After another season for the Buffalo Bills in which not only did they miss the playoffs, but they didn’t finish above .500, GM Doug Whaley spoke to the media on the future of the team, how their head coaching search will go, etc.
What became clear early on during Whaley’s remarks is that the Bills are a dysfunctional trainwreck of an organization that has little to no direction, and it all came from this:
Bills GM Doug Whaley insisting he does not know why Rex Ryan was fired and had no input in the decision. https://t.co/Qi7Ey6lEwe
— Mike Rodak (@mikerodak) January 2, 2017
So the GM, who is supposed to be making these kind of football operations decisions, has no clue why the head coach he supposedly hired was fired? What’s going on here?
Doug Whaley says 2015 hiring of Rex Ryan was a "committee" approach. He calls it a Bills' decision and won't say… https://t.co/pVTyu0V5iI
— Mike Rodak (@mikerodak) January 2, 2017
Oh that’s why. He didn’t have final say in hiring the head coach in the first place, because the team’s owners, the Pegulas, ended up having most of the say. So what does that say about the upcoming head coaching search in which offensive coordinator and interim head coach Anthony Lynn, who of course was promoted to this role before Week 3, is apparently a favorite for the full time job?
Doug Whaley on why Pegulas have not yet made public comments: "I speak for ownership. I speak for the team… https://t.co/k2AOYHJqVA
— Mike Rodak (@mikerodak) January 2, 2017
So Doug Whaley isn’t as much a decision maker on the football ops side as much as a spokesman or a bad hatchet man? And then, because Whaley is evidently both of those things, he turned to one of the most tired tropes in sports to portray the challenges facing this moribund organization as not nearly as difficult as they probably are:
Doug Whaley using the word "narrative" liberally today. Bills GM trying to paint outside perspectives of team as… https://t.co/FbmK9qun17
— Mike Rodak (@mikerodak) January 2, 2017
Rodak goes on to say that using the word “narrative” probably won’t work, which is an understatement. And just to make this stupid situation even stupider:
Doug Whaley said he hasn't thought about whether he agrees on the firing of Rex Ryan.
— Matthew Fairburn (@MatthewFairburn) January 2, 2017
The Bills still haven’t made the playoffs this century. On today’s evidence, it might be another century before they get their act together.
