Whaley is an excellent GM!

[HHURRICANE]

Since the Whaley bashers have gone into hiding I decided to throw my praise on Whaley. He has had to make some tough decisions as well as building a rosetr that is young, talented, and dynamic.

Some highlights:

1) Don't care what you say but trading McCoy for Kiko was an excellent decision.

2) Signing Clay. Finally the real tight end we've been looking for. Watching Chandler in that New England game was the highlight of a tough game.

3) Sending Jackson packing. Tough decision but at the end of the day it was the right one. Karlos has looked crazy good.

4) Resigning Dareus and Hughes. Good contracts and excellent value for both parties.

5) Harvin. He has looked terrific.

6) Incognito. Another terrific signing.

7) Tyrod Taylor. Yes Rex will get credit but you need a GM to sign off on these decisions.

The only decision I have to give hime crap on is Bryce Brown. I admit I am a Bryce Brown homer and wish we could have kept him over Boobie Dixon. BTW, rumor is that he might be a Jet.

Hate away!!

[psubills62]

I've been saying for the last couple years that he's done a good job filling this roster with talent. Do we remember the days of Chris Kelsay and Ryan Denney, where we couldn't find anyone year after year to replace them? We're now talking about not being able to keep all of our talent.

He's not perfect and "excellent" may be going too far, but I've seen nothing to dissuade me from believing that he's a good GM to have for the long term.

[FlyingDutchman]

Was that Whaley that did the Hughes trade or Nix?

It's great to see us actually building through the draft which is crucial to any type of long term success. We got 3 studs this year alone without a #1 pick.

[DesertFox24]

The other thing that people seem to forget is drafting.

We got Sammy, Cyrus, Preston, Randell Johnson, and Seantrell. Cyril and Ross are not that great but to get 3 starters out of any draft and potentially two more next year is huge. I have a feeling Manny and Cordy will not be on the team next year and I think Seantrell will move to Left and Cryus will battle early pick for RT, Randell will be Manny's replacement.

Additionally Darby, Miller, and Williams are good picks so far. I am also not ready to say bust to Nick O'leary I still think he can be a 10 year player and a solid number 2 TE in this league. Time will tell but I think if he can get stronger and get his blocking up to par he will beat out Mulligan for that role next year.

Additionally the other thing we need to look at with Whaley is waiver pick ups. Gray looks like he will be a decent player and decent special teams guy and that is not a bad thing. Stephan Charles, Corbin Bryant, and the MIKE LB that tore his ACL this training camp look like nice depth players and you need those guys to have a solid roster.

Bills fans know better than anyone we will have injuries and in order to stay competitive you need a good 53 not just a good 22.

All in all Bills fans should be pleased with Whaley and the front office, especially compared to the debacles of Tom Donahue, Marv Levy, the trio of levy Brandon Jauron, and even to some degree Nix. Nix was the start of the good scouting department overhaul as he fired and hired a bunch of new people, but he gets a minus from me for failing to draft any QBs that or developing them.

Whaley needs to show he and his staff can evaluate the QB position and draft a guy every year or two and develop one into a legitimate player. One just in case Tyrod shows he is not the guy this year, next year or 2017, but also if you can develop a good qb that you draft in rounds 2-5 you can usually trade them for high picks in 3 years if they develop (that is if Tyrod is a franchise guy and legit).

[DesertFox24]

Was that Whaley that did the Hughes trade or Nix?

It's great to see us actually building through the draft which is crucial to any type of long term success. We got 3 studs this year alone without a #1 pick.

Technically Nix.

Nix retired a few weeks after the draft in May and I believe the Hughes trade happened after the draft in April.

that said if you want to put EJ on Whaley then Hughes goes to Whaley as well, but I do not put EJ on Whaley so not Hughes. He gets credit for resigning him though.

[BillsOwnAll]

I always was confused why such hate for Whaley. If you look at the drafts the last 4-5 years compared to other teams drafts I bet were a top 5 team.

People here put such high standards like he needs to draft 7 starters every year. REALISTAICLY that's not possible. He's also done great at keeping players. We'll see if he can restructure a few contracts next year.

The fact is people here forgot what happens when you're a "good" team. You have many good players you need to resign not just 2-3 like we've grown accustomed to. Look at the pats. They don't resign everyone at all and seem to keep doing it. Because they draft well.

In a Whaley supporter he's made the bills not laughable. Teams see us on their schedule now and probally circle it as a harder game.

[FlyingDutchman]

The other thing that people seem to forget is drafting.

We got Sammy, Cyrus, Preston, Randell Johnson, and Seantrell. Cyril and Ross are not that great but to get 3 starters out of any draft and potentially two more next year is huge. I have a feeling Manny and Cordy will not be on the team next year and I think Seantrell will move to Left and Cryus will battle early pick for RT, Randell will be Manny's replacement.

Additionally Darby, Miller, and Williams are good picks so far. I am also not ready to say bust to Nick O'leary I still think he can be a 10 year player and a solid number 2 TE in this league. Time will tell but I think if he can get stronger and get his blocking up to par he will beat out Mulligan for that role next year.

Additionally the other thing we need to look at with Whaley is waiver pick ups. Gray looks like he will be a decent player and decent special teams guy and that is not a bad thing. Stephan Charles, Corbin Bryant, and the MIKE LB that tore his ACL this training camp look like nice depth players and you need those guys to have a solid roster.

Bills fans know better than anyone we will have injuries and in order to stay competitive you need a good 53 not just a good 22.

All in all Bills fans should be pleased with Whaley and the front office, especially compared to the debacles of Tom Donahue, Marv Levy, the trio of levy Brandon Jauron, and even to some degree Nix. Nix was the start of the good scouting department overhaul as he fired and hired a bunch of new people, but he gets a minus from me for failing to draft any QBs that or developing them.

Whaley needs to show he and his staff can evaluate the QB position and draft a guy every year or two and develop one into a legitimate player. One just in case Tyrod shows he is not the guy this year, next year or 2017, but also if you can develop a good qb that you draft in rounds 2-5 you can usually trade them for high picks in 3 years if they develop (that is if Tyrod is a franchise guy and legit).

Agree 100%. During the Packers game, they were showing how all but 3 players on the current roster were drafted by the pack. We're starting to get to the point where the majority of our starters were drafted by the Bills.

I can't really fault Whaley for the EJ draft. It was just bad timing. We were finally going for a QB in a year that turned out to be TERRIBLE for QB's. Even with the miss on EJ, we still managed to turn that draft into getting big time contributors in Robert Woods and Lesean Mccoy. Also Goodwin, but who knows what to feel on him

[FlyingDutchman]

I also think Whaley's aggressiveness and Pegulas willingness to spend (that we've seen so far) is going to pay out very well in the long term

[Albany,n.y.]

Technically Nix.

Nix retired a few weeks after the draft in May and I believe the Hughes trade happened after the draft in April.

that said if you want to put EJ on Whaley then Hughes goes to Whaley as well, but I do not put EJ on Whaley so not Hughes. He gets credit for resigning him though.

The man who doesn't get enough blame for EJ is the guy who quit on us after giving up on his QB. Marrone is the one who wanted the guy who had all the prototypical physical features. He specifically mentioned hand size when EJ was drafted. He had to have huge input into not drafting Nassib.

[djjimkelly]

ive liked whaley the whole time

preston brown cordy glenn the list he has picked is very solid

[Mahdi]

ive liked whaley the whole time

preston brown cordy glenn the list he has picked is very solid

He didn't draft Glenn.

[Jimkelly12203]

I haven't gone into hiding... Whaley has had many successes. Just look at the roster. But the two stupidest decisions he has made were also the two most critical. #1, of all the years to blow a first round pick on the QB, they had to set their sights on the EJ Manuel / Geno Smith year. That's something dumb teams do. #2, you then double down in one of the deepest WR drafts of the last 10 years and use two first round picks on Watkins and that's AFTER you've seen that EJ is not accurate enough to be a worthy franchise QB. These are decisions that dumb GMs make. It's arguable that you don't spend 200 million dollars on two DLmen and 50 million on another (I don't know what Kyle makes but I think it's around 6 - 7 M/year. I don't begrudge him that last piece because I love our DL. But it is a rather "unusual" arrangement as Belicheck the scum pointed out.

[GreedoII]

Since the Whaley bashers have gone into hiding I decided to throw my praise on Whaley. He has had to make some tough decisions as well as building a rosetr that is young, talented, and dynamic.

Some highlights:

1) Don't care what you say but trading McCoy for Kiko was an excellent decision.

2) Signing Clay. Finally the real tight end we've been looking for. Watching Chandler in that New England game was the highlight of a tough game.

3) Sending Jackson packing. Tough decision but at the end of the day it was the right one. Karlos has looked crazy good.

4) Resigning Dareus and Hughes. Good contracts and excellent value for both parties.

5) Harvin. He has looked terrific.

6) Incognito. Another terrific signing.

7) Tyrod Taylor. Yes Rex will get credit but you need a GM to sign off on these decisions.

The only decision I have to give hime crap on is Bryce Brown. I admit I am a Bryce Brown homer and wish we could have kept him over Boobie Dixon. BTW, rumor is that he might be a Jet.

Hate away!!


Don;t mind McCoy but don't like the fact they threw 40 mil at him. I would have waited to do that.

[BuffaloRedleg]

If he gets us to the playoffs and to being a regularly competitive football club then yeah absolutely.

That has yet to be seen yet, however.

[Joe Fo Sho]

I haven't gone into hiding... Whaley has had many successes. Just look at the roster. But the two stupidest decisions he has made were also the two most critical. #1, of all the years to blow a first round pick on the QB, they had to set their sights on the EJ Manuel / Geno Smith year. That's something dumb teams do. #2, you then double down in one of the deepest WR drafts of the last 10 years and use two first round picks on Watkins and that's AFTER you've seen that EJ is not accurate enough to be a worthy franchise QB. These are decisions that dumb GMs make. It's arguable that you don't spend 200 million dollars on two DLmen and 50 million on another (I don't know what Kyle makes but I think it's around 6 - 7 M/year. I don't begrudge him that last piece because I love our DL. But it is a rather "unusual" arrangement as Belicheck the scum pointed out.

I disliked the Sammy trade probably as much as anyone and I still don't want Whaley fired. I'm glad we have Sammy and I like him, I just don't like how we got him. It's also clear that he missed on a QB prospect in the 1st round. Those two draft picks combine for a questionable use of 3 1st round picks. That would absolutely be grounds for firing...if he had built a team around those 2 players. This is a solid team that can win despite those moves. If this team makes the playoffs, there's no way Whaley deserves to be fired. I doubt he would get canned even if we didn't make the playoffs, and I'd be OK with that. If every GM got released for missing on a QB high in the draft, there would be very few GMs left in this league.

[BuffaloRedleg]

I haven't gone into hiding... Whaley has had many successes. Just look at the roster. But the two stupidest decisions he has made were also the two most critical. #1, of all the years to blow a first round pick on the QB, they had to set their sights on the EJ Manuel / Geno Smith year. That's something dumb teams do. #2, you then double down in one of the deepest WR drafts of the last 10 years and use two first round picks on Watkins and that's AFTER you've seen that EJ is not accurate enough to be a worthy franchise QB. These are decisions that dumb GMs make. It's arguable that you don't spend 200 million dollars on two DLmen and 50 million on another (I don't know what Kyle makes but I think it's around 6 - 7 M/year. I don't begrudge him that last piece because I love our DL. But it is a rather "unusual" arrangement as Belicheck the scum pointed out.

I don't think it is right to evaluate a GM based on individual moves and failures. His job is not to "win" moves, it's to create a formidable team. It looks like he he may have done this. However he gets there doesn't really matter to me at all.

[stuckincincy]

It's his 5th year with the club and the 3rd as GM. If the standard of excellence is getting into the playoffs, we will have to wait...

[justasportsfan]

we haven't made playoffs yet under Whaley , people.

I don't care if he put together an all pro team ala Redskins if we don't win. Even if we do, until we are at par with the Cheatriots in terms of competing with them, this line-up means nothing. We just got majorly owned by them where they could not video tape us or deflate the ball.

You are judged on wins and losses. Not line-up.

[FlyingDutchman]

we haven't made playoffs yet under Whaley , people.

I don't care if he put together an all pro team ala Redskins if we don't win. Even if we do, until we are at par with the Cheatriots in terms of competing with them, this line-up means nothing. We just got majorly owned by them where they could not video tape us or deflate the ball.

You are judged on wins and losses. Not line-up.

I think the fact that we are upset that we didn't beat the super bowl champions should say something. In years past we were happy to compete. The mindset has changed and so has the teams swagger. So yeah I agree we still have a ways to go, but there is a new bar that has been set.

We have the 3rd most points so far this season. That has to be attributed to the moves made in the offseason. Hacket jumping ship also certainly helped, but I don't think this staff could have done much with the group we had on offense last year.

[trapezeus]

he's done a lot of good, he's made some boner decisions. however, it seems like he has a coach that he can work with. he seems to take their input into account.

i hate that we didn't get a stud QB, but i also don't seem him missing in his attempt. Sure EJ isn't great, but no one from that class was. no one in later drafts where we had a chance to pick them has turned into a stud. Getting TT two years after you draft a qb in round 1 is a level of flexibility we haven't seen other GM's make for the bills. we passed on better picks when we had JP....same thing with Trent. We elected to keep rolling with those guys than take QB's who went on to have more successful careers. Whaley hasn't had that haunt him.

and before these three years, we were always wondering who would want to come to buffalo. that pretty much is gone. people are fine with coming because they see the team wants to compete.

I also agree that it doesn't mean a whole lot until we actually get wins. we have to get past 9 wins.

[Night Train]

I know as a fact that the man that selected Manuel was Buddy Nix and Marrone was completely onboard with it. That was his exit gift from Ralph.

Back to Whaley. He's had some misses. Wasn't thrilled with the Watkins trade but it's done. Could have had BeckhamJr. He did redeem himself by using remaining picks 2,3 and 5 this year on Darby, Miller and Williams. That was exceptional. His FA signings have been as good as any GM in the league. Pegula's wallet helps but other teams have done that and missed badly. He did not.

I'm good with Whaley and those wanting everyone fired from the Ralph days need to get over it. This is a brand new era with a good roster he had tons to do with. Getting both Ryan and Roman was a steal. Roman would have been our coach if Ryan didn't come late into the process.

[YardRat]

I have supported Whaley a lot in the past, even giving him the benefit of the doubt with EJ and Sammy. I liked his aggressiveness, and he's building a nice track record for acquiring talent. One thing I've never liked about him, however, is his attitude toward his responsibilities regarding it's 'his job' to get the talent, and the coach's to play them on Sundays (which he shares with Nix, BTW). I'd prefer a closer 'on the same page' relationship with the HC and GM. I've given him a pass for the most part on that, as long as he keeps improving the roster and we creep closer to being relevant again. Admittedly, I've soured a little bit on him over the past 10 months...don't like the Ryan hire that much...didn't like the spending spree on 'toys' in free agency with a lower priority on the o-line...don't like cutting FJax, and then Brown. It's a long season to see how things really play out (no playoffs, again? or do we finally get over the hump?), however after the first three games I have to be honest and sometimes wonder what the team would look like at this point if he had done things differently...it's pretty obvious that the skill position players that are making plays are guys like Harvin, Clay, Shady, Karlos, Tyrod etc. Still not sure how much of that is coaching (as in Roman) and how much talent, but this crew is a helluva lot more fun to watch this season.

[TacklingDummy]

I can understand drafting EJ, just not when.
I can't understand trading 2 firsts and a 4 th to draft Watkins in a deep WR draft class.

[FlyingDutchman]

I can understand drafting EJ, just not when.
I can't understand trading 2 firsts and a 4 th to draft Watkins in a deep WR draft class.

Technically one 1st round pick and a 4th

[Meathead]

right now overpaying for sammy seems like an obvious big mistake, but at least sammy should still be a dynamic player for along time here. jury is still out on ej, who could make whaley look brilliant if ty cant play for a spell and ej comes in and plays like he did in the preseason. lets not forget they traded down for ej and got an additional starter in the process (who turned out to be mccoy). so overall id give him a b+ even with the rather large overpayment for sammy on his record

the next big test of his skills is going to be trying to keep this team at the top. just make a list of all the guys he gonna have to pay, starting probably with tyrod. if he continues to play anywhere close to this level they are going to have to give him a boatload of cash bc if they dont somebody else sure as hell will. remember that he can be a free agent after this year if he starts half the games this season, which seems a veritable lock. thats going to tie up a huge amount of money and he is going to have much less left over to work with. they are getting clay for cap cheap money now but thats going to escalate dramatically in future years. harvin looks to be a reliable legit wr1 and his contract really is only for this season since they probably arent going to pay him the ten million thats on his contract for next year. they also have a whole bunch of other guys coming up on contracts that are going to need big if not huge raises. they wont be able to keep them all and its going to be a massive job figuring out who gets big raises, who gets restructured, who gets shown the door, and where the cheaper backfills are going to come from

whatever honeymoon period he had left is over. this is going to be nothing but a big boy off season and he is going to be the center of the bills future at a crucial time. stay sharp doug

[Joe Fo Sho]

Technically one 1st round pick and a 4th

We traded our a 2014 1st round pick, a 2015 1st round pick, and a 2015(?) 4th round pick to move up and draft Sammy. The price we paid for Sammy was 2 1st round picks and a 4th. I think that's what TD was trying to say.

[FlyingDutchman]

We traded our a 2014 1st round pick, a 2015 1st round pick, and a 2015(?) 4th round pick to move up and draft Sammy. The price we paid for Sammy was 2 1st round picks and a 4th. I think that's what TD was trying to say.

We swapped 2014 1st round picks. So yes we traded it, but it's not like we technically gave it up bc we received theirs. So really the price was a 1st and a 4th

[FlyingDutchman]

Well I should say the price from Cleveland was one 1st round pick and a 4th. Since we used a 1st round pick on him, and then gave up a 1st and a 4th, yeah I guess you could say the price was two 1st round picks and a 4th. I guess it depends on how you look at it

[Joe Fo Sho]

We swapped 2014 1st round picks. So yes we traded it, but it's not like we technically gave it up bc we received theirs. So really the price was a 1st and a 4th

Are you saying that Sammy only cost us a 1st and a 4th? Because in that transaction we netted (-2) 1st round picks, (-1) 4th round pick and (+1) Sammy Watkins.

At the end of that transaction, we gained 1 Sammy Watkins and lost 2 1st round picks and a 4th round pick.

You have to assign a value to the pick you use on the player, otherwise you're saying that the player is free...which is not true. Dareus cost us a 1st round pick, while Kyle Williams cost us a 5th rounder, and Sammy cost us 2 1sts and a 4th.

[Joe Fo Sho]

Well I should say the price from Cleveland was one 1st round pick and a 4th. Since we used a 1st round pick on him, and then gave up a 1st and a 4th, yeah I guess you could say the price was two 1st round picks and a 4th. I guess it depends on how you look at it

Yeah, some people don't consider using a 'free' draft pick as a cost to obtain a player. I just disagree with that.

[FlyingDutchman]

Are you saying that Sammy only cost us a 1st and a 4th? Because in that transaction we netted (-2) 1st round picks, (-1) 4th round pick and (+1) Sammy Watkins.

At the end of that transaction, we gained 1 Sammy Watkins and lost 2 1st round picks and a 4th round pick.

You have to assign a value to the pick you use on the player, otherwise you're saying that the player is free...which is not true. Dareus cost us a 1st round pick, while Kyle Williams cost us a 5th rounder, and Sammy cost us 2 1sts and a 4th.

Yeah I hear ya. See the post above your last one.

[Joe Fo Sho]

Yeah I hear ya. See the post above your last one.

Yeah, you posted that while I was responding to you. We're on the same page.

[PromoTheRobot]

I've been saying for the last couple years that he's done a good job filling this roster with talent. Do we remember the days of Chris Kelsay and Ryan Denney, where we couldn't find anyone year after year to replace them? We're now talking about not being able to keep all of our talent.

He's not perfect and "excellent" may be going too far, but I've seen nothing to dissuade me from believing that he's a good GM to have for the long term.

Name a GM who made perfect moves every time? Even the Pats** draft and sign quite a number of duds.

[psubills62]

Name a GM who made perfect moves every time? Even the Pats** draft and sign quite a number of duds.
I don't know what kind of argument you're trying to start here.

[CoolBreeze]

Aren't you the guy that started the Darby Sucks!! thread? The one that just won Defensive Rookie of the month. The putrid pick by Whaley?
Since the Whaley bashers have gone into hiding I decided to throw my praise on Whaley. He has had to make some tough decisions as well as building a rosetr that is young, talented, and dynamic.

Some highlights:

1) Don't care what you say but trading McCoy for Kiko was an excellent decision.

2) Signing Clay. Finally the real tight end we've been looking for. Watching Chandler in that New England game was the highlight of a tough game.

3) Sending Jackson packing. Tough decision but at the end of the day it was the right one. Karlos has looked crazy good.

4) Resigning Dareus and Hughes. Good contracts and excellent value for both parties.

5) Harvin. He has looked terrific.

6) Incognito. Another terrific signing.

7) Tyrod Taylor. Yes Rex will get credit but you need a GM to sign off on these decisions.

The only decision I have to give hime crap on is Bryce Brown. I admit I am a Bryce Brown homer and wish we could have kept him over Boobie Dixon. BTW, rumor is that he might be a Jet.

Hate away!!