Today it's Sully's turn to expose Whaley

[WagonCircler]

Jerry Sullivan: Whaley fiddles while Rex burns

...Maybe Whaley prefers to hide because he's not as safe as people have been led to believe and needs to separate himself from the coach. The longer this drags on, the more evident it becomes that he's just as culpable as Ryan for the Bills' mediocre performance the last two seasons.

Well, it could be that Whaley doesn't want to explain how it is that the Bills have fewer of their own draft picks on the active roster than any other team in the NFL, as Tim Graham laid out in his Monday column.

Or perhaps Doug doesn't care to tell us why he gets credit for the good moves that were made before he became general manager, while the bad ones get laid at the feet of former GM Buddy Nix.

Whaley could explain why the Bills still don't scout underclassmen until they declare for the draft, or why they take so many guys who are hurt, or why he didn't do more to bolster his depth at wide receiver when he knew Sammy Watkins had a serious injury.

You don't need the CIA to figure this one out. With all that baggage, it's only natural that Whaley would be telling ownership -- and his friends in the national media -- how he gave Ryan a superior roster and Rex squandered a glorious chance for the Bills to break the 16-year playoff drought.

I'm not saying Ryan doesn't deserve to be fired. But if Whaley really had a good relationship with Rex, as they often contend, he would offer a merciful gesture and take some of the heat off Ryan during a trying time.

Watching Rex in interviews lately, I feel as sorry as one can for a man who has a guaranteed $16.5 million left on his deal. Maybe that's the grand plan here, to make Rex a sympathetic figure in case the Bills finish 9-7. Then they can go status quo and tell everyone it was the media's fault.

For now, they've turned Ryan into a dead man walking. That's a pretty shabby way to treat a guy who helped you sell the most season tickets in franchise history when you hired him. It's weak and gutless, and it makes them look like amateurs. Which is exactly what they are.

http://buffalonews.com/2016/12/20/whaley-fiddles-ryan-burns/?utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=puma#link_time=1482292203

[Mace]

Whaley always strikes me as tranquilized. I knew a guy like that at HSBC, worked his way up. So laid back you thought he was dozing though his eyes looked open. Every once in a while in a meeting he'd repeat part of a sentence someone had just emphasized as if he was mulling it over. If directly asked for comment, he'd say something general, like if a problem was being argued, he'd agree it was a problem and subject to the opposing opinions. If he absolutely had to say something, he'd offer an opinion that covered near everything on the table.

Upper management always thought he was gifted. He was, at being perceived as gifted without ever actually doing anything but appear calm and thoughtful.

[WagonCircler]

Whaley always strikes me as tranquilized. I knew a guy like that at HSBC, worked his way up. So laid back you thought he was dozing though his eyes looked open. Every once in a while in a meeting he'd repeat part of a sentence someone had just emphasized as if he was mulling it over. If directly asked for comment, he'd say something general, like if a problem was being argued, he'd agree it was a problem and subject to the opposing opinions. If he absolutely had to say something, he'd offer an opinion that covered near everything on the table.

Upper management always thought he was gifted. He was, at being perceived as gifted without ever actually doing anything but appear calm and thoughtful.

Chauncey Garner, from Being There.

[Skooby]

Chauncey Garner, from Being There.
Chauncey actually grew things from scratch in his garden, here we have basically nothing.

[Jimkelly12203]

OH man! YIKES!!! Sully absolutely freaking crushed it!

The guy is the best sports writer in WNY bar none.

[Thurmal]

I'm not as down on Whaley as others; he has found some gems off the scrap heap, and getting McCoy for Alonso straight-up, when Chip Kelly wanted Robert Woods too, was a steal.

That being said, his Manuel pick was a totally unsuccessful reach, and the doubling down on it with the trade-up for Watkins and huge contract to Clay are borderline deal-breakers. Watkins and Clay are good players, but the amount he sacrificed to get them with the QB situation being what is was/is is akin to buying diamond cuff links when the only shirts you own are wife-beaters.

[The Jokeman]

Jerry Sullivan: Whaley fiddles while Rex burns

...Maybe Whaley prefers to hide because he's not as safe as people have been led to believe and needs to separate himself from the coach. The longer this drags on, the more evident it becomes that he's just as culpable as Ryan for the Bills' mediocre performance the last two seasons.

Well, it could be that Whaley doesn't want to explain how it is that the Bills have fewer of their own draft picks on the active roster than any other team in the NFL, as Tim Graham laid out in his Monday column.

Or perhaps Doug doesn't care to tell us why he gets credit for the good moves that were made before he became general manager, while the bad ones get laid at the feet of former GM Buddy Nix.

Whaley could explain why the Bills still don't scout underclassmen until they declare for the draft, or why they take so many guys who are hurt, orwhy he didn't do more to bolster his depth at wide receiver when he knew Sammy Watkins had a serious injury.

You don't need the CIA to figure this one out. With all that baggage, it's only natural that Whaley would be telling ownership -- and his friends in the national media -- how he gave Ryan a superior roster and Rex squandered a glorious chance for the Bills to break the 16-year playoff drought.

I'm not saying Ryan doesn't deserve to be fired. But if Whaley really had a good relationship with Rex, as they often contend, he would offer a merciful gesture and take some of the heat off Ryan during a trying time.

Watching Rex in interviews lately, I feel as sorry as one can for a man who has a guaranteed $16.5 million left on his deal. Maybe that's the grand plan here, to make Rex a sympathetic figure in case the Bills finish 9-7. Then they can go status quo and tell everyone it was the media's fault.

For now, they've turned Ryan into a dead man walking. That's a pretty shabby way to treat a guy who helped you sell the most season tickets in franchise history when you hired him. It's weak and gutless, and it makes them look like amateurs. Which is exactly what they are.

http://buffalonews.com/2016/12/20/whaley-fiddles-ryan-burns/?utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=puma#link_time=1482292203

Selective memory loss from Mr. Sullivan. As I remember the Bills drafted a WR this year and brought in a lion's share of veteran WRs to compete like Greg Little, Leonard Hankerson, Greg Salas, Jarrett Boykin, tendered an offer to Hogan to name a few and eventually added Hunter and Tate. So there was an effort.

[trapezeus]

perhaps he means through the draft. instead of taking shaq knowing he was hurt and going to miss time, they could have gone WR. I still think rex and whaley are secondary issues. as long as the power structure of russ Brandon and his merry band of idiots run the show, you are going to get the same results. It is odd to me that they'd keep whaley again and again not let him pick a coach. the structure is so expensive and so useless, why not just simplify down to a few key members. you don't have to pay half of that inner circle the money it makes to miss the playoffs a record number of times

[X-Era]

Jerry Sullivan: Whaley fiddles while Rex burns

...Maybe Whaley prefers to hide because he's not as safe as people have been led to believe and needs to separate himself from the coach. The longer this drags on, the more evident it becomes that he's just as culpable as Ryan for the Bills' mediocre performance the last two seasons.

Well, it could be that Whaley doesn't want to explain how it is that the Bills have fewer of their own draft picks on the active roster than any other team in the NFL, as Tim Graham laid out in his Monday column.

Or perhaps Doug doesn't care to tell us why he gets credit for the good moves that were made before he became general manager, while the bad ones get laid at the feet of former GM Buddy Nix.

Whaley could explain why the Bills still don't scout underclassmen until they declare for the draft, or why they take so many guys who are hurt, or why he didn't do more to bolster his depth at wide receiver when he knew Sammy Watkins had a serious injury.

You don't need the CIA to figure this one out. With all that baggage, it's only natural that Whaley would be telling ownership -- and his friends in the national media -- how he gave Ryan a superior roster and Rex squandered a glorious chance for the Bills to break the 16-year playoff drought.

I'm not saying Ryan doesn't deserve to be fired. But if Whaley really had a good relationship with Rex, as they often contend, he would offer a merciful gesture and take some of the heat off Ryan during a trying time.

Watching Rex in interviews lately, I feel as sorry as one can for a man who has a guaranteed $16.5 million left on his deal. Maybe that's the grand plan here, to make Rex a sympathetic figure in case the Bills finish 9-7. Then they can go status quo and tell everyone it was the media's fault.

For now, they've turned Ryan into a dead man walking. That's a pretty shabby way to treat a guy who helped you sell the most season tickets in franchise history when you hired him. It's weak and gutless, and it makes them look like amateurs. Which is exactly what they are.

http://buffalonews.com/2016/12/20/whaley-fiddles-ryan-burns/?utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=puma#link_time=1482292203
Typical hack writing by this idiot.

1) Whaley brought a parade of WR backups with experience through here... Boykin, Salas, Little, Tate, Harvin. None were bonafide starters but no one knew Watkins needed to sit most of this year either. He tried.

2) Fewer draft picks on the ACTIVE roster. It could easily get missed. Many are injured or on the PS. And again, the roster isn't made up of just draftees. Whaley is very good at finding FA's... Tyrod, Brown, Alexander. And no mention of resigning our own which is something Whaley has always been committed to.

3) Whaley is part of a front office who has not yet fired Rex. Does anyone really expect anyone in the FO to vocally support Rex while the FO has likely decided hes gone? Ridiculous.

Sully finds everyone culpable except himself. And with his consistent pattern of shotty hack level reporting he ought to start by looking in the mirror.

[Arm of Harm]

Typical hack writing by this idiot.

1) Whaley brought a parade of WR backups with experience through here... Boykin, Salas, Little, Tate, Harvin. None were bonafide starters but no one knew Watkins needed to sit most of this year either. He tried.

2) Fewer draft picks on the ACTIVE roster. It could easily get missed. Many are injured or on the PS. And again, the roster isn't made up of just draftees. Whaley is very good at finding FA's... Tyrod, Brown, Alexander. And no mention of resigning our own which is something Whaley has always been committed to.

3) Whaley is part of a front office who has not yet fired Rex. Does anyone really expect anyone in the FO to vocally support Rex while the FO has likely decided hes gone? Ridiculous.

Sully finds everyone culpable except himself. And with his consistent pattern of shotty hack level reporting he ought to start by looking in the mirror.


I'm not normally a big fan of Jerry Sullivan, but this was one of his better articles.

The point about the Bills having the fewest drafted players on our active roster was originally made by Tim Graham. The fact that some of our drafted players are on the practice squad (as you pointed out) does not invalidate that point. Unless we're supposed to think that Whaley is good at drafting because some of his picks made the practice squad?

Yes, some of our drafted players are on injured reserve, but the same could be said of many other NFL teams. Overall, the stat reported by Graham, and reiterated by Sullivan, points to the fact that Whaley has not been good at drafting. Not when he was working for Buddy Nix, and certainly not after he began running the whole show.

You argue that Whaley is good at re-signing our own. Assuming that's true, then that makes the lack of draft picks on the roster even harder to justify.

You're using a straw man argument: Sullivan isn't asking Whaley to vocally support Rex. What Sullivan is saying is that there's plenty of blame to go around. Whaley's decision to avoid all media questions, while leaving Rex to face the music all alone, is a cowardly act. Most of what's wrong with this team traces directly back to Whaley, so why should Whaley get to dodge the hard questions?

I can't disagree with your statement that Sully finds everyone culpable except himself. However, Sullivan hasn't been responsible for a single draft pick or a single free agent acquisition for the Buffalo Bills. He is not the one responsible for the playoff drought. The person who bears primary responsibility for this segment of the drought has thus far done a bang-up job of avoiding accountability for his failures and for his complete lack of strategic vision.