What changes would you immediately impose if you we're the GM?

[Skooby]

Pretty simple, you've been given the keys to the team. What moves do you make?

[OpIv37]

First and foremost, Wannstadt is gone. It's absolutely amazing that he still has a job.

Gailey would be close behind. And I'd find a HC and OC who put the run game first to maximize the talent that we have instead of putting the ball in Fitz's hands.

Next, I'd work on getting a franchise QB. Unfortunately, they don't grow on trees, so one might not be available. If that's the case, I'd immediately start working on the linebackers, either by getting in position to draft the best one available or looking at FA's. Or both.

[stuckincincy]

A bowel movement?

[DraftBoy]

I'd remove Chan Gailey, & Dave Wannstadt from their positions. I'd make George Catavolos the head coach, and promote Giff Smith to DC.

[X-Era]

First and foremost, Wannstadt is gone. It's absolutely amazing that he still has a job.

Gailey would be close behind. And I'd find a HC and OC who put the run game first to maximize the talent that we have instead of putting the ball in Fitz's hands.

Next, I'd work on getting a franchise QB. Unfortunately, they don't grow on trees, so one might not be available. If that's the case, I'd immediately start working on the linebackers, either by getting in position to draft the best one available or looking at FA's. Or both.

I'm close to being where you are.

Wanny- gone
Gailey- stays
Hire- New DC who employs a productive 4-3 scheme and especially one that covers well by design
Draft/Trade for/Sign- a starting caliber ILB
Draft/Trade for/Sign- a starting caliber OLB
Draft/Trade for/Sign- a potential #2 WR
Resign- Byrd, Levitre
Draft/Trade for/Sign- a potential franchise QB
Add quality veteran and draftee depth

[The King]

First thing is lock down Byrd and Levitre. You can't create anymore holes.

Then you have to can the entire staff. I would look for a no-nonsense DC to take the reigns. And take the best players available in the draft. You can reach for a QB but you can't pass on a sure-fire starter when drafting.

[Historian]

Have security throw Brandon off the premises.

Start banging Wilson's Granddaughter.

[ServoBillieves]

Handed to us today or after we go 8-8?

[Typ0]

Light a cigar and give myself a bonus.

[cookie G]

Stab any coaching candidate who says, "I want to change the defensive scheme but it'll take 3 years to rebuild the defensive personnel".

In the heart.

[IlluminatusUIUC]

Right now, in the midst of the season? I would play Tarvaris Jackson for the remainder of the year to remove any lingering thoughts that he is a potential franchise guy.

[gebobs]

Pretty simple, you've been given the keys to the team. What moves do you make?
Start looking for a nice place in Redondo Beach.

[Yasgur's Farm]

1) Immediately take all offensive play calling out of Chan Gailey's hands.
2) I would strongly suggest to Gailey that he needs to have CJ on the field for 85% of the snaps.
3) I'd make sure Tarvaris Jackson is active on game day... And, everytime Fitz leads a 3 and out series, have T. Jackson on the field the following series.
4) Stick with the stache to see if his D continues to improve... They're starting to play pretty damn good.

Offseason is a whole other set of bullets.

[trapezeus]

i'm not sure why wanny is gone...the guy had a brutal first half...but last two games only has given up 1 TD per game. He's got them in games now.

the offense has only scored 1 td in 2 games.
Offense is a bigger issue from a coaching standpoint in my mind.

They don't utilize what they have.

I honestly think if you keep wanny and get a lb, he's going to get better.

You get a new QB, i dont know if i trust gailey to not mess it up. this season has been a series of really odd things that he refuses to change. he's becoming a jauron clone of doing the same thing over and over and providing meaningless excuses.

If i was gm:
1. i'd have the President and CEO job and as a result would have sent russ brandon packing.
2. I'd meet with new coaches. I'd listen to their pitch on why they are good and i'd tell them my only requirement is that you must work with what you got this year. if you have a strategy that doesn't work with our personnel, i'm not interested in hiring you. i'll work with you to get you the players you want in the long haul, but you have to be flexible in strategy to work with what we got. so no more avoiding running because you are a pass guy. we have RBs. No more zone coverage when you have some great pass rushers. no using LBs in coverage.
3. I'd follow the draftnik guides on player selection. If i don't have the QB i want in the draft in round 1, i'd pick the ebst OLB if he's better than the QB options and make no apologies about it.

[IlluminatusUIUC]

i'm not sure why wanny is gone...the guy had a brutal first half...but last two games only has given up 1 TD per game. He's got them in games now.

Look who we played in the last two games - Two rookie QBs. One had to travel to Buffalo on a short week, and the second we had 9 days to prepare and we still couldn't get critical stops.

[stuckincincy]

i'm not sure why wanny is gone...the guy had a brutal first half...but last two games only has given up 1 TD per game. He's got them in games now.

the offense has only scored 1 td in 2 games.
Offense is a bigger issue from a coaching standpoint in my mind.

They don't utilize what they have.

I honestly think if you keep wanny and get a lb, he's going to get better.

You get a new QB, i dont know if i trust gailey to not mess it up. this season has been a series of really odd things that he refuses to change. he's becoming a jauron clone of doing the same thing over and over and providing meaningless excuses.

If i was gm:
1. i'd have the President and CEO job and as a result would have sent russ brandon packing.
2. I'd meet with new coaches. I'd listen to their pitch on why they are good and i'd tell them my only requirement is that you must work with what you got this year. if you have a strategy that doesn't work with our personnel, i'm not interested in hiring you. i'll work with you to get you the players you want in the long haul, but you have to be flexible in strategy to work with what we got. so no more avoiding running because you are a pass guy. we have RBs. No more zone coverage when you have some great pass rushers. no using LBs in coverage.
3. I'd follow the draftnik guides on player selection. If i don't have the QB i want in the draft in round 1, i'd pick the ebst OLB if he's better than the QB options and make no apologies about it.

2 tds...Bess pass from Tannehill, Ty Hilton from Luck. BUF has been outscored 32-34 in that two-game split...that's reduced to 25 - 20 if you subtract the 3 return tds. They have yet to beat a team with a winning record as of week #11. What would their record be without the cupcake schedule handed to them this season? And coming up? The only club with a winning record foreseeable is SEA, and when they play outside their hometown noise machine, they are 1 and 5.

Other than Freddie, BUF has a terribly weak bench. And that's been so for some time. I think you could cut all of them and the waiver wire wouldn't utter a burp. I suppose someone would pick up TJ Graham out of curiosity.

I can't see how a new staff will resurrect this mess.

[OpIv37]

i'm not sure why wanny is gone...the guy had a brutal first half...but last two games only has given up 1 TD per game. He's got them in games now.


That being said, they gave up a 6 min drive and 50% of third down conversions against the Colts, including a 3rd and 11 and 3rd and 17. The problem is that the Colts and Dolphins aren't exactly the Patriots, 49ers or Texans, so it skews the stats.

[SpikedLemonade]

You can see from the responses just how much has to be done, how far away we are from contending and why it is going to take yet another 2 years even with competent management/coaching that we do not currently have.

[BLeonard]

I've answered this before... Unfortunately, as a GM, I wouldn't have he power to remove the people who, IMO, are the ones really holding the Bills back. Those people include Ralph Wilson, Russ Brandon and Jeff Littman.

But, since I'm the GM and can't remove those people, here's what I would do... For me, it's two simple steps:

Step One:

The first thing I would do would be to get Bill Cowher on the phone. After all, we were told that it was Cowher that suggested Gailey for Head Coach. The two have worked together before, why not see if there is a way to have them work together in some capacity again? If not, I ask Cowher what it would take to take over the Head Coaching job and do what it takes to get him in the doors or OBD, even if that means canning Gailey tomorrow. I then give Cowher the keys to the Kingdom and do anything that he requests. He wants a Free Agent? I get him. Trade? Make it happen.

Step Two: (And, this is what will change things at OBD, regardless of how successful any or all of step one is)

If, at ANY TIME I have ANY SORT of interference from ANYONE in the Front Office regarding ANYTHING I go public with the issue... and, I go public EVERY TIME there is ANY interference from above. ESPN and NFL Network have cameras on everywhere 24/7. I'm certain that they would love to give me a live mic so I could tell the world (and more importantly, Bills fans) "Hey, I want Bill Cowher in here, but Jeff Littman and Russ Brandon don't think he's worth the money he wants." Or, "Well, Coach wants us to sign Plaxico Burress, so that we have another threat at WR, but Ralph, Russ and Jeff say that that would cut to much into profits this year." In short, I make the people who I REALLY think are the problem (and have been the problem for some time) accountable.

Now, I realize that I probably would be fired pretty quickly, but it likely would only take one incident as described above, to expose the people in the organization for the shams that they are. That would damn near FORCE them to do something to prevent fans from coming to OBD with torches and pitchforks. Even after getting fired, I'd be on ESPN, NFLN and any other station that carries sports telling anyone who would listen exactly how things are really run at One Bills Drive.

THAT, my fellow Bills fans, I believe would do more for this franchise than any change at any position (including QB) or coach would do at this stage of the game. Pulling back the curtain and exposing the "Great Oz" (Wilson, Brandon & Littman) for what they really are.

-Bill

[Lone Stranger]

Obviously not a lot can be done at this point. Most of the above comments have appropriately suggested the necessary long-term changes. In the interim put Tavaris Jackson behind center. I think he can throw the ball more that 10 yards and occasionally hit a receiver. From what I can gather Gailey wants to live or die with Fitz; therfore, Chan is the first to go. I'm willing to give Wanny a little longer look, at least to the end of the season.

[Bangarang]

Right now, in the midst of the season? I would play Tarvaris Jackson for the remainder of the year to remove any lingering thoughts that he is a potential franchise guy.

Are you saying there are people out there that have lingering thoughts that he is a franchise guy?

[IlluminatusUIUC]

Are you saying there are people out there that have lingering thoughts that he is a franchise guy?

We gave Fitzpatrick a multi-year deal after like 6 quality games. The absolute LAST thing I want is for us to re-sign TJax because of his starting experience, and then use him to justify not taking a QB high.

[trapezeus]

Are you saying there are people out there that have lingering thoughts that he is a franchise guy?


no, but we all know the bills will use this as the fitz replacement if they absolutely have to get rid of him. and they'll tell us all the sob stories on how he just hasn't gotten the right chance. and we'll waste another year when 100% of Bills fans know the guy isn't the guy.

we've sacrificed 13 seasons for this magical "next year". So at this point, if you 7-4, like this team actually played. remember they let two pats games go and a titan game. The could have lost arizona, they might have had something vs houston if they were on a roll. they could have easily won indy if they had a clue.

talent is on the team now in small factions. they fact they blew it to be 4-7 when they could be 7-4 is enough for me to say we need to lose this year. we know what we hvae with fitz. the playoffs are gone. exhaust all the options on this roster right now and put everyone on notice. this is it. you don't succeed in these 6 game,s you won't be here. and that starts with t jax. throw him out there, let's watch him fail and let's know that QB is one of our highest priorities whether through draft of FA. There should be zero reason that these 3 guys are on the bills roster next year.

[BLeonard]

We gave Fitzpatrick a multi-year deal after like 6 quality games. The absolute LAST thing I want is for us to re-sign TJax because of his starting experience, and then use him to justify not taking a QB high.

This is EXACTLY why I'd like to see him play some this year... If he doesn't, I could very easily see the Bills dump Fitz and try to sell Tavaris Jackson as "The Man."

Keep in mind, they did damn near the EXACT same thing last year, by saying that Wannstedt wasn't running the defense in 2011... Because, if he was, fans wouldn't have bought him as the DC to replace George Edwards this year... Looking at the defense between this year and last, I'd say that, even with much more talent, there's been zero to little improvement and that Wannstedt was indeed more involved in running the defense last year than the Bills would ever admit.

-Bill

[BillsFever21]

2 tds...Bess pass from Tannehill, Ty Hilton from Luck. BUF has been outscored 32-34 in that two-game split...that's reduced to 25 - 20 if you subtract the 3 return tds. They have yet to beat a team with a winning record as of week #11. What would their record be without the cupcake schedule handed to them this season? And coming up? The only club with a winning record foreseeable is SEA, and when they play outside their hometown noise machine, they are 1 and 5.

Other than Freddie, BUF has a terribly weak bench. And that's been so for some time. I think you could cut all of them and the waiver wire wouldn't utter a burp. I suppose someone would pick up TJ Graham out of curiosity.

I can't see how a new staff will resurrect this mess.

We also only beat one team with a winning record last season when we won the Patriots game. We beat a couple 8-8 teams in the Eagles who had to win their last several games just to reach 8-8 and the Broncos. That is absolutely pathetic.

[mjt328]

1) Change Up the Coaching Staff
Obviously, I would fire Chan Gailey and the current coaching staff. As a replacement, I would focus first on experienced head coaches with strong winning backgrounds - which I feel are "less risky" than promoting a coordinator from another team or pulling someone up from the college ranks. My first two choices would be Bill Cowher and Marty Schottenheimer. Second tier would be guys like Tony Dungy, Andy Reid, Jon Gruden and Brian Billick.

2) Re-Sign Free Agents
It baffles my mind that Jairus Byrd and Andy Levitre have not been re-signed yet. These two must be retained, even if it requires the franchise tag. I would also present a fair offer to Kraig Urbik. Leodis McKelvin can stay for a returner specialist salary.

3) Finally Address Quarterback
Ryan Fitzpatrick would be given the option to restructure his contract and remain as a backup, or get his walking papers. Depending on what happens with Fitz, I may choose to seek out veteran help in free agency or explore trading options for a guy like Alex Smith. Quarterback would then be my #1 priority in the draft. Once my scouts identified who we wanted, I would do anything and everything to make 100% sure we got him...even if it required trading up in the draft. Depending on the players available, I would strongly consider drafting a second prospect in the middle rounds.

4) Upgrade Linebackers
This position not only has a HUGE shortage of talent, but also a lack of guys comfortable in the 4-3 defense. All three spots would be a priority in free agency. Even if we don't add a bunch of Pro Bowlers, it would make a huge difference to get veterans comfortable in our scheme. A couple names that have caught my eye are Rey Maualuga (MLB, Cincinnati) and Daryl Smith (OLB, Jacksonville). I would also look to address this position as early as the 2nd round of the draft. I really like Nick Barnett, but he doesn't fit the 4-3, so he hits the trading block.

5) Throw Money at Another Wide Receiver
I would go after Dwayne Bowe or Mike Wallace in free agency.

6) Salary Cap Casualties
To be a player in free agency, you have to admit your mistakes and cut your losses. Dumping Chris Kelsay and Brad Smith are the obvious choices. I already mentioned Nick Barnett.
George Wilson and Terrence McGee have done nothing lately and could be let go.

[Bert102176]

all the coaches FIRED get a training staff, trade fred jackson for a second rd pick or late first I would do anything it took to get a high quality Coach like a Bill Cowher or Jon Gruden would give them what ever they wanted I would make sure we drafted the LBer from ND and then make sure we get our franchise QB we have needed since Jimbo retired, yes we had Drew and Doug but they were only here a couple of years each I would get a QB that would be here 15 years maybe a T.J. Yates, kirk Cousins, if the 49ers don't make Colin Kaepernick their starter I would go after 1 of those 3 and draft another and keep tarvaris jackson, try to get another starting LBer along with the ND guy and Nigel bradham get a number 2 WR a couple of more OLmen and a CB or 2 and a s to replace George Wilson cut kirk morrison and bring back tank carder.

[ZAZusmc03]

all the coaches FIRED get a training staff, trade fred jackson for a second rd pick or late first I would do anything it took to get a high quality Coach like a Bill Cowher or Jon Gruden would give them what ever they wanted I would make sure we drafted the LBer from ND and then make sure we get our franchise QB we have needed since Jimbo retired, yes we had Drew and Doug but they were only here a couple of years each I would get a QB that would be here 15 years maybe a T.J. Yates, kirk Cousins, if the 49ers don't make Colin Kaepernick their starter I would go after 1 of those 3 and draft another and keep tarvaris jackson, try to get another starting LBer along with the ND guy and Nigel bradham get a number 2 WR a couple of more OLmen and a CB or 2 and a s to replace George Wilson cut kirk morrison and bring back tank carder.

This was almost impossible to read.

[The Jokeman]

Revamp our entire college scouting staff. Try and find out how and why we keep taking guys like Aaron Williams, Torrell Troup and Alex Carringtons in the early part and they produce next to nothing. Then dig deeper and see any players drafted after Round 3 since 2008 make a significant contribution outside of Stevie Johnson.

[coastal]

I would never take the job.. because its a non-starter.

[Mouldsie]

Remove Wannstedt. Explore HC options.... Vic Fangio & Chip Kelly atop the list.

Free Agency: Release Tyler Thigpen. Bring in Josh Johnson, Mike Kafka, and Stephen McGee for tryouts and sign one or two. Try out kickers and sign one. Sign John Conner. Put in a claim for Rolando McClain to see what his deal is.

Ask Bill Polian to be a consultant.

Extend Levitre and Byrd. Give Kyle Moore a contract.

Move Aaron Williams to Safety.

Cut Fitz at the end of the year (would be hard to keep him on as a backup). Explore trade options for veteran QB's (Alex Smith, Tony Romo, Philip Rivers, Mike Vick). Move veterans who are not in long terms plans for picks where possible.

Draft:
1) Manti Teo
2) Tyler Wilson/Zac Dysert/Ryan Nassib
3-6) Take trade down opportunities while stock-piling DL and CB

Become a run-oriented team, I'd even put in an offer sheet on a guy like Chris Ivory for 3 headed attack.

Use free agency to add leadership and role players mainly but if I spend big money it will be for Mike Wallace or Dwayne Bowe and possibly Brent Grimes.



And perhaps my most underrated item: Completely re-vamp the S&C staff, add a John Berardi approved nutritionist, Hire full time sports massage therapist and sports psychologist. Give all draft eligible athletes personality examinations similar to the NY Giants and track data over the years to find correlations to scores in certain areas vs NFL success.... but start with giving added weight to people who score well on optimism. This franchise and this city requires a lot of mental strength and self starters.

[BertSquirtgum]

First thing I'd do is fire Gailey and let David Lee run the offense the rest of the season and Wannstadt would be interim head coach. Gailey should not be calling any offensive calls now. He is a complete idiot. "I question myself all the time" - Chan Gailey. **** you Chan.