Nihilarian

He is a managing partner. All we fans can hope for is the owner hiring that football czar and allowing that new hire to make all the football decisions

I'm starting to think he was simply being facetious in that it was the other way around.

Still didn't answer the question as to if the team president / managing partner of the Buffalo Bills was in the Buffalo Bills team cut meetings or not. Anyway, what influence? Like I haven't posted this link before or even had this very same discussion with you previously. It's right there from ESPN and other sources It was almost a year ago, in early January, when the Buffalo Bills called Rex Ryan back for a second interview for their head-coaching vacancy. Team president Russ Brandon was so impressed that he told owner Terry Pegula not to let Ryan out of the building. http://www.espn.com/blog/buffalo-bills/post/_/id/22828/playoff-promise-among-rex-ryan-statements-that-will-likely-prove-false Someone (cough) sure as heck influenced these new owners into thinking that they had the football acumen needed to hire the team's next head coach as most owners simply rely on their GM's to make the football operations decisions. If that isn't enough for you anymore, (thanks, jms62) Q: What made you decide that Rex was your guy? TP: The first round of the interviews were broad-type questions. When we called him back and got into the nitty gritty, Doug hit him with all this stuff that put me to sleep (Laughs). That’s when we knew that Rex could be our coach, if he wanted to be. We just felt that he was our guy and trust me, we had some pretty impressive people that we felt could the Bills coach, but we said, “Hey, let’s go after Rex.” Russ told me, “Don’t let him out of the building.”

Pardon, my ignorance here. Exactly how did I "attack" him?

Keep attempting to deflect away from the issue. I never said the man was making hockey or football decisions. I did, however, say he has had and still does have tremendous influence over what happens on the football side of operations. Was the man in or not in the Buffalo Bills team cut meetings?

C'mon man, stop running your disinformation BS. I don't want the guy fired or removed from the business side of the org, just the football side. Despite what you and other super homers say, the man is and has been involved in the football side. Doesn't the man have enough on his plate running both the Bills and Sabres that he needs to be in the Buffalo Bills team cut meetings?

Man, i hope they do it sooner rather than later. Some Bills fans can joke about hiring a senior consultant or consultants as that is what Bill Polian was going to do before he was bad mouthed by the "power jockeys" Me, I want to see this team win the division again and actually have a shot at getting to a Super Bowl and that won't happen with the status quo.

WoW, Bills fans really need to read that entire article. That article was written in 2010. http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2010/01/01/bills-decision-to-hire-nix-draws-criticism/ "And we wonder whether Wilson took into account the fact Brandon has a strong interest in avoiding an outsider whose first order of business might have been to marginalize Brandon and/or eventually lobby for his termination. " "Regardless of whether Brandon nudged the process toward Nix or Guy in order to preserve Brandon’s turf, one league insider expressed strong opinions regarding the decision to go with Nix." "“Bills fans can rest assured that, a year from now, two years from now, and three and four years from now, the team will still be in last place in the AFC East." Now look back to what happened after Doug Marrone decided to walk away from the team and shortly thereafter Bill Polian backed away from the Czar job stating that some in the Bills org were bad mouthing him. From the Tim Graham report that the Bills "power Jockeys'' were badmouthing Bill Polian. "Marrone left, though, at least in part because he has been dissatisfied with the Bills' front-office structure. With a three-day exit clause expiring at midnight, Polian wasn't under contract, and the Pegulas couldn't assure Marrone their organizational changes would be substantial enough for Marrone's liking. On his way out the door, Marrone apparently shared some insight with Polian. The source told me Marrone excoriated the organization to Polian. Channel 2 sports director Adam Benigni reported the same. The criticism likely included many of the points raised on the Press Coverage blog in February, thatMarrone had little respect for many executives who wanted their fingerprints all over football operations. http://bills.buffalonews.com/2015/01/01/doug-marrone-bill-polian-turned-unintentional-package-deal/ It is kinda easy to see that Marrone quit the Buffalo Bills because he didn't like the front office structure. It was also reported that Marrone walked out of the draft room after the team used two first round picks on Watkins. It was also known that Marrone had a shouting match with Whaley and Brandon over areas of the team at one point.

While I don't agree with everything said here I do agree with most of it. Brandon didn't gain any real power as a GM until Marv Levy retired as GM in Buffalo in 2007 and at that time Mr. Wilson was still making most of the important "football" final decisions IMO. Wilson put the stop on hiring Marty Schottenheimer and instead Nix went on to hire Chan Gailey. It was Wilson who hired Buddy Nix an ex-chief scout who used to be with the org 1993-2000 as a scout, and then returned as a scout again in 2009. At the time of his hire, he was a 70-year-old retired scout who had never been a GM previously. The same with Marv Levy who really wasn't qualified to be an NFL GM. Russ Brandon was hired as CEO in 2009 and afterwards, Buddy Nix was named GM. So, one could easily surmise that Brandon has had his share of involvement in the football side of things since taking over as CEO in 2009 either directly or indirectly. How much responsibility he has had nobody outside the org knows and that's the way he likes it so as to not take any responsibility or accountability for anything other than the marketing / business side of the team. From a known person who works inside the org, "Russ has a big part in scouting and the draft process. He is definetly involved. The guy is a sports genius, we are lucky to have him as the president of Buffalo sports. Remember he was our GM not that long ago. Imo " If that isn't enough to convince you that Brandon is and has been involved in the football side. Now here you have a statement right from ESPN and in black and white that Brandon used his considerable influence to sway the new owners to themselves hire the new head coach in Rex Ryan rather than allowing the GM to do it. So, in my view, Brandon should have stayed out of it and let Whaley make the choice on the hire. Now the team is in free fall again in making bad decisions to change the defensive and defensive schemes. "It was almost a year ago, in early January, when the Buffalo Bills called Rex Ryan back for a second interview for their head-coaching vacancy. Team president Russ Brandon was so impressed that he told owner Terry Pegula not to let Ryan out of the building." http://www.espn.com/blog/buffalo-bills/post/_/id/22828/playoff-promise-among-rex-ryan-statements-that-will-likely-prove-false I don't want Russ Brandon gone from the org as all I want to see is a football man at the top of the football chart making the "football" decisions. To me, Doug Whaley has already proven he can't handle the job as here it is three offseasons later and the team still doesn't have a solid starting roster with holes in it and little depth at many positions. After this first game of the 2016 season, the questions are already starting that the team is still lacking that franchise QB. While I'm not advocating firing Whaley, I think he just needs some help from above in helping make the proper football decisions on how to build a team that can actually compete with the New England Patriots for the division title. I've said it before and I'll say it again. This franchise is in desperate need of a team president of "football operations" to take those football decsions away from the owners and anyone, not an experienced senior football man.

If you go through my old posts you would read that I didn't think Taylor was worth giving an extension and more money before we saw if he improved this season. The kid played as poorly in some games at times last year when the run game stalled and unfortunately the Bills OC had no answer to get the passing or run game working. So, what we all saw Sunday was nothing really new as it was just more of some of the bad quarters he had last season. Regardless that you think he should be playing like a 6-year pro, the simple fact is the kid still only has 14 NFL starts, which makes him a second-year starter. But you know what, if it makes you feel better to rail about the QB then have at it. For me, I think it was more of a team effort to suck that badly as the run game stunk, the O-line stunk at run blocking and the Bills offensive coordinator had no answers.

I'm not so sure about Saban either as it's a huge leap from the college ranks to the NFL and others like Harbaugh and Carroll have made the move well. I dunno If I'd rather have Bill Cowher and offer him the 10 mill per as that man actually knows talent when he sees it and he certainly would fix the penalty problems and defense. (he is 55) On a different note, I gotta wonder why so many fans are ready to bail on Tyrod after one bad game. We saw this same QB play at times during the games last year when the run game didn't work very well. And when the run game is working well it opens up the passing game. Jeez, stop and think about how much preseason play the kid got to realize he needs more game experience.

Good thing Spiller chose to sign with the Saints rather than resign with Buffalo. Whaley made him a decent offer and he went to NO instead. Bills dodged another Bullet...

Ok my bad on the snaps then, let's break it down differently. Game one @ Indy, Tyrod played one series, 5 snaps. Game two NY Giants, Tyrod played in three series, 16 snaps. Game three @ Washington, Tyrod played in two series 10 snaps. Game four @ Detroit, Tyrod didn't play. This to me wasn't nearly enough time playing in preseason to get ready for the regular season. Tyrod might be in his sixth year in the NFL but only in his second season starting which means he spent four years on the bench not playing. When the late great Bill Walsh stated that it generally took four years to properly develop an NFL QB he meant four years behind center starting and that would include QB's drafted in the first round. This QB we are talking about wasn't a first round pick like EJ was, as Taylor was a 6th round pick that still needs playing time to develop properly. He needed all the work in preseason to get his timing down with the receivers and get more experience in reading different NFL defenses. Taylor put up some really good numbers in a 2015 Buffalo run first offense when the offense was running the ball effectively and when it wasn't able to run the ball well the QB's didn't fare well. He needs that run game to actually work to be effective in a run first offense.

In 2013 against the Seahawks week two, Frank Gore 9 rushes for 16 yards. It certainly was in 2014 against the Seahawks, Raiders, Cardinals among others. I'm sure I could find other games over the years in which the 49ers run game faltered and the QB was then forced to attempt to carry the game with his arm.

No, it isn't! Men like Bruce Arians and Jim Harbaugh among others got their teams to a winning record in their first year. This team had more than enough talent on it in 2015 to make the playoffs and the new HC hire with 6 years as an NFL HC made more mistakes than most rookie HC's make. This team still has enough talent to make the playoffs and yet won't because of stupid mistakes by the current coaches....again! Like you though I was very skeptical of the Marv levy hire because the man ran the wing-T in his stint as KC's HC. Yet, Marv man knew who to hire as his offensive coordinator and hit the jackpot when he hired Ex-Colts HC Ted Marchibroda who was instrumental in teaching Jim Kelly to call his own plays, thought up using the no huddle / hurry up offense because Kelly was so good at running the 2 min drill. Plus, he was also great at the run game and had the Bills start using the old Redskins scheme "counter trey". The way he utilized Thurman Thomas in the passing game changed the way teams used the RB and he did the same thing in Indy with Marshall Faulk. So, while Marv himself might not have been that great an OC or DC and was the special team coach on George Allens great Redskins teams. The man did hire some pretty good assistants and his last hire was going to be Tom Coughlin before he took the HCing job with Jacksonville. This team doesn't need a rebuild. What it needs is somebody at the top of the org that actually knows NFL football and that isn't the owner or the marketing / business guy.

IMHO no need to root for them to be bad as Rex will fuxor things up all by his lonesome. He already got the season off to a bad start by not playing his starting QB more in preseason. Next, he will start pressing his QB and offensive players to do better like he did in NY with Sanchez and Geno and the QB will fall on his face. The stars like Watkins and Clay will get injured and be on IR from playing too much when they should have been benched so they could get healthy. In all reality, about the only NFL team it looks like the Buffalo Bills will beat in the first eight games are the Rams and by that time the owner might just be thinking of making a change. Then you need to consider that just changing the HC won't change the culture of this franchise until the owner takes himself and Russ Brandon out of the football side of the Org. This team needs to hire a team president of football operations and allow him to hire the next HC and run the football side of the team.

In my view, it's not an excuse. Considering the limited time that Tyrod was allowed to play in the preseason I'd say EJ was far more prepared to start the season. How can anyone expect a second year starting QB to be on the same page as his offensive stars if he doesn't get much actual game practice time to develop a rapport. Gotta get that timing down. Gotta get those pre snap reads down. Gotta get in game shape or it will take a few games before we see what we should have seen that first week. First preseason game at Indy, Taylor 2 of 3 for 7 yards Second preseason game against the NY Giants, Taylor 7 of 10 for 132 yards 1 TD Third preseason game at Wash, Taylor 2 of 5 for 11 yards Fourth preseason game, Tyrod didn't play So, a total of only 11 snaps in four games for a player just starting in his second season is simply not enough time to get into game shape, IMHO. Rex Ryan was treating the QB like he was a ten-year vet with an arm that needed minimum work before the season started. Tyrod needed all the preseason snaps he could get he should have been out there. EJ Survived it!

He may be in his 6th year but he is only starting in his second year and should have seen so much more preseason work. The difference between the Bills and the Rams is that eventually once everyone gets on the same page a few games down the road I expect the Bills offense to get better. Simply because they didn't get enough preseason practice together

Rams-49ers game MNF 0-28 Case Keenum 17 of 35 for 130 yards 2 INT's. A 3.7 yard avg. Todd Gurley 17 carries for 47 yards a 2.8 YPC AVG Rams offense 32nd in points and 31st in yards-----Buffalo offense 31st in points and 32nd in yards. It would be hysterical if it wasn't so sad.

Hey, a team the 2016 Buffalo Bills can beat! The Bills should win the rams game 2-0! How in thee hell does Jeff Fisher still have a head coaching job in the NFL? Case Keenum 17 of 35 for 130 yards 2 INT's. A 3.7 yard avg. Todd Gurley 17 carries for 47 yards a 2.8 YPC AVG Rams offense 32nd in points and 31st in yards-----Buffalo offense 31st in points and 32nd in yards. Holy cow this team sucks!

This!

To me, this is the biggest problem so far in that these two just have not played together much and should have. Rex treated Tyrod as a six-year player when in fact he is only in his second year of starting and needed all the preseason practice time he could get with that offense. Instead, EJ got all the work in preseason and it should have been Tyrod out there with the starters. EJ survived it. Then we have the problems with the Bills receiver corps and offensive line lacking quality talent past the first three with both units. Lastly, Watkins should have more than just six targets in an entire game even if it is a run first team. Charles Clay only saw 3 targets for 2 receptions for 40 yards too.

If you go back to the 49ers teams with Roman as OC and see that the Niners had one of the very best offensive lines in the league with a power type bruising RB and still had difficulty running the ball at times. Now fast forward to Buffalo and look at that right side of the Bills line to see that it stinks with sub-average players and even worse backup players. Then Glenn was replaced by Cujo in the second quarter as his ankle went bad again. As good as Shady McCoy is he can't out juke a stacked box and without a deep passing threat to open up the run lanes it makes it difficult for any young QB to throw when the opposing team is attempting to make them throw. From what I saw is that the offensive line really wasn't as bad as the game showed in pass blocking as Tyrod had plenty of time to throw at times and chose to quickly dump it off to a covered McCoy. The Bills have Goodwin and should at least attempt to throw to him a few times in the first quarter to put the fear of god in the DB's to open up that run game. But yea, if the Bills can't get that run game going it will be another long game for them on Thursday.

Made me laugh.

I kinda can't wait to see what this JAG can do once Brady gets behind center again. It looked to me like Tyrod could have used a player nicknamed 7/11 on Sunday.