Trent is Unstoppable Posted January 5, 2010 Posted January 5, 2010 Bobby April is the best Special Teams coach in the NFL. Not to long ago he was being considered for a HC job in Buffalo. Why would we ever let him go???
STLBILLS15 Posted January 5, 2010 Posted January 5, 2010 Bobby April is the best Special Teams coach in the NFL. Not to long ago he was being considered for a HC job in Buffalo. Why would we ever let him go??? Just looking around for this on multiple websites. I know we cleaned house but April was our best coach the last couple years without a question.
buffalo1983 Posted January 5, 2010 Posted January 5, 2010 Yes its very sad to see someone like this gone. Maybe the next coach will come in and want to keep him here. Lets just hope!
Corp000085 Posted January 5, 2010 Posted January 5, 2010 our best coach got us to 7-9 and worse for the past 4 seasons... next
Kettle Creek Football Posted January 5, 2010 Posted January 5, 2010 Special "Forces" this year, were not what they once were.
Beastly Dareus Posted January 5, 2010 Posted January 5, 2010 Well the league changed special teams rules last off season and April couldn't adjust to the rule changes at all. April was great, but who says he is gone for sure? The next coach will determine his future unless he is signed by a new team between now and then.
stevewin Posted January 5, 2010 Posted January 5, 2010 I said in another thread - the biggest things that made April a good ST coach were 1) Moorman and 2) the Bills keeping a relative high number of players specifically for STs (or playing starters on STs - remember when Fletcher used to cause havoc on STs?). I personally will be glad to see more emphasis for players on the roster being chosen for contributions on 'regular' off/def positions and less on ST 'specialists'. I personally think great STs is most about the emphasis the team wants to put on it - April is fine but I can't believe all the worship he gets here - he is definitely replaceable.
ThreeBillsDrive Posted January 5, 2010 Posted January 5, 2010 I wouldn't be surprised if Brandon/Nix had a special sit-down with April to gently hint that they'd make a special plea to the next HC to give him special consideration
firemedic Posted January 5, 2010 Posted January 5, 2010 our best coach got us to 7-9 and worse for the past 4 seasons... next He wasn't the head coach............ The ST did slip this year but what do you expect with turnover like he's had to deal with the past 4+ seasons.
firemedic Posted January 5, 2010 Posted January 5, 2010 I said in another thread - the biggest things that made April a good ST coach were 1) Moorman and 2) the Bills keeping a relative high number of players specifically for STs (or playing starters on STs - remember when Fletcher used to cause havoc on STs?). I personally will be glad to see more emphasis for players on the roster being chosen for contributions on 'regular' off/def positions and less on ST 'specialists'. I personally think great STs is most about the emphasis the team wants to put on it - April is fine but I can't believe all the worship he gets here - he is definitely replaceable. I bet the Rams thought he was replacable, too. We were top 3 ST during his tenure except possibly this year, I haven't seen the stats yet.
drnykterstein Posted January 5, 2010 Posted January 5, 2010 Technically he's not fired... just he's free to pursue other options until our new HC can make a decision.
DonInBuffalo Posted January 5, 2010 Posted January 5, 2010 Special "Forces" this year, were not what they once were.I agree, and he has no excuses, since the roster was stacked full of people who played almost exclusively on ST. (Wendling, Corto, T. Johnson, Parrish, ... ) There was a big dropoff this season, especially in some of the earlier games. I noticed on a number of occasions early in the season when they didn't have the proper personnel on the field for a ST play, and they either had to run somebody on at the last second, or call timeout. That's just lack of preparation on April's part. It's his job to put together all the teams, after the 45 man roster for Sunday has been determined. If anybody assigned to one of the teams gets injured it's his job to identify the replacement and make sure he gets on the field. In addition, some of the problems that McKelvin and Parrish had also have to reflect negatively on April. It's his job to give McKelvin last minute instructions on that kickoff in the NE game. It's his job to remind Parrish when it is/isn't a good time to be taking unnecessary risks. On top of that, mistakes were made that weren't corrected. One obvious example is Byrd getting called for the same penalty (unsportsmanlike - pushing somebody out of bounds and not letting him back in) two games in a row.
STLBILLS15 Posted January 5, 2010 Posted January 5, 2010 our best coach got us to 7-9 and worse for the past 4 seasons... next hope you know special teams is only 1/3 of how to win a football game. Not like he called the plays for our horrible offense.
BillsRUs Posted January 5, 2010 Posted January 5, 2010 I believe it is customary to fire all coaching personnel. A new HC usuallly brings in his own team. This way everyone has enough time to look for a new job or interview with the new HC if he so desires. Its the decent thing to do. Its up to the new HC if he wants to keep Bobby April around. There's no point keeping him on a leash only to be let go later.
Big Turk Posted January 5, 2010 Posted January 5, 2010 I agree, and he has no excuses, since the roster was stacked full of people who played almost exclusively on ST. (Wendling, Corto, T. Johnson, Parrish, ... )There was a big dropoff this season, especially in some of the earlier games. Yes...his special teams went from number 1 in the league multiple times in a row, all the way to 7th best in the NFL this year... That's how good he is. When we are the 7th best ST in the NFL, it seems like we are "horrible" by comparison. FYI: The majority of the loss was in our kickoff returns...if we had McGee or McKelvin back there for more of the year, we likely would have finished no worse than 3rd...
Captain Hindsight Posted January 5, 2010 Posted January 5, 2010 Bobby April was a big reason why we sucked this year....giving him too much say in personal matters got us signing guys off the street and converting safetys to LB bc Ashlee Palmer and Jon Corto have no business playing defense for this or any team. Great ST coacg, should not get a say in personal matters IMO
Big Turk Posted January 5, 2010 Posted January 5, 2010 Also, Why did George Catavalos the DB Coach get fired? He helped create one of the best pass defenses in the NFL this past season, including a franchise record 28 INT's and a rookie pro-bowler in Jairus Byrd...
Tcali Posted January 5, 2010 Posted January 5, 2010 I said in another thread - the biggest things that made April a good ST coach were 1) Moorman and 2) the Bills keeping a relative high number of players specifically for STs (or playing starters on STs - remember when Fletcher used to cause havoc on STs?). I personally will be glad to see more emphasis for players on the roster being chosen for contributions on 'regular' off/def positions and less on ST 'specialists'. I personally think great STs is most about the emphasis the team wants to put on it - April is fine but I can't believe all the worship he gets here - he is definitely replaceable. remember the wade days?
C.Biscuit97 Posted January 5, 2010 Posted January 5, 2010 Bobby April was a big reason why we sucked this year....giving him too much say in personal matters got us signing guys off the street and converting safetys to LB bc Ashlee Palmer and Jon Corto have no business playing defense for this or any team. Great ST coacg, should not get a say in personal matters IMO Can't really disagree with any of this. April was great but part fo the reason we struggled with depth (especially at LB) is becuase we had too many one dimensional players. I love Corto and he's a great story but he is not a NFL player. Wendling is a great STer but cannot play on defense. Hopefully, the new staff keeps STs as important but instead of career Sters, we have guys like Ellison and nic harris as the key guys.
Simon Posted January 5, 2010 Posted January 5, 2010 Why was Bobby April fired? Bobby April is the best Special Teams coach in the NFL. Ask Bill Cowher. He's the one who fired him; supposedly because they didn't get along.
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