Shady trade will really set this team back

[Pine Barrens Mafia]

100% of the time it works 50% of the time

[eball]

It's not magic. It's just shifting dollars down the line. things like clays 2nd year bonus have been standard operating procedure for other teams (see saints with a ton of contracts, suh in Miami, etc....). I'm excited were finally pushing the limits but until he shows he can effectively cycle these deals for a few years it's hard to say he's a guru. I like where we are but there's still a touch of "show me"

 

A big part of why we are in a great spot is the last several years we've been pretty conservative. Now it's time to manage these deals going on the books that are higher maintenance.

 

I'm not claiming any "magic" here -- just a guy who clearly knows the cap backwards and forwards and is using it to the Bills' advantage. If it was so easy then so many teams wouldn't find themselves in "cap jail" constantly.

 

For the first time since the cap was instituted this organization appears to have a clear plan for the future where knee-jerk reactions are not made, and the goal isn't just to maximize revenue.

[nuklz2594]

i wish frank gore was younger. 32 is old for a rb. i really was intrigued by ingram of the saints. i prefer an rb that is a bull in a china shop. i just do not get mccoy as the featured rb when i believe we want to be a smash mouth running team.

[JohnC]

 

So you don't think Brandon was integral in hiring his Syracuse crony Marrone?

 

Doesn't seem Marrone was EVER on the same page as Whaley so it's kinda' hard to imagine Whaley loving that hire.

 

Of course, as Russ said.....Buddy was the GM and he wasn't going anywhere. So I guess Buddy hired him and then tucked and rolled.

 

I think people are a bit forgetful about the influence of RB in the football ops department.

Without a doubt Brandon was influential in the Marrone hire. It was a bad hire not because he was a bad HCing candidate but because it was a bad fit with the GM. The GM should have had the most influence in that hire and selected someone who was more philosophically and personality-wise compatible with him. That is not to say that Whaley didn't have a sizeable say in that hire. The GM sat in all the candidate interviews. You have to remember Marrone was a candidate for a number of openings. So he wasn't an unreasonable selection.

 

As it turned out it didn't take long for the Marrone and Whaley relationship to experience some turbulence. I, as opposed to most others, am not a Marrone basher. Marrone was very upset with the caliber of staffing on the OL and at the qb position. His cantankerous and pugnacious responses to that situation was understandable. as I see it.

 

Again, where I disagree with your position (agree with most of your observations) Is that I don'y believe that Brandon was involved with the football operation with the exception of the year in which the job was thrust upon him by the owner. Once Nix was in place Brandon had little involvement with the football side of the business.

 

I am an unabashed admirer of Russ Brandon. He kept the franchise afloat during the tough times of the late stages of the owner's tenure and he smoothly handled the complicated sell-off to the Pegula team. For his efforts I salute and praise him for positioning this franchise to a future full of hope.

Edited July 28, 2015 by JohnC

[BADOLBILZ]

Without a doubt Brandon was influential in the Marrone hire. It was a bad hire not because he was a bad HCing candidate but because it was a bad fit with the GM. The GM should have had the most influence in that hire and selected someone who was more philosophically and personality-wise compatible with him. That is not to say that Whaley didn't have a sizeable say in that hire. The GM sat in all the candidate interviews. You have to remember Marrone was a candidate for a number of openings. So he wasn't an unreasonable selection.

 

As it turned out it didn't take long for the Marrone and Whaley relationship to experience some turbulence. I, as opposed to most others, am not a Marrone basher. Marrone was very upset with the caliber of staffing on the OL and at the qb position. His cantankerous and pugnacious responses to that situation was understandable. as I see it.

 

Again, where I disagree with your position (agree with most of your observations) Is that I don'y believe that Brandon was involved with the football operation with the exception of the year in which the job was thrust upon him by the owner. Once Nix was in place Brandon had little involvement with the football side of the business.

 

I am an unabashed admirer of Russ Brandon. He kept the franchise afloat during the tough times of the late stages of the owner's tenure and he smoothly handled the complicated sell-off to the Pegula team. For his efforts I salute and praise him for positioning this franchise to a future full of hope.

 

I don't disagree with much you said there but the problem is that people keep saying he didn't have anything to do with the poor on-field product......except in this regard....and that regard......and that regard...as if it isn't cumulative.

 

He was a common thread in a lot of bad decision making and it's just not accurate to excuse him.

 

Not an "unabashed" admirer but he did a lot help keep the team in WNY.

 

I am THRILLED that he is not going to be consulted in football(or hockey) operations and that he is still around to provide continuity and local-centric stewardship on the business end.

 

In the process of being viewed as a complete laughingstock in the eyes of NFL personnel evaluators the experience saw him gain valuable credibility within the NFL community as a whole.

 

I just don't summarily excuse his mistakes. They are cautionary about what can happen when he starts tinkering with the on-field product.

[thebandit27]

 

I don't disagree with much you said there but the problem is that people keep saying he didn't have anything to do with the poor on-field product......except in this regard....and that regard......and that regard...as if it isn't cumulative.

 

He was a common thread in a lot of bad decision making and it's just not accurate to excuse him.

 

Not an "unabashed" admirer but he did a lot help keep the team in WNY.

 

I am THRILLED that he is not going to be consulted in football(or hockey) operations and that he is still around to provide continuity and local-centric stewardship on the business end.

 

In the process of being viewed as a complete laughingstock in the eyes of NFL personnel evaluators the experience saw him gain valuable credibility within the NFL community as a whole.

 

I just don't summarily excuse his mistakes. They are cautionary about what can happen when he starts tinkering with the on-field product.

 

His culpability for the on-field product mostly lies with not cleaning up the personnel department. It's not like Brandon was the deciding voice in the draft room--that fell to Modrak more often than not (though Ralph was known to make his opinion heard--and felt--on more than one occasion).

 

Brandon also had his fair say in FA acquisitions; mostly from the perspective that he was involved with selling the targets on signing with the team.

 

He absolutely owns some of the responsibility for the on-field product, but is by no means the key factor in the team's performance over the last 15 years.

 

That said, what he's done since he's been given full autonomy in January of 2013 has been a quantum leap in terms of how the franchise is run. For the first time since the late 90's, a football man (Whaley) was put in charge of personnel; something Wilson wasn't interested (enough) in doing.

[JohnC]

 

I don't disagree with much you said there but the problem is that people keep saying he didn't have anything to do with the poor on-field product......except in this regard....and that regard......and that regard...as if it isn't cumulative.

 

He was a common thread in a lot of bad decision making and it's just not accurate to excuse him.

 

Not an "unabashed" admirer but he did a lot help keep the team in WNY.

 

I am THRILLED that he is not going to be consulted in football(or hockey) operations and that he is still around to provide continuity and local-centric stewardship on the business end.

 

In the process of being viewed as a complete laughingstock in the eyes of NFL personnel evaluators the experience saw him gain valuable credibility within the NFL community as a whole.

 

I just don't summarily excuse his mistakes. They are cautionary about what can happen when he starts tinkering with the on-field product.

No one is making the argument that he didn't have some say on football decisions that adversely affected the team. That would be a foolish position to take because he was in a key position (top of the football operation). It has to be remembered that RB didn't seek that particular position that was beyond his abilities and training. That influential role was thrust on him by the inscrutable owner, who prior to Brandon's elevation oddly selected Levy, who at that stage of his life was even less prepared for the job.

 

Brandon didn't apply for the football operation job and he certainly didn't maneuver or connive to retain that position. Brandon was for a year a caretaker who gladly relinquished all his football authority when Buddy Nix was hired.

 

I don't want to exaggerate our differences when in actuality we are very much in accord on how we view the organization during the Wilson tenure (especially the last stage) and then the transitioning to new ownership. I give Brandon a lot of credit not only for financially stabilizing the small market franchise but entrenching it to the point that it would be an economically viable franchise for the next owner. He did it be successfully regionalizing the franchise. There is nothing new about the strategy to regionalize a sports franchise. It is the norm in the professional sports economy. It was in his stellar execution of that strategy that made him a tremendous asset for this franchise. Clearly, Terry and Kim recognized his value not only for their football business but also for their sports empire encompassing different sports.