Whaley has been a complete failure as a GM

[NoSaint]

Great point. When you've invested and built a great defense, you shouldn't have to start over. A lot of resources could have been spent more wisely had we kept our successful DC.

It's a tricky spot and deserves to be acknowledged. I know I convinced myself that Rex would be fine with the talent we had and scheming around it.

 

Between that and Tyrod--- it's just this weird mix of roster building/maturity

 

A talented defense that didn't fit the scheme, and planning the offense around the possibility of a qb that hasn't stepped up.... and it's tough to kill Whaley on either of those global issues (unless he pushed for Rex), even if you don't like some of the individual transactions.

[Thurmal34]

 

 

Our WR depth and oline depth is a complete joke, he has done NOTHING to address this so far.

He drafted Henderson, Kouandjio, Miller, Richardson. Signed Incognito.

 

That's something.

[John from Riverside]

He drafted Henderson, Kouandjio, Miller, Richardson. Signed Incognito.

 

That's something.

He also got our Hughes.....Glenn under contract

[metzelaars_lives]

Every NFL team has picks that did not pan out but a few picks later some one hits. Troup was a top NT in his draft and, if healthy, would fill a void in the of the defense. NT is more important than a TE. No one could have foreseen Gronk's success. EJ was a pick for need and not for quality. I have no problem with his being drafted. He will never be a starter in the NFL. Over all DW has been a above average GM. Look around the league and see teams mired in mediocrity because of bad GMs. Bills have been snake bitten with injuries and off the field issues.

So wrong. Troup was a projected third rounder by everyone under the sun and Gronk was a projected TOP TEN OVERALL PICK before the year he missed due to back issues. The irony? TROUP ALSO HAD BACK ISSUES. The Bills needed a TE, Gronk was freaking from Buffalo, he had fallen farther than he should have, it was the biggest no-brainer pick of all time. Troup was a "cute" pick any way you dice it.

He drafted Henderson, Kouandjio, Miller, Richardson. Signed Incognito.

 

That's something.

The "he has done nothing to address the OL" narrative eliminates him as a person who should be taken seriously. THE BUFFALO BILLS HAVE A GOOD OFFENSIVE LINE.

I am a Whaley fan and here is what I think he deserves credit for:

 

- Letting the right players walk (Byrd, Levitre, CJ). They had values at which they would bring those guys back and when they didn't match the values they let them go.

 

- Paying the premium position guys (LT -Glenn, Disruptive DT - Dareus, Pass Rusher - Hughes) and if he can "prove it" the way the contract is set up he will have tied down a Quarterback but he hasn't tied us to him if he fails this year.

 

- Excellent dust settles and street FA pickups. From Zach Brown, to Corbin Bryant to Chris Hogan, to Lorenzo Alexander, to Stefan Charles, to Jordan Mills, to TD Mike, the Bills have added not only solid depth guys this way but starters and serious contributors. His record in this aspect of the job is legitimately in the top half dozen or so in the league.

 

- A generally decent talent evaluator in the draft. The reach for EJ not withstanding only Kujo looks a bust of the picks he has spent on the first 3 rounds and he has picked up some good players in later rounds even if not all remain on the team for various reasons. I was a big Shaq Lawson guy pre-draft and am convinced the wait will be worth it.

 

- the trades. Hughes for Sheppard the obvious one, and whilst I understand the Watkins deal haters I don't agree with them. I was a bit unsure myself originly but Watkins is a special talent.

 

Here is what I think he deserves critcism for:

 

- Whatever part he played in the EJ decision. Don't mind them taking a shot and actually once Buddy was tricked into bad mouthing Fitz on a recording they had to take a shot. But you can't stand here knowing what we know and say it was anything other than disappointing and a reach for need.

 

- Charles Clay. Look I get it he is one kf the few genuine do it all tight ends in the league and this offense needs that type of guy. The contract they gave him was stupid and I know the huge guaranteed money in year 2 was the stop the Dolphins matching but it was too much for a guy of his talent. At one stage it was a highee guaranteed % than any non-rookie deal QB in the league. Nonsense.

 

- I don't hate McCoy and I don't subscribe to running backs are all ten a penny.... but the contract isn't great.

 

- Receiver depth this year. They let a better player go than most here realised when Hogan walked. He is significantly better than any non Watkins or Woods receiver on this team and he and Woods are very close ability wise. Not properly replacing him hurts. I get the cap was tight... but we are feeling the effects of limited passing options.

 

Things Whaley is not to blame for:

 

- Sammy Watkins' injuries

- Reggie Ragland's injury

- He is also not the main culprit for the hire of Rex Ryan. That was the owners.

 

Overall I still believe he is in credit but he has made some mistakes. If Rex goes in January I suspect Doug goes too (he will get another GM shot somewhere at some stage) but if Rex goes and Doug stays the next Head Coach must be HIS choice. No more coaching hires foisted upon him by management.

Totally rebuilt the offensive line in 2 years in a pretty nice way.

Nice to know there are other smart people out there. Excellent post. Edited October 1, 2016 by metzelaars_lives

[Formerly Allan in MD]

If were being honest here. Outside of maybe 1 or 2 good FA pickups his drafts and personnel decisions have been below average. I see people every day claiming how he is one of the "best GM's in football". What a load of crap. What exactly has this guy done to get that title?

 

Idc what you say, he drafted EJ. Picking a 1st round QB in possibly the worst QB class in the last 15 years was awful decision making. He then supported EJ and tried to get him weapons, that ended up failing big time. Watkins has been an injury prone nightmare. His 2016 draft has already had 2 guys out for the year and 1 guy who will miss half. Karlos williams was a disaster. Darby has prob been his best pick but he has only had 1 good season.

 

Our WR depth and oline depth is a complete joke, he has done NOTHING to address this so far. Sammy went into training camp injured and we still didn't pick anyone up. Clay has been a waste of money, and McCoy is aging fast.

 

Whaley is not the guy that should be staying with this team for the future. We are 1-2 soon to be 1-3 and does anyone really see this team making the playoffs this year? What do we even have to look forward to? Does anyone trust this guy picking another QB in the draft? B/c I don't.

 

Even before Rex, Whaley should be gone. New GM can find his own staff and scouts.

Totally agree with you. He's a complete failure and has done nothing right. Signing Richie was a major mistake as was bringing in TT, who made the Pro Bowl because no one else in the league had any qualifications. And Whaley's responsible for Watkins' injuries and should never have drafted him since he might get injured, which he never was in college. Same goes for Goodwin. Whaley's also responsible for Williams' being out of shape and a doofus and he should have known that you don't take a chance on a talented bulldozer who lasted until late in the draft. Darby, Graham, and our punter stink and Alonso was a major mistake, his being AFC defensive rookie of the year notwithstanding. One can go on and on about what a "complete" failure the GM's been. No one's perfect but they'd better be if they want to stand a chance in your toaster.

[Marty McFly]

He drafted Henderson, Kouandjio, Miller, Richardson. Signed Incognito.

 

That's something.

He put together a good O Line after the year we had Pears and them! BARF! Thats been a good thing. Now we need WR ammunition!

[What a Tuel]

John if you want to make valid points in defense of what I mentioned I'd be more than happy to have a conversation. What your doing is trolling, don't bother me with that nonsense I won't be responding to it. You offer nothing but jaded optimism and idiotic one liners to anyone whose opinions differ from yours.

 

McCoy may be highly paid, but he is also the core of our offense right now.

Everyone seems to forget that they want us to draft QB's repeatedly until we find another Rodgers. When they fail on a single one, "that GM is garbage". It's stupid.

Everyone also seems to forget that we traded down for EJ, getting an additional 2nd round pick along with drafting him.

Drafting Sammy with no injury history has no business in the GM argument. The talent we got was worth the high picks at the time, maybe not so when he has been injured, but he just needs to get healthy.

Clay was highly paid, but after the restructure he is currently making $7.6 million a year, which is 7th ranked for Tight Ends.

The Bills are ranked 13th in Tight End position cost over all in the NFL.

 

And honestly, when talking about football players, are we really going by your "shiny or not" rankings? Seriously?

 

Who would've know that actually going out and getting highly rated prospects would be a thing Bills fans would ever complain about.

Edited October 1, 2016 by What a Tuel

[Thurmal34]

The "he has done nothing to address the OL" narrative eliminates him as a person who should be taken seriously. THE BUFFALO BILLS HAVE A GOOD OFFENSIVE LINE.

Nice to know there are other smart people out there. Excellent post.

 

 

Im not sure any of the above is true. I don't think anyone is saying the offensive line is good. However, there is a disputation that it has not been addressed at all.

[Virgil]

I haven't made up my mind on Whaley. You can't put injuries on a GM, but there has to be a point where the question is: Is bad luck or are you putting yourself in that Situation.

 

Points made that I agree with:

1 - He had to change his focus on players with Rex and essentially had to rebuild his own roster

2 - what is his responsibility for EJ and Rex?

3 - what did he know of these guys injuries before drafting them and mental issues off field?

 

Results matter in their league. Whether it's fair or not, that the truth.

 

26Corner, John, anyone able to find out how many games have been started by players Whaley has drafted vs other players drafted by GM's over the same span? Also, pro bowl appearances by those players?

 

To me, that would be a telling stat. Pro bowl appearances would offset some games started if you traded up for a guy worth it. Injuries happen to everyone, but you'd really see it there.

 

Just curious

[jumbalaya]

EJ is a bust. But Whaley should have fought harder against this pick.

Sammy has been more bust than great. Invisible in half the games he played and not on the field for another 1/3 of the games. He is certainly not worth the extra first we gave up.

Shaq pick has the makings of another lost pick.

Shady for Kiko was a good trade. Even tho Shady needs an elite passing game to make him great and the lack of a QB has seriously hampered his effectiveness.

The OL still needs a lot of work.

Never developed a competent TE corp. Looks like Clay has the "I got paid so I won't play unless I am 120% healthy" attitude.

Gilmore has the I won't play hard till I get paid attitude. He knew he couldn't stink it up again like he did vs the Jets so he gave a good effort vs the Cards. Too much money on the line to stink all season.

[jr1]

if they kept Schwartz they could have drafted more offensive firepower instead of 3-4 defense guys

[Nihilarian]

Complete failure...No!

 

Not so great GM...Yes!

 

While some fans here credit Whaley with letting CJ Spiller go that just isn't the case as Spiller was offered a good contract by Buffalo and he turned it down to go to NO... thank the lord!

 

Some fans want to credit Whaley for the Jerry Hughes trade for Kelvin Shepard and it was the Colts GM who foolishly initiated that trade a for a former 1st for a 3rd and Buffalo stole a great pass rusher for a bum!

 

Richie Incognito was Rex Ryan's move as he vouched for Richie. Whaley could have signed Incognito during the entire 2014 season in which Buffalo fielded the very worst offensive line in the league with Pears at RG! Tyrod Taylor was also a Rex move that Whaley takes credit for.

 

What is the one biggest area of team need that helps define the face of the franchise and helps the team win games! Yeah, is the team still looking for that ever elusive franchise QB? Derek Carr- Teddy Bridgewater-Jimmy Garoppolo- Dak Prescott - Trevor Siemain?? the QB position still remains a question of great concern in Buffalo.

 

Not paying Andy Levitre and letting him walk was the right move! However, attempting to replace Levitre with complete scrubs in Colin Brown, Sam Young was a rather heinous move considering the team was attempting to get by with basically three rookie QB's on the roster!! The GM also allowed the coaching staff to go forward with no QB coach or veteran QB on the roster to help teach these inexperienced QB's.

 

How long did it take to Whaley build a viable offensive line? Three offseasons now and the right side has played better so far this season but with 13 games remaining the starters and backup depth are still very questionable. While grading out pretty decently so far the season there still is a long way to go and many really good teams to face this year.

 

 

 

Doug Whaley took over as GM after the 2013 draft and has made some very questionable moves since then. Trading for Bryce Brown who was a complete waste. Trading for WR Mike Williams was a complete waste. Signing OG Chris Williams for four years 13.5 million with 5.5 guaranteed only to see the guy play three games was not only a serious waste of a roster spot, money, and this GM has shown a penchant for acquiring players with injury issues.

 

Trading away Stevie Johnson when the team could have really used that WR who is always open was let go because he didn't run precise routes for EJ only to EJ benched and Orton having to take over after a few games and he could have really used Stevie. The coaches stupidly would use Watkins as a decoy most of the season.

 

The trading three draft picks, two first rounders for Sammy Watkins was a bad idea for many reasons. 1) the team wasn't 100% positive that they already have it's franchise QB on the roster.

2) The team had more holes on the roster at that time than one elite WR and still does!

3) While the young man played most of the games his first two seasons, he was also injured so much of the time that he was never 100%. Now to be placed on IR for perhaps half a season or an entire season along with this season's first two draft picks starting out injured just reinforces the bad penchant for acquiring players with injury issues.

4) the team started out under Doug Marrone as a run-first offense to help the young QB's develop properly and then switched to a pass first offense to help make the Watkins choice look good. Watkins was never a great fit for a run first offense that needed so many others positions upgraded and probably the reason the HC walked out of the draft room after trading away three picks to obtain him.

5) the most blatant reason is the team didn't already have that elite franchise QB on the roster that was throwing for 4000k yards a season to take advantage of a talent like Watkins. So, this move looks like desperation to help make the failing young QB look better and the GM didn't take the big picture of the team in view.

6) Hindsight, IDGAF! In probably the greatest draft for WR's in the entire history of the league filled with so much receiver talent that this team uses three draft picks, two first rounders on a WR!! Mike Evans-Odell Beckham Jr-Brandin Cooks-Kelvin Benjamin-Marquise Lee-Jordan Matthews-Allen Robinson- Jarvis Landry- John Brown-Martivas Bryant- Donte Moncrief-Quincy Enunwa.

7) After that 2014 NFL draft, I can recall the team stating that they still needed that big, tall, WR red zone threat...doh!

 

This team spending great resources on what was perceived to be great talent on a past his prime RB going into his 7th season who only played in 12 games last year. Great resources on a TE to fill a team need. Great resources on a WR. The point here is that if the team had been able to identify great talent in the draft on offense it wouldn't need to use up so much cap space, draft picks in the draft or free agency. (The NY Jets have two quality free agent WR's in Brandon Marshall and Eric Decker along with RB Matt Forte as an example.) Anyway, back to the point here. Had the team not been able to make the trade up for Sammy Watkins in the 2014 NFL draft it is well known that the team would have chosen TE Eric Ebron as another example of a bad choice who is also injury prone.

 

EJ Manuel. As so many different ideas surround this draft pick. It was in fact, Doug Whaley who went down to Florida and scouted the young QB for the team and basically stated he was all in for this choice at QB. Let's also not forget that it was a rumor that Eagles HC Chip Kelly was also interested in EJ so the team traded up to acquire him.

 

 

While current GM Doug Whaley has made some very questionable moves in his tenure as the Buffalo Bills GM. I have to have to ask questions as to who was helping guide this young GM in his football decisions? Buddy Nix a retired chief scout who was never qualified to be a GM in the first place and certainly made his share of stupid decisions as GM. Whaley's direct boss above Nix for the first few years who controlled the entire team was a finance / marketing man with no real winning football experience behind him.

 

I'm not advocating firing Doug Whaley! Just getting this young, talented GM some help in the form of an older, experienced winning NFL football man at the top of the football side of the org chart who's brain he can pick that isn't a loser.

 

Just my 2 cents.

[ice2145]

_{Some really good posts here. Both sides have valid points. No doubt Bills fans are knowledgeable. Pointing the finger at Whaley is understandable. However, I prefer to look at the Bills organization in a macro viewpoint instead of micro. I clearly think the whole organization is not on the same page. The owners, GM, coaches, and players are not working cohesively. I doubt believe they share the same plan on how to build a team or just don't know how. The problem is larger than Whaley. It's easy to point the fingers at Whaley and to some point it is justified. As a fan, I am just so tired of losing. I live outside of the Buffalo area and I can tell you without question our team gets little to no respect. IMHO, our organization has been dysfunctional for years...}

Edited October 1, 2016 by ice2145

[Buffalo Barbarian]

If were being honest here. Outside of maybe 1 or 2 good FA pickups his drafts and personnel decisions have been below average. I see people every day claiming how he is one of the "best GM's in football". What a load of crap. What exactly has this guy done to get that title?

 

Idc what you say, he drafted EJ. Picking a 1st round QB in possibly the worst QB class in the last 15 years was awful decision making. He then supported EJ and tried to get him weapons, that ended up failing big time. Watkins has been an injury prone nightmare. His 2016 draft has already had 2 guys out for the year and 1 guy who will miss half. Karlos williams was a disaster. Darby has prob been his best pick but he has only had 1 good season.

 

Our WR depth and oline depth is a complete joke, he has done NOTHING to address this so far. Sammy went into training camp injured and we still didn't pick anyone up. Clay has been a waste of money, and McCoy is aging fast.

 

Whaley is not the guy that should be staying with this team for the future. We are 1-2 soon to be 1-3 and does anyone really see this team making the playoffs this year? What do we even have to look forward to? Does anyone trust this guy picking another QB in the draft? B/c I don't.

 

Even before Rex, Whaley should be gone. New GM can find his own staff and scouts.

 

on offense yes for sure but he has done well on defense, which is not good enough and needs to go.

[GunnerBill]

You are your record. That's what's great about sports.

 

Some people "explain" and have all sorts of really good reasons and stats about how some guy or some team was really great.

 

Others just win and collect accolades.

 

Nobody gives a crap about the former, and all the glory goes to the latter.

 

That said, the story of 2016 is not yet written. Let's see what happens.

You are indeed your record. And the record the two seasons following off seasons that Whaley has had FULL control of is 17-15 and I believe had he had a better coach running the team in 2015 it would be even better.

 

The record in 2016 likely drags him overall back to .500 or below and if Rex goes Doug probably goes with him. I wouldn't be angry about that but I would have sympathy for Whaley, dragged down by this albatross of a Head Coaching disaster.

[Bill from NYC]

Whaley has been more bad than good. He's re-signed the right guys and let the right guys walk. Byrd, Levitre and Spiller = all good calls. Sheppard for Hughes? I'd say that was pretty good. Sorry but Watkins was a sure thing at the time and I loved it. Can't blame Whaley for a foot injuriy three years later. You know who starts for the Steelers? Moats and Cockrell. Coaching is like kind of important too ya know. See: Jim Schwartz. Whaley has been personally responsible for giving our coaching staff more blue chippers to work with than any GM in a long time. Also doesn't hurt that he can actually spend some money.

 

Also, OP, our offensive line depth is fine. What, do you think other teams have all pro backup guards? Kujo stepped in and played fine in Glenn's absence and soon they'll have Henderson as well. The only thing you're right about in your entire rambling, biased drivel is yes, he did neglect the WR position this offseason and the Bills are paying for it.

 

And dude, what are you talking about? Darby has only had one good season? How many good seasons would he have had so far under a good gm? And McCoy is slowing down fast? I can't even tell if you are trolling or not at this point.

Was your first sentence a typo?

[Pbomb]

So basically when we lose its time to fire rex, and when someone gets hurt its time to fire whaley

[dave mcbride]

You ever heard of Buddy Nix?

Whaley was the one doing all of the qb scouting that year: manuel, barkley, etc. It was definitely whaley's pick. But ya know, i really don't even fault him for it: they HAD to take a shot on a qb given their dire situation, and it's not as if any of the other guys from that draft are better than manuel. It's ok to say simultaneously that a) manuel was mostly whaley's pick (evidenced by his extreme-to-the-point-self-defeating defense of the player in the past couple of years); b) manuel isn't good; and c) it wasn't a terrible pick at all given that you really have to roll the dice on a qb if you don't have one and that none of the other draftees from that year were better than him.

I do the same thing. He will never see the bye week. He's really dragging down the quality of the board.

The moral here: initially bad threads can take on a life of their own and improve (in organic fashion).

[BuffaloMatt]

 

Ok, here is my exact point in my other thread about the medical staff and what I mentioned here.

 

Whaley is NOT a physician by any means. Whaley did NOT make a diagnosis on his availability or his shoulder. Our Medcial staff did...Rex, Whaley, and the Medical Staff have all said this publicly right after the draft. But here we are again blaming Whaley because our medical staff screwed something else up.

 

So I will ask the question again...when does the training and medical staff start getting held accountable for mistakes?

Good point!

[Best Player Available]

Complete failure...No!

 

Not so great GM...Yes!

 

While some fans here credit Whaley with letting CJ Spiller go that just isn't the case as Spiller was offered a good contract by Buffalo and he turned it down to go to NO... thank the lord!

 

Some fans want to credit Whaley for the Jerry Hughes trade for Kelvin Shepard and it was the Colts GM who foolishly initiated that trade a for a former 1st for a 3rd and Buffalo stole a great pass rusher for a bum!

 

Richie Incognito was Rex Ryan's move as he vouched for Richie. Whaley could have signed Incognito during the entire 2014 season in which Buffalo fielded the very worst offensive line in the league with Pears at RG! Tyrod Taylor was also a Rex move that Whaley takes credit for.

 

What is the one biggest area of team need that helps define the face of the franchise and helps the team win games! Yeah, is the team still looking for that ever elusive franchise QB? Derek Carr- Teddy Bridgewater-Jimmy Garoppolo- Dak Prescott - Trevor Siemain?? the QB position still remains a question of great concern in Buffalo.

 

 

Not paying Andy Levitre and letting him walk was the right move! However, attempting to replace Levitre with complete scrubs in Colin Brown, Sam Young was a rather heinous move considering the team was attempting to get by with basically three rookie QB's on the roster!! The GM also allowed the coaching staff to go forward with no QB coach or veteran QB on the roster to help teach these inexperienced QB's.

 

How long did it take to Whaley build a viable offensive line? Three offseasons now and the right side has played better so far this season but with 13 games remaining the starters and backup depth are still very questionable. While grading out pretty decently so far the season there still is a long way to go and many really good teams to face this year.

 

 

 

Doug Whaley took over as GM after the 2013 draft and has made some very questionable moves since then. Trading for Bryce Brown who was a complete waste. Trading for WR Mike Williams was a complete waste. Signing OG Chris Williams for four years 13.5 million with 5.5 guaranteed only to see the guy play three games was not only a serious waste of a roster spot, money, and this GM has shown a penchant for acquiring players with injury issues.

 

Trading away Stevie Johnson when the team could have really used that WR who is always open was let go because he didn't run precise routes for EJ only to EJ benched and Orton having to take over after a few games and he could have really used Stevie. The coaches stupidly would use Watkins as a decoy most of the season.

 

The trading three draft picks, two first rounders for Sammy Watkins was a bad idea for many reasons. 1) the team wasn't 100% positive that they already have it's franchise QB on the roster.

2) The team had more holes on the roster at that time than one elite WR and still does!

3) While the young man played most of the games his first two seasons, he was also injured so much of the time that he was never 100%. Now to be placed on IR for perhaps half a season or an entire season along with this season's first two draft picks starting out injured just reinforces the bad penchant for acquiring players with injury issues.

4) the team started out under Doug Marrone as a run-first offense to help the young QB's develop properly and then switched to a pass first offense to help make the Watkins choice look good. Watkins was never a great fit for a run first offense that needed so many others positions upgraded and probably the reason the HC walked out of the draft room after trading away three picks to obtain him.

5) the most blatant reason is the team didn't already have that elite franchise QB on the roster that was throwing for 4000k yards a season to take advantage of a talent like Watkins. So, this move looks like desperation to help make the failing young QB look better and the GM didn't take the big picture of the team in view.

6) Hindsight, IDGAF! In probably the greatest draft for WR's in the entire history of the league filled with so much receiver talent that this team uses three draft picks, two first rounders on a WR!! Mike Evans-Odell Beckham Jr-Brandin Cooks-Kelvin Benjamin-Marquise Lee-Jordan Matthews-Allen Robinson- Jarvis Landry- John Brown-Martivas Bryant- Donte Moncrief-Quincy Enunwa.

7) After that 2014 NFL draft, I can recall the team stating that they still needed that big, tall, WR red zone threat...doh!

 

This team spending great resources on what was perceived to be great talent on a past his prime RB going into his 7th season who only played in 12 games last year. Great resources on a TE to fill a team need. Great resources on a WR. The point here is that if the team had been able to identify great talent in the draft on offense it wouldn't need to use up so much cap space, draft picks in the draft or free agency. (The NY Jets have two quality free agent WR's in Brandon Marshall and Eric Decker along with RB Matt Forte as an example.) Anyway, back to the point here. Had the team not been able to make the trade up for Sammy Watkins in the 2014 NFL draft it is well known that the team would have chosen TE Eric Ebron as another example of a bad choice who is also injury prone.

 

EJ Manuel. As so many different ideas surround this draft pick. It was in fact, Doug Whaley who went down to Florida and scouted the young QB for the team and basically stated he was all in for this choice at QB. Let's also not forget that it was a rumor that Eagles HC Chip Kelly was also interested in EJ so the team traded up to acquire him.

 

 

While current GM Doug Whaley has made some very questionable moves in his tenure as the Buffalo Bills GM. I have to have to ask questions as to who was helping guide this young GM in his football decisions? Buddy Nix a retired chief scout who was never qualified to be a GM in the first place and certainly made his share of stupid decisions as GM. Whaley's direct boss above Nix for the first few years who controlled the entire team was a finance / marketing man with no real winning football experience behind him.

 

I'm not advocating firing Doug Whaley! Just getting this young, talented GM some help in the form of an older, experienced winning NFL football man at the top of the football side of the org chart who's brain he can pick that isn't a loser.

 

Just my 2 cents.

 

Agree with some of this but don't agree with the statement that this young talented GM needs some help in the form of an older, experienced football man. Here is IMO how it works if a GM is "young and taleneted" has been with the franchise for years. growing up under the watchful eye of gm Buddy Nix as assitant GM, promoted to gm. And called young and talented but still needs a older football mind for HELP. IMO it is an indictement of just how poor of a GM he is today. These guys are replaceable. For a recent example I give you the Eagles. And their possible turnaround in ONE year. At least their future seems brighter today than the Bills.

Good young execs, or GM's typically don't need some hire to look over his shoulder and essentially take away some if not all of Whaley's GM power. No confident GM would even stay if that happened.

To me that is saying Whaley is a pay grade above where he should be. Whaley like the entire franchise is medicore but at times approaches average. We need the older experienced football man as a GM. Not a babysitter. Yes i am fully aware of the several good acquisitions he has made. Most GM's grab a few good players. he cannot fnd a QB to save his life. Among other positions.

That is on him. Sorry Whaley is well entrenched in this franchises culture from top to bottom of fail. Pegula needs to get the broom out. no time to babysit a gm who has had the gig for a few years. An assistant before being annointed GM. a scout for a nice part of this 16+ year losing cycle. then I question the committment of this owner too truly build a winning powerhouse NFL team for years to come. By keeping executives that are regressing not turning this around.