The New Bills

[Turf]

Imagine for a second. Pegula walks into the locker room to introduce himself. The players suddenly realize this is not the same old Bills, this is a new era. An era where the owner won't hold back to bring and keep talent in place. Its a new day in Buffalo sports indeed once this happens. And when the players of the NFL hear about it, the days of overpaying for FA's are over, because they know that the owner is going for it. No more penny pinching, no more bad reputation. Truly a new future for Buffalo sports across the board. Fantastic news once it happens. The new Bills, and potentially, new Buffalo.

[Fletch]

Re: The New Bills

If he keeps Whaley and the same front office that would be a conflicting message.

Pegula won't run the team, he'll own it.

You, we, had better hope for new management. Get rid of Whaley, Overdorf, Littman, Mary Owen, Brandon, and most if not all of the scouting staff. Scouts are cheap and easily gotten. Clearly ours haven't done a good job.

Just because we have an ownership change doesn't mean that real change is coming. Look at Washington and Dallas. Snyder went into Washington if you'll recall, and lectured the world on how running a football team was no different than running a business, and look at the results. Better than us, but not by much. Similar in Dallas.

[Night Train]

Re: The New Bills

Pegula better not yell " Where's Perreault ! "

[Turf]

Re: The New Bills

My biggest concern is that he will do the status quo thing again, but I think he learned from the Sabres.

[casdhf]

Re: The New Bills

Regardless, I think everyone at least gets through the season. No way he comes in and just blows it up now.

[Skooby]

Re: The New Bills

If we continue to win, Pegs better not change a thing.

[Turf]

Re: The New Bills

He's a level headed guy, once he had a grip on what was going on he made the correct changes, and good ones. Murrays a beast of a GM.

[Historian]

Re: The New Bills

He didn't blow up the Sabres, what makes anyone think he would do that to the Bills?

[trapezeus]

Re: The New Bills

pegula seems to have done this by the book. he hired a consultant who is experienced in such purchases. and i think he's probably got a consultant telling him how theorganization needs to shape up.

i could see pegula letting whaley and brandon stay through the year. once the offseason comes clean house and have permission to speak to whoever will listen.

Pegula will have the opportunity to ride a season of goodwill regardless of performance. he didn't do any of this. no one will hold him accountable for it. So if the bills go on a miracle run, he'll get credit. and if they go 1-15, no one will say, "oh pegula you screwed us".

So fast change is not in his benefit.

[Jry44]

Re: The New Bills

He didn't blow up the Sabres, what makes anyone think he would do that to the Bills?

Exactly. He gave Reiger the opportunity to go out and spend to build a winneer for the first time in Reigers career as the Sabres GM. Reiger failed miserably and was fired as a result. He gave the guy a legit chance to keep his job. Once he didn't succeed, Pegula wasted no time in making the right move and moving on. The future now looks to be very bright for the Sabres. I can not wait for him to do the same with the Bills!

But as you said..... Whaley and Marrone will for sure be given the chance to prove themselves at first. Those who are expecting Pegula to come in and clean house immeidately are going to be dissappointed. And it's the right thing to do on Pegulas part. However if a dumpster fire ensues like what Reiger did with the Sabres, Pegula will not hesitate to move on.

You don't become a multi-billionare but not making sound business decisions.

[Meathead]

Re: The New Bills

100% guarantee pegula would keep the current mgmt structure at least through the 2015 season

why? bc its the smart thing to do

pegula is a smart bidnessman and its completely insane for any new owner to come in and clean house right away. how do you know you dont already have excellent talent if you dont let it stick around to observe it up close for a while? whatever you see from the public eye has virtually nothing to do with how you will perceive them once you get to watch them up close

further, the bills went to great pains to acquire and develop whaley for the critical gm job. he comes from a very successful steeler franchise. so far hes been impressive in the short period hes been in charge. its going to take another two seasons minimum to see if his approach is going to work, it would be silly to throw all that away just to bring some other unknown

brandons job is also safe thru next season. in a classically depressed small market, hes kept the stadium filled even when the product has been crappy. he has immense knowledge of the entire bills operation like nobody else alive, which would be extremely valuable to a new owner. even if terry wants to eventually have his own guy(s) in there, he can keep brandon around to either suck all that knowledge out of him or simply keep him on in some similar albeit more limited capacity than team president

after 1.5 decades of frustration im sure the masses are going to be calling for everybody and ralphs mother to be thrown to the abbott road curb but that would be stupid. terry isnt stupid so put on your whiner pants and get ready for at least another season of nappy and the bean

[stuckincincy]

Re: The New Bills

If we continue to win, Pegs better not change a thing.

That's right. The "Shout" song will be replaced with this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9nq34mISKUo

[Jry44]

Re: The New Bills

100% guarantee pegula would keep the current mgmt structure at least through the 2015 season

why? bc its the smart thing to do

pegula is a smart bidnessman and its completely insane for any new owner to come in and clean house right away. how do you know you dont already have excellent talent if you dont let it stick around to observe it up close for a while? whatever you see from the public eye has virtually nothing to do with how you will perceive them once you get to watch them up close

further, the bills went to great pains to acquire and develop whaley for the critical gm job. he comes from a very successful steeler franchise. so far hes been impressive in the short period hes been in charge. its going to take another two seasons minimum to see if his approach is going to work, it would be silly to throw all that away just to bring some other unknown

brandons job is also safe thru next season. in a classically depressed small market, hes kept the stadium filled even when the product has been crappy. he has immense knowledge of the entire bills operation like nobody else alive, which would be extremely valuable to a new owner. even if terry wants to eventually have his own guy(s) in there, he can keep brandon around to either suck all that knowledge out of him or simply keep him on in some similar albeit more limited capacity than team president

after 1.5 decades of frustration im sure the masses are going to be calling for everybody and ralphs mother to be thrown to the abbott road curb but that would be stupid. terry isnt stupid so put on your whiner pants and get ready for at least another season of nappy and the bean

Creepy avatar aside, I feel like this post is 100% spot on! Your third paragraph is absolutely correct and makes some excellent points about Whaley.

[Jry44]

Re: The New Bills

That's right. The "Shout" song will be replaced with this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9nq34mISKUo

As Wagoncircler said.... I hope it's replaced with nothing but Bon Jovi songs while pictures of the city of Toronto are displayed on the big screen during "livin on a prayer".

[JohnnyGold]

Re: The New Bills

If he keeps Whaley and the same front office that would be a conflicting message.

Pegula won't run the team, he'll own it.

You, we, had better hope for new management. Get rid of Whaley, Overdorf, Littman, Mary Owen, Brandon, and most if not all of the scouting staff. Scouts are cheap and easily gotten. Clearly ours haven't done a good job.

Just because we have an ownership change doesn't mean that real change is coming. Look at Washington and Dallas. Snyder went into Washington if you'll recall, and lectured the world on how running a football team was no different than running a business, and look at the results. Better than us, but not by much. Similar in Dallas.

Agree 100%.

I get so tired of people saying that Russ Brandon should be retained because he did such a good job marketing the Bills. He has done a terrible job. To wit:

1) Moved the training camp to St. John Fisher (his alma mater) in 2000. The Bills haven't made the playoffs since, and the organization is generally disregarded by the rest of the league. Is the stench of the Bills and the location of their training camp connected? Unlikely, but still--if you were an NFL player, right out of college, or maybe 2-3 years in the league, would you want to leave your house for a month and stay in crappy college dorms in a small ass town? You just did that for your college career! Why not have training camp in Vegas for a month, or Tokyo, Rome, London. Give these guys a chance to do something different. Or, have them stay in freshmen dorms and get in fights with each other all summer.

2) Games in Toronto. We want to keep Russ because he gave away a home game a year? OK...

3) Why is there this running narrative that he "grew the fanbase". It's the NFL--it's growing by itself. I want to see just what Russ has done to grow the fanbase these last 14 years. Every NFL team has "grown" it's fanbase. What's our year over year attendance?

4) Still can't sell out games in November/December... to me, this is the biggest mark against him. If you're a marketing genius, get people to come out in the cold to watch a home game with a team that's bad. But you can't. IF YOU COULD, you would be a marketing genius worth retaining. With that not being the case--goodbye.


As for Whaley, I'd be interested to see how this season plays out first. I have seen nothing yet to make me think he should get fired. We are deeper, we are bigger, we are faster... but we're not better... yet. Maybe this is the year. If not--good bye to him too. Let the new coach (Cowher) either pick his GM, or be the GM.