Whoever Doug Marrone's agent is probably will have many new clients as a result of the $ 4 million provision. Considering Marrone had no track record as an NFL HC when he received the contract offer in 2013, it doesn't bode well for those in the upper part of the Bills front office with new ownership now in place.
Despite the $ 4 million provision, I think that there's a team that tampered with Marrone while he was under contract. The question is, can the Bills prove this?
Kinda surprised, thought he would stay. I guess the QB position is a huge question mark with Orton's retirement and no first round pick. That and he gets 4mil + salary from his new team next year.
Quote:Whoever Doug Marrone's agent is probably will have many new clients as a result of the $ 4 million provision. Considering Marrone had no track record as an NFL HC when he received the contract offer in 2013, it doesn't bode well for those in the upper part of the Bills front office with new ownership now in place.
Despite the $ 4 million provision, I think that there's a team that tampered with Marrone while he was under contract. The question is, can the Bills prove this?
The bolded part occurred to me as well. One possible reason for Marrone's departure could be a belief that the current football staff would be fired and a new one with no loyalty brought in. An alternative line of thinking would be that, even if the front office was somehow safe, Marrone's ability to quit and get a $4 million payday for doing so could be the tipping point that costs a lot of other people their jobs.
Regarding tampering, reports came out almost immediately linking Marrone to the Jets. If he does eventually end up there, one would have to wonder if the Jets approached Marrone and said, "Hey, how'd you like to come work for a bigger team in a bigger market
and get paid by your old team to do so?".
Or maybe someone told him that Kyle Orton retired, leaving him with E.J. Manuel at QB next year
Quote:The bolded part occurred to me as well. One possible reason for Marrone's departure could be a belief that the current football staff would be fired and a new one with no loyalty brought in. An alternative line of thinking would be that, even if the front office was somehow safe, Marrone's ability to quit and get a $4 million payday for doing so could be the tipping point that costs a lot of other people their jobs.
Regarding tampering, reports came out almost immediately linking Marrone to the Jets. If he does eventually end up there, one would have to wonder if the Jets approached Marrone and said, "Hey, how'd you like to come work for a bigger team in a bigger market and get paid by your old team to do so?".
Or maybe someone told him that Kyle Orton retired, leaving him with E.J. Manuel at QB next year.
That appears to be accurate. The new owners declined to extend his contract. Then I read this oin NFL.com:
Quote:Marrone, according to Rapoport, was in line to receive a lucrative contract extension from the Bills, as was his wish. What spooked the coach out of town was the uncertainty that went with a new front-office official entering the mix.
However, Ian Rapoport also said this:
Quote:The Bills have yet to decide if they will bring in a football czar -- Bill Polian and Mike Holmgren are two options. Marrone -- who gets $4 million as part of his opt-out -- wasn't comfortable with the idea.
So maybe he wanted out of Buffalo because of what the new owners want to do.
I don't think there was any tampering because if there was, that would be reported everywhere and nobody would be surprised Marrone quit.
Yeah or maybe he was in a naked fist fight with Sammy Watkins over some kind of burnt tortilla situation.
Quote:I don't think there was any tampering because if there was, that would be reported everywhere and nobody would be surprised Marrone quit.
You really don't think there was any tampering? Marrone was linked to the Jets almost immediately after he quit, and tonight (per PFT), the Jets owner said that his availability is "pretty good news". The great thing about tampering is that it's easy to speculate about and virtually impossible to prove.
There's no way that Marrone and his agent didn't have a good feel for what was out there before making this move. Why make $4 million next year to coach the Bills when you can make $5 million next year to coach the Jets and $4 million to
not coach the Bills?
Marrone had an out clause that gave him the option to watch from home and make $4 million--more than enough to live out his days on. Frankly, in the professional world, it's not often that you have leverage like that. It's dirty pool for sure, but he'll never have a situation like that again. IMO, he was absolutely right to opt out and see what he could get on the open market (plus the $4 million).
Quote:You really don't think there was any tampering? Marrone was linked to the Jets almost immediately after he quit, and tonight (per PFT), the Jets owner said that his availability is "pretty good news." The great thing about tampering is that it's easy to speculate about and virtually impossible to prove.
There's no way that Marrone and his agent didn't have a good feel for what was out there before making this move. Why make $4 million next year to coach the Bills when you can make $5 million next year to coach the Jets and $4 million to not coach the Bills?
Marrone had an out clause that gave him the option to watch from home and make $4 million--more than enough to live out his days on. Frankly, in the professional world, it's not often that you have leverage like that. It's dirty pool for sure, but he'll never have a situation like that again. IMO, he was absolutely right to opt out and see what he could get on the open market (plus the $4 million).
I just don't see how nobody would know about tampering if it happened. That is the kind of thing you would see reported everywhere.
Doug Marrone waited until the third day to opt out of his contract. If he already knew the Jets wanted him, why didn't he quit the day Rex Ryan was fired? Something must have happened the first two days to make him hesitant about quitting.
Would you trust Marrone with your team after he just pulled some [BLEEP] like this?
Quote:Would you trust Marrone with your team after he just pulled some [BAD WORD REMOVED] like this?
Trust? This is the NFL - it's a business. Don't worry - this is one of those once in a lifetime issues - NFL teams are not often on the verge of being sold when they hire a new coach.
Also - why would anyone think there was tampering by the Jets? It's been assumed for months that the Jets were getting rid of Rex. For all we know Marrone may have considered this action back in October. Once he heard that Bill Polian, or whomever, may be coming he probably started thinking about a place to live in New Jersey.
Quote:Trust? This is the NFL - it's a business. Don't worry - this is one of those once in a lifetime issues - NFL teams are not often on the verge of being sold when they hire a new coach.
Also - why would anyone think there was tampering by the Jets? It's been assumed for months that the Jets were getting rid of Rex. For all we know Marrone may have considered this action back in October. Once he heard that Bill Polian, or whomever, may be coming he probably started thinking about a place to live in New Jersey.
Bills safety Aaron Williams tweeted he "lost all respect" of Doug Marrone after learning about this. How can you read that and say trust is not important to players?
The Bills are not on the verge of being sold. They were sold weeks ago.
Rex Ryan knew before the season began he was a lame duck John Idzik wanted his own guy, but because Woody Johnson insisted on keeping Ryan, he had to let him stay one more season.
Marrone asked the new owners for a contract extension, so he obviously was not thinking about quitting before they bought the team.
Quote:I just don't see how nobody would know about tampering if it happened. That is the kind of thing you would see reported everywhere.
How long have you been following the NFL, exactly?
Quote:How long have you been following the NFL, exactly?
I don't know but I started watching games in the 1990s.
Then surely you know that tampering is usually speculated upon only after it's happened. Incidentally, PFT has already speculated that there may have been some conversations between Marrone's agent and the Jets that led Marrone to believe a more attractive option was out there.
He probably thought the team was so bad, and Manuel was not the answer, he wanted to jump ship before it tainted his reputation. I think this move hurt him, but it was one of those damned if you do, damned if you don't type things.
Quote:Then surely you know that tampering is usually speculated upon only after it's happened. Incidentally, PFT has already speculated that there may have been some conversations between Marrone's agent and the Jets that led Marrone to believe a more attractive option was out there.
What I know is when tampering occurs, NFL.com reports it. This time I did not read the word tampering anywhere on that website.
Quote:Trust? This is the NFL - it's a business. Don't worry - this is one of those once in a lifetime issues - NFL teams are not often on the verge of being sold when they hire a new coach.
Also - why would anyone think there was tampering by the Jets? It's been assumed for months that the Jets were getting rid of Rex. For all we know Marrone may have considered this action back in October. Once he heard that Bill Polian, or whomever, may be coming he probably started thinking about a place to live in New Jersey.
You absolutely have to trust management if you own a business. I would not be surprised to see Marrone blacklisted for this.
Quote:You absolutely have to trust management if you own a business. I would not be surprised to see Marrone blacklisted for this.
I would. The NFL is a business. If the Bills didn't want Marrone to take advantage of the option to walk away with full pay, they shouldn't have included that term in his contract. Marrone will land on his feet, probably with an NFL team, worst case he sits this year out (and collects $4 million to do so) then goes back to college.
Let's put this into perspective: he could sit on his couch all year doing nothing and still get paid more than enough to retire on for doing so. Alternatively, he can take another job that will probably pay just as much and double his money. Please try to convince me how he didn't make the right, if unpopular, decision in exercising that clause.
Doug Marrone is 50 years old and achieved the rank of head coach in The NFL (not exactly in his twilight years). He chose to take a significant blow to his reputation and quit on his team in order to make an extra year of salary. If someone gives him another chance it will pay off for him, but I see him losing a lot of earning power over the long run due to this.
Quote:The bolded part occurred to me as well. One possible reason for Marrone's departure could be a belief that the current football staff would be fired and a new one with no loyalty brought in. An alternative line of thinking would be that, even if the front office was somehow safe, Marrone's ability to quit and get a $4 million payday for doing so could be the tipping point that costs a lot of other people their jobs.
Regarding tampering, reports came out almost immediately linking Marrone to the Jets. If he does eventually end up there, one would have to wonder if the Jets approached Marrone and said, "Hey, how'd you like to come work for a bigger team in a bigger market and get paid by your old team to do so?".
Or maybe someone told him that Kyle Orton retired, leaving him with E.J. Manuel at QB next year
My take is that unless Doug Marrone had information that he would be able to get another NFL HC job, he wouldn't have left Buffalo. Even under the possible scenarios you mentioned above, leaving an NFL job w/o a very high degree of certainty that you can get another NFL job, would be a very risky decision. It's not like Marrone has a track record along the lines of Bill Belichick, Mike McCarthy, and Mike Tomlin. There are some people that follow the Bills close that believe the Bills went 9-7 this season despite Marrone. His work is far from universally viewed in a positive manner.
If Marrone ends up with the Jets or Bears, he's going to be dealing with problematic QB situations as well.