MattM Posted January 2, 2015 Posted January 2, 2015 I read somewhere (no link sorry) that he would not of signed the contract unless he had the opt out clause due to new ownership. It was the only way the deal was going to be done. Or so it's said now, perhaps to protect those who negotiated it. Kind of hard to believe considering (a) Marrone's lack of a prior HC track record in the NFL nor was there a huge demand for his services as NFL HC, (ie. a bidding war) IIRC and (b) there are only 32 of these very sought after jobs (see point (a) immediately above). I'm with the FR above--I'm not an NFL contracts expert, but I do know contracts, and you want to set up the right incentives, which this contract doesn't do. In fact, for reasons stated elsewhere, it almost serves to push Marrone out the door, without any offset for the Bills even if he finds better employment elsewhere. When thinking it through, I would have to agree that the Bills (and whoever negotiated this agreement) got played.
30dive Posted January 5, 2015 Posted January 5, 2015 Consider the numbers or should I say the years; while he may be a nice guy, a marketing genius or a great...fill in the blank...the one constant since Brandon has sat in a corner office at One Bills Drive is losing. Yes there are many reasons, and quite possibly the biggest reason may have been Brandon's boss, God rest Mr. Wilson, but Brandon is still here and we have never won, with him calling, or influencing, the shots. Russ, thanks, but it's time for you to go. The Pegula's need a football person to run their shop.
Ed_Formerly_of_Roch Posted January 5, 2015 Posted January 5, 2015 I think you're overlooking on big fact, The one other huge constant since Brandon sat in the corner office while watching the club lose more than it won was Littmann dealing out a budget every year to work within. Whether it was to Brandon, before him Nix, Levy, Donahoe, Butler, and all the way back to Pollian, there was a set amount of money work with and that is truely the common denominator. People have ripped Overdolf for being tight on contracts. Is it his fault if Litmann doesn't give him the money he needs to work with. Even the past two years, when Brandon was the top guy making all the decisions on Ralph's behalf, I wonder if Russ was still told, do whatever you want, it's your call, but this is the amount of money you have to work with. Blame Russ all you want but this has been mentioned many times in many forums, many argue was the reason behind Polian leaving in the first place, whatever it was if it involved money Littmann gave the final approval, and ultimately what doesn't involve money. Yeah maybe there were given a budget, but from everything that's been stated the amount in the budget came from Littmann with RW's blessing. So if Russ does leave this year and all the problems go away, everyone can say see I was right it was Russ, but just remember Littmann walked out the door six months prior. Russ may have been a good soldier, knew that's part of the job description working here for RW, so accepted it and never publicly complained about it and took all the lumps for it while Littmann stayed hidden in the corner.
Buffaloed in Pa Posted January 5, 2015 Posted January 5, 2015 Consider the numbers or should I say the years; while he may be a nice guy, a marketing genius or a great...fill in the blank...the one constant since Brandon has sat in a corner office at One Bills Drive is losing. Yes there are many reasons, and quite possibly the biggest reason may have been Brandon's boss, God rest Mr. Wilson, but Brandon is still here and we have never won, with him calling, or influencing, the shots. Russ, thanks, but it's time for you to go. The Pegula's need a football person to run their shop. HUH?
MarkAF43 Posted January 5, 2015 Posted January 5, 2015 HUH? Don't even try. It'll hurt too much to figure this out. It doesn't make sense.
30dive Posted January 5, 2015 Posted January 5, 2015 So I just bought a business and the guy I inherited that is/has been running my new acquisition for over a decade has done nothing but lose, I think it is fair to say thank you, but I need to make a change. What is so hard to understand about that?
Dragonborn10 Posted January 5, 2015 Posted January 5, 2015 It was a horrible business decision even if he thought RW was going to live. He should have at worst made it a 4million full pay if Marrone is fired due to ownership change. Marrone was and is a nobody. Who cares if other teams wanted him. They could have done just as well or better if they passed on Marrone.
Captain Hindsight Posted January 5, 2015 Posted January 5, 2015 It was a horrible business decision even if he thought RW was going to live. He should have at worst made it a 4million full pay if Marrone is fired due to ownership change. Marrone was and is a nobody. Who cares if other teams wanted him. They could have done just as well or better if they passed on Marrone. Maybe Rob Chudzinski would have been a better hire? Marc Trestman? My name says it all. It looks awful now but we were a game out of the playoffs this year. If we had made the playoffs and Ole douchebag had stayed, wed all be calling Russ a genius. I do think Russ is going to get fired, and this will be on the list as to why, but I cannot fault him for this clause being put in two years ago. They had to make a gutsy move to get the guy they wanted.
Saxum Posted January 5, 2015 Posted January 5, 2015 (edited) Marrone was and is a nobody. No you are a nobody and I am a nobody, no one is seeking either of us out for a NFL coaching position and no one is writing articles on us. Marrone was being sought for interviews by multiple teams and despite dysfunctional Buffalo media (which has reached a level of dysfunction unparalleled in its 54-year history of the Bills) and fan bashing they are STILL seeking him out for interviews. Marrone had an out clause in contract and choose to exercise it because he did not like current situation and evaluated reward (1 year pay with opportunity to seek employment elsewhere vs current friction (some real, some hyped, some imaginary by critics) with potential to get interviews at start of interview cycle. Most of the information released has been by press, a press shown to exaggerate and just make up crap to get hits and which is quite hostile when subjects are not willing to talk to them. Unfortunately contracts are almost always fully guaranteed in NFL and this sometimes leads to bad situations; many teams just pay the cost rather than trying to salvage what value they can out of contracts trying to be coach-friendly teams and I think this results in candidates sometimes walking all over them. There have been times when teams have been paying parts of two coaching staffs to do nothing while paying current coaching staff. Edited January 5, 2015 by Koolaid
FireChan Posted January 5, 2015 Posted January 5, 2015 Or so it's said now, perhaps to protect those who negotiated it. Kind of hard to believe considering (a) Marrone's lack of a prior HC track record in the NFL nor was there a huge demand for his services as NFL HC, (ie. a bidding war) IIRC and (b) there are only 32 of these very sought after jobs (see point (a) immediately above). I'm with the FR above--I'm not an NFL contracts expert, but I do know contracts, and you want to set up the right incentives, which this contract doesn't do. In fact, for reasons stated elsewhere, it almost serves to push Marrone out the door, without any offset for the Bills even if he finds better employment elsewhere. When thinking it through, I would have to agree that the Bills (and whoever negotiated this agreement) got played. We were in a bidding war with Cleveland apparently.
bananathumb Posted January 5, 2015 Posted January 5, 2015 Brandon is a Wilson hangover and Pegula needs to get rid of him for that reason alone. Pile on his incompetent football sense and the insane contract he gave his Syracuse bum boy and the conclusion is obvious.
5 Wide Posted January 5, 2015 Posted January 5, 2015 I'm just not convinced Brandon will be able to keep his fingers out of the football operations. It's being reported that Mike Shanahan is on the coaching interview list because Russ really likes Shanahan. That doesn't exactly sound like complete separation of Church and State.
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