Nihilarian

I have a different view of what those 90's teams went through and I have a different take on Marv Levy. I can recall that bickering Bills era and reasons that prompted that monicker. It was in 1989 for several reasons, Bills coaches fighting with each other, players fighting and bad mouthing each other. Kelly ripping his O-line for allowing his separated shoulder and it even looked to progress to the next season. In week two against the Dolphins in 1990, the Bills were getting blown out. Marv pulled a bunch of starters late in the game when the outcome was already known as he didn't want anyone getting hurt over a losing effort. Players like Bruce, Nate Odems, Bennett were benched and they went to the sidelines and started throwing chairs and knocking over the gatorade table. Marv was furious at this and let his players know it by fining them after the game for their bad behavior. Then, later that week the owner announced he was fully behind Marv and told the players that if anyone doesn't want to behave that the Bills would suspend them or even release them! Needless to say that warning from the owner ended the Bills bickering ways and seemed to give everyone a resolve to stand behind their head coach. The Bills got hot and won the next 14 of 16 games on the way to the 1990 SB! In my view, Levy was a very good head coach and in particular an excellent motivator / game manager. Marv was a special teams coach prior to becoming a head coach and he is a big reason as to why Buffalo's special teams became so dominate. If I were to fault him for one weakness was that he kept the same defensive coordinator for far to long which was the weakest area of the team. While I agree to some extent that Ted Marchibroda had a great impact on the Bills by teaching his QB in Kelly to call his own plays. He was also at fault for not taking more control over the offense in that 1990 super bowl. Allowing Kelly to call his own plays is what hurt that the Bills offense in that game. The Bills only ran Thurman Thomas 15 times in that game and he was a big reason that K-gun offense worked so well. Those late 80's and early 90's Bills teams were mostly a dominate running team that almost always ran more than they threw it. Then, Thurman Thomas was also heavily involved in the passing game as he was about 75% of the offense most of the time. In that AFC division game against Miami Thurman ran it 32 times and against the Raiders in the next game, he ran it 25 times. Kelly came out passing in that 90 super bowl and it should have been Thurman's number being called. IMO. That Buffalo Bills offense was pretty darn good before Ted Marchibroda got to Buffalo as the Bills were in the AFC Championship game in 1988 with Jim Ringo as the offensive coordinator. Granted, Teddy did improve the Bills offense and helped turn Thurman Thomas into a superstar all around RB. His style of play also helped pave the way for other great all around backs like Marshall Faulk. What I also recall from those SB's is in that Washington game Jim Kelly should have been pulled and benched after suffering a concussion. What also killed the game for the Bills was that Indy was going to re-hire Marchibroda for their head coach and this was well known before the game. It's like the guy had his foot already out the door and the offensive game plan wasn't so good. Again, only 18 rushes for Thurman in that game while throwing it 59 freaking times with 4 int's. After that 90 season, it seemed like at the end of every year the Bills were so injured and beat to hell that just winning the AFC was a spectacular feat. That 1991 AFC Championship game against the Broncos the Bills won 10-7 the Bills only put up 213 yards of offense and were so banged up on the offensive line that the TE Pete Metzelaars was used at tackle. I think losing both GM Bill Polian and OC Ted Marchibroda eventually helped cost the Bills a championship.

No offense to Kirby but he also said he thinks Andrew Luck is overrated. A 1st overall pick that went back to back to back 11-5 seasons on teams with a limited amount of supporting talent around him and sorta crappy coaching. In 2014 the guy threw for 4761 yards and 40TD's to 16 INT's and did this with no dominant RB, one good WR and behind a pretty crappy O-line. The Colts need to fire the HC & GM and replace them with people who know their stuff. Just for a reference, another former 1st round overall pick in QB Alex Smith on a team loaded with talent was looking like a total bust and a completely wasted pick before Harbaugh got to SF in 2011. Alex Smith went 3-7 in 2010 and that year the Niners won only 6 games with all that talent. Harbaugh gets there and they go 13-3 in his first season with that same broken QB. The thing is that Harbaugh didn't just fix the offense and QB he also got the defense into a top five defense for three years in a row. What gets me about that is the two previous head coaches were defensive minded and couldn't get even close to those numbers. What should have happened in San Francisco is that the owner should have fired the GM and put his total support behind his winning head coach by telling the players to "shut up and listen to your coach"! When you have a GM and other front office people bad mouthing, backstabbing the head coach, then not much is going to work after that.

The man did take a 5-7 team and go 10-3 in his first year while only losing to OSU and MSU in the division. You need to go back to 2004-2003 to Michigan's previous level of 10-3, and it was all the way back to 1997 that they went 12-0. NFN but Harbaugh took over a 2006 Stanford team that was 1-11 and in four years took them to a 12-1 season before being hired by the 49ers. Worn out his welcome in SF because he didn't get along with a not very bright GM who should be fired soon. I think the 49ers parted ways with the wrong guy. But, that's me.

In the reality of the situation a College HC has to make do with someone else's recruits in his first year. I look at Harbaugh and think he will build a great program. What he did in SF was amazing and his GM is a moron. That GM while building a great offensive line at first then went on to tear it apart. Pears starting at RT last year... really? Needless to say, I think the world of the guy as a head coach and to me, he is the Anti-Rex.

Not when he had Bruce Arians as his coach and now a world of difference in Indy for Andrew. He will be the richest tackling dummy in the NFL. Chuck Pagano the most overrated HC in the NFL today and his GM Ryan Grigson is right there with him. How they both still have jobs is a wonder in itself.

I agree with most of this and Rex wanted and vouched for Incognito too! Plus he wanted other players in free agency that either Whaley declined to obtain or signed elsewhere. So, yes Rex does deserve credit for helping build a good offense and hiring a decent coordinator to run it. His biggest fault lies entirely with what he did with an elite defense and not fixing the penalty problems, lack of communication problems, failure to discipline players and so on. The reality was that Ryan caused his own problems or failed to fix them once they showed. The injury bug did bite the Bills at times but didn't hit as hard as it could have to guys like Glenn, Incognito, Wood, TT, Shady or Sammy and lose them for the season. It's not about the number of wins as many factors go into that number. To me, it's more about are the problems with the lack of proper communication fixed? Will the late play calls, player substitutions fixed? Will the stupid drive / game killing penalties be reduced? Will the defense play as a cohesive unit and not have players jumping around as the ball is snapped or be out of position? Will the game plans be effective against every opponent and not just the teams in the division! Will the Bills finally notch a win against the Patriots with Brady playing a full 60 min? The Bills had just about the very best cornerback duo in the league last year in Darby-Gilmore and yet so few fans noticed because they were constantly hung out to dry with the worst pass rush in the league. Fixing the pass rush should also be a primary concern and not just by blitzing more but by calling blitzes that are actually effective in getting to the QB. Rex Ryan has a lot to prove this season.

That Jets defense also blitzed around 55% of the QB dropbacks in 2009 so they were getting heavy pressure on the QB ...and it just so happens that the Jets were #3 in defensive hurries that year. Funny thing though is that the 2015 Buffalo Bills were dead last in defensive hurries last year and that was the result of not blitzing very often and running that crappy gap control two-gap scheme most of the time. Odd that you mention getting the D back to top 10 in PPG because that only happened under Ryan for two seasons in 2009 & 2010! Then in 2011 saw 20 PPG, 2012 saw 20 PPG, 2013 saw 19 PPG and saw his Jets at #24 in PPG. That last sentence shows that the quality of the talent on the field still matters even if Ryan starts calling a whole lot more blitzes and runs a one-gap pass rushing scheme most of the time. There was a real reason why the team gave Mario a 100 million dollars to play for the Buffalo Bills. It's also why Vonn Miller is probably going to be the highest paid defensive player ever when the Broncos eventually sign him. It is interesting to think that "IF" last years defense was contrived to make Mario look bad it could really come back to haunt the three in power. With a top five defense, the Bills would have probably made the playoffs last season and secured their future for more than the upcoming season.

Bruce needed some motivating at the beginning of his career and Bullough paid the price for prodding him. What was great about that 90's defense is Bruce had a tremendous tackler in Darryl Talley right behind him so if he overran the run play trying to get to the QB Talley was right there making the stop. Bruce got better against the run and reading plays as time went on. What saddens me about last year is that the Bills had the very best pass rushing DE since Bruce Smith and because he was forced to play in a scheme he hated... he then wanted out and did exactly what it took to get himself out. Now most Bills fans can't stand him because of it and the Bills lost that pass rusher to a team in the division. The Bills might be better rushing the passer this year than last year if Ryan changes his scheme up to...you know, actually rush the passer. But, it won't be nearly as potent without Mario and I just don't see another 13-14 sack player on the team. I have to think Hughes won't be as good without Mario on the other side as teams will now be able to send extra protection to double him. This whole situation sucks.

You bet Bruce Smith would have kicked his ass for loafing and also found some alone time with Rex to let him know exactly how he felt about that gap control scheme of his. If he couldn't get through to Ryan I'll bet Bruce also would have probably gone to the owner and told him to change things or trade him. I wouldn't be surprised if the latter happens with Dareus this year if Ryan plays him mostly at NT in a gap control scheme.

Who do you think built that team before Ryan even got to NY? Mike Tannenbaum built that team from the get-go as he was hired to the team in 1997 and promoted to GM in 2006. His first two picks in his first draft were LT Brick Fergurson and C Nick Mangold who are both two all pro studs since being drafted. His next draft was Darrelle Revis and David Harris. Revis was arguably the best CB in the league for years. Great picks before Ryan got to NY. That 2008 Jets team went 9-7 under Mangini before Ryan even got to NY and then went 9-7 under Ryan in 2009. The talent was already there on defense when Rex took over, Shaun Ellis, Kris Jenkins, Calvin Pace, Revis, Harris. Already there! Then after Rex Ryan was hired the team brought in Bart Scott and Jim Leonhard. I can only think that Rex Ryan had a lot of input into who he wanted the team to draft for the next six years so I don't know that anyone can lay the entire blame on the GM. The 2010 first round pick DB Kyle Wilson, in 2012 first round pick DE Quinton Coples and how much input did Ryan have in finding these men? Then Tannenbaum was fired after the 2012 season so for Ryan's next two years with the Jets he had John Idzik as his GM. First-round picks DB Dee Milliner (9th overall) and S Calvin Prior (18th overall)? More bums, so was it just the GM? Literally record setting? 2011 NY Jets defense was 20th in points allowed. 2012 NY Jets defense was 20th in points allowed. 2013 NY Jets defense was 19th in points allowed. 2014 NY Jets defense was 24th in points allowed. That Washington Redskin game was after the Bills bye week and the team looked incredibly incompetent on defense that week. In actuality, about the only QB the Bills beat all season that was worth a damn was in week one against Andrew Luck and he finished the season 2-5. If the Bills faced even an average QB they lost. Losses to Sam Bradford, Blake Bortles, Alex Smith, Kirk Cousins, Eli Manning, Andy Dalton and the goat 2x. Wins against Fitz 2x, Tallywhacker 2x, Andy Luck, Kellen Moore, Marcus Mariota, Brian Hoyer. As far as conspiracy theories go, it could just be that Rex Ryan is nowhere near as good a defensive minded coach as the one who took control over the 2009 NY Jets. Then after the first two years, teams learned how to defeat his scheme. Ryan's offenses in his six-year reign as the NY Jets head coach never cracked the top ten and were mostly in the bottom third in that time. As a head coach, he is responsible for all three phases of the team and the overall win record. An interesting note, the Buffalo Bills haven't been first in the division since 1995! And since then have been in the bottom more often than not. 2014 saw them 2 of 4 and 2015 saw them move back to 3 of 4.

I do believe that he also finished no worse than 11th in sacks too. Yet the Bills with the best and most talented defensive line in the league finished dead last in QB pressures and 31st in sacks under Ryan in 2015. It is a passing league and not getting pressure on opposing QB's is what caused the Bills to give Mario 100 million in the first place. I can recall Buddy Nix crying that even the worst QB's are playing like all pros because the Bills couldn't muster a pass rush worth a damn. So the Bills sign Mario and get super lucky that the Dumb F GM in Indy wanted Bill Polian's last first rounder at linebacker out of Indy and traded Jerry Hughes for Kelvin Sheppard. Combined with KW and the Manster the Bills have the best pass rush in the league for two seasons. The Bills lost their best pass rusher to a division opponent and most Bills fans seem blissfully happy with this idea because they think Mario is now a useless malcontent. All I can say to allow fans to understand what transpired last season. Imagine how pissed off Bills HoF DE Bruce Smith would have been with him attempting to reach the sack total title as a goal before he retires and a new DC tells him he can't rush the passer anymore! Now he must stay in position to control gaps and the OT so the linebackers behind him can make the plays / sacks. The last thing on earth a 260 lb DE wants to do all game is wrestle a 300+ lb OT. I can only think that the man would be livid and ask to be traded. At one point in Bruce Smith's career in the huddle against Tampa bay, he told his fellow defenders that "if anyone makes a tackle they will answer to me" and by the next game the HC was fired and replaced. I wouldn't be surprised if Bills fans will see the same vocal dislike about the scheme this year if Ryan has Marcell Dareus playing NT in a two gap scheme which he will hate doing. Besides the Bills didn't give the man a 100 million to be a gap controlling NT. I have a few conspiracy theories as to why Ryan chose to run mostly a two gap run-stopping scheme when a one gap scheme would have allowed those D-linemen to rush the passer instead of sitting back and controlling gaps. One involves Russ Brandon asking Ryan to make Mario look bad so the fans will hate him because the team really can't afford him...kinda based on a 100+ page thread that fans went nuts about signing the guy. Another is that Ryan simply didn't care to put the effort into a lot of the game plans. Lastly is that Ryan didn't care to compete with Schwartz for the sack title and didn't mind looking bad this year so he can be a hero next year when the team starts leading the league in sacks again.

I'd be all in on this move to finally shore up that RT position and also give the RG some help at the same time.

Here are some more facts. Against the NY Giants In having your team penalized 17 times for 135 yards and thus giving the opponent 7 first downs on offense in one game is beyond ridiculous. "Two of those penalties negated touchdowns and the Bills had four 15 yard penalties! Giants HC Tom Coughlin told his team before the game ..."Tom Coughlin told his players before Sunday's game that the Bills would beat themselves with penalties. http://www.syracuse.com/buffalo-bills/index.ssf/2015/10/tom_coughlin_reportedly_told_giants_players_buffalo_bills_would_beat_themselves.html They sure did beat themselves. It wasn't just the players that were undisciplined as it was the coaches as well. Rex was anti-Marv Levy last season as Marv would preach "don't be dumb, don't be dirty". The fact that Doug Marrone also didn't get a handle on the penalties doesn't excuse Rex Ryan from having that problem. The Buffalo Bills are not an elite team by any standard and any mistake they make is more difficult to overcome than it is for the elite teams.

This! Plus other reasons. That scheme didn't work for Rob Ryan in New Orleans and it certainly didn't work in Buffalo last year. Aside from the things already mentioned the difference that I can see is that Rex actually called a lot of Blitzes when he was the Jets HC and to the tune of almost 55% of the QB dropbacks in 2009 to substantially less the last few years. In 2013-2014 it was more around 30-35% and last year in Buffalo he blitzed less than 10% some games. Aside from the lack of blitzing it was sorta clear to me that Rex Ryan only seemed to have his team well prepared and a proper game plan set up for certain games. Division games mostly as the Bills swept the Jets and Dolphins. More importantly, The 2015 Buffalo Bills played their best against the Jets with Rex having revenge to beat the team that fired him in mind. Then the Bills managed to beat the bad QB's and lose to anyone average or better. Rex might have been 6th in yards allowed in 2014 with the NY Jets but his team went 4-12 and his defense was 24th in points allowed! Guess what team was #4 in total defense in 2015? Yea, the NY Jets!

We all saw it, heard about it, read about it. Even the Bills players themselves were saying that even the slowest opponents were hurrying to the line because they saw the Bills constantly getting the play calls late and player substitutions in late. THAT's BAD COACHING!! "When Reed went and watched film of the 2015 Bills, the lack of communication astounded him.:" Excuse me, but what does Mario Williams have to do with the lack of communication? He was just one gear in the machinery of an 11 plus man defense that wasn't working anywhere near as effectively as it did the previous two years. Bills fans really need to stop with the Mario hate because he wasn't as effective in Ryan's two gap scheme...because nobody else's was either! All the players in the front seven saw their play stats take a huge hit from the previous two seasons. It wasn't just the lack of communication between players! It wasn't just some of the players not giving 100% It wasn't just the astounding amout of penalties the majority of the games... The Bills defense gave the NY Giants 7 first downs on offense by penalties. holy effing crap, 17 penalties for 135 yards in that one game alone! 17! It wasn't just the late player substitutions or the late play calls coming in. It wasn't just the lack of QB pressures, sacks from running a scheme that didn't suit the best front four in the NFL. last in the NFL in QB pressures and 31st in sacks! It wasn't just asking the linebackers (who weren't very good) to make the plays over the pro bowl D-linemen. It was the confluence of all this crap that took a #4 (#4 points allowed, #4 yards allowed, #1 in sacks and QB pressures) overall defense in the NFL to middling in points allowed (15th), in the top 11 worst teams in yards against (19th) and dead Last in QB pressures, 31st in sacks. Those numbers are also astounding when you consider that it was mostly the exact same players and the coaches changed. The one thing that escapes most Bills fans is that the 3-4 two gap scheme that Rex Ryan ran last year in Buffalo and his brother Rob ran in New Orleans is a dinosaur! Teams have caught up on how to defeat that defense and it showed last year. Besides, the Bills still don't have the right personnel to run that scheme. Ed Reed is a great NFL player but isn't he a DB's coach on a team that already had excellent play from the secondary? I'm not as convinced as a lot of Bills fans that this year's defense will be anywhere near as good as #4 in the NFL like it was under Schwartz. The players the Bills drafted with those first two picks shows that the team still wants to run that two gaps scheme. What's sad about this whole thing is that all Ryan needed to do was run the 3-4 one-gap scheme like Wade Phillips did in Denver and while Buffalo doesn't have a Vonn Miller that defense would have raised hell last year. Plus, Ryan could easily change up what he was doing and start running mostly that one-gap this year. Time will tell on this one and once the season starts we will see. As it stands, to me, it looks like the Bills hired a boisterous 4-12 head coach determined to do things his way.

My dream coach for the short term would be the Anti-Rex Ryan in Tom Coughlin who is a strict disciplinarian rather than a players coach. He is also a known super bowl winning HC that desperately wants another chance to show the world he can still get it done. Plus, he is familiar with building top defensive 4-3 units that have been able to stymie Tom Brady! Keep Greg Roman as OC who would fit perfectly in what Coughlin wants to do with an offense and let Tom hire the DC of his choice. Hiring a top 4-3 coach would be my thought before this team devotes itself entirely to a zone blitz defense scheme that it still doesn't have the players on the roster to run it. That, and the two gap 3-4 that Rex and his brother Rob run is a dinosaur. If Jim Harbaugh wants out of Michigan and back into the NFL, he did have a .695% winning percentage in the NFL. Bruce Arians has a .708 winning percentage. Tom Coughlin .531%. Rex Ryan .482%

In 1986 I watched QB Phil Simms get sacked 7 times and he threw 4 interceptions as the NY Giants lost that game to Seattle 12-17. Guess what? That game was in week seven and the Giants would go on to a 14-2 season as they also won the super bowl that year and Simms was the MVP. Sometimes QB's just have bad games and shi, err stuff happens with that oblong spheroid. I'm still rooting for EJ because he is still a Buffalo Bill. He is a good guy who works hard and does his best. He is also Bruce Smiths godson. http://www.profootballhof.com/videos/bruce-smith-god-son/ In that game against the Jags after screwing up so bad in the first half, he could have kept screwing up and kept throwing INT's and at 27 to 3 he could have easily just given up. That game ended up being an exciting close game at the end I came away from that game somewhat proud that EJ was able to lead a comeback that could've won the game. He never gave up and kept fighting. I'm still hoping that Roman will coach him up to be a decent player.

After reading through this thread I come away thinking that most fans are afraid of change, any change to the head coach, GM or front office. The way I look at things is even if the team manages to get to 8-8 it's still a losing season unless the team makes the playoffs. Perhaps it is better to bottom out a few years to obtain some of the top talent in the league. But! Sadly, as Cleveland has proven, that only works if you have a great scouting department to find those players and a great GM to select them. And of course, an owner who isn't butting in! What I find interesting is that when Ralph Wilson hired Chuck Knox back in 1978 without knowing it he had hired the future nucleus for his team's future going forward. Knox brought with him his director of player personnel in Norm Pollom who was a pretty darn good talent evaluator and later on he was the one who advised hiring Bill Polian. Polian might be older now but I take exception when a fan calls the man who built three different teams into playoff teams in three years and two of them super bowl contenders pretty quickly ...an old fool. If you look at his body of work as GM / team president he was the GM of the buffalo Bills from 1986 to 1992 and was instrumental in drafting and signing both Jim Kelly as director of player personnel(1983) and Bruce Smith 85). He acquired Kent Hull after the USFL folded and he was the most sought after center in the league. Andre Reed, Thurman Thomas, and the list goes on. The Buffalo Bills owner wanted to draft Doug Flutie with that first overall pick instead of Bruce Smith and Polian fought with him over it and just like he would go on to fight with the owner and his money managers over many things in future years. https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/sports/1992/01/19/down-to-earth-polian-built-bills-from-ground-up/bf72fef6-1b4f-4c8b-85b5-c77210d9f53d/ Buffalo Bills GM 1986 Under Hank Bullough who Wilson hired to Marv Levy who Polian hired (2-14) 1987 (7-8) 1988 (12-4) from 2-14 to 12-4 in three years and the difference in player talent went from horrible to great once Polian was hired. Carolina Panthers an expansion team in 1995 and Bill Polian was hired as GM to build the team. (1995 to 1997) Polian hired the head coach and brought in every player 7-9 his first year to 12-4 and a conference championship in his second year as GM. Two Years! Because of his success in building that Carolina team so quickly Polian was hired by the Colts as GM and promoted to team president. The old owner of the team had passed away (Robert Irsay 1997)and his son (Jim Irsay)saw first hand what Polian had done for the Buffalo Bills and then the Panthers so he hired him away from Carolina. In 1997 the Colts went 2-14, and in 1998 hired Polian and the team still went 2-14. In 1999 the Colts went 13-3! Two years! There is a real reason as to why Bill Polian is one of the few the very few NFL executives in the NFL hall of fame as he was one of the greatest GM's the league has ever seen. I for one would love to see the man who's name is on the ring of honor return to Buffalo to direct these new owners in helping build a super bowl contender in Buffalo once again.

Delusional? Please explain to me how things are any different in the hiring of the last head coach than we saw in the last 10 years with the team president involved in making the call. Didn't the Pegula's make the call on hiring Rex Ryan and didn't the team president influence that decision? Just FYI, Buddy Nix didn't hire whomever he wanted as he had to run it by the owner first. His first desire at head coach in 2010 was a very experienced man who had a strong history of taking over broken teams and building them quickly into winners. That man also wanted the Buffalo Bills head coaching job very badly to redeem himself in the eyes of the NFL. His name was Marty Schottenheimer. http://espn.go.com/blog/afceast/post/_/id/9487/marty-schottenheimer-wanted-bills-gig Ralph Wilson shot that down because he said he wasn't "comfortable" with him as head coach. Which means he probably felt he couldn't micromanage Marty like he did with Jauron by being on the phone from Detroit with him for hours every day during the season. The result of finding someone who Wilson was comfortable was with at HC was someone who had been fired in his last job as an OC after the team went 2-14 and he was out of the NFL for a year. Then Nix / Wilson hired and promoted him to a head coach position. If I'm not mistaken "Leroi" is an established person who is known to work inside the building at OBD and has several accurate predictions on what the team was going to do going forward. Lastly, what is with the fear of hiring a senior adviser like Bill Polian as someone who would have come into Buffalo to set up the football side hierarchy? (His son Chris Polian already has an NFL job with the Jacksonville Jags as director of player personnel and was hired on May 2nd, 2013.) First off Polian stated he didn't want the czar job long term and would only come in to help stabilize a floundering franchise that he still loves. I do believe that Bill Polian made mention of hiring ex-Charger GM AJ Smith to take over control of the football side of things.(not his son, as that was speculation from others) Smith is currently a senior executive with the Washington Redskins. But that wasn't set in stone as he never even spoke with Smith about the job. AFAIK. What in the world would be the wrong thing to do in allowing the man that built a team that went to four super bowls back to the team he loves to help the team going forward?

If we look at some good coaches in the league recently we would see some men who came in and improved the entire team. Jim Harbaugh first comes to mind in San Fran. A man who took over a 6-10 team loaded with talent and took them to 13-3 in his first season. He also brought Greg Roman in with him from Stanford and resurrected a broken QB in Alex Smith. Smith was thought to be a wasted first round overall pick at QB before this and never had a winning season before Harbaugh got to San Fran. Just by allowing the QB to be a game manager while pounding the rock and playing great defense they allowed Alex Smith to play like he was a worthy top QB. Another good head coach is Bruce Arians who took a 5-11 team and went 10-6 his first year in the toughest division in the league. (NFC West) Arians hired the right coordinators and resurrected someone who was thought to be a broken QB in Carson Palmer. A QB who stunk it up in Oakland for two years prior to going to Arizona. In 2014, Palmer only played in six games because of an injury and Drew Stanton (who?)replaced him by going 5-3 and then once he went out injured Ryan Lindley 0-2 started in the last two games of the season against Seattle and San Fran. So, there are good coaches out there that can make a QB look great rather than the QB making the coach look great.

What I'm disappointed about is the fact that the same stuff that was going on under the first owner of the team is still ongoing with a new owner and that is an owner making the choices for head coach. Then someone with a non-football background advising him. This new owner was somehow persuaded to not hire the football czar that many were talking about which means the people making the football decisions at the top of the flow chart have no real NFL experience in building a winning NFL franchise. Russ Brandon was the pseudo-GM after Merv Levy retired as GM in 2008 and how did the team fare in all that time? Now he is still having an influence over these new owners as he was the one so impressed with Rex Ryan's interview he told the Pegula's to... "Team president Russ Brandon was so impressed that he told owner Terry Pegula not to let Ryan out of the building." http://espn.go.com/blog/buffalo-bills/post/_/id/22828/playoff-promise-among-rex-ryan-statements-that-will-likely-prove-false For those that still think that Brandon has never been involved in the football side of things. from Leroi, "Leroi Posted 26 October 2015 - 08:12 PM Russ has a big part in scouting and the draft process. He is definetly involved. The guy is a sports genius, we are lucky to have him as the president of Buffalo sports. Remember he was our GM not that long ago. Imo " At first, it was talked about that Bill Polian or someone like him would take control of the football hierarchy and Polian himself stated he didn't want the job long term and would advise who to hire to run the Buffalo Bills football operations side of the team. Now that didn't happen so the head coach, GM both report to an owner who has vast NFL experience of watching the games on TV. Both Dan Snyder and Jeffery Lurie have proven it's not how much money you spend on players but rather the quality of head coach you hire is what wins. Then you need the proper support staff above him with a clear vision of what it takes to build a winning franchise in today's NFL. Constantly changing schemes every few years with the changing of coaching staffs is not the way to go. But! If you clearly hire a bad head coach it's never too soon to make that change. Discipline or lack thereof is something that plagued the 2015 Buffalo Bills who were the second worst team in the NFL penalties. So, this is one of a few primary concerns and no more hiring of "players coaches". The team needs a disciplinarian like a Tom Coughlin or a Bill Cowher! Plus, both those men have experience in building a super bowl caliber team. You also need someone who is secure enough in his own ability to hire the very best and brightest assistants and a this would allow the HC to be just the HC.

Not to mention that those were all wildcard games that were lost with not one division title in all that time. I dunno about the rest of the Bills fans out there but with this new owner I was expecting building a super bowl contending team and not another plodding along mediocre team hoping to eventually get into the playoffs. Great head coaches can be found if the people looking actually know what they're doing.

Not entirely as I recall it. The Bills defense only got that one turnover all game and sacked Bortles only twice all game. With 6:41 to go in the game EJ threw a 58-yard bomb to Marcus Easley for a TD and then the Bills took the lead with that pick six. Let's also not forget that Sammy Watkins didn't play in that Jags game and McCoy had only 68 rushes on 18 attempts. Not like anyone on that Bills offense had a great day. Like I said, If the Bills could have stopped Bortles on that 84-yard TD with 5:21 to go, the Bills win that game. Let's face it as that happened quite a bit last year as the defense rarely got sacks, QB pressure on any QB. I don't blame EJ as much as the rest of the fan base for that game. JMO

I think I recall you posting many times about how the Bills should sign Ritchie Incognito during that 2014 season and that signing for 2015 was extremely important for the success of the offense. To me, that signing of a decent OG was a godsend in helping the teams run game and also protecting a young QB. The stupidity this franchise has embraced the last decade about having a multitude of scrubs being fine for the O-line. The most important position on the field is the QB and if he doesn't succeed at his job the team loses games. Again, to me, building a solid elite offensive line is equally as important as having an elite defensive line. Tyrod Taylor is another godsend should he develop into a top 15 starting QB and with the right side of the offensive line still so suspect I have my doubts that will happen. Finally, new OC Greg Roman is also a godsend considering the unbelievably bad offensive coordinators this team has had to endure the last 10 plus years. As it stands the Bills could remove Ryan and his entire defensive staff while hiring a disciplinarian like Tom Coughlin as HC. Coughlin also knows how to build a top 4-3 defense and who to hire to run it for him. Meanwhile retaining Roman as OC and the Bills would have a super bowl coaching staff in the making. Just my opinion.

What a lot of fans here don't get is that was also true for Taylor last season. When the run game was working well the entire offense worked well and when the Bills QB was forced to throw more than they ran it the Bills lost every game. Another thing that is interesting is that EJ threw 42 times against both the Bengals and the Jags! Against Cincy 42 pass attempts vs 23 rush attempts and against the Jags 42 pass attempts vs 28 rush attempts. That was a quality team on a hot streak that EJ faced against Cincy and Ryan's defense allowed 34 points and no sacks. EJ against Jacksonville threw for 298 yards 2 TD's and 2 INT's and although EJ had a terrible first half, he almost pulled out the game at the end. That is if Ryan's defense hadn't given up an 84-yard drive for a TD with 5:19 remaining. What I hated watching more than EJ's bumbling failure in the first half of that Jags game was that the Bills defense couldn't stop Bortles when it counted! Then Andy Dalton went 23 of 33 for 243 and 3 TD's and no Buffalo Bills defensive player touched Dalton all game. As someone else stated it's just difficult to rank a grade at this stage. EJ was tutored by morons his first two years and nobody really knows if Greg Roman can coach him up at this point. Gotta wait and see.