I don't get the Hackett Hate

[RCOHEN13]

I agree. I think he adjusted pretty well last year. I do think he needs to learn better when to abandon the no-huddle offense. I do think he needs to learn how to get the most out of CJ Spiller. I am confident he will do both.

 

The knocks based on the preseason games are a little mind-boggling, but I can understand some of the concern.

 

All in all, he's a 2nd year OC. I'm willing to give him this year to prove his worth.

 

Spiller NEEDS to be used as a true work horse. Like he boldly said last yr (then got crap for it!), give him the ball till he pukes! I just dont get how they constantly rotate in Freddy on 3rd and in red zone.

 

Even tho he have really nice depth at RB, u got to have a "top dog" and he should be spelled when he NEEDS it. Not this rotating thing. Guy's like CJ need to get in rthym, constantly yanking him makes no sense. Give Freddy or Bryce a series here and there and occasionally use Freddy on 3rd downs. Freddy catches a lot of balls for us but its not like CJ has bricks for hands like Antoine Smith did for us! CJ is arguably the better receiver of the 2 and Freddy has sme nice runs after the catch and glides to elude guys but CJ has the ability to not only be as effective, he has the breakaway speed to take it to the house.

 

With EJ now in his 2nd year, Sammy on board, M. Williams, and Woods who is now in his 2nd season with EJ, I have a feeling the playbook will be alot larger. Dont forget EJ got hurt in camp last yr, and twice in reg season. I'm not an EJ apologist in the least bit, i just think this is his make it or break it yr, along with the coaching staff with sale of team in process.

 

Hackett did make some odd choices in play calls, but when someone eluded to passing on 3rd and 1's and 2's... these were normally VERY low risk passes, that were "easy" quick hitters, EJ and co. just missed and sometimes BADLY in the accuracy dept. EJ MUST progress and hopefully with full off season, more toys on O to play with, he can be solid. I have my doubts, cuz i dont think u can fix accuracy and EJ misses badly 2-3 times a game and a lot of time its in key situations like those 3rd and shorts. Hopefully his timing is alot better, and footwork cuz if not, its going to be a VERY long season. Even though the talent on this team is alot better and deeper than in past. U go as far as your QB takes u....

[atlbillsfan1975]

The over simplifications and generalities started early in this thread, I see.

 

Some fans belly ache over what their team did. Others at least have the decency to suggest what they should have done.

 

You won't find many anti-Hacketts in the latter crowd.

Couple things come to mind. I do not get paid to game plan for the Buffalo Bills. Hackett does and did a below average job. He was handcuffed last year by being OC and QB coach. This was also Marrone's short sightedness.

What should Hacket of done? Be creative. There are weapons on this offense. And i do think EJ is a competent QB IF he has good coaching and play calling. To date Hackett has shown to be in over his head.

All i can hope for is that Hackett learned a lot like the rest of the team from year one to year two. The press on Hackett or 'buzz' about him was that he can adjust and make improvements, to date i have not seen much of that.

[NoSaint]

 

 

I think you're missing my point;

 

I'm not arguing that he is a good OC. I'm saying there is insufficient evidence to say he is bad, and plenty of evidence to show that poor performance last year was likely related to having a bunch of rookies and injured players.

 

and i am arguing that i dont think he gameplanned, schemed, or playcalled to maximize the limited tools he had very well. A good OC can still get the most out of his squad if its not very good. i earlier replied to someone saying that he did a good job using the run to set up the playaction with a stat that we were the 4th least efficient team in the league on play action calls as an example of trying to discuss what he actually accomplished instead of just saying that he had a hard job.

 

 

whether its with a bunch of goons, or 11 all pros, your OC should show some ways that hes getting the sum to be greater than the parts or finding niches you can do well with and exploiting them and really maximizing what hes given. i never saw much of that, and while i agree that we had limited talent, think some of those limitations were hacketts inexperience and lack of talent last year.

 

you seem like you are edging towards saying give him more talent and the rankings hopefully go up -- well, obviously.

Edited August 28, 2014 by NoSaint

[CountDorkula]

I will say this. I'm more concerned with Marrone then I am Hackett.

[yall]

and i am arguing that i dont think he gameplanned, schemed, or playcalled to maximize the limited tools he had very well. A good OC can still get the most out of his squad if its not very good. i earlier replied to someone saying that he did a good job using the run to set up the playaction with a stat that we were the 4th least efficient team in the league on play action calls as an example of trying to discuss what he actually accomplished instead of just saying that he had a hard job.

 

 

whether its with a bunch of goons, or 11 all pros, your OC should show some ways that hes getting the sum to be greater than the parts or finding niches you can do well with and exploiting them and really maximizing what hes given. i never saw much of that, and while i agree that we had limited talent, think some of those limitations were hacketts inexperience and lack of talent last year.

 

you seem like you are edging towards saying give him more talent and the rankings hopefully go up -- well, obviously.

 

No, I'm saying that I will reserve judgement until he has healthy starters at RB, and players at other skill positions with more than 4 NFL starts under their belt.

 

He might be a terrible chef. I can't tell because last year he had a fridge full of rotten beef.

[dpberr]

I suppose I can be thrown into the Hackett Haters pile.

 

I don't understand or like his playcalling. He's allergic to using screens and slants and if the fan can predict the offense, you know the highly paid brilliant football guys on the other sideline know what's coming.

 

While the Bills have gotten way better at halftime adjustments with Coach Marrone, the whole telegraphing issue is something that remains from the Jauron days.

[1B4IDie]

Don't whisper, you bring up some good points.

 

Calling our offense hurry up is misleading because we weren’t running a 2 minute drill all the time; we simply didn’t get into a conventional huddle after most plays. I believe that we often snapped the ball with less than 15 seconds left on the play clock but I wasn’t able to find any stats to back that up, just my recollection. Instead we’d do what I’ve heard announcers call bubble huddles which is getting up to the line and calling plays there. Doing that prevents the defense from making substitutions. If we do that and can put a longer drive together, the defense will be tired. The problem we often ran into was lack of execution but I don’t think that really had anything to do with not doing a conventional huddle.

 

I don’t think we really know what Hackett can do yet. I think he was severely handcuffed by what the players could execute. Injuries leading to the constant rotation of mostly inexperienced players prevented the team from getting any kind of rhythm as the season went on. It limited the teams/players progression and didn’t allow him to get as creative as he may have normally been able to.

 

The one thing that stands out in my mind that I really didn’t like about his play calling was how often we ran the shotgun runs up the gut on 3^rd and 1. I can see it once in awhile in that situation or even on 3^rd and 3 but we did it way too often when we only needed a yard. If we’re going to be a run heavy team, put the beef in there and plow forward for that yard. With EJ’s injury concerns, I’d also like to basically scrap the read option.

Fact the Buffalo Bills run a hurry up offense.

 

Where they stand before the ball is snapped is irrelevant

 

The stated goal of the Hackett is to run as many plays as possible.

 

The assumption would be you make first down in order to run more plays.

 

However when the Hurry Up is not working you need to adjust. That is not happening.

 

Changing to a more ball control offense and cater to the running strength would IMO help this team win.

[CountDorkula]

Fact the Buffalo Bills run a hurry up offense.

 

Where they stand before the ball is snapped is irrelevant

 

The stated goal of the Hackett is to run as many plays as possible.

 

The assumption would be you make first down in order to run more plays.

 

However when the Hurry Up is not working you need to adjust. That is not happening.

 

Changing to a more ball control offense and cater to the running strength would IMO help this team win.

 

Or if you have the lead against New England and you continue to decide to run the hurry up with under 5 minutes to play.

[MyHorseAteTheKid]

So far Hackett's play calling has been vanilla and predictable...

[1B4IDie]

 

Or if you have the lead against New England and you continue to decide to run the hurry up with under 5 minutes to play.

Exactly.

[NoSaint]

 

 

No, I'm saying that I will reserve judgement until he has healthy starters at RB, and players at other skill positions with more than 4 NFL starts under their belt.

 

He might be a terrible chef. I can't tell because last year he had a fridge full of rotten beef.

 

and he simply cut off a chunk of it and set it raw on rotten on the plate a few too many times for my liking. i get he didnt have the resources to be GREAT in leaguewide rankings, but even if you gave him top ten talent you will still have to ask if you see gameplanning and situational awareness out of him that is good? did you think he calls the right plays for the team he has consistently, even if they are talented enough to be generally successful? just because he was in a tough spot doesnt mean you cant look at what he did with the situation, just like if things look good you cant question if he shouldve been better.

[yall]

and he simply cut off a chunk of it and set it raw on rotten on the plate a few too many times for my liking. i get he didnt have the resources to be GREAT in leaguewide rankings, but even if you gave him top ten talent you will still have to ask if you see gameplanning and situational awareness out of him that is good? did you think he calls the right plays for the team he has consistently, even if they are talented enough to be generally successful? just because he was in a tough spot doesnt mean you cant look at what he did with the situation, just like if things look good you cant question if he shouldve been better.

 

I didn't see anything that consistently drove me nuts offensively last year, aside pehaps from not using Spller they way Gailey did, but that could have been due to the ankle.

 

People like to complain about OC's on this board. I get it. I don't have a body of evidence that suggests his game planning or schemes were subpar when you contrast the rankings with the level of talent. That very well could change in 3-4 weeks.

[Turbosrrgood]

Is he just the latest whipping boy for chronic complainers? Surely people aren't complaining based on preseason?

 

Last year he had the greenest group of QBs in the nfl to work with, and all of them started games. He rightly focused on running the ball to set up play action. The bills finished 19th in ypg, which is damn good considering the first year of the system AND going through the QB carousel.

 

Enlighten me please.

 

Actually, the Bills rarely used play action...which was confounding considering how much they ran the ball. They also rarely ran screens to their fastest players, in Spiller, Graham, and Goodwin. Instead they ran them to FJ, Chandler, and SJ on the few times they dare attempt it.

 

My top complaint was the simple play book though. Predicting what the Bills were going to do on offense was ridiculously easy. It's really hard to be good if the other team knows exactly what you are going to do. And I don't buy that crap about simplifying things for young QBs. It was beyond simple, most other rookies and backups can run a much more complicated playbook than the Bills had. If the Bills QBs couldn't learn it, once again that's on Hackett.

Edited August 28, 2014 by Turbosrrgood

[Rob's House]

 

 

I recently watched a Hackett interview on the Bills website and he irritated me with his discussion of Manuel. He actually stated that he's been instructing Manuel to check it down and "just take what the defense gives you" because we never want any mistakes or turnovers. This is the worst possible advice for any young NFL QB because you make your franchise QB bones in this league by challenging defenses. Hackett would have LOVED Trent Edwards. I think Hackett is either too cautious or just plain ignorant, either way, if that's how he truly feels then he doesn't know what he's doing.

 

Bill Parcells once told Simms that if you aren't throwing any interceptions then you aren't trying hard enough to become a great NFL quarterback. You have to allow you QB the latitude that it's not the end of the world to throw interceptions. EJ Manuel will never progress into a franchise QB until he's given the breathing room to throw deep. Jim Kelly threw a bunch of interceptions trying to shoe horn the ball in, but that's part of what made him great. Defenses feared him because he was more successful than not when challenging the defense. The Bills have the WR talent to challenge defenses deep. What I heard from that interview is more dump offs to Spiller and Jackson and seam patterns to Chandler. So IMO there's a serious concern right now with Hackett and I'll just have to wait to see if that interview was him just BSing.

 

I think we put way too much weight on the raw INT number, as though they're all equal. A 40 yd bomb that gets picked (barring a big return) isn't a whole lot different from a punt, but on the stat sheet it's the same as a pick 6 at the LOS.

Edited August 28, 2014 by Rob's House

[The Big Cat]

Couple things come to mind. I do not get paid to game plan for the Buffalo Bills. Hackett does and did a below average job. He was handcuffed last year by being OC and QB coach. This was also Marrone's short sightedness.

What should Hacket of done? Be creative. There are weapons on this offense. And i do think EJ is a competent QB IF he has good coaching and play calling. To date Hackett has shown to be in over his head.

All i can hope for is that Hackett learned a lot like the rest of the team from year one to year two. The press on Hackett or 'buzz' about him was that he can adjust and make improvements, to date i have not seen much of that.

 

So 'be creative.' Uh huh.

 

I suppose I can be thrown into the Hackett Haters pile.

 

I don't understand or like his playcalling. He's allergic to using screens and slants and if the fan can predict the offense, you know the highly paid brilliant football guys on the other sideline know what's coming.

 

While the Bills have gotten way better at halftime adjustments with Coach Marrone, the whole telegraphing issue is something that remains from the Jauron days.

 

If my interior offensive line was as god awful at running screens as the Bills were last year (and this year in the preseason), I wouldn't run them either.

 

They run slants all the time.

[klos63]

you dont have to "get" it you just have to "agree"! Just repeat what the doomsday preachers on this site say and all will be well. Oh, also just do this with your real feelings and opinions and when they start to win you can say oh I knew they were going to have a good season all along.Just roll with it man!

 

Oh, you mean when Gailey wouldnt use him much because he got winded?

When he wasn't winded, Gailey got him the ball.

 

A lot of the hate emerges from what Pettine was able to accomplish by comparison.

 

Pettine was able to recognize the strength of his players and play to those strengths. several under his leadership - mcKelvin, a Williams, Dareus, turned their careers around.

 

Hacket is not able to identify or play to the strengths of his players. Consequently, capable players run the risk of being run out of the league under Hacket.

This is where reputation comes in to play. Pettine is praised yet, we had one of the worst run defenses in history. Ever! He had Alonso playing in a position that hurt our team over the long haul. Yes, we had lots of sacks , but that didn't help us win.

[PolishDave]

Yes, we had lots of sacks , but that didn't help us win.

 

Isn't that an oxymoron?

[xsoldier54]

I think Hacket did a decent job last season. He made some mistakes, but name one OC that didn't last year. For me, the jury is still out on Hacket. This year will be the true test. If after one year in the league, his offense still struggles to score points and make first downs, then yes, he has to go. Not sure that we have enough evidence yet that he is a bad OC.

[NoSaint]

 

 

I didn't see anything that consistently drove me nuts offensively last year, aside pehaps from not using Spller they way Gailey did, but that could have been due to the ankle.

 

People like to complain about OC's on this board. I get it. I don't have a body of evidence that suggests his game planning or schemes were subpar when you contrast the rankings with the level of talent. That very well could change in 3-4 weeks.

 

i guess ill try at the question a different way.... what did you see that he controlled that you think was handled particularly well? (im trying really hard to engage the "i dont get the dislike of hackett" side in a "this is what i like about hackett" discussion, so it can be more productive than "i like him" "i dont" "im not sure")

Edited August 28, 2014 by NoSaint

[qblax16]

I only opened this because I thought it may be a joke...