Buffalo Bills GM Buddy Nix Approval Poll: September 2011

Bad: His inability to control the situation in the Evans trade, which resulted in the Bills getting little in return for him. His failure to sign Johnson.

Good: The Williams signing. Good waiver wire acquisitions. Waiving Maybin.

Indifferent: The Morrison signing. Grooming Hairston to be a starter (that is merely prudent, not exceptional).

But still these don’t sit with me:

1.) Trading Evans (unquestioned WR leader)
2.) Losing Poz (our #1 priority in off-season)
3.) Not addressing OL in free agency

I know it’ll take time to turn it around but there were free agents on the OL that we should have overpaid for.

Last thing was releasing Maybin. While we can’t disagree with his lack of production why didn’t the Bills bring aboard a retired LB to teach him how to play the position. Someone to tutor him. We have apprentice electricians – why not make him an apprentice LB? He was a 1st round pick and a large $$$ investment. Investing in helping him with some sort of mentor would have been nice to see.

The only real negative was losing a one time playmaker who doesn’t fit the scheme. I think its a win-win on letting him go. But I can see how it upset fans.

that Buddy is taking very different approaches with the offense and defense.. it seems to me that this year and last he has heavily focused on bringing in a stronger defense (Merriman, Dareus, Barnett, Morrisson, A.Williams, Searcy, D.Edwards, etc.). Which makes sense since he already has a serviceable offense where he has only brought in a few mediocre players (Rinehart, Hairston, Chandler, Nelson, Thigpen). I dont mind it, but Id like a little more focus on the o-line ASAP!

I dont like how he treats players he didnt personally bring in…. with the exception of K. Williams, Fitzy and Johnson.

I’ve like most of what he’s done so far. The jury is still out on whether this OL can protect Fitz or not. However, the Evans trade still doesn’t sit well with me. If this offense is stagnant this year, it will be the fault of the WRs just as much as the OL, in my opinion. They’re just too young right now, and no one really stands out beyond Johnson. So I have to wait and see how the offense pans out before I approve.

The defense, however, I love.

With the state of the OL being what it is, especially the lack of depth.

Even though I disagree with the Evans trade I give a thumbs up. I don’t feel the team is rudderless anymore, the accountability and organization has improved tremendously. Yes the O-line still needs to continue to be improved on but so does half the teams in the NFL…

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When we had Levy and Donahue as our GM people cried and whined becuase they felt we didn’t have enough roster movement and that our team stayed the same for too long. Now Buddy comes in and players are flying off the team and we are getting draft compensation back, questionable cuts are being made people are freaking out because hes actually quite active in roster transactions.

Buddy has failed to do 1 Thing since being our Gm and that is go out and gets us a Bonafide star on our OL, and believe me that is not an easy thing to do.

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that the team is grooming rookie fourth-round pick Chris Hairston as the left tackle of the future

Confused by the message here. I didn’t hear Buddy say that we drafted this kid to be our LT of the future. You could assume this but seems very premature. An assumption more than a reality before fact. I did hear Buddy say they really like this kid and one of the reasons for bringing in the Young kid was because lack of depth at the tackle position and it would be easier for Hairston to learn one position than to expect him to learn and prepare to play both Left and Right tackle. Also, this could lead many to think that Chris could be the first one in if a starter falters but IMO the team would lean at using LeVetrie if that failing was to come on the left side. I will say this, for Buddy to state that Sam Young was brought in to add depth at the tackle position and allows Chris Hairston to focus on the left side with Sam on the right side does credit Chris Hairston abilities for an organization to devote some attention directly on his behalf. It will be interesting what Chris Brown can offer on his progress going forward and is exactly the motivation and kick in the butt that D. Bell needs to really push himself this season. I voted not sure for Buddy, but I love this move, it shows committment to Bell with a taste of don’t let me down.

Drafted Players: With the demise and lack of’s from the past, I am cautiously waiting for contribution from these youngsters to step up and contribute. I believe Buddy said that by mid season you would expect some level of contribution from your draft class. I did expect more from Spiller, Troup and Carrington last year and have the same expectation from Dareus, Williams and Sheppard this year.

My opinion is strictly because of on the field results we went 4-12 last year and I don’t see us being better then 6-10 this year those are losing records so if we are talking about production which is the only thing that matters in the real world he has failed…one other thing in this day and age in the NFL teams don’t get 5 years to rebuild

It seems the stuff that hasn’t been done, or done in a way that hasn’t helped this team have not been highlighted here. (Aside from the Evans trade.)

Strongly disapprove of Nix’s moves recently. Strongly.

Their 4th-round pick is the “left tackle of the future”?! Not great news, if you ask me.

Congratulations to him for signing their obvious best player to a contract extension. It shouldn’t be considered a feat, it should have been considered automatic.

But trading Evans? Then only getting a 4th for him that may or may not pan out and who likely won’t ever be as important to the team as Lee Evans has been or would have been going forward?

Right now, the only things I know about Nix are what he values in building a team: Cutting salary not named Kelsay, talking Ralph Wilson out of spending salary, and building cornerstone players out of lower-round draft picks.

At this point, I don’t even expect much more from him. It is what it is, and he’s shown his hand to be less about honesty and more about pandering to those he speaks to at any given time.

Liked:
Meatball extension
Morrison signing
Continuing talks to extend Stevie and Roscoe

Disliked:
Only a 4th for Evans, really?

Morrison (an upgrade) wasn’t signed until Torbor was injured. Not a fan of the “other team’s o-line trash is our treasure” way of building an o-line. Our o-line has been bad for a few years now. Two tackles drafted and a few waiver wire pick ups are not cutting it thus far.

for the most part,i agree with what he’s done. the disagreement comes from cutting corto and roosevelt. he’s brought in some unknowns??? will they pan out? only time and playing will answer that question.

I was on board through the draft (which I liked) but when FA started my confidence went down, like water down a drain. I get the building through the draft ideology but when the contracts start running out on these drafted and undrafted players are the Bills going to pay the going rate to retain them?

“Show me the baby”…Im still waiting Buddy

Lee Evans trade, failed to address offensive line problems

I’ve been disapproving since he drafted Spiller then Troup over Cody (at the time it seemed like a terrible move). In his time here he has yet to add a difference maker. This teams best players are all holdovers from the previous regime, Johnson, Williams, Byrd, wood, levitre, Jackson, Fitz. Until someone Nix brings in makes an impact I’ll disapprove.

Oh and so far last years draft is looking pretty dismal. Who from last years draft looks like they have a chance to start? Moats looked good but he’s buried at MLB, Spiller couldn’t take the job from Jackson and the others look like backups.

Oh and we still have issues at the O Line despite every fan of the team screaming for some an upgrade.

I voted approve but I certainly disapprove on Nix getting pushed around by Gailey a little bit. I feel that Nix a) wouldn’t have brought Thigpen in and b) would have cut him were it not for Gailey. I think Brown is a better QB and has shown more and Gailey is the only reason he’s here. I don’t feel that makes our team better – I think developing the more talented player in a secondary role is more important at this point.

Other than that I cannot argue at all with his drafts unless a great QB comes out in which he could have selected at draft time. His focus on defense is how you win in the NFL – i’m convinced of that plus a QB. We make football far more difficult than it needs to be.

Not all that impressed…hopefully this season will prove me wrong

Lots of good coments, always enjoy reading them all!!

A lot of people seem to forget that they screamed about the Jauron regime favoring a “lighter, faster quicker” team because the Bills were getting their heads beat in by the “bigger, stronger, just as fast” teams in the AFC East and wanted the Bills to change. Well, change like that, with a team as bad as Jauron’s team was, means overturning the entire roster and essentially starting over. That also means that the franchise is in for a 4-5 year total rebuilding program.

Nix (and don’t forget about Whaley!) was brought in to oversee that complete overhaul. He said that he was going to build the team through the draft, not free agency—because that has been proven to be the most successful way to rebuild a franchise—which means that he was going to try to assemble a core of young players (with a few select vets sprinkled in) to move forward with so that, at the end of the process (which would take 4-5 years) the team would have that core of young veterans ready to seriously compete at that point. Having heard this from Nix, anyone who thought (or still thinks) that he would sign an older, expensive free agent to play a key role in the end product or that, beyond the need to keep the fans interested from a PR standpoint, he would care that much how many games the team would win in Year 1, 2 or 3 of this process is deluding himself. Nix has a job to do and he’s sticking to it.

Judging Nix from this perspective, I think that Nix has done a pretty reasonable job so far.

Kelsay, a lockerroom leader, was re-signed to offer the kind of lockerroom leadership that Chix want (there a lockerroom leaders that bring leadership that some teams don’t want) as they jettisoned many of the team’s veterans from the Jauron era. You can already see that they are trying to prime a replacement for Kelsay as soon as new leaders emerge from those that they have assembled—and it’s entirely possible that Kelsay won’t see the end of his contract.

Sure they liked Poz (what did you expect them to say about one of their most popular players?), but they weren’t going to overpay or give too many years for a guy whose replacement (Sheppard) they had already drafted and who wasn’t that good in a 3-4 defense. Poz himself said that being able to play in a 4-3 was a major consideration for him in moving from the Bills to the Jags. Nix did a great job of replacing Poz with a better veteran ILB on a shorter contract to hold down the spot until Sheppard is ready to take over as the starter. It’s no mistake that Nix drafted two ILBs—one suited to one spot and the other suited to fill the other—and Moats has been moved to ILB: they are looking at developing these three young guys to take over as their ILB rotation from the three vets they now have temporarily holding down those spots (that’s why they didn’t sign Morrison until Torbor got hurt—Torbor was just supposed to be a “placeholder” at the position for another year or so).

Nix understands that a good defense can keep a team in games, even if the offense is horrible, so he made that his first priority. He also knows that there have been a lot of key players on championship teams that came from smaller schools and took a little time to develop in the NFL (Haley, Harrison, etc., etc.). With only a couple of exceptions (Spiller being the most notable), his drafts and have been focused primarily on adding defensive talent to the team. Has he added a young, premiere pass-rusher in the draft? No. But he had to fix the interior and the run defense first!. Still, with the veteran free agents that he has added, the Bills front 7 has been entirely transformed from the Jauron era into what could be a capable 3-4 defense, with a lot of young, still-developing talent. If Merriman and Barnett can stay healthy enough (I know it’s a big question until they prove they can) to play as much as the average NFL OLB and ILB (ie, maybe miss only a game or two), the Bills defense could be competitive even before the rebuilding job is complete.

That’s not a bad day’s work from a GM rebuilding a team from scratch. We’ll see how well the players Nix has assembled perform (and how the young ones develop) over the course of the season, But, in terms of transforming the defense from what it was under Jauron into what it is now, Nix appears to have done a solid job within the context of the way that he said he was going to build the team. Solid, not great—but what should be reasonably expected from him to this point.

There are a lot of complaints that Nix hasn’t addressed the offensive line. Contrary to that popular opinion, that isn’t really true. Given the fact that he has been concentrating on upgrading the defense first, Nix has added talent to the Bills offensive line since his arrival—just not in the way that a lot of fans would want him to.

When Nix arrived, the Bills had two solid young offensive linemen: Wood and Levitre; an overmatched veteran interior lineman: Hangartner (who could never hold his own against the bigger NTs in the AFC East); and a low-round, developmental project at LT with talent, but needing time to show if he would belong: Bell. That’s really it. Since then, he has added two former 3rd round picks in Urbik and Rinehart (these guys were highly thought of coming out of college), a fourth round pick in Harrison, a sixth round pick (who was also highly thought of in college, in Young, and a young veteran with two year’s starting experience in Pears. There have been so many changes, in fact, that the starting five has barely had any time to play together. And, it’s a young group that is still developing—offensive linemen tend to take longer to develop in the NFL. Is it a good group? Only time will tell. But, considering that Nix decided that the defense needed to be addressed first, it’s a bigger, potentially more physical and more talented group than what he inherited from the Jauron regime. Is it good enough? Probably not…yet.

While Nix has been able to strengthen the interior of the offensive line and add three players who can potentially fill the RT spot, the weakness of the offensive line is the critical LT spot. D. Bell has talent and has developed some, but hasn’t shown the consistency needed from this position. Nix and Gailley know this and Bell has been put on notice that he needs to step up this year or else. But, given the potential that Bell had show prior to his injury (and you now have two different coaching staffs saying that he has that potential), Nix wasn’t going to pass up on the most explosive offensive player in his first draft (Spiller) and certainly wasn’t going to take an offensive tackle early on in his second (with the exception of the now injured Tyron Smith, there is no OT from the first or second round of this past draft who will be starting in the NFL on opening day). While Nix and Gailley are hoping to get through this season with Harrison and Levitre backing up Bell, if Bell doesn’t step up this season and perform up to his potential, he will be gone and the Bills will likely try to take a LT in the second round of the draft (or go for an elite LT in the first round and hope their QB falls to them in the second). With a 1st rounder, a 2nd rounder, a 3rd rounder and a 4th rounder potentially manning the offensive line, LT is the only position on the offensive line remaining to be addressed—if these young offensive linemen play up to their potential. That’s not bad when you’re in the second year of a four year total rebuild.

A lot of criticism has been leveled at Nix for trading Lee Evans and only getting a 4th rounder for him. Let’s face it, Lee Evans is too classy a man to have gone public if he wanted out of Buffalo and you weren’t going to see the kind of antics from him that Willis McGahee pulled. Still, there have been hints in what Gailley, Nix and Evans have said that indicate that there was more than meets the eye behind this trade. If so, getting a 4th round pick for Evans could be seen as a stroke of genius. Given the fact that Evans is now on the downside of 30 (which can be a problem for a speed receiver) and his declining production, a fourth rounder was about as much as the Bills could expect to get for him considering the wide receiver market.

Could the Bills afford to lose Evans at this point? While Evans would undoubtedly have been a help this season, by the time the Bills get and develop a franchise QB, which will take two more years at least, it’s doubtful that Evans would able to take advantage of that—he will be 32/33 at that point (unlike Ochocinco and TO, Evans isn’t a possession receiver, his game is in his speed). And, the Bills already have a young WR in Easley who is just as fast as Evans and needs playing time to develop. Jones may not be quite as fast as Evans, but he’s no slouch, either, and he, like Easley, needs to play as well. If the Bills are going to have a top-flight young receiving corps in place when they finally get a potential franchise QB and he’s ready to play, these young WRs need to show whether they can do the job now and be ready at that point. Could giving them that chance cost the Bills a game or two this season? Yes. But, the rebuilding that Nix is doing isn’t about winning a couple of games this season—it’s about building a team that can contend for a few years in the near future.

And, look at the job that Nix has done in assembling a young, talented receiving corps with the potential to be what the team needs to become a contender. Yes, he inherited Parrish and Stevie Johnson, but Nelson, Jones, Easley, and even Roosevelt and Aiken are a nice bunch of young WRs to have assembled using only one mid-round draft pick. Even if some of them fail to pick up the torch left by Evans, you have to give Nix some credit for finding these guys while concentrating primarily on the defense.

Finally, why did Nix pass on a QB in this past draft? Because, if you looked at the group, there were question marks about virtually every one of the QBs in that draft: Newton’s character, Ponder’s injury history and inconsistency, Locker’s footwork and accuracy (big arm, but very inaccurate and unable to win much in college), Mallet’s off-field behavior (late for meetings, drug and alcohol consumption), etc. Now look at who is eligible for next year’s draft: Luck, Barkley, L.Jones, Foles, K.Moore, R.Wilson, etc. Even if a couple of them decide to stay in school, it’s a much deeper draft, with more potential franchise QBs likely to be available. Why should Nix have reached for a QB with question marks in last year’s draft when he knew he could get a stud for his defense and next year’s draft would be much deeper at QB? The smart thing to do was to do what he did.

And, the same goes for the LT position. This year’s draft was one of the weakest in years for offensive linemen. Nix filled four positions on his defense with potential future starters before taking an OT who would be as much of a project as many of the offensive linemen taken before him. If you want to blame Nix for not reaching for Smith, the only real LT prospect in that draft, you can, but that’s a real stretch.

As for trading Lynch: Lynch was a year-long suspension waiting to happen if he stayed in Buffalo. While he never came out and said that he didn’t want to be in Buffalo, Lynch made no secret of the fact that he eventually wanted to go back to the West Coast at some point and did make it known that he wasn’t happy with some of the criticism that he got from the WNY media and some fans. Rather than take a chance on losing Lynch through suspension or ultimately free agency, Nix decided to get what he could for him while he still could get something for him (remember Holmes went to the Jets for a 5th or 6th rounder). That’s a judgement call. But, with the addition of a potential “home-run” threat in Spiller (who may yet become one), Nix could afford not to take that chance and get what he could for Lynch (who runs to contact and really isn’t a true breakaway threat). I think that was a good move.

While the Bills might not win many more games this year than last, they look like they have a chance to be a better team than last year. Overall, Nix’s rebuilding process seems to be progressing at a pretty decent rate, considering this is just his second year at it. There are still some very critical pieces missing that need to be brought in and there could be some setbacks before Nix gets a group together that can be serious contenders. But, I didn’t expect him to be able to do that overnight—as Gailley pointed out, he (and Nix) wouldn’t have gotten the job if there wasn’t a lot of work to do. And, I don’t expect the Bills to win a lot of games or sneak into the playoffs (making the playoffs isn’t and shouldn’t be the goal—being able to win the Super Bowl is what it’s all about!) at this stage of their rebuilding process. What I expect is progress in assembling a group of young talent that can develop into a contender in the near future. And, I think Nix has done a fairly decent job in doing that—but the real test will come during the course of this season when we will get a chance to see how well and how far some of these young players are able to develop and play. So far, so good…but, we’ll see….

I dont think it takes 4 yrs to build a winner…unless you keep hitting other teams practice squads and waiver wires…we are way below the cap…and really 11 yrs of excuses gets tiresome…so when someone comes in with a 4 yr plan after 11 years of failure…when other teams rebuild in 1or 2 yrs.. .i tend to have a problem when it doesnt look like we addressed our needs (same needs year after year)

The thing that stood out the most to me was his handling of the 3 local players on the roster (& the possibility of picking up a 4th-Gronkowski). Marketing minded people are keeping at least one or two of those players. Not Buddy, continuing on the unwavering path of removing who he believes will be best for the team-aka Schoebel “go ahead & retire, good luck”. Kawika Mitchell,. Lynch, Evans, Hang, a plethora of draft picks, etc… Out w/the old, in w/the new, all in our vision of what is to be, tough hard nosed players, hand picked of course.

Agree w/all Brian’s bullet points above except cutting Coleman & Roosevelt. Only beef is not finding coach more talent on oline(OT) but prob easier said than done. Nice rebound from loosing your best defender in free agency.