Good morning! We’ve got a fresh Happy Hour Replay for you.
This week, subscribers had the chance to ask a former NFL general manager questions.
Doug Whaley oversaw the Buffalo Bills as GM from May 2013 through May 2017. Before Buffalo, he spent a decade on the Pittsburgh Steelers scouting staff and earned a pair of Super Bowl rings. Since Buffalo, he’s helped build the UFL into a viable league as the senior vice president of personnel.
Loved welcoming Whaley back on the show. Much was gleaned.
He explains why the UFL is working and answers a string of excellent questions on how best to handle injury reports, the Sammy Watkins draft pick, the sale of these Bills to Terry Pegula, Russ Brandon’s role and we also get his thoughts on the Bills and Steelers of today. Whaley helped hire Sean McDermott in 2017 before the coach replaced him with Brandon Beane. What does he think of Pegula moving on from McDermott a decade later? And in 2022, Whaley interviewed for the Steelers’ GM vacancy, losing out to Omar Khan. What does he make of the Steelers’ perpetual vision to compete year-in and year-out vs. planning long term? Can this Mike McCarthy-Aaron Rodgers union work?
As always, paid subscribers can join players, coaches and execs from around the NFL on our Happy Hours.
Our goal at Go Long is to bring you as close as possible to real, raw football.
Thank you for hanging out, everyone. Love meeting you all.
Full video and audio is above.
Be sure to add the Go Long Podcast to all of your feeds — including YouTube, Apple and Spotify.
During our chat, a few stories/podcasts were also referenced. Here are those links, if you’d like to read back:
The day the Buffalo Bills could’ve drafted Patrick Mahomes (2025)
Doug Whaley, the ‘17 draft and life behind the curtain (2021)
Doug Whaley on Fitz, the XFL, Steelers GM job and... the time the Bills nearly took Russell Wilson (2022)
The first episode of the Go Long Podcast with Whaley and Jim Monos (2020)
