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If the Buffalo Bills do the expected and move on from Rex Ryan as their head coach, it would make zero sense for them to stick with Doug Whaley as their general manager.
By most accounts earlier in the week, Whaley's job appeared safe and, perhaps, it still is.
Yet, with the season unraveling as it has with particularly ugly losses the past two weeks and five in the last seven games, there's nothing to suggest the "expectations" Bills owner Terry Pegula said were not met in publicly declaring Ryan and Whaley would stay in place late last year are any closer to being met now.
In fact, a strong case can be made that the distance between the team and those "expectations" is as great as it has ever been during the soon-to-be-17-year playoff drought.
....The Pegulas aren't happy with what they're seeing from their football team, and poor coaching isn't the only reason. An equally strong case can be made for well-documented player-personnel decisions resulting in some major misses that overshadow the hits.
However, that isn't the only reason that Whaley should exit with Ryan.
There are two that should be glaring whenever the Pegulas sit down to review where it has all gone wrong for the Bills during their first two full seasons of ownership.
One, they turned to Whaley and Brandon to oversee the coaching search that led them to Ryan. The Pegulas leaned on Whaley's and Brandon's extensive NFL experience to manage the process that included a lengthy list of interviews all over the country.
It's fair to say Whaley mainly liked the choice because he knew Ryan, unlike his predecessor, Doug Marrone, would pretty much stay out of Whaley's way. Ryan would let him know what positions he wanted addressed and Whaley would find them and there would be nothing approaching the hands-on involvement that Marrone insisted on having in areas beyond coaching.
It's also fair to say that Brandon mainly liked the choice of Ryan because he knew that, at least in his first season, he would have a significantly positive impact on the sale of tickets. And he did. The Bills set a franchise record with 60,000 season-tickets sold in 2015.
The other obvious reason Whaley can't be allowed to stick around if the Pegulas proceed with another coaching search is that his presence would be a handicap. No top-level candidate is going to want to be forced to work with a GM whose track record is spotty, at best, and who has proven to have issues working successfully with not one but two head coaches.
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By most accounts earlier in the week, Whaley's job appeared safe and, perhaps, it still is.
Yet, with the season unraveling as it has with particularly ugly losses the past two weeks and five in the last seven games, there's nothing to suggest the "expectations" Bills owner Terry Pegula said were not met in publicly declaring Ryan and Whaley would stay in place late last year are any closer to being met now.
In fact, a strong case can be made that the distance between the team and those "expectations" is as great as it has ever been during the soon-to-be-17-year playoff drought.
....The Pegulas aren't happy with what they're seeing from their football team, and poor coaching isn't the only reason. An equally strong case can be made for well-documented player-personnel decisions resulting in some major misses that overshadow the hits.
However, that isn't the only reason that Whaley should exit with Ryan.
There are two that should be glaring whenever the Pegulas sit down to review where it has all gone wrong for the Bills during their first two full seasons of ownership.
One, they turned to Whaley and Brandon to oversee the coaching search that led them to Ryan. The Pegulas leaned on Whaley's and Brandon's extensive NFL experience to manage the process that included a lengthy list of interviews all over the country.
It's fair to say Whaley mainly liked the choice because he knew Ryan, unlike his predecessor, Doug Marrone, would pretty much stay out of Whaley's way. Ryan would let him know what positions he wanted addressed and Whaley would find them and there would be nothing approaching the hands-on involvement that Marrone insisted on having in areas beyond coaching.
It's also fair to say that Brandon mainly liked the choice of Ryan because he knew that, at least in his first season, he would have a significantly positive impact on the sale of tickets. And he did. The Bills set a franchise record with 60,000 season-tickets sold in 2015.
The other obvious reason Whaley can't be allowed to stick around if the Pegulas proceed with another coaching search is that his presence would be a handicap. No top-level candidate is going to want to be forced to work with a GM whose track record is spotty, at best, and who has proven to have issues working successfully with not one but two head coaches.
More...
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