Let Us Dispel With the Idea That the Pegulas Know What They Are Doing
By 
The Bills for some reason allowed their GM to stay after the season, hired a coach, and then fired the GM the day after the draft. This is, ah, somewhat less than functional; the Pegulas seem to be acting as if both the NFL and NHL had allowed their teams to be sold to Donald Trump:
This has nothing to do with the decision to whack Whaley, who should have been gone before Pegula arrived. He was fortunate to survive after staking his reputation on EJ Manuel and doubling down by trading two first-round draft picks for Sammy Watkins in a draft rich with receivers.
Whaley had a knack for finding free agents off the street, but he overspent in other areas and failed to keep good players after mangling the salary cap. He had problems getting along with head coaches. His departure was inevitable after he was stripped of power and had problems clarifying what he did for a living.
The Pegulas can continue firing people, and paying them, but they’re not going to instill belief unless they start hiring the right people to replace them. It starts with them. The Whaley decision is not simple addition by subtraction. They attempted to fill other positions in the past and watched them turn into disasters.
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It’s astonishing when you consider the dough Pegula is shelling out to people who are no longer employed by his organizations. For Whaley, Ryan, Murray and Dan Bylsma, we’re talking some $35 million in payouts. But that’s change between the couch cushions compared to the total cost.
The figure is closer to $60 million, more than the Sabres’ entire payroll when he purchased the franchise, after adding up contracts for Ted Nolan, Pat LaFontaine, Greg Roman, Ville Leino, Christian Ehrhoff, assistant coaches, scouts and others who were dismissed by the Bills and Sabres before their contracts expired.
That’s not all dead money. That’s bad business. And it’s a product of bad decisions that eventually trickle down to an unsuspecting fan base that is convinced the Pegulas are interested in nothing more than community service. Their past mistakes suggest they’re too involved and don’t have a clue how to get it right.
It must be said, however, that McDermott had an excellent draft, getting a yooge haul for trading down to the Chiefs and making generally sensible picks otherwise. It’s the first sign in many years that the Bills might be ending their apparent organizational philosophy of “look at what Bill Belichick does and do the opposite.” (If Whaley and Rex were still in charge, the only question is whether they would have traded two first and two second rounders to trade up for Trubisky or Fournette.) I wouldn’t count on this to continue, but it’s at least on ray of hope for anyone who’s sick of the noncompetitiveness of the AFC Would Be the Least Except the South is Even Worse.
Indeed, this year’s draft was replete with unusual shows of competence. It’s not actually that surprising that this iteration of the Browns would have a good draft, but the 49ers? Thankfully we had the Jags, Texans and especially Bears playing to type, but we’ll get to them later.