Sisyphean Bills

Facts suck. I think I'll take door number 2. Trent's concussion (singular) came because his brain got dribbled around inside his skull. Mike Martz, coaching an offense 3000 miles away, had ZERO to do with it.

Seriously though. Say the Bills had managed a 10-6 record like so many thought before the season. That wouldn't have made the playoffs, all other things being the same. How does 2 winning seasons out of 8 and a full season of games under .500 lifetime translate into Dick Jauron being a "hot prospect" and hot enough that some other team is going to "steal" him? Heck, in retrospect, it would be awesome if somebody would steal him. Bills fans would even buy him the one-way ticket, I bet.

I guess the "inner circle" thought at the time of 5-1, that Dick Jauron might be a red-hot coaching prospect by the end of the year. But, yeah, the messenger is the "stupid one."

Really? What makes you think that? The title? "Look, ma! I'm at the top of the inner circle!"

This wasn't obvious last year?!? What ever happened with the Turk Plan of "We just need to be tweakin' it"?

because he has "all the time in the world"?

What does it say that the Lions figured Jauron out in 5 games but the Bills extended his contract after 3 years of wheel spinning?

That's kind of like asking the dog why his owner does what he does, though, isn't it?

And the next week, they go shotgun on 4th and 1 into a 40 mph wind. Color me skeptical that these guys got it all figured out ... or that they can find the open end of the bag for that matter.

Depends on what you mean, I think. Many organizations have a GM and he sets the direction of the team and takes input from the coaches, scouts, etc. He has final say on personnel and since he also has authority on the coaching staff, there are advantages to being on the same page. In Buffalo, it seems more like Modrak and Guy just make up a naughty and nice list and mail it in. Jauron, Brandon and Overdorf then decide what to do -- like signing a pass rushing LB so they can have him drop back into coverage and stuff like that.

Guess: because they both went to Virginia Tech? By that line of reasoning, all Michigan QBs will be as successful as Tom Brady.

Jauron is definitely a major part of drafting players and recruiting free agents. Marv Levy said it point blank and unambiguously. Jauron has said so on Sirius. Heck, Ralph Wilson mentioned that Tom Modrak is not part of the "inner circle". The assumptions that he's helplessly gagged and lashed to the mast of the ship are wishful thinking.

Along those same lines, do you think the players might start to crack under the pressure? Or will they continue to "love Dick to death" and "can't wait to get to work each day" when the fans ride them like rented mules?

No, I don't want them revolting. But, it is transparent, unsubstantial spin to post their quotes as "evidence" that Jauron and this staff have this team "headed in the right direction." 7-9 with a cream puff schedule, 0 wins against teams with winning records, 6 points in the last 3 home games ... those are the cold, hard facts that frame comments like, "Well, I'm glad we don't have to learn any new systems" as the drivel they are.

Which just proves my point that Wilson is far more interested in the bottom line (business) than about winning football games, does it not?

Not only that. A new staff might try to replace them when they suck. Yikes!

I think anybody that has gone through higher education and then entered the workforce can reflect upon that experience and can admit that there is a real and not insignificant transition that must happen between "learning about it" and "practicing it". Jauron is not a stupid man. I'm sure he can talk for weeks on end about football. The trouble is his practice of those principles. As a young head coach, he placed a lot of confidence in Cade McNown, who was a screw up. He kept insisting that "I still believe he is the QB that gives us the best chance to win" even though the players in the locker room hated McNown, knew he didn't know the playbook or the game plans, and had no respect for them, the game, or himself. 8 years later, Jauron is putting the game in the hands of another proven screw up QB, a game that is won if only he lets his OC make the call and simply be conservative. By the book, sure, it's an OK call; but, in practice it was a doomed and stupid choice.

I'm pretty sure that Ralph, who has managed the Bills personally for most of the past 49 years, doesn't see any "sub-standard management" at all. In fact, his tiny investment 49 years ago has grown approximately 3.2 million percent in value, say nothing of the sustained income he's had in the millions for decades. It's a veritable gold mine, a machine in the closet that prints money faster than anyone could possibly spend it. He got all that for a small investment and taking a chance on a small city in western NY state. That's not "sub-standard", that's f-ing genius. That's significantly better than his insurance business, which was extremely successful in its own right. His family is set for generations. The problem is you're putting your values on his actions. He's made it patently obvious that winning doesn't matter much to him over the last 49 years. Sure, he likes winning when lucky enough to catch lightning in his thimble. Indeed, when he has taken a chance on "football administrative types" in the past, he has been burned or spurned. Tom Donahoe tried to centralize all the power to himself and the rest of the front office felt/was kept in the dark. Bill Polian was a big gamble at the time, an unknown from the outside, who had an offensive and abrasive personality (or a low threshold for incompetence). I'm sure enough time has passed and there were enough people in the building that Polian, the best football accident that ever happened to the Buffalo Bills, has been marginalized. We could go on. There were problems with Butler and AJ Smith, problems with Chuck Knox and the front office he brought in with him, problems with Saban on two different occasions, and even rumors of problem with Marv.

7-9, if 3 or 4 teams forfeit their games to the Bills to save Dick's job.

I think, in the spirit of things, those posters should be promoted instead.

The real question is: where will the new owner relocate this franchise?

I guess some people stand there and flick the light switch up and down a couple hundred times before someone nudges them and suggests, "Dude, I think the bulb is burnt out."

Actually, I'm not surprised. This is all completely in character. It is Ralph being Ralph. It's a big, "Take that Jerry Sullivan (and your mindless rabble)! I'm Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. I'm the boss here."

The only valid comparison with Coughlin is to Coughlin's last 3 years in Jacksonville when his team got mired in mediocrity and he got fired after 3 losing seasons. Of course, in Buffalo, people get promoted for that sort of work.

Isn't that kind of like predicting Ralph Wilson is going to be old?