Credit where credit is due (Whaley)

[ScrewyLouie]

Looking good as a GM is about two things:

 

 

1) Getting good QB play

 

2) Drafting well

 

The first item it would appear he can thank Rex Ryan for.

 

With all due respect to Whaley.....the biggest difference between he and the previous GM's is a better base of talent to start with and then NOT making one bad decision after another.

 

As Bill Belichick has said....in order to stay bad in the NFL you have to make bad decisions almost constantly.

 

And against all odds that is exactly what the Ralph Wilson-constrained Bills have done for the past 15 years.

 

What we are seeing now is basically a modern version of roster building that happened to the Bills in the late 80's.

 

Years of losing and drafting high....and getting talent with those picks....built a talented base. The explosion of the USFL was basically a very timely free agent windfall for that team.

 

This current team has been stacking talent and drafting early for much longer than they should have and then enter the Pegula's and the commitment to winning...which brought them coaches that would never have come here to work for Ralph......and a subsequent free agency windfall....and you have the most talented team they've had since early in their SB runs.

 

That's not to say they will necessarily take advantage of that talent and it's much harder to keep the talent level that high in the NFL but they have SB winner talent right now.

 

Whaley deserves a ton of credit for his drafting. The free agent windfall...from the great Tyrod pickup to the downside of trading for and over paying a mileage depleted Shady.....is probably mostly on Rex and Roman but DW deserves credit for getting out of the way if nothing else.....and that counts too.

I agree. Great post.

[machine gun kelly]

 

Let's address this whole "changed the culture" argument you seem to be clinging to. It seems Rex has done more to "change the culture" in six months than Marrone did in two years. Marrone's Bills underperformed. He bungled the QB situation, nearly all of his players on offense regressed, and he sat back and relied upon a talented defense to win 15 games in two years -- one of those against a lame duck opponent in W17. He put an injured rookie WR into a meaningless preseason game and got him further dinged up. He made in-game decisions that showed a complete lack of faith in his team; he played scared.

 

Another news flash -- when Bryce Brown fumbled the ball against KC the Bills were ahead. I don't remember the last time a player who failed to make a critical play with his team leading was then held responsible for a loss when there was more than a quarter to play.

 

Sure, there's no "guarantee" he couldn't have had success with the Bills this season if he was still here, but we wouldn't have Greg Roman and we probably wouldn't have Tyrod, Incognito, or Harvin either. Marrone was getting more and more agitated with the press and his overall demeanor reflected the fact that he wasn't dealing with the stress of leading this team very well. There is more evidence to support the notion he would have presided over another middling effort this season, than suggesting the Bills would have turned the corner.

 

Is that direct enough for ya?

 

Well said EBall. I would add the rebuild started with Nix. A lot of people on this board didn't like Nix, but that was the start of slow improvements in talent each year, and Whaley escalated the process. The new owners investment in the team is evident, and the results could be a 6-1 start. The Bengals will be the toughest next test. If our players keep in mind the Patriots mess, they can remain motivated and torch the Giants, Titans (Mariotta will be utterly confused by halftime), and a real challenge in playing Cincy. The good news is we have homefield advantage in this game.

[Solomon Grundy]

That was an egregious error of judgment that backfired 100% and clearly hurt the team, something no other coach would have done. A tall, slow, non-athletic RT playing OG is preposterous.

Don't forget he kept a capable guard(Urbik) sitting on the bench

[eball]

 

"Clinging to". You've now started off two different replies with something that makes me roll my eyes.

 

 

 

It's true Rex has changed the culture. Positive charisma is the most powerful drug on the planet. However, just because Rex has changed it quicker (with an improved roster) does not automatically discount Marrone from changing it too.

 

"X being successful does not make Y a failure."

 

 

I'd argue that specific positions on offense underperformed, but the team overperformed in general.

 

Relying on the defense, bungling in-game decisions, and other little things have nothing to do with my definition of changing the culture. "By any means necessary" is a part of my definition. "Only in specific ways" seems to be part of yours.

 

I'm talking in general, but you keep "clinging" to specifics.

 

 

You keep attempting to take a win away from Marrone and paint him as 8-8 in order to help your stance. The truth is he's 9-7. Our opinions on the Patriots and Chiefs games don't really matter. Another truth is that he had the first winning season in nearly 10 years.

 

 

Of course we wouldn't have Roman and maybe Tyrod or Harvin. And the offense may not be as exciting. But my point is that I think Marrone would have found a way to improve our offense with some of those better players (like KW, McCoy, Miller). I think we would still be 2-1 right now with Marrone and Schwartz, but perhaps not as fun to watch.

 

 

He had a winning season despite that stress. With an improved roster and the same stress, I don't see why we would have been a worse team.

 

If you're arguing that the stress would have snowballed and he would have had a breakdown that ruined the season, well that's a unique viewpoint I haven't heard yet. It's interesting and something I can consider.

 

It is clear we view the situation differently. I wanted to like Marrone and was satisfied with what he did in his first year on the job; the Bills were competitive and injuries at the QB position limited what the team could do. When the whispers started coming out in training camp last season about "Saint Doug" and whatnot, I was giving him the benefit of the doubt. Then I saw firsthand how, in my opinion, he "lost" the team.

 

As I think about this more, I've come to the conclusion that you are right in one respect. Marrone did change the culture at OBD -- it became a culture of misery.