Casey D

So what? If anything, it only shows the risk Marrone is taking by sticking with Crossman. if he's right, everyone here will have been a Crossman backer all along. If ST brings this team sown in 2014, Marrone will pay the price.

The lynch mob moves to Priefer--- now that's funny. Let's bring the internal Vikings investigation with him. As to Crossman, you know the world is not as simple as who is the absolute best at something-- you build teams and find chemistry. Marrone obviously thinks Crossman can do a good job. If his assessment is blinded by personal loyalty, Marrone will likely pay a high price for that loyalty if it is misguided. I don't know that Marrone is right, but I am confident the fire Crossman herd view is based on anger and not on better information than Marrone has. No, your view is colored by your opinion that Marrone is an incompetent blowhard like Greggo. Either you are right or wrong. If right, then Danny Crossman is the least of our worries, and Crossman's retention should have you doing cartwheels because it will accelerate Marrone's demise which you say is inevitable anyway. I get it.

Of course his being a friend had a lot to do with him getting the job-- that happens all the time in all walks of life. But that does not mean that because you know someone you hire or retain them even if incompetent. I assume Marrone thinks Crossman is a quality ST coach or he would not have hired him in the first place. He may be wrong, but if he is Marrone is possibly betting his HC career on it. And I believe Marrone likes his job-- and what it brings to him and his family in terms of financial security-- more than Danny Crossman. Hmm... do I do this for Danny or my kids? Easy call, don't you think? I believe Marrone would fire Crossman in a heartbeat if he felt it would bring the Bills closer to the playoffs. Why would you think otherwise? Yes, until you show me you are incompetent. I have not reached the conclusion that Marrone is incompetent. And as a manager, you need to give situations time to play out and not change course as soon as things get rough. It's called leadership.

I tell you what-- why don't you see if you can get an HC job and then you can hire whoever you want.

Lynch mobs rarely think much before taking action. Believe me, I understand.

I don't believe people who watch games on TV know the intricacies of what they see on the field. Even Belichick said last year you have no idea who screwed up on a play until you know the details of who was supposed to do what. But look, you want the guy fired, I understand. And you may be right. But for know I'll trust Marrone more than you-- no offense.

Of course, no one knows the future "for sure." But Marrone can evaluate what he saw and determine if Crossman is teaching the fundamentals correctly and had bad execution or he was coaching like Mo of the Three Stooges. That information Marrone does have much more than anyone on this board. Based on that, he can make a prediction on what he thinks might happen in the future. If he keeps Crossman, I assume I know what Marrone thinks he is seeing from 2013. Again I have more faith in that than angry people spewing ST rankings. I mean duh. I mean Belichick was a bad coach for years at Cleveland. Just sayin'.

Not stupid for discussing it-- the discussion is stupid. There is a big difference. You can write anything you like, but it does not mean it makes sense. And your Greggo thing is getting old, and was not clever in the first place.

Marrone said he and Hilliard had philosophical differences-- I guess he saw that after a year. So Marrone can make that kind of decision but has not made it for Crossman. What's so hard to understand? As to the ten year thing, that information was processed-- as you suggest--when he got the job. To use that same information to fire him after one year makes no sense. In any event, Marrone will be held accountable for Crossman. I put more faith in that than in the rantings of people on this board who just quote ST rankings.

This is a stupid discussion. Marrone needs to succeed in roughly three years if he wants to have a head coaching career in the NFL. Yet he hired--and apparently will not fire-- a special teams coach after one year who apparently will doom the team and, a fortiori, Marrone's coaching career. Is it not possible that Marrone thinks Crossman is a good coach and did not have enough tools to work with yet so he deserves the time to develop the ST into a solid unit? Is the point here that there was ample talent to field a good special team unit, but Crossman messed it up? How does anyone here know that. What proof do you have other than your own opinion? I think Marrone believes continuity is important is developing a team-- including special teams. Seems sound to me. The fact that Crossman was not fired after one year does not mean he is not being held accountable, it means Marrone feels he has not had enough time yet to develop a quality ST unit. Simple. And don't point out Crossman's history at Detroit or Carolina. Maybe you all feel he should not have been hired in the first place, but Marrone disagreed and one year is typically not enough time to quit on someone trying to build something. If Marrone thought Crossman was a fail, he'd fire him now to save himself, not keep him around and have his "old friend" screw up his career-- that don't make walkin' around sense. Marrone might be wrong, but people have no quality information to judge the situation, and Marrone does. The Danny Snyder quick fix mentality on this board is amazing. People always want heads to roll to make themselves feel better.

Why, the defense was putrid today. Can't make a stop when you need one. I mean the defense is more fun to watch, but it is not good. I'm OK with Pettine, but no one is going to make him a head coach based on what he is doing with this defense.

But that is who they are. Einstein's definition of insanity--- doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different outcome. Seems to me that is the definition of a Bills fan.

Indeed. Wait until next year.

Excellent Post!

I think the question is why do you have that impression given that lots of people who know him well speak highly of him. Saying someone is an idiot without elaboration is not really helpful to the reader. But I guess you are now saying that he is not very bright (a/k/a "idiot") based on the way he speaks, which isn't much but it is something I suppose. Like George W. Bush? Did you think Gailey was a brain surgeon based soley on the way he speaks?

Well put. No matter what you do, you will get criticized. Move too fast and you are not examining every option. Take your time, you are not decisive and are letting all the good candidates get scooped up. Wins are the only thing that makes all this good or bad, and you can't know that in advance.

My question is not really how this will turn out-- of course we won't know for a while if this was a good hire. My question goes more to how the Bills conducted business with this hIre. Was there a difference than in the past? Did they do a good job of finding and getting someone who has real potential as compared to what othe teams did? Hindsight is 20/20, how did they do now under the circumstances in hiring a new coach? Funny... :-)

So the only retread hired was Reid, Lovie (who I liked) and Whiz were passed on by 7 other teams. Cowher and Gruden did not come out of the booth for anyone. Assuming everyone else was acting rationally and with no spending limits on a new coach, how do you feel like the Bills did in picking a new coach? Who did better? Worse? For me, after evaluating the situation, there are few guys who were hired that I would rather have than Marrone. And the fact that guys I did not mind like Lovie and Whiz were passed over tells me something about them. So I guess I am pretty happy with the hire.

Agree. When he said going against NE is a high level chess game, I thought "finally." Wannstadt was largely playing checkers... :-)

I would think Marrone would want at least one familiar face at a new big job-- makes sense to bring a trusted deputy. And Marrone was an OC himself, so he can help on that side of the ball a lot. If Hackett has talent as many say, 33 for an OC is no big deal. Everyone has to be an OC in the NFL for the first time sometime, every great coach was a virgin at one time-- as was every failure. I'd give it a chance.

It was not published "exclusively" by BN. It was first published as a text on a bunch of players' phones, and then republished by the BN. If I reprint a fact that someone else published, that does not make me the first publisher or the exclusive publisher.

Actually as a legal matter, the reprinting of a text by Marrone likely is a "fair use" under copyright law as it is simply repeating a fact... Marrone's tweet. Nothing was taken that was original material from the News, such as analysis of the text. We could debate this in court of course, but it is not "plainly stealing" or "plainly illegal."

I liked the idea of Smith. And 10-6 sounds great to me. But I think that's the ceiling. A likely return to repectability-- Smith was great. A Super Bowl win-- I like the chance more with Marrone. So I guess we might be shooting for the moon, but that seems reasonable. It's more of a gamble, but seems like a good gamble to me.

Shocked when I woke up and heard this. But when you drill down, this guy is extremely well-regarded and was very hot in NFL circles right now. Seems safer than Kelly because Kelly has zip NFL connections. Guy is from the Parcells coaching tree. I favored Smith or Whiz but you pretty much know their ceilings. Marrone has a higher ceiling but a lower floor. Getting to the playoffs--more likely Smith or whiz in the short term. Winning a Super Bowl, I'd take Marrone. Don't know much more, but I'm willing to give him a shot... seems like a good leader.

The obvious mistakes Gailey makes, as on Sunday, are well recognized-- poor clock management, risk aversion and the wrong time, taking needless risks at the wrong time, underutilizing Spiller, etc. But if as, relatively speaking, we can all see this as casual observers, how bad must he be at the fundamentals of football game planning and coaching that is at a level that we cannot really discern at any detailed level. In other words, if he can't even manage a clock, how can he possibly be matching wits on more subtle and important football things with coaches who are good. He's like having a small town country doctor performing brain surgery. What chance does the patient really have. It just seems to me if he can't do relatively simple things an average fan would do, how bad are his decisions faring at a more granular level versus other professionals who are good at what they do. When I think about it that way, there really is no hope unless we find at least someone who can make basic decisions, and hopefully a little brain surgery too.