hondo in seattle

Yeah, me too. I hear the criticisms of Spiller's vision, etc. But I can't help but think that the 2012 Spiller is the real Spiller. You have to know how to use him. Remember OJ was more-or-less considered a bust his first couple seasons - because he was misused - until Lou Saban turned the Juice loose. I hope Rex and Ryan do something similar for CJ. Why? It's not the 70s anymore. It's not the golden age of the running back when teams were built around their halfbacks. Teams tend to have committees of backs now - specialists for different situations.

C2C was a different philosophy - never an inferior one. The great positive is it saved the team from having years with huge amounts of dead money. Dead money was one of the reasons the Raiders have sucked so bad recently. If I'm not mistaken, they had something like $30 or $40 million of dead money in 2013. Hard to sign the FAs you need when you're still paying millions for ex-players.

The thing I dislike about Brady is that he keeps beating the Bills. If he wore a Bills uniform, though, I'd have a very high opinion of him.

I worry about losing Hughes. Despite what some others say, I think he would continue to do well in a Rex Ryan defense. And I worry about losing Spikes. Is Ryan the best defensive mind in the game or Pete Carroll? In any case, I agree the D will be very strong again next year. It will be great to have Kiko back and I think the players will buy into Rex's schemes. I believe the O will be better next year because I think the coaches and FO will move Heaven & Earth to build up a better OL.

While I'd love for the Bills to upgrade every position, I really didn't see our backs as the main culprit in our putrid running game. In 40 years of watching football, I can't remember an OL so inept at opening running lanes as this one. Was zone blocking part of the problem? I'm no expert and can't say. All I know is this OL sucked. The statistical gurus at PFF rated our OL 32nd in the league at run blocking. I remember watching Willie Ellison run for 247 yards on 26 carries for the LA Rams back in 1971. Don't remember Willie Elliison? At the time, his effort was the greatest single game rushing total in pro football history topping Gilchrist's best game of 243 and Jim Brown's NFL record of 237 yards. Everybody knows Jim Brown, Rex Ryan remembers Cookie, but few people remember Willie because he wasn't actually all that talented. Instead, he piled up yards running behind a very good offensive line that opened up gaping holes for him. An OL like that would put our backs into the Pro Bowl.

T. Pegula is a surprisingly poor public speaker. I still like the guy but I'd never pay to hear him speak. Rex, on the other hand, had me pumped up. He's not actually a polished speaker either, but he comes across as genuine, knowledgeable, passionate, and driven to win. I loved the "Lookie, Lookie, Here Comes Cookie" line. He knows his Bills history.

Very weird. And apparently they didn't want Roman as HC either. Both coordinators passed over for a position coach.

In some other thread somewhere, I predicted that Marrone's next gig would be as an OL coach. Marrone may or may not be qualified to be a HC, depending on your point of view, but what GM wants a barely qualified HC who couldn't get along with his last GM and FO? No GM wants those kinds of problems. Marrone is not qualified to be an OC. With the Saints, he simply implemented Payton's ideas and didn't even call plays. Despite the OC title, he was more a glorified OL Coach there. In Buffalo, he presided over an offense that was impotent. Who would want him as an OC? So that leaves OL Coach. They say he was good at it in The Big Easy, though our OL seemed to regress under his leadership. A lot of people say Marrone was smart for leaving Buffalo when he did. Maybe I'm wrong, but I disagree. I think his career will suffer.

John Fox was a .500 coach until he hooked up with Manning. Rex was a .500 coach was Sanchez, Geno and Vick - and a terrible FO. I'm not saying Fox is a bad coach. I just don't think the record is clear that he's a better coach.

I would have preferred a classy coach like Marv Levy. But if Rex gets us into the playoffs, he'll have my support. Players seem to love him, despite his occasional buffoonery.

It's exciting to dream that Roman would push up EJ's QB rating 10 to 20 points. But what did Roman accomplish with Kaep this year?

I hope Chan isn't hired by the Jets. I like Chan and want to root for him but I can't root for an AFCE rival.

Unfortunately, I behave like the casual fan and tend to watch the ball. But when I did watch the OL, I saw both missed assignments and blockers lose 1-on-1 battles. I'm tempted to blame the blown assignments on poor coaching. But when you see a determined OG get shoved aside by a stronger/better DT, that's just lack of talent. But we had 3 rookies on our roster last year. It will be interesting to see if any of them get better - particularly with better coaching. Better designed blocking schemes might make our OL look better as well.

The Cowboys OL made their backs and QB look better than ever. PFF had them ranked #1 overall.

And this was designed acoustically to be the loudest stadium in the NFL. Buffalo should also consider acoustics as well as sight lines. The noise of the 12th Man does indeed contribute to the Seahawks' success.

To me, personally, a lot of the names mentioned are almost deserving of the Wall of Fame.

This is an interesting point. But I wonder if it has more to do with talent than scheme.

Anyone know anything about either of these two guys? Man, I would love to see Freddy and CJ have actual lanes to run through! Good point.

Of course we would take a one-legged, middle-aged Manning! Enthusiastically!

Pat Morris is out. According the statistical gurus at Pro Football Focus, the Bills run blocking was ranked dead last in the NFL in 2014. That won't shock any Bills fans who say goodbye to Morris with minimal sorrow. To replace him, the Bills are interviewing... Chris Foerster. (Redskins OL Coach). Foerster's OL this past season was ranked 9th in pass blocking, 21st in run blocking - 12th overall. In 2013, Foerster's OL was ranked 5th overall. Mike Solari. (49ers OL Coach). Solari's OL this past season was ranked 16th in pass blocking and 5th in run blocking - 9th overall. In 2013, Solari's OL was ranked 9th overall. I'm not clear on why either guy is being allowed to interview for a lateral move. And I'm not sure if the Bills are interviewing anyone else for the position. Both guys have ties to Roman. http://espn.go.com/blog/nflnation/post/_/id/158770/redskins-grant-bills-permission-to-interview-chris-foerster https://www.profootballfocus.com/blog/2015/01/08/2014-pff-offensive-line-rankings/3/

Why do we keep revisiting old untruths? While Schwartz liked the 4-3 as his base defense, he was hardly married to it. Rex is not a conventional 3-4 guy. Instead he employs multiple fronts - as do most DCs. Apparently because we'll use 4 down linemen somewhat less often than we did the year before, we'll be overhauling the defense? Most of our players are already familiar with Rex's scheme because they learned the essentials under Pettine. Another considerations is that rex has one of the most successful records in the NFL running defenses. His performance on D over the years has been better than Schwartz's. Since when is upgrading a coach a bad thing?

Great story - thanks for sharing. I love Jerome's optimism. Regarding the comparison to the Seahawks, in another thread I wondered in print if Rex will be the Pete Carroll of the East. Those two may have the most brilliant defensive minds in the NFL. And both are great motivators loved by their players. Both like to complement their good defenses with an offense that can pound the rock. Rex never had much talent in New York. But now he has a defensive squad that compares with Seattle's in play-making ability. It's good to know Jerome likes Whaley because we still need to field more talent. I hope Whaley turns out to be more Bill Polian than John Idzik. Congrats on your retirement.

I get what you're saying... but after what we've been through I'd be happy for now just to make the playoffs if the only thing we won was the coin toss. One step at a time.

I agree with the "unless Roman is that guy" sentiment. Roman, so far, has a mixed legacy as an OC. But even if he's good at coordinating a running game but bad at coordinating a passing game, as his detractors assert, that's still better than what we had. I'm not expecting any positive offensive input from Rex except maybe in the area of motivation as Rex is a good motivator. And I'm betting Whaley proves to be a better GM than John Idzik. This will be the biggest reason why Rex wins in Buffalo versus being .500 coach in New York. I also agree with the OL Coach concern. Yikes, our OL was painful to watch last year - and painful to play behind.

Our D didn't collapse when Schwartz revamped what Pettine had done. If the FO resigns Hughes and Spikes and the team stays healthy (including a returning Kiko), this D will only become better. Most of these guys were here for Pettine and already know Rex's scheme. The transition should be easy.