Bob in STL

I would like to know who is doing the hiring? Nix? Ralph? Brandon? Inner Circle of trust? If it is any combination of the above then I expect another lower cost, lower profile hire.

You mean like Buddy Nix?

You gave a nice list of players they re-signed, mostly lower priced free agent (Pears, Urbik, Chandler ...). So I credit Nix and Whaley for finding some decent players to fill holes. One of the few accomplishments of the Buddy Nix era so far are these moves. It is much harder to keep players when you negotiate with top talent like Byrd and Levitre. That is just the business and all teams have to deal with it. Going back to when John Butler left and we lost Pat Williams, et. al., Buffalo does not have a great track record for keeping its top talent. That is what is typical. Levy talked about this as a issue, not re-signing your best players and having to re-draft the same positions. Wonder what he thinks of his two number 1 picks (Lynch and Whitner) in the Pro Bowl this year. ? Unfortunately, we have not had too much top talent to be concerned with losing in recent years.

Of course I considered that. It's Buddy Nix's job to get this done. Signing one of the two during the season would allow us to franchise the other. Sure it is possible they both want out. It is even very probable that another team will offer them more money. You happy with that? I am not. Is that what Nix is paid to do? I expect him to keep our good players on the roster.

The best part is that Wanny will be gone. Chan was at least a stand up guy. Nix ... will he dodge a bullet? He went on record as saying that Chan stays. Hmmm. I actually think Buddy Nix is doing a much worse job than Chan did. I think it is safe to score his first draft was very poor. Spiller was drafted to replace Marshawn Lynch ---- Lynch is going to the Pro Bowl this year. None of his drafts have produced a pro bowl player as of yet although Spilller should be one. His signing of Fitz to big money was a bad move. His inability to draft a QB limited Chan to one option (Fitz). Nix should be accountable for going two straight years in a row with no viable backup QB and no QB pospect on the roster. Chan had no choice but to stay with Fitz.

I would franchise Levitre before Byrd .. which means we won't do it and he will leave --- talk about a massive hole in the center of the line. If Andy was a Steeler or a Patriot he wouild be in the Pro Bowl BTW. He is an excellent player. Nix should have worked this contract and Bryd's before the season ended. Typical.

Really, who cares? This is a team game and his personal achievments are not going to change another horrible season for this team. 1000 yards meant something in the 70's and 80's but now it is not much of a feat. Last week he was simply horrible, right after speaking up about playing for Chan and playing for pride he has his worst game of the season. Stevie would benefit from a better QB that is true. Still, I will never see him in the elite category.

Losing either player would be very bad. Levitre is outstanding and the better of the two. We should sign him first. He is going to get some excellent offers. This is typical of team that constantly change GMs and coaches. Look at Lynch in Seattle? As good as Spiller is did we really need him with Lynch on the team? Look at Whitner in San Fran? Maybe not the best pick at 8 but he is a much better player than Wilson. Whitner is hitting his prime and in the Pro Bowl. Wilson is hitting a wall, missing tackles, and dropping interceptions. Bryan Scott cannot carry Whitner's jock strap. While I am for dumping Nix and Chan I suspect that we will looe some good players in the process of another overhaul.

Thanks for explaining his plan. How are you enjoying Thigpen as your backup? How about the signing of a free agent QB who could not learn the plays and then trading a draft pick for another player that can't seem to learn them either? I call his QB moves reactionary and I fail to see the plan. I would be much more comfortable with Dalton, or Kaepernick, or Wilson on the roster than the bums we have right now. Even if they impress early and then flame out (ala Trent Edwards). The feeling I have with the Fitz/Thigpen/Tevaris trio is one of hopelessness.

Nice job ^ I would call it even at RB and the 2009 DL played better than the underachieving 2012 version. Yes --- Clearly the OL got better and the secondary got worse. Hard to believe how bad the LBs have been and for such a long time. In the Polian/Butler/Levy/Phillips era we had many excellent LBs. Some had short careers but the talent level was high.

The talent Gailey had to work with is really not much better than Jauron's. In fact our best players - Wood, Levitre, Stevie Johnson, Jarius Bryd, Kyle Williams and Freddy Jackson where drafted before Nix took over. Nix is a bigger problem than Gailey IMO. Nix found Urbik, Pears, and Chandler - for that I think he did a nice job. Unfortunatle his draft have been sketchy. His first draft class (Spiller, Troup, and Carrington) got them off to a bad start. As good as Spiller is he was not a player we really needed at the time. He blossomed into a star but we have a coach that uses him sparingly. Gailey's biggest problem is his lack of knowledge of defense and his real-time game management. He has hired two bad DC's in a row and does not seem to care about the defense at all. The Bills have spent a lot of picks on defense with almost nothing to show for it. I don't care if Gailey is better than Jauron or not. They both were poor NFL head coaches. I just want Nix and Gailey to go away. Nix has made many tactical errors and seems to operate without a plan. Slogans are not plans. Three years is enough time to see they are not winners and not in touch. Nix did not draft a QB in his tenure (that wasted 7th round pick aside) and the rest of the league is doing the just the opposite. This just in --- College Football is preparing todays young QBs to step in now more than ever.

This is the Ralph Wilson way: 1. Ralph, worried about ticket sales, will listen to the fans and call for Gailey to be fired. 2. Nix will refuse because he already said Chan stays. Nix does not want this job anyway, it is getting too hard. 3. Ralph will get pissed at the lack of loyalty and will fire Nix for not carrying out the order. 4. Ralph will consult with Brandon and Littman. Brandon will save his ass in a stroke of genious by recommending the promotion of Whaley to "keep continutiy". Wilson will be relieved because "at least he knows who Whaley is". 5. Littman will be happy because Whaley will not cost a lot. Ralph and Littman will further be happy as they will not replace the Assistant GM role, saving even more money. Ralph will be thankful to have a smart guys like Brandon and Wittman on the staff and give them each a raise. 6. Whaley will do what Wilson wanted and fire Gailey. 7. Whaley will not get full say on hiring the next coach or on the draft. By June he will be wondering how long he can this job. 8. Wash, rinse, repeat ...

X 100.

Polian is not coming back with Ralph on the scene. Gruden will not come to Buffalo, he will have more luvcrative offers should be decide to come back at all. Our best case scenario is that Nix "retires" and then Whaley takes over. Then we pray that Whaley blows up the coaching staff and that he is actually qualified for the job. Life of a Bills fan. Cheers, Bob

TC, The Bills will win just so that they can screw up their draft position and lose the opportunity to draft an impact player. You know that. Bob

True so then why spend a 7th round pick on T Jackson? They must of thought he had something? That move was almost as dumb as trading up in the third round to select Graham and bypassing a solid QB prospect. Nix is not a GM, he is a Scout. He appears to be working without a plan. Gailey is not a HC, he is an OC. Please. Ok, then New England should have let Bledsoe have his starting job back instead of Brady. Bledsoe was making much more than a 6th rounder.

The Buffalo Stealers ?

No, this is precisely why we have the worst defense in franchise history for three years running. We need a creative defensive coordinator that has the ability to put our players in the best defense for the talent we currently have. If we stay 4-3 we just need a few better LBs to improve. We do that and show some more creativity (blitz packages, disguised coverages, etc) we can quickly improve on defense. Replacing Chan and Wanny is smarter than trying to get 11 players to play in yet another new scheme. As Levy said, "you don't win with schemes, you win with good players". So true. Get some decent NFL caliber LBs and we are better against the run. Create more pressure on passing downs and we are better against the pass.

His trademark is no tradmark. I guess without the 8 Pro Bowlers that he had in Dallas his defenses are not very good. Perry Fewell did much more with less talent.

Easy one, there are so many. 1. Bryan Cox - no reason need be given. 2. Nick Bonicontti - constantly bragging and he was an awful host on his show with Lenny Dawson 3. Bob Kuechenburg - Big mouth offensive gaurd 4. Louis Oliver - talked the talk but could never walk the walk , he had one big game against us and spent the rest of his career getting burned 5. Dan Marino - just because of his tendency to whine and complain.

Or learn the slightest thing about defense and special teams? Or play his best players in critical situations?

What can be done to change the direction? First - talent, then coaching. Great coaches can only do so much with limited talent. Great talent makes mediocre coaching look good. You want to win the super Bowl? Fix the talent. Look at Bellick before Brady if you question this logic. To change things we need a few impact players on defense. I do not think we have any right now but we have a few good ones in Williams, Bryd and maybe Gilmore. Dareus is a maybe, but is stock is falling. Mario is an enigma of sorts, the kind of player not willing to take the role of leader. We have nothing at LB. --- So if talent is needed first I look at the GM and his scouting staff for the lack of talent. Coaching is next, again I look at the GM. This GM hired Gailey and he stressed "offensive minded" coaching. That is what we have. Gailey hires a college level coach to be a DC, then a retread in Wanny. Gailey does not coach defense and leaves it all to his DC. Looks at the results. Gailey is a nice guy and a good offensive coordinator. Unfortunately he does not cover all the bases required of a top NFL coach and his game management is poor. --- So if coaching is second then I look to the GM for hiring the coach and his staff. I think the whole mess lies with Nix. He has control of the draft, the scouts, the coaching and all football operations. Ralph hired Nix because "he knew him". Nix is a very good scout but he is proving to be not smart enough to control everything, including which players to draft and when. That is Ralph. Given Ralph's well documented limitations, fears,and inadequacies the best move he can make is ask Nix to "retire" and then promote Whaley. I am tired of change (we all are) and tired rebuilding every 3 years. We all know that is not the answer. Bringing in Whaley at least provides a thread of continuity that should prevent us from gutting the team, including the good players, while moving forward with a young and bright guy running the show. Whaley should then have the same freedom that Nix had and hopefully his first move is to hire a new head coach.

The blame should first be on the players. We have a bunch of softies on defense. Other than Kyle Williams, Gilmore and Byrd the rest play with no passion. Mario Williams is a blamer and not a leader at all. Dareus has become a cream puff. Teh LBs are atrocious and the weakest part of ther team. Second is the constant change. Three years ago we had a bunch of 4- 3 Tampa 2 players and a Coach (Fewell) that was at least getting something out of a lackluster group. Then we spend of bulk of two drafts to build a 3-4 defense and we did not find even one really good player in the bunch. Next we switch back to the 4-3 and bring in a lazy lout like Super Mario and a DC (Wanny) that is out of touch with todays NFL. Good intentions but poor execution by the lame front office. Right now it is just so hard to believe our LBs are so bad, Then there is Scott and Wilson and I can honestly say I wish we kept Whitner. Wilson is especially bad, he appears to have hit a wall and is in rapid decline. The drafting has not been good for over a decade. It is hard to believe that we cannot get lucky once in a while.

When they play Barnett oand Scottt at inside LB they get pounded ... yet they continue to go with this crazy formation. Shep is below average i think he is one of the guys that misses assignments. Barnett is ready to retire. At safety Geoerge Wilson is simply abysmal. Donte Whitner looks pretty though.

No way Chan gets fired. Chan needs to close out the season and then be accountable for his part in this mess. I would like to see Buddy Nix "retire" and then Whaley take over. First move by Whaley should be to replace the headcoach. I can dream can't I?