Doug Whaley is the 12th General Manager of the Buffalo Bills. Whaley, 44, who has seen his role expand almost annually since being originally hired as Assistant GM/Director of Pro Personnel three years ago, now runs the personnel side of the Bills franchise.
The year after Whaley was hired by the Bills he was promoted to oversee all Player Personnel as his presence in College Scouting was expanded in 2011. When he took over in 2013, the Buffalo Bills were a laughingstock. They hadn’t had a winning season in eight years or made the playoffs since 1999, easily the league’s longest playoff drought. But Whaley’s added talent, hired a top-level coach and last year helped Buffalo earn its first 9-7 record in a decade. .
In Buffalo, for the fourth time in NFL history, three black men occupy the entire depth chart at QB for one NFL team to start the season. To put that in perspective, in Week 1 of this season, only seven black quarterbacks in the entire league will start at the position.
Whaley and the coaching staff may go to great lengths to play down the significance of their quarterback corps, but their tight-knit chemistry — the professed “old soul” Tyrod Taylor and the cerebral EJ Manuel shepherding the flame-throwing Cardale Jones — is going, according to Whaley, “the way I saw it going and what we drew up in the plans” when making this year’s team.
Whaley, one of five black general managers in the NFL, says it wasn’t a cognitive decision to assemble an all-black group of QBs.
“We are looking at straight ability,” Whaley said one afternoon. “I know buy herb viagra green box that’s what we did constructing our quarterback depth and position. We are trying to get the best players as possible and it doesn’t matter what color they are.”
Which may be true. Colorblind or not, Whaley’s shown a lot of faith in the group, and their performance could determine the stakes for his continued employment. Whaley invested a reported six-year, $90 million contract in Taylor this summer — with this season fully guaranteed — and pulled the trigger when Jones fell into his lap. As an assistant GM, Whaley was a driving force behind the decision to draft Manuel in 2013.
So while the rest of the Bills staff can say it looks past race, Whaley has a particular vantage that may not allow him to do the same.
“Anomalies (like this) happen. I never even really thought about it. I don’t give a rip,” Roman says. “And I don’t think anybody else does either. But in my insulated world, maybe that’s not the case.”
Prior to being hired by the Bills, Whaley served 11 years with the Pittsburgh Steelers primarily as Coordinator of Pro Scouting, though he also contributed to the Steelers organization on college scouting assignments. The Steelers won two Super Bowls in Whaley’s time on the Pittsburgh staff.
Whaley also spent three years with the Seattle Seahawks (1996-98) as an East Coast area scout.
A Pittsburgh native, Whaley, played his college ball at Pitt where he lined up as a safety and linebacker (1990-93). He was also a state champion in football at the high school level playing for Upper St. Clair (1989).
Source: SB Nation