Showdown between Bills' GM Whaley and coaching staff could be brewing
The Bills GM is at odds with coach Rex Ryan's staff, but it's highly unlikely owner Terry Pegula would support moving on from offensive coordinator Greg Roman and others.
Bills general manager Doug Whaley, who was nearly let go a year ago, is at odds with the coaching staff over several key issues, and a showdown between him and Rex Ryan's assistants is likely looming this offseason. League sources said Whaley has been unhappy with the ability of the staff to feature top receiver Sammy Watkins and has made that clear to other members of the organization. He would also prefer the team move on from offensive coordinator Greg Roman and others, though it is highly unlikely owner Terry Pegula would support such measures.
Whaley gave up a bounty of high draft picks to move up and select Watkins -- who himself has groused about his lack of targets at times -- and is heavily invested in seeing that move pay dividends (much has been made of the fact that receiver Odell Beckham, Jr., who has had a historic first two NFL seasons, was selected eight picks after Watkins). The friction between Whaley and the coaching staff is well known throughout the Bills' offices, and Whaley also had clashes with the staff of former coach Doug Marrone. Pegula came very close to hiring Bill Polian to oversee his front office a year ago and has continued to mull options for a football czar to oversee personnel, with his franchise still in transition in his first full season owning the team.
Should he opt to alter the structure and makeup of his front office in 2016 it would come as no surprise, and the selection of quarterback EJ Manuel, who does not see the field, in the first round a year before Watkins is not aiding the cause of Whaley right now, either. Ryan and Whaley's relationship has never really blossomed, sources said, and Pegula, a prominent Penn State booster, is a big supporter of Roman, who was a finalist for the Penn State job in 2012 to replace Joe Paterno.
Furthermore, Ryan is a champion of the ground-and-pound, run-based philosophy that Roman espouses -- it's a big part of why he was hired a year ago -- and with a novice-but-promising quarterback in Tyrod Taylor and Ryan's focus on the defensive side of the ball, it's fitting with the current direction of the team. Watkins has flashed well when healthy but has often been unable to be a factor through the totality of games and had tended to fade significantly from one half of a game to the other. Given how much Whaley parted with -- for a still rebuilding team, no less -- to land Watkins, that transaction remains very much under the spotlight as the Bills complete what could very well be yet another season in which they take a step back (they finished 9-7 a year ago) and quite possibly finish below .500 for the 10th time in 11 years.
