BillsVet

This. It seems to me that If EJ was so knowledgeable about the offensive game plan, he's the one in someone's ear telling them to get it right. As in running the right route or the OL breaking down. I'd also expect if the OL is not holding their blocks and getting that QB hit, that the QB would be ripping into them, not the veteran RB going ape at the whole unit. EJ may not be a 10 year veteran, but he's the QB and it's his responsibility to lead and I don't see it right now. The other thing I disagree with is blaming a five man unit first before the QB. Dividing blame among 5 is so much more convenient in the apology game than focusing on one guy. And that one player more than anyone else has more to do with success on a football team than any other. It should be natural that when things don't go well, the first person identified as the root cause of that failure is the QB. Except among defenders of all things Bills.

It's 23.6M in dead money. Deflecting from that point still doesn't remove the fact they've got nearly 1/6th of their total cap space for 2014 tied up in players not with the team anymore. Combined with the unused cap space for 2014, it's more than 1/5 of their cap dollars not paying going toward players on the 2014 roster. http://overthecap.com/salary-cap-space/ If you look at the other teams situated around Buffalo, it's not exactly a who's who of NFL GM talent either.

Quibbling. There have been some bad decisions in pro personnel and I think it's why Whaley replaced the guy who Nix had hired. Nevertheless, 23.6M is a lot of dead cap space.

Whaley, Marrone, and Hackett don't have another year to hope EJ becomes a good NFL QB. For that matter, neither do EJ's teammates, who play in a league where career brevity is the norm.

You do realize EJ was 9-18 for 67 yards against the first team TB defense, correct? He was 10-10 for 131 yards and 1 TD against second stringers and guys who'll be cut. After 5 off-seasons of rebuilding (since Nix took over) they're still only a 6-7 win team? How long should a fan wait to see this team actually win those 9 or 10 games that "3/4 of the league" is trying to win?

The first team offense going 0-18 scoring TD's against 4 separate first team defenses means they've done a great job not showing anything to the Bears for week 1.

In fairness Hackett grew up around a father who coached NFL offenses for something like 25 seasons. He didn't just have Schonert as a mentor on how to coordinate a WCO.

Agreed. I always wondered why Marrone chose as OC, a guy who hadn't been a position coach in the NFL. I knew he was the son of an offensive guy, but getting a HC gig sometimes is a one-time opportunity and trusting a NFL offense to a rookie NFL OC without major pro experience is a huge gamble. And to make matters worse, they make Hackett the QB coach for a raw rookie. This season, as you say, they hired a "Senior Offensive Assistant" in Hostler (who didn't have good reviews in SF) and a QB coach to "assist" Hackett. Sounds like a day late and a dollar short. The common denominator I've seen over the years is their approach in building a team for a specific scheme to achieve an identity is completely uncoordinated. The same lack of synergy occurred during the Jauron and Gailey years. DJ was offensively challenged, but even Nix/Gailey didn't get it right. Nix wanted a big OL, then drafted a smaller back who excels at running outside the tackles. They went with a short passing game depending on timing but had a QB who was inaccurate. Personnel decisions and strategy have not been coordinated well to create a scheme and acquire offensive identity. That's the mark of poor football management and it's happening all over again. You'd be upset too if the last time the Bills were good was 10 years ago when you were in Iraq. Homers.

Wouldn't be unprecedented and let's face it, that's how this organization rolls sometimes. Sacrifice a coach (Hackett) to the wolves to save upper management. This helps avoid having to answer uncomfortable questions when there's a pre-season cluster of a performance. Whatever happened to Turk Schonert? Is he available?

DM might have to. There's probably no other team with less talent at the most important position in the game.

Love the 50s movie reference. If Doug Marrone turns into Captain Queeg (played wonderfully by Humphrey Bogart) they're in trouble. Now, where are my ball bearings?

I'd take a playoff victory at this point, even if the offense can't score and it takes 3 Dan Carpenter FG's and a INT returned for a TD by Brandon Spikes to do it.

You never change CB97.

This makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. If there wasn't an internet this wouldn't be news? Huh? The NFL is more wildly popular than ever before. Off-season, preseason, regular season, repeat. There's stuff going on practically 365 days a year and the demand for NFL news and content is only growing. But it's sophistry to simply say fights happen "at like 75% of camps" so there's ostensibly no issue here. In reality, there's a coach who's telling the team something and some have openly criticized him. That's news whether there's an internet or not.

Wonderful attempt at argument suppression. No one's entitled to have an opinion (on a message board no less) if they aren't right there with the team. The players aren't responding to Marrone and he's frustrated. If you can't tell that from his statements to the media I don't know what to tell you. Remember the brief answers after the HOF game? What precipitated that, losing the most meaningless game of the year? Doubtful. It also doesn't help his future is murky at best considering the pending ownership change. There's nothing more frustrating as a leader when the people you supervise aren't responding to what you're trying to communicate. And this most certainly isn't a case of tearing the team down to build them up. This is a guy who's stressed out that his message ain't hitting home.

Understood. And while it's Marrone's job to win games, the balance of power has shifted from management to players over the years. That's an undeniable fact, considering the recent CBA which gained concessions in terms of how many practices could be conducted, with and without pads. And let's not compare apples to oranges because Urban Meyer's situation is completely different. First, he's coaching college guys who don't have the luxury of a guaranteed paycheck to fall back on (and which upper management has to consider). And second, he's got an excellent track record. Marrone isn't in the college ranks anymore and, as I've pointed out, doesn't have the credibility to bank on. And while we're talking about hard a** coaches, look no further than Tom Coughlin. He's at the top of the list, and even guys like Michael Strahan have said he changed a little during his early years with NYG. This isn't a black and white issue, but clearly there's an issue here, and as someone asked, how much of that is Schwartz's effect on the defense?

It's preseason, where the emphasis on winning is low. At least that's what I'm told on TBD. I'd be more interested in their discipline when the games actually count and if they go down to an opponent early. Still, it's amazing that a player like Jerry Hughes, with all of 1 decent NFL season, has no qualms criticizing the head coach in front of the whole team. Reading between the lines, if one guy feels that way it's likely there are others. That's not good. Point is, it's one thing for a Tom Coughlin to run his guys. Even as the new HC for NYG he at least had been deep in the playoffs. But Marrone doesn't have that kind of track record and his act is not going over well. It's not just the Bills who need to eliminate the losing culture, it's the HC who needs to earn his reputation as well. And that remains to be seen.

And someone was ridiculed for calling Marrone, "Greggo." That person deserves an apology.

It's a unique year seeing as how the team is being sold. In the past players who lost their starting job seemed to be cut rather than be paid to backup another player.

Urbik is paid way too much to play RG and not start. He's a holdover from the Nix years and isn't terribly athletic, which is why he's a RG. I don't think Marrone's as high on him and is looking for an excuse to find someone else.

It's funny how this narrative started spreading when EJ was hurt and struggled last year. When Buffalo signed Kolb, it was a very small deal for a starting QB, something like 2 years and 6.1M. Besides, what NFL front office signs the most brittle QB in the league and expects him to start for them? I can only believe Kolb was signed to be the backup and mentor the future rookie (EJ wasn't drafted yet), but not surprisingly didn't make it. The common theme over the 14 years of futility in Buffalo has been a complete breakdown in assessing QB talent and planning appropriately for the position. You don't sign and thus depend on Kevin Kolb to log significant minutes given his injury history. What kind of advanced planning does that demonstrate, especially after he couldn't make it in Philly and Arizona? That's the reason why the organization has to be gutted. It would send a message the new owner isn't satisfied with 6 win seasons and the people responsible for that lack of performance. If the team can't get the QB position right, nothing else matters in personnel.

Who have the Bills selected in rounds 3-7 between 2010 and 2013 that start on this team? In 4 drafts I show only Bradham, who's there because Alonso was hurt. After that, it's Duke Williams or Da'Norris Searcy, the latter of whom got burned bad on that long TD pass. I wouldn't say the Bills are winning the middle to late rounds yet. And the fact some are talking about finding another QB option should underscore they've (once again) badly managed the QB position. This time last year it was Matt Leinart and Thad Lewis coming in when their only option was Jeff Tuel after EJ was injured. Not surprisingly those options didn't work.

You've got to wonder how these moves negatively affected their reputation with the league's players, agents, and executives. The Bills often get ripped seemingly without reason in the media and fans retaliate by calling out those media types doing the criticizing. I've always believed within league circles it was well-known what Buffalo's M.O.'s was, but no one wanted to spell out how bad it was. Either Russ was in agreement to these moves to cut veteran players or was powerless to stop it. That in and of itself reveals everything anyone needs to know that the power structure and organizational priorities were seriously out of whack.

It wasn't just players Buffalo's had a problem acquiring. They had a serious issue finding coaches and front office staff which seems to have improved since Nix was put out to pasture. It's a step in the right direction, but as has already been acknowledged, winning cures a lot of problems. For example a team like Seattle, who after winning year to year, can attract guys to take less money who want a legit shot at a championship. For that reason, they don't have to overpay anyone and can be more flexible with their cap spending.

There isn't anything to demonstrate keeping anyone at OBD for the simple reason they haven't accomplished anything. The caveat remains they've had all of 1 season, although if year 2 isn't a playoff year, it's inconceivable why anyone would invest north of 1B dollars and not clean house. Many of the same OBD lifers should be excised with a new owner coming. The NFL has grown rapidly over the past 10-15 years, as evidenced by soaring team values and television contracts. The Bills, by virtue of existing within this have naturally benefitted. That's not to say everyone at OBD on the business side of the house has remained idle because they haven't. Sure, they've regionalized, but that's not a new concept. Businesses (which the Bills are first and foremost) always look to expand globally and/or into emerging markets. If you're not growing in this business environment you're dying. And the Bills have been doing that for several years. I would hope the next team president comes up through the football ranks and isn't a financial/marketing guy.