Buddy Nix Approval Poll: December 2010

I am glad he claimed Merriman, even though he never got to play. It shows we are doing the best we can to make upgrades in positions that desprately need it.

He has my vote!

Waived Cornell Green from Injured Reserve

i’ll approve on this alone, haha!!

seriously though – picking up Merriman (even though he is hurt, but he WAS healthy), dropping Green and the signing of some of these UDFA and practice squad players is really starting to pan out.

I always thought that you could tell a good talent evaluator by their later round picks and UDFA pickups and by that standard this first year has seen some quality players added to the Bills roster.

Some random thoughts…

You’d think October was a pretty bad month for the franchise in Buffalo, huh…

Bills should get a compensatory draft pick for Merriman at the least, so it wasn’t a complete waste.

Gotta give Nix props for sticking to his game plan, and facing the music when things weren’t going well at all.

First time in a long while I have had hope for this team, and have enjoyed the last month in particular. Looking forward to great things from this team. Keep up the good work, Bills!

I voted approve, but really only for one reason: in (very early) hindsight, Nix’s decision to NOT gut the team immediately, but to retain the vast majority of the 2009 team to do a season-long evaluation, looks like an incredibly astute decision. Where we go from here is obviously the big factor, but after a fairly slow off-season that didn’t see a ton of player acquisitions, particularly of the veteran variety, his strategy seems to be bearing more fruit than most of us would’ve anticipated.

One reason and one reason alone: Shawne Merriman. It was a mistake from the start, given his injury history. Now that they’re on the hook to pay him for contributing nothing…not something I hope they make a habit of when going after other players.

Hes getting the right players for this team. After a 2-2 November I think we can finally start to see this team turn the corner… and Nix helped that. He brought in Merriman, obviously he didnt, and wont play for us (this year potentially) … but I do think that having a guy like Shawne Merriman on the sidelines is a positive. Idk if thats the case with him on the IR now… but when he was down there the last few games he seemed to be helping out the younger OLB’s.

Also he let Green go… thats a huuge plus.

Buddy has mad alot of mistakes from the signing of Cornell Green, to the draft with hasn’t panned out very well and the signing of merriman. Although I will give him credit he is quick to realize the mistakes he makes and tries to fix them not very successful but he tries to fix them, I bilieve the only reason wher not killing him for his moves is because Chan Gailey is coaching this team up

Merriman was a low risk, high reward investment. No lost draft picks. If Merriman was healthy and became the Merriman of old, Buffalo tags him and fills a need. Again, low risk, high reward.

I really like that Nix went to Stanford to scout Luck. A while back I surmised that Nix might be taking lessons learned from his San Diego days and using them in Buffalo. Drafting Luck would be right in line with this.

Scouting Luck is doing due dilligence, but is could mean more. Buffalo will likely not pick first. What if Nix is willing to work the Rivers-Manning trade, this time in reverse? Buffalo sends a package to the first overall selecting team for the first pick, and takes Luck. Now Buffalo has Fitzpatrick as the starter with Luck as the back-up and QB of the future.

Looks a lot like the Brees/Rivers situtation.

Even if that’s not even close, at least Nix is looking at the situation in terms of BPA, again.

I mean the Merriman move was a flyer, it didn’t work out, no biggie. Green is now gone, Ganther has been ok in limited action,Wrotto is looking like a decent pick up. Urbik,Carrington, and Moats are all looking like they might be solid contributors down the road. Heck even Kelsay has made a few plays.

I still find the Spiller pick puzzling. Sure, it makes more sense now with Lynch gone, but he’s received no playing incentive from less competition. They need to find a way to make Spiller a full-time player.

He’s not a solid contributor at a position where you expect them to come in right away and produce.

Doin a fine job changin the culture.

Winning is expected.

Makin moves all the time with personnel, gassing the failures real quick.

Buddy sticks to his words, someone us fans can trust.

No matter who is the ruler of the land, everyone will never agree on everything but what I will ask is…. What more could we ask for? These games are close, and entertaining. I don’t remember games bein this fun since flutie.

Because the team has really improved while his offense is actually pretty solid. There’s not much more that I would have asked of him for the season. I question his crunch time play calling a bit and why he seems to abandon the run at times, but overall, I’m down with the improvement and what appears to be a good foundation he’s establishing.

Nix, on the other hand, still gets the “Not Sure” from me. I’m still unsure that he actually has a plan and even though the OL is playing better, its still poor and wasn’t managed well in the offseason, IMO. I still don’t agree with his draft strategy and its looking like an iffy class, at best.

I like some of the pickups he’s made during the season, and thought Merriman was worth the risk. His activity during the season has been good; hopefully guys like Wrotto, Urbik and any of the PS additions can contribute in the future.

As I’ve said, this offseason is HUGE for Nix. He needs to be active, whether its in FA, via trade and the draft, but also needs to be really productive. It’ll be a big offseason if this team is going to take a big step forward next year.

I voted “disapprove”. If there were five options with strongly approve and strongly disapprove added in, I would have voted strongly disapprove.

I feel like the Bills’ near success is leading people to think that Buddy Nix is doing a good job, but what exactly has Nix added that is contributing?

I believe that it was a Nix decision to run the 3-4. I think that’s been his plan all along. I think it was a really bad decision and now Buffalo is stuck with a tweener roster. They’ve got Kyle Williams who is worlds better as a fit in a one gap scheme. He can play NT here in Buffalo, but they’ll have to run a 3-4 over or ask more of their LBs because they will be asking less of Williams so that he can make plays. They could always stick with the 4-3 where Williams works best and where the Chris Kelsay signing wouldn’t be a laughably poor decision. But that’s probably not what this organization is going to do. It looks like they’re committed to running a 3-4 and I think that’s a Nix thing.

Dwan Edwards was a great FA signing. It was smart to try and add one long term piece in FA and Edwards was the perfect fit. I thought the Bills did fine in FA despite the disaster that was the Cornell Green move. But FA only adds one contributer in Edwards with Davis being decent and then struggling with injuries.

In season FA is mostly scrap heap types. I’m not going to give a GM credit for guys like Ayodele, Martin or Wrotto. Every team makes those moves. With players like Scott, Chris Draft and Michael Gaines, Buffalo has had that kind of success in pulling decent guys off the street before. I’m not sure why Nix gets credit for revamping the depth of the OL. Is it really better than it was the last few seasons? Urbik could prove to be a good move, but are Howard, Wang and Wrotto really any better than guys who fans were optimistic about in the past like Jamon Meredith or vet types like Jon Scott? They spent a couple of late round picks on the line, they should have revamped depth, I just don’t think it’s any better.

I don’t understand why Nix gets credit for the Merriman signing. It’s like giving some lower middle class working type credit for buying a lottery ticket every week. It never had a chance of working. I think he’s going to struggle to get an actual contract next year and then struggle to make a roster.

The CJ Spiller selection is even more of a head scratcher today than it was on draft day. It feels like the BPA argument doesn’t work anymore. I still think he’s going to be a great player, but he wasn’t some generational talent that couldn’t be passed on. If he was Chris Johnson, we would have seen more than we have. He wasn’t some obvious BPA choice and I’m not exactly sure what his role is on this team. He’s not even the best kick returner on the roster.

Troup has been mediocre. Carrington (who I really believe in) has struggled to find PT. Moats has shown some flashes, but he’s averaging maybe one tackle per game on defense. Biggest rookie contributer has been David Nelson. I didn’t think it was a good draft at the time and I think it looks even worse now. Just adding some good players in the draft isn’t good enough. Things are relative, so improving the team really isn’t improving the team if other teams are also getting better in the draft. You need to out-draft other teams, not find a couple WRs after the draft.

I really think the Bills offseason looks terrible in hindsight. The Kelsay signing is a complete joke if this team wants to run the 3-4. Almost every single player that has been a factor in the Bills being as exciting as they’ve been was already on the roster.

I voted approve. But, I think though, for a GM, you need to take a long view. Don’t most people say that it takes 3 or so years to really evaluate a draft class? So, I’d say check back in 2013 when taking a look at this past April’s draft class. As far as free agency, he had some hits and some misses. He let TO walk which opened up an opportunity to let Johnson play. Dwan Edwards was a great signing. On the other hand, he did sign Green. But I’m willing to give Nix a pass in free agency. You win some and you lose some and he’s stated before he was going to build this team through the draft. I think he’s willing to roll the dice to help the team when there is little risk. I doesn’t bother me that the Merriman signing has been a bust. He tried to sign someone that could have been a great addition.
 Mostly, though I voted approve because this team just looks better. I’d take this team over a 7-9 Dick Jauron team any day of the week. I’m convinced this team is headed in the right direction.

I went with a not sure this time based simply on the fact that the likes of Poz and Whitner have not been resigned yet. I have read that this is because the CBA has not been agreed yet, but is this relevant? They are the best we have at their positions and if we lose them in free agency that is two more holes to fill, by not showing loyalty now we risk either annoying them and they leave or paying a lot more to sooth their hurt feelings. Also the lack of a CBA did not stop him resigning Kelsay etc.

….and I’m not going to nitpick every signing or non-signing that he’s made because in my mind that’s all it is…nitpicking. There is not a GM past, present or future that hasn’t or will not make a mistake or error in judgment /evaluation of a player. My vote is based on is he trying to make this team better and does he have a plan…and I answer yes to both. There were some things I didn’t agree with or didn’t understand (eg. Kelsay’s extension) but later on, I could understand what he’s doing. Over the past 10 years, the GM’s never had a plan, it was just a patchwork job of just filling holes. If for anything, people should approve of NIx for his 1st hire, Chan Gailey, which brought hope to a team that was hopeless. I can’t remember so many players signed to the practice squad…it’s like a turnstile now that Rumblings can’t even keep up. Yeah they may be cheap and undrafted but everyone knows just because you wasn’t drafted doesn’t mean you’re not talented or you can’t play. Those guys will probably play with more heart, passion and character than some of these other egomaniacs playing. So yes, I approve of Nix’s effort in trying pump blood back into our team….by any means necessary.

it seems more and more likely to me that Buddy and Chan are good football minds and talent evaluators who just weren’t engaged in the league’s personnel or in last year’s draft class. I know Buddy was on the payroll last year, but neither guy was intimately involved in the league last year. That is why I think they made so few longterm commitments this offseason. Even Spiller isn’t a longterm commitment in that he really doesn’t keep them from bringing in another running back (we need 2 and freddy isn’t young) down the road. I would bet that spending a year with their ears to the floor (or some better euphemism for paying attention), they will be much more aggressive in pursuing longterm fixes and major roster overhaul this offseason.

that’s what I’m hoping for, anyway. I voted approve, mostly because Buddy’s Bills are my favorite team since Drew Bledsoe left.

I still don’t see that Nix has really accomplished anything in terms of adding talent to oru roster and this past month he has made an epic failure in getting damaged goods in Merriman costing the Bills millions of dollars.

I guess you guys must love Ganther?