2017 Bills: The Sean McDermott Show

mjm3773

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Doug Whaley has been fired. (Will edit to more soon).
 

Dollar

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It seems insane to me to put a GM in charge of your head coach search, let him run the draft, and then fire him a day after the draft ends. Insane, but entirely fitting for a Bills organization that has defied logic for years.
 

E5 Yaz

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It was clear throughout the draft that it was McDermott's show, reflected with his repeated use of "I" as he explained the team's moves. The coach did go out of his way to give credit to Whaley and the rest of the player-personnel staff. When asked after the Bills' made their final pick Saturday if he would give Whaley a vote of confidence, McDermott said, "Doug and his staff did a phenomenal job."
http://buffalonews.com/2017/04/30/bills-dismiss-gm-doug-whaley-scouting-staff/
 

Tony C

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Yeah, I agree -- don't get the criticism. They chose McDermott as their man over Whaley, but would have been really stupid to fire Whaley and his team before the draft and open things up to pure chaos. I presume Whaley knew beforehand that this was his last rodeo -- would have been wrong if not. If so, they handled this right.
 

Curt S Loew

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It seems insane to me to put a GM in charge of your head coach search, let him run the draft, and then fire him a day after the draft ends. Insane, but entirely fitting for a Bills organization that has defied logic for years.
You would rather fire a GM before the draft? That's insane.
 

dcmissle

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Is this payment for the Rex hire? For the ghosts of drafts past? The new coach nudging out the GM responsible for hiring him?

The first is understandable; they are not firing an owner to pay for that sin.

The second seems unfair -- you just know Rex ran everything.

The third seems weird unrelated to 1 or 2, but who knows?

It's not a QB driven league; it's an owner driven one. And this new generation of owners seems really effed up.
 

bankshot1

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Its very Machiavellian. If the guys drafted work out its due to great coaching.
If it doesn't its because Whaley sucked, and now McD gets to do the shopping.
 

amarshal2

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You fire him after the season because that's when the hiring is done. Now there are a lot of people who are unemployed that aren't getting hired for a while.

Unless of course this was prearranged with retention bonuses but that would've leaked.
 

SeoulSoxFan

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One big decision coming up is whether to pick up Watkins' 5th-year option or not: http://buffalonews.com/2017/04/28/bills-unlikely-pick-5th-year-opition-watkins-contract/
The Buffalo Bills are unlikely to pick up the fifth-year option on the rookie contract for wide receiver Sammy Watkins by the NFL's May 2 deadline, The Buffalo News learned Friday.

According to an NFL source, the Bills aren't comfortable with committing to a fifth year with Watkins while he is still recovering from foot surgery.

That doesn't rule out the Bills deciding to either apply a franchise tag to Watkins after the 2017 season and/or sign him to a contract extension if he has a strong year.

The fifth-year option would cost the Bills $13.258 million, which is guaranteed against injury. The franchise tag is expected to be roughly $3 million more.
 

amarshal2

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You fire him after the season because that's when the hiring is done. Now there are a lot of people who are unemployed that aren't getting hired for a while.

Unless of course this was prearranged with retention bonuses but that would've leaked.
Perhaps not.

But if memory serves this would be unusual
 

dcmissle

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Matthew Fairburn gives a better summary of why Whaley was fired now, as well as debunking a Jason LaConfora rumor from this morning

http://www.newyorkupstate.com/buffalo-bills/index.ssf/2017/05/why_did_buffalo_bills_owner_terry_pegula_wait_to_fire_gm_doug_whaley.html
Makes sense.

But Sean McDermott has been a head coach -- not THE head coach, a head coach, period -- in the NFL For less than 4 months. So, no, you're not going to be seeing the DeCostas and Caserios running up there for an interview anytime soon. The article makes it appear that McDermott has massive influence, and that's unlikely to sit well with someone who wants control over talent acquisition.
 

bradmahn

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Seems like the correct decision. He has not been consistently good enough to justify it. I know injuries have played a role in that though.
I agree, especially when considering the franchise tag is just $2.8m more than the fifth year option for WRs ($13.2m).