Brad Butler retiring

[Wilson from Gamehendge]

Yeah, we are pretty solid and deep. Maybe we can even trade Bell for a first round pick and focus on the secondary. Teams all over the league are searching for LTs that are big, strong and intelligent.

Bell meets this criteria. He is a huge mauler, and he rarely gets penalized.

Sounds like Ruben Brown...he sucked too, right?

 

 

We have Bell, Meredith and Watkins who can all play OT...so can Richie Incognito.

 

We have Levitre, Hangartner, Wood...for the inside.

 

Are you going to tell me that you don't think we can come up with a line better than last years, out of those 6 guys?

 

 

IF we can't...we are going to just waste another pick and keep spinning the wheels. There is NO Jake Long or Joe Thomas in this draft. We can find serviceable OT's in the 2nd-4th rounds...we need to use our early picks on skilled players or Defense.

 

 

And, by the way...did I say we WERE "SOLID AND DEEP"??? No, I didn't...!@#$!

[Sisyphean Bills]

But, but, but...we had a regime change doggonit! Nix, as General Manager of Football will be making those decisions I thought.

Hopefully, Nix will be making these decisions and flat out fire people that make asinine decisions such as having zero depth to save a couple of bucks.

[JohnC]

Is Overdorf the guy who determines what players get/are worth? My recollection is he's strictly a capologist.

 

Yes, it is Overdorf who negotiates the contracts for the players, including the free agents. Without a doubt he badly miscalculated the worth of the players in the Dockery and Walker signings. When he blunders and over pays for a player it has a substantial affect on the roster because the Bills are working in Ralph's self-imposed cash to cap payroll system. When he becomes too tight and doesn't give a fair value contract to a player he is then causing disgruntlement.

 

Not only are the Bills bad at evaluating players but they are not too adept pricing free agents. This organization from top to bottom is a model of dysfunction. Hopefully, Buddy Nix can restore some order and much needed professionalism.

[Mickey]

We were successful till he went down so I don't know what your talking about.

Yes, the offense was so successful in the preseason that we fired the OC. He wasn't playing tackle because his performance warranted the move. He was there because we had no other option.

[Doc]

Yes, it is Overdorf who negotiates the contracts for the players, including the free agents. Without a doubt he badly miscalculated the worth of the players in the Dockery and Walker signings. When he blunders and over pays for a player it has a substantial affect on the roster because the Bills are working in Ralph's self-imposed cash to cap payroll system. When he becomes too tight and doesn't give a fair value contract to a player he is then causing disgruntlement.

 

Not only are the Bills bad at evaluating players but they are not too adept pricing free agents. This organization from top to bottom is a model of dysfunction. Hopefully, Buddy Nix can restore some order and much needed professionalism.

The fact of the matter is that the Bills need to overpay FA's in order to prevent them from leaving Buffalo without a contract. Because once they're gone, they're gone. That's why Dockery and Walker got what they got. And the Bills gave Dockery the same contract the Cowboys gave Leonard Davis, and Davis wasn't considered nearly the prospect, but he actually performed whereas Dockery didn't. Walker would have been fine back at RT and moving him to LT and especially cutting him were major mistakes by the Bills, that IMHO had nothing to do with Overdorf (he would have wanted to keep him to save face).

 

As for Peters' situation, the Bills were right to demand that Peters show-up to OBD before they gave him a huge new deal, since he tore his groin at the end of the previous (2007) season. He didn't, missed almost all of the off and pre-season, didn't play up to a franchise LT's abilities, and the Bills balked at making him one last year. But that's just one example of a Bills player being disgruntled, and it wasn't solely the Bills' fault. Moreover, he hasn't proven he's worth what the Eagles gave (up) for him.

 

And if that realfootball365 article about Guy pushing players to be signed and played is correct, he was probably pulling Overdorf's strings.

[Chas56]

We were successful till he went down so I don't know what your talking about.

 

Umm . . . I find it funny that we all think the team needs to get better talent, but then we think the talent we have is okay. What???? Butler seems like a good guy. I wish him well. We need a better RT. What do you guys want to do, hire your brother-in-law because he's a good guy. We need a RT.

[Big Turk]

He is a smart kid who graduated from UVa in political science. Every offseason he has takened advantage of the league program sending players to intense business seminars at schools such as Harvard and Penn. I'm sure the constant battering on the field and the accumulating knee injuries has helped motivate him to finding a less brutal occupation.

 

Ross Tucker has stated numerous times that most football players don't play for the love of the game. They play for a paycheck and treat it like a job. Perhaps Butler did not care enough to attempt to go down the long road to recovery his injury would have required...

[Bill from NYC]

Sounds like Ruben Brown...he sucked too, right?

 

 

We have Bell, Meredith and Watkins who can all play OT...so can Richie Incognito.

 

We have Levitre, Hangartner, Wood...for the inside.

 

Are you going to tell me that you don't think we can come up with a line better than last years, out of those 6 guys?

 

 

IF we can't...we are going to just waste another pick and keep spinning the wheels. There is NO Jake Long or Joe Thomas in this draft. We can find serviceable OT's in the 2nd-4th rounds...we need to use our early picks on skilled players or Defense.

 

 

And, by the way...did I say we WERE "SOLID AND DEEP"??? No, I didn't...!@#$!

 

 

>>>>>I think we are in alright shape as far as the offensive line goes.<<<<<

 

No, you did not, but all right shape? We have a promising second year guard and a pretty good center. Our RG is a huge question mark due to an extremely serious injury. Everybody else sucks. We probably have the worst OL in the league.

 

I'm sorry I was snide, but I'm unable to comprehend anything even close to "all right" about this mess of an offensive front. Levy and Jauron did as you suggested in terms of going after skill players. It left us with a team of tiny little players who for the most part suck. No team worries about playing the Bills because they are weak sisters. The damage those 2 did to this team will take a while to undo, and this will entail building a strong front on both sides. Otherwise, these "skill" players that you covet will be ruined and/or rendered as useless.

 

Again, I'm sorry, but how a Bills fan cannot readily see this is more than I am able to comprehend.

[BuffaloBill]

He is a smart kid who graduated from UVa in political science. Every offseason he has takened advantage of the league program sending players to intense business seminars at schools such as Harvard and Penn. I'm sure the constant battering on the field and the accumulating knee injuries has helped motivate him to finding a less brutal occupation.

 

 

I would assume this is exactly correct. My first professional boss played div I o-line in college nevrr made it to the pros and his knees were a mess. you could hear them click when he walked down the hall. He was on pain killers all the time. Maybe Butler did not want to live this way.

[JohnC]

The fact of the matter is that the Bills need to overpay FA's in order to prevent them from leaving Buffalo without a contract. Because once they're gone, they're gone. That's why Dockery and Walker got what they got. And the Bills gave Dockery the same contract the Cowboys gave Leonard Davis, and Davis wasn't considered nearly the prospect, but he actually performed whereas Dockery didn't. Walker would have been fine back at RT and moving him to LT and especially cutting him were major mistakes by the Bills, that IMHO had nothing to do with Overdorf (he would have wanted to keep him to save face).

 

As for Peters' situation, the Bills were right to demand that Peters show-up to OBD before they gave him a huge new deal, since he tore his groin at the end of the previous (2007) season. He didn't, missed almost all of the off and pre-season, didn't play up to a franchise LT's abilities, and the Bills balked at making him one last year. But that's just one example of a Bills player being disgruntled, and it wasn't solely the Bills' fault. Moreover, he hasn't proven he's worth what the Eagles gave (up) for him.

 

And if that realfootball365 article about Guy pushing players to be signed and played is correct, he was probably pulling Overdorf's strings.

 

If Dockery was so good then why didn't the profligate spending Skins match the money the Bills payed for him? The inept organization overpaid for a mediocre talent. It is as simple as that. If the Bills would have been wise enough to draft better linemen instead of over drafting DBs maybe they wouldn't be in such a hole with respect to needing free agent linemen. With respect to Langston Walker he was a mediocre talent who even the chaotic Raiders were glad to see go. The Bills paid an exorbitant price for a gargantuan and lumbering player which no other team desired, at least not nearly at the exhorbitant price the Bills paid.

 

The Bills have been one of the worst teams in the NFL over the past decade for the simple reason that they consistently make bad personnel decisions. My point about the Levy and Brandon GM role is very simple: The organizational structure was idiotic because there was no clear line of authority. John Guy-Oberdorf-Modrak-Brandon-Littman were all tugging back and forth with one another and against one another. The left hand didn't know what the right hand was doing. Clearly, that consensus front office approach as opposed to a more clear line of authority type of approach was an utter failure.

 

Just maybe with Nix and Whaley given the required authority to make decisions can get this very dismal franchise pointed in the right direction.

[Dr. K]

That's what the world needs--another ex-football-playing right wing politician.

[Sisyphean Bills]

And if that realfootball365 article about Guy pushing players to be signed and played is correct, he was probably pulling Overdorf's strings.

Realfootball365.com is as much an authority as any other fantasy football blog, I'm sure.

 

This is a recurrent knee-jerk though. People have been blaming the Guy (pun intended) that gets terminated for the bad decisions for the past decade and change, and yet, unsurprisingly, the bad decisions just keep coming. John Guy's "strategy" of only going after players that were already interested in playing in Buffalo had no hope of working, but his value as a scapegoat to shield the cronies that have come up through the Bills organization is inescapable.

[RuntheDamnBall]

You mean 1A...

I meant 1B. Evans needs coaching and he needs to run better routes, but I think at this stage of the game his ceiling is higher with a QB who can get him the ball.

[Doc]

If Dockery was so good then why didn't the profligate spending Skins match the money the Bills payed for him? The inept organization overpaid for a mediocre talent. It is as simple as that. If the Bills would have been wise enough to draft better linemen instead of over drafting DBs maybe they wouldn't be in such a hole with respect to needing free agent linemen. With respect to Langston Walker he was a mediocre talent who even the chaotic Raiders were glad to see go. The Bills paid an exorbitant price for a gargantuan and lumbering player which no other team desired, at least not nearly at the exhorbitant price the Bills paid.

 

The Bills have been one of the worst teams in the NFL over the past decade for the simple reason that they consistently make bad personnel decisions. My point about the Levy and Brandon GM role is very simple: The organizational structure was idiotic because there was no clear line of authority. John Guy-Oberdorf-Modrak-Brandon-Littman were all tugging back and forth with one another and against one another. The left hand didn't know what the right hand was doing. Clearly, that consensus front office approach as opposed to a more clear line of authority type of approach was an utter failure.

 

Just maybe with Nix and Whaley given the required authority to make decisions can get this very dismal franchise pointed in the right direction.

Who cares whether the Redskins didn't match the offer to Dockery? It's not like they're even competent when it comes to signing and drafting players. And after his lousy performance in 2008, they signed him to a 5-year $26M deal.

 

But it's not even arguable whether Dockery was a top UFA OG in 2006. He was; he just didn't bother to play well. And Walker voided his contract with the Raiders to get out of there (and ironically went back after the Bills cut him). Cutting him was a mistake. Cutting Dockery wasn't.

 

And the Bills can't control whether players perform. The Patriots spent a ton of money on Adalius Thomas, and he proved to be a bust for them. As they say, you can't measure, teach, or demand heart.

[Doc]

Realfootball365.com is as much an authority as any other fantasy football blog, I'm sure.

 

This is a recurrent knee-jerk though. People have been blaming the Guy (pun intended) that gets terminated for the bad decisions for the past decade and change, and yet, unsurprisingly, the bad decisions just keep coming. John Guy's "strategy" of only going after players that were already interested in playing in Buffalo had no hope of working, but his value as a scapegoat to shield the cronies that have come up through the Bills organization is inescapable.

Funny because everyone and their mother was pissed when Nix took over and Guy wasn't immediately fired. Meaning that more than a few people thought he had a lot of control over personnel, and their failings.

[Sisyphean Bills]

Funny because everyone and their mother was pissed when Nix took over and Guy wasn't immediately fired. Meaning that more than a few people thought he had a lot of control over personnel, and their failings.

Talk about conflating nonsense with hyperbole. Nix wasn't here for most of this past decade and he wasn't in control of the front office as the "National Scout". If you paid attention, people were disappointed that the Bills looked at ZERO people outside of the building to fill the role of GM. Yes, that raises eyebrows and for good reason. Even if Nix was the best man for the job, his only competition was John Guy for the GM job.

 

John Guy was VP of Pro Personnel, so obviously he was involved in scouting pro personnel in some capacity. It's equally obvious to anyone that follows the team that the Bills evaluation and signing of free agents has been nothing short of a disaster in recent years. You were the one claiming that someone on some blog said John Guy made the decisions and forced the coaches to play specific players like some sort of all-powerful tyrant. Now, the incorrect assumption that "everyone" was mad Guy wasn't fired immediately when Nix was hired (despite being the only other candidate for the job himself, which implies someone inside the organization actually liked the work he was doing enough to consider giving him yet another promotion) somehow lends credence to the wild speculation that John Guy was running the entire show. Wow. The snow is deep.

[Doc]

Talk about conflating nonsense with hyperbole. Nix wasn't here for most of this past decade and he wasn't in control of the front office as the "National Scout". If you paid attention, people were disappointed that the Bills looked at ZERO people outside of the building to fill the role of GM. Yes, that raises eyebrows and for good reason. Even if Nix was the best man for the job, his only competition was John Guy for the GM job.

 

John Guy was VP of Pro Personnel, so obviously he was involved in scouting pro personnel in some capacity. It's equally obvious to anyone that follows the team that the Bills evaluation and signing of free agents has been nothing short of a disaster in recent years. You were the one claiming that someone on some blog said John Guy made the decisions and forced the coaches to play specific players like some sort of all-powerful tyrant. Now, the incorrect assumption that "everyone" was mad Guy wasn't fired immediately when Nix was hired (despite being the only other candidate for the job himself, which implies someone inside the organization actually liked the work he was doing enough to consider giving him yet another promotion) somehow lends credence to the wild speculation that John Guy was running the entire show. Wow. The snow is deep.

Oh, the irony. First you talk about how "Nix wasn't here for most the this past decade," and then blast the Bills for not looking at people "outside of the building." Pick a side, chief. Nix was more of an outsider, given he was with SD for all but 2 years this past decade, than he was an "insider" for the Bills. He has been credited with helping rebuild the Chargers, and that's what you want from a GM, whether inside the organization or not. And according to at least one "expert," the Bills conducted a thorough search for a GM, looking at people inside and outside the organization, before settling on Nix. And if you paid attention, the Bills hired Doug Whaley as AGM...from the Steelers.

 

And what makes you seriously think that John Guy was ever a legit candidate for GM? Because his name was mentioned? Ever hear of "the Rooney Rule?" BTW, when I referenced that realfootball365 article, I said "if that...is correct." And that was in reference to who was giving Overdorf orders, because it doesn't make sense to believe that he's the puppet master on the team.

[Sisyphean Bills]

Oh, the irony. First you talk about how "Nix wasn't here for most the this past decade," and then blast the Bills for not looking at people "outside of the building." Pick a side, chief. Nix was more of an outsider, given he was with SD for all but 2 years this past decade, than he was an "insider" for the Bills. He has been credited with helping rebuild the Chargers, and that's what you want from a GM, whether inside the organization or not.

Nix was an employee of the Bills when he was promoted to GM. That's not waffling, it's a cold, hard fact. Whether you want to claim he was more of an outsider or not is your issue.

And according to at least one "expert," the Bills conducted a thorough search for a GM, looking at people inside and outside the organization, before settling on Nix. And if you paid attention, the Bills hired Doug Whaley as AGM...from the Steelers.

Again with the anonymous sources... so this anonymous source directly contradicts the words that I heard come out of Ralph Wilson's own lips. Sorry, but I think Ralph is a lot more "inside" than your anonymous bloggers.

And what makes you seriously think that John Guy was ever a legit candidate for GM? Because his name was mentioned?

No. Because Ralph Wilson, owner, said so. And, he did not use his name, but I knew who he was referring to because of the Rooney rule.

Ever hear of "the Rooney Rule?"

See above, tough guy.

BTW, when I referenced that realfootball365 article, I said "if that...is correct." And that was in reference to who was giving Overdorf orders, because it doesn't make sense to believe that he's the puppet master on the team.

Chuckle. Yeah, clearly the members of Ralph's inner circle have no input. BTW, some anonymous sources confirm you are ridiculously naive.

[Doc]

Nix was an employee of the Bills when he was promoted to GM. That's not waffling, it's a cold, hard fact. Whether you want to claim he was more of an outsider or not is your issue.

Yes, that "Nix was an employee of the Bills [for a year as the national scout] when he was promoted to GM [and thus the Bills "stayed in-house"]" is the simplistic view of things. As you yourself said, " Nix wasn't here for most of this past decade and he wasn't in control of the front office..." You see, the problem with staying "in-house" with a guy like Guy, was that he would have been here for most of the past (futile) decade. Nix wasn't, and in fact was the assistant GM of a successful franchise. And you still didn't address the hiring of Doug Whaley from the Steelers.

Again with the anonymous sources... so this anonymous source directly contradicts the words that I heard come out of Ralph Wilson's own lips. Sorry, but I think Ralph is a lot more "inside" than your anonymous bloggers.

It wasn't "anonymous." It was John Clayton, on WGR.

No. Because Ralph Wilson, owner, said so. And, he did not use his name, but I knew who he was referring to because of the Rooney rule.

 

See above, tough guy.

Wilson, the guy you've said is senile? And what other prospective GM's of color did the Bills interview, besides Guy? And why was Guy fired?

[GrudginglyPessimistic]

You need $$ to be a political player; if I were him, I would have tried to bank some more money, and then quit at around 30.

 

I'm thinking he has a seat in mind, and will probably try to ride the anti-health care wave.

Butler is generally said to be a smart guy but he does have a history of going off half-cocked as well as the Bills actually got him with a fairly late pick compared to his talent because he was suspended after blatantly stepping on a down player in a game and getting caught on camera doing it,

 

The fact that he pulled a Sarah Palin and cut and ran to "serve" his country rather than meet an obligation to serve his teammates is not surprising at all from this apparent politician.