BillsVet

Castle? Whatever happened to Chas. Rhinegold?

As a combat veteran who has attended games where the Bills did their "Salute to Service" in hindsight, it feels insincere, considering they were paid to do so. I'm all for the NFL and their franchises being successful, but honoring the military should be something you do out of the goodness of your organization, not because someone paid you to do it.

You have an uniformed opinion.

Pro Personnel has been hit and miss the past few years and admittedly, Whaley's sample size isn't very large. I would argue however he was in transition to the GM during the winter/early spring of 2013. McKelvin and Wood are the guys who've regressed from 2013 to 2014, and both were signed in the former year. Wood has struggled more since his 2011 knee injury and it's been pretty obvious. IIRC, he admitted his level of play regressed this season and it's not fair to conflate that in the context of the entire OL, although the 2014 OL was very poor.

Perhaps I was slightly harsh, because the interior of that OL was putrid last season. Cyril Williams, Kraig Urbik, and Erik Pears aren't much to write home about. Eric Wood, from the moment he called out Aaron Maybin, has been a fan favorite. I also like how he described the Toronto series a few years ago, but it doesn't remove the fact his play fell off a little last year. He's a guy to watch in 2015 given what we hope is improved G play on that OL.

I've never heard of this term "glue contract", but it explains why the Bills inexplicably gave Chris Kelsay a 4 year 24m deal early in the 2010 season. I guess Whaley really did learn a few things from Nix, because both have re-signed under-producing players to deals well beyond their team value. BTW, which other NFL GM's are wont to provide "glue contracts" to their veteran players who are good in the locker room? The things I learn from this board. You doubt Doug Whaley? Blasphemy!

Kouandjio is not nor ever will be a LT in the NFL. No matter how much work does in the off-season, it won't remove the fact he's not agile enough to handle the quicker pass rushers. As to Cordy, well, it's a contract year. If anyone thinks that doesn't factor so much into personnel decisions, think again. It could also be this staff's attempt to motivate him. At this point, everything is conjecture and symbolism over substance.

I thought the receivers were highly thought of, considering one is a renowned 2014 top-5 pick and the other was a solid receiver taken in the 2nd the year of Manuel's selection. Which one is it? Is it the QB not playing at the level of the receivers or the receivers not keeping pace with the QB? To me, when the receivers are being thrown balls that could get them a serious injury, it tells me the receivers aren't wrong. Go back and watch the tape of the Houston game when Manuel almost gets Robert Woods killed on a short pattern. And there were other examples of receivers being hung out to dry. All of this reminds me of some fans in 2007 who claimed that if Losman had better coaching, he'd be as good as Eli Manning. Objectivity, especially with regard to Manuel, is the endangered species here.

This first part of the response is really an immature way to respond to someone who puts forward a non-cheerleading post about Manuel. I get this is a fan's board, but characterizing those with counter-arguments to what most fans say is off the mark. At the same time, I keep reading how Manuel hasn't progressed because he had such poor coaching. That his development can now begin with better people in charge. And yet no one on the team seems to be talking Manuel up...at all. In fact, there's a lot of discussion about Tyrod Taylor, he of the 35 career NFL passes variety. That should make fans, even the rah-rah ones, stand up and take notice. Especially those who believe Manuel is just some better coaching away from success. Manuel doesn't strike me as just needing better coaching. He needs mechanics and better decision making. We'll see what happens when camp starts in July.

You've gotta wonder if they'll attempt to renegotiate Mario's contract. He's going into the 4th year of a 6 year deal and the cap hit is substantial each year IIRC.

It means Duke Williams and Jonathan Meeks aren't long for this team.

The HC and OC are markedly better than their predecessors. I my mind, that relates to the fact they've performed well at the job they were hired to do here. It's a slightly different scenario, but Dan Snyder tried to spend big on coaches over 10 years ago and it didn't work. Here, one would expect NFL types like Rex and Roman would have game-plans to use their talent better than people like Marrone and Hackett.

Any analysis of the trade needs to include the financial impact because McCoy came over on a sizable contract and Alonso's was still a rookie deal. No one knows how these two players will be in new environments and I get that fans are giddy over the prospect of McCoy in their backfield. But, at some point, the Bills moves this off-season will affect their ability to make moves down the road. Of course, that's not the issue because they know they're in win-now mode. Hopefully they get those wins this season.

And the fact he's been chronically injured throughout his career. But he at least got to take a picture with Marrone in snow March 2014.

The only starring thing with Whaley was a propensity to forward x-rated material. I always thought Shawne Merriman built the Bills with his incredible recruiting skills anyway.

Michael Jasper has the same chance to QB a team to the SB. And that's taking into account whatever team he plays for hides him on the practice squad as a DT.

The fastest way to being a playoff-caliber team is to get the QB. I think that point has been lost or diluted over the years as the Bills have struggled to find a capable starter. Instead, the rebuilding concept has been to only get the QB after all the other pieces, offensive and defensive, were in order. The issue remains that, in the UFA era, teams just can't wait around for all of the roster to be in place before you get the QB. You've got a narrow window to get enough pieces in place, and it begins with the QB. Besides, I keep hearing this narrative that you don't take a player unless there's a guarantee. I'm not clear where this came from, because no single draft pick is a guarantee. Who cares if you sit on 2 QB prospects. They didn't have huge pressing needs everywhere, or, at least that's what we've been told. Positional value being what it is, you don't lose much on a team like this taking another QB if one guy is struggling.

1) This is exactly where the Bills have been wrong on QB development across the tenures of multiple GM's. Go with one guy until it's obvious he's not good enough, then begin the "Find a QB Now" process anew. By that point it's too late and you're losing time in your rebuild. I read people here saying you've got to give QB's more time, but if you wait 3 years and the guy doesn't have it, you've got nothing in the pipeline save for journeymen veterans. Besides, the game's changed tremendously in the past 10 years. The way DB's are restricted combined with roughing the passer penalties make it that much easier for young QB's to succeed. It's not the NFL of 2003 when Cincinnati had Carson Palmer sit for an entire season. If Buffalo had taken someone in 2014, it would serve the purpose of pushing EJ harder. And if EJ didn't work out, you've started down the path of developing a young guy. If EJ had worked out, then the younger guy could be used in a trade. They've coddled him and that ended when Marrone removed him after the disastrous Houston game in Week 4.

Guarantee? The only guarantees are death and taxes. But rather than answer your trap question, I'll ask you this: How do you obtain a franchise QB if you make one attempt in 3 years to draft one? And your predecessor didn't take one in that time frame either. Then again, draft picks aren't guarantees, so we should wait until we get a high enough pick to take the most sure thing.

In this era of offensive football, what has a NFL GM done if, after 3 off-seasons of rebuilding, he hasn't identified a franchise QB? I know I'm in the minority who aren't enamored with Whaley. He just doesn't seem like this great GM who's ahead of the curve, and it's not just his selection of Manuel or addressing the subsequent issue at QB with journeymen. I will grant that he didn't hire the previous HC or that he inherited a great situation from Blundering Buddy. As much as 2015 is make or break for Manuel, it's almost to that degree with Whaley. He's been given a better HC, resources to acquire better talent, and had 3 drafts to mine talent. If they don't win this year I, it's time to look for a replacement. Especially considering he's been with the organization for 5+ seasons now.

Well, the grand vision behind trading up last year was so that the QB with a shotgun arm (with a full choke) would have help from his receivers. I hope Cassel is better than Orton. If not, it's not going to be fun if they get behind early.

This thread is proof that now is the time for some posters to stop starting 10+ threads a day.

It's ironic that in the past 5 drafts (2011-2015) Buffalo chose not to take anyone in 3 QB rich draft classes (2011, 12, 14) took what looks like a bust one year (2013) and decided against one in a very poor QB draft (2015). One thing is evident: that teams who are aggressive in pursuing the improvement of the position get their guy more often than a team that waits for the draft or a given player to come to them.

I always wonder about players Ozzie Newsome lets go for nothing. He's one of the best in the business for a reason.

Earlier this off-season Whaley erred in using the word "blame" to describe the drafting of Manuel and part of me wonders if they're gun-shy after that decision. QB's typically define the success or failure of a GM's tenure, but not taking one affords a personnel guy more time. This wasn't a draft that'll go down for QB depth in the later rounds, IMO, but we do know not taking a shot means you're guaranteed to fail. The fan spin-doctors can do their usual thing of conflating the issue and protecting OBD, but neither Whaley nor Nix have figured out the position. Worse, they've only taken one swing and it's looking more and more like a bust.