DriveFor1Outta5

That would tell me a lot more about Rex than it would about God.

How do our poor first round draft choices justify Ryan's poor first round choices with the Jets? I don't follow. Just because we've made questionable first round picks doesn't mean his picks with the Jets should make him our GM. PS I understand what you mean about first round picks being risky, but if you look at the following rounds during Rex's time with the Jets it gets really ugly.

He has a decent draft record? I thought he inherited a good Jets roster, and then ruined it with questionable draft choices. He influenced the Jets to draft too defensively heavy, and used first round picks on corners like Kris Wilson and Dee Milliner.

You just said it all. Yet some people still try to claim Brandon has no input on football decisions. That why many of us view him as part of the link to past failures. His fingerprints have been all over this team's failures. Brandon has no qualifications to be trusted in decisions like selecting a coach, or encouraging the Sammy trade. For example he knew that Sammy and Rex would be good for marketing purposes. Many football decisions around here are made with marketing in mind. I wonder why? Marketing and football success don't always mix well either.

If Romo returns to the Cowboys it shows everything that prevented him from living up to his potential. Even at the back end of their careers Elite QBs aren't willing to take a seat for their young replacement to take over. If he doesn't go elsewhere it shows his lack of competive fire. There is no way that after all these years a competitive guy is willing to sit on the bench. I guess we will see, but I know that Marino,Elway,Montana,Favre, and Brady would never sit on the bench while a young guy starts for the team they devoted their career to.

Great post. It articulates some of my biggest concerns about the inner workings of this franchise. You don't just accidentally stumble upon a sixteen year playoff drought. In fact I think it would be quite difficult to fail in the NFL for that many years. Plenty of people have come and gone over the years, yet the results remain the same. It speaks volumes to issues that come from the top down imo. We can consider our lack of a franchise QB bad luck if we want to, but you can't make your own luck if you don't try hard enough. This has is just one of this franchises many failures over the years.

This ^ It's also why I don't buy into the claim that this franchise is "only two years old". There are still enough extremely important people around who are holdovers from the past. That gives this failure of a franchise continuity that wasn't needed. I don't have a lot more to say on this topic, except for the fact that we are the only team that hasn't made the playoffs in the last sixteen years. How can anyone say that there aren't people who need to be held responsible? Sure we haven't found a franchise QB, and if you want you can attribute that to luck. Even teams who haven't found franchise QBs have snuck into the playoffs at least once during our drought. That tells me all I need to know about this franchise's ineptitude.

Too many people underestimate how much bigger the NFL had gotten during the 00's compared to where it was during the late 90's.

He plays his cards close to his vest? That's a new one.

It is easy to criticize in hindsight I totally agree. You don't just go out and easily pick up a franchise QB. With that being said I just don't understand how this franchise completely ignored the position as often as they did. We should have always been in the market for a QB during the Losman,Holcomb,Edwards,Fitz years. Not selecting any QBs in the 2011 and 2012 drafts was a major travesty. Franchise QBs don't grow on trees, but this franchise's inability to assess QB talent has destroyed us. No one should have viewed any of those guys as potential franchise QBs after seeing them play a season.

Teams don't give up blue chip QBs, that's why we shouldn't have thought Bledsoe and Johnson were the answer. When all we had at QB was Losman going into the 2008 season the draft choice of McKelvin over Flacco for instance doesn't make sense. Throughout the years there are countless examples of similar mistakes. The fo hasn't done well enough in the search for a QB. We drafted like we were all set at QB when we had guys like Losman, Edwards, and Fitz starting. Anyone should have known those guys weren't franchise QBs, but our fo didn't treat QB like it was a need.

The only arguement against that I could make is that we reached for several of the QBs. We also stuck with a few of them too long when we should have known what they were. Losman and Manuel were the only two QBs we picked in the first round. They were both flawed selections with too many question marks to warrant being first round choices. Bust on a guy like Cutler or David Carr and I could understand, but Losman and Manuel had too many question marks heading into the pros. Losman was known as a strong armed knucklehead who played at Tulane, and Manuel threw nothing but screen passes to a very talented FSU team. A team that won a national championship once he left. Trent Edwards was a third round pick who no team would have counted on as having the tools to becoming a franchise starter. The Bills didn't expect him to be either. He just became the starter by the fact that Losman sucked. PS We never once went all out to move up in the draft to take a shot at a top QB. The only time we picked a QB in the top 20 was taking Manuel in poor QB draft class.

True, but the Pegulas didn't clean house. There are plenty of links to the heritage of 16 years of failure. Brandon being the foremost. It would be like a new president telling you that it's new era while keeping key cabinet members from the previous administration.

"Competent" is the key word here. It makes me laugh that some people talk about this organization like it is competent. It's really difficult to miss the playoffs 16 straight years in the NFL. Something is wrong somewhere that needs to be fixed. That's why so many people including myself are guilty of pointing at Brandon. I think there are plenty of issues in this organization that need to be fixed. He just happens to be thrown out as the face of this mess so it's only natural that we pick on him. I'd personally replace Brandon as well as a lot of other people in this organization. Please don't take this wrong, but I truly am curious. What has Rusty done to do this?

Terrry Pegula isn't a fool, but he's a businessman and not a football man. Pegula probably loves Brandon from the business side of things. Pegula is to Buffalo what Trump was NYC back in the day. He practically owns the city. He probably sees Brandon as a guy who can help him further those interests. None of us are arguing against Brandon from a business aspect. We have a problem with the input he has on football operations. There isn't much else to say. You either believe he has input or you don't. Those of us who believe he has a bit too much say in football matters aren't fans of the guy. That's the issue we have with Brandon.

Selling tickets isn't what the modern NFL is about. The money is made from corporate endorsements and the like. That's why the NFL put a team back in LA. They know the hard to impress people of LA will stop buying tickets, but the money will then come from the large number of corporate entities in LA. Buffalo will never be able to compete economically against bigger cities in that area. That's why we needed someone like Pegula with local ties to keep this team in the area. No one else would have regardless of how many seats Rusty can sell. The best way for the Bills to increase their profit margin would be by winning. You'd see Bills merch flying off the shelves across the country. Rusty selling tickets really isn't what saved this franchise at all.

Great post. People are sick of losing, and tired of seeing Brandon as a sort of mascot. I for one am just tired of seeing his smiling face trying to sell us a pile of turds year after year. That's reason enough for many of us to wish he'd get be let go. Your point about coaching hires is spot on as well. He is a marketing guy, he has no business making these decisions. Brandon has no football personnel experience credentials whatsoever. It's like taking a fan off the street and allowing them to so. The guy has his dream job. He has gotten to play real life Madden. This team was known around the league as being dysfunctional while Ralph was owner. My question is what has changed since Pegula took over? Not much, so things are probably still viewed that way. The Marrone hire was especially disgusting since Rusty grew up in Syracuse as a big SU fan. How can anyone respect an organization where its front office is making fan boy hires?

Del Rio really wasn't that bad of a coach in Jacksonville. He went to the playoffs with David Garrard as his QB. Derek Carr has obviously helped him a great deal, but the guy has actually shown he can coach.

I understand you made be right, but I'm not going to "reconcile" it until these teams win. Neither the Sabres or the Bills are winning. At some point they have to win. Rusty might be in tight with the Pegulas, but when people as wealthy as them don't achieve results relationships go out the window. I just don't think things will get better if there isn't more devotion to winning as opposed to marketing junk. Brandon is part of that culture, and it needs to end. P.S The Pegulas owning a country label shows what a joke that genre has become.

Well said. IMO it's almost an insult to Bills fans to give Brandon so much credit for selling tickets. We are the most loyal fans in the league. This team and the city of Buffalo mean more than just football, to many people it's about family and our heritage. It's part of who we are, and where many of us come from. We don't need someone to sell it to us. Corporate deals and other sales are a different matter, but to credit him with selling tickets seems absurd to me.

Yep because newspaper articles and team PR releases definitely tell us the truth on how the team operates. The entire FO needs cleaned out. End of story. It doesn't matter who does what, it simply hasn't worked. Rusty will get another job. We don't need to feel sorry for him. He should be removed from operations because he's basically a really good used car salesmen. He has no football credentials.

Yep, let's create a need where we don't have to. That way we can neglect another part of the team. That has worked so well over the years. We were thin at WR this season, but you have to assume Sammy will be healthy. If you bring Woods back then you can draft a mid round guy. Some of these posts made me think of Millen too. As great as Calvin Johnson turned out to be look where the Lions are now. You have to build a team. I don't think it's Millen-esque to draft a WR next year. It would just be Millen like to take a first round receiver. We already sold the farm for Sammy a couple years ago. He should be the number one. We need a complimentary number two if you don't believe Woods can do that. We don't need to draft a number one receiver.

Actually Chip Kelly is just insane and wanted Kiko more. Kiko did go to Oregon. Chip would have traded Montana in exchange for anyone from Oregon.

I wrote quickly and didn't specify. My bad. I said "scarred" by Maybin as a Bills fan so that means anytime I don't like what I see I instantly get a bit nervous. I also mean that he played end at Clemson he would be undersized at that position in the NFL. This means he has to learn playing a linebacker position in the 3-4. Not always as simple as everyone thinks.

Rex's scheme is bad is hard to tell who's any good these days. That said I'm so scarred as a Bills fan that I worry about the guy being "Maybinian". Undersized speed guys in the NFL concern me.