Octopus Overlords

Deadspin

Bills GM Doug Whaley is facing the music today, giving an end-of-season press conference after a mess of a year and apparently failing to inspire much confidence that the Bills are internally healthy and ready for a turnaround.

The first sign should have been when the interim head coach Anthony Lynn said he wasn’t involved in the decision to start E.J. Manuel at quarterback in Week 17. Today Whaley revealed that he wasn’t involved in the initial decision to fire Ryan.
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Whaley, by playing the good company man and/or by protecting the Pegulas, is painting a picture of a disastrous situation for a GM, where he isn’t consulted on and isn’t informed about major hiring and firing decisions. His actual powers remain suspect; his ability to act as anything other than a spokesperson for the owners is questionable. And he didn’t even get to do that!
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The local reporters are savaging Whaley’s press conference. What a shitshow.
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ProFootball Talk had a transcript edit for the questions that just focused on Ryan. I can't find the full transcript at the moment.

The whole situation must be a miasma of despair for Bills fans. The owners are short-sighted meddlers who will presumably keep messing up the team. But you can't hope for new owners for fear that they move the team.

At least they're not Jerry.

They have an opportunity to let Doug be the GM now. Rex didn't report to Whaley, and they weren't planning to fire Rex last week. They had their weekly meeting with the owners, GM and Rex - where they let Rex know that he couldn't start Tyrod against the Jets.

Rex then asked to talk to TP and in the course of that conversation, TP fired Rex (Rex said that if you are going to fire me next week, just fire me now - so fired).

At this point, the GM is in charge of this hire (unlike last time). If they are smart, this coach will report to the GM (unlike last time). This would match the organizational structure of the Sabres.

As a rule, the Pegulas aren't particularly meddlesome. They just ran out of patience with Rex and his inability to fix the defense.

Sounds like they didn't like his handling of the QB situation either.

Pyperkub wrote:Sounds like they didn't like his handling of the QB situation either.

Rex's handling of the QB situation?

He was fired almost entirely because of the failures of the defense over the past two years. He was fired last Tuesday instead of this past Monday because of how he was handling the Tyrod situation. He promised Tyrod that as long as he was coach, he would be the starting QB. The Bills have a decision to make on Tiny Tyrod on March 8th (or there abouts). Either they choose to exercise their option on him and fork over $28M, or they kick him to the curb.

Unless he got hurt grievously in Week 17. In which case that automatically exercised the option (which was guaranteed for injury). Rex asked to be fired last Tuesday (instead of this Monday) to avoid breaking that promise to Tyrod.

Putting EJ in for Week 17 probably did more than anything I could imagine to ensure that the Bills ultimately exercise Tyrod's option. He's not Tom Brady or Aaron Rodgers, and never will be. But he's a capable starting QB, and EJ has reminded you what it looks like when you don't have even that. Had the defense even been decent this year, the Bills would have been a playoff team. If you toss out the QB, you have to start over, and that will cascade into losing other free agents or players to retirement (most notably Kyle and Aaron Williams - although AW should probably retire no matter what due to neck health issues).

What do the Bills have to do with playoff football? Hell, what do the Bills have to do with professional football?

Steve Smith's official retirement letter was submitted today.

Why would he send it to the commissioner and not the owner of the team?

Because he is an UFA?

Oops

Dallas defensive end Randy Gregory has been suspended for at least a year for another violation of the NFL’s substance-abuse policy.

It’s the third time this season Gregory has been suspended. The first was a four-game ban, followed by 10 games on top of that. The suspension announced Thursday makes him ineligible for the playoffs, which start Jan. 15 for Dallas, the top seed in the NFC.

The suspension is for one calendar year, meaning Gregory could be eligible for the playoffs without another violation if the Cowboys make it again next season.

Gregory played the final two games of his second regular season, recording the first sack of his career in the finale against Philadelphia.

I severely underestimated how awful Connor Cook would be. Ugh.

Watching Bell shred the Miami defense for over 160 yds and 2 tds makes me cry as a Lions fan. We havent had a running game since Barry Sanders.

Anyway his ability to delay and find hole instead of trying to brute force his way through a wall is pretty damned impressive.

Whenever they cut to Joe Buck in the late game, all I can think is hair plug addiction.

rshetts2 wrote:Watching Bell shred the Miami defense for over 160 yds and 2 tds makes me cry as a Lions fan. We havent had a running game since Barry Sanders.

Anyway his ability to delay and find hole instead of trying to brute force his way through a wall is pretty damned impressive.

Watching the Lions drop so many passes, be unable to stop the run, and have salt rubbed into their incompetency wounds by the poor officiating (and their own idiot "veterans") made me want to weep as a Lions fan. I go nothing on the dropped passes as that is becoming their forte but the utter failure on run defense was new. I'm used to them being bad at it but that was pathetic. Then, when they were clearly going to lose anyway, to watch the officials ignore that facemask on the first TD (and actually throw a flag for defensive PI the same way they did in Dallas on Bryant's TD that included him grabbing our DB's facemask too!), the block in the back by Wilson, the PI non-call when Jones was tripped, etc. Just makes the NFL a joke to me. When they start calling games better they will have a better product on the field. Officiating all season has been abhorrent not only in Lions games but all of them. They are just terrible.

Remus West wrote:

rshetts2 wrote:Watching Bell shred the Miami defense for over 160 yds and 2 tds makes me cry as a Lions fan. We havent had a running game since Barry Sanders.

Anyway his ability to delay and find hole instead of trying to brute force his way through a wall is pretty damned impressive.

Watching the Lions drop so many passes, be unable to stop the run, and have salt rubbed into their incompetency wounds by the poor officiating (and their own idiot "veterans") made me want to weep as a Lions fan. I go nothing on the dropped passes as that is becoming their forte but the utter failure on run defense was new. I'm used to them being bad at it but that was pathetic. Then, when they were clearly going to lose anyway, to watch the officials ignore that facemask on the first TD (and actually throw a flag for defensive PI the same way they did in Dallas on Bryant's TD that included him grabbing our DB's facemask too!), the block in the back by Wilson, the PI non-call when Jones was tripped, etc. Just makes the NFL a joke to me. When they start calling games better they will have a better product on the field. Officiating all season has been abhorrent not only in Lions games but all of them. They are just terrible.

We picked a good night to have people over for poker. MHS even cashed in both tournaments. I had the game on mute which was fine by me. For extra fun we then flipped over to the Wings/Sharks 6-3 drubbing.

Not a good sports weekend. I expect Alabama to finish it off tonight.

While it may not have influenced the outcome of the game, do the refs have to screw the Lions every single damn game? I have never seen a team get ref-fucked quite like the Lions do. Thats not to excuse the myriad of issues the team has on its own but damn, its getting to be a bit much. I know it isnt just the Lions, the NFL refs have been terrible this season but with the Lions it seems like every week the refs are apologizing on Monday for their inevitable screw up.

It is going to be a long offseason for the Lions thats for sure.

rshetts2 wrote: It is going to be a long offseason for the Lions thats for sure.

Drafting a new wide receiver ought to set things right.

Jeff V wrote:

rshetts2 wrote: It is going to be a long offseason for the Lions thats for sure.

Drafting a new wide receiver ought to set things right.

Now thats just mean! ( yeah, sadly I did laugh )

Ooops, my bad. Please move all Lions-related discussion to the 2017 Offseason thread.

What do the Lions have to do with playoff football? Hell, what do the Lions have to do with professional football?

Other than ceaselessly bitching about refs of course.

RunningMn9 wrote:What do the Lions have to do with playoff football? Hell, what do the Lions have to do with professional football?

Other than ceaselessly bitching about refs of course.

Hey, they made the playoffs and just finished the game this weekend. What? We are not allowed an AAR?


Though I do have to give you the quip about professional football, they deserve that one!

I thought the Lions showed significant improvement each of the lat two seasons (this one and last). I know they didn't look great at the end, but I'm pretty happy with the overall direction they're going.

rshetts2 wrote:

RunningMn9 wrote:What do the Lions have to do with playoff football? Hell, what do the Lions have to do with professional football?

Other than ceaselessly bitching about refs of course.

Hey, they made the playoffs and just finished the game this weekend. What? We are not allowed an AAR?


Though I do have to give you the quip about professional football, they deserve that one!

He's repeating what people said about the Bills. Nothing personal.

stessier wrote:

rshetts2 wrote:

RunningMn9 wrote:What do the Lions have to do with playoff football? Hell, what do the Lions have to do with professional football?

Other than ceaselessly bitching about refs of course.

Hey, they made the playoffs and just finished the game this weekend. What? We are not allowed an AAR?


Though I do have to give you the quip about professional football, they deserve that one!

He's repeating what people said about the Bills. Nothing personal.

Oh its personal! But then I was the one who dished it out so I guess I had better be able to take it. Of course I cant give RM9 too much credit, assaulting a Lions fan is kind of like kicking a puppy. Sure its easy but its also cruel.

Patriots Not Allowing Football Game Against Texans To Become Distraction.

FOXBOROUGH, MA—Insisting that it is the furthest thing from their minds at this point in their season, members of the New England Patriots told reporters Thursday that they are not allowing their upcoming game against the Houston Texans to become a distraction. “Obviously, it’s something we’d rather not be dealing with right now, but we’re not going to let trivial stuff like this Saturday’s matchup with the Texans take away our focus from our goals as a team,” said Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, who downplayed the upcoming divisional playoff game by adding that players and coaches have avoided discussing the subject at all in the locker room. “We know it’s something that the media wants to make a big deal of, but it’s getting blown out of proportion, and honestly, none of us are paying any attention to it. It’s not something we’re going to waste time worrying about.” Sources confirmed that a visibly frustrated Brady later stormed out of the press conference after refusing to answer yet another question about facing Texans quarterback Brock Osweiler.

Wow - they moved the KC/PIT game from 1pm to 8:20pm (EST) to give the city more time to dig out from the storm. It would be interesting if that got pushed to Monday...give Saturday's winner a bit of an advantage.

stessier wrote:...give Saturday's winner a bit of an advantage.

That's kind of you to say Saturday's winner instead of just assuming the Patriots like everyone else.

Have you met me? I'm a self loathing Pats fan.

Clowney and that side of the line are playing well and Houston has very dangerous recievers. If Osweiller plays with minimal mistakes, the Pats could be in trouble.

That was a big goal line stand by Houston. And Brady got stuffed. I think it will be a bit uncomfortable in the locker room...

That was a painful game. Houston defense is quite good. It's great to have Dion Lewis back. I hope Bennett can go next week.

Just saw the Brady post game press conference...he is extremely unhappy. I love unhappy Brady. It's gonna be a long week of practice.

What a whiny little bitch he is. Try watching a Panthers game before berating refs about late hits.

RunningMn9 wrote:What a whiny little bitch he is. Try watching a Panthers game before berating refs about late hits.

You're right. Poor officiating in one game justifies it in all others.

The point is, he needs to stop acting like a fucking entitled baby and remember that he's playing football. Jordy Nelson got his ribs busted up on an illegal hit with no flag thrown, I don't recall him bitching about it. And that cost him the rest of that game and might cost his team a chance to move on today.

RunningMn9 wrote:The point is, he needs to stop acting like a fucking entitled baby and remember that he's playing football. Jordy Nelson got his ribs busted up on an illegal hit with no flag thrown, I don't recall him bitching about it. And that cost him the rest of that game and might cost his team a chance to move on today.

Ah yes, just shut up and take the pounding rather than defending oneself leading to getting calls advantageous to your team. Brilliant!!

Christ Almighty. This is why the country hates Pats fans.

RunningMn9 wrote:Christ Almighty. This is why the country hates Pats fans.

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say I think it's more the winning than anything else.

That's why they hate the Pats. Their fans are something else entirely. In either case, the issue isn't letting the refs know they missed a call. The issue is berating the ref like a fucking child.

In other news, they still haven't reversed the call on that touchdown catch by Dez Bryant.