Fan in Chicago

We don't know one way or the other. First of all, there was no 'situation' to which anybody from the FO had to respond to. Hence, Brandon making such a statement is rather weird especially with the timing (why say anythnig before the season is over ?) Be that as it may, you may speculate that the Pegulas blessed his comments before they were uttered in public. I can speculate that this is a political move on Brandon's part to test the upcoming power structure. If he has received a call from Pegulas or Whaley after this went public, then he knows his future is likely very short. If no one responds, he will have strong indication that he will continue to wield influence. Again, as I said total speculation raised by a curiously unprovoked public statement

Hmm... perhaps I am a contrarian over here but why is Brandon making these statements ? This implies he is evaluating the coaching staff. Simon stated in some posts that RB still squawk's in WHaley's ear too often. The argument can be made that he is a marketing person and is hence involved in painting a rosy picture of the Bills. IMO, Brandon should stick to comments about where the team plays, which markets are important etc and really shut up about the football side of things. P.S. I do agree with his statement but wish it was Whaley who made it instead.

PTR and i were referring to the OP's statement that "top position mean that the bills would be willing to do more to get him". Unless you think that the best RGIII is going to drum up is a 2nd rounder, I don't see how this statement makes sense.

As a counterpoint and an example symbolic of Orton's ineptitude, yesterday he started to scramble, sees a wide open Jackson and misses the easiest pitch and catch with no one within a 5-10 yard radius of him.

That makes little sense either considering we don't have a first round pick in the upcoming draft.

Not sure how having on TC actually hurts his arm. I think Orton is good for upto 35-40 throws/game and then things go downhill fast. NOt saying he is great for this first 30+ throws but Hackett should keep the pass attempts as low as the opposing D allows.

I think Whaley, and Nix before him, have stuck to this philosophy of going big on the lines. What strikes me as interesting is the non-development and regression of the OL in general. This season began with additions to the OL via acquisition and draft. I was feeling very good about the talent, albeit not all war tested. But then, steadily things have gone downhill. I find it tough to believe that a guy (Whaley) who has excelled in gathering talent on the entire D and the O skill positions suddenly loses his bearings when it comes to the OL. I also don't buy this Marrone is stubborn and hence not playing Kouandijo. I am hence leaning towards problems with the OL coach or the offensive schemes. I would like to see upgrades at these coaching positions.

I also am very frustrated by the Orton-led offense but it is late in the season, we are in the playoff race and Marrone may be on a warm seat which will get very hot very quickly if things back-fire.

Also, what does 'top position' mean anyway ? Makes little sense.

I am with you on this. I am normally appreciative of Rodgers, but he should have been more classy. Truth be told, there were several instances where I was screaming for holding penalties against their OL. Else, Hughes in particular would have gotten close to/sacked him couple of times.

I think at this point, Marrone must be in a 'do not rock the boat' mentality. If he makes a switch and things go wrong, he will be fired. This has the makings of the Flutie-RJ controversy where to this day, people debate whether Flutie should have started against the Titans.

Hope it is nothing too bad. As for the implications, does this now open the door wide open for the Pats* to the Superbowl ?

Indeed. Would be a good trivia to see if the Bills have ever blanked out a division.

Yep, Cardinal

One of the truly great Ds. Wasted on abad O

D on fire. The O umm,.....

No it's a HC and Whaley issue. Get your analysis right

Good luck with that

Surely the OC has to take some blame for this offense. But he has a rather limited set of plays to go from. For example, I cant for the life of me picture Orton throwing a fade to his WR in the EZ, do you ? If Marrone had hired an experienced OC last year, we would be singing a slightly different tune, IMO.

And I daresay for every team in this league. But despite that, there will be teams willing to trade for him. Just hope its not the Bills. Sure he wasn't. Right after he cuddled up to the powers that be who bitchslapped Kromer into a public apology.

Even the hint of read-option with Orton at QB would kill opposing DCs with laughter

Simon - appears to be shocking to me. Whaley was given the keys but someone else chose the car for him? At what point did/does he get the authority to make this his team top to bottom? History has shown Nix to be a nice man but incompetent at team building. Whose choice was EJ?? Good to see you chime in, BTW. However infrequently

I do not advocate giving up on him but there will have to be a decision made regarding the QB position and IMO, the primary solution won't include our current QBs. It will be a tough call regarding who to let go but there is no way the FO goes into next season with these two as our only QBs.

I am with you, 26Corner. Just that no matter what kind of team surrounds Orton, he always regresses towards the 0.500 mean.

First of all, if by chance we acquire RGIII, it will certainly say that EJ is done in Buffalo. But given RGIII's quals, his draft status and his rookie year performance, a healthy (mentally and physically) would be far better than EJ. Your second point is well taken but I really don't see how Hackett survives this off-season. IMO, he is gone for sure and Marrone by association. Or by defiance of Whaley.