, apparently some outside candidates were interviewed or at least considered and rejected or rejected the Bills). Is the state of reporting on the Bills as bad as I think it is?

is how bad the Buffalo media is in terms of having a read on this team. As far as I know there was limited or no word from the Buffalo (or NFL led by ESPN and Mort) to even hint that the Bills were closing in on making a GM decision, or that Buddy Nix was even a candidate for that job I for one would have expected actual reporters and journalists covering the Bills to: 1. Be able to provide some sense of whether the Bills were looking GM or HC first. The media only seemed to have gotten as far as being able to quote Bills higher ups that they planned to hire a real GM but local media like the Sullys, Kilgores, and whatever mouthpiece is the beat reporter at WGR these days really gave no sense of the timing of this move. 2. Talk about Buddy Nix as an option at some point. As it was the Bills annoucement of a 2:30 press conference seemed to strike the local media which was still in Christmas slumber by surprise and word did not leak out about Nix being he man until late yesterday morning. 3. At least some blow by blow accounting that a decision of some sort was iminent and a list of potential individuals be shared or theorized about. This was a pretty complete swing and a miss by the entire media as best I can tell. Perhaps someone can share with me the link to some Graham column where he laid out real reporting about the progress of the Bills on decision making and even better reported specifically that the Bills were gonna go GM first and were doing interviews which led Mr. Ralph to claim it came down to two internal candidates. However, because I think the local media swung and missed yesterdays's new news was truly new. Reporting on the Bills is pretty bad as best as I can tell.

I think that this view does not take into account that the Rooney rule is only a PART of what needs to be a comprehensive approach by the NFL if it is going to successfully beat back the gross and stupid discrimination which was wrought through NFL devotion to the good ol boy network of making HC decisions. The Rooney Rule is actually fairly new to the NFL and we are talking about a pool of 32 jobs of which maybe 6 are open each year. Actually finding simply one success (particularly an outstanding one where not only is a minority HC hired but he leads his team to an SB win) is a great record of success in this short time. If the NFL is going to depend solely upon a change like the Rooney rule to solve the problem of the NFL hurting itself by simply not hiring qualified candidates it will fail. Fortunately, the NFL also is instituting other efforts like the long running internship program for minority assistant coaches, requiring the Rooney Rule for interviews not only apply to high profile HC interviews but also to even higher level GM interviews and lower level co-ordinator interviews, the NFL is building the stock of minority candidates for HC positions by getting more athletes moved to the coaching ranks with internships as low level coaches and then seeing more of them get promoted up the ranks by requiring interviews. Actually, in retrospect you had told me that the first success of a type of the Rooneys hiring a Tomlin did not occur until 10 years into the program I would have said that sounds about right. In real life I think in terms of accomplishments the Rooney Rule is ahead of the curve. I think in part this is because there actually is a well-spring of qualified HC applicants of color like the Tony Dungys of the world whom for years the NFL had discriminated against these individuals by delaying them receiving deserved HC jobs for years until they got them. Even worse even when they broke through these men who happened to be of minority heritage were held to a far higher standard of success and got canned despite some pretty good accomplishments. Men such as Art Shell then were not given a second job while idiots like Rich Kotite were delivered second bites at the HC apple even though they failed massively in their first jobs while folks like Shell at least showed good success before he got canned. I think the Rooney Rule has worked well with even this one demonstrable success happening so quickly because another example of the NFL taking it seriously was when they fined Matt Millen and Detroit heavily for flat out ignoring it because the good ol boy network had already picked retread Mariucci (who then failed and got canned) forthe job. This success let NFL owners know to take the Rooney Rule more seriously and the outcome was likely that seen in Pitts. True. there may be cases like stick in the mud old guard like Mr. Ralph meet the letter of the rule by holding interviews with clear failures like Guy. It likely is only possible to enforce and fine in even more virulent cases like Detroit with Millen/Mariucci. However, ironically, the Bills may be helping the Rooney Rule approach by demonstrating clearly that the Bills and Mr. Ralph's devotion to hiring good old Golden Boys like oldster Marv and potentially the geriatric Nix does not seem to be producing good results. We will see.

Legit views can certainly quibble with your player assessments, but even if one generally agrees with them it does not strike me as anywhere near an insoluble problem. My cut on this with generally the same assessment you make is: 1. Agreed Evans has a huge contract and is not going anywhere. I also agree that his catching 3 balls a game does not cut it. However, I think his pretty high avg yards/catch does not mean he sucks he means you throw him the ball more. The key question is not whether Evans output was good this season (it was horrible and sucked) the question is whether he does have the skills to be a #1. Based on his high yd/catch and his demonstrated ability to scare any DN with his speed and force them to watch him every moment and not concentrate on the QB so he can make TD catches like he did last game where he adjusted back for a short pass by the QB, I think Evans can produce as a #1 if you throw him the damn ball. Perhaps the prob is that he is no Keyshawn demanding that the O throw him the ball, but he also ain't no TO in terms of simply dropping a fair amount of balls thrown his way. Evans has not produced like one would want but it is hard to teach blazing speed and Evans has that is definitely a formidable building block IF you get and HC and OC who use them well. 2. I also agree TO is gone. The good news is that right away we have $6 million in cap room allocated to the #2 WR slot to play with in FA. I will have to look at who is available but we certainly have the bucks to buy a player who can play the role of a #2 who make is hard to dt Evans. If we had no cap money maybe I would panic but though we have a clear need to get better here and the devil is in the details this strikes me as clearly more of a challenge than an insoluble problem. 3. One difference I have with your assessment is that it completely leaves Steve Johnson out of the picture. While I think that folks who see him as a potential #2 are engaging in fantasy. I do not think it shows good football knowledge to simply dismiss him as a potential legit #3 WR for us. While it is difficult to teach speed it is pretty much impossible to teach tall and the 6-3 Johnson is a big target who has shown good hands. Again a lot of this depends on having an HC a bit more offensively aggressive than DJ and with some O chops which former DC Fewell does not have. I do not think Johnson is a sure thing at #3, but I do not think this is an unbelievable stretch either. 4. This now brings us to Hardy. Clearly the injury he suffered as a rookie and the lost year this year make this #2 choice a disappointment. However, he earned a #2 nod because he had college production which made spending a #2 on him outrageous. My sense of Hardy is like that of Johnson that it would be unreasonable to figure on either of these youngsters being a relied upon starter as a #2. However, it is not unreasonable to expect one of these two players to step up in their third year and take and deserve the first back-up duty. 5. I also agree with you that just as Reed was mischaracterized as a #2 his second year, it would be a mistake to rely pn him as our #2 as we often did last year. I even see his as miscast as our #3 (though he did play that role well as a rookie). I actually see him remaining a Bill as my #5 WR in empty backfield sets and playing a role on ST. While I also think it is not a bad bet that EITHER Johnson or Hardy will prove to be a good #3, having Reed as my plan C at #3 is not bad but my hope is that Johnson does continue his progress he initially showed and that HHardy recovers and Reed is my #5. The rest is depth if they show ST production or gone and we hit the draft or more likely waiver wire for our #6. In essence I think we are acquisition of #2 and development of our current roster away from fielding a solid WR position. Not a done deal but nothing to get one's panties all in a wad over either.

Now that the team is mathematically eliminated from the playoffs, the braintrust (or so called) can officially turn its efforts and vocalizations to how to make the playoffs next year (we have been practically eliminated for quite awhile but Bum's kid graphically demonstrated why no team should give up on making the playoffs if there is any even small mathematical chance of making it). These are my initial thoughts which I look forward to changing and perfecting as I see more discussion in places such as TSW. I plan to go through this unit by unit as far as players, but it is all in the context of the simple fact is that the buck has to start and stop with the owner before we look elsewhere for a new savior to pillory. Whine about Jauron all you want (cause he deserves it) but the simple fact is that at worse he deserves blame for 4 years of the 0 for a decade playoff less streak and Mr. Ralph had his hand on the throttle and the steering wheel for all ten. Mr. Ralph does deserve great thanks for making the original super smart business investment and for keeping the team here in our small market. However, right along with this well deserved praise has to come a clear acknowledgment that from the general approach and tone he has suffused his team with Mr. Ralph is the responsible party for our record of failure. However, as much as it may be deserved you cannot fire the owner in our economic system, and in the end its hard to fire the team owner. In addition, to the general tone of mismanagement Mr. Ralph ia directly responsible for a number for a number of snafus that have us rooting for a perrenial loser. We need a real GM. We need that GM to pick an HC. We need a strength and conditioning coach, etc. From there this memo look at the team unit by unit- I would start at QB as I think the direction we want to go is quite clear. A good QB is key since this player does handle the ball on basically every offensive play, but I am one of those who feels that even that good QB play is necessary it is way far away from sufficient. It has simply been an almost psychotic over focus on the QB spot which has been critical to the reign of error us fans have been pummeled by this last decade. I will come back to the QB later as it is far more important that this team become a TEAM rather than worrying too much about finding the next Jim Kelly. WR- Actually some depth in this unit right now which only goes to demonstrate how ineffective AVP was in designing an offense on the short notice he had which maximized some good things we had (Jackson and Lynch were never employed in a way which effectively used their full potential and different skills. The off-season is likely going to lead to departure of some of the WR talent, yet there is a base left with pretty good potential which can be augmented in the draft or FA to make this a powerful unit- My sense is: Evans- Great potential but potential means you have not done anything yet. Evans has done some things but still has not be well utilized or part of an effective O which would allow him to become the Pro Bowler I think he could be, Johnson- I do not see him as having shown enough to be our #2 yet, but he is a big target who has shown flashes of brilliance that leads me to think he could turn into a solid #3 for us. Reed- Horrible drop near the goalline on Sunday was pretty much unlike the current Reed (he looked more like the second year Reed who had terminal droppsies his second year, Still could be a valuable #4 in empty backfield sets, and a good back-up if one of the top three got hurt. A valuable ST guy also with RB chops. Hardy- Nothing but potential as he has never escaped the injury bug long enough to get established. You cannot teach tall though and he is a big target if the Bills get their O together. Overall- If only we had a real O that TO could have fit in and he and Evans could have played off each other to be a potent duo. It is worth us using the $6 million we have unallocated when TO heads off to get a WR who draws attention away from Evans. CB- I also like our depth here (even after losing Greer there was a lot of talent here. McGee- Our #1 wheb healthy and has shaped into being a good #1. Not shut down but fast enough and experienced enough that we should have no fear with being matched against the best WRs. Rotator cuff injury is not fun but is not damage to his wheels so he should recover. McKelvin- The excitement (usually positive but some young player bad judgments) he brings at returns actually distracts from the fact he was shaping into being a pretty good cover guy. Florence- Some good flashes when he has been pressed into service as our #1 CB and thus I have no problem with him playing the nickel role when McGee McKelvin recover. Corner- a bit overmatched when forced into service as a starting CB but again this makes me extremely comfortable when we get healthy and he is our dime guy. Youbouty proved to be too injured to ever do anything and Lankster gives some potential depth 4 deep with guys who have started and some Ss who can cover deep have us strong at this position (and we should be after spending a number of #1s on CBs. Safety- Again very deep Byrd- Probably NFK D rookie of the year but leading the NFL in the high profile (though sometimes ovemohasized INT stat may make him starting Pro Bowl S, Whitner- Has not come out as one of the best as he seemed like he possibly would but even if he does not he is a good experienced safety Wilson- I like him as a player and has made the jump from O to D well. A very good #3 S. Wendling- OK special teamer but 3 is deep enough given our load of CBs, More later

BINGO we have a winner here This can probably be amended a bit to categorize him as rent to own, but the bottom line is that he is a rental made necessary by our host of injuries to men viewed as starters (Butler, Wood especially) and added to this our plan C (maybe plan D) Simmons also ends up on IR. The questions regarding Incognito are: 1. How did he do here with almost no prep: An answer not bad for the low standard of playing with virtually no prep in a different system. This is by no means great, He made a number of bad penalties and contributed a lot to the penalties which were an embarasment to the Bills this game. Did he make this offense productive: NO. Does anyone out there want to argue our O was productive Did he produce and lead as an individual. NO. The Bills and in particular the interior of the OL simply got overun by a Pats team that specifically milled around not establishing a position and simply put the young Bills OL and newby Incognito the test. The team ran fairly well but the pass rush produced critical sacks and ran the Bills QB out of the game twice. Some liked his mauling style but overall simply dod not do it under extreme conditions, Wait and see is the only intelligent thing to do, but contractually he already has one foot out the door ans unless he suddenly proves in the last two games he is a godsend he is gone. The fact he may end up being a locker room divider almpst certainly mean he is likely gone for next season.

1. Intensity and motivation from the HC do not equal discipline- I really like the heightened intensity and motivational tone set by Fewell as the Bills HC. Its simply a welcome switch from the laid back style of Jauron. Perhaps if this was a vet squad with proven vet leadership (This failing is one reason I think they brought in Mitchell but he is a thin reed in this area as yes he was an important player in their SB win but he was not the/a pivotal team leader or definite Pro Bowler to lead the young team. However, while I do like the practice in pads and the more aggressive play calling of fewell vs. Jaurom, the huge number of false starts and other penalties demonstrate that a fresh start with a new HC and OC next would probably help in moving the team to a new practice of better discipline. 2. Neither Fitzy or Edwards could move this teams of cut down on sacks indicating that while we clearly need OL experience we could use hiring a new OC to initiate a better offensive approach and style for this team. 3. Though it is a third priority in terms of getting more offensive production (a new HC and a new OC are higher priorities than acquiring a specific QB it looks pretty doubtful that either should be expected to rejuvenate this team) getting a starting QB is a definite need.

I think you phrase this incorrectly. I think that there are talented people out there would gladly and also we fans would be happy to have take over this team. The problem is that the current owner shows little to no sign of being willing to hire these talented people and to let them do there work with a reasonable amount of check and balancing an owner should supply to a winner. There is a difference between there being no one out there (or even no one willing to come here) and the actual case that the owner will not actually hire or intelligently manage these people.

Bills win today on the way to scoring a 8-8 record mostly under Fewell's guidance. Everything comes together. We get glory next year. Hey a fan can dream can't one?

Incognito sounds like this weeks flavor at best. My since is that likely he is here for either a 3 week tryout which will see him somehow win at least the minds and man up an apologize to Kavika Mitchell personally and to the league publicly for the transgressions which earned him major fines. If he were to do all this and play pretty well then there is a possibility the Bills might keep him. On the other hand if he shows any signs of the old mania and acting out which earned him the fines and publicly getting called out by a teammate then it probably does not matter as he gets cut because he is actually gonna be a real cancer on this team. At most Incognito seems to be here because Simmons whom the Bills hired out of desperation got hurt and we are now turning to Desperation +1.