Bills Hire Two: Bills have made other moves to the front office. They have announed the hiring of Jim Monos as directior of player personnel and Kelvin Fisher as director of college scouting. This fills holes created with Doug Whaley's promotion to general manager and was hired by Whaley. Waiting on these hires was the reason for waiting to announce Whaley's promotion. He has known both men for a long time. He has worked with Fisher before but not Monos who will move into Whaley's role overseeing pro personnel and the college department. Organization Focused On Winning: The Bills officially introduced Doug Whaley as the new general manager of the team during a press conference today. Russ Brandon started the press conference and said he didn't know if it would take a day or a month to finish the process of hiring the general manager. He feels naming Doug Whaley GM today helps them in the talent evaluation process. Brandon and Whaley both feel organizations win championships not individual. They have a laser focus on winning, nothing else matters. Brandon said Whaley is a man of high character and relentless in the pursuit of a championship. Whaley thanked Brandon, Ralph Wilson, and Buddy Nix before opening the press conference up to questions. Their main goal is giving the fans a team that consistently competes for championships. Brandon said, the team is all about what they do moving forward and with Whaley at the helm and Marrone as head coach they feel real good about the future but it is all about proving it. Whaley is excited about the coaching staff and players but it is a day to day process of evaluating. They are focusing on the OTAs and minicamps while Whaley attends the BLESTO meetings to begin preparing for the 2014 draft. Whaley is proud of what they brought in and what struck him the most about Doug Marrone is his committment to excellence and winning. He stayed in Buffalo to sees thing through because he is a competitor. The sky's the limit when you are committed to winning and hard work. On Jairus Byrd, Whaley said they want to keep their good players and they will continue negotiating with him but not in the press. Now that Whaley is in place, Brandon said they will begin using analytics starting with the strength and conditioning program. Whaley's main responsibility is the 53 man roster and talent evaluation while Jim Overdorf will continue to manage the salary cap. Brandon has final say on contracts but all decisions will be made lock step with Whaley. The new GM will not give up going out and scouting college players. He feels he can do it all because he is very good in time management. Brandon called him the perfect guy to lead the football operation and is everything you look for in a leader it is always we and us with him. Whaley Officially Named GM: The Bills have finally made it official. Doug Whaley has been named the new general manager of the team. They announced it this morning in a release. He has been the heir apparent to Buddy Nix since he came over from the Steelers. Russ Brandon tweeted, "Doug has been involved in every level of player personnel & he will lead our efforts in reestablishing a winning tradition for this organization. Doug is a passionate & committed leader who will work tirelessly with his dept to build a team our fans & all of WNY will be proud of." There will be a press conference at 11:30am today. Wednesday May 15, 2013 Alonso Signs: 2nd round pick Kiko Alonso has signed a four year contract. His deal leaves just EJ Manuel and Robert Woods as unsigned draft picks. Report: Whaley To Be Named GM Tomorrow: Jason LaCanfora reports that Doug Whaley will be named the new general manager on Thursday. The Bills have yet to confirm that report. He has been the assumed successor to Nix since he joined the team. Many feel this was always the plan for after the draft. Kolb Gets First Reps: In day two of the organized team activities yesterday Kevin Kolb received the opening reps followed by Travaris Jackson. They pretty much split the reps evenly and were followed by EJ Manuel who saw less reps. Doug Marrone said the reps will even out when Manuel catches up to Kolb and Jackson who have had more time immersed in the system. On hand for yesterday's workout were the fathers of the two coordinators. Mike Pettine Sr. and Paul Hackett had long and decorated coaching careers of their own. Tuesday May 14, 2013 Bills Claim TE: The Bills have claimed TE Mickey Shuler off of waivers from the Raiders. He is the son of the player with the same name that had a lot of success with the Jets in the 80s. To make room on the 90 man roster they released WR Kevin Norell. Shuler has been a journey man since being drafted in 2010 in the seventh round by Minnesota. He had to stints with the Vikings and played for the Dolphins and Bengals. He was on the Raiders practice squad most of last season. Rookies Missing For School: Day two of this week's OTAs is underway and there are several rookies not in attendance as they finish up their school obligations. The NFL has a rule that rookies can't practice with the team until the college year ends. Missing from the OTAs are: Robert Woods, Marquise Goodwin, Brandon Kaufman, Aaron Tipoti, Nickell Robey, Jordan Dangerfield, and Kevin Norrell. Stevie Johnson is sitting out practice for a second straight day. He missed the previous minicamp with a strained back. OTA Notes: The Bills held their first organized team activity workout yesterday underneath the cloud of Buddy Nix stepping down as the general manager. The practice varied the tempo but for the most part everything happened very quickly. Most plays went off in rapid fashion. Tavaris Jackson got the first team reps at quarterback followed by Kevin Kolb and then EJ Manuel. The star of the day was rookie wide receiver Da'Rick Rogers who caught long scoring bombs from both Kolb and Manuel. Monday May 13, 2013 No New GM Yet: Russ Brandon said in the press conference to announce Buddy Nix's departure as general manager that it is Buddy's day. That means the team will not announce the next general manager today as they made it about Buddy Nix. Brandon said there is a plan in place and praised Buddy for helping him grow up in the business and said he brought instant credibility to the organization. Nix said he will be most proud of what the team will accomplish in the next few years and not the past. He wanted to step away when he felt good about it and that time is now. Nix feels Doug Marrone will win a lot of games in Buffalo. Nix will have a home office and will work as a special assistant on certain football related matters. He expects to be at training camp. He said it's a good time to transition based on the timing of preparing for next year's draft as the BLESTO scouting meeting takes place next week. Nix Steps Down: Buddy Nix has stepped down as general manager of the Bills. He will transition into a role as a special assistant. Doug Whaley is expected to take over as the general manager although it has not bee announced yet. It would be a shock if he didn't take over. This move has been speculated since Russ Brandon took over control of the operation and Whaley got a contract extension. It was widely believed it would happen after the draft. Nix said he feel it is right time to leave with a good young roster and excellent coach and a good staff. He feels the team is on the right course to success. There will be a press conference at One Bills Drive at some point this afternoon. Rookie Minicamp Ends: The Bills wrapped up a three day rookie minicamp yesterday at One Bills Drive. Now the young players get to see how much they learned when the veterans join them today as the first week of organized team activities get going. There will be voluntary workouts with the entire team today, tomorrow, and Wednesday this week. The rookies got their feet wet over the weekend as the group of young wide receivers all seemed to look good. The Bills will need a big contribution from the younger players at that position since they are very thin behind Stevie Johnson. The quickest way to get breaking news from Bills Daily is to Saturday May 11, 2013 Rookies Learning In Classroom: The rookies reported to their first day of the rookie minicamp yesterday at 6am. They spent several hours in the classroom learning the playbook. They had been given their playbooks on ipads and have been studying it but the coaches really began teaching it yesterday. They finally got on the field later than expected yesterday afternoon. Doug Marrone moved around from the different position groups saying he spent a bit of extra time looking at the group of young wide receivers the team has. The coach was pleased with how both rookie quarterbacks looked. EJ Manuel looked the part of an NFL quarterback and they took extra time working on his footwork. Friday May 10, 2013 Five Picks Now Signed: The Bills officially announced the signing of Duke Williams after he tweeted a picture of him signing his contract yesterday. The team also announced the signing of Dustin Hopkins, Marquise Goodwin, and Jonathan Meeks. They previously announced the signing of Chris Gragg. That leaves just the top three picks unsigned as EJ Manuel and second rounders Robert Woods and Kiko Alonso remain unsigned. They are all taking part in the rookie minicamp that got underway today. Bills Sign Gragg, Williams: The Bills got an early start on signing their draft choices as the rookies gather for their first minicamp this weekend. The team announced they ahve signed seven round draft pick TE Chris Gragg, terms of the deal were not disclosed. 4th round pick Duke Williams tweeted he has also signed, the team has not announced that deal but he tweeted a picture of himself signing the contract. Gragg will have a chance to get a lot of playing time with Scott Chandler coming off a torn ACL. Williams will battle for playing time at both safety spots and maybe will see some time at corner in the nickel and dime defenses. Front Office Page. Byrd, Bills $2 Million Apart? Bills color analyst Mark Kelso was on the John Murphy Show on WGR last night and he indicated that the Bills and Jairus Byrd are $2 Million apart on a new long term contract. Kelso said he has talked to Byrd and would like him to get in camp and not quibble over $2 Million saying there isn't much of a difference between $7 and $9 Million. This report is obviously not anything concrete. If Byrd signs his franchise tage he would earn $6.916 Million this year. The two sides have until July 15th to work out a long term deal under the terms of the CBA. Print Friendly Version Latest News Archives |
