Bills co-Owners Terry and Kim Pegula fired GM Doug Whaley and the "entire scouting and personnel departments" just one day after the NFL Draft, according to Sal Maiorana of the ROCHESTER DEMOCRAT & CHRONICLE. Terry Pegula during a 15-minute news conference at One Bills Drive yesterday "stopped short of getting into the reasons for the dismissal of Whaley and the football personnel men, calling those discussions 'private.'” Pegula: "We look forward to hiring our first GM as owners of the Bills. Everybody needs to get better. I don’t care if you own a sports team, or do your job. You strive to get better in everything you do." Pegula said that Whaley was "responsible for putting together the Bills’ draft plan and executing it." But "very few people truly believe that." New coach Sean McDermott was "basically serving" as "de facto general manager these last couple months, too, and his voice has overridden everyone else's." The Bills "could have sent Whaley packing along with fired head coach Rex Ryan back in January, but that would not have been logical." Whaley and his staff had "done all the scouting of the college prospects last fall." But now the Draft is over, and the Bills are "turning the page to a new era, one that they hope will be much more successful" (ROCHESTER DEMOCRAT & CHRONICLE, 5/1). PRO FOOTBALL TALK's Mike Florio wrote circumstances "suggest that something beyond substantive football decisions was going on" in Buffalo. The refusal of Terry Pegula to "discuss the reasons for the decision to fire Whaley bolsters that perception." The Bills now "can move on." The "only problem is that the new GM may not have hired" McDermott, which "could eventually set the stage for even more dysfunction" (PROFOOTBALLTALK.com, 4/30).
LEADERSHIP STILL UNCLEAR? ESPN.com's Mike Rodak wrote, "Credit Pegula for holding a news conference and taking questions hours after dismissing Whaley." But his message was "confusing and inconsistent, and it only contributed to the dizzying developments around the Bills and their front office in recent months." Instead of "divorcing Whaley from the Bills' draft decisions and reinforcing McDermott as the leadership figure, Pegula oddly attached responsibility for the draft to Whaley." Rodak: "This was McDermott's draft, and this is his team, and Pegula should have made that clear" (ESPN.com, 4/30). THE MMQB's Peter King writes he understands "dumping Whaley," but "nothing is going to change in Buffalo without two things: continuity and a quarterback the franchise commits to" (MMQB.SI.com, 5/1).
NEW WAY OF DOING THINGS: ESPN's Louis Riddick said of the timing of Whaley's firing, "Maybe this is kind of the new way of doing business, or this is the way you'll see people start doing things a little bit more. ... Really, the fiscal year starts as soon as the draft is over, and then you begin a new scouting fiscal year. ... Now it's when you start new. Now is when you’re really charting the course for your scouting operation for the next year. And this is where if you want to wipe the slate clean, you wipe it in clean" ("Mike & Mike," ESPN Radio, 5/1). In Rochester, Leo Roth wrote Pegula "couldn't afford to wait any longer to complete the housecleaning he started in December" (ROCHESTER DEMOCRAT & CHRONICLE, 4/30). But the WALL STREET JOURNAL's Andrew Beaton writes the "strange part of Whaley’s firing is the timing" (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 5/1). NFL Network's Cole Wright also called the firing unique "especially when it comes to (the) timing" ("NFL Total Access," NFL Network, 4/30).
HIRES & FIRES: In Buffalo, Bucky Gleason asked, "Why should anyone have confidence that [Bills] ownership will get things right moving forward?" The Pegulas were "granted benefit of the doubt in the first place, but it’s all but extinguished now given the sad state of affairs." Bills and Sabres fans "should be more suspicious than ever about ownership after seeing their teams become a national punchline." 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" (BUFFALO NEWS, 4/30). The MMQB's King said, "The Pegulas are owners who really want to do things the right way ... but they’ve owned this team for 30 months and they are now on their third coach, they're going to be on their second general manager” (“Mike & Mike,” ESPN Radio, 5/1). The DEMOCRAT & CHRONICLE's Maiorana writes the Pegulas have "certainly aced the art of hiring the wrong administrators, and then in turn firing those people." Buffalo fans "breathlessly await two critical decisions that the Pegulas simply can’t whiff on." Hiring a GM for the Sabres and "also one for the Bills" (ROCHESTER DEMOCRAT & CHRONICLE, 5/1). THE MMQB's Albert Breer wrote Pegula's issue "hasn’t been that he’s overbearing or meddling." He "hasn’t done nearly enough to align his organization." A source said that the Bills Draft weekend was the "weirdest three days.” It was "unclear who was carrying the hammer, and that affected the efficiency it takes in the high-pressure environment of the draft" (MMQB.SI.com, 4/30).
