After three seasons as Bills GM, Buddy Nix is out. This move was expected, but maybe not so soon.
Buffalo has been easing assistant GM Doug Whaley into the job for a while, even before Nix was the victim of a prank that recorded his phone call with Bucs GM Mark Dominik. But the change wasn't made after the regular season, and as recently as two weeks ago, Russ Brandon said Nix "is our general manager and will be for a long time."
From Nix's statement on stepping down:
"I've made this decision to step away from the general manager's position because I feel it is the right time. By the 'right time' I mean I think we have a good, young roster, an excellent head coach with a good staff and it's time to let someone else handle these responsibilities and move forward together."
After signing Doug Marrone and drafting E.J. Manuel, this is the third and final step to making a clean break in eras. Nix was brought largely for his scouting prowess, after a decade as San Diego's draft guru. But his legacy also includes re-signing the oft-injured Fred Jackson, bringing in Mario Williams, and inking Ryan Fitzpatrick to a massive extension, a season-and-a-half before releasing him.
The team hasn't confirmed it yet, but all expectations are that Whaley will succeed Nix. Whaley's been in the Bills organization for three years, and before that with Pittsburgh—where he made news by forwarding a porn video to the wrong person.