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This is part 1 of a four part series reviewing the recently completed regular season of the 2014 Buffalo Bills. This segment will discuss the front office and coaching staff, with 3 other posts to follow covering the offense, defense and special teams, and what the team needs to do to improve in 2015. It’s a whole new ballgame as far as management and the coaches are concerned, as the team enters its’ first off-season under new owners Terry and Kim Pegula. My personal opinion is this – team president Russ Brandon, who has done a great job holding down the fort after taking the reins from Ralph Wilson, should remain with the team in a role similar to that of Ted Black with the Pegulas’ other team, the Buffalo Sabres. The other two management faces, general manager Doug Whaley and head coach Doug Marrone, both have their pluses and minuses but deserve to return to try and complete the job they’ve started. Whaley gets credit for adding veteran free agents who improved the club and added a winning dimension to the locker room. Those players include Brandon Spikes, Corey Graham, Anthony Dixon and Dan Carpenter. He also worked hard to add pieces during the season, and MarQueis Grey, Marcus Thigpen and Bacarri Rambo all contributed to late-season wins. It can be argued that Whaley gave up far too much to the Cleveland Browns in the 2014 draft to try to move up and get Sammy Watkins. Personally, I believe in the long run that will turn out to be a positive in Whaley’s corner. But still, the team will go into the 2015 draft minus both a first and fourth round pick, which has to hurt the club. Although Pegula got burned with the Sabres when he initially spent a lot of money on free agents who didn’t work out, it would be a good idea for Whaley and Marrone to convince him to try to sign a couple of useful players on the market to help replace those lost draft picks. Whaley’s draft in 2014 produced not only Watkins but two other starters in Preston Brown and Seantrel Henderson, while the jury is still out on the rest of the picks. Whaley’s biggest negative is the fact he has left the roster cupboard bare at the quarterback position for two consecutive years now. The team has to settle that position, especially with Kyle Orton announcing his retirement, prior to training camp, so they don’t spend the preseason auditioning guys off the street at the most important spot on the team, as they have the last 2 years. That brings us to Marrone, who also has both positive and negative qualities. On the plus side, he reacted to the loss of Mike Pettine as defensive coordinator with the quick hire of Jim Schwartz, who molded a solid unit into an even better one.  He coached the team to their first winning record in a decade, a 3 game improvement over his first year. He made a bold move in benching EJ Manuel after 4 games and going to Orton, who wasn’t even with the club in preseason. He also handled a tough situation in the snowstorm-cancelled game that was switched to Detroit. He got his team focused, despite missing valuable practice time, and they played one of their best, most inspired games of the year there. On the negative side, Marrone, to me, still has to separate himself from his predecessors in the Bills’ coaching ranks. Too many winnable games got away from the team due to mistakes, turnovers and penalties. In short, they still haven’t completely changed the losing culture. Marrone needs to set the bar higher and refuse to accept repeat mistakes, making the players accountable to him and each other. To use a historical reference to make my point, go back to the first full season Marv Levy had as coach of the Bills. Levy systematically removed players who gave inconsistent efforts – Fred Smerlas (who played hard but routinely and unapologetically jumped offsides), Ronnie Harmon, Joe Devlin and Chris Burkett to name a few. Those players were guys who were decent players, but the type who made 2 or 3 mistakes or bad plays for every big play they made. Marrone may have to identify and replace those types of players. In our next 2 segments, I’ll give my opinions on who those players are and what shape the team is in going into 2015.