Wayne Arnold

It's fake outrage from the Buffalo News media. They knew Whaley would embarrass himself because he's a horrible public speaker full of anxiety and has trouble translating his thoughts into words. Of course he was going to say something stupid.

What's Polian going to do? The game passed him by long ago.

Just can't take it too seriously. And many do and lap up all of the Buffalo News articles like they're gospel. But what can ya do.

Gotta find someone who split reps in his junior and senior seasons, is painfully slow and looks like this.

Take a cold shower, bareback.

I think this is pretty accurate. They aren't far away from the playoffs. Would you honestly argue that?

Whaley sucks at public speaking and the owners should have been there. That's where the "dysfunction" begins and ends. It would be nice if Whaley wasn't a total dope when it comes to verbal communication to the media but I'd rather he be good at being a GM (I'm skeptical) than being Slick Willy to reporters.

They need to be better with PR. That's it. I don't see why you have to think things are dysfunctional behind the scenes. I don't believe they are. That doesn't mean the Pegulas need to make serious changes with how they deal with the media.

It's never fun when you're not winning. Then every move you make is perceived as "dysfunctional."

Whaley is just being tricky. He's telling the truth with regard to the meeting Rex and Terry had that Tuesday morning and that's when Rex probably asked Terry to just fire him that day instead of after the Jets game. So Whaley is truthful to a certain extent, but you have to be naive to think Whaley didn't have input on the ultimate decision to fire Rex after the season. The press has to be better by recognizing this and give him questions he can't awkwardly stumble away from. For example: "Was the decision to fire Rex after the Jets game made before Terry fired him on Tuesday?" I don't think I heard that question.

Yeah I saw that haha. "There's no education in America". Gotta love the self-righteousness.

They were a 56-yard last second field goal miss away from being alive in Week 17 for the first time in 13 years. Pegulas made a rookie mistake in hiring Rex and owned it by firing him three years before his contract expired. They've put this responsibility into the hands of the GM. That is a positive thing.

No. Whaley is keeping his job and will hire the next coach. If that next coach fails then there will be a clean sweep. But not until then.

You're exaggerating. It's not difficult to understand exactly what is happening. The issue is public relations and Whaley is a trainwreck in front of a mic. That doesn't mean the entire organization is dysfunctional.

It's very disappointing that they didn't have enough wherewithal to know that the football people should make the decisions to hire football people. But they learned from it and pulled the plug on Rex right away and handed the keys to Whaley to hire the next coach. You have to at least appreciate that.

It's how things work at well-run organizations.

Why the secrecy? Just tell it like it is. Rex's defense was a poor fit for the personnel and it wasn't working. We appreciate Rex's effort and wish him all the best. The End. My goodness this is so ridiculous.

The Pegula's are obviously struggling right now. But Terry is far from a "tyrant" lol But they're new to this. I trust they will learn from mistakes and improve over time.

Whaley is trying to claim he has no input whatsoever on the decision to fire Rex and hasn't even thought about it. It's f'n comical. He must think everyone is incredibly dumb.

They're not trying to bait him. They're asking questions and he can't stop dodging them. The Bills are the king of secrecy and lack of accountability.

I can feel the frustration.

If you consider death by alcohol poisoning interesting.

I predict much stumbling over words in this press conference. And a lot of "we'll evaluate that at the appropriate time." In fact, that may be exactly what we get with every single question.

I don't mind them doing their due diligence and making sure Lynn is the right guy. That's even more important than continuity. But in the end, keeping this offensive system in tact and bringing in an experienced, talented 4-3 Defensive Coordinator offers us the best chance of winning now.

That is a famous aphorism written by Spanish-born American philosopher George Santayana in his 1905 book The Life of Reason - considered to be one of the most poetic and well-written works of philosophy in Western history. The portion from which the quote is written is appropriately named "Reason in Common Sense." Historical Event #1 After the disappointing season of 2012, the Buffalo Bills decided to release the less-than-stellar yet fairly reliable Ryan Fitzpatrick. Although Fitzpatrick was frustrating at times, he was able to perform admirably on occasion during his three seasons as full-time starter. Fitzpatrick was respected in the locker room for his toughness and leadership qualities and was also well-liked. The issue on those teams were that Fitzpatrick had to carry the team on his back due to having a poor defense and little talent around him on offense (aside from running back). Instead of implementing a run-based play-action scheme with a flawed, limited quarterback, Gailey curiously installed a passing system that struggled to put up points consistently due to not having an elite quarterback to adequately run that type of system and a poor receiving corp. Despite (a) being a durable, dependable, well-respected, and accomplished veteran, (b) having no other quarterbacks on the roster, and © having a very significant dead money cap hit, the Bills decided to release Fitzpatrick anyway. A questionable decision at the time that only got worse with time. Hamstrung by that decision, the Bills signed concussion victim Kevin Kolb and forced themselves into reaching for a quarterback in the first round that April. EJ Manuel was a controversal pick at the time because many throughout the league did not expect him to be chosen before the 3rd or 4th rounds. The pick reeked of desperation. Fast forward to the 2013 season, and low-and-behold the defense is much improved under DC Mike Pettine. Unfortunately, because the Bills did not do their proper research about Kolb's concussion issues and having to start the rookie EJ Manuel (with the occasional appearance by UDFA rookie Jeff Tuel) long before he was ever ready the end result was a team hamstrung by a poor offense. If only they had a dependable veteran quarterback on the roster. Because of the struggles on offense, the Bills finish the season with a 6-10 record and are left scrambling to find a quarterback to replace Manuel in the 2014 season after not drafting one in the 2014 NFL Draft. Historical Event #2 After Doug Marrone quits following a 2014 season in which the defense finished #2 in league in DVOA, new owners Terry and Kim Pegula took the hiring process in their own hands. They knew that had a great thing going with Jim Schwartz running their aggressive 4-3 defense. Promoting Schwartz to head coach was an option. Another option was hiring an offensive-minded HC while retaining Schwartz as the team's successful DC. Both options were considered - rumor has it GM Doug Whaley preferred Benglas OC Hue Jackson and Jackson thought the job was his. Instead, the Pegula's are won over by former Jets HC Rex Ryan. While the thought of Rex prolonging a good defense for many years was intriguing, it was a tremendous risk considering the current defensive system that worked so well would have to be blown up and replaced by a wildly different system with extremely dissimilar philosophies. The plan was to continue dominating on defense and to turn around the offense by bringing in highly-touted run-oriented offensive mind Greg Roman as the offensive coordinator. Matt Cassel was brought in to compete for the starting QB job with EJ Manuel, along with a little-known backup named Tyrod Taylor. Taylor ultimately won the job and led the offense to one of its most efficient seasons in over a decade. However, the defense fell hard - going from #2 DVOA to #24. The unit looked like a fish out of water, often confused before the snap. As a result, the team finished with a disappointing 8-8 record. Those same struggles would be continued almost identically the following season and Rex Ryan would be fired shortly before the end of another disappointing 7-9 season. Learning From History? Or Repeating It? The Buffalo Bills have a golden opportunity to show everyone that they have learned from mistakes of the past and will not repeat them. Will they release Tyrod Taylor and leave a gaping hole at the most important position in sports like they did four years ago? Or will they learn from that mistake and retain the best quarterback this franchise has seen since Doug Flutie? The offense will finish in the Top 10 in DVOA for the second-straight season after not having a team finish that high since 1999. Greg Roman's laid the foundation of a productive offense and Lynn took it and ran with it by orchestrating one of the best offense's in the league despite having a starting quarterback that only finished #17 in passer rating. Will they blow up the offense by not promoting Anthony Lynn to head coach like they did in 2015? Or will they learn from that mistake and retain the system responsible for the best offense we've had since the 1990's? Stay tuned.