Shutdown Countdown: Buffalo Bills desperate to end playoff drought

[Fletch]

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nfl-shutdown-corner/shutdown-countdown--buffalo-bills-desperate-to-end-playoff-drought-161416210.html

Haven't read it yet so I don't know what it says.

They have us ranked 27th in the preseason rankings however, ahead of Jax, Oakland, Washington, Cleveland, and Minnesota.

[trapezeus]

Re: Shutdown Countdown: Buffalo Bills desperate to end playoff drought

the sabres get praise for rebuilding methodically and within reason. They are seen as smart for not trying to do too much too quickly.

The bills are doing exactly the opposite. Just throwing draft picks away to win now. but with no rhyme or reason and with little hope for continued growth.

i think the article is spot on. The bills are all in on hailmary draft to simply make the playoffs. they aren't close enough to be a SB team. they should have stuck it out at their spot and continued to build. They are all in now. And frankly, we all know the goal is to simply be entertaining, not to win a championship. And to that extent they overpaid for such a low bar.

what is sad is the article doesn't make the logical leap. It says that in a league of parity, the bills are an anomoly. And they don't really delve into why. And it should. it all comes back to having a power structure that is perfectly content with a low payroll, modelled profits from the tickets they do sell and then just hand the masses a ****ty team. they like it this way. It won't change unless the new owner wants to change that model.

[Mike]

Re: Shutdown Countdown: Buffalo Bills desperate to end playoff drought

I've been saying it for years.

The Bills are a business and they are very good at what they do! In 2009 they had a top. 9 profits! Made more than Jets, Dols and 21other teams!


To really put it perspective, the reason why they make so much in profits inspite of cheapest tickets in NFL, lack of luxury suites and a small market is because they save so much on payroll. With their cash to cap philosophy, each year they pocket about $20M from payroll!

With such a cheap payroll in every part of the structure from, FO to head coaches to players, you can only expect a mediocre product and that is exactly what they have been. The most mediocre product in the NFL !!!


No playoffs in 15 years was not simply an annomly but the result of the Bills' business system.

[better days]

Re: Shutdown Countdown: Buffalo Bills desperate to end playoff drought

I've been saying it for years.

The Bills are a business and they are very good at what they do! In 2009 they had a top. 9 profits! Made more than Jets, Dols and 21other teams!


To really put it perspective, the reason why they make so much in profits inspite of cheapest tickets in NFL, lack of luxury suites and a small market is because they save so much on payroll. With their cash to cap philosophy, each year they pocket about $20M from payroll!

With such a cheap payroll in every part of the structure from, FO to head coaches to players, you can only expect a mediocre product and that is exactly what they have been. The most mediocre product in the NFL !!!


No playoffs in 15 years was not simply an annomly but the result of the Bills' business system.

Yeah, the fact Ralph owned the Bills lock stock & barrel & had no real expenses had NOTHING to do with profit.

[justasportsfan]

Re: Shutdown Countdown: Buffalo Bills desperate to end playoff drought

the sabres get praise for rebuilding methodically and within reason. They are seen as smart for not trying to do too much too quickly.

The bills are doing exactly the opposite. Just throwing draft picks away to win now. but with no rhyme or reason and with little hope for continued growth.

i think the article is spot on. The bills are all in on hailmary draft to simply make the playoffs. they aren't close enough to be a SB team. they should have stuck it out at their spot and continued to build. They are all in now. And frankly, we all know the goal is to simply be entertaining, not to win a championship. And to that extent they overpaid for such a low bar.

I wouldn't go as far as doing the opposite of what the sabres are doing because the bills arent using their picks to acquire FA's. The are still trying to build via the draft. Their rhyme and reason is still building via the draft by drafting the player who they thought was the best player in the last draft. We may not agree with what they are doing , but they do have their reasons and part of that is the bill shave a GM and coach that needed to win now to impress the incoming owner.

[trapezeus]

Re: Shutdown Countdown: Buffalo Bills desperate to end playoff drought

ralph's cash to cap gave them plenty of revenue and limited the expenses. they knew their market. buffalo fans aren't going anywhere. we love the punishment, we are terrified of losing the team. frankly, the only thing they messed up was thinking brandon is the only guy who can do this. it got to the point where almost everyone knew that it was a shell game. they kept moving the pieces around so that you don't notice the ball is off the table. if they just canned him and moved to another guy, we would have just kept thinking we were snakebitten.

but we know much better. this isn't an outlier with no answer. the team stinks because that's how they want it. they know they can get their profit from the model they run. if they try and be good, the cost may outstrip the chance they don't get far enough.

that's the culture they always are trying to change. the loser attitude that is at the very top. hopefully new ownership has a pair and says, "we can have a much larger audience if we win and we win with style."

[trapezeus]

Re: Shutdown Countdown: Buffalo Bills desperate to end playoff drought

I wouldn't go as far as doing the opposite of what the sabres are doing because the bills arent using their picks to acquire FA's. The are still trying to build via the draft. Their rhyme and reason is still building via the draft by drafting the player who they thought was the best player in the last draft. We may not agree with what they are doing , but they do have their reasons and part of that is the bill shave a GM and coach that needed to win now to impress the incoming owner.

agreed. it's not exactly the same. i also see that the non football reason is to generate buzz and get fans in the seats to help the transition of the sale but if their gamble doesn't work out, and statistically i don't think the odds are with them, it's going to take some time for the new GM and hopefully new president to sort out.

if its pegula, he'll make you do it the right way, but we could be waiting 4-5 years again.

[better days]

Re: Shutdown Countdown: Buffalo Bills desperate to end playoff drought

agreed. it's not exactly the same. i also see that the non football reason is to generate buzz and get fans in the seats to help the transition of the sale but if their gamble doesn't work out, and statistically i don't think the odds are with them, it's going to take some time for the new GM and hopefully new president to sort out.

if its pegula, he'll make you do it the right way, but we could be waiting 4-5 years again.

I think EJ was going to get three years anyway. If he does not pan out, the Bills will have a new QB by 2016.

If Watkins was the best player in the draft as Whaley thinks, he will be well worth the picks the Bills gave up to get him.

[IlluminatusUIUC]

Re: Shutdown Countdown: Buffalo Bills desperate to end playoff drought

the sabres get praise for rebuilding methodically and within reason. They are seen as smart for not trying to do too much too quickly.

The bills are doing exactly the opposite. Just throwing draft picks away to win now. but with no rhyme or reason and with little hope for continued growth.

i think the article is spot on. The bills are all in on hailmary draft to simply make the playoffs. they aren't close enough to be a SB team. they should have stuck it out at their spot and continued to build. They are all in now. And frankly, we all know the goal is to simply be entertaining, not to win a championship. And to that extent they overpaid for such a low bar.

what is sad is the article doesn't make the logical leap. It says that in a league of parity, the bills are an anomoly. And they don't really delve into why. And it should. it all comes back to having a power structure that is perfectly content with a low payroll, modelled profits from the tickets they do sell and then just hand the masses a ****ty team. they like it this way. It won't change unless the new owner wants to change that model.

You can't build a football team the way you build a hockey team. You don't control the players nearly as long, and you draft them far more game-ready. The Sabres are building the way they are because they have to.

Why should the Bills keep getting the benefit of five year plans? As recently as 2010, the NFC west was such **** that they sent the first losing team ever to make the playoffs as their champion. Now they are unquestionably the best division in football and boast the defending champs. The problem with Buffalo missing the playoffs has gone down to them repeatedly letting their own talent walk and then chasing what they lost with more high picks. That, and the fact that we share a division with a perennial juggernaut who whups our asses twice a year.

[PromoTheRobot]

Re: Shutdown Countdown: Buffalo Bills desperate to end playoff drought

the sabres get praise for rebuilding methodically and within reason. They are seen as smart for not trying to do too much too quickly.

The bills are doing exactly the opposite. Just throwing draft picks away to win now. but with no rhyme or reason and with little hope for continued growth.

i think the article is spot on. The bills are all in on hailmary draft to simply make the playoffs. they aren't close enough to be a SB team. they should have stuck it out at their spot and continued to build. They are all in now. And frankly, we all know the goal is to simply be entertaining, not to win a championship. And to that extent they overpaid for such a low bar.

what is sad is the article doesn't make the logical leap. It says that in a league of parity, the bills are an anomoly. And they don't really delve into why. And it should. it all comes back to having a power structure that is perfectly content with a low payroll, modelled profits from the tickets they do sell and then just hand the masses a ****ty team. they like it this way. It won't change unless the new owner wants to change that model.

Your head is buried in 3 feet of sand. There's plenty of sound reasoning to the Bills under Whaley. You just choose to ignore it to boost your "woe is us" mentality.

[gebobs]

Re: Shutdown Countdown: Buffalo Bills desperate to end playoff drought

There's plenty of sound reasoning to the Bills under Whaley.

The next line should start with "For instance..." or "Here are several examples".

[trapezeus]

Re: Shutdown Countdown: Buffalo Bills desperate to end playoff drought

Your head is buried in 3 feet of sand. There's plenty of sound reasoning to the Bills under Whaley. You just choose to ignore it to boost your "woe is us" mentality.

you are right, going all in on a QB who was injury prone (that's the only judgement you can make on EJ from last year. He had good games and bad games, but he was injured too much) was a great idea. And give him a WR that could easily be one of the best, but expect him to perform better than the average mean of WR coming out of college. Awesome idea! Trade Stevie for a Running back and trade for a troubled WR that has shown no signs that he plans on being on the up and up.

so that was their dealing of the offense. On defense they decided to let their best secondary player go. They lost their best player to injury who honestly seemed like a shot of adreneline.

Out of whaley's mouth isn't "we look to be a super bowl team". it's "we want to be a playoff team." To give up a first round pick on a team that had holes, and say "we did that to simply make the playoffs is not impressive." it is a pure gamble. and it could work and it will be amazing if it does. But the math and logic that homers seem to hate to hear for the last 14 years is that we are going to end up in the bottom 3rd of the NFL again and we will be giving up a pick that could have made us better on a slow rebuild.

regarding new ownership, if you bought this team, you'd want to cut brandon, you'd want to give littman a new set of marching orders of "smart contracts but money isn't an issue for us" and give whaley and marrone a chance to operate in an environment where they control their destiny. That could be 2 years to see that they don't have it. then you have to gut scouting, get a GM and let him build it up the way he wants. Let him pick a coach and give the coach 2 years to get the roster to his philosphy. that's about 4-5 years. and unlike hockey, if it works, it could work very quickly. Whereas in hockey, you can become a top 8 team, then next year, go to top 2-4, then become dominant for 2-4 years. I agree the window in football is shorter.

[justasportsfan]

Re: Shutdown Countdown: Buffalo Bills desperate to end playoff drought

The next line should start with "For instance..." or "Here are several examples".

I agree, there are no examples to cite because there are no results and for the same reason, you can't blast his moves either. Goes both ways.

[imbondz]

Re: Shutdown Countdown: Buffalo Bills desperate to end playoff drought

You can't build a football team the way you build a hockey team. You don't control the players nearly as long, and you draft them far more game-ready. The Sabres are building the way they are because they have to.

Why should the Bills keep getting the benefit of five year plans? As recently as 2010, the NFC west was such **** that they sent the first losing team ever to make the playoffs as their champion. Now they are unquestionably the best division in football and boast the defending champs. The problem with Buffalo missing the playoffs has gone down to them repeatedly letting their own talent walk and then chasing what they lost with more high picks. That, and the fact that we share a division with a perennial juggernaut who whups our asses twice a year.

Totally agree

[Mike]

Re: Shutdown Countdown: Buffalo Bills desperate to end playoff drought

Yeah, the fact Ralph owned the Bills lock stock & barrel & had no real expenses had NOTHING to do with profit.

Income - Expenses = Profit

Of course expenses play a huge role in profit.