hondo in seattle

While I think Rex screwed up this year, he does have a tremendous record building strong defenses. He's had an entire year to reassess the roster and his strategy. Even without Mario, I think the D gets better next season.

I think you're right... and right.

Mostly agree.

I'm bugged that Rex wasn't a good enough leader to get the most out of Mario. But I'm also bugged by Mario's crappy attitude. Men should be men, not puppets. A man acts with integrity and takes care of his business regardless of what's going on around him. A puppet lets other people pull the strings and determine his mood, attitude, effort, and everything else. Mario doesn't like the new scheme so he's become a different person & player. He gives less effort and has become a worse teammate. That's being a puppet - he's letting the coaches determine his attitude instead of owning it. A man would have motored on, despite disagreement over his new role.

No coaches - or players - would want to work for an organization that blows things up every year. I haven't been happy with Rex's coaching this year. And I'm still on the fence with DW. Yet, if I owned the Bills - for the sake of stability - I wouldn't change the HC or GM either. I do hope we see some upgrades in the coaching staff and roster, though.

Actually, I don't mind most of the article. I don't necessarily agree with his recommendations but I'm okay with differing opinions. There's really only remark that's bothersome: 'the Pegulas are in over their heads' as owners of a NFL franchise. I think he's wrong. I think he fails to back the statement up. I think it's absurd even to suggest it after one season of ownership. And I think it's an unnecessarily offensive statement.

Thanks Gary. When you don't have a franchise QB, you need a franchise RB. DW made the deal he had to make at that time.

Most owners come into the NFL without any NFL experience. And then they hire football people to run their football business. The Pegulas have hired/retained this triumvirate: * Russ Brandon. He's doing well managing the business side. * Doug Whaley. Some knowledgeable football people believe he's off to a credible start as a GM. Peter King - among others - praised his promotion. * Rex Ryan. The Bills weren't the only team interested in making him a HC. This season aside, he has a very strong record running defenses. We can argue about Rex and DW. But the decision to retain their services is not in the Matt Millen category. They're reasonable decisions even if some of us can imagine better options. The Pegulas are in the first season of NFL ownership and their team will finish somewhere in the middle of the pack of the highly competitive NFL. There's no need for panic. Saying the Pegulas are "in over their heads" smacks of Jerry Sullivan.

Huh?

Is Bill politicking for a job as the Pegulas' consultant?

Yeah, I get it. And I don't disagree with the move. The team was moving in the wrong direction, Chips was failing as a GM, he was arrogant, etc. But still I love the contrast. We're sometimes slow to fire coaches with losing records. The Eagles just fired a coach with a winning record. You don't see that a lot.

This is an awesome find. Thanks! I've always wondered how tackling was taught in the NFL these days. Like most of us who played organized ball, I was taught to tackle with my shoulder and wrap the guy up. Not very different than what the Seahawks teach (Seto: "We are a shoulder tackling team"). Yet you see a lot of sloppy tackling in the NFL. It's puzzling. Even given that the CBA doesn't allow a lot of full contract drills, you would think the basics of tackling would be instilled at an early age. In any case, the Seahawks find a way to teach good fundamental tackling. Why can't the Bills? Vince Lombardi: "Some people try to find things that don't exist but football is only two things: blocking and tackling."

Chip is an unique case but it's still interesting to me that a guy who goes 26-21 gets fired. In Buffalo, we'd canonize him.

DW was in a tough position this past offseason. He thought, as we all did, that he had a playoff caliber defense. But he didn't have a playoff caliber offense. So with no franchise QBs available, he went after a RB you could build an offense around. At the time, it looked like a smart move. Many thought a Shady led offense would be potent enough to lead the Bills into the playoffs, considering our D was going to hold opponents to under 20 per game. If Rex hadn't mucked up the defense, the plan would have worked. Our rushing attack delivered this year because DW gave Roman a nice stable of backs to work with. I don't think the money tied up in Shady, KW and MG is outrageous for three good halfbacks.

He can't say the season was a "disaster" because that would beg the question: Who's accountable? Should the GM be fired? The Head Coach? Both? Disasters require heads to roll; disappointments don't necessarily.

Agree completely.

I'm still mad about this. And, yeah, we had far more than our fair share of injuries this year. Even so, I don't think Rex did a good job with the defense. Injuries weren't our only downfall. Rex's ineffectiveness in both teaching and selling his D to the players hurt the team. Schematically, it may have been the wrong decision in the first place. Rex is the leader of the team. I expect him to make good strategic and tactical decisions. I expect him to unite coaches and players. I expect him to teach and motivate the players to perform at a high level. He didn't.

I've watched Al Jazeera enough times to know they're a credible news outlet. They were once known as the mouthpiece of radical Islam only because they were able to get interviews with militants that others couldn't get. Al Jezeera itself has no noticeable political stance. They're much like CNN or BBC - though perhaps with a more global outlook than CNN. Nonetheless, the Manning story is not great journalism. Deborah Davies herself says Charlie Sly is their only source. It used to be that credible news outlets only reported something they could corroborate. Good news outlets don't normally like to go to air or print with only one source. Sly did work for the Guyer Institute so his claims that they sent Manning's wife HGH are interesting. But how credible is Charlie Sly? It feels to me like AJ was so excited to have a big NFL story that they compromised their journalistic standards to get this scoop out. They should have done more work to find someone to either corroborate Sly's info or figure out Sly is lying.

Seems like there was something in my eyes while I watched.

Excellent research to support a good point. From a different perspective, Tom Brady is not the sole reason the Pats get into the playoffs every year nor the sole reason Belichick will get into the HOF.

What a depressing prediction! But, projecting current trends into the future, not unlikely.

Welcome to OBD. Love the optimism! I live in Seattle. I hope that doesn't make me any less of a Bills fan.

yep

I'll watch it. I think most Bills fans back then appreciated how impressive it was to go to SB after SB. But in the national consciousness, we became a joke - the epitome of the word "loser." I think it's interesting how that team is now being reinterpreted.

This is it. I was excited to see what Rex would do with this D. I'm not excited anymore and am officially off the Rex bandwagon. He single-handedly transformed a great D into a mediocre one. Maybe so. Maybe not. How do you know how much of last year's ineptitude can be assigned to Hackett and how much to Marrone?