Whaley goes out with class. Buffalo Media...not so much.

[racketmaster]

Thread title says it all. I wish Whaley all the best.

[Bill_with_it]

Saw Doug on my way out the door Saturday night at Curly's in Lackawanna. Doug was at the bar with a couple of other guys and I over heard him say "F@#K THE BILLS!" I wish I could I stayed a while longer to hear what he had to say. I was surprised to see him in the Buffalo area still.

 

While Doug didn't bash the Bills to the media, he definitely has bad feelings towards the organization.

Wow!

[Rico]

Yes, they still have their jobs. I'm sure when they were aspiring journalists they had their hearts set on being writers for the Buffalo News for decades. Meanwhile Tyler Dunne is moving up in the media world. He wrote insightful articles and was awarded with a better job. These guys write the same crap every day. We've read the same Whaley article in the BN for 3 years now. Same article over and over with different titles. And they will will continue to write for the BN until they get fired or die. Why? Because the BN only cares about clicks. And hate gets clicks in today world. No other publication is trying to hire these hacks.

Yeah he writes for Bleacher Report. Well on his way to the top.

[Buffalo86]

"As a parting gift, we left them with two first-round picks next year."

 

Who were the "we" & "they" in this statement? I thought McDermott ran the draft.

 

Or maybe Whaley taking a subtle jab at himself, as if to say "at least I didn't leave them with zero first-rounders again." I don't know.

Edited May 25, 2017 by Buffalo86

[YoloinOhio]

I interned in the sports department of a medium sized city newspaper in college. The old sports reporters were some of the grumpiest, bitter people I'd ever met. Actually steered me in a different direction with my career when I saw how miserable they all looked. This was of course before the days of social media. But they sure hated their jobs.

[JM2009]

The bar is set so low in this town that anyone with a pulse that is polite is revered.

Pretty much.

[purple haze]

 

Life long Bills fan. I do not know Doug Whaley. I live 600 miles from from Buffalo now. Prob won't run into him in a bar. His interview the other day was very well handled and showed alot of class. Today I see article #3 bashing him still. What morons we have in the Buffalo media. Move on. Plenty of blame to go around

Truth.

 

Still protecting this failure? What til you see the roster depth by the time they get through camp. I'm guessing folks won't be running around defending Whaley.

 

He said the right things on the way out the door, it's a shame those are the only right things he has said in a few years.

 

Starters off the bus.

Mature beyond his years.

I'm not privy.

I wasn't in the room.

Humans aren't meant to play football.

 

Shall we continue!!!

You seem to miss the point of the post. In the interview Whaley took blame for his firing, spoke of some good things he did, which there were some and was generally positive about the organization. It was a class interview. The Buffalo News, after the man is gone, still need to write disparaging articles? Move on.

[Hapless Bills Fan]

Life long Bills fan. I do not know Doug Whaley. I live 600 miles from from Buffalo now. Prob won't run into him in a bar. His interview the other day was very well handled and showed alot of class. Today I see article #3 bashing him still. What morons we have in the Buffalo media. Move on. Plenty of blame to go around

 

Bump

i saw him out once on the rooftop at Tappo last year. He was very low key. I don't doubt your story at all but it doesn't seem like him to be shouting obscenities in Lackawanna. But if he had a few and was blowing off some steam I get it.

 

Tone and context mean a lot too - for example if the guys he was with were fired scouts contemplating a position with a new club or an offer to be rehired and Doug is saying "fu** the Bills, take the other offer" or something.

OTOH, it is pretty typical for people who are fired to have bitter feelings, even if they are classy enough not to vent them in the press or social media.

[Albwan]

wins and losses are all i care about.

Ej Manuel, 2 first round picks for a wr?

Bye

[Nick the Greek]

Rex Ryan trashed the Bills the first opportunity he had after they canned him. Don't forget that. He's a SLOB.

[PromoTheRobot]

The Buffalo media is way too negative about everything. The media just needs to be a little more balanced in their coverage. The sky is not always falling.

Recent example: Buffalo News declares in story after story the Bills are a dysfunctional organization that no one in their right mind work for. Fast forward 4 months and the Bills are being praised for their new staff. Maybe things weren't as bad as the Buffalo News made it out to be?

Edited May 25, 2017 by PromoTheRobot

[dezertbill]

Being a proponent of Whaley for many years, even I can see the shortcomings he had regarding QB talent, being married to decisions he made, and his overall linguistic challenges.

 

But with that said, he wasn't the one who put 10 on the field vs. Miami, and I can assure you it was the Pegulas that okay'd Rex bringing his brother in to run the defense.

 

Whaley put together a very talented defense in 2014 and it was rumored that he wanted to bring Hue Jackson in, which would have kept Schwartz as D coordinator. Imagine if that had happened.

 

He was also able to find good players on the street when the Bills needed a plug for a portion of the season or in the case of Lorax a season.

 

But he never opened up with the media and came across at times a bit arrogant, even if he couldn't speak clearly. That left him a sitting target for the media folks.

 

Whether it's Sullivan or Gleason those guys are all over the map with their assessments and at times are a straight out joke. One minute Buffalo is a bumbling franchise and the next they are throwing praise at the Bills Executive brass like Tshirts during a commercial break of a Raptors game. One minute Rex is the man of the hour and the next he's the worst in franchise history.

 

Especially Sullivan, who could find 5 negative things to whine about even if he was a Pats beat writer. He couldn't even spell clue much less have one.

 

I like the direction the Bills are going, and as a nonfan of Rex's blowhard ways it's nice not to be embarrassed by his big mouth making ignorant statements like winning the preseason.

 

As for Whaley, he'll be a VP of Scouting somewhere soon enough and will get another shot at GM eventually. I just hope EJ taught him to know when to cut your losses despite your boyhood crush of finding that "franchise QB".

[wilcoam]

I am confused by the re-writing of DW performance history as GM of our Bills, true under his guidance we didn't have successful years, however he did take a 6 win team and took us to a 9 win season, our only .500 plus season in a decade, nothing embarrassing there whatsoever, unless you're just being a drama queen

 

Next, he oversaw a rather dramatic upgrade in on field talent, sure it still wasn't good enough, but he did oversee both the creation of a #2 DVOA D, and two successive top #12 DVOA O, note none of that occurred before he arrived, I think some fans here forget how awful our O was pre DW, and for many successive years, we watched terminally boring football, and awful D's

 

Like any NFL GM, he has some draft success, and some draft failures, I will be forever critical of him for trading away too many picks, and moving up when I felt we were better served long term by moving back, I don't think any of his pre 2017 draft day trade up's were successful, Ragland a work in progress

 

Unlike many NFL GM's his trades were mostly successful, the exception being anytime he traded away draft picks, he found some nice off season FA's, though at the same time he was a poor manager of both QB and WR depth, which hurt us tremendously

 

I'm glad Pegs replaced him, I think it was time to go, and give someone else a chance to build our team, but he was neither a horrific GM, or embarrassing, I wish he would have been better, but I've also seen alot worse, he was classy, unlike Rex, Roman, and a whole bunch of other Bills executive management over the years

 

jc

[Pbomb]

I am confused by the re-writing of DW performance history as GM of our Bills, true under his guidance we didn't have successful years, however he did take a 6 win team and took us to a 9 win season, our only .500 plus season in a decade, nothing embarrassing there whatsoever, unless you're just being a drama queen

 

Next, he oversaw a rather dramatic upgrade in on field talent, sure it still wasn't good enough, but he did oversee both the creation of a #2 DVOA D, and two successive top #12 DVOA O, note none of that occurred before he arrived, I think some fans here forget how awful our O was pre DW, and for many successive years, we watched terminally boring football, and awful D's

 

Like any NFL GM, he has some draft success, and some draft failures, I will be forever critical of him for trading away too many picks, and moving up when I felt we were better served long term by moving back, I don't think any of his pre 2017 draft day trade up's were successful, Ragland a work in progress

 

Unlike many NFL GM's his trades were mostly successful, the exception being anytime he traded away draft picks, he found some nice off season FA's, though at the same time he was a poor manager of both QB and WR depth, which hurt us tremendously

 

I'm glad Pegs replaced him, I think it was time to go, and give someone else a chance to build our team, but he was neither a horrific GM, or embarrassing, I wish he would have been better, but I've also seen alot worse, he was classy, unlike Rex, Roman, and a whole bunch of other Bills executive management over the years

 

jc

 

well said, but its easier for some people to just say hes the worst ever and blame all the bills problems on him

[BringBackOrton]

Recent example: Buffalo News declares in story after story the Bills are a dysfunctional organization that no one in their right mind work for. Fast forward 4 months and the Bills are being praised for their new staff. Maybe things weren't as bad as the Buffalo News made it out to be?

Hasn't Pegula had to pay top dollar for every single one of their new hires? Those stories are congruent, no?

I am confused by the re-writing of DW performance history as GM of our Bills, true under his guidance we didn't have successful years, however he did take a 6 win team and took us to a 9 win season, our only .500 plus season in a decade, nothing embarrassing there whatsoever, unless you're just being a drama queen

 

Next, he oversaw a rather dramatic upgrade in on field talent, sure it still wasn't good enough, but he did oversee both the creation of a #2 DVOA D, and two successive top #12 DVOA O, note none of that occurred before he arrived, I think some fans here forget how awful our O was pre DW, and for many successive years, we watched terminally boring football, and awful D's

 

Like any NFL GM, he has some draft success, and some draft failures, I will be forever critical of him for trading away too many picks, and moving up when I felt we were better served long term by moving back, I don't think any of his pre 2017 draft day trade up's were successful, Ragland a work in progress

 

Unlike many NFL GM's his trades were mostly successful, the exception being anytime he traded away draft picks, he found some nice off season FA's, though at the same time he was a poor manager of both QB and WR depth, which hurt us tremendously

 

I'm glad Pegs replaced him, I think it was time to go, and give someone else a chance to build our team, but he was neither a horrific GM, or embarrassing, I wish he would have been better, but I've also seen alot worse, he was classy, unlike Rex, Roman, and a whole bunch of other Bills executive management over the years

 

jc

Kyle Orton and Doug Marrone won 9 games. Not Whales.

[GunnerBill]

I am confused by the re-writing of DW performance history as GM of our Bills, true under his guidance we didn't have successful years, however he did take a 6 win team and took us to a 9 win season, our only .500 plus season in a decade, nothing embarrassing there whatsoever, unless you're just being a drama queen

 

Next, he oversaw a rather dramatic upgrade in on field talent, sure it still wasn't good enough, but he did oversee both the creation of a #2 DVOA D, and two successive top #12 DVOA O, note none of that occurred before he arrived, I think some fans here forget how awful our O was pre DW, and for many successive years, we watched terminally boring football, and awful D's

 

Like any NFL GM, he has some draft success, and some draft failures, I will be forever critical of him for trading away too many picks, and moving up when I felt we were better served long term by moving back, I don't think any of his pre 2017 draft day trade up's were successful, Ragland a work in progress

 

Unlike many NFL GM's his trades were mostly successful, the exception being anytime he traded away draft picks, he found some nice off season FA's, though at the same time he was a poor manager of both QB and WR depth, which hurt us tremendously

 

I'm glad Pegs replaced him, I think it was time to go, and give someone else a chance to build our team, but he was neither a horrific GM, or embarrassing, I wish he would have been better, but I've also seen alot worse, he was classy, unlike Rex, Roman, and a whole bunch of other Bills executive management over the years

 

jc

 

Very fair in my opinion. Dough Whaley was better than what came before, the team's record in the 3 years where he was in total control was exactly .500. That is an improvement.... just not enough of one. I think he will regret the 2014/15 offseason. He didn't fight for his choice as Head Coach and he took what was a pretty good cap situation and made a bit of a mess of it with some unwise / unnecessary spending - the ridiculous Clay contract and the pointless Harvin signing in particular.

 

I generally quite liked him, but the Bills needed to start acting and speaking with a unified purpose and the decision to move on once the Pegulas decided they had found the man to be a real leader in this franchise - McDermott - was a sensible one.

 

We have had some classless idiots in this franchise one way or another during the drought - TD, Greggo, Marrone, Rex...... Whaley joins Chan on the list of guys who ultimately weren't quite good enough but were easy to root for in my book.

[stuvian]

DW was always a good ambassador and a class act

[4merper4mer]

Blast the organization? He embarrassed the organization for the better part of his tenure. From disagreements with coaches, media mishaps, lieing about players injuries or not fully understanding the severity of them. CK was red

Flagged by multiple teams. Etc.

What was he supposed to do? The clown was going to stand at the podium and claim the circus sucks? He is going to have a hard enough time finding a position which pays anything close to what he was making. He did all he could do, save face.

Still completely missing the point.

[Pbomb]

Hasn't Pegula had to pay top dollar for every single one of their new hires? Those stories are congruent, no?

 

Kyle Orton and Doug Marrone won 9 games. Not Whales.

so a gm gets no credit for a winning season but gets blamed for the losing? Makes sense. Atleast we still have mccoy, when were the bills getting rid of him again? I still have that paper on my fridge been waiting to take it down

[Seasons1992]

The bar is set so low in this town that anyone with a pulse that is polite is revered.

 

Truth.