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He will opt out if he gets a better offer. Without a first round pick or a starting caliber QB, is the overall situation with the Bills favorable in the near term? If he had won in Oakland, and the Bills ended up at 10-6, Marrone would have been very sought after.

I am suspicious about this information coming out now and being so highly publicized. I wonder if Marrone is angling for another opportunity.

In his MMQB column today, Peter King has a reference to the Polians (one or two) potentially coming to the Bills in his top fifteen list where he ranks the Bills 15th.

Why is this coming out now? Who leaked this information? Was it Marrone, Marrone's agent or someone else? If it was leaked by Marrone's camp, is it getting the word out that he may be available for a different opportunity? interesting.

Not hiring a consultant to this point may mean no changes in the offseason. There is competition for coaches and GMs as soon as the season is over. I doubt the Bills would want to be in a position of finding a new GM and coach months after the season ends, after the best available candidates have been hired and coaching staffs put together. Very depressing if this is the case.

It would definitely suck if the Bills did not at least hire a competent consultant. The franchise needs an objective top to bottom review and evaluation.

Polian is smart and has built winners in three different cities. What is with all of the negativity? Having familiarity and experience with the Bills organization is probably a good thing, but there is some distance in terms of time, which should allow him to be more objective. I hope Brandon stays on in a marketing capacity. His efforts in that regard have been outstanding during some very difficult times. Whaley and Marrone need to be evaluated. I do not get the Whaley love, and I certainly think we can do better than Marrone, particularly with the offense. Having an outside consultant gives me some comfort that informed decisions will be made to put the Bills in position for success in the future.

If Marrone and Whaley do not get along (or cannot get along) none of the thoughts expressed here about the performance of Whaley and Marrone matter. One or both may need to go if the relationship is as bad as described by Bucky, assuming the relationship cannot be repaired.

Even if Pegula has doubts about both Whaley and Marrone, I think Whaley is more likely to go this year. If Pegula is unsure about Whaley, how can you have him hire a new head coach? If Pegula wants to fire Whaley after one more year, how many GMs will want a job where they are either stuck with a head coach who was just hired or they need to fire a coach who was just hired. That scenario seems way too disruptive to the team. Also, with Whaley, you can objectively point to moves that were questionable (trading up for Watkins, drafting CK, and drafting EJ). It would be harder with Marrone, where the Bills have shown improvement in their overall record after two seasons.

Interesting. Does Bucky's piece mean that a change must be made? I get beyond repair, but does that mean they cannot work together? Seems like that would be the case. Not sure who would win here.

If CK is a complete bust, then we need to consider whether this was a disappointing draft for the Bills. I do not think that Whaley et al. deserve credit for drafting Watkins in terms of talent evaluation skills because he was considered by many to be a top WR prospect and we traded a first round pick in 2015 to get him. CK and Richardson showed very little this season. Preston Brown was very solid and may be the best pick of the draft for the Bills based on his play this year and where he was drafted. I know that many think that Henderson was a great pick, but there was no doubt about his talent, it was about his head and his ability to stay focused and clean. Drafting him was not an example of excellent talent evaluation, it was a team taking a chance on a player that had off field issues.

To be fair, I think Gailey could have an OC position if he wanted one. I believe he would be very sought after if he showed interest in coming back to the NFL. Gailey failed because he could not find a fix to the defense. I liked Chan, and I think he would have done well if he had better defensive talent and a competent DC. He sure got a lot out of the talent he had on offense, including the o-line and Spiller. With Marrone, I just do not see what he brings to the table. He likely has no input on the defensive side. For the offense, if he is helping with the o-line and the game planning, it is not making a positive impact.

We will need more years to be able to fully evaluate the trade up for Watkins, but at this point (and it is very early), it was not a wise move. We would be drafting in the middle of the first round this year, and you would hope that the Bills would have drafted a blue or red chip player. A decent QB available may not be available with that pick, but that does not significantly reduce the overall value of the pick, which could have resulted in a top tier prospect. The other aspect of the trade that must be considered is that Whaley would not give up the second round pick in last year's draft, which turned out to be CK. If this is true, you can argue that Whaley gave up a first this year, and drafted a bust last year (in a very strong draft by all accounts), meaning that the Bills missed on the opportunity to have two top tier talents on the team. That is the kind of thing that ends up hurting a team badly in the long run.

Don Banks at si.com has an article regarding the 2015 coaching carousel and suggests that some think Whaley is vulnerable because of overdrafting Manuel and the cost of moving up for Watkins with Beckham available. Interesting that Whaley is being blamed for EJ, I still have no idea whether that is fair or not.

Chan did a lot with very little. He makes Hackett look very bad.

What if the front office wants Hackett gone and Marrone will not agree to it? Seems like they are joined at the hip. What happens then? Do we have another Wade situation? Did the Bills protect against that in Marrone's contract after what happened with Wade?

Article in the NY Daily News today about the Jets hiring Casserly suggests that Polian and Accorsi were unavailable as consultants (Polian because of his ESPN contract and Accorsi because he serves on the NFL Advisory Committee). I think Wolf is also on the Advisory Committee. Not sure where that leaves the Bills if they want to hire a consultant.

Wolf, Accorsi or Parcells, please. We need a consultant.

!5 years of not making the playoffs is just too long. I want to be patient, but I am not sure what Marrone brings to the table. The defense is run by Schwartz, and the things that Marrone seems to have input on (the offense generally, including game planning and the o-line) have been terrible. Does he do other things well, such as leadership and other head coaching related skills? I have no idea. While I am very frustrated about the team's performance over the last number of years, I am extremely happy that ownership has been passed to the Pegulas. I cannot imagine how we would all be feeling if we had a frustrating team coupled with a new owner who planned to move the team at the end of the current lease. I am at least thankful that we have a chance to be successful in the future in Buffalo, and that we are not fans of the Chargers, the Rams or the Raiders. One last holiday wish. Please hire a consultant (Ron Wolf) to figure what is gonig on with the Bills and what needs to be done to fix things.

The QB thing is the big impediment to this team improving and having a realistic shot at competing for the playoffs and having success in the playoffs.

We need a new offensive coordinator and new coaches for the offense. I would be okay if we replaced Marrone, but what we need more than anything else is a quality starting QB. Same thing that we have been searching for since Jim Kelly retired.

The guard play this year was terrible, but I am not sure if Henderson or Wood was much better. Better o-line play would have helped with the running game, but neither Orton nor EJ are the answer at QB, and the offense will continue to have problems until we find a quality QB.

Bad

He really showed today that he is an excellent defensive coordinator. He out coached the Packers.

I still think the most important move for Pegula is to hire a consultant to assess the team, the coaches and the front office. A fresh look at the overall organization is needed, and now is the time to do it. It would have been helpful if this had started immediately after Pegula bought the Bills, so that the consultant would be in a position to recommend changes at season end, particularly since the competition for certain potential head coaching and GM candidates will be tough. Assuming that Pegula has not secretly hired a consultant who will have completed his review by the end of the season, you would have to think that coaching and GM changes are unlikely be made this year. I do not believe that Pegula would make these kind of moves without the assistance of a consultant/expert, and if he gets one after the season, it may be too late to hire the top coaching/GM candidates with certain teams ready to start their head coach/GM searches now.