Is Russ Brandon to Blame?

[Dorkington]

We've changed all the important bits of this team, owner, GMs, coaches, QBs, and still the same results... the only constant has been, since the late 90s, Russ Brandon has been in various positions in the front office. Is he to blame?

 

Since we last made the playoffs:

 

Owner:

Ralph Wilson

Terry Pegula

 

General Manager:
Butler

Donahue

Levy

Nix

Whaley

 

Head Coach:

Phillips

Williams

Mularkey

Jauron

Gailey

Marrone

Ryan

 

Quarterback:

Johnson

Van Pelt

Bledsoe

Losman

Edwards

Fitzpatrick

Manuel

Orton

Taylor

 

 

[Billschinatown]

Everything has come full cycle. I'm not sure why I was excited for football to come back.

[Johnny Hammersticks]

Brandon is great at his job. Two consecutive seasons of record season ticket sales in spite of not making the playoffs in 16 years? I'd say he's handling his responsibilities well. Not sure he has much say in personnel decisions...probably had a say in the Ryan hire so I guess you could hold that against him.

[Sisyphean Bills]

C'mon, man. The Sabres have gone from terrible to mediocre.

[r00tabaga]

No.

[Best Player Available]

YES

[QB Bills]

It's become inexplicably passé to bad mouth him here, but that used car salesman has definitely been a big part of what's gone wrong here, at least in the last few years and probably beyond that.

 

He was in on the hiring of Rex and he was the driving force behind hiring Marrone.

 

Save the "he's good at what he does" nonsense. The Bills sell themselves. Perhaps I'm missing something, but what are some tangible things he's done to help sell tickets? I mean, besides that genius move of having the Gangnam style guy perform at halftime in Toronto.

 

What he is good at is kissing ass and self preservation. They need to get rid of this guy as soon as possible and get someone in the building who knows football.

[May Day 10]

Its the whole organization and he has been at the front of it and is to blame.

 

Since Donahoe was sent packing, this organization circled the wagons around Brandon and they kept everything very internalized with people Ralph Wilson could trust. They have insulated the team from outside influence and as a result, have insulated the team from entering the 21st century. Brandon is still involved in the football dept. It was just revealed he was right there in the cut-meetings. He has whiffed every time he has been in on a decision or hire.

 

I don't mind if he remains in a high role with One Buffalo or the Bills or whatnot. They just need someone from the outside to run the football program. Brandon needs to be completely walled off from influence on that side.

 

 

I know "One Year" and all that... but this 16 year pattern is in no way a coincidence or a run of misfortune.

[Mr. WEO]

Brandon is great at his job. Two consecutive seasons of record season ticket sales in spite of not making the playoffs in 16 years? I'd say he's handling his responsibilities well. Not sure he has much say in personnel decisions...probably had a say in the Ryan hire so I guess you could hold that against him.

 

 

This gets repeated here a lot, but what exactly did Brandon do to bring up season ticket sales. It's much more likely that a new owner and (at least initially) a new HC is responsible for that.

 

Can anyone point to what this guy, specifically, did to raise the number of tickets sold?

[Best Player Available]

This gets repeated here a lot, but what exactly did Brandon do to bring up season ticket sales. It's much more likely that a new owner and (at least initially) a new HC is responsible for that.

 

Can anyone point to what this guy, specifically, did to raise the number of tickets sold?

Hey, that free photo they sent to season ticket holders a few years back of Moorman kicking out of the end-zone was sweet man.

[BreezeMafia]

Its the whole organization and he has been at the front of it and is to blame.

 

Since Donahoe was sent packing, this organization circled the wagons around Brandon and they kept everything very internalized with people Ralph Wilson could trust. They have insulated the team from outside influence and as a result, have insulated the team from entering the 21st century. Brandon is still involved in the football dept. It was just revealed he was right there in the cut-meetings. He has whiffed every time he has been in on a decision or hire.

 

I don't mind if he remains in a high role with One Buffalo or the Bills or whatnot. They just need someone from the outside to run the football program. Brandon needs to be completely walled off from influence on that side.

 

 

I know "One Year" and all that... but this 16 year pattern is in no way a coincidence or a run of misfortune.

Couldn't have said it any better

[zonabb]

Ahhh the great American Blame Game. I'll play, a la Family Feud.... Top answers are the failure of every GM to find/draft a QB, Bill Belichek, Tom Brady. No QB, no winning. They didn't have a shot at a lot of guys who are/were/expected to be elite like Manning(s); Newton; Luck; Rivers; etc. Others they graded out other players higher and passed on options, like taking Aaron Williams a spot before Andy Dalton. Or McKelvin 7 spots before Flacco. Or TJ Grahan in the 3rd a number of spots before Russell Wilson. Other times they fell into the "We need and must draft a QB" and took one high and they failed miserably. Manuel, Losman, and Edwards.

 

I think deep down though, if we must assess blame, a slippery slope to be sure, Tom Donahoe set this team back in the early 2000s, culminating in the clusterf&*$ that was the 2004 draft where they moved back into the 1st for Losman after either not trying or failing (not sure which and failing means you didn't try hard enough) to move up from 13 for Rivers, Manning, Roethlisberger. That is a crucial moment in the team's history. Instead of selling the farm to get up, they draft Lee Evans and arrogantly double down and trade back into the first for Losman. It costs them their first in 2005 and in that draft the pick Dallas got was before Green Bay drafted Aaron Rodgers. Nothing hurt this team more than Donahoe.

 

You need to go a long way down the list to get to Brandon. This guy has kept this team afloat from a business perspective and probably helped save it in Bflo.

[Sisyphean Bills]

You need to go a long way down the list to get to Brandon. This guy has kept this team afloat from a business perspective and probably helped save it in Bflo.

 

The irony is that while we are celebrating the Bills staying in Buffalo, they stayed in Buffalo by keeping costs low, selling home games to a foreign city to pad their profit numbers, and, football-wise, being run like a farm team for the rest of the NFL.

[PromoTheRobot]

 

The irony is that while we are celebrating the Bills staying in Buffalo, they stayed in Buffalo by keeping costs low, selling home games to a foreign city to pad their profit numbers, and, football-wise, being run like a farm team for the rest of the NFL.

So you're saying you'd rather the Bills left town?

 

You can complain all you want about how the Bills were run before. The fact is they are now owned by people who have the resources to do it right.

Edited September 14, 2016 by PromoTheRobot

[Jauronimo]

 

 

This gets repeated here a lot, but what exactly did Brandon do to bring up season ticket sales. It's much more likely that a new owner and (at least initially) a new HC is responsible for that.

 

Can anyone point to what this guy, specifically, did to raise the number of tickets sold?

I've been sifting through Russ threads for the last 5 years waiting for someone to point to what this guy did, specifically, to ruin the franchise. Good luck.

[quinnearlysghost88]

Rex has been to the Conference Finals and Roman the SB. We have weapons on O. We have weapons on D. We've drafted well (though not for near term impact). These things can turn into winning. To blame Brandon because it's not coming together because of injuries and lack of prep doesn't make sense. This falls squarely on coaching and a little bad luck.

[Maury Ballstein]

Lol at anyone who blames Russ.

 

Always good for a chuckle.

[May Day 10]

Here is an article from when the "hired" Buddy Nix. It is a good read and shows you how nothing has changed. Also, these discussions were happening before then and became so loud, they were 'forced' to hire a GM. Its not a "blame game" for me. I have had this point of view for about 10 years now. (the article is funny too because it mentions Whaley as a guy who should have gotten consideration).

 

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2010/01/01/bills-decision-to-hire-nix-draws-criticism/

 

“Russ [brandon] and I scanned a list of possible candidates,” Wilson said Thursday, per Sullivan. “We didn’t know them. I
didn’t know them. I don’t think Russ did. We narrowed it down to two candidates for the job of
general manager of football, two in-house candidates.”

And we wonder whether Wilson took into account the fact Brandon has a strong interest in avoiding an outsider whose first order of business might have been to marginalize Brandon and/or eventually lobby for his termination. It’s a common dynamic in situations like this; last year in Detroit, for example, an 0-16 finish resulted in Martin Mayhew being promoted to the job of G.M., likely due to the significant influence that Tom Lewand has over ownership."

[ricojes]

Sure, why not...

[GunnerBill]

I don't think it is Russ' fault at all. Whether he adds anything to the franchise I am less convinced but he isn't the reason they haven't been winning. It is bad GM choices, bad HC choices and bad QB choices.