GaryPinC

Interesting article. I'll be at the game tomorrow so I'm really curious to see if Maybin gets in and where they put him. Given his youth, relatively light weight, had to add 20 lbs just to get to 250, and the fact that he's missed so much practice, I kind of think they should use him as an OLB for the next year or 2 until he fills out then maybe move him back to DE. Get Copeland or Ellis some 1st team DE work and see if they can handle it. To me, Maybin's going to have to rely on superior quickness, technique and be super-aware of what's going on around him to be successful at DE with his current size (just like Bruce Smith). After only 1 week of practice as a rookie, I worry he'll get smashed up/injured if inserted at DE tomorrow. Throw him in at OLB in passing situations and see what kind of pass rush he can generate. If Copeland/Ellis can perform capably with the 1st teamers, maybe coaches can groom Maybin for OLB this year. It'd be nice to push Ellison to the bench. Just my opinion, but given the current situation, I think Maybin would make the quickest (and possibly best) contribution being an OLB this year.

Agreed, but this limp-ass, inept coaching has got to be a real morale buster. It's one thing if players aren't playing well and need to step up. But when your coaching staff and gameplan are completely inept and flawed do you go after your coach? Unfortunately TO probably won't say much because he is hoping to be a model citizen and get a job with a real team next year. My only hope is that coaching is so putrid TO just can't keep his mouth shut anymore.

http://www.buffalobills.com/news/article-3...18-4eedbc0f5762 Some select quotes: “I didn’t like the way I reacted,” said Edwards of the play. “I felt like “The whole night they were disguising a lot of their coverages,” said Edwards. “It was kind of in that gray area of either tucking and running with it or trying to throw the ball away." “They were bringing a lot of pressure and for a preseason game we weren’t expecting too much of that,” said Edwards. “We’ve got to be able to handle that because that’s going to happen during the season. We’ve got to be able to make in game adjustments and that’s something that we’ll learn from.” -WTF? TE's got a couple seasons under his belt. This coaching staff's been around a few years now. How is TE so woefully prepared and unable make adjustments to all this? This just reminds me of the Cleveland game last year where TE said afterwards he wasn't prepared because Cle's Defense changed their defense compared to what he saw on film. One last quote from the article: "Their problems seemed rooted in the fact that they chose not to specifically game plan for Green Bay, while the Packers apparently did based on their varied defensive play calls." -Ok, this team generally does poorly against a 3-4. You're going up against a 3-4 in preseason and you choose not to game plan some specifics for it? WTF???????? I've always figured in training camp that DJ spends less time hitting and more time preparing the team for different schemes/defenses/etc. Obviously not. The most disturbing thing about all this is that the jobs of these coaches are on the line this year. You think they'd at least change some things up, push the envelope more in the preseason, take some initiative. DJ and co. seem to just futz around like they have every year previous. This one's on lousy coaching. I get to see them play next week in Pittsburgh and can only pray our coaches take the opportunity to actually prepare this team to play the Steelers. Even though it's preseason, we suck and they don't so it's an opportunity for our coaches to push the envelope. We can only hope.

In my opinion offensive line is moderate weakness. Red Zone offense and coaching are a major weakness until they prove otherwise in the regular season. Pre-season games feature mostly vanilla defenses and play calling. At least the line has done ok in this setting. Red zone offense still seems pretty bad. Seems like our 1st teamers still can't punch it in from inside the 20 and the play calling down there still seems somewhat inept. I still think DJ has a role in the play call selection once they get inside the 20. Two different offensive coordinators, same exact type of playcalls down there. Oh well, JMO.

I vote for these. I was thinking of one more on the end: 10000 NFL Network

John, I did see that PR from Jan, but I always wondered what Mr. Wilson specifically said to DJ when they met in Detroit and wondered if you had been able to extract any specifics in your interactions with the team. It would be nice if RW said something to the effect of: "Dick, once in a while you need to grow a pair and take some chances." And Walt's from Buffalo originally, hence my question. BTW, thanks for responding on this board. I also enjoy your articles. Even in the cut-and-dried articles you always seem to include enough extra facts or ask the types of questions that paint the reality around the situation/topic without being overly biased. Tim does an excellent job too. We're definitely lucky to have you two contributing to this board. Gary

Hi John, I never saw any article/discussion about specific concerns raised by Mr. Wilson to DJ but would be very interested to hear them. Do you have a link or could you discuss them? Thanks, Gary P.S. Are you by any chance related to a Walt Wawrow here in Cleveland? I worked with him at a small biotech named Gliatech.

Really? How do you know that he was treated that badly by management? Certainly I agree with you in that they should have signed Peters before things got out-of-hand but management has shown the willingness to adjust the contracts of people like Schoebel and even Peters himself when he went from undrafted FA to RT. Russ Brandon even seemed to think they needed to give him a new contract. Maybe the way Peters handled the situation was completely unprofessional. Maybe multiple people in the front office had seen potential issues with Peter's dedication and effort to his job and worried that a fat new contract would turn him into a Mike Williams. ALso, seems to me JP was more concerned about the business of making the most money possible at the expense of his team, his contract, and his play on the field. I don't know how this situation all played out so how can you just blame management?

We can agree to disagree about this but I'd like to make a point or 2. I think most of us are pretty familiar with the definition of "work ethic" but since everyone likes internet references here's the definition from "free dictionary" work ethic n. A set of values based on the moral virtues of hard work and diligence. -------- Work ethic is a set of values, meaning they can change based on the situation, personal character, etc. Just because Dick Jauron runs a less physically demanding training camp doesn't mean that there is a lower work ethic on the Bills. It just means that DJ emphasizes other components of the game. But when Jason Peters comes out and says that there's a stronger work ethic in Philly because they make him run a bunch of sprints and/or is more physically demanding, that says to me that the more physical demands has led him to perceive a stronger work ethic which in turn has probably forced him to upgrade his own work ethic/values, and hence my correction to his statement. What happens to JP's work ethic over the next couple years knowing he now makes big money? I don't know, but certainly many around here have debated this issue and used it as justification why he wasn't re-signed by management.

QUOTE Mosley: How big is the difference between playing for the Bills and now playing for the Eagles? Peters: It's night and day. In Buffalo, not having a chance to get in the playoffs was pretty rough. You might get off to a strong start, but then you lose four or five in a row and you're out of it. And then I was trying to get a contract done. If you're human, that's going to affect you. Sometimes I'd be thinking about it too much. Now, I've got a chance to go to the Super Bowl. The work ethic is stronger here. There's a lot more running and conditioning. That first minicamp was a wakeup call for me. I think we ran something like 16 100-yard sprints. We didn't do that in Buffalo. I think he meant to say "MY work ethic is stronger here"

Hell yea TKO loved us. This was his quote after the San Fran/Buffalo game last year: "We actually did two days of red zone work, somewhat on Thursday and then a true red zone day on Friday," Spikes said. "He(edit: San Fran Def. Coord.) can tell us what they're going to run, but a lot of people don't tell you why they'll run it versus certain stuff. And for him to be able to put us in that position, that's the reason why we're going to be effective in the red zone. We saw that. Certain calls you're going to be able to see certain stuff." I figure he was trying to do us a huge favor by letting us know that our redzone offense was easily predictable by an opposing coach. Not that most semi-knowledgeable fans didn't strongly suspect/know that anyways. Here's the link to the story: http://www.buffalonews.com/467/story/509599.html It would be nice to have him here adding some personality on defense, I think he'd help keep those guys fired up. I agree that I'd rather have him than Ellison. TO on offense, TKO on defense would've been great.

I'd recommend following the link to the original article out of the Florida paper referenced in Chris Brown's piece. One of the more pertinent quotes: "Meanwhile, Nichols on Wednesday said a man identified as Eddie Dean Scott, 24, was arrested Tuesday after a witness told investigators Scott was walking around June 2 with his genitals exposed in the 2200 block of Southwest Monterrey Lane — the same general area where McIntyre had been accused of masturbating." I think this was more a case of mistaken identity but I do think this whole incident did happen to the lady (courtesy of Mr. Scott) so you can't charge her with filing a false report.

So, Jim Kelly's suggested a short time ago to have the team move up to Niagara Falls. He also seems confident there's enough local resources to keep the Bills in WNY. Then you have this PR out of Dallas about the Bills thinking of doing something with a new stadium, which current management strongly denies. Certainly moving the Bills up there makes it closer for the Rochester/Syracuse fans and fans in the city of Toronto. But, in thinking about it more, look at the casinos, hotels, and restaurants there. These would all have to be at drooling on some level at the prospect of having 70,000+ fans flock to the area every weekend in a slower part of the year. They could offer weekend packages, shuttles from the border, etc. Also, it would seem to me that any global business company in Toronto would already entertain overseas clients at the Falls, considering it is a world-known natural wonder. Might be able to sell them some corporate suites at the stadium, also. Anybody know/have any thoughts on whether there are deep enough pockets in Niagara Falls to help with buying the team and moving them up there? Could the stadium actually provide enough financial incentive that potential deep pockets would actually want to cough up $$$$? Do Toronto businesses/corps have enough presence in Niagara Falls to help financially support the move (both before and after)? Certainly playing a game or two a year in TO would help this scenario. Anybody know or have thoughts on whether there's any reality to this entire scenario? I'm in Cleveland and have little idea about the actual amount of $$$ there and who controls it. TIA

Here's where Rotoworld got their info from: http://blogs.buffalobills.com/2009/06/01/k...ffensive-staff/ My own take on it is that Kelly had a conversation with Van Pelt and Schonert and gave them some tips but is really not involved. I don't think Kelly is getting involved in any coaching capacity, I think he's busy enough, Drops by OBD enough to know what's going on with the team, and doesn't want to give up his life to be a coach. Also, he's smart enough not to get to involved with the current lame coaching staff, and I think the coaching staff is smart enough to know Kelly wouldn't stand for the current coaching style. He'd be screaming the skin of Jauron's face by the second play of the opening game. I would love to see him as a coach though. Seems like teams that run/have run the no-huddle have established, solid O-lines (cinci, buff, indy). Worst case with the current Bills is their offense still sucks... but differently this year.

The thing that I've always noticed about Parrish as a receiver is that once he catches a ball he starts busting all kinds of moves laterally instead of first trying to accelerate upfield. It seemed to me that he also tried to do too much of that early on as a punt returner then adjusted to running more vertically. I also agree that he doesn't seem to run the sharpest patterns either. I don't blame the Buffalo coaches for not playing him more, he really hasn't earned it IMO.

Definitely, and after getting Faneca and Woody last year they were just starting to come together. Could have a dominating year this year but you never know with new coaches. I just can't understand how Buffalo's coaches/FO let things go this way. 2 rookies, new center, couple project players that might help, only 2 returning starters are both changing positions. Seems insane especially considering coaching staff, possibly some FO jobs on the line this year. Only thing that gives me hope is the 2007 Browns when they drafted Thomas, brought in Steinbach, had a new offensive coordinator (Chudzinski) and put a hell of an O-line and offense on the field, though I think Buffalo's situation is much harder than that one. I expect Buff to lose the first 4 games and if they can keep TE and other skill players from being hurt than I'll be happy. I'd be ecstatic if they can win any of those and have any consistancy at the O-line. After that, I'm hoping they'll improve and finish strong. Hope I'm wrong and they exceed these expectations. I've read in the past that the no-huddle simplifies the O-line sets/playcalling so that may be our primary salvation for a competitive offense. Providing Walker can get his big *ss down the field.

"Replying to anyone else excited to see this new O-Line?!?!" No, I'm actually cringing. Success of an O-line hinges on their ability to perform as a unit and that typically takes 2-4 years of stable personnel and coaching to accomplish. So, if they don't succeed this season we most likely change coaching staffs and blow the whole thing up again. All that being said, Kugler seems to have a plan and I pray to God he pulls off the Hail Mary and succeeds this year with the O-line. Go Bills!

Pardon my ignorance Dean, but you write as though Marv practiced outdoors on the most inclement days. I haven't read any of Marv's books or anything so maybe you could help me out. Do you know this for sure and can you provide a reference/link? Maybe Marv would only practice outdoors when the weather would allow and took it inside when things were crappy outside? I can see both Tim and your points, but I lean towards Tim's arguments more. You never know what weather you'll get on Sunday, so do you try to struggle through practice trying to install a small portion of your gameplan or do you install your full gameplan during practice and adjust it to the weather on gameday? Biggest reason I could see for practicing outside would be adjusting the players to the outside temperature. Also, if the Bills played on natural grass maybe you could justify outdoors but that's irrelevant here. Wind and weather issues I think you try and address in the pregame warm ups on game day (run some patterns). JMHO.

I don't disagree with what you're saying, my original underlying assertion is that Leach's ability to coach the game of football isn't as important as his ability to adjust to the power structure of the NFL front office and the fact that the players are not a bunch of kids busting their butts for their school and the opportunity of the NFL. They've made it and they often earn more than the head coach, so relating to them is very different than in college. And since Leach gets floated as Jauron's replacement I am responding under that assumption, though I do respect your opinion also and agree he could probably be a pretty good offensive coordinator. As far as where I would want the plays called, that would depend on the QB. Some QB's have the ability to call their own game, some do not. Certainly the QB can pick up things on the field the offensive staff can't see/experience, but the offensive staff can see the entire field from the press box and pick up things the QB has difficulty seeing.

There are plenty of good/excellent college coaches who can't make it in the NFL (ex. Pete Carroll, Nick Saban, Butch Davis). Why this is so can be debated, some coaches just do better at the collegiate level because they are "the man" with total authority/recruiting over their program, and can appeal to the emotions of their players since it isn't all just about a fat paycheck. Mike Leach strikes me as a college coach who couldn't do it in the NFL. He's an emotional guy, and that's great in the college game. And given his unprofessional sniping and whining about the drafting of Crabtree and Harrell, I believe that even moreso. Certainly no one will know for sure until he gets an opportunity in the NFL, but personnally at this point I would cringe if Buffalo hired him to replace Jauron after this season. I think he would be something of a bad joke at this level.

As far as Jauron, I simply believe his entire coaching philosophy is based on not making mistakes and waiting for the other team to make them. In his mind, have a strong defense that doesn't make mistakes it will stop the other team and execute a basic mistake-free offense to score just enough to win. I'm sure he worships Brian Billick and the Ravens team the year they won the superbowl. I agree with the many others who have said he coaches not to lose instead of coaching to win. The entire point Jauron misses about that Ravens team is that they dictated the game with their aggressive defense whereas Dick simply tries to respond to what the other team is doing. And everybody likes him but look at Buffalo's offenses since he came here. He's had to separate coordinators, Fairchild and Schonert. Any difference in how the offense performs in terms of play calling? But somehow the players seem to blame the o-coordinators instead of the head coach. I have a personal theory that when the offense gets into the red zone Jauron starts to dictate how the play calling will go. I also think the minute the offense makes a mistake he clamps down on the playcalling also. I think a lot of their issues with clock management are because Jauron's debating/questioning Schonert. And I attribute the mental mistakes to players frustration about playing on a team with no real identity. Anyone here ever played on any team with a coach who was mostly concerned about stopping the other team and playing mistake free? That means the other team is always dictating the course of the game and your team is simply trying to respond and you end up losing most of the time. Even worse, it's a lack of faith by the coach in your team's ability to dominate and so your game day morale is crap also. Last season I got to watch the Buf/Cleveland game and that pretty much said it all. Even though Trent had a crappy game, the playcalling was decent outside the red zone, the faked punt (or was it a field goal?) was good timing. But near the end they were nursing a slim lead and DJ was in "milk the clock and pray for a long field goal" mode. Who DIDN'T know Cleveland would pull out that win? And in post game interviews Trent was quoted to the effect that Cleveland had completely changed their defense and he wasn't prepared what for what they threw at him. Right on DJ! My only hope is that RW/Brandon had a long talk with DJ about growing a pair and playing to win/dictate a game. Sadly, it's my only hope for this season.

One could also say that if he hadn't held out he would have gotten paid a lot more than he did last year, but I'm sure Jason wholeheartedly agrees with your statement.

I would agree with this. I would have to believe that if the Bills were offering 9 mil + a year and Peters would settle for 10 from them that they would have worked it out. Or maybe Buffalo was unwilling to committ that much guaranteed money. I can only hope Kugler knows his stuff as a coach cause he's got huge problems on his hands. What good is TO if TE is on his a$$ the whole time? Given the tenuous position of this head coach, Ralph's age, and if this team flops this year you're looking at regime change and blowing the whole thing up again, I have to believe the Bills would have caved to 10 mil a year but Peters wanted a good bit more and refused to budge in his demands. I definitely think this goes back to last winter and Peters/Parker were demanding top dollar from the FO and got told to F' off so nobody talked to each other and JP held out, etc. It's just depressing, I think JP has a good year this year to prove himself justified in his actions but after that I hope he gets fatter and lazy again. Now we need a miraculous OL draft pick from a FO that doesn't excel in this area. One other thing, if the OL and team sucks but Rogers signs on for another game in Toronto that would spell out the future of the Bills IMO.

Good for him, Winslow puts out max effort on the field even if he is a bit self-centered. Problem is his knee and shoulder bothered him constantly while he played with the Browns. He'll deserve all the credit in the world if he can play at a high level for 6 more years, but personally I doubt it.

All excellent points being made here and who knows how things will work out but I think what trumps everything is that this franchise/Jauron needs to win now. What good is TO if your OL is a mess? Bills coaches can talk all they want about how the OL is in decent shape, but they got rid of Dockery, Fowler, Preston, Whittle (and maybe I missed one). While I applaud the Bills for cutting these marginal guys, now you really have no depth and 2 OL positions up for grabs. Obviously Hangartner is in their plans but what if he doesn't pan out or takes some time to fit into the OL? And Bell? Even if he follows the "Peters plan" he still needs some time to develop. If they get rid of Peters that's 3 OL positions up for grabs. I think the chances of this team contending/winning with 3 changes on the OL is pretty poor. Even if you can plug those holes, what happens if somebody gets injured? I'm nervous enough about having 2 OL changes and how long it will take the new guys to gel? The Bills need to keep Peters for stability and hopefully some good play. They forced that situation by cutting Dockery. IMO you have to pay 1 of these 2 guys so it'll be Peters. Keep him this year, try to structure his contract with the underlying premise that he will be cut in the subsequent year(s) when the OL is more stable. You get Hangartner meshing this year, see how Chambers, Bell develop this year and give your drafted new talent time to develop. Next year also brings another crop of FA's.