BillsVet

The Buffalo Bills: Talking about showing fans the baby since 2010.

In a conventional world, the owner has given the GM and HC leeway to succeed or fail based on contract extensions and coaching staff hires respectively. What's unconventional about the Bills is if they aren't a playoff team it seems there'll be a ready excuse to give them another season. I think TPegs has delayed the inevitable from 2016 to 2017.

Rex will not simplify his defense and Buffalo will be looking for low cost options to fit his scheme as Dunne pointed out here. I'm just not sure they'll have the cap room without some maneuvering with a few other contracts. You hope Glenn and Incognito are re-signed, but even with Mario's impending release it's hard to see how they'll have room for 3-4 or more defensive free agents. Rookies are not coming in and running this scheme to the degree Rex needs it.

The question isn't whether Rex knows what he wants to do on defense, but whether his defenses are able to stop or at least slow down newer offenses. There are 14 HCs out of 26 currently in the NFL who come from the defensive side of the ball. All of them have a system they want to run, whatever variation of 4-3 or 3-4. But it doesn't take a full year for people to feature a good defense as demonstrated by like Mike Tomlin in 2007 or Mike Zimmer in 2014. Even Todd Bowles managed to have NYJ playing solid defense in his first year. It looks like Rex is going back to what he knows and I'm not sure it'll work in a quickly evolving NFL landscape where offenses change almost year to year.

Why not go for the trifecta and bring Buddy in as Senior Defensive Consultant? He's coached in Buffalo before and can punch Greg Roman if he gets too pass happy.

Whaley hired by OBD in 2010 and Bills fail to make playoffs 3 straight seasons. Many blame players, coaches, even GM after the fact. Whaley promoted to GM in 2013 and Bills fail to make playoffs 3 straight seasons. Many fans blame players, coaches. What's interesting is the phenomenon that certain fans cannot blame management. It's more common than I thought, particularly among teams where they never or rarely succeed. SF is a prime example right now. Jed York and Trent Baalke are a tire fire. I think Whaley got his contract purely to eliminate the contractual disparity between him and RR. My gut tells me he'll follow the same path that Darcy Regier did in 2013. Signed an extension and didn't last. The Pegulas, perhaps not in an ultimatum, have made it clear they need to win in 2016. And witha lack of cap space created by last years spending spree it'll be even harder to re-sign their own guys, stock RR's defense, improve the OL, and hopefully find another QB option.

Brandon had his hands all over the decision to hire Marrone. Perhaps not because St. Doug was down the road at SU, but because Brandon is pretty high on himself and had just been given the keys to the kingdom by RW a few days before. In January 2013 Nix had one foot out the door, Whaley was not officially GM, and Brandon was at the head of their front office football ops triumvirate. People think it's bad luck Buffalo doesn't crash the playoff party every year. In reality, it's senior management that makes bad HC and GM hires.

We both remember Marv promising Clements he wouldn't be franchised and the Bills having no intentions to re-sign him. They subsequently got nothing for him and he walked in UFA despite Buffalo having unused cap space galore. But now they don't have that space two work with and decisions on players are more difficult. I'd rather see Gilmore re-signed, but there are some undeniable circumstances now: -he's not super durable and gets nicked up every season -they've got Darby who was excellent this season and may be a #1 CB down the road -Gilmore will want a deal in line with the best and Buffalo doesn't have great cap space given their go for broke 2015 plan. Can the money spent on a Gilmore contract be used better elsewhere? Still a lot to happen before he hits UFA after the 2016 season. I would lean toward trading him for top picks and using those (that's a stretch with Whaley sometimes) efficiently.

If RR is still HC in 2016 I'm sure they'll re-sign Gilmore to a long term contract because the defensive scheme demands it. There are pros and cons to re-signing him to a big long term deal, and in reality too many to discuss here. But cap management is going to be a big issue with OBD unless they stop being go-for-broke each season.

The Bills put all their chips into 2015 to end the playoff drought...and didn't succeed. Reading the BN article of where they are relative to the cap ceiling and who they need to cut is disheartening. And as Bill from NYC has noted, they've been very loose with resources the last 12 months. Now there's a price to pay for that. People assume that the OBD wizards will figure it out, free up cap space, get the pieces for Rex's defense, keep Glenn and Incognito, then hit home runs in the draft. Based on previous years I'm not optimistic that'll happen. And it's occurred without having to pay a QB major money. Last year few if any teams invested less financially in their QB's. The 2015 Bills were like a government stimulus advertised as creating immediate results...that never did.

H8rs gonna hate. Seriously, sometimes people care about making the playoffs. Those people, of which I'm one, demand accountability and not excuses after the longest post-season drought in North American professional sports. I question whether people like you are more interested in just being a happy fan ignorant of results than actually having a great team. IMO, a fan should criticize a franchise when they continually are lapped by other average NFL teams. Specifically, you've got teams like Arizona, Washington, Minnesota, Carolina, Seattle that are now post-season bound. You know, the teams who've rebuilt to varying degrees and were stuck in the mud in 2010 when your last rebuild under the previous GM began? Although this may be a new rebuild now that RR is aboard, I don't know anymore. Sure there were silver linings this year. But there isn't a fan out there who, at the beginning of the season, would have been satisfied with being all but eliminated from the playoffs in week 14. No way.

He's not a top-10 guy right now and the jury is still out as to whether he'll improve from year 1 to 2 as starter. Hopefully Buffalo doesn't follow the same tired model of betting the farm on one guy without acquiring someone capable behind him. One other guy who once played well was Nick Foles in 2013. He had 27 TDs versus 2 INT that year, but was traded before 2015 by PHI to STL. Some guys have a solid year and then never produce that way again.

#Machiawhaleyian Dude's straight cash-money and even has Bills fans fooled.

I'm sure the Titans just wanted to go with stability in making their decision.

Good to know. I saw Maiorana and Benigni covering the team on WGRZ, which was something they've started in the past 2 years or so. Strange situation.

Gannett owns both the D&C and WGRZ, with both combining their sports people to report on the Bills. So Gannett, in terms of Bills coverage, competes with the BN who they don't own. Stating that the D&C "take on" the BN is hilarious when confronted with this fact.

The quote in blue is actually what someone told me probably about 4-5 years ago re: my perspective on the team. It sums the situation with this team and the relationship between fans. Or, "celebrate 8-8" which seemed to be the chorus here among a few notable posters.

I know it's hindsight, but the fact they entered the 2014 with a need at WR and their backup to picking Watkins was Ebron has to be scary. The personnel group knew there was a strong WR class available and were opting for the TE. And this was the same year they took Kouandjio in the second. P. Brown might well improve, but that draft save Watkins has been poor 2 years in. And hopefully fans realize now that no WR group will ever make a QB that much better.

I would hope the roster is better now...they spent more in UFA last off-season (~90M) than any other team in the NFL. The year before they traded into the top 5 to draft Watkins and had 3 drafts total to add talent. Anyone should be able to improve on the Buddy Nix GM years. Yet, they're a .500 team in 2014-15. And they are smack up against the likely cap ceiling already in 2016, so the owner's willingness to spend isn't the issue. It's managing the dollars they've had to work with, which is my point all along. Is this team being built through the draft, or are they going the Dan Snyder route?. The goal isn't to build talent at individual positions, but if it were I'm sure the Bills qualify for the off-season spending award. The W-L column is another matter.

It's been a long time since I've seen posters more active and say less on this board. Either of you from around Oneonta?

For most NFL teams, winning creates stability. In Buffalo, mediocrity does as well.

Buddy Nix told everyone he'd be sleeping during free agency in 2010 and focused on re-signing people. Until they were a combined 10-22 in 2010 and 2011 and they went out and signed Mario and Mark Anderson in 2012 UFA. None of it worked because the GM was inadequate. Now his deputy is GM and telling us the same thing. What matters is the person picking the players. Because you can't pin this all on Rex, though the HC shares fault here.

First time in years an owner is holding his managers accountable when the franchise misses the playoffs. Can't argue with that.

Too many let-downs over the past 16 off-seasons for anything done before the regular season to get a reasonable fan excited. A new owner, GMs, HC's, high-priced free agents, top draft picks, etc. aren't enough. It's time to win games and throw excuses out the door.

Not every frame is created durability-wise equal, even if height and weight are comparable. When TT went down after that awkward tackle at the end of a long run in Tennessee, it changed their season because they lost at home to CIN and in the UK to JAC. The main thing with TT running so frequently, besides his exposure, is that he tucks it and runs far too often. Designed runs are one thing, yet I'm thinking far too many of his rushing attempts were when he didn't see an open receiver. In 14 games he ran it 104 times, or about 7 per game.