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For the first time in three decades, Buddy Nix wasn't on site to watch the close of the NFL combine Tuesday in Indianapolis. He instead viewed it from his Ooltewah home, content that endless television coverage and the detailed data he received each evening would suffice.
For the first time in three decades, Buddy Nix wasn't on site to watch the close of the NFL combine Tuesday in Indianapolis. He instead viewed it from his Ooltewah home, content that endless television coverage and the detailed data he received each evening would suffice. "A man flies 250,000 miles a year for 10 to 12 years, that's enough," said Nix, who semi-retired from the Buffalo Bills nine months ago, going from general manager to special assistant.
I remember that one fateful day when Coach took me aside. I knew what was coming. "You don't have to tell me," I said. "I'm off the team, aren't I?" "Well," said Coach, "you never were really ON the team. You made that uniform you're wearing out of rags and towels, and your helmet is a toy space helmet. You show up at practice and then either steal the ball and make us chase you to get it back, or you try to tackle people at inappropriate times."
It was all true what he was saying. And yet, I thought something is brewing inside the head of this Coach.
He sees something in me, some kind of raw talent that he can mold. But that's when I felt the handcuffs go on.
Why don't they just pay him to do nothing and just go away? I hope his report on the next T.J. Graham is thrown in the circular file upon its arrival at 1 Bills Drive. The fact that he left the team in worse shape than when he came in says a lot. If you think it's in better shape go look at the record. :
The 4 Pre-Nix years
2006
2006 NFL AFC East 3rd 7 9 0
2007
2007 NFL AFC East 2nd 7 9 0
2008
2008 NFL AFC East 4th 7 9 0
2009
2009 NFL AFC East 4th 6 10 0
Total 27-37 pretty bad but...
The 4 Nix/post Nix years
2010
2010 NFL AFC East 4th 4 12 0
2011
2011 NFL AFC East 4th 6 10 0
2012
2012 NFL AFC East 4th 6 10 0
2013
2013 NFL AFC East 4th 6 10 0
Total 22-42. 5 games worse than the 4 years before he came. You are what your record says you are. Now contrast that with Seattle:
2006
2006 NFL NFC West 1st 9 7 0 Won Wild Card Playoffs (Cowboys) 21–20
Lost Divisional Playoffs (Bears) 24–27 (OT)
2007
2007 NFL NFC West 1st 10 6 0 Won Wild Card Playoffs (Redskins) 35–14
Lost Divisional Playoffs (Packers) 20–42
2008
2008 NFL NFC West 3rd 4 12 0
2009
2009 NFL NFC West 3rd 5 11 0
2010
2010 NFL NFC West 1st 7 9 0 Won Wild Card Playoffs (Saints) 41–36
Lost Divisional Playoffs (Bears) 24–35
2011
2011 NFL NFC West 3rd 7 9 0
2012
2012 NFL NFC West 2nd 11 5 0 Won Wild Card Playoffs (Redskins) 24–14
Lost Divisional Playoffs (Falcons) 28–30
2013
2013 NFL NFC West 1st 13 3 0 Won Divisional Playoffs (Saints) 23–15
Won Conference Championship (49ers) 23–17
Won Super Bowl XLVIII (Broncos) 43–8
Seattle started off (2006) in better shape but in the last 2 years before the John Schneider/Pete Carroll regime comes in they're worse than the Bills. However, instead of continuing to be worse, they build a Super Bowl Champion in 4 years. Buddy Nix couldn't even build a .500 team! I'm tired of all the Buddy Nix apologists. His post SD tenure with the team was a complete failure. You play to win the Super Bowl, not 6 games a season.
Well I will disagree with the Nix made this team worse statement.
I think he has improved the quality of talent on this team especially on defense and I think he set us up for a nice long sustained successful run. We saw last year the Defense has a chance to be elite, and if EJ can just be a top 15 QB we should be in the playoffs.
I think in 10 years we will look back on Nix and thank him for getting BLO back on the right track.
Nix took a lower profile approach to building the team, mostly in the draft with the occasional splash in FA. Now we're not rebuilt we all know that.
But in all honesty I prefer his approach than that of the Dolphins who acquired like 11 FA's in two weeks last year.
I remember that one fateful day when Coach took me aside. I knew what was coming. "You don't have to tell me," I said. "I'm off the team, aren't I?" "Well," said Coach, "you never were really ON the team. You made that uniform you're wearing out of rags and towels, and your helmet is a toy space helmet. You show up at practice and then either steal the ball and make us chase you to get it back, or you try to tackle people at inappropriate times."
It was all true what he was saying. And yet, I thought something is brewing inside the head of this Coach.
He sees something in me, some kind of raw talent that he can mold. But that's when I felt the handcuffs go on.
10 years from now, if I'm still alive, I'll be thanking Nix for getting the **** out of the way in 2013 and letting the team get back on the right track. His mistakes, from passing on too many franchise QBs in favor of Ryan Fitzpatrick, to not drafting any player of consequence beyond the 2nd round is indefensible. A kid in his parent's basement with a copy of the draft guide of his choice could have drafted as well as Nix did. What was he doing in the later parts of the draft beyond sleeping? Just dumb luck would get a team at least 1 good late rounder in 4 years, Nix totally struck out on that.
10 years from now, if I'm still alive, I'll be thanking Nix for getting the **** out of the way in 2013 and letting the team get back on the right track. His mistakes, from passing on too many franchise QBs in favor of Ryan Fitzpatrick, to not drafting any player of consequence beyond the 2nd round is indefensible. A kid in his parent's basement with a copy of the draft guide of his choice could have drafted as well as Nix did. What was he doing in the later parts of the draft beyond sleeping? Just dumb luck would get a team at least 1 good late rounder in 4 years, Nix totally struck out on that.
Nix drafted, Dareus, Gilmore, and EJ, if those guys are three key components of our turn around then you will have to thank Nix.
I too am glad about Whaley and the new front office, hopefully they prove to not be liars and keep our young drafted players in Buffalo.
Nix was a failure. The team went backwards. and while i think the general vibe of bills fandom improved because the team didn't make the same annoying mistake week in and week out, it did, undeniably get worse. Why he has any input on this team links nicely to the tim graham story. The clowns at the top don't care. it's nicer to pay below market rates for a nix or a jauron, than it is to pay market rates for a great guy who still just might not win a championship.
these guys are wimps.
The nice thing about nix was that he didn't completely blow his first round picks. there was some decent play from these guys. None have set the world on fire, but they are good players that would be in the NFL. Meanwhile Jauron had guys who potentially shouldn't be on an NFL team, the team's first pick. and to boot, they decided to give more money to that guy on his holdout.
And while i don't think the guys are malicious, i do think when you are at an organization for 30 years, chances are you say the words, "that's the way we do it here." and there is no better explanation. and with no shareholders other than the president of the company to answer to, it's pretty easy to see why this team is spinning its wheels.
the bills have decided to pay consultant fees to nix to watch the NFL channel. How many of us would love that gig? and if you get it wrong, don't worry about it.
The clowns at the top don't care. it's nicer to pay below market rates for a nix or a jauron, than it is to pay market rates for a great guy who still just might not win a championship.
Actually Ralph didn't want Jauron. Levy talked Ralph into hiring him.
As for Nix, he didn't have a choice with Gailey. Nobody then wanted to take the bills' job. We shall see what happens with the Marrone era. Nix gets the credit for whatever happens with Marrone.
Nix was a failure. The team went backwards. and while i think the general vibe of bills fandom improved because the team didn't make the same annoying mistake week in and week out, it did, undeniably get worse. Why he has any input on this team links nicely to the tim graham story. The clowns at the top don't care. it's nicer to pay below market rates for a nix or a jauron, than it is to pay market rates for a great guy who still just might not win a championship.
these guys are wimps.
The nice thing about nix was that he didn't completely blow his first round picks. there was some decent play from these guys. None have set the world on fire, but they are good players that would be in the NFL. Meanwhile Jauron had guys who potentially shouldn't be on an NFL team, the team's first pick. and to boot, they decided to give more money to that guy on his holdout.
And while i don't think the guys are malicious, i do think when you are at an organization for 30 years, chances are you say the words, "that's the way we do it here." and there is no better explanation. and with no shareholders other than the president of the company to answer to, it's pretty easy to see why this team is spinning its wheels.
the bills have decided to pay consultant fees to nix to watch the NFL channel. How many of us would love that gig? and if you get it wrong, don't worry about it.
Nix has gotten a hit on more draft picks than misses
Spiller and Carrington are good players and they started and he got them in the first 3 rounds. Troup was a miss, but Easley and Moats have been decent special teams guys. If you are expecting studs out of rounds 4 or later I have nothing to say to you.
Darues, Williams are starters and studs. Shepard was nothing great but he did get us Jerry Hughes who got 10 sacks, but while here was a slightly below average starter. Chris White was a good special teams guy for 6th round. Chris Hairston and Searcy are unknowns but Searcy is a decent special teams tackler
Gilmore and Glenn are studs. Graham can run fast and beats his guy but we had no one to throw him the ball. Bradham, Brooks and Asper are unknowns.
This past draft has potentially landed us 3 three impact starters (Ej, Woods, Kiko), Goodwin and Gragg could be good role players with their speed and catching. Williams, Meeks, and Hopkins no idea.
All in all this is much better than teams in our division or most teams have done in recent draft history.
All in all this is much better than teams in our division or most teams have done in recent draft history.
Yet once again we are in last place in our division, looking up at the Pats, Jets and Fish and smelling their asses.
I wish the homers here would just be honest and say they don't expect for the Bills to be a contender again anytime soon and are just happy there is NFL football still in Buffalo.
This team did not go backwards under Nix. We dumped the perennial 7-9 team and drafted better and we have more talent than we've had since the Bledsoe years and that's without going all out for free agents like Donahoe did. The one thing that Nix should take a hit for is his allegiance to the Gailey/Fitzpatrick marriage and failure to draft a QB.
This team did not go backwards under Nix. We dumped the perennial 7-9 team
Now we're just a perennial 6-10 team under his direction. Great improvement there.
Just because it was more exciting to watch then "Dick Ball" doesn't mean we're better. The only thing that matters are wins and losses. Whether we're better prepared for the future is a different issue. I wouldn't call 4 years of losing with the possibility of a better team in the future a success for a GM in a league where teams can go from 3 win teams to playoff contenders in a couple years.
Now we're just a perennial 6-10 team under his direction. Great improvement there.
Just because it was more exciting to watch then "Dick Ball" doesn't mean we're better. The only thing that matters are wins and losses. Whether we're better prepared for the future is a different issue. I wouldn't call 4 years of losing with the possibility of a better team in the future a success for a GM in a league where teams can go from 3 win teams to playoff contenders in a couple years.
This team was miss managed missed tons of draft picks and was old when nix inherited the team.
We were the jags his first year and we all knew it.
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