Buffalo Bills to keep Buddy Nix?

The Buffalo Bills handed head coach Chan Gailey his walking papers after three dismal seasons in Buffalo and a 16-32 record, but the future of GM Buddy Nix was left uncertain. According to a source close to the NFL  Network’s Albert Breer, the Bills will keep Nix as their GM.

To me, this move doesn’t make any sense. I’m a bit biased here, because Nix rubs me the wrong way personally and that has to do with his comments on Ryan Fitzpatrick earlier this season. In the middle of the season, he kept pressing the point that the franchise has given up on Fitzpatrick and that the Bills would be drafting a new quarterback. I agree with him that the Bills need to move in another direction, but there is no reason for him to tell the press that and give up on his QB in the middle of the year.

Fitzpatrick is actually cheaper to the Bills if he his cut, and it’s time to get rid of him. But it’s not right to hang him out to dry like that, and that lack of professionalism bothered me. Nix, by the way, was the guy who imprudently gave Fitzpatrick a giant extension that was even more unwarranted and bloated than the deal Kevin Kolb received from the Arizona Cardinals.

This has nothing to do with an argument about how Kolb and Fitzpatrick compare, but it’s about Nix being a bad GM in that instance. He decided to give Fitzpatrick a big deal after a few hot weeks of play, which is something nobody should do. Fitzpatrick almost prophetically cooled off as the season wore on and began to look like pre-streak Fitzpatrick, which magnified the decision.

Another thing to keep in mind is that it is more excusable for a team to overpay for a free agent QB with perceived potential, because there is a lot of competition for a franchise QB. It’s a risky business, but teams are desperate and feel the need to make a deal, Otherwise, someone else is. However, when that quarterback is on your team (like Fitzpatrick), then there is absolutely no way to justify overpaying to extend a player after a small sample size of play that goes against his entire career before then.

Bad business like this is why Buddy Nix should be out the door, because it makes no sense to keep him around and have Gailey fired. I blame Nix much more than I blame Gailey, because Gailey was dealt a bad hand of cards by Nix. He didn’t have a true franchise QB, nor did he have an adequate defensive coordinator to help him (Gailey is an offensive guru). That’s not even mentioning the poor drafts Nix has had and his inability to properly evaluate cornerbacks (aside from Stephen Gilmore, who has been very good as a rookie this year).

You can follow Joe Soriano on Twitter @SorianoJoe.