Tom Modrak Must Go !!!!!!!!!!&

[transient]

No he wasnt. That was Bryant McKinnie

 

I don't think there was a concensus top LT that year. Both were very hyped. Williams was the media darling, so ESPN was all over him. McKinnie was painted as a bit of a malcontent, and only furthered that impression with his holdout. While it is no contest as to which one of them was the better pick in hindsight, neither one of them has realistically lived up to their pre-draft billing or thier draft position.

[Thoner7]

"Modrak, the Bills' vice president of college scouting, has overseen the last seven Bills drafts."

 

How Do you know Fox Sports News? Were you in room when guys were drafted? What terrible reporting. They base their conclusions on the guy's title and specific job description as provided by the organization? Ridiculous.

 

Another thing that's weird is that the media always seems to interview Tom Modrak before and after the draft?

 

Since we have no idea what his role is, I wonder if all of these interviews are randomly assigned to people within the organization and he just keeps getting selected to do them?

 

Very weird.

 

http://www.buffalobills.com/media-lounge/v...c3-15c85f93f327

 

http://niagara-gazette.com/buffalo-bills/x...-draft-luncheon

 

http://www.wellsvilledaily.com/sports/x1804947188

 

http://www.wgr550.com/pages/6872227.php?

 

My bet is that he works for the Pats as a Spy and purposefully sabotages the Bills drafts. I can only hope he has done it on purpose, because if its been a mistake, thats really embarrassing.

[Gabe Northern]

More about McCargo pick I posted on earlier. He was also source of 1st round grade for Losman (Pasquarelli article from 2004) and Poz.

 

http://espn.go.com/blog/nflnation/post/_/i...ve-to-be-better

 

But he's the "scapegoat."

 

Not in the sense of the actual definition of the word, where, you know, someone is sent packing and blamed for things that were not his fault.

 

Just the new definition of "scapegoat" where a guy sucks at his job, builds a horrible roster, serves as a source of frustration to fans, and is defended lustily because we don't have a live cam into the draft war room.

[Thoner7]

I don't think there was a concensus top LT that year. Both were very hyped. Williams was the media darling, so ESPN was all over him. McKinnie was painted as a bit of a malcontent, and only furthered that impression with his holdout. While it is no contest as to which one of them was the better pick in hindsight, neither one of them has realistically lived up to their pre-draft billing or thier draft position.

 

I was younger then, but I remember seeing McKinnie on letterman/good morning america/etc.

 

I also remember going "who???" when the Bills drafted Williams. Then I asked my Dad "Dad, they said Williams was a tackle, I thought Bryant McKinnie was the best Tackle???"

 

Dad - "He is son, he is "

[Adam]

As the head scout, Modrak evaulates what he gets from the other scouts and puts them in an order, which the GM reorders. Our scouting department had declined over the years, since Butler was elevated. Trust me, if you had to do something like that, you wouldn't be taking as many cheap shots.

[transient]

I was younger then, but I remember seeing McKinnie on letterman/good morning america/etc.

 

I also remember going "who???" when the Bills drafted Williams. Then I asked my Dad "Dad, they said Williams was a tackle, I thought Bryant McKinnie was the best Tackle???"

 

Dad - "He is son, he is "

 

They were both hyped, no doubt. The fact of the matter was, picking either at four shouldn't have raised eyebrows as they were both projected as possible top 10 picks. Williams was an undeniably HUGE bust. Personally, though, I don't think McKinnie has played like what you would expect of a top 10 either, certainly not early on in his career, anyway.

[transient]

"Modrak, the Bills' vice president of college scouting, has overseen the last seven Bills drafts."

 

How Do you know Fox Sports News? Were you in room when guys were drafted? What terrible reporting. They base their conclusions on the guy's title and specific job description as provided by the organization? Ridiculous.

 

Another thing that's weird is that the media always seems to interview Tom Modrak before and after the draft?

 

Since we have no idea what his role is, I wonder if all of these interviews are randomly assigned to people within the organization and he just keeps getting selected to do them?

 

Very weird.

 

http://www.buffalobills.com/media-lounge/v...c3-15c85f93f327

 

http://niagara-gazette.com/buffalo-bills/x...-draft-luncheon

 

http://www.wellsvilledaily.com/sports/x1804947188

 

http://www.wgr550.com/pages/6872227.php?

 

Fox's article is speculative, at best. Just because they assign responsibility of prior drafts to him doesn't mean they're right. No one from the Bill's organization is even quoted in that article. The remaining articles you tagged feature him talking about the characteristics of players in the draft, albeit with less colorful language than what Dwight Adams used to ("He plays the game like his hair's on fire"). His role is presumably similar to Dwight's, unfortunately for him he's filled it during one of the most painful times in Bills recent history in terms of front office leadership and vision. Dwight scouted players, he didn't pick them. Organizing a draft board is different from deviating from it in the end.

 

I'm not a Modrak apologist, I just don't know how much responsibility is directly his. If he is ranking positions based on characteristics that his GM (during the years he had one) or coach are searching for, then Maybin (undersized and supposedly fast... ring any god awful Tampa-2 bells) would likely be graded higher than other DEs such as Orakpo, as an example. If he was putting together the board purely on talent regardless of system, then the responsibilty rests with him.

 

Also, if the team is drafting for need and reaching instead of taking the best player available or trading down for value, you can't blame him if the team selects their highest ranked prospect at said position and bypasses players he had ranked higher. If he happens to, again, have the position rank order skewed that compounds the problem and is his fault (and not the player's... can anybody say... DONTE). Unless he is the person pushing the player at that spot or ultimately making the final decision, the drafts are not "his" as FOX would indicate.

[tonyjustbcuz]

They have these things called paragraphs.

 

 

I suppose if I was writing for Popular Mechanics or Rolling Stone I would worry about paragraphs and proper sentence sturcture, and punctuations. But, this is just some blogs about football which isn't the type of format that I am going to worry about proper literacy. I appreciate your input as I believe you wrote the same clever comment last week. I will take that under advisement though and may even consider implementing a more formal writing technique next time around.

(Not). Hope you have a nice day and become less troubled about such trivilalities.

[MaineMoxie]

Does Tom Modrak have a bunch of family members posting on TSW today? How could people be coming out to defend his body of work? Modrak has been RUNNING THE DRAFT since 2002 and the roster SUCKS. Was Jauron a horrible coach? Have the free agent acquisitions Modrak had nothing to do with been terrible? Yes and Yes. But that doesn't excuse his body of work.

 

I will say that I completely excuse him for the Mike Williams and Aaron Maybin picks. But Kelsay over Osi Umenyiora? Roscoe Parrish over Vincent Jackson? Trading up for Poz instead of staying back and taking David Harris? Trading up for McCargo? Trading up for Losman?

 

THESE MOVES WERE ALL MADE BECAUSE OF THE PLAYER EVALUATION GRADES OF TOM MODRAK

 

I agree that most of those were poor calls, but, Roscoe, despite last season's problems, has been among the top punt returners (if not the top) in the league for several years and he's been so underutilized it's hard to judge him as a failure in the WR department.

 

As for Poz v. Harris, Football Outsiders has Poz ranked higher (based on a score adjusted for surrounding players). (Incidentally, George Wilson is ranked 1st in the league at FS by FO.) Note that their rankings are based purely on numbers.

[PromoTheRobot]

Why do you have to use a 6th grade derogatory? The guy was a lousy coach, why attack his manhood?

Jauron showed his lack of manhood on the sidelines while coaching not to lose.

 

PTR

[Sisyphean Bills]

Tom Modrak was hired by Tom Donahoe and was Tom Donahoe's buddy. Modrak has little interest in calling the shots and Donahoe was a control freak -- a perfect match. After Donahoe was canned, it appears that Modrak continued to make his lists and file them into the decision making black hole that was Jauron + Levy/Smithers. Dick Levy's master plan was to build a team in the model of a dome team with one of the most dominant QBs in the game -- not exactly a good plan when you play outside in the elements and don't have a QB. Modrak's experience with the PA teams wasn't in scouting Tampa-2 players and whatever you want to call the Jauron offense ("Dumpster Fire" comes to mind).

[oak tree 12]

After many years of Tom Modrak being in the organiztion and playing a vital role in our NFL Draft. I just fail to understand why he is still in the Bills organization. The Bills have had several blunders in the draft and in my opinion it continues. Last year taking Aaron Maybin over Bryan Orakapo DE was obviously not a swift move and it was easy to

realize from the onset that choosing a undersized Maybin was a bad selection when Orakapo was the consensus best DE in the draft by a good margin. Modrak has been a key to why the Bills pick who they do and this year choosing a RB over a OLT or QB was highly questionable in many fans and experts alike opinions. These are just two of many examples of his poor contributions to our drafts. Greg Williams wanted us to draft a QB that was available when the Bills made their first round selection when he was the head coach here. That QB is playing for New Orleans Saints now and is wearing a Super Bowl ring already!!!!!!!!!! Modrak didn't agree with Greg Williams and we all grew to despise Williams as a head coach. Looks like we despised the wrong guy! I am trying to remember when they took Mike Williams as OLT and if Tom Modrak was here at that time? I believe he was, and what a great (not) pick that turned out to be with the 4th overall selection in the draft.

 

 

My vote is yes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Put it up on a banner for all to see!! Tom Modrak must go!!! Then maybe we'd draft a franchise QB for once instead of resorting to a 7th round pick to select a QB.

I hope this topic is a little different than what's been up and running lately as it's sure boring being a Bills fan!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

2010 Bills prediction 5-11

 

your lost and this post sucks and is ridiculous. just because you bring up something new which is new. bring up something new that is flat out stupid is not cool.

 

obviously Nix is smarter than you because the first guy he kept was modrak a successful personnel man for over 3 decades and a former GM who built the eagles.

 

nice try though.

[Alaska Darin]

We do know what his responsibilities are.

Really? So you KNOW he was responsible for the picks? Or was he responsible for the evaluations and setting up who scouts what areas of the country? YOU can't answer that with ANY reliability because YOU WEREN'T THERE.

Why do you think he's the one fielding questions about draft plans at the annual luncheon?

Really? That's the standard now? The media interviewed him about the draft, so now he's the guy who made the picks?

Look at the way he answers questions about moving up, who they're targeting, etc. Look at his answers with respect to why they took players in press conferences after the draft.

Uh, he was in the room when the picks were made. He has the information. THAT DOESN'T MAKE HIM RESPONSIBLE FOR A SINGLE PICK. Try and figure out why that's leap.

Do you not know his responsibilities within the organization?

I don't know his responsibility beyond his title. Neither do you. That's why you have zero credibility firing the guy based off who was picked in the draft. It's just as likely that he didn't like a single pick that Jauron selected but like every good soldier, kept his mouth shut and went back to doing his job the best way he knew how. Guess which of them is still employed. Now try to guess why.

Is that the source of confusion here?

Your tiny acumen, apparently.

This "we don't know for sure what he does" line of reasoning is beyond absurd.

Sure it is. That's why so many reasonable posters are joining you. Or why a smart football guy like Buddy Nix canned him immediately and didn't use his input this draft. Oh wait.

[Gabe Northern]

Really? So you KNOW he was responsible for the picks? Or was he responsible for the evaluations and setting up who scouts what areas of the country? YOU can't answer that with ANY reliability because YOU WEREN'T THERE.

 

Really? That's the standard now? The media interviewed him about the draft, so now he's the guy who made the picks?

 

Uh, he was in the room when the picks were made. He has the information. THAT DOESN'T MAKE HIM RESPONSIBLE FOR A SINGLE PICK. Try and figure out why that's leap.

 

I don't know his responsibility beyond his title. Neither do you. That's why you have zero credibility firing the guy based off who was picked in the draft. It's just as likely that he didn't like a single pick that Jauron selected but like every good soldier, kept his mouth shut and went back to doing his job the best way he knew how. Guess which of them is still employed. Now try to guess why.

 

Your tiny acumen, apparently.

 

Sure it is. That's why so many reasonable posters are joining you. Or why a smart football guy like Buddy Nix canned him immediately and didn't use his input this draft. Oh wait.

 

look if you want to be needlessly argumentative and dense, you've succeeded. What you haven't done is provide any reason why the person running the draft shouldn't be held responsible for the results. Tom Modrak is regularly cited as the architect of Bills drafts since 2002. Was he overuled from time to time? Sure. But to be so dense as to absolve him of primary responsibility for this roster makes no sense. If you want to defend failure, be my guest, but I am going to hold the person responsible for he draft responsible for the draft and not brainstorm reasons why it was everyone else's fault except for the guy who's been there throughout.

[transient]

look if you want to be needlessly argumentative and dense, you've succeeded. What you haven't done is provide any reason why the person running the draft shouldn't be held responsible for the results. Tom Modrak is regularly cited as the architect of Bills drafts since 2002. Was he overuled from time to time? Sure. But to be so dense as to absolve him of primary responsibility for this roster makes no sense. If you want to defend failure, be my guest, but I am going to hold the person responsible for he draft responsible for the draft and not brainstorm reasons why it was everyone else's fault except for the guy who's been there throughout.

 

Modrak may ultimately end up getting the ax. Firing him this offseason would have been difficult considering Nix had to get a coaching staff together, and then sit down and evaluate the team's needs with Gailey after he was hired, leaving little time to reorganize the scouting department and comprehensively plan for the draft.

 

At this juncture I'm willing to give Nix the benefit of the doubt as a talent evaluator. I'm sure he trusts his own instincts, thereby reducing the weight of Modrak's input already. Based on their recent approach, I and numerous others on TSW are of the belief that Nix thinks there is more talent on this team than what the woeful coaching staff was able to showcase. If this is true AND your argument is correct (which, for the record I do not believe to be the case), then Nix firing Modrak makes even less sense, since he would have been the person responsible for acquiring that talent. Wouldn't it make more sense to wait and see if the young players develop with better coaching or are actual busts before firing the person responsible for bringing them in?

[Alaska Darin]

look if you want to be needlessly argumentative and dense, you've succeeded.

Nice cop out.

What you haven't done is provide any reason why the person running the draft shouldn't be held responsible for the results.

The person who was running the draft has been held responsible for the results. He was also responsible for continuous gaffes on gameday. Welcome to reality.

Tom Modrak is regularly cited as the architect of Bills drafts since 2002.

By who? The media? Yeah, they're really credible.

Was he overuled from time to time? Sure. But to be so dense as to absolve him of primary responsibility for this roster makes no sense.

You're the only one who believes he had the primary responsibility for the roster. I live in reality. I'm glad you "know" he was "overuled" from "time-to-time". That's a nice tidbit of information. You got a good source or are you pulling that out of your ass, like the rest of your "facts"?

If you want to defend failure, be my guest, but I am going to hold the person responsible for he draft responsible for the draft and not brainstorm reasons why it was everyone else's fault except for the guy who's been there throughout.

It has nothing to do with defending failure. Modrak was the only quality football person in the operation for the last 4 years. He'd be unemployed for about an hour after the BILLS cut him loose. You know why? Because if you believe the man, the last draft he would have picked the Defensive Rookie of the Year, the runner up for Defensive Rookie of the Year, and two interior OLinemen who have "10 Year Starter" written all over them. But your solution is to FIRE HIM. Yeah, you're wicked smart.

[JOHNNYFAIRPLAY]

You know what truly has to go? People who don't understand how things work but try to pick a scapegoat.

 

Do everyone a favor and STFU.

 

War AlaskaDari & Tom Modrak riding a tandem bicycle!

[Gabe Northern]

By who? The media? Yeah, they're really credible.

 

This is what I mean about needlessly argumentative. How could anyone reach a common understanding when you disregard news articles as a legitimate source of information?

 

You're the only one who believes he had the primary responsibility for the roster. I live in reality.

 

Reality? Your arguments depend on disregarding A) His title and job description. B) The fact that he is the person put forward by the team to discuss draft strategy before and after the draft. C) Articles from reporters like Tim Graham that speak directly to picks Modrak has made.

 

I'm glad you "know" he was "overuled" from "time-to-time". That's a nice tidbit of information. You got a good source or are you pulling that out of your ass, like the rest of your "facts"?

 

It is well known that he wanted Cutler in 2006 and he leaked to the press that he wanted Cushing last year (you reference this). Whenever he's been overruled, he's immediately leaked it to the press so as to insulate himself from criticism.

[Gabe Northern]

He'd be unemployed for about an hour after the BILLS cut him loose.

 

Love this one. After your robust critique of news articles and related information as not being credible, you basically embrace nonsense spread by Tom Modrak's agent. Could he get a job? Sure, at much less senior level.

 

First, Tom Modrak was forced out in Philly in 2001. The Eagles' Super Bowl team was three years removed from his time there, with significant roster turnover during that period. McNabb and Dawkins the only remaining players on 2008 NFC Championship game team from Modrak's tenure and the team remains exceptionally talented now with ZERO players from his era. Modrak was in a good situation, was forced out, and the team has not missed a beat.

 

Secondly, Modrak is better playing the media game than he evaluating players. Read down to the Modrak portion of this PFT post. I know people may not like Florio, but prior to his hitting the "big time" his blog was the best thing to read on these issues. He'd spend all day talking to agents of players, coaches, and front office types about who was who's source, what's really going on in a job search, etc. Modrak played that game well and kept his name in the mix for GM openings even when he wasn't getting called for interviews, or was only interviewed because of the "buzz" created by a story.

 

Modrak was going to get fired in 2006, when Jauron stepped in to vouch for him. He should have been fired April 25, 2010.

[Gabe Northern]

Links below. A key argument from Modrak defenders is that he's a solid football man who's been approached for jobs from other teams. Therefore, the Bills should feel lucky to have him and no matter how bad his drafts have been.

 

This argument may have been a reasonable one 9 years ago, but that's no longer the case. The shine has come off this turd in a big way.

 

Tom Modrak was forced out in Philly in 2001.

 

Modrak used reporters to plan stories about team's interest in him. Read down to the Modrak portion of this PFT post.

 

Modrak was going to get fired in 2006, when Jauron stepped in to vouch for him.