BillsVet

Why are you making personal your disagreement with another poster? This is a debate and no one's attacking you personally.

Success at the QB position is quantified solely by lack of INT's? TT is what he is: a guy who won't hurt you, but won't win you games either. So much has to go right for the Bills to win with TT as their starting QB. A QB should cover up shortcomings to a certain degree when everything doesn't work. TT doesn't do that.

TT through 7 games in 2015: 124 compl. / 176 att. / 70.5% compl. % / 1436 yards passing / 8.2 yards per attempt / 11 TD passes / 4 INT TT through 7 games in 2016 (in essentially the same system): 117 compl. / 193 att. / 60.6 compl. % / 1297 yards passing / 6.7 yards per attempt / 8 TD passes / 2 INT

We're going to be seeing teams replicate what Miami did against Buffalo today. Load up against the run and force Taylor to make throws. And that's going to be difficult for TT because he doesn't read the field, has average at best pocket presence, and isn't very accurate.

Not having a franchise QB. Hard to come from behind without consistently making throws.

But why is the deep ball not there like it was in his first season? I figured over an off-season teams would try to take that away and they largely have save for the Jets game. Without an intermediate or deeper passing game, I'm not sure where the offense is headed. They're not going to be running it for 150+ a game all season. The throws I've seen him attempt are largely to the sideline (like last year) and not longer than 10 yards, including OTM. If teams gear up to stop the run, one would think In terms of experience, TT is not Wilson. The former had been in the NFL 4 seasons before taking the starting job and wasn't a rookie as Wilson was. The drop in passing yards and YPA is not good no matter how you slice it.

Tyrod's play has slipped from last season in a few key metrics, namely yards per attempt (YPA) and passing yards. He's attempting about the same number of passes per game (27) but is more than 35 passing yards per game less than 2015. As a result, his YPA is down more than a yard per attempt. That's not good. Someone will say they're working without Watkins and that's true. But this precipitous fall f rom effectively his first season starting in the NFL is concerning. At some point a defense will wise up and dare him to beat them. The run game has been very good but it won't always be this way. The often made comparison is Russell Wilson, who never experienced a big drop in passing yards or YPA from one season to the next. And now that TT has better line play in front of him he should be showing improvement, not regression. Weren't we told before the season he'd have more of the playbook open this year?

The season is a marathon and not a sprint or even a middle distance event. If success were measured by the first 5 weeks of the season, plenty of teams in the past would have made the playoffs that didn't at the end of the year. If the goal is to make the playoffs, strong defense and enough offense can work. Even Dick Jauron went 13-3 in 2001 with the Bears. But it's not a plan to be a dominant team.

TT is averaging about 180 yards passing per game, with a yards per attempt at less than 6.5. This, as opposed to his 2015 season when he was around 215 yards per game and 8 yards per attempt. That's a significant drop off. The Bills can never go down early in a game and if they do, needing TT to throw them to victory isn't a good idea.

His contract makes him all but un-tradeable. It should be disconcerting to ownership that the GM handed out the largest contract in team history to a guy who doesn't have his stuff together off the field. That said, Marcell Dareus has experienced personal tragedies far beyond what most people ever do. It sounds like his problems go deeper than ADHD.

When the Bills lose, we hear it's about the whole season and not one game. When they win (and it was an outstanding win) sometimes I think people want a ticker tape parade and toasting of everyone affiliated with the team. Whatever happened to measured happiness? Waiting and seeing is a lost art.

Is a 24-27 record as GM and having the most resources to work with in franchise history irrational?

Drawing conclusions based on a body of work (i.e. at least a quarter of the season) versus the most recent game result could be construed as negative by a lot of fans now. For some reason, espousing a wait and see attitude will get you called a "hater" or "negative." I need to see a level of consistency from this team as well. What irritates me is the team comes out strong in certain games and other times is flat. Last year's away NE game they were jacked up for MNF and played well. But other times during the season is was if there wasn't much motivation. I hope that hasn't continued in 2016 with a strong defensive effort against AZ and would expect another strong defensive effort versus NE. We'll see.

What is your point? The NFL from of the 90s is long gone and no one operates today the way teams did back then. Everything's more competitive and ff we're banking on luck happening here, well, that's like your retirement plan being to win the lottery. For the record, Robert Kraft bought his franchise in 1992, the team went to the SB in 1996 under Parcells, but was mediocre by 1999 when he hired a previously fired HC named Bill Belichick. Kraft identified someone who has been wildly successful that remarkably found a QB in the 6th round. The Pegula's are being led by Brandon and Whaley, neither of whom have much of any success in this league. I'd want someone advising me better than those two.

An owner needs to know their place and when to interject. I wish T/K Pegs had found someone to review the organization and provide feedback when they bought the team in 2014. They were on their way to that with Polian, but it blew up when Marrone quit. I'm not saying Polian was the be-all, end-all, but at least he was external to the organization. I had hoped T/K Pegs didn't need to learn the hard way again about trusting people they inherited. With the hockey team, they eventually had to fire the GM, HC, and another HC. Then, they hired someone as hockey czar who inexplicably quit shortly thereafter who fortunately hired a hockey GM before he left. That GM at least has a plan. T/K Pegs trusted Brandon and Whaley far too much since buying the team 2 years ago. After the fiascos of the past few years, I would hope an outside person could tell T/K Pegs those two are focused more on the OBD politics, i.e. job promotions/keeping their jobs, than winning football games.

A GM will only accept the job if they've got a measure of control over the team. If I'm a prospective candidate, I get assurance that no one outside of the people I hire in the front office interferes in football operations, save for ownership. Anyone else, specifically Russ "Mr. Smithers" Brandon will have nothing to do with decision making on that side of the house. Period. That hasn't been the case at any point in the 16 years of failure.

The post-mortem on Whaley's tenure will be his inability to identify a QB prospect and/or starter. Nix did this franchise no favors eschewing the QB position in 2011-12 when Fitzpatrick was the designated starter. Having said that, the roster seems to be built like a fantasy team. Building individual positions rather than a scheme designed to win the division. It's also clear Whaley didn't have a decision to hire a HC. Marrone was a Brandon choice and Ryan the decision from T/K Pegs. The dysfunction in this franchise isn't all on Whaley, but his off-season was a blundering mess. That humans playing football comment is something I'd never expect a NFL GM would make.

If the report is true, it reminds me of after season comments made by defensive players about Rex's scheme being too complicated. Are the players not able to understand this is the NFL and it requires complex schemes at times? Do they think you can just line up and go at the opponent. I'm beginning to think a lot of these players aren't putting in the work nor have the understanding that winning in the league requires out-thinking your opponent.

Nice summary CT. I think Ozzie Newsome well understood TT wasn't a long term option at QB and made no real attempt to trade him before he hit UFA. I've also wondered what TT learned backing up in Baltimore about playing QB in the NFL. Sometimes it seems like he's more of a rookie out there than a 6 year veteran.

I don't understand why personnel is linked to scheme. Buffalo drafted Spiller, yet Nix wanted a huge OL and actually bragged about the latter. Now, a new GM trades for McCoy, yet their OL seems more suited for the power running game. It hurt last night not having a short yardage option. This is only one example of not fitting personnel to scheme.

Of all people, Sal Capaccio had an interesting start to his morning show segment on GR. Said essentially that teams around the league throw the ball to their bigger receivers and the Bills don't do that. The Bills have always tried to do things differently during this 16 years of failure. We've seen it in front office hires, personnel moves, gameday strategies, everywhere. Instead of doing what works, they think they could do it better and differently. The league is passing these dinosaurs like the Ryans by.

Russ is so far up the chain of command that he's not responsible. That's the defense whenever anyone mentions the guy's name. Well, as you mentioned, Brandon was in the room and contributed to the decisions to hire Nix, promote Whaley, hire Rex, and probably others. Somehow he's still not responsible.

Hiring an independent consultant who will objectively critique the way things are handled at OBD is at least a decade overdue. And I would hope that consultant would tell TPegs that there is interference in football operations which needs to end for his 1.4B company to ever proceed beyond mediocrity.

An objective review which is long overdue, but too many people at OBD with their own agendas will not permit this to happen. It's part of the reason they interviewed no one from outside the organization when Brandon wanted out of the GM role. He either couldn't get interviews, or wanted to keep things in house by interviewing Nix and John Guy with the latter fired. I get that TPegs wants to demonstrate loyalty, but there will be a time when winning trumps that approach. I would hope that means an objective set of eyes be placed on his billion dollar plus investment and not entrusted to RW cronies like Brandon, Whaley, et al. This. This. This.

I feel like Russ Brandon would be right at home playing the Wizard of Oz, saying, "Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain." It's doubtful someone who once was the managing owner of the franchise would seamlessly transition into a role without any influence into football operations. Especially when one sees he was on the phone with potential UDFA's after the draft concluded.