Doug Whaley Speaks: Free Agents, Draft, Chad Kelly, New Coaches

Jan 13, 2017; Orchard Park, NY, USA; Buffalo Bills owner Terry Pegula (left), head coach Sean McDermott, owner Kim Pegula and general manager Doug Whaley (with football) after a press conference at AdPro Sports Training Center. Mandatory Credit: Kevin Hoffman-USA TODAY Sports

Buffalo Bills’ general manager Doug Whaley spoke on a variety of topics, including free agents, the draft, Chad Kelly and the new coaching staff.

Ever since the Buffalo Bills‘ loss to the Miami Dolphins in Week 16, which ultimately took the team out of playoff contention, Doug Whaley and the rest of the Buffalo Bills‘ front office has been under intense scrutiny.

That loss led to a string of new hires in the coaching department and a roster full of question marks. It didn’t take long before everyone turned their heads to the three men upstairs: Terry Pegula, Russ Brandon and Doug Whaley.

Since then, we haven’t really heard too much from any of them — adding to the criticism. The good news is they are finally starting to speak out and give some insight as to what’s going on with the team.

Most recently, Doug Whaley was spotted at the Senior Bowl scouting players for the NFL Draft and took some time out of his day to open up about some of what’s been going on. With a lot of buzz surrounding the Buffalo Bills‘ organization, there was a lot to talk about.

Let’s start off with the draft, since he was at the Senior Bowl.

Whaley was asked the importance of the Senior Bowl:

There is two things. The most important is that we can get our hands on these guys and sit them down and find out what is in their head and heart. That is the most important thing. But, also you get to see them on a level playing field. Sometimes you may watch a guy and the competition he is going against isn’t on his playing field. So, this gives us the chance to see the best of the best.

The Senior Bowl is a college All-Star game that showcases most of the top draft prospects. It is set to take place on Saturday, January 28th — one day before the Pro Bowl.

When asked about Deshaun Watson opting out of the Senior Bowl, Whaley replied:

Well, you always want to get more information on a guy, especially in a setting like this. But it’s one of those things where, obviously, him and his camp decided that was the best for him and then you respect that decision. We’ll just do more work on him.

Deshaun Watson would be a solid pick, but only if there isn’t a better fit on the board at No. 10. When asked if the Buffalo Bills would consider a quarterback in the draft, Whaley said:

We look at it this way, right now, we have three guys under contract. We’ll probably go to camp with three or four, so no matter what happens, we’re going to do our due diligence on every quarterback in the draft. Just like we’re going to do at every position, because if you see a guy that fits the value and it’s right there whatever pick we decide that value is worthy, we’re going to go for it.

With that being said, let’s move on to the next topic Doug Whaley touched base on.

Oct 29, 2016; Oxford, MS, USA; Mississippi Rebels quarterback Chad Kelly (10) warms up prior to the game against the Auburn Tigers at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium. Chad Kelly. Chad Kelly. Chad Kelly.Mandatory Credit: Matt Bush-USA TODAY Sports

Doug Whaley definitely seems to be interested in Chad Kelly, but would need a lot of persuasion to draft him.

Chad Kelly has been a pretty hot topic in the recent past, but it hasn’t all been about his talent on the football field. There’s no doubt he has an arm and could be a good quarterback in a few years, but his maturity has many people doubting he’ll get a chance.

I think the main reason he is drawing attention from the Buffalo Bills is because he is related to Buffalo Bills‘ Hall of Fame quarterback Jim Kelly (Jim is his uncle) and his hometown being Buffalo, NY. Aside from his off-the-field issues, he put up pretty good numbers in his two years with Ole Miss.

Chad Kelly broke onto the scene in 2015 with 4,042 yards, 31 touchdowns and 13 interceptions, adding 500 yards and 10 touchdowns on the ground. He had a slight decline in production in 2016, finishing with just 2,758 yards, 19 TD and 8 INT (332 yards, 5 TD rushing).

Doug Whaley had a lot to say about him.

First, he was asked what he thought of Chad Kelly coming to the Senior Bowl and what he thought of him in general. Whaley stated:

Well you look at it this way, that shows that he has the big picture in mind. Obviously with his uncle and everything, but he knows the business in totality. He can’t perform, but one of the big things here is having the interviews with the different teams, so he made himself accessible so that’s a positive. And with him, obviously the arm, it’s undeniable. The arm is there and this is why we want to get in with him, get our hands on him, have our quarterback coach say, ‘Alright, we see you have the arm, tell me about your mind. How did you make these decisions what are you supposed to me looking for, what types of defenses are you calling as in secondary play. Are you identifying the MIKE. All these little mental things that you want to get your hands on these guys.

When asked if he was nervous about the character issues that might come with Chad Kelly, Whaley said:

You have to, especially the way the NFL is with the personal conduct policy. You have to do as much research with the off the field stuff as the on the field. I’m sure, again, with him having Jim in his corner and probably a lot of people in his camp that have gone through this before. They’re going to give him the right advice. It’s just, tell the truth.

Lastly, he was asked if the Buffalo Bills plan on meeting with Chad Kelly at all, to which Whaley responded:

We’ll sit down with him at some point. We haven’t decided yet if we’re going to do it at the Combine or bring him in. We’ll have probably one of our scouts sit and talk to him maybe here additionally. Most of our scouts have gotten a lot of background on these guys already, but we’d like to really sit down with the coach and put him on the tape and the board.

Chad Kelly could be a good project, but I’m not too sure fans are interested in another project.

Another big topic surrounding the Buffalo Bills is all of the free agents they have this season and the small amount of cap space they have to figure it all out.

Let’s dive in.

Dec 4, 2016; Oakland, CA, USA; Buffalo Bills quarterback Tyrod Taylor (5) celebrates after scoring on a 12-yard touchdown run in the third quarter against the Oakland Raiders during a NFL football game at Oakland Coliseum. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

The Buffalo Bills’ list of free agents this offseason is extremely long, meaning Doug Whaley has his work cut out for him.

Hopefully Doug Whaley’s ready to work this offseason.

With 24 free agents this offseason, that means there are a lot of holes in the Buffalo Bills‘ roster right now. Wit a little over $30 million in cap space to work with, the team will be tight with their finances whether they decide to bring a lot of them back or not.

One of the biggest names that the Bills could potentially let walk with this offseason is their starting quarterback, Tyrod Taylor. He has received a lot of criticism for his play, but it’s very possible that he is the team’s best option at QB.

At the Senior Bowl, Doug Whaley didn’t really have anything important to note about Taylor.

Tyrod Taylor

Whaley was asked about Tyrod Taylor‘s recovery from surgery and how he stands at this point in general. He didn’t have much to say about his stance with the team, due to the fact that they haven’t really sat down with the coaches to discuss it.

Right now the recovery is on schedule. He’s been in the office doing some rehab, so that looks promising. Everything else is too premature. They just hired (offensive coordinator) Rick Dennison. They just hired (David) Culley for a quarterback coach. So when we get back from the Senior Bowl, then we’ll sit down as a staff with the new coaching staff and just go over everybody on our team.

Whaley was also asked if he believed the injury wouldn’t have any effect on Taylor’s contract or the Bills’ decision on what to do with the young quarterback.

Yes, from what everything we’ve … let me say this: All the prognostication is saying that it’s going to be something that will never play into it — medical things, you never know – but we’re confident that, no matter what, we’re going to make this decision on the best for the Buffalo Bills.

Whaley also quickly touched base on some of the other free agents that could possibly move next season.

Stephon Gilmore, Robert Woods, Mike Gillislee

Unfortunately, Doug Whaley didn’t have a lot of exciting things to say. He kind of just elaborated on the process the organization is going to go through before making those decisions.

That’s what I was going to say. We still have to sit down and meet with those (coaches), so once (Sean McDermott) gets his full staff together – I know the guys that have been hired, they’re watching film already – sometime before we go to our draft meetings in the middle of February, we’ll have that meeting. That’s when we come out and say, “Alright, this is where (the coaches) see them, the vision, OK, let’s try to construct a plan going into the offseason.”

Whaley did comment on the large number of free agents the team had, though, noting that a lot of them are depth players.

The number seems pretty exorbitant, but when you look at it, a lot of them are guys that aren’t going to be starters. We’ve got Gilmore, Robert Woods, (Mike) Gillislee’s restricted, Colton Schmidt’s restricted. So basically there’s just two starters – three starters if you (include) Colton Schmidt – and a backup. The rest of those guys we brought in for backup depth purposes and they played extremely well. That’s a compliment to our pro personnel department. We have confidence that we can get a lot of those guys back on extended contracts.

Biggest Need This Offseason

Sure enough, Whaley revealed what he believes to be the Buffalo Bills‘ biggest need this offseason. Many fans would say quarterback, wide receiver, safety or offensive lineman.

Whaley has a different view.

Yes. The one biggest one is the WILL linebacker in a 4-3 is a little more athletic, more a cover guy, which you’re really not going to have in a 3-4. You’re going to have two thumpers inside and two outside guys that can get to the pass rusher. But in a 4-3 you’re still going to have two outside guys and get the pass rusher. That third linebacker is a little different in a 4-3 than a 3-4. But the way the pro game is going now and you’re in sub so much, you’re running 60-70 percent nickel and dime. That base defense, I think, is a little overrated to say, “Hey, we’re 3-4 (or) 4-3” because you’re not running it that much.

That’s pretty much all Doug Whaley had to say about the free agents and who the Bills should pursue in the offseason. It appears that the organization does have a pretty good plan, let’s just hope it actually proves to be effective.

The next topic is the new coaching staff, which Doug Whaley seems to be fairly pleased with so far.

Jan 13, 2017; Orchard Park, NY, USA; Buffalo Bills head coach Sean McDermott (left) stands with general manager Doug Whaley before a press conference at AdPro Sports Training Center. Sean McDermott’s family is seen standing in the background. Mandatory Credit: Kevin Hoffman-USA TODAY Sports

The Buffalo Bills’ coaching staff got a complete makeover this season after the team fired Rex Ryan and Rob Ryan before Week 17.

When the Buffalo Bills fired Rex and Rob Ryan after failing to make the playoffs two years in a row, fans knew that a lot of change was about to come — again. Even the man they named the interim head coach didn’t stay.

Among the many changes to the team’s coaching staff are Sean McDermott (head coach), Leslie Frazier (defensive coordinator), Rick Dennison (offensive coordinator), David Culley (quarterbacks coach), Kelly Skipper (running backs coach), Andrew Dees (offensive line assistant), Rob Boras (tight ends coach) and Mike Waufle (defensive line coach).

Danny Crossman has remained the Bills’ special teams coordinator, he is the only one that stayed from Rex Ryan’s staff.

Doug Whaley has voiced his content with Sean McDermott and what he brings to the table. He spoke high praise of him and McDermott’s hires at the Senior Bowl.

First of all Sean is doing a meticulous job of trying to get the staff together. Those guys have experience. They have been around the league and done some really good things in the league. We are excited to see what those guys can do with the players on our roster.

Whaley was asked what surprised him most about Sean McDermott:

Sense of humor. The process of talking with him and interviewing him is really serious. Crossing the T’s and dotting the I’s. But, once you get in the building and he is relaxed and in football mode he has an incredible sense of humor.

He was also asked if there was a timetable for getting the rest of the coaching staff picked and hired.

That is really up to Sean. We don’t want to rush and get somebody just to get somebody. We want to get the right person.

So far, it looks like the two haven’t really sat down and worked together that much yet. Whaley says that time is close, though.

This last week and a half, he’s been so engrossed in trying to get a staff. We’ll talk in the morning, just general ideas about the calendar and stuff like that, but I wanted him to have his sole focus on developing the staff and getting a staff. When we return from the Senior Bowl then that’s when we’ll sit down with him and his staff and we’ll just be full boar going into it.

When they do get a chance to sit down, he explained what the process is going to be like as they evaluate the roster and players.

The process basically is, we’re going to sit down with every position coach and the coordinator and the head coach, and they’re going to have time to look at the guys on our roster right now, be them free agents, be them restricted free agents, and be them guys that are under contract. What we want to have them do is explain their vision of the player in their system that they’re going to run. So that’s the process. Then we go from there and assign a value.

Doug Whaley definitely has his work cut out for him these next few months as they try once again to put together a playoff team. One of his best answers came when he was asked what he has learned since taking the Bills’ GM job in 2013:

I think the biggest thing is you have to have a plan, but you have to be light on your feet, because you never know what’s going to happen. I’ve always said this, the biggest thing that I’ve learned is not always light on your feet, but it’s not this move, but how is this move going to affect your next move? Because the last thing you ever want to do is make a move and then you’re backed into a corner.

That pretty much wraps up everything Doug Whaley has said so far while attending the Senior Bowl. I’m sure we should see the rest of the coaching staff filled out shortly and after that, the Buffalo Bills will have even tougher decisions to make.

Let’s hope they make the right ones! I know I have faith.

If you could ask Doug Whaley any question, what would it be? Leave your comments below!