10 Things You Should Know - Doug Whaley

[The King]

http://www.billszone.com/?p=1754

1. Doug Whaley played safety and linebacker at Pittsburgh University.
2. Tom Donahoe hired Whaley in 1995, Doug left his job as a retail stock broker to join the Steelers.
3. Whaley played college football with Steve Israel, Ruben Brown, Curtis Martin and Alex Van Pelt
4. He’s largely credited with scouting and drafting, Lamar Woodley, Lawrence Timmons and Troy Polamalu.
5. In 2007, Whaley forwarded an email containing a pornographic video to Steelers line coach Larry Zierlein. Zierlein then inadvertently sent the email to top executives, including commissioner Goodell.
6. Whaley won back-to-back conference championships in high school 88 & 89.
7. In the 1989 Championship game Whaley’s team defeated Wilson High School whose QB was Kerry Collins.
8. Despite playing fullback in high school Whaley rushed for 300 yards in back to back games.
9. Whaley chose Pitt over Harvard, Yale, William and Mary, Holy Cross, Army, Air Force & Hawaii.
10. Whaley played under coach Paul Hackett (Nate’s Father) at Pitt.

[Topas]

#10 is interesting. Maybe that is part of the reason why they did not fire him. I really think that one big problem with the Bills is nepotism. Although this friendship of Marrone with the special teams coach bothers me a lot. Why I can find reasons to not fire Hacket, I cannot find reasons to not fire the special teams guy.

And I did not know about #5 lol

[Meathead]

i went to wilson high school and i can tell you for certainly kerry collins was never the qb. most of the time we had a goat back there

[The King]

i went to wilson high school and i can tell you for certainly kerry collins was never the qb. most of the time we had a goat back there

In Pitt? I pulled that right from the newspaper clipping.

[Buffalogic]

Number 5 is awesome

[The last buffalo fan]

King, you rule!

[IlluminatusUIUC]

In Pitt? I pulled that right from the newspaper clipping.

The Wilson high that Collins attended is almost at the opposite end of the state from Pittsburgh.

[The King]

Direct Quote from Doug.

Q: How cold was it for the PIAA Quad-A title game in Hershey against Wilson High School?
A: We got up there and there was at least a foot or more of snow. So we were supposed to practice that night and they cleared off some of the field and we were just freezing. During the game that next day, it was just bitterly cold and it was like playing on concrete. Once you got in the flow of the game you really didn't notice it until maybe there was a timeout or at halftime. But you always felt it when you hit the ground. It was frozen solid. Also, we were playing against Kerry Collins, and he has a strong arm. I don't see how their receivers were catching the ball because he still had that zip on the ball and it had to sting.

[Dr. Lecter]

i went to wilson high school and i can tell you for certainly kerry collins was never the qb. most of the time we had a goat back there

And we all know what you did to that poor goat.

[Dr. Lecter]

In Pitt? I pulled that right from the newspaper clipping.

There is a Wilson HS on Lake Ontario in northern Niagara county

[YardRat]

I'd forgotten about #5.

You don't fir a first year OC unless he complete fubars the season, which Hackett did not.

I have no idea why the ST coach is still here, however...hopefully he's on a very short leash.

[The King]

ICYMI

[gebobs]

He’s largely credited with scouting and drafting, Lamar Woodley, Lawrence Timmons and Troy Polamalu.

Aside from this, if the other nine things are what I absolutely need to know about my GM, I think I'll just go to my room and have a little cry.

[Fletch]

He’s largely credited with scouting and drafting, Lamar Woodley, Lawrence Timmons and Troy Polamalu.

That was what, when he was an assistant, a scout. So he gets credit for that, right.

How much "credit" does he get for our drafts from 2010 'til today as Asst. GM and the highest ranked person that had a strong player profile?

Just curious since everyone seems to want to credit him with all the positives but none of the negatives on his teams.

Seems as if we're expected to believe that he was the core reason for the Steelers and Bills acquiring the good players while he was with those respective teams, but that he had absolutely nothing to do with the acquisition of the stiffs we've picked up in free agency or via the draft otherwise.

Our history of 3rd rounders and later since he's been with us is miserable. Even the 1st rounders are dicey except for Gilmore.

[The King]

I believe he was credited specifically by the Steelers organization on those three names. That's where I pulled that from. It was around the time he left to come to Buffalo.

[ghz in pittsburgh]

What about Alozon Jackson, Ricardo Colclough, Anthony Smith? Did he have a hand in selecting those guys?

[Fletch]

I believe he was credited specifically by the Steelers organization on those three names. That's where I pulled that from. It was around the time he left to come to Buffalo.

First of all, talk is cheap in the NFL.

Secondly, if in all the years that he was in Pittsburgh, with all of their stellar picks during those years, that's all that he can be credited with, then why is he being haled as the next great GM in the NFL?

[The King]

Not my quote. I'm not calling him anything, just pointing out some information about the guy.

[Fletch]

Not my quote. I'm not calling him anything, just pointing out some information about the guy.

As was I. My point stands. A guy does three good things in ten years in a role, then moves to a different team, where a mountain is made out of a molehill, and then we're all supposed to get excited and "give the guy a chance" with enthusiasm, as if we have any choice.

All I'm saying is that the talk ain't matchin' reality here. Besides, the same people supporting Whaley also supported others in the past in the same way, others that have also ended up with disastrous results.

Manuel was clearly a reach and a poor pick at 16th last season, and as we'll find out, so will have been a 6'1" WR whose primary success was predicated on bubble screens in a system whereby a QB that threw 30-something TDs every season for the last three seasons wasn't even drafted until the 6th round. Why doesn't anyone else see that simple disconnect?

NFL history has absolutely no basis for the kind of success that Whaley has promised us in this first season. The only WR that even remotely had that kind of success as a rookie was Boldin, and the Cards went 4-12 that season. They were better in the two years prior as I suspect will be the same for us. They didn't post a winning season until 6 seasons after Boldin was drafted. He wasn't even a 1st-rounder.

IMO anyone that takes the approach that Whaley has, while "gutsy" or "breaking with the patterns of the past," or whatever we want to say, is definitely risky, but given the complete lack of precedent in NFL history, to me that makes anyone taking such an approach a fool. Do I think that Whaley's a fool? Yes, I do.

Besides, what was Whaley's role in the "risky" and "departure from ordinary" move to reach for Spiller, a move very much like for Manuel last season? Of course everyone will say that he had nothing to do with the move, but he was the Asst. GM at the time and specifically brought on to be the Bills' point man for personnel. So who would be the ones ignoring reality when they claim that Spiller had nothing to do with Whaley.

That move was "gutsy" too. We wee how that worked out.

I have no idea why fans are so quick to accept things with no basis in reality or history.

And who's to say that Whaley's Woodley, Timmons, and Polamalu here in Buffalo aren't Alonso, Gilmore, and Glenn or the like.

Dareus is good, but many don't think that he's lived up to his 3rd overall billing. I agree.

Aaron Williams, remember him, a "should have been 1st-rounder," has been all but a bust and has had to benefit from a system in a different position rather than on the talents that Whaley and his staff assured us he had.

Spiller's been mentioned, Torrell Troup was a disaster as was Carrington and there hasn't been a 3rd rounder on Whaley's watch that has amounted to anything relevant. Graham, Sheppard, Carrington, ... The 4th rounders have been even worse.

Glenn still has to prove that he can work outside of last year's system, which gave us sacks until we couldn't eat them anymore, but left us all hungering otherwise as RBs that won't even be in the NFL tore us a new one on a weekly basis.