thewildrabbit

BTW, did I mention... RALPH IS CHEAP!

The Colts have Bills Polian as their president, the Ravens have Ozzie Newsome as their president. Both of those men are the best at what they do and the teams they run are consistently winning year after year. Who is the Buffalo Bills president?

Dunno how you can state that when the protections clearly were not as good as when Jim McNally was the O line coach. The O line did regress under Kugler, there is no question about it. I'm not saying Kugler was totally crappy O line coach, he might have been better then he looked and the line might have played better had Jauron hired an experienced NFL OC to help him. But with both a rookie line coach and a rookie OC that offense and offensive line went downhill. Lets face it, Jason Peters never played even close to the way he did when McNally was the coach for whatever reason, and Dockery and Walker also both regressed under Kugler and that is why they were both released. McNally was running a zone blocking scheme when he was in Buffalo, now I've read that Chan Gailey wants to implement a zone blocking scheme in Buffalo. So something changed between McNally and Gailey if the Bills weren't still running a zone scheme. I dunno, perhaps you see a "terrific" job from a line with so many injuries and player changes as last season would have turned any O line coaches hair gray, what a nightmare to deal with. On another note...the Eagles swept in and signed Jauron

Because that one move sold game tickets like crazy... Turk Schonert had been stating in the local news that the Bills lacked a real threat opposite Lee Evans and adding another top WR would help open up the deep passing game. If they open up the deep passing game it also opens up the running game and short passing plays. Something we will never know if it would have worked because the moron Jauron fired Schonert and cut Walker two weeks before the opener, which coupled with the fact that they traded away Jason peters and cut Dockery made the O line Swiss cheese, and thereby effectively crippled the entire reason for bringing in TO.

Yea I'm not defending the Marv Levy hire as GM, clearly it was a huge mistake and caused the franchise to be set back 4-5 years, It was after all Marv's decision to hire Jauron in the first place. What I am bothered about is the why the owner didn't step up and make a bold hire, the NFL is comprised of 32 teams and only a handful are really successful at winning consistently. But then again it would cost some money to hire a real name GM / president, I'll bet Marv came cheap. Would it really be so cost prohibitive to hire a consulting firm and have them headhunt a top GM, it amazes me that owners like the Fords with Matt Millen, Wilson with Marv Levy, and then Al Davis with multiple bad hires and bad decisions keep screwing themselves and their near billion dollar franchises.

My take is the team went into the tank after Marv Levy retired as GM and wasn't replaced, it gave that moron Jauon more power then he could handle. Everything Marv tried to do to get the Bills to respectability that dufas Jauron went and dismantled. Case in point, when NFL veteran O line coach of 28 years Jim McNally retires, Jauron promotes the assistant under him, and the O line went down hill from there. No concussions the entire time McNally was O line coach, plus the players seemed to lack desire to play for Kugler. The O line coaching just wasn't the same and a good HC would have recognized that fact right away and made a change. A decent GM might have been able to smooth over the problems with Jason Peters instead of trading away the only pro bowler on the line. Not to mention a GM would not have allowed Jauron to cut Dockery at all, or Walker two weeks before the season starts because he couldn't keep up with the "no huddle" offense that they scraped a few weeks later. Steve Fairchild was brought in to implement a high powered passing offense in the mold of the 'greatest show on turf, instead he stunk it up. So when he quit Jauron replaced him with the QB coach who had no business becoming an OC, he should have hired an experienced NFL offensive coordinator instead. I just don't understand this promotion at all, If the guy above him stunk it up then why promote someone to run the exact same offense... Turk Schonert needed to go after that horrifically bad play call in the Jets game in 08, Jauron should have either fired him after that game or at the end of the season, instead of waiting until two weeks before the 09 season starts, simply moronic. Is there any doubt in anyone's mind that Jauron was the biggest problem with this team the last 4 years, bad draft choices, bad coaching hires, bad schemes, bad game plans, mostly bad decisions all around. The thing that bothers me is... nobody above Jauron had the football acumen to understand the problems he was incurring to the team, its as if he had a free reign to do what he pleased with nobody to answer to after Marv stepped down.

On the contrary, Jauron tried to run the "no huddle" and then realized he couldn't with the current personnel. He tried to throw more then run and it didn't work. Steve Fairchild was hired from Mike Martz's staff and was supposed to implement the greatest show on turf to Buffalo, when he quit Jauron replaced him with Turk Schonert the QB coach because he wanted to retain the same offense. What he didn't understand was that Schonert was a moron and wasn't good enough to call plays and set up offensive game plans. 2009 441 passing attempts vs 424 rushing attempts 2008 479 passing attempts vs 439 rushing attempts BTW, those numbers above reflect a balanced offense to a degree, what makes those offenses so fail is the amount of incompletions each year... Yea, I'm all for a high powered,high scoring passing offense, just where do you expect to find it? One good stable receiver and nobody opposite him to take coverages away to free either of them up isn't going to open up anything. Also, what happens when opposing DB's stay at the line and jam the WR's? The Bills have no deep passing game as the QB's won't have time to take 5-7 step drops, plus they still have no dominate receiving tight end. The Bills currently have more talent on offense at the RB position then the WR-TE positions, they would be wise to use it.

ummm, not with the current O line... Running a spread offense with the players currently on the roster will get the QB killed, whoever it is. kinda like Jauron trying to run the "no huddle" last season. My thoughts are that he is keeping Marshawn Lynch for a reason, and trying to pound the ball might just be more effective then quick incomplete passes as the Bills have one solid WR on the team at this point

Didn't read the article and am not going to, its a long summer and just can't wait to see some football... getting tired of beating on that horse anyway. If Green were worth a crap I suspect the Raiders would have kept him, that can be said about any decent player. "A solid addition" yea, just like Langston Walker. The only thought that gives me some hope for the season Is that Chan Gailey knows what he is doing and might just build a good offense. Go back to the late 80's and think what would have happened had the Bills hired a Dick Jauron instead of Marv Levy, and he hires Turk Schonert instead of Ted Marchibroda. Clearly, no "K gun"... no "counter trey"... no "no huddle" and no super bowls. Logic dictates to me that this years O line will be just as bad as last years, perhaps even worse because the new O line coach has less experience. I'm willing to cast aside logic at this point and give Gailey the benefit of the doubt that he can coach up the players, the coaches, O line and the offense. We will all see soon enough, only two months to go...

To be realistic the Raiders let go of Green for a reason, if he were a top RT he would still be with them. So the Bills need a LT- RT -C, and for some reason they keep avoiding drafting a LT with early draft picks, two years in a row the Bills don't fill that need position at LT in the draft after trading away JP. That kinda leads me to believe that perhaps they don't want anyone with Jason Peters ability because they don't want to pay them top money. If they had kept Peters and paid him he would be making way more then any Bills QB on the roster. If that is true it makes me wonder what they will do if they are sitting with the #1 overall next season...

Now just think of Dick Jauron as head coach back then, and Turk Schonert as the offensive coordinator, a rookie O line coach and the team trading away Will Willford. I'd have to believe that the offense would have looked unbelievably horrid with a really bad scheme, no decent game plans... would the Bills have even made the playoffs... would Kelly have even finished one season healthy? Kinda gives ya hope thinking of what a real offensive minded guy can do.

If everything I've read about Chan Gailey is to be believed then the Bills are installing a run first offense with a short to middle passing game, with a high priority on accuracy. If that is the case then Edwards should be starting, then Brohm as back up and Fitz as the odd man out. Levi Brown will be 3rd string this year and learning as he goes this year, JMO. Whomever starts the Bills should be much more exciting on offense with Spiller and Jackson taking turns in the slot and Gailey calling plays and setting up the game plans.

You guys get me with the eternal optimism about a guy who was fired in his last job as OC, now he is the HC of a team filled with college coaches he will need to train. So not only is he going to do his 80 hour a week head coaching job, he will be setting up the game plans each week and then calling plays during the game AND coaching the QB's. Plus overseeing the rookie O line coach and helping with protection set ups, not to mention helping the WR and RB coaches. I'm not even going to mention the defense here because he must be trusting the entire scheme and strats with Edwards his DC. If this guy can get this team to a winning record like 8-9 wins, he should get coach of the decade.

Only the Rams are rated worse then the Bills... I have my doubts about that because if Sam Bradford stays injury free they will win a bunch of games. The teams that easily could suck more then Buffalo- (Carolina-new QB) (Tampa Bay 2nd yr QB and HC) (KC-2nd yr HC) (Eagles-new QB-will more then likely get Andy Reid fired) (Denver 2nd yr HC+traded away their big play receiver) (Pittsburgh-Big Ben suspension+ex-Bills O line coach & ex-Bills O linemen starting ) OTOH, I think Gailey is going into this season thinking that he can toughen up the Bills players and give them more discipline to help win more games. That reasoning couldn't be further from the truth, Jauron was a players coach and realized that 16 games can really wear down players and thus had a more relaxed training camp and locker room attitude, which the players loved BTW. Bills players weren't drastically out of shape or completely unfit to play, they played tough and hard for Jauron. But his teams seemed to be snake bitten with all the injuries his teams encountered. Just remember a few years ago the NE Patriots had the most injuries in the NFL and the Pats still made it to the playoffs. Like Michael Lombardi of the NFL network stated last season..."The Bills were tough to play and easy to beat" The only way Gailey is going to win more games then Jauron did was to have better game day schemes,plans and adjustments. If he is worth a crap as an offensive coordinator his offenses should be able to out perform the schemes and game planning of Turk Schonert and AVP. The defense tho...

It doesn't matter who wins the starting job this year... My take is that all three will start and play during this year and none will have great success because of the lack of decent protection from the O line.

Dick Jauron was 100% a football guy, he simply didn't know how to run an offense and refused to hire someone competent to do so. He was an ex- NFL player and a "players' coach, most of his players loved him for that. He played DB in the NFL and was a secondary coach, defensive coordinator and a previous head coach in the NFL. He was highly respected in NFL circles as one of the hardest working coaches. Jim McNally was the O line coach when Jauron was hired, he was one of the very best line coaches in the NFL and he ran a zone blocking scheme. He also was the prominent person responsible for taking a walk-on TE and turning him into an all pro left tackle, a most unusual and amazing feat. When McNally retired 3 years ago Jauron promoted an assistant line coach to the job, the O line went down hill after that. Needless to say, his next F-up was to promote Turk Schonert from QB coach to offensive coordinator after OC Steve Fairchild quit to coach college football. Now the offense has no senior experienced offensive coach for the line, game plans or scheme. The entire offense went downhill with Schonert as OC Jauron was always tinkering with the O line, (probably why McNally retired) every year he was in Buffalo he would change players on the O line. Even bad players can become acceptable players given time to gain continuity, and also with proper coaching. The O line under Jauron could never gain continuity because he was constantly screwing with it. I think his last year in Buffalo Jauron showed why he was so inept as a head coach... with his firing the OC two weeks before the NFL season opener, and cutting Langston Walker because he couldn't get to the line fast enough to run the "no huddle" offense. You know, the one the Bills scrapped a few weeks into the season. Every player at every position was changed on the offensive line for the 2009 season, plus two rookies starting at both guard positions. That was a recipe for disaster for the O line even without all the injuries. What gives me pause about Chan Gailey and my thinking that he isn't the next best thing since sliced bread... like the rest of you guys do. Is the fact that he hired an inexperienced assistant O line coach, like Jauron did. He hired an inexperienced offensive coordinator, like Jauron did. What gives me greatest pause though is the offensive left tackle position and the current lack of talent on the roster at that position, a position which jauron also ignored. Hey, perhaps Gailey thinks he can coach up the line, the offense, the coaches he hired to a respectable NFL level. The fact is... just being the head coach over an entire NFL team takes its toll on people, and they can work up to 80 hours a week doing that one job... this guy is going to try and do three jobs or more considering all the college coaches he hired. I want the Bills to win the division, I want the Bills to kick the crap outta the Dolphins, Jets and Patriots and finish the season with a winning record, I just don't see it.

Yea, I agree Jauron was "A" problem and the fact he didn't have a lot to work with was his fault, and the owners fault for trusting him to do a job he was unqualified for. It does all start at the top, and as much as Buffalo fans love and respect Ralph Wilson... it might be time for him to relinquish that president job he holds. Clearly it is just a title he holds for namesake and perhaps to take the income that goes with it. The Ravens, Colts and many other teams have full time working presidents that actually know the difference between a Jauron and someone who knows what they are doing. Why did it take four years to recognize how bad a head coach Dick Jauron actually was? As bad as his failure to bring in top quality players was... it wasn't his biggest fault. Jauron's biggest failure was to hire experienced NFL assistant coaches, particularly for the offense. But then he might have been afraid he would be hiring his own replacement... If you look back at some historically bad franchises that have turned things around, like Arizona for example. The owner was Bill Bidwell who used to sit in on every players contract signing he was so hands on. That team made it to the playoffs once in its entire history under the senior Bidwell. Then he retired and let his sons start running the team. The sons took over and they hired the right people to run the front office. The result was not only playoffs but a super bowl appearance. The Colts under Robert Irsay was another team that was a losing franchise because the owner was constantly meddling into team affairs and making all the wrong decisions about players, coaches. He was the one responsible for John Elway holding out and refusing to play for the Colts. Then he retires and his son Jim Irsay took over, he was smart enough to understand he needed a top NFL GM to run the team, so he hired Bill Polian, 10 years of playoffs and 2 super bowls. I'm not convinced the Bills recently hired the right GM and HC mostly because this franchise has historically chosen the wrong people. Everyone jumped on the Donahoe / Williams bandwagon, then the Mularkey bandwagon, then the Marv Levy / Dick Jauron bandwagon. You guys can keep gushing about what a great hire Chan Gailey is...I can recall reading a 15 page post by someone defending what a great hire Jauron was, and he won the argument. This franchise is in trouble, and has been since Polian / Butler left. What is truly sad for Bills fans and the team is... it is time for the owner to retire like Robert Irsay and Bill Bidwell did, only this owner has nobody to take over the team for him. If I'm Ralph Wilson I'd take a long hard look at the teams with the best players-coaches-front office personnel and hire a president from one of those teams, and sit back and let him run the team. It is what Miami did, they hired Bill Parcells, Cleveland just did it with Mike Holmgren. An owner needs to be smart enough to know when to relinquish control to someone smarter then themselves.

Most of the fans posting here have watched enough football to know the difference between the good teams and the bad ones. We can see what will happen when the HC hires a bunch of college coaches instead of experienced NFL coaches. We can see what will happen when the GM makes no trades or moves in free agency to shore up the weakest areas of the team. We can see what will happen when the GM drafts a Reggie Bush type RB with the #1 pick for an area the Bills were already strong at, instead of an obvious need at OT-WR-QB. Anyone who thinks that a speedy RB is going to make the O line pass block better is delusional, the Bills won't be able to use 5-7 step drop passing plays because the QB will only have 3 seconds to get rid of the ball. We will all still root for the Bills to win games, but in stark reality we know in our hearts the Bills will be lucky to repeat as many wins has they had last season. We have witnessed enough losing teams over the history of the franchise and have earned the right to be pessimistic.

Who knows what the GM and HC are thinking going into this next season with what they currently have on the roster at the tackle position... I can only think that by week 8 all the fans gushing about what a great GM / HC hire the Bills have made with Gailey & Nix, those very same fans will be calling for their heads.

I know, I used to watch Bert Jones play for the "Baltimore" Colts when Marchibroda was the HC, another team that couldn't get past the Steeler's. I was sorta referring to the fact that the 90 Buffalo Bills led the league in scoring and had one of the top offenses in the NFL...In Buffalo? My take is that Marchibroda was a genius, only Polian was more so.

That would mean he would have to pay top dollar...ain't gonna happen ever again! Only once did he spend to get a playoff winning coach in Chuck Knox, and ONLY after TEN YEARS of losing to the Dolphins....and then didn't want to give him a raise even after he had some success in Buffalo. The biggest reason for the 90's Bills demise was OC Ted Marchibroda leaving to coach the Indy Colts AND Bill Polian leaving. I find it interesting that the son (Jim Irsay)of owner of the Colts(Robert Irsay) took Marchibroda away from the Bills and then realized that Polian was the true genius and went after him, the rest is history.

There are other teams out there that are truly snake bitten like Cleveland-Detroit-Houston-Jacksonville have all never even been to the SB. Think about the Cleveland fans who watched their team go to 3 AFC championships 86-87-89, then the owner packs up the team and moves it to Baltimore... where they won a SB! Minnesota has lost 4 SB's... just not in a row. Shoot, the Texans have never even made the playoffs... The Oiler's lose to Buffalo in the famous comeback game they thought they had won and were finally going to the SB. Those early Oiler teams with Earl Campbell could never get past the Steelers. Detroit had Barry Sanders, probably the greatest RB ever and the team couldn't find a QB the entire time he was with Detroit...

Not for nothing but it was the GM hire that changed the face of that franchise, because he hired a really brilliant head coach in Sean Payton, then they brought in Drew Brees who is a huge part of their success. In my view Sean Payton might be the most under rated HC in the NFL right now, some of the offensive plays he devises are amazing.The way he sets up his offensive schemes they are never very predictable. Perfect marriage of GM, HC, QB like the Bills used to have with Polian, Levy and Kelly.

The offensive scheme shouldn't matter much to the linemen in terms of pass blocking, the change to zone blocking might help, but overall a block at the tackle position for a 3-5-7 step drop should be about the same no matter what scheme a team runs. The DE runs the arc and the tackle does his best to keep him away from the QB. Go back and watch Bell and Meredith last season, and when the Bills needed to make a first down throwing the ball it seemed the more pressure they were under the worse they played. To the bolded part of your post : To me, coaching is just about everything, and someone needs to teach these young players proper footwork & hand placement technique's, etc. Jason Peters didn't suddenly emerge as a great LT on his own, he was coached by 26 year veteran O line coach Jim McNally, the same guy who coached HoF great LT Anthony Munoz when he was in Cincy. The Bills have a rookie line coach this year, he will be setting up protections for the line and will also be learning his job while coaching the O line. Remember the last time the Bills had a rookie line coach, that year TE was concussed in Arizona, and TE concussed last season in his second year. No QB was concussed under McNally in his years with the Bills. http://www.coachmcnally.com/index.php?opti...6&Itemid=26 Unless Adams has hit that proverbial end of career wall, I'd bring him in and rotate the tackles to keep them fresh, let Bell and Adams both play. I'm not convinced Bell can make it through a season completely healthy.

Have you guys paid attention to the past play of the current Bills tackles, it was not very good when it counted most. Also. who is going to develop the young players on the team... the assistant line coach from KC who is now the head line coach in Buffalo that's who. I'd bring Adams in and see if he wants to play in Buffalo, he is better then anything the Bills have on their roster.