Typical TBD Guy

Tell your friend Haslett that HE'S NOT GETTING THE JOB and to LEAVE MR. WILSON ALONE ALREADY.

31-42 with the Chiefs.

Jauron only coached in Buffalo for 1 year (1985). Levy joined the Bills in the middle of the 1986 season, so they never met at least as Bills coaches during this time. Here is Jauron's complete career in the NFL: 1973-77 - Lions, player, FS 1978-80 - Bengals, player, FS 1985 - Bills, coach, DB's 1986-94 - Packers, coach, DB's 1995-98 - Jaguars, coach, DC 1999-03 - Bears, coach, HC 2004-05 - Lions, coach, DC 2005 - Lions, coach, interim HC Overall HC record: 36-50 (incl. 0-1 in playoffs) Up through the 2001 season when the Bears went 13-3 and Jauron won Coach of the Year honors, his coaching record was solid and his future looked bright. But then something happened in 2002 (4-12 record) and in 2003 (7-9 record) which led to Jauron's firing. I'm not sure exactly what went wrong with his team, but it's very possible that Marv Levy saw (and is currently seeing) a similarity between Jauron's downfall in Chicago as he did his own downfall during his own 5 seasons as a first-time HC (with the Chiefs from 1978-82). Marv, a Chicago native, was probably watching the Bears' situation closely as an NFL media analyst following his HC retirement. So in summary, the big questions I propose to all of you are: A. What went wrong in Chicago during the 2002 and 2003 seasons? B. What went wrong with Levy's Chiefs in the early 80's? C. Are there any similarities between A and B? If the answer to C is "yes," then Jauron may very well be the leading candidate.

Bump. Update: Jets - Eric Mangini Texans - Gary Kubiak Chiefs - Herm Edwards Vikings - Brad Childress Packers - Mike McCarthy Saints - Sean Payton Bills - STILL OPEN Raiders - STILL OPEN Cowboys - OPEN IF PARCELLS RETIRES Lions - STILL OPEN Rams - STILL OPEN Current frontrunners for positions still open (internet rumors and nothing more): Bills - Dick Jauron Raiders - Al Saunders Lions - Russ Grimm Rams - Scott Linehan Ex-head coaches waiting on deck: Mike Sherman - would be our HC if it was my decision Jim Fassel - my second favorite choice behind Sherman Jim Haslett - should probably take a year or two off as a DC Mike Martz - health issues Mike Tice -

You might find this an interesting read, too (the middle of the article, primarily). Maybe Sherman really is what this team needs?

c. Jauron got his coaching career started in 1985 as a DB's coach for the Bills. d. Both are Ivy Leaguers - Levy an MA in English from Harvard, Jauron a BA in history from Yale. That's all I could think of .

Holy hyperboles, Batman! First the 2005 Bills are the worst team in franchise history, and now the 2006 Sabres are the best team in hockey?! NavyBF, settle down . Right now, the Sabres are only the 4th best team in the Eastern Conference. If they keep this up, and if they finally trade Biron and/or Noronen for some help, then we can start talking 2nd round of the playoffs. Anything above and beyond that will probably require figuring out how to stop the Senators.

Welcome to the Dark Side...

Paulie Walnuts called. He wants his tupperware back.

Maybe so, but I've also heard that he's a guy well respected around the league who was unfairly fired over a situation (player injuries plus Favre's refusal to come to grips with his own decline) out of his control. Who knows? I've read negatives here about EVERY head coaching candidate floating around. But we have to hire SOMEONE. I think Sherman is our best fit. He knows a lot of very smart NFL people who can be brought in to help coach, and he also was supposedly a huge fan of JP before we traded up to grab him. Not a great innovator? If true, we can still do fine with a good OC and DC. Not a great communicator? If true, we can send Marv into the locker room every once in a while and communicate to the players how important it is to play well and win . Hey, with Sherman's coaching record and football resume, he must have SOME X's and O's knowledge and SOME motivational skills to get to where he did and to do what he's done.

This is one reason why I think a GM like Marv and the head coaching retread that is Haslett could actually work here. Both have very good relationships with Ralph, and neither is likely to be bothered as much by Ralph's phone inquiries. Also, both may actually be willing to pick up on a helpful over-the-phone suggestion or two from a guy with 46 years of experience being around pro football. Maybe if TD/GW/MM paid attention to Ralph's calls, they could have learned how to handle this unique local media and fan base we call Bills Nation (more up-front press conferences, less sign confiscating, etc...). Who knows...with a Levy/Haslett combo, at the very least maybe this franchise won't fold like a stack of dominoes over a few phone call interruptions, as King implied .

THANK YOU! I wish more national sports journalists and more NFL fans could understand this. Both games against the Cowboys, the Bills were the inferior team - no contest. Against the Redskins, the talent difference was less so but our Bills still didn't match up well against this particular team...especially on our D side of the ball vs their huge OL (arguably the greatest of all time) and their three talented WR's (Art Monk, Gary Clark, and I can't remember the third ). The Giants were the only Super Bowl team that the Bills probably had the talent advantage. We lost that one primarily due to coaching. However, we lost that one by one missed field goal to two soon-to-be Hall of Fame coaches: Bill Parcells and Bill Belichik.

It'd be nice if we all tried to consolidate the latest coaching news into one place like this one. Too often, I find that a lot of good info and discussions get pushed back quickly to the second and third pages because people (*cough* daquixers_is_back *cough*) love starting threads for the sake of starting threads. I'll start off by summarizing the 2006 HC merry-go-round, to date: Texans - Gary Kubiak Chiefs - Herm Edwards Vikings - Brad Childress EDIT: Packers - Mike McCarthy Bills - STILL OPEN Lions - STILL OPEN Rams - STILL OPEN Raiders - STILL OPEN Jets - STILL OPEN Saints - STILL OPEN Rumored frontrunners for positions still open (this is the best I could do with all the crazy crap thrown around by reporters and the like): Bills - Jim Haslett (my personal favorite is Mike Sherman, FYI) Lions - Russ Grimm Rams - Scott Linehan Raiders - Al Saunders Jets - Eric Mangini Saints - Donnie Henderson Feel free to add to or correct any of this as the offseason days go along...

Sorry, didn't mean to strike a nerve. Just seems like you've been really adament lately about pointing out Marv's flaws...to the point of an obsession. Nothing wrong with that, I suppose, in the desire to maintain perspective on what is a normally one-sided debate around here. But personally, I think Marv is very deserving of his Hall of Fame induction with the 19 other immortalized coaches. First consider that Marv pretty much owned another HOF coach who we'd all agree was a given HOF'er (Shula). Then, if you look at conference titles as being on par with the old NFL/AAFC/AFL titles of the pre-Super Bowl years...which I do....you'll see that Levy fits in very well with the bottom tier HOF coaches. Now as to Cowher, he's pretty close to being in this elite HOF class. His regular season winning percentage and division titles are about equal with Levy. But at this point, Cowher's 1 conference title doesn't quite match up to Levy's 4 straight. And all those home playoff losses of his are truly shameful. Only a Super Bowl ring or at least 2 more conference titles can make up for that, IMO. Your argument about Cowher doing well with different sets of players is interesting. Levy doesn't have that, but then again neither do many of the other coaches currently in the HOF. So I'm not sure if this is necessarily a negative mark on Levy.

Man you really hate Marv, don't you?

Unless the man is in the mafia, his mistress is fair game.

Levy is the one who cut Haslett from the Bills. I wonder if that has any negative significance, or if both understood the decision was fair because of Haslett's injury.

Apology accepted, though I was never offended in the first place. Yes, I'd like to think my negativity WAS reality. I'm not negative for the sake of being negative, but only when past events give me good reason to be negative (example: I didn't become anti-Bledsoe until the early 2004 season, anti-Donahoe until last year's offseason, anti-MM until the SD road game this season, anti-OL until...well ever since the mid-90's I've been against our OL ). Right now, I think too many here are being more negative than realistic. Marv hasn't even done anything yet to show he can't handle being the head GM, and he hasn't even hired a HC yet and we've already written the hire off as a failure. Yes, the future right now looks extremely uncertain, but I'll take this uncertainty over the certain doom of the old Teflon Tom/Spineless Meathead regime. As far as your 2005 confessional idea, for the sake of internet civility it may be for the best that it doesn't happen...too much bad blood will surface from initiating that. I also don't think I have any influence on the true veteran posters - the guys posting way back in the HyperBills days when I was still a prepubescent lurker - or anyone at all, for that matter. Although it can be fun sometimes to call out people for past mistakes of judgement, the reality is that everyone should have the right to change their football opinions as circumstances change. Having said that, you can always check a member's post history if you suspect that they may be one of those dreaded 2005 season hopeless optimists .

I most certainly did not. You must have me confused with someone else. I think I'm actually known around here for my negativity

It's like a Capital One commercial here. If these are our only 4 options, I'll try a personal number ranking instead: 1. Wide Load 2. Roid Rage 3. Fartz 4. Token

But Mularkey played a big part in this ship sinking, and now thankfully he's gone. We have lots of high-round draft picks, lots of cap room, a Hall of Famer GM who knows a lot about football players, and in the coming weeks hopefully some competent coaches who can work well together. When you look at things this way, the future is very bright.

Are you aware of the Jets' cap situation? And are you aware of ours? Damn, you guys are out of the control with the negativity this offseason. TD is gone. Be happy.

Amen, my brother! This is a great - not gloomy - time in Buffalo Bills history. It's not like Ralph fired Pioli last week, and Belichick just resigned from us today. We're talking about TD and MM here! You know, the same GM who gave us a grand total of 0 playoff appearances and the 28th worst franchise regular season record since 2001!? And the same head coach who had to quit because Jerry Sullivan was being a big meanie to him!? The same secretive, almost fascist-like GM who micromanaged this team to its grim death and confiscated all negative signs from fans? And the same head coach who lost the complete confidence of his veterans in only his second year? The same GM who wheeled and dealed away picks for luxury skill position players like a drunken, arrogant gambler? And the same HC whose supposed offensive genius became a unique game-time mix of gutlessness and stupidity? Hell, I'll drink to this current period of chaos any day over that blissful, steady era of incompetence. We know Coli already has been. Will YOU ?

Adams is still a great one-gap penetration DT who wasn't being used properly this season. I suspect that Ralph and Marv agree with my assessment. My reasons: 1. TD lets Sam's partner in crime, Phat Pat, go without proper compensation...TD gets fired. 2. Sam gets in arguments with coaches over strategy and playing time...Krumrie gets fired, Mularkey resigns, Gray is rumored to be good as gone. Granted, Sam is an immature, unprofessional, spoiled crybaby. But I wonder if Marv thinks he can do for Sam, E-Mo, and Co. what he did with the Bickering Bills.

Longest Bills Playoff Droughts: 7 from 1967-73 6 from 1982-87 6 from 2000-05, and running... 5 from 1975-79 3 from 1960-62 1 in 1994 1 in 1997 Thanks, Tom.