Sisyphean Bills

You mean like the last 3 years? (Yes, Schonert changed the play calling, but he said that he kept the same system so that Trent wouldn't regress learning a new system.) Actually, this is all like watching the same movie again. Jauron hires an OC ________ that struggles badly and who takes a job as a HC in the NCAA. He then elevates the on-staff QB coach __________ to be the OC for the sake of continuity. That guy is a flop as well. (Insert: Crowton, Schoop or Fairchild, Schonert at your leisure.) Thus the term "sophomore slump".

I'll take your word for it. When comparing cow pies to moose turd pies, they both smell like $&!%.

The Duke lacrosse team is a bunch of alleged rapists, too.

From what I've heard, Fisher wants Collins as his guy. Young will probably go on the trading block.

DJ is sure racking up a lot of those "almost coach of the year" awards in your opinion. You are correct that I don't hand out free passes for a bunch of injured backups to a guy that posts 1 winning season in 8. You see, the weighting is the 7 losing seasons, not the "in the running for coach of the year" fourberie. Meanwhile, Gruden has had 3 losing seasons in 11 and owns a Super Bowl ring. http://www.pro-football-reference.com/coaches/GrudJo0.htm

I hear ya. I hear ya.

Where have I heard that before? ... I got it! A year ago, everybody was saying Schonert was an upgrade for sure because the only thing wrong with the Bills 31st ranked offense was Steve Fairchild.

Since people like to throw out Jauron's record before Buffalo, one could just as easily toss out the 06 season and say Gruden averaged 9.7 wins a season over 3 of the last 4 years.

How about some context instead of just tossing around overall records. 2002: Tampa traded 4 picks to Oakland for Gruden. The go 12-4 and win a Super Bowl. 2003: Rich McKay gets dumped mid-season (How'd he do in Atlanta, btw? How'd that Bobby Petrino thing work out?) and Keyshawn Johnson pulls a "TO" and gets inactivated most of the year. A Dick Jauron 7-9 season. 2004: Another year with no top draft picks and new GM Allen "blows it up", cutting Lynch and Sapp. 5-11. 2005: Cadillac Williams added and Chris Simms starts to develop. 11-5 and playoffs. 2006: Lose Simms, Williams, Clayton, Rice, Kelly, Buenning and have a bunch of rookies on the OL and at QB. Limp to a 4-12 disappointment. 2007: Rebound with Jeff Garcia and a host of free agent moves to win the South again at 9-7. 2008: In first place in the div at 9-3, when the Carolina Panthers steam rolled the Tampa-2 defense into oblivion with their ground game. Bucs defense falls apart in December and they miss the playoffs at 9-7. So that's 4 winning seasons out of 7. 03 and 04 were transition years as the old regime left and Allen and Gruden tried to rebuild without their top draft picks. 06 was a major setback as both Williams and Simms essentially vanished from the future of the franchise due to injury. Gruden was able to wring some extra mileage out of Jeff Garcia last year and Antonio Bryant this year.

In other news, there is no difference between DJ and Bill Belichick.

It's not going to happen, but it is hilarious to imagine Gruden sitting in a room with bean counters, marketeers, sales shills, and our doddering owner trying to organize a football franchise.

The Bears are a Tampa-2 defense. Although they didn't buy into the "small front" concept. Their DT rotation has guys in the low 300s, unlike the Colts D last year which had guys that barely made 250 anchoring the line.

Well, if we had Peyton Manning at QB, then adding weapons to the offense is a way to "fix" the defense. Well, more properly it is a way to paper over the gaping holes in the defense by, hopefully, jumping out to big leads and forcing the opponent to be one dimensional.

So, are you saying that picking the "what's new, what's cool" scheme du jour, gutting the team, and trying to find all the right pieces off the scrap heap and in the draft lottery may not be the most wise approach?

Yes, Tom Brady and Bill Belichick love to see it and tear it to shreds. And, yes, it is the same Matt Bowen former S of the Bills and Redskins. http://www.nationalfootballpost.com/author/matt-bowen/

The one problem with this is that neither of them is from California.

("Paris") Helton Fuggins is going to emerge.

The suspense is killing me. What and where is this "evidence"?

That wacky Parcells. Doesn't he know that continuity is the goal?

Being an unsuccessful NFL HC just doesn't equate to being a bad football coach. That should be obvious. Lou Holtz stunk as an NFL HC; but, he won National Championships at the collegiate level. Ditto with Pete Carroll, Nick Saban, Dennis Erickson, and Steve Spurrier. Also notable are Rich Brooks, June Jones, Bobby Petrino, Mike Riley, and Butch Davis. None of these guys are bad coaches, but none of them were of the rarefied air of elite NFL coaches that could charter a team to a Super Bowl victory either. As far as Marinelli, it is interesting to note that he is also a Tony Dungy Tampa-2 disciple (ref. Perry Fewell) and he tried to build a "small and fast" Tampa-2 defense in Detroit. Well, at least he had a dome over his head and a fast track for his runt turtles.

Trade the bastard! Who does he think he is holding up the Bills for fair compensation?!?

Do you think that Rod Marinelli was a good coach in Detroit? You are vastly underestimating the fraternal bonds between NFL coaches and insiders. Marinelli coached the worst team of the modern era and lost his job because of it and deservedly so. It had nothing to do with him or his knowledge and everything to do with the results he produced in his position as HC of the 0-16 Detroit Lions. Indeed, he's an outstanding human being. He's a wonderful, always-positive, great guy with his head screwed on straight. He is one of the best football coaches on the planet and compared to the average Joe on the street, he's a football genius. But, put him in a weak organization and stack him up against the other best football geniuses of his era and he doesn't cut it; and, it isn't even close.

Perhaps more telling is that the Steelers had 9th stringer that could play in their system and that they kept the 9th stringers that could play exceptionally well in their system, while the guys they chose to let go vanished rather than all-too-often reemerge as starters on better teams.

Of course, Fine didn't prove diddly on offense because he was primarily a special teams guy.

He probably can't do much worse than he did at Wake Forest. Can he?