hondo in seattle

Agreed. I think too often we fans require perfection from our players instead of thinking about comparative ability. Gilmore, flaws and all, is likely better than the man who would replace him if he signs elsewhere. I would like a coach, though, to talk to him about his tackling technique.

Pretty much agree. Belichick, Carroll and Reid were the first names that came to mind when I read the title of the thread. I'd have to give the #4 position a lot of thought.

I have a question for John... (Not mentioning Sully, or Bucky, or any other writer by name...) Are football writers encouraged by their editors to write negative, controversial and/or speculative stuff to drive readership and clicks?

Romo is significantly better than TT. But he's old and getting fragile, too. Even that option has its shortcomings.

Hitting the reset button on a team hovering around .500 would be a pretty bold move. While I share the frustrations of the anti-TT crowd, I lean toward #1.

I think it's because you're looking at Lynn's thin resume. Folks in the NFL know Lynn the man. They know his leadership, his football intellect, his drive, etc. People who know him tend to say they're impressed by him.

This is a good point. But then the question is, can Lynn design a better passing attack? Given his background, it's hard to imagine the answer is yes.

Exactly.

An organization that doesn't manage their external messaging effectively is not necessarily an organization that doesn't function well internally. They're two different things requiring different skill sets. Just because Whaley fumbled an interview doesn't mean that he doesn't have a good group of scouts who do excellent work. Or that Whaley will screw up the coaching search, for example.

Probably so. I remember a few years ago when some Bills fans put up a Bill Cowher billboard. If I had known, I would have contributed. But this time around... just spin the bottle. There is no choice that I can get excited about. They're each just a different flavor of flawed. McDermott's D in Phill was ranked 21st when Andy Reid fired him. And Reid seems to be a good judge of coordinators. Then again, I can't say I was totally excited when Levy was hire given his record at KC. Good coaches don't always have unblemished resumes. All I can do is hope Whaley uncovers information that gets him rightly excited about one of the candidates.

Nice research.

John is pretty much the only one who actually tells us anything we didn't already know. And his accuracy is far higher than his BN peers. This is all you pay for a plug??? That's why you don't get many.

As crazy as this may sound, I'm just going to trust Doug. None of the candidates particularly excite me. They all have blemishes or concerns on their resumes. Then again, sometimes guys with blemished resumes become successful head coaches. Whaley will do his due diligence, He'll learn far more about each candidate than we can possibly know. Hopefully, he'll make the right decision. Next year's W-L record and on field performance will tell us if Doug got the right guy.

That was uncanny. Even though the odds never veered from 50-50, I started expecting the Bills to win the coin toss. Who says we're a cursed team?

Oh. I feel stupid now. So the truth is... Coughlin was the front-runner. Then he and DW both remembered they don't like each other. So now he's not interested. A Lynn was also the front-runner. But then he saw the DW presser and remembered he didn't like DW so then he wasn't interested. But today he's interviewing anyway. And everyone across the nation agrees that the Bills are the most dysfunctional team in the NFL although a PFT poll says it's overwhelmingly either the 49ers or Browns.

Nice job connecting some dots.

I think that's a realistic, rational scenario. Despite all the crying over TT's deficiencies, our offense was reasonably productive this year. They did put points on the board. So maybe you go another year with TT, continue to develop Cardale, and maybe draft a QB too if someone the scouts believe in is there for the taking. Football isn't ramen. You don't pop it into the microwave for 2 minutes and get what you want. There might not be a great answer at QB for 2017, merely a serviceable one with a patient plan for the future.

I doubt if Lynn is telling Doug today that he's having second thoughts.

Chip Kelly was an offensive innovator. That's all he really offered. He's not a Vince Lombardi leader-of-men type. And it seems the NFL caught up to his offense. I'm not sure what he has left to offer in the pros.

Smarts are great. But a good coach needs more. * Leadership skills (has to bring out the best in people) * Organizational skills (must be able to maximize the practice schedule, etc) * Evaluation skills (can ID good coaches, good players) * Communication skills (everything from overarching vision to the details of technique need to be communicated powerfully and clearly) * Tactical skills (needs to be smart at X's and O's - to a certain extent, a football game is a chess match) And so on. I have no way of knowing if Reich has all those skills. His resume suggests he might have some of them.

Nice find. I was once an officer in the army. During a combat operation, a NYT reporter showed up with permission to talk to some of my soldiers. He wasn't getting a quote he could use so finally he threw out an incendiary one-liner he wrote himself and asked if anyone would be willing to have it attributed to him. One young private agreed and the quote went off like a bomb when it was printed. My conversation with my boss went something like this, "The SecDef chewed out General Powell who chewed out General Schwarzkopf who chewed out General Luck... and now I'm chewing out you!" I'm sure he was exaggerating but the quote was controversial enough to be newsworthy and no soldier even actually said it. And this was the New York Times.

Reporters want two credible sources. Football writers don't care. "A source close to the organization" means someone like Jerry Sullivan who actually has no insider information. "Buzz around the league" doesn't mean what the league players, coaches, or front office guys are saying. It instead refers to what the talking heads are mindlessly repeating. Agreed. They're not all cut from the same cloth.

Here's good news, sort of. According to PFT, the Bills are not the most dysfunction club in the NFL: 1. 49ers: 43% 2. Browns: 32% 3. Bills 10% 4. Jets 6% 5. Rams 5% 6. Chargers 3% We're only the 3rd most dysfunctional according to a PFT poll. The 9ers and Brownies are way out in front right now. Though it wouldn't surprise me if some Bills fans started voting repeatedly for the Bills. http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2017/01/03/which-nfl-franchise-is-the-most-dysfunctional/

Is the coach a loser, or the QB? Did the D fail to deliver or the O? While I'm not enamored with TT's poor accuracy, he did lead an offense that scored a lot of points. And the OP is right, TT helped this running attack work. I see the logic here with the OP. We haven't had a really good QB since Kelly so let's be realistic. We're probably not going to find the new Kelly soon. So let's build the offense around TT and fix the D. This offense scored a lot of points without a real RT and a cast of walking wounded and rejects at WR. If we go all in on the TT offense, we could score more points next year. Enough points to get to the playoffs if the D steps up. I'd rather find a franchise QB but I understand the alternative solution.

I just don't enough about Lynn to have any strong opinion. Obviously, his credentials are a little weak. Less than a full season as an OC. There's nothing in his resume that screams NEXT HEAD COACH. Then again, he may be the next Vince Lombardi. I know nothing about his leadership skills, his knowledge of X's and O's, his ability to manage an effective off-season, and so on. The Bills brass have had an opportunity to get to know him the past couple years. Maybe they see things in him we just can't. And maybe - just maybe - they're right.