BADOLBILZ
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Posts posted by BADOLBILZ
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In our never ending search for some quality interior d- lineman why not try to convert Mike Williams to a nose tackle or D tackle? We all say he sucks as a pass blocker but is decent in the run game.
A true 2-gap nose tackle is really nothing more than a blocker. His job is to tie up linemen so the linebackers can make plays. Mike W is what 375lbs? If that tub of goo can't clog the middle then who can? He is still a young player. Rather than cut him which will cost a lot of cap dollars in dead money, why not consider him for the D-line?
I realize that Jauron just said today that we will play a 4-3 next season but I still think Big Mike should get a look at D tackle simply because he's huge and I hate dead cap space. Any thoughts?
The issue with Williams isn't whether he can be a good OL, it's whether he will do what it takes to be a good OL. Namely, get in shape and play thru minor injuries.
To play defense would only be harder. Defenders need to be better conditioned, and from the stats I've seen, they also actually get hurt more often than offensive players. What Ted Washington does may look easy, but there are a lot of fat guys who can't drop anchor and stack and shed against double teams.
Most players who switch sides of the line go from defense to offense because it's easier to move an athletic DL player to a more technique oriented position than it is the other way around. See Justin Bannan. Also see everyone's TSW All American, D'Brickashaw Ferguson, who reportedly is a 5.4 40 yard dash guy despite being about the same height and weight as top DE prospect Mario Williams, who is expected to clock a 4.7 or less. Physical demands are greater on the DL than the OL.
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Personally I think it would be taking a long term step backward for a short term step forward. But if there is anyone that hasn't thrown Jim McNally under a bus, he might be able to work with Luke to show the rest of the stooges on the OL how to block.
From Pro Football Weekly "Whispers section on 1/23/2006:
He is better at false starting than Bennie Anderson. I think Pettigout had 5 in one game. This guy is really awful at this point in his career. The downside is too large. Did I mention Bennie Anderson?
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I think the pressure of the contract year got to him. He didn't appear as aggressive, explosive or animated on the field. The same thing happened to Cornelius Bennett in his first walk year in Buffalo. The Bills tagged him, he came back and had maybe his best year the following season.
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Thank God for good ol' Troy back there.
That comment pretty much removed any credibility from Smith's opinion. Nate is an ideal young player to invest in. He had a down year last year, but he'll bounce back. He has had a great start to his career, his game is well rounded and he makes plays. Imagine what he could do with a pass rush from the front 4 for one time in his career.
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Williams is a LDE. Manny Lawson was the RDE for NC State opposite Williams. Lawson is underrated IMO, he reminds me of Julian Peterson when he came out of Michigan State. He'll probably end up being a value pick for one of the teams in the late first round and 5 years from now he'll be better than most drafted well before him.
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But first, I keep reading that this was the last defensive coordinator hire in the league. Who the heck did the Jets hire for defense? I don't see a DC on their website.
RE: Fewell, I'm skeptical. First-timer. Sigh. I can't believe the Bills just didn't give Bates another 200K. Disappointing. I'm skeptical because he comes from the Tampa 2 school of defense, which has a history of being good but not great. Many Cover 2 DCs believe in it to the point that they don't believe in scheming or changing things up or disguising coverages. They just line up and dare the offense to beat them. To be good at that, you had better not have any holes that can be exploited. And even if you don't have any gaping holes, like the Colts D or the 05 Bears (which were good but not great) you still can't get far in the playoffs unless you show your opponent something they haven't prepared for. That's what makes the Patriots so consistently good. They understand that you can't give your opponent and edge by being predictable. And Tampa-2 coaches tend to be just that. The Steelers beat the Colts primarily because the Colts weren't ready for what the Steelers showed them and that sent them into catch-up mode. The Steelers had so much for them they kept changing their looks and the Colts were guessing the whole game; that's why their protections broke down. Meanwhile, look what happened to the vaunted Bears D in their first playoff game. They were made to look *very bad* all of a sudden. Because they came out with their standard D, which made it easy to prepare for and scheme around. NO adjustments later, and they were 1 and out. Fewell's secondary was GASHED again and again and again.
And most importantly, for this defense to work, you absolutely MUST have a DLine that can get a consistent rush with 4 guys. We have 2 guys in Adams and Schobel who can do it. Kelsay is still unproven and unless Ron Edwards is healthy and re-signed and suddenly great, we'll need a new DT to tie up blockers. A Pat Williams type.
Thoughts?
Fewell's hiring doesn't necessarily imply that the Bills are going to play one-gap along the defensive front. He is as likely to implement Jauron's defense as he is Smith's. Jauron used Keith Traylor and Ted Washington in the center of his defense in Chicago, which was anything but an upfield duo. That defense was considered more like Marvin Lewis' Ravens defense.
I do have the same concern about the defensive staff being inflexible, and I guess that's just looking at the face value of Jauron. He seems conservative, his awful record indicates to me that he is a bad gameday/adjustments coach, and the one playoff game he reached as HC, he got outsmarted at home, coming off a bye vs. Andy Reid and the Eagles. By all indications, the guy is not exactly cutting edge material and my guess is that Fewell is probably like minded.
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You say that now. That's the offseason speaking. Was the 1999 season successful? No, it was HR Throwback. Let's face it, expectations change over the course of a season and the only way you can definately say NOW, that next season will be a success is if you are saying they will win the SB. 8-8? Yeah, if they win the last 8, but not if they lose the last 8. Competitive? If that means playing the good teams tight, and playing down to lesser competition. No. There are too many variables.
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You are right, there aren't any unemployed coaches out there that have won a Super Bowl in the last 5 years are there? Or built a dynasty at the expense of the Bills? Nobody who coached under Belichick in the pros and is the best NFL HC candidate in the college ranks? Remember, when the Bucs began pursuing Gruden, he wasn't available. When the Cowboys went after Parcells he was supposed to be retired for good. Hell, I remember when there was no way, no how, EVER that Joe Gibbs would ever leave NASCAR for the NFL again. Those owners made it happen.
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If Sherman didn't work out because he wanted too much power, then I'm ok with him not coming on board.
Generally speaking, look at the head coaches who were also GMs. I don't have details on all of them, but one example is Mike Holmgren. He went to Seattle in 1999 to be coach and GM. They made the playoffs in year 1, but underachieved since then. Holmgren's GM duties were removed before the 2004 season and Seattle got significantly better.
It just seems that when you have a coach that is also the GM, it takes away from the coach's ability to coach. The coach's duties become significantly increased with the "distractions" of being a GM - contract negotiations, cap issues, etc. - all of which take away time from his duties of game-planning. When that happens, you have a less-than-impressive product on the field. Being just a coach allows more time for game strategies.
This just goes to show how good of a coach Holmgren is, when he has the time to just focus on Xs and Os.
I'd rather have Jauron over Sherman. But in much the same way I'd rather get a sharp stick in the ear than in the eye. Ralph prefers the lottery ticket method of trying to get a great HC over actually paying for one. It was high time for Ralph to pony up for somebody extraordinary. I have a ton of respect for Ralph and I'd rather the Bills stayed here and lost every game than ever left, but he is going to die without ever raising that Lombardi trophy. That is a fact. If he had the balls or foresight to ever pony up the cash to get a Parcells or trade for a Jon Gruden he would have gotten that ring and a place in the HOF as well.
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Way to pull "winning a lot" out of a post that has nothing to do with Dick Jauron and attach it to him. That's how desperate it's gotten.
We all want to win, but it reaches a point when you want to win it all. Polian is an expert at not finishing the job. He's the best at it. He couldn't close the deal in Buffalo, he hasn't been able to in Indy. He hires nice guys like Marv, Dom Capers and Tony Dungy gives them a lot of talent so they can win games, then watches them get outcoached when the chips are down.
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I asked a question (in some thread...i get confused) about J Williams "behavorial issues" as they''ve been mentioned a couple of time on The Wall. Is this particular ejection the only instance...or, are there others?
If this is patteren, or if there are other instances that would reveal character issues, then I agree he's probably not our (Marv's) man. But, if this is a relatively isolated incident, I don't think that makes it a character issue. Remember, Marv had Kelly, Bruce and Thurman...not exactly alter boys.
Williams had that rep prior to the issue with the official. It was no secret, his attitude was mentioned as a negative on several regular season broadcasts, so those who follow the game(and VT gets a lot of national games) should have been aware. There was some rumbling that some VT coaches were not going to be heartbroken if he didn't return for his senior season and that coaches felt there was a problem with players worried too much about their draft status and not enough about the team and that had lead to some disappointing seasons of late. A VT local could give you more in depth info, but I've seen way more than enough. The whole thing came to ahead in the bowl game vs. Louisville, but Williams early ejection was overshadowed by Marcus Vick stomping Elvis.
Some things don't get mentioned in broadcast games and emerge as surprise issues on draft day, but this ain't one of them. Neither is the issue with McNeill from Auburns stenosis. It's OLD NEWS, yet as recently as a week ago there were quite a few people trying to justify him as a Bills first rounder.
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Polian on Jauron
One NFL man who is impressed with the Bills' choice of Dick Jauron is Colts General Manager Bill Polian.
"He was a very serious candidate for our job before we hired Jim Mora," Polian said this week while scouting Senior Bowl players. "I recommended him very, very strongly to Marv. I think he's a magnificent person, a really, really good football coach. Buffalo fans should not be worried by what happened in Chicago. They were decimated by injury. And when they finally had their full team together, you saw what happened. They went 13-3. He's an outstanding football coach. Buffalo's got a great duo there."
I believe what Polian thinks way more then us boneheads, I wanted Sherman too. The more I read the better I feel, Thank's Marv for NOT listening to the fans..........
Polian will defend anything Marv does to the death, his opinion is THE LAST you should trust. That's his style. Polian's excellence in personnel is matched or exceeded by his combative nature with regard to anyone who questions his moves or the performance of HIS guys. With Polian, the media questioning the Bills going with a 260 lb. 3-4 NT, a short , slow, concussion-prone free safety and a kicker with no range past 35 yards were all grounds for sticking with thoe guys(and opponents abusing those weaknesses in the Super Bowl). It's a big reason that despite winning a lot, he has had teams most characterized by coming up short.
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I've seen a lot of mention of Jimmy Williams as an alternative selection at #8, but he's well known for having behavioral issues and in Tech's bowl game he actually got ejected for bumping an official, and yet some people think Marv is going to draft this guy early in round one?
Just a reminder that some of you guys who think college football starts in mid-January might want to at least preface your interjections with "IMO" or go back to what you were saying in November. Something like "I'll be happy if they draft an offensive lineman in every round".
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I don't know, but maybe it's because Jauron knows the guys he is interviewing and he doesn't know Henderson well? I think the reason he is reaching for this Fewell guy is because the Bears still do a lot of things that Jauron implemented(according to reports), so Fewell could probably come in and run Jauron's defense like Jauron wants it run.
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My two cent`s worth is it`s all about Attitude and Motivation from coaches,with good scouting of players,draft or free agent. I`ve watched numerous show`s talking about everybody running the same offense`s in the NFL. Same goes with the D. These players for the most part are well aware of what`s going on. The edge is motivation and getting the player`s to play with an attitude. Since leaving Buffalo awhile ago. I`ve watched Cowher over the years here in Pa.. Although I don`t think the guy is a genious ,he is a motivator . and get`s his player`s to play with a mean streak. Something that has been missing here for year`s.Well that`s about it ..Fire away.
Cowher is not a brilliant coach, but he is adaptable and unquestioned and now has a wealth of experience and accumulated respect. That is important. But the reason he is in the Super Bowl again is because Tom Donahoe fired Gregg Williams. Donahoe then removed Mularkey from Pittsburgh(addition by subtraction), opening the door for Whisenhunt AND creating a good circumstance for Dick LeBeau to jump from Buffalo to Pittsburgh. Whisenhunt and LeBeau have done wonders with units that are not much more than average talent-wise.
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I look and also see no reason to believe they will fail. I won't go so far as to beg for your patience while we wait for the team to actually play against another team, but can't we at least see what the 2006 Buffalo Bills team will be comprised of (or at least where we'll start from) before you decide that it's automatic that we'll be no better than 3-13 for the next three years?
You are such a trooper, but the best coached teams do most of the winning in the NFL today. All other factors are just too equal. Dick Jauron could succeed, my point is that we have been repeatedly sold a line of BS that guys like Williams and Mularkey were better than they appeared on the surface, and they were exactly what they appeared to be. They were what they were and that's the norm in the history of Bills hirings. Marv was the ONLY exception, but he was coaching in a different era, when talent ruled and teams could win for long periods of time with the same nucleus of star players.
There are never any guarantees, but Ralph's idea of re-energizing the franchise is usually hiring someone who was moderately succesfful to unsuccessful and expecting a miracle, instead of picking a brilliant young coach, a great college head coach or a proven winner at HC. Let's not forget, Williams and Mularkey were luke warm candidates at best, and Williams only really escaped Jeff Fisher's shadow when he went to Washington. You can act like good candidates don't come up, but Ken Whisenhunt is there, Kirk Ferenz is there and Martz, Sherman, Dan Reeves were right there too. They could fail too, but they are much more promising based on track record. It's common sense, and for some reason Ralph can't get his head around that.
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Because the season is over and draft experts and many NFL teams alike start to overanalyze players and weigh in too many things that have nothing to do with performance on the field in their evaluation.
Ngata and Gabe Watson are big DT's but nowhere near as good as their hype. In some of the better DT drafts of recent years, these guys wouldn't even be mentioned as first round prospects. Yet they are mentioned as such in this draft(a strong overall class, IMO) simply because you need 2-4 good DT's and it's hard to find that many. By contrast, OT's aren't rotated, so you can get by with two good ones. Ngata is a fat guy with a low motor. I think Gabe Watson can even hit double-low if properly unmotivated. By the end of the year, Gabe was actually getting less snaps than his backup, "Tree", who I believe is a sophomore.
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No, you are only supposed to use that sarcastically. Get it? Ever since that commercial came out many years ago, people continue to incorrectly use the term. We HAVE been literally doomed to failure. It's not funny when it is literally correct. Save it for something the Bills do well, like........We are DOOOOOMED to not have a good punting game.
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http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/blog/index?name=clayton_john
Bates might not take Bills' offer: Don't be surprised if Jim Bates turns down the Bills offer to be defensive coordinator. Even though he has two years of money coming from the Packers, Bates may not be happy with the money the Bills are offering. The Bills' job is the last defensive coordinator job available, so the option for Bates is to sit out a year and wait unless he wants to coach a position.
OH NO!!!!!!
Say it isn't so!!!!! I guess we could settle with Caldwell. It's right there in my face, but I just refuse to believe it. How can Ralph be too cheap to pay quality coaching? If it's true, it's every bit as bad as Mike Brown refusing to hire scouts. You just can't go cheap on the sidelines.
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Since I haven't landed on a hard position regarding where we are, I'd be interested in having you entertain a slightly different position:
Outside of Saban's 64 and 65 AFL campaigns Marv Levy has overseen all of our most successful seasons. He's stayed associated with the game and made no secret of his continued fondness for the game. He isn't taking the job of HC that requires 90 hours of work every week all year long, plus he's a proven delegator.
Could his very good record with the Bills and continued focus on the NFL offer us any hope that he may still understand the game at a fundamental level better than generally assumed and that this could lead to the coaching staff he's assembled being much better as a unit than the sum of its individual parts suggests?
That's hope speaking. We don't know if that will work, and there is no indication that that type of approach will work in a league dominated by super coaches, and now super staffs. Marv has strengths, but so did Donahoe. It's not like he didn't have a ton going for him. But if you can't hire a good HC nowadays you are going to end up looking like an idiot. My suspicion is that in the interview process the candidates become more humanized and it makes certain GM's overlook their shortcomings and rationalize how they could succeed instead of demanding excellence.
You want something to worry about?
in The Stadium Wall Archives
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Success in a parity driven system is what has made the Redskins and Cowboys what they are, instead of being the Nationals and Rangers. But mystique only goes so far when the NY teams have free market dollars and are winning every year. The only real solution is to have almost complete revenue sharing, otherwise guys like Snyder and JJ will always be looking for that extra little revenue stream to get an edge on the other. That's what they are doing now, and they could easily undermine their enormous house of cards, see their league split up and lose their free pass to violate anti-trust law. Face it, the NFL is better protected by the government than the US postal service, for chrissake.
When push comes to shove, these owners know it, they are just angling for that last extra penny from each other, and the players. It'll get done because the NFL has it so good. Bill Gates wishes he had it so easy as Paul Allen.