JohnNord

Ummmm. What?

Is it within the guidelines to type up a summary of this article? Can you write a detailed summary here?

Oddly enough this article has taken a life of its own. There’s 3 different camps among fans: 1. People who want McD fired and are using this as their victory lap. 2. People who want McD fired and question the motives/authenticity of this article 3. People who support McDermott and question the motives/authenticity of this article Then you have those in the Buffalo media who have largely stayed quiet on the article, other than acknowledging it. And national media - who mostly recommend this article but have relatively little to say other than sharing the 9/11 story and saying “wow, that’s crazy.” So overall the response has been incredibly odd. I tend to think the intent & timing of this was wisely orchestrated by Dunne, as discussed here already. But I don’t think it was a slam dunk for his reputation.

This method might work for newspaper but it doesn’t work 2 w/ substack. You can read the preview but not the full article

I think a lot of people are aware of this conflict as well, and had the article been written by - say a Tim Graham - it would have carried more weight.

Can someone tell me who Victoria Zellner is?

Who in the blue hell is Zach Gelb?

I agree with you here. There is no doubt that Dunne is an excellent writer and storyteller but I noticed that he often forms an opinion and then writes his stories to support that take, using quotes from former players and coaches, rather than presenting the evidence and letting the reader decide. Case in point, years ago he believed that Jordan Love should take over for Aaron Rodgers, so he wrote a feature using anonymous former Packers players to paint Rodgers in a negative light. That year the Packers went 13-3. Now that Love is playing better and Rodgers tenure with the Jets has been a disaster, he gets to take a victory lap three years later and say “see I told you.” He did the same thing when he decided Mike Zimmer in Minnesota was too conservative a few years ago. Now it’s Sean McDermott. Dunne opined that McDermott is “tight,” freezes up in big games and changed the way Josh Allen played football. So of course, he writes an article that supports his narrative - using…you guessed it. Former players and coaches. Do you see a pattern here? He writes about polarizing, unpopular figures and disgruntled fans latch (like the ones here) who desperately want a change will blindly believe everything he writes. Like you, I don’t the article is pure bull####. I’m sure there is a lot of truth in it and that Dunne wouldn’t just slander McDermott for no reason. I do think he had a predetermined narrative about McDermott and carefully selected sources/quotes that would support his preconceived notion.

Except he’s not. The article hasn’t picked up traction yet outside of the typical Bills Twitter. There's some lower level blogs that picked up on it, but it’s not like McDermott is one of the talking points currently around the NFL.

This is so spot on…people here want to treat it like it’s some kind of bombshell expose when really it’s a commentary

Based on the reaction, I don’t think this article was a slam dunk Dunne. A lot of people seem to bringing up his integrity/sourcing which has also been questioned in the past. If this came from a different national reporter, I think the reaction would be different

I don’t care about your posts

I’m not sure how you can watch the offense over Dorsey’s final 5 games and say he didn’t deserve to be fired. Everyone in the forum is based. Sports fans almost always are. If someone is calling themselves a journalist you probably shouldn’t be biased unless it’s a schtick like Skip Bayless. I don’t think Diggs has much choice in the matter. Because of his contract he’s stuck in Buffalo whether he likes it or not.

It’s the same narrative Ty has been preaching for years. It’s not surprising that this article is a reflection of that. Some people have called into question his bias, and rightfully so.

I don’t think it’s that. The Bills have long had a stance that they only give press access to media organization. They will not give access to bloggers or independent writers like Dunne. For example, year ago Erik Turner from Cover 1 tried to access credentials and was rejected multiple times. Even Jerry Sullivan and Bucky Gleason were rejected when they worked for the Buffalo Maven LOL Not every franchise operates this way. I think Dunne’s vitriol is fueled by not being getting media access.

Ty has really good access in nearby small market teams like Jacksonville and Cincinnati. The team in his own backyard gives him no access. That is his ax

You mean the 2 coaches he fired? That means he’s “running coaches out of town?”

He is well-sourced. Also very biased. See his work on Aaron Rodgers.

It’s incredibly odd…

“Pass the sniff test?” WTF…who talks like that?

This is where the “meddling” narrative never made sense. If he is so controlling, wouldn’t he micromanage Joe Brady the same way he “micromanaged” Dorsey? I don’t buy that Dorsey was a scapegoat at all. We saw 6 weeks where the offense struggled badly. Over the past two weeks, it’s looked better.

I like Dunne as a writer and think he does a very good. But he does seem to be heavily biased and he doubles down on those biases quite a bit. We saw this with his coverage on Aaron Rodgers which many GB dismissed as pointed…and now we see this with McDermott. Why would anyone care about this?

Last fall, he was one of the best players on the defense. His presence on the edge was a big reason why the Bills led the league in pressure rate while blitzing the least. This year, Von just isn’t the same player. It would be unreasonable to expect him to pick up where left off. As we saw with Tre, it sometimes takes a full year to recover after the ACL injury. But unlike Tre, Von hasn’t shown very much improvement from week-to-week. The past few weeks he faced backup and still has not gotten anywhere near the QB. At this point, it makes you wonder whether he’ll ever get back to the player we saw in early 2022. I’d probably bet that it’s a long shot.

This article shows what a mess the situation in Carolina is with Tepper. But it also illustrates why you want control as a HC. It seems like Reich allowed himself into being talked into drafting Young when he wanted Stroud and hiring coaches from the outside even though they didn’t mesh with his offense.

The problem is that even with his shortcomings, Wilson is a better QB than anyone active on the Jets roster. If anything they should just run a Tebow-like offense that takes advantage of his legs. Let Zach run the ball 10+ times. But yeah, I agree. He’s done in NY. They should move on this offseason ASAP