Richard Noggin

That's reasonable and FAR more likely. Because if I'm Culley I'm asking about the situation directly.

Wait, WHAT? I'm not seeing a lot of free passes being issued to Cody Ford or Tremaine Edmunds. I'm seeing steady criticism of varying severity. (I left out Oliver because most people seem to understand that he's already an effective pro, albeit conspicuously underperforming on the stat sheet most games. And that's some of the issue here, a lack of quantifiable, impact plays.) 3-4 OLB at his current weight. 3-4 DE at his college weight. Kind of a misfit in a 4-3, so far. No matter what, Epenesa will never be "small" by NFL standards. He's long and strong at any weight.

Culley's comments indicate to me that he interviewed for the job to work with Watson (among other factors), and that upon accepting the job "knew" (past tense) that Watson would be the QB. That actually seems, to me, to highlight the dishonesty of Houston management/ownership. They didn't even mention to him that their franchise player had requested a trade something like a week or two (or three) prior? Someone isn't being forthright, anyways. And according to Watson, there is a history of this with McNair and Easterby. I'm sure almost everyone of any significance employed in the NFL is hearing this stuff through agents before we are, so I'm not casting Culley as some innocent patsy here. Just trying to piece together a reasonable take. The sudden leak by the team of Watson's trade request was to prevent the newly hired coach from being blamed, right? That's the way I'm reading it.

I think Butler, despite his size, is more of a 3-tech, penetrating DT. The Bills were mostly putting guys out of position this past season.

If you believe that Mortensen is connected (as the guy who broke all this in the first place), then he seems to have indicated on Twitter that Watson is NOT interested in playing for the Jets. They discussed it on WGR yesterday: when Schefter floated four teams Watson could go to, including the Dolphins but NOT the Jets, someone tweeted back, "You forgot the Jets." To which Mortensen jumped in and said, "No he didn't." So, make of it what you will. Any player with concerns about ownership should stay far away from the Jersey Jets.

Bootlickers gonna lick.

I like him, for the most part. But like some others on that D, he might fit better in a 3-4. Perfect for a 5-tech.

Too...matchy matchy for you?

Bojorquez, Williams, and McKenzie. I'd like to hang onto Mongo, as well.

Here is the point where you get off this schtick of yours and step away from the keyboard. Josh Allen will never know, or care, about this particular thread. I'm not supporting my team by plugging my ears and chanting gibberish until the bad people with their reasonable uncertainty stop being so mean to my favorite QB. This is called discourse. It involves nuance, and opinion, and debate. At least, it does for adults.

What does that even mean? I think some people have tried to interact with you on this topic reasonably. You, on the other hand, are too busy declaring your argument infallible to respond in kind.

Wow. You're a special sort, eh? Dunning-Kruger. Look it up. And have a nice day. Go Bills.

Tone down the self-satisfaction here. You don't KNOW anything you're stating in the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th lines of this post. You just don't. I'd like to agree with you, but I'm not 100% certain Allen is superior to Watson yet. Deshaun Watson is effing awesome.

All right, take it easy. You'll be okay no matter what happens with the QB in Houston.

He never played the position or coached the position (except many years earlier at two smaller college programs) prior to that stint.

This has been addressed in other threads today, but I understand why this thought persists. We've got two more years of "control" with Allen, so why throw money at him now? Well, the answer is that doing so after year 3 would mean that year 4 and the year 5 option would remain unchanged before the newly signed extension truly kicks in, at least on an annual salary basis. The team would advertise some absolutely massive figures for term and annual salary and most importantly GUARANTEED MONEY, but in reality much of the cap impact is spread out over the total life of the contract and doesn't do a whole lot annually until the player's 6th year. The player gets an obscene check up front and the guarantee of a couple more big lumps along the way, no matter what. Eventually his game checks get pretty effing stupid, too. The team hopefully gets two more years of cap savings relative to on-field performance, followed by well established and reliable excellence from the most important position in sports that will overcome cap limitations elsewhere on the roster.

I mean, yeah those guys you mention would be nice additions...because they're the TOP guys available at their positions in FA and the draft. Sure it's possible the Bills target one of your FA suggestions, but doing so would necessarily shut the door on the other position being addressed with that same caliber of player (and would probably also mean a few other prominent roster members are traded or more likely waived). What happens with LB, OG, and OT in this scenario? The upgrade at RB in the 1st round of the draft is fine by me, but if we're forced to open up other roster holes due to FA signings and/or cap casualities, then that pick does not address one of those holes or the o-line (which you don't mention). I don't hate the idea of sacrificing depth for more dangerous starters at some key positions, but it doesn't strike me as the McBeane plan.

Jesus, was he the QB coach for the Peterman/Anderson/Allen season, too? Them's was a mighty awful time for throwing the bowl in Buffalo.

Plagiarism is NO JOKE guys. Come on. Gotta at least replace "bite" and "kneecaps" with a more personally relevant verb/tenacious act of self-defense and noun/vulnerable body part. Like an old school coaching philosophy cliché Mad Libs. "The Texans are going to clutch a lot of groins."

True. The productivity of his recent units, both the last 3 years of WRs in Baltimore and the 2017 QB in Buffalo, is not encouraging. However, as stated by a minority of posters, hiring a head coach doesn't have to be about previous productivity from a specific unit or position group. The hot coordinator or guy-with-a-sexy-scheme route is one way. But it can also be about leadership ability and management Softer, interpersonal skills. I think with Culley we can easily forgive "his" WR production in Baltimore the last three years with Jackson, and "his" QB production during Tyrod's last season (there WAS that one game in Seattle, though).

You might want to cite this articulate and helpful article; I'd especially like to know whose perspective this is I'm reading and mostly agreeing with. The author has a slightly less bullish outlook on the cap than the author of that Green Bay piece linked above somewhere, but his projection is nonetheless rosier than the coming roster purges of a salary cap bottoming out at a depth of $175 million. For the majority of us, typing or reading about fears of "austerity" due to abysmal $175 million budgets is...well, ridiculous. Especially over the last 13 years of financial squeezing in so many sectors...but um, sorry. Back to our regularly scheduled football talk. More fun than discussing our own lives amiright.

There is room for more creative alignments under McDermott. Due to his uncommonly diverse skillset, Lorenzo Alexander, for example, lined up all over the front-7. Even Edmunds himself lined up on the edge in what I think was essentially a 5-1-5, against the 49ers and Patriots* (him and Hughes on the edges with Klein off the ball in the middle). I think the Bills D should tap into that kind of matchup-driven creativity more often. Give a guy like Edmunds more of a narrowly-defined role on each play. Let someone else read-and-react.

PASSING game coordinator, turns out. Green Bay HC's brother. I'm actually glad it's not the RUN game coordinator, to be honest. Do they have a run game coordinator? I know that's a Shanahan family business, that productive zone blocking scheme. (Google tells me they DO/DID have a separate run game coordinator, who's now been promoted to OC, Mike McDaniel; been basically everywhere Shanahan has been.)

You really think he could be successful with his hand in the dirt? Wouldn't that illuminate his other apparent weakness? Aside from a lack of instincts, posters here also observe his inability to get off blocks against linemen. Obviously any EDGE guy spends a lot of snaps going up against OTs, but the further off the ball they lineup the more likely they are to matchup against TEs, RBs, even WRs. Or at least have a running start/some space when dealing with o-linemen. We're not exactly disagreeing, but 4-3 DE is the only position (within reason) I DIDN'T suggest. I know 4-3 DEs and 3-4 OLBs are somewhat interchangeable. But Edmunds to me seems uniquely suited to being a versatile 3-4 LB all over the formation. Or, at least, use him more creatively in the current defense. Let Klein play the Mike full-time, and use Edmunds all over the place: DE, OLB, S, SCB...wherever the matchups make sense. Let him use his length and speed to disrupt. Give him very specific jobs. Possibly related: man I miss Lorenzo Alexander.

Just because Culley was a fraud of a QB coach in Buffalo, and has since been responsible for a wildly unproductive WR position group (the position he played back when, innit?), his current role as Assistant HC suggests that he probably possesses some of those broader leadership and management qualities so essential to that style (CEO/non-coordinator type) of NFL head coach you're pointing to above.