Peter King on the Bills

[Billsrhody]

Peter King had a nice writeup on the bills in his Monday Morning QB column.. pretty good read.

 

Doug Marrone did what he had to do.

 

Doug Marrone knows he got his head-coaching job in Buffalo in large part due to the success he had in turning around the Syracuse program. And the player who contributed the most to that success was Marrone's quarterback Ryan Nassib. We all know what happened now: Buffalo general manager Buddy Nix and Marrone (and the 33-year-old offensive coordinator he brought from Syracuse, Nathaniel Hackett, to a lesser extent) studied the quarterbacks in this spring's flawed quarterback market, knowing the Bills would likely pick one high in the draft ... and they chose Florida State's E.J. Manuel over Nassib.

 

Nix has the final personnel say in the traditional general manager/coach relationship in Buffalo. But I'm also told it wouldn't have mattered who had the last call in picking the quarterback in Buffalo: Nix and Marrone both judged Manuel the best quarterback in the crop. Buffalo traded from No. 8 t in the first round to No. 16, picked Manuel at 16, and stashed an extra second-round pick in the process.

 

--complete article at the link below--

 

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/-nfl-draft/news/20130429/nfl-draft-peter-king-monday-morning-quarterback/?sct=hp_wr_a1&eref=sihp#all

Edited April 30, 2013 by Just Jack
copy/paste of complete articles is not allowed

[Never NEVER Give-up]

Thanks! Great read. Insightful.

[NoSaint]

And how many times did it say nix is making the calls? Who knows if true, but its as close as we will get to confirmation I think

[eball]

Really excellent stuff from Mr. King -- and I can't always say that. It makes me feel good about Marrone as a person that he cared so much about Nassib that the decision pained him, but it makes me feel even better about him as a coach that he knew Manuel was better.

[26CornerBlitz]

I actually linked the MMQB article in the E. J. Manuel pinned thread earlier. Very insightful in any case.

[Billsrhody]

He's also got a good write up on pg 4 about Larry Felser if anyone is interested

[Captain Hindsight]

I loved that he didnt pick his own guys and picked the best player for the Bills. I mentioned it in another thread but this shows a great level of professionalism

[bladiebla]

Thanks great read!

[jimmy10]

I admire Marrone for being so forthright and admitting he preferred EJ over Nassib. He could've just as easily hid behind something like "Well, of course I like Ryan, but the final say-so is with the GM, so it was out of my hands."

[DDD]

Saw some clips of Manuel launching the ball downfield on youtube and he looked great. Nassib is in a good situation. He can learn from Eli and is playing for a model franchise. We'll see if Marrone can turn this thing around because it's been a long time and we deserve it.

[YoloinOhio]

This is one advantage to having a coach who is fresh from college. He knows these guys intimately. But not only did Bflo pass on Nassib, so did every.other.team. who needed a QB. And the team who did select him would like him to practice holding a clipboard. So he absolutely made the right call, and Nix, for all of his "flaws" as a GM has been known as a top evaluator of college talent. So yes, he has the final say on the draft. But Whaley and the coaches have a ton to do with these personnel moves we are seeing, i.e. Sheppard. The team has dealt us crazy disappointment for a really long time. I am really excited though for the New Bills.

Edited April 29, 2013 by YoloInTheBlo

[LabattBlue]

This board is great when it comes to reporters. Write something good about the Bills....GENIUS! The very next day write something critical...DUMBASS!

[tennesseeboy]

I'm as huge a critic of Nix as anyone and until Marrone shows me some wins I'm not all that big on him either. However, I can buy the decision to go with Manuel at QB. He was, in their judgment the best qb available, and we needed a qb. If he traded back much further the Jets might possibly have gotten Manuel or aomeone else would have, and apparently they thought there was a significant quality drop between Manuel and the next four "top" qb choices. Sounds like a professional decision and I hope it pays off next season.

[truth on hold]

Who cares about nassib. He had no claim on being drafted by bills. Its silly to commend Marrone for being loyal to bills. That's his job now. If he chose nassib out of loyalty when he thought there was a better guy he should be fired.

[Malazan]

Who cares about nassib. He had no claim on being drafted by bills. Its silly to commend Marrone for being loyal to bills. That's his job now. If he chose nassib out of loyalty when he thought there was a better guy he should be fired.

 

No one is commending him for it. Guess you're reading more into it then is there.

[Rockinon]

And how many times did it say nix is making the calls? Who knows if true, but its as close as we will get to confirmation I think

Nix is making the decisions. That doesn't mean he is ignoring the input from the staff around him. I'm sure that the decisions he makes are heavily influenced by the new coaches. When you are in charge that is exactly what you should be doing.....listening to your team members and then making a decision that everyone is comfortable with.

[BuffaloBill]

Very good read. Nice to hear about his respect for Felser. Maybe other than Tim Russert there was hardly someone who walked, talked and represented Buffalo sports as well as he did.

[Buftex]

I feel kind of bad for Nassib. Not because the Bills didn't pick him, so much as the fact that the lazy sports media types who did all their pre-draft analysis just made the easy (lazy?) assumption that the Bills would take Nassib, simply because they had a real need at QB, and that their new coach had a relationship with him. I only follow college football on a surface level (watch big bowl games) and probably pay more attention to it in March and early April than I do in the fall. I can honestly say that I rarely (if ever) heard of Nassib being one of the more elite QB's going into the draft, until they put two and two together and figured the Bills would do the most obvious of things.

 

Take Doug Marrone out of the NFL head coaching ranks, and I seriously doubt any of the "experts" would have ranked Nassib as highly as he was in just the last few weeks. The McShays, Grudens, etc etc really built him up to be a much more attractive prospect than he really was to people who make a living evaluating these kids. So, IMO, the notion that he was a top prospect who slipped in the draft was false. He was probably drafted, by the Giants, exactly where he should have been.

[Peace Frog]

Here's the thing: If Marrone felt compelled to draft Nassib and Nassib doesn't work out, it could mean his job as HC. It would be even harder to cut Nassib than to not draft.

[swnybillsfan]

Who cares about nassib. He had no claim on being drafted by bills. Its silly to commend Marrone for being loyal to bills. That's his job now. If he chose nassib out of loyalty when he thought there was a better guy he should be fired.

obviously, coach marrone cares about nassib. quite a bit too. he's a good kid that he spent a lot of time with and wishes him the best. it's good that marrone did what was best for the team, but a lot of this story deals with human beings, not just coaches and players.