Whaley interview

[DesertFox24]

I admit I did not listen to interview just read statements.

I think he has some valid points and if you take away the 16 year drought. I don't think fans would be as upset.

Ryan has now had two years of defense outside of the top 10 in 12 years this year and another where he was 11. Like he said history shows a good def coach. So I think it is fair to give one more year. We already know this is his best off in his head coaching career so that is good.

Whaley also said for a team with new ownership new coach new acheme and new starting qb they have some things to build off of and even though they are not happy they are optimistic if Taylor takes next step and they upgrade def that they will be coMpetitive.

Will be interesting to watch at least

[Night Train]

He spoke the company line.

Plus he has little choice but to go heavy on D front 7 help during this off-season. It's the only way they can improve, with a tougher schedule coming up on paper.

[Bill Cody]

If you take away my 16 year drought I'm Brad Pitt so I guess I have some good points too

[sdbillsfan2]

I hear some many points both pro and con re: Rex.
And I always end up with the same question . If he is so talented , why did the Jets fire him in the first place. I look back on his body of work in NY and to be honest , Im not impressed. I don't recall the Bills having any more trouble with t h e Jets then any one else. As a matter of fact I believe we spanked the snot out of Rex last year.
I dont expect anything to change around here except my enthusiasm . My confidence that the so called brain trust at OBD will ever get it right has been sucked right out of me. So as far as anything Doug Whaley or Rex are concerned , I think their covering their own Asses first.

[swiper]

His body of work in NY sucked. He took a play-off team that Mike Tannenbaum assembled down to 4-12. He is a garbage head coach. In his idiot father's mold.

[YardRat]

Too bad they wouldn't have to upgrade the D if they didn't **** it up to begin with.

[swiper]

He took a borderline play-off Bills 2014 team right down into the toilet. If that 2014 team had Taylor, they were in the play-offs. Hackett and all.

[YardRat]

He took a borderline play-off Bills 2014 team right down into the toilet. If that 2014 team had Taylor, they were in the play-offs. Hackett and all.

Add Taylor. Add Roman. Add Incognito, Miller and one more offensive lineman. Keep Schwartz, Chandler and FJax. Playoffs. It really should have been that easy.

[DraftBoy]

Add Taylor. Add Roman. Add Incognito, Miller and one more offensive lineman. Keep Schwartz, Chandler and FJax. Playoffs. It really should have been that easy.

So we're allowed to cherry pick now? What makes you assume that Schwartz would hire Roman or want to sign Taylor? An offense without those two isn't making the playoffs no matter how good the defense was.

It's not like this team is just overflowing with talent. They have real deficiencies on both sides of the ball and have for a while. Schwartz scheme, to his credit, did a great job covering up those issues, but there are still problems at LB and at both safety positions even if Schwartz stays.

For example: Lawson, who was really good this year, wasn't very good in Schwartz system. Bradham who was injured and not a great fit in Ryan's system, was a perfect fit for Schwartz. So no matter who stays as coach you still have issues at LB, and not to mention a lack of quality depth at basically every position but CB. Scheme will only win out for so long, especially when injuries start hitting.

[swiper]

Lawson is a very good player. He was very good under Pettine. He was very good this year. Schwartz did not have him on the field as much. One small thing I didn't like about Schwartz's time here. But outside of that, there is VERY LITTLE one can criticize him about while he was in Buffalo.

He would have been a very good head coach here. He just needed a good OC. A veteran guy.

Far better than the verbose Rex Ryan.

[YardRat]

So we're allowed to cherry pick now? What makes you assume that Schwartz would hire Roman or want to sign Taylor? An offense without those two isn't making the playoffs no matter how good the defense was.

It's not like this team is just overflowing with talent. They have real deficiencies on both sides of the ball and have for a while. Schwartz scheme, to his credit, did a great job covering up those issues, but there are still problems at LB and at both safety positions even if Schwartz stays.

For example: Lawson, who was really good this year, wasn't very good in Schwartz system. Bradham who was injured and not a great fit in Ryan's system, was a perfect fit for Schwartz. So no matter who stays as coach you still have issues at LB, and not to mention a lack of quality depth at basically every position but CB. Scheme will only win out for so long, especially when injuries start hitting.

There were zero problems with LBer under Schwartz...Bradham fit the wide 9 like a glove, and played like it. Brown had a real nice season. The only issue at LBer would have been replacing Spikes (not easy, granted) or simply re-signing him (which probably would have been done under Schwartz). Same with safety...the only player that needed to be replaced would have been Searcy, which could have been done with Graham, Rambo or a draft pick FA.

Lawson was not good under Schwartz...I won't argue that one bit. He was under Pettine, and Wrecks' defense. Lawson fits those guys, he didn't Schwartz.

The only issues on D would have been MLB and S, and that wouldn't have been nearly as difficult of a 'fix' that we face now, with almost an entire front seven that doesn't fit Wrecks' defense.

[DraftBoy]

There were zero problems with LBer under Schwartz...Bradham fit the wide 9 like a glove, and played like it. Brown had a real nice season. The only issue at LBer would have been replacing Spikes (not easy, granted) or simply re-signing him (which probably would have been done under Schwartz). Same with safety...the only player that needed to be replaced would have been Searcy, which could have been done with Graham, Rambo or a draft pick FA.

Lawson was not good under Schwartz...I won't argue that one bit. He was under Pettine, and Wrecks' defense. Lawson fits those guys, he didn't Schwartz.

The only issues on D would have been MLB and S, and that wouldn't have been nearly as difficult of a 'fix' that we face now, with almost an entire front seven that doesn't fit Wrecks' defense.

Please...you had arguably the most dominant DL in the NFL. You think that was just going to last forever? You're taking a very narrow view of what the defense was, because there absolutely were issues at LB.

Why resign Spikes exactly? Brown plays the same position and you still have a hole at WLB in that scheme.

I'm actually talking about both SS and FS, as neither Williams nor insert whatever random name you want here, are actually very good or long-term solutions.

No disagreement about Lawson at all, hence the hole at WLB.

The defense now needs an OLB, two DE's, a NT, and two safeties. Compared to the WLB (not MLB), both safeties, DT, and DE that you would need in Schwartz scheme heading into next year.

[Mace]

Too bad they wouldn't have to upgrade the D if they didn't **** it up to begin with.

Yeah. I guess to me, even if you take away the 16 year drought and pretend you're looking at a different team (which misses the whole point of striving to please the fan base with success anyway), I see a team that went backwards from one year to the next, made a liability out of a strong point, lost discipline, and played with more individual emotion for their own concerns than emotion for the success of the team, lost leadership, still has to rebuild elements of the o-line, etc, and went from 9-7 and on the edge to wherever we end up, well, I'd still consider it not progress.

[Mace]

You think that was just going to last forever?

Should have gotten another couple years out of it at least. I mean nothing lasts forever but the whole point of it is making it last as long as it can.

I think they probably needed an LB and a safety before replenishing long term through the draft, and now need an LB (maybe 2 depending on what you consider Lawson on the wrong side of 30), a safety, and two DL really quick.

[Mr. Pink]

He took a borderline play-off Bills 2014 team right down into the toilet. If that 2014 team had Taylor, they were in the play-offs. Hackett and all.

Taylor will never lead any team to the playoffs.

He is unable to consistently do the little things well that a QB must do to succeed in this league.

[cookie G]

Fire Rex now before he sets the franchise back further than he already has.

Its that simple

[YardRat]

Please...you had arguably the most dominant DL in the NFL. You think that was just going to last forever? You're taking a very narrow view of what the defense was, because there absolutely were issues at LB.

It didn't have to last forever, just a couple more seasons. Literally four Pro Bowl dlinemen, pissed away. And yes, not just the dline, but the defense as a whole, I would have expected to get better in a second season under Schwartz.


Why resign Spikes exactly? Brown plays the same position and you still have a hole at WLB in that scheme.

Wrong. Brown (14 starts), Spikes (10 starts) and Bradham (14 starts) were the starting line-up. Brown moved to the middle and Spikes came off of the field in passing packages, they did not play the same position.


I'm actually talking about both SS and FS, as neither Williams nor insert whatever random name you want here, are actually very good or long-term solutions.

AW had a very good season last year, as did most of the players on defense.



The defense now needs an OLB, two DE's, a NT, and two safeties. Compared to the WLB (not MLB), both safeties, DT, and DE that you would need in Schwartz scheme heading into next year.

Yeah, I agree, now the defense needs a lot. Starter level a lot. Disagree about the state under Schwartz going into this season. Four Pro Bowlers on Dline, Bradham and Brown for the front seven. Three corners (Gilmore, Graham and hell, even McKelvin played well last season. ****--toss in Robey who was extremely solid as the nickel) and one safety (AW) were set. At most we needed a MLB (re-sign Spikes, again) and a safety to replace Searcy...that's it. All of the other positions you mention (WLB, safety, DT and DE) we only needed depth, and actually had that depth (Rambo, Bryant, Charles) at some.

Fourth overall in the league, top 10 in 10 of 11 major defensive statistical categories (11th in the 11th)(while. I might add, learning and playing in a system for the first season) and all young, except for Mario and Kyle. There is no way this defense would have needed anywhere near the re-tooling and injection of new talent for a second year with Schwartz like they do for the second year with Wrecks.

[DraftBoy]

It didn't have to last forever, just a couple more seasons. Literally four Pro Bowl dlinemen, pissed away. And yes, not just the dline, but the defense as a whole, I would have expected to get better in a second season under Schwartz.

One guy literally was injured for the majority of this season and you agreed with me all offseason that adding a DT was a need because Kyle Williams was advancing in age. Come on man.


Wrong. Brown (14 starts), Spikes (10 starts) and Bradham (14 starts) were the starting line-up. Brown moved to the middle and Spikes came off of the field in passing packages, they did not play the same position.

That's not what I meant, I meant that Brown was moving to the middle. He didn't start there because he was a rookie, but he was moving there, the Bills drafted him to play MLB. This was said last season.


AW had a very good season last year, as did most of the players on defense.

1 in 5...color me impressed and he wasn't that good. His 5 pass deflections and 1 INT were almost equaled this season despite playing in 12 less games.


Yeah, I agree, now the defense needs a lot. Starter level a lot. Disagree about the state under Schwartz going into this season. Four Pro Bowlers on Dline, Bradham and Brown for the front seven. Three corners (Gilmore, Graham and hell, even McKelvin played well last season. ****--toss in Robey who was extremely solid as the nickel) and one safety (AW) were set. At most we needed a MLB (re-sign Spikes, again) and a safety to replace Searcy...that's it. All of the other positions you mention (WLB, safety, DT and DE) we only needed depth, and actually had that depth (Rambo, Bryant, Charles) at some.

Nobody is talking about going into this season, you don't get to cherry pick in a time warp. What we have now is all we can deal with. If your argument for a better D only makes sense before we played 15 games of football then you have no argument.


Fourth overall in the league, top 10 in 10 of 11 major defensive statistical categories (11th in the 11th)(while. I might add, learning and playing in a system for the first season) and all young, except for Mario and Kyle. There is no way this defense would have needed anywhere near the re-tooling and injection of new talent for a second year with Schwartz like they do for the second year with Wrecks.

The only one learning how to play in the system last year was Brown. Schwartz runs a simple 43 with a Wide 9 look and brings pressure. It wasn't a complicated scheme so let's go ahead and shelve that false prop. Again stop cherry picking the past to try and make a point about the present.

Whether we have Rex or Schwartz both Mario and Kyle need to be replaced. Whether we have Rex or Schwartz we need a FS and a SS. Whether we have Rex or Schwartz we need a OLB. The big differences are that with Rex you need NT and with Schwartz you need a penetrating DT.

Face it, the current defensive team needs an overhaul no matter who is/was coaching them.

[POTLAND PSILBYLO]

Random fact: Schwartz's cousin installed my heat pump. He said he came from a huge family, like of ten kids. So I have Schwartz down as AC.

[justasportsfan]

Taylor will never lead any team to the playoffs.

He is unable to consistently do the little things well that a QB must do to succeed in this league.

IMO, last year's D with this year O , we make playoffs this year

[chernobylwraiths]

We have played most of the season without a pro bowl defensive tackle and safety and we are supposed to be just as good if not better?

[DesertFox24]

I hear some many points both pro and con re: Rex.
And I always end up with the same question . If he is so talented , why did the Jets fire him in the first place. I look back on his body of work in NY and to be honest , Im not impressed. I don't recall the Bills having any more trouble with t h e Jets then any one else. As a matter of fact I believe we spanked the snot out of Rex last year.
I dont expect anything to change around here except my enthusiasm . My confidence that the so called brain trust at OBD will ever get it right has been sucked right out of me. So as far as anything Doug Whaley or Rex are concerned , I think their covering their own Asses first.

I will say this bill bellicheck was fired from Browns, Marv Levi fired from Chiefs, Shula was fired from colts.

A lot of hall of fame coaches were fired before and one thing they all had in common was a hall of fame qb. You guys really think bellicheck would be still in ne had they not drafted Brady?

[Bill Cody]

I will say this bill bellicheck was fired from Browns, Marv Levi fired from Chiefs, Shula was fired from colts.

A lot of hall of fame coaches were fired before and one thing they all had in common was a hall of fame qb. You guys really think bellicheck would be still in ne had they not drafted Brady?

Rex could have Brady starting with Montana and Marino as back ups and he wouldn't make the hall

[DesertFox24]

Rex could have Brady starting with Montana and Marino as back ups and he wouldn't make the hall

Lol yeah I will disagree. I was not a fan of the hire but remove emotion from the equation and use logic and history and one will see two out of 12 years without a top 10 def. with Brady as qb he would have won a few Super Bowls

[Mr. Pink]

I will say this bill bellicheck was fired from Browns, Marv Levi fired from Chiefs, Shula was fired from colts.

A lot of hall of fame coaches were fired before and one thing they all had in common was a hall of fame qb. You guys really think bellicheck would be still in ne had they not drafted Brady?

I think Belichick would still be in Cleveland if they didn't move in 1995.

Blame Art Modell for the past 15 years.

[sahlensguy]

Lol yeah I will disagree. I was not a fan of the hire but remove emotion from the equation and use logic and history and one will see two out of 12 years without a top 10 def. with Brady as qb he would have won a few Super Bowls

Logic and reason days that a resume of 10 out of 12 years with a top 10 defense does not a head coach make.

[Ed]

I liked Schwartz and I give him credit for having a great D last year, but I think he was pretty lucky that our D stayed so healthy last year. I don't think his scheme would have had the versatility or creativity to make up for a lot of the injuries we had this year. Remember when Dareus had to leave the game at Oakland last year? Without him in the game our D suddenly started looking pretty average and it felt like the Raiders could just do what they wanted, particularly running the ball. I think missing Kyle Williams and Aaron Williams for most of the year, and guys like Mario and Bradham missing games too would have made things pretty tough on Schwartz. Rex Ryan has consistently had great D's over a long period of time so there's no reason to believe that our D won't be good again. Maybe Schwartz would have done better this season, but this defensive roster is going to go through changes regardless, and I think Rex is the better overall defensive coach. Keeping Schwartz would have meant making him the HC and I think that's a pretty shortsighted move.

[cookie G]

Please...you had arguably the most dominant DL in the NFL. You think that was just going to last forever? You're taking a very narrow view of what the defense was, because there absolutely were issues at LB.

Why resign Spikes exactly? Brown plays the same position and you still have a hole at WLB in that scheme.

I'm actually talking about both SS and FS, as neither Williams nor insert whatever random name you want here, are actually very good or long-term solutions.

No disagreement about Lawson at all, hence the hole at WLB.

The defense now needs an OLB, two DE's, a NT, and two safeties. Compared to the WLB (not MLB), both safeties, DT, and DE that you would need in Schwartz scheme heading into next year.

I understand that you adhere to the philosophy that an NFL defense should be in perpetual rebuilding mode...

but this is bad, even for you.

[DraftBoy]

I understand that you adhere to the philosophy that an NFL defense should be in perpetual rebuilding mode...

but this is bad, even for you.

Restocking is the term I would use.

[cookie G]

Restocking is the term I would use.

semantics.

[ParanoidAndroid]

His body of work in NY sucked. He took a play-off team that Mike Tannenbaum assembled down to 4-12. He is a garbage head coach. In his idiot father's mold.

I think Idzik takes more of the blame than Rex for how much that team bled talent. He still kept them a top 10 defense every year except 2013 when they were 11th. They were 6th last year even though they had terrible CB's. They are 6th this year under Bowles with a huge upgrade to their secondary and D-line.

[swiper]

We have played most of the season without a pro bowl defensive tackle and safety and we are supposed to be just as good if not better?

Patriots got hit harder than the Bills and they continue to do ok.

Steelers got to the play-offs without having Roethlisberger for a chunk of the season.

[daryls61]

You have to separate the playoff drought from Pegula and Rex/Whaley. It really has been only 1 year for them so try to judge them based on that even thought emotions are tough to let go of.

I want to see what Whaley can do to the roster on the defensive side of the ball in the offseason. Yes, they ruined an elite defense that was perfectly staffed for Swartz 4-3 scheme. Whaley seems to know he has to get Rex some new players so lets see what they can do.