jahbonas Posted October 14, 2009 Share Posted October 14, 2009 Could our changing of the guard for GM be right in house? Buddy Nix has tremendous football scouting experience and it was believed he resigned from San Diego with the intent of landing a GM psoition somewhere. He was a finalist for the Atlanta GM job. Would it make sense that this was a partial motivator for him returning to Buffalo ?? He could even work a split of GM duties with Brandon where he only had to focus on the football side of the house while Brandon worked the business side. The NFL is an old boys network and it is difficult for a 'non-football' guy to gather the key information a GM needs to have when he has few contacts and scouts and people in the league will 'freeze' him out from offering the key info needed. Buddy Nix on the other hand...is that key insider with 30 yrs of contacts we need. Let Brandon run the business and the cap... Dealing with reality...Ralph is cheap...Nix would not be expensive...and Nix is now inhouse where Ralph would have a better comfort level than with an outsider. Then you move on to a new head coach - I would not expect a Schottenheimer selection since it was felt strongly by the Sandiego personnell department they provided Marty plenty of bullets for his gun out there and he wasted them. And ofcourse the unforgiveable was the playing of Drew Brees in a meaningless (27-9 loss) time with minutes to go and have that result in a major Brees injury robbing the sandiego personnell department from being able to trade Brees for top draft picks... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cale Posted October 14, 2009 Share Posted October 14, 2009 Could our changing of the guard for GM be right in house? Buddy Nix has tremendous football scouting experience and it was believed he resigned from San Diego with the intent of landing a GM psoition somewhere. He was a finalist for the Atlanta GM job.Would it make sense that this was a partial motivator for him returning to Buffalo ?? He could even work a split of GM duties with Brandon where he only had to focus on the football side of the house while Brandon worked the business side. The NFL is an old boys network and it is difficult for a 'non-football' guy to gather the key information a GM needs to have when he has few contacts and scouts and people in the league will 'freeze' him out from offering the key info needed. Buddy Nix on the other hand...is that key insider with 30 yrs of contacts we need. Let Brandon run the business and the cap... Dealing with reality...Ralph is cheap...Nix would not be expensive...and Nix is now inhouse where Ralph would have a better comfort level than with an outsider. Then you move on to a new head coach - I would not expect a Schottenheimer selection since it was felt strongly by the Sandiego personnell department they provided Marty plenty of bullets for his gun out there and he wasted them. And ofcourse the unforgiveable was the playing of Drew Brees in a meaningless (27-9 loss) time with minutes to go and have that result in a major Brees injury robbing the sandiego personnell department from being able to trade Brees for top draft picks... I love Buddy. I think he's a good football guy. My only concern is his lack of FO experience. But hey we couldn't do any worse. The other thing is that he isn't "plugged in" per the culture of the league. I think you need that in the NFL. The only person that I wish was a GM was the old great Dwight Adams. Gawd I loved his press conferences/ C Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Got_Wood Posted October 14, 2009 Share Posted October 14, 2009 My issue with Buddy is that it seems like a short term fix. We need a long term solution that is well thought out. No more guys that we hire from within. Nix is 70 years old, and won't be around here long. We need a younger football mind. Someone who has plenty of experience in the league, but is a creative, modern thinking manager. Someone who has either coached a long time in the league, or someone who has worked their way up through the ranks in player personnel positions within NFL teams. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jahbonas Posted October 14, 2009 Author Share Posted October 14, 2009 My issue with Buddy is that it seems like a short term fix. We need a long term solution that is well thought out. No more guys that we hire from within. Nix is 70 years old, and won't be around here long. We need a younger football mind. Someone who has plenty of experience in the league, but is a creative, modern thinking manager. Someone who has either coached a long time in the league, or someone who has worked their way up through the ranks in player personnel positions within NFL teams. I can agree with your wish list....I mostly offer up Buddy Nix because given Ralphs track record of keeping it cheaper and inhouse he could fir the bill....and fits it well (like Polian yrs ago) in that he comes from the scouting ranks Ralph has only stepped outside the organization 1 time to hire well known top coach and that was Chuck Knox in 1978...if I remember correctly at the time the fallback selection was Bill Walsh of Stanford. Ofcourse Ralph commits to Knox in 1978 and screws him in 1979 by not signing #1 overall Tom Cousineau - Knox knew right there his Buffalo days would be short and took his roadshow to Seattle where he delived them their 1st Division titles... So in essence that old man has chased away Chuck Knox, Bill Polian and John Butler/AJ Smith....its no coincidence us and the Raiders are where we are...we have 2 old owners who feel they must involve themselves too much pushing away all the top NFL front office talent Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaBills51 Posted October 14, 2009 Share Posted October 14, 2009 As much as I hate to say it, our GM situation is only a fraction of the problem. The Bills franchise is just like any corporation, in that if the top level managers rely on those underneath to provide reliable information. Currently, Russ Brandon is making decisions based off the info he is receiving from Modrak, Guy, and our pro scouts, and as we all know, this information sucks. Over the past 10 years the Bills have routinely taken the easy path and changed GMs, and all the while, the rest of our management hierachy remains untouched. While I am not against the Bills obtaining a new GM, promoting from within is going to pretty much ensure that those underneath will remain in their current positions. The Bills need a fresh face, someone who will come in, evaluate the entire Bills front office, and make the necessary changes. Here a couple of interesting links on GMs in the NFL. The main focus in the articles is placed on the GM - HC relationship. http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/columns/stor...&id=3389105 http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/columns/stor...&id=3396254 http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/columns/stor...&id=3387219 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bad Lieutenant Posted October 14, 2009 Share Posted October 14, 2009 We need a younger football mind. Someone who has plenty of experience in the league, but is a creative, modern thinking manager. Someone who has either coached a long time in the league, or someone who has worked their way up through the ranks in player personnel positions within NFL teams. Sounds good but there is no way in hell that Ralph is so in tuned to the world of NFL talent evaluators that he'll be able to find the next Thomas Dimitroff or Brian Xanders. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ennjay Posted October 14, 2009 Share Posted October 14, 2009 Ralph has only stepped outside the organization 1 time to hire well known top coach and that was Chuck Knox in 1978 Actually he thought he was doing that with John Rauch in '67, but that didn't work either. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thurman#1 Posted October 14, 2009 Share Posted October 14, 2009 As much as I hate to say it, our GM situation is only a fraction of the problem. The Bills franchise is just like any corporation, in that if the top level managers rely on those underneath to provide reliable information. Currently, Russ Brandon is making decisions based off the info he is receiving from Modrak, Guy, and our pro scouts, and as we all know, this information sucks. Over the past 10 years the Bills have routinely taken the easy path and changed GMs, and all the while, the rest of our management hierachy remains untouched. While I am not against the Bills obtaining a new GM, promoting from within is going to pretty much ensure that those underneath will remain in their current positions. The Bills need a fresh face, someone who will come in, evaluate the entire Bills front office, and make the necessary changes. Here a couple of interesting links on GMs in the NFL. The main focus in the articles is placed on the GM - HC relationship. http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/columns/stor...&id=3389105 http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/columns/stor...&id=3396254 http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/columns/stor...&id=3387219 Modrak and our college scouting people are good. Our last three drafts have been quite good. Our pro personnel people, though, leave something to be desired. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jahbonas Posted October 14, 2009 Author Share Posted October 14, 2009 As much as I hate to say it, our GM situation is only a fraction of the problem. The Bills franchise is just like any corporation, in that if the top level managers rely on those underneath to provide reliable information. Currently, Russ Brandon is making decisions based off the info he is receiving from Modrak, Guy, and our pro scouts, and as we all know, this information sucks. Over the past 10 years the Bills have routinely taken the easy path and changed GMs, and all the while, the rest of our management hierachy remains untouched. While I am not against the Bills obtaining a new GM, promoting from within is going to pretty much ensure that those underneath will remain in their current positions. The Bills need a fresh face, someone who will come in, evaluate the entire Bills front office, and make the necessary changes. Here a couple of interesting links on GMs in the NFL. The main focus in the articles is placed on the GM - HC relationship. http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/columns/stor...&id=3389105 http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/columns/stor...&id=3396254 http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/columns/stor...&id=3387219 I agree 100% that the GM and the coach (and the organization as a whole) have to be on the same page...Polian made that blueprint and Butler followed it so Buddy Nix is very well aware of that way of doing things. Buddy Nix is 'in house' but really is an 'outsider' when considering the failure of the Bills the last 10 years. Modrak was only promoted up to the 'braintrust' this past year indicating in the prior years he was only allowed to gather information and suggest rather than make final decision. This past draft showed there were new fingerprints on it in both the quality of players we selected and the 'meat n potatoes' positions we addressed. John Guy....different story...has had much say in the pro personnell decision for all the past 7 years and very easy to see poor decisions made by him....he would be an insider who could go..... Also..with Nix having 30 yrs experience you would hope he would have an eye on other top scouts to acquire and replace.....that was Polians big advantage when he took control in 1986...he knew who all the top scouts were and allocated all Ralphs limited resources to getting them....putting on the shelf a new scoreboard etccc That said...anyone replacing the 91 yr old guy calling the shots is an improvement thanks for the links Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
In space no one can hear Posted October 14, 2009 Share Posted October 14, 2009 From The San Diego Tribune at the time Schottenheimer and Nix were being considered for the Falcons openings: Chargers General Manager A.J. Smith told the newspaper: "I have not heard about Buddy Nix, but I have heard the Coach Schottenheimer rumors. If true, I believe a Buddy Nix-Marty Schottenheimer team in Atlanta would be a perfect fit.... Buddy got along well with Coach Schottenheimer. They socialized together, went out to dinner, golfed together, sat together on the plane, talked football all the time." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jahbonas Posted October 14, 2009 Author Share Posted October 14, 2009 From The San Diego Tribune at the time Schottenheimer and Nix were being considered for the Falcons openings: Chargers General Manager A.J. Smith told the newspaper: "I have not heard about Buddy Nix, but I have heard the Coach Schottenheimer rumors. If true, I believe a Buddy Nix-Marty Schottenheimer team in Atlanta would be a perfect fit.... Buddy got along well with Coach Schottenheimer. They socialized together, went out to dinner, golfed together, sat together on the plane, talked football all the time." Could be Buddy Nix differed with AJ Smith then..or AJ Smith was just being kind....obviously AJ Smith had no respect for Marty Schotts and fired him because of it... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vegas55 Posted October 14, 2009 Share Posted October 14, 2009 Could be Buddy Nix differed with AJ Smith then..or AJ Smith was just being kind....obviously AJ Smith had no respect for Marty Schotts and fired him because of it... Add Russ Brandon to the list of people regretting your departure from HSBC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Hurt Posted October 14, 2009 Share Posted October 14, 2009 Could our changing of the guard for GM be right in house? Buddy Nix has tremendous football scouting experience and it was believed he resigned from San Diego with the intent of landing a GM psoition somewhere. He was a finalist for the Atlanta GM job.Would it make sense that this was a partial motivator for him returning to Buffalo ?? He could even work a split of GM duties with Brandon where he only had to focus on the football side of the house while Brandon worked the business side. The NFL is an old boys network and it is difficult for a 'non-football' guy to gather the key information a GM needs to have when he has few contacts and scouts and people in the league will 'freeze' him out from offering the key info needed. Buddy Nix on the other hand...is that key insider with 30 yrs of contacts we need. Let Brandon run the business and the cap... Dealing with reality...Ralph is cheap...Nix would not be expensive...and Nix is now inhouse where Ralph would have a better comfort level than with an outsider. Then you move on to a new head coach - I would not expect a Schottenheimer selection since it was felt strongly by the Sandiego personnell department they provided Marty plenty of bullets for his gun out there and he wasted them. And ofcourse the unforgiveable was the playing of Drew Brees in a meaningless (27-9 loss) time with minutes to go and have that result in a major Brees injury robbing the sandiego personnell department from being able to trade Brees for top draft picks... NO to Nix. It is t the same bullsh1t. We hire someone with no experience and hoping that they will work out. We already tried Levy. You saw the results. Is Ron Wolf still available? In regard to Marty, he would be a good stop gap coach until Cowher becomes available. Just make sure you don't give him a long term contract in case you need to fire him in short notice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Hurt Posted October 14, 2009 Share Posted October 14, 2009 Could be Buddy Nix differed with AJ Smith then..or AJ Smith was just being kind....obviously AJ Smith had no respect for Marty Schotts and fired him because of it... Matty -- is an upgrade from dead dick. I will take him. Why not? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jahbonas Posted October 14, 2009 Author Share Posted October 14, 2009 Matty -- is an upgrade from dead dick. I will take him. Why not? Cant argue with that....as for requiring a GM with experience....neither butler nor Polian had any GM experience prior to taking the head GM job and survived just fine.....the key ingredient is NFL scouting/personnel experience....its all about bringing in the jimmys and the joes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. K Posted October 14, 2009 Share Posted October 14, 2009 Bill Polian's son for GM Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spartacus Posted October 14, 2009 Share Posted October 14, 2009 Could be Buddy Nix differed with AJ Smith then..or AJ Smith was just being kind....obviously AJ Smith had no respect for Marty Schotts and fired him because of it... respect had nothing to do with AJ firing Marty it was about self preservation since Marty was a threat to AJ's job Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jahbonas Posted October 15, 2009 Author Share Posted October 15, 2009 respect had nothing to do with AJ firing Marty it was about self preservation since Marty was a threat to AJ's job Marty lost 2 home playoff games as a favorite...and it was argued the Chargers had the most talented roster top to bottom....yes it was felt by AJ Smith that they provided Marty enough and he blew it... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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