Wayne Arnold
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Posts posted by Wayne Arnold
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oh, i don't know....off the top of my head...
1. Are you responsible for the leaks that started after the oakland game?
1a. (when he inevitably stammers out his denial) Since only a tiny number of people could have been involved in that decision, who did it?
2. Why didn't anyone in the organization take questions after rex's firing?
3. Why was Anthony Lynn told to sit Tyrod.
4. Were you on board with Rex's hiring? His firing?
5. Do you think the Bills recent draft history has anything to do with the current record?
6. In retrospect, would you have done the Watkins deal? The Lawson deal?
and before you start, don't tell me when i need to have any of these questions answered. coaching changes are a big deal and the people in charge should be willing to step up and answer for them when they happen, not a week later. the fan's that fill that stadium year after year while they continue fielding garbage deserve that.
although, given that are a committed shill for management, you probably think everyone should just shut up and be happy there is still a team here.
The painfully awkward stumbling and stuttering on Monday will be epic.
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I suspect you and I have a fundamentally different view of what the media's proper functioning in an informed democratic society is. If you approve of organizations shutting out the news media and instead opting for in-house propaganda outlets, more power to you. I for one think that this approach is a freaking blight on public culture in this country (and not just here). Yes, it's just a football team, but they are representative of broader trends. Exxon, for instance, would prefer not to have to deal with the NY Times investigative reporters because, hey, what's in it for them? Better to have their own house media or outlets like Russia Today. An occasionally hostile media is a bedrock foundation of democratic society. I care more about that than Bills ticket sales. But you are welcome to your opinion.
Good post. People shouldn't lose sight of this.
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My other take on this matter is this:
Why couldn't Anthony Lynn handle those straightforward questions? We all knew what the real answers were. Why couldn't he give them? There aren't any secrets to protect really. Give the real answer, or just say "You'll have to ask Doug on Monday, Im just here to talk about the Jets game".
If he struggled at all, that's on him.
I don't think Lynn struggled at all. He was honest and solid with his answers.
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I agree. I'd add that I think that when it comes to ownership, this falls on Kim, not Terry. If you're to believe the narrative, Kim is the shotcaller. IMO, she strikes me as a person who's comfortable with being the owner so long as there are softball questions and press junkets with nice photos but relies heavily on Brandon/Whaley for the football "details."
A problem occurs when relatively straightforward situations (like explaining why you fired an under-performing coach or why you don't want to risk $30 million dollars) spiral out of her control due to the substantial professional shortcomings of both men.
I think the behavior of the press is a manifestation of the weak leadership. You have no owner or GM who's out there explaining what happened and telling it how it is. Instead, they throw a woefully unprepared for the moment Anthony Lynn out there and you get a lot of inconsistent stories.
If Whaley can't do it and Brandon doesn't want to do it - they should hire a Press Secretary just like the White House does and have him or her be the "face".
Agree 100%. That's my concern with Kim Pegula. They claim she's at least co-owner if not the main owner of the Bills, yet she won't go in front of the media. That's a problem. This is the NFL. It's basically part of the entertainment industry and being out in front of the media is a big part of the job. That expectation doesn't go away, and won't go away if you pretend it's not there.
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I agree with Sully on his take.
This was an opportunity for Whaley to demonstrate some leadership and be there at the press conference, explain the Taylor issue, take the hard questions and act as the lead in to Lynn - a guy who's been the head coach for all of ten minutes. Leaders don't hide in the office.
One of the reasons the Bills have a reputation for being a sloppy organization is that whether it's the Pegulas, Brandon or Whaley, the four of them become downright invisible when they have to face any sort of criticism or remotely tough questioning.
It's football we're talking about. Not brain surgery. Not a Mars mission.
I think the toxic situation we're seeing now is the result of both (a) the Bills are screwing up by not being out in front of the media to handle a few questions AND (b) the local media are over-reacting and being petulant children about it.
Whaley doesn't want to answer questions because he's an introvert and hates being the center of attention and probably figured, "Meh, I have to do it on Monday anyway so what's a few days?" Brandon likely isn't answering questions because the Pegula's don't want the public thinking Brandon has anything to do with what happens on the football field. And the Pegula's aren't answering questions because...I'm not sure. Maybe Terry is busy fracking?
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Depends on your perspective. Personally, I think they were a year too late. They wasted a draft and FA period on a lame duck coach I could see from a mile away, as well as another offseason to put the Rex scheme in place.
The bandaid needed to be ripped off immediately and the switch to a 4-3 made swiftly after 2015. Rex was done, it was clear from the Redskins game last season he inspired no one on that defense and we saw it time and time again this year.
In hindsight yes but I think it was fair to give Rex at least another season to get the defense to rebound. It's a really bad look to fire a HC after only one year that isn't 0-16 or 1-15.
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I suppose. I look at Marrone who took a bad offense and great defense to 9-7. Yes offense was his specialty, but they didn't have nearly the talent level of the D. Meanwhile, they got Rex who neutered a very talented defense, unlike Marrone who played ball control and field position with a not so talented O.
So basiclally, Rex took a high potential D and crushed it. Marrone took a low potential O and kept it there. Makes him way better, IMO. And that's on the Pegulas.
The Pegula's realized their mistake and cut it out before many believed they should have. I can respect that. To me, that shows their not hesitant to own it - which is a positive quality.
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Rex would rather be liked than respected.
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They need to release tyrod taylor he sucks and is not a good qb
Another hot take.
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Obviously the leak is someone close to Whaley. Always puts him in a good light while whoever the coach is is to blame. But it has backfired on him because the fans don't buy it - they know both are to blame.
OP is likely correct.
Though many commenters, as usual, over estimate the football operations influence of Brandon. He has nil influence on football. But I guess everyone has their scapegoat. But the key to a good scapegoat---it has to be plausible.
For those wishing RB the door, cry in your beer, he ain't going nowheres. There guy who is....
President of the Buffalo Bills
President of the Buffalo Sabres (and managing partner)
President of the Rochester Americans
President of Pegula Sports and Entertainment...is not the resume of guy who gets fired for a bad football streak, for which in a limited distant time, he had partial responsibility for.
He is the leak.
Brandon isn't the leak. The leak is one of Tim Graham's sources and Graham obliterates Brandon at least once a week.
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It sorta does. They took a step backwards and got rid of the best coach we've had in a decade.
I guess that's where we differ. Marrone is no better than any of the other stooges that we've had as HC over the last 15 years.
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The Pegulas refused to extend his staff. They played hardball and called his bluff. And here we are, head coachless again, with $30M pissed away for nothing.
Why would they?
Just because they made the wrong hire in Rex doesn't mean they should have kissed Marrone's butt.
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I agree with that. But the point was, if you're going to let Schwartz run his defense, which was the premise of the post I responded to, and you have a suspect offense, the last guy in the NFL you are going to hire is Rex Ryan.
I think the original poster was speaking from Rex's perspective after he was already hired. The smart thing for him to do was to just let Schwartz run his defense. But obviously that was never going to happen because football coaches.
I think the Hue and Schwartz thing that WHaley was advocating would have worked a lot better
It is important to note that was the rumor of WHaley's first choice......had the pegs listened to him? Who knows where wew ould be right now
I really think this is why Whaley has the driver's keys to the head coach this time.
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Please doug and everyone give non answers twitter will be great entertainment from a bunch of professionals.
You spelled crybabies wrong.
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But they hired him to run the defense. It certainly wasn't because of his prowess at running an offense, or in game decisions.
Giving the Pegula's the benefit of the doubt, they knew they had a good thing on defense and wanted someone who could sustain success on that side of the ball for the long-term. Schwartz was only the DC and was getting HC interest. Why they didn't just promote Schwartz we'll never know, and I'm sure Kim and Terry have been kicking themselves for falling for Rex's schtick ever since. I guess Schwartz didn't tell good jokes like Rex did in his interview.
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Woods didn't enjoy playing with EJ.
I can't imagine why n---oh, EJ no!!!
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There would have been zero reason to hire Rex Ryan if he was going to do that. You would have been 100x better off hiring Hue Jackson or Frank Reich and let Schwartz do his thing.
But they didn't hire Rex because the defensive system needed to change.
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Add respect of players and experience in time/game management, and you hit the nail on the head. (Enter: Frank Reich, Coughlin, Matt Patricia for example).
How do you know Reich and Patricia are good at time/game management?
this is where Rex failed. He should have respected the job that Schwartz did on Defense and let him run with it, instead of demanding the players to adapt to his style. Had Rex given up his ego and let the coordinators do their job, we'd be talking two straight years of playoffs and Rex as King of Buffalo instead of another jackass clown that needs to be chased out with a pitchfork.
Absolutely.
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And why so many coordinators make poor ones.
You go from basically being in charge of your group of guys to being in charge of EVERYTHING. Totally different skill sets. Head Coach is busy putting out fires a lot of the time and has to see the big picture of what needs to be accomplished while a coordinator is kind of self-contained in their own world...
It's not any wonder so many good coordinators make poor head coaches, it's a totally different skill set and one I think teams need to be looking for instead of how good did this guy rank on offense or defense.
What they accomplished as coordinators is largely irrelevant to the bigger picture of how they will handle the much more in depth responsibility of being a head coach.
So if they're to ignore coordinator accomplishments, what kind of qualities should a GM be looking for in a head coach?
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Rex was clueless on defense and had a chaplain making his game time decisions. Give Marrone Shady and Tyrod instead of Orton, EJ and dead Fred and we may have seen a different offense.
Possible. But regardless, Marrone was a headcase who quit. He wasn't "forced out."
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Is there any doubt, today of all days, we'd all be better off with another year or 2 of Marrone+Schwartz?
Yes, there is plenty of doubt. The defense would be much better but the offense would still suck. It's a wash.
Rex had to go but let's not look back at Marrone with rose-colored glasses. His game management decisions made Rex look like a genius. And he was an offensive-minded head coach who was absolutely clueless at constructing a productive NFL offense.
I'm not the biggest Whaley fan but he helped build that Top 5 defense before Rex arrived. And he helped build back-to-back Top 10 efficient offenses. So he might actually be doing something right, no?
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Buffalo had 443 pass attempts (lowest in the league). passing yardage ranked 31 (second lowest in league) = makes perfect sense
The top ranked passing yardage team = Saints had 624 passing attempts compared to the Bills 443
Wouldn't you say that is a huge difference?
The Saints threw the ball 40% more times than Buffalo to achieve that top ranking in passing yards.
Tampa Bay who is ranked 15th in total passing yards (about average) threw the ball 100 more times than Buffalo did. 100 more freaking passes.
You are much better judging quarterbacks on quarterback centric stats like completion percentages and yards per attempt passing. Those give you a more accurate picture.
Efficiency is so much more important than total yards. As to those who continue using total yardage, I don't know if that's due to laziness, ignorance, or stupidity.
Passer Rating - 17th
Yards per Attempt - 21st
ANY/A - 20th
Interception Percentage - 7th
Touchdown Percentage - 20th
DVOA - 14th
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Is there anything funnier than watching a local sports writer explain how pro sports owners are bozos?
If only these owners held the real key to success: sitting in a cubicle eating leftover holiday fruitcake while sipping lukewarm coffee from a recycled, washed-out Hortons cup while typing judgmental thoughts about people he could never, ever come to understand.
If only local sports writers were in charge..then and only then would the world be beautiful.
He appeals to the lowest common denominator in Western New York.
Sully is dead on.
Like this guy.
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Come on Wayne. You're going to be there right with the rest of us no matter who QB is. The Bills are your addiction. They are your heroin. Stick the needle in and get your fix brother.
If they release Taylor and expect to replace his value with *insert name of unaccomplished tall white quarterback here* and/or some shot-in-the-dark draft pick then I will not be renewing and I will find another hobby.
We all have our breaking points.
MMQB: Rex told team playoffs were out of reach on 12/11
in The Stadium Wall Archives
Posted
Lynn would likely be the smartest hire.
Fans don't like smart hires - they like BIG SPLASHES!!