RJ (not THAT RJ)

Jerry just had to think of something to complain about. I can imagine how he would dump all over the decision to hire Trestman if they had done it...

He is at least a finalist in that role. God I love how he embarrassed himself!

It was after 2000, which is why John Butler was scheming to bolt to SD before the season was over. He knew it would be years before the team would recover, and wanted to play with the shiny new toys in San Diego. Ralph knew this, and fired him.

I have not watched any of them in years. I imagine that every now and then there is a glimmer of good info, but too much of it is over-the-top clowning and making their picks. Who cares? (Yes, I am a cranky middle-aged person.)

The parity question is interesting, and not clear cut. One can point to upheaval in the NFL, turnover in playoff teams, but in the end less than half of the existing teams have won more than half of the super bowls ever played, and more than half of the existing teams have never won a super bowl at all. That pattern is likely to hold true this year, since of the eight teams still alive, five (Pats, Broncos, Niners, Packers, and Ravens) have already won a Super Bowl.

All true. As I said above, I do not think it is fair, but his never reaching the super bowl tends to overshadow Knox's success in building winners. They lost a bunch of close playoff games, to the Vikings and Cowboys mainly....

It's not fair, but his playoff futility is held against him. He was positively Schottenheimerian in the postseason.

See posts above....

Na, da sind wir einig, Bills-Bruder. Die Hoffnung lebt, und eine bessere Zukunft legt uns bevor!

Ich bin mit dieser Mannschaft restlos fertig!!!!

I question this premise. The 1970s, before the playoffs expanded, were dominated by six teams, viz.: 1972 NFC: Cowboys, Redskins, Packers, Niners AFC: Steelers, Raiders, Dolphins, Browns 1973 NFC: Cowboys, Redskins, Vikings, Rams AFC: Steelers, Raiders, Dolphins, Bengals 1974 NFC: Cardinals, Vikings, Rams, Redskins AFC: Steelers, Raiders, Dolphins, Bills 1975 NFC: Cardinals, Vikings, Rams, Cowboys AFC: Steelers, Raiders, Colts, Bengals 1976 NFC: Cowboys, Vikings, Rams, Redskins AFC: Steelers, Raiders, Colts, Patriots 1977 NFC: Cowboys, Vikings, Rams, Bears AFC: Steelers, Raiders, Colts, Broncos

It was at Foxboro... Cribbs ran the wrong way on a handoff, and Fergy was caught off guard and got crunched. Sigh. Those Knox teams were great, but they also had a maddening tendency to come up extremely flat in some games--think of their two losses to Baltimore in 1980, in St. Louis in 1981, in Miami to end the 1981 season, or even their second half collapses against Atlanta in 1980 against Dallas on MNF in 1981. There was something emotionally fragile about that team, which is also reflected in how the 1982 strike completely destroyed them. "Of all sad words of tongue and pen/The saddest are these: 'It might have been!'" P.S. But the Stew Barber comments are so correct. He was a disaster as GM!

What people forget from that period is that the press was all abuzz about the Bills possibily signing Monte Clark to coach. Then at the last minute, Clark went to Detroit (I believe) and Wilson shocked us all by hiring Knox. In those days before ESPN and Twitter and whatnot it was a lot easier for such negotiations to stay under the radar.

This makes a lot of sense. It may not be fair to this unheralded genius, but he needs another run as OC, or as a major college coach, before he ends up in the NFL.

Better quality DBs, more complicated defenses, fewer cupcakes against which to pad one's stats... the same reasons why so many excellent college QBs flounder in the pros. Kid's a solid athlete, to be sure, but it gets harder each step up the ladder.

I love this place. Cheers!

Typical Bills, rushing to pick up scraps when they could wait and hire much much better coaches. I am so done with this team.

I am with you on this. I think it will not be as easy to ramp up the enthusiasm for coaching... if Cowher does get another job, he will be as successful as Ditka with the Saints....

http://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/redskins/redskins-invested-in-robert-griffin-iii-then-everyone-put-his-future-in-jeopardy/2013/01/08/66bf6df8-59b3-11e2-9fa9-5fbdc9530eb9_story.html?hpid=z1 As for the Cutler comparison, my problem with him was not that he was too hurt to play, but that he spent the rest of the game disengaged and moping, thereby reinforcing his reputation as a sullen, me-firster. So at least as far as I am concerned, there is no comparison here.

Check out this piece as well: http://www.slate.com/articles/sports/sports_nut/2013/01/rg3_knee_injury_what_a_shock_the_redskins_let_their_star_quarterback_play.html You know, I can honestly say I am STILL happy the Bills were unable to land Mike Shanahan.

Set and Match. Shanny was afraid to take RGIII out and figured he could shift any blame for his injury to the docs or to fate. I am no big fan of the ShanShan Man.

Indeed. And of course Joe Gibbs II Holmgren in Cleveland

George Seifert

You mean like Jack Ham, Ray Nitschke, Mike Singletary? Guys like that?

I agree on avoiding the allure of previous success... note the Bill Parcells Law of Diminishing Returns and the Jimmy Johnson Corollary... You are better off catching that guy on his second go-round... a Belichek, say, or even Levy, or an up-and-coming coordinator But any hire includes risk.