How is Brandon doing and what will happen to him with new owner ?

[May Day 10]

As I said, the clock is ticking...he needs to produce a winner in short order.

 

Im on board with this.

Its not an argument Im in the mood to have right now. I feel very optimistic about the team. Loved the Watkins trade and Cyrus Kilimanjaro.

 

But if its another last place season I believe the new owner should clean house. Enough of this. Making an NFL team better than last place is not rocket science and shouldnt take long.

[thebandit27]

100% Williams' fault, Mularkey's fault, Donahoe's fault, and Marv's fault, and Modrak's, fault, and Guy's fault, Jauron's fault, Gailey's fault, Ralph's fault, Nix's fault, Littman's fault pre-demotion. Definitely nothing to do with Brandon.

 

Then after the next few last place finishes we can add Whaley and Marrone to the wall of fame there and try to give Brandon a larger promotion to make sure he can finally get this team to succeed.

 

Since you seem to be disregarding the points that were made about Russ' responsibilities within the organization (despite what an informed poster has tried to share with us), why don't you then tell us what role Russ played in the team's on-field performance prior to January of 2013?

 

Im on board with this.

Its not an argument Im in the mood to have right now. I feel very optimistic about the team. Loved the Watkins trade and Cyrus Kilimanjaro.

 

But if its another last place season I believe the new owner should clean house. Enough of this. Making an NFL team better than last place is not rocket science and shouldnt take long.

 

See this appears more than fair...your previous post did not.

 

Sorry for jumping the gun.

[May Day 10]

yeah, Im conflicted right now for sure.

 

 

But either way, we are going to see how this year plays out

[DOGNESS]

Classic example of a fan(allegedly) working really hard to be as negative as possible. Really don't understand why some of you even follow this team. The Dolphins could use some fans. Go follow them.

[May Day 10]

Classic example of a fan(allegedly) working really hard to be as negative as possible. Really don't understand why some of you even follow this team. The Dolphins could use some fans. Go follow them.

 

come on, man. Have you even followed this team for longer than 5 minutes? You really dont need to work hard and use your imagination to be negative.

 

anyways.... Im done. Not in the mood to be negative right now. Im liking the roster, coaches, and never felt more optimistic on the team's future in Buffalo

[BigBuff423]

You know the same witch trial is going on at SabreSpace over Terry Pegula. What is it about Buffalo sports fans that they feel the need to turn on people who are trying to do good?

 

+100000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

[GA BILLS FAN]

I will try to take this piece by piece:

-While he was the "GM" they added some good players and some bad (but no worse than they were previously). This is likely a result of the same people had been making the actual decisions over previous regimes. They added Byrd, Wood, Stevie (I believe), etc... It was actually probably one or the best periods of drafting in a while (outside of Maybin). I would say that they were okay in that period.

 

-He shares some responsibility for these things (Jills, email, etc...) but that is much more on the people that are directly over it. If I ever worked for a president that came to talk to our emarketing coordinator about the # of emails that she sent out in a week it would be a problem. There are MUCH bigger issues that their time needs to be spent on. There are probably 5 layers on the org chart between that coordinator and RB (& 4 layers to Berchtold). That's just ridiculous IMO.

 

-Dead money from contracts prior to January of 2013 is Littman. Anything since then RB. That would be who authorized the contracts that were negotiated by Overdorf.

 

-I lastly wanted to address something from a previous post about being profitable. The reason that the non shared revenues are important because they drive the cap but are not split. It is not about getting an owner rich. We are approaching a time soon where the salary cap will exceed the shared portion of revenues. If you think that it is not important to be in position to still be able to compete in FA then I don't know what to say.

 

This whole post is clearly a witch hunt with select half truths. It is really tough to judge the performance of a job if there is not a complete understanding of what the job entails. If I was on a flight and we hit turbulence I may think that I had a bad pilot. The reality is that maybe that pilot was doing a great job to keep that turbulence to the level that it was at? The point being is that on the surface I can say that guy was a bad pilot because the flight was rough. That is a naive and ignorant opinion because I really don't know what a pilot does outside of did he get me there and was it smooth. There is so much more to the position than you can see on the surface. You can take that and multiply it by about 5,000 for the president of a team. The things pointed out in the original post kind of show that there isn't much of an understanding of RB's job.

Good post, I understand your perspective, I don't agree with it, but understand how you could look at the situation from that POV. In my mind, there comes a point when a lot of little things, and a lot of non-direct control negatives leads to needing to make a change. I'm disappointed you chose to end your post with "witch hunt" and "half truths", I thought that was an unnecessary low blow. Unless you work for the Bills, all our information is based on partial information. As for witch hunt, I am simply stating my opinion, defending it and asking others to do the same.

 

 

 

if he was given the job title GM but was unqualified to make personnel choices and not allowed to hire someone to do so and he in turn delegated those choices to the best option in the company.... is it really his fault? what was he supposed to do?

Turned down the job.

[stony]

Good post, I understand your perspective, I don't agree with it, but understand how you could look at the situation from that POV. In my mind, there comes a point when a lot of little things, and a lot of non-direct control negatives leads to needing to make a change. I'm disappointed you chose to end your post with "witch hunt" and "half truths", I thought that was an unnecessary low blow. Unless you work for the Bills, all our information is based on partial information. As for witch hunt, I am simply stating my opinion, defending it and asking others to do the same.

 

Turned down the job.

 

In a perfect world, yes.

 

In the real world, front office positions in the NFL don't grow on trees.

[GA BILLS FAN]

 

 

Well, now I know why you live in Texas...thank you for taking what should be a week of perpetual hope and sh*tting all over it...nicely done. Now, IMHO, you are grossly inaccurate with your conclusions and factually inaccurate in some cases...but thanks for coming to the "Welcome to the Buffalo BILLS Rookies" party......I'm sure they all feel welcomed by your warm and kind gesture of confidence and enthusiasm.

When did I say anything negative about any one of our draft picks ?

 

 

 

Make no mistake...Russ' fingerprints are now on the franchise. Whaley is his guy, and Marrone is Whaley's guy, so everything from last season up until now is on Russ.

 

As I said, the clock is ticking...he needs to produce a winner in short order.

At the core of the pro-RB argument seems to be that he wasn't ever completely in charge of the things that went wrong or was powerless to do it, we can all agree that he has the power and control now ?

[thebandit27]

At the core of the pro-RB argument seems to be that he wasn't ever completely in charge of the things that went wrong or was powerless to do it, we can all agree that he has the power and control now ?

 

Unquestionably, this is the case.

[NoSaint]

 

 

In a perfect world, yes.

 

In the real world, front office positions in the NFL don't grow on trees.

 

 

essentially that amounts to being upset that he partook in an organizational structure that he was unable to dictate. he accepted a title to increase his sway but it didnt make him the top of the totem poll. if anything the theme seems to be a chaotic power structure put in place by ralph following the donahoe regime. i dont think you can reasonably tie brandon to anything on the field until his GM stint and even then it seems like he was much more an operations guy instead of a football guy. many seem happy with the direction since 2013 when we can confidently tie him to the product on the field.

[GA BILLS FAN]

Classic example of a fan(allegedly) working really hard to be as negative as possible. Really don't understand why some of you even follow this team. The Dolphins could use some fans. Go follow them.

LOL. You can love a team and be disappointed with who is running it, especially when it hasn't won in 15+ years. Take a step back and look around the NHL, NBA, MLB and NFL. Teams that win make changes all the time. Look at the past champions and the times they've made changes. Change in most cases is part of progressing.

 

You sound like it's 1994 and I'm criticizing Bill Polian and Marv Levy after making 4 straight Super Bowls, somehow me criticizing the President/CEO of a team that hasn't made the playoffs in 15 years is "off limits", come on, give me a break.

Edited May 15, 2014 by TXBILLSFAN

[JPS]

Forget all the sound and fury. Strip away the grand speeches and new commitments. Ignore his obvious passion for the area and his desire to build a winning franchise.

 

Other than rebranding them as the "Regional Bills" and successfully marketing the hell out of a truly terrible product, he has done nothing to contribute to this being a successful franchise where it counts.

 

That's his past. That's his resume. Whether he can make this translate into future success is anyone's guess, but if the new owner is concerned about winning AND he looks at Russ' resume, he's a goner.

[Dirtbag]

You know the same witch trial is going on at SabreSpace over Terry Pegula. What is it about Buffalo sports fans that they feel the need to turn on people who are trying to do good?

the trial of pegula has nothing to do with his effort to do "good" and everything to do with his management of the product on the ice. just because an owner is a good public citizen, it doesn't absolve him/her from criticism for the sports team they run. you can applaud the fact that pegula is building a hockey palace but also be critical of his personnel and management decisions regarding the team itself.

[JPS]

Classic example of a fan(allegedly) working really hard to be as negative as possible. Really don't understand why some of you even follow this team. The Dolphins could use some fans. Go follow them.

I can't blame someone for questioning the people who have presided over this team since 1999. I am just amazed that enthusiasm rides as high as it does without a winning season or 2 to prop us up.

[PromoTheRobot]

When did I say anything negative about any one of our draft picks ?

 

At the core of the pro-RB argument seems to be that he wasn't ever completely in charge of the things that went wrong or was powerless to do it, we can all agree that he has the power and control now ?

 

Absolutely. Pretty much everything from Jan 1, 2013 is on Brandon's watch.

 

the trial of pegula has nothing to do with his effort to do "good" and everything to do with his management of the product on the ice. just because an owner is a good public citizen, it doesn't absolve him/her from criticism for the sports team they run. you can applaud the fact that pegula is building a hockey palace but also be critical of his personnel and management decisions regarding the team itself.

 

I've read that thread though I stopped because the insanity was giving me a headache. It's mostly invented, paranoid rantings about who does what at the FNC. I think the last thing I read was that Joe Batista drinks the blood of small children and exerts mind control over Terry Pegula.

[NoSaint]

Forget all the sound and fury. Strip away the grand speeches and new commitments. Ignore his obvious passion for the area and his desire to build a winning franchise.

 

Other than rebranding them as the "Regional Bills" and successfully marketing the hell out of a truly terrible product, he has done nothing to contribute to this being a successful franchise where it counts.

 

That's his past. That's his resume. Whether he can make this translate into future success is anyone's guess, but if the new owner is concerned about winning AND he looks at Russ' resume, he's a goner.

 

i guess it begs the question - what did he do to hurt the product on the field pre-2013? it seems to be we are settling into that being an acceptable cutoff for the on field discussion. is there something you see that should pull his responsibility for on field performance further up? where to?

[GA BILLS FAN]

 

 

i guess it begs the question - what did he do to hurt the product on the field pre-2013? it seems to be we are settling into that being an acceptable cutoff for the on field discussion. is there something you see that should pull his responsibility for on field performance further up? where to?

To believe that, you have to agree that his short tenure as GM was not his fault, and he had little or nothing to do with the GM or HC hires/fires over the 2006-2013 time period. I don't think either of those are 100% accurate, although I will concede the point that he didn't have complete control over that time, I do believe he had an impact with the on-the-field product, I guess we can debate how much of an impact that was. Edited May 15, 2014 by TXBILLSFAN

[sullim4]

I gave him a 'D' based on the team's on-field performance.

 

I don't doubt RB's effort. I don't buy the "Russ is cheap" talk (more like Littman is cheap). I think Russ is a good man. If I was judging him solely on his desire and work to keep the franchise in Buffalo, the grade would be higher.

 

But I don't think you can excuse him from the team's poor performance over the last 5 or 6 years. Tom Donahoe was hated by many, including myself, but that game we blew against the Steelers' scrubs in week 17 of 2004 was Donahoe's team and is the closest we have been to the playoffs since the RJ/Flutie era. Brandon's teams haven't gotten to anywhere near that level of success (i.e. controlling your own destiny, even if you fail to clinch, in Week 17). I think a lot of the blame has gone on the coaching and while that blame is deserved, there are several decisions made by RB that have negatively impacted our ability to compete:

 

- Bills in Toronto Series

- Team has a ton of dead cap space tied up in players like Fitz.

- Inability to sign top FA talent, particularly in the secondary (Clements, Greer, Byrd come to mind).

- Making large, "splash" type moves with the little cash Littman gives him. Example number one in my mind is the Terrell Owens signing.

- Spending Ralph's money on extending Jauron's contract mid-season.

- We still do not have a legitimate, proven, franchise quarterback. The last time we even had a proven quarterback on the roster was ten years ago with Drew Bledsoe.

 

Again, I don't think Brandon is a evil guy like Donahoe. I think he wants to win... but I haven't seen any evidence that things are changing. I feel like the Watkins move is another "splash" - in my mind you only trade to the top 5 of the draft if you're drafting a franchise QB. Watkins is a good player but I wouldn't have spent two #1 picks on him. In my mind, Brandon's job depends on the success of Watkins and the team as a whole... and while I hope the team performs, I still "haven't see the baby" so to speak.

[BigBuff423]

When did I say anything negative about any one of our draft picks ?

 

At the core of the pro-RB argument seems to be that he wasn't ever completely in charge of the things that went wrong or was powerless to do it, we can all agree that he has the power and control now ?

 

By your initial post you stated that Russ is to blame for the state of the Franchise, thereby those who Drafted the Rookies and thereby, the team is in shambles because of RB's inability to effectively run the BILLS organization....so as the Rookies arrive, it's pessimism and negativity they are embraced with, rather than understanding things truly started turning in 2011 when Nix had his first real Draft and RB started having the final word on all things BILLS related in January 2013, so since that time, the BILLS are building something good to great, maybe even special, and see that future and paint that picture for the Rookies rather than RB is an inept executive who will ruin your career and this team....