Marv Levy on Dick Jauron

[ChasBB]

It's widely known that Jauron had a large say in who they drafted. I'm sure that Nix will do much a much better job than Jauron in picking players who are worth a you know what.

Good point about Jauron having a lot of say in personnel decisions. I'm just glad he's gone now.

[1billsfan]

Jauron's calls during the game -- like the punt against new orleans, and settling for a 47 yarder during a blizzard on mnf -- speak volumes for how incompetent he was.

 

I was done with Jauron's incompetence by october of the 2007 season. Took a lot of heat for constantly ripping him. Laughed at guys like Carruci who would talk about the need for "continuity" year after dismal year. Meanwhile the Jets are firing guys who have 9-7 records and took their team to the playoffs like Mangini did. For Marv to even suggest that the Bills should have still given Jauron more years is absolutely insulting to me as a Bills fan. I can't respect a guy who has the nerve to say something as foolish as what he said. He should send Polian a thank you note for his HOF bust.

[jahbonas]

I was done with Jauron's incompetence by october of the 2007 season. Took a lot of heat for constantly ripping him. Laughed at guys like Carruci who would talk about the need for "continuity" year after dismal year. Meanwhile the Jets are firing guys who have 9-7 records and took their team to the playoffs like Mangini did. For Marv to even suggest that the Bills should have still given Jauron more years is absolutely insulting to me as a Bills fan. I can't respect a guy who has the nerve to say something as foolish as what he said. He should send Polian a thank you note for his HOF bust.

 

And at some point results do matter: 9 seasons as head coach - 8 of them below .500

[Fewell733]

Marv is right and wrong. Jauron was great at most of the stuff required of a head coach - the team played hard for him, we were almost always competitive, there was very little dissension in the ranks. Those are pretty big deals.

 

Unfoturnately Jauron was totally clueless on offense and assembling an offensive staff. His teams weren't physically or mentally tough enough. In personnel he seemed to always prefer the sleaker player rather than the more rugged one when presented a choice. He was also bad with the media, which is huge. In short, it was time for a change.

 

I think Marv is just being loyal to a guy that he likes personally and who he hired.

[Arkady Renko]

Jauron's calls during the game -- like the punt against new orleans, and settling for a 47 yarder during a blizzard on mnf -- speak volumes for how incompetent he was.

 

Blizzard? Huh? Are you confusing Browns games?

[1billsfan]

And at some point results do matter: 9 seasons as head coach - 8 of them below .500

 

The best was when the Jauron supporters would retort back about Belichick's failures early in his head coaching career and make the comparison to Jauron's failures. That Jauron was seemingly going to become the next coaching genius if we just waited long enough. Yeah, that part didn't exactly happen.

[truth on hold]

Blizzard? Huh? Are you confusing Browns games?

fair enough. it wasnt a blizzard at that time. but it was very cold and windy. and past midnight. certainly not ideal kicking conditions

[DCbillsfan]

I saw this quote from an article by Mark Gaughan in the News this morning:

 

Loyalty is one of Marv Levy's strong traits. Here was Levy this week speaking about the Bills on Sirus XM Radio: "Personally, I was a little bit surprised and unhappy that they let Dick Jauron go. You can't just keep shaking it up, shaking it up, shaking it up. He's a good coach. He taught well. He related well with the players. Yes, he'd gone through several 7-9 seasons but I think if they would have stuck with him that was their best chance to really get the ball rolling."

 

I loved Marv as a head coach, as a GM not so much. I understand that he really liked Jauron and is loyal to him (he also has a personal stake as he was the one who hired him), but to say that Jauron was the Bills best chance to succeed is just too much.

Marv is a good guy but his loyalty and defense of Jauron is too much. Marv did the right thing by retiring. His two year stint of draft picks and free agent signings along with hiring Jauron have contributed to the organization being in its dismal state.

[Meathead]

its amazing how people get the whole Marv as GM thing totally wrong

 

Marv wasnt a traditional GM. everybody knew the whole time that he was only staying two seasons, he said that up front. therefore, his job by default becomes that of a consultant - someone to come in and tell you how to run your business but does not make decisions regarding your business. thus he is judged by a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT (almost) standard than a traditional GM. he was an architect and orchestrator of the business, NOT a decision maker

 

the exception was the Jauron hire, which was mostly his decision. that was really the only actual decision that Ralph put in Marvs hands

 

that means Marv was NOT responsible for and should not be held accountable for:

- the draft selections

- the free agent signings

- the marketing decisions (ie. toronto)

 

for everything except the Jauron hire I give Marv an A for his work here as consultant/fake GM

 

for the Jauron hire i give him an F

 

thus his overall grade for the consulting work is at least a C+/B-

 

the only other thing i could fault him on is the 'network management' they put in place under him, but thats only because i used to work in mgmt and i hated that structure because you spend too much time negotiating instead of making decisions and moving. but a lot of people like that kind of mgmt by committee approach and it CAN work if done properly. so really i dont even count that criticism because its not his fault that style collapsed after he left

 

which brings me to his defense of Jauron:

 

i love Marv but i just flat out disagree that dick could have turned it around here. i would love to sit down with Marv and talk details about Jaurons tenure to see exactly what Marv saw that makes him think dick could have turned out to be a good HC cuz i sure as hell cant see it. saying Marv is just defending his decision is too simplistic an answer, Marv is not that type and he must believe what hes saying, i just dont understand what that could be

 

Jauron might have been a good coach Mon-Sat but from what i saw, Jaurons gameday decision were just atrocious way too often. he had an incredible knack for choosing exactly the wrong times to either go for it or punt. he also didnt hold players accountable for mistakes and thus they just kept repeating. the crowning glory was actually defending (!!) mcknumbnuts for not protecting the ball on an absolutely crucial kickoff return. Dick should have went up to mckdipshet and told him 'if you fumble i will rip your gonads out with my teeth', but instead he says 'i dont have a problem with him trying to make a play'

 

omfg. if thats his attitude he will NEVER EVER EVER be a good hc. i like the guy personally, hes also probably the smartest guy in the room, but if he doesnt know to hold pampered primadonnas accountable for making the stupidest mistakes inhumanly possible then he should just forget about being in charge of a team full of them

 

so to sum up:

 

- people who say Marv sucked as a GM are just completely ignorant of the reality of what that situation was

- Marv did a great job on everything except the Jauron hire, which was a failure

- Dick should never be a HC again and im glad as hell hes gone

[Bring Back Kelly]

Marv Levy, albeit; a nice guy was a terrible GM. Period! He made a lot of bad moves while manning the ship. The fact that he agreed to give the amount of money to that offensive line was damaging. Not one of those guys panned out. I agree that we should have gotten ourselves some Lineman, but The draft was the way to go with that. Why pay unproven lineman that amount of $. I know we all have our opinions on Dick Jauron too. He was also a nice guy, but just could not make his teams win. He could not get any offense established here. He made many dumb calls on the sidelines and was easy on his players during training camp. This I believe is the main reason why we had so many injuries. These guys were not battle tested. Sure a lot injuries are freak accidents, but look over the last 5 years. We must have had the most amount of injuries of any team in the NFL. He was too soft on them. Plus He never showed a single ounce of emotion. But Back to Marv. He bailed, and thankfully so. We might be in a worse situation if he stayed. I think he knew that. He just did not know how to be a GM. I do like Buddy Nix. I think we might have the right GM. Lets hope that we have the right coach now. We really need a guy that will lead this team in the right direction.

[Tcali]

the more time passes and seeing how Marv did post-Bills versus Polian, the more i realize the early 90's team was all Polian. if we'd had a more capable coach like a Dungy we could have run the table.

I think 'run the table' is overstating it slightly.lol.

We probably would have beat the Giants(and lucky we didn't face the Niners who were the leagues best team that yr-Buff was 2nd).

We were hugely overmatched against the Cowboys and Skins.We didn't have the 88 D anymore-and were too small at NT and LDE and safety.

[BigBuff423]

I appreciate Marv's loyalty as most of us do and it's an admirable quality in today's ever-changing coaching landscape that demands immediate gratification. But at the same time, I believe giving Jauron the amount of time to produce winning teams was sufficient and no significant improvement was demonstrated, I think that should lead to termination in this league. And, with all the injuries over the last several years, I didn't hear him calling for the strength and conditioning coach's firing or other conditioning changes that should have been made. Jauron may be a great "teacher", but whatever the reason he wasn't winning. Now, if the Defensive Coordinator is good enough to hold the same status with the Giants and the Special Teams coach was good enough to go to a team (Eagles) that are perennial playoff contenders - and were in the NFC title game last year - I'm not sure you're able to make a cogent case for Jauron's capabilities, especially when a new little detail emerges that it was in part Jauron who pushed for Maybin (who may turn out to be a good player) when Modrak wanted Cushing and sorry but Ellison has no business being a LB, maybe a Strong Safety, but not a LB, Cushing's a beast and we all knew it....apparently Jauron was late in getting the memo....

[JohnC]

Where do I start?

 

I would expect Marv to say this stuff. He hired Jauron, and obviously shares his idiotic concept that football teams which suck should be rebuilt via the secondary and special teams. When the stars on the great Bills team were starting to age, Levy focused on the secondary rather than their replacements.

 

Levy was a good coach in terms of soothing egos and keeping the team together, but why he is presented as a "football man" escapes me. When the team weakened, Levy was reduced to screaming and cursing on the sidelines incoherently. He was the very worst candidate to be brought in as a GM, and we are paying the price.

 

The above might look like I "hate" Levy, but I do not. Moreover, he seems like a good man and I respect what he was able to accomplish. That said, I am of the very strong opinion that other, better coaches would have won a superbowl with that team, and that he was a totally incompetent GM, which btw is Ralph's fault, not his.

 

Your view that Marv Levy was an incompetent GM is spot on. But as you stated it was Ralph Wilson's fault that he hired a person who was ill-equipped for the most critical job in a franchise. Levy was mostly out of the game for 4 or 5 years when the clueless owner brought him back. At that time he was doing radio and TV ananlyst work for preseason Bear games.

 

The two or three years in which Levy was here resulted in mediocre drafts and under talented and over payed free agent acquisitions. It took additional time to not only clean out the mess he made but the organization wasted valuable time needed to restock the team.

 

Not only was the Levy hire a bad hire it was an outright bizarre hire. The owner responded that he was bringing Marv back because he felt comfortable with him. The owner felt that Tom Donahoe was not doing a good job and that he was a very difficult personality to deal with. So the aged owner brings in the congenial Marv whose style was more collaborative and relaxed. The ony problem was that Marv Levy was placed in a position he was incapable of handling. The owner has made a number of critical organizational blunders which has buried this franchise in a bottomless hole of mediocrity. It is a major challenge to overcome the quirky and inexplicable decision-making of an out of touch owner.

[KOKBILLS]

I saw this quote from an article by Mark Gaughan in the News this morning:

 

Loyalty is one of Marv Levy's strong traits. Here was Levy this week speaking about the Bills on Sirus XM Radio: "Personally, I was a little bit surprised and unhappy that they let Dick Jauron go. You can't just keep shaking it up, shaking it up, shaking it up. He's a good coach. He taught well. He related well with the players. Yes, he'd gone through several 7-9 seasons but I think if they would have stuck with him that was their best chance to really get the ball rolling."

 

I loved Marv as a head coach, as a GM not so much. I understand that he really liked Jauron and is loyal to him (he also has a personal stake as he was the one who hired him), but to say that Jauron was the Bills best chance to succeed is just too much.

 

Marv's been spewing this garbage for a while now...He's stubborn as a mule...

 

Marv...Everyone makes mistakes...Jauron was Yours...We forgive You...Now then, is that better?

[truth on hold]

I think 'run the table' is overstating it slightly.lol.

We probably would have beat the Giants(and lucky we didn't face the Niners who were the leagues best team that yr-Buff was 2nd).

We were hugely overmatched against the Cowboys and Skins.We didn't have the 88 D anymore-and were too small at NT and LDE and safety.

i didnt say would have, i said could have. and yes we could have. we beat the giants in giants stadium the year we lost AND, people forget, we beat the cowboys in the toilet bowl the 2nd time we lost to them. if you go up and down the bills roster versus the opposition, we match up with anyone during that time. if not there's no way we get to the super bowl 4 straight years, and no way we beat those teams in their buildings

[Tcali]

i didnt say would have, i said could have. and yes we could have. we beat the giants in giants stadium the year we lost AND, people forget, we beat the cowboys in the toilet bowl the 2nd time we lost to them. if you go up and down the bills roster versus the opposition, we match up with anyone during that time. if not there's no way we get to the super bowl 4 straight years, and no way we beat those teams in their buildings

i just dont think we could have. no way were we good enough to beat the Cowboys or Skins. The AFC was weak then--which is why we got to 4 straight.

[Sisyphean Bills]

It's widely known that Jauron had a large say in who they drafted. I'm sure that Nix will do much a much better job than Jauron in picking players who are worth a you know what.

If you look at the Dick Jauron led drafts you will see the answer as to why the Bills never had a winning season in the Dick Levy era. It's not bad luck, bad weather, or not having enough time. It is the mistakes, misevaluations, missed opportunities, and missing master plan. The Bills went nowhere under Dick Jauron and Marv Levy because they didn't bring in the best players, those players went and made other teams better.

 

The continuity the Bills derived by keeping Jauron was the continued failure to find the right pieces to the puzzle that is team building. Jauron had to go, and Marv is wrong. You don't get better simply by showing more patience with incompetence than most. Ask the Detroit Lions fans how waiting for Matt Millen to grow a brain worked for them.

[DarthICE]

I saw this quote from an article by Mark Gaughan in the News this morning:

 

Loyalty is one of Marv Levy's strong traits. Here was Levy this week speaking about the Bills on Sirus XM Radio: "Personally, I was a little bit surprised and unhappy that they let Dick Jauron go. You can't just keep shaking it up, shaking it up, shaking it up. He's a good coach. He taught well. He related well with the players. Yes, he'd gone through several 7-9 seasons but I think if they would have stuck with him that was their best chance to really get the ball rolling."

 

I loved Marv as a head coach, as a GM not so much. I understand that he really liked Jauron and is loyal to him (he also has a personal stake as he was the one who hired him), but to say that Jauron was the Bills best chance to succeed is just too much.

 

Marv needs to STFU. HE sat this franchise back YEARS with his horrible signing of Jaruon as HC, Forcing a Tampon 2 on us because he liked seeing it in Chicago (where he lives btw....NOT Buffalo...), his horrible Drafts and FA picks.

 

As for as I am concened, he needs to stay out of Bills business.

[Cash]

Jauron might have been a good coach Mon-Sat but from what i saw, Jaurons gameday decision were just atrocious way too often. he had an incredible knack for choosing exactly the wrong times to either go for it or punt. he also didnt hold players accountable for mistakes and thus they just kept repeating. the crowning glory was actually defending (!!) mcknumbnuts for not protecting the ball on an absolutely crucial kickoff return. Dick should have went up to mckdipshet and told him 'if you fumble i will rip your gonads out with my teeth', but instead he says 'i dont have a problem with him trying to make a play'

 

Great post overall. As to these comments about Jauron, it's hard to say how much of his press conference BS was just him falling on the sword for his players & coordinators (I still find it hard to believe that Jauron decided to call the Corey McIntyre 0 yard pass that resulted in Losman's fumble against the Jets). But it really seemed like Jauron felt like his team was doing everything right, but all of their failures were purely bad luck. McKelvin was trying to make a play, and got unlucky. We didn't think Nick Folk could hit a long field goal, so we purposely let the Cowboys get a quick out with no time outs. It's just bad luck that he made the field goal. We thought Lindell would hit a 47-yarder to win the Browns Monday Night game, and it was just bad luck that he missed (I actually tend to agree with him on this one -- I was fine with playing it safe b/c I thought Lindell would hit anything inside of 50 that night). We got shoved around by the Browns/Giants/Patriots in terrible weather -- just our rotten luck that we've built a tiny, finesse-based defense that can only succeed on a perfect track, and then the weather turns sour!

 

As for Marv, it's mystifying how he could be this loyal in the face of facts. I guess it's about the same as his loyalty to Walt Corey, though. How many losing seasons would it take to convince him that the ship wasn't being righted? 10? 15? I mean, even ignoring the W-L record, it's not like the team was improving from year to year. Jauron's best year in terms of offensive and defensive ranks (by points scored) was his first -- JP's only competent year as a starter. Both units got much worse in 2007, rebounded a bit in 2008 (mostly thanks to the super-easy schedule), and degraded again in 2009. That is not progress. That is not improvement. I'd say that that's treading water, but that implies that you're still able to breath. Jauron's coaching tenure was more like expending a lot of energy to keep your head just a foot or two beneath the surface.

[Endzone Animal]

Levy's opinion carries slightly less weight than the average message board commenter.