Bills wanted DeMulling, but...

[In space no one can hear]

Yeah...I hate the mindset that took us to four Super Bowls!

 

Every hear of Bill Polian?

 

Uhhh yeah I did.

But that doesn't take away the fact that John Butler was instrumental in us having our Super Bowl Run........

 

Donahoe has been a failure so far.

 

 

Any doubts? Check the won loss record.

[Dan Gross]

Uhhh yeah I did.

But that doesn't take away the fact that John Butler was instrumental in us having our Super Bowl Run........

 

Donahoe has been a failure so far.

Any doubts? Check the won loss record.

281436[/snapback]

 

Yeah, and how many Super Bowls have the Colts and Chargers been to with the genius GM's they "stole" from the Bills?

[bobblehead]

Yeah...I hate the mindset  that took us to four Super Bowls!

 

Every hear of Bill Polian?

 

Uhhh yeah I did.

But that doesn't take away the fact that John Butler was instrumental in us having our Super Bowl Run........

 

Donahoe has been a failure so far.

Any doubts? Check the won loss record.

281436[/snapback]

 

Who negotiated with and paid the players?

[Fake-Fat Sunny]

 

Donahoe has been a failure so far.

Any doubts? Check the won loss record.

281436[/snapback]

 

On target, but the key question is WHY HAS DONAHOE PRODUCED SUCH A HORRIBLE RECORD ON HIS WATCH?

 

I think the answer to that is that he screwed up badly and failed completely at his first big task as a GM when he hired GW as the HC.

 

One can theorize as to why he made this colassal blunder (though my guess is that he passed on or did not develop a positive relationship with two candidates, Fox and Lewis that he worried might hand his head to him the way Cowher did in Pittsburgh, while he felt more comfortable with personally with GW and knew he could beat him in a fight if it came to that, but that's just my guess).

 

I think those who accuse TD of making a series of the wrong moves in negotiating with, assessing, or signing players are generally wrong and this view is unsuported by the facts unless one wants to twist and turn a couple of episodes where he did make contractual errors.

 

TD simply stunk up the joint in foolishly picking GW, but generally he has done a pretty good job on the assessment side of the game (butressed by good football heads like Modrak) and an outstanding job reading the market and negotiating deals. Even better from the owners point of view, TD has overseen some substantial upgrades on the business side of the equation (the move to St. Jon's Fisher, paying partnerships with ticket selling partners, and the nuts and bolts of stadium management (which had quite simply gotten out of control with patrons having sex in the stands). Even with the losing record (thanks to the GW failure) I doubt he has any problem getting his contract extended.

 

As a fan, I am pissed that his miscues have impacted the part of the game I care most about, but I understand that what I care most about is not the only thing Ralph likely uses to determine the quality of TDs work. In addition, the part I care most about (W?Ls) has turned around in a big way under MM.

 

We should only trust but verify with any business, but it is hard for me to see any Bills fan not feeling pretty good about this team with its one year improvment from 6-10 to 9-7. Further the prospects for the future are uncertain as they are for all NFL teams where worst to first (and vice versa) is possible like never before, but are pretty good with a D which has been statistically in the top 5 the last two years and only lost 1 starter to FA, with an ST which by most statistical rankings was among the league's best last year. and with an O that remains troubled but offers some potential with a more mobile QB who needs to be trained not to be Jim Kelly but trained not to make mistakes which drag down the D and ST.

 

I think the worry about the OL is logical, but the replacement of Vinky and Ruel with someone with far more experience that I think for sure the OL may still be inadequate but it will likely be better at the same time.

[Albany,n.y.]

I've got a different take than FFS on why TD ended up choosing Gregg Williams:

 

TD thought he'd be hiring Marvin Lewis, so he let things go until most of the other teams had chosen a head coach. The effect was that he had little to choose from. Lewis had his eye on the Cleveland job & didn't want to be coach of the Bills, knowing the salary cap disaster that was in Buffalo, plus the low $ amount that the Bills were offering a 1st time NFL HC.

 

The only other candidate besides Gregg at that point was John Fox. The problem was that Fox was viewed as a loose cannon because several years earlier he had quit the Raiders in training camp when he was D-Coordinator because he had gotten fed up with Al Davis. Some may view this in a positive light, but I doubt that Ralph Wilson, who goes way back to the AFL days with Davis, bailing him out & saving the Raiders franchise, viewed Fox in a very positive light after what he'd done to Davis.

 

So, after Lewis basically turned down the job (and then was stunned when Cleveland signed Butch Davis) TD had only Gregg & Fox to choose from. Based on Fox's treatment of Davis, it would be a tough sell to hire Fox with Ralph in charge. So he took the only real candidate left at that point-Gregg Williams.

 

Now TD may have said all the right things about Gregg, but his actions speak louder than his words. He gave Gregg a 3 year contract, basically putting him on probation since day 1, showing his true lack of trust in what was basically the only candidate left. What else could TD do, tell the truth that his top candidate turned him down and there were no coaches left, because during the whole search it was Marvin Lewis or bust, or say Gregg was the greatest interview ever and try to spin it in a positive way when he really messed up the whole hiring process by assuming Lewis would take the job .

[Tcali]

I think the cap started in the 1993 season,  so for 1 season they lost some good players like Conlan, Wilford but still made it. I just don't see this offensive line getting any better. I don't want to get into cap trouble again but I don't see an improvement for a couple years threw the draft. I guess we can spin it and trust in TD but when the season starts like every year it will fade. I hope I'm wrong and most of the board is right. It's not doom & gloom just reality.

281398[/snapback]

Yeah--we DON'T wanna see this very good defense get old while we are waiting for an offensive line to develope. We need some free agents.-Its all in the timing.