hondo in seattle

Our GM is black. Our OC was black. Now our HC is black. All our QBs are black. I'm not sure why you think Tyrod is being short-changed because he's black. I think you can make intelligent, rational arguments why Tyrod should be our QB going forward, and why he shouldn't. Like every QB, TT has his strengths and his weaknesses. How you weigh those against each other will vary from fan to fan, and from coach to coach. His particular profile is fairly unique. Then there's the issue of his future potential. Perfectly rational people think he's hit his ceiling. Other rational people expect him to get better yet - maybe with better coaching. At this point, whether it's fair or not, there are probably some head coach candidates who believe you cannot build a winning franchise around Tyrod's unique skill set. That's just the reality we have to face.

This was a generic, no-one-was-good-enough, statement. It's the kind of thing you say about any team that fails to meet its goals. "We all have to get better." He blames everyone - fair enough - which is pretty much the same as blaming no one. Shady, for example, did play at a playoff level. So who didn't? Which coaches didn't coach well enough? Kelly copped out and didn't say.

I agree. Certainly, a lot of new head coaches take over teams with even worse QB situations. The Bills are more or less a .500 team. A coach with a lot of confidence (and most are confident men) will believe he can transform a .500 team into a playoff team. Hell, Hue Jackson took over the Browns, as hopeless as that situation was.

Berchtold clearly should have had Whaley better prepared for his presser. Whaley violated some basic fundamentals: Know your talking points; hit your talking points clearly and decisively; don't let questions hijack your agenda. Large companies have PR professionals to make sure the messaging is always positive. Whaley's fumbling at a preplanned event did not help the franchise's reputation. What went wrong? I think the OP is probably right in saying Berchtold should be held accountable.

I'm amused by the fascination with Chad Kelly. Beside the Kelly name, he's just another college QB who occasionally flashes some talent.

I don't think coaching candidates pay too close attention to the BN whining. They know not to trust the accuracy of the sports media (no offense, JW). But Whaley's statements were odd and open to interpretation. He just should have refused to answer any questions about the past and focused entirely on a better future. And Polian's comments didn't help either. He's a respected football man. I think some coaches may listen attentively to his opinion. Right now, we're losing the PR war. While I think the "dumpster fire" and "dysfunction" remarks are way overstated, our bad PR lately could hurt our ability to lure the right HC to Buffalo.

"I have total confidence in the Pegulas." He also notes the obvvious, big name coaches are looking for a team with a QB. Tyrod is not a franchise QB. Jim is a great Bill but his credibility in management/coaching issues was damaged by his enthusiasm for Rex. No. I think the commitment to winning at OBD is huge. The skill is lacking. Jim was a great QB. I see no reason to believe he'd be a great organizational leader.

How do you explain getting to the playoffs all those consecutive years? Winning the AFC championship 4 consecutive years? Lack of discipline? I don't think that's the story. Marv really needed to hire a sports psychologist. Clearly - after the first Super Bowl loss (a game that could have gone either way) - the Super Bowl got into the heads of the players. They tried too hard. They expected something to go wrong. They were too tight... You make a good point. The inconsistency is funny.

This can't be true. Buffalo has a monopoly on dysfunction. Just ask the BN.

Even if he was right in what he said, he was wrong to say it publicly. Disloyal to raise concerns and hurt the Bills reputation in the middle of a coaching search. Disloyal to all us fans.

Unless a coaching legend comes out of retirement, I'm not going to be excited by any hire. There's no one out there who's a sure-fire winner. On the other hand, I'm not going to cut up my Bills Fan Card and leave the country regardless of who they hire. There's virtually no one out there I can label a sure-fire failure. Look at Bill Belichick. Some Pats fans were unhappy with that hire, given his performance in Cleveland. Closer to home, look at Marv Levy. I remember many fans were unexcited with that hire. He failed as a HC at both Cal and William & Mary in the college ranks. He followed that up some good years in the CFL, which doesn't count for much. Then produced a 31-42 record at KC. There was nothing in his resume that suggested he would get the Bills to the Super Bowl four years in a row and later be inducted into the HOF. Hiring coaches can be like drafting QBs - you're never sure what you're going to get.

I still don't get how A Lynn elicits such strong reactions as a coaching candidate when we all know so little about him. He hasn't been interviewed often. He's been a RB coach most of his career so it's hard to evaluate his coaching. On the one hand, his resume is awfully thin for a HC candidate so I wouldn't be surprised if no team hired him to be a Head Coach this year. On the other hand, we fans know virtually nothing about the man's character, judgment, work-ethic, organization abilities, interpersonal skills, knowledge of X's and O's, or leadership. He might be the next Vince Lombardi for all we know. The Pegulas and Whaley know him far, far better than we do. Likewise, they have access to inside information on other candidates as well. They know which coaches have drinking problems, which coaches are detested by their peers, etc. They'll evaluate all that and - rightly or wrongly - make a decision different than ours with our different data sets.

Agreed We fans are so fickle! I remember when we didn't want Mike Shanahan to be our Head Coach because he would bring his loser son with him. Now we want a qualified Head Coach like Kyle Shanahan instead of a guy who's been a RB coach virtually all his career.

I think what Whaley was saying (or attempting to say) in the presser was that he wasn't involved in the phone call or any substantive meeting with the theme of "Should we fire Rex or keep him?" I don't believe Whaley never over the course of the season said things to the Pegulas that may have undermined Rex. It would be hard to believe he hadn't. The team has been stuck at .500, +/- 1 game. So either the GM is failing to produce a winning roster or the coach is failing to coach the team to it's potential. I don't know Doug Whaley at all but it's easy to guess he think it's the latter. When he says the Bills are close, he's hinting that the roster is good enough. So that's got to be what he's been telling Terry and Kim: this roster is a good one, In other words, the coach is under-performing. Pegula probably didn't consult with Whaley before firing Rex because (1) Rex forced Terry's hand and the firing went off prematurely, and (2) he just didn't need to. Whaley wasn't Rex's boss and, in any case, Terry already knew Whaley's frustrations. Whaley probably went into the presser with some general thoughts about the coaching search. He was clearly unprepared to get lambasted with questions about Rex's firing. While trying to be truthful, he was also probably torn by thoughts that he didn't want to be blamed by the new coach for firing a coach after just 2 years, or whatever. Clearly his answers were inelegant. But I do think Terry and Doug were both telling some version of the truth. Polian suggesting Whaley's lying without inside information is too much. Why would he speculate publicly? He's clearly not a Whaley supporter - and that could be bad news in and of itself since Polian is a smart football guy. But you wonder if sour grapes are involved - maybe he wanted a position with the Bills and the Polians never offered. Polian is supposed to be friendly with the Pegulas. You don't publicly bad-mouth your friends' team when they're in the middle of a coaching search. That was disloyal to the Pegulas and, worse, disloyal to the Bills and all our fans.

Yeah, I agree - though more nicely. Just because Rex was fired doesn't mean there was an ultimatum. Terry says there was no ultimatum. I have no reason to think Terry is a liar. And I think he would have more knowledge of the situation than Vic. Vic - like Sully - seems not to have developed many, if any, sources inside OBD. Pretty much everything Vic says is either speculation or stuff he reads on the internet. I miss Larry Felser who once wrote intelligently about the Bills for BN and did often have good sources.

Wow. Vic is going downhill - sounds more like Sully each year. Rex worked directly for the Pegulas. Right or wrong, that's the org chart. So it makes sense that Whaley wouldn't have been involved in the decision to fire Rex. "I'm hearing around the league..." In other words, Vic doesn't have sources inside OBD. Instead he listens to the low paid talking heads in other NFL cities. Weak. There's nothing new in this interview. Only speculation, rumor, and opinion. And there are posters here whose opinions I value more than Vic's. I thought it was interesting Vic referenced 'Terry Pegula's interview for the Associated Press' but did not mention JW by name. Professional envy?

Do Sully and Bucky really think they represent me? Crazy, if true. Sully's an embarrassment to Buffalo, IMHO.

Sully is such a drama queen. "It was quite possibly the worst moment in the history of the franchise.... Welcome to the abyss, the new bottom." The Bills just finished a 7-9 season and fired the coach. The guy not responsible for the firing - but responsible for the next hire - can't adroitly answer questions about the firing. And this is the new low for the franchise? So this is lower than when our greatest player ever slashed up a couple people? Lower than when the Bills went 1-10 under Harvey Johnson as Head Coach? Lower than when the Bills insanely rehired Johnson a couple years later only to see him go 1-13 this time? Lower than Wide Right? Lower than seeing Kevin Everett paralyzed? Lower than when Sully became a beat writer for the BN?

Amazing how someone so good can so quickly become so useless. This makes me rethink the merits of capitalism! Does a guy who plays a game for a living really deserve to live like this when public servants (teachers, cops, firemen, soldiers, sailors, etc) tend to live paycheck to paycheck in far humbler housing?

Doug Whaley looked bad in the interview because the media set the agenda. They kept asking him questions about Rex, rather than the coaching search. Given the scurrilous orientation of the Buffalo media, this was no surprise. Whaley didn't want to talk about Rex. One, it was old news. That ship has sailed. Two, Rex didn't work for him and the Terry's firing of Rex happened spontaneously in a private phone conversation. Hence all the 'not privy' remarks that made DW seem weak and uninformed. The media was obsessed with the rear view mirror while Whaley would have rather talked about the road ahead. But it's Interview 101 to know your talking points. Get those out. Get them out clearly and with authority. Don't let the people questioning you hijack your agenda. But failing Interview 101 is not a big deal. It doesn't mean Whaley is bad at building a roster nor does it indicate he'll fail at hiring a coach.

He transformed it from a bad roster to an average roster. That's progress... but is he flat-lining at .500? There's been a lot of rumor and speculation that Whaley thinks this is actually a good roster. And hence agrees with the need for a new coach. I haven't seen this from a credible source but it seems believable. We'll see.

I've got to agree with this. I've known people who were pretty awful when giving a presentation or interview. But they shined otherwise. Whaley has built the Bills into a .500 (more or less) team. Considering the level of the competition in the NFL, that's not bad. You've got to be pretty bright just to get that far. Is .500 good enough? Of course not. But imagine a lottery where the winner gets to be the GM of a NFL franchise. As smart as we fans like to pretend we are, we're all actually simpletons in the field of talent evaluation. Most fans, given the chance to be a GM, would fail to outperform Matt Millen. I'm willing to judge Whaley on what we actually know - to hell with all the overreached conclusions and speculations. He's had more success with free agency than the draft. So far - without ever before having the opportunity to pick a HC - he's given us an average NFL team. He's no idiot. But so far he hasn't delivered what he needs to deliver.

Maybe I'll be proven wrong, but I felt all season that the Bills had a mediocre roster coached by a mediocre HC. So, I opined, you either fire both Rex and Doug or neither. As I saw it, both were equally complicity in our ongoing mediocrity. Others disagreed. Many felt Rex was more to blame. Others felt Whaley deserved the lion's share of the culpability. Now, it just doesn't matter. Whaley is picking his HC to lead his roster. If we don't win now, there's no doubt who to hold accountable.

From a JW article: Quarterback Tyrod Taylor is unhappy with the Bills' decision to bench him to close the season and questioned whether he's played his final game for Buffalo. Unless he hears otherwise, Taylor said he can only assume the benching reflects the Bills having lost confidence in him to continue on as their starter. "That's fair to say. That's what it showed," Taylor said Monday, when Bills players gathered to clear out their lockers a day after a season-ending 30-10 loss at the New York Jets . "Did I believe that was fair? No, I didn't," Taylor said, adding he's hoping to get a lengthier explanation from the team during exit meetings. "Once we have the conversation and it's actually explained to me why it was done the way it was, we'll move forward from there. But we'll see when that happens." I get the people who are frustrated with Tyrod and want a different QB. But until we find a better signal caller, I think we need to take care of Tyrod. The Jets game showed us how truly bad our offense can be when the wrong guy lines up under center. http://bigstory.ap.org/article/63e7f58a2efc406c963f51a3c7baea68/bills-qb-taylor-questions-future-buffalo-after-benching

By who? By you just now?