BillsVet

Forget the salary cap, let's cut all the big earners. The deal Schobel signed makes it impossible to cut him this season without taking a huge hit. Ditto for Kelsay as well, he'd count 5M against the cap this season. The Bills are bad enough in their front office. Compounding their ineptitude by cutting overpaid veterans only adds insult to injury.

The plays work on Friday. After that, it's anyone's guess. Don't let the door hit you on your way out then.

Smith seems more suited to play LOT than on the other side. I guess if the Bills were planning on trading Peters, they could give it a shot. This organization has been running in circles for years now. Milloy for Whitner. Fletcher for Posluszny. Clements for McKelvin. McGahee for Lynch. Peters for J. Smith is very possible.

Every Bills fan ought to demand some sort of accountability from what looks like a minor league franchise. If that's whining, then there are plenty of fans across the NFL who are major whiners. This isn't Philly or Pittsburgh where success is demanded. A culture has developed in Buffalo where losing is taken in stride and fans quickly forget how bad the Bills are. What's more, this franchise is setting new standards for never becoming good enough or terrible. This season has all the makings of being terrible. A schedule that could be brutal, combined with a coach with no clue. It's going to get ugly in 09.

The comparison between the Seahawks and Holmgren is irrelevant. Paul Allen has deeper pockets than RW, and the latter isn't one to find people who will dictate the vision of the franchise. The TD experiment has forever shaken RW and besides, RW has never shown he'll spend over market value for a coach or GM. He's living in a previous era, and his actions affirm that he's not someone willing to throw money at a name coach. If Chuck Knox is the last example of a HC with a name coming to Buffalo, that's 30 stinking years ago. That's not a trend, that's an exception to Ralph's rule. Holmgren was one of the last to enjoy both the GM and HC roles together. It's too much for one man to handle all the responsibilities for those two positions. Any coach who goes to Buffalo knows what the job entails, in that RW and Jeff Littman will dictate the financials of the team. No GM will ever tell them otherwise. I don't think anyone with half a brain wants to work in Buffalo for Ralph, Littman, and around daddy's little girl Linda Bogdan. Ralph does not have a master plan at all. He's 90 years old, and the finest example of his lack of a future vision is the hiring of Levy. RW had no succession plan for when Levy retired, which was inevitable given Marv's advanced age. IMO, word has spread around the league that the Bills are a black hole in their front office. No one wants to work in that environment.

The natural progression is for position coaches to become coordinators, and if they're talented enough, HC's. It's unreasonable to expect someone like Schonert to struggle so much in his first season. He spent no less than 11 seasons as a QB coach, but perhaps he doesn't have the aptitude to develop into a good coordinator. It would seem not getting promoted to OC for multiple franchises would be an indicator that he wasn't. Dick Jauron thought otherwise, and probably had few options given his contract status last January. Fewell is a former defensive position coach, and either can't make average players better, or isn't allowed to by sticking with a system (C2) which has flaws without the proper players at DT, DE, MLB, and SS. I suspect it's a little of both, and these coordinators are not of the quality this HC needs to be successful.

Since 2001, it's safe to say the Bills have never lived up to fan or team expectations. Five years of TD proved to be more hype than results. Many thought Buffalo's fortunes would change with Marv Levy returning as GM. That also was more hype than anything else and the tally is nine consecutive seasons without a playoff appearance. Central to everything the Bills do, whether it is on the field or off, is how to conduct their PR effort to hype this team. Even when things can't get any worse, management never fails to offer a ray of hope on why fans should remain positive. We've already seen that happening this year, despite going 2-8 in their final ten and losing games in heartbreaking fashion. Predictably, the idea of continuity was drummed into fans' collective heads by the PR folks when the decision was made to keep DJ. Hyping an under-performing product ad nauseam eventually will have the effect of creating an untenable situation. It will be similar to a volcano just prior to erupting and if the team gets off to a bad start, everything will boil over and explode. Buffalo has been buying time since Levy arrived with the accompanying spin. This year, I finally think fans will show their displeasure and read between the lines. This team's goal seems more in-line with keeping costs down to set up the best conditions for a lucrative sale after the owner passes. In the meantime, the hype will continue. At what cost, we'll find out.

http://www.stadiumwall.com/index.php?showt...81300&st=30 For someone who admits to not caring for DJ, you're surely going to extremes to point out how he's "equal" to another well-known SB champion coach in Gruden. As I said before, I can neither confirm nor deny your contacts. But it's clear your agenda is to indicate that DJ isn't bad, while avoiding the prospect of coming out and saying it. When Brett Favre practically laughs at the play-call to roll out Losman, it's an indication that most people think DJ is a joke of a HC. And marginalizing Gruden to legitimize DJ is outright laughable. Nice try. And Bravo. As screwed up as a footall bat.

Everything is cyclical in pro sports, especially football. The Cover 2 developed in the 70s with Pittsburgh, and since then has been in and out of favor since then. Dungy's teams played it, but the big weakness is and always will be stopping the run. And it needs dominant players on the DL, at MLB, and S. Without that, it's tough to run a successful C2 defense. The major flaw I have with this defense is waiting for the offense to make a mistake. In the event a C2/T2 defense cannot force turnovers, it becomes problematic and susceptible to giving up big yardage. We've seen that the last few years with DJ's teams. Another shortcoming is relying on the front four to pressure the QB. LB's are dropping into short zones and aren't called on to blitz.

But is that what your sources tell you? Successful coaches almost need to be amateur psychologists who keep themselves slightly apart from their players. When I hear that players love their coaches and have experienced no success together, it makes me doubt their mindset. Marinelli was/is/and never should have been a HC. And after what DJ did in Chicago, he should never have returned as a HC. Neither have a handle on how a team should run, and both failed to find good coordinators during their time as HC's.

I should have clarified on coaches making poor decisions: there are moments in a game that a coach can do the right thing or make the wrong choice. The call to roll Losman out and have him throw a pass to the FB is a catastrophically bad decision that affected the outcome of a game. Deciding to go for it on 4th and 1 in the second quarter and fail isn't as huge a thing. DJ tends to screw up at the worst possible moment and we've seen it through three seasons. I can list no less than 5 games in the past 2 seasons he's made catastrophically bad decisisons that determined the game. I personally don't think he's more than a coordinator if it weren't for Buffalo. I'm not demanding a firing of the HC without the coordinators. I didn't say you said that. If DJ goes, all of them should go. But again, we're talking about a team that's been in rebuild mode for three seasons. If DJ had as much personnel control as I think he did, it's amazing he doesn't bear more responsibility for such a thin team. And he's proven he can't find reliable coordinators, neither here nor Chicago. He can't coach, and he doesn't know talent. Those are fatal flaws for a HC. Second, there's no way I can confirm or deny your sources. However, there are some very knowledgeable fans on this board who see more than what a casual fan does. I've been to 14 of the last 15 home games, and while that doesn't make me an expert, I've been able to deduce what kind of coach DJ is. He'll generally make the safe pick, but not all the time. Occasionally he gets a wild streak and goes for it. But if one bad thing happens, he goes into his shell. For the record, Edwards' durability is my only major concern with him. The coaching he receives is another matter. Watching him after the Cleveland game and throwing 3 picks, I wondered who would get him going. He doesn't have a mentor on that team to work with him. Van Pelt and Schonert are former QB's, but they're not preparing him adequately. To have no answer for 3-4 defenses so many times is appalling. But we're talking about a guy with little more than a season's worth of starts. I'll give him more time.

When coaches make bad decisions on gameday, they lose. Whether it's playcalling (at NYJ) or which players to start (an injured McGee over a healthy McKelvin) or which players to draft (Whitner over Ngata), it's clear DJ isn't good enough in all phases of the game. I'm not sure who your sources are, but if DJ was a good HC, he would have proven it by now. He's hired four OC's in his 8 seasons as a HC. Three of them are in the college ranks and won't return anytime soon. Neither of his two DC hires were/are very special. No rational NFL "insider" would say DJ is anything more than a guy lucky to be working for a minor league NFL team. But I'm still confused. You'd rather see DJ fired, but want to keep the same coordinators for the sake of continuity. That's a non-sequitur, and goes against your original post. DJ is a bad coach, and I'd wager that there are few in league circles who agree DJ is even below average.

I'm not sure how long you've been following this team. Because in football, teams with the best talent evaluators generally win. Usually those talent evaluators are GM's, or directors of pro personnel or amateur scouting. Ralph spends money on players because he has to according to the CBA. On coaches and talent evaluators, RW spends near the bottom. He has no GM, which is ironically the same setup the Bengals have. And it's clear RW makes decisions on really important things, like coach. That's the same method that Jerry Jones and Al Davis utilize. The point to all of this is simple. And your football background cannot be deep, or else you would know this. Teams with great talent evaluators win, and teams without them and have owners making football decisions usually don't. And for the record, there aren't many cheaper coaches than DJ.

Ralph Wilson, for the past three seasons, has been in the business of buying time. He named Levy GM to get the fans back after Donahoe. DJ was hired, along with the lackluster coordinators, one of whom is now gone, because the HC had experience. When Wilson elected to keep DJ and not mandate changes in the coaching structure, he gave his stamp of approval for mediocrity. Turk Schonert is an also-ran who's best suited to remain a QB coach. Perry Fewell is no better than average, and isn't someone opposing OC's fear. RW won't make changes unless those guys have a contract expiring. What RW doesn't realize is, by keeping the same joke of a coaching staff and front office, he's amping up fan anger. By this time next year when the team ends the year for a 10th straight non-playoff season, he'll be out of cheap options. And the Bills will be right back where they were after 2000, when TD started.

Terrell Suggs, Haloti Ngata, Bertrand Berry, Darnell Dockett, James Harrison, Lamar Woodley, and Trent Cole. Those are the guys who play in the front 7 for those teams. They have a say in how productive Baltimore, Arizona, Pittsburgh, and Philadelphia's safeties are. Pressure on QB's is what usually makes safeties successful in coverage. And front 7's can free up safeties to make plays against the run.

He seems to have excellent athleticism and wasn't a bad TE for UC. I think Barwin could be a sleeper as well, but I haven't watched him as much as Everette Brown or Orakpo.

The bottomline results are that Buffalo severely underachieved against the league's 2nd easiest schedule. The fact that an "inner-circle" was convened to review the HC is an affront to Brandon if he is indeed handling personnel. This includes coaching, but it was Ralph and perhaps Littman who made the decision, not RB. In essence, we don't know what Brandon has done, so it's non-sensical to give credit to him for anything. He isn't a personnel man, and running an organization by consensus is a big reason why this team is about the same as they were three years ago-adrift in a sea of mediocrity without much hope for a playoff team anytime soon.

Because fellow GM's in the league grow up working in personnel. Whether it be pro or in amateur scouting, this is where GM's come from. Even Marty Hurney worked in personnel down in Carolina before ascending to GM. Russ Brandon was groomed in the marketing arena, and has no real world experience in personnel. The people who most likely figured into the Stroud acquisition were Overdorf and Guy. The signing of Mitchell came about from research provided by Guy, and confirmed by football people. It's like having your lawyer select stocks for you. You wouldn't give that responsibility to someone who is not experienced in the field. While people like Pioli, Parcells, Polian, AJ Smith, Ted Thompson, Jerry Reese, Ozzie Newsome, Kevin Colbert, and Tom Dimitroff grew up working in personnel, Brandon was making marketing pitches. There's a distinct difference.

Way to take my statement to extremes. Then again, it's a natural reaction when fans want to forget how miserable this team was in 08. For the record, Buffalo had the second easiest schedule in 2008, yet could not improve on the supposedly injury marred 2007. And that was after making good UFA acquisitions, having a year under Edwards' belt, and getting rid of Fairchild. The owner has gone into shell-mode and will make all big decisions, while refusing to hire a legitimate GM. The coach has proven he can't make good decisions in crunch time. The last few drafts aren't stellar, although a few players may succeed. The truth is, some people are so used to losing that it doesn't bother them. To quote Vince Lombardi, "If you can accept losing, you can't win."

The entire organization, or at least those who voted to sell a game to Toronto, misunderestimated the support of the fans. Combine that with a season big on hype and little on actual results and this is the most angry fans have been in years. Selling games, consistently poor teams, retaining DJ, and not naming a real GM are more than enough reasons for fans to be ticked. It's arrogant to think RW will overcome this with one or two FA pickups and the draft. The problems just run too deep.

It's a great move for the Bills...one less S for DJ to try and convince the front office to take.

They do...John Guy, and he's been involved with football, er, stuff I guess.

Pioli is Parcells' son in law. I think he's learned a few issues about building a NFL team and will carry that over to KC. Unlike Cleveland, KC hired a GM first and will then handle the issue of the head coach. I suspect Herm Edwards is gone and Pioli will hire his own guy. Even though Pioli didn't have final roster control (Belichick did) he's someone who finds excellent subordinates (Dimitroff) and they understand his vision for a football team. Amid all these moves in front offices, it's funny that Modrak and Guy are never mentioned. The former may not want a promotion, but if Guy was that good, he'd be a GM candidate.

After the AZ game, the aggressive play-calling ended, and in its place was a return to the play not to lose philosophy consistent with all DJ coached teams. But for one loss to change things so abruptly is such a joke, and emblematic of a greater issue about the guts of a HC who can't pick the right times to take a calculated risk.

It helps to have a pass rush, which is something that Carolina never seemed to generate despite having a premier DE. Their DT's aren't especially strong, and it's no suprise Warner had all that time to throw. Carolina's DB's aren't all-world, but they're not terribly bad either. We'll see how much time Warner has to throw with Jim Johnson throwing everything at him. Warner's a pro, but this will be an interesting matchup: veteran QB versus strong blitzing defense.