Russ Brandon

[NEEDFREDJACKSONNOW]

Brandon: Unacceptable

TORONTO -- I spoke with Russ Brandon, the Bills' COO, outside the locker room after Sunday's embarrassing, 16-3 loss to the Dolphins. Brandon had this to say about his team, which has now lost six or its last seven and has not scored a touchdown in its last two games:

 

""It's unacceptable,'' Brandon said. ""We obviously got out of the gate very well, and to go through where we are now is unacceptable to everyone in the organization. And we're very disappointed.''

 

I asked Brandon if the "unacceptable" characteriziation applied to his head coach, Dick Jauron, who is under fire these days.

 

""I think everybody should be under fire in the organization,'' Brandon said. "We've built this team to make a playoff run and to be in the position we're in right now is ... is not pleasing to anybody."

 

Brandon would not discuss Jauron's rumored contract extension. I asked Ralph Wilson if he could clear up the contract issue and he said he didn't want to talk about it. When I pressed him and asked if Jauron would definitely be his coach next season, he said, "I don't know."

 

I think they assumed TE would perform well enough to allow this team a legitimate playoff run. They also assumed that the Jets and Phins would be mediocre. When Brady went down, they were probably giddy. But the essence of the team never improved. The OL underperformed, and having Stroud did nothing for the pass rush. Aren't they under the salary cap?

[apuszczalowski]

I hope this season has made Brandon realize that he's not ready to be a GM in this league. Tannenbaum, Parcells, and Pioli/Belichick run circles around him. I'm just surprised Russell actually spoke to the press.

 

IMO, Brandon can be elevated to President, taking the position from Ralphie. A condition of the title would be he must hire a real GM who handles all personnel moves. Brandon can play supervisor, but all football decisions are made by a GM with previous football executive experience.

 

The GM then hires a new coach, and will not be hamstrung by unrealistic pay limitations on who to hire.

 

The GM has final say on draft day and in UFA. He should get permission only to sign FA's and ensure to the owner that any players brought in to Buffalo are worth paying to play for the Bills.

And all of those guys have had tons more experience then him and had to start somewhere too. I'm not saying that Brandon will be in there league, but he ahs only been a"GM" in charge for 1 season now.

[apuszczalowski]

""I think everybody should be under fire in the organization,'' Brandon said. "We've built this team to make a playoff run and to be in the position we're in right now is ... is not pleasing to anybody."

 

Uh, Russ if you think this team was "built to make a playoff run" you know less about football that I thought. We know you're good at marketing but if you think this team has talent to even make the playoffs you are naive or just moronic.

Actually, most people around here thought that the Bills were going to make a run for the playoffs this season, they have the talent in some areas, but they just haven't been able to put it all together

[The Dean]

And all of those guys have had tons more experience then him and had to start somewhere too. I'm not saying that Brandon will be in there league, but he ahs only been a"GM" in charge for 1 season now.

 

 

Well, as you know (from your quotation marks) he is not the GM, and I don't believe he is "in charge".

[BillsVet]

And all of those guys have had tons more experience then him and had to start somewhere too. I'm not saying that Brandon will be in there league, but he ahs only been a"GM" in charge for 1 season now.

 

APUS, you may have heard of a guy named Thomas Dimitroff in Atlanta. Perhaps not. He's a first year GM in this league that has the Falcons very close to a playoff berth. Jeff Ireland is a new GM, although working for Parcells.

 

It's not an excuse in this league to be new in your job. John Harbaugh can't say that in Baltimore as HC. Neither can Mike Smith in ATL.

 

It's not an excuse, although it's people like RW who can't find it to spend money in an area that would give him a better team. Parcells was hired to make Miami a winner. He's done that. Dimitroff has done it in ATL.

 

Polian continues to do it in Indy. Ozzie Newsome is a fine GM in Baltimore.

 

Your excuse is so poor, especially considering that there are a host of new GM's in the league who win in their first season. Unfortunately, our GM is not experienced in anything but designing marketing campaigns and saying "yes" to RW.

[silvermike]

Brandon made two big moves this offseason: trading for Stroud and signing Mitchell. Both have worked out really well: they're probably our two best players. The draft was more iffy, but McKelvin is working out fairly well, at least.

 

He didn't make bad moves; he just didn't make enough of them.

[Beerball]

I presume this was from Chris Brown?

 

Link?

Chris Brown doesn't ask his boss those types of questions.

[ganesh]

I think they assumed TE would perform well enough to allow this team a legitimate playoff run. They also assumed that the Jets and Phins would be mediocre. When Brady went down, they were probably giddy. But the essence of the team never improved. The OL underperformed, and having Stroud did nothing for the pass rush. Aren't they under the salary cap?

 

 

To be fair to the Bills, there really was no pass rushing DE in the market....What they could have done is gone out and also got Jenkins for the 2nd round pick to anchor the middle of the defense.

 

The Fish got lucky when the Jets released Pennington. You think the Fins will be with this record with a rookie QB ? I doubt it....Look at the fish, they have no play makers either. It is also a smoke-and-mirrors team waiting to be destroyed.

 

The Jets are showing their true colors again today with 2 straight losses to teams that they should be beating.

 

Stround was brought in to stop the run and he has done that admirably....We lost out on our 1st round pick McCargo..

 

The whole season started off on a wrong foot with the absence of Peters....Peters really screwed this team up by forcing the team to move Walker to LT during training camp...May be this is a mistake Jauron made...Rather than keeping Bell at the LT position and leaving Walker on the right side, may be he messed with the chemistry of the line.

 

The coaches have coached this team scared....When we need that extra 1st down against Cleveland, they chose to run the ball for 1 yard each...The same coaches choked against the 49ers playing at home....You cannot expect to lose 4 HOME games and go to the playoffs.

[Guest dog14787]

Brandon made two big moves this offseason: trading for Stroud and signing Mitchell. Both have worked out really well: they're probably our two best players. The draft was more iffy, but McKelvin is working out fairly well, at least.

 

He didn't make bad moves; he just didn't make enough of them.

 

 

In my opinion the fatal mistake was leaving the offense the way it was (dead ) after Fairchilds departure.

[silvermike]

I think the coaching staff is Brandon's big test. If he has the balls to fire Jauron and hire a good coach, then I'll trust him. If we keep DJ or bring in Dom Capers or something, he'll be just another !@#$ in charge of this long-suffering organization.

[apuszczalowski]

APUS, you may have heard of a guy named Thomas Dimitroff in Atlanta. Perhaps not. He's a first year GM in this league that has the Falcons very close to a playoff berth. Jeff Ireland is a new GM, although working for Parcells.

 

It's not an excuse in this league to be new in your job. John Harbaugh can't say that in Baltimore as HC. Neither can Mike Smith in ATL.

 

It's not an excuse, although it's people like RW who can't find it to spend money in an area that would give him a better team. Parcells was hired to make Miami a winner. He's done that. Dimitroff has done it in ATL.

 

Polian continues to do it in Indy. Ozzie Newsome is a fine GM in Baltimore.

 

Your excuse is so poor, especially considering that there are a host of new GM's in the league who win in their first season. Unfortunately, our GM is not experienced in anything but designing marketing campaigns and saying "yes" to RW.

Ireland in Miami has Parcells running the show, its not him on his own. As for Dimitroff in Atlanta, sometimes some guys do catch lightning in a bottle. That wasn't my point, I never said that first year guys never do well. My point is that the comparison was made to those other guys, who didn't start out in the league with immediate success.

 

My point is that you can't expect someone to step into a new role and immediatly make a huge impact and turn things around, more often then not they won't become greats after only one year. Thats not to say it doesn't happen though.

 

Its also much easier to go from a zero (like Miami and Atl) to a decent team then from a mediocre team to a good team. When you are a zero, theres nothing to lose, and almost everything is an upgrade at that point. When you are mediocre, you have to know exactly whats wrong and what can be done to fix it.

[DonInBuffalo]

I think the coaching staff is Brandon's big test. If he has the balls to fire Jauron and hire a good coach, then I'll trust him. If we keep DJ or bring in Dom Capers or something, he'll be just another !@#$ in charge of this long-suffering organization.

Do you honestly believe that Brandon even has the authority to fire Jauron? Get real.

[The Dean]

Do you honestly believe that Brandon even has the authority to fire Jauron? Get real.

 

 

Seriously. Do you even think that Polian had the power to fire Levy when he was here? No way.

[fitnbills]

I think it's a bit early still to blame Brandon. In fact I like what he's done but I agree we do need a new head coach and an upgrade on the OL, DL, LB and TE's.

[Erik]

Ireland in Miami has Parcells running the show, its not him on his own. As for Dimitroff in Atlanta, sometimes some guys do catch lightning in a bottle. That wasn't my point, I never said that first year guys never do well. My point is that the comparison was made to those other guys, who didn't start out in the league with immediate success.

 

My point is that you can't expect someone to step into a new role and immediatly make a huge impact and turn things around, more often then not they won't become greats after only one year. Thats not to say it doesn't happen though.

 

Its also much easier to go from a zero (like Miami and Atl) to a decent team then from a mediocre team to a good team. When you are a zero, theres nothing to lose, and almost everything is an upgrade at that point. When you are mediocre, you have to know exactly whats wrong and what can be done to fix it.

 

Well, Dimitroff did come from the Pats organization so he cut his teeth working under Pioli and Belichick if that means anything...

[SageAgainstTheMachine]

Pennington sucks. Sorry. He will never win them a playoff game. It's not happening. Our QB's might be the worst in the league, but if Pennington didn't have the backfield he does, he would have lost that job like he did in NY.

 

Pennington does not suck. No, his arm isn't great. But he just absolutely never makes bad decisions and his completion percentage is the best in NFL history among QBs who have thrown more than 1500 passes. There is nobody better at hitting his target than Pennington. Please explain your opinion on how he sucks. He certainly isn't the best quarterback in the league due to his physical limitations, but there is almost nobody more competent.

[BillsVet]

Seriously. Do you even think that Polian had the power to fire Levy when he was here? No way.

 

That's avoids the issue. Polian never had to fire Marv, because BP had already stocked that team with more talent than at anytime in franchise history. Marv only had to keep the ship steady, which he did.

 

The point here is that a GM needs to run football operations. All good owners find football people, and give them the leeway to run football operations. They don't meddle and inhibit their football people from making football decisions.

 

Indianapolis has Polian

NY Giants have Jerry Reese

Atlanta has Dimitroff

Miami has Parcells/Ireland

New England has Pioli/Belichick

 

If more fans looked league wide to see what works, they'd realize this team's 59-82 record is the result of a bad GM (TD) and two guys who had no clue what they were doing (Marv and Russell)

 

I'd love to bestow praise on Marv, but his time as GM is quickly worsening despite having retired a year ago. The results of his decisions are being felt everyday, especially his uninspired pick of DJ and the joke coordinators he brought with him.

[The Dean]

That's avoids the issue. Polian never had to fire Marv,

 

 

The question is COULD HE HAVE?

[spartacus]

APUS, you may have heard of a guy named Thomas Dimitroff in Atlanta. Perhaps not. He's a first year GM in this league that has the Falcons very close to a playoff berth. Jeff Ireland is a new GM, although working for Parcells.

 

It's not an excuse in this league to be new in your job. John Harbaugh can't say that in Baltimore as HC. Neither can Mike Smith in ATL.

 

It's not an excuse, although it's people like RW who can't find it to spend money in an area that would give him a better team. Parcells was hired to make Miami a winner. He's done that. Dimitroff has done it in ATL.

 

Polian continues to do it in Indy. Ozzie Newsome is a fine GM in Baltimore.

 

Your excuse is so poor, especially considering that there are a host of new GM's in the league who win in their first season. Unfortunately, our GM is not experienced in anything but designing marketing campaigns and saying "yes" to RW.

 

people need to realize that Brandon came to the Bills directly from the Florida Marlins where he learned first hand how to consistently field a team significantly below the league average payroll.

 

the Marlins are masters are dumping good players as soon as they become too expensive.

 

The key to the Marlin success has been Larry Beinfest's uncanny ability to find young talent. Unfortunately, the bills do not have the NFL: equivalent of Larry Beinfest to implement Brandon's marlins gameplan.

[silvermike]

Chris Brown's blog now has the "unacceptable" statement up.

 

You gotta call that a press release. Wilson might not care, but Brandon's gotta be interested in not being remembered as a loser.