BillsVet

They're used to it

If EJ played "solid" in his words last week, I wonder what today's performance merits.

They're playing arguably the league's worst team. Defense should dominate.

Glad Whaley is finally going in front of the assembled media. It's been awhile.

No one alone can win a football game. But what's interesting about all of these players you mention is they either were acquired in free agency or they had to trade up in the draft. And it's why I continue to believe Whaley and his predecessor aren't/weren't adept at drafting offensive players. If they were, Buffalo wouldn't have had to go on the spending spree they did this past off-season. The best teams in the NFL are winning with predominantly home-grown rosters. New England, Green Bay, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh all draft well consistently. In Buffalo they're buying RBs, WRs, TEs (haven't drafted one in rounds 1-3 since Kevin Everett 10 years ago), and refuse to draft a QB unless their collective back is against the wall. Doug Whaley and Bumbling Buddy added a lot of defenders since they arrived in 2010. It's still not the way to build a team suited for winning in the modern NFL. Nor is buying your talent when the drafts don't yield talent, especially on offense.

Star RBs aren't necessary though. The year Chris Johnson ran for 2k yards and 2500 total the Titans failed to make the playoffs. The year Adrian Peterson ran for 2k Minnesota was a 6 seed. No one in the NFL is emphasizing the running game to the point it demands "star level RBs."

A 3 down LB who has some coverage skills is more valuable than a RB...even if they're earning the same pay. There's a lot more involved in a comparison, but positional value being what it is, there are plenty of above average replacement level RBs. There just aren't as many 3 down LBs.

The man, in all likelihood, would have been there later. For so many years it was the Bills standing pat and letting the draft come to them. And those picks were usually made rapidly when it came their turn. Those were some dark days. Good read though.

They sure play like it regardless of talent. Losing to the top teams and winning versus the lesser talents. Playing down to the competition and unable to win consecutive games. I'll give it more time though.

Back in '08 Buffalo started off 5-1 only to finish 7-9. At one point, the team was 6-5 and people were still saying the Bills were in good shape. Unfortunately, Buffalo was trending down, but some wanted to rationalize that being 6-5 was good enough. A cloudy playoff picture though left them on the outside looking in for the post-season. The point is, has the current team fought their way to 3-3 or just fallen backward into it? Are they trending up or down? I'd say they're back to the Bills of the Jauron years, albeit with more talent. They've defeated the bad to mediocre teams and lost to the good ones. After the Thursday Night 11/12 game at the Jets I would hope they're 6-3 and playing lights out. Anything less and the playoffs are still a huge question.

WGR, particularly the morning show, broadcasts to the lowest common denominator. You're not going to hear much on game strategy or whether a certain player fits the scheme. They read this board and know what some (low information) fans continue to cite why Buffalo lost: missed calls, penalties against the Bills, etc. They're not going to talk about EJ throwing for 3 yards on 3rd and 13. Or that the defense was poor. They'll cite how good the other team was (see NE and CIN) and how you can't win them all or that other teams have really good QBs and Buffalo won't be playing as many the rest of the way. It's relativism driven by the audience.

Let's discount all news reporters now because we don't know who their sources are. Goodness. I get that some Bills fans will never admit management is flawed and in the face of all objective evidence, will defend their team to the hilt regardless of results. But to universally say reporters "don't know" is why it's getting hard to debate people here. Actually, there's little debate, particularly when it involves critical thinking based on evidence. The burden of proof is on those advocating for the team. That perspective has, especially since I've been on this board, been wrong most every time.

This sums up Whaley in a sentence. I don't understand the plan and it changes every year seemingly, although admittedly a new HC hires mean the plan may change. Yet, this shouldn't result in sweeping changes like what we've seen since RW passed in March 2014. Since that day it's been a scramble at OBD, which was somewhat predictable given the uncertain ownership picture. There are 31 QB's starting in the NFL who were drafted, Tony Romo being the exception. The average draft postion is 42 for those. 13 of those 31 were taken in picks 1-5. From picks 6-10 there is 1 (Tannehill), 11-20 there are 3 (Roethlisberger, Flacco, Cutler), 21-32 there are 3 (Brees, Rodgers, Bridgewater). Three (Dalton, Kaepernick, Derek Carr) from 33-64. 5 (Cousins, Mallett, Foles, Wilson, Jo. McCown) from 65-102. And there are 3 (Brady, Tyrod, and Fitz) taken beyond pick 102. The idea QBs are only taken at the tip top of the first round is a myth perpetrated by those who say it's too hard. It's not, and while not all of those QB's starting today are stellar, there is enough of a sample size to say it's not impossible to get a good one in the early middle to second round.

I would never think this team would be so thankful to get a 5th round rookie RB back into the lineup. Especially with the skill position talent they had entering the season.

And EJ had the temerity to say after the game that he played "solid." This, after throwing for 111 yards in the fourth quarter when the game was over.

Does Whaley know who he's shopping for or are these groceries for himself?

The Bills are like the bully from A Christmas Story who gets beat up himself. And Rex is like the kid weakly telling Ralphie to stop. Buddy and Doug just love fast injury prone skill position types from Clemson.

I'm not going to totally disagree with this post, although with Whaley, I don't see what he's trying to do aside from avoid the media. He's more adept at drafting defensive players because on offense he's been poor. There isn't much skill giving up draft picks to move from 9 to 4 to take the best WR. Aside from Robert Woods, what decent offensive starters has he selected from 2013-15? Most of the offensive group was acquired via free agency or trade. Where I disagree is how Whaley could do a good job and have the roster foundation outdated. His predecessor had no plan aside from get a better player here, get a faster or stronger guy there. So I guess Whaley is better there. Still, he doubled down on Manuel and that decision is significantly damaging his career. Because after yesterday, we're another step closer to declaring Manuel a bust. And the Bills are trying to cover up the one position that cannot be.

Whaley is in a tough spot because he didn't hire the 2 HC's during his tenure and whatever players he's acquired aren't necessarily going to play under the latest coaching staff. The owner is not doing them any favors either considering that Whaley does not have the job security Rex enjoys. The idea it's as simple as Whaley having control over the 53 and Rex playing whom he wants on game-day is wrought with major issues. This was evidenced by the handling of the QB situation. Whaley was high on Manuel whereas it appears Rex and the staff were not. And so Whaley traded the guy in the way of Manuel playing. But the strategy building this roster has been something based on the 1970s because teams don't win with great defense and a strong run game. For those who think Seattle does this, well, they have Russell Wilson which allows them to throw when they have to. Buffalo doesn't have that capability and therefore gets into trouble when that situation presents itself.

Whaley's been in Buffalo as a leading personnel type for this his 6th season. He may have drafted or contributed to the drafting of some solid defenders, but his record offensively isn't good. And right now, you win with offense in the NFL. His decision or the one for which he invoked the word "blame" this past January on Manuel is clearly not going to produce the guy they said he'd be. Rex's defensive scheme needs work and perhaps he'll do that. What I don't see an immediate answer is at QB, where the personnel people, i.e. Whaley, have not been so hot fixing. You're not going far in the NFL trying to make up for less than a good talent at QB either, and that falls on Whaley more than anyone else.

Those Bills teams in the Marv and Brandon GM years were so thin in terms of talent that a few injuries seemed to undo the roster pretty quickly. IIRC, that was the year after Clements, Fletcher and Spikes were allowed to hit UFA and McGahee traded. It was bad that year, but they set themselves up for it when talent wasn't adequately replaced.

Correct Dave. I made the correction.

A HC needs to define the identity of the team, work with the GM to acquire talent to support that identity, and use that talent effectively on gameday. In Buffalo the GM and HC haven't worked well enough together to build a winner since the Marv/Polian years. Each HC/GM combination since then seems to have been running in different directions and making decisions to support their ego and/or out-dated identity they wanted to establish. Of late, that could be Whaley trading up to draft a WR without a decent QB to throw them the ball. Or Nix taking a RB with his first draft pick to run behind an offensive line that was plodding and immobile. Or Nix deciding to go defense heavy in 2010-12 on draft day when the league is shaded toward permitting offense. Or, the last 4 GMs since 2006 combining to take (EDIT: 2 QBs) in the top 3 rounds when other teams were persistent addressing the position. I know what Rex wants to do. I'm just not sure if he knows how to go about doing it. And what complicates everything is that Whaley's trying to survive as GM with a coach he doesn't agree with on the 53 man roster. Something's gotta give soon, but if I was a betting man it'd be the GM would go before the HC.

It's hard to win in the NFL...then again the same tired excuses come out on TBD every year when this happens. Almost like a broken record.

The modern NFL does not reward teams who try to win predominantly with defense and a run first offense.