sllib olaffub Posted August 15, 2011 Share Posted August 15, 2011 When Nix and Gailey took over I think they made a mistake in not retaining Bobby April. Our Special Teams has been crap. I mean, you take basically the same team last year and the year before, you subtract April, and you go from one of the league's top units to a unit that looks undisciplined and very ordinary, and often worse. When Tomlin took over the Steelers he made what will prove to be the smartest decision of his coaching career - he kept Dick Lebeau. Why try to fix or change what is working very well? Now, there might have been reasons for concern for keeping April - who is now one of many who apparently see Philly as the best destination in the NFL (they have Mudd, too!), but if you are going to axe a very good coach, you should demand his successor be similarly successful, otherwise how do you justify the decision, or keeping the replacement? I just don't think we should accept mediocrity out of either our Special Teams coach or our Defensive Coordinator going into this season. It should be prove it - or, show the baby - year for both of them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
akm0404 Posted August 15, 2011 Share Posted August 15, 2011 Agree. I'm also pretty sure that April wanted out, not that I blame him or would have done something different in his shoes. Also, it is embarrassing to me that with the new kickoff rules, the Bills couldn't find one person in the world who would take the league minimum and a roster spot from Aaron Maybin to kick a touchback every time. Without the running start and with Lindell's weak kickoff leg, we are going to be shredded. I am surprised they didn't see this coming as I'm watching game after game with teams guaranteeing their opponents start position at the 20. We might not see that happen once all year and will be flushing hundreds of 'free' yards down the toilet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
It's in My Blood Posted August 15, 2011 Share Posted August 15, 2011 When Nix and Gailey took over I think they made a mistake in not retaining Bobby April. Our Special Teams has been crap. I mean, you take basically the same team last year and the year before, you subtract April, and you go from one of the league's top units to a unit that looks undisciplined and very ordinary, and often worse. When Tomlin took over the Steelers he made what will prove to be the smartest decision of his coaching career - he kept Dick Lebeau. Why try to fix or change what is working very well? Now, there might have been reasons for concern for keeping April - who is now one of many who apparently see Philly as the best destination in the NFL (they have Mudd, too!), but if you are going to axe a very good coach, you should demand his successor be similarly successful, otherwise how do you justify the decision, or keeping the replacement? I just don't think we should accept mediocrity out of either our Special Teams coach or our Defensive Coordinator going into this season. It should be prove it - or, show the baby - year for both of them. Bobby April was an awesome ST coach. That said, we didn't make the playoffs with having a top-tier ST unit with Bobby April. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
papazoid Posted August 15, 2011 Share Posted August 15, 2011 Bobby April was left in limbo by the organization....so he exercised a clause in his contract that made him a free agent. he also held the title of assistant head coach, and felt snubbed when the team promoted defensive coordinator Perry Fewell to finish the season as interim head coach. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doc Posted August 15, 2011 Share Posted August 15, 2011 Just to clarify, on Lindell's KO's that didn't result in TB's, he was told to kick it to the goalline so as to evaluate the coverage teams. Simply kicking TB's is stupid in pre-season. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
akm0404 Posted August 15, 2011 Share Posted August 15, 2011 Just to clarify, on Lindell's KO's that didn't result in TB's, he was told to kick it to the goalline so as to evaluate the coverage teams. Simply kicking TB's is stupid in pre-season. So when the regular season starts, we'll see touchbacks every time then? We were seeing kickoffs between the 5 and 10 last year...was a different strategy in place then? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shoretalk Posted August 15, 2011 Share Posted August 15, 2011 "Assistant Head Coach" Bobby April was not given the opportunity to truly compete for the Bills' Head Coach position and therefore choose to leave the organization with a bad taste in his mouth. I do not believe he would have chosen to work for any Head Coach of the Bills no matter how nicely they begged him to stay because in essence he'd have been coaching for someone who had a job he had wanted to have a chance to get for himself. I do not think he would have been a good Head Coach but he gave us the only quality football during the first ten years of this century. He is missed as is his magical system. The Philadelphia Eagles now benefit from his outstanding work. Bruce still needs to sell me on his 2011 Special Teams' coaching abilities and with the new kick off rules he will be tested as well all other ST coaches. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doc Posted August 15, 2011 Share Posted August 15, 2011 So when the regular season starts, we'll see touchbacks every time then? We were seeing kickoffs between the 5 and 10 last year...was a different strategy in place then? Sarcasm duly noted, but that's what Gailey said and he doesn't make stuff like that up. But the is that it will probably depend on the coverage teams. If they look like they can stop returns before the 20 in pre-season, they'll kick it to the goalline during the regular season. If not, they'll kick it deeper. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevewin Posted August 15, 2011 Share Posted August 15, 2011 1st preseason game - there are probably many people on STs yesterday who won't even be on the final roster - way to early to panic about this Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Billsguy Posted August 15, 2011 Share Posted August 15, 2011 1st preseason game - there are probably many people on STs yesterday who won't even be on the final roster - way to early to panic about this I agree, but Chicago can say the same thing and they looked great. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John from Riverside Posted August 15, 2011 Share Posted August 15, 2011 Sarcasm duly noted, but that's what Gailey said and he doesn't make stuff like that up. But the is that it will probably depend on the coverage teams. If they look like they can stop returns before the 20 in pre-season, they'll kick it to the goalline during the regular season. If not, they'll kick it deeper. Doc....I am glad you were looking out for that and found that information.....that makes me feel a lot better. and it makes sense....when you are trying to figure out how well our coverage is you WANT teams to run it out....what a better time then the preseason to figure that out. If we know we can kick a touchback every time during the regular season then its a non issue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buffalo Barbarian Posted August 15, 2011 Share Posted August 15, 2011 When Nix and Gailey took over I think they made a mistake in not retaining Bobby April. Our Special Teams has been crap. I mean, you take basically the same team last year and the year before, you subtract April, and you go from one of the league's top units to a unit that looks undisciplined and very ordinary, and often worse. When Tomlin took over the Steelers he made what will prove to be the smartest decision of his coaching career - he kept Dick Lebeau. Why try to fix or change what is working very well? Now, there might have been reasons for concern for keeping April - who is now one of many who apparently see Philly as the best destination in the NFL (they have Mudd, too!), but if you are going to axe a very good coach, you should demand his successor be similarly successful, otherwise how do you justify the decision, or keeping the replacement? I just don't think we should accept mediocrity out of either our Special Teams coach or our Defensive Coordinator going into this season. It should be prove it - or, show the baby - year for both of them. Totally agree and we should have kept Lebeau too. How sick would our 34 be with him running it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chandler#81 Posted August 15, 2011 Share Posted August 15, 2011 Agree. I'm also pretty sure that April wanted out, not that I blame him or would have done something different in his shoes. Also, it is embarrassing to me that with the new kickoff rules, the Bills couldn't find one person in the world who would take the league minimum and a roster spot from Aaron Maybin to kick a touchback every time. Without the running start and with Lindell's weak kickoff leg, we are going to be shredded. I am surprised they didn't see this coming as I'm watching game after game with teams guaranteeing their opponents start position at the 20. We might not see that happen once all year and will be flushing hundreds of 'free' yards down the toilet. Wow. Just wow... OK, 1st off, the Bills (& Da-Bears) broke league rules by kicking off from the 30 -not the new 35yrd. line. So stop with the weak leg crap. Then, and here's a real shocker for you, it was just the first pre-season game, coming just 2 weeks since this years' team assembled. There's 90 players on the Bills currently, meaning 35 guys are gonna be interviewing with your boss for your job in 1 month. We have a fine ST's coach -once again. But that many new faces trying with everything they can muster to be the first down the field to impress coaches, they over ran. In the regular season, STARTERS play a lot of ST's. Of more significance, IMO, were the big returns we saw this weekend with the other teams not cheating the new rule. Yes, there were MANY touchbacks. But when there was a return, it looked like 21 guys met within a 15 yard area, closing in on each other from a shorter distance. When a seam or crack appeared, the KR was off and running! This is going to be a 'special' year, I think. As for Bills coverage in their opening PS game, CTFD! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lurker Posted August 15, 2011 Share Posted August 15, 2011 I just don't think... ...that the first preseason game, when 90 guys are on the roster, is an appropriate time to be analyzing the quality of the ST coach. Fixed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
apuszczalowski Posted August 15, 2011 Share Posted August 15, 2011 Just to clarify, on Lindell's KO's that didn't result in TB's, he was told to kick it to the goalline so as to evaluate the coverage teams. Simply kicking TB's is stupid in pre-season. Wait a minute, Hold on here Are you trying to say that in the first pre-season game, that the coaching staff may have wanted the kicker to do something he normally would try not to do, so that the coaches can evaluate players on a certain aspect fo the game, and not worry about trying to win a glorified meaningless practice/scrimmage? Thats insane, don't you know that all the good teams go out and play all out to win every game in the pre-season because that team will be the Super bowl Winner? In the 1st pre-season game the fans should expect a final polished product with mistake free football instead of backups playing most of the game and coaches using this time to evaluate different aspects of the game/team and players Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrDawkinstein Posted August 15, 2011 Share Posted August 15, 2011 While I agree our STs have been on the decline, I hesitate to blame the entire thing on the coaching change. The biggest difference between now, and April's first year when we were lighting up the league on Special Teams, is that Mularky allowed April to use STARTERS his first season, and part way into his second. Remember London Fletcher as the lead blocker on kick returns?!? There were plenty of articles written that highlighted this strategy of "Special Teams are important, why not have your best players out there?". Then slowly but surely, the starters were removed from Special Teams and out ST production dropped accordingly. When you look at the "talent" level of the depth of this team, and see it's mostly rookies - 3rd year players, it makes sense that our Special Teams would suck. Also, its preseason. And lol at anyone calling out Lindell, who cant even realize we were kicking off from the 30... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doc Posted August 15, 2011 Share Posted August 15, 2011 Doc....I am glad you were looking out for that and found that information.....that makes me feel a lot better. and it makes sense....when you are trying to figure out how well our coverage is you WANT teams to run it out....what a better time then the preseason to figure that out. If we know we can kick a touchback every time during the regular season then its a non issue. During the game, I figured that's what they were trying to do. But I wanted to hear it from Gailey or DeHaven first. Wait a minute, Hold on here Are you trying to say that in the first pre-season game, that the coaching staff may have wanted the kicker to do something he normally would try not to do, so that the coaches can evaluate players on a certain aspect fo the game, and not worry about trying to win a glorified meaningless practice/scrimmage? Thats insane, don't you know that all the good teams go out and play all out to win every game in the pre-season because that team will be the Super bowl Winner? It's ridiculous, isn't it? While I agree our STs have been on the decline, I hesitate to blame the entire thing on the coaching change. The Bills' ST's were ranked 1st in 2008 (and had been ranked in the top-3 for several years), and 12th in 2009, April's last year with the Bills. So the decline pre-dated April's departure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain Hindsight Posted August 15, 2011 Share Posted August 15, 2011 bobby April was let go because he had to much say over the roster. We didnt have a backup linebacker capable of playing in the game because they were pure special teamers. Most teams had one guy who was the special teams ace, we had 5. When a strter got hurt we had to IR them and start a street FA becuase no one else on the roster could step in. Loved our top 5 special teams unit but it hurt the rest of the team Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BuffaloBill Posted August 15, 2011 Share Posted August 15, 2011 1st preseason game - there are probably many people on STs yesterday who won't even be on the final roster - way to early to panic about this The first sane post on the topic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yungmack Posted August 15, 2011 Share Posted August 15, 2011 Marv Levy once said something to the effect that if the Bills won a preseason game he worried that he'd done something wrong. The point to him was to try things you'd never do in the regular season to see how his guys would handle it, like go for it on fourth and six inside your own territory, or try the 60 yd field goal, etc. As to ST, as others have said, many of these guys are not likely to be the guys on ST when the season begins. And add in that no coach in his right mind is going to tip his hand in preseason and be anything but plain vanilla. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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