Tom Donahoe's Contract

[camelcowboy]

With a lack of activity at 1 Bills drive. I find myself wondering about TD. I haven't heard anything regarding a contract extention. I wonder if Ralph is growing impatient with the teams lack of on field production. It seems that every year the team finds a goat to blame it's misfortunes on. Year 1 it was the salary cap. Year 2 it was the defense. Year 3 it was the head Coach. Year 4 it was Drew Bledsoe. And now heading into year 5 it has the potential of being the Young Quarter back. When is the put up or shut up for TD. You can only chase your tail around for so long. In the Salary cap era, you can not have a perfect team. There is always going to be weakness in the Armor. His drafts have been hit or miss, and has a tendency to ignore the offensive line.

What do you need to see inorder to retain your confidence in our General manager?

[wchutalkinboutwillis]

With a lack of activity at 1 Bills drive. I find myself wondering about TD. I haven't heard anything regarding a contract extention. I wonder if Ralph is growing impatient with the teams lack of on field production. It seems that every year the team finds a goat to blame it's misfortunes on. Year 1 it was the salary cap. Year 2 it was the defense. Year 3 it was the head Coach. Year 4 it was Drew Bledsoe. And now heading into year 5 it has the potential of being the Young Quarter back. When is the put up or shut up for TD. You can only chase your tail around for so long. In the Salary cap era, you can not have a perfect team. There is always going to be weakness in the Armor. His drafts have been hit or miss, and has a tendency to ignore the offensive line.

What do you need to see inorder to retain your confidence in our General manager?

I thought TD received an extension last year??? I know there was talk about it and that Ralph was totally supportive of it. Donahoe gets so private when it comes to his personal biz. You can't really learn anything about him through the news.

[TheGhostofJimKelly]

I think Ralph loves TD. I also think that TD will wait until after this year to see what he wants to do.

[Ed]

Last year before the Pitt game I remember Ralph saying that he was very happy with the team and the job that Donahoe and Mularkey were doing, and that Donahoe was welcome to stay as long as he likes regardless of if they made the playoffs or not.

[Mr. Cynical]

With a lack of activity at 1 Bills drive. I find myself wondering about TD. I haven't heard anything regarding a contract extention. I wonder if Ralph is growing impatient with the teams lack of on field production. It seems that every year the team finds a goat to blame it's misfortunes on. Year 1 it was the salary cap. Year 2 it was the defense. Year 3 it was the head Coach. Year 4 it was Drew Bledsoe. And now heading into year 5 it has the potential of being the Young Quarter back. When is the put up or shut up for TD. You can only chase your tail around for so long. In the Salary cap era, you can not have a perfect team. There is always going to be weakness in the Armor. His drafts have been hit or miss, and has a tendency to ignore the offensive line.

What do you need to see inorder to retain your confidence in our General manager?

I've been saying the same thing...at what point do people stop coming up with excuses and say that TD is simply not getting it done? I've never heard an answer from TD supporters on this.

[camelcowboy]

I've been saying the same thing...at what point do people stop coming up with excuses and say that TD is simply not getting it done? I've never heard an answer from TD supporters on this.

Ive never heard a reason either. I guess he thinks that if he makes the offseason interesting enough people are going to forget that we miss the playoffs every year.

When Mr Wilson endorses someone i don't take it very serious. TD said that he liked Josh Reed right before the draft. Said the same right before we drafted Losman, about Bledsoe. When anyone in the Bills organization talks to the media, take it at face value.

[Ed]

I've been saying the same thing...at what point do people stop coming up with excuses and say that TD is simply not getting it done? I've never heard an answer from TD supporters on this.

I guess when we stop making progress and start consistently taking steps backwards?

The way I look at is that 2001 was unavoidable in order to get our cap situation under control. We made signifcant improvements in 2002 to get back to .500. In 2003 Donahoe made all the right moves to get our D back on top. Unfortunately Moulds got injured and I think that really killed what could have been a decent season. Even though we finished 6-10, I think our team was still better then 2002 considering how close all our losses were compared to our wins. And 2004 pretty much speaks for itself. Donahoe improved our coaching staff, our D stayed on top, his young offensive draft picks, McGahee and Evans, made significant contributions and showed a ton of promise, and we finished with a winning record just short of the playoffs in the incredibly tough AFC.

Yeah, some of his moves haven't worked out as hoped, but at the time of the moves it was hard to argue with his logic.

Take the Bledsoe situation that Donahoe gets so much critisism for. Even looking back on it now, is there anything he could have done with the qb position to make us a championship team? What were his options? Trade up to draft Harrington? Take Ramsey with the #4 pick or try and trade back into the first round to grab him? Sign Blake or Chandler? Stuck with Van Pelt? Even with hindsight being 20/20 could we really have done a lot better? Would Peerless Price still have had a huge year and been able to get us a first round pick?

I think sometimes you just have to accept the fact that no matter how badly you want to improve a position there just isn't the talent available to you.

I think you just have to be patient and not have such a short leash. Building a championship team can be a process, especially when you're starting from scratch. There are going to be moves that don't work out sometimes, but if you overhaul the front office every time you hit a bump in the road, I don't think you'll ever really get anywhere.

As of right now, our cap is in good shape, ticket sales have been good, we've got a coaching staff that seems poised for a lot of success, and we have a lot of young exciting players.

We haven't made the playoffs yet, but I don't think Donahoe has done anything to make us think that we're not going to get there.

[mysticsoto]

I've been saying the same thing...at what point do people stop coming up with excuses and say that TD is simply not getting it done? I've never heard an answer from TD supporters on this.

I think there are a couple of things that you need to consider. In order to become a good contender and playoff team, you need several things:

1) Good Players - This is obvious. I think TD (and the scouts) have done a good job of getting us good quality personnel. Especially last year. Grabbing some top personnel from the undrafted probably gave us one of the Bills best years of drafting ever. Sure you don't hit with all candidates - who does? Name me one team that took every single candidate they drafted and had them become stars! I think we have done well with what we have gotten so far. And in fact, this past draft, having the luxury of drafting BPA instead of for filling glaring holes, TD seem to draft based on personality and mind set more than anything else. Eric King is a good example of a person who is self motivated and eager - these qualities you can't coach into someone...

2) Good Coaches - admittedly, here TD blundered initially with Gregg Williams - although GW did improve our defense substantially when he came in. Seeing that GW wasn't the right person, he made the right call and brought a new, more offensive minded coach in. Everyone seems to like Mularkey - and even though he's was a rookie coach last year - did reasonably well and can only improve with more experience.

3) Front Office mgmt - you can't just fire people every few years b'cse you didn't get a superbowl. In the NFL, anybody can win in a given year. The competition is that tough. Parcells has done terrible so far in Dallas...should he get fired? Is he no longer a good coach? Belichek was terrible in his previous head coaching position - obviously that doesn't mean he's a terrible coach or he wouldn't be doing as good as he is now. It is difficult but you need to look for a combination of coaching and players who respond well to that for a championship calibre team to develop. Turning the FO into a revolving door does not create stable leadership which in turn is detrimental those following that leadershp.

I think we are fairly stable now and other than minor setbacks due to injury (mostly at TE). Having a stable FO means they can plan both short term and long term for the future of this franchise and their performance. I think TD has done a fine job of balancing both the field personnel and the fiscal cap issues which matter a great deal also. Unfortunately, I think we are in a tough division and will be for the forseeable future.

Therefore, we need to also think both short term and long term in the personnel we choose so we don't end up in salary cap hell again, but at the same time, have quality players that can get us there. If this means sometimes giving a chance to a backup player or a undrafted player with potential - then so be it. But they see and evaluate these players alot more than we do, so we DEFINITELY need to stop having knee jerk reactions to anything and everything that happens...and stop and think about the overall picture!!!

[frank74]

okay?

i understand that we have to start thinking about the future and it takes time. but, how long does it take? i mean, where is the promise in the future. yes, we have some skilled players and that's fine, but where is the foundation of the team? gandy, anderson? i have a strong feeling they aren't the answer and, no i don't know for sure, but based on their past and the current status of our line, i really don't see two sub-par offensive linemen contributing. Line has been the issue, especially during TD's tenure and it's been looked at lightly. And, now that we have a mobile QB, it takes attention away from the line. Peters a tackle? Teague? Gandy? C'mon fellas, let's look at the culprit here and see that until we get someone who really knows football in here, it's always gonna be the way it is. So let me have it, I know it's coming!!

[HurryUpTom]

Once you stop having bad dead cap, you stop having excuses. Every team has the same cap space - if you are using your full cap space then you have no excuses.

When you're using up all the regular cap room and "building" what you're really saying is that you're overpaying and not managing the cap well.

The excuses ran out after season 2 (1 was a write-off and season 2 was very good). Season 3 and 4 have been horrendous (a 1 game and non-playoff improvement over 2 seasons? If this is another non-playoff season, TD should walk the plank (actually I think he should have already - this was too important an offseason to keep in the hands of an out-of-date GM).

[AndreReed83]

Ok, tell me... what could have TD done differently that would have DEFINITELY gotten us into the playoffs so far? Honestly, think this out and give an honest answer. Or if you can't (which I don't see how you could. The only actual arguement I see is he should not have hired Gregg Williams.) tell me which GM available out there would do a better job? Ready..... GO!

[HurryUpTom]

By the way - it wasn't just the coach's those first few years. TD's drafting was not so great either. Just look at the help we're getting this year from all of TD's drafts for this season.

2001 - 2 starters (Clements and Schobel)
2002 - 1 starter (Mike Williams) - 1 starter 3 years later from a draft where you're picking 4th each round? that makes this draft comparable to our 2000 for futility.
2003 - 3 starters (McGahee, Kelsay, McGee)
2004 - 3 starters (Evans, Losman, Anderson)
2005 - no starters.

No team can win with such little contribution from it's drafts. For comparison, here are New England's numbers:
2001 - 2 starters (Light and Seymour)
2002 - 3 starters (Graham, Branch, and Givens)
2003 - 4 starters (Warren, Wilson, Samuel, and Koppen)
2004 - 1 starter (Wilfork)
2005 - 1 starter (Mankins)

that's 11 starters this season for the Pats and we have 9 ... and they've picked after us in each of the drafts.

[HurryUpTom]

Ok, tell me... what could have TD done differently that would have DEFINITELY gotten us into the playoffs so far? Honestly, think this out and give an honest answer. Or if you can't (which I don't see how you could. The only actual arguement I see is he should not have hired Gregg Williams.) tell me which GM available out there would do a better job? Ready..... GO!

Tell me which GM would do worse than 0-4? No need to ... no one could have done worse.

I am not a GM and I don't claim to be a GM. TD can do his job thousands of times better than I can. I compare TD to the performance of his peers, not to the performance of Joe Schmo on a message board. 25 other GM's have found a way to make the playoffs in the last 4 years. If we're going to compare TD to fans, then Ralph might as well save 3/4 of a million dollars and give a fan the job.

[The_Philster]

How many GMs would've made the playoffs with a fool like Gregg Williams as the head coach?

[HurryUpTom]

How many GMs would've made the playoffs with a fool like Gregg Williams as the head coach?

How many hired him?