BillsVet

Who picks the coaches and QB? The root cause is a little deeper than the surface level.

The CBA RW voted against (as did Mike Brown) was not a solid deal and I was wrong on that front. Tagliabue tried to push it through and we learned by 2011 how bad it was. At the same time, you've got owners like Jerry Jones who have a new stadium and have been to the playoffs all of 1 time since 2010. Jets and Giants got a new stadium a few years ago and have 2 playoff appearances in 10 combined seasons, albeit one was a SB win for Big Blue. I will still contend that as important as QB play is to a team's success, teams need to have a solid management organizational chart and personalities who fit within that who can find talent. It's not the old days where Bill Polian was beating most of the teams in the league unearthing talent. It's absurd that half the AFC has only 2 playoff appearances in the past 10 years. That's BUF, MIA, CLE, JAC, TEN, SD, OAK, and NYJ. And there are some big market teams in there as well. I don't see the correlation between unshared revenue and playoffs.

I don't think they're elite...they just happen to get in the wild-card round and lose each year.

I was doing some research today about teams that make the playoffs and the results were pretty staggering, especially in the AFC. Overall the top 11 NFL teams of the past five seasons in terms of playoff appearances account for 70% of postseason participants. The top 16 NFL teams account for about 87% of postseason appearances. That means half the league represents about one out of eight playoff appearances. It should come as no surprise that the elite franchises of the NFL are pretty consistent reaching the postseason. In the AFC, New England, Denver, Indianapolis, Cincinnati, Baltimore, and Pittsburgh account for 24 playoff appearances out of 30 total going back to the 2010 season. The easy explanation is to talk about quarterback play. Yet, these franchises keep winning consistently and it's more than who is under center. If the salary cap was such an equalizing force, one would think eventually these teams would fall back to the middle. But they don't. Meanwhile you have eight AFC teams that have failed to reach the playoffs in that same span. Wasn't the salary cap intended to level competition? As important as quarterback play is, having front office brainpower is more integral to producing consistently high performing franchises. And as good as an attempt as it was to moderate spending, teams are at the mercy of who they hire to acquire personnel and coach. It looks like Buffalo has improved going into 2015. In order to fulfill Rex's promise to make the playoffs they'll need to do a lot of work to catch up with the elite in the AFC.

Is this where William Shatner says to a bunch of Star Trek fans "get a life"

Lighten up Francis.

In other news, Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead. And this coming from a huge WWII reader.

And here's another new narrative pulled seemingly out of nowhere to explain the inexplicable.

Because CJ Spiller was faster? And Buddy thought this was a track meet? At least now we won't be drafting RB's in the first round. I hope.

I've read for years on TBD it's a conspiracy by the league to punish the Bills. I wish there was an easy method to show that bad management eventually shows up on the field. And the Bills have been bottom feeders there for a long time. Hopefully that's changed with TPegs in charge and Rex in the building.

I like the fact that Terry Pegula took a very active role in hiring a HC. Buffalo needs an owner who is engaged and understands the game because business success doesn't lend itself to winning in the NFL. That said, the personnel department is in fact lacking in experience and Whaley's record in the 2013 and 2014 drafts isn't exceptional. Better than Nix, but not anywhere near what Ted Thompson, John Schneider, Ozzie Newsome, or New England have done. And you need the best personnel department to get this deep in the post-season. The best thing is that Russ Brandon no longer will be interfering in the football operations decision making process.

Maybe Eugene Parker took EJ on so that Brandon can feel like he'll win a negotiation against his nemesis. That is, if Brandon had anything to do with football operations anymore.

This isn't a case of whether people agree on defensive or offensive strategy. It's egos, and at the NFL level they tend to be pretty big. Besides, personnel is NOT a black and white topic given that both the GM and HC have a vested interest. Doug Whaley lost responsibility in the new organizational chart because the HC doesn't report to him. And why should he? Rex is more successful as a HC than Whaley is as a GM. Making the experienced report to the relatively new GM makes zero sense.

Terry's hand is on the front office now with the hiring of Rex and changing the org chart to reflect three direct reports, including the HC, GM, and the former Mr. Smithers-Brandon. It's not what some wanted, but hopefully eliminates the issues they had last season when Russ was running the show.

At least Russ Brandon can't lie about claiming to have input on football. Well, almost as much as him not being the big wheel at OBD or the guy who gets in front of camera. His air time is pretty much over because he's never going to be as entertaining as Rex.

Doesn't take much to offend people anymore. Guess that means the "offenders" should be summarily fired. Makes perfect sense to demand...for sensitive sally's whose feelings are hurt.

INtensively disINterested with this thread. A poster with "Lombardi" in their screen name needs to be better. A lot better.

You don't get paid for what you've done. It's for what you're going to do. Backs have a short shelf life and they age rapidly. Shaun Alexander is a perfect example of a guy who got huge money and then fell off the face of the earth. He had his best season at 28 and then dropped precipitously. Alexander's 2005 season is a lot similar to Murray's 2014: 370+ carries, 1800+ yards and the next year they did not produce half the season after. I'll grant that Murray has less miles on his tires, but he's also been banged up in recent years as well. And both Seattle of 2005 and Dallas 2014 had good OL's.

Roman has to be the more important one. The HC is a known defensive guy who'll bring his guy to "manage" the defense. The OC has more work to do and less talent to do it with. If they're going to be a run first team as some suspect, then they'd better be darn good about it with Manuel. NFL defenses are good at stacking the box to stop the run and forcing bad QB's to make mistakes.

Perhaps. The RB position is still devalued, and I still don't see anything changing that.

They're playing DB and perhaps LB as well. Getting to the QB is next to being the QB for getting paid. Ben Tate got 2 years and 7M last year and was cut fairly early in the season. Besides, with QB's taking up more cap room than ever, it stands to reason there'll be other positions who won't earn as much. It's not an insult, but for cap managers it makes sense. He won't get that kind of cash anywhere else. Not from a team interested in improving where it matters most. How many of the 8 teams that played last season this season have great backs? Aside from Murray and Marshawn Lynch, every other team that played in the divisional round had no better than an above average back.

It looks like Mitch McConnell is on your avatar there. LOL They want to win now and hiring Rex says that. Everyone knows it's not going to happen with a solid running game and game manager QB. Time to think big and bold. Yet, there is a difference between being bold and then throwing caution to the wind. L'audace, l'audace, toujours, l'audace!

Thank goodness. I was worried there for a second Rex's hiring would disrupt the space-time continuum.

It would be a little scary. OK, really scary.

Kroenke really wants a losing team so he can move the team to LA.